vp1

How do you find out if there will be a tournament on your cruise?

There are actually slot and blackjack tournaments on nearly every cruise. The entry fee is generally $20 and the prizes are typically in the hundreds of dollars. This thread is about the once (or twice) a year cruises where there is a MAJOR tournament with a $500 entry fee, first prize of $50,000 and lots of lesser prizes. I believe that nearly EVERY Carnival cruise awards one or two of these entries over the course of about 6 months so quite a few people do get the entry fee paid for. (Not sure how many people actually do pay the $500 to get in…) However, actually being able to go on the cruise is another matter (even if the cruise is free as in my personal situation…). Sometimes the prize given away is the entry fee and a free cruise; more often it's the entry fee for the tournament and a discount on the cruise fare.

Because of the tournament on this cruise (and the blackjack cruise the week before on the same ship), from what I have read, these cruises will have a huge mob in the casino every night. These are all gamblers who have "won" their entry fee and, even if it's only a few hundred who are going on the cruise, they are going to spend their time in the casino (whether playing in the tournament or not). If you're not a gambler, I would imagine that you'll get lots of available poolside chairs,etc… and many of the public areas on the ship will be vacant. If you do frequent the casino, you will probably have to wait in line to gamble at the tables and the machines most of the time.

Hope that helps.

~Bob

Just an FYI - Many schools in the Northeast have a school vacation week in February (usually the week of the Presidents' birthday holiday). In 2017 that's the week of February 20 - 24. I would anticipate a much larger number of school kids that week than earlier in February…

Just an FYI - Anytime Dining is becoming increasingly popular with Carnival. We sailed on the Victory about a month ago and the Maitre D' told us that the Anytime Dining for that cruise had "sold out" more than six months earlier and the "waiting list" was over 460 people… The only people who were able to move off the waiting list were essentially those who were Diamond, Platinum or who had paid for Faster to the Fun. Ironically, we had booked the cruise on only 2 weeks notice and had bought FTTF because we had to be off the ship immediately upon docking at the end of the cruise - moving from late dining to Anytime Dining turned out to be worth the FTTF price as we were very disappointed with late dining on our cruise a couple weeks earlier.

~Bob

I currently have a Blackjack entry for the $100,000 October tournament. I won this along with a free cruise for 2. My boss will not allow me to have the time off so I'm out of luck with the cruise (not transferrable). However, the $500 seat at the blackjack tournament is transferrable (as has been noted in other posts here). The cruise is on the Magic, October 23, 2016 and the tournament has $100,000 in prizes. I'll certainly sell it for a reasonable price. Let me know if you're interested. RPBecker @ charter.net.

~Bob

Just a follow-up - I received a PMI offer (bounce back offer) on my recent Valor cruise a couple of weeks ago. As usual, good for booking up to 6 months out. I chose the third week of Feb where there are more than a dozen cruises available that week. The first 10 had NO PMI cabins available at any level. I could see that the newest ships or longest cruises would be sold out, but to have almost no available offerings (that are all almost 6 months away) seemed very limiting...

How many hours a day did you play?

I would say that I averaged 30+ hours of play during a one-weeks cruise - give or take. That may be high for some, low for others. Probably 3 -5 hours a day.

~Bob

It's a little different with slots players vs. table players. As a matter of fact, table players don't actually accrue "points" in the same way that slot players do. For slot players, 5,000 points in a one-week cruise seems to be in the ballpark for a bounce back offer. For table players, I have read it's more like $25 minimum total bet at a time (can add up to $25 for games like roulette and craps) for a minimum number of hours each day. I do believe that the amount that someone buys in for as well as how they stand at the end of a cruise are also factors. Further, there are different bounce back offers. A PMI offer is good for a "free" cruise for up to 15 days and generally comes with the drinks on us card automatically included and is generally available for more sailing dates. A PMB offer does not come automatically with the drinks on us card (has to be earned all over again on the cruise) and has fewer available dates. Both offers are generally given out to qualifying players the last day/night of a cruise, have to be booked within 2 weeks and have to be taken within 6 months.

I play almost entirely craps. To get to $25, I bet a $10 pass line bet (with odds - that probably don't count since there's no casino advantage) along with 2 come bets at $10 each (also with odds). In April I finished down about $2,000 for the week - got awarded a PMI offer. Took a 9 day cruise the first week of August - upgraded from an inside to an ocean view, my cost (for 2 people) was something like $400 (taxes and port fees). On that cruise I ended up ahead about $750 for the week. Was given a PMB cruise- very limited dates that I could use. Was able to take a 4 day cruise a week later - inside cabin for 2 was about $160 total. Lost on that cruise (about $1,200), was awarded another PMI offer. Will be going on a 6 day cruise in Feb. - was able to book a grand suite for an additional fee. The on-line price (for 2) is currently about $3,200 for the grand suite for that cruise - my cost is $900 using the PMI offer. Well worth it to me.

Probably more info than you needed, but that's my experience. Have sailed more than a dozen times on NCL's Casinos at Sea program - I find the Carnival promos to be MUCH cheaper for their "comped" cruises and their drinks on us card is far superior. The NCL program has gone way down hill in the last decade, for now I'll be sticking with Carnival.

~Bob

A big part of my cruise experience is spending time in the casino. I am a long-time NCL exclusive cruiser and have received many comped cruises (less charges that is) from NCL. However, with their new management things have changed dramatically. I am considering switching to another line and would like others' opinions as to how well they like the casinios on other lines like Carnival, RCL, Princell, etc. I am newly retired and expected to spend a good amount of my travelling budget on cruising. Which of these lines give out "free" cruises to frequent casino players? How well are you treated as a casino guest?

 

Thanks for any info. I know I would have to earn my stripes but just want some sort of idea.

Have cruised with NCL more than a dozen times on "comped" cruises. Would concur that the current system is not nearly as good as it was 5 - 10 years ago. As a current "HOT" player, the drink card is currently only good for well drinks or beer (up to $5)- it used to be whatever you'd like. I've recently found the NCL casino hosts to be non-existent even when we were "guests" of the casino - we were on two 14-day cruises in the Med. last summer with NCL and were just about the only casino guests on the ship and the hostesses still were essentially absent - the program used to be MUCH better.

Recently cruised with Carnival. Played craps at about $30 /roll for many hours. Had a "free" drink card within a couple of days - found the casino staff to be equal to any staff on NCL ships. Won a free cruise the last night (can't use it because my employer won't give me that week off….) and also got the bounce back offer the last morning for a free cruise up to 15 days on Carnival. The Carnival "free" cruise is a way better than the NCL "free" cruise - the Carnival cruise costs only a couple of hundred dollars - all of my "free" NCL cruises have cost much more. You may have read on this board that an average bet of $25 for a few hours a day may qualify for the bounce back offer with Carnival - that prompted me to play 3 craps bets at $10 each. On my most recent (8 day) cruise I lost about $1,000 - but had free drinks for the week and am now going on a 9-day cruise for 2 for about $250 (also with free drinks). I'm very good with that. One other, minor, difference between NCL and Carnival is that Carnival casino comped cruises only comps the drink card for the player - not any other guests in the room - BUT the Carnival drink card is good for pretty much anything you order (not limited to $5). We're off on our next cruise in less than a month - will report back on that experience.

~Bob

Whether the story is 100% accurate or not - it's a good "heads up" for all of us readers to be more aware of the on board charges. It's very likely that a (high?) percentage of passengers don't even look at the line item charges -they just pay the bill in full at the end of the cruise - particularly if there have been scores of bar charges....

Best advice I've read (on these boards no less) was from a cruiser who always tipped an amount that would make the total come out to the same last digit - I think he chose "7". If the drink was $8.00 add a tip for $1.07, etc… When he checked his bill he would quickly "scan" down the last column of digits - they should all be "7"'s if they were his charges… Anything else was probably not his.

Now, I realize that this would not help in this case (where $1 became $4), but for MOST of the charges, he'd know right away. Just a thought on how to possibly spot bad charges on a final bill in the future.

~Bob

We were on the Spirit (15 day Med. cruise) in July. The first night (at Cagney's) we had a really, really attentive and professional server (Jesper). I had heard/read that it was possible to invite a staff person to dinner - so we asked. He had to clear it with his boss (the maitre d') and it took a couple of days to schedule, but we were able to invite him to dinner (we let him pick the restaurant - Le Bistro). It was the highlight of his (and our) cruise - 8 years as an NCL server and no guest had ever invited him to dinner. His wife (the hostess in Cagney's) was super excited for him as well (she bought him a new dress shirt in port the day after we asked). He was also able to have a drink with us as he had the night off. We'll see him (and his wife) again on our Escape cruise in July (his new contract is with the Escape) and I am sure that he'll remember us!

So, yes, it can be done. Ask early and be sure to find out who needs to approve of the request so you can appeal to them directly.

~Bob

All the cruise games also have the WORST ODDS!

 

So if you have a real casino near you --> Save your losses for them :D

I will say that, for craps, the odds on NCL ships are exactly the same as nearly every land-based casino. NCL does limit the "odds" bets to 3/4/5, but still, with full odds in play, the house edge at craps is less than half a percent.

Can't say the same for slots or the other table games where they have tweaked the returns and the payouts….

~Bob

If I wish to tip extra ( say 1 or 2 bucks for a drink) more for room steward, which currency do I use in Europe?

I imagine, not Canadian, so US$ or euro$. Euros are coins , is that awkward?

We did a Baltics cruise a few years ago - started in England (British pounds), stopped in Germany (Euros), Denmark (krone), St. Petersburg (rubles), Sweden (Krona), etc.. Had lots of small amounts of different currencies by the end of the cruise - the crew was happy to receive a tip in any currency and it was a great way for us to recognize staff members with "money" that was not much value to us by that point. If they couldn't use it directly, they could certainly exchange it with someone else who could.

~Bob

from a post on another site from last March about a trip on the Getaway:

 

$10 tables all the time

3-4-5x odds

$500 Max bet

2x on Field 2 & 12

Vig up front for the Buy and Lay bets

Picked up my daughter this morning (6/7) from her Gem cruise out of New York. Craps was $5 minimum for the entire 9 day cruise. Odds were 3/4/5.

Have played craps on 20+ NCL cruises. Most, but not all, have been $5 minimum. 3 or 4 night cruises were almost always $10. Some cruises start at $10 to see if they get any action - they may drop it to $5 if no one's playing, but not always. The staff claim that it's not their call - they need to get the "OK" from Miami to drop the minimums. My most recent cruise (Dawn - February, 2015) had $10 all week - probably because my daughters and I would play at that level so the didn't see the need to drop it - although there were few other players all week.)

~Bob

As a point of reference, I ran upper 5-digits on BJ over a week and pulled ~950 points.

 

Craps comps tend to feel disproportionately small since odds usually don't count. No edge on them, after all.

As a craps player, I can certainly echo this sentiment. A casino advantage of less than one half of one percent on the pass line means you have to spend a fair amount of money and time to get to the "theoretical loss" threshold of $2,800 for a comped cruise. At a $5 craps table, with multiple come bets in play you MIGHT be able to accrue up to 80 or 90 cruise points an hour with $5 play. In theory, you would have to "wager" about a half a million dollars in total at craps over the course of a cruise to "theoretically" lose $2,800. That's a hundred thousand five dollar bets - good luck with that :)

Also, as mentioned, the odds bets have zero house advantage so they don't get factored in to your play. I'm guessing that my upcoming cruises may be my last comped cruises as the prospect of wagering a half a million dollars (even though 99.5% of it is expected to be returned…) is a bit disconcerting… :)

~Bob

They don't do the volcano on the ship? Bummer....then they can't do the choo-choo train either....

Our kids love the volcano & train (that's when they push the stacked onion across the griddle while it's still smoking...saying 'choo-choo').

Years ago cruises used to have Baked Alaska paraded around the dining room, "real" creme brûlée, etc. But the revised Safety Of Live At Sea (SOLAS) requirements - probably been in place the better part of a decade now - prohibit ANY open flame anywhere on the ship - even in the kitchen. Many cruise lines had to adapt their cooking strategies to account for this. So…. no volcano, no train, no open flame. (But still worth a dinner visit even with the standard patter…)

Also, our last La Cucina visit (February) was outstanding. Far better than our Bistro dinner that week. I also would strongly recommend Moderno - small, but "different" salad bar with lots of meat and cheese and the meats were excellent as well. (I still can't envision having 2 sit down dinners at the specialty restaurants in the same evening - even with the UDP…)

~Bob

Someone had posted recently the "new" regulations for CAS that will begin (I believe) on or about June 1. Under the new guidelines, the "theoretical loss" for a week long cruise needs to be in the $2,800 range for a future comp cabin. If you assume that the slot machines return 94% (could be less with such a captive audience, but that's a potentially "ballpark" figure), a slot player would have to "play" somewhere around $45 - $50,000 in a week to qualify for a future comp cabin. At the $45,000 level, you could realistically expect to "lose" $2,700 with a 94% return. Table games are, clearly different. At blackjack (with perfect play) or craps (with a pass line bet), the house advantage can be less than half of one percent - although most of the cruise ships have now "adjusted" the BJ rules to up that edge significantly. With craps, for example, you'd theoretically have to wager well into the six figures over the course of a cruise to have the "theoretical loss" approach $2,800 since you can expect a return of ~99% of all of your wagers.

Not sure if this helps answer the question. (I've had about a dozen comped cruises through CAS and I play almost exclusively craps - not sure if I can / want to approach a theoretical loss of $2,800 in the future however...)

~Bob

I have two European cruises in July with my family of 4 - The Spirit from Barcelona (15 days) and the Jade from Venice (8 days). Both cruises have ocean view cabins and qualified for the the UDP and the UBP. I went to myNCL today (5/25) and booked specialty restaurants for every night of each cruise (21 dinners for 4) just in case the UDP prompts a run on these restaurants. The dining options for Teppanyaki were somewhat limited on some nights (we're now just over 5 weeks from sailing), but I was able to make reservations for every specialty restaurant with a confirmation and no charge on my account.

~Bob

On the Dawn in February I was told $5 drinks with the CAS card. Prior to that cruise I could always get Amaretto with the CAS card with no problem, this time I had to pay the difference (about a dollar or two if I remember) if I wanted that. House mixed drinks, beer, wine & water bottles were not a problem.

~Bob

Having been on about 20 caribbean cruises and a couple of European cruises here's what I can add (in addition to the excellent comments already posted).

1. Get to the embarkation port / area a day or two early if possible. On our first European cruise our flights were very delayed, huge lines at customs, etc. What I thought was plenty of "extra" time was quickly gone - we BARELY made the ship. We are heading back to Europe in July and are landing at the embarkation city a day an a half early for this reason (in addition to acclimating to the time zone change).

2. Shore excursions in Europe are great, but much more expensive as a rule. On our upcoming European cruises we are averaging 65 euros per person per excursion (often not including the actual admission prices to the sites themselves). For a family of 4 we have already committed to spending at least $1,500 for shore excursions for just 5 (of the 15) ports. On average these are 65 euros per person per excursion. The ship's excursions are generally much more money and often involve an entire busload of tourists. I highly suggest that consider shore excursions with an independent agent - you will certainly see much more in many cities than you could without the tour. (Expensive, but worth it.)

3. Others have mentioned that you will be spending a great amount of time ashore. I'd suggest water bottles that are filled on the ship along with some snack foods for walking around. I'd also agree that eating in many of the cities is part of the allure of traveling - plan on spending some money every day that you are ashore on food.

4. Pack light - a cruise of 2 weeks or more will undoubtedly generate some purchases. These can be a challenge to get home and I'd suggest leaving some room in the luggage. We have in the past actually boxed up some things and mailed them home from a local post office (when we had a few days in a city between two cruises), but this was also an expense.

5. Take some time to get to know the other cruise passengers. We had a chance to talk with passengers from at least a dozen different countries - not typically the case for a one week Caribbean cruise from a US port.

6. For us, the easiest way to deal with currently was at an ATM in the port. The ship will exchange some money, but they have a limited amount and the exchange rate (not surprisingly) is poor. We took some money with us when we left the states, but most often we simply went to an ATM ashore.

7. Bring several memory cards for a camera and swap them out once in a while. First, if a card were to get lost or damaged, you'd still have photos. Secondly, the cards are generally so inexpensive that you can take hundreds or thousands of photos and review them later. We generally found that, even though we had a laptop, we did not have the free time that we would have liked to review the photos while on vacation.

That's about it for now - enjoy your cruise!

~Bob

THank you for the answer. Just curious, but, how many hours at that level of play gets you a comped cabin, etc...?

I would say that I'm at the craps table for maybe 30 - 40 hours during a 7 night cruise. (It's actually difficult to play more since the craps table is often closed during the first half of sea days for lack of interest) I generally head to the casino after dinner (after 25 cruises I've seen all the shows in the theater that I need to see…) and stay for 3-5 hours in the evening. On some sea days you can get a couple of hours of play in in the afternoon as well. An inside comped cabin for 2 is "worth" perhaps $1,000 (you do have to pay port charges and taxes), free drinks for the entire cabin for the week has to be "worth" hundreds of dollars, etc., so if I donate a couple of thousand dollars over the course of the week (hopefully less) I'm still feeling pretty good about my vacation experience since it "cost" me less than $1,000 - if that.

~Bob

He's right, only rated on the line bet (or if you place numbers like the 6 and 8). Between the line ($5) and placing some numbers ($10 each) we were averaging $25 a roll and got comped the free drink card 2 days into our cruise. My advice would be ask the pit person how much avg bet to get free drinks. Chances are, they will give it to you if you are there often and play for a few hrs. Make good bets and you should at least stay even for a few hrs.

I generally play only craps - at a $5 table if it's available. Usually I have 2 come bets and all three numbers are al full odds (for NCL it's 3/4/5 odds). That level of play (with enough hours) has generated a comped cabin (usually inside, sometimes better depending upon the sailing) and the corresponding free drink card for all cabin occupants for at least a dozen cruises thus far.

The rule of thumb is that you need to accrue 1500 points to get the card if you're not booked through the casino. My experience is that $5 craps with 2 come bets & full odds "generates" somewhere between 50 and 80 "points" an hour. I would think three "full" days of play at this level "might" be enough for a card - very much depends up on the pit boss / supervisor, they may give you a card earlier if they can clearly see that you've been playing for a while.

~Bob

I just called Bank Of America, my cc company. They said this is considered a cash advance.

On at least 10 occasions in the past I have charged casino chips to my NCL on board account (Bank of America card no less) and NEVER been charged a cash advance fee. (As recently as Feb. of 2015 on the Sun). This shows up on the credit card statement as a purchase - not a cash advance.

It is true that, until about 4 years ago, there was no fee to get chips from the casino. Too many people were taking out $2,000 a day for a week to get the credit card points and then just depositing the cash in their bank when they got home - most cruise lines have now implemented a fee for this reason.

My current card (Barclay Card Arrival+) awards cash back points for travel purchases (as in my NCL on-board charges) at about 2.2%. While it's still not "free" money, I don't feel that bad about the fee being effectively reduced to less than 1% in the casino with the rewards points factored in.

The minimum credit line with Casinos at Sea (with no fee attached) is $5,000. It's probably a bad sign that I'm very much considering that option for my next cruise (thank you CAS…) :)

~Bob

Wow...we really are beginning to see major changes

CAS--never paid for extras in the restaurants -when comped inside, window, or balcony. Looks like that may of changed.

18%-- double dipping, and probably not going to staff.

 

Also one waiter that we know told us that ALL tips need to be put into a general pool, and if caught pocketing the tip...and not putting it into the pool, you will be in trouble.

We don't mind tipping,but dislike NCL sneaking this in, and double dipping.

If you ever take the behind the scenes tour---you can't believe some of the jobs those workers do....There is even a person who picks thru the garbage--EVERY PIECE!!!

The staff on these ships deserve EVERY penny they get plus more.

Last month on our Sun cruise we had dinner with the Executive Housekeeper - Edgar. I figured I'd ask one of the most senior officers directly about individual tipping and he told me that any cash tip handed directly to an employee is theirs to keep - bartender, waiter, room steward, etc. I was heartened to hear this.

Regarding the overall thread - we have often eaten at the specialty restaurants and almost always added a reasonable tip. In this case however, I agree with those posters who have echoed the sentiment, "It's not the money, it's the principle…" Many restaurants now include "suggested' tip amounts at the bottom of a bill - and this has been the NCL practice in the specialty restaurants as well. To automatically include an 18% tip, however, is really over the top. If a local restaurant has this practice I can't imagine anyone would dine there. I realize that this is all about marketing and psychology - just like it would certainly make sense to simply increase the posted fare of a cruise by $13 a day and not have to deal with the DSC - but then folks wouldn't "think" they were getting such a great "deal" on their cruise fare…

If NCL really feels that the wait staff in the specialty restaurants are deserving of an "automatic" tip, they should increase the per person charge by $5 and leave it at that - it sure would be more transparent and less disingenuous. I'm hoping the negative PR will outweigh the additional revenue and this won't continue…

~Bob

That could turn out to be an expensive drink if they caught them and put them off the ship.

Recently sailed on the Sun (February) with my two daughters - 20 & 22. The typical protocol is that, upon registering in the terminal, they cut off the corner of the ship card for anyone under 21 so that the individual cannot buy alcoholic drinks. If you want to sign the waiver, you can do that at customer service once on the ship and they will replace the cut card with a "complete" ship card that has a large "PC" in the corner so that the 18-20 year old can buy beer & wine.

This time, when we checked in, my 20 year old daughter noticed right away that her key card, given to her at the terminal, did not have the cut corner...

As guests of the casino, my older daughter and I had free drinks in the casino. After the first night, our regular waitress was taking orders from my younger daughter as well and simply putting them on our comp account.

About halfway through the cruise, the waitress quietly pulled me aside and said that "someone" had noticed that my younger daughter was not yet 21 and we would have to go to customer service to get the "PC" key card so that she could be served beer & wine. Not a problem. I seriously doubt that we were ever in danger of being removed from the cruise for ordering a few drinks for an adult who's a sophomore in college.

At the same time, if a person were making a "scene" and it was determined that they were ordering drinks while underage I think the situation would be rather different.

~Bob

Thanks Bob.

Do you have any comments on the shows? Did they have comedians? Any good?

I confess that I'm not a show person, and after two dozen cruises I think I've seen most of the standard production shows, so my daughters and I spent our post-dinner time in the casino...

My wife did attend the shows with her parents and they were particularly amused by the comedian and his rapport/jokes with the audience. I don't have the dailies and I don't know how often the comedians change ships but this gentlemen got positive reviews from them - sorry that I can't help you with the name.

Also, if you haven't seen the crew show (Fountains) - generally on the last full day - it's worth seeing at least once. They also found it very watchable.

Enjoy the cruise!

~Bob