Dicenator

I was on Anthem of the seas 2 years ago sailing out of Cape Liberty in New Jersey. I found the same $10 minimums at craps for the whole week despite never having more than 6 players at the table.  After the cruise I sent an email to customer service and asked why?  The response I got was that the limits are solely up to the casino manager and that I could have requested that he lower the limit to $5. 

 

Dicenator

ROYAL PRINCESS – TRIP REPORT – OCT. 26, 2019

 

This was our first west coast cruise and it departed from San Pedro cruise pier near Long Beach, California.  The Mexican Riviera was the itinerary and it included Cabo San Lucas, Mazlatan and Puerto Vallarta.  In the 7 days there was one at sea day going down the coast and two on the return. The ocean was so calm for all 7 days you thought you were on a lake.

Departure day was totally screwed up.  We had booked our flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles using Princess Air and we were on an American Airlines flight scheduled to depart at 9:15.  Well we were all aboard and ready to go when the flight attendant announced that there was an unexpected smell of alcohol on the plane and we could not leave until maintenance checked it out.  Four maint. guys came on board and walked around sniffing and smelling. An hour later they asked everyone to leave the plane and wait.  A half hour later they told us to go to a different gate and that we would board another plane. There was no plane at the gate and it didn’t show up for 45 minutes.  This new plane finally departed at 12 noon.  The alcohol smell ended up being a male passenger who had totally doused himself with cologne.  What a screw up. We landed in LA around 1 PM.  We had Princess transfers from the airport to the cruise ship. We had to wait almost an hour for the transfer bus and by the time we got to the ship it was nearly 3 PM. Muster drill was at 3:15 and I didn’t get back to my stateroom until almost 4:30 at which time I fell asleep having been up from 2 AM.  Dinner that night was In the buffet and then on to the casino for a short visit.

 

Since all these ports were new for us I’ll give a brief description.

 

CABO – This was a tender to shore port and the tenders started at 12 noon. We just wanted to wander around and shop a little so we went to the dining room where they were giving you tender tickets.  We got there at 1:30 expecting that after 1.5 hours everybody who wanted to go ashore was already there and we could just go down to the gangway, NOPE!!!!! We got tender ticket #72 and had to wait 45 minutes. After getting on board the ships tender we had to wait another 30 minutes while the crew tried to figure out how to get an old timer who was semi-comatose and his wheel chair onto the tender.  So we never got to the shore in CABO until 3 PM.  We did some shopping for 30 minutes then stopped at Senor Frogs for a few drinks and then back to the ship. Our dinner time was scheduled for 5 PM.  To summarize, we really didn’t get a feel for CABO but the impression was negative due to the difficulty getting from the ship to the shore.

 

MAZATLAN – This port had a dock thank God. We had booked an excursion to go to a hotel (Luna) for the day. This include a buffet lunch and open bar, pool and beach.  The ocean water temperature was great, just walk right in and the pool was very nice also the only problem being a few too many kids who were guests at the hotel.  Kids tend to be noise machines. The bus trip to the hotel included an hour stop for shopping. 

Eva went into a lot of jewelry shops looking for some special bracelet for our daughter.  She never bought one but everywhere you could haggle the price down, sometimes close to 50% off there original price.  Some of the sales people even followed you right up to the steps of the bus continually reducing the price.  It left me with a SCAM impression.  The city itself is undergoing a construction boom almost everywhere and most of the building is condos for rich gringos. Overall we had a positive impression of this city.

 

PUERTO VALLARTA – At this port we also did a 4 hour beach, pool, open bar and lunch excursion. I think it was at a Hilton property.  The bus drive was about 30 minutes through the city to get to the hotel.  This city seemed very civilized and Eva commented that it reminded her of South Beach, Miami. It did make a very positive impression and if I took a land vacation to the Mexican Riviera this is the place I would stay at. VERY NICE

Now for the casino and craps.  This ship, Royal Princess is identical to the Regal Princess which I’ve been on 3 times.  The layout of the casino was identical with the only difference being slot machines.  The craps table was at the end closest to the theater and there was very little traffic walking by. On this ship they opened the craps table at 8 PM every evening as compared to 9 PM on the Regal.  It never opened in the afternoon on at sea days the same as every other Princess cruise I’ve been on.

 

The craps table was 12 feet long with a dark brown micro fiber and the dice all week were blue. They had the all tall-all small bet with payouts of 30-15-30. The bounce characteristic of the table was very good.  I would rate it at 8.5/10 with a 10 being the best bounce you’ve ever played on.  This rating is with my underhand throw.  I never used a Parr throw when playing but I did use Parr when practicing and the results were good also.

 

The casino manager, Steve (very nice guy and easy to talk to), introduced himself to me and Eva on the second night of the cruise.  He gave us a complimentary steak dinner at the steakhouse along with a $50 bottle of wine.  This was from Jacque, VP of Casino Operations for Princess, and was a reward for the problem I had at the craps table a year ago on the Regal Princess.

This was greatly appreciated by both of us. We did the steakhouse dinner on Thursday 10/31 which was my birthday. The casino management for Princess cruises is great and I really appreciate that Jacque will thoroughly investigate any issue that you bring to his attention.

My expectations were bare minimum since in the last year and a half I’ve only played no more than 10 hands at craps and my practice rig has been down for the same period of time so therefore no practicing at home.

 

HERE ARE THE DICE THROWING RESULTS:

 

10/26

 

7 5 6 6h 11 8 10H 9 11 2 8 6 10 10H 5PT 8H 8 10 7OUT

20 throws      1 pt    1 come out win

 

10/27

 

10 9 3 6 5 4H 7OUT

7 throws

5 8H 6 5PT 4H 7OUT

6 throws        1 pt

 

10/28

 

7 5 8 9 6 7OUT

6 throws

 

3 12 10 8 8 9 6 6 7OUT

9 throws

 

10/29

 

8 9 8PT 9 6 5 4 2 6 9PT 4H 8H 10 8H 9 11 8H 7OUT

18 throws      2 pt

10/30

 

11 6H 8 6PT 8H 5 6 8PT 3 7 6H 3 8 7OUT

14 throws      2 pt    2 come out wins

10/31  NO PLAY

 

11/1

 

4 6 9 12 9 6 8 10 11 3 5 3 9 4PT 8 6 5 11 6 3 7OUT

21 throws      1 pt

 

My measely 8 hands resulted in an average roll length of 12.63 throws per hand. I made 7 points in the 8 hands and had 3 come out wins. 4 out of the 8 hands were decent with roll lengths of 14, 18, 20 and 21 throws.  My lack of play and practicing seems to have really affected my dice throwing.

 

The reason for so few hands is that the table was filled very quickly after opening and I think on the second night I played 2 hands but it took an hour for the dice to come back to me for the second hand.  Everybody at the craps table was a random chicken feeder and other than Eva none of them inspired me to want to bet on them.  Craps is pretty boring under those circumstances so I would color in and leave.  I then kept my eye on the table to see if the number of players would drop enough for me to go back but that never happened.

 

Overall this was a really good cruise and we both enjoyed it and are planning another cruise on this ship next year in March.

 

Bob Miller (dicenator)

coachyo,

 

I wish you a lot of luck on your cruise.  I always bring a set of dice with me on a cruise.  On boarding day in the afternoon before the casino opens I make maybe 10 practice throws to attempt to judge the bounce characteristics of the table.  This lets me judge where to land the dice with my throw.  Since I'm an early riser I also go to the casino every morning and make 30 to 50 practice throws using different throwing methods to determine which ones appear to work best for the table on the ship.

 

For the last 3 years all I have found is crowded table conditions on almost every ship I've been on.  This applies mostly to the evening.  On the Gem I think the craps table will open in the afternoon around 1 to 2 pm on at sea days. I think you will find the playing conditions to be much better in the afternoon.

 

I've been on the Gem 3 times and have had great results on all 3 cruises.

 

My last cruise was on the Regal Princess departing Red Hook, Brooklyn on Nov 1, 2018.  This was a 9 night cruise. The craps table only opened in the evening at 9 pm and the table was packed with at least 10 players every night. For the 9 night cruise I only got to play 7 hands total.  I won't play if there are more than 6 players at the table. This was very disappointing to me since my dice throwing was great. I averaged almost 18 throws per hand for the 7 hands and I made 13 points.

 

I hope this information is helpful.

 

Dicenator

I just returned from a cruise on the Regal Princess.  I don't play VP but I think there were 8 (GAME KING ?) machines and maybe as many as 12.  I'm mostly a craps player and didn't enjoy the playing conditions on this ship.  

 

Dicenator

There is only one machine that I saw players winning on constantly when I was on this ship in October of last year. I think it was a GOLD machine just across the aisle from the Roulette tables. If I remember correctly it was a machine that when you get the 5 or more bonus symbols, the wheel spins and gives you a number of credits for each time the bonus symbol appears during the 7 free spins. Our friends who were on this cruise with us played the maximum bet and won at least $100 5 times during the cruise. This is a penny machine.

 

Dicenator

The odds at the craps table on Princess ships is 2X. I can't answer the smoking questions although they do have smoke free nights, at least one or two, in the casino.

 

Dicenator

I would suggest that you do a you tube search for the casino on this ship. Look for a recent posting and see if there is a craps table on this ship. Every Carnival ship I've been on has one.

 

Dicenator

 

 

 

This was a seven day cruisedeparting on 3/4/18 and returning on 3/11/18, Sunday to Sunday sailing out of Fort Lauderdale. The cost wasamazingly low, $299 each for a balcony stateroom. We just happened to be on the Princesswebsite about two months ago and we saw this cruise listed at $299 for abalcony. We thought it was a mistake so we called to verify and the price wascorrect. It was a special block of rooms that was sponsored by the casino dept.We booked it immediately as soon as we found that the price was correct. Due to things like this and the occasionalfree cruises we’ve received from Carnival and Norwegian, it accounts for thenumber of cruises we’ve been on for the last 5 years.

 

 

The itinerary was justaverage; Princess Cay (private island in Bahamas), St. Thomas and St. Martin. There were three atsea days on this cruise. I’ve reportedon these islands in many of my previous trip reports so I won’t go into detail.The one thing that I will note is the hurricane damage that was stillvisible. In St. Thomas we mostly noticed some missing roofs, usually thesheet metal roofs, in a few areas. There were really not that many and St. Thomas seems to have fully recovered and all the shoppingand attractions were open. St. Martin has the world famousOrient Beachwhere we’ve gone to every time we’ve been in St. Martin. Not this trip though. Orient Beachtook a direct hit from the hurricane and every low lying structure near thebeach is no more and one resort (the naked resort at the end of the beach) wastotally destroyed. I think the name of this resort is Club Orient. In Philipsburg on the Dutch side of theisland there were a number of smaller hotels where the roofs were gone andwindows blown out but they are being rebuilt. The majority of the shopping and restaurants were open for business. Wewere there on a Thursday and there were a total of three ships in port thatday.

 

 

My wife loves this ship andshe says that the food is the best she’s ever had on any ship we’ve beenon. This was her third time on the RegalPrincess and my second time. The extracruise was a spring break cruise 2 years ago with her teacher friends. I refer to this as a cougar cruise. Since I’mnot a foodie, I consider every meal I’ve ever had on any ship to be good toexcellent. My biggest problem at dinneris the length of time it takes. We wereat the dining room, Allegro, every night at 5:45. We neverfinished dinner until 7:30so this was 1 hour and 45 minutes. Entirely too long for the portions of foodyou were being served. Our dining tablewas for 8 and we had delightful dinner companions. There was a retired snow bird couple from Cape Cod and another couple from the UK and the last couple was from Indiana. Lots oflaughs and good conversations during dinner.

 

 

Our balcony cabin, M 607,was on the Marina deck right below the Horizon buffet and the pool wason the same deck as the buffet but farther forward. Our location was midway between the aft andthe midship elevators. The passengercapacity of this ship is close to 3800 and the ship never felt crowded. The farthest we had to go was to the casinoand that was an easy trip. Mid-shipelevator to the piazza deck 6 then walk halfway around the piazza and you werethere.

 

 

Now on to the Casino: When I was first on this ship two years ago,I rated the craps table as unplayable due to the excessive bouncecharacteristic. I now find it to be playable but just barely. One thing new onthe table is the all-tall all-small bet. On the first night I found the dice tobe worn beyond what I would consider normal. I spoke to the Casino Manager,Jack, about this and he gave me a song and dance answer about their keepingtrack of the amount of play and that they never exceed 3 days of play on theship with a set of dice. After the first night the dice were fine for the restof the cruise so my talking to him about it may have lit a spark along withmentioning that I had discussed this issue with his boss at Princess’sheadquarters a few months ago.

 

 

Here are the throwingresults:

 

DAY #1 3/4 SUNDAY DICE SERIAL # 999

 

 

BOB 22 THROWS 2POINTS 1 CO WIN

 

BOB 4 THROWS

 

 

DAY #2 3/5 MONDAY

 

 

NO PLAY – CRAPS LESSON AT 8 PM FOLLOWED BY FULL TABLE

 

 

DAY #3 3/6 TUESDAY DICE SERIAL # 699

 

 

BOB 4 THROWS

 

BOB 5 THROWS 1 COWIN

 

BOB 16 THROWS 3POINTS

 

 

DAY #4 3/7 WEDNESDAY DICE SERIAL # 644

 

 

EVA 20 THROWS 3POINTS 1 CO WIN

 

BOB 6 THROWS

 

EVA 21 THROWS 1POINT 2 CO WINS

 

BOB 5 THROWS

 

 

DAY #5 3/8 THURSDAY DICE SERIAL # 655

 

 

EVA 8 THROWS 1POINT

 

BOB 11 THROWS

 

BOB 18 THROWS 1POINT

 

BOB 19 THROWS 4POINTS

 

BOB 5 THROWS 2 COWINS

 

BOB 9 THROWS 1 POINT

 

BOB 9 THROWS 2POINTS

 

 

DAY #6 3/9 FRIDAY DICE SERIAL # ???

 

 

EVA 15 THROWS 2POINTS 1 CO WIN

 

BOB 10 THROWS 1POINT 2 CO WIN

 

 

DAY #7 3/10 SATURDAY DICE SERIAL # ???

 

 

EVA 9 THROWS

 

BOB 9 THROWS 2 COWIN

 

EVA 16 THROWS 3POINTS

 

 

 

I only played 15 hands forthe whole week. Eva played 6 hands forthe week but she didn’t start playing until day #4.

 

 

Why so few hands? Almostevery night the table would fill with players within 15 minutes of opening. Iwas always the first one there but the table typically would open at 8:30. Thursday was the only good night where the hordedidn’t show up immediately upon opening and I was able to get in 6 hands. Thiswas also my best performing night where I made 8 points.

 

 

I made 14 points in the 15hands with 8 come out wins. Eva made 10 points in her 6 hands with 4 come outwinds. Eva was the star at craps with anaverage roll length of 14.83 throws per hand. I only wish that she had beenplaying from night number 1. Betweenboth of us we were up around $190 at craps for the cruise.

 

 

The cruise was great. We hada relaxing time and the weather was decent. We will be going on this ship again on November 1st when itsails out of NY and repositions to Fort Lauderdale. Hopefully there won’t be as many craps players onthat cruise.

 

 

Dicenator

 

This was a two week tripstarting on Oct. 7th through Oct 21st. Our friends, Mike and Sandi, from Ontario, Canada, accompanied us on this trip. The itinerary for this trip was the best we’ve ever been on since we started taking cruise vacations in 2006. It was Princess Cays, (private island in Bahamas), St. Martin, St. Kitts, Antigua, Martinique, Barbados, Trinidad, Curacao and finally Aruba. Before the hurricanes St. Martin was replaced with St. Thomasdue to some alleged speed issue with the ship. Due to the hurricanes, St. Thomas was replaced by San Juan and then San Juan was dropped. So we had an extra at sea day which they compensated all passengers witha $50 shipboard credit. For Mike andSandi every port was new except for Aruba. Martinique and Trinidad were new ports for Eva and me.

 

 

 

PRINCESS CAYS

 

 

 

The ship anchors and youtake tenders to the island. Essentially this was a beach day and the water waswarm enough to just walk right in. I’m guessing a temperature in the low eighties. Since I’ve had sunburn problems in the past I took it easy and stayed inthe shade when I wasn’t in the water.

 

 

 

ST. KITTS

 

 

 

We had found a resort called Ocean Terrace where we purchased day passes for $25 each. We were able to use their beautiful pool and included in the cost was lunch and a drink. We spent the day there and had the pool totally to ourselves the wholeday. This resort was not on the beach, it was up in the hills overlooking the main town Basse Tierre and the harbor where the ship was docked.

 

 

 

ANTIGUA

 

 

 

We booked a beach excursion through the ship and the cost was $34.95 each. This included transportation both ways. Lounge chairs were included and there was a restaurant and bar there. The water was aqua blue and it was warm, mid eighties. Total time at the beach was three hours. The bus dropped us off back in town at the King Casino. We went in and Eva played Caribbean Stud for about an hour with no luck.

 

 

 

MARTINIQUE

 

 

 

The ship docked at Fort deFrance, the capital, right in the center of town. Our snorkeling excursion wasn’t scheduled until after lunch so we spent the morning wandering around town. The town seemed safe and clean and was filled with shops and restaurants. We found the cathedral to be beautiful. Our snorkeling trip was to a place called the Bat Cave. This was a cave at water level right in the side of a cliff on the coast, after which we went to a beach for 45 minutes. The water here was emerald green not the aqua blue that you usually find in the Caribbean.

 

 

 

BARBADOS

 

 

 

This was supposed to be a great beach day at Rockley Beach but unfortunately this ended up being the only rainyday we had in the two week cruise.

 

 

 

TRINIDAD

 

 

 

This island does not have much in the way of tourist attractions. There was only one beach that we were aware of and that was a one hour drive from Port of Spain. It was also Sunday when we were there so nothing was open. All we did was walk around the city for a few hours. It seems to be very much business oriented and the island’s biggest source of income is oil. We could see drilling rigs from the port. In my opinion there is no reason to stop in Trinidad. A much better stop would be its’ sister island Tobago.

 

 

 

CURACAO

 

 

 

We were here all day and didn’t leave until 10 PM. At 9 AM we went to the Seaquarium Beach. It was a $3 admission per person and then $3.50 per person for a lounger. The beach was great, water was aqua blue and you could see your feet in the water when the water was up to your neck. The temperature had to be mid eighties; you walked right in with no hesitation. We left the beach at 2 PM and wandered around town for a while before walking across the pontoon bridge on our way back to the ship. In the evening after dinner we went back into town and went to the Renaissance Hotel and Casino. I was up $50 at blackjack; Eva played Caribbean Stud and won $100. All in all this was a great day.

 

 

 

ARUBA

 

 

 

Eagle beach is one of the best in the Caribbean, so that’s where we went. To be able to get loungers and shade we went to Amsterdam Manor, a resort at the beach, and paid $15 each for the loungers for the day. The water was exceptional with aqua blue color, clear and warm. We were here from 9 AM until 2 PM.The winds were blowing strong all day so it never felt hot. When we went back to town Eva and I went to the Crystal casino where Eva has won in the past. No luck this time at blackjack or Caribbean stud. The casino was filled with Asian crewmembers since there were 5 ships docked intown that day.

 

 

 

THE SHIP

 

 

 

The ship was dry-docked inMarch and they redid the buffet area making a few new restaurants such as a BBQ restaurant, cost $12, and another seafood restaurant called Steamers. They updated the offerings at the grille on deck 15 such as cheese or chili fries and a special “Enzio” burger at a $5 cost plus tacos.

 

 

 

Our stateroom was L104 which is an ocean view on deck 15 right over the bridge and there was a huge observation deck right outside our window. This stateroom is about 15 to 20 sq. ft. more than the average oceanview. We consider this location to be great because the pools and the buffet area are on this deck. The front elevators are never crowded and were easy to get without a long wait. The casino was right below us on deck 7 when we got off the elevator and the theatre was right in front of the elevators.

 

 

 

Time for a funny story. Eva and I both get casino discounts from Princess.To get discounts for Mike and Sandi, I booked one room for Mike and myself and Eva booked another room for her and Sandi. When we were boarding we got this corrected at the terminal. When we met our stateroom attendant later in the afternoon he was laughing telling us that he and his buddies were really puzzled because they had Mike and myself listed for the room with a wedding anniversary and a queen bed, not two twin beds. So they thought Mike and I was a married gay couple.

 

 

 

We had dinner on the 9th at the Crown Grill Steakhouse for Sandi’s birthday. The food was excellent. Three nights we ate at the buffet for dinner because we didn’t get back to the ship until almost before sailing and didn’t have time to get ready for our 5:45 dinner seating. The main restaurant also seems to have been redecorated. Our table for four was located right next to a window on the starboard side of the ship. The dinners were fine with the only issue for me being that it took one hour and forty five minutes to complete. I’m not a foodie so the dinners are always fine to me.

 

 

 

Every at sea day Eva and I were at the pool where the movie screen was by 8 AM and we saved lounge chairs for Mike and Sandi. The next to last day on the cruise this crusty old (80+) bastard started to give my wife grief over saving the loungers. Everybody does this. Loungers are saved from 8 in the morning with people not showing up until 11 or 12. I’m guessing that this crusty old bastard,who was from England, was either a social justice warrior or a 7 per center. A 7 per center is one of the 7% of people on a cruise ship who are a couple of bricks short of a full load according to the comedian who performed on the ship.

 

 

 

CASINO

 

 

 

The craps table was 12 feet long with a red micro fiber layout. The bounce was perfectly neutral. We were greatly surprised when we saw that they had added the all tall all small bet,however the payouts were 30:1 for the tall and small and 150:1 for the all.

 

 

 

I’ve been battling with Carnival Corp. for almost two years now over their dice, particularly the excessive use of the dice during the month. I was on this ship back in March for two weeks and I was told before departure that I would see a different serial number every night. I kept track and there was a different number every night. On this cruise it looks like they have gone back to their old habits. For the first week there was a different serial number every night. Starting on night #8 I saw repeating serial numbers and this continued for the rest of the cruise. I seriously think that since our cruise didn’t start until the 7th that these same dice were used during the first week of the month. Therefore, in week #2 of this cruise the dice were on their third usage. I was told by the VicePresident of Carnival Corp. (parent co. for Princess) that their new dice policy would ensure that a set of dice would not be used more than 2 days.

 

 

 

The casino manager, Dorel,sat at box at the craps table the first night for a short while and was a total jerk giving everyone grief over hitting the wall. Give the players some slack. It was the first night and everybody had to adjust to the table characteristics. For two weeks I did not see him interact with any of the passengers. Alex, the assistant manager, was great; he talked to the passengers and even bought drinks for the players a few times.

 

 

 

On at sea days the craps table opened at 9 PM and on days on port it opened at 8PM. I was there every night right as it opened and in the second week I had the table to myself for at least a half hour. Mike and Eva had stopped playing after week #1 due to too many losses.

 

 

 

Here are the dice throwingresults:

 

 

 

PLAYER #THROWS # CO WINS # POINTS MADE

 

 

 

DAY #1 10/7 SERIAL# 622

 

 

 

EVA 7

 

BOB 3 1

 

MIKE 60 4 7

 

EVA 12 1

 

BOB 8 2 1

 

MIKE 9 2

 

BOB 9 1 2

 

MIKE 2

 

 

 

 

 

DAY #2 10/8 SERIAL# 608

 

 

 

BOB 35 1 6

 

MIKE 10 1

 

EVA 6 1

 

BOB 14

 

MIKE 14 3

 

 

 

DAY #3 10/9 SERIAL# 621

 

 

 

BOB 12 2 2

 

MIKE 5

 

EVA 2

 

BOB 7

 

MIKE 5

 

BOB 25 2 5

 

MIKE 2

 

BOB 3

 

MIKE 18 1 2

 

 

 

DAY #4 10/10 SERIAL# ?

 

 

 

MIKE 19 1 2

 

MIKE 6

 

MIKE 5 1

 

EVA 4 1

 

BOB 12 2

 

EVA 10 1 1

 

BOB 14 1 1

 

 

 

DAY #5 10/11 SERIAL# 611

 

 

 

BOB 6

 

MIKE 4

 

EVA 5 1

 

BOB 12 1 2

 

MIKE 9 1

 

EVA 6 1

 

BOB 4

 

MIKE 4

 

EVA 3 1

 

BOB 5

 

BOB 5 2

 

 

 

DAY #6 10/12 SERIAL# 614

 

 

 

BOB 7

 

MIKE 2

 

EVA 12 2 2

 

BOB 15 2

 

MIKE 14 2

 

BOB 7 1 1

 

BOB 11 1

 

BOB 23 4 2

 

 

 

DAY #7 10/13 SERIAL# 605

 

 

 

MIKE 4 1

 

EVA 8 1 1

 

BOB 3 1

 

MIKE 8

 

BOB 8

 

 

 

DAY #8 10/14 SERIAL# 622 REPEAT FROM DAY #1

 

 

 

BOB 11

 

BOB 11 1

 

BOB 9 1

 

BOB 17 1

 

BOB 5 1

 

 

 

DAY #9 10/15 SERIAL# 608 REPEAT FROM DAY #2

 

 

 

BOB 17 5 1

 

BOB 7 1

 

BOB 5

 

BOB 6

 

BOB 8 1

 

 

 

DAY #11 10/17 SERIAL# 618

 

 

 

BOB 25

 

MIKE 10 1

 

BOB 4

 

MIKE 5

 

BOB 7

 

MIKE 14 2 1

 

BOB 12 1 1

 

MIKE 11 2 1

 

 

 

DAY #12 10/18 SERIAL# 611 REPEAT FROM DAY #5

 

 

 

BOB 9 1 1

 

BOB 17 3 1

 

BOB 6 1

 

 

 

DAY #13 10/19 SERIAL# 614 REPEAT FROM DAY #6

 

 

 

BOB 14 2 3

 

BOB 4 1

 

BOB 18 3

 

BOB 10 1

 

 

 

 

 

DAY #14 10/20 SERIAL# 605 REPEAT FROM DAY # 7

 

 

 

BOB 21 2 3

 

BOB 21 2 2

 

BOB 6 1

 

 

 

Eva shot only 10 hands and made 6 points and 7 come out wins. Average roll length = 6.8

 

Mike shot 23 hands and made 20 points and 15 come out wins. Average roll length = 10.43

 

Bob shot 47 hands and made 47 points and 40 come out wins. Average roll length = 11.02

 

 

 

We were all totally in shock when Mike’s first hand on the first night was a 60 throw monster. This more than doubled the best he had ever done before. Well we expected more of the same but it never happened. His best hand after that was 19 throws. I was disappointed in my performance due to a lack of consistency. I was all over theplace with the lengths of my hands. I attribute this to a lack of play and practice for the whole year to date and also the dice condition I mentioned above. I didn’t see one new set of dice the whole two weeks. Despite all of this my average roll length of 11.02 is far above the average of all craps players which is approximately 8.25 throws per hand. My 1 point per hand average also far exceeded the average craps’ players’ .4 points per hand.

 

 

 

With all my inconsistencies my betting was inhibited and I ended up the cruise being down somewhere around $150. Mike and Eva were also both down at craps around the $100 mark but Mike and Sandi found a good slot machine where they were getting payoffs of $100 plus probably 4 or 5 times during the course of the cruise.

 

Between the itinerary, being with our friends and being able to play craps every day, I rate this cruise as one of the best I’ve ever been on.

 

Dicenator

I've made a few attempts to upload my pictures. All I get is a message concerning security tokens. I tried to contact the administrator for help to no avail.

 

If anybody knows how to handle this security token issue, I would really appreciate your help.

 

 

Dicenator

The taxi cost around $20 for the trip each way. It took about 20 minutes mostly due to congestion getting out of and into Nassau proper. When we left the taxi's were there in front of the lobby waiting for customers. Good luck and let us know how you did in the casino.

 

Dicenator

Spideybabe,

 

The Roulette table had 0 and 00. On the Divina the Roulette table had a lot of action the whole week. There are 2 tables.

 

For the most part the casino was not as crowded as Norwegian's casinos most nights.

 

 

Dicenator

All of the cruise lines that I've been on; Carnival, Princess, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, MSC, in general have $5 minimums with the following exceptions:

 

Norwegian Breakaway

Norwegian Getaway

RC Anthem of the Seas

 

These 3 ships all had $10 minimums at craps. The 2 Norwegian ships had two craps tables. Normally the one that is open most of the time is at $10 and the one that is opened less time will be $5.

 

On both Norwegian ships they make you bet on the player before you or they will pass you by with the dice.

 

Dicenator

You have to get out into open ocean past the Ver. narrows bridge. The ship departs at 4 PM, so if I remember correctly by around 5:30.

 

Yes this ship has a craps table, better yet it has 2 craps tables. One table will have a $10 minimum and the second table, not open nearly as much, will more than likely start at $10 but then reduce to $5 by the 2nd or 3rd day.

 

One rule they enforce on this ship is that you must bet on the player shooting the dice before you or they will pass you by with the dice. I've been on this ship 3 times.

 

I've posted all my trip reports on this ship here on this message board. I am a craps player and I post a lot of craps information in my reports.

 

Dicenator

This is an apology for how my trip report is garbled. I write it in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste it here in my posting. I previewed it before submitting and noticed some of the problems but I did not see any way to edit it.

 

Dicenator

 

 

 

MSC stands for MediterraneanShipping Company. They are very big in Europe and currently have only one ship, the Divina, sailing out of Miami year round for the past four years. This ship willbe joined by the brand new MSC Seaside in December of this year. We have been looking at the Divina seriouslyfor the past two years and originally had it scheduled for October of lastyear. This trip was destroyed byHurricane Matthew. We couldn’t fly in and we couldn’t drive because thehurricane went right up the east coast. Mr. Richard S., the CEO of MSC, USA gave us a credit for this cruise. We rescheduled it for departure on May 20th, 2017 because we would be onthe ship for our 15th wedding anniversary on May 26th. The ship is fairly large being 139,000 tondisplacement. I’m not sure what thepassenger capacity is but I’m guessing somewhere around 4,000 passengers. In all honesty the ship seemed crowded mostof the time. We were in the buffet forbreakfast most mornings by 6:30and that was the only time we didn’t deal with crowds.

 

 

 

The embarkation procedurewas fairly smooth with only one glitch. After getting our room key we had to wait in a lounge until boarding atapproximately noon time. The PA system was not working in this loungeso there was some confusion when they started calling out boarding numbers. Ournumber was 14. We had lunch in thebuffet and were able to go to our stateroom by 2 PM. We had abalcony stateroom, # 11084, which was located in an area where the wide part ofthe ship narrowed down significantly increasing the size of the balcony. I believe the balcony was 125 sq. feet. The furniture was two chairs and a smallhassock for your feet. This balconywould be quite a bit better if it had loungers like at the pool and a smalltable. The stateroom itself was spacious and beautiful. The shower had a unique feature. It had glassdoors which pivoted inward, retained by magnets. This increased the space inthe bathroom. Our cabin steward, Dexter,was great. Our room was always made up after we left in the morning. Anything we needed he got for usimmediately. We tipped him $20 on thelast morning when departing.

 

 

 

The décor on the ship was beautiful;I’d guess most would refer to it as European, Italian in design. I would put this ship in my top 3 all timefor its’ appearance, exterior and interior. One thing I noted was the absence of rustanywhere on the ship’s exterior. This is the first time after being on 30+ships that I have not noticed rust. MSCshould be complimented on this. We had the early seating, 6PM, for dinner inthe Villa Rosa dining room on deck 6 in the back of the ship. Mr. S. gave us VIP treatment for this cruiseand we were assigned the best table in the dining room in our opinion. It was in the back row adjoining the largepicture windows which ran across the complete back of the ship. Our table wasright in the center overlooking the wake. Our waiter Ashok Kumar, wasabsolutely fabulous. He spoke great English and had a sense of humor. One thingthey do on MSC is when they take your order for dinner, they take your dessertorder also. Desserts were listed in the menus. By the way the menu was in I think 5 or 6 different languages, English,Spanish, French, German, Italian and maybe Portuguese. Most nights the servicewas on the slow side. I was expecting tofinish dinner in an hour and 15 minutes but it generally took an hour and 40minutes. This was OK because I did nothave to get to the casino by a certain time to get a good shooting position onthe non-existent craps table. Theshows in the theater for the early dinner seating did not start until 9 PM so the long dinners didn’t affect that. Ourstateroom was an upgraded (fantastica) and it came with 12 free drink voucherseach. I think we had 10 leftover vouchers at the end of the cruise.

 

 

 

Despite this ship sailingout of Miami year round for the last 4 years, the majority of thepassengers were foreigners. My guess isthat only 25% were USA citizens. Some of the countries the people that we met and talked to during thiscruise were from, Argentina, UK, Switzerland and Russia. The Spanish speaking people seemed like the mostfriendly and were always smiling. TheRussians, not all, but most seemed somewhat surly or grumpy. Quite a few of theforeigners seemed somewhat rude. This was evidenced most often in the buffetarea. They had a tendency to not knowwhat a line is and you never heard an “excuse me” from them. It took a couple of days before we ran acrosssome English speaking passengers.

 

 

 

The pasta in the buffet wasexceptional! It was like your Italiangrandmother was cooking in the kitchen. My wife is very fussy about Italian food and she absolutely loved the pasta. The sauce on the pizza was also exceptional,MSC definitely has some talented chefs working for them, the sauce isauthentic! There was some difficulty forus since my wife is a Vegan and she didn’t have too many choices, but was ableto soldier on and still find enough to keep her satisfied.

 

 

 

There were 4 stops on thiscruise: Ocho Rios, CaymanIsland, Cozumel and Nassau. There were 2 at sea days and we spent time at theinfinity pool on the back of the ship deck 15. By 10 in the morning all the lounge chairs were taken. The pool was salt water and was heated to 79degrees. This was an adults only area and was very quiet compared to the mainpool area. There was a solarium poolwith a moveable cover which was very nice also. There were no lounge chairs here though. They did have quite a few tables and chairs in this area. I justremembered, this ship had 4 sets of elevators. One bank was right near ourstateroom and most times we didn’t have to wait more than 15 seconds for anelevator. This was certainly a positive.

 

 

 

Now for a summary of ourstops in port:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last stop on the cruisewas Nassau on Friday the 26th. We had been following the news concerningBaha Mar for three years through their bankruptcy and all the politicalissues. Well, they finally got thingsworked out and the complex is now partially completed. They are still working on completing thefinal 3 hotels but the first, the Grand Hyatt is currently operational with 200plus rooms available plus the casino opened in late April. I think the hotelwill eventually have 1000 plus rooms.

 

 

We took a cab around 11 am to Baha Mar. You can also take a bus for $1.25 fromdowntown Nassau near the straw market. The appearance of the complexis spectacular with luscious landscaping, ponds, pools and fountains. As atourist you have free access to their pools and beach, which I foundfascinating. I’m sure this won’t lastforever.

 

 

Right off the main entrancelobby is the casino. I will attempt to download pictures sometime later thisweek. The casino is approximately100,000 square feet which I think is the largest in the whole Caribbean. It was bright, bright, brightwith outside glass letting natural light in right in the center of the casino.The shape of the casino was rectangular so there was no getting lost orconfused. Slot machines were everywherealthough they were not piled on top of one another.

 

 

There were 6 table gamepits, one of which was called Salon Prive, High roller pit. Most of these pitshad craps tables. I counted 7 on themain floor but I didn’t check the Salon Prive. All of the craps tables were 12 feet long with a bright green microfiber layout. The bet minimum at crapswas $10. All of the other games had a $5 minimum bet. They had all theproposition bets on the craps layout.

 

I gave craps a try notexpecting anything great to happen since I haven’t played in 3 months. I found the table to be somewhat bouncy butplayable. I think the bounce willdecrease somewhat over time. I was onthe table by myself and tried 4 hands the longest of which was 8 throws. Needless to say I lost $55. I was somewhat surprised that every 7 out waswith a 5-2. If I stayed longer I wouldhave tried different dice sets, but my main purpose was scouting out thecasino.

 

 

My wife played Pai Gow Pokerwith a $10 minimum which is great. Sheplayed for over an hour with a $100 buy in and just missed a royal flush. She then went on to the Ultimate Texas holdem table again with a $5 minimum and played again for almost an hour andmanaged to be up $30. There were no continuous shufflers at blackjack.

 

 

Most of my time there Iwandered around killing time trying penny slots here and there just putting $5or $10 into the different machines. WellI hit big on 3 different machines and was up $200 from my slot play.

 

 

All of the dealers and pitbosses were outstandingly friendly with smiles on their faces no matter whereyou went. When we first arrived therewere very few players in the casino but it increased quite a bit by 2 pm when we were leaving. They are still in what they are calling asoft opening and have not really starting their advertising campaign yet. Thegrand opening will be this fall.

 

 

We were extremely delightedwith this casino particularly when compared to Atlantis. Anytime we stop in Nassau on any future cruises, this will definitely be onour to do list.

 

 

Dicenator

 

 

This cruise was for 14 daysdeparting from Fort Lauderdale onFeb. 25th and returning on March 11th. The first leg was 8 days going to Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire and then returning to Fort Lauderdale. 6 days wasthe second leg and we stopped at Roatan, Belize and Cozumel. Bonaire was the only new port for us. Caribbean Princess is an 113,000 tondisplacement ship and is a sister ship to the Emerald Princess we cruised onlast year and the Crown Princess from the year before.

 

 

Our stateroom, E 209, was anobstructed ocean view on deck 8. When webooked this room we went by the deck plan drawing which showed this room to bein-between 2 life boats. The room wasexactly as we expected and we had a good clear 85% view of the ocean on thestarboard side of the ship. This shiphad 3 banks of elevators, forward, midship and aft so we didn’t have too far towalk to get to the forward bank of elevators.

 

Our cabin steward, Romy, wasexceptional, among the top 3 we’ve had in 40+ cruises.

 

 

As usual I came down with acold on the first day of the cruise and it disrupted our plans for the wholefirst week.

 

 

CURACAO – Our plans were to go to the beach at theSeaquarium for a few hours, then go into the Seaquarium followed by shopping intown. What we did was go into town andafter an hour there was a torrential rainstorm for 30 minutes. We holed up inside a shop for the 30 minutes. On the way back to the ship we stopped at thecasino at the Renaissance center. Thereis no craps table there.

 

 

ARUBA – We had planned to go to Amsterdam Manor Resort onEagle beach and pay $10 each for a day pass. My cold ended this plan and we went into town and walked around andvisited the Crystal Casino.

 

 

BONAIRE – Most of the excursions are diving and snorkelingrelated which my cold kept us from doing. We wandered around town for a few hours. There is one tiny casino at theDivi Resort. This is within walking distance from the dock area but it doesn’topen until 8 PM. I thought Bonaire was a sleepy little island.

 

 

ROATAN – The ship docks at Mahogany Baywhich is a facility owned and developed by Carnival Corp. We went to the beach which is quite nice andspent a few hours followed by another hour visiting the shops in the dock area.

 

 

BELIZE – The ship anchors in Belize and the tender ride to the dock is 20 minutes. Wewandered around the shops on the dock for a few hours. There have been major improvements in thenumber and quality of the shops in the dock area in the last 3 years since wewere last here. What we found out isthat it is safe to go into town. Another thing is that if you go through thegates in the dock area out into town you can get all the same shore excursionsfor half the price the ship charges.

 

 

COZUMEL – We booked an excursion to visit some Mayan ruinsand a chocolate factory. This tour was 4hours and the cost was only $39.95 each. The tour guide, Margherita, wasabsolutely fabulous and filled us in on Mayan history and culture. Nobody seemsto know what happened to the Mayans and their culture. They justdisappeared. The Mayan ruins were calledSan Geravasio.

 

 

We ate in the buffet everynight firstly due to my cold the first week and secondly due to my wife being aVegan. She had many more choices of what to eat at the buffet than she wouldhave had in the main dining room. Because we were done eating dinner by 6:30 every evening we were able to go to maybe 7 shows inthe theatre. Many nights there were 3 shows with the earliest starting at 6:45.

 

 

Now it’s casino time. Hereare the table games in the casino:

 

 

1 Electronic poker pro

 

1 Craps ($5)

 

2 Roulette ($5)

 

2 Blackjack ($6)

 

1 Let it ride ($5)

 

1 Blackjack ($25)

 

1 Heads up Texas hold em ($5)

 

1 Blackjack ($10)

 

1 Fun 21 ($6) alteredSpanish 21

 

1 Three card poker ($5)

 

142 machines

 

 

The casino comped us aSteakhouse dinner one night in the second week. I think this was because we had a nice conversation with Stephania,casino manager. She was a veryattractive blond who was very friendly although we didn’t see her too muchduring the cruise.

 

 

Craps time:

 

 

I had absolutely no positiveexpectations for my craps play on this cruise. The last time I played was in early November last year and I only had 5practice sessions about a month before the cruise. For the 3 weeks leading upto the cruise I was working on a home improvement project.

 

 

The craps table on the shipwas 12 feet long with red colored micro fiber. $5 minimum bet, 2X odds and theonly proposition bets were the horn and the hardways. The table bounce in myopinion was a 9 with 10 being the max. This was my impression on the first dayand it stayed that way though out the cruise.

 

 

Now my next concern is thequality of the corners and edges on the dice. For the last 2 to 2 ½ years I’ve had issues and problems with the dice on all Carnivalowned ships. I was told before thiscruise that I would not see the same dice being used more than once during the14 days. I recorded the serial number ofthe dice for every night that I played. There was a different serial numberevery single night. I found no issues with the dice at all on this cruise. My guess is that the dice were brand new outof the foil wrapper maybe 4 nights. Onall the other nights they felt like they had only been used once before whichis fine on a cruise ship since they don’t get the same amount of play as in aland based casino.

 

 

Here are our throwingresults:

 

 

 

 

 

FEB 25 SATURDAY SERIAL # 037

 

 

EVA 9,5,6,11,4H,7 OUT

 

6 THROWS

 

 

BOB 5,8,6,8H,9,6,2,3,10H,5PT,8,7 OUT

 

12 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

EVA 9,2,6,6H,8,9PT,11,10H,9,5,11,12,4,9,3,8,7 OUT

 

17 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

Before I could get in asecond hand the table was filled so we left.

 

 

FEB 26 SUNDAY

 

 

NO PLAY TABLE NOT OPENED UNTIL 9 PM I WASBEAT FROM THE COLD

 

 

FEB 27 MONDAY SERIAL# 028

 

 

BOB 8,8PT,8H,3,11,8PT,9,8,8,3,7 OUT

 

11 THROWS 2POINTS

 

 

This was craps lesson nightfor newbies starting at 8:15.I never got to play until 10 PM.

 

 

FEB 28 TUESDAY SERIAL# 035

 

 

EVA 8,9,5,9,6,4,9,5,12,6H,2,5,6H,9,4H,3,9,6,5,8PT,7,11,8,3,12,11,6,3,8PT,7,3,6H,7OUT

 

33 THROWS 2POINTS

 

 

BOB 4,6,8,8,5,11,6,3,8,6,6,4PT,6H,10,5,5,8,8,7 OUT

 

19 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

Table filled with playersagain.

 

 

MAR 1 WED SERIAL# 030

 

 

BOB 7,8,8PT,7,8,9,10H,9,9,6,6,9,8PT,12,10,10PT,11,2,9,9PT,3,4,2,4PT,7,8,5,5,6,7OUT

 

30 THROWS 5POINTS

 

 

EVA 6,2,5,5,9,10H,5,7OUT

 

8 THROWS

 

 

BOB 8H,8HPT,4H,11,5,9,8,6,7OUT

 

9 THROWS

 

 

Table filled with playersagain so we left.

 

 

MAR 2 THURSDAY SERIAL # 055

 

 

EVA 8,10,9,7OUT

 

4 THROWS

 

 

BOB 8H,10H,6,6,9,3,3,9,11,6,9,5,3,10,5,6,11,4H,3,3,9,10,6,8HPT,4,11,7OUT

 

27 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

EVA 8,8PT,6,5,8,4,5,5,12,3,11,7OUT

 

12 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

BOB 7,8,3,4,6,5,8HPT,9,7OUT

 

9 THROWS 1POINT

 

Table filled with players again.

 

 

MAR 3 FRIDAY SERIAL# 017

 

 

BOB 3,4H,8,8H,6,4PT,8,4,5,6,5,6H,6,10,9,7OUT

 

16 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

Table filled with players.

 

 

MAR 4 SATURDAY SERIAL # 029

 

 

BOB 4,4PT,8,2,9,11,7OUT

 

7 THROWS

 

 

Table again filled withplayers.

 

 

MAR 5 SUNDAY SERIAL# 045

 

 

BOB 3,8H,8PT,7,4,10,5,8,7OUT

 

9 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

BOB 9,8H,5,10,6,5,10,6,5,11,7OUT

 

11 THROWS

 

 

BOB 10H,2,8H,5,8,10HPT,5,9,4,4,10H,9,3,8,7OUT

 

15 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

BOB 9,6,3,9PT,6,9,2,11,7OUT

 

9 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

Good night. I got in 4 handsbefore the horde showed up.

 

 

MAR 6 MONDAY SERIAL# 988

 

 

BOB 6,11,3,7OUT

 

4 THROWS

 

 

Table filled with players.

 

 

MAR 7 TUESDAY SERIAL # 600

 

 

BOB 2,6H,3,5,3,11,8,7OUT

 

8 THROWS

 

 

EVA 9,8,8,5,8,8,2,8H,10H,6,7OUT

 

11 THROWS

 

 

BOB 3,10H,10PT,8,6,11,7OUT

 

7 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

EVA 5,2,6H,6,12,5PT,6,5,3,8,3,10,7OUT

 

13 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

Table filled with players.

 

 

 

MAR 8 WEDNESDAY SERIAL # 036

 

 

BOB 6,6HPT,8,3,10H,11,11,5,6,7OUT

 

10 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

EVA 6,9,8,6HPT,8H,9,9,9,10,7OUT

 

10 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

BOB 5,3,4H,9,9,3,9,8,10,9,4H,7OUT

 

12 THROWS

 

 

EVA 8,4H,8PT,8,4,8HPT,2,7,8,3,5,10H,10H,5,8PT,5,7OUT

 

17 THROWS 3POINTS

 

 

Table filled with players.

 

 

MAR 9 THURSDAY SERIAL # 005

 

 

EVA 7,10H,5,5,12,5,5,9,5,8H,11,4,6,7OUT

 

14 THROWS

 

 

BOB 4,3,6,5,6,8,7OUT

 

7 THROWS

 

 

BOB 11,6,4H,4,5,6PT,7,8,6,7OUT

 

10 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

BOB 6,10H,5,9,2,2,6PT,10,7OUT

 

9 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

BOB 4,8,3,6H,11,6,11,11,5,9,7OUT

 

11 THROWS

 

 

BOB 7,8,8HPT,7,8,11,7OUT

 

7 THROWS 1POINT

 

 

5 hands tonight. Most forthe whole cruise.

 

 

MAR 10 FRIDAY SERIAL# 017

 

 

EVA 6H,10,9,6PT,6,6PT,4H,5,7OUT

 

9 THROWS 2POINTS

 

 

BOB 5,10,10,5PT,7,2,12,11,8,10,7OUT

 

11 THROWS 1POINT

 

Table filled again so weleft. This was fine because we had to pack to get off the ship the nextmorning.

 

 

Princess does not haveenough dealers in the casino to open the craps table in the afternoon on at seadays. This eliminates quite a lot ofplaying time that I usually have for example on a Carnival ship.

 

On at sea days the crapstable would open at 9 PMand on days in port it would open at 8 PM.I don’t know why they don’t open the craps table at 7 PM. This alone would havegreatly increased my playing opportunities. For all 14 nights the table wouldbe filled with 10 to 13 players within a half hour of opening. Maybe on 2 nights I got to play enough to getwarmed up to the table.

 

 

To summarize our play wemade 32 points in 36 hands for a ratio of .89 points per hand. Eva made 11points in 12 hands and Bob made 21 points in 24 hands. Eva had 7 come out winners and Bob had 17. Eva’s average hand length was 12.5 throws andBob’s was 11.67 throws per hand.

 

 

We were winners at crapsbeing up about $300 craps but gave more than that back at slots and the othertable games that Eva played.

 

 

The dealers, pit bosses,hosts on this ship were absolutely great. If there had only been half as many craps players on this cruise itwould have been great. When you wait 24hours to play craps and only get in 1 or 2 hands, it is very disappointing.

 

 

 

Dicenator

Here is the full scoop on craps on board the ships:

 

Royal Caribbean - 1X odds

Carnival - 2X odds

Princess - 2X odds

Norwegian - 3X, 4X, 5X odds

Celebrity - 3X, 4X, 5X odds (please check this, I'm not 100% sure)

 

Minimum bet level:

 

Carnival - $5

Princess - $5

Royal Caribbean - $5 I found $10 minimum on Anthem of the Seas

Celebrity - $5 I've only been on 1 Celebrity ship in 2010

Norwegian (old) - $5 (Gem, Pearl, Jewel, Star etc.)

Norwegian (New)- $10 (Breakaway & Getaway)

 

Consistency of table bounce:

 

Carnival - I've been on about 11 different Carnival ships and the bounce on the craps table was very consistent from ship to ship. They have all been playable.

 

Princess - The older ships (Crown, Emerald, Caribbean) have been consistent and playable. The newer ships, I've been on the Regal were so bouncy that I consider it to be unplayable.

 

Royal Caribbean - All the ships I've been on, Explorer, Enchantment, Grandeur and the Anthem have had consistently good bounce characteristics.

 

Norwegian - The older ships have great bounce characteristics. Two of my best hands ever, 65 throws and 54 throws have been on the Gem out of New York. The newer ships like the Breakaway and the Getaway tend to be bouncier although still playable.

 

Celebrity - The one and only ship I've been on the Summit had a trampoline like bounce and that got me to swear off of Celebrity. I've never booked another celebrity cruise.

 

Dice:

 

I've never had issues with dice on Norwegian ships whether newer or older.

 

Royal Caribbean - My last cruise on RC was the Anthem of the Seas. During the 9 night cruise they used 2 different types of dice. One type was great and the other type was crap. We had a 4 throws per hand decrease with the crap dice. The crap dice had birdseye pips (2 concentric circles) versus the normal solid filled in circle pip.

The other RC ships did not have any dice issues.

 

Carnival & Princess - They are under the same management and the VP of casino operations has all Carnival divisions reporting to him.

 

I first noted worn dice on the Carnival Splendor 3 years ago. On the Carnival Pride last year for 5 out of the 7 nights I referred to the dice as marbles. There was no sharpness on any corner for these dice. I did not see a brand new set of dice for the whole week on this cruise.

 

The Emerald Princess in Feb. of this year. This was a 2 week cruise leaving in late Feb. Here is what I found out. They had only 6 new sets of dice to be used at craps for the whole month. Starting on the 1st, they would use new dice. For the next 5 nights they would use a different set of new dice each day. Starting on the 7th they would repeat a previously used set of dice and then repeat this for the whole rest of the month. From the 25th though the 28th I was shooting dice that were on their 5th time on the table. They weren't marbles but the corners were all totally worn.

 

This dice policy applies across the board for all Carnival ships including Princess, Holland America, Cunard etc.

 

I've had email exchanges and phone conversations with the VP in charge of casino operations concerning this issue. I even triggered a staff meeting on this issue where they brought in outside consultants who agreed with me that worn dice are not good for the players. Despite all of this he has never given me a clear answer on what their actual policy is concerning changing the dice on their ships.

 

For me the only answer is to only sail on any Carnival ship during the first 2 weeks of any month.

 

I have booked the Caribbean Princess for a 14 night cruise departing on Feb. 25th, 2017. I'm anticipating not being able to play craps on this ship on the 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th. On March 1st they will introduce new sets of dice so I'll get to play for the last 10 nights on this cruise.

 

I've posted on this message board all my trip reports which are heavily biased towards my craps adventures on all of these ships. If you go to search and type in dicenator you should be able to find them.

 

Good Luck,

 

Dicenator

NORWEGIAN BREAKAWAY – NOV. 2016 – TRIP REPORT

 

This was a 7 night cruise departing from Manhattan on Nov. 6th and returning on Nov. 13th. We were gone for Election Day but we did absentee ballots back in October. The original itinerary was port Canaveral, Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay, Norwegians Private Island. Great Stirrup Cay was cancelled due to hurricane Matthew damage. It will be reopened in a few weeks. We ended up staying overnight in Nassau. The casino on board the ship was allowed to be open from 7 pm.

 

This cruise was a free cruise for us from the casino dept. Now it’s never really free because they give you an interior stateroom and you still have to pay taxes and port fees. We upgraded to a balcony stateroom, deck 12 forward. So our total cost for the cruise was somewhere around $450 each.

 

This was the third time for us on this ship and it might be the last time. Here are the negative issues we ran across on this ship:

 

1- The ships capacity is 4200 passengers but there were an additional 1000 kids due to school being closed for Election Day and 3 days of teacher conventions in New Jersey. Our opinion was that the ship was way overcrowded and the only time we didn’t deal with crowds was at 7 in the morning when we went to breakfast at the buffet.

2- This was a Blackjack tournament cruise which we weren’t aware of. So the casino was filled all the time with overzealous gamblers with big bankrolls particularly at the craps table.

3- They have 2 craps tables on this ship. One was always $10 minimum but the second table was $25 minimum for the first 2 nights. After this it went down to $10 but was hardly opened for the last 5 nights.

 

Now for some casino adventures. As usual I brought dice from home to check out the table bounce on day 1 of the cruise. Both tables were playable with a bounce rating in my opinion of 7.5 with 10 as the maximum. While checking out the table we met another craps player, Peter, who was making a Parr style toss. He commented to me that the table was bouncy for his throw. So I recommended to him that he make his throw in a manner that removed all the backspin. What a difference it made for him as he was now able to keep the bounce back from the wall minimized. We got to know him pretty well and had dinner with him 3 nights as he was cruising alone. His buy in was typically $500/$600 and with his new throw he had some great hands during the week. I’m only guessing but I think he was up around $1500 for the week.

 

Now for us. I was very disappointed because every day the craps table was packed from the moment it opened to closing time. I won’t play at a table with more than 5 players so I really did not get to play too much at all. In fact I never got to play enough in any one session to get the feel of the table or get warmed up. My wife, Eva, will play at a full table betting on everybody. This worked out well for her. On 2 separate sessions she was up around $250/$300. One of these sessions when she was throwing the dice she made 3 twelve’s in a row. Since she bets high low on come out throws and presses after a win, she was up over $200 on this factor alone.

 

Here are the throwing results:

 

Day #1 11/6

 

No play at all. The $10 table was packed from 4:30 pm when it opened all through the evening

 

 

 

Day #2 11/7

 

Eva 9 throws 1 point

Bob 9 throws

Eva 11 throws 2 points 1 come out win

Bob 7 throws 1 point 2 come out wins

Eva 7 throws 1 point 1 come out win

Bob 7 throws 2 points 1 come out win

Eva 7 throws 5 come out wins

Bob 19 throws 2 points 6 come out wins

Eva 5 throws

 

After dinner

 

Eva 11 throws 1 point 1 come out win

Bob 5 throws 1 come out win

Eva 14 throws 3 points

Bob 6 throws 1 point

 

Day #3 11/8

 

Casino not open until 10:30 pm Evening – watching election coverage more important than craps.

 

Day #4 11/9

 

Bob 11 throws 1 point 4 come out wins

Eva 20 throws 3 points 1 come out wins

Bob 7 throws

Eva 11 throws 1 point

Bob 7 throws 1 points 1 come out win

Eva 10 throws 1 point 1 come out win

Bob 5 throws 1 point

Eva 10 throws 1 point 1 come out win

Bob 6 throws 1 come out win

Eva 16 throws 2 points 2 come out wins

 

Day #5 11/10

 

Bob 13 throws 2 point 1 come out win

Bob 11 throws 1 come out win

Bob 21 throws 4 points 3 come out wins

Eva 8 throws 1 point 1 come out win

 

Day #6 11/11

 

No Play – table packed all day from 10:45 in the morning

 

Day #7 11/12

 

Eva 8 throws 1 point

Eva 20 throws 2 points

Eva played at a full table and won close to $300 this day. Bob didn’t play due to table being full the whole day.

 

For the whole cruise I only played 14 hands at the craps table and Eva played 15 hands. Between us we made 35 points in the 29 hands for a ratio of 1.21 points per hand. In addition we had 35 come out wins for the same 1.21 ratio. I was so disgusted at craps on this cruise that I didn’t keep track of our win. I was up about $150 and I think Eva was up around $250.

 

In the middle of the week I had 2 consecutive hands interrupted by buy ins in the middle of the hand. The first guy bought in with $2000 and by the time he got his chips and made all his hopping and other bets the game was stopped for 5 minutes. The next guy buys in right in the middle of my next hand. He then proceeds to place a bunch of bets and then start an argument with the stickman and dealer. Again another 5 minute delay. The first buy in guy flipped and flopped the dice 20/25 times trying to get a specific arrangement of the dice before he would throw them. Well when he threw the dice he was totally bent down with his chin about 1 inch above the rail and then he would make his random toss.

 

On this ship they made you bet on the person throwing before you or they would pass you by with the dice. Only Norwegian ship I’ve seen this on. Luckily for me Eva was to my right on most of my hands and I always bet on her.

 

Some other memorable characters were Mr. NO PASS. This guy would buy in for $3000 at the end of the table and not throw the dice himself. What made him memorable was his baldness and extreme bad breath. Eva had to leave the table one evening because he bought in right next to her.

 

Then there was the ATOMIC FART. This was on the 11th in the evening. Some guy at the craps table did a SBD that was so ripe the stick girl put her shirt up over her nose, the box man ran to the other end of the pit and all the non guilty players were asking where’s the hazardous waste disposal team.

 

Most of my time in the casino was spent playing slot machines where I was down about $300. Slot machine payouts on the cruise ships are not governed in any way.

 

During the week we ate at 3 specialty restaurants, Cagney’s Steakhouse, Le Bistro (French) and La Cuchina (Italian). I found the food to be fine on the ship but Eva who is now a vegetarian (almost vegan) had some difficulties at times.

 

In the future I have to be much more careful in planning one of these free offer cruises. This was the second time I’ve had a bad experience on a tournament cruise.

 

 

Dicenator

Both of these casinos are on the small side, about 13,000 square feet. The percentage of newer slot machines is lower than in the states. Since your time will be somewhat limited coming off a cruise ship, the only way I would recommend going there is if you plan a beach day and only want to stop in the casino for an hour on your way back to the ship.

 

The beaches in Puerto Rico are free and public.

 

The Marriot Stellaris has a nice pool and you can buy a day pass.

 

Dicenator

UPDATE ON MY MSC DIVINA CRUISE - SCHEDULED TO DEPART TOMORROW

 

Back in September after finding out that the Divina had removed their craps table, I was very upset and would have cancelled the cruise except that it was too late, our final payment had already been made.

 

In 2013 the chairman of MSC was on this message board in an open forum for a week. I asked him if there would be a craps table on the ship and he responded with a "YES". So I tried to find a way to get in touch with him via email. After searching for a few hours I failed but I did find the name of the CEO of MSC cruises USA. His name is Mr. Sasso.

 

I sent Mr. Sasso an email telling him how disappointed I was that there was no craps table on the ship and that I wouldn't have booked the cruise if I knew that. He responded the next day and told me he would look into it. The day after he sent me an email telling me that there was nothing he could do. They had removed it because on half the cruises there was little or no craps play. He also offered us a full refund it that was what we wanted. We talked it over and decided that we would go anyway, we had such a good price for a balcony, extended deck on the back of the ship that is was worth keeping. He also gave us a free VIP package.

 

Now it's cruise week coming up and hurricane Matthew is approaching. Being experienced travelers we knew early October is at the peak of hurricane season so we had our flights from New Jersey scheduled for Wed., Oct 5th. We could also drive if worse came to worse. We were going to spend a few days in Fort Lauderdale prior to the cruise. Little did we know that the hurricane would not only screw up our flight but coming up the coast it would make driving almost impossible also. On Tuesday Oct. 4th we decided to cancel the trip not knowing if we would be able to get rescheduled or lose all the money we had already paid.

 

First was cancelling the hotel stay for 3 nights which was no problem.

 

Second was the airline. At this time our flight had not yet been cancelled but we managed to get the fair we paid put into the airline bank to be used at some time in the future. OK no loss of money there.

 

Third, the cruise itself. We emailed Mr. Sasso trying to get the cruise cancelled per his offer from a month ago. NO GOOD but he was kind enough to give us a credit to be used anytime within the next year.

 

So we ended up not losing a dime and will recover the Divina cruise sometime next year. We are probably looking at May for our wedding anniversary.

 

So now I have 7 or 8 months to come up with a plan to convince them to put the craps table back in the casino.

 

My final thought is that we turned lemons into lemonade. Oh happy days.

 

Dicenator

UPDATE ON MY MSC DIVINA CRUISE - SCHEDULED TO DEPART TOMORROW

 

Back in September after finding out that the Divina had removed their craps table, I was very upset and would have cancelled the cruise except that it was too late, our final payment had already been made.

 

In 2013 the chairman of MSC was on this message board in an open forum for a week. I asked him if there would be a craps table on the ship and he responded with a "YES". So I tried to find a way to get in touch with him via email. After searching for a few hours I failed but I did find the name of the CEO of MSC cruises USA. His name is Mr. Sasso.

 

I sent Mr. Sasso an email telling him how disappointed I was that there was no craps table on the ship and that I wouldn't have booked the cruise if I knew that. He responded the next day and told me he would look into it. The day after he sent me an email telling me that there was nothing he could do. They had removed it because on half the cruises there was little or no craps play. He also offered us a full refund it that was what we wanted. We talked it over and decided that we would go anyway, we had such a good price for a balcony, extended deck on the back of the ship that is was worth keeping. He also gave us a free VIP package.

 

Now it's cruise week coming up and hurricane Matthew is approaching. Being experienced travelers we knew early October is at the peak of hurricane season so we had our flights from New Jersey scheduled for Wed., Oct 5th. We could also drive if worse came to worse. We were going to spend a few days in Fort Lauderdale prior to the cruise. Little did we know that the hurricane would not only screw up our flight but coming up the coast it would make driving almost impossible also. On Tuesday Oct. 4th we decided to cancel the trip not knowing if we would be able to get rescheduled or lose all the money we had already paid.

 

First was cancelling the hotel stay for 3 nights which was no problem.

 

Second was the airline. At this time our flight had not yet been cancelled but we managed to get the fair we paid put into the airline bank to be used at some time in the future. OK no loss of money there.

 

Third, the cruise itself. We emailed Mr. Sasso trying to get the cruise cancelled per his offer from a month ago. NO GOOD but he was kind enough to give us a credit to be used anytime within the next year.

 

So we ended up not losing a dime and will recover the Divina cruise sometime next year. We are probable looking at May for our wedding anniversary.

 

So now I have 7 or 8 months to come up with a plan to convince them to put the craps table back in the casino.

 

My final thought is that we turned lemons into lemonade. Oh happy days.

 

Dicenator

Casino Player,

 

You were 100% right to raise the question concerning a craps table on the Divina. I got in touch with customer service at MSC and they confirmed that this ship does not have a craps table. It is too late for me to cancel at this point. We've already made our final payment. This must be the only cruise ship sailing from the USA that doesn't have a craps table. We only paid $1300 for an upgraded balcony on this cruise so I'm going to try to stay positive. The table limits are $5 so I'll probably do some blackjack and slots and go to more shows that I usually go to. I am intending to have some serious discussions with the casino manager on board.

 

I am very disappointed in this message board. I posted this thread back in July. You would think that of the 500 + reads someone would have been in the casino on this ship and could have told me that there is no craps table. If I had found out before my final payment was due I would have cancelled.

 

Thanks for your warning. I should have acted much sooner in trying to verify this.

 

Dicenator

There is one positive on the Fun 21 game and that is it is hand shuffled versus the continuous shufflers used on the blackjack games. I personally have never been able to win with a continuous shuffler so I don't play these games on the ships. You can use a strategy card but don't have it laying on the table. Just hold it in your hand and refer to it as necessary.

 

Fun 21 is like Spanish 21 and if you play it you can't play it like you play blackjack or you'll get slaughtered. Go to the Wizard of Odds website and print out the Spanish 21 basic strategy.

 

Dicenator