Paulras

Every casino I've been to on land requires your bet, not including the match play, to be at least the table minimum. Did you really think they're just giving you free money? They want you to play real money. 

Now there is such a thing as free play where they give you special chips that you bet like regular chips. But match play is just a match of your bet, not free play so your bet has to follow the rules of the table. 

Or "Celebrity IT department to blame as muster video in app inadvertently replaced with real James Bond movie" 

Can't wait to see the headlines, "Hundreds perish as passengers stare at their phones instead of abandoning ship" 

I thought all suites got an escort. I had an escort in a Sky Suite. And then again after reaching Sapphire in the casino even though we were in AQ. 

I would never walk around in a foreign country with that amount of money. But most cruise casinos allow you to transfer funds to the ship so you don't have to carry cash. Just have to call them to ask what the process is. 

1 hour ago, WonderMan3 said:

Are the Blue Chip discounts you are applying the incentives you earned from play on a prior cruise or the 20% discount on suites or both?

Discount based on my prior cruise. Last cruise they took off $270/day. Two cruises before that, they took off $90/day. Seems like they use multiples of $90 but for my relatively cheap Summit cruise this coming August, they told me my discount would be a weird number that was almost $200/day, $1350ish for a 7 nighter. They just couldn't apply it yet. They also told me what my rebate would be (well over the $500 since I lost alot last month, and well over the $1000 it would have been under the old program!). 

38 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

I thought that in order to get a discount through Blue Chip they had to take ownership of the booking? That's the case when I have initially booked a reservation onboard and then contacted Blue Chip to apply a casino discount. Blue Chip had to take over my reservation and it kicked out the onboard credit I got from booking onboard. Is that not the same with a TA booking?

I book either onboard which immediately gets transferred to my TA or directly with that TA. I get all the onboard perks and any that my TA gives. Then I call BC (6 months before) and they apply a discount to the booking but the booking stays with the TA. Happened that way for 4 cruises in the past 13 months. 

Prior to about 2 years ago, BC had to take the reservation but they can't anymore because of a contract with my TA. I belong to them

10 hours ago, Tyskie said:

One last question (I promise!):

To receive a casino perk, does it matter what tier level you are? 

 

One reason I ask is with NCL-CAS, even though we were not considered a "high roller", DH was able to get some very nice perks and free cruises.  I think we have this pretty much sorted out but the above question kept popping up.

 

Thank you all, especially Palras !

See the attached from their website. You really don't get much except a waiver of fee to take out money on your sign and sail card, until you get up to amethyst after 25,000 points. Then you get a bunch of perks

Blue-Chip-Club-Benefit-Chart (3).pdf

17 minutes ago, Tyskie said:

 

Thanks so much! 

 

I'm learning that they don't apply the discount/perks until 6mo before the cruise date. 

So, booking something for early 2020, can we find out the possible perks now?  or have to wait the 6mo.?

Oooooh, yeah, they won't apply it this early. But they did just tell me how much of a discount I'd get on my cruise that's 8 months away. Just couldn't apply it yet. They may not give you info yet on 2020 because the current casino program ends on 12/31/19. And as many of us found out in July, they could drastically change the benefits and comps for the next 18 month period starting in 2020. Doesn't hurt to call and ask. 

4 minutes ago, Tyskie said:

This is a very informative post for us as new cruisers to Celebrity. 

Question:  Our last cruise was booked with a TA.  We are looking to book another Equinox cruise and called the Blue Chip rep to see what comps would be available based on play in October.  We were told that since it was thru a TA legally they couldn't tell us.

 

So, do y'all book directly with Celebrity?,  this is where I'm confused.  Our TA said X doesn't have a casino rate.  Could someone please explain the process?  Thanks

Call them back at Blue Chip. I also go through a TA and they just told me last week what I earned for a comp and rebate from my recent cruise without the TA getting involved. I find that every Blue Chip rep gives you a different story (and numbers!) 

About a year ago, they refused to answer questions and apply comps to my reservations and said the TA needs to call them to get the discount applied. But that turned out to be disaster and mass confusion. I thought they did away with that process since the past 2 cruises, I booked through a TA and just called Blue Chip before final payment and they applied the discount to the reservation without the TA getting involved. 

Just call Blue Chip back and ask again. Just make sure it's a different rep who answers! Good luck! 

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Not sure which ship you are talking about but ALL M-Class and S-Class ships I have sailed on have a small area in the duty free liquor shop that sells toiletries and OTC meds that you might need.   I have on more than one occasion purchased nail clippers that I forgot to bring.    They also have Cold and Flu meds but sell out quickly if many start coming down with bugs. 

On Silhouette last month, they now have those items hidden away and you have to ask them. Not sure why but I walked those shops twice before asking. 

I'll interrupt this thread to complain that the speed should be much better for the ridiculous prices they charge. Sometimes you can barely open simple emails. 

What kind of gifts are given on Ultra cruises? Hopefully not a towel

2 hours ago, Fogfog said:

So I should be suspicious that we got email to "join" the Blue Chip Club?

A friend of mine got that too. Means nothing. You're automatically in it when you play and you don't get anything for it like you do for signing up at a land-based casino. Just a marketing ploy

1 hour ago, Canuker said:

Interesting that the credit deal was for slots only, not table games.
This means that the payout for the fruit machines has to be materialy less than 85% for the house to expect to make any money.
That margin is way way more than the house makes on table games. (e.g roulette is about 5%).
Could you use the credits on any machine or just on some?

I believe it worked on any machine. And yes, the house favor is huge on slots on ships. I thought around 80% payout is what I've read in the past. 

Interesting though that they had 2 single zero roulette tables. Usually at least 1 was open. That has great odds for the player. There was a double zero too. Not sure why anyone was playing that but they were. 

They did recently lower the odds on Blackjack by making all BJ tables under $25 pay 6 to 5 blackjacks. That was fleetwide. Very greedy. 

Just off silhouette last week. There were several days where you can buy slot credits with a bonus at the cashier. $575 for $500 plus (i think) 100 tier points. That's a better deal (15%). Was offered at least 2 or 3 days and can buy less at a smaller bonus. That certainly helps to bring the house odds closer to what they are at land-based casinos. 

I used it to play video poker and counted my spins to make sure I was playing the full $575. Cashed out just over $700. Nice profit for about 20 minutes of play. They got it back and alot more by the end of the cruise! 

5 hours ago, gmblr said:

FYI, Some elite cruises for April and May came online today.

Got those too today. Balcony plus $300. Bad timing again for me

Never been on a cruise where you turn in your card. You need it to scan when you leave the ship so they record you as leaving. But if you want a second one, go for it! 

Glad no one was negative about those of us who are Sapphire and Ruby in the casino program who also get Michael's Club 

Smocking

1 hour ago, gmblr said:

I’d guess no, but you could always ask guest services. Or, just take an elite cruise as it’s included.

The only Elite cruises I've been invited to were bad dates for me. Earlier this year they offered an Elite 19 day balcony from Singapore to Sydney on the Spirit plus $2500 for airfare but it was the same time as a Celebrity cruise I had booked. Pretty good deal if I could take it, especially considering I've only sailed Carnival in the past decade for one 5 day sailing in 2017 and a 4 day sailing in 2013.

I finally accepted their Ultra offer on Sunrise on June 24th for 8 days. Balcony plus $1000 casino cash. Timing worked and it leaves from NYC (I'm in NJ). Just need to figure out the drinks. 

Question to those who've been on an Ultra cruise. I know you get free drinks in the casino only. Has anyone gotten a discount to upgrade to the full Cheers beverage package? Drinks at the pool, dining room and other bars can quickly add up. 

18 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

This is what I figured would happen. We have a similar issue where we just got off of Edge and will earn some sort of incentive but our next cruise is on Summit only three weeks away. We would have to book a cruise before Summit and it would have to depart in the next 6 months (which is not possible for us to fit in) otherwise that incentive will vanish and be replaced by one based on our play on Summit when we finish that cruise. Now that might be okay because our Summit Cruise is 5 days longer than our Edge Cruise was and we will likely get a higher incentive. I want to call them and lay all this out. They should give you an option to turn your incentive into free play onboard instead of it having to be off the price of a cruise. That way we could use our Edge incentive as free play on Summit.

Confusing but will they give you money off of Summit in a few weeks? I have a similar situation next year where one cruise ends after final payment for the next cruise and I can't seem to get them to tell me if they'll be able to refund any $ off incentive to my credit card if I've already made final payment. 

2 hours ago, Lastdance said:

I love Chateaubriand for two at Murano, but you need to request it!  Yum!

I've never had to request it. Always been on the menu and I always get it

Sorry if I missed it but did you find out if Sapphires will have access to the Retreat Lounge like we do for Michael's Club?