End of an Era

We are on a comped 7-day Celebrity cruise. Balcony room, free booze, etc. We always play VP and vulture UX games. The odds are horrible, but, well, it is comped. We booked this cruise many months ago. On our first day once the ship got far enough out for the casino to open, we went to the VP section of the casino. The machines were not on. It turned out that THIS WAS THE WEEK they ditch the VP machines for Slot machines. Of course, we complained and got lots of apologies. The machines were swapped out today.

The good old days are slowly ending.

Quote: GaryJKoehler

We are on a comped 7-day Celebrity cruise. Balcony room, free booze, etc. We always play VP and vulture UX games. The odds are horrible, but, well, it is comped. We booked this cruise many months ago. On our first day once the ship got far enough out for the casino to open, we went to the VP section of the casino. The machines were not on. It turned out that THIS WAS THE WEEK they ditch the VP machines for Slot machines. Of course, we complained and got lots of apologies. The machines were swapped out today.

The good old days are slowly ending.
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To me personally, , slot machines are much more fun than VP machines and I would be totally okay with a Casino only having slot machines. 😀 I can honestly understand how you feel however, seeing the VP machines being out of order the very same day you start your cruise. 💡

I guess that is the end of your free cruises, but there are worse things than being stuck on the ocean without bad video poker.
Things are certainly changing, and businesses are adapting.
Thirty years ago, Gary Loveman recognized slot players were more valuable than high rollers and set out to capture that market. He had the right idea, but then got distracted with buying up properties and expansion.
The pendulum swings one way, but eventually swings back. If Loveman was right in 96, he is still right and some young exec will realize it.

Quote: GaryJKoehler

We are on a comped 7-day Celebrity cruise. Balcony room, free booze, etc. We always play VP and vulture UX games. The odds are horrible, but, well, it is comped. We booked this cruise many months ago. On our first day once the ship got far enough out for the casino to open, we went to the VP section of the casino. The machines were not on. It turned out that THIS WAS THE WEEK they ditch the VP machines for Slot machines. Of course, we complained and got lots of apologies. The machines were swapped out today.

The good old days are slowly ending.
link to original post

I think Celebrity is still owned by Royal Caribbean. I wonder if they are removing all video poker from all their ships?

About six years ago I accepted a position with Carnival cruise lines to help organize the casinos on all nine of the cruise lines they own. Unfortunately, COVID happened and that plan changed. I was actually looking forward to it all except having to live in Miami. After COVID they changed the job description to spend six months a year in Germany, Italy, and Singapore. That was a deal breaker for me unless they let me work from Vegas the other six months of the year. I didn't want to move to Miami and leave my wife in a strange city while I am gone six months a year.

Quote: billryan

I guess that is the end of your free cruises, but there are worse things than being stuck on the ocean without bad video poker.
Things are certainly changing, and businesses are adapting.
Thirty years ago, Gary Loveman recognized slot players were more valuable than high rollers and set out to capture that market. He had the right idea, but then got distracted with buying up properties and expansion.
The pendulum swings one way, but eventually swings back. If Loveman was right in 96, he is still right and some young exec will realize it.
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Not sure about that; I think they're committed to the slot parlor business model and most of the stores would rather shut down the casino and turn the hotel into a condo than go back.

The reason why is everyone's afraid of labor, and there is probably not a casino manager in the US who would not get rid of every dealer and pit person in the place and replace them with a couple of slot attendants and a cashier, if he thought he could still get the traffic.

Good Managers give their customers what they want. Visionaries tell their clients what they want. Casinos are run by managers these days. They won't always be.

Seeing that this thread is "End of an era", I guess this would be the appropriate place for this.

I saw this item today and it made me think of a particular WOV member. Who doesn't want a gambling urn?

Quote: DRich

Who doesn't want a gambling urn?


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I believe the 360 Vegas group offers an urn on their merch shop, under the "...and anything else we can slap a logo on!" department.

Quote: GaryJKoehler

We are on a comped 7-day Celebrity cruise. Balcony room, free booze, etc. We always play VP and vulture UX games. The odds are horrible, but, well, it is comped. We booked this cruise many months ago. On our first day once the ship got far enough out for the casino to open, we went to the VP section of the casino. The machines were not on. It turned out that THIS WAS THE WEEK they ditch the VP machines for Slot machines. Of course, we complained and got lots of apologies. The machines were swapped out today.

The good old days are slowly ending.
link to original post

Thought the slots were just placeholders and will be replaced when the new vp machines are installed on celebrity fleet wide (or at least Edge class).

Then again why go through the hassle of replacing the old vp machines with slots and then replacing with the new vP machines?
Why not just leave the old VP's machines in place till the new ones came in?