BearClaw28

Going to try to pay forward all the help I've gotten from fellow cruisers on these boards. I'll try to be as informative as I can and would be happy to answer questions and take pics of anything I can if asked.

A little background: This is my 7th cruise but first time on Royal Caribbean. I've been on Carnival once and NCL 5 times. Mostly NCL because I gamble a lot and they give me good deals on cruises.

I'm kinda tagging along on this cruise with a bunch of family. I guess I'm a foodie (worked in high end restaurants in NYC) who will be spending a lot of time talking about food and posting food pics in this review. But probably no specialty restaurants as the large group I'm with doesn't usually do them and I'm just going with the flow.

Anyway, depending on how good VOOM is I plan on having my phone with me all the time and hope to post intermittently on random things that I'm doing. Will post pics of dailies every night of the next days events.

Well here goes nothing. Hope people find this informative.

Jeff

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

According to the dailies from the March 18-27 cruise, the Friends of Bill W meet every day at 5pm in the Chapel, except for the last sea day when it's at 4pm.

Does the casino have Roulette on the Gem? and Breakaway?

 

Is minimum bet $5?

 

Anyone know? Just wonderin'

 

Thanks in advance! :cool:

Gem has one roulette table that usually had a $15 minimum.

There are video screen roulette machines, with the roulette wheel in middle surrounded by 6-8 video screens, in the casino and in the Spinnaker Lounge. Not sure of the minimum but the lowest denomination is 25 cents.

I got off the Gem on Friday morning. I just scanned all 9 dailies for the Caribbean but I can't upload them here because the files are too big. I'd be happy to email them. Just tell me where.

Just got off the Gem last Friday. Dan Dan was the CD but that was his last cruise before vacation. We'll find out who replaced him when the Gem gets back.

I'm going on a cruise next week through CAS and I didn't have a certificate for it. I kinda just called CAS and asked them if they would comp the cruise I had in mind. Has to be at least a 7 day cruise though. They want your business so they'll work with you.

Yes you can. I'm going on a comped cruise through CAS next week and I used a voucher purchased from a past cruise to pay for part of the fees.

Ok, I'm a craps player.

So, did you play for hours every night?

Was you pass line bet more then the minimum?:D

I'd say a few hours every night and an hour or so during the sea days. On that particular cruise I couldn't find anything better to do and the port days weren't busy sightseeing so I always had a couple of hours to kill at the tables. I probably lost over 2 grand so by no means do I consider this a "complimentary" offer. I paid for it last year and then some. But at least I'll get something for my losses.

I usually bet the minimum pass and then move it up slightly. My biggest plays are betting across and 3x, 4x and 5x's odds on the pass. That whole cruise I could never get a on a good roll, pun intended. Nobody could as we played with the same players the whole trip. Except for the annoying people who decided to play for the first time ever and constantly place bets with their hands on the table while the dice were out and being thrown. God that's so annoying. They should have 2 craps tables, one for beginners and one for the people who consistently play throughout the cruise.

I got my offer from CAS after a single cruise where I was at the craps table every night.

Last April I had received an offer from CAS for a complimentary stateroom on 5 select cruises but didn't have the time to use the offer. Yesterday I decided to book the Epic in October and gave CAS a call to see what they could offer me. Without an offer already out there I was ready to accept the 20% standing discount. To my great surprise after checking my level of play on the only other NCL cruise that I've been on, the CAS rep offered me a balcony at the tax and port fees rate, about $520. The cruise is being offered on the website for a little over $2000 for a balcony so I was happy with the CAS discount seeing how I was planning on spending $1600 ($2000 minus 20%). The morale of the story is to call CAS before booking, regardless if you have an offer in hand. You never know what you're going to get.

I think I got ripped on my last CAS visit. I lost in excess of $1,000 of my own money (Not including a few up/down swings in that. It was probably more) in about 4-5 days on my last cruise but it was @ the tables (Let it ride). I went to check my points at the end and it was extremely low. I'm not sure exactly what the total was.

I lost about 3 times that and at the end of the cruise I had accumulated minimal points. Then last week CAS offered me a complimentary balcony stateroom on a number of cruise options. Go figure.

If you dont mind my asking how much time do you typically spend playing in the casino to get these offers. We are going on our first NCL cruise next year and love to spend time in the casino. Considering we will have 4 sea days I can see us spending quite a bit of time in there. Also I know in the Nj casinos I always get better comps then my DH because i play slots. He plays the table games mostly and his comps are usually not as good. So my other question is what type of play usually gets the best comps while cruising with NCL? Thank you all for your help.

I've only been on one NCL cruise, which is why I was surprised to receive a complimentary stateroom offer. It was for 7 days with 3 sea days. I spent a few hours each night at the craps table and part of the sea days as well. Granted I played a few thousand dollars over the course of the trip, at a land based casino my play would be enough for a comp room at most. On NCL it was enough for a comp cruise except for taxes.

So I spoke to the CAS rep today for more information on the only complimentary cruise that I would be able to take, Norwegian Jade leaving Venice in July. The amount that I would have to pay upon booking is $479.72 for taxes, that for 2 people in a Balcony (BA) midship 10th deck. Booking on the site, the same cruise would cost $1887.70. Not a bad discount.

The problem now is the airfare to Venice which seems to have increased a lot since I gave it a cursory look on Friday.

Thank you for responding. So you and your husband didn't pay for the companion, just the tax for 2 people? How much did that come to?

On Friday I received an email from Casinos at Sea offering a complimentary Stateroom for any of 5 cruises that NCL has over the next 4 months. Has anyone else received this and is it legit? Are there any conditions or anything that they don't make you aware of until you're on the ship? What do I pay for and is there an extra charge for bringing a companion?

Thanks for your help in advance.