Royal Caribbean has begun spinning up a number of its ships for summer travel over the past couple of months. Some of the latest updates are important for casino players.
The first rounds of cruises on these ships have been more sparsely populated to encourage social distancing, and many of the itineraries have included stops at their private Perfect Day at Cococay, which allows for a bit more control, vs. ports that could be temporarily closed by governments as the pandemic continues.
During the closures, casino tiers within Casino Royale were extended twice, so players who earned a higher tier, such as PRIME, are able to enjoy it through March 31, 2022, to offer enough time to renew the tier to maintain beyond it.
For those casino players who are taking shorter cruises on ships like Freedom of the Seas right now (which is running 3/4 night cruises in the Bahamas), and cruises in general, Royal Caribbean has been heavily promoting recently a change that sees the casino open basically all day at Perfect Day at Cococay.
One ship passenger on one ship that was docking there (Adventure of the Seas) showed an 8 a.m. open time for slots and 10 a.m. for tables, consistent with sea days on that itinerary.
This wasn’t always the case; it wasn’t that long ago that I saw reports that the casino was closed in Cococay; it’s presumably up to the cruise lines to decide whether to be licensed to operate in a given location. For now, Royal Caribbean seems to believe the investment is a good marketing opportunity for its casino-centric customers.
I will be on a four-night cruise on the Freedom of the Seas before too long, which has included one day at Perfect Day at Cococay; this will be my first time visiting there, so I’m looking forward to checking it out, but also seeing what the casino is like during the port day.
