20165

Ok so all you math wizards out there, how many $3 slot plays would $1k get you? Example, 333 when you run through the first round with your $1k, but assuming you get paid back 95%, i think someone said that is the pay back on the slots, then the next round would get you roughly 316 $3 slot plays and so on.  Can anyone think of the formula off the top of your head that would give you the total plays for that $1k assuming a 5% loss per run through of that money?  Sorry, its early and hurting my head thinking about it...

Great review.  We actually have the room opposite of you, B102 next month on Enchanted.  We have been debating on upgrading to a Penthouse, but they seem smaller than the one we have.  Our only concern about our current room is the slant in the bedroom given hubby is 6.3.  Do you think that height would be a issue?  From your pic, the bedroom seems pretty large and it doesnt look like a tall person would have an issue.

thx

14 hours ago, mattR said:

That doesn't sound like a free cruise to me it sounds like a potential expensive cruise? If the slot machine pays out 95% then the cruise still costs $2700.

Exactly my thinking and im not sure i would want to risk $54k in hopes of a free cruise.

Also, if you play $3 per slot pull, it would take you roughly 15 hours to put in $54k if you assume 3 seconds per slot play.  I think i did the math correctly...  

So novice question here. On the slots do you earn1 point per play or is it determined in how much you bet and if so any info on how that works?  Thx. 

i asked a similar question a couple of weeks ago and i think the consensus was its not how much you spend but rather how many times you play.  My wife plays roulett and will drop $100 with just a couple play where should she just be playing the penny slots and betting a little at a time like mentioned above to get he number of plays up.  The reason this explanation resonated with me is because we have relatives that do exactly that, play penny slots on RCL and i dont think they have paid for a cruise in years other than the occasional upgrades.

Now the down side on Princess is can i convince my wife to spend a couple hours in a smoky casino...  Im not even sure im up for that if its too bad.

1 hour ago, partybarbie said:

So if someone wants to tip extra for good service, they are liars, braggers, or just over-tipping? This thread has been so enlightening. I’m sure the OP has all the information they require now.

Amen, original poster here and this has gone way off the rails. Got what i need, thanks everyone.

1 hour ago, Snaxmuppet said:

I am absolutely gobsmacked at the amounts some people tip when on a cruise. Good on you if you can afford it but I for one just cannot afford to pay for the package and then also tip for every drink on top. I will tip at the end of the cruise for excellent service from bar staff but it is usually only $20, or even $10 on a short cruise.

 

To put it into context... if only 10% of people tipped a bar waiter $10 over the course of a week then on a ship carrying 3500 passengers that would be an extra $3500 on top of their wages. I don't think the bar staff are quite so poor as we like to make them out to be!

I dont think its that uncommon.  I get $250 in $5s before i leave and come back with very few left, but in the overall cost of the cruise, air etc its not a lot of money and greatly enhances my experience at the bars, around the pool, etc. Believe me, its a noticeable difference from when we didnt do this years ago to the point where my wife is telling me to start tipping day 1...

26 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 

So, turning your comment on it's head, would you be kind enough to explain why you think everyone on this thread should follow US tipping policy.

I dont think anyone is saying you have to tip, but as a tipper, i can definitely see better service, especially in the bars.  I usually tip $5 when i order a drink for my wife and I and by about night 2 or 3, they usually have our drinks waiting for us before we even sit down or if the bar is crowded they bring them out to us. Ive definitely gotten some dirty looks from others, but i had my drink...

We are on Enchantment next month in a suite so we should have a concierge.  And we are going to lean on them heavily because we are having issues making all of the dinner reservations we want so we plan on using them pretty extensively.

thx

I think i need to be a little more specific with my initial question.  We always tip the cabin steward and the MDR wait staff extra at the end of the cruise for excellent service which they always have provided for us.  My issue is this particular cruise, we will probably only eat in the MDR once or twice because we are going to try as many speciality restaurants as we can and are signed up for the 360 experience.  So what do you tip those folks at the end of dinner since we will only be there once?  Also, the concierge is always a mystery for me.  I have tipped by the request on some ships and it seemed was odd given no one else was, and ive tipped at the end of the cruise in one lump sum and that also didnt feel right.  Any thoughts on this as to when and how much to tip?

thanks

Yes, another tipping thread, but the one i was going to reply to was closed...  Since most of our dinners are going to be in a different venue every night, what do people tip the wait staff for that particular night they eat in that restaurant?  Also, do you tip the concierge daily or at the end of the cruise?  I usually do it at the end, but on on last NCL cruise the seemed to want it daily or at least we saw others doing it as they requested something.

Thanks and sorry, i know this is a touch subject but wanted to brush up on the norms...

9 hours ago, CruznMooses said:

Hi, I thought I would let everyone know what current Passport turnaround it... We mailed off our renewals on Jan 29th and received our new passports back on Feb 26. We even received our old passports on March 1st.  Less than 4 weeks to get our renewals....

Did you do expedited or regular service?  Thx

Great, thank you.  I was missing the dec 1 criteria...  

Thanks again

Ive read conflicting info on this, but from what I have gathered, the 360 Dining experience is not included if you are a suite passenger or part of  the premium package.  Correct?

thanks in advance.

I dont think the original poster was questioning the value of the package but rather some of the challenges they were having with charging multiple drinks to one person, drinks that were over the limit, etc. I think its a no brainer that the packages make sense, even for light drinkers. 

Is this really that common?  In our 30+ cruises, we have never been upgraded other than one where we put in bids for upgrades.  We have been traveling with 2 cabins, on for us one for our kids for the last 15+ years, so maybe that lowered our chances of being upgraded?

14 hours ago, Thrak said:

On our last cruise(s) I often started my day with a large Vanilla Latte ($4) with two extra shots of Espresso ($2). I then had two fresh squeezed juices ($8 each = $16) and a shot of Bulleit Bourbon straight up ($9). That totals $31 so, by the time I sit down for breakfast, I have pretty much covered my cost above Internet access and Daily Gratuity. Trust me, I had many more drinks during the day. I definitely didn't have to "consume my full allotment" in order to come out ahead.

Its not a matter of coming out ahead for us but rather not having to stand in the guest services line every days to get charges corrected like we did on MSC who screwed something up pretty much daily.  If there are ways to avoid that on princess, we are all for it.

Wow, glad i read though this thread because we would have definitely had an issue on our princess cruise in April. We werent aware there was a 15 drink limit on princess and when we order drinks, we usually only give the bartender 1 card, i guess medallion in this case, so we would definitely go over, especially sea days.  So it sounds like my wife and i need to order our own drinks which probably isnt that big of a deal, except for at dinner because they typically ask me for 1 card so we will need to make sure they take both of our medallions. 

Also, that 15 drink max per person its easy to find on the princess website. If you read through the plus/premium descriptions it doenst mention it. It is in the FAQ section though.

Thanks everyone, kinda a freakout moment.  I did check online and the options to defer to another date are 2 years in the past...  I think ill also send in the paperwork just in case because their system seems a bit buggy.

thanks again

Well, i got a jury summons today for the middle of the week we are suppose to be cruising.  Trying to get it deferred so fingers crossed.  Anyone else have this situation and were you able to work it out to get it deferred.  We are only about a month and a half out and i thought we got more notice than that for these things.  Guess not...

We did purchase the insurance, thank god, so i think i can reschedule it if for some reason they wont defer it, but would really rather not because out next window of opportunity will probably be toward the end of this year.

Talk about some bad luck.  What are the chances of this happening??

thx

3 hours ago, Shippy said:

LOVED the S5 forward suite.

Recently off Discovery so I assume it is the same. Wound up with that only because it was the last suite available for our cruise.

The bad point is it is FAR from everything but the good point is the cabin !

HUGE. LOVED the layout.

There are picture windows across from the bed . There are blackout curtains but we did not us them because there was no ship lighting near by.  That way you wake up to the sunrise !

No need to store your luggage under the bed because the cabin is HUGE. Bigger than a Penthouse.

I think it is cheaper because of the location.

We are old & were able to make the trek OK. I would get one of these cabins again.

Thank you and thats exactly our thinking. We are trying to figure out what upgrades are really worth it to us.  I think we decided on the owner suite and penthouse aft facing to bid on.  Other than that, our current cabin is perfect.  We had a similar one on NCL and it was wonderful.  Super big and the location wasnt an issue for us.  Probably a benefit for us to get a bit of exercise to the different areas...

thx for the info

Sorry and duh, of course cancellations. I realized that shortly after posting my response...  Very happy with our current cabin, but we dont consider some of the cabins that we are allowed to upgrade to to be an upgrade to our current cabin.  At least in our opinion. Would rather keep our forward premium vs. a side penthouse.  However, we are interested in the aft penthouse so we are figuring out our new bids. 

thanks 

11 hours ago, rheathslc said:

Here's a link to my post regarding this exact topic from another thread. Hope it helps. 🙂 

 

 

 

Thank you, nice loooong read.  But what i didnt see, and admittedly didnt read all 83 pages verbatim, was how any upgrades are available if you cant currently book them.  For example, when i i called a couple days ago, i told them i wanted the highest suite level, with the exception of the sky suite... The best they could give me was the forward premium suite which i took, but how would anyone get upgraded above that given thats the highest level that was left when i booked?  I did put in a bid for the owners suite and penthouse aft facing, but it seem moot given you cant book them.  Am i missing something? 

thank you and we didnt realize the owners suite was above the nightclub. Been there done that on other ships and we could hear the thumping most of the night, im sure this ship has better insulation, but not going to chance it. Especially since it looks like the aft penthouse suites look very similar in size and location.

You hit on our main debate point last night with the penthouse suites that are along the side of the ship across from the lounge vs the forward premium suite we currently have.  They actually look smaller than what we have although much close to the lounge.

Thanks for the info.

So we upgraded to a premium suite, S5 forward facing cabin, B102, and the upgrade offers went way down so we are debating if we want to put in another upgrade offer.  The penthouse actually looks a little smaller than the cabin we currently have with the exception of penthouse aft facing.  Does anyone know if those are wrap around balconies?  If so, that may be worth a bid for us.

Also the owners suites also look pretty much the same. Any thoughts on putting in a bit for one of those vs. just keeping our S5?  The balcony isnt great on our current suite, however, the balconies on the penthouse and owners suites dont look that good either with the exception of the aft facing one if that is truly a wrap around.

Any info is greatly appreciated because the bid prices are so low now, we are worried about winning something that may not be as good as what we already have.

Thanks