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Slot Pull: Questions on how to organize

jerbeth

By jerbeth,
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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted (edited)
First, Ann, your amazing customer service is what keeps us coming back for more! :D Second, if you search on Google for a cruise slot pull, you are right at the top! That is very cool, I think.

 

Just looked at the info. Fantastic. You will make me appear both organized and extremely informed. No small feat!

 

Thanks again for the quick reply and think loose slots for all!

 

Pam

 

Hey Pam,

Thanks for the info on Google. I will go check it out. I had no idea that is listed at all. I just thought CC was the only place you could find this thread.

 

Yes, loose slots, loose slots, loose slots......my wish for all cruises.

If you think of it after you get back, let me know how it all went for you. Hope lots of your fellow cruisers will join you in this event.

Edited by cruisin'low
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  • 4 weeks later...
cruisergal 1

cruisergal 1

Posted
Posted (edited)

I also have an Excel spread sheet that you can print in advance to track how much each person won for the group. If you will give me your email address' date=' I will forward that spread sheet.[/size']

These are always great fun.

Anne,if you still have the spread sheet, could you please e-mail it to me at iprince at shaw dot ca I am planning to do a slot pull for my upcoming cruise. Thanking you in advance.

Edited by cruisergal 1
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chi_scotty

chi_scotty

Posted
Posted

Hi Ann, sorry this request comes at the 11th hour, I just found this thread, our cruise is this Saturday and I am flying out tomorrow morning to Miami (if this ice storm we are having in Chicago ever goes away!!). Would you mind sending your famous spreadsheet? My email is slewis25 at Comcast dot net

 

I am torn with alerting the casino manager, but I think if we can still choose our own machine, hopefully they don't "tighten up" all the machines that day, or there will be 4,100 angry gamblers on the Epic with us to blame :o

 

Thanks again,

Scott

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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted
Hi Ann, sorry this request comes at the 11th hour, I just found this thread, our cruise is this Saturday and I am flying out tomorrow morning to Miami (if this ice storm we are having in Chicago ever goes away!!). Would you mind sending your famous spreadsheet? My email is slewis25 at Comcast dot net

 

I am torn with alerting the casino manager, but I think if we can still choose our own machine, hopefully they don't "tighten up" all the machines that day, or there will be 4,100 angry gamblers on the Epic with us to blame :o

 

Thanks again,

Scott

 

Scott,

It is on it's way to your email right now. Hope you get to Miami w/o any problems and have a great time on your cruise. If you think about it when you get back, let us know here how it all went.

 

Side note - I lived in Downers Grove for 4 years many years ago.

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Wtracker

Wtracker

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Posted
I absolutely agree that I would not give the Casino advance warning of your arrival. I have run 2 slot pulls on 2 different ships. I never notified the Casino Manager in advance other than when we all walked into the casino. IMHO this gives them less time to "possibly" set the machine to pay off less. Maybe you would miss out on a free drink but I would rather win lots of money. The Casino manger and her staff were excellant when they saw so many people who were going to participate.

Here is what I posted on Cruise Critic on the thread for our cruise:

THE SLOT PULL

HOW DOES IT WORK? - Everyone who wants to participate will bring their $15.00 to the meeting spot. You will each get five (5) pulls on a dollar slot machine that utilizes $3.00/pull. The winning money will accumulate in the machine and that will be divided among the participants at the end of all pulls. The payoffs will be in even dollars.

The extra money above the even dollars will be awarded to the player who gets the group the highest amount on their slot pulls. Each person’s winnings will be recorded at the time of their pulls so we know who will get the side pot of the money after the even dollar pay-out.

 

WHEN WILL WE DO THIS? - We will meet XXXXXXXXX @ XXX on the starboard side of the casino Fiesta Deck 6 just outside the Casino. We will all go into the Casio together and start our play.

Payoffs will be handled immediately afterwards and handed out to all who joined in the Slot Pull.

· If you wish to participate' date=' please give me your name and cabin # in case there is any [u']change[/u] at all in the schedule and I can notify you. We need more people to make this lots of fun, so please join in. This is what I need for those who want to participate:

o Your names – first names only for each person who is going to participate.

o Your cabin # in case there is any change in plans and I can call and leave a message in your cabin

If you do not want to post that information here, you can email me at XXXXXXXX

By having this information in advance, I can make up a chart at home to track names the amount each person wins on their pulls.

 

 

I also have an Excel spread sheet that you can print in advance to track how much each person won for the group. If you will give me your email address, I will forward that spread sheet.

These are always great fun.

Am New to Cruisin' and love this Idea. Please send as much info and spredsheets also....

 

Going with Holland America, and not sure what machines they have, but this sounds like tons of fun.

 

My email is lckgilson@yahoo.com

 

Thankyou.

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LadyDivot

LadyDivot

Posted
Posted

All,

 

Just wanted to give you some feedback on my recent slotpull experience. Ann's info was invaluable for making it successful. As background, this was my first time organizing a slot pull, but I'd participated in several before. We were sailing on the Allure OTS, so it couldn't have been a bigger ship or possible group! :eek: What was I thinking! Prior to the cruise, we had about 40 people signed up and then at the M&M another 10 signed up.

 

We decided to host the slot pull on the last sea day right after the cabin crawl. We had a lot of folks on the cabin crawl but not everyone went to the slot pull afterwards. Lesson 1 - have the cabin crawl before the slot pull.

 

Honestly, I kind of panicked when I saw the number of people signed up. I didn't want the event to take a long time and annoy people, so I decided to use two slot machines side-by-side. As it turns out, about 25% of the pre-sail people didn't show up but almost all of the write-in candidates showed, so in the end it was about 40 folks. The two machines worked out well for this number. Lesson 2 - not everyone will show, even if you give them the reminder sheets. So make sure your plan can survive any number of players. Folks will not appreciate all your effort! :D For planning purposes, the slot pull took about an hour with two machines and 40 people.

 

Once we had it all done, everyone's $15 investment was turned into a $7 return! Oh well, that's why it's called gambling. It took about 15 minutes to pay everyone out, but it seemed longer because everyone was waiting around. Thankfully everyone was patient while we got change. We hoped to get lots of small bills from the cage, but the guy behind the counter was being very uncooperative. There is an ATM type machine in the Casino that gives as much change in whatever denominations you want, so we used that to get ones for the $7. That's what took the most time. Lesson 3 - Know where you can break up bills into 5s and 1s if needed or if the event the cage is being fussy.

 

I tried to talk to the Casino Manager once before the event to see if they could provide us "prizes" for the person who got us the most money on their pulls. Admittedly, I went on Friday night when they were kinda busy and she was not being able to see me. I thought about going back, but I got distracted by my cruise! The day of the slot pull, someone asked me if I had talked to the Casino Manager. I said no, and they offered to go see what they could find. I encouraged him! I think he went to the cage, but not positive, and he returned with 3 tshirts and 8 keychains. We opted to give the 3 tshirts to the top 3 individual slot pull winners. The 8 keychains went to whomever wanted them. Lesson 4 - It's never too late to hit the Casino for prizes, and don't try to find the Casino Manager on a Friday night! If we do this again, DH says never again, I'll go earlier to the Casino Manager.

 

Ultimately, it went very well and we had a good time. No big winners, but is anyone looking to pay off their mortgage? I have attached the reminder slip to this email. It's in Word 2010, so let me know if someone needs it an earlier format. I can also share it with Ann and she is free to send it.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Pam

Slot Pull Reminder Slips_Jan 2013.docx

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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted
Am New to Cruisin' and love this Idea. Please send as much info and spredsheets also....

 

Going with Holland America, and not sure what machines they have, but this sounds like tons of fun.

 

My email is lckgilson@yahoo.com

 

Thankyou.

 

Was out of town for a few days and just sent you the information. Good luck and have fun with this.

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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted (edited)
All,

 

Just wanted to give you some feedback on my recent slotpull experience. Ann's info was invaluable for making it successful. As background, this was my first time organizing a slot pull, but I'd participated in several before. We were sailing on the Allure OTS, so it couldn't have been a bigger ship or possible group! :eek: What was I thinking! Prior to the cruise, we had about 40 people signed up and then at the M&M another 10 signed up.

 

We decided to host the slot pull on the last sea day right after the cabin crawl. We had a lot of folks on the cabin crawl but not everyone went to the slot pull afterwards. Lesson 1 - have the cabin crawl before the slot pull.

 

Honestly, I kind of panicked when I saw the number of people signed up. I didn't want the event to take a long time and annoy people, so I decided to use two slot machines side-by-side. As it turns out, about 25% of the pre-sail people didn't show up but almost all of the write-in candidates showed, so in the end it was about 40 folks. The two machines worked out well for this number. Lesson 2 - not everyone will show, even if you give them the reminder sheets. So make sure your plan can survive any number of players. Folks will not appreciate all your effort! :D For planning purposes, the slot pull took about an hour with two machines and 40 people.

 

Once we had it all done, everyone's $15 investment was turned into a $7 return! Oh well, that's why it's called gambling. It took about 15 minutes to pay everyone out, but it seemed longer because everyone was waiting around. Thankfully everyone was patient while we got change. We hoped to get lots of small bills from the cage, but the guy behind the counter was being very uncooperative. There is an ATM type machine in the Casino that gives as much change in whatever denominations you want, so we used that to get ones for the $7. That's what took the most time. Lesson 3 - Know where you can break up bills into 5s and 1s if needed or if the event the cage is being fussy.

 

I tried to talk to the Casino Manager once before the event to see if they could provide us "prizes" for the person who got us the most money on their pulls. Admittedly, I went on Friday night when they were kinda busy and she was not being able to see me. I thought about going back, but I got distracted by my cruise! The day of the slot pull, someone asked me if I had talked to the Casino Manager. I said no, and they offered to go see what they could find. I encouraged him! I think he went to the cage, but not positive, and he returned with 3 tshirts and 8 keychains. We opted to give the 3 tshirts to the top 3 individual slot pull winners. The 8 keychains went to whomever wanted them. Lesson 4 - It's never too late to hit the Casino for prizes, and don't try to find the Casino Manager on a Friday night! If we do this again, DH says never again, I'll go earlier to the Casino Manager.

 

Ultimately, it went very well and we had a good time. No big winners, but is anyone looking to pay off their mortgage? I have attached the reminder slip to this email. It's in Word 2010, so let me know if someone needs it an earlier format. I can also share it with Ann and she is free to send it.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Pam

 

Pam,

Thanks for the kind words. Happy that I was able to give you some guidance in running the Slot Pull. And good that you learned lessons in this. You are so correct that people will not show up when they say they are going to and others may show up that did not tell you.

And your idea of getting "prizes" for the Casino Manager is a great one. I will try that next time.

Thank you so much for your feedback. That was fantastic. And your reminder notice was super. Good idea to have included it here.

Edited by cruisin'low
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GweninTX

GweninTX

Posted
Posted

On our Transatlantic Crown cruise we had a huge slot pull and the Casino host was very helpful and provided lots of prizes- hats and tshirtsI am sure it depends on the ship and the host, but I encourage you to ask! They were also helpful in providing dollar bills for the payout!

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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted
On our Transatlantic Crown cruise we had a huge slot pull and the Casino host was very helpful and provided lots of prizes- hats and tshirtsI am sure it depends on the ship and the host, but I encourage you to ask! They were also helpful in providing dollar bills for the payout!

 

Thanks, great information.

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LadyDivot

LadyDivot

Posted
Posted

Thanks, Ann! Let me know if you were able to download the reminder notice and please share with others as part of your slot pull essentials packet if you'd like. I'd be honored to be included!

 

I also encourage others to come back to the thread and provide your feedback to the larger group. Enjoy and good luck!

 

Pam

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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted (edited)
Thanks, Ann! Let me know if you were able to download the reminder notice and please share with others as part of your slot pull essentials packet if you'd like. I'd be honored to be included!

 

I also encourage others to come back to the thread and provide your feedback to the larger group. Enjoy and good luck!

 

Pam

 

Pam,

I can download it and will include it with the other information on the Slot Pull. I had used a smaller reminder (actually one that I can print 3/page and cut them up). And the only reason I used a samller one was that usually I had told people about the process for a slot pull in advance. Here is what I put on my reminder notice

 

 

REMINDER – SLOT PULL

Sunday September 30 2:00 PM

Meet at the Promenade Bar on the Starboard side of the ship– Promenade Deck 7 midship. Bring $15 or get change at the cashier cage in the Casino before your turn. (3 $5.00 bills or $5.00 and a $10 bill).That will give you 5 spins on the machine.

 

But yours is great because it has pictures too.

 

Thanks so much for your feedback.

Edited by cruisin'low
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chey1

chey1

Posted
Posted (edited)
The spreadsheet is on it's way to you.

 

Oh Great Keeper of the Spreadsheet ... Spreadsheet Swami ... I know you posted about the slot pull spreadsheet a good long time ago' date=' but I do hope you are still monitoring this site. - lol - I would like a copy too if possible.

 

If you have other helpful info that you could email me, I would appreciate that as well.

 

Thanks!

 

[email']lynne_slaton@bellsouth.net[/email]

Edited by chey1
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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted
Oh Great Keeper of the Spreadsheet ... Spreadsheet Swami ... I know you posted about the slot pull spreadsheet a good long time ago, but I do hope you are still monitoring this site. - lol - I would like a copy too if possible.

 

If you have other helpful info that you could email me, I would appreciate that as well.

 

Thanks!

 

lynne_slaton@bellsouth.net

 

Lynn,

All the information that I have is on it's way to you via your email. Have fun with it all.

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mintjulip123

mintjulip123

Posted
Posted

This will be my second slot pull I have organize. The upcoming one in April has had very good response. I thought I seen somewhere where the organizer split into two side by side slots. I was thinking that it might be a good idea as we now have 26 people and I think it might take too long. So do you split the wins among everyone or just the say 13 on that particular slot? Has anyone done this?

 

 

Could you please send me a copy of your reminder?

 

Mintjulip123 at yahoo dot com

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CruisinLow

CruisinLow

Posted
Posted
This will be my second slot pull I have organize. The upcoming one in April has had very good response. I thought I seen somewhere where the organizer split into two side by side slots. I was thinking that it might be a good idea as we now have 26 people and I think it might take too long. So do you split the wins among everyone or just the say 13 on that particular slot? Has anyone done this?

 

 

Could you please send me a copy of your reminder?

 

Mintjulip123 at yahoo dot com

 

will send the email right now

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