Beware Bingo!!!

[silmarg]

I beleive the final bingo on the 15day EB Repo cruise was over $25k.

And yes some lucky soul won it.

 

[29apr00]

$60 for a game of bingo is insane! We used to play for $15-20! I was looking forward to it but not now! That's just crazy!!

 

[TiaMaria]

I love the electronic bingo! To us it is totally worth it - whether we win or not. We have had the best times, and met some of the greatest people playing bingo on the ship. Can't wait to do it again in July!

 

[vossjemi]

My DH played every bingo on the last cruise. Yes, every bingo.
Anyway, they still did the cute sayings at our bingo in January. We had Claire and Natalie as our bingo staff. And they did that B11 dance, which is now stuck in my head.

The payouts on our cruise were quite high. DH split a pot and still got $125. And the snowball bingo was over $8,000. Unfortunately we didn't win that one.

Yes, they did the B11 song/dance when we went last Aug too! My problem is I volunteer at our Church bingo and am a caller....when I got back, all I wanted to do was sing/dance, but our patrons are toooooo serious for all that fun! LOL

p.s. Thought I should add that many bingo halls now use the electronic devices. Yeah, it costs more (not as much as Disney) but players seem to enjoy it more as they can visit while the machine does the work. For many, its a social hour. And, frankly, its easier for some patrons than keeping up with the cards. At our bingo hall, we do see more machines than cards win, but both do win. And, if you add up what you pay on the same amount of cards as you get on a machine, the cost at our hall comes out the same, so its basically up to the purchaser how many and of what type they want to play.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

OP- I pretty much noticed the difference between our 2006 cruise and our 2008 cruise- and yeah I'm not doing bingo again. I didn't play bingo a whole lot (either time) but I did notice the difference and I did notice how the machines won atleast the majority of the time if not all the time and felt it was too expensive for my blood to pay that much for a few games with much less chance of winning against so many others playing- and the payouts weren't that huge except the jackpots (which is only a very slight chance of winning- not quite lottery chance yet but close enough IMO -and I don't do lottery either! LOL)

I can find other things to spend my money on that are more worth it to me. Everyone is different but this is not a good spend of money to ME.

 

[WDWLVR]

Yes, they did the B11 song/dance when we went last Aug too! My problem is I volunteer at our Church bingo and am a caller....when I got back, all I wanted to do was sing/dance, but our patrons are toooooo serious for all that fun! LOL

p.s. Thought I should add that many bingo halls now use the electronic devices. Yeah, it costs more (not as much as Disney) but players seem to enjoy it more as they can visit while the machine does the work. For many, its a social hour. And, frankly, its easier for some patrons than keeping up with the cards. At our bingo hall, we do see more machines than cards win, but both do win. And, if you add up what you pay on the same amount of cards as you get on a machine, the cost at our hall comes out the same, so its basically up to the purchaser how many and of what type they want to play.

I've never been a bingo player but one of our tablemates mentioned the bingo bots on our last cruise and I joined them that night. We had great fun chatting with each other and not having to worry about punching cards. It was "I have 4 to go", "well I have 2 to go". We laughed a lot. Only thing I won was a pin but I had a good time. On that cruise I saw both the bots and the paper cards win.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I'm not a fan of the Bots at all. To me the fun of Bingo is the rush you get when each number is called and you frantically look over all your cards and punch out all the tabs. With the Bots you just sit there staring at the machine. Kind a boring.

My bigger issue with the bots is that the bot players have the advantage of having purchased a lot more cards versus the people who buy the paper cards. Yes, you pay more to obtain those "extra" cards but I once compared the cost and on a per card basis the people buying via the Bots paid less per card than the people purchasing the paper cards.

In effect, you get a "volume discount" with the Bots. That's not right. That was my experience last summer. I don't know if DCL changed the pricing since then.

My experience on the Wonder is that the people using the Bots won a disproportionate share of the games. Enough so that it justified paying extra for the Bots.

I was delighted though that the jackpot did go to someone using the paper cards.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

My experience on the Wonder is that the people using the Bots won a disproportionate share of the games. Enough so that it justified paying extra for the Bots.

I believe they are winning so more games because more people are playing the bots. I know on our Magic cruise in January, at least roughly 80% of the audience was playing the machines. Very few played paper cards.

 

[dta87]

On our cruise last May a majority of the winners were playing on the bots but I am pretty sure the final jackpot winner was on a paper card so it can be done.

 

[DMMarla07860]

I was on the Magic and I didn't play bingo, but my dad did, he play the first two games with paper cards and won, and the last games we played he played with a bot and didn't win. I went with him a couple times and it was a lot of fun, pikey hosted bingo and he was great at hosting them, last bingo game "For anyone who wins you can take me out to dinner in 2010 because Dover is only a little bit from where I live" or better yet

Pikey-"Who like's baseball"
(crowd cheers)
Pikey-"Who like's yankees"
(some of crowd cheers)
Pikey-"want to know what team I like"
(crowd says yeah)
Pikey-"you yankee fans won't like me I'm a red sox fan"
(yankee fans boo)

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I believe they are winning so more games because more people are playing the bots. I know on our Magic cruise in January, at least roughly 80% of the audience was playing the machines. Very few played paper cards.

On my cruise last summer most were playing the paper cards. So it really stood out that most of the winners were Bots players.

At that time there weren't even that many bots available - I don't think there were enough if everybody playing wanted them.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

On my cruise last summer most were playing the paper cards. So it really stood out that most of the winners were Bots players.

At that time there weren't even that many bots available - I don't think there were enough if everybody playing wanted them.

Wow! There are a lot more now. In fact for one of the bingos (not jackpot), they actually brought out extra carts full of bots. They must really be pushing them now. Of course they are more expensive so that makes Disney sense!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I believe they are winning so more games because more people are playing the bots. I know on our Magic cruise in January, at least roughly 80% of the audience was playing the machines. Very few played paper cards.

No, it's because they are playing more "cards" they have more chances of winning. You could be in a room full of people playing bingo and only a handful on the bots and the bots will win more often than those on cards. I know, it's what happens at bingo here at home (which I haven't done in a long long time- but back when they only had a few new "machines" and a ton of people daubing cards- the machines won a disportionate amount of times and it's because they could play WAY more cards at once than those daubing paper cards.

Sure it HELPS if most are playing bots- I'm just saying even if less/fewer were playing the bots the odds of winning are on their side because they are playing more cards.

 

[swandiverpatt]

I was never a big fan of their punch-paper cards (you use the same cards for each 4 games). Trying to get those suckers punched and folded back without ripping them was a pain.

My DD and her friend play each game. I played the final night on our 3-day cruise in December and we all won. She just came back from the 3/22 4-day cruise and her bingo winnings pretty much covered her bingo bill + some.

 

[Paragd911]

I was on the Wonder 15-19th 2009..I played Bingo (I won a black out ) I used the Bot. On the last day, the "big winner" was using a paper card. He won $4400.

 

[tinkmom2]

Tinkmom2 that would be us who won the $3300.

We were on the 4 night march 22nd cruise and won the jackpot bingo.

We also had a great time doing FE with you on that cruise.

I agree that the mechanical gizmo takes some of the fun out of it.

You can do the cards instead of the machine but for the money you don't get nearly as many chances to win.

Can't say that I can complain too much though consdering we did come out well ahead financially.

OMG! That was you? WTG! I am going to try to win on my bounceback cruise. Either that or I am going to sit through the DVC seminar again to try to win $500.00 lol.. Just read this post now in August lol!

 

[catzle]

is there a family bingo? Or it's just open to everyone all the time. I was thinking for four of us to play bingo it would be $240 that's a lot of money!
Not sure I will play now. Was looking forward to it but is surely a lot of money to probably not win, ouch.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

is there a family bingo? Or it's just open to everyone all the time. I was thinking for four of us to play bingo it would be $240 that's a lot of money!
Not sure I will play now. Was looking forward to it but is surely a lot of money to probably not win, ouch.

I would buy a bingo bot and let my DD hold it. She felt like she was playing and I would just peek over her shoulder. So while kids can "play" they can't collect any winnings.

 

[lbgraves]

They do have a family Bingo time on deck 9 at the Goofy pool one afternoon. No money is involved and they give prizes to the winners but no money.

 

[PoohJen]

To the OP - Thank you for your very good, very thorough review! I am so disappointed to hear about the changes - and the $90 price tag!!!! What?!!!

I was a big winner on my first cruise - $600 - and was looking forward to take in a few games for fun. But...it doesn't sound like much 'fun' just sitting there letting the electronic card play for you.

Phooey, DCL! Bring bingo back for it's entertainment value to us, the customer, not as a cheapened, quick revenue generator.