Not within the last year, but I was on Voyager a couple of years ago for a two-week transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to New Orleans. They did have ring games available in addition to the tourneys, but the rake was horrendous. What I did was play in the casino the first couple of days to meet and get to know the regular players, and then I bought a chip set in one of the ports before we left Spain and we all arranged to meet in a public card room the rest of the cruise so that we could play without rake. It worked real well and I have been doing the same on all subsequent cruises ever since. (I actually had started arranging these "private" games earlier that same year on a 30-day Mariner of the Seas cruise around South America, but we used the casino's chips before they started giving us a hard time about buying chips and then leaving the casino, so we then switched to cash for the rest of that cruise.)

Coincidentally, I'll be cruising down under myself in January & February. We're flying to Sydney in January and taking Celebrity's Solstice on a two-week cruise to Auckland. We're then spending nine days in New Zealand before flying back to Sydney to board Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody for a two-week r/t Australian cruise. I'll be taking my poker set of course.

Interesting, thanks for the response.

Just got back from a carnival cruise. Rake was 15% to $10 at 1/2 and most bought in for $20-$100. It was rare to have more than $600 in play on the table at any one time. Horrendous.

I did ship a ticket to the $175k tourney in October. Any of you guys play in that before? Assuming cash game poker on that cruise is much better. Couldn't have been much worse.

Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship's Name: Getaway
Date of Cruise: 9/20/14 to 9/27/14
Number of tables:1
Live or e-table: Live
Blinds: 2/5
Buy-in structure: 100 to 500 (i believe)
Rake structure: 10% up to $25 (I am sure lol)
How often did the game run: Usually every night. Most of the players were loose and terrible. For the first 3 nights , I played and lost money overall in these sessions due to bad luck, coolers, bad plays on my part and the RAKE. The casino does not employ a no flop, no drop rule nor do they allow chopping. Most of the players only bought in for $100- $300 which sucks because the rake is constantly eating up our stacks. The dealers were terrible and didn't know what they were doing. I stopped playing for the rest of the cruise but I could see that the game does run nightly. The casino did run $100 rebuy tournaments in the morning at every sea day and the tournament structure was so BAD. In fact a previous poster had posted the exact structure of this tournament which I will repost myself. I lost my chips in their 1st tournament and never played again.

Is the heartland poker cruise any good? any know from experience? are there cash tables there?

Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship's Name: Brilliance of the Seas
Venue: CardPlayerCruises
Date of Cruise: 10/19/14 to 10/26/14
Number of tables: 10
Live or e-table: Live

Games:
2-4 LHE: usually one table running; no check-raise allowed.
4-8 LHE: one or two tables.
4-8 LO8 w/half kill: one to three tables.
1-3 NLHE: one to three tables. $300 max buy-in.
2-5 NLHE: one or two tables. $500 max buy-in.
10-20 Limit Mixed (started as LHE, O8 & Stud8; later in week eliminated LHE).
They will also lay any other cash game based on interest.

Rake structure: 10% up to $5 plus $1 on the button; chopping blinds allowed.

Tournaments on the two full cruising days:
$100+$25 tournament at room opening (9:30 am). 3K chips, plus 2K for $10 dealer add-on. 20-minute blinds (decent structure). Paying top 10%.

Mid-afternoon (2pm I think it was), $80 Survivor tournament. I'm not sure about structure as I didn't play this one.

Poker Room Hours:
On full cruising days: 9:30am to 5:30pm; 7:15pm until tables broke (1 or 2 am).
On port days: 7:15pm until tables broke (1 or 2 am).

This was my first time on cardplayercruises, and first time on Royal Caribbean. The cruise part was superb - great food, great shows, wonderful port tours, etc. The poker room was run very well. Seating was usually quick, with a well-run board. Dealers were very competent. Players were a mix of complete beginners to pro, with most falling in the mid range. No one was there to make a living, obv. The only real negative was that the dealers were allowed to play the tables. I can understand it - dealers have no other place to play on their downtime - but they do have an unfair advantage, having rotated through the tables while working, being able to observe all the players.

After this cruise, I recommend the cardplayercruises for a great vacation. I can also get you a small discount on a reservation (if you haven't cruised with them before) if you PM me.

The cruise also ran a Royal Tournament series in their casino. Prizes were a free cruise plus entry to end-of-year $100K poker tournament, on the Dec. 15th cruise. The structure for these were a joke, though. $75 got you 2K chips, and $40 another 1K; with rebuys for $40 for 1K chips and a $40 1K add-on after the first hour. 10-minute blinds; shootout structure. If you beat your table, you moved on to the final later in the week, but everyone starts with 2K chips at the final. Spots paid at the final depending on number of entries. Just a luckfest really (no, I didn't try it).

Yeah ive had pretty much the same experience on crusies ive been on. Rake was ridiculous and the games rarely ran. And any tournament ever ran was basically a Super Turbo Sit N Go.

Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Liberty of the Seas
Sail Date: Jan 12 2015
Poker tables: 1
Game: $2/$5NL
Buyin: $100 minimum, not sure what the maximum was because all but one person bought in for either $100 or $200
Hours: game usually started around 10pm and lasted past 2am. Table had 10 seats and there were almost always 7 to 9 people at the table. It was a 5-night cruise and the poker game ran reliably every night. 5 or 6 of the same people were there every night.
Rake: 10% with a $15 maximum
General Comments: I won't compare the dealers to the Winstar where they're basically machines, but they did a good job keeping the game light and fair. The table was usually half tourists half poker players. Competition ranged from players who called 3/4-pot bets to chase any draw they had (even a draw to 2 pair) to TAGs. There was one player who raised about 40% of his hands and made big c-bets and then would flip over 52o. When he wasn't at the table 6-way limped pots were common. Even when he *was* at the table he would have 5 limpers around to him, he'd raise and everyone would call. It was not uncommon to see villains bet $10 into a $90 pot and then bet $20 on the turn after getting 3 callers.

They *did* have a $100 buy-in tournament and I believe it had unlimited rebuys. The way it worked is they ran 7 mini-tournaments over the first 4 days, and the winner of each mini-tournament played in the final round on the last day. If they'd have gotten 31 entrants they'd have placed a free cruise on top of the prize pool but they only got 28. A gentleman sitting to my right placed second in the final round and won about $600.

Overall I was pleased with the poker experience on the cruise. Anything anyone wants to know about the cruise, whether or not it's about the poker, feel free to ask or PM I could talk about cruises all day.

Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean - Ante Up Poker Cruises
Ship's Name: Enchantment of the Seas
Date of Cruise: 2/9 - 2/13/2015
Number of tables: 4
Live or e-table: Live
Games: NL Texas Hold 'Em, Horse, Sit 'n Go's, MTT's, (they'd spread anything that had enough interest)
Blinds: $1/3 was all I played, but I believe there were bigger games at certain times, per interest.
Buy-in structure: $100 min/$300 max
Rake structure: 10% up to maximum of $6. If/when tables got short handed, the rake would be cut to as low as $1 upon request.
How often did the game run: daily/nightly

Review: This was my first ever cruise and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It started out with a Welcome party on the first evening with free drinks, horderves, and live music. We received our lanyards which gave us exclusive access to the private poker room. It was a really nice way to start off the cruise. The party was immediately followed by dinner in the dining room, and there were a number of tables reserved specifically for the Ante Up party. It was really nice to be able to dine with the group as well - I feel this went a long way in creating the friendly atmosphere that carried over into the poker room.

That's not to say everything was perfect, however. There were a number of guys on the cruise with us who got pretty rowdy after several hours of drinking, so the first night in the card room had a little drama, but nothing that wasn't able to be handled by the floor staff. The following nights were much calmer in that regard.

There were two MTT's scheduled for the trip: a $20+10 unlimited rebuy (for the first hour) on Tuesday morning (10 minute blinds, $20 add-on after the rebuy period) and the $100+10 main event (20 minute blinds). I played and cashed both tournaments - the first one ICM chopped with 6 remaining when I was the short stack, and the ME chopped even with 6 remaining when I was 4th in chips. One of the greatest things to me about the ME is that it is an official tournament for the Ante Up Poker Tour, which is a partner with the GPI - so cashing in the tournament gives you player of the year points. I'm not sure if other branded poker cruises offer this, but I found it to be a nice perk.

The cash games were super friendly and just plain fun. There was a fair share of tough players and softer competition, alike. The poker room staff were allowed to play in the games with their own money, (no house money is ever gambled by the staff). I've heard some people have issues with that, but I enjoyed playing with them a lot.

Speaking of the staff, our dealers were awesome. Everyone raved about how great they were and they seemed to legitimately be having as much fun as the rest of us.

One of my favorite parts of the cruise was the Hold Em Strategy Roundtable, led by Scott Long, which took place before the main event. It gave us a chance to understand each other better from a poker perspective and hear some great stories from each of our backgrounds. We got to discuss particular issues that each of us were having with our games and get advice from all around the table. We also discussed other issues in poker, much like we do here on the forums, dealing with topics like stats, software, and the current legal landscape.

All in all, I highly recommend Ante Up Poker Cruises to anyone who wants a nice vacation, but doesn't want to leave the grind behind.

Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship's Name: Breakaway
Date of Cruise: early may 2014
Number of tables:1
Live or e-table: Live
Blinds: 1/2 but I heard it normally was 2/5
Buyin amount: Unsure
Rake structure: 10% uncapped (owwwwww)
How often did the game run: Apparently every night. I only went down once, ran like god, but only cashed out +100 due to insane rake. Honestly, I would avoid because the rake it just too much.

Great trip report!

Did you have to book through ante-up to play or could you go through your normal cruise agent (for me, Costco Travel)?

Thanks - I won the cruise, so it wasn't a traditional booking. I do see a note on their site that says this - "Players MUST book through Ante Up to play in the poker room", so it sounds like you must book through Ante Up. Jeanne was very helpful and responsive in my case.

Good luck!

Seems silly to not allow others to play.

This rule is probably about the arrangement between the cruise line and the company. Remember the cruise line operates a casino

It's also probably a matter of the limited space available on a cruise ship. On my cardplayerscruise, the eight tables were filled to capacity almost every moment the poker room was open.

I'm going to suggest it is about money. I can get the same cruises for less through any number of cruise discounters. However, I don't have a problem with this. It's just something I wanted to know and it'll help me inform my decision to go on one of these cruises or not.

It could be. But when I worked poker cruises our company sold the cruises at a discount. We had people who booked and never played anything but the freeroll. We opened the room to others but we kept it low key. If someone wandered in we let them play but we didn't advertise it. I'm not saying they dint make money from the sale of the cruise .... I'm sure they did. But they made good money in the poker room

havent seen a 5-10 nlh cruise, there is one ? europe or usa doesnt matter

this is how i'm spelling it from now on

I've only seen them on special poker cruises. Doubtful you can get bigger games going on a normal sailing.

I've just come off a week on the Oasis and have done a week on the Voyager (both RCL) and the poker was awful. Both only had the electronic machines which work ok but crap to play with. Neither had a game going before like 10pm and there are 5.5k people on the Oasis Couple of tourists come down and early and it's pretty easy to grind them out. Came out a couple of hundred dollars most nights just playing the nuts. Awful calls and might as well throw the rule book out of the window when trying to play them.

Past midnight the same 6-8 people played everynight, mostly couples or friends and in my case they weren't speaking English.. It was quite friendly and I don't think they were colluding. Made some money out of them.

Tournament was a bit of a joke as well. Someone ran the numbers and RCL are making such a profit out of it it was a joke. 18 people playing per tourney, 3 tourneys. Add ons and re-buys plus a double ad-on in first 30 mins which was heavily used to the point they put two cruises up. You can also buy in to the last tourney as well. Pure profit spinner for RCL.

The blinds were just awful as well. always doubling, no 300-600, straight from 200 to 400. Blinds up every 10 mins. By the time the add-ons were over it was just bingo.

Same in the final. 20 mins in I started with a 16k stack and blinds were so big I was well under 10bb and doubling every 10 mins.

All in all felt a bit deflated by the whole poker thing that week. Was expecting a bit better. Playing a machine for 4-5 hours a night for a few hundred quid when you are away with the family just seemed a bit of a waste of time.

Cruise Line: Princess
Ship's Name: Royal Princess
Date of Cruise: 5/21/2016 through 5/28/2016
Number of tables: 1
Live or e-table: e-table (PokerPro)
Blinds: $1/$2
Buy-in structure: min $20 max $200
Rake structure: 15% to $8 max, no rake heads-up
How often did the game run: It went off almost daily for at least a few hours, but sometimes didn't get together on days with long stays in port. On sea days, there tended to be an afternoon game that would break at dinner, and then an evening game that could run into the wee hours. There were over 3,000 passengers on the ship, but barely a full table worth of regular poker players. Most were on the older side (50+).

Obviously, with a rake this high, the game was simply not beatable most of the time. Even casual players started to notice how quickly the purse would shrink in an orbit. It often went short-handed, which was naturally even worse in terms of the rake effect. Fortunately, I got it heads-up a couple times in spots where I had a significant skill advantage, so that was nice. Otherwise, we were basically paying the house really steep rent. Even with several weak players in the game, eking out a win was a tough proposition.

It's worth noting that the e-table format itself tended to drive away some recreational players, especially table-gamers. They wanted to come in, plop down money, and gamble like they do at blackjack or three-card poker. Instead, they had to go through a rigamarole of creating a PIN, transferring funds from their cruise cards, and buying in from those funds. Then they had to figure out the in-game menu system without a dedicated dealer to provide assistance.

Using the touch-screen was like a whole skill set unto itself. It's not like a traditional touch-screen, where any touch activates whatever option you're touching. You had to touch things in a particular way, essentially a tap with a pointy object like the tip of your fingernail—or as many players preferred, the corner of the cruise card. Not a big deal after a while, but again, more steepness to the learning curve. Adding a stylus to each seat might have helped.

I tried to help new players learn the e-table, but of course sometimes I'd be in a hand and couldn't. I saw more than a few potential players get frustrated and walk to a traditional table game rather than dealing with it. There's something to be said for making it easy for gamblers to get their action.

Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship's Name: Explorer of the Seas
Venue: CardPlayerCruises
Date of Cruise: 8/20/16 to 8/27/16
Cruise: 7-night Alaska, out of Seattle, WA
Number of tables: 12 (iirc)
Live or e-table: Live

Games:
2-4 LHE: usually one table running.
4-8 LHE: one or two tables.
4-8 LO8 w/half kill: usually one table.
1-3 NLHE: one to three tables. $300 max buy-in.
2-5 NLHE: one table. $500 max buy-in.
They will also lay any other cash game based on interest.

Rake structure: 10% up to $5 plus $1 on the button; chopping blinds allowed; lowered rake when 5 or less players if you ask.

Tournaments:
On full cruising days (three of them this trip), there was a morning regular tournament and an afternoon survivor tournament (20% of the field paid an equal payout). On the two partial cruise days, there was a survivor tournament before or after the port visit.

Regular tournaments were $100+$25 tournament at room opening (9:30 am). 4K chips, plus 2K for $10 dealer add-on. 20-minute blinds, decent structure. Paying top 10%. These tournaments ran until mid-afternoon.

Survivor tournaments varied as follows:
$80, 20% paid $300 (=$60+$20)
$65, 20% paid $250 (=$50+$15)
$100, 20% paid $400 (=$80+$20)
$125, 20% paid $250 (=$100+$25)
All were 4K chips, plus 2K for $10 dealer add-on. 15-minute blinds. Same structure as the regular tournaments except two blind levels cut out, one early and one late. These tournaments ran for 2-3 hours each.

There was also a main event tournament on the final full-cruising day. Same structure as the regular tournaments but with 10K chips, plus 5K for the dealer add-on; 30-minute blinds. It was $200+$30; $20 for the dealer add-on. Ran 9:30am to 8:00pm (with usual break for dinner). The cardplayercruises main event is usually tied in to a land-based poker tour, in this case the Senior Poker Tour. (I took second place!)

Poker Room Hours:
On full cruising days: 9:00am to 5:15pm; 7:30pm until tables broke (usually 1 or 2 am, sometimes later).
On port days: same hours except closed when docked.
Plenty of food and drinks available in the cardroom, but always closed for dinner.

This was my second time on cardplayercruises, and third time on Royal Caribbean. The poker room was even better than last time, which was great as well. The main difference was that the conference room on this ship is much larger than the last one, easily fitting all the tables with room to spare. There were plenty of tables and dealers to run the cash games and tournaments simultaneously. A lot of players were there for tournaments only. The poker room was run very well. Seating was usually quick, with a well-run board. Dealers were very competent. Players were a mix of complete beginners to pro (but they don't go on a poker cruise to make a living), with most falling in the mid range.

The downside is that this ship is much larger than on my previous cardplayercruises cruise. This makes for a much more crowded experience - longer lines for everything from food service to elevator wait times to getting on and off the ship. Also, the food was surprisingly poor by cruise standards. It seems the chefs were all Indian, and just about every cuisine (Italian, French, Chinese, Thai, etc.) tasted like cheap Indian food. There were a few exceptions, and it improved somewhat by the end of the cruise. This ship had just transferred from Australia, so maybe it was an adjustment period. The ports of call and excursions were wonderful.

I still recommend cardplayercruises as the best poker-cruise vacation. (Mention my name when you make a reservation so I get a small referral fee, please - cardplayercruise offers this referral promo to all their players.)

The cruise line also runs their turbo tournaments in their casino. I didn't check it out this time but I assume it was the usual luckfest structure and laughable rake.

The few cruises I've been on there is no rake 2 or 3 handed on the PokerPro tables.

Also, there should always be a few people at the table willing to help a new person buy-in and learn how to use the table. That has never been an issue on the cruises I've been on. Everyone has been super friendly and helpful to someone new trying to use the table for the first time. Seen people watch and not sit down when asked if they wanted to play, but never seen someone get into a seat, mess with the screen a bit, and then leave without playing.

Both replies to Jimulacrum obv.

I tried to be that guy a lot, and there were a couple other people too. (What can I say? We like to see money put on the table.)

Unfortunately, I was not comfortable enough with the machine on my first day or two to give other people pointers, so I wasn't much help to the frustrated people early on.