We made it through our 21 day NCL cruise. Despite hitting 10,000 in large jackpots we still lost big of course on the trip with the horrible pay rates on the slots and video poker. Our friends who were only on it for 11 days though hit nothing big, so they lost at least double what we did over twice as many days.
As I previously reported they really cut back on the benefits, most dramatically at the VIP level. And they have also deeply cut last year and this year the amount they comp off your bill at the end of the cruise. They also will not give you another type of comp in lieu of the dinner comp (now minus wine) if you have the dinner package through the cruise line, which sucks! The spa credit is the only real benefit they have left.
Two other changes, now instead of a rolling 12 month which used to be used between annual April 1 reevaluations, you go to zero effective April 1. To illustrate what this means, in my example since Sept 2014 I had over 32,000 points before this 21 day cruise. Prior to the new rules 4/1/2015, as soon as I would have earned 3,000 points on this April cruise I would have been upgraded to VIP since I would have had over 35,000 in the prior 8 months. Now I don’t become VIP until I earn another full 35,000 points post 4/1/15. That’s a big impact because they also do not carry over your prior year earned status to the next year. Our friends for example were Gold (15,000 point level) in their Dec, Jan and March cruises, but were downgraded to Hot April 1 and don’t go back to Gold until an entirely new 15,000 are earned for each. Likewise I was downgraded April from VIP to Gold and instead of the 3,000 points I would need the full 35,000 before getting VIP. As I have said in the program comparisons in earlier posts, VIP no longer concerns me or my friends since they killed 99% of the extra benefits you used to get for VIP. It shows how whoever designs the program really doesn’t understand gamblers. In both of our cases, the four of us will now just play up over the year to 15,000 instead of 35,000 points each. That is a huge loss to Casino at Seas (4 X 20,000 points each = 80,000 less points X $5 = $400,000 less coin in). In my experience on dozens of NCL cruises that will cost NCL about $80,000 as they seem to average a 20% hold.
The second big change is when you make a new level during a cruise you DO NOT get the benefits of that new level. You have to wait until you cruise the next time, how dumb, no other casino makes you wait to get the benefit’s you have earned and CAS did not until this new rule April 1, 2015. So, for example, if after you have been downgraded the one level they always do on April 1 from Gold to Hot, but on you make Gold in April again like our friend, they still would not give him the free dinners, nor waive the 3% convenience fees even though he was Gold for 9 more days on the cruise. This was quite a slap in the face for him since he can be a huge player (Noir with MGM and 7 star with Caesars).
Can you spell Penny wise, pound foolish! You would think both NCL CAS (and land based casino groups) would form customer advisory committees and learn when they are shooting themselves in the foot, but the 30 something MBA’s in conference rooms think they know it all!
Dave