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regular charge. The casino posts the monies to your cabin account and it will all be charged to your credit card in one lump sum at the end of your cruise if you choose not to pay some of it down with your winnings. I played next to a lady that was up $1,000 and she was debating if she should cash out the $1,000 and go to guest services and pay it towards her cabin bill.

high five to "dog" - we cruise the same as him. We currently have a 17 day Alaska cruise coming up in 2025. I have already prepaid for 2 cases of water, and prepaid the gratuities. We will have $400 on board credit and that will be used to pay for our coffee in the morning, and soda for my husband - he gets one a day with dinner. We will not get the internet (we are elite and pay half price) because we will be getting off the ship almost every day and we will take our phones and use the internet to check emails and text messages then. We do not alcohol drinkers and we do not need the gelato. We eat in the MDR, buffet, and all the freebie eats. You can spend as much or as little as you like, but for us the packages make no sense. We also enjoy Celebrity, but they do not do cruises out of Los Angeles and that is our home port. As with any cruiser, it depends on why you are cruising, is it for the location, the getaway, the food, the adventure, etc. I read this column every day and can't wait to get on board, but I have a 13 month wait. I enjoy the ship and being on vacation.

Going to the casino and using the machines are easy - we do not play table games, so someone else will have to advise you You sit at a machine, place your medallion next to the box and the screen will ask for your birthdate. You then can put cash in the machine or enter the amount of money that you want to start off with. It will charge that amount to your cabin. Sample: $500. you now play the machine, the machine will keep track of your play amount and award you points. After playing $100 you want to move, you hit cash out and WAIT for the machine to say that you are signed out and the left over money is back in your bank. You go to the next machine and it will ask how much you want to play - you have $400 in your bank so you ask for $100 and you start playing again. You never get cash out of the machine, nor a ticket. Everything is tied into your medallion. Always wait for the machine to verify that the money has gone back to your bank before you leave the machine.

I do not travel in a suite- so I will ask a stupid question: isn't the conceirge part of the service of the suite occupants ?? why are you going to tip each time you go and ask for their help with something. You paid for that service when you booked the suite and overpaid for the cabin Sorry, but it is beginning to feel that you should walk on board the ship - hand over your wallet, credit cards and first born child and sail away.

We would never get to 17,000 points, will be interested to hear what they offer as a come back and play offer. I hope that you are at least having fun.

Just received an email asking me to fill out a survey. All questions related to the offers and booking the offers. I completed the survey and also let them know that the offers have gotten worse.

I will answer because it is not totally off topic. It is part of getting a casino offer and using it. When you get a casino offer for a free cabin, when you book your cruise, you pay for the cruise up front so ie, the cruise has port tax/fee of $295 per person, and the offer is for a free interior. You will pay $295 for taxes, plus $200 deposit which is returned to you in OBC once you board the ship - so you can not use the OBC prior to the cruise. In our case, the Alaska cruise is $595 each for the port tax, plus $200 each for deposit, plus we get the princess insurance and then we upgraded to OV cabin, so we paid $2900+ at the time of booking. If we cancel for any reason we lose the $200 each deposit. This is part of the agreement for booking the cruise with a casino offer. Making changes because the cost of the cruise goes down may not change the cost of what you have to pay to upgrade to a higher class cabin. Over all getting a free offer for a cabin is money saving, but the trade off is spending the money in the casino,which is what we do

You don't have to spend a ton of money - hopefully you win enough to keep playing and accumulating points. We don't get as great of offers as we did and we continue to gamble the amount that we would have spent for the cabin. ie. if we get a free balcony and it would have cost $1599 ea then we have a budget of $3,000 - total between the two of us to gamble. If the cabin is not free, we would have spent the $3,000 anyway. We now get free interior cabins and free play. We have one cruise booked for 2025 a 17 day Ultimate Alaska cost when I booked it back in Fall of 2023, the cost from the Princess website was interior $2398, OV $3598, balcony $4248, mini suite $5398 we got the interior for free, but paid $1200 (total) to get an ocean view that has the full length window on Deck 14. So the cost of the OV would have been $7200, but we paid $1200. the cost has gone down on that cruise now, but once you book it you are locked in.

We have been on 14 princess cruises using the casino offer. We gamble the same for each cruise, accumulating around 3,000+ points each, But the offers have gone down in value. In the beginning we would get offers for a free balcony, plus package and $400 free play Now we get free interior (low free to upgrade to OV, balcony) no plus package and $50 free play We took 7 cruises in the aftermath of covid, but as the offers are worse, we only have one cruise booked, using our free interior and $250 free play - 17 day Ultimate Alaska cruise. If offers don't get better, we won't book anymore.

I forgot to mention that I had researched non Princess excursions with companies that others had recommended. one - the price was comparable to Princess or close enough two - some stated that you had to pay now and no refund if cancelled within 48 hours I do know that sometimes the ship arrives late to port or has to change things around and I didn't want to have to deal with an outside company not being able to use them and lose my money. At least with Princess, I know that I will be refunded if something goes wrong.

We have an Alaska cruise booked for May 2025. After I booked the cruise I went to the excursions and put on wishlist the ones for each port I was interested in. After reading here that the price had gone up, I went to my wish list and saw that one had gone up $14 each and the other $10 each. The rest are still the same. Yesterday I went on line and purchased five excursions. I have leaving the others to be "get off the ship and walk around" We are elite, so we are suppose to get 10% back once we are on board. I also purchase our gratuities - we are 14 months out and I figured we will see a price increase by then.

Good luck to you and her. I hope you both work hard to keep your marriage a top priority. You married each other for a reason, keep that love going. Take a cruise and keep us posted, we enjoyed your posts.

We flew into LaGuardia, but took taxi to hotel in Brooklyn, half way between airport and Red Hook. We paid $30 (with tip) for that. Next morning took taxi to Red Hook paid $30 again to get to port. Please give driver the address for the port - our driver drove us all around the waterfront - he coulnd not find the entrance to the port area.

This news is too new and too much right now for you to digest. Please find comfort with family and friends and get through this difficult time. You are going to be on an emotional rollercoaster for the next few months. Getting away for a week or two may be something to get your mind off everything. Please know that "we" (at least 50%) have been in your shoes. There is life after divorce. Wishing you all the best.

With our last offer, which was free inside/$250 each free play we booked a 17 day Alaska cruise our cost to upgrade to deluxe oceanview on Lido deck was $1200 total balcony is $2,900, or mini $5,000 or suite $18,200 we decided to upgrade to the deluxe oceanview - it has a full wall window and the interior cabin is as large as a balcony cabin. our budget for gambling is what the cost of the cabin would have cost us if we had to pay for the cabin. So not getting the free interior would have cost $4,000, the oceanview room $7,000 so $7,000 - minus the $1200 for paying to upgrade leaves us $5,800 towards our gambling fund plus using the $500 free play that we get on the cruise. We use the $200 deposit each that turns into the OBC for paying for coffee and soda. We don't pay for the plus package - only use that if given to us. we have cruises where we hit the limit and others where we came home with money. Or we fall somewhere in the middle. We get the cruise, get the dining, and we get to gamble. We have a nice vacation and we don't break the bank. We like to see where the cut off is now for getting the free oceanview, free balcony.