Actually, we did that on one RCCL cruise before I bought a set. Everyone went down to the casino at various times and bought chips at one of the BJ or other tables, but the casino manager got wise to what we were doing and started to give people a hard time about it. So on our next port stop in Spain I went out and bought a chip set to use for the rest of that cruise.

It's worked out real well and isn't a packing hassle to bring on board for my other cruises. The chips, cards, dealer button, etc. fit in its own little carrying case about the size of a standard briefcase. Well, maybe a little longer and narrower, but you get the picture. And what little bother it is to bring along is more than offset by the several hundreds of dollars in casino rake we are saving every night that we play.

Just returned from the Norwegian Epic that went out of Miami from 4/13 and returned 4/20 (St. Thomas/St. Martin/Nassau.) They had 2 tables with a live dealer dealing 2/5 with a 10% $25 max rake. Most people were buying in for the min $100. Game looked really loose in the 4 hours or so I watched throughout the cruise.
Thinking about doing ca Cardplayer Cruise next aboard the Oasis with the small rake and variety of games.

how'd you like the ship? I just booked a cruise on Epic for November

Cancel it.
You can find better!

Here is my recent cruise report.

Cruise Line: Norwegian

Ship's Name: Sun

Date of Cruise: April 21 (Repositioning thru the Panama Canal)

Number of tables: One (but they also used a blackjack table to accommodate the extra players for the small daily tournaments. making it a kind of MTT)

Live or e-table: Live

Type of game: Each sea day they ran an MTT at 11 AM. Buy-in was $60 for 2000 chips, blinds 100/200 for thirty minutes, 200/400 for 30 minutes, then speeded up a bit. Unlimited rebuys for first hour, and a 4000 chip add-on for $60 at end of first hour. House kept $15 (25%) of each buy-in and add-on. The number of players varied from 11 to 15 each day. Payouts were for top three places, 50/30/20.

They also tried to start up a ½ NL game in the evenings, but it only ran for a couple of hours on the first night. Several players, including myself, made it clear to the house and the other players that we would not play since the rake was 10% up to $25. At this rake, no player can expect to win over time. The house will get it all! I plan to write to NCL to complain that this rake is a lose-lose for both the players and the cruise line (who have their dealers sitting at empty poker tables).

One fellow had his own chips and tried to organize a game in the evening, but I believe it only ran one night, unfortunately.

I played in the MTT on six days, and took first place in one tournament and third in another, so was up about $170 after buy-ins, add-ons, and tips. We had this Belgian guy on the cruise, claimed he was a semi-pro poker player. He cashed in five of the seven MTTs I played in (or observed), so he probably was telling the truth. In any event, he made it difficult for the semi-decent players like me to make $$.

What are you going to complain about? Since your first post on this forum compared the rakes of all different cruise lines, you obviously knew what the rake was going to be before you got on the ship, and I assume when you booked your trip. If you took the cruise because they told you there was poker on the ship, but they conveniently left out that the rake was 5x what you'd expect to pay at most casinos, that would be one thing.

I'm sure NCL executives are aware that charging a rake that high lowers the demand for poker. They just feel that even if they'd get twice as many tables (or whatever they project they'd get) if they charged a reasonable rake, they'd make less money. Heck, I bet some of the people that don't play poker because the rake is so high end up playing blackjack instead.

That's what I do lol.
That and Ultimate Texas Hold'em.

Both games should run better then that massive rake.

Cruise Line: Celebrity

Ship's Name: Summit

Date of Cruise: April 27th (Repositioning from San Juan PR to Bayonne)

Number of Tables: One 8-seat Pokermate Electronic Table

They ran $30 ($25-5) SNG, 1,500 Chips, blinds start at 25-50 and double every 7 minutes. Paid top two; 70% - 30%. The first four winners played in the Crew v. Passengers SNG the first formal night. I won one of the first four and won the Crew v. Passenger which was a freebie but they gave me a Golf Shirt and $100. Came in second in one other SNG so ended up overall.

At night the table was open for cash games of 1-2 NL, buy-in was $50-200 and the rake was 10% up to $15. Cash only went two nights and only for a few hours. I was the only person to buy-in full and only one other person bought in for more than $100, most bought in for between $50 and $80 so the game played very shallow.

I have now played on Poker-Pro, Lightening and Pokermate Electronic tables. Poker-Pro tables are hands down the best ainec.

Settle down!

I took this cruise because my wife wanted to do the Panama Canal, and the Norwegian had the best price and timing. I didn't take it for the poker (although I was hopeful of getting into a private game . . . )!

And I seriously doubt that the NCL executives know how the rake is killing the NL cash game. An interesting theory, that folks who don't have poker to play will blow money playing blackjack. I certainly didn't -- not sure how the cruise line can know that one way or the other. What I do know for sure is that almost every night I walked through the casino between 9 PM and 11 PM there was a dealer sitting at an empty poker table. Not sure how that can possible benefit the casino, since they have to feed and pay that dealer. It seems a no-brainer that, if they need to charge such a high rake to feed and pay a live dealer, they would be better off putting in the electronic poker table and actually have folks playing it.

And I apologize that I made a "first post" on this issue, if for some reason that upset you . . . .

My first post comment was just that my assumption you knew the rake at the poker tables when you booked the cruise was because of what you said in your first post.

My main point is that NCS has made a business decision to charge an incredibly high rake to play poker, just like they made a business decision to make the make to price of the cruise itself very reasonable. Rightly or wrongly, they feel there highest profit point is $25, even if that means that some nights (or even entire cruises) they don't get a game.

All we can do is be aware that if we book a cruise on NCS, it basically means that playing poker on the cruise is not really an option.

Short answer, best bet are cruises that have PokerPro machines. Over about 15 cruises, I've seen more players willing to just sit down.

Just got off a 7-day Norwegian cruise on a brand-new ship, and there were plenty of people wanting to play, but not one cash gane went all week. Dealers just sat there waiting for players. Why? $25 max rake makes it hard to get a table going short-handed, and they didn't have a list. Apparently the on-ship casino manager either doesn't have the authority to adjust the rake, or isn't evaluated on revenue earned. This was also the case on the last cruise.

Also, get this daily turbo tourney structure: $100 buy-in ($25 to house), you get $2000 in chips, with blinds starting at 100-200, then 200-400, then 500-1000. So you're starting with 10 big blinds. Good luck!

If this has been address already, I appologize, but here is a bit of info I found out on a recent cruise. We took the Carival Pride out of Baltimore in January and they had a single PokerPro table. To play, all you have to do is swipe your Sign and Sail (I think that's what it was called) card and it would charge your account whatever you deposit. Made it very convinient. However, whatever money you had remaining in the PokerPro account, doesn't automatically get applies back to your Sign and Sail account when you leave the table. You have to go to the cashier and withdrawl the money. The floor came over and was discussing life and I asked if money is ever left in a PokerPro account unclaimed. He said the previous week alone, over $4000 was left unclaimed by people playing thinking the money would be applied back to their account. Be aware of this if you go.

I'll be going on a short 4 night cruise next February, for a weekend girl's trip and it was booked on NCL, so I'm bummed to hear about the insane rake. Does anyone know the legality of taking on chips/cards and trying to get a private game going?

see post 174

Cruise Line: costa crociere
Ship's Name: costa serena
Date of Cruise: 05/08/2012
Number of tables:1
Live or e-table:e-table
Blinds:1-2€
Buy-in structure:min40-max200
Rake structure:5%cal10€
How often did the game run:every night

a lot of BIG BIG BIG BIG fish

Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Victory
Sail date: April 2013
Tables: 1 electronic
Blinds: 1/2
Rake: Didn't look
How often did game run:
The game would frequently start some time 7-8 PM and run for an hour or two. Then, start again 10-11 PM and run for an hour or two.

There were rarely more than 6 people at the table. Of those 6, 4 always had less than $40 and there were 1 or 2 people that had a stack of ~$100. They were almost all exceptionally bad. There were frequent PF raises to $5-10, making it difficult to play a hand if you didn't get decent cards.

Going on a carnival cruise in about a week. Looking for advise. The ship will have those poker pro tables. I am not going to spend all my time in the casino, so I'm thinking my poker sessions will be 4 hours or less. The last time I went on a cruise the table seemed 1/2 begginers with $40 stack or less 1/2 tight passive. If
I lose a buy in or two it's not going to kill me. I think this would be a good time to step out of my box.

On a european carnival cruise in august, I saw the poker pro table used once in 12 days when walking by. It was 4 handed.

Well, I expect the one table to start about 7 ish. The game will be soft and about 90% full. I suck( over play hands), but the rest of the table sucks too. Every now and then somebody good will sit down but they hate the game and leave.

Carnival Breeze
(2) Poker Pro machines although only 1 was used.

rake 10 percent up to 7.00 cap. was surprisingly decent action lots of fish. game ran every night with the casino host buying a round of drinks for the table a few nights which was a nice touch. This is carnival's newest ship.

Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship's Name: Epic
Date of Cruise: 3/9-16/14
Number of tables: 2
Live or e-table: Live
Blinds: 2/5
Buy-in structure: 100-500 (educated guess)
Rake structure: 10% up to $25
How often did the game run: Every night

Still the same structure. Game ran every night with at or near a full table. One night they started a second table. Only played one night as I just couldn't stand the rake structure.

Tourneys were every at sea day. Same as mentioned in the thread earlier.

They are running some tournament on the Epic in November and they are saying all of their tournaments are satellites to it. If 1st reached $1,100 you would get a seat. None of the tournaments reached that amount though so they just paid out cash.

My sister gave me a bahamas cruise for Christmas aboard Celebration cruise line. Bottom of the barrel cruise line but the poker was the worst part

10% NO MAX rake!!!!
Table filled up but it just sickened me to see that much raked.

Yeah if rake is uncapped at least be 5% come on. I don't think a table could be soft enough for 10% uncapped to be beatable.

has anyone had any experiences with a cardplayer cruise in late 2013 or 2014? thinking about going on one, but on the edge as I don't see many reviews, and the few I do are general blurbs about how they are one of the better ones.

fuxxnuts I went on a Card Player Cruise a couple weeks ago to Key West Florida and the Bahamas aboard Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas.

The overall experience was truly everything I hoped it would be and then some.

Anything specific you'd like to know? If you just tell me to talk I'll type a novel - I had that much fun.