Premier cruise qualify Carnival

I sent an email to Carnival’s ocean players club regarding the points I’ve earned over my last couple cruises. They came back and said the drop was a little over $24k, and time spent a little over 20 hours in the casino. (That is a low figure, I spent at least twice that money and twice the time- so they got that wrong) They said they don’t award points to table game players.

They’ve given me a couple of cruises for $50pp ocean view, $100 on board credit, and free drinks, which I have taken them up on. They are in March and May.

Will I receive offers for a premier or elite cruise while those are booked? Or at all?

I sent an email to Carnival’s ocean players club regarding the points I’ve earned over my last couple cruises. They came back and said the drop was a little over $24k, and time spent a little over 20 hours in the casino. (That is a low figure, I spent at least twice that money and twice the time- so they got that wrong) They said they don’t award points to table game players.

 

They’ve given me a couple of cruises for $50pp ocean view, $100 on board credit, and free drinks, which I have taken them up on. They are in March and May.

 

Will I receive offers for a premier or elite cruise while those are booked? Or at all?

Taking or not taking comp'd cruises should have no affect on receiving Premier invites. I have been receiving the Premier email invites the past two years and most of my cruises were bounce backs or cruises where I contacted OPC asking about a comp. Ultra and Elite are beyond my level of play but my simplified understanding is Ultra invites only go to people who do a Premier and rack up 7500 points (or equivalent table play). I stay away from Premier cruises as I do not want to be a small fish in a casino full of whales. Hate waiting for a spot at the table. Prefer non-Premier comp'd cruises where I can sit at the UTH table whenever I want not whenever someone else leaves.

George

You lost $24k and are worried about getting a Premier offer. Yes you probably will but they are not that great...a few cheesy gifts, drinks on us card and some free play....and very crowded casino.

:rolleyes:

You lost $24k and are worried about getting a Premier offer. Yes you probably will but they are not that great...a few cheesy gifts, drinks on us card and some free play....and very crowded casino.

No, I am curious about how premier and ultra cruises work.

You’re likely not great at giving advice or information since you failed to read my post.

My daughter received a premier cruise offer today. It wasn’t a great offer, PC5. She would get $600 casino cash, but has to pay about $500/ person in an interior room.

In the email it shows that to qualify for a ultra cruise she has to sail a premier cruise.

I thought it was odd she received the offer, because I gamble 10 times more than her. She did not use a $99 cruise offer that expired about a month ago. I used mine.

So, maybe next time I will decline a free cruise offer and see if they extend a premier cruise offer to me...

Taking or not taking comp'd cruises should have no affect on receiving Premier invites. I have been receiving the Premier email invites the past two years and most of my cruises were bounce backs or cruises where I contacted OPC asking about a comp. Ultra and Elite are beyond my level of play but my simplified understanding is Ultra invites only go to people who do a Premier and rack up 7500 points (or equivalent table play). I stay away from Premier cruises as I do not want to be a small fish in a casino full of whales. Hate waiting for a spot at the table. Prefer non-Premier comp'd cruises where I can sit at the UTH table whenever I want not whenever someone else leaves.

 

George

very good point i done 2 premier cruises and you couldn't get a seat anywhere. Would rather take the discount rate on regular booking, take the family and then hit the casino after they hit the bed at night.

I received an email premier cruise offer a couple days ago. Free 7 day balcony for two out of Galveston. I couldn’t take advantage of it due to my work. I have two other carnival cruises booked. So, these free premier cruises don’t seem to be based on current bookings.

Wife and I are CCL diamond cruisers and have taken 3 premier cruises but now our level of play does not qualify us to be invited. We want to avoid being non-premier on a premier cruise for reasons already noted by others, but we can't find out which are premier cruise so we can avoid them. Does anyone know how to spot a "Premier" or "Elite" cruise without being invited?

Wife and I are CCL diamond cruisers and have taken 3 premier cruises but now our level of play does not qualify us to be invited. We want to avoid being non-premier on a premier cruise for reasons already noted by others, but we can't find out which are premier cruise so we can avoid them. Does anyone know how to spot a "Premier" or "Elite" cruise without being invited?

I am in the same boat shall we say. I very much enjoy ships casinos but do not want to be on a Premier as a non-Premier guest and not sure I want to be on a Premier if there are 399 other Premier guests. I started keeping track of Premiers and other gambling draws on another site several years ago. Cannot send you there but do have a PDF copy of the file up at DropBox. https://www.dropbox.com/s/09gffgmkfr2mfdb/Carnival%20Casino%20Premier%20Cruises.pdf?dl=0 The list is out of date with regards to Getaways as I did not receive an invite in the latest round and did not see anyone posting a copy of their invite. George

George, Thanks very much for the info. Happy to see that our 9/22 Magic is not on the list. Maybe OPC is gaming us and other like us, betting that we'll increase our level of play so we get the invitations and know which cruises to avoid.

As an update, I have been receiving a lot of cruise offers, premier, elite, ultra. It just took some time.

Well it looks like our Magic 6/23 is on the list. I was hoping to spend some time in the casino but now it looks like I may just avoid it if it is going to be as crowded as people say.

Yes..we booked June 23 on Magic as a premier. Our offers have gone done so much with the new Dealer's choice promotions that after a Halloween premier we may sit out awhile. Can now match MSC to their black level. May give that a try.

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I also should dispel the myth that in order to be invited on an ultra cruise you must sail and gamble on a premier cruise.

I have never sailed a premier cruise and got an offer to sail on up to two ultra cruises this summer and fall. The offer was a balcony for $100/person, $200 onboard credit and $1000 casino cash.

I also have received a premier cruise offer for the same as above with $1000 cash, and another for $750 cash.

I was comped a suite on the horizon for $100/person and $200 credit, no cash.

I am only able to take four more cruises this year, so I booked the free horizon suite, a balcony premier on the horizon, another balcony on the horizon, and an ultra balcony on the glory.

I got an invite to the July 11 “heald” cruise with $1500 casino cash, but can’t make that either.

By November I’ll have sailed 7 times on carnival this year, 9 times in all. It’s great having so many free cruises, I have no time to take more. I do gamble heavily, pretty much more than anyone I’ve seen on a ship. I only play table games. I’d say overall, I might have made $1-2k while gambling. I’ve definitely came out ahead with all of the free cruising, massages, steak dinners, etc.

I forgot that I am also going on an elite cruise in July. The offer for that wasn’t as good as the ultra cruises. I only received a free balcony and $300 cash. It does come with free parking or transportation. Platinum status for the cruise. Free drinks. Free excursion. VIP checking and a cocktail party.

I also should dispel the myth that in order to be invited on an ultra cruise you must sail and gamble on a premier cruise.

So the Ocean Players Club says, " In order to qualify for a spring 2019 ULTRA Premier Cruise, guests must sail on a Premier Cruise of 6 days or longer departing between May 1,2018 and November 30, 2018...and earn 7,500 points on that cruise... "

This would supposedly be a guaranteed way of receiving an Ultra invite, but you have seen that is not the only way. Even so, I found this guarantee isn't even a guarantee. I went on a Premier cruise in September, 2018. I have previously asked the casino host how many points I had for the current cruise and NEVER received an answer. So, on this September cruise I played craps on the machine until I had 8,300 points just to make sure I had the 7,500+ points to meet their requirement. I did not receive an Ultra invite for spring 2019. I wrote and asked why I received no invite and they said, "your level of play is insufficient for an Ultra invite."

I don't complain much since the one Ultra I attended was only at a reduced fare. I have had to pay for three of my previous 18 cruises, some of which were Premier, so it is better to get a free Premier or regular than a reduced price Ultra, but still I wanted my invite.

On my most recent bounceback cruise in May, I played my usual amount, but my wife made a rare trip to the casino and played blackjack for 2 hours and lost $100. We both received bounceback offers, which we didn't take, and then both of us received the $100 cabin with $100 OBC offer.

All of this just shows they use a variety of methods to determine offers, which is probably why it is so impossible to determine how it is done. When their guaranteed in writing offer didn't happen, I just gave in trying to predict when an offer would come. I get bouncebacks after every cruise, but I expect other offers will just be random.