Carnival freedom - feb 2014 - trip report

[Dicenator]

CARNIVAL FREEDOM - FEBRUARY 2014 - TRIP REPORT

We flew into Fort Lauderdale on Saturday Feb. 1st, the day before the cruise departure and stayed at the Sheraton near the cruise pier. Our suite was on the eighth floor with a view of the harbor which had 6 cruise ships in port. Starting around 4:30 PM they started leaving port one right after the other and it was an unbelievable sight. The world's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas was one of the ships. The Crown Princess was also there and that is the second ship we were sailing on for this trip.

The Carnival Freedom cruise was the free cruise that my wife got from the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City and we upgraded from an interior to an Ocean view on the second deck. Since we have platinum status on Carnival the embarkation process took us probably no more than 10 minutes. This ship was the same size and layout as all the other Carnival ships we've been on. The tonnage was 110,000 tons with a 3000 plus passenger capacity. Needless to say I can find my way around these ships with my eyes closed. I never got to take any pictures because my wife had the camera in the safe and it was "out of sight, out of mind".

The itinerary was pretty good for a 6 night cruise being; Key West, Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios Jamaica. The only new port for me was Key West and I found it to be thoroughly delightful. We spent the whole morning walking all around Key West also known as the Conch Republic. One shop stands out in my mind and that was the Key Lime store. Every food you can think of they had with Key Limes in the recipe along with a lot of free samples.

On this cruise I didn't do anything beach related due to the water temperature being a little too cold and the fear of getting any sunburn. We did sunbathe at the pool on the ship almost every day. I never stayed in the sun more than 1.5 hours.

Dinner time for us was 6 PM, early seating in the main dining room, deck 3 on the back of the ship. We were seated at a table for 10 and everybody was friendly and easy to talk to. Our dinner companions were couples from Jacksonville, Florida, North Carolina, Minnesota and Ontario, Canada. The only issues for me is that a 10 person table is too big and it is hard to talk to the people across the table due to the noise level in the dining room. My second issue is the length of time that it takes to get dinner. An hour and a half and still no dessert menu is too long for me. It also took typically 30 minutes from the time you took your seat until you had your appetizer. The last 2 or 3 nights I skipped dessert so I could get to the craps table and get my shooting position before the crowd arrived there.

It's now casino time. First I'll start with my wife winning the Blackjack tournament on the last day of the cruise. She won $500, a trophy which the crew members call "a ship on a stick" and a tee shirt. This also makes her eligible for the $100,000 blackjack tournament which will be held on the Carnival Breeze on November 16th of this year. We just booked this cruise this morning.

My expectations for my craps play were minimal at best. From December 18th until February 2nd, a time period of about 45 days I only had 5 practice sessions at home during this whole time. Between a death in the family, the holidays, helping my daughter and son in law with projects at their house, I lost my desire to practice on a regular basis.

The craps table was 12 feet long with blue micro fiber and some soft cushioning below the layout which initially had me worried. Well when I made maybe 10 practice throws that first afternoon the bounce was perfectly normal so the cushioning wasn't affecting the dice throws. They also used red dice and not the green ones that I questioned on my cruise on the Carnival Splendor in December last year. On Thursday, 2/6, I had a 38 throw hand in the afternoon. When we came back to the table that evening after dinner I found out that they had changed the layout after I had left that afternoon. I found the bounce to be different, bouncier after that. The usual Carnival limits applied; $5 min., $500 max. and 2X odds with no prop bets other than hard way, horns etc. in the center of the table.

My wife Eva played quite a bit for her so I'm going to include her throwing results also.

PLAYER METHOD # THROWS # POINTS CO WINNERS

DAY 1 - 2/2

EVA PARR 26 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 28 4 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 5

BOB UH-LEFT 12 1

BOB PARR 6 1

BOB UH-LEFT 7 1

BOB UH-LEFT 6 1

DAY 2 - 2/3

EVA PARR 11 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 12 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 1

EVA PARR 33 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 14 2 1

EVA PARR 26 5 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 11 2

PLAYER METHOD # THROWS # POINTS CO WINNERS

DAY 3 - 2/4

BOB UH-RIGHT 27 3 4

BOB UH-RIGHT 11

EVA PARR 5

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1

EVA PARR 5 1

BOB PARR 11 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 7

EVA PARR 4

BOB UH-RIGHT 10 2

EVA PARR 9 2 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 6 1 1

EVA PARR 8 2

BOB PARR 10

BOB PUSH 6 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 8

BOB UH-RIGHT 11 9 in a row

BOB UH-RIGHT 21 1

DAY 4 - 2/5

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1 1

EVA PARR 5 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 9 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 15 1 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 6 1 2

EVA PARR 5 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 16 3 2

DAY 5 - 2/6

BOB UH-RIGHT 14 1 2

EVA PARR 9 1 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 38 4 1

after this hand we broke for dinner and they changed the layout

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 2

EVA PARR 7 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 5 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 11

PLAYER METHOD # THROWS # POINTS CO WINNERS

DAY 6 - 2/7

EVA PARR 7 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 14 3

EVA PARR 9 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 21 2 1

BOB PARR 8 2 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 10 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 7 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 15 1 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 9 1

BOB UH-RIGHT 10 4

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 2 1

EVA PARR 22 4 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 8 1

EVA PARR 9

BOB UH-RIGHT 6

BOB UH-RIGHT 14 2 2

BOB UH-RIGHT 14 3 3

BOB UH-RIGHT 13 1 2

In total Eva played 17 hands and had some great ones of 26, 33, 26 and 22 throws each. She made 21 points in those 17 hands for a ratio of 1.235 points per hand. In addition she made 21 come out wins for the same ratio.

Bob played 53 hand in total making 55 points for a ratio of 1.038. Along with the points I made 64 come out winners for a ratio of 1.208. My really great hands were 38, 28, 27, 21 and 21 throws.

The craps playing conditions were far from being good. There were a lot of craps players on the ship and most of the time the table was almost full. At no time was I at the table by myself where I could really get my throwing dialed in. The best conditions usually occurred when the table first opened at 1 PM on at sea days or in the evening around 7:30 or 8 PM. At these times there were no more than 3 players for a couple of hands and then the hordes would show up and I would leave. I averaged playing close to 9 hands per day but many of those days would cover 6 hours in the casino with a lot of leaving the table and coming back later when the losers left. This was very frustrating to me particularly considering my lack of practice leading up to this trip.

The bottom line was a win of approximately $750 with 90% of that accumulating during the long hands listed above for both of us.

Dicenator

[tompeter]

As always, I enjoy the report, and Congrats/good luck to your wife with the BJ tournament.

[cire1184]

Great report. Didn't think there were detailed reports like this on these forums, especially for craps.

[grod19]

How did they change the layout? Moved the table slightly I am assuming?

[orangeglitter]

Thanks for the review. i won a entry in the BJ tournament last year but sadly could not go.

[sailor_jimc]

Grod19... changing the layout means they remove the old table felt (ok microfiber in this case) playing surface and put on a new one. It has to be done for all table games periodically because the fabric gets worn (or drinks spilled on it)

 

it does happen in all casinos.. he just got unlucky in that they did it on his cruise

[grod19]

Grod19... changing the layout means they remove the old table felt (ok microfiber in this case) playing surface and put on a new one. It has to be done for all table games periodically because the fabric gets worn (or drinks spilled on it)

 

it does happen in all casinos.. he just got unlucky in that they did it on his cruise

 

That is what I thought I just have never seen it done in the middle of a cruise.