I imagine what would be rated as more important in these games is not how much you were winning; these people are on holiday and this is just another expense. They don't really expect to win.

It would be more important how you conduct yourself- if you are sociable and if people are buying other people drinks if u join in. If you sit their stoically with ur beats headphones on and baseball cap then the game will prob die fast as there will be better entertainment alternatives.

Lol, true.

There is also a difference, too, if you are trapping and "setting folks up" vs. making moves that "seem" like gambling (EG shoving with "nothing" but a straight draw, flush draw, and overcard).

But, yeah, how fun the table is matters.

Agreed.

I didn't mean to indicate otherwise. While Carnival is a mass market line that caters to first-time and/or budget-minded cruisers, it is a fine product. I've enjoyed my cruises on Carnival just as much as any other line. However, I would still recommend staying away from their older, smaller ships such as Ecstacy, which is 20 years old. In fact, I would stay away from any of CCL's Fantasy-class ships. Other than that, I have no problem recommending Carnival to anyone looking for a good time at a good price. Hell, I'm even a stockholder!

Just remembered that I haven't put in the "official" info from my last cruise in the format suggested by the OP:


Cruise Line: Celebrity

Ship's Name: Equinox

Date of Cruise: Nov. 28 - Dec. 12, 2011

Number of tables: 2

Live or e-table: e-tables, but not PokerPro (don't remember name). The main difference with the PokerPro tables is that each table was only 8-handed as opposed to 10.

Blinds: 1/2
Buy-in structure: 20min/200max
Rake structure:10%, $15 max

How often did the game run: Casino had tables open nightly. However, after the first few nights, I got the names and cabin numbers of about 15-20 passengers who had played and told them that I would be running a game in the cardroom without rake each night. From that point on, we played every night from 10:00pm until around 2:00am or 3:00am. The casino never got a cash game started for the rest of the cruise after we began playing in the cardroom.

There were also three daily tournies on all sea days at 1:00pm, 2:30pm, and 3:30pm. Buy-in for all tourneys was $60, with $50 going to the prize pool. Top two places were paid: 60% & 40%.

Thx for the report! Lmao at $20 buyin for 1/2.

So did you kill the cash game?

Cruise Line: Royal Carribean
Ship's Name: Princess of the Seas
Date of Cruise: recent
Number of tables: 1
Live or e-table: e-table, 9-handed
Blinds: 1-2
Buy-in structure: 50-500
Rake structure: 10% / $10 max
How often did the game run: Game usually did not get going till around 8:30 PM, and the casino closed at 2:30 am.

They also had $100 buy-in single table satellites to a tournament to be held on the last day of the cruise, in which if there were fewer than 38 entrants, the first three places paid out cash, or if greater than 38 entrants, winner takes all and gets a prize package consisting of a cruise for 2 plus entry into a bigger tournament. No direct buy-ins to the final tournament were allowed. On my cruise, the satellites only managed to get going 3 times, so cash was paid in the final tournament, with all three entrants winners.

Generally speaking, it was the best poker game I've ever sat in, live or online. Terrible players of every stripe present and accounted for.

However, the employees were totally clueless, and none of them seemed familiar with the rules of poker, the terms of the satellites (or the fact that they were actually satellites, when they would run, how often, the buy-in, etc.), the rake cap at the table, etc. They did not seem to promote the poker in the room at all. They were horrible about making a list if/when the table filled up. They claimed the big tournament was on the daily list of events, but I could not find it on there. There were not many rules posted. The table/machine had a lot of trouble accepting $100 bills, and this caused headaches for player after player.

The table had a pretty short timer, maybe 25 seconds, before your hand was folded. It really only caused me a problem 1 or 2 times the entire cruise, but a lot of the stereotypical internet kid types complained about it constantly. One or two players actually had trouble with the time constraints due to being old and slow and lacking a steady hand.

BRING CASH! If you do not have cash, you have two choices: draw money against your bill for the cruise, at a 3% surcharge, or worse, get it from a credit card ATM machine at 6% service fee.

Did you pay for your trip?

Sockhead, what brand of table was it? Most of them use player cards (similar to a land based casino) that you load/cash out with at a small podium next to the table. I've never been on one on a ship where you just stick $ in the machine.

I hadn't either until my cruise earlier this month on Celebrity's Equinox. It was the first table I've ever played where you put money in a slot next to you and then received a ticket out (similiar to a slot machine) if you cashed in the tourney. It was also the first time that I hadn't played on a Poker Pro table. Unfortunately, I don't remember the brand name of the table. The other major difference between the two brands is that there were only 8 player stations rather than Poker Pro's ten.

Not as much as on previous cruises this year. I won just under a thousand. Enough to pay for my fare, but not my wife's. On my two previous cruises, I won enough to offset both our fares.

Hey guys, just to let you know im leaving for florida today, going on the carnival freedom on the 1st-8th of january. I will update you on the quality of the games and my overall experience.

I won more than enough for round trip airfare, parking, taxis, and cruise + tax, fees, & tips for 1.

I did not notice what brand it was. I did notice what looked like a version number on the "master" station (the one from which you buy-in or cash-out). It said 1.0.6 in the lower right hand corner.

This system required a cruise-issued card to play, but also required cash. You could not directly charge it to your account on the card, you had to either bring cash or charge it to your account from the cashier cage.

Just returned from a week on the Celebrity Eclipse... Some info:



Cruise Line: Celebrity

Ship's Name: Eclipse

Date of Cruise: 12/24-12/31

Number of tables: 2

Live or e-table: e-table (PokerMate?)

Blinds: $1/$2

Buy-in structure: Min $50 / Max $200

Rake structure: 10% (!)

How often did the game run: Usually nobody there until after 10pm; shut down around 2am or 2:30am... They also offered SNG tourneys in the afternoons when the ship was at sea...


A few other notes: Amazingly loose game. Mostly bad players. Tough to bluff anyone off a hand, but easy to get paid off with a winner. People would stack off with top pair or an overpair, even with a straight or flush threatened heavily on the board. Friendly, casual environment; not a lot of serious players there. Nobody's paying much attention, so you dont need to really worry about table image or mix up your play -- ABC poker wins. The one drawback was that the tables didn't run very long -- usually 10:30am to 2am, so if you are playing a patient, TAG game, it you've got a small window to work with. I played four of the nights on the cruise and finished up about $400... Felt like I could have done a lot better had I played more hours...

Also: e-tables suck. Something very cold and impersonal about it. Better than playing online, but you don't get the satisfying hands-on feel of peeling back your cards or dragging in a big pot of chips...

10% no cap???

I was on Celebrity's Equinox last month, which is a Solstice-class sister ship to the Eclipse that crookdimwit was on, and can tell you that the rake was 10% to a $15 max.

What made it even worse was the fact that the table raked everything, even uncalled bets before the flop! For example, blinds at $1 & $2, someone opens to $10 and everyone folds. The table raked 50 cents. The only explanation I could come up with was that the table was using $2 of the $10 bet by the opener as a call, thus putting $5 in the pot, and leaving the remaining $8 as an uncalled raise. It then raked 10% of the $5 (or in essence, 16.67% of the $3 blinds). Truly horrendous.

Re: the repositioning cruises. The reason they are cheaper per night is the fact that you have to fly one way or two ways open jaw, if you don't live near the end port or the embarkation port. Same reason the cruises that go out of San Juan, PR are cheaper.

Re: the e tables. The last cruise I took, was a little over a year ago on the Fantasy out of Charleston. The rake must have been higher then, I think $7 max. No min # of players either. If you did manage to get people to sit down, with the e tables displaying everyone's stack size, you quickly realize how much the house is taking from the tables when every stack just keeps getting smaller. I managed to cash out a few dollars at the end, which, with the rake, I consider a big win!

I'll be going on a cruise at the end of March on the Norwegian Dawn. Can anybody provide any insight as to what (if any) etables they have and what rake to expect and when they are open?

Thanks

I will be going on the royal caribbean - allure of the seas, either in late may or early june. On their website they say they have 3 poker tables which seems like 2 more than usual. I was on a carnival cruise last year and played for about 4-5 hours at the end of one of the nights where the girl i was traveling with just wanted to sleep. I won a solid amount and can confirm basically what everyone is saying, the play onboard is horrendous. Think tourists in las vegas but with no previous knowledge of how to play poker.

I most likely will not play poker on this upcoming cruise but I might stroll down there and take a look at what is running. If they ever get anything higher than 1/2 running I will basically "have to" sit for a few hours just because the value is so great.

Good luck everybody

Gotta disagree with this. According to your rationale, European cruises, or R/T cruises out of Sydney, Australia should be cheaper than cruises out of Miami because the airfare is so much more expensive. That simply is not the case. The cost of airfare has nothing to do with the cost of a cruise itself.

The reason that repositioning cruises are cheaper than closed-loop cruises is because you could be at sea for more than a week at a time without visiting any ports whatsoever and many people don't care for that kind of itinerary. The cruise lines have to move the ships anyway (such as from the Caribbean in the winter to Europe for the summer season) so they discount the cabins as much as necessary to entice people to board the ship and spend money aboard during the voyage in order to defray some of the cost of the ship's transport.

What we are discussing is repostioning cruises that either leave a US port or end at a US port, in comparaison to cruises that begin and end at the same US port. You are talking about something totally different.

There are a lot of seasoned cruisers that enjoy the many days at sea, because they enjoy the ship and the cruise itself. But, when you factor the cost of the additional airfare for the repo cruises, most peopple choose a RT instead. Proof: Compare prices for RT Alaska cruises to comparable one way with airfare required. You will see what I mean. BTW, I used to sell cruises for a short time.

Hey guys, carnival freedom I was on, I enjoyed the cruise a lot. I am going on another carnival cruise next year for sure.

The poker games ran from about 8 or 9 till 3 in the morning. Later in the night at 2-3 you could get shorthanded which was very good for competent players as you could isolate and pound horrible players. The rake was 15% max 6$ which is bad but not horrible and without a doubt beatable. Almost all of the players at the table were loose passive calling stations, or incredibly weak-tight. I literally encountered one other player that I would consider "decent." The games were really fun as there were regular people I got to know who were just there to get drunk and talk and have a good time. There was no waiting list which was ridiculous as you would have to stand by the table and essentially get in line for a seat.

One big plus that I would like to note with these games are that you didnt buy in with cash, but rather inserted your ship card to buy in or rebuy. People would impulsively reload money into the game as they can reload without transferring cash. I think it makes them less embarassed to reload as they dont have to put cash on the table and many players dont like physically parting with their cash. This was a very good feature in terms of keeping poor players in the game and rebuying.

Overall in the trip, I played 5 of the 7 nights and a total of about 13 hours, making 800 dollars, enough to essentially pay for my cruise (not including flights, excursions, drinks, etc.). If you are on a cruise I would recommend playing the games as they are incredibly juicy. Also, the electronic table is good for keeping shorthanded games going and you get more hands in per hour.

I will be on the Carnival Valor Feb 12th for a 6 night cruise. Definitely going to check it out.......and of course give a report of the activities.

I've been on several cruises with my wife over the last 5 years, and 3 weeks from today I'll be going on Royal's Liberty of the Seas from Ft Lauderdale.
If you are looking to take a cruise, and you want to increase your chances of paying for it via poker, I highly recommend Royal's Majesty of the Seas out of Miami, 3 or 4 nights to the Bahamas. Reason being they spread one table of 2-5NL with a live dealer. I've played on ships that left from New Orleans and Jacksonville. The players from Miami seemed to have more money to toss around, and they did. With a live dealer and chips, players were more into trying to show off in front of their girlfriends/wives, the crowd etc... I've taken that cruise 3 times in the last 5 years, and won anywhere from 400 to 1.4k each time. Last year my wife made 1.2K.
The Carnival cruises I was on had the pokerpro tables. The rake is beatable, and if there are four or less players there was no rake. When the table was empty my wife and I would sit down to try to start a game, tossing chips back and forth with no rake. Soon a random person or two would sit down and basically give us their $50 buyin.
The cruise out of New Orleans did have better players, although very loose, and they were more fun as well. The Jacksonville cruise to the bahamas kind of sucked as far as poker.
I'll try to do a report after my cruise in a few weeks. I hope I didn't just jinx myself saying how bad cruise players are.

Thanks whaler.........i'll go donkey it up......lol

Anyone know what the action is like on Royal's Freedom of the Sea's? How many tables and is the rake really that bad?