How many casino points earn a free cruise?

[KKB]

Just curious…we have racked up more points in 2 days on Discovery than 2 weeks on CB.

Wont “gamble to earn a cruise”, but will gamble so curious!!

thanks!

[Mike45LC]

I don't think any of us know!  This is probably a closely held secret.

[pathi]

Remember if you do get the free cruise offer it is good for up to 3 sailings. We plan to book a B2B when we get our next offer.

[SomewhereGirl]

I haven't cruised on Princess that much but I recently received one of their casino free cruise offers.  It was specifically Royal Princess out of San Francisco on 4 select dates.  Are free offers always that specific as to port, ship, and date?

 

I don't know what could've triggered the offer.  I had sailed in April and probably didn't earn even 1000 points.  I received the offer a week before boarding another ship booked with a casino discount and free play offer.

[Jadn13]

It’s a mystery, no one really knows. 

[KarmaCruisers]

On a recent 3-day carnival I earned like 3500 points (all slots) and got a free balcony bounce-back.

$17,500 coin-in with a 10% house edge…$1750 expected loss for a balcony cabin for two..not a bad deal at that rate.

[DallasGuy75219]

6 hours ago, SomewhereGirl said:

Are free offers always that specific as to port, ship, and date?

 

I don't know what could've triggered the offer.  I had sailed in April and probably didn't earn even 1000 points.  I received the offer a week before boarding another ship booked with a casino discount and free play offer.

No, some are a selection of ports/ships/dates and others are just about any sailing up to a certain number of days.

 

Since your previous gambling (< 1,000 pts) was on the light side you may have only qualified for the most restrictive of offers. 

 

But back to the original question, they don't publish thresholds to get free cruise offers. They'd rather keep you guessing and erring on the side of gambling more to try to qualify for free cruises, if earning comps incentivizes you.

[Vexorg]

I have no idea what triggers this, I think I gambled something like $20 on my last cruise and got a discounted casino cruise offer at some point.  Couldn't take it though, timing didn't work out.

[DallasGuy75219]

4 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

On a recent 3-day carnival I earned like 3500 points (all slots) and got a free balcony bounce-back.

$17,500 coin-in with a 10% house edge…$1750 expected loss for a balcony cabin for two..not a bad deal at that rate.

Carnival is $2.50 coin in per point on slots, so $8,750 coin in.  But that's still a decent chunk of change for a 3 day Carnival cruise so a balcony bounceback sounds about right.

[Jadn13]

All lines are different so you can’t apply the rules for one brand to another, not even Carnival, Princess and Holland. 

[karatemom2]

My DH plays craps so not as easily tracked as slots, but they pay close attention and log his chip buys and playing time at the table. He generally gets to know the casino host each trip and we usually net some perks during the cruise like free dinners in the specialty restaurants, treats delivered to our stateroom and champagne. He generally leaves with an offer for an upcoming trip or the come randomly when we get home. There doesn’t seem to be any formula, although I’m sure on the casino end they have some kind of basic criteria. If you play the table games just make sure they are tracking your dollars and time. 

[cruzin4us]

Pre covid it seemed like it took much more play to get a free cruise.   Post covid, I've been getting offers about every 2 weeks, and the seem to be better offers (and I gamble less).    

I used to get an offer for a balcony and maybe $500 in Freeplay.   Now I'm getting mini suites, $1000 in Freeplay and Princess Plus.

On our last 10 day cruise I reached a little over 20,000 pts and was offered a free massage, got a bottle of wine, chocolate covered strawberries (was also offered a free specialty dining for 2 but they were sold out).    Pre covid I know I reached 30,000+ on a cruise (it's dangerous when I go with my BFF) 🙂.   

Also pre covid, a lot of Vegas and Indian casinos were giving away free cruises based on your amount of play.   I received cruises on Norwegian, Holland America and Princess. 

 

[KarmaCruisers]

10 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Carnival is $2.50 coin in per point on slots, so $8,750 coin in.  But that's still a decent chunk of change for a 3 day Carnival cruise so a balcony bounceback sounds about right.

Sorry I meant machines (all video poker)

less theo though ; you’re right (3% vs. 10%)

Edited September 21, 2022 by KarmaCruisers

[Wildcatllamas]

Having worked in the gaming industry for 23 years I am always amazed at what people consider "free". On one cruise (different cruise line) a person was all excited because they had gotten their "free" drink card for use in the casino. It took 1500 slot points. On that line it was $6 a point, coin in. 

 

If you like to gamble then enjoy the perks. If you are just doing it to get something "free" weigh your options. There is nothing "free" in the casino industry.

[c-boy]

1 hour ago, Wildcatllamas said:

Having worked in the gaming industry for 23 years I am always amazed at what people consider "free". On one cruise (different cruise line) a person was all excited because they had gotten their "free" drink card for use in the casino. It took 1500 slot points. On that line it was $6 a point, coin in. 

 

If you like to gamble then enjoy the perks. If you are just doing it to get something "free" weigh your options. There is nothing "free" in the casino industry.

that's the reason my wife and I use the verbiage " we received a generous offer" 

[CineGraphic]

I think it depends on how badly they need to fill the ships.

[gerig]

On 9/21/2022 at 10:30 AM, cruzin4us said:

Pre covid it seemed like it took much more play to get a free cruise.   Post covid, I've been getting offers about every 2 weeks, and the seem to be better offers (and I gamble less).    

I used to get an offer for a balcony and maybe $500 in Freeplay.   Now I'm getting mini suites, $1000 in Freeplay and Princess Plus.

On our last 10 day cruise I reached a little over 20,000 pts and was offered a free massage, got a bottle of wine, chocolate covered strawberries (was also offered a free specialty dining for 2 but they were sold out).    Pre covid I know I reached 30,000+ on a cruise (it's dangerous when I go with my BFF) 🙂.   

Also pre covid, a lot of Vegas and Indian casinos were giving away free cruises based on your amount of play.   I received cruises on Norwegian, Holland America and Princess. 

 

On my last 7 day cruise i had 17K (16985 points) received strawberries and both my husband and I has a pedicure but didn't receive a come back offer on the last night so I wrote global casino to inquire and they informed me I qualified for a 12 day cruise in a mini suite with princess plus plus $900 free play.

 

[gerig]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

I think it depends on how badly they need to fill the ships.

I think that definitely has something to do with it

[eclue]

On 9/20/2022 at 4:03 PM, pathi said:

Remember if you do get the free cruise offer it is good for up to 3 sailings. We plan to book a B2B when we get our next offer.

The free cruise offer is different from the one you receive from the points in the casino which is good for only one sailing and almost always accompanied by freeplay, drinks, wifi and gratuities.

[Petersonfcu]

On 9/20/2022 at 5:28 PM, KarmaCruisers said:

On a recent 3-day carnival I earned like 3500 points (all slots) and got a free balcony bounce-back.

$17,500 coin-in with a 10% house edge…$1750 expected loss for a balcony cabin for two..not a bad deal at that rate.

Where does the 10%  house edge figure come from?  Is that percentage an educated guess based on your personal experience, or is it based on something that Princess or another cruise-related entity publishes?  Just curious.

[DallasGuy75219]

12 minutes ago, Petersonfcu said:

Where does the 10%  house edge figure come from?  Is that percentage an educated guess based on your personal experience, or is it based on something that Princess or another cruise-related entity publishes?  Just curious.

Has to be a guess. Cruiseline casinos are not regulated like US casinos where the state may require them to disclose or report their payback percentage.

[KarmaCruisers]

4 hours ago, Petersonfcu said:

Where does the 10%  house edge figure come from?  Is that percentage an educated guess based on your personal experience, or is it based on something that Princess or another cruise-related entity publishes?  Just curious.

The manufactures of the slot games or video poker 

the video poker machines aren’t THAT bad (I think around 6-7% house edge).

The manufacturer for the slots, either make them in Class II or Class III (either “bingo” or “Vegas” style)

the slots on the cruise ships are definitely Class III, so I have no reason to not believe they are in the 10-15% house edge zone.

[Mike45LC]

1 hour ago, KarmaCruisers said:

The manufactures of the slot games or video poker 

the video poker machines aren’t THAT bad (I think around 6-7% house edge).

The manufacturer for the slots, either make them in Class II or Class III (either “bingo” or “Vegas” style)

the slots on the cruise ships are definitely Class III, so I have no reason to not believe they are in the 10-15% house edge zone.

The individual machine is set to a “house edge” specified by the casino.  In Nevada, the numbers are reported to the Nevada Gaming Commission and are public info.  In Vegas, the casinos tend to set the payback at 90 to 95%.
 

The cruise ships tend to set the payback at 75 - 85%.  This is hearsay, not personal knowledge.

 

[DallasGuy75219]

1 hour ago, KarmaCruisers said:

The manufactures of the slot games or video poker 

the video poker machines aren’t THAT bad (I think around 6-7% house edge).

The manufacturer for the slots, either make them in Class II or Class III (either “bingo” or “Vegas” style)

the slots on the cruise ships are definitely Class III, so I have no reason to not believe they are in the 10-15% house edge zone.

I have a single data point from Royal Caribbean.  I had cashed out with a ticket but other machines and the cage wouldn't recognize the ticket number and amount as valid. So the slot attendant had to run some kind of history on the machine to see that my ticket number and amount were valid and had actually been issued by the machine.  While watching the machine as he fixed it, I saw the machine had actually paid out about 85%.

[Wildcatllamas]

6 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

The individual machine is set to a “house edge” specified by the casino.  In Nevada, the numbers are reported to the Nevada Gaming Commission and are public info.  In Vegas, the casinos tend to set the payback at 90 to 95%.
 

The cruise ships tend to set the payback at 75 - 85%.  This is hearsay, not personal knowledge.

 

Here in Colorado we also have state set "house edge". In many instances the payback will differ based on machine denomination. Those that offer multiple denomination play will have payback based on the selected denomination. So many folks don't realize that on most penny machines with multi-line pay it will have a max bet that is the same or close to a dollar machine. Difference is the dollar machine will usually have a higher payback then the penny. Key word is usually.