Casino big spenders also spend onboard?

[kids-in-2-centuries]

Just back from 8 days on the Sunshine over Christmas where I spent over $1000 onboard on various things, drinks, pictures, etc. (but $0 in the casino) plus another $160 in cash tipping various people for outstanding service. I cruised 4 times with Carnival in 2014 and my end of cruise bill is about the same each time. My question is to the folks who spend a lot of time and money in the casino and end up getting all the perks like free cruises: Do you also spend a lot of money onboard? Is my onboard bill the same as yours including what you spend in the casino? I'm thinking I may need to spend my budget in the casino so I can be eligible for some perks ;)

[Cruzlover7]

I hate to admit, but I spend that money in the Casino. Not 1000, but between myself and my husband we have at times. BUT, you spend on something tangible and we take away nothing half the time. We do buy drinks and a portrait here and there but never 1,000 worth. We do get the casino offers quite often. Others posters have stated that they too get these offers and don't spend in the casino at all.

[ruachsm]

I normally spend that much in the casino, but hardly ever over $100 on other things onboard.

 

 

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[cccer]

I usually spend around $1000 in casino and bout the same for onboard expenses. I usually get several casino offers a year. Last year I did not get an offer for our cruise, but my wife that play a little bit of blackjack got the offer. So who knows how they figure it out.

[Sue Do-Over]

We spend almost nothing around the ship -- no shopping, photos, excursions or even bingo cards, just the soft-drink card, usually. The casino doesn't review your other spending habits or bar tab before offering you a deal.

 

Casino staff can't/won't share the exact algorithm, but your average bet, the amount of time you play, and your initial buy in amounts are key to the math -- at least for the table games.

 

They won't say so directly, but we *think* that tipping the dealers can contribute to your ratings as well... as that is recorded by the pit supervisor who has some discretion about how good you look on paper (and gets a percentage of the tip jar).

 

We routinely (not every hand, but regularly) put a $1 chip up for the dealer, generally play minimum bets, and tip $5 for a bigger win. The tips are stacked up next to the bell, so 'everyone' sees them, and are recorded each time the dealer changes.

 

Bottom line, we have enjoyed several free trips and on-board comps, playing minimum bets. It's karma, you are nice to them, they are nice to you, and everyone has a great night.

[Coopdog08]

We spend almost nothing around the ship -- no shopping, photos, excursions or even bingo cards, just the soft-drink card, usually. The casino doesn't review your other spending habits or bar tab before offering you a deal.

 

Casino staff can't/won't share the exact algorithm, but your average bet, the amount of time you play, and your initial buy in amounts are key to the math -- at least for the table games.

 

They won't say so directly, but we *think* that tipping the dealers can contribute to your ratings as well... as that is recorded by the pit supervisor who has some discretion about how good you look on paper (and gets a percentage of the tip jar).

 

We routinely (not every hand, but regularly) put a $1 chip up for the dealer, generally play minimum bets, and tip $5 for a bigger win. The tips are stacked up next to the bell, so 'everyone' sees them, and are recorded each time the dealer changes.

 

Bottom line, we have enjoyed several free trips and on-board comps, playing minimum bets. It's karma, you are nice to them, they are nice to you, and everyone has a great night.

 

I have never seen the tips recorded. Typically when they change dealers if a tip is over by the bell they make change with there earnings to keep the tray as full as possible of $1 chips and put the chips earned in the slot. I have never seen the pit boss or dealer mention who the tips were from and write them down.

[klfrodo]

My on board spending is anywhere from $700 - $1000.

 

Now, the casino,, I usually take about $1500 for play money.

My last cruise, for tax purposes, I requested a Win/Loss Statement. My total play was close to $15K :eek:

[katiel53]

I spend about $800 or more in the casino and DH spends about $400 We also buy drinks and tip well, but don't buy pics, excursions or shop much onboard. I do buy a watch onboard either a Seiko or Citizen about every other cruise. We do go to the Steakhouse every cruise.

 

I have only had one casino offer and it wasn't for a free cruise. It was a Premier cruise with a good amount of OBC etc. and also a reduced price. I do believe I got that offer because we didn't sail on Carnival for over a year. We weren't able to take advantage of that offer and now we are lucky to get a deluxe package from the casino which does not include any onboard cash.

 

I guess as far as Carnival is concerned we have been written off as we are not cruising on them as often as we did previously and on Liberty in September I did get enough points to get the free drink card, but I never got it. I was spoiled, I guess, by the casino staff on Dream as they would always come around and when I was close to the required points would be there more frequently and then give me the card when the magic 1500 showed up. On Liberty, no such thing and I never asked for it.

 

We are scheduled for another cruise soon and if I do get to the 1500 points, I know I need to ask, but if we buy the Cheers program, I won't need it. I am going to see what happens on this next cruise and that will determine whether or not I continue to spend money in the casino.

[Boozebabe]

I have never seen the tips recorded. Typically when they change dealers if a tip is over by the bell they make change with there earnings to keep the tray as full as possible of $1 chips and put the chips earned in the slot. I have never seen the pit boss or dealer mention who the tips were from and write them down.

 

Oh believe me that pit boss knows EVERYTHING. They often go back to the podium and make notes. Not 100% sure what the notes are but rest assured they know if you are tipping and how much. I play Let It Ride and I make a $1 bet every hand for the dealer. I only play $5 chips and the pit boss usually buys my drinks on the first day. By the second day I have the Cheers card. I've seen others who bet much bigger than me and they don't have the Cheers card. It is the pit boss' job to pay attention to EVERYTHING.

[jp12687]

I have never seen the tips recorded. Typically when they change dealers if a tip is over by the bell they make change with there earnings to keep the tray as full as possible of $1 chips and put the chips earned in the slot. I have never seen the pit boss or dealer mention who the tips were from and write them down.

 

my experience from vegas casino's is while the tips aren't "recorded" the put boss who is recording the info notices and will sometimes rate you a little better if they like you. In vegas i have made the pit boss laugh with a joke before and usually after he walks over to the computer and pushes some buttons i have glanced over and its usually my name and then upping what my "bet is"

[jp12687]

Oh believe me that pit boss knows EVERYTHING. They often go back to the podium and make notes. Not 100% sure what the notes are but rest assured they know if you are tipping and how much. I play Let It Ride and I make a $1 bet every hand for the dealer. I only play $5 chips and the pit boss usually buys my drinks on the first day. By the second day I have the Cheers card. I've seen others who bet much bigger than me and they don't have the Cheers card. It is the pit boss' job to pay attention to EVERYTHING.

 

you get a cheers card or a drinks on us card only for the casino?

[birdlgs]

My husband and I spend quite a bit in the casino and the last three times we BOTH have been given a FREE cruise. We also call ahead and receive the FREE drink card upon entering the casino on the first night. We usually receive free slot play except on the free cruises. We receive chocolate strawberries in the room as well as dinner in the Steakhouse twice. We did receive a bottle of wine one night in the dining room compliments of the casino.

 

We tip our room steward $50 the first night and continue to tip through the cruise. Our waiter always gets $5 for brunch and dinner. We tip as well to all drink servers even in the casino when it is FREE. We bet for the dealers. Last cruise I bet $10 for the dealers at three card poker and hit a straight flush!! They were very happy!! :D

 

We always buy FTTF and rent a cabana. We don't buy pictures or art though.

We add and keep the gratuities on our bill.

 

We just figure what goes around comes around!

[elainmir]

It varies for us...usually around 7 or 8 hundred in the casino...most of the time giving them 50 to 75% of that...and onboard spending varies...maybe 200 or so...that's not counting excursions..

I play slots mostly and when I do play the tables I do tip well as does hubby

 

This time I purchased 400$ of excursions so far and FTTF as well as in cabin goodies for the kiddos and some cruise cash (before I found out about Verizon e gift cards ;))

That being said we have never ever gotten free cruise offers and we spend roughly the same amount each time. We got one casino offer which was peanuts...

[dhill]

Yea three or four grand in the casino a couple grand on other things.No offers yet:eek:

[TampaBayGirl]

The two of us spend approximately $1,500 - $2,000 daily in the casino between blackjack, slots and PokerPro. We tip the cage cashiers, dealers ($5 per blackjack hand), and cocktail servers.

Neither of us drink alcohol, but never pay for any sodas or bottle water while we play. The pit bosses and casino hosts are always nice to us, remember our names and ask if we need anything. We receive chocolate covered strawberries in our room from the casino staff. We took 3 comped cruises in the past year on Carnival.We received an upgrade to the Owner's Suite on the last sailing on the Sensation. It was very roomy for the two of us and we loved the extra balcony space.

The last cruise on the Sensation, I hit a $1,000 jackpot on the Top Dollar machine and hit a nice spin for $1,800 on the same machine on the last night.

DH played in the Texas Holdem Final tournament on the Dream out of New Orleans in 2014 which also happened to be the Premier Players Club cruise - lots of great action on that ship!

We love Carnival's gaming policies and prefer it to RCI.

We spend the majority of our time gaming and not participating the in the traditional cruise activities. While in port, we sleep in and enjoy a less crowded ship.

Happy cruising everyone. See you in the casino! :)

[stevefrisco]

Have any of you ever had a winning session gambling? Tipping $1-$5 bucks a hand would add up to a lot of money over 2 hours of casino gaming.

[jp12687]

Have any of you ever had a winning session gambling? Tipping $1-$5 bucks a hand would add up to a lot of money over 2 hours of casino gaming.

 

yes but when you're betting $50+ a hand 1-2 when you win isn't a big deal. when i was in vegas for new years playing craps a guy rolled a hard 6 4 times and i had over 2k on it when it hit the last time. i tipped the dealers $250 the last time it hit.

 

i don't tip every time i win a hand-- but i do tip a lot along the way.

[BigB0882]

We spent about $1000 on our cruise (Elation) in the casino and before we left we had an offer under our door for a free cruise. However, it had to be booked immediately and the available sail date was for 1 week from that day. It is almost impossible for most people to take another 5 days off of work only 1 week after getting back from vacation. They make that offer because so few people actually can take advantage of it. We are thinking of booking on Dream for April and are going to call and mention our gambling to see if they may have some kind of perk for us, I doubt we get much of an offer since it will be Spring Break and they will probably be at full capacity whether or not we sail. It is worth a shot, though. We didn't spend much else on board, we had the bubbles pass and bought one picture but that was it.

[CruisingSoon88]

We were on a premier cruise over New Years. It was our first premier cruise and yes we did pay for the cruise. John Heald posted on facebook a few weeks ago that you are eligible for a premier cruise if you have earned 7500 points or more in the casino over a 12 month time frame. We did an 11 day last year that helped us reach this total. Whether its free and how much cash you get is dependent on your play. I have read many people on here talking about why they don't get offers and others do. I always considered us to be at the bottom end of the moderate gambler range. One thing that helps us is that DH and I always play on my card when we play slots so we have 1 card that gets a higher point total. He does play blackjack and craps some and uses his own card there.

 

After being on the premier cruise, I realized that we are not only small fish in the sea, but probably barely qualify as algae. Seeing the amounts that others gamble was very eye opening. Of course I had seen it on occasion on previous cruises, but never with so many people doing it at the same time. I did reason that they are more able to do this because their cruise was free and I paid a good chunk for being on a NYE cruise. They were over $3000 ahead of me before I ever stepped foot in the casino.

 

Our account was almost $1000 on this past cruise. We have 2 smaller kids so we still buy pictures and night owls for camp is a big chunk of our bill. We enjoyed our cruise very much and now realize why we don't get the perks that others do. We obviously don't play the amount that warrants these perks.

[lberbe]

I went on one cruise last year and played in the casino quite a bit. My bets stayed around $5-25 depending how up I was. I brought $200 to play but never got down only went up. Ended the trip up about $1500. I did enter the black jack tournament and that may have helped with my offers. The tournament was only $25 to enter and I ended up winning $500 from it. From that I got a free entry to the $50k tournament but only like a 25% discount for the cruise. Since then though I've gotten two offers for cruises for as low as $25 ($50 for 6+ days). And with those offers I get up to $50pp back in OBC. In essence they're free cruises.

I had to miss the first offer due to my wife not being able to get off but have one scheduled for her spring break in March.

I think what it boils down to not how much you bring or how long you play but a combination of the two. Your total $ pass through at the casino. Someone who makes larger bets won't need to play as many hours as someone making smaller bets to get the same offers. But to answer your original question, onboard spend outside the casino probably does not factor into the equation at all for the free offers. (I spent maybe $40 onboard on drinks and no pics or gifts).

[WinnipegCruiser]

My wife and I budget about $1000 each for a 7 day cruise. Of course we churn it so that it feels like much more.

 

Part of that is the $100 shareholders OBC.

 

We both get the "drink on us" cards on the first day, the bottles of wine at dinner, and chocolate strawberry's.

 

I know others who spend that much on wine, drinks, spa and excursions. So I don't feel bad.

 

We often use the 70% off your cruise deals. I just booked a "free" 14 day cruise for March. The only cost is the upgrade to a balcony ($600pp). The free cruise was an inside cabin, and I don't think we could do that.

 

So a 14 day South Caribbean cruise for about $50 per day/ person is pretty good. If we spend another $3K in the casino, it will still be decent value.

[WinnipegCruiser]

I look at the difference between the two at retail, and I think that is how they are guided.

$250 for 12 days does seem like a better deal than I got.

Yep,for the $600 I could have picked any balcony.

 

Didn't seem like an opportunity to dicker.

 

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