Carnival breeze - nov 2014 - trip report

[Dicenator]

This isn't a trip report but rather a copy of the letter that I am sending to the Casino Dept. at Carnival Cruise Lines.

 

THE LETTER FOLLOWS:

 

I just returned from a cruise on the Carnival Breeze which departed on Nov. 16, 2014 and returned on Nov. 22, 2014.

 

This was my 33rd cruise overall and 15th cruise on Carnival. I'm going to get it out right now by saying this was the WORST cruise by far that I've ever been on. By day #2, I was wanting this cruise to end immediately. On the last day I was saying things like departing this **** instead of departing this SHIP.

 

Now I'll tell you why I feel this way. I have never sailed on a Disney ship nor will I ever sail on a Disney ship. The reason is that they don't have a Casino on Disney ships. Having a casino readily accessible to me on a ship with low $5 minimum bets accounts for 50% of the reason I go on cruises.

 

This cruise was the Ultimate Blackjack Tournament cruise and my wife had an entry which is the reason we were on this ship. Little did we know that their were 560 people with entries in the tournament. This cruise also had the Lady Antebellum concert which we were not aware of until we got on the ship and this cruise was also some kind of premier cruise.

 

Here is what I observed all week long in the casino. Remember that this ship had 560 hardcore gamblers playing in the casino along with their spouses and or partner. For talking sake lets say there were 1,000 rabid hardcore gamblers on this cruise. I'm estimating that there are approximately 240 slot machines and there were I think 18 table games with the vast majority being blackjack tables. So this makes the total available gambling spots 366 (slots plus tables seats). This works like crap with 1000 rabid gamblers. All week long you could hardly walk through the casino let alone find a seat even on a slot machine. On at sea days with the table games opening at 9 AM, all of the tables that were open were totally full of players by 9:05. People were standing behind the players waiting for an opportunity to play. I even saw $100 blackjack tables full of players in the evening. I've never seen this on any ship.

 

My game of choice is craps and craps was the only game with a $5 minimum. Why the $10 minimums on all the other table games, blackjack, let it ride and 3 card poker? Every other Carnival cruise that I've ever been on had the $5 or $6 minimums for blackjack and the other games.

 

Here is my experience with craps. In 6 full days on the ship I got to play ONE hand at the craps table. This happened on the second day, the Key West port. The ship left port at 4 PM and I was the first player at the craps table when they were first opening it. Before they finished opening the table there were 4 players to my right so I ended up being the fifth player to get the dice. When I finally got the dice in my hand an additional 5 players bought in during my hand. So by the time my hand ended there were 10 players at the table. I left planning to try again after dinner. I had the 6 PM seating for dinner and would go back to the casino at 7:30 to find the table full with 12 and in some cases 13 players and it would stay that way all evening long.

 

Thursday night was the concert night in Cozumel and the casino wasn't opening until midnight. Well a full table of craps players was there waiting for the table to open before midnight. Friday was the final at sea day with the craps table opening at 10:15 in the morning. By 10 AM there was a full table waiting to play.

Now my feeling is that Carnival cruise lines is very happy with the money they made in the casino on this cruise, but how many passengers did you upset and annoy with what was happening. I am not the only complaint I'm sure you are going to get over this issue. Everybody that I or my wife talked to all had the same complaints.

 

Needless to say I am very dismayed with what happened and the very positive opinion I had of Carnival Cruise lines has been severely diminished.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Robert Miller (dicenator)

[Davey Wavey]

So what are you hoping/wanting/expecting from them?

 

Playing roulette is by far my main cruise activity and I could just imagine how unhappy I would be if unable to play it. Then again, my last cruise I ran into the most offensive dealer on the 3rd day I didn't go back. I managed to find plenty to keep busy.

[tompeter]

OMG what a horrendous experience. I would have been pissed as well.

 

Please let us know if you get any (meaningful) response from them...

[LOVINCRUIZIN]

I have to agree with you 100%. With two young kids, cruising is my favorite way to spend family time AND get my gambling in. If I wan't able to play various poker games, I would be furious. I am leaving next week for 14 days on the Breeze. I hope I don't experience anything like you did.

 

Good luck with your letter. I hope they offer you a re-do and make things right for you

[orangeglitter]

Guess I am glad I sold my blackjack tournament entry. I have found that even the premier cruises are too crowded in the casino. I would not have gone on the last one we did in sept. but we wanted to try a Canadian cruise. Loved the cruise. Casino was way toooo crowded to be fun.

[pusywillow]

If they had upped the table minimums they may have had less players fighting for a spot.

 

I am going on a Princess VIP casino cruise in April. I hope it isn't anything like this.

 

Sorry you were unable to enjoy your cruise.

 

Sue

[Davey Wavey]

I think he said they did up the table minimums and they were still full. Of course, Breeze is different from other ships. The chips are $2 instead of $1. I don't remember if the minimums were higher, although with $2 chips people complained that the minimum was effectively higher since you couldn't use 2.5 chips to place $5 bets. And with such a larger ship, the casino didn't seem any bigger than those on the smaller ships, but I didn't could machines and tables.

[Trnkk]

Hi Bob,

 

I missed a chance to meet you in person I was hoping to meet you and talk to you about craps and have you show me how you throw the dice but unfortunately as you stated everything was so disorganized it was impossible to locate someone not to mention your own friends I did however went around and asked people if their name is Bob I did find a few Bobs but not Bob Miller.

 

Anyway I'd love to know how your only roll was.

 

Teddy

[Dicenator]

It took awhile to finally connect with the right person in the Carnival Casino Dept. The end result of my letter is a free 8 night cruise for myself and my wife in June. The value of this is $1800 for an interior stateroom. We will most likely upgrade to an ocean view or balcony.

 

Dicenator

[Wilgr]

I should have sent the same letter about the week before on the Slot Tournament cruise.

[Casino Player]

HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLLLLOOOOO Dicenator:We would never go on a cruise that caters to gamblers. We don't want a similar experience similar to what you had. We want to enjoy ourselves on our cruise and play in the casino when we want. It seems like you had a terrible time on the cruise you went on the Breeze on. The fact they are giving you another cruise doesn't say much since you didn't have a good time on the trip you really wanted to have a good time on.