casino comps dissapointment

[Elaine5715]

38 minutes ago, StephPS79 said:

 

Repeated experience shows this to be false.

Your evidence?  Offers are generated by data mining.  That is why a first timer could get a more robust offer than a Plat card.  Sources like zip code, credit cards, credit cards attached to sail and sign, business owners, elite status in hotel/airlines/rental cars/land casinos all mean more than what points were collected on your sail and sign.  How you settle your sail and sign holds more information about your untapped resources than points from your last cruise.  Onboard points count towards onboard comps and one bounceback offer.  However, please rack up 20,000 casino points to prove me wrong.  I got Carnival stock.  

[Colorado Beach Bum]

2 hours ago, Buckeye_Siggy said:

Bingo.     This is why i 'bribe' the pit bosses with cans of soda, energy drinks, and coconut waters.

 

I only play blackjack and always try to sit at either first or third base.  So that enables me to be able to chat with the casino bosses who watch the tables/dealers.   They are the ones who rate your play in the computer.  I like to find out what kind of drinks they like and order them with my 'drinks on us, anywhere; offer that i have/  Anytime a waiter comes by asking for drinks, i try and add a Celcius or Monster or whatever they pit boss likes.  it is basically free to me and it makes their day.  they typically have to buy these things - they dont get for free -  so i am doing them a favor. 

 

i know for a fact this has gotten my rated for much higher play than i am doing.  

Bribery, I like it.  I’m sure it does help. The tables are a little more sophisticated than before and the dealers control recording your bets on their little machine.  When I play multiple spots on BJ I see the dealer put that in.  When I pull back to one I see them change.  

[Colorado Beach Bum]

2 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Your evidence?  Offers are generated by data mining.  That is why a first timer could get a more robust offer than a Plat card.  Sources like zip code, credit cards, credit cards attached to sail and sign, business owners, elite status in hotel/airlines/rental cars/land casinos all mean more than what points were collected on your sail and sign.  How you settle your sail and sign holds more information about your untapped resources than points from your last cruise.  Onboard points count towards onboard comps and one bounceback offer.  However, please rack up 20,000 casino points to prove me wrong.  I got Carnival stock.  

Probably impossible to prove you wrong but as we accumulated more points on a cruise our offers have improved greatly.  We’ve gone from free insides with drinks in the casino to free suites with drinks everywhere.  This is with no change to all the other data points you mention.  Bounce back offers are never as good as ongoing offers. 

[StephPS79]

2 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Your evidence?  

 

16 minutes ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

as we accumulated more points on a cruise our offers have improved greatly.  We’ve gone from free insides with drinks in the casino to free suites with drinks everywhere.  This is with no change to all the other data points you mention.  

 

That's the evidence.

[evandbob]

We play slots on whatever ship we sail,usually to the tune of 2,000 - 2,500 points each per 7 day sailing.

 

During the pandemic, we received and accepted offers for free balcony rooms on 12 different Celebrity week long sailings, including 5 on their newest ships.

 

Our offers on Carnival, which we declined, were for ocean view or inside cabins for 4 or 5 day sailings.

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

Probably impossible to prove you wrong but as we accumulated more points on a cruise our offers have improved greatly.  We’ve gone from free insides with drinks in the casino to free suites with drinks everywhere.  This is with no change to all the other data points you mention.  Bounce back offers are never as good as ongoing offers. 

There is always change in the data world.  The bots dig deeper, the casino weighs data differently, your status in the data changes, simply changing which payment method used or adding a membership could change how the marketing sees you.  There are1000s of microdots that create what/who Carnival targets.  

[Elaine5715]

1 hour ago, StephPS79 said:

 

 

That's the evidence.

No, it isn't.

[grimpil]

@Elaine5715 do you think increasing your credit limit on your credit card would be an influencing factor?

[AllenF]

Not that I am a big gambler but if I were I would be in Vegas. To me gambling in a carnival casino is like buying your groceries at a 7/11.

[Elaine5715]

14 minutes ago, grimpil said:

@Elaine5715 do you think increasing your credit limit on your credit card would be an influencing factor?

If it is a Carnival credit card, most likely.  Using a high limit business card is also catnip to the marketing bots.  If they know you have access to $100,000 credit, they are hoping you will use it vs someone with a $5000 limit.  Requesting an onboard credit line and using it also gets their attention.  Casinos aren't that fond of guests who follow a budget with a hard stop when they reach their daily limit.  

[StephPS79]

12 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

There is always change in the data world.  The bots dig deeper, the casino weighs data differently, your status in the data changes, simply changing which payment method used or adding a membership could change how the marketing sees you.  There are1000s of microdots that create what/who Carnival targets.  

 

All of this MAY be true, but continually saying onboard points don't impact offers when people have repeated "evidence" that it does is simply ignoring facts to make your statement right.

 

PS. I have a Carnival Card with a high limit, while my wife does not, and she gets a lot better offers than me because she bets bigger, gets more points than I do, and blows through more money than I do.  And before you again repeat that there are other factors, which I don't disagree with, this was reversed when she wasn't play much.  Once she got more onboard points, she got better offers.  This was in the course of about 6 months, so unless we had some major life changes in that small period of time (we didn't), the onboard points were the driving data point.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

43 minutes ago, AllenF said:

Not that I am a big gambler but if I were I would be in Vegas. To me gambling in a carnival casino is like buying your groceries at a 7/11.

 

Unless you're gambling on Freemont Street and not the strip.  😄 

 

I've seen some strange s&*t on Freemont Street. Twice was enough, lol.

 

Tom

[StephPS79]

46 minutes ago, AllenF said:

Not that I am a big gambler but if I were I would be in Vegas. To me gambling in a carnival casino is like buying your groceries at a 7/11.

 

Vegas doesn't have a cruise ship.

[Elaine5715]

4 minutes ago, StephPS79 said:

 

All of this MAY be true, but continually saying onboard points don't impact offers when people have repeated "evidence" that it does is simply ignoring facts to make your statement right.

 

PS. I have a Carnival Card with a high limit, while my wife does not, and she gets a lot better offers than me because she bets bigger, gets more points than I do, and blows through more money than I do.  And before you again repeat that there are other factors, which I don't disagree with, this was reversed when she wasn't play much.  Once she got more onboard points, she got better offers.  This was in the course of about 6 months, so unless we had some major life changes in that small period of time (we didn't), the onboard points were the driving data point.

You and your wife are interchangable in many data points.  You want black/white, it doesn't work that want.  The fact that how the bots have you identified and you get offers that you book, is proof it works. Some not so obvious but frequently overlooked data points is Amazon shopping habits, membership at Sam's/Costco/BJ/AARP/alumni/clubs/professional organizations-they all sell data.      

[Elaine5715]

7 minutes ago, StephPS79 said:

 

Vegas doesn't have a cruise ship.

Yet... could be the next casino concept.

[VentureMan_2000]

I've always been curious... and wondered is someone would answer honestly if I asked,

How much money do you gamers lose gambling in order to get a free cruise ?  Said another way, a balcony stateroom is about $3000... and I'm assuming that casinos are not staying open because they are giving money away... would, on average, you lose $3k - $5 during the cruise duration ?

[UGACamper]

23 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

I've always been curious... and wondered is someone would answer honestly if I asked,

How much money do you gamers lose gambling in order to get a free cruise ?  Said another way, a balcony stateroom is about $3000... and I'm assuming that casinos are not staying open because they are giving money away... would, on average, you lose $3k - $5 during the cruise duration ?

We lost $4k our last trip. Received 4 Elite Balcony offers. 

 

Gambling is one of our main sources of entertainment on a cruise.  A typical non-cruise beach vacation would cost us that for a week with other entertainment, meals, lodging, etc. That will continue to be "our number" for our upcoming "free" cruises. YMMV, to each their own, blah blah blah.

[VentureMan_2000]

1 minute ago, UGACamper said:

We lost $4k our last trip. Received 4 Elite Balcony offers. 

 

Gambling is one of our main sources of entertainment on a cruise.  A typical non-cruise beach vacation would cost us that for a week with other entertainment, meals, lodging, etc. That will continue to be "our number" for our upcoming "free" cruises. YMMV, to each their own, blah blah blah.

Thanks for the answer.  I suspected that it's a break-even scenario, or nearly so, and you get 7 nights of entertainment.  Good deal.

I'm a penny slots kind of guy, so I had no idea how this all worked.

[StephPS79]

39 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

I've always been curious... and wondered is someone would answer honestly if I asked,

How much money do you gamers lose gambling in order to get a free cruise ?  Said another way, a balcony stateroom is about $3000... and I'm assuming that casinos are not staying open because they are giving money away... would, on average, you lose $3k - $5 during the cruise duration ?

 

I'd be on the streets if I lost that kind of money!  I range from about $500-$1500 on amount I'm willing to lose.  Mostly interior/OV offers for me.  Keep in mind, you get multiple offers and can often book up to 3 cruises off each offer.  Since we can't cruise more than 3 times a year, and often only able to book 2 per year, we probably do a little better than break even.  But if we had availability to book as much as we could (and some people do), we'd definitely be far ahead.

[Buckeye_Siggy]

34 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

've always been curious... and wondered is someone would answer honestly if I asked,

How much money do you gamers lose gambling in order to get a free cruise ?  Said another way, a balcony stateroom is about $3000... and I'm assuming that casinos are not staying open because they are giving money away... would, on average, you lose $3k - $5 during the cruise duration ?

Total loss really has nothing to do with getting cruise offers.   It honestly has to do with average bet and time spent playing.  I have never been a slot player, so i have little experience with how that stuff is accumulated.  So, everything in this post will be about table play and specifically blackjack.

I had a casino host in Vegas tell me about 20 years ago that the key to getting comped free rooms was playing 4 hours a day and betting at least $25 a hand.  He said if you did this at any casino in the world, you would get rated high enough to be able to get a room for any length of time required and have some meals comped.  To this day, this has not been proven wrong to me.   If you get comped for 5 nights, they expect at least 4 hours of game play every day you have been comped.

 

Getting a free cruise is the same as getting free rooms at a land based casino.  they dont care if you win or lose - just the amount of time spent and the average hand amount bet.    Someone who walks in to the casino (for the first time) on the last night, plops $2000 on a hand of blackjack, loses, and leaves the casino will not get comped and have nearly the points as someone who has spent 20 hours on the cruise at $25 a hand and is total down $300 for the trip.  

 

 

 

[Buckeye_Siggy]

15 hours ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

Bribery, I like it.  I’m sure it does help. The tables are a little more sophisticated than before and the dealers control recording your bets on their little machine.  When I play multiple spots on BJ I see the dealer put that in.  When I pull back to one I see them change.  

I have spent too many hours sitting at 3rd base watching the dealers and their little machine. This includes the renovated casinos and newer ships. All the dealer enters in there is the amount of the buy-ins and what player is sitting/playing at each seat number.  They do not enter or have anything to do with the amount played per hand.   If you play two hands, they click a button telling their system that X is now playing seat 4 and 5.  If you drop a hand, they now click a button saying X is only playing seat 5. Playing multiple hands DOES help you rack up the points faster. Some dealers will just leave you playing 2 hands even if you drop - so that is another way to help build your comps faster.  keep playing on and off two hands until you notice that when you are playing 1 hand, you are still being credited for two hands. this is a huge life hack i have found over my time in the casino. 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

4 minutes ago, Buckeye_Siggy said:

I have spent too many hours sitting at 3rd base watching the dealers and their little machine. This includes the renovated casinos and newer ships. All the dealer enters in there is the amount of the buy-ins and what player is sitting/playing at each seat number.  They do not enter or have anything to do with the amount played per hand.   If you play two hands, they click a button telling their system that X is now playing seat 4 and 5.  If you drop a hand, they now click a button saying X is only playing seat 5. Playing multiple hands DOES help you rack up the points faster. Some dealers will just leave you playing 2 hands even if you drop - so that is another way to help build your comps faster.  keep playing on and off two hands until you notice that when you are playing 1 hand, you are still being credited for two hands. this is a huge life hack i have found over my time in the casino. 

 

I play 3rd as well - and noticed last weekend that when I dropped back to 1 hand, they didn't enter that info (that's where tipping and being friendly might help). However, that was just a few hands here/there over 3 days. I did see $100 display on the screen right after I bought in an pushed out two bets at $50 each. That caught my attention, as I don't recall seeing that in the past. Having said that, nothing was entered following that point when I would increase or decrease my bets.

 

Tom

[wemjam]

So another stupid question here.  Is it all about points then really?

 

So what I am getting at is, if I am not a huge player, am I better off saving all my play for a longer cruise and spreading it over a 7 day cruise and skipping playing on my 3 dayers?

 

Unless I plan on dropping a crap ton of money each day and/or on each play on a 3 dayer (which I don't play that way) it is going to take a lot more to rack up the points versus playing the long game on a weeks cruise.

 

Like I said I got the bottom of the barrel cruise offers now and was quite surprised at that as I don't think I had 400 points total when I got off the cruise and started getting them. 

[Elaine5715]

8 minutes ago, wemjam said:

So another stupid question here.  Is it all about points then really?

 

So what I am getting at is, if I am not a huge player, am I better off saving all my play for a longer cruise and spreading it over a 7 day cruise and skipping playing on my 3 dayers?

 

Unless I plan on dropping a crap ton of money each day and/or on each play on a 3 dayer (which I don't play that way) it is going to take a lot more to rack up the points versus playing the long game on a weeks cruise.

 

Like I said I got the bottom of the barrel cruise offers now and was quite surprised at that as I don't think I had 400 points total when I got off the cruise and started getting them. 

For offers, it doesn't matter.  For onboard comps, it matters.  Not that chasing comps is smart but the casino and stockholders like it.  Practically speaking, later in the cruise it would be difficult to get steakhouse reservations if you get it comped.  Unlike Las Vegas, the casino hosts can't make reservations appear.  Some hosts are using "predicted play" to award comps early in the cruise.  The offers you got afterwards weren't based on your points.  If there are alot of big players onboard, you want to scoop in before them on the host's radar.  

[Colorado Beach Bum]

1 hour ago, Elaine5715 said:

For offers, it doesn't matter.  For onboard comps, it matters.  Not that chasing comps is smart but the casino and stockholders like it.  Practically speaking, later in the cruise it would be difficult to get steakhouse reservations if you get it comped.  Unlike Las Vegas, the casino hosts can't make reservations appear.  Some hosts are using "predicted play" to award comps early in the cruise.  The offers you got afterwards weren't based on your points.  If there are alot of big players onboard, you want to scoop in before them on the host's radar.  

I don’t doubt that ongoing offers are based on some algorithm of various data points.  But to completely dismiss that points earned on previous cruises have no impact on future offers is not true.  We and many others on here have stated many times that the more points we earn the better the offers.  That can’t be dismissed just like I can’t dismiss that other data points go into the equation.