SnoozeD122

Thank you so much for your reply! I definitely don’t have it in my mind that I’m going to come home loaded. Or even a winner. I have a bankroll that I’m willing to spend to achieve my goal… and hopefully that happens with that amount. I’ve also decided that if I can’t hit an X amount of points by certain number of $’s (half my bank roll) - that I will just stop there as I feel I wouldn’t achieve the goal going further and no sense in giving them the remaining amount. I don’t know if that is a wise plan, or a dumb plan. Even though I know I try to still achieve that on a later sailing, so I’ll still end up spending that amount at some point. As you stated, the goal is to reach prime as inexpensively as possible, I have no desire to hit other tier levels. I just want the added benefits of comped/discounted cruises to achieve the next status level even faster, (as I would probably do those solo since hubby hasn’t retired yet and that gets to that goal faster) and the drinks is also I nice add, even when we do become diamond. I appreciate your time and willingness to help all of us out!

@DoomSlayer I’ve been reading all of your replies on this thread a friend directed me to. I’m about to embark on my journey on trying to add casino benefits for future cruises while on my journey to get to Diamond by the end of 2023. I appreciate all the information you have provided - especially for someone like me who is new to this. When you say stay away from the Pennies - are you saying not to play the 1c machines? And please excuse my naïveté, but what is a ‘play all machine’. I googled and didn’t find an answer to that… maybe my key words are not adequate. My last cruise last month I played a penny machine and was mostly doing the minimum 50c bet. Occasionally I bet $1 or $1.50 but mostly .50c. This was before I really understood the desire to earn points. I didn’t put a lot of money in, I wasn’t planning on gambling and I left with a whopping $75 in my pocket ahead. $75 I didn’t have, so not nothing and I was happy But in my mind now, that seemed like the smart way to go, (low risk and hopefully longer play) but maybe I’m thinking about it incorrectly. My machine focus until coming here to this thread, was to find the lower jackpot machines $4K/$5K range. My thought process was to chase Prime with a set bankroll on my next cruise - 6 days, I’m going solo, so thought it would be a good time to try it out. So do you personally have a rule of thumb in regard to sitting at a machine and moving if it’s not paying out? Like do you have a fiscal plan of staying vs moving? Example you sit at a machine and have put 10% of your entire bankroll for your cruise in a machine and you’ve hit nada ( I know probably not realistic, but for argument sake) would you say time to move or do you sit it out. Do you break up your bankroll into amounts per day, or you’re not as regimented as that? Is it worth playing during those different offerings they have like “hot seat” I believe one is called, or does that not matter in any way shape or form. I would love any ‘words of wisdom’, good or bad. Thank you for your time!