kwokpot

Welcome. As experienced I thought we were with Celebrity casino comps I too learned something new about the program.

We would have done that in the past if we were given the opportunity. Now we know! We're doing Apex to Iceland in July comped.

Don't you remember it's in one of the production shows? It's either Arte or Elements but they use the same black and white sculptural birds which are separated as prop pieces.

We will do that on the Solstice next week. This might be something else that we've been missing!

I know Royal's Casino Royale does, but I'm wondering why my husband never received a free cruise certificate onboard from Celebrity? Additionally, as I alluded to, my husband always makes himself known to the Celebrity casino hosts. Why haven't they automatically sent a bottle of wine or an automatic offer of a specialty dinner? Carnival does that without fail on every cruise we're on. On our last Virgin we had to tell the Sommeliers of each restaurant we didn't need another complimentary bottle of wine from the casino (my husband doesn't drink, just me). They literally told us just to order a bottle and give it away to someone since the casino is offering it to you. But on Celebrity, even the nicer hosts never did anything unsolicited.

Nope, we have never received anything like that. On Royal and Carnival, yes, but never on Celebrity.

This is an example of how annoying Blue Chip Club is. We've been sailing on BCC comped cruises since before the pandemic and on Celebrity never received any onboard card to book a free cruise. He does get all the emails and paper mailings from BCC and that's how we book our Celebrity comped cruises. In fact we booked the Inaugural sailing in Dec. 2018 of the Edge based on a last minute BCC email that came less than two weeks before the cruise date! In fact we had to apply for downlining to disembark the cruise early since we had other Christmas plans but we wanted to be on the inaugural cruise of this new ship. Edit: This BCC email came December 10,2018 for a December 16 inaugural Edge sailing. we were so happy we were able to make it and it was free!

This goes back to our experience where each of Celebrity's casino hosts are so entirely different. Carnival has the best onboard casino hosts. Their program is great with future cruise offers EXCEPT they don't publish player level tiers, so you don't know what your rating is nor can you play to attain a certain tier level that has outlined benefits. You know what they are offering you by going into your online account and seeing the casino offers they give you. Based on the freeplay amount, comped cabin level, and types of comped cruises with varying levels of benefits is the only way you can estimate what level you're at with Carnival's Casino program.

Were you already an established BCC club member? I wonder if that's how they do it for new BCC members are players that don't have any tier status but earned enough points on that cruise for a free cruise.

Did you ask the casino host if they could have taken any onboard charges off your onboard account? if you don't ask you don't get.

I know exactly what I'm talking about. There are 3 ways of earning rewards for gambling. The 1st is the guaranteed Freeplay that is given with each tier level. The 2nd is the Freeplay earned on your cruise based on your play that's shown on the slot machine screens along with your tier points earned. The 3rd is what the casino host calculates on the last day of the cruise which they can use to offset onboard charges. On our last Celebrity cruise, the 10/26 Beyond sailing, my husband received $855 Freeplay, which is is more than the guaranteed $500 Sapphire tier level Freeplay because of his gambling on the previous Celebrity cruise. On this cruise he earned 52,235 points. Auto freeplay earned that was shown on the slot machine was $203. On the last day of the cruise the casino host was able to wipeout onboard charges of $230. The host, Renee, who is a very nice woman, already told my husband that when we sail next week on the Solstice he will receive $750 tier level Freeplay, which means he earned more than the Sapphire tier min of $500 Freeplay for his play on the Beyond.

No, that's something entirely different. I know what I'm taking about and not sure why you're doubting what I'm saying. If you're a gambler and don't know about onboard accrued comps then you're missing out.

That's highly unusual for BCC. My husband has been with BCC for years and has NEVER received any kind of onboard offer for a free cruise on a Celebrity ship. That's not how they do things. Also maybe you didn't explain it thoroughly but I'm not understanding what exactly was the offer on the card? Your statement is a bit contradictory and maybe for brevity sake you omitted some details. Can you explain further? Did you meant to imply the card said you had a comped cruise offer and you went down to the Next cruise office and got a quote on a specific cruise you wanted to go on and it was a good discount but not fully comped?

It's something else. On Celebrity you earn onboard comps that must be used by the end of the cruise. There's no way of knowing how much you've earned unless you speak to the casino host on the LAST day of your cruise. They will tell you how much accrued comps you have earned which can be used to offset onboard charges from the spa, specialty restaurants, bar bill (not gratuities),excursions, gift shop purchases. The reason we wait until we know what the amount is before buying anything is we want the lowest bill possible, so we wait until we know what amount we can spend. Of course if I want to go to the spa for a treatment or we do want to go to a specialty restaurant we'll just put it on our account and let the casino host offset it.

That's what we sailed on. The host is Dex. He's very nice. Are you on a comped cruise? Or an casino invited guest cruise?

Which ship?

My husband is the gambler so that's his call. I'm just here for whatever bennies he gives me, lol. I have asked if he want to go to a specialty restaurant but we're both fine with the included restaurants. I think the main issue is the payback on cruiseship slots verses land-based casinos. We actually wear all the clothes we get and use the mugs every day. Our last cruise was on Virgin and on an 8 night cruise he won over 14 jackpots and we had $700 worth of onboard spend. I had spa charges wiped and we bought over $600 worth of stuff. The Virgin host comped a bottle of wine every night, bottles that were $60-$100 each.

No it was the Nov. 21st sailing. It was very obvious, you couldn't have missed it.

I'm not understanding your hostility towards my post. The thread is about Celebrity casino hosts and I'm adding real information that's germane to the conversation. On Celebrity the onboard casino host doesn't issue cruise certificates like their sister line Royal. Nor do they handout specialty restaurant meals like Carnival hosts do. What they can do is wipe off onboard charges on the last cruise day based on your play. The free cruise decisions are made at the home office. My husband is Sapphire.

I don't mean to sound elitist but some people have a hard time with making the simplest travel plans. We have a 30 day TP on Carnival this fall from Seattle to Brisbane. I'm on various Fb groups for the cruise. There's this one person who insisted that the disembarkation date Carnival provided is incorrect. They are even on a B2B with the following cruise and they think it's all wrong. When I tried to reason with them their response is you know it's the next day in Brisbane right now, don't you? So I asked what's that have to do with our cruise in September? Someone else replied, ALL Dates listed are in local time. They responded to that with a thank you. Which implies this person thought that the disembarkation date Carnival provided was in Seattle time, and Australia is a day ahead so the disembarkation date has to be a day later. But why would you EVER think that?

My husband always tries to engender a good relationship with each host. With our cruising style we don't have onboard charges of any substance so on the last day of each cruise he makes sure to meet up with the host to figure out how much onboard comps he earned so we can go to the gift shops and spend up to what the host will absorb. He has had a host complain to him that they don't like this whole onboard comp rebate and wished they didn't have to do it. That's your job! We now have whole set of Edge, Apex, and Beyond matching coffee mugs in addition to logo and non casual clothing of every type; hoodies, long sleeve pullovers, gymwear, polo shirts.

The E-Class ships no longer have a fixed early or late seating. (Previously there would be a card in the room telling you which dining room to go to, and that's where you would go every night). It's all anytime dining. So what you reserved when you booked your cruise no longer exists. All you do is go to any one of the four dining rooms when you want to eat, and if there's space available, they will seat you, otherwise you'll get a buzzer and have a small wait. Any of the dining room hosts can check if there's immediate availability in the other dining rooms if the one you're at isn't available for immediate seating. Eden has three components to it. There's a restaurant on the lowest level that serves only dinner. Reservations are need for the restaurant. Then it's the main space that includes a bar, a performance space, and a spiraling ramp that leads to the upper levels and the enormous aft panoramic windows. Off the ramp are numerous seating areas. Some are facing the aft window and some are private nooks and crannies. The third component is a separate cafe that's off to the left on the main level. It's a complementary venue that serves breakfast and lunch with limited hours. It's a limited service place, no reservations needed.

You have plenty of time for hotel bookings. You can't book your stays now for 2024.

Our July 7th Apex cruise is now RT Rotterdam vs Amsterdam. We had booked three nights pre-cruise stay at the Hyatt Amsterdam but now we changed things around. Two nights at the Doubletree Amsterdam Central Station and third night at the Holiday Inn Express Rotterdam. The hotels were chosen for their accessibility to public transportation. On return we are actually taking the train to Paris and the switch to Rotterdam actually shortens our train ride to Paris so we're all fine with the Port change. Oh and all hotel stays are on points, so now actual cash being used for hotels!

Exactly. Whatsmore, the specialty dishes can be ordered in any of the other MDRs.