Are they dice or marbles ?

CARNIVAL PRIDE - NOVEMBER 2015 - TRIP REPORT

DICE OR MARBLES ?

This was a 7 night cruise on the Carnival Pride leaving from Baltimore on Sunday Nov. 15th and returning on Sunday Nov. 22nd. Our first disappointment was when the day before the departure we got phone calls and emails from Carnival telling us that our scheduled departure time of 4 PM was now delayed until 7 PM. The reason was that there was a medical emergency on the ship and they had to have a passenger evacuated from the ship by helicopter. This is what caused the time delay.

Well, the ship actually departed at 7:50 PM and we were just getting into the channel when we had to go back to the dock to evacuate another passenger with a medical emergency. So now it is 9:30 PM and we finally get underway. The casino was not opening until around 10 PM which was too late for me since I was up from 3 AM that morning. Therefore no craps play on night #1 Sunday.

The itinerary was Port Canaveral, Nassau and Freeport. I've been on this same itinerary many times and have issued multiple trip reports concerning these ports so I won't delve into them this time. The only thing I will mention is the new Baha Mar mega resort on cable beach in Nassau. This resort was to be a $3.5 billion rival for Atlantis but unfortunately it is in bankruptcy after 97% completion.

This ship had some major renovations in the past 2 years. The main dining room was completely refurbished and is very pretty along with some menu changes which are welcome. They also added a Guy's burger joint, Blue Iguana burrito bar and a Red Frog pub.

The ship is only 88,000 tons so the casino was on the small side. There were only 12 table games including 1 craps table. The craps table was 12 feet long with a dark brown micro fiber layout. The minimum bet was $5 with a $500 maximum which is the largest I've ever seen on a Carnival ship but the odds are still only 2X. The table bounce was one of the best I've ever played on and I give it a 10 out of 10 rating. I found on the first day of play that I had to adjust my landing zone in much closer to the wall than my usual 27 inches.

So on Monday the first sea day the craps table opened at 1 PM and I got to play about 5 hands all the while trying to adjust my throw. My results were fair with a long hand of only 13 throws, but I think I got things figured out. That evening after dinner I had my long hand for the week with a 42 throw endeavor making 5 points with 5 come out winners. I did not notice anything concerning the dice this first day although they were not brand new out of the foil wrapper.

The next day, Tuesday was also an at sea day and the craps table again opened at 1 PM. I intentionally felt the dice corners for sharpness and found that they were totally worn with no sharpness at all. We asked one of the pit bosses about this and he said they were new dice. We said no they're not and he then admitted that they were previously used. We then tried to pin him down by asking how many times have they been in play previously. He couldn't answer us. This day I played 8 hands with these dice that I referred to as MARBLES. Out of the 8 hands I had a high of 15 throws and one hand of 14 throws. The rest were just around 7 to 10 throws.

On day #3 Wednesday, we had MARBLES again. I played only 2 hands because I felt it was an unfair advantage in favor of the casino. 7 and 9 throws were my results.

Thursday, day #4 the dice although still not new were at least fair similar to the first day. My throwing results were significantly improved being 16 throws, 19 throws and 8 throws. I left because there were too many players at the table and the play was so slow due to all the hard way and horn bets being made by almost every player at the table other than me.

Friday, day #5 I rated the dice as fair just barely better than marbles. I only played one hand again due to the table getting filled with players. This hand was only 11 throws but I made 2 points. What happened was that 3 new players bought in after my tenth throw and delayed my getting the dice back into play for almost 5 minutes. 7 out on the next throw.

The last day was Saturday and the dice were again MARBLES. This was an at sea day so the craps table was open in the afternoon and the evening. I only played 2 hands in the afternoon when the stick person moved forward when I was making my throw and caused me to flinch resulting in a 7 out.

In the evening it was just me and Eva. All the afternoon players had lost it all that afternoon. I made some adjustments to my throw in an attempt to get better results with the marbles and it seemed to work. My hands were 17 throws, 10 throws and 20 throws. This 20 throw hand was interesting in that I hit 6 or 9 for 11 consecutive throws.

Considering the really lousy dice that I had to play with all week my throwing I felt was pretty good. I made 33 points in 25 hands and I also shot 30 come out winners. I was up about $200 for the week despite inhibited betting due to the lousy MARBLES that I was attempting to throw.

On the last day of the cruise I attempted to talk to the casino manager about the dice issue to get some clarification. For example I wanted to know how many brand new out of the foil sets of dice are put into play in a month. I didn't see any for the week I was on the ship. If he answered 10 new sets then I would know that the average was 3 days of play per set. At 7 PM he was on the floor having a meeting with the pit bosses and then he disappeared into the casino office and I never saw him again until I left the casino around 9:30. So I was never able to get an answer.

I first talked about bad worn dice on my Carnival Splendor cruise in April of 2014. My next Carnival cruise after this was the Carnival Dream in August of 2014. This was when I had the bad leg and was only able to play 17 hands for the week. My leg pain prevented me from judging the dice. After this Carnival cruise the next one was the Breeze in November 2014. This was the Blackjack tournament cruise in which I was only able to play 1 hand at craps for the whole week. The next Carnival ship was the Splendor again in June 2015. On this cruise I thought there were only 2 new sets of dice in an 8 night cruise. And lastly what I just reported concerning the Carnival Pride.

So I've been seeing these MARBLES used in the Carnival casinos for the last year and a half. Craps is a difficult enough game with the house having a very nice mathematical edge. When you add in worn lousy dice into the equation it makes it almost impossible to win at craps on these ships.

When we left the cruise port today we stopped at the Hollywood Casino in Perryville, Md. on our way home. I played 1 hand on their craps table with their brand new sharp edged dice and did great. In fact I used my left hand instead of my right hand and had a 17 throw hand with 3 points made. I doubled my buy in very easily.

As of today we have 2 more Carnival cruises already booked for the future. The first is the Pride again next February and then the Sunshine next October. We are planning on canceling both of those bookings sometime this week.

Dicenator

Thx for your review Dicenator

I play craps each cruise and have tried using some tips I've learned reading all your reports over time.....some worked for me Thx 👍

I was on one NCL cruise where the dice were like marbles too. There were a few higher end people betting only $100 chips and one complained to the floor manager/pit boss about the dice and asked for Brand new ones

They at first said No but the guy and his few buddies who all were betting huge the whole cruise Calmly said No problem cash us in n started pushing their stacks of $100 chips in.....The pit boss looked and said Hold on hold on I'll put out brand new dice lol. Which he did in a few minutes

I played craps at least a hour a day and sometimes just watched the same high rollers playing and by weeks end the main guy was ahead quite a few thousand He stated it was the new dice that helped immensely

On that trip I came up ahead bout $500 on craps n close to $1,000 on 3 card poker.......got lucky with few straight flushes n 3 of a kind during the week

Thx again for your review

In the 8 years that I've been playing I've only experienced new dice in all the land based casinos that I've played in. The marbles on the Carnival Pride really got to me because my throwing was pretty good but I strongly feel that my throwing would have been exceptional with new dice on this particular craps table. This table had a dead bounce and I would rate it as the second best table I've ever played on.

Dicenator

In the 8 years that I've been playing I've only experienced new dice in all the land based casinos that I've played in. The marbles on the Carnival Pride really got to me because my throwing was pretty good but I strongly feel that my throwing would have been exceptional with new dice on this particular craps table. This table had a dead bounce and I would rate it as the second best table I've ever played on.

 

Dicenator

HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLLLLOOOOO Dicenator: Your report on the Carnival Pride was very good. A 12 foot long table is a small table. Those are preferable over the aircraft carrier sized tables. I'll take any sized table though. Did you eat at Guy Fieri's Burger Bar? How were the food at that venue? Next year we are going on the Carnival Sunshine. Looking forward to that cruise.

Casino Player,

Yes, I probably ate at Guy's burgers 4 times for lunch. The burgers are absolutely delicious and I never had to wait more than a few minutes in line.

We were booked on the Sunshine for next October but we just cancelled it yesterday. After 17 Carnival cruises and having to deal with the worn dice for the last 2 years I no longer care to cruise on Carnival. I've never encountered worn (rounded corners) dice on Norwegian, Princess, Royal Caribbean or Celebrity.

The cruises that I have currently booked are:

Emerald Princess - Jan. 23, 2016

Emerald Princess - Jan. 30, 2016

Regal Princess - Feb. 7, 2016

RC Anthem seas - May 5, 2016

I sent an email to the VP of casino operations for Carnival trying to get some clarification concerning the dice conditions that I found on the Pride. He responded with the dice are used the equivalent of 1 set being used for 24 consecutive hours in a land based casino. Well in a land based casino, most anyway, the dice are replaced with new ones on average every 8 hour shift.

He also stated that worn dice do not affect the outcome. I've never seen a published study on this so this is just his opinion. I disagree with this.

Dicenator

HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLLLLOOOOO Dicenator: We, my wife and I, are booked for the Carnival Sunshine for next year during the summer and the Carnival Vista when it gets here in the fall. We like sailing on Carnival, but, sometimes their itineraries aren't that imaginative. However, with newer ships we will go. Of course we both enjoy playing in the Casino.

Dicenator:

I will be on the Emerald on the 30th get the table warmed up for us, we will rock this boat. I'll have the cowboy hat on. You throw from stick left or right.

Was Baha open?