BINGO on Carnival

When we sailed on the Conquest in 2003 you could purchase a bingo card at the beginning of the cruise that was good for the whole length of the trip. Does anyone know if Carnival is still doing this? Also, I read somewhere (possibly in another post) that when you board the ship you can go to the Casino and get a free lanyard for your S&S card. Is this true? That would be nice!! 1 more thing, when we were on Princess we were able to go to the pursers desk and get free deck of cards. Is this true of all cruise lines? Thanks for any and all tips!!

Kim

Question 1 - NO

Question 2 - YES

Question 3 - YES

When we said on the Carnival Legend last month that sure wasn't true about the bingo cards. Everytime you play bingo, you have to buy a card. A triple card was $20. I forget what a single card was. You could either pay cash or put it on your S&S card.

patty

We took my mom on a crusie last summer and I had thought that Mom might enjoy playing bingo as she used to play at the church before it was outlawed by the state of Tn. Since they have a casino for people who want to donate big money to Carnival, I figured it would be a couple of dollars and they would give out little prizes, like caps or tote bags...

However, playing bingo on the Sensation was fairly expensive.

Too rich for our blood.

I tend to think of money in terms of shoes.

I was thinking that bingo would cost in the flip-flops range and instead it was in the Nike/Reeboks range.

Single cards were $10 and a 3 pack was $20. However, you can't split up the 3 pack to share with your group. You have to keep them all attached.

The thing I was the most disappointed with was that it was usually only one game for the price of the card! Toward the end of the cruise I think they had a day where they played several games with your one card but I only played bingo once because it was just too expensive for the fun I had in return. I played bingo hard-core back on Jubilee in 1994 so I missed it...

Sure looked like other people had fun playing though! :)

Back in the dark ages of Carnival cruising (namely, the 70's and 80's), bingo cards were 2.00 a piece, 3 for 5.00. Bingo lasted for almost a full hour with many, many games. It was a progressive bingo with money prizes. On the last day of the cruise, they played the normal games and then, the jackpot game which was a cover-all. All of the money that had been taken in during the week that had not been given out in cash prizes was put in this jackpot.

It was not unusual to have 2, 3, 4000.00 jackpots.

Now, that's bingo!!:D

Bingo has definitely gotten ridiculously expensive for the 15 minutes you play the game. On carnival, it also seemed that they would delay any other activity if it meant they could sell more bingo cards. We'd show up for the newlywed game, or evening entertainment and they would just start selling bingo cards when the entertainment was to begin. It was slightly annoying. I didn't win anyting on Carnival, but I did get a bingo on Princess last summer and actually won $125! WooHoo! One of the other folks traveling in our group on Princess last summer actually won the final prize of the week. A FREE CRUISE FOR TWO FOR A WEEK! Dang. I offered to trade prizes, but she wasn't interested. Bummer.

The ONLY thing I was disappointed in on my cruise (Ecstacy 05) was BINGO ... my DH and I paid $40 for two triple cards and BINGO was over in ten minutes. When we bought the cards we asked if they were reuseable and were told yes, but then after the game was won, and they werent playing another round - we kept them but later learned that we couldn't reuse them! I felt ripped off! Dont play the BINGO!

In the old days (7 years ago) on a cruise to Mexico on Royal Caribbean we played coverall on the last night of the cruise and my wife hit it for $8347.00 tax free cash. Now if you get $125.00 its considered a big deal. Things cost more and you get less. But I still love to cruise, and have a back to back on the Conquest in October. We'll still play a game or two of Bingo, its about the same odds as the casino, but I spend less on Bingo.

Back in the dark ages of Carnival cruising (namely, the 70's and 80's), bingo cards were 2.00 a piece, 3 for 5.00. Bingo lasted for almost a full hour with many, many games. It was a progressive bingo with money prizes. On the last day of the cruise, they played the normal games and then, the jackpot game which was a cover-all. All of the money that had been taken in during the week that had not been given out in cash prizes was put in this jackpot.

 

It was not unusual to have 2, 3, 4000.00 jackpots.

 

Now, that's bingo!!:D

Ah, I remember it well. Not necessarily on Carnival but all of the cruise lines I sailed with back in that period ran the BINGO more as passenger entertainment and not as a profit center.

Now that I will date myself-on the Carnivile in 1978 yes 1978 Bingo was very cheap. Yes it was more for the entertainment of the passenagers and the winnings were very high dollar. Everyone could not wait to play. We played in 2003 but when we went in 2004 we thought better and found other things to do. Carnival makes a bundle on this and gives back less then a fourth of what they take in. They should be ashame of them selves.

I won at bingo my very first carnival cruise and haven't won since

Now that I will date myself-on the Carnivile in 1978 yes 1978 Bingo was very cheap. Yes it was more for the entertainment of the passenagers and the winnings were very high dollar. Everyone could not wait to play. We played in 2003 but when we went in 2004 we thought better and found other things to do. Carnival makes a bundle on this and gives back less then a fourth of what they take in. They should be ashame of them selves.

Fer sure! I recall the room being absolutely packed - and if you were late, there was standing room only!...No children were allowed in either. They had waiters who would walk around and take drink orders. There were big money prizes... I don't recall any giving out of prizes for winners; it was all cash.....Oh, the good old days!:)

Bingo on Carnival in the 80's was cheap and a lot of fun , the way I remember jackpots may have been a couple of hundred bucks at best with a big game on last day .

Went on RCL in 02' it was $35 / pk , on the twice daily games , biggest jackpot still no more than a couple hundred, then on Sat all(??) accumalated $$ went into the big pot . Normally several thousand . Can't remember the exact amount since I did not win .:(

Was talking to some people yesterday about cruising and they feel Bingo should be banned or boycotted until Carnival takes it back to the way it should be. They just returned from the Glory and tried to play Bingo. She put her cards on her S&S while hubby paid cash. For some reason they were double charged because they saw 2 people standing there even though he paid cash. She said they tried to get this corrected on the spot but were told to take it up with the Purser Desk. When they went to the Purser Desk they were told that there were 2 sets of bingo cards sold to them. They agreed 2 were sold but one charged and one paid cash. SHe could not make them understand that. Someone took their cash and walked away they feel but you cannot get that thru to the Bingo people or the Purser people. They are thru with bingo and I do understand that.

I do agree with everyone, bingo has gotten expensive! But, for those of us who don't frequent the casino (don't know if the pay-offs are good there), it is kinda fun:) Just returned from a cruise on Carnival, and WON $1000. in bingo . . . . BIG surprise, I was there waiting for the drawing for the free cruise! But, hey, I just got lucky!