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Casino Drink Perks


Mike S

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Hello all! Will be going on the Allure of the Seas in May for a cruise and was curious how their casino perks worked? I know on other cruise lines you receive a unlimited drink pass after playing so much and hitting a certain threshold. Does RCCL do something like this as well? I play mostly blackjack and poker. 

 

Thanks!

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Just an FYI, poker (the real poker...not talking about table games with "poker" in the name) is not a "rated" game so you will receive NO casino points while playing at the poker table.  BJ, absolutely, but not poker.

I wish I could give you a reliable answer to your question about "free" drinks but I cannot.  It seems that every casino on every ship has a different way of handling this AND the fact that the casino VIP program (called Club Royale) is in complete flux at the moment doesn't help.  In the old days (last year), once you accumulated 1000 points (pretty easy to do if you are playing at least a couple of hours every day) they would put the VIP sticker on your seapass card.  This sticker entitled you to pretty much unlimited free drinks while playing as well as the waiver of the 5% "convenience" fee for getting money on your seapass card.  It might still work that way.  I really have no way of knowing.  We will be on Allure next month so I will try and see if the new rules are out by then.  For those of us who have been members of CR for a while, it seems that they (meaning the casino emperors, whoever they are) are being somewhat more flexible with applying benefits we have enjoyed for a while, but the newer players are not quite so lucky, from what I have seen.  If you want to start talking casino discounts on cruises, that is a whole OTHER mess.  Not happy with what I'm seeing at all, there.  The drop dead date for the new program rollout is supposed to be 1 April so we'll see what happens then.

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50 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Just an FYI, poker (the real poker...not talking about table games with "poker" in the name) is not a "rated" game so you will receive NO casino points while playing at the poker table.  BJ, absolutely, but not poker.

I wish I could give you a reliable answer to your question about "free" drinks but I cannot.  It seems that every casino on every ship has a different way of handling this AND the fact that the casino VIP program (called Club Royale) is in complete flux at the moment doesn't help.  In the old days (last year), once you accumulated 1000 points (pretty easy to do if you are playing at least a couple of hours every day) they would put the VIP sticker on your seapass card.  This sticker entitled you to pretty much unlimited free drinks while playing as well as the waiver of the 5% "convenience" fee for getting money on your seapass card.  It might still work that way.  I really have no way of knowing.  We will be on Allure next month so I will try and see if the new rules are out by then.  For those of us who have been members of CR for a while, it seems that they (meaning the casino emperors, whoever they are) are being somewhat more flexible with applying benefits we have enjoyed for a while, but the newer players are not quite so lucky, from what I have seen.  If you want to start talking casino discounts on cruises, that is a whole OTHER mess.  Not happy with what I'm seeing at all, there.  The drop dead date for the new program rollout is supposed to be 1 April so we'll see what happens then.

Thanks for the info! What is this 5% convenience fee you speak of? They charge 5% to load your card with money or to cash it out? Is there a way around it?

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The convenience fee is the charge for giving you cash/chips at the tables and charging your seapass account.  So if you want, say, $200 worth of chips and you have no cash, they will charge your seapass account $210 and give you $200 worth of chips to play with.  There is no charge for cashing out the chips, ever.

If you bring cash and only play with cash there is no charge for anything...but if you don't want to carry a bunch of cash onto the ship, you can just use this method to play and if you don't lose (BIG if !) then you can always pay off your seapass account before disembarking.

The way to get around the fee is to become a VIP Club Royale member !  As I said earlier, the rule has always been....that if you earn at LEAST 1000 points then on the next cruise, you will receive free drinks and a waiver of this 5% fee....but with the changing program rules, I have no idea if this will continue to be the rule, going forward, or not. 

There is also a way to set up an "account" with the casino, prior to embarking, but honestly, I have no idea how this works.  We have never even considered it.

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5 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Just an FYI, poker (the real poker...not talking about table games with "poker" in the name) is not a "rated" game so you will receive NO casino points while playing at the poker table.  BJ, absolutely, but not poker.

I wish I could give you a reliable answer to your question about "free" drinks but I cannot.  It seems that every casino on every ship has a different way of handling this AND the fact that the casino VIP program (called Club Royale) is in complete flux at the moment doesn't help.  In the old days (last year), once you accumulated 1000 points (pretty easy to do if you are playing at least a couple of hours every day) they would put the VIP sticker on your seapass card.  This sticker entitled you to pretty much unlimited free drinks while playing as well as the waiver of the 5% "convenience" fee for getting money on your seapass card.  It might still work that way.  I really have no way of knowing.  We will be on Allure next month so I will try and see if the new rules are out by then.  For those of us who have been members of CR for a while, it seems that they (meaning the casino emperors, whoever they are) are being somewhat more flexible with applying benefits we have enjoyed for a while, but the newer players are not quite so lucky, from what I have seen.  If you want to start talking casino discounts on cruises, that is a whole OTHER mess.  Not happy with what I'm seeing at all, there.  The drop dead date for the new program rollout is supposed to be 1 April so we'll see what happens then.

I can’t wait to check back on April 2nd and see if CR did us right! Judging by past experiences (mostly recent events) I’m not holding my breath. 

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