Carnival splendor - dec. 2013 - trip report

[Dicenator]

CARNIVAL SPLENDOR - DECEMBER 2013 - TRIP REPORT

(BATHROBES, BASTARDS AND BAD DICE?)

This was a new ship for us and left from Manhattan on Wed. 12/11 and returned today 12/19. The itinerary was the same as many of our other cruises stopping at Port Canaveral, Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas. Why did we do it? Simple, the cost. The price for this 8 night cruise was only $269 each for an ocean view stateroom. We upgraded from deck 1 to deck 2 so it added an additional $30 each. You have to really plan your clothing for a cruise like this. What I mean is that for 2 days going down and 2 days returning it will be cold so you need long pants and a long sleeve shirt. For the 3 days in Florida and the Bahamas shorts and short sleeve shirts are needed.

The decorating scheme on this ship was PINK. Everywhere you looked there was pink. The main restaurants were called the Gold Pearl and the Black Pearl. We were in the Gold Pearl and the ceiling was covered with what looked to me to be sunny side up eggs covering 50% of the visible surface. It wasn't until the 2nd day that I realized that these were supposed to be gold pearls. I guess they should have been a little more realistic. We only ate here the first 2 nights because the service was so slow. An hour and a half and still no dessert menu was a bit too much.

Now for the first of my teasers, BATHROBES. Every cabin on the ship has 2 bathrobes which in my mind you wear in your cabin. On this ship we counted well over 100 passengers wearing the bathrobes everywhere on the ship particularly in the buffet dining room where a good percentage of them were barefoot. I have never seen this sort of behavior on any other ship that I've ever been on and have no explanation for this behavior. Whenever I saw one of these BR people all I could think of was some kind of pervert flasher. To me it doesn't seem too hard to throw some clothes on before leaving your stateroom. They weren't allowed in the main dining rooms or the casino but everyplace else seemed OK. Just thinking to myself that this might be just a New York I don't give a **** attitude thing.

In Nassau we went to the Atlantis casino for a few hours. One craps table was open and 2 players were at SR1 and SL1 for the whole time we were there. Why didn't I take SR2 or SL2? Simple, the tables here are 14 footers and are very bouncy. I don't have the means to practice with this length and bounciness, so I feel that I have almost no chance to win so why bother. My wife played Ultimate Texas Hold em and was up $300 so this was a successful stop.

We went to the Lucuya market and Treasure Island casino in Freeport. My wife treated herself to a new Rose Quartz ring paid for out of her Atlantis winnings. In the casino we both played blackjack where the rules are much better for the players than we see on the ships or in Atlantic City. In Freeport the dealers don't hit on a soft 17. Between the two of us we were up $150.

Now for the casino on the ship and then I'll tell you about my second teaser, BASTARDS. The casino was 100% identical to every other Carnival casino we've been in. None of the dealers were familiar to us from other Carnival cruises and none of them really standout in my mind mainly due to the rotation schedule they have with the dealers. Every single dealer rotated through the craps positions for the 8 days so it was a little hard to deal with repeaters. Plus there were so many craps players that it was hard for the dealers to get to know the players on a first name basis.

BASTARD #1 - The first night at the craps table this drunk guy comes to the table and is betting the don't pass. I forget if he was winning or losing for the few players before it was my turn with the dice. As soon as I got ready to make my second throw he starts yelling out as loud as he can "seven out". He continued doing this with every throw that I made getting louder with each passing throw. I've never encountered behavior like this at any casino I've ever played at. I ended up yelling at him to shut the F--- UP. My hand ended after maybe 8 or 9 throws and I left the table because the loudmouth drunk stayed there and continued playing. I was really having some dark thoughts about throwing him overboard. The next night this same drunk guy goes to the Poker Pro table and kisses this gigantic black guy on the cheek and says "I'm Greek, I like to kiss" and made some lewd remarks about one of the players girlfriends. The black guy stayed under control but convinced the drunk that he could break him in half with one hand. My wife got one of the casino managers to go confront this jerk and he wasn't seen in the casino for the rest of the cruise so he might have been banned.

BASTARD #2 - On Tuesday the first at sea day on the return trip the craps table was opening for business at 1 in the afternoon. The crew was ready to go with only the left side open due to there being only a stickman and one dealer. Bastard #2 was a big guy maybe 6"4" tall weighing maybe 230 lbs and he was standing at Stick left 1 with no chips on the rail and no money in his hand to buy any chips. My wife walks up to him and says excuse me can you move so I can play from this position. He gets all riled up and moves to stick left 2 and starts saying to her is this position OK and then wants her to step outside to discuss this issue. I jump in and say to him you aren't playing and have no right to stand at the table and keep a player from playing. He then goes to the hook and starts in with me saying to me "is this position OK with you". So I told him again if you aren't playing move away from the table so players with money or chips can get into position. So now he's giving me the stare down and wanting me to come outside with him. I'm not going to fight with an AH and I told him to just keep on walking and to stop acting like a bully. The stare down continued for about a minute and then he walked. For both of these bastards I don't know why the dealers and or pit bosses didn't get security involved immediately.

The craps table was 12 feet long with red micro fiber and a wide straight wall section at both ends. The radius of curvature was very tight and you could throw straight down 4" inside the pass line and still hit the straight section of the wall. The bounce was excellent with a good throw bouncing only a few inches from the wall. There were 2X odds, no hopping bets and a $5 min with a $300 max.

Ready for the third teaser -BAD DICE- This is the first Carnival ship that I recall the dice being green instead of the usual red color. Now I personally do not know what the difference is between green and red dice. Is there a difference in weight, density, hardness etc.? I don't have a clue but I am very observant. All 4 hands that I threw this first night ended in a 5-2 seven out. Every other player also had their hands end with a 5-2 seven out. So in total there were 16 hands in a row ending in a 5-2 seven out which really raised my apprehension. With Bastard #1's shenanigans I colored in and left the table and did not return that first day. The next day and the following days the dice seemed to be more normal in performance although nowhere near as consistent as the dice I brought with me from home. However on the last day the casino opened at 1 PM and I was the first player to get the dice. I was expecting new dice with the usual very sharp edges on the corner. Nope, the dice had dull rounded edges so my feeling was that they were using the same dice from the previous day. Worn dice in my opinion perform much worse than new dice. Two different pit bosses gave two different responses to my question concerning how frequently they change the dice. One said every day and the other said only when the old set is worn out with chips in the edges?

My wife played quite a bit more craps than usual because of how good the table was and her throwing was working very well. She also had a bunch of groupies from the poker table who she got into playing craps by the end of the cruise and they were all making the any craps high low bets on come out throws and all were playing hard way bets also. As you can imagine this slowed the play down quite a bit. Most of my playing was done with far more players at the table then I would usually tolerate, so it was quite hard to get in a groove and stay in it. On day 2 my betting was inhibited due to my experience the previous day with the dice that I considered to be questionable.

Here are our throwing results for the 8 days:

DAY 1 - 12/11/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

BOB PARR/LEFT 9 1

BOB UH/LEFT 4

BOB UH/RIGHT 11 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 7 1 1

No more play due to questionable dice and Bastard #1.

DAY 2 - 12/12/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

EVA PARR 36 4 2

BOB UH/RIGHT 6 1

EVA PARR 13 1

BOB SPIN/RIGHT 13

BOB UH/LEFT 29 2 4

BOB UH/LEFT 15 2 2

DAY 3 - 12/13/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

AFTERNOON

EVA PARR 20 2 3

BOB UH/LEFT 7 1

EVA PARR 19

BOB UH/LEFT 9 2 2

BOB UH/LEFT 5 2

BOB UH/LEFT 6

BOB UH/LEFT 8

BOB UH/RIGHT 7 2

BOB UH/RIGHT 11 1 3

BOB UH/RIGHT 11 1 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 9

BOB UH/RIGHT 11

EVENING

BOB UH/RIGHT 8 1

EVA PARR 9 1 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 9 1

EVA PARR 4

BOB PARR/LEFT 17 4 4

DAY 4 - 12/14/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

EVA PARR 7 1

EVA PARR 19 1 1

BOB UH/LEFT 8 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 18 3

BOB UH/RIGHT 11 2 2

BOB PARR/LEFT 8 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 8 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 7 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 14 1 3

DAY 5 - 12/15/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

BOB PARR/RIGHT 13 2 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 35 6 1

EVA PARR 16 2 2

BOB UH/RIGHT 8

EVA PARR 29 1 4

BOB UH/RIGHT 20 2 2

DAY 6 - 12/16/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

EVA PARR 10 2 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 13 1

EVA PARR 19 4 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 8 2

BOB UH/RIGHT 7 1

DAY 7 - 12/17/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

AFTERNOON

EVA PARR 40 6 2

BOB UH/RIGHT 11 1 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 10

EVA PARR 12 1

EVA PARR 14 2 1

EVENING

EVA PARR 8 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 5

EVA PARR 11

BOB UH/RIGHT 8 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 7 1 1

BOB PARR/RIGHT 7

BOB PUSH/RIGHT 13 2 2

BOB SPIN/RIGHT 8 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 6 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 9 2 1

DAY 8 - 12/18/13

PLAYER METHOD/HAND # THROWS # POINTS # CO

BOB UH/RIGHT 8 1 1

BOB UH/RIGHT 22 3 6

BOB UH/RIGHT 26 1 2

BOB UH/RIGHT 10 1 1

Eva's throwing was extremely good for the whole week. In 17 hands she made 29 points for a ratio of 1.71 pts./hand. Along with this she made 18 come out winners for an average of 1.06 per hand. She had hand lengths of 36, 29 and 40 throws out of her 17 hands total. On her 40 throw hand I got her to throw from SL1 versus her usual hook or table end and it certainly worked very well for her. Will she shoot from this position in the future, I doubt it because she says it feels awkward to her. ??????? Bob had 49 total hands and made 50 points for a ratio of 1.02 pts./hand along with 52 come out wins for an average of 1.06 per hand. My really good hands were 29, 35 and 26 throws.

Although I was only suspicious of the dice on the first night they never for the whole week did what I was expecting them to do. I practiced with my red dice brought from home and the only 7 outs I would get in my practice throws early in the morning were throws where I had one die go very short and not even come close to the wall. For throws where I was hitting the wall with both dice I would average one 7 out for around every 20 throws. This was the busiest craps table I've seen on a cruise ship in years so most of the time it was taking way too long for me to get the dice back in my hands. Whenever both of us were at the craps table all the other players would come quickly. The majority of them were telling us that they liked the way we threw the dice and that they had confidence in us.

Our net win for the week was $1,115 of which the majority was made during Eva's and my monster hands. This craps table I would rate in the top 10 I've ever played on and my throwing performance should have been a lot better but there were too many negative issue which I've discussed which were negatively affecting my throwing.

My wife is going out on this ship again sometime mid-April of next year so I'm hoping for a duplicate performance from her.

Dicenator

[orangeglitter]

thanks for the review. did you happen to notice the let it ride table? was it in the smoking or non smoking section?

[Dicenator]

orangeglitter,

 

From what I observed the whole casino allowed smoking anywhere. On Carnival there are no non-smoking nights in the casino such as there are on some other cruise lines. I used to be a smoker until 15 years ago and the smoke doesn't bother me unless someone is right next to me at a table and smoking.

 

Dicenator

[Casino Player]

HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLLLLOOOOO Dicenator: I was on the cruise right before you. I found the Casino to be a nice place. It was a really good place to play. The food we found to be real good and met the Carnival standard. We didn't find the inconviences that you found in there. The dealers were really nice and compatent. Although one dealer once forgot to pay me after I made a point. When they wanted me to roll the dice again I stated that I needed to get paid for my last point.

 

I found that some people were wearing the robes all over the ship to, however, no one actually wore it to eat. Usually it was just from the room to the pool area. Occasionally stopping off by the buffett to get something to eat in their room.

 

We sort of liked the interior of the ship. It looked rather nice and tastefully decorated. How did you like the color scheme of the Bacchus Dining Room on the Carnival Miracle? The Carnival line porvides a good cruise at an affordable price. They were the line that made cruising affordable for average people.

[Grandpaul]

I had a craps stickman one time pass me one di. I asked if I could complete my roll with that one. They said "No". I'd still be rolling. Just can't find the place to bet on a one.