roxievegas

there are different types of casino offers. Some are "casino discount". Some are based on your casino play and you get free cabin/casino free play. They do not work the same. Once you have established yourself as a casino player, you will get the free cabin, you pay the port tax and a non refundable $200 deposit to book a cruise. The $200 pp deposit is given back to you on the cruise as OBC.

I normally get an email on which I can click on the different cruises offered or I receive a brochure and the cruises are listed. Not sure what you received.

from what everyone has said, you can call and ask for another location, or do not pay for the bid. You have only 48 hours and if you have not paid, you will keep your original room

Because I book our cruises through the casino department - I go through them for any changes to our cruise. That said - I would think that princess would give you an option to click on "pay" for accepting the upgrade cost and they would charge your credit card - easy for you and them. We may have to offer the suggestion -

the email said noon for the Aloha, Lido 1:00 for Caribe, Dolphin, Sun 1:30 for Baja, Emerald 2:00 for Marina, Rivera sky suites anytime from 11:00 to 2:30 - ship is suppose to leave at 3:00 nothing about elite, or vip

the club class mini was available for us to bid on with our "free balcony" cabin - we did not bid for the club class - the mini is fine for us

yes Discovery

we are sailing Jan 7, 2023 out of LA two days ago we got an email from Princess telling us that they were asking us not to show up until 1:00 pm. We are on deck 10 and they were listing the decks and times different. we have never had that before

Never heard of "core" obc, but when we book, we get the casino free play and then $200 OBC, which is the deposit we have to pay upfront and get back as OBC I would guess that the "core" obc is on your account and can be used for any on board purchases. The casino free play can only be used in the casino

Yes you can upgrade, but you have to pay. My experience has been if the balcony on the website is showing $1299 and the suite is $2599 - they would charge you $1300 per person to move up. You could wait for the bidding process, but all the suites may be gone and you may only be able to bid for the mini, but you can also bud for the club. We had a balcony, bid on a mini got it for a total of $300

We receive offers for a free cabin (me inside, husband balcony) with casino play. we are considering an alaska cruise, would like to do a four or five day land tour first and then get on the ship and sail back to Vancouver. my question: Has anyone done one of these cruises/land packages using a casino offer and what did you have to pay out of pocket? thank you

I tried the chat for the first time this morning. I logged in at 7:40a - and it said I was 4th in the queue 20 minutes later I was #1, then #2, then I logged out after waiting over 30 minutes.

update: Since I had booked this cruise through the casino department, I called them at 8:00a and asked if I should pay through them or call the main the number - the guy said I could pay him and I did. just a side note: This was a "free balcony" cabin offer with the princess plus included. So we had not paid anything for the cabin or the plus package, only port taxes and the $200 per person deposit, and I always get the vacation protection plan - which is always a different amount. When I booked the cruise, the charged me $66.40 each, then when the bid upgrade was accepted for $300 they said we owed $245.20, because they dropped the vac protection cost down to $39.00 - so they reduced my cost because they dropped the price of vac protection plan - ????? crazy

received email confirmation that our bid was accepted. we were booked in Balcony BB category and I placed 3 bids first was $150 total for a Premium Deluxe Balcony - rejected two days ago 2nd was $75 total for Deluxe Balcony - rejected two days ago 3rd was $300 total for mini suite - minimum I could bid - accepted last night I now have 48 hours to contact Princess to pay This was for Discovery January 7th 2023 sailing - which had lots of mini suites available when I last checked, so I was hoping that my minimum bid would be enough to get one.

We are currently booked on Discovery for Jan 7th out of L.A. Based on the info above, for us to upgrade from Balcony to Mini-Suite it would cost us $280. I had put a bid in last month to go to a Premium Deluxe Balcony and today it shows that that bid expired. *$150 This morning I put in a bid for a Deluxe Balcony and that shows expired $100 also put in a bid for $300 for a mini-suite and it is showing pending If they send me an email that the mini-suite is expired in the next couple of days, I will wait until we get on board and see if we can upgrade then. Looking at the cabins available, there are lots of mini-suites available.

The cost of doing anything has changed so much, just not in the past couple of years, but over time we have had to change vacations (trips/traveling) based on our financial situation. Years ago we would fly somewhere, stay a week, eat out everyday, fly home. Then the cost of airfare, hotel, food went out of wack. We have been cruising every year since 2016, mostly because my husband retired and we could go longer and go as many times as we wanted. Now we have to watch which cruises to go on, how long, how much, etc. Back in the old days (1990's) we flew 2 adults, 4 teenage boys, got two rooms, went to Turtle Bay Hawaii (flight, hotel, food) and the whole thing cost us less than $3,000. Just looked this morning for us to take our kids and grandkids (4 adults, 2 grandkids, 2 rooms) and the cost was $3,000 per person, so $18,000 - not going. If things get out of wack, we will look in a new direction.

We have done most of the cruises to the locations in the world that we had on our bucket list. We no longer want to hassle with flying, so we are now only doing cruises out of LA - our home port area. We have done mexico, california coast 6- 7 times now, so we are doing repeats. We are cruising to get out of the house, no cooking, no cleansing, gambling in the casino. We are not big drinkers, so paying for a packages does not compute. If I buy one or two cases of water $7.00 per case of 12, get wifi for one (we get discount), and buy any coffee, glass a wine as needed, and pay the gratuities before we go. We come out way ahead than buying a package deal. We get offers from the casino for our cabin, and at times get the plus package included, then we are happy. If no plus package, then we go without. Everyone has to make their own decision as to what works for them. We could pay for the plus package, but would rather spend the money in other places - my choice.

our last 7 cruises we took pretty much what is suggested above, never had to use anything (kock on wood) we have a cruise in January, will take the cough drops, and Nyquil. -trim down the list a lot we still take a first aid kit with band aids, wrap, etc. - but it is a small emergency kit

very unusual not to have to pay the taxes or port charges - we have always paid that no matter the cabin category or free play amount. lucky you.

we have a casino cruise for next month and we were sent an email about bidding up for upgrade, which I did put in a bid, have not heard anything yet. Maybe your cruise is too full to have rooms available to upgrade to (?)

I did not receive a Princess postcard, but did get a Celebrity Black Friday postcard yesterday (11-29)

go to Princess website login go to the My Princess under that heading is Home, profile, future cruise credit, and up coming cruises click on future cruise credit there is a heading "on board credit" that will show codes and give dates for when the offers are good for and when they expire, how much casino free play is being offered

We are both on medicare and a supplement. I get the princess vacation protection for the "injury" or "sick" and evacuation only. I could care less about my luggage. Most of our trips are out of LA going up the coast to San Francisco, or to Mexico. Getting back to LA and being treated for an emergency is what I am concerned about. We buy insurance and pay dearly every year for home insurance (have filed one claim in 40 years), car insurance (no claims), earthquake insurance (no claims) and umbrella policy to cover for the max amount. Insurance is something you need, but hopefully will never need to make a claim. Cost of living and traveling.

We have only been on Celebrity and Princess cruises. In the past five years it has been Princess only as Celebrity does not go out of LA yesterday we got a postcard flyer from Royal Caribbean International "Complimentary balcony stateroom for two" it is for the casino royale - which i guess is their casino company they gave us a choice of cruises out of Miami, tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Port Canaveral, Galveston, Baltimore and LA the LA is the only we would consider, but it is for a 4 night cruise only. No packages included.

we have in the past, but not since this new bidding system has come into effect. We have a bid in for January 2023 cruise - have not heard anything. If we don't get it, I will go to guest services. we could go from a balcony to a mini suite for $215 total don't think you can do that anymore