Getting the most of out the casino?

My husband and I are booked on the Breeze leaving Galveston Sept. 2nd. This will be our 2nd Carnival cruise, 3rd cruise in general.

We LOVE gambling on cruises. We play a lot of craps (we've actually reimbursed ourselves for both previous cruises from winnings on the craps table, yay!), with a smattering of other table games or slots here and there. Last Carnival cruise, my husband was given the Drinks on Us, and some chocolate covered strawberries were sent to our room. (How nice.)

This cruise, we are definitely hoping to get the Drinks on Us perk again, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks for getting the most out of our casino play. We play for the fun and entertainment, of course, but some perks never hurt, right?!

Is contacting the casino host a good idea, just to introduce yourself? What about sending an email to the casino corporation before our cruise to see if they will gift us anything up front? We are very friendly with the staff and tip moderately to generously when winning, so I feel like we sufficiently get the table staff on our side, but I'm wondering if there's more we can do.

Any tips and tricks from the masters here?

In terms of getting drinks on us, playing craps will take longer than slots. They just give more points to slot players (and they make more money off slot players). I play nothing but craps, so what I do is, buy in pretty big the first night. It doesn’t mean you have to bet it all but shows them you aren’t going to play nothing but the field all week. I don’t know that it matters but getting to know the dealers can’t hurt.

In the end, it’s harder to know where you stand for the DOU card playing table games compared to slots. But since there is a dependence on the dealers, you might ask them where you stand each day in terms of points.

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So can anyone tell me how much you have to spend on slots to get a DOU card

Below is a posting from Linda Warhaftig on another cruise site. It addresses some of your questions.

Here is a topic we rarely touch on. Gambling. There was a great group for this information I used to refer people to but unfortunately something appears to be censoring them. I believe in hearing everyones opinion. (Politely of course)

As many of you know the cruise I just took on the Horizon afforded me the opportunity to sit down with those who run the Carnival ships casinos and ask questions and interact with them. (No matter what name they use the casinos ARE owned and operated by Carnival.) There were about 10 of us and three HQ representatives there. It was an interesting meeting. I came away with a few things. I really liked Martin, Brian and Josh. I also left looking for fresh air and thanking ‘younger’ me for leaving the corporate world in my youth.

This post isnt about the interesting things I learned in that meeting. Its about clearing up some misconceptions about Carnivals casino and sharing some ideas.

The biggest misconception I hear is gamblers all get free cruises and lots of free comps. First of all EVERY casino in the USA offers free night stays and various comps. Wine, show tickets, free meals, even kitchen items and gifts. Comps lure gamblers to casinos. BUT... put twenty bucks in a land slot machine and yes, offers and invites will come your way. Put twenty in a ship slot machine...dont hold your breath waiting on offers in the mail.

Right now to earn 1 point on a Carnival slot machine... you must gamble $2.50 Not LOSE $2.50...just run it through the machine.

Once you have run $3,750. through the slot machines you will have earned 1500 points. This will get you a DOU card. (Drinks On Us card) Its for free drinks in the casino only while playing.

There basically are no point vs comps scheduler Carnival will disclose to the gamblers. (Royal does in detail)

It varies. BUT at around 3000 points or $7500. run through the machines you will earn the lowest offer. A DISCOUNTED inside cabin. (No longer a free one) Offers go up and change at around 10,000 points and again at 20,000 points.

There are casino sailing specials like Premiere - extra games discounted cruise, maybe gaming money and some gifts, Ultra and more comps then Elite. According to carnival anyone may get a Premiere offer but Ultra offers start with earning 7500 or more points while on a Premiere but even then we’ve historically seen Carnival doesn’t follow their own rules.

Before you’re shocked to hear a person has 15,000 points and you do the math that means they ran $37,000 bucks through the slot machines... its not (hopefully) money they carried on board. I was very jealous (and a bit annoyed to be honest) one lady had over 20,000 points and her daughter told me her mom was on her original twenty dollar bill! 😳

But just like other things at Carnival.... its not like it used to be. There used to be great offers on free or nearly free sailings. I guess Carnival thinks the gamblers will still sail. They forget not only are the long time loyal guests the guaranteed ship money...the gamblers certainly are.

Over the last year a new competitor has come into the picture. A few of you have mentioned them. URComped. They are a third party - where you go to their web site (I want to break up the address so I can post another link) WWW . URComped . com

You upload any and all offers from other cruise lines or land casinos. They then basically show you offers you qualify for. On land like Atlantis, or an all inclusive resort or even lots of cruise ships! (Not Carnival - go figure lol)

This is exactly how so many of our members have tried other lines. I myself will be sailing MSC through URComped. Just an interesting note. Unlike Carnival with port fees and tax added, FREE is FREE. I deposited $400 for a balcony and when I board I will have a $400 on board credit. Oh and MSC matches Carnivals card levels!

I had the dou card playing craps Tuesday night. Played 3-5 hours a day. With the sea days at the first part of the trip not hard. Table min was $5 but I played at least $10 on every bet using the iron cross method. I also did 2 1 2 on the craps bonus hit a part of it 7 times on the trip hit the all 3 times. Trip had some rough moments but in the end only lost about $200 for the trip. Made it back in the free drinks. The bj tables are horrible with 6/5 and auto shuffle unless you are on $25 table. I stayed away from them. Craps table was crazy busy every night. Most of the time the field only bettors begged to get in but with only 16 spots pit boss would not let them reach between to play. They should have just raised the table max and it would have scared them away.

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I usually reach the 1000 points for Drinks on Us on the shorter cruises on the second day and the 1500 points for DOU on longer cruises also later on the second day. I play only slots. Sometimes, on the first night of a cruise the casino host will stop by and give me a DUO card for my past casino action on my most previous cruise. Sometimes we receive chocolate covered strawberries or bottles of wine from the casino during the cruises. I received a free cruise offer as a bounce back offer from our Nov. cruise, so we did that in Jan. After the Jan. cruise, I received a $50pp bounce back offer and we took that for our Cuba cruise in May. We only book casino offer Premier and/or Getaway cruises now and will have taken 6 of these in 2018.....free casino cash, discounted rates, etc. DH only plays table games and always gives his Sail & Sign card to the pit boss, but the only casino offers he receives have discounted cabin rates, no casino cash. We have sailed on Carnival 33 times, and cruised 46 times all total.