Thanks for the info. It must be variable as I've had a different experience on their non-Caribbean cruises. I've done their cruises once out of Boston to Canada, and once out of Seattle to Alaska. In both cases, I found the poker play similar to their Caribbean cruises.

I've been on 2 singles cruises many years ago. It sounds very similar where the organization buys like 200 cabins, they have their own events and you can also access general cruise events with everyone else.

Thanks for the response (as well as PokerXanadu). I plan on booking the upcoming Alaska cruise.

note that alaska cruises are for the newly wed and the nearly dead and the casino is like empty almost every night. It's just a totally different crowd. Most excursions off ship are all day excursions though which is what you should be doing in alaska....enjoying God's country, not sitting in a casino. Note that during cruise season for Alaska - there are 20 hours of daylight.

Are you talking about a cardplayercruises poker cruise, or just an Alaska cruise without cardplayercruises? There was plenty of participation in the poker room on the Alaska cruise I went on. Of course, like all cruises, the poker room was closed whenever the ship was docked in port.

So I'm going to NCL Epic's Europe Cruise and I was wondering if anybody has experience from that cruise?

Many people have said that the rake is very high on NCL. I couldn't find that information on their website so I don't know if they have lowered the rake or it's different on Europe's cruises.

I don't have much live experience but I've been succesful low stake online player for a while now. Based on earlier posts I think I would have an edge because of the poor field? Too high rake might still be massive turn-off.

I was on a cruise recently, the Carnival Elation, they had 1 electronic poker table and nobody used it once the entire trip that I ever saw, making frequent trips through the casino every night.

I get the feeling had there been a live dealer there would have been a game going most nights.

Somebody has to be the first to sit to try to get it going.

Usually helps if the cruise puts cash game starting at 7pm 1/2 NL or has a tourney and then the cash game starts afterwards.

They had Texas Hold Em meet ups a few times a day on the cruise ship itinerary they passed out every day. It didn't really seem to make any difference as far as I could tell.

It's been a few years since I was on Carnival but back then you could play 3 or 4 handed with no rake. This would let you start a game with your SO for nothing, just settle up later if the other person wasn't a poker player. They could just sit out or leave when other people sat down.

I was on a 7 night Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas. They had a live table with dealer. They had a game most nights but it would not get going until 10 or so. Most players were the same each night, skill level varied. Buy in was $5-300 and it was a 1/3 nl game. Dealers were for the most part good. Rake was 10% up to $15 per hand, yes up to $15 per hand, but I dont think you could get to the competition very easy. Most nights one or two people would sit there until there were 4 ready to play, as soon as game was going it would fill. Usually died off by 130 or 2 each morning, but so did the whole ship. When there was one or two waiting they would make repeated announcements to try and get more seats filled.

those meet ups are basically meaningless. Been "several" cruises and have never seen one of them start a game. I have never seen the LGBT ones do anything either. All they cost carnival ink and now even those are going electronic.

Been on several cruises on three different companies. Poker pro have been the best and most games. But once, most recent, they were the worst. With live dealers the game is normally 2-5 instead of 1-2. So less drop in's and $20 do me. With live dealer games are almost always just at night. Some tournaments in day but horrid structure. I prefer poker pro.

Two handed no rake. Third joins rake starts. But can sit and fold blinds for free if both of you want.

Shouldn't this thread be in venues?

Some ships will just always have more and better games running based on demograpics of ship/intenerary etc.

But even within that, any given week can vary widely. One would be surprised on how just 2-4 "regs" on a 3,000 person ship can effect games running for that week.

The key is just getting the game started with a few players. It usually will fill up quickly after that.

Question for Fore and others....

Would rake free to 3-handed make a difference or does the 2-handed rake free accomplish most of the goal.

Any other ideas youd like to see implemented to solve the "get the game started " problem ?

Any other ideas or general suggestions you have to make the games better on Poker Pro / Carnival ? (cant use the work "rake" though )

If you were in charge of Poker on a ship for a week, what you would do that is not currently being done?

I think it's fine in the main forum. Otherwise, it would be akin to having a thread called "greyhound track poker" or "horse racing poker rooms" and requiring that to be in the Poker Venues section.

If you or anyone else has further thoughts on this issue though, we'd welcome the discussion in the Moderation Discussion Thread.

Has anyone sailed out of New Orleans in the past year? Either RC or CCL. Planning on going in February and hoping there will be more poker than my last cruise out of New Orleans about 4 years ago. No poker other than a LOL tourney.

RC does not sail from NOLA. NOLA has CcL and NCL sailings. Galveston has CCL and RC.

CCL ships use Ppro electronic tables. Most have just one with a few having two. The game is 1-3 NLHE. Though I guess theoretically stakes or game could be changed I never have. Note I have been taking 2 to 4 cruises per yr for about five yrs now.

NCL and RC use live dealers. They are universally horrid and so are the sups who act as floor. Bad knowledge. Bad procedures. Bad rule set. The game here is 5-2 NLHE. These hurt the game. Pure rooks seem to have more fear of the table and stakes. The games go less hours, almost always only at night when there is more other entertainment. Those who play generally play at least a little back home but still play poorly but nitty.

Rake is horrid usually 10%. With a cap of $15 to $25 or uncapped. This is true for electronic or live dealers. But with electronic two players can play with no rake. This can help get the game going. But even with the horrid rake both games can be beat because players are that bad. But with a $20 buyin on the ppro table some complete rookies will lose buyin after buyin and continue to pay hands where they never could have the tight odds post flop and then quickly lose $200. Meanwhile live dealer games with a $100 or more min buy keeps these same players away.

On land I am not a ppro fan. But on a cruise ship its lower buyin, lower stakes, more hands per hour, as many as twice the hands, and no rake heads up make them more profitable.

The Norwegian Breakaway has a 2-5 NL game with a 10% rake capped at $25.
If the blinds chop the rake is $1.
The dealers DO NOT cut the cards after taking the deck out of the shuffler. When asked why they said they're not allowed to.

Kind of shady.

I did a Princess Cruise around Alaska this summer. There was an electronic table that was basically left along all the time except for one night when I played three handed. At one point, all three of us had lost money because the rake was so out of control. Seemed a little ridiculous, so we asked, 15% up to $80. Game didn't last too long obviously.

Just got off a Carnival Cruise. The rake is now a whopping 15 percent. The money gets sucked off the table very fast. It was impossible to keep a game going.

i am going on a princess cruise in late jan early Feb to DR and turks ceikos. (sp) it says vegas style casino... worst rake in vegas is 10% to 5$ +2 promo... so it its vegas style i dont expect anything worse than that... otherwise its false advertising.

Saying a casino is Vegas-style has a whole lot more possible meaning than what the rake is on a poker table.


Has anyone here been on an Ante Up poker cruise? Heading out on one on Monday.

Yeah, vegas style casino has absolutely nothing to do with poker rake structure.

It means it has table games and slots and video poker basically.

I went on a Princess cruise last year. PokerPro tables, $1/$2 NLHE raked 15% to a cap of $8. (No rake heads-up, though.) Game didn't even always go off, and the house gave out free drinks maybe once or twice the whole cruise. Don't expect any better.

If you want to try to push that "false advertising" angle, by all means, give it a try, but don't expect any results whatsoever.

That cap at 8 is a very good deal on a cruise. I have never seen a cruise where cap was less than $15 and sometimes $25. These are not ante up poker cruises. Maybe those are better.