Grandeur of the seas - trip report

GRANDEUR OF THE SEAS – JUNE 2014 – TRIP REPORT

This cruise departed from Baltimore on Friday, 6/13. It was a 7 night cruise visiting Port Canaveral, Nassau and Coco Cay, the cruise lines private island in the Bahamas. We only decided to book this cruise about 2 to 3 weeks ago when my wife got an email from Royal Caribbean offering her a casino rate for this cruise and it was also her birthday during this week. The rate was $425 each for an ocean view stateroom. A week before the cruise we got updated to a balcony stateroom for free. Grandeur of the Seas is the smallest ship we’ve ever been on with a displacement of only 72,000 tons and is a sister ship to the Enchantment of the Seas which we were on twice last year. However the Enchantment was stretched a few years ago and is now at 82,000 tons.

Our first stop was Port Canaveral which we’ve been to many times and there are no shore excursions that I’m interested in. Since it was father’s day, my son who lives near Fort Lauderdale in Florida drove up and met us for dinner. That was great since it’s been about 6 months since I last saw him in person.

The next day was Nassau but we weren’t arriving there until 2 pm and as soon as we docked it started raining. For the first 5 days of this cruise it was mostly overcast with some rain each day. Quite of few of the boat and beach related shore excursions were cancelled, but we got a cab and went over to Atlantis for the afternoon. There were 2 craps tables open but both of them were packed with 10 to 12 players the whole time we were there so I never got to play. Because of the rain the casino was packed with people all over playing every table game and slot machine. My wife played Ultimate Texas Hold em and lost around $200. The last time we were here she won $700 at this game.

Our last stop was the private island, Coco Cay and you have to be tendered in to the island. We were on the second tender going over and got there by 9 am. The clouds were coming in and at 10 pm they were overhead and it started raining so back to the ship we went. The rest of the day we spent in the Solarium on the ship which is an adult’s only pool area with a covered dome. The casino was open while we were there from 8:30 in the morning.

Now for some unusual tidbits that happened for the first time in 31 cruises:

1 – While docked in the inlet at Port Canaveral there were 3 dolphins, 2 adults and 1baby cruising up and down the inlet near our ship for a good 30 minutes.

2 – Some small kid dropped a turd in the main pool one day and they closed the pool, drained it completely and disinfected the pool. Talk about visions of Bill Murray and Caddy shack.

3 – Some nut job streaked the upper deck on the 4th day of the cruise. What the ships captain did was confine him to his room under guard 24 hours a day for the remainder of the cruise. His cabin was only 4 cabins down the hallway from ours.

4 – On Thursday on the return as we were off the coast of Virginia, a Navy Arleigh Burke destroyer passed in front of us by maybe half a mile heading west as we were sailing north. This is the first navy ship that we’ve ever seen on all the cruises we’ve been on.

Now that the preliminaries are over I can get onto the casino. Now obviously the casino was small. There were only 11 table games total, 1 craps, 1 poker, 2 roulette, 1 Ultimate Texas hold em, 1 three card poker, 1 Caribbean stud and 4 blackjack. The table limits for the most part were $5 although there was one $10 blackjack, one $3 blackjack and Ultimate Texas hold em was only $3. Eva only played around 8 hands at the craps table all week but her throwing was decent with a high hand length of 25 throws. Most of her time was spent at the Ultimate Texas hold em table where she was down I’m guessing about $400 for the week.

The craps table was 12 feet long with a green layout which did not appear to be felt or micro fiber. To me it looked like shiny denim. There was something soft beneath the layout which made it bouncy and there were some players who had a hard time keeping the dice on the table. I saw many instances of both dice flying off the table. I found the bounce not to be any problem for my throwing but there was something else with this layout that affected every single player. If the edge of a die hit the table first even at a slight angle it stopped the die dead in its tracks usually resulting in a 7 out. My normal 5” high throw landing 27” from the wall was greatly affected. About 1 out of 3 throws would have one die stop dead where it landed. What I finally had to do was target my throws 6” closer to the wall and throw harder to overcome this crap. It wasn’t until the last 2 days that I finally started getting some lengthy hands with both Parr and Underhand. Here are the throwing resuls:

METHOD # THROWS # POINTS #CO WINS

DAY 1

UH-RIGHT 5

UH-RIGHT 6 1

UH-RIGHT 12 1 3

UH-RIGHT 9

UH-RIGHT 12 2

UH-RIGHT 6 1

UH-RIGHT 18 1 1

UH-RIGHT PSO

UH-RIGHT 6 1

UH-RIGHT 9 1

UH-RIGHT 11 1 1

PARR-LEFT 11 1

UH-LEFT 9 1 1

DAY 2

UH-RIGHT 10 3 1

UH-RIGHT 6 3

UH-RIGHT 17 2

UH-RIGHT 17 2

UH-RIGHT 16 3 1

UH-RIGHT 8 1

DAY 3 -NO PLAY – SHIP LEFT PORT AT 10:30 PM – CASINO OPENED AT 11 PM

DAY 4

UH-RIGHT 19 2 1

UH-RIGHT 4

UH-RIGHT 10 2

PARR-LEFT 16 2 1

UH-RIGHT 4 1

UH-LEFT 7 1

UH-LEFT 13 1

UH-LEFT 6 3

DAY 5

UH-RIGHT 6 1

UH-RIGHT 21 3 7

UH-RIGHT 9 1

DAY 6

UH-RIGHT 15 2 1

UH-RIGHT 13 1 1

UH-RIGHT 8 1 1

UH-RIGHT 6

UH-RIGHT 41 2 3

UH-RIGHT 11 1

UH-RIGHT 6 1

UH-RIGHT 4

PARR-LEFT 27 3 5

PARR-LEFT 23 1 2

UH-RIGHT 11 4

UH-RIGHT 17 1 1

UH-RIGHT 10 1 3

DAY 7

UH-RIGHT 14 1 7

UH-RIGHT 12 2

UH-RIGHT 34 2 1

UH-RIGHT 10 2

UH-RIGHT 6 1 1

UH-RIGHT 6

UH-RIGHT 20 2 2

UH-RIGHT 9 2

PARR-LEFT 23 4 5

I made 63 points in 52 hands for a ratio of 1.21 points per hand. Along with this was 63 come out wins for the same 1.21 ratio of come out wins per hand. Considering how really screwed up the table was I was satisfied with my performance. My betting was somewhat inhibited because the table didn’t lend itself to any consistency in my mind. I usually wasn’t even making any place bets until maybe the 4th throw. My net for the week was somewhere around $475 so it was a win.

There weren’t too many craps players for a change and about ½ my hands I was at the table by myself. By the last 3 days there were the usual groupies who would flock to the table when they saw me there. A lot of newbies were also trying craps for the first time and I found this to be annoying and I would usually leave the table. For example this one young guy buys in for $30 on the last night when I had some really good hands and he was betting only the pass line and $5 field bets. While I and Kurt, a player who knew how to bet, were making a good sum he lost all his buy in when he could have been up substantially.

The dealers were all very nice and friendly and there were maybe 5 of them that we knew from previous cruises. The casino host “Foxy Roxy” took a liking to my wife and she ended up being the only player on the ship getting free drinks.

When we docked yesterday, 6/20, we had an adventure and stopped at Delaware Park casino in Delaware. It’s only a few miles off of RT. 95 and we were driving right by there on our way home. Eva played Spanish 21, Pai Gow Poker, Ultimate Texas hold em, 4 card poker and 3 card poker. She ended up even for the 4 hours we were there.

I played 4 hands at craps. The table bounce seemed normal but I wasn’t adjusting too quickly after the 7 days of the table on the ship. My hands were 20, 10, 9 and 6 with 4 points made. We plan on stopping here to play whenever we are returning from a cruise out of Baltimore.

Dicenator

One thing for sure is I will ever play craps at the Atlantis again. Our family had played craps for 50 years all over the world and we all agree no more playing there. Something wrong with those tables. I do enjoy the aquarium there though.

Thanks for the report. Sorry the weather wasn't more ideal...

Grandpaul,

In December this year a new mega complex rivaling Atlantis will open. It is called Baha Mar and is located at Cable Beach. Included will be a casino which I think will be 100,000 square feet.

So Atlantis will finally have some competition. I'm hoping it will bring their lofty table game limits down to a more reasonable level. I'm assuming that they will have a craps table and I'm hoping that the characteristics of the table are closer to what I consider a normal bounce.

Sometime early next year, probable Feb. or March, I should be getting back there and my first priority is to check it out. They have a website if you want to find out some information about the whole project.

Dicenator

My son and his wife's side of the family go down there 2=3 times a year. Their twin daughters love the beach and games. They've told me about that casino. You;re right, hopefully competition will bring the Atlantis back down. It's a beautiful place and I hate not going there. And we get free trips with air, when we join his family down there.

I'm also looking forward to Baha Mar opening and bringing Atlantis some competition. It seems a bit much for 2 large casinos like that on one fairly small island (actually 2 islands connected by a bridge). I find it hard to believe Atlantis does not have a poker room, as much of a world class casino as it is. I hope and assume Baha Mar will have a poker room and perhaps it will make Atlantis open one.

Thanks for the report. I see Royal Caribbean still has a $5 craps table but do they still only allow single odds?

I believe Royal Carib is double odds. Not sure because I don't play double odds either. Only at least 3-4-5 times.

Thanks for the report. I see Royal Caribbean still has a $5 craps table but do they still only allow single odds?

My last cruise on Royal was in May and it was still single odds.

Single odds is ridiculous.