billdauterive

I checked in last night after midnight for Grandeur and got 11 am as the earliest slot.  So the check in times are definitely ship and/or port dependent and not a fleet-wide standard.

Yes it's still there for now.  But after the upcoming amp, who knows.

I know I've mentioned it before but I play craps to get my points.  Yes the tables are much more variable as far as the points you earn go, but if you can stay on top of the pit boss for average bet and see the casino host to ensure your time at the table is accurate a lot of the volatility is negated.  Personally my overall average was around 3 points / dollar this past casino year, but like slots it was very volatile on individual cruises.  Anywhere from plus money or break even to 1/2 point per dollar on a really bad luck sailing (@Matt was on that one so I blame him...)

If anyone is interested in playing craps for points, I recommend watching Bryan at the Holy Rollr on youtube.  I'll play variations of his Light in the Darkness strategy if I'm just concerned with earning points and not necessarily trying to win big.  https://www.youtube.com/@holyrollr

I'll report back about my experience next month (as long as my 4th attempt at attending the beach club isn't cancelled like my 3 previous attempts...)

I'm finally doing my first B2B next month and curious how the lunch works.  From my understanding there is a dedicated B2B cruiser lunch in the main dining room.  Do you go straight to the dining room after being led back on the ship or do you just meet there at a certain time?  (Or did I hallucinate everything and I'll be stuck with the hoards at the Windjammer?)

On 3/30/2024 at 9:45 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

You can always consider pre-purchasing lunch at a specialty restaurant.  This is what we do.  Yes, it's additional $$ but it is so worth it for a calm, enjoyable boarding day reward.  Prices have gone up but lunch is still one of the few bargains left on Royal Caribbean.

This is my go to move as well.

On 3/30/2024 at 5:31 PM, TimeRacer said:

This is the highest one I can find on my cruise planner right now for my May Alaska cruise.

Interesting.  Mine is in late June so I would have expected it to be a higher base cost than your May one.

2 hours ago, Baked Alaska said:

Could our son's name appear as the sole occupant of the cabin?

I'm fairly certain 18+ is no problem for any cabin any where on the ship.

2 hours ago, Baked Alaska said:

If he is at an age where he can be the sole occupant, would he receive triple CA points? 

Yep.

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

My understanding from our past bookings with our minor children is that they can be named as the sole occupants of the room as long as it’s connecting or adjacent to yours.

This is my understanding as well.  Connecting rooms can be any age and I believe 13+ can be rooms that are next door (but not connecting) or across the hall.

The real question is why are you giving the triple points to your son and not you or your husband!

58 minutes ago, edobkin said:

About how much should I plan to spend if I want to be in a similar position to you? I feel like the wife and I have been missing out on ways to cruise more by not spending any time in the casinos. We like to gamble for fun, and would not be expecting to hit jackpots, we would just want to position ourselves to be offered comped or discounted cruises so that we can take more trips. Thanks!

There's too many variables and unknowns from Royal to really answer this question fully.  But if you limit the question to trying to earn about 1500 points per cruise by slots you can get an semi-realistic answer.  1500 points on slots would be $7500 of coin in across the entire cruise.  Obviously slots will pay back a certain percentage of coin in.  No one knows the exact amount as it varies by machine and Royal isn't exactly going to give out that information but I believe the best guess from people more knowledgeable about slots than me is around 80%.  So on average, your coin in of $7500 would have an expected payback of $6000 which means it would cost about $1500 on average to get 1500 points (on 80% payback machines).  However, average payout doesn't mean it will actually cost you that amount as there are extreme outliers factored into the average.  It's possible (though unlikely) that you could got through all $7500 coin in and not win anything, so it would actually cost $7500 to get 1500 points.  You could also win on every single spin so then it would cost you $0 (and in fact you would win more money than you put in) to get to 1500 points.

TLDR; average is probably around $1500 for 1500 points (assuming 80% payback), but could theoretically be net positive or cost up to $7500 every cruise.

To take it a step further, if we use slots as an example of the type of play for both, Player A would be coining in almost $42k/day while Player B would be coining in $2500/day.  At an 80% average payback (simple example, no one knows exactly what the rate of the machines are), Royal would expect to make about $8400/day on average off of the play of Player A, while "only" $500/day on average off of the play of Player B.

15 hours ago, KevinK said:

I though once became signature I would see a better offer.

I see this confusion a lot so I'll try to clear it up some.  Offers aren't based on your status, they are based on your average daily theoretical loss (or THEO).  Think about it this way, which player is more valuable to the casino?  Player A who goes on a single 3 day cruise but gains 25,0000 points (extremely high theo), or Player B who cruises 100 days a year at 500 points/day average (much lower theo)?  Both are signature players and Player B will actually have twice as many total points (50,000 to 25,000), but Player A will have a theo that's approximately 15-20x Player B.  Therefore the casino expects to make 15-20x more money per day from the play of Player A, hence they will be willing to spend more to try and get Player A onboard (i.e. more and better comps).
TLDR; don't compare your total points (i.e. status) but your average points/day for a better comp comparison.

Just for comparison, here's the most expensive Mexico ones I could find.



And most expensive Bahamas:

I don't have any Eastern or Southern Caribbean booked at the moment so I can't compare those prices.

1 minute ago, RCIfan1912 said:

That is bonkers!

They can ask for any amount they like.  What would be bonkers is for one of the excursions to also have this:

Just now, Baked Alaska said:

Is that Canadian or US dollars?

US

New high score(s)






There's also plenty in the $700-$999 range.  I'm pretty confident nothing will beat these except potentially something in Europe.

17 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

However, he said the dealers weren't the best & sometimes didn't know what they were doing.

This is always the case on every ship.  You may have a few that are really good and could work dice in any casino on land, but the vast majority are obviously new to the game and learning.  So I would recommend not to play craps on the ship if it's your first time or if you don't at least know what the payouts of each of your bets should be for each roll.  I don't know how many hundreds or thousands of dollars I would've been short payed over the years if I just took the dealers payment without verifying the amount.  In fact, I usually have to argue with a dealer and/or pit boss about a payment amount at least once per cruise on average (and they've always conceded that I'm correct in the end...)

5 hours ago, JasonOasis said:

Allure is a great ship it's still an Oasis Class ship I don't know why people now see Allure as this black sheep within the Oasis Class that is to be avoided. 

It's not that it's a ship to be avoided, it's that it was already home ported in Galveston last year. It seems like a step back going to the same ship (even if it really isn't because of the upcoming amp).  I think even having Oasis home ported in Galveston instead of Allure would've been received better since it would be a different ship.

Michael Bayley also really screwed up this deployment imo by implying the next ship would be Wonder.  Any ship other than an Icon class or Utopia was not going to be received well after that.  I know I was extremely disappointed after the official announcement when I probably wouldn't have been without thinking Wonder was next.

I haven't seen $5 min on any ship in about 2 years.  It's definitely $10 right now on Voyager so definitely not a fleet-wide trial at the moment.

Agreed that if you're just concerned with points then table games are not the way to go because it is so variable.  However, I just can't bring myself to push a button to ask a machine if I win several thousand times...

On 3/21/2024 at 6:22 AM, tonyfsu21 said:

I’ve received several of these JS offers but my luck is clearly not that great as I’ve only successfully booked one. Every one of the JS offers has been booked by the time I make the phone call resulting in a balcony downgrade. The agent mentioned they would upgrade if JS comes available. Has anyone ever been upgraded as part of a casino promotion due to category being booked?

Upgrade?  No. 

Downgrade?  Yes, several times (I just get balcony offers and not JS though).  But you can keep calling in later to see if that original category ever opens back up.  I've done that before where I initially booked a lower category room just to get on the ship/sail date and then the original higher category became available later.  The rep should be able to just switch you to the original category at no charge (YMMV).

On 3/20/2024 at 7:03 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

Thanks !  I’m not sure this would work for a casino comp booking that has been upgraded but for one that is a true comp, it sounds like a much easier process than a whole new booking.

From my understanding even upgraded bookings would work.  She said they just take the total amount paid, regardless of which line item the money is associated with (taxes or upgrades), and apply it to the new offer code.

3 hours ago, LCWind said:

This works as long as your existing booking is still outside the final payment date.

Valid point.  I didn't specifically ask about after final payment but I suspect you're correct.

I just learned something today I thought I'd pass along in case someone else doesn't know.

Previously whenever I would find a better casino offer I wanted to use instead of an existing comp sailing, I would always book the new offer and then cancel the existing sailing in the same call.  I thought you could only modify an existing sailing with a new offer code if it was the same ship and sail date.

Today the casino rep told me the better way is to just apply the new offer code to the existing reservation number regardless.  She said it works for all situations like different sail dates, ships, ports, cabin categories, etc.  Then they just apply what you've already paid on the existing booking to the new offer and refund any overage or take payment for just the difference.

Doing it this way you don't have to pay the taxes/fees for a new offer upfront and then wait for the full refund from the canceled old offer for 7-14 business days.

5 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

The wait can be long with club royale, so I didn't want to waste my time.

Are you calling the club royale prime number?  I don't think I've ever waited more than 5 mins since I made prime and started using that number.  In fact the vast majority of the time there is no wait.  I usually call late afternoons (in fact I just booked another offer today about an hour ago after a less than 1 min wait).