Many people who love to gamble also love cruising. Cruise ships often have large and elaborate casinos, including slots, tables, and even sports betting in some cases.
And while it’s well-known that land-based casinos in places like Las Vegas often give free hotel rooms and comped meals to active gamblers, cruise lines often offer free cruise vacations to players – and not just high rollers. My wife never spends a total of more than one hour and a couple hundred dollars in the casino on a cruise and has received offers for free interior rooms.
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Carnival is widely regarded by cruise casino players as having one of the more generous loyalty programs in the industry. For example, it’s rare for most cruise lines to offer a complimentary drink package everywhere on board the ship, but this is a rather common feature of Carnival offers, even for mid-tier players.
However, it seems like Carnival is starting to pull back on casino offers recently, and many loyal Carnival players aren’t too happy about it.
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Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival's casino offers are not quite as generous
I’ll start with my personal example. I cruise on Carnival 2-3 times per year on average, and typically spend about an hour each day in the casino. Having grown up in the Atlantic City area, I’m definitely a fan of the casino atmosphere and love playing both slots and table games.
Cruises let me enjoy some casino time while simultaneously taking an excellent family vacation, so I generally value comp offers from cruise lines higher than comp offers from, say, Las Vegas casinos.
I consider myself to be a mid-tier casino player and based on comments in Carnival casino Facebook groups when players discuss their point totals, that’s an accurate description. I typically earn 7,000-8,000 points per weeklong cruise, and on Carnival, one point equals $2.50 in coin-in on slots (so hitting a $2.50 bet button 100 times would get you 100 points, regardless of how much you win or lose). Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I’ve never spent more in the casino than the cruise would have cost.
For this level of play, I generally receive offers of free cruises in balcony rooms on most sailings, plus complimentary drink packages for myself and a companion.
My most recent Carnival cruise was an 8-night sailing on the Mardi Gras, and I earned slightly more than my typical number of points. So, it came as a surprise that a couple of months after I got home, my casino offers had been significantly downgraded.
For one thing, balcony staterooms are now available on a smaller selection of sailings. Most of my “use anytime” offers are for either interior or oceanview cabins. Another subtle change is that all of my offers now include a drink package just for me. On a weeklong sailing, this means I’d have to pay over $500 including tax and gratuities if I want to purchase one for my wife.
In addition, I’m no longer getting offers for Carnival’s “Elite” cruises, which include special perks like transportation to and from the cruise port.
Other Carnival casino players are seeing the same
My first thought was that these downgrades were somehow specific to me. Maybe because my play was stretched over eight nights on my last cruise, or because I played more tables and fewer slots on Mardi Gras, I somehow ranked lower in Carnival’s algorithm.
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However, it appears that I am certainly not the only one. Several members of the Carnival Elite Cruisers group report being excluded from the latest round of Elite cruises.
One commenter on a Carnival casino page said “I had heaps of offers but they all dried up in May.”
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Another said “I lost my offers a few months back.” Yet another group member posted that “Offers have been going downhill for many people. Mine didn’t get better this time around either and my gambling has not changed,”
We don’t know for sure why Carnival seems to be downgrading casino offers, and at the time I submitted this article, Carnival had not responded to a request for comment on the issue.
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However, the most plausible explanation is that Carnival simply has less of a need to give away rooms at a time when its profitability is at an all-time high. In its most recent quarter, Carnival’s sales were up by 15% year-over-year from an already strong level of demand, and the company’s net income (profit) was up by nearly 70%.
So, it’s entirely possible that generally strong demand from people who are perfectly happy to pay for a cruise is weighing on the willingness of Carnival to offer comps.
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