Casino Host

[Janthere]

10 hours ago, kwokpot said:

That's what we sailed on. The host is Dex. He's very nice. Are you on a comped cruise? Or an casino invited guest cruise?

The host now is Alina - we met her on Scarlet last year - she is also very nice 🙂 Actually on Virgin cruises we don't play a whole ton in the casino as there is so much other fun stuff to do. We paid for our Mega Rockstar suite.

[Fly and Sail]

5 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Were you already an established BCC club member? I wonder if that's how they do it for new BCC members are players that don't have any tier status but earned enough points on that cruise for a free cruise. 

 

Yes, Onyx at that point.

[LaCal]

4 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Anyone correct me if I’m wrong as I’ve only had host interactions after the cruise restart…Since the restart, hosts can’t do anything for you besides adding a credit on sign and sail account on the last night.  They announce promos, deal in tournaments, have conversations with players and I’m sure a ton of behind the scenes admin work.  No one in the casino, host or otherwise, can offer you a free specialty dinner, free Wi-Fi, etc.; no perks, no apparel, nothing.  If you don’t have the premium drink package and order a premium drink, they won’t even comp the difference

Hosts can definitely comp you specialty restaurants 

[poffles]

18 hours ago, Projunior said:

I am Elite Plus with Celebrity and Amethyst in BCC. Let me start by saying that I have never, even once, gotten an email or a snail mail or any kind of offer from BCC. So instead I call when I pick out a cruise and ask if I can get a BCC discount. Sometimes yes, often no. My wife and I both bet $35/hand playing Ultimate Hold 'em for at least two hours a day when sailing on Celebrity. No offers for us for that, not good enough for BCC. And let me tell you that nothing is more infuriating than reading on CC how someone dropped $20 in a slot machine over the course of an entire cruise and got an offer for a comped veranda cabin.

 

My last two cruises have been on Princess and the difference between the Princess Players Club and the Blue Chip Club is like night and day. When I booked my December cruise on the Regal I was given $100 in casino freeplay even though I hadn't sailed Princess since 2015. So on Celebrity you have to earn your way up to middle tier Amethyst to get $100 while on Princess they gave that same amount to someone (me) who hadn't set foot on a Princess ship in eight years.

 

We randomly picked this sailing of the Regal and only found out once aboard that it happened to be a casino cruise for Princess slot players. Lots of gamblers on board and as a result the casino, both machines and tables, was swarmed all the time. I once waited an hour and a half to get on the single WPT Heads Up Poker (Carnival Corporation's version of Ultimate) table. As the cruise progressed my wife and I got tired of all the waiting for a seat and we ended up playing only perhaps 1/3 the amount we would on a typical 7-day cruise on Celebrity. But get this -- on the second to last night of the cruise the Players Club slipped two offers under our door, one for $250 of freeplay on our next Princess cruise the the other for $300. As someone used to the stinginess of BCC, I was shocked beyond belief.

 

Then we used that offer on a second Princess cruise, this one on the Ruby out of Galveston last month. The casino was lovely and uncrowded. There were seats any time we wanted to play. On the fourth day of the cruise the Players Club sent, unannounced, chocolate covered strawberries to our cabin. On the fifth day, again unannounced, they sent a bottle of nice Italian wine to our cabin. On the fifth day they sent an offer for a free inside cabin on our next cruise along with $750 in freeplay. This was playing the exact same stakes/amounts we always play on Celebrity and this is after just two recent cruises on Princess!

 

Meanwhile, after 17 cruises on Celebrity and lots of donations to the casino, BCC can't be bothered to send me a single offer. BCC may be attracting some new business by offering those comped cabins to those dropping a few bucks in a slot machine, but they alienated me to the point where I looked for greener pastures and found them on Princess.

 

I don't think you will get any 'challenges' here that BCC is totally random with everything they do.  Extreme smoke and mirrors in their program and much of it one has to stumble upon.  I have started getting offers so I cannot complain on that front but I still hear of others getting 'things' that I still knew/know nothing about ... go figure.  I'm not the highest gambler so maybe not missing out on too much anyway.

 

I wish Princess would do some level of matching to Celebrity offers I've received as I would love to try Princess with an incentive 🙂  The only thing I would not like so much is the smoking in the Casino, that might be a once and done but I would still like to sail Princess.

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 hours ago, LaCal said:

Hosts can definitely comp you specialty restaurants 

 

I've asked, was told they don't do that.  Was there a specific ship where this has  happened after the restart?

[kwokpot]

9 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Anyone correct me if I’m wrong as I’ve only had host interactions after the cruise restart…Since the restart, hosts can’t do anything for you besides adding a credit on sign and sail account on the last night.  They announce promos, deal in tournaments, have conversations with players and I’m sure a ton of behind the scenes admin work.  No one in the casino, host or otherwise, can offer you a free specialty dinner, free Wi-Fi, etc.; no perks, no apparel, nothing.  If you don’t have the premium drink package and order a premium drink, they won’t even comp the difference

That's our experience. The host tells us to charge everything to your account and it will be reviewed on the last day for removal based on play. Carnival's host are more interactive. You can ask them any day of the cruise if you've played enough for a restaurant comp and they'll check the system and tell you sure, which one and what day, or else say you need to play a little more before I can do that. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

That's our experience. The host tells us to charge everything to your account and it will be reviewed on the last day for removal based on play. Carnival's host are more interactive. You can ask them any day of the cruise if you've played enough for a restaurant comp and they'll check the system and tell you sure, which one and what day, or else say you need to play a little more before I can do that. 

Exactly my experience; I have asked “what does it take to get a specialty dining comp?”  They answered they no longer do that so just charge it to the room and continue to play

 

You can ask hosts mid-sailing for your current tier points (for table games), they may tell not until the last night

[denuzzo]

After reviewing the ships and itineraries, we are leaning toward sailing Millennium in March.

We will spend our days on the beach, and nights in the casino.  Has anyone been on her lately??

We have never sailed on Millie (done Connie and Summit) so I welcome any and all comments/feedback/tips- Especially those related to the casino!

 

Thanks all! Have a fantastic day 🙂

 

[Fly and Sail]

5 hours ago, poffles said:

I wish Princess would do some level of matching to Celebrity offers I've received as I would love to try Princess with an incentive 🙂  The only thing I would not like so much is the smoking in the Casino, that might be a once and done but I would still like to sail Princess.

 

Try URComped and see if you get something. Not sure if they cooperate. You can also apply for a credit line at various cruise lines and then they usually comp you a cruise as well.

[Projunior]

@OrcaGirlsaid this on her current thread:

 

"Like others have mentioned, I had sailed ONCE on Celebrity like 5-6 years ago. I probably spent under $100 on slots, my husband maybe a couple hundred on table games. We are not big gamblers by any means. But we started getting the emails with free cruise offers last summer, and who am I to say no?"

 

Not sure who is in charge of marketing at BCC, but this does not engender warm feelings in an Elite Plus Amethyst level BCC member with 17 Celebrity cruises who can't even get a single email from BCC. I guess BCC has concluded that they don't need enticements to get me to sail on Celebrity. Nothing could be further from reality. Time to play the field. We are already Platinum on Princess and there their Players Club treats members with respect.

[AlbertaCruisers]

15 minutes ago, Projunior said:

@OrcaGirlsaid this on her current thread:

 

"Like others have mentioned, I had sailed ONCE on Celebrity like 5-6 years ago. I probably spent under $100 on slots, my husband maybe a couple hundred on table games. We are not big gamblers by any means. But we started getting the emails with free cruise offers last summer, and who am I to say no?"

 

Not sure who is in charge of marketing at BCC, but this does not engender warm feelings in an Elite Plus Amethyst level BCC member with 17 Celebrity cruises who can't even get a single email from BCC. I guess BCC has concluded that they don't need enticements to get me to sail on Celebrity. Nothing could be further from reality. Time to play the field. We are already Platinum on Princess and there their Players Club treats members with respect.

 

As a note, have you tried calling Blue Chip Club directly?  I have been getting a lot of email offers recently, but I didn't last year, so I called and asked what they could do.  They base it on the play on your last cruise and I always had some type of offers available, even if I hadn't gotten an email.  The only thing is that when you call in, I was told they can only offer comped cruises up to the end of June right now.  If you want anything later than that you have to pay a casino rate (which they can quote you as well).  If you call Blue Chip and are looking into this, make sure to press 1 as it would be a new booking you are looking for and the wait is generally shorter.

 

[CalTexCruiser]

40 minutes ago, Projunior said:

@OrcaGirlsaid this on her current thread:

 

"Like others have mentioned, I had sailed ONCE on Celebrity like 5-6 years ago. I probably spent under $100 on slots, my husband maybe a couple hundred on table games. We are not big gamblers by any means. But we started getting the emails with free cruise offers last summer, and who am I to say no?"

 

Not sure who is in charge of marketing at BCC, but this does not engender warm feelings in an Elite Plus Amethyst level BCC member with 17 Celebrity cruises who can't even get a single email from BCC. I guess BCC has concluded that they don't need enticements to get me to sail on Celebrity. Nothing could be further from reality. Time to play the field. We are already Platinum on Princess and there their Players Club treats members with respect.

 

My daughter played 10 minutes on a slot machine in 2019, and in the second half of 2022 was getting nonstop BCC comp offers.  However, that was a waste of time for them since even comped rooms are not enough to lure her back to cruising. 

 

Her offers have since stopped (at least so far in 2023) so it appears that the geniuses at BCC may have come up with a more refined strategy.

[Cruising89143]

On 2/6/2023 at 5:01 PM, kwokpot said:

I know exactly what I'm talking about. There are 3 ways of earning rewards for gambling. The 1st is the guaranteed Freeplay that is given with each tier level. The 2nd is the Freeplay earned on your cruise based on your play that's shown on the slot machine screens along with your tier points earned. The 3rd is what the casino host calculates on the last day of the cruise which they can use to offset onboard charges.

On our last Celebrity cruise, the 10/26 Beyond sailing, my husband received $855 Freeplay, which is is more than the guaranteed $500 Sapphire tier level Freeplay because of his gambling on the previous Celebrity cruise. On this cruise he earned 52,235 points. Auto freeplay earned that was shown on the slot machine was $203. On the last day of the cruise the casino host was able to wipeout onboard charges of $230. The host, Renee, who is a very nice woman, already told my husband that when we sail next week on the Solstice he will receive $750 tier level Freeplay, which means he earned more than the Sapphire tier min of $500 Freeplay for his play on the Beyond.  

You’re not the one confused. 😉

[S18278C]

On 2/7/2023 at 9:40 AM, denuzzo said:

After reviewing the ships and itineraries, we are leaning toward sailing Millennium in March.

We will spend our days on the beach, and nights in the casino.  Has anyone been on her lately??

We have never sailed on Millie (done Connie and Summit) so I welcome any and all comments/feedback/tips- Especially those related to the casino!

 

Thanks all! Have a fantastic day 🙂

 

On Millennium March 18th. Comped.

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:40 AM, denuzzo said:

After reviewing the ships and itineraries, we are leaning toward sailing Millennium in March.

We will spend our days on the beach, and nights in the casino.  Has anyone been on her lately??

We have never sailed on Millie (done Connie and Summit) so I welcome any and all comments/feedback/tips- Especially those related to the casino!

 

Thanks all! Have a fantastic day 🙂

 

Was on her in October, what do you want to know?  Can’t remember the host and didn’t ever see the casino manager but there’s a good chance not still on the Millie and they’re back home doing some R&R between contracts 

[edgee]

One option for comp or reduced price cruises is to work with one of the travel agencies which specialize in booking hotels and cruises on a comped basis for gamblers. Cannot mention them on CC but not hard to google.

[sixpackeddie]

Hello,

After our last cruise I checked with the casino host on the last day of our cruise and am 12,000 points away from Sapphire. I’m not sure how to calculate how much I will have to gamble to reach Sapphire on our next cruise in March. I only play table games. Does anyone know how I can calculate?

Thank you in advance!

[Fly and Sail]

26 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Hello,

After our last cruise I checked with the casino host on the last day of our cruise and am 12,000 points away from Sapphire. I’m not sure how to calculate how much I will have to gamble to reach Sapphire on our next cruise in March. I only play table games. Does anyone know how I can calculate?

Thank you in advance!

 

Not a clue and good luck trying to hit that target properly. BCC/X is so mysterious with their calculations for table games that it's not even funny. The only way to properly track your play is with slots.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Fly and Sail

[sixpackeddie]

Just looked on the website it says 8 points for every dollar on table games. Does this mean I only need to gamble $1500 to earn 12,000 points? 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Just now, sixpackeddie said:

Just looked on the website it says 8 points for every dollar on table games. Does this mean I only need to gamble $1500 to earn 12,000 points? 

No, as the game you play is a factor.  It also depends if you’re rated correctly.  So with blackjack, if you play $25/hand for an hour, that’s what you’re rating on.  If you are playing solo for that hour you’ll play a lot more hands than if you with a full table 

[CalTexCruiser]

4 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Just looked on the website it says 8 points for every dollar on table games. Does this mean I only need to gamble $1500 to earn 12,000 points? 

 

It's 8 points for every dollar of theoretical loss, which varies by the table game you play.  

 

For example, if blackjack has a 2% theoretical loss, than if you play $1,000, you have a $20 theoretical loss, and the 8 points is based on that $20, not $1,000.

[sixpackeddie]

3 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

It's 8 points for every dollar of theoretical loss, which varies by the table game you play.  

 

For example, if blackjack has a 2% theoretical loss, than if you play $1,000, you have a $20 theoretical loss, and the 8 points is based on that $20, not $1,000.

Thank you for the quick response CalTexCruiser. Would Blue Chip have the percentage of the theoretical loss per table game? I used to play a lot of Blackjack but have recently enjoyed playing ultimate Texas Holdem. 
This point seems very different from gambling in Vegas. My host in Vegas will Comp rooms, meals etc if you play $50 per hand for 4 hours per day regardless of which table game you play. I wonder why Blue Chip does it this way? Apparently the chips in the Ship Casino have a micro chips so they can track exactly what your betting pattern is, unlike Vegas where the pit boss tracks your play.

[Guppy99]

11 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Thank you for the quick response CalTexCruiser. Would Blue Chip have the percentage of the theoretical loss per table game? I used to play a lot of Blackjack but have recently enjoyed playing ultimate Texas Holdem. 
This point seems very different from gambling in Vegas. My host in Vegas will Comp rooms, meals etc if you play $50 per hand for 4 hours per day regardless of which table game you play. I wonder why Blue Chip does it this way? Apparently the chips in the Ship Casino have a micro chips so they can track exactly what your betting pattern is, unlike Vegas where the pit boss tracks your play.

How exactly do micro chips in the playing chips track your specific betting pattern?

[CalTexCruiser]

2 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

Thank you for the quick response CalTexCruiser. Would Blue Chip have the percentage of the theoretical loss per table game? I used to play a lot of Blackjack but have recently enjoyed playing ultimate Texas Holdem. 
This point seems very different from gambling in Vegas. My host in Vegas will Comp rooms, meals etc if you play $50 per hand for 4 hours per day regardless of which table game you play. I wonder why Blue Chip does it this way? Apparently the chips in the Ship Casino have a micro chips so they can track exactly what your betting pattern is, unlike Vegas where the pit boss tracks your play.

 

BCC's advertised system of assigning points to theoretical loss seems to be different, but at the end of the day, it's just a variation of what a land-based casino does.  Land-based casino also assign comps based on theoretical loss, except that they usually have a system of giving back to the player Y% of the theoretical loss as comps, where Y differs by casino (some are more generous than others).

 

As to using microchips in casino chips, I have not heard that BCC does that.  I often see a pit boss with a clip board, and as they walk around the pit observing the games, they would make notes on it.  I have always assumed that's how they track play.  

[sixpackeddie]

3 hours ago, Guppy99 said:

How exactly do micro chips in the playing chips track your specific betting pattern?

Apparently the chip communicates with the table(where you place your bets) and can tell the value of each chip and how much each hand is with in terms of dollars.