Most big cruise ships tend have their own casino on board these days, where passengers can have some fun and pass the time while they’re cruising between ports. The great news is that, more recently, many of the ships have added poker tables so those of us that love poker can get some hands in on the open seas.
Professional WPT dealers and poker tables. Exciting poker tournaments, to be announced shortly, designed especially for the cruise by WPT. A full complement of cash games, including No-Limit Hold 'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo 8-Or-Better, and more. Play at limits from $1-$2 to $2-$5 and higher, depending on demand. The cruise ship that I was on offered $1/$2 No Limit Holdem every night, but for whatever reason, the cruise I was on wasn’t packed with poker players and the game didn’t run at all. From talking to the casino staff the game normally starts after the main show finishes which is about 9:30 pm and runs until about 2-3 am.
I’m just back from a Mediterranean cruise aboard the Norwegian Jade, a ship in the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet and so I decided to write a little bit about what you can expect if you’re going on a cruise and want to play poker, and so that you can see how it might differ from poker games that you play online.
Tournaments
On my cruise, tournaments took place on all of the ‘at-sea’ days, so basically if we weren’t pulling into a port for the day, a no limit Holdem tournament would start at 12 pm. There were 2,500 aboard the ship but the tournament only got 12-15 runners on the days when I went down to the casino to check it out.
I had a chat with the friendly staff and they told me that on a good day the tournaments might get up to 25 people – pretty popular, really.
The main thing that I noticed about the tournaments was the structure, which was unbelievably awful and represented terrible value. I took a photo of the structure sheet as you can see below.
For your initial $60 you get 2,000 chips which would be poor enough if the blinds started at 25/50, but they start at 100/200! So basically the tournament is an all-in or fold from the start.
You can rebuy right at the beginning to give yourself a 4000 chip stack but in my experience, nobody did this so the tournament played 10bb deep from the start.
You’d expect that there’d be a lot of all-ins and a lot of rebuys but most of the players had very poor fundamentals and no idea about when they were pot-committed. This led to lots of big mistakes like raising pre-flop and folding to an all-in when the effective stacks were 8bb!
The rebuy period lasted an hour, which was the first two levels. You might think that 30 min levels are somewhat generous but as you can see the blinds double after the first level, and then after the break, they reduce to 15 minutes. Whoever invented this structure must have never played a poker tournament in their lives! Unbelievable.
So let’s take an example to demonstrate what I mean. Say that you took a rebuy at the start of the tournament and then took the add-on and maintained your stack for the first hour; you’d have 8000 chips going into the 400/800 level, still only 10 big blinds. Even if you managed to win a couple of all-ins before the break you’d still be in trouble!
Typically a couple of people just buy-in for one bullet and bust when they leave, while a few others rebuy and most people who are still in at the break add-on. This leads to about 100,000 chips being in play most of the time.
If you’re used to playing tournaments you’ll realise that heads-up play usually ends pretty quickly when stacks get to about 10bb which would be at the 2000/4000 level or after 2 hours of play. A tournament that lasts for two hours is pretty pathetic – I’m sure you’ll agree with me!
It gets worse, however. $20 from every buy-in, rebuy, and add-on goes to the house, so they’re taking 1/3 of the prize pool. The crazy structure and massive reg fee basically make this tournament next to unbeatable, even though it is packed with players who have no idea what they’re doing.
Cash Games
The cruise ship that I was on offered $1/$2 No Limit Holdem every night, but for whatever reason, the cruise I was on wasn’t packed with poker players and the game didn’t run at all. From talking to the casino staff the game normally starts after the main show finishes which is about 9:30 pm and runs until about 2-3 am.
Again, though, the rake is crippling. Typically in most poker rooms might be 5% up to a max of $10, but on the ship it was 10% up to $25 which is absolutely massive.
If you take an average pot size of 20bb or $40, the average rake is $4. Assuming 30 hands per hour that means that there’s $120 being taken off the table per hour by the house. This level of rake is going to be almost impossible to beat in the long run.
Poker Cruises Alaska
That’s my experience, perhaps these are different in your experiences on cruises but I thought that you may like to know about it all the same. Away from the poker, the cruise itself was fantastic and very relaxing indeed. I highly recommend it if you are looking into doing this yourself!
If you’ve never heard of a cruise ship, then I’m not sure what rock you’ve been sleeping under. But I’ll give a brief explanation of what a “cruise ship” is before we go into a few of the best casino cruise ships out there.
A cruise ship is essentially a floating resort. While on board, you can enjoy the relaxation and luxury that comes along with staying at a five-star hotel. Most cruise ships have so many activities to offer that it can be almost impossible to check them all out.
On board, you’ll find restaurants, bars, casinos, swimming pools, spas, gyms, shops, theaters, and cinema. There’s plenty of space on modern cruise ships, even while being packed full of so many amenities, so you never have to worry about not being able to find a place to stretch out and relax.
Your cruise ship is also going to include staff that have high levels of customer service and will be there to take care of you and meet any of your needs. Cruise ships can take you just about anywhere in the world, with two of the most popular destinations being the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
More ships have expanded to other territories, including Alaska, Asia, the Middle East, and Northern Europe. The beautiful thing is that while you will get taken to a new place sometimes every day, your hotel will come along with you, so you’ll only have to pack once!
Poker Dealer Cruise Ship Jobs
Again, cruise ships have many different activities to keep you occupied. Some not mentioned yet include high class culinary opportunities and top entertainment from world-renowned performers. You can always count on there being something for everyone while on your cruise, so you don’t need to worry about your kids getting bored.
Drawbacks of Casino Cruises
All that being said, there can be a number of drawbacks to going on a cruise. One of the first (and most obvious to some people) is that seasickness is a very real phenomenon. With that being said, cruise ships are so incredibly massive that most people don’t experience motion while on the ship, but it’s possible for you to experience this not-so-fun phenomenon during bad weather.
Sure, smaller saves you money, but not everyone can handle being stuck in a tiny room day after day.
This leads me to another drawback—claustrophobia. Not everyone suffers from this, but even people who aren’t normally claustrophobic can run into this problem. In fact, there’s a form of claustrophobia that you’re probably familiar with often referred to as “cabin fever.”
You can absolutely experience this (and the related form, island fever) when stuck in a small area with no real horizon. Not everyone knows if they’re going to have this problem or not until they get on the boat though, so if you’re prone to claustrophobia, you might want to think twice before going on a casino cruise ship.
Finally, there’s the recent rash of cruise ship crashes and problems that you’ve probably heard about. More than a few cruises have ended up as nightmares, with literal crashes in some cases, and others where the facilities on the boat stopped working. Now I’ll be the first to say that these are pretty rare, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Casinos on Boats
When it comes to casinos and boats as one entity, there’s actually a long and storied history, especially in America. Some of the first casino boats were on paddle steamers that used to journey up the Mississippi River.
The paddle steamers were used as entertainment venues and casinos, offering slots as well as table games. Paddle steamers are still used today as popular river boat casinos, but the concept of gambling at seas has evolved to a place much bigger than paddle steamers.
Now, we have gargantuan cruise liners with casinos inside that take their passengers on journeys all around the world.
Here are three of the best casino cruise ships in the entire world.
1 – The Sunborn Superyacht Hotel and Casino
It’s hard to find a hotel and casino experience as elegant as what you’ll find here at the Sunborn Superyacht Hotel and Casino. It’s docked in the Ocean Village Marina in Gibraltar and includes some of the most breathtaking views across the strait toward Morocco.
The casino can be found through a separate entrance at the back of the boat. It includes 58 state-of-the-art slot machines, three American Roulette tables, three live poker tables, and four card tables where you can play blackjack for real money.
There’s also a private poker room available that holds tournaments. Inside the casino at the Sunborn Superyacht, you’ll find a world-class bar serving beer, spirits, champagnes, wines, and a huge selection of cocktails.
There’s also a table-side service that will take care of you in case you don’t want to step away from the poker table. There’s a variety of bedroom suites available once you’re on board, including a penthouse with a sundeck.
This ship is a dream come true for someone wanting a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There’s a lot to be said about cruises in general and how much fun they can be. But for the gambling aficionado, there’s something particularly compelling about combining that passion with a luxury cruise.
2 – The Norwegian Escape
The second casino cruise ship on the list is known as The Norwegian Escape, based in Miami, Florida.
The ship can hold 4,266 guests and takes them on adventures throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean. For some people, water that’s crystal clear and sand as white as snow may not be enough to keep them entertained. And with that being said, The Norwegian Escape is packed with plenty of entertainment options on board.
Amid the rest of the options for fun on board, the ship includes a state-of-the-art casino. The casino comes with 28 gaming tables that offer roulette, pai gow, baccarat, poker, Let It Ride, craps, and blackjack, and 318 real money slots.
For the real high-roller casino goers, the ship has an exclusive VIP room. It includes three tables that can be used to meet any guest preferences. Limits can be requested that are much higher than the $5,000 maximum that’s on the casino floor for guests wanting to go big or go home.
There are over 15 restaurants on the ship that provide a great opportunity to spend your winnings, as well as clubs or a massage at a spa.
3 – Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas
The Allure of the Seas could be the Granddaddy of all cruise ships. It’s the second largest cruise ship in the world, sitting at 362 meters long and weighing over 225,000 tones. The ship carries up to 5,400 passengers. A whopping $1.2 billion was used in the construction of the Allure of the Seas.
My favorite part of this large vessel is its world-renowned casino, Casino Royale. Casino Royale is probably one of the greatest poker movies of all times, not to mention one of the best James Bond films of all time.
The Casino Royale has everything you could dream about gambling on a cruise ship. The gaming floor is 18,000 square feet and it includes 500 slot machines, including Wheel of Fortune and a game called Triple Diamond. There are 27 game tables that include roulette, poker, blackjack, craps, and Caribbean Stud.
Poker Tournaments On Cruise Ships
The guests of this ship receive an experience that I would compare to a weekend in Las Vegas, but maybe even better. From the beautiful decor to the customer service, you’ll never need to worry about spinning a wheel without a drink . All of the service is tableside, so if you’re on a winning streak, you don’t have to leave the game for the sake of getting a refill.
The Vegas experience on Allure of the Seas doesn’t just stop with the casino. The ship hosts some famous Broadway shows, including Mamma Mia!, Cats, and We Will Rock You. It also has an Aqua Theater. The Aqua Theater merges water with drama, similar to what you would see at a Cirque Du Soleil performance.
Conclusion
Are there any great casino cruise ships that I left out? Feel free to let me know in the comments!