Casino experience on the Freedom of the Seas

[Daghis]

I returned last weekend from a wonderful cruise on the Freedom of the Seas.

 

Despite the ship being several years old, I was pleased to see that the slot machines were more up to date than I had feared. They did have plenty of reel-based slot machines, but they had several video slots (which I prefer), and many of those were multi-game models.

 

The one disappointment with the machines was that the hand pay limit was set lower than I'm used to in land-based casinos. The machines would lock up at $500. I could have dealt with that better if they didn't take a minimum of 10 minutes, and often 15-20 minutes, to pay the win. I'm used to someone coming by within a couple minutes and documenting the hand pay, returning in about 5 minutes with the cash.

 

Royal Caribbean doesn't have drink cards like NCL does for their casino guests, but the casino host on the Freedom of the Seas, Andreea, was very good about keeping me stocked with free drink coupons that I could use at the casino bar.

 

One thing they do is that the casino is non-smoking on formal nights. That's a nice thing for non-smokers who might otherwise avoid the casino. I didn't find the smoke being that bad on other nights in any case.

 

All in all, I had a great time on the cruise, including my time in the casino.

[slotmomma3]

Royal Caribbean actually does have stickers they put on your seapass for drinks in the casino. You must be an a meber of their Club Royale. You cannot sign up for this like on other lines. You must be invited by the casino manager. Then you are offered complimentary cruises with special slot tournaments and discounts on other cruises or a cash rebate on your next cruise to use any way you wish because they give you the cash.

[Daghis]

Actually, I am a member of Club Royale.

 

I did get a Club Royale sticker on my SeaPass on the Allure of the Seas last year. It didn't give me free drinks, though. Instead, the casino host on the Allure also gave me drink coupons. It's seeming to be standard practice from my limited experience. When I commented about the drink coupons to Andreea, she told me that they've had problems with people buying large numbers of drinks for their friends and that's why they ration out the drinks with coupons.

 

On this cruise, however, they didn't even bother with the sticker. I asked about the sticker and was told they didn't use them on the Freedom of the Seas.

[Nesster05]

I'm planning a trip on the Freedom with a buddy of mine and he is a big Texas Hold 'em player. Do they offer this nightly in the Freedom Casino? I've only cruised NCL where they had a single table set up and it was only open at certain times. It never seemed full. Kind of a deal breaker....

[Daghis]

I'm sorry, but I can't answer much about the table games in the casino as I didn't play them much, and I have even less experience with poker. I see some references to Texas Hold 'em in the Cruise Specials, but it doesn't talk about when the game is available.

[gatorJeff]

Was on the Freedom two weeks ago - Casino staff is great. Andreaa is a wonderful Casino Host and the pit bosses are all very friendly and accomodating.

 

They have Poker Pro (electronic machine) for Texas Hold 'Em. The game is $1-$2 No limit. After the first night there was usually a decent game going into the wee hours.

 

I was surprised that the casino closed earlier than some other ships I've been on. On Freedom it was always closed by 2:30 and a couple of slower nights it closed at 2:00.