tonyfsu21

I think we pretty much agree on entertainment first!  Why spend time doing something you don't enjoy, after all, time has some value to you.

I would consider it first being entertainment and second making money. It all boils down to luck and personally my lifetime tally I am ahead (at the moment) due to some large hand pays. I agree it’s pointless to beat the casino because that’s just not going to happen. 

This is really good information. Thank you. I never put this amount of thought and analysis into the machines I’m dumping money into. 

You are going to go from presumably zero to prime in a day? That’s a whole lot of cash and/or cash mixed with beyond good luck. Note: It’s going to cost you ~$12,500 of play for some free drinks in the casino and a crappy discount on a balcony cabin. Take a moment and review this payout ratio from a single machine on Wonder (photo taken by me on Sunday 3/19) and hopefully this provides some good data for your Prime journey if you choose to play slots. Good luck.

This is really good information. Thank you. I never put this amount of thought and analysis into the machines I’m dumping money into. 

This is really good information. Thank you. I never put this amount of thought and analysis into the machines I’m dumping money into. 

This is really good information. Thank you. I never put this amount of thought and analysis into the machines I’m dumping money into. 

Slot machines are all set via PAR tables / PAR sheets which determines the payout outcome of each spin when the random number generator is stopped by the player hitting the button.  The PAR table has a list of every possible payout outcome the game can have based on the random number selected.  It is common for a 5 real machine to only use the last 5 to 10 digits of the random number to determine this, so the math of the number of payout outcomes is 10^5 which is 100,000 payout outcomes, up to 10^10 which is 10,000,000,000 payout outcomes.  The payouts are adjusted by how much the casino presets the expected return to player, usually somewhere between 95-99%.  On machines that offer multi-denominations (1cent, 2cent, 5cent, 10cent, etc.), the PAR tables and return to player are set differently for each denomination.  General rule of thumb is that the higher the denomination, the better the return to player is. (Fun tip, instead of betting more per spin, change the denomination to get a better PAR table).  Once the payout outcome is determined, the slot machine then determines a spin for the wheels that matches the selected PAR table payout. (It is funny, because most people think the outcome of the wheels determines the payout, but the reality is that the payout outcome determines what will be displayed on the wheels).
Let's assume you are playing in a casino that has set the return to player at 97%.  This means that after 300 million spins, the slot machine is expected to return 97% of what is bet on the machine.   On machines that offer larger jackpots, the payout outcomes in the PAR table will have a LOWER win/loss ratio -- meaning a large probability of a loss for any given spin, but if/when you do win, it will more than likely be a bigger win.  You will typically see big swings in your bankroll playing these types of machines and will require a huge bankroll to support a losing streak.  This type of slot machine is extremely volatile!
On machines that don't offer big jackpots or where the top normal payout is not too big, the payout outcomes in the PAR table will have a HIGHER win/loss ratio -- meaning there will be more smaller wins or break evens in the PAR table (which lowers the probability of a loss on any given spin) as compared to the machine described above.  This decreases volatility and you should experience lower swings in your bankroll over time.  These types of machines are what allow you to recycle money and get more points.
Another type of machine to avoid are branded machines.  These typically have licensed themes like Wheel of Fortune or Big Bang Theory and royalties are paid to the trademark / creative property holder to use these themes.  These royalties are paid as a percentage of the money the casino makes off the machine, so the return to player on these machines is set lower around 93-95%.  To make things worse, the Wheel of Fortune machine is a progressive jackpot machine, meaning the PAR table has a high percentage of losses in it.
I tend to play Aristocrat games like Buffalo and Miss Kitty as they tend to have a lot more small payouts hit and I can sit there for hours playing without seeing huge swings in my bankroll.  I really like Buffalo Gold Collection and spend a lot of time on it playing 2cent or 5cent denominations.  I will play it on the Wonder 4 tower if I can't find a standalone game available, although it does have a fixed PAR table at 1cent and can't be adjusted.
At the end of the day, don't take this as a way to beat the slots as that is statistically almost impossible. It is more of a "how do I last longer and get more casino player points" response.  You can obviously run into a lot of losing spins that will cut your day and point tally short, but that is part of your choice when you decide to gamble.

That $12,500 number is just math and not based on actual play. I also want to say I have achieved 1500pt on less than $1000 and my luck wasn't that great. I play the max bet on a slot that the max is under $2 and can cycle through. My Prime status costed me less than $1700 this year and I got 2 comped cruises and my annual one coming. I just got a comped cruise for April, where interiors are $1100+ so I am more than in the black. I only spend what I would be spending based on cruises, as I often sail solo, interiors are fine with me, or I will pay to upgrade. I think a big thing, at least for me, is to find a machine and stick to it. I often hear of people losing more by playing all the machines and that is when I often lose more as well. I sat at pretty much only three machines in Jan on Oasis and lost $950 but I left with 1500pt. 

Ok, I am completely confused about a less volatile slot machine, can you please steer me to the type? I play almost every machine in the casino with a bankroll between 8x-10x of the one you are stating you win with and don’t hit the 2000 point threshold until many $1000’s are either won or lost. I suppose you “could” hit a hand pay after a couple hundred are cycled through and quadruple that bankroll and then dump it all back in to get that 2000+ points but there’s such low probability of that happening making this difficult to understand. Last week on Wonder I left the casino on Saturday night with 7500 points after a week cruise and i can verify that did not come cheap. A free balcony cruise would not be sufficient. I am clearly spending too much time playing the wrong machines. Please help. 

I just did it on my last trip in March, did it last December, did it last September... (I could keep going).  All on slots.  Broke even last September, won a hand pay that more than paid for the trip in December, and lost about $400 in March.  My wife and I are happy with free balconies, so to each their own I guess on that topic.  Our next comped trip is on Allure in May to Honduras.  I have another one in October on Voyager.  I should get my voucher in a couple of weeks and will use it in December, and I expect to get a comp for a summer trip on my May cruise.  Yes you cycle through money and get a multiplier -- the key there is to look for less volatile slots to play, stay away from pennies (PAR table changes with higher denominations), and play all features.
There was a couple sitting next to me on Adventure last month in the casino.  They must have had a huge bankroll because they were playing max bets and went from nothing to signature status in one sitting.  I am sure the floor staff was a little annoyed because with bets so big, they were constantly getting hand pays.  They were not US citizens, so they did not have the tax consequences with the hand pays.  I am not sure how much they won or lost, but it was funny watching them squirm when they were losing and dancing when they were winning.

You are going to go from presumably zero to prime in a day? That’s a whole lot of cash and/or cash mixed with beyond good luck. Note: It’s going to cost you ~$12,500 of play for some free drinks in the casino and a crappy discount on a balcony cabin. Take a moment and review this payout ratio from a single machine on Wonder (photo taken by me on Sunday 3/19) and hopefully this provides some good data for your Prime journey if you choose to play slots. Good luck.

You are going to go from presumably zero to prime in a day? That’s a whole lot of cash and/or cash mixed with beyond good luck. Note: It’s going to cost you ~$12,500 of play for some free drinks in the casino and a crappy discount on a balcony cabin. Take a moment and review this payout ratio from a single machine on Wonder (photo taken by me on Sunday 3/19) and hopefully this provides some good data for your Prime journey if you choose to play slots. Good luck.

This is a great spot, we were at Blue Lagoon earlier this week on Wonder. My only complaint would be the price gouging at the bar. Seriously $11USD for a can of subpar Bahamian beer? On our way back to the ship when the ferry was docking at the pier the captain misjudged the wind and slammed into the concrete piling which shattered a large glass window pane and sprayed glass everywhere. Word of advise, BE VERY CAUTIOUS AND AWARE IF YOU AND YOUR FAMILY OPT TO SIT NEXT TO THE GLASS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE LARGER FERRY WITH THE TINTED GLASS PANES. A woman and her family sitting under the pane had some small cuts from the glass and fortunately did not get severely injured.  

The staff will move it for you. I have had to do this before when there are no chairs for my family but rows of chairs with the standard issue chair hog essentials on them. They watch for a bit and then clear the chairs for you. I have taken this into my own hands on a few occasions but only after watching the hogs at 6am while doing my AM walk and knowing the perpetrators. It’s a dog eat dog world.

Every single day. The hogs are out at 6am and they disappear until 10-11am. 

Every single day. The hogs are out at 6am and they disappear until 10-11am. 

Don’t place too much emphasis on “priority boarding”. It’s all about the port and how efficient they are. The last three times we sailed (most recently departed on Sun) we literally walked right on the ship without any notable roadblocks. As far as FL ports go, I personally think the easiest is Canaveral followed by Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Junior Suites are great because you get a significant amount of stateroom and balcony real estate for a fairly decent price. The suite lounge is nothing to brag about (you wouldn’t be missing anything) and the other perks are less than impressive but I still think it’s good bang for the buck. If you step it up in the future, skip everything and go straight to a loft suite which IMHO is the best. The star class Genie is not for everyone and I actually find the entire process exhausting and annoying and prefer to be left alone. Good luck and enjoy the JS!

Day 4 on Wonder and I don’t notice any more roll then any other Oasis class ship.

Day 4 on Wonder and I don’t notice any more roll then any other Oasis class ship.

Yep, someone made a mistake. Chris Wong might be upset about this finding…

Only when I go into the diagnostic part of the slot machines I own. That's a weird screen to pop up without having the attendant key .
 

#drinkpackage

Or just a byproduct of drinking too much alcohol. Irresponsible would be getting behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle which would be difficult on a cruise ship. 

Very interesting.  Payout ratio right around 80% as several people have speculated.