Royal Caribbean makes a huge casino and loyalty program change
All Royal Caribbean cruise ships offer a Casino Royale onboard casino. And regardless of the size of the ship, the spaces are generally divided into a smoking side and a non-smoking side.
In reality, however, the entire main casino is a rather smoky environment. It's not uncommon to see someone with a lit cigarette walking through the non-smoking side of the casino, and there's no physical barrier separating the two sides. So, some smoke travels throughout the space.On some of the cruise line's modern (and more recently renovated) ships, there is an entirely separate non-smoking casino. For example, the cruise line replaced the Vintages wine bar on the Royal Promenade aboard Freedom of the Seas with a non-smoking casino space.
Royal Caribbean's extremely popular Oasis class and Icon class mega-ships feature non-smoking casinos. On the Oasis class ships, the nonsmoking casinos are located towards the back of deck four. The casino space was purpose-built on Wonder of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas, the two newest ships in the class, and the same locations (which used to be the Jazz on 4 venue) were renovated into casinos on other ships in the class.According to several social media sources (and one cruise line source) and on-site reports, the non-smoking casino space on the cruise line's newest ship in service, Utopia of the Seas, is getting significantly bigger.
When the renovations are complete, the non-smoking casino will occupy the existing casino space, as well as the spaces currently occupied by the Attic (comedy theater) and Crown Lounge (for Royal's higher-level loyalty members).
As a result of the changes, the Crown Lounge is moving to Deck 16, a move that will likely make Diamond and higher-level members happy, taking some of the space occupied by the teen club.
Attic comedy shows will simply move to the Royal Theater.
As far as the timeline is concerned, the non-smoking casino will temporarily move into The Attic by May 9, and the full, expanded space will be open in the May 30-June 2 timeframe. And to clarify, the Crown Lounge will not close during the renovation at all. The new location will be ready to open by the time the existing space is needed.
The same changes are also reportedly planned for Wonder of the Seas, but are scheduled to take place over the summer, and will be ready before the ship switches from week-long itinerary to 3- and 4-night cruises later this year.
We reached out to Royal Caribbean for comment on the changes but had not received a reply as of this writing.
To be sure, if you've cruised on Wonder of the Seas or (especially) Utopia of the Seas, it's easy to understand why the expansion is a smart move. On a September 2024 sailing of Utopia that I was on, it was difficult to find any open slot machine in the casino on all three evenings of the cruise.
More Royal Caribbean news:It's unclear whether other Oasis-class ships will get the same changes. Utopia and Wonder are the mega-ships scheduled for shorter itineraries where the casino tends to be busier, so it makes sense to start with them.
Many cruisers believe that the larger (main) casino should be the non-smoking space, with a smaller smoking room. Virgin Voyages uses a setup like this, so it wouldn't be completely unprecedented. But Royal Caribbean's management has stated numerous times that every time they test going completely non-smoking in the casino, revenue falls.
With that in mind, a greatly expanded, completely separate non-smoking casino could be the next best thing. A common complaint is that while there non-smoking casino is nice to have, the small size prevents it from having nearly as much of a selection of gaming machines and tables as the main casino, so this could help alleviate the problem.
(The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.)
, or email Amy Post at or call or text her at 386-383-2472.
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