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Mini casino specific review MSC Seaside 9/29-10/6/18


spiritkat090909
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Written to post on URCOMPED, but their format won't allow even a paragraph!

 

 

Beautiful ship, Yacht Club great value. Casino: Not up to par for serious gamblers. DH earned the 10k point free interior cruise and $100 to spend on the last night in the ship shops. I earned about 3800 points, 30% discount on a future cruise in 9 months, with $200 obc. Our daily budget was $500 each. Total loss and then some. Took one for the research team.

 

We mainly play UTH table game. This ship had pre-programmed auto deal play. Unlike Carnival, which has autoshuffler with hand dealt play. The wins seemed to come when someone came into the game to add a hand, for 2-4 hands. 75% (observation, 8+hrs daily play) of bonus/trip hands went to dealer. Any time a Queen pair came up, it would lose. I don't think I have ever seen a more obviously 'fixed' percentage game. And that percentage...looked like a half a percentage point. I wonder at the international payout rules... I would definitely like to see it audited! I also played blackjack & video poker. DH tried regular slots. I heard one jackpot of $6k and could hear the penny slots hit only one time in the week. Did not see any hand pays in the small casino.

 

Smoking: Only on the slot machine side. Table games were smoke free, including e-cig. Refreshingly clean air! (Air quality is why I prefer Celebrity casinos overall.)

 

The ‘benefits’ are minimal. The main GOOD benefit is the 30% discount on future cruise prices. But, if you tend to treat the ship as a ‘Vegas-at-sea’, you will be disappointed.

 

 

 

I purchased cruise via online agency apprx 10 months in advance with a 5% status match discount due to research on cruise critic. YC balcony suite, total price $3407. A steal for the all inclusive package room, which I could have stayed in all day. And should have. DH does not want to return, I would do so with my sister for a CRUISE-cruise and minimal casino visit. The casino simply didn’t pay enough to be fun.

 

 

 

The shows: Butterflies, enjoyed; My life in Music, enjoyed; Fly- not worth the time, horrible, but the cruise director afterwards had a funny comedic skit that was worth seeing. The food: Teppanyaki the best (but loud, of course), avoid the fish dishes in YC restaurant, the steaks consistently good, if on the rare side of done-ness request.

 

 

 

Bottom line: Enjoy the cruise for the cruise, but MSC has too many irons in the fire trying to fix the other small issues of the ship (food hit or miss) and get an American-port market share to concentrate on the regular casino player income. Maybe in a couple of years.

 

 

We players are an afterthought.

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We loved our 2 sailings on the Seaside. Casino was extremely fun, with many wins seen. Never without a drink in my hand in the casino, and the staff was wonderful. Only casino downfall is no craps (but hubby plays roulette) We are Non YC, and in the MDR our food was always hot and good. We enjoyed these 2 sailings better than our 26 NCL cruises, including food, staff, shows.

Safe sailing

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

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  • 2 weeks later...
11 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

What are the point requirements to earn a free cruise? OP stated 10,000 points for Inside. What about for veranda or Suite? Also, how much coin in equals one point?

 I have no idea what the requirements are for veranda or suite.  I can say that as far as my personal coin in,  I had a budget of $3000.  The first day I made $2000. I put $1000 on our shipboard account, lost $1000 on the last day in less than 20 minutes (half on my account, half on DH's). So, I'm guessing my coin in was around $5000 for the 30% discount. I also had probably 1500 in/out on video poker. My ACTUAL loss was $3000.

 

DH's... another story. He had a significant win one early am that I don't know for certain, but most likely was around $3k.  His budget was also $3k.  I know his ACTUAL loss was $7.5k.

 

Value of his interior room at a Bella Experience, I'm estimating at $600pp.

 

If I look at June 15th (before the 9mo expiration), I see a YC1 room value at $2563pp x 2 = 5126...times .30 makes the discount for my certificate $1,537 on that sale date, making it a bigger discount than his not-at-ALL-free room, even if they gave it a value of the current interior rate on that date of...$709pp x 2 = $1,418.  The earned room has an expiration of 12 months.

 

So, although my strength is NOT math or numbers... I see my return on my loss as much more than DH's.    Were I to actually use my discount before it expired, theoretically I would get HALF of my loss back in cruise vacation product. (Of course, if I didn't once again LOSE my SHIRT chasing my or my companions losses!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great casino review.

I agree on your review. 

I went in with a $4500 gaming budget. 

I was VERY disappointed in the casino. Not any playback.

My $50-$150 per hand on Blackjack, and roulette, over a 2 hour timeframe on each table (4 hours total), only netted me about 58 points.

I had a total of over 8700 points. But, I couldn't stomach throwing away anymore funds into this casino. This was the absolute tightest casino, that I have EVER been in. I too, made the comment that they should have an audit done. I don't know how the "flagging of the ship" affects the "gaming laws". But, I sure would love to know if that plays a role in it.

 

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