AGSLC5

Eric, with the new rules as long as you accumulate 2500 points throughout the year (April 1- Mar 31) Then you get to keep your prime status. So if one cruise you earn 600 and another you earn 1900 your good to go. I go on a variety of cruises because I live in Ft. Lauderdale I take about 8-10 cruises a year but a lot of them are 3 nighters. I would say about 4-5 are 3 nighters. Then about 2-3 are 4-5 nighters and 2-3 7 nighters. On the 3 nighters its impossible for me when betting about $25 a hand to earn 2500 points in three days lol. On a 3 night cruise I probably earn around 1000 points. Its the 7 night cruises where you need to make up your points. On those I try to earn 4000 points so I can get the free balcony cruises plus I'm Signature so I have to try to get up to 25,000 points which I'm not sure if I will be keeping again for this year but we will see I do have 6 cruises coming up before the end of the rating period. Also I think you ended up with a win. Like you said you played 35 hours on a free trip and didn't lose any money to me this is a big WIN. Glad you had fun.

I think the problem was not his play time it was his average bet.. depending on how the cruise is going for me my bet can range from $15 a hand to $100 a hand.. and I play from 5-8 hours a day on a sea day and at least 4 hours a day on port days. I was told on my last cruise in July that yes they care how many hours you play but they more care about Average bet per hand.. I find if they don't rate me at at least $25 a hand I don't get a lot of points. So I make sure especially when I am doing well and betting $50 or $100 a hand that I have the pit boss come over and change my average bet in the computer. I then after that session check my points with the host to confirm I was accurately rated.. I know betting $15 a hand for 4-5 hours a day feels like a lot and trust me I get it but to them its just not a high enough bet.

Hello, I go on Many Oasis class ships and always buy a dining package. Here is what you need to do. As soon as you get on the ship go right away to the restaurants you want to eat at and pick your schedule for the week. I always do this and never have a problem getting 6:00 or 6:30 but don't wait do it right away when you get on.. Also no Hibachi is not included in any dining plans.

Yeah that luggage thing is just so annoying I totally feel you. The most annoying part is clearly whether your in a suite or an inside room they still just don't take the proper care with the luggage. Sorry you have to go through that.. I didn't realize that about the status match. I earlier this year just did the status match so I better make sure take a cruise with them in the next few years.. Back in June I called MSC's casino department to see if they could look into my play at Royal and see If I could get a discount. They said they would be happy to look into it and all I need to do is provide them with a Win/Loss statement from Royal. So I think of perfect that sounds easy. Well I call good old Club Royale and I have been trying to get a Win/Loss statement from them Since June 20! It is the most frustrating process. They say it should take 3-5 weeks well clearly I'm going on almost 3 Months!! And when you call Club Royale to follow up they give the old nothing they can do line. So I'm quite frustrated. And its not like told them I need the statement for another cruise line I said I needed it for tax purposes. So thats why I was curious if you found another way to get a discount.

Raye, This happened to me TWICE. The first time was on Allure and I was in an Aqua Theater Suite.. Basically my bag never made it off the ship and they had to wait a week for the ship to comeback and they found my bag and shipped it to me.. Then a year later this happened to me on Anthem. So basically after both those times I have no confidence in them delivering me my bags lol. I now carry them off my self which is difficult but I just can't risk them losing the bags. Glad you got free cruises from the Casino though.. Thats always fun.. I meant to ask you I noticed you are going to try MSC. Did you happen to get a comped cruise on that sailing? I would like to try MSC but I wanted to see if I could get a discount thru their casino. Let me know how you did it and again I hope they find your bag so frustrating when this happens.

Yup I totally get it. Hey I'm glad you had a much better experience than I did. I think I am just a big ship person. I think I have to go on Voyager class and higher to be happy. I need choices. I need different restaurants, I need ice skating shows, I need bigger casinos. So for me I guess its just Voyager class and up but I respect that some people love a small ship experience

I don't mean for this to sound rude so please don't take it this way I really am curious. What did you like about Empress? I went on there for FREE in a junior suite that I got from the casino. I absolutely hated it. First I find that the air conditioning in the boat is awful. I am from Ft Lauderdale so I am used to heat but I don't want to be hot inside the ship. 2nd I found the food to be the absolute WORST out of all my Royal Caribbean cruises and I have been on 52 Royal Caribbean cruises. My friend and I joked that that we literally only ate enough on that ship just to get by because we found it so bad. Not just in MDR found the Windjammer quality to just be terrible. Also I spend a lot of time in the casino and maybe you don't but the actual A/C in the Casino is so bad they have to have huge fans blowing and the poor dealers are sweating so bad because they can't cool off. Now to be fair I took this cruise right after its dry dock before it went to Cuba. it was doing 4/5 Western Caribbean sailings and thats where I went.. Maybe it has improved since then but even if the Casino gave me the biggest suite they have I wouldn't go on it again. So Again I am not trying to be rude or put you down I truly am looking for someone's perspective on what they like about this ship..

I have been cruising with Royal Caribbean since 2005. Back then the food in the MDR was great. Now I find the food in the MDR not very good at all. I always get the Ultimate Dining package and love it. I find the food in the specialty restaurants the only way to go. Now of course there are many people who will disagree with me but I am a foodie. Food is very important to me so I don't mind spending the extra money to have what I consider delicious food.

Matt I was just on Harmony last week.. I was able to use my ultimate dining package at Chops on the first day. This is the third time I have been able to do this on an Oasis class ship

Raye, I have had great luck using my Ultimate dining on embark day on O class ships, but on Mariner they just don't always even offer lunch on the first day which I thought was weird.. But I am very excited I am going on Harmony in 2 days and plan to have chops lunch day 1.. Hopefully it works.

After just being on the New Mariner twice.. I think this is the next best option. They did a fabulous job renovating the boat and I had quite a lot of fun on both my quick 3 night sailings. I even enjoyed playing laser tag. Try to go with a group its much more fun that way. Anyway I hope they work out the pricing for you but the boat itself is great

I actually do have experience with this as I was just on Mariner for a 3 night. Sorry to disappoint but they don't even always serve lunch on embarkation day in the restaurants and since there are no sea days they don't let you use it or any day they do serve lunch. Also, they will NOT let you use it for the hibachi in Izumi and in that Izumi there are not many tables for just Sushi. Again sorry to disappoint. I was also pretty bummed..

In addition to dinner.. For example on Allure a couple months ago I had 3 sea days.. So I had 7 dinners and 4 lunches including embarkation day. I went to Chops on Embarkation day and said I have the ultimate dining package are you open for lunch and they said absolutely come on in and my bill was zero and that night I still got to eat at 150 Central Park. I am going on Harmony in 10 days and plan on trying to do the same thing so I will report back with what happens.

I always get the ultimate dining package.. Every time I go if there is a restaurant open for lunch on Embarkation day they gladly let me use my package for the lunch.. Maybe I have just gotten lucky but this has worked for me for like 5-6 times now. So my advice is give it a try and ask

I play mostly Blackjack and a little bit of Roulette. I'm sure we will probably run into each other I spend most of my time in the Casino. My real name is Stephanie by the way and I feel you on wishing you booked sooner.. When I booked back in Jan the pricing was really good. Then the second they announced the big Refurb boom prices hit the roof. Also I live 30 min from the port so I also don't have to pay to fly so for me this was a no brainer. I actually have 3 cruises within the next 30 days so I'm pretty excited. But hopefully I will see you in there and we can win some money.

I have a junior suite on deck 9. We booked this cruise back in January when the pricing was really cheap. We are also doing a cruise on Harmony on July 21. Originally we were going to do a b2b on Harmony but my friend works for the school board in south Florida and this year they changed how early kids go back to school and we could only do the one week.. Well we quickly needed an other option so we are still doing one week on Harmony but we still had 2 vouchers to use that equaled $1,500 so we are going on Mariner in the Junior suite for just taxes and fees. You will really love the space the handicap room gives. I am handicap and for boats like Harmony I need scooters and shower chairs so I get a handicap room and the extra space in the bathroom alone is very helpful for me. What do you like to play in the Casino? Maybe I will see you there.

awesome.. just curious what room category did you book? I'm asking because I only see like 5 cabins left so I'm just curious if you got one of those 5 rooms lol.

Yes I am

I will def come back with feedback for you. I am wondering to what extent the refurbed the staterooms

I'm very excited! I will be on her a week from tomorrow!! I got a nice Junior Suite on deck 9 thanks to all my donations to the Casino lol

Yeah it was my best win ever. At the end of the week I walked away with 6k and a certificate for a free balcony cruise. So yes I did end up giving some back but I netted 5.5k plus the free balcony cruise so I was obviously quite happy with that. I happen to just be at a very HOT blackjack table that night and I think most of us walked away winning quite a bit and it was on night 1 so like I said for the rest of the week I got to play with the house's money. I mostly play black jack and for some reason I do much better on Oasis class ships. I don't know why but both my "Big Wins" have been on Oasis class ships.

I am Signature and spend on average on a 7 night cruise between 3k-5k... But sometimes I hit it big which helps. Last year on Allure I turned $500 into 10k in one night.. That cruise I was able to be in the casino non stop spending their money and racked up 8000 points which helped me in getting to signature. I then 3 months later got lucky and repeated this with 7000 points so really its luck. This year unless the Casino gods smile on me again I probably will only end up making Prime for next year.. I will see what happens. But my point is unless you spend about 4-6 hours a day and spend a significant amount of money you won't really get any good perks. The program is not set up for a casual gambler.

Hello, Attention fellow gamblers. Club Royale has finally got their act together and started to send out the member tier info email today!! I am officially Signature! They also are ready to book you your annual comp cruise.. I just spoke with Club Royale it has to be 7nights or less and can't be during a major holiday but other than that it can be any ship or sailing. I am pretty happy with this news.. Whose with me?

I have a feeling this has to do with being able to open up the casino fully. Currently when we are in Coco Cay we are tendered and still in the water so they leave the Casino open. But when we go to Labadee they only have slots open and not tables so maybe there is some rule against it. I am not sure but just a thought..

I am 31 years old Diamond plus with 273 cruise points.. But I don't live on a boat lol. However I do go on between 6-8 cruises a year.