Royal Caribbean - Grandeur of the Seas to Bermuda

Short and sweet trip report with just the relevant details...

Went on a "family cruise" to Bermuda last week using my M Life Platinum $750 cruise credit. It was mostly just me and my father gambling while my mom and sister enjoyed the ship and explored the island. Well, we did a few things on the island. Beaches, food, Crystal Cave, etc. But nothing spectacular.

The ship was nice. The crew was extremely friendly and the service was great. It wasn't nearly as good of a ship as the NCL cruise ships I've been on, but it is a 20-year old ship so I'm sure that contributes. Had an ocean view cabin, no balcony. Room was small, food was mediocre (the free food anyway - the couple of specialty restaurants we tried were top notch), shows were bad but the bartenders were excellent and the casino staff was perfect (thanks Roxy, Crina!). Casino host made the trip worth it. We got a free tour, tons of free drinks, dinner covered at the Chops steakhouse and some other minor bonuses.

Gambling: I've heard it a lot. Don't go on a cruise to gamble. But we're gamblers, so we have to do what we can. Avoided Blackjack (6-5 payout on BJ, must hit soft 17). Played some roulette (00, standard rules but $1 min inside, $5 outside). Craps was terrible (SINGLE ODDS???) but I decided to try some prop bet methods I read about that didn't hurt me too badly.

Overall I was up about $200 on Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em (it's fun, I know it's a crappy edge), down about $300 on Craps (mostly Place bets since Single Odds is ridiculous), and down maybe $100 on Roulette. My father actually nailed a hearts Royal Flush on UTX on the second night for a $5 bet at 500-to-1 odds. Total win was $2625 ($1 Trips bet, $5 ante and blind, $20 Play bet). The Romanian dealer said it was the only Royal he's dealt in his 10 years as a dealer, and it was certainly the first Royal I've seen at a table. That was quite exciting, and news travels fast. The next day everyone in the casino was congratulating him and we had formed some nice friendly bonds with all our other players in the casino (sidenote: I also saw two 4-of-a-kinds and another regular hit a Straight Flush the next day for a nice big win too).

I did take part in the cruise's Hold 'Em tournament. I ended up winning my qualifier and making it to the final table. There were a couple of challenging opponents, but three of the players were obvious amateurs and were easy to bleed or push out. I took out the fourth player (money paid to Top 3), so once I was in the money I settled down and took it easy. The chip leader ended up pushing out another player (bringing me to 2nd place), which was good because he was a challenging (and lucky) opponent -- lost a flopped two pair to a Flush turn early on to him. After being guaranteed 2nd I started getting more aggressive.

The big hand was Ace and Jack of hearts. I bet pretty big early, a 10k chip, expecting to buy the blinds, but he called. This made me expect a pocket pair, but I knew I had an Ace so I didn't think he had pocket Aces. Flop came out with two more hearts, both low, putting me on a Ace high with a Flush draw. The other player checked, so I saw an opportunity to bluff him out here. All-in, of course. I had a total of about 30k chips remaining, but he was sitting on about 42k so he called my bluff. Turn was nothing special, but the river came out another heart, putting me in on my Flush.

When he flipped over, he also had a Flush - King high. I just smiled and said, "Ace high Flush."

Won the final hand with a flopped two pair for a $710 pot (second place paid out $465, third paid $285). Not a huge tournament win, but covered my losses and got me well into profits. I was able to gamble a little more that night knowing I'd leave a winner, so that's more than what most can say.

Overall it was a great trip and our lucky hits in the casino made the gambling worth it, despite the crappy (no pun intended) house rules on Craps and Blackjack.

thanks for posting. I am going on a cruise in April with NCL. Can't wait.

Great report.

Single odds on craps? The Royal Caribbean trip I took had single odds, but double on formal night. Woo hoo!

Nice hit on the Royal. It's no wonder the staff were especially friendly after that - I'm sure they were hoping your father would spread some of those riches around to the staff. ;)

Congrats on the poker tourney. The trip I took, the winner of the tourney got a free cruise on the Oasis - then (still?) the newest / biggest ship in the RC fleet. Sigh, I cam in third.

Did you play any cash poker? If so, what was the rake? On my cruise, it was 10%, for a max of $15! Plus, they had 50¢ chips so they didn't need to round down as much. :(

If you're interested, here's my full Royal Caribbean cruise and casino review.

DJTB, thank you for ruining an hour of my night by reading your report. Sigh... it was a very nice report though.

Just an hour? It took me a lot longer to write and post that! :)

For what it's worth, after posting the link above, I went and fixed all the photos. If you saw the Admin notice about it, go check again.

it would have taken longer but I skipped a little of it. I get bored when reading to much.