Casino Comp'd Cruise

[cltnccruisers]

Not sure if it was because DW won so much or I lost so much but we have Casino vouchers from our Caribbean Princess cruise last week.  Hers is for $200 in Casino Free Play.  But mine says Complimentary Ocean-view Plus.  $100 in Casino Free Play.

 

That sounds like a freebie to me but I haven't been able to get in touch with the Casino Department at the given number.  We have to book through them.

 

So how does this work?  Am I comp'd but we have to pay for DW?  Does the comp include Princess Plus or is that PLUS just a little deceptive link to the $100?

[suekel]

Yep, sounds like you got a free cruise.  Yes, you do have to go thru the casino department for everything, including if you use EZAir. DW would be included.  I've always gotten Princess Plus included but you should ask.  I even got specialty dining on my newest offer.  

You have to pay a $200 pp deposit which you get back as OBC.  You also pay port fees and taxes.  You can also upgrade your room, they can tell you how much it would be when you call.  All money is due at time of booking.  I've got 3 booked right now, great deals.  

[cltnccruisers]

2 minutes ago, suekel said:

Yep, sounds like you got a free cruise.  Yes, you do have to go thru the casino department for everything, including if you use EZAir. DW would be included.  I've always gotten Princess Plus included but you should ask.  I even got specialty dining on my newest offer.  

You have to pay a $200 pp deposit which you get back as OBC.  You also pay port fees and taxes.  You can also upgrade your room, they can tell you how much it would be when you call.  All money is due at time of booking.  I've got 3 booked right now, great deals.  

Great answer!

[roxievegas]

same answer as "suekel"

 

they will be a code on the offer, or when the casino department looks at your offer, there may be certain cruises that you are available to go on.  Not all cruises are allowed.

the offer is for you, but hubby gets a "free" trip to.

 

you will have to pay upfront at the time of the booking the port taxes for both and if you take the vacation protection plan.  The princess plus may or may not be included.  The $200 deposit each is also paid up front, so your cost to book may run you $600 - $800 total depending on the cruise you pick.

 

We have five cruises booked this year with casino offers.  If your free cabin is an "inside" you can pay extra to upgrade to oceanview or balcony.  We have offers for inside and upgraded to balcony and we had balcony and took that.  We also book our airfare with Princess and that has to be paid at the time of booking.   If you make any changes to your trip you must go through the casino department.

[Rebels82]

With casino offers, can you upgrade to a suite? Thanks.

[azbirdmom]

50 minutes ago, roxievegas said:

If your free cabin is an "inside" you can pay extra to upgrade to oceanview or balcony. 

You can also upgrade to a mini suite.

 

5 minutes ago, Rebels82 said:

With casino offers, can you upgrade to a suite? Thanks.

 

You can.  However, based on my past experience asking for full suite quotes on two different itineraries, booking the cruise with my CASINO discount yielded a fare lower than the buy up they quoted for the upgrade to a full suite.  I have found the upgrade quotes for inside to all other categories to be much lower than the difference in price between inside and the higher category.

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

Does the comp include Princess Plus

 

If it doesn't include Princess Plus, you can add it for $40 per person per day.

[cltnccruisers]

Got hold of the Casino Dept and confirmed it includes us both and is Princess Plus.  We'll definitely upgrade and may give EZ Air a shot since I'm getting sick of the drive down I-95.  We can't do anything right now, though.  The agent said the promotions are not yet available.  Sounded like they get linked to our CC#s and that can take up to 14 days.

[suekel]

45 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

Got hold of the Casino Dept and confirmed it includes us both and is Princess Plus.  We'll definitely upgrade and may give EZ Air a shot since I'm getting sick of the drive down I-95.  We can't do anything right now, though.  The agent said the promotions are not yet available.  Sounded like they get linked to our CC#s and that can take up to 14 days.

I was told by the casino department that new offers are dropping on the 17th.  2 days!

[memoak]

1 hour ago, Rebels82 said:

With casino offers, can you upgrade to a suite? Thanks.

Yes but the cost might be pretty high. We had a free balcony for our cruise on April 30 and upgraded to a club class mini for a very decent price but the full suite upgrade was going to be way higher so we passed on the full suite

[roxievegas]

If you want to figure out what the cost to upgrade your cabin, I have found this

 

inside cabin on their website is listed at  $599

oceanview cabin is $699

balcony cabin is $899

 

you are offered an inside and want to go to balcony your cost would be $300.  I found that it is the difference between the $599 and $899, not doubled for pp but just the $300

 

We paid $245 to go from oceanview to balcony on our cruise in April - ship has no oceanview, so we would have had to taken an inside for free or pay to upgrade to balcony.

[WAvoyager]

I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t use the standard fares to calculate the cost of an upgrade.  The Casino group has certain types of cabins (and probably a set number of each type) available to them for each sailing.   Certain upgrades within their allocated cabins are fairly inexpensive if I remember correctly.  I think we paid $100-$150 to go from inside to Balcony at one point.  But cabins which are not part of the available categories, or which they have fewer available are really expensive.  We had the same experience as memoak- club class mini upgrade was a bargain, suite upgrade wasn’t a “sponsored” upgrade, so it was really expensive.  We receive a lot of offers, some inside, and others balcony with Plus, so I just ignore the non-balcony offers now.

 

one note for EZ Air - lots of people have reported problems with casino comped reservations being canceled when making adjustments to the EZ Air portion of their reservation.  Be sure to read up on those issues.

Edited March 15, 2022 by WAvoyager

[cltnccruisers]

Has anyone used EZ Air in conjunction with a Casino offer?  I'm getting really tired of the I-95 drive.

[Caribensun]

Casino offer; I just booked 2 days ago and was told I only get $100.00 back onboard of the $200.00 and it’s reflected as such on my booking.  
HAL gives back the $200.00 deposit onboard.

Sandipalms

[azbirdmom]

2 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

Has anyone used EZ Air in conjunction with a Casino offer?  I'm getting really tired of the I-95 drive.

 

Yes.  You need to make the reservation through the casino department AND need to pay for it right away.  If you go through the main Princess number or are somehow allowed to do it yourself, you run the risk of triggering a cancellation of the cruise due to the system treating the lack of the casinos payment for their part of the cruise as non payment.  I've been there, not pretty.

[cltnccruisers]

4 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

Yes.  You need to make the reservation through the casino department AND need to pay for it right away.  If you go through the main Princess number or are somehow allowed to do it yourself, you run the risk of triggering a cancellation of the cruise due to the system treating the lack of the casinos payment for their part of the cruise as non payment.  I've been there, not pretty.

Well that's interesting - and a tad scary.  Did you find the EZ Air rates to be competitive? 

 

[suekel]

9 minutes ago, Sandipalms said:

Casino offer; I just booked 2 days ago and was told I only get $100.00 back onboard of the $200.00 and it’s reflected as such on my booking.  
HAL gives back the $200.00 deposit onboard.

Sandipalms

Really...I just booked a freebie to Alaska and we get $200 pp.  Sucks if it is changing  

[suekel]

3 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

Well that's interesting - and a tad scary.  Did you find the EZ Air rates to be competitive? 

 

Lately for domestic flights, I've been finding it cheaper to book directly with the airline.  I'll book an international in May and compare those prices then.  

[azbirdmom]

2 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

Well that's interesting - and a tad scary.  Did you find the EZ Air rates to be competitive? 

 

 

I have in the past, especially for international flights.  Not so much lately and something seems to be broken with EZAir right now as it doesn't seem to be reacting to schedule changes which it used to do quickly.  If you do find a deal with EZAir, I'd recommend that you model out the flights that you want (search the cruise and use the option to check flights there).  That way you'll know the price and can tell the Princess rep the flights that will work best for you.

[cltnccruisers]

4 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

I have in the past, especially for international flights.  Not so much lately and something seems to be broken with EZAir right now as it doesn't seem to be reacting to schedule changes which it used to do quickly.  If you do find a deal with EZAir, I'd recommend that you model out the flights that you want (search the cruise and use the option to check flights there).  That way you'll know the price and can tell the Princess rep the flights that will work best for you.

Wife has been poking around for flight info for a cruise we have set for Oct.  We'll probably cancel that one for this so she'll just shift gears.  I do like the idea on one stop shopping, though.

[cltnccruisers]

When I first tried contacting the casino dept for this yesterday I got disconnected twice.  So I emailed the  department at casinoinquiry@princesscruises.com.  I wasn't expecting a response but darned if I didn't get one a few minutes ago.  Included was a direct phone# and the best hours to get someone.  😀

[azbirdmom]

55 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

When I first tried contacting the casino dept for this yesterday I got disconnected twice.  So I emailed the  department at casinoinquiry@princesscruises.com.  I wasn't expecting a response but darned if I didn't get one a few minutes ago.  Included was a direct phone# and the best hours to get someone.  😀

If you happen to talk to Eva, I would love a direct way to get through to her as she is fantastic. We had to cancel a previously booked comp cruise with upsell. We did that on February 11. Called 2 weeks ago to ask the status of the refund and the rep could not have been less helpful. I called last Friday, one month after cancelling, and Eva answered. She made some calls and promised that it would be processed that day. And she was right - the credit appeared on our account today with a transaction date of last Friday. It’s so nice when you reach someone who truly knows the meaning of good customer service. 

[Caribensun]

I get $100 and my cabin mate gets $100.

[cmp702]

How do you get casino offers?  

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

Don't worry, if your play warrants it?  They will find you...😉