Are the old Bingo final jackpots gone?

[Cheburashka]

We used to enjoy playing Bingo on all of our cruises. Since Covid reopening, I've heard reports that final Bingo jackpots aren't really jackpots anymore. These jackpot amounts were based on the amount of money that had been spent on Bingo during the cruise, and used to range anywhere from a few thousand dollars (for a 3-night cruise) to several thousand dollars for a week-long cruise.

I'm not referring to the "$10,000 for covering your card in X number of calls", which typically no one wins. I'm only referring to the big prize at the end of the last game, which someone always won. I'm hearing that it's gone and replaced by a prize that's only in the hundreds of dollars? Is this true?

 

[freshmanjs]

There were no big prizes on the fantasy this past week.

 

[Littled7287]

Four rounds of bingo with $300-$500ish as the pot split amongst all winners each round on the Dream Dec 13-17. Nothing any higher then that the two times we went, there was one game of bingo that we missed though that I can’t speak to.

 

[Cheburashka]

Oh, yuck. I guess I'm done playing Bingo on DCL unless this changes. It just isn't worth the cost or the wait in line, if there is no chance to win some serious money.

 

[closetmickey]

Are the smaller payouts because less people are playing?

 

[Cheburashka]

Are the smaller payouts because less people are playing?

Not for the final round's jackpot, no. On our first cruise very few people played Bingo (the only cruise I've seen like that- only a minority of cruisers were Americans) & it was only a 3-night cruise, and even then, the final jackpot was over a thousand dollars. On 7 night cruises, these jackpots were routinely several thousand dollars. The tension during the final jackpot round was always high, and some lucky person always walked away with a real windfall.

Now, the Bingo games are routinely selling out. I tried to play Bingo once during my October cruise, but I couldn't tolerate the loud music & left as tickets were being sold (I have an ear disorder). But it was a crowded room with plenty of players, and the playing cards weren't cheap. For a 7 night Fantasy cruise to only have last game prizes in the mid hundreds means that they're simply not providing a jackpot prize. That's really cheap of DCL & it stinks.

 

[iannovich]

On our 4 night Wonder Baja in October there were about 1300 guests onboard. Each time we played Bingo Azure was pretty much full and each day's game had a bigger prize that the day before, but there wasn't any cumulative jackpot style prize at the end. I think it maxed out at around $1200 on the very last game.

3 weeks later on a 3 night Dream sailing, Evolution was also full but the prize pools were pretty dismal. I think the biggest was around $400-$500.... And most of the time the bingo wins were split between multiple winners... So a winner was probably walking away with maybe $150ish... We were remarking that most of those split prizes went to pretty big family tables of players, so they might have been breaking even... Which was way better than I did, lol. #ShakeItUpBetty

 

[Snowwhyt]

What are ball park prices for bingo? We have 5 people and will probably spit a large package.

 

[freshmanjs]

What are ball park prices for bingo? We have 5 people and will probably spit a large package.

Family pack is $70. That gets you 2 24-card handsets and 6 paper cards (2 packs of 3 cards each).

A 24-card handset is $40 and a 48-card handset is $50. Strange pricing.

For our family of 5, we usually got a family pack plus an extra handset. That way everyone had either a paper pack or a handset.

 

[Cheburashka]

They aren't selling handsets right now due to Covid, though. Just paper packs.

 

[TRTRguy]

Here are the current prices, no electronic hand sets right now

 

[Cheburashka]

Here are the current prices, no electronic hand sets right now

Maybe when they bring back the handsets, they'll also bring back the jackpots. A girl can dream, right?

 

[freshmanjs]

They aren't selling handsets right now due to Covid, though. Just paper packs.

Wow, I bought handsets 2 days ago...

 

[Cheburashka]

Wow, I bought handsets 2 days ago...

They're back? Awesome! But still no real jackpot?

 

[TBLaube]

They're back? Awesome! But still no real jackpot?

We had the new electronic handset in late October on the Fantasy and they are nice - less clunky than the old ones and are more modern digitally. I heard the Dream has them as well now. Not sure about the Magic and Wonder, but the Wonder had paper still in November.

 

[iannovich]

I've seen posts from people using Handsets on the Fantasy, but there were not handsets available on the Wonder on the 10/31 sailing or the Dream on the 11/26 sailing. I love the handsets, they keep me from behaving like a ferret on Ritalin as I try to play all the paper packs at once and obsess over the idea that I might have missed a number.

 

[MomOTwins]

I am not the least bit surprised that big jackpots are not available right now. The size of the jackpot is based on the ticket sales. When capacity in the trivia venue is limited (and capacity in all the indoor DCL activities is limited right now) that limits how many ticket sales they can have and the jackpot must be smaller as a result. I remember going to the "mega jackpot" once on a disney cruise before Covid and it was sooooo crowded, everyone was packed in. Not going to happen again on that scale until capacity restrictions on indoor venues are lifted.

The irony is that statistically, it is better to have a higher chance of winning $1,000 in a room with 20 or so participants, than a lower chance of winning $7,000 in a room 100s of participants. I see why the allure of the big prize draws so many to the final event, but we've won prizes of a few hundred bucks several times going to the lightly attended early sessions, and that's plenty to support some nice extra splurges on board.

 

[freshmanjs]

I am not the least bit surprised that big jackpots are not available right now. The size of the jackpot is based on the ticket sales. When capacity in the trivia venue is limited (and capacity in all the indoor DCL activities is limited right now) that limits how many ticket sales they can have and the jackpot must be smaller as a result. I remember going to the "mega jackpot" once on a disney cruise before Covid and it was sooooo crowded, everyone was packed in. Not going to happen again on that scale until capacity restrictions on indoor venues are lifted.

The irony is that statistically, it is better to have a higher chance of winning $1,000 in a room with 20 or so participants, than a lower chance of winning $7,000 in a room 100s of participants. I see why the allure of the big prize draws so many to the final event, but we've won prizes of a few hundred bucks several times going to the lightly attended early sessions, and that's plenty to support some nice extra splurges on board.

Your point holds, but there are WAY more than 20 participants in bingo right now. I'd say more like 200

 

[rere101399]

We sailed on the Dream in October. Played on day 2 with handsets, thought the low jackpot must be because it was early in the cruise. Highest prize was around $150. We played on the Magic in December, with handsets again. It was the last day, we won the third of four rounds and our win $326

 

[MomOTwins]

Your point holds, but there are WAY more than 20 participants in bingo right now. I'd say more like 200

Holy cow, that's a big difference since our cruise! I suspect they must have raised the capacity limits, coupled with heavier holiday traffic, but that's a huge increase in such a short time. Yeah if that's the case they probably will up the jackpots soon.