Video Poker Forum

Any comments on Cruise ship casinos?   I always hear that you should only play the first day. Any truth to that?

Any other cruise ship gambling advice? We'll be going end of this month or next month...

Thanks!

Ray

I played every day. Keep in mind, there are really no regulations on those open seas. Machines I saw on cruise ships were older. I believe it is written somewhere, one royal per couple per cruise! At least that was our case! Still fun to gamble on cruise ships although everyone claims the odds are bad!

What line are you going on? We always do Norwegian and the patables for anything under $1 denomination are terrible, ddb quarters a fullhouse was 30 coins!!!

Ray, I had a lot of good fortune playing VP on our cruise in Alaska last year aboard the NCL Pearl.  We took the same ship to the Eastern Caribbean last month, and I stunk it up.   Same ship, same machines. Go figure.  
As far as pay tables, I found them to be about comparable with LV Strip casinos. I played TDB multi-line at 9/5.
Some other tidbits. On NCL, you can get up to $2k per day of gaming cash, which they charge to the credit card that you used to secure ship-board purchases. But beware; the casino is separate from the ship. I got a check from the casino for a relatively large payout, but when I tried to use it to clear my account on the last day, the ship would not take it, as they do not take 'business' checks.   

ravi,
The pay tables aren't great but I've caught a Royal on two trips out of four. It doesn't matter when you play it. Play the best strategy and be lucky. As billyjoe said, the casino operations were contracted out. Sometimes they had specials on hits so check each day.

Best wishes let us know how it goes when you get back.

LL

Yep...if you're going to play...do it for fun...the paytables are terrible but it's still fun...as long as you realize you're not going to find a profitable game

If you are going on Norwegian Cruise line, get a players card. Your points get converted to cashback against your bill at the end of the cruise. One cruise I went on gave an additional 400 (300? dont remember!) for the person with the most points for the cruise in addition to whatever "cashback" you already earned. We won that our last cruise.

........... although everyone claims the odds are bad!

It's not really a question of "claiming".
 
It's looking at the crummy pay tables and knowing that the chance of even breaking even is minimal.
 
On the cruise ships I have been on, blackjack seems to have been a better option.