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Casino open?

BobKat406

By BobKat406,
in Bermuda

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BobKat406

BobKat406

Posted
Posted

Last time I was in Bermuda, the casino on the ship was not open from arrival to departure.

 

Friends recently went on NCL and the casino was open. Going on RCI in october and wondering if the policy has changed for the casino's on the ship.

 

Can anyone comment?

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njhorseman

njhorseman

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I have no way to verify if this is true, but I thought I read that the casino on the Liberty of the Seas (this ship specifically) was not going open in Bermuda, presumably because Royal Caribbean feels that the annual fee for opening the casino is too high relative to the few nights that the Liberty would be in port overnight and eligible to open the casino.

 

Perhaps there's information posted on the Royal Caribbean board.

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jakesnana

jakesnana

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There is currently a review being posted by someone who went to Bermuda on the NCL Dawn and she reported that the casino was opened at 9:00 PM each evening the ship was in port.

 

If Bermuda is charging a fee to open the casino, NCL probably feels it worth it to pay the fee, since the Dawn and Breakaway go to Bermuda every week and are there for 2 nights each time.

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maryjaden

maryjaden

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I am sailing on Liberty of the Seas on October 17th. I emailed Club Royale today and they emailed me back that they had contacted the Liberty casino host and they would NOT be open while in port at Bermuda. Of course they apologized for any inconvenience, but you would think that a sailing that is having a $10,000 slot tournament on it would be open as presumably there would be more gamblers on this sailing.

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jakesnana

jakesnana

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I am sailing on Liberty of the Seas on October 17th. I emailed Club Royale today and they emailed me back that they had contacted the Liberty casino host and they would NOT be open while in port at Bermuda. Of course they apologized for any inconvenience, but you would think that a sailing that is having a $10,000 slot tournament on it would be open as presumably there would be more gamblers on this sailing.

 

Have to agree. Pretty poor planning on their part to put the Slot Tournament on an itinerary that will see the casino closed some of the evenings. What were they thinking :(

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dkjretired

dkjretired

Posted
Posted

This is the second year the Casino's on cruise ships have been allowed to be open while in port. I just returned from Celebrity Summit and the casino opened at 9:00P.M. and closed at 5:00A.M. Cruise lines have to pay a special fee to the government to obtain a permit.

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jakesnana

jakesnana

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It's interesting that Celebrity is open at night when in port, but Royal Caribbean is not.

 

It may have something to do with the amount of "usable" time that RCCL has the ship in port and the cost/benefit ratio to the ship of paying to have the casino open. You can bet that if the ship thought they could make more money than it would cost them to buy the permit, they would be doing it.

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njhorseman

njhorseman

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Posted (edited)
It's interesting that Celebrity is open at night when in port, but Royal Caribbean is not.

 

It may have something to do with the amount of "usable" time that RCCL has the ship in port and the cost/benefit ratio to the ship of paying to have the casino open. You can bet that if the ship thought they could make more money than it would cost them to buy the permit, they would be doing it.

 

It is exactly because of the time in port spent by Celebrity Summit versus the Liberty of the Seas. I'm sure Royal Caribbean did the math and determined that it wouldn't be profitable to open the Liberty's casino given the annual fee they would have to pay.

 

The Summit spends two nights in port on 18 of its 19 Bermuda calls, and one night on the other, for a total of 37 nights its casino can open.

 

Liberty of the Seas never spends more than one night in Bermuda at a time, and a significant number of its cruises just make a daytime call on Bermuda without an overnight stay. I think the Liberty spends a total of 15 nights or less in port for the season.

Edited by njhorseman
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dkjretired

dkjretired

Posted
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It is exactly because of the time in port spent by Celebrity Summit versus the Liberty of the Seas. I'm sure Royal Caribbean did the math and determined that it wouldn't be profitable to open the Liberty's casino given the annual fee they would have to pay.

 

The Summit spends two nights in port on 18 of its 19 Bermuda calls, and one night on the other, for a total of 37 nights its casino can open.

 

Liberty of the Seas never spends more than one night in Bermuda at a time, and a significant number of its cruises just make a daytime call on Bermuda without an overnight stay. I think the Liberty spends a total of 15 nights or less in port for the season.

 

And you can bet the permit is not cheap...

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njhorseman

njhorseman

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Posted (edited)
And you can bet the permit is not cheap...

 

The license fees are on a sliding scale based on the passenger capacity of the ship and the number of voyages per year to Bermuda. Ships with passenger capacity not exceeding 2,000 are not charged a license fee. This was done in an attempt to attract smaller ships capable of berthing in Hamilton and St. George's. So far the only smaller ship it has attracted in the Veendam...and only for about 6 cruises this season.

 

The license fee is much lower for ships making 14 or less voyages to Bermuda than it is for ships calling 15 times or more. The highest license fee is $180,000 for ships calling on Bermuda 15 or more times and with a passenger capacity over 5,500. Liberty of the Seas, with a double occupancy capacity of 4,600 would be charged $150,000 for the year if Royal Caribbean wanted to obtain a casino license for her.

Edited by njhorseman
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  • 2 weeks later...
BobKat406

BobKat406

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
I am sailing on Liberty of the Seas on October 17th. I emailed Club Royale today and they emailed me back that they had contacted the Liberty casino host and they would NOT be open while in port at Bermuda. Of course they apologized for any inconvenience, but you would think that a sailing that is having a $10,000 slot tournament on it would be open as presumably there would be more gamblers on this sailing.

 

Mary - I agree with you as we are sailing Oct 3rd on a casino sponsored golf tournament cruise. My husband spends a lot of time in the casino and we were disappointed that they were not open the night we are in Bermuda since it is a "casino" sponsored cruise. I love the fact that it goes out of NJ but surprised at the fact that out of the 5 days for this cruise 2 full days and 1 full night will have no gambling/rating for the gamblers invited for the tournament. I'm sure it will save us money, just hope they offer enough to keep us busy!

 

However, I do understand them not purchasing a license for the limited amount of time they are in port if they can't recoup the cost of that license. Boy that sounds expensive!! $150k - wow!

Edited by BobKat406
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njhorseman

njhorseman

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Posted (edited)
Liberty of the sea casino are open after 9PM don't get why people make things up in here.

 

So the person who was recently on a Liberty cruise to Bermuda who said the casino was closed, and even better...the Royal Caribbean casino rep who emailed that the casino isn't open are lying?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=46600833&postcount=423

 

You're posting on the July 25 Liberty roll call, so I assume you haven't actually been to Bermuda yet this year.

Edited by njhorseman
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jaydog240011

jaydog240011

Posted
Posted

So the people that are on the RCCL fan Facebook page are lying that went last week and 2 week before that and a week before that the cruise director is lie when he told me its open after 9 pm to i don't think so you can't go by what RCCL people tell you .

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njhorseman

njhorseman

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Why would someone posting on Facebook inherently have more credibility than someone posting here?

 

And the unidentified cruise director you talk about is also a Royal Caribbean employee, so if you're dismissing what one Royal Caribbean employee says because Royal Caribbean employees are unreliable you better think twice about blindly accepting what another one says.

 

I don't have a dog in this fight...I don't care whether the Liberty's casino is open or not.

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