vpFREE2 Forums

Casino At Seas Benefits

#1

Not to worry - they may have just put it up today.

They do have some of the traits of their evil twin, CET . Such as increasing the gratuities charge on me for my March 18-27th cruise from $12 to $12.95, even though on my so-called “contract” with them, booked months in advance, the charge is clearly stated as $12. They made the change effective March 1st, but decided to apply it retroactively to already booked passengers.

Fortunately, I got them back at VP, big-time ; )

Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win. -Lazarus Long
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. -Yogi Berra

There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe. -Robert Heinlein

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From: “slu…@…com [vpFREE_Cruises]” <vpFREE_Crui…@…com>
To: vpFREE_Crui…@…com
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 10:17 AM
Subject: Re: [vpFREE_Cruises] Casino At Seas Benefits

Thanks, da, guess I need a vacation … couldn’t get that page to come up all day yesterday.

Dave

#2

Sorry didn’t see the second line in your response. The breakfast/lunch at Cagneys had been drooped earlier - I had it on my previous cruise, but I think it was grandfathered because I mentioned it when booking. I couldn’t get it last cruise, however. According to the CAS people, that was dropped at the request of the hotel dept, because the Haven passengers didn’t like mingling with us common folk.

Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win. -Lazarus Long
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. -Yogi Berra

There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe. -Robert Heinlein

···

From: “GURU PERF gurup…@…net [vpFREE_Cruises]” <vpFREE_Crui…@…com>
To: “vpFREE_Crui…@…com” <vpFREE_Crui…@…com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: [vpFREE_Cruises] Casino At Seas Benefits

Not to worry - they may have just put it up today.

They do have some of the traits of their evil twin, CET . Such as increasing the gratuities charge on me for my March 18-27th cruise from $12 to $12.95, even though on my so-called “contract” with them, booked months in advance, the charge is clearly stated as $12. They made the change effective March 1st, but decided to apply it retroactively to already booked passengers.

Fortunately, I got them back at VP, big-time ; )

Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win. -Lazarus Long
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. -Yogi Berra

There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe. -Robert Heinlein

From: “slu…@…com [vpFREE_Cruises]” <vpFREE_Crui…@…com>
To: vpFREE_Crui…@…com
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 10:17 AM
Subject: Re: [vpFREE_Cruises] Casino At Seas Benefits

Thanks, da, guess I need a vacation … couldn’t get that page to come up all day yesterday.

Dave

#3

I just compared the listings and these are the downgrades:

Gold & VIP - Complementary Spa Access for 2 now just says “Spa Credit”, probably downgraded the amount

  • VIP Royal Treatment (Cagney’s Breakfast/lunch on small ships, VIP check-in, Captain VIP M&G)

  • Cigar & Cigarette Offers

  • VIP Seating for Shows (1st three or four rows they saved for VIP’s/suite holders)

VIP only Downgrade - Private Transportation to/from ship

  • They removed the word “Global” from the Cash Advance fee waived benefit which makes me suspicious that we may not get them waived anymore since we cruise more in Europe than US…
···

They didn’t add a thing that I can see, so they mirrored their partner CET and now only do downgrades! From what I see, with just “Hot” (5,000 points) we will get all the benefits we really ever use (a few drinks and the two dinners. So I’m going to go from $1 & $5 to penny’s and quarters on this 21 day trip and pocket the savings.

BTW, we have never seen or heard of anyone getting a “Special Birthday Offer” in all these years. Anyone else?

Dave

#4

Fortunately when we booked all our 2015 cruises our rep told us about the tip increase and had us prepay them at the old rate so even our cruises at the end of the year are still the $12 rate. I agree they should have only raised them prospectively. Glad you made out on their VP. A friend of ours cruising with us in the Mexican Riviera last year went up $40K on their VP (she was playing $25 … out of my league). Cagney’s was available on all small ships through March, but not on the large ships. We used that right to the end. That one benefit made VIP worth the cost. It’s their huge loss now (and my gain now that all we have to be is “hot”).

Dave

#5

We are now on the Epic and I can add a couple of things from the original comparison below.

  1. As was normal with the past 3 years, we were downgraded to Gold to start out the year (from VIP). Nobody can still explain why you don’t keep your status that was earned in the prior year.

  2. The new Spa Credit benefit is a nice upgrade, instead of 2 or 4 day passes it was $150 of spa credit for each of us which can be used for anything (massages, etc.).

  3. They give you each a certificate for the dinner & wine and you can just present to the restaurant (just like they do with the Latitudes specialty free dinner & wine). They will still book them for you or you can book them yourself.

  4. NON-CASINO related change April 1. They raised the price of the internet from $100 to $125 for 250 minutes, but they added a new UNLIMITED plan for $25/day ($175 for a 7 day cruise). Since we are on a 21 day it will be costly but convenient not to worry about how slow it is.

Also, interestingly, now that the Epic is being banned to Europe permanently, they removed a number of slot and VP machines so it is much less congested in a couple of areas of the casino. Being on the transatlantic the casino I very empty (as it will be all the time in Europe) so I assume they decide to reduce their machine rental costs a bit.

Dave

—In vpFREE_Crui…@…com, <slutoo@…> wrote :

I just compared the listings and these are the downgrades:

Gold & VIP - Complementary Spa Access for 2 now just says “Spa Credit”, probably downgraded the amount

  • VIP Royal Treatment (Cagney’s Breakfast/lunch on small ships, VIP check-in, Captain VIP M&G)

  • Cigar & Cigarette Offers

  • VIP Seating for Shows (1st three or four rows they saved for VIP’s/suite holders)

VIP only Downgrade - Private Transportation to/from ship

  • They removed the word “Global” from the Cash Advance fee waived benefit which makes me suspicious that we may not get them waived anymore since we cruise more in Europe than US…
···

They didn’t add a thing that I can see, so they mirrored their partner CET and now only do downgrades! From what I see, with just “Hot” (5,000 points) we will get all the benefits we really ever use (a few drinks and the two dinners. So I’m going to go from $1 & $5 to penny’s and quarters on this 21 day trip and pocket the savings.

BTW, we have never seen or heard of anyone getting a “Special Birthday Offer” in all these years. Anyone else?

Dave

#6

See correction below. Last night we used one of the Casino dinner certificates just to test them out (we have the specialty restaurant package) and learned it no longer includes a bottle of wine, so I’ve updated the wording below. Learn something new every day!

Dave

—In vpFREE_Crui…@…com, <slutoo@…> wrote :

We are now on the Epic and I can add a couple of things from the original comparison below.

  1. As was normal with the past 3 years, we were downgraded to Gold to start out the year (from VIP). Nobody can still explain why you don’t keep your status that was earned in the prior year.

  2. The new Spa Credit benefit is a nice upgrade, instead of 2 or 4 day passes it was $150 of spa credit for each of us which can be used for anything (massages, etc.).

  3. They now give you a certificate for the dinner and you present to the restaurant (just like they do with the Latitudes specialty free dinner & wine). They will still book them for you or you can book them yourself. It has been downgraded as it no longer includes the complimentary bottle of wine.

  4. NON-CASINO related change April 1. They raised the price of the internet from $100 to $125 for 250 minutes, but they added a new UNLIMITED plan for $25/day ($175 for a 7 day cruise). Since we are on a 21 day it will be costly but convenient not to worry about how slow it is.

Also, interestingly, now that the Epic is being banned to Europe permanently, they removed a number of slot and VP machines so it is much less congested in a couple of areas of the casino. Being on the transatlantic the casino I very empty (as it will be all the time in Europe) so I assume they decide to reduce their machine rental costs a bit.

Dave

—In vpFREE_Crui…@…com, <slutoo@…> wrote :

I just compared the listings and these are the downgrades:

Gold & VIP - Complementary Spa Access for 2 now just says “Spa Credit”, probably downgraded the amount

  • VIP Royal Treatment (Cagney’s Breakfast/lunch on small ships, VIP check-in, Captain VIP M&G)

  • Cigar & Cigarette Offers

  • VIP Seating for Shows (1st three or four rows they saved for VIP’s/suite holders)

VIP only Downgrade - Private Transportation to/from ship

  • They removed the word “Global” from the Cash Advance fee waived benefit which makes me suspicious that we may not get them waived anymore since we cruise more in Europe than US…
···

They didn’t add a thing that I can see, so they mirrored their partner CET and now only do downgrades! From what I see, with just “Hot” (5,000 points) we will get all the benefits we really ever use (a few drinks and the two dinners. So I’m going to go from $1 & $5 to penny’s and quarters on this 21 day trip and pocket the savings.

BTW, we have never seen or heard of anyone getting a “Special Birthday Offer” in all these years. Anyone else?

Dave