Carnival victory trip report - 4/15

[Dicenator]

CARNIVAL VICTORY - TRIP REPORT - 4/8 - 4/15

The ship was departing from San Juan on Sunday, 4/8, but we flew down on Saturday and stayed at the Marriot Stellaris Casino Hotel at Condado beach. There were 6 of us on this trip and at the Marriot we got the Presidential Suite. We weren't able to check in until around 4 PM so there were no outdoor activities on Saturday. On Sunday morning my wife and myself had an early breakfast and then spent 3 hours at the pool and the beach. The ocean water temperature here was very warm, maybe 81/82 degrees and I spent a lot of time in the water. I hadn't expected it to be this nice and this resulted in sunburn #1 mostly on the top of my head, back of my neck and shoulders. My fault, I should have known better. We checked out around 1 PM and went to the ship which wasn't leaving port until 10 PM.

Back to Saturday night where I had to go to the Casino in the Marriot. The one craps table wasn't opening until 8 PM. Around 7 PM I got into an argument with a pit boss. My wife was playing Caribbean Stud poker with 2 other players at a 6 or 7 player table. I sat down next to her to keep her company while I was waiting for the craps table to open. The other 2 people were on our cruise ship also and the 4 of us were talking about the cruise the next day. After about 10 minutes the dealer says to me that I can't sit there. I told her that if a new player came to the table that I would be happy to get up and leave. Five minutes later the pit boss comes over and tells me that I can't sit there. I said something like "are you sh____ting me". I argued with him for about 5 minutes and ending up telling him that this would be the last time that I ever stepped foot in has crappy little s__t h_le of a casino.

Now on to craps. The table here was 12 feet long with a smooth micro fiber very bouncy layout. I didn't play that long because the table filled up fairly quickly. I only played 5 hands combining both Underhand and Parr. The hand lengths were 12, 6, 10, 7, and 14. I made 5 points and had 4 come out winners. I was trying Heavy's heat seaking strategy and ended up $100 for the day.

Now for some trip information before I get into the craps. As I said the ship left port at 10 PM and arrived at St. Thomas at 8 AM on Monday morning. My wife and I have been here many times and have made the trips to St. Johns and the catamaran snorkeling so we decided to just go to town and shop and maybe see some of the scenic places like Bluebeards castle. I had also committed to her that she could get some jewelry since our 10th wedding anniversary is next month. After a few hours a torrential downpour started and it lasted for at least an hour. All 6 of us were soaked and cold and miserable so we got a cab and went back to the ship.

The next day was an at sea day so it was very quiet and relaxing. We all spent the day at the pool except for me. The casino was open from 9 in the morning and the craps table opened around 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon. I played a lot of hands since there weren't too many players coming and going. Things started off very slowly. I couldn't get past 6 throws either with Underhand or Parr until late in the session where I closed out with a 30 throw hand, Underhand, where I made 5 points. That evening after dinner was the craps highlight of the trip. My hand lengths in order were: 21, 41, 34, and 6. I made 11 points during this streak with 10 come out winners. This was all done with the Underhand throw. There were 2 other players at the table at that time and they both continuously passed the dice back to me. We all colored in at the same time and each of us was up at least $400.

The next stop was Barbados and we went to Rockley Beach which is fantastic. Smooth white sand, warm aqua water with waves. You could actually body surf here. We stayed for about 3 hours and I screwed up badly leading to sunburn #2. We had an umbrella but didn't open it for the first 2 hours because it was from 9 till 11 in the morning. Well I had used sun block on the top of my feet which I burned during last years cruise but I didn't use any on my legs. Well after 2 hours I had a bad burn on both legs. That evening in the casino the sunburn was giving me the chills and I couldn't really perform at the craps table. Couldn't get anything going and gave back $100.

Next stop was St. Lucia which was a new port for us. St. Lucia isn't known for great beaches so we went on a 4 hour sight seeing catamaran ride. It went to the Grand Pitons which are twin mounting peaks going about 2500 feet up. They actually look like a pair of breasts. The catamaran did make a stop in a cove for some swimming but due to the burn on my legs I stayed under the shade on the ship. This 4 hour trip after the first 2 hours was kind of boring and I wouldn't do it again. St. Lucia is very lush and very mountainous. There is very little flat land anywhere here. That evening I still wasn't doing too many good things at craps despite trying 3 different throws, underhand, Parr and Dice Magic. I gave back another $100.

On to St. Kitts. We all decided on a beach day here. The Marriot resort on St. Kitts has a casino, a beach and a great pool. You can use their facilities for a $35 day pass. Well when we got there by cab we walked out to the pool area and then to the beach just checking the place out and trying to decide on pool or beach. The beach guy from the Marriot made us a deal for $10 each he would get us Marriot towels which would get us onto the beach or pool with no questions asked. I spent the rest of the morning at the pool where the beach chairs had moveable awnings so I could keep my sunburned legs in the shade. I was able to go in the pool off and on most of the morning. The other 5 started off at the beach but they said it was crappy, a lot of sea weed and sea grapes. After an hour they were all at the pool with me. The casino opened up at noon and I went there around 12:30. The casino is very nice with a skyscape ceiling. They had 1 craps table which was 14 feet long but it wasn't opening until 8 PM. I played some slots for a while and then bought in at a $5 blackjack table for $60. Within a half hour I was up to $125 but then some new players showed up and the cards changed so I left with $100. All the basic strategy came back to me while I was playing. If I play blackjack 5 times a year it's a lot. That evening again in the casino, I struggled and my best hand was only 13 throws so I ended up losing another $100.

The last stop was St. Martin and we all wanted to go to Orient Beach, a clothing optional beach on the French side of the island. I've been here many times before and this is one of my favorite beaches in the world. The water is warm, clear, aqua color and there are waves. Again due to our traveling experience, we didn't book this trip through the ship. They wanted $65 per person for a 3.5 hour excursion. It cost us $6 each way for each of us for a taxi and then another $10 for beach chairs and $5 for an umbrella. So the total for my wife and myself was $39 versus the $130 it would have cost us booking this trip on the ship. We were there from 9:30 until maybe 2 in the afternoon. You can jet ski, ride banana boats, para sail and just about any other water activity you can think of. There was no issue with sea weed or sea grapes or anything. I probable spent 2/3 of my time there in the water. There were quite a few topless women all over the place. It seems like one of the favorite things the topless women do is parade up and down the length of the beach. I had 2 topless French women right in the beach chairs alongside mine. Out of all the women walking all around there were only 2 that get a 10 out of 10 rating. The whole time Paul and I were there we only spoke with French accents and we couldn't get any of the 4 women with us to take their tops off. One would have for $1000 but we told her we would need a free sneak preview first. Never Happened.

We all had a great day at St. Martin. That evening at the craps table I had another off an on session. My best hand was a 22 throw hand with 4 points made and 5 come out winners. I thought that I had finally put it all back together but nope it didn't happen. I ended up dropping another $100.

The craps table was 12 feet long with micro fiber and a neutral + bounce. The pyramid rubber was somewhat bouncier than what I consider normal. The table limits were $5 to $300 with 2X odds. There were no prop bets. Again I was the only DI on the ship and my wife was the only rhythm roller. Everybody else was rattling the dice in there hands and feeding the chickens. Very rarely did any of these chicken feeders get up to 15 or 20 throws in a hand. The dealers were very competent and we ran across a pit boss, Cecelia, who we had met on our last Carnival cruise last August. Because we knew her we were able to get free drinks in the casino. I don't really drink when I'm playing craps but my wife who mostly played Caribbean Stud had one or two most nights.

There were quite a few regulars at the craps table but none of them were winning. A lot of transients would show up periodically. When the table population got too big for me I would leave and go play some slot machines for a while always watching the craps table. Most times after leaving, the table would be back to either empty or only a few players within a half an hour. I would then go back to craps. Some evenings I would have to leave the table 3 times.

I'm not going to detail all my hands like I have in past trip reports because I'm not too happy with how my throwing was for the most part. Oh, I was able to practice every single day with my dice at the table, usually in the afternoon after coming back on board the ship. Nobody bothered me in any way. When I had a 25 throw hand right out of the box on the first night I thought I had it made. What I was seeing at the table was that I had more double pitch (4/3, 5/2) 7 outs with throws that looked really good than I ever recall experiencing. If I had a staggered release I would get a 6/1 seven out. A lot of 7 outs occurred with the left die only making a bounce to the left into the curved section of the wall. I did have quite a few good hands: 25, 19, 17, 20, 18, 30, 21, 41, 34, 20, 18, 17, 23, 20, 16, 18, 22, 15, 22. For every one of these good hands there was a rotten hand of only 3 or 4 throws or even a PSO. There were also many bland hands of 6 to 10 throws. My net for the cruise was up $100 after playing for 8 straight days. This was nowhere near what I was hoping for. A lot of my problems I think were due to the very limited playing and practicing I've been able to do so far this year. I've only played 25 hands in total before this cruise and I only got into regular practicing about 5 or 6 days before the cruise. So I think I'm a little rusty and was not able to trouble shoot what my throwing problems were too easily. My home projects are now behind me and I should be back to my normal routine of practicing most days and going to the AC casinos in the middle of the week along with Saturdays. My next cruise is the Norwegian Star from Manhattan to Bermuda on June 17th.

Dicenator

[Casino Player]

CARNIVAL VICTORY - TRIP REPORT - 4/8 - 4/15

The ship was departing from San Juan on Sunday, 4/8, but we flew down on Saturday and stayed at the Marriot Stellaris Casino Hotel at Condado beach. There were 6 of us on this trip and at the Marriot we got the Presidential Suite. We weren't able to check in until around 4 PM so there were no outdoor activities on Saturday. On Sunday morning my wife and myself had an early breakfast and then spent 3 hours at the pool and the beach. The ocean water temperature here was very warm, maybe 81/82 degrees and I spent a lot of time in the water. I hadn't expected it to be this nice and this resulted in sunburn #1 mostly on the top of my head, back of my neck and shoulders. My fault, I should have known better. We checked out around 1 PM and went to the ship which wasn't leaving port until 10 PM.

Back to Saturday night where I had to go to the Casino in the Marriot. The one craps table wasn't opening until 8 PM. Around 7 PM I got into an argument with a pit boss. My wife was playing Caribbean Stud poker with 2 other players at a 6 or 7 player table. I sat down next to her to keep her company while I was waiting for the craps table to open. The other 2 people were on our cruise ship also and the 4 of us were talking about the cruise the next day. After about 10 minutes the dealer says to me that I can't sit there. I told her that if a new player came to the table that I would be happy to get up and leave. Five minutes later the pit boss comes over and tells me that I can't sit there. I said something like "are you sh____ting me". I argued with him for about 5 minutes and ending up telling him that this would be the last time that I ever stepped foot in has crappy little s__t h_le of a casino.

Now on to craps. The table here was 12 feet long with a smooth micro fiber very bouncy layout. I didn't play that long because the table filled up fairly quickly. I only played 5 hands combining both Underhand and Parr. The hand lengths were 12, 6, 10, 7, and 14. I made 5 points and had 4 come out winners. I was trying Heavy's heat seaking strategy and ended up $100 for the day.

Now for some trip information before I get into the craps. As I said the ship left port at 10 PM and arrived at St. Thomas at 8 AM on Monday morning. My wife and I have been here many times and have made the trips to St. Johns and the catamaran snorkeling so we decided to just go to town and shop and maybe see some of the scenic places like Bluebeards castle. I had also committed to her that she could get some jewelry since our 10th wedding anniversary is next month. After a few hours a torrential downpour started and it lasted for at least an hour. All 6 of us were soaked and cold and miserable so we got a cab and went back to the ship.

The next day was an at sea day so it was very quiet and relaxing. We all spent the day at the pool except for me. The casino was open from 9 in the morning and the craps table opened around 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon. I played a lot of hands since there weren't too many players coming and going. Things started off very slowly. I couldn't get past 6 throws either with Underhand or Parr until late in the session where I closed out with a 30 throw hand, Underhand, where I made 5 points. That evening after dinner was the craps highlight of the trip. My hand lengths in order were: 21, 41, 34, and 6. I made 11 points during this streak with 10 come out winners. This was all done with the Underhand throw. There were 2 other players at the table at that time and they both continuously passed the dice back to me. We all colored in at the same time and each of us was up at least $400.

The next stop was Barbados and we went to Rockley Beach which is fantastic. Smooth white sand, warm aqua water with waves. You could actually body surf here. We stayed for about 3 hours and I screwed up badly leading to sunburn #2. We had an umbrella but didn't open it for the first 2 hours because it was from 9 till 11 in the morning. Well I had used sun block on the top of my feet which I burned during last years cruise but I didn't use any on my legs. Well after 2 hours I had a bad burn on both legs. That evening in the casino the sunburn was giving me the chills and I couldn't really perform at the craps table. Couldn't get anything going and gave back $100.

Next stop was St. Lucia which was a new port for us. St. Lucia isn't known for great beaches so we went on a 4 hour sight seeing catamaran ride. It went to the Grand Pitons which are twin mounting peaks going about 2500 feet up. They actually look like a pair of breasts. The catamaran did make a stop in a cove for some swimming but due to the burn on my legs I stayed under the shade on the ship. This 4 hour trip after the first 2 hours was kind of boring and I wouldn't do it again. St. Lucia is very lush and very mountainous. There is very little flat land anywhere here. That evening I still wasn't doing too many good things at craps despite trying 3 different throws, underhand, Parr and Dice Magic. I gave back another $100.

On to St. Kitts. We all decided on a beach day here. The Marriot resort on St. Kitts has a casino, a beach and a great pool. You can use their facilities for a $35 day pass. Well when we got there by cab we walked out to the pool area and then to the beach just checking the place out and trying to decide on pool or beach. The beach guy from the Marriot made us a deal for $10 each he would get us Marriot towels which would get us onto the beach or pool with no questions asked. I spent the rest of the morning at the pool where the beach chairs had moveable awnings so I could keep my sunburned legs in the shade. I was able to go in the pool off and on most of the morning. The other 5 started off at the beach but they said it was crappy, a lot of sea weed and sea grapes. After an hour they were all at the pool with me. The casino opened up at noon and I went there around 12:30. The casino is very nice with a skyscape ceiling. They had 1 craps table which was 14 feet long but it wasn't opening until 8 PM. I played some slots for a while and then bought in at a $5 blackjack table for $60. Within a half hour I was up to $125 but then some new players showed up and the cards changed so I left with $100. All the basic strategy came back to me while I was playing. If I play blackjack 5 times a year it's a lot. That evening again in the casino, I struggled and my best hand was only 13 throws so I ended up losing another $100.

The last stop was St. Martin and we all wanted to go to Orient Beach, a clothing optional beach on the French side of the island. I've been here many times before and this is one of my favorite beaches in the world. The water is warm, clear, aqua color and there are waves. Again due to our traveling experience, we didn't book this trip through the ship. They wanted $65 per person for a 3.5 hour excursion. It cost us $6 each way for each of us for a taxi and then another $10 for beach chairs and $5 for an umbrella. So the total for my wife and myself was $39 versus the $130 it would have cost us booking this trip on the ship. We were there from 9:30 until maybe 2 in the afternoon. You can jet ski, ride banana boats, para sail and just about any other water activity you can think of. There was no issue with sea weed or sea grapes or anything. I probable spent 2/3 of my time there in the water. There were quite a few topless women all over the place. It seems like one of the favorite things the topless women do is parade up and down the length of the beach. I had 2 topless French women right in the beach chairs alongside mine. Out of all the women walking all around there were only 2 that get a 10 out of 10 rating. The whole time Paul and I were there we only spoke with French accents and we couldn't get any of the 4 women with us to take their tops off. One would have for $1000 but we told her we would need a free sneak preview first. Never Happened.

We all had a great day at St. Martin. That evening at the craps table I had another off an on session. My best hand was a 22 throw hand with 4 points made and 5 come out winners. I thought that I had finally put it all back together but nope it didn't happen. I ended up dropping another $100.

The craps table was 12 feet long with micro fiber and a neutral + bounce. The pyramid rubber was somewhat bouncier than what I consider normal. The table limits were $5 to $300 with 2X odds. There were no prop bets. Again I was the only DI on the ship and my wife was the only rhythm roller. Everybody else was rattling the dice in there hands and feeding the chickens. Very rarely did any of these chicken feeders get up to 15 or 20 throws in a hand. The dealers were very competent and we ran across a pit boss, Cecelia, who we had met on our last Carnival cruise last August. Because we knew her we were able to get free drinks in the casino. I don't really drink when I'm playing craps but my wife who mostly played Caribbean Stud had one or two most nights.

There were quite a few regulars at the craps table but none of them were winning. A lot of transients would show up periodically. When the table population got too big for me I would leave and go play some slot machines for a while always watching the craps table. Most times after leaving, the table would be back to either empty or only a few players within a half an hour. I would then go back to craps. Some evenings I would have to leave the table 3 times.

I'm not going to detail all my hands like I have in past trip reports because I'm not too happy with how my throwing was for the most part. Oh, I was able to practice every single day with my dice at the table, usually in the afternoon after coming back on board the ship. Nobody bothered me in any way. When I had a 25 throw hand right out of the box on the first night I thought I had it made. What I was seeing at the table was that I had more double pitch (4/3, 5/2) 7 outs with throws that looked really good than I ever recall experiencing. If I had a staggered release I would get a 6/1 seven out. A lot of 7 outs occurred with the left die only making a bounce to the left into the curved section of the wall. I did have quite a few good hands: 25, 19, 17, 20, 18, 30, 21, 41, 34, 20, 18, 17, 23, 20, 16, 18, 22, 15, 22. For every one of these good hands there was a rotten hand of only 3 or 4 throws or even a PSO. There were also many bland hands of 6 to 10 throws. My net for the cruise was up $100 after playing for 8 straight days. This was nowhere near what I was hoping for. A lot of my problems I think were due to the very limited playing and practicing I've been able to do so far this year. I've only played 25 hands in total before this cruise and I only got into regular practicing about 5 or 6 days before the cruise. So I think I'm a little rusty and was not able to trouble shoot what my throwing problems were too easily. My home projects are now behind me and I should be back to my normal routine of practicing most days and going to the AC casinos in the middle of the week along with Saturdays. My next cruise is the Norwegian Star from Manhattan to Bermuda on June 17th.

Dicenator

 

HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLLLLOOOOO Dicenator:I was interested in reading about your experiences on this trip. We only leave from NYC to include Bayonne. However, after our last trip on Celebrity Cruise Line I don't think we will be leaving from Bayonne too much anymore. We have been on RCCL and needless to say we won't be going with them anytime soon. You sound like you had a nice time doing what you wanted to do. If you go back to St. Lucia you should try a tour of the island. When you go back to St. Kitts you should try taking the Railway tour. We did both and enjoyed them.

 

I have the same problem with practice and playing as you do. Can't get down to A.C. a whole lot these days. We are going to Bermuda next month via Holland America. The Holland America ship pulls into Hamilton which is different than being at the Royal Naval Dockyard.

[LaCal]

Great Review....Glad you had Fun and at least came out ahead....

 

Cant wait till May 13th when were on the Pearl/Alaska.....We always play craps...:D

[Dicenator]

laCal,

 

I've been on the Dawn, Jewel and Gem, but never on the Pearl. Last year in June I was on the Jewel and in November on the Gem. I always assumed that the craps tables on any cruise line were almost identical. I've been on 5 or 6 Carnival ships and they were the same within 95% in my opinion. However on the Jewel and the Gem they were so different that I was shocked. The Jewel had an extremely bouncy table surface and it took me 4 or 5 days to get adjusted to it to the point that I was able to win some money. I was expecting the same thing on the Gem and found out that their table was one of the best I've ever played on with a nice neutral bounce characteristic. I broke my personal record on this table with a hand length of 54 throws.

 

Let me know how the table is like on the Pearl, because the Pearl sails from the East coast periodically.

 

My next cruise is on June 17th on the Norwegian Star going to Bermuda.

 

 

Dicenator