Seaside casino. :0)

love playing slots. Was down a bit by this morning which is not to bad considering it is Thursday. If I return home with the money I brought, I consider myself a big winner.

Found a very lucky machine this afternoon. I spent a couple of hours there before cashing out for over $1000.

My husband was playing a machine behind me and got a bonus spin. It spun to the top jackpot of $5000.

Best part was no taxes. Royal Caribbean had told us a few years ago that the international rule about taxes had changed and they give you a tax form for anything over $1200.

Always put your cruise card in the machine. When you get 1200 points, they give you a paper for 30% off your next cruise. That is not a hard number to get.

Congrat's!!!! Go book a future cruise with that cash before you spend/lose it lol!!

love playing slots. Was down a bit by this morning which is not to bad considering it is Thursday. If I return home with the money I brought, I consider myself a big winner.

Found a very lucky machine this afternoon. I spent a couple of hours there before cashing out for over $1000.

My husband was playing a machine behind me and got a bonus spin. It spun to the top jackpot of $5000.

Best part was no taxes. Royal Caribbean had told us a few years ago that the international rule about taxes had changed and they give you a tax form for anything over $1200.

Always put your cruise card in the machine. When you get 1200 points, they give you a paper for 30% off your next cruise. That is not a hard number to get.

Congrats and spend it well.

love playing slots. Was down a bit by this morning which is not to bad considering it is Thursday. If I return home with the money I brought, I consider myself a big winner.

Found a very lucky machine this afternoon. I spent a couple of hours there before cashing out for over $1000.

My husband was playing a machine behind me and got a bonus spin. It spun to the top jackpot of $5000.

Best part was no taxes. Royal Caribbean had told us a few years ago that the international rule about taxes had changed and they give you a tax form for anything over $1200.

Always put your cruise card in the machine. When you get 1200 points, they give you a paper for 30% off your next cruise. That is not a hard number to get.

Congratulations!

Just to clarify ... you now need 2000 points to qualify for the 30% discount voucher. I'm speaking from experience as I got one on my recent Christmas cruise.

Congratulations!

 

Just to clarify ... you now need 2000 points to qualify for the 30% discount voucher. I'm speaking from experience as I got one on my recent Christmas cruise.

Well it is 1200 on this cruise. It is quite an incentive. Maybe they are tryin to drum up business.

I actually have a yacht club cabin on hold through an internet agency at a great price for September. I did that last month.

I checked with MSC and the agency....telling them that I would be on this cruise and wanted to know if I qualified for ‘the letter’ if I would be able to apply to my booking.

They said yes !

Well it is 1200 on this cruise. It is quite an incentive. Maybe they are tryin to drum up business.

Well, that's typical MSC inconsistency between US and Med cruises!

I actually have a yacht club cabin on hold through an internet agency at a great price for September. I did that last month.

I checked with MSC and the agency....telling them that I would be on this cruise and wanted to know if I qualified for ‘the letter’ if I would be able to apply to my booking.

They said yes !

Good luck - I hope it works out well for you. I used a 30% discount voucher for our upcoming cruise in March - got over €4000 off the cruise price! :cool:

Congrats Shippy! We're table players and love black jack....can you tell us what the minimum bids are? Appreciate it!

Congrats!

I love playing slots too.:hearteyes:

Are you going to tell us what slot it was?

You might want to check on that “no taxes” thing. They may not have given you a tax form but if you are a US citizen it is still taxable income.

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You might want to check on that “no taxes” thing. They may not have given you a tax form but if you are a US citizen it is still taxable income.

 

 

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Doesn't sound like they documented her winnings.... If thats the case....It's only a conscious thing. And with the amount I usually leave in the Casino on past cruises.... My conscious would be clear if this happened to me!!!

@shippy - thanks for your post

* Do you have any sense of how points accumulate for slots and/or tables?

-- for e.g. for every $2 cycled through slots you earn 1 point

* How many days did it take you to reach the 1200 point mark and could you give us a sense of your average daily coin in that was needed to reach there?

Congrats!

 

I love playing slots too.:hearteyes:

 

Are you going to tell us what slot it was?

I will describe it as best I can. Very lucky area.

Down a bit from the cashier cage 2 rows of 3 machines back to back. Against the railing, I was playing a machine with 2 Chinese babies on it. I was actually there for a couple of hours and cashed out for over $1000. It did not print a ticket and they did a hand pay.

My husband had just entered the casino. I told him to play the machine directly behind me as I had seen people get a lot of play on it.

There were 3 tokens on it which if you got them, you would get a bonus spin. That would either go to a certain amount or various bonus...mini,minor/etc.

He was not there 5 minutes when he got the bonus spin and it went to the grand bonus which at the time was $5,085.00

My husband had just entered the casino. I told him to play the machine directly behind me as I had seen people get a lot of play on it.

There were 3 tokens on it which if you got them, you would get a bonus spin. That would either go to a certain amount or various bonus...mini,minor/etc.

He was not there 5 minutes when he got the bonus spin and it went to the grand bonus which at the time was $5,085.00

Can I ask if he was playing @ max bet? I've always thought that you could only win that top prize while playing at max (I won the top prize of €1200 once while betting @ max). However, on a recent cruise, one of the casino staff told me that someone had won the top prize of €8000 (or so) the week before and they weren't playing @ max.

I will describe it as best I can. Very lucky area.

Down a bit from the cashier cage 2 rows of 3 machines back to back. Against the railing, I was playing a machine with 2 Chinese babies on it. /quote]

 

 

Thanks. I don't remember the name of the game but I do know the slot you're speaking of (the babies giggle).

Thanks for telling us......I've never done anything on that slot, but I'll play it in July, just in case.;p

Congratulations!

 

Just to clarify ... you now need 2000 points to qualify for the 30% discount voucher. I'm speaking from experience as I got one on my recent Christmas cruise.

The magic number has always been 1200. I recently sent in my letter through my TA and MSC WOULD NOT HONOR the 30% discount. What really got me PO'd was that there was no explanation with their refusal...even after I wrote back to mgmt. NO EXPLANATION!:mad::mad::mad:

I will argue this one with the casino mgmt once I get onboard Seaside this year. I had three cruises booked with MSC...and dropped them after they pulled this on me.

The magic number has always been 1200.

Having been the beneficiary of no less than 4 casino vouchers to date I can confidently state that I acquired 3 of them with 1200 points. However, on our recent Christmas cruise aboard Orchestra, when I reached the 'magic' 1200 points, I asked a member of the casino crew about the voucher. I was informed that I needed 2000 points to get the voucher (which I subsequently went on to get!)

Bytheway, you needed 7500 points for a free cruise for 2 (in an inside cabin) before. On Orchestra, the machines were advising that 9999 points gets you a free cruise. So this has also increased.

Re. 1200 points v/s 2000 points requirement, here's some relevant information from the MSC Apps' Casino FAQ:

"MSC On board Reward Program: By earning Dream Points you will automatically qualify for excellent benefits, from 30% off on your next cruise to on board credit, to invitation-only special events, up to a free cruise! Guests sailing on voyages from 6 to 8 days will need to collect 1200 points in order to enroll, guests sailing on voyages from 9 to 14 days will need to collect 2000 points to be enrolled."

Re. 1200 points v/s 2000 points requirement, here's some relevant information from the MSC Apps' Casino FAQ:

 

"MSC On board Reward Program: By earning Dream Points you will automatically qualify for excellent benefits, from 30% off on your next cruise to on board credit, to invitation-only special events, up to a free cruise! Guests sailing on voyages from 6 to 8 days will need to collect 1200 points in order to enroll, guests sailing on voyages from 9 to 14 days will need to collect 2000 points to be enrolled."

Thank you so much for clarifying this. Our recent cruise was an 11 night one, so that explains it.

It's a crazy and unfair policy IMHO nonetheless.

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A couple of things that haven't been mentioned are:

1. You can also redeem your points for free play. I got €20 for the 2000 points. It's €/$5 for every 500 points.

2. On the 30% voucher there will also be an amount indicated that you receive at the cashier's desk in the casino on your next cruise. It doesn't have to be the cruise that you use the voucher for. The cashier will exchange the voucher for cash - it is not added to your account as OBC. It depends on how many points you get what this amount will be. When I got 1200 points the first time I received €50. Another time I got €125 as I had accumulated more than the 1200 points. My current voucher has €100 on it.

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@beamafar thanks for the additional information about the voucher

* Do you think you are able to please address some of the questions I raised here -> https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=55037153&postcount=11

* Also, what are the blackjack rules? how many decks? 3:2 for blackjack or 6:5? do they continuously shuffle?

BJ is 3:2 and is continuous shuffle. Minimums are $10 but they have happy hours where the minimums are lower.

@beamafar thanks for the additional information about the voucher

 

* Do you think you are able to please address some of the questions I raised here -> https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=55037153&postcount=11

 

* Also, what are the blackjack rules? how many decks? 3:2 for blackjack or 6:5? do they continuously shuffle?

I don't play the tables and haven't a clue how they operate, sorry.

How the points accumulate on the machines is a mystery to me. That's having tried to watch how they add up as I play. My DH noticed a few points added during one of my winning spins. There were times when I was betting X3 or even X5 times the minimum bet and a point wouldn't be added. I reckon they have it fixed so that you can't figure it out.

On Meraviglia, last June, I reached the 1200 points by about day 3 and was still €100 up!

On my recent cruise, I totalled up at the end what I had played and what I had won (I would go to Guest Services with any winnings and pay off some of the account). I lost a total of €240 which I reckon wasn't bad considering how much time I spent in the casino overall and for the entertainment value. Also, we got €200 OBC from MSC so I kinda felt it was their money I was playing with. Added to that, I've booked a cruise for later in the year and received a discount of €837 (that doesn't include the 5% Voyagers Club discount) plus €100 cash on my next cruise from the casino cashier.

ETA The only conditions attached to the 30% voucher are that you book within 2 months and sail within 9 months of issue of the voucher. We got a 10% future cruise discount on our last cruise as we missed 2 ports and I was able to combine that with the 30% voucher plus the 5% Voyagers Club discount, giving me a total of 40.15% off my next booking. (The €837 discount on my next booking doesn't include that 10% either - I took the Voyagers Club discount off the cost of the cruise, then calculated what the 30% was worth as that is how MSC applied it. The 10% discount was applied after that, again).

@parallax and @beamafar thanks so much for the information!

@parallax and @beamafar thanks so much for the information!

Fair exchange is no robbery and your information was very helpful, indeed! ;)

Thank you so much for clarifying this. Our recent cruise was an 11 night one, so that explains it.

It's a crazy and unfair policy IMHO nonetheless.

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A crazy policy...I agree Bea! You would think the casino would want the business. I applied for a 7 day cruise with my voucher and they would only say “it did not apply to this cruise”. And this was within the nine month requirement and was not a holiday cruise. :mad::mad::mad: