kwokpot

We are currently on the Ovation of the Seas in Junior suite (Royal's version of a Sky Suite) on a 9 day repositioning from Hawaii to Vancouver. This was a fully comped cruise via Royal's casino program,which Celebrity has recently adopted. We are having an enjoyable time and have been having dinner in Royal's suites only restaurant. We had $1,500 Freeplay with this sailing and was able to cash out $1,877 from the Freeplay!

The way gamblers look at cruise casino complementaries is that the time and amount spent in a cruiseship casino would be the same with or without the cruise being comped. So why not accept a free cruise and use the funds that would have gone to pay for the cabin to play in the cruiseship casino? Tbh that's the general 'expectation' for all gamblers towards complementaries from a casino. I come play and spend my money in your casino so even though I'm enjoying myself I still EXPECT you to give me freebies in exchange for my business.

https://urcomped.com/blog/details/3452347/celebritys-blue-chip-club-announces-onboard-certificate-program

You need to earn 25,000 points to get a certificate for a sky suite on SELECTED SAILINGS. It's from a list of preselected sailings and must be booked onboard using the next cruise program in conjunction with the earned cruise certificate. Consulting my gambler husband you would need to be putting through an average of $10-$15,000 of your own money to generate that amount of points.

BCC definitely offers a free suite based on accumulating enough points. What she didn't tell you is she spent THOUSANDS of dollars to obtain that. This issue comes up with every cruiseline regarding getting free cruises from the casino department and let me assure you,she didn't spend $500 to get that offer. Probably 10x that. Edit. How much you LOSE isn't what determines what kinds of condos you get,at least with Celebrity. It's how much money you're plowing through the casino.

I'm currently on the Ovation of the Seas heading to Vancouver from Kona for disembarkation on 5/9 when earlier today we were notified that a medical emergency warrants us to detour ASAP to near the coast of San Francisco tomorrow around 4pm for medical evacuation. The captain also stated at present we don't know how this will affect Thursday mornings disembarkation in Vancouver.

Thank you for the amazing volume of photos. You literally captured every inch of the ship! One clarification. Is the sauna in your photos single sex in the respective spa locker rooms? Or were they co-ed in a spot accessable to both men and women? It's not exactly clear in your photos. Thanks!

Thanks. There a smoking section and non smoking section. The non smoking section wasn't too bad.

Tbh the Oasis class is unique in cruiseship design and there's very few other cruiseline ships that can compare. Having said that the adults only Serenity area is really nice as is the various complementary eateries scattered around the ship,mostly open for lunch. The pizza on the MG is far superior to Sorrentos along with Guys Burgers. You will have a great time on the MG, but realize you just can't compete with what the Oasis class of ships offer. From Central Park, aquatheater, ice skating rink, rising tides bar, a Fitness center over 2x the size than the MG, etc there's really no comparison.

The slot machines on the Ovation haven't been updated since the ship debuted back in 2016, so they are all old machines. Having said that although there weren't many of our favorite machines we enjoyed playing the ones went on and out of $1,500 Freeplay we cashed out $1,877!!!. My husband vowed not to step into the casino again so he can bring that all home. I made sure I played all his Freeplay with him since I would hit 'cashout' after every bonus win or after every $20 or so of accumulated winnings.

We were already challenged by the IRS and it reviewed our methodology of sessions and did not ask for a further audit. (It was actually out 2020 taxes and the challenge letter was in 2022,so it took two years for them to question us). In that tax return the 2020 W2-Gs totaled 6 figures but using detailed records we brought it down to 4 figures in which we had to pay taxes. They agreed with our methodology,which we have been using for over 10 years. We and our accountant are fine with how we account for W2-Gs and are not recommending anyone do what we do, but just discussing what works for us. https://www.legacytaxresolutionservices.com/blog/what-is-a-gambling-session/904126

That's incorrect. The IRS had no definition on what constitutes a gambling session. It isn't spelled out Anywhere.

The IRS left to interpretation what constitutes a gambling session. As long as one keeps accurate records and is consistent within a tax year you can define a gambling session any way you want to. The way my husband defines a session is the time period he's on the casino floor at one time playing slots. He uses his mobile phone to take notes. Then he transcribes these cellphone notes into written notes that's forwarded to our accountant. My husband has been generating W2-Gs in the 6 figures range for over 10 years. We have always written off losses against the W2-G reported earnings so that we don't pay taxes on the full W2-G winnings. Our 2022 taxes were questioned by the IRS with regards to not paying the full taxes on the reported W2-G winnings. We countered that the IRS didn't look at the submitted worksheet which detailed how we arrived at the lower winnings figure to which we had to pay taxes on. After several months the IRS agreed with the calculations we submitted and no further review/audit was necessary. This confirmed that our methodology for calculating gambling sessions and loss offsets was,at least in this instance,OK in the eyes of the IRS. We are under no illusion that the IRS won't again question the gambling calculations, and we are ready for additional inquires if it occurs. For 2023 the W2-Gs were again in the 6 figures amount and the same loss offsets were used to pay taxes on less than the reported W2-G winnings.

Truth be told I would have preferred our ship,the Ovation, had stopped in Hilo vs the Na'pali Coast sail by we had which was also a substitute for the Lahaina port stop. A Hilo port stop in addition to a Kona stop allows one to visit the most important Big Island attraction on the Big Island, Volcanos National Park. The Chain of Craters Road down to the end of the Big Island remains one of the most memorable things to see in all of Hawaii.

I'll let you know in a few days. Being in Hawaiian waters the casino wasn't open on any day until last night after departing Kona. We didn't go since we have 5 sea days until Vancouver. But we have $1,500 Freeplay to play through, so we do have some work to do to keep as much if it and hopefully exceed that amount!