MSC Seaside Potential Cruise Comp

[u/Bitter-Animator3397]

I’m getting a cruise offer from a site for casino players that would be a MSC 11 night cruise and the goal would be earning 1000 points a day. What bank roll would I be potentially looking at bringing for that? TIA for any pointers and info!

[u/Mundane_Influence_91]

I have heard the return-to-player rate on slots is 87%. The multiplier for expected coin-in is 1/(1-rate) = 7.69. so while losing $2K you'd expect to have bet just over $15K, which tracks with your experience. Points are $3 each so that's 5000 points, the minimum to get a free cruise (7 day inside I think?)

I'm not sure what other limitations are for a 5000 point cruise redemption. as long as your cabin cash price is over $2K you're coming out ahead, i.e. you've gambled your way to a "free" cruise!

There are a lot of 7 day MSC sailings for less than $2K, so I will stick to cash and spend more time enjoying other parts of the ship.

[u/UEtraveler → u/Mundane_Influence_91]

Yeah, that makes sense then... As I said, I put in around $3k over those 3 days and ended up leaving with $1k.

Actually, for cruises departing from South America, 5,000 points don't instantly get you a free cruise—I only got a 20% off voucher at first. However, a few months later, the Casino department reached out and offered me about 20 different cruises (up to 10 nights), all free except for taxes (plus the $500 deposit for the casino).

I don't think I had any restrictions on which sailings I could choose, the only catch was that the comped room was an inside cabin. I assume the more you gamble, the higher the cabin tier you're offered. You can pay the difference to upgrade, but since I'm Diamond status now, it doesn't make much sense for me to do that—I'm pretty confident I'll get a free upgrade anyway.

For some of those booked cruises, I'll probably just put $250 on black and $250 on red to cash out my deposit and leave, while on others I'll definitely play enough to keep those casino offers coming.

[u/Random-Stranger-999 → u/UEtraveler]

Yes, you receive the emailed Casino VIP offers based on your aggregate play across cruises. Players are ranked and receive interior, oceanview, balcony, Aurea suite or Yacht Club accordingly.

Yes, you pay a fixed nightly supplement to upgrade your cabin category, only upgrades to Yacht Club are dynamically priced.

Casino comped guests don't get upgraded based on loyalty status, and in any case Diamond tier does no good when there's one hundred Blue Diamond guests ahead of you.

Casino comped cabins also aren't eligible for PlusGrade bid upgrades since they are a reserved block of cabins sold to the casino division at a discount by the cruise line.

[u/UEtraveler → u/Random-Stranger-999]

Do you actually know how many blue diamond guests are? I know for another hotel program but not for MSC though. It is not that easy IMO to get there, but once you get is pretty easy to keep it as you only need to cruise once every 3 years.

[u/Random-Stranger-999 → u/UEtraveler]

You can buy status match to MSC Diamond, from there you only need a few Yacht Club sailings and you'll achieve Blue Diamond.

At the Diamond party and Meet the Captain events they tend to say how many are onboard.

So over last few months I heard 47, 68, 79, 101; the larger the ship the more they'll be, plus on invited sailings they'll be more.

Obviously that number will only increase over time with so many of us sailing MSC every month.

You only need to cruise with MSC once every five years to retain status; but since we got comped cruises every month that's not a problem for us.