Free Casino Offer and Upgrade Bid

[SwimCarrie]

Last question of the day...

Has anyone who had a free cruise from the casino "won" an upgrade bid? Was it in a good location? Please share where from and where to. Right now I'm trying to go from a midship inside to a balcony. Not sure what the odds are if I turn my "free" cruise into a not as free cruise. 

Thanks!

[negn]

Check first to see the cost to upgrade to balcony.   Often cheaper then budding

[SwimCarrie]

3 minutes ago, negn said:

Check first to see the cost to upgrade to balcony.   Often cheaper then budding

It's actually $1600! Guess I didn't gamble enough. Lol. 

[startedwithamouse]

28 minutes ago, SwimCarrie said:

Last question of the day...

Has anyone who had a free cruise from the casino "won" an upgrade bid? Was it in a good location? Please share where from and where to. Right now I'm trying to go from a midship inside to a balcony. Not sure what the odds are if I turn my "free" cruise into a not as free cruise. 

Thanks!

 

This appears to be the third time you've asked about an upgrade location.  Here's what I posted on your other post:

 

You're rolling the dice.

 

We don't bid - we book guarantee and always end up with an A or B placement. 

 

Be prepared to have a great location or a not so great location.  You need to be happy with anywhere - will you be happy with deck chair movement at all hours?  Only you can answer that.

[SwimCarrie]

1 minute ago, startedwithamouse said:

 

This appears to be the third time you've asked about an upgrade location.  Here's what I posted on your other post:

 

You're rolling the dice.

 

We don't bid - we book guarantee and always end up with an A or B placement. 

 

Be prepared to have a great location or a not so great location.  You need to be happy with anywhere - will you be happy with deck chair movement at all hours?  Only you can answer that.

Sorry, just trying to get a different perspective on a casino offer since I forgot to mention it. 😁 I can delete the others, if necessary? That's why I said "last question". Lol. 

[memoak]

We always just pay the difference from the free cabin to the category we want and pay the difference. That way we can pick the cabin we want

[azbirdmom]

We had a free inside that we paid to upgrade to a mini suite at the time of booking for a cruise last December.  We got the invitation to bid on an upgrade right after Princess started that program and 8 days prior to embarkation we learned that they accepted our bid for a Penthouse suite.  Since they weren't shown as aft, we knew it would be one of the ones on either side of the Suite Concierge lounge.  So yes, you can win a bid when you book a comped casino cruise.

[Nelsj099]

I got a comped balcony and I bid to upgrade to a mini-suite but I don't think it will be accepted. It is still 20 days out, last time I bid it was accepted about 3 days prior to sailing. 

[roxievegas]

3 hours ago, SwimCarrie said:

Sorry, just trying to get a different perspective on a casino offer since I forgot to mention it. 😁 I can delete the others, if necessary? That's why I said "last question". Lol. 

we had free balcony on casino offer, upgraded to Deluxe Balcony for $80 total

july we ar eon a casino VIP offer free balcony have a bid for a mini suite for $300 total - wont hear back until closer to sailing

[WAvoyager]

7 hours ago, SwimCarrie said:

It's actually $1600! Guess I didn't gamble enough. Lol. 

That seems unusually high. Did you contact the casino support team, or did you just call the standard reservations line?

The casino team usually has upgrades available at a casino discount.  These upgrades are usually up to a balcony mini-suite category.    I’ve never upgraded from inside cabins, but oceanview to balcony, or balcony to mini-suite is usually only a few hundred dollars, we’ll below the regular upgrade rate.

 

[Traveler1977]

Not being a big gambler, I was wondering…. how much does one need to gamble in the ship’s casino on a cruise (or multiple cruises) to qualify for a free casino cruise?

 

I BET from my question you could tell I’m not a big gambler. 

[SwimCarrie]

4 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

That seems unusually high. Did you contact the casino support team, or did you just call the standard reservations line?

The casino team usually has upgrades available at a casino discount.  These upgrades are usually up to a balcony mini-suite category.    I’ve never upgraded from inside cabins, but oceanview to balcony, or balcony to mini-suite is usually only a few hundred dollars, we’ll below the regular upgrade rate.

 

I called the casino line and they confirmed it. I didn't gamble very much, though, so I guess the free cabin was generous enough. 

[SwimCarrie]

4 hours ago, Traveler1977 said:

Not being a big gambler, I was wondering…. how much does one need to gamble in the ship’s casino on a cruise (or multiple cruises) to qualify for a free casino cruise?

 

I BET from my question you could tell I’m not a big gambler. 

I'm elite and never gambled on a cruise (aside from one time on a 10 day to Alaska where I lost more than I had any business losing---hence no longer gambling), but started again during the pandemic (6 cruises so far). As stated above, I don't think I gambled enough to get anything more than my free inside cabin and am lucky I got that. 

[roxievegas]

You can get various answers to how much you have to gamble.

 

One, not how much you gamble - it is how many points do you earn during the course of the cruise.

 

My husband and I both play slots, we have a budget for the trip and we try to play some each day.

If the cruise is a Saturday to Saturday, the casino will give you a "come back and play" card on Friday morning given to the steward to leave in your room.  this card will be based on the number of points you earned on the cruise.  Our last cruise we both had over 4,000 points, and both received a card with a "free inside cabin, $150 free play and free wifi, drinks and gratuities (it is not worded "plus package")

I have read from others that over 5,000 will get you a free balcony.  My husband last year mainly gets offers for the free balcony and we booked 7 cruises getting the free balcony, but now all the offers are for free inside and then we would have to pay to upgrade.

We currently have one cruise booked for the future - for end of July.  This cruise is with a free Balcony, no free wifi, drinks or gratuities, but we are getting $1,000 free play between us.  You do not earn points playing with the free play money.

[memoak]

7 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

That seems unusually high. Did you contact the casino support team, or did you just call the standard reservations line?

The casino team usually has upgrades available at a casino discount.  These upgrades are usually up to a balcony mini-suite category.    I’ve never upgraded from inside cabins, but oceanview to balcony, or balcony to mini-suite is usually only a few hundred dollars, we’ll below the regular upgrade rate.

 

You can pay for an upgrade to any category you want we cruise 3-6 times a year with either free balconies or insides and have always been able to upgrade to a full suite

[azbirdmom]

4 hours ago, SwimCarrie said:

I called the casino line and they confirmed it. I didn't gamble very much, though, so I guess the free cabin was generous enough. 

 

You can check it by logging into princess.com then searching for your cruise and doing a mock booking.  You should see $0 for inside and then the amounts that you would pay per person for categories above that.  If you see the same amount as they quoted you then it could be that the casino space for the higher categories is sold out and when that happens the amount shown is the undiscounted fare.  That will happen on more popular cruises.

[WAvoyager]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

You can pay for an upgrade to any category you want we cruise 3-6 times a year with either free balconies or insides and have always been able to upgrade to a full suite

Yes, you can.

 

I was speaking specifically to the discounted upgrades that are available.  Some upgrades (to full suite for instance) may be at full upgrade price, while others will be much less than the actual upgrade price.

 

When we’ve inquired about upgrades there is usually a range of cabin categories where the upgrade is 30-50% of the full upgrade value, and other categories (full suite for instance) where the upgrade cost is exactly the difference between the categories - no discount.

 

We get about 10 offers per year, anlways free balconies now, and (due to time constraints) cruise on 2-3 offers per year. It’s been the same experience on every cruise for us.  But everyone’s mileage may vary.

 

Were your upgrades done at the full cost for upgrading between your comped category and the suite category, or was is discounted?

Edited May 13, 2023 by WAvoyager

[WAvoyager]

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

 

You can check it by logging into princess.com then searching for your cruise and doing a mock booking.  You should see $0 for inside and then the amounts that you would pay per person for categories above that.  If you see the same amount as they quoted you then it could be that the casino space for the higher categories is sold out and when that happens the amount shown is the undiscounted fare.  That will happen on more popular cruises.

Ah - good point!  I forgot that the casino team probably has a limited number of cabins available, so it also depends on how many they’ve used on a particular cruise.

[azbirdmom]

37 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

Ah - good point!  I forgot that the casino team probably has a limited number of cabins available, so it also depends on how many they’ve used on a particular cruise.

 

Yes.  For some cruises you can actually get a significantly discounted upcharge for a full suite, we're taking one of those in December.  But for most I cruises I don't see any discount for a full suite, and I can tell not only because of the higher cost, but also on the payment screen there's no $200 nonrefundable casino deposit displayed.

[Shippy]

18 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

We had a free inside that we paid to upgrade to a mini suite at the time of booking for a cruise last December.  We got the invitation to bid on an upgrade right after Princess started that program and 8 days prior to embarkation we learned that they accepted our bid for a Penthouse suite.  Since they weren't shown as aft, we knew it would be one of the ones on either side of the Suite Concierge lounge.  So yes, you can win a bid when you book a comped casino cruise.

We had a balcony room offer & upgrade to a mini at time of booking. Do not remember how much but it was very reasonable.

Got the the bid offer. Did minimum for a Penthouse & won. Cabin right outside the suite lounge door....fabulous !

[cltnccruisers]

DW and I both get Casino comps.  She get an inside and I get a balcony.  Naturally, we take my balcony.  We have upgraded to a minisuite in the past and it was pretty reasonable.

 

I noticed the other day that when we check for cruises under my ID it comes up like this:

 

 

So we'll just continue on without having to call anyone.  Also, just playing around a bit, I found that this also will work with TAs.  At least under the current promotion.  If they offer the same promotion for 2025 we'll definitely go for a Moroccan Passage from Rome to Ft Lauderdale.  Fingers crossed.

 

[memoak]

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

DW and I both get Casino comps.  She get an inside and I get a balcony.  Naturally, we take my balcony.  We have upgraded to a minisuite in the past and it was pretty reasonable.

 

I noticed the other day that when we check for cruises under my ID it comes up like this:

 

 

So we'll just continue on without having to call anyone.  Also, just playing around a bit, I found that this also will work with TAs.  At least under the current promotion.  If they offer the same promotion for 2025 we'll definitely go for a Moroccan Passage from Rome to Ft Lauderdale.  Fingers crossed.

 

Just make sure the cruise is under 21 days. Anything 21 days or over won’t work 

[cltnccruisers]

1 minute ago, memoak said:

Just make sure the cruise is under 21 days. Anything 21 days or over won’t work 

Yep.  That's very clear in the promotion mailer as are the booking and sailing dates.  This was the first time we saw the Players Club tag and the $0 for eligible cruises.  Really like that.

[memoak]

We do everything through our CVP. The reason we upgrade rather than bid is because we can get any suite for the same price from Vista to owners suite. Since we like aft suites we can pick and choose

[cltnccruisers]

4 minutes ago, memoak said:

We do everything through our CVP. The reason we upgrade rather than bid is because we can get any suite for the same price from Vista to owners suite. Since we like aft suites we can pick and choose

We found our CVP during the recovery from COVID.  We had to reschedule a family cruise 3 times including adding and removing people, upgrading cabins and assigning FCC properly.  I've been in IT since 1979 and don't think I ever could have managed this without her.

 

We'll likely go to her when we book this, but I like to have all my ducks in a row and quacking in three part harmony first. 😀