Please be honest about your casino offers. I am curious.

[VermeulT]

On 4/27/2022 at 2:56 PM, albingirl said:

Thank you for that....I am in total agreement 100%. The muliple threads are bad enough, but getting onboard and hearing people at the bar crow about it is as low as it gets. I mean there are worse things, but that's a stinger.

Does it also bother you that people get free upgrades to big suites when the pay for something much less?  or really cheap upsells?  That's even a bigger mystery as it doesn't seem to coincide with your mariner status or previous cruise history.

Airfare is prices vary too. Some people pay nickles compared to others for the same plane ride.

 

Some people luck out and get good deals.  Good for them.  I hope karma sends me a token of goodness now and again.  But if not, I'll enjoy taking a trip for the price I was willing enough to pay to book it.

[albingirl]

1 hour ago, VermeulT said:

Does it also bother you that people get free upgrades to big suites when the pay for something much less?  or really cheap upsells?  That's even a bigger mystery as it doesn't seem to coincide with your mariner status or previous cruise history.

Airfare is prices vary too. Some people pay nickles compared to others for the same plane ride.

 

Some people luck out and get good deals.  Good for them.  I hope karma sends me a token of goodness now and again.  But if not, I'll enjoy taking a trip for the price I was willing enough to pay to book it.

The problem, as I see it, is that people misunderstand me.  You can quote all the Buddha quotes you want, talk to me about envy and all that, but I can guarantee you that is not the case.  I'm happy for people who get upsells, believe me.  I simply think that people need not brag about their "freebies" as though they were touched by some kind of fairy dust.  I don't like being reminded that people are receving free cruises while I spend plenty. You know I live in the Great State of Florida.  There is a beach at my doorstep and incredible ocean outside my window.  There is absolutely no jealousy in one bone in my body.

[BermudaBound2014]

2 hours ago, RynoWally said:

 

Paul, have you been on Celebrity? If so what are your thoughts?

 

....since we are drinking perhaps you should know that I prefer Celebrity if the itineraries are equal  🙂 🙂 🙂 

Edited April 28, 2022 by BermudaBound2014

[BermudaBound2014]

2 hours ago, kangforpres said:

...... I think all lines are eager to fill up ships as much as possible this Summer Season.

 

-Paul

 

Bingo. Cruise lines have themselves in a financial pickle. Since investors pay special attention to forward looking statements when they evaluate a company, CCL needs the next financial release to show positive growth in bookings. Those of us who follow CC know that cruising is not rebounding anywhere near what Arnold Donald would have us believe. Outside of a few spring break cruises and an easter cruise, future bookings look dismal from where I'm sitting. If bookings were strong, the casino and last minute sales would dry up. Simple economics. 

[Laminator]

9 minutes ago, albingirl said:

The problem, as I see it, is that people misunderstand me.  You can quote all the Buddha quotes you want, talk to me about envy and all that, but I can guarantee you that is not the case.  I'm happy for people who get upsells, believe me.  I simply think that people need not brag about their "freebies" as though they were touched by some kind of fairy dust.  I don't like being reminded that people are receving free cruises while I spend plenty. You know I live in the Great State of Florida.  There is a beach at my doorstep and incredible ocean outside my window.  There is absolutely no jealousy in one bone in my body.

Pax getting free cruises from the casino should be happy. I am sure they are excited. My feeling is good for them. And as I said earlier it is NOT HAL giving them the free cruise. Carnival Casino division pays HAL. 

[albingirl]

1 minute ago, Laminator said:

Pax getting free cruises from the casino should be happy. I am sure they are excited. My feeling is good for them. And as I said earlier it is NOT HAL giving them the free cruise. Carnival Casino division pays HAL. 

Ok, thanks for the clarification.  Of course they are happy.  Nobody ever said they weren't happy.  Carnival owns HAL though so it's quite muddy from my viewpoint.

[BermudaBound2014]

1 hour ago, VermeulT said:

Does it also bother you that people get free upgrades to big suites when the pay for something much less?  or really cheap upsells?  That's even a bigger mystery as it doesn't seem to coincide with your mariner status or previous cruise history.

 

The free upgrades to big suites is somewhat of a mystery, but the really cheap upsells follow a consistent pattern. As you stated, upsells do not coincide with mariner status or previous cruise history. They don't even coincide with how much was initially spent, nor the category booked. Upsells go to the highest bidder, period. 

 

Person A pays $5,000 for a balcony and bids $200 for an upgrade to a suite.

Person B pays $1,000 for an inside, but bids $250 for the upgrade to a suite.

The upgrade will go to person B because in terms of accounting the initial payment is already in the books. The cruise lines are looking to increase their bottom line and in this case, person B wins the game ;).

 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by BermudaBound2014

[albingirl]

This is a policy decision by Carnival Corp.   Carnival owns Holland America.  Rather than reward loyal customers, they have chosen to reach out in a different direction, toward gamblers. Business models would show that.  New cruisers, new gamblers, the demographics are getting old anyway.  It costs more to get new customers than to retain old ones.  It's a new direction, and I doubt the end of the pandemic will change things that much.  Younger people are gravitating to RCL and Celebrity and so on.  

[Florida_gal_50]

23 minutes ago, albingirl said:

The problem, as I see it, is that people misunderstand me.  You can quote all the Buddha quotes you want, talk to me about envy and all that, but I can guarantee you that is not the case.  I'm happy for people who get upsells, believe me.  I simply think that people need not brag about their "freebies" as though they were touched by some kind of fairy dust.  I don't like being reminded that people are receving free cruises while I spend plenty. You know I live in the Great State of Florida.  There is a beach at my doorstep and incredible ocean outside my window.  There is absolutely no jealousy in one bone in my body.

That's it in a nutshell.  It's a very easy concept, or at least it should be.  It never occurred to me for a second to go over to the  princess board and go on at nauseum about my cheap deal.

[Laminator]

2 minutes ago, albingirl said:

Ok, thanks for the clarification.  Of course they are happy.  Nobody ever said they weren't happy.  Carnival owns HAL though so it's quite muddy from my viewpoint.

Carnival Casino division runs the casinos on all Carnival owned entities. I think my first HAL cruise was in 2005. It actually was a free cruise offer from the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas. It was for a free veranda. HAL's head casino host was on the cruise. She was not able to market to me as I was part of the Riviera group. After a few days she slipped me some information on the sly. I have been traveling with HAL ever since. I am pretty close to 5 star and have only paid for an upgrade for an SC to an SB aft wrap. Back in the day the aft wraps were SC cabins so I didn't pay anything other than port fees and taxes. The casino has been giving out free cabins for 17 years that I know of. Their offers now are more constant but they have been doing this for years. It's possible that with less people on the ship you are running into more pax on casino deals. 

[albingirl]

Just now, Florida_gal_50 said:

That's it in a nutshell.  It's a very easy concept, or at least it should be.  It never occurred to me for a second to go over to the  princess board and go on at nauseum about my cheap deal.

Thank you for that.  

[BermudaBound2014]

8 minutes ago, Laminator said:

Carnival Casino division runs the casinos on all Carnival owned entities. I think my first HAL cruise was in 2005. It actually was a free cruise offer from the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas. It was for a free veranda. HAL's head casino host was on the cruise. She was not able to market to me as I was part of the Riviera group. After a few days she slipped me some information on the sly. I have been traveling with HAL ever since. I am pretty close to 5 star and have only paid for an upgrade for an SC to an SB aft wrap. Back in the day the aft wraps were SC cabins so I didn't pay anything other than port fees and taxes. The casino has been giving out free cabins for 17 years that I know of. Their offers now are more constant but they have been doing this for years. It's possible that with less people on the ship you are running into more pax on casino deals. 

 

Yes, absolutely, cruises have been offering these deals for decades. It's nothing new. 

 

I would add that perhaps with less demand for cruising, there are more casino deals being offered to fill ships, therefore more people are talking about them. 

 

Have you seen CCL stock lately? This company NEEDS bodies on ships to manipulate the forward looking statements at the next quarterly. And it's not just CCL. It's all three of the big gals. 

Edited April 28, 2022 by BermudaBound2014

[Laminator]

7 minutes ago, albingirl said:

This is a policy decision by Carnival Corp.   Carnival owns Holland America.  Rather than reward loyal customers, they have chosen to reach out in a different direction, toward gamblers. Business models would show that.  New cruisers, new gamblers, the demographics are getting old anyway.  It costs more to get new customers than to retain old ones.  It's a new direction, and I doubt the end of the pandemic will change things that much.  Younger people are gravitating to RCL and Celebrity and so on.  

I can assure you once their pax account returns to an acceptable percentage you will see these casino offers dwindle rapidly. But as stated by a poster above they are not even close to their numbers. I am guessing with HAL's older demographic their pax are more concerned with the coronavirus than a younger demographic such as what Carnival has. It will be harder for HAL to recover. They are doing what they can to get pax onboard. 

[kangforpres]

39 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

....since we are drinking perhaps you should know that I prefer Celebrity if the itineraries are equal  🙂 🙂 🙂 

Our very first cruise was on X a 3 day out of Seattle to see if we liked it. We did, and then booked our first real Alaska cruise on HAL and loved the service, food and atmosphere.  Been on 1 Princess, 1 Cunard, 1 RCI. I get casino offers from Carnival although I have never sailed on  them.

-P.

[RynoWally]

37 minutes ago, albingirl said:

The problem, as I see it, is that people misunderstand me.  You can quote all the Buddha quotes you want, talk to me about envy and all that, but I can guarantee you that is not the case.  I'm happy for people who get upsells, believe me.  I simply think that people need not brag about their "freebies" as though they were touched by some kind of fairy dust.  I don't like being reminded that people are receving free cruises while I spend plenty. You know I live in the Great State of Florida.  There is a beach at my doorstep and incredible ocean outside my window.  There is absolutely no jealousy in one bone in my body.

Are you serious right now? I feel like I have entered into the Bizarro World, what kind of person starts a thread asking people to be honest about their casino offers and then goes on to say in the same thread that "they don't like being reminded that people are receiving free cruises"?

YOU STARTED THIS THREAD

I am speechless, I am without out speech.....

[BermudaBound2014]

1 minute ago, kangforpres said:

. I get casino offers from Carnival although I have never sailed on  them.

-P.

 

Based on some of the responses in this thread there is going to be very unhappy people when word of this atrocity gets out 🙂

[USN59-79]

I look at Cruise Critic as a means to share information about cruising.  I learn something most every time I log on.  I knew that some people were offered upsells before they boarded, but I didn't know that you could bid on them like an auction.  I think it is interesting that some could get a free stateroom if they spent a certain amount in the casino and this thread clarified that.  I have always known that some people are offended to find out that someone got or qualified for a much better deal than they did and come on this forum to put down the person who mentioned it.  I assume it is jealousy, or maybe something else.

[kangforpres]

5 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Based on some of the responses in this thread there is going to be very unhappy people when word of this atrocity gets out 🙂

Carnival sent me an email "Paul do you have status at MGM or Caesar's? If so send us a picture of your players cards and we will start sending you cruise offers" I did and they did. They now sail out my home port SF but haven't pulled the trigger yet on one of their "free cruises"

[albingirl]

2 minutes ago, RynoWally said:

Are you serious right now? I feel like I have entered into the Bizarro World, what kind of person starts a thread asking people to be honest about their casino offers and then goes on to say in the same thread that "they don't like being reminded that people are receiving free cruises"?

YOU STARTED THIS THREAD

I am speechless, I am without out speech.....

It would be nice if 4 and 5* people got these offers.  Of course they don't want to be reminded that they have paid thousands of dollars per cruise, while Carnival Corp. is just giving it away to gamblers.  I was hoping for some insight. In my world, I pay alot and others do not.  So, just checking to see what's the deal. It's pretty simple.

[Cuttersmom]

Good grief! Ocean Players Club operates all the casinos for Carnival Corporation ships. It is run as a separate entity from the cruise lines themselves. When someone gets a “free” casino offer, 1) it’s not free - there’s still taxes and port charges that have to be paid,  plus a booking fee, all in advance and non-refundable plus gratuities plus what one spends during the trip which most likely surpasses what a non-gambler spends and 2) the Ocean Players Club pays to HAL a set amount per booking, I’m sure it varies but my last booking was like $600 from the casino so my offer may include a free inside cabin but since I prefer verandah’s I would pay the going rate less $600. All OPC ships send out these offers, I think I have 12 right now from Carnival to use. 
 

I’m not a gambler at home but do know throwing in a couple hundred on the ship will get me something for my money even if I don’t win, and while I can afford to pay for a cruise, why would I scoff at something offered for free, or begrudge anyone else getting something for free (which again it isn’t really free). In fact for our next booking 1 person is using her free cabin offer, and the other 3 are paying casino rate because with our come back and play offer with casino cash, it works out cheaper to pay full price. 
 

 

[kangforpres]

4 and 5 star's do get private sale offers which are heavily discounted from what the public would have to pay.

 

[Vict0riann]

1 minute ago, kangforpres said:

4 and 5 star's do get private sale offers which are heavily discounted from what the public would have to pay.

 

 

Do they?

[oakridger]

@kangforpres

I haven't gotten a heavily discounted offer yet!  Not even a moderately discounted offer!

😏

Edited April 28, 2022 by oakridger

[DaveOKC]

2 minutes ago, kangforpres said:

4 and 5 star's do get private sale offers which are heavily discounted from what the public would have to pay.

 

I would not say that they are HEAVILY discounted.  They are discounted, but the amount varies.  Plus you have to consider all the perks you make or may not get with the Private Sale.

[BermudaBound2014]

44 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

I would not say that they are HEAVILY discounted.  They are discounted, but the amount varies.  Plus you have to consider all the perks you make or may not get with the Private Sale.

 

I would agree with this, and almost always a 'regular' cruiser can beat those offers with a bit of patience and the right TA.