Cruise Casinos
Quote: NathanNot all the time. A guy on another website said that he won like $10,000 on a lucky slot machine in a Cruise Casino in open waters whereas he lost like $5,000 playing in his local land based Casino IIRC.
Well nothing can preclude a nice run of luck.
Quote: Lucca3927They have a captive audience in international waters so you can count of finding the worst rules in any casino throughout the world.
See, that logic seems completely backwards to me.
You would think they would WANT the best rules, even better than Vegas, in order to compete with not only other cruise ships but also land casinos. It would be a huge draw to get people on the boats and spend their money on food, booze, and shopping when they have nowhere else to go. Plus, the better the casino rules, the more people would play, and the more money they would make. If I see crappy rules, I simply won't play, because the casino is not the main reason people get on cruise ships. If the rules are liberal, then I would be way more likely to spend my money.
Quote: TigerWuSee, that logic seems completely backwards to me.
You would think they would WANT the best rules, even better than Vegas, in order to compete with not only other cruise ships but also land casinos. It would be a huge draw to get people on the boats and spend their money on food, booze, and shopping when they have nowhere else to go. Plus, the better the casino rules, the more people would play, and the more money they would make. If I see crappy rules, I simply won't play, because the casino is not the main reason people get on cruise ships. If the rules are liberal, then I would be way more likely to spend my money.
Because the casino isn't the main reason why people get on, they don't need to compete with land casinos. They also don't need to compete with other cruise ships because people aren't making their selection based on the shipboard casino. On my last few ships, regardless of how bad the rules were, the tables were mostly packed, so they don't need to try and entice more people in.
There's enough people there that they don't need to bother-- most casual players don't know/care, and I suspect there's enough people at larger denominations that will play regardless of how bad the rules are. I mean, last time I was at Hooter's LV, there was a guy playing 100/hand at a 1$min BJ-even-money table.
Quote: VenthusI mean, last time I was at Hooter's LV, there was a guy playing 100/hand at a 1$min BJ-even-money table.
"EVEN MONEY! That means the odds are 50/50!" Probably that guy's logic.... haha...
The Epic had the largest casino, with about 24 tables and about 500 slots, 50 vp.
Their comps.include staterooms, premium meals, freeplay, bottles of wine and champagne, clothing and gift shop credits, all kinds of stuff.
They also were allowing credit card charges for cash, written off as shipboard charges, so I used markers for about the only time anywhere, then paid it off right away and got the visa points as well. Not sure if they're still doing that.
Slots/VP are not as good, but some are playable. They had some of my favorite, older slots I can't find stateside any more.
So, at least there, they seem to recognize that they should be competitive and offer good games.
Carnival and Holland America, not so much.
Quote: VenthusBecause the casino isn't the main reason why people get on, they don't need to compete with land casinos. They also don't need to compete with other cruise ships because people aren't making their selection based on the shipboard casino. On my last few ships, regardless of how bad the rules were, the tables were mostly packed, so they don't need to try and entice more people in.
There's enough people there that they don't need to bother-- most casual players don't know/care, and I suspect there's enough people at larger denominations that will play regardless of how bad the rules are. I mean, last time I was at Hooter's LV, there was a guy playing 100/hand at a 1$min BJ-even-money table.
I dated the Art Dealer for about a year after I met him on the Epic. He said the 3 main revenue streams were
1) Booze/soft drinks
2) Casino
3) Percentage of the on board shops, including the art auctions
Many or most of the cabins were break-even or a small loss. Excursions are a revenue stream, but not in the same money-making amounts of those 3.
Any one of the 3 could be in the lead on any particular cruise; depended on the crowd. The heads of all the revenue streams met every morning to discuss their promos and daily take so far.
He was in the lead most of that cruise (7 days Western Carribean) because I was winning big every day at the casino, and spending it on "good" art. (Try selling cruise ship art...lol.) And being a total George to the dealers. I was newly divorced and didn't GAS (we had prepaid as a couple a year before, back when i had to plan vacations a year in advance - never know, do you? I went anyway.)
Ended up about 70k, mostly spent on art and tips, but enough cash that I more than paid for the cruise and a hot tub I bought when I got home. Good memories; really got the bitter taste of the divorce out of my mouth. And no w2s issued; didn't even know to wonder about that back then.
Quote: beachbumbabsI dated the Art Dealer for about a year after I met him on the Epic. He said the 3 main revenue streams were
1) Booze/soft drinks
2) Casino
3) Percentage of the on board shops, including the art auctions
Many or most of the cabins were break-even or a small loss. Excursions are a revenue stream, but not in the same money-making amounts of those 3.
Any one of the 3 could be in the lead on any particular cruise; depended on the crowd. The heads of all the revenue streams met every morning to discuss their promos and daily take so far.
He was in the lead most of that cruise (7 days Western Carribean) because I was winning big every day at the casino, and spending it on "good" art. (Try selling cruise ship art...lol.) And being a total George to the dealers. I was newly divorced and didn't GAS (we had prepaid as a couple a year before, back when i had to plan vacations a year in advance - never know, do you? I went anyway.)
Ended up about 70k, mostly spent on art and tips, but enough cash that I more than paid for the cruise and a hot tub I bought when I got home. Good memories; really got the bitter taste of the divorce out of my mouth. And no w2s issued; didn't even know to wonder about that back then.
Whaaaaat???? You go, Babs! Most of those art auctioneers are young, good-looking guys. The auctions themselves are such a rip off but free champagne is better than hairy chest contest on lido deck.
If you arranged it before hand (or before the ship left port), you could establish a line of credit for the trip, but charging to the room from the casino, whether via cage/table or at a slot took an extra 3%.
All in all, I'm not too impressed by NCL; upwards of 100k CI (on BJ) and I haven't gotten anything that was already listed as guaranteed.
Quote: VenthusHah! I was in Ensenada on Friday; decided to just be lazy and do a bus tour instead of my usual get lost and wander on foot for five hours. (Plot twist: Walking to Balboa Park in San Diego is really far, especially when you head southeast from the port for over a mile first...)
Was deciding whether or not La Bufadora was worth it... looked at it from like ten different angles on Youtube (including a few drones!), been there, done that, move along.
Not much to do in Ensenada except find a bar and some good street tacos. My son, 16 at the time, had his soccer cleats and a ball (why would you bring that on a cruise?) Wouldn’t you know, there was a soccer field right at the port.
Quote: VenthusMy second to last (I think; it was sometime 2017) trip on NCL, one of the Western Caribbean routes out of NOLA, all the BJ was either CSM or 6-8 deck 6:5 and we couldn't persuade them to switch to a 3:2 table (which was present on the other side of the room, but wasn't ever open the entire trip) despite three of us willing to switch from 25min to 100min.
If you arranged it before hand (or before the ship left port), you could establish a line of credit for the trip, but charging to the room from the casino, whether via cage/table or at a slot took an extra 3%.
All in all, I'm not too impressed by NCL; upwards of 100k CI (on BJ) and I haven't gotten anything that was already listed as guaranteed.
They've definitely gone downhill, then. How disappointing.
Quote: SiegfriedRoyI've heard of many accusations of major cruise-line casinos cheat in table games by taking out cards. Has anybody been able to find any evidence of this? I am really interested in seeing if anybody has any feedback regarding this.
I would be very surprised if a major cruise line would authorize this but it wouldn't surprise me if an individual at the casino did it.
On my recent cruise on the Carnival Elation, all their single-line VP was 6/5 and 10 coins per play for the 800-1 royal payout! :P
Quote: DRichMy understanding is that Carnival Corporation operates the casinos for all Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Cunard,P&O, Seabourne and a few other cruise lines. They have over 100 ships now.
Yeah, carnival owns 7 cruise lines. Those you mentioned and Costa, I think. (For sure Carnival, Princess, HA, Costa, for sure 7 of them, not sure about the other 3)
When I was on Carnival (once) and Holland (3x), their casino personnel were contractors via a third party. Norwegian (NCL) casino people are company employees, and the casinos are overseen by a marketing subdivision called Casinos At Sea.
If you sign up for Casinos At Sea ahead of time, you can usually buy chits for half-price chips and slot dollars so you probably want to look at their website. I think you have to have already booked your cruise to get the promotion.
I would like an accurate count of the table games by type game on the Dawn very much, if you get the time to take inventory. VP pay tables would be very useful as well. Thanks in advance.
Babs, It's not a full account of their casino, but you can find some of what you're looking for in my Norwegian Dawn trip report.Quote: beachbumbabsI would like an accurate count of the table games by type game on the Dawn very much, if you get the time to take inventory. VP pay tables would be very useful as well. Thanks in advance.
IIRC, the carnival games they had were 3CP and UTH, but with a $10 min. I didn't see if their BJ (maybe 5 tables) was 3-2 or 6-5. There was also one craps table and one roulette table. And they had a decent amount of VP, including some bartop.
Quote: SiegfriedRoyI've heard of many accusations of major cruise-line casinos cheat in table games by taking out cards. Has anybody been able to find any evidence of this? I am really interested in seeing if anybody has any feedback regarding this.
I guess you never went on the SS Palms Cruise Liner. It's a hell of a cruise. Takes you right around the border of Asia and then ends the trip at the Dead Sea.
