Casino on Sea Princess?????

[cruzaddict]

Ok,my friends are currently on a 14 day cruise on the Sea Princess. They emailed me and had an interesting comment about the ship and casino. First of all,they said the cruise was about 85-90% british. Do British people NOT like to gamble? He said there was "no" craps table and very few slot machines,he said it was the least equipped casino he has seen on a cruise,and he's been on a lot of cruises. When I go on the Princess website and view the Sea Princess,it shows a picture of a craps table in the casino? Has anyone been on the Sea recently....if so,was there a craps table there? My husband and friend love to play craps and we were seriously considering booking the Sea for next year until they emailed us with that info! Any info would be appreciated! Thanks!

[Shogun]

Hi There ,

 

was on sea last year, the ship is advertised a lot in UK with charter flights direct to meet up with her.

 

Casino is poor compared to grand class ships, if I recall right slots, some card tables and roulette but was empty a lot.

 

I complained about the fact that it was smokey and as such we used to go there only when it first opened. By late on it was not nice.

 

However we did win some money , T shirts and a Princess goodie bag so maybe not that bad a casino.

 

But it lacks the buzz of a grand class ship.

yours Shogun

[Toto2Kansas]

The Sea Princess casino is about half (if not less) the size of casinos on the other Sun Class ships. We sailed in November and were very surprised. They use the other half for tables used for board games, like Monopoly and such as it seems Brits enjoy board games.

Also, they have a big screen TV in the game table section for sporting events.

 

This cruise is geared more towards the British tastes in food and such and we really enjoyed it. Compared to the Sun Princess, we just returned from, the Sea Princess has spoiled us forever in the food department.

Remember, this ship is being sold as B2B from Barbados in the UK, where in the US it is sold B2B from Fort Lauderdale.

 

Yes, it has very very tiny casino and compares more to the casino on the Tahitian Princess than to other ships in this class.

 

But I was still able to walk out with quite a lot of their money at the end of the cruise. :)

[jnc411]

HI, we just got back from a cruise on the Sea Princess on March 26th, yes your friend is correct, the Casino is tiny, we would walk in and look around for a machine , none available so we would just leave. They do have tables but sorry I don't know if there was craps or not. The other side of the area is all tables and chairs and hardly anyone there, just a waste , I think. Also your freind is correct, the ship was mostly UK passangers, some Canadian and a few Americans, so the food and entertainment was geared naturally for the British. Food was good, some entertainment pretty good the usual productions show and acts , but some of the lounge singers/entertainment , not to our liking, but the British passangers seemed to really like them.

The ship is in great condition, the crew was great. The 14 days very enjoyable experience.

The Sea Princess is a lovely ship and a nice size.

Cori

[cruzaddict]

Thank you all for your great responses! Don't get me wrong,I have absolutely nothing against the British.....I was just wondering why there were so many aboard the Sea Princess,now it makes sense. Maybe we'll try booking the Sun for next Spring,mainly for the bigger Casino! The Sun "does" have a craps table right???? Thanks again for all your replies!

[Toto2Kansas]

YES, the Sun did have a craps table last week.

 

Enjoy which ever cruise you decide on!

[Globaliser]

Do British people NOT like to gamble? He said there was "no" craps table and very few slot machines,he said it was the least equipped casino he has seen on a cruise,and he's been on a lot of cruises.

No, the British are not big casino gamblers, largely I think because there are very few casinos in the UK and they have been difficult to get into. It used to be that you couldn't just turn up to one you hadn't been to before and go in. You had to apply for membership, which by law could not be granted before 48 hours had elapsed. Of course, once you were a member, you could go in at will. But the rule meant that many casinos concentrated on high rollers, thus reducing further the number of casinos that would appeal.

 

When Sea Princess went to P&O as Adonia, much of the casino was taken out. The casino size was then broadly consistent with the casinos on other P&O ships. As she is still largely sold to the UK market (though as I understand it more like 60-70%), the casino is still the same size now that she is Sea Princess again. IIRC, the card tables have been moved up into the spare space in the casino to make way for the Internet installation.

[Toto2Kansas]

Just to explain a bit further. From what I was told on the Sea Princess, the game/card room used to be where the new Internet room is now. They needed a large room for that area so they had to move the game/card room to the casino. The Internet room is very nice.

 

We saw maybe 3 tables (out of the 15-20 that are there) in the casino being used at any one time for game/card players while the casino most of the time was packed. It was so full towards the end of the cruise that verbal fights were breaking out over who was in line next to play the slot machines. :eek:

Since there are many Americans sailing on the Sea, the smallish casino really isn't big enough to accomodate them. I saw very few British passengers in the casino. But when you did, they would be the ones at the nickle machines playing 1 nickle at a time. :rolleyes:

[GSDsky]

Tables:

- 1 roulette

- 1 three card poker

- 2 blackjack

- 1 various blackjack table at entry point (novelty games to attract people)

 

Talked to manager about how bad and he did state no gamblers so no reason to increase overhead if no players. (staff). Even dealers where board. Staff where wonderful but board!

Slot tourney had only 8 players so this shows the lack of interest or lack of selling by staff. Probably both.

50/50 brit vs cdn and US. Hardly any americans on our's as mostly cdn's and UK. UK seemed to play slots and roulette. I think they needed a Caribbean poker or let it ride table and drop 3 card poker. Yes better odds on 3-card but no attendance. Craps on the Dawn Princess last year was dead. Most played poker or let it ride. Let it ride being a no brainer attracts clients who just wish a game to play a game.

They could have organised a Texas Holdem game on other side as well as most nights those tables empty. Next year we will be on for Super Bowl so wonder if they run a pool?

[cruzaddict]

Looks like it's gonna be the Sun Princess for me! What great info....thank you all again!

[GSDsky]

can I have a case from your home town LOL:)

[Qwkenuf]

Hi cruzaddict;

 

I was on the same cruise as Cori (14 day from Ft Lauderdale Mar 11 to 25th), although I don't think I met him/her in the casino. Firstly, my five cruise companions and I were VERY disappointed when we boarded and found out there was no Craps table.... I love Craps and was looking forward to playing dice! Despite this, we had a great time and got to know the casino staff very well, both on board the ship and even ashore while in port. What we were told by the casino staff was consistent with what some other posters have mentioned. The casino is only half the size of what it used to be due to moving the card/board games tables into it from where the Internet Cafe is now located. There were just under 2000 passengers on our cruise; approximately 1300 were from the UK; 400 from the USA and 250 from Canada. The rest were from various nations, including two from New Zealand! Due to the high ratio of UK passengers who do not play Craps as a rule and do not gamble much in general, the decision was made to remove the Craps table when the casino size was halved. There is talk of putting in a poker table, but even the casino dealers aren't holding their breath for this change as Sea Princess has a European itinerary this summer.

Bottom line; if you want Craps, pick another ship. There were many upset players on the cruise along with ourselves, as like you, we had been led to believe by the deck plans on the Princess website that there was a Craps table on board.

 

Having said all that, the casino staff were very friendly and accommodating, and we enjoyed the camaraderie immensely. We would cruise Princess again on a different ship, but next time we will CONFIRM what table games exist in the casino before booking. Have fun on your cruise; the six of us are already looking forward to another one next year around this time.

[cruzaddict]

Qwkenuf,

Thanks so much for your great response! I'm not really the "craps" person in my family. My husband is,and our friend that cruises with us. My husband actually learned how to play craps on on of our cruises! So, they guys really love to play while we cruise! They have a lot of fun! In fact,they are on the Sea Princess right now (our friends) and were considering booking all of us for next April,but now that they found out about the Sea not having the craps table,that idea is out! It's unfortunate that Princess doesn't have many "longer" cruises,we really wanted to do a 12 or 14 day one next year,but it looks like we're stuck to the 10 day! Even 10 days doesn't seem like enough to me!