Carnival glory - 2013 - trip report

[Dicenator]

CARNIVAL GLORY - 2013 - TRIP REPORT

This trip was planned only about 3 weeks ago when my wife decided that she wanted to be on a cruise for her birthday. Because we didn't want to spend a lot of money we chose the Glory on a 5 night cruise out of Boston, departing on 6/20 visiting St. John and Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Our cabin choice was an ocean view on deck 2 in the stern port side of the ship. It was actually on the corner and had an odd shape but was extremely roomy and we felt it was larger than the 220 square feet advertised. My wife's brother and sister in law went with us and their cabin was 5 cabins from ours also on the stern of the ship.

This is a great location in our opinion because the main dining room was 1 level directly above our cabin and the buffet was on deck 9 also directly above us. The elevators on the stern are also not used nearly as much as the mid-ship or forward elevators and we never had to wait too long for an elevator to get to our location. The casino was on deck 5 forward so this was the longest distance we had to walk.

Since I'm talking about cabins let me tell you about a drawback to this cabin. The first stop was St. John and the first day was an at sea day so the ship was only going 11 knots the whole way and there was no noise other than when the ship was docking and the thrusters were being used. However on the trip from St. John to Halifax the ship was cruising at 21 knots and our cabin was shaking the whole night and the noise level was very high also. Cruising back to Boston was at a leasurely pace and there was no noise. I'm pretty sure this occurs on all ships.

In St. John the main thing to do is to go see the reversing river caused by the tidal changes in the bay of Fundy. There were a lot of excursions offered by Carnival but the price seemed high and my wife has no real interests in nature type things so we wandered around the town for 3 hours stopping in every shop everywhere. It was sunny when we arrived and it was warm. By noon it had clouded up and the temperature dropped and the winds kicked in making it feel kind of cold.

Halifax is a very impressive seaport. They can accomodate maybe 3 cruise ships and quite a few freighters. It is very deep and very long taking about 30 minutes of cruising time to clear the harbor when the ship was leaving. There is quite a nice boardwalk going for about a mile all along the waterfront. While there for the day we visited the Nova Scotia casino which is right there in town. It was large, I'd guess 40,000 square feet and pretty nice. I didn't get to play craps here because the table wasn't open when we were there. This table is an 8 foot long tub table. It had micro fiber which felt like it was placed right on the base. There did not seem to be any rubber cushioning beneath the layout. So I don't have a clue as to whether or not this table is bouncy or not.

The service in the main dining room for dinner started out a little questionable the first night with dinner taking over 1 hour 30 minutes. The next 4 nights were vastly improved averaging 1 hour 15 minutes. We didn't do the extra cost steak house because my in laws were on a limited budget.

On this ship there was a high percentage of asians maybe 20% of the passengers and as usual most of them were dumb asses in the casinos risking big money on games that they don't have a clue about. There was also an excessive amount of super large 300 lb. plus women on this cruise more than I've ever seen in one place at one time. One afternoon I was walking down an aisle on deck nine and had to make a right hand turn and right in front of me were 3 of these women walking side by side. God I thought it was the NY Giants defensive line.

Now it's casino time. For the 5 days I was not tempted to play any table games particularly blackjack with the continuous shufflers. My wife played everything, craps, roulette, Caribbean stud, Fun 21, blackjack and the electronic Poker Pro. Her best performance was at the Poker Pro one night where she was up $400. She tried craps every night with terrible results. 8 of her hands were 2 or 3 throws. One afternoon she was up $200 from betting on one of my hands.

I forgot to mention that we went up 1 day early and spent the night at Foxwoods where she won $500 at Crazy 4 poker. I didn't get to play craps because during the day the few tables that were open were pretty much filled the whole time I was there. In the evening the 1 craps table at the Great Cedars casino was opening at 7 PM. I got there at 7 and there were 6 GTC throwers already there at SL1,2,3 and SR1,2,3. I watched for a while and not one of them was making any great hands. So I never played this whole day.

The craps table on the ship was typical Carnival 12 feet long with red micro fiber and green dice. $5 minimum and $300 max with 2X odds and no prop bets. What I found fascinating about this table was the base that it rested on. The typical craps table is supported on 2 wooden legs which are fairly substantial. This table had 2 triangle cross section concrete pyramids connected together with a concrete T beam. The table base rested on top of this. I've never noticed this structure on any other Carnival ship. My opinion is that the table was totally normal in its bounce and the bounce back off the rubber pyramids. The very first evening one of the dealers started in with telling me I couldn't have my notebook on the chip rail. I had to explain to him that I went through this same thing on the Carnival Pride and got it all straightened out with the Casino Management in Miami and that it is totally OK to do. No problems after this.

On a personal note, this was the first cruise in the past 6 or 9 months where I wasn't dealing with sunburn issues, tooth ache issues, lack of practice issues due to projects at home, father in law issues etc. So there were no excuses for not doing well.

Here are my throwing results in my usual format:

DAY #1 6/20

METHOD HAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

UH RIGHT 8 1

UH RIGHT 5 1

UH RIGHT 9 1

PARR LEFT 38 4 3

UH RIGHT 27 4 4

DAY #2 6/21

METHOD HAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

UH RIGHT 9 1

UH RIGHT 7 1

UH RIGHT 17 1

UH RIGHT 28 4

UH RIGHT 14 3

UH RIGHT 22

UH RIGHT 14 1

UH RIGHT 13 1 2

UH RIGHT 6 1

UH RIGHT 4

UH RIGHT 10 2 2

UH RIGHT 5 2

DAY #3 6/22

METHOD HAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

UH RIGHT 6 1

UH RIGHT 17 2

UH RIGHT 11

UH RIGHT 18 4

UH RIGHT 5 1

UH RIGHT 3

UH RIGHT 9 1 3

UH RIGHT 8 1

UH RIGHT 25 1 2

DAY #4 6/23

METHOD HAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

UH RIGHT 28 2 1

UH RIGHT 10 1

UH RIGHT 10

UH LEFT 22 4 2

DAY #5 6/24

METHOD HAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

UH RIGHT 16 4 4

UH RIGHT 12 2

UH RIGHT 5 1

PARR LEFT 15 2 2

UH RIGHT 38 4 5

UH RIGHT 6

UH RIGHT 15 1

UH RIGHT 7 1

DAY #6 6/25 FOXWOODS - GREAT CEDARS CASINO

METHOD HAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

UH RIGHT 7 1

UH RIGHT 14 2

UH RIGHT 13 1

Day #2 & #5 were at sea days so the results have afternoon and evening results. In the 5 days on the ship I shot 38 hands which was nowhere near the amount I wanted to play. There were a lot of craps players on the ship and a lot of the time the table would have too many players for me to be playing. In reality there were few times where I was able to play for an extended time and get in a lot of hands and stay warmed up. None of the other players could shoot the dice to save their lives. In the 5 days I saw maybe 3 hands by other players get into the 15 to 20 throw range. As you can see I had hands of 38 throws twice, 28 throws twice, 27 throws and 25 throws and two 22 throw hands. In 7 of my hands I made 4 points. I was very happy with my playing on this ship. The table suited me very well and in fact I'm thinking about booking another cruise on this ship sometime next year. My shooting was overall very good. There were a few short hands but no PSOs. I attribute this to being able to practice most days early in the morning and then practicing in my room by tossing onto the bed for 15 or 20 throws before I went to the casino after dinner. In my 38 hands on the ship I made 54 points for a 142% rate which is pretty close to my average for the year. I also had 41 come out wins in the 38 hands. My net for this 5 day cruise was between $600 and $1000.

Dicenator

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your pst.

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[vwrestler171]

Looks like it is time to book the Glory for me.

[pusywillow]

Why did you think it was necessary to post about the Asians and large women? I think this made you the dumb@$$

[Dicenator]

pusywillow,

 

When I write I don't sugarcoat the things I see. In a casino at a blackjack table when you are staying on a 10, when you are hitting with a 14 against a dealer 6, when you are splitting 10's, when you have a 14 against a dealer 10 and you don't take a hit; YOU ARE IN ANY LANGUAGE A "DUMB ASS" who doesn't have a clue about the game they are playing. That's what I see all the time on the cruise ships.

 

Concerning the fat women. Out of a 3 or 4 page written report, I think there were a few sentences, 3 I think. You are right, there really was no need for me to say anything but it was something that I noticed because of the preponderance of them and the fact that I almost got pushed into a wall with the 3 walking abreast. In the future I will not make any mention of anybody with a weight problem since it isn't pertinent to the main thrust of my trip reports which is the cruise experience in general and my craps playing in particular.

 

I hope you notice that I have been civil toward you and have not called you any names. But I would suggest in the future that you don't read any of my trip reports and end up being offended in case I slip up or you find other things that bother you.

 

Thank you,

 

Dicenator

[evergladesgator]

Excellent reply Dice. Can't understand why people continue to read the post if it offends them. I would not have been so polite. They are the cause of us losing our GUARANTEED right to Freedom of speech.

[4hunters]

Thanks for the report.

[LSTEFFA]

CARNIVAL GLORY - 2013 - TRIP REPORT

 

 

This trip was planned only about 3 weeks ago when my wife decided that she wanted to be on a cruise for her birthday. Because we didn't want to spend a lot of money we chose the Glory on a 5 night cruise out of Boston, departing on 6/20 visiting St. John and Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada.

 

Our cabin choice was an ocean view on deck 2 in the stern port side of the ship. It was actually on the corner and had an odd shape but was extremely roomy and we felt it was larger than the 220 square feet advertised. My wife's brother and sister in law went with us and their cabin was 5 cabins from ours also on the stern of the ship.

 

This is a great location in our opinion because the main dining room was 1 level directly above our cabin and the buffet was on deck 9 also directly above us. The elevators on the stern are also not used nearly as much as the mid-ship or forward elevators and we never had to wait too long for an elevator to get to our location. The casino was on deck 5 forward so this was the longest distance we had to walk.

 

Since I'm talking about cabins let me tell you about a drawback to this cabin. The first stop was St. John and the first day was an at sea day so the ship was only going 11 knots the whole way and there was no noise other than when the ship was docking and the thrusters were being used. However on the trip from St. John to Halifax the ship was cruising at 21 knots and our cabin was shaking the whole night and the noise level was very high also. Cruising back to Boston was at a leasurely pace and there was no noise. I'm pretty sure this occurs on all ships.

 

In St. John the main thing to do is to go see the reversing river caused by the tidal changes in the bay of Fundy. There were a lot of excursions offered by Carnival but the price seemed high and my wife has no real interests in nature type things so we wandered around the town for 3 hours stopping in every shop everywhere. It was sunny when we arrived and it was warm. By noon it had clouded up and the temperature dropped and the winds kicked in making it feel kind of cold.

 

Halifax is a very impressive seaport. They can accomodate maybe 3 cruise ships and quite a few freighters. It is very deep and very long taking about 30 minutes of cruising time to clear the harbor when the ship was leaving. There is quite a nice boardwalk going for about a mile all along the waterfront. While there for the day we visited the Nova Scotia casino which is right there in town. It was large, I'd guess 40,000 square feet and pretty nice. I didn't get to play craps here because the table wasn't open when we were there. This table is an 8 foot long tub table. It had micro fiber which felt like it was placed right on the base. There did not seem to be any rubber cushioning beneath the layout. So I don't have a clue as to whether or not this table is bouncy or not.

 

The service in the main dining room for dinner started out a little questionable the first night with dinner taking over 1 hour 30 minutes. The next 4 nights were vastly improved averaging 1 hour 15 minutes. We didn't do the extra cost steak house because my in laws were on a limited budget.

 

On this ship there was a high percentage of asians maybe 20% of the passengers and as usual most of them were dumb asses in the casinos risking big money on games that they don't have a clue about. There was also an excessive amount of super large 300 lb. plus women on this cruise more than I've ever seen in one place at one time. One afternoon I was walking down an aisle on deck nine and had to make a right hand turn and right in front of me were 3 of these women walking side by side. God I thought it was the NY Giants defensive line.

 

Now it's casino time. For the 5 days I was not tempted to play any table games particularly blackjack with the continuous shufflers. My wife played everything, craps, roulette, Caribbean stud, Fun 21, blackjack and the electronic Poker Pro. Her best performance was at the Poker Pro one night where she was up $400. She tried craps every night with terrible results. 8 of her hands were 2 or 3 throws. One afternoon she was up $200 from betting on one of my hands.

 

I forgot to mention that we went up 1 day early and spent the night at Foxwoods where she won $500 at Crazy 4 poker. I didn't get to play craps because during the day the few tables that were open were pretty much filled the whole time I was there. In the evening the 1 craps table at the Great Cedars casino was opening at 7 PM. I got there at 7 and there were 6 GTC throwers already there at SL1,2,3 and SR1,2,3. I watched for a while and not one of them was making any great hands. So I never played this whole day.

 

The craps table on the ship was typical Carnival 12 feet long with red micro fiber and green dice. $5 minimum and $300 max with 2X odds and no prop bets. What I found fascinating about this table was the base that it rested on. The typical craps table is supported on 2 wooden legs which are fairly substantial. This table had 2 triangle cross section concrete pyramids connected together with a concrete T beam. The table base rested on top of this. I've never noticed this structure on any other Carnival ship. My opinion is that the table was totally normal in its bounce and the bounce back off the rubber pyramids. The very first evening one of the dealers started in with telling me I couldn't have my notebook on the chip rail. I had to explain to him that I went through this same thing on the Carnival Pride and got it all straightened out with the Casino Management in Miami and that it is totally OK to do. No problems after this.

 

On a personal note, this was the first cruise in the past 6 or 9 months where I wasn't dealing with sunburn issues, tooth ache issues, lack of practice issues due to projects at home, father in law issues etc. So there were no excuses for not doing well.

 

Here are my throwing results in my usual format:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY #1 6/20

 

METHODHAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

 

UH RIGHT 8 1

UH RIGHT 5 1

UH RIGHT 9 1

PARR LEFT 38 4 3

UH RIGHT 27 4 4

 

DAY #2 6/21

 

METHODHAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

 

UH RIGHT 9 1

UH RIGHT 7 1

UH RIGHT 17 1

UH RIGHT 28 4

UH RIGHT 14 3

UH RIGHT 22

UH RIGHT 14 1

UH RIGHT 13 1 2

UH RIGHT 6 1

UH RIGHT 4

UH RIGHT 10 2 2

UH RIGHT 5 2

 

 

DAY #3 6/22

 

METHODHAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

 

UH RIGHT 6 1

UH RIGHT 17 2

UH RIGHT 11

UH RIGHT 18 4

UH RIGHT 5 1

UH RIGHT 3

UH RIGHT 9 1 3

UH RIGHT 8 1

UH RIGHT 25 1 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY #4 6/23

 

METHODHAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

 

UH RIGHT 28 2 1

UH RIGHT 10 1

UH RIGHT 10

UH LEFT 22 4 2

 

DAY #5 6/24

 

METHODHAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

 

UH RIGHT 16 4 4

UH RIGHT 12 2

UH RIGHT 5 1

PARR LEFT 15 2 2

UH RIGHT 38 4 5

UH RIGHT 6

UH RIGHT 15 1

UH RIGHT 7 1

 

DAY #6 6/25 FOXWOODS - GREAT CEDARS CASINO

 

METHODHAND #THROWS #POINTS #CO WINS

 

UH RIGHT 7 1

UH RIGHT 14 2

UH RIGHT 13 1

 

 

Day #2 & #5 were at sea days so the results have afternoon and evening results. In the 5 days on the ship I shot 38 hands which was nowhere near the amount I wanted to play. There were a lot of craps players on the ship and a lot of the time the table would have too many players for me to be playing. In reality there were few times where I was able to play for an extended time and get in a lot of hands and stay warmed up. None of the other players could shoot the dice to save their lives. In the 5 days I saw maybe 3 hands by other players get into the 15 to 20 throw range. As you can see I had hands of 38 throws twice, 28 throws twice, 27 throws and 25 throws and two 22 throw hands. In 7 of my hands I made 4 points. I was very happy with my playing on this ship. The table suited me very well and in fact I'm thinking about booking another cruise on this ship sometime next year. My shooting was overall very good. There were a few short hands but no PSOs. I attribute this to being able to practice most days early in the morning and then practicing in my room by tossing onto the bed for 15 or 20 throws before I went to the casino after dinner. In my 38 hands on the ship I made 54 points for a 142% rate which is pretty close to my average for the year. I also had 41 come out wins in the 38 hands. My net for this 5 day cruise was between $600 and $1000.

 

Dicenator

I am sort of confused and need some help. You list your dice activity down to mico details...rolls/points etc....but you went home with a profit of $600 to $1000???? That is one hell of a spread....

[Dicenator]

What I'm saying is that my win was somewhere between $600 and $1000. I didn't want to get specific because I've been accused of bragging on one other web site where I submit the same trip report.

 

Some of the other things that I've been admonished not to mention or discuss are the following:

 

1- Any details about how I make my throw.

2- Any details concerning the craps table for example bounce characteristics.

3- No mention of dice influencing or dice control.

4- No mention about practicing my throwing on the ship.

5- No contacting casino management for any reason.

 

I've gone as far as editing the version of the trip report making my results much less positive for this one particular web site.

 

Dicenator

[joshd33]

What I'm saying is that my win was somewhere between $600 and $1000. I didn't want to get specific because I've been accused of bragging on one other web site where I submit the same trip report.

 

Some of the other things that I've been admonished not to mention or discuss are the following:

 

1- Any details about how I make my throw.

2- Any details concerning the craps table for example bounce characteristics.

3- No mention of dice influencing or dice control.

4- No mention about practicing my throwing on the ship.

5- No contacting casino management for any reason.

 

I've gone as far as editing the version of the trip report making my results much less positive for this one particular web site.

 

Dicenator

 

 

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I'd actually like to see what you have to say about each of those topics... If folks don't want to hear it, then they can pick another thread.... Always looking to learn something new about anything really.

 

Always enjoy your reports, thanks for taking the time to do them!

 

-Josh

[orangeglitter]

I also enjoy your reviews..

[Drunkard of the Seas]

i really have to start playing craps! interesting write up as im probably going on the glory in october. sad to hear they use poker pro tables, must be a fleet wide thing.

-Roger

[Dicenator]

You are absolutely right. All of the Carnival ships have the electronic Poker Pro games. The cruise lines that have real poker with a dealer and cards are Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. I've been on one Celebrity and one Princess cruise but they were 3 years ago and I don't remember what they have if anything.

 

Dicenator