Princess casinos

"Janet Wilder" wrote in message
eb.com...

On 1/16/2011 10:56 PM, LVTravel wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message ...

On 1/12/2011 8:45 PM, Kurt Ullman wrote:
In ,
wrote:


Your room Key Card is your "bank card" for the casino. Set up your 4
digit
PIN by inserting the card into any slot machine and follow the prompts
(enter birthdate for the initial pin to allow you to change it. There is
also helpers in the casino to assist in changing the PIN.) For slots you
can put in cash or charge your play to the room key (there is no
charge for
this transaction.) When you leave the machine you place your
"winnings" on
the card and can obtain that back on the next machine you put your
money in.

That sucks. Can I get it back out at the cage or some place else or is
it stuck there until the last night?

I'm assuming it is the same as with HAL since they are the same company
and what has been described is how the HAL card worked in Alaska last
summer. The answer is yes, you can cash it out at any time. The nice
thing about the way this works is that there is no charge for putting
money on the card, and it just gets billed to your shipboard account (or
uses any OBC you may have). Then you go to the casino cashier and get
the money when you are done.

I wonder if the cruise lines make much from people who forget to cash
out and leave it on their casino account, assuming it will transfer back
to their account? It seems like they could certainly make it automatic
if they wanted to.

Bill

I don't think so. The reason, on our October cruise to New England the
couple that sailed with us did not cash out at the casino the last
night. They received a check for the full casino amount the last week of
December. So apparently, Princess at least, this time the money was
refunded.


Totally unrelated question. I did do an Alaska cruise but didn't get
anywhere near the casino because of the smoking. When one is cruising
the Inside Passage aren't you too close to shore for gambling? Same
with New England. Is the ship far enough out to sea to open the casinos?

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

On the New England cruise they open the casino once they get beyond the 3
mile limit. It is normally opened about 30-45 minutes after leaving port.
I am not sure about the Alaska cruises as I have not gone to one yet. On
the Caribbean Princess they alternated smoking and non-smoking days in the
casino. On the last 14 day one out of San Juan some of the time it
coincided with formal nights and other times it did not.

"Bill" wrote in message ...

On 1/16/2011 11:56 PM, LVTravel wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message ...

On 1/12/2011 8:45 PM, Kurt Ullman wrote:
That sucks. Can I get it back out at the cage or some place else or is
it stuck there until the last night?

I'm assuming it is the same as with HAL since they are the same company
and what has been described is how the HAL card worked in Alaska last
summer. The answer is yes, you can cash it out at any time. The nice
thing about the way this works is that there is no charge for putting
money on the card, and it just gets billed to your shipboard account (or
uses any OBC you may have). Then you go to the casino cashier and get
the money when you are done.

I wonder if the cruise lines make much from people who forget to cash
out and leave it on their casino account, assuming it will transfer back
to their account? It seems like they could certainly make it automatic
if they wanted to.

Bill

I don't think so. The reason, on our October cruise to New England the
couple that sailed with us did not cash out at the casino the last
night. They received a check for the full casino amount the last week of
December. So apparently, Princess at least, this time the money was
refunded.

Did they realize their mistake while they were still on the cruise? What
did the Princess employees tell them would happen? The casino cashier on
HAL was the one who told me that it did not get refunded, at least not
back to the shipboard account (and she made it seem like at all). 2+
months is still a long time to get it back, but it's better than losing
it entirely.

Bill

Actually they didn't realize it until we were coming home. It was a shock
to me that the money was refunded through a check like that but, while not
an attorney, it is not the cruise line's money but the customer's. It is the
responsibility of the cruise line to ensure that they don't keep a
customer's money but is good customer service to send a check. I could see
the line keeping a "processing fee" if they decided to send a check but in
this case they did not charge any fee at all. The two are waiting until
their jobs permit it to go on Princess again. They are a convert to that
line because of the good service received both before, during and after the
cruise. Glad Carnival hasn't screwed up the line too much.

We just returned from our Princess cruise and you can cash out at the
cashier anytime you want your money.
We actually got a call the last day around 4 PM reminding my wife to cash
out her winnings before bedtime.