What's the most you've won on a cruise???

[flamomo]

Lasy year I won $1600 on the Coral Princess to the Panama Canal, playing a variety of quarter and dollar slots. I took that money home and saved it to pay for my next cruise.

This year I won a $625 jackpot on a quarter machine within 5 minutes of the casino opening after we left FLL on the Sun Princess. Later during that same cruise, I won $2400 on a dollar red-white-blue machine. It just kept paying off and paying off. I took that money home and am using it to pay for my cruise to Hawaii on the Island Princess next month.

I know the odds on slots are in the house's favor, but I love playing the slots and have won a number of times in Vegas and other casinos, from $500 to $1250. I always play the max bet.

I'm anxious to see if I can win anything on the Island Princess; hope to keep the streak and the "prepaid" cruises going. :D :D

[1bigballer]

On a bachelor party cruise (to set the tone) with Carnival. The last day of our cruise we drank all day and I was down to my last $50 cash going in to the evening. After dinner we were absolutely smashed and decided to go to the casino for one last hoorah. I woke up in the morning still fully clothed with $900-$1000 in chips falling out of my pockets and all over the floor (still not sure I found them all). My friends told me that I just couldn't lose and had a crowd following me from BJ tables to Roulette for 2 hours. The casino was closing and my last bet was $200 on black (stupid) and sure enough it hit. I can't remember any of this but I paid most of my sail & sign bill in cash before getting off the ship - what a great feeling. By the way, I threw up about 4 times on the drive from the port to my home city 3 hours away. I'll never drink that much (at least not the last night) again.

 

P.S. - My friends also said that I made staff friends for life. I gave away at least as much as I won to the dealers and whatever you call the spinner at Roulette.

[cuccicruisers]

A friend of mine sailing on the Norwegian Crown in August won 200 on the slots, 250 at bingo and the free 7 day cruise in bingo all on the same day !!!

 

Me ??? I won a free dinner at Cagney's.

[magic1]

On our last cruise my wife won $1200 on the dollar slots but if she would have bet $3 instead of $2 she would have doubled it.....What can you do?

[chaswelf]

So do you still have to declare these winnings as income when you get back to the US? Or since you won them in int'l waters its tax free?

 

You will get a 1099-G for big win's and you need to pay taxes.

[Casshew]

My Dad & I won 2200.00 in Bingo on the last day of our alaskan Cruise.

 

It was so much fun, we went in to the show lounge and split a sheet of 6 cards.

 

Meanwhile there were people buying those machines that play hundreds of cards at a time.

 

It was full card and we just kept getting # after # after # - I just knew we were going to win and soon we only had O65 to go. We were so excited and holding hands and then the caller said it.... an Ohhhhh,,,,,, sixxxty........

 

we waited holding our breath...

 

FIVE!

 

woohoo... we both jumped up and down.. meanwhile we were getting lots of nasty looks from everyone with the machines that just lost to our little sheet of 6:D

 

My Dad was more excited than me. (He is 80) what a fun moment that was, I will never forget it.

[Bug715]

Last summer on our HAL family cruise almost all of us won something! My grandmother won bingo a few times, my uncle won bingo a few times and won a cruise at bingo, i won $20 off my uncle when he won bingo then the next game won $170 at bingo (they'd called three numbers and you had to have three numbers! what's the chance of that?!), and my grandfather won $500 in the casino. My parents sadly didn't win anything like always!

[Tom&Duff]

Last year on the Explorer of the Seas I won a 1 ct. diamond/tanzanite bracelet. We went to the talk they gave on shopping in the islands. Others won t-shirts, sunglasses and other small items but at the end of the talk they drew a name from a box for the bracelet. It was ME! After reading the other posts about the casinos I can't wait to try my luck next time.

Voyager of the Seas 4/22/06 to celebrate our 25th anniversary.

[Mobe]

We had a great first cruise. We won two ships on a stick, two bottles of champaign, over $1100 in the casino including the slot tournament win. Plus we won a tote bag. It was great fun!

[celbercrz333]

Some people are just so lucky! I am not. My husband has a little luck. I'm best to just sit and watch him put the quarters in! By the way, he's the one who sets off the security bars when we go in and out of stores! It must be his magnetic personality! He's taken his wallet out and handed it to me, he's taken his keys out and still the security goes off walking IN a store.

[lanajest]

We cruised Carnival Inspiration last summer. My husband won $2,500 on the quarter slots, I won $500 on the slot tournament, my niece won $100 on bingo, my daughter won $100 on bingo! On the way home my son won $50 on a scratch off lottery ticket when we stopped to get gas. It was a great week!

[celbercrz333]

Lana,

Can I stand next to you just for a minute so some of that luck will rub off on me?? LOL. You are lucky.

[okgirl]

My sister and I travel together and we have won plenty over the years. 5 years ago, the grand prize on Carnival's Bingo was a cruise for 2 in a Verandah Suite. My sister won that so our next cruise was not only FREE, it was in great style. Our suite had a huge balcony, a sectional sofa, bar and fridge with a separate sleeping area. It was great. I have personnally won over $500 in a single evening at the slots. I usually play early in the week, it may be my imagination but the slots seem looser early on. Our last cruise we paid off our S&S card which was well over $1200 (too much wine) and came home with most of the money we had taken to play with. Now that was a nice change.

[gr81]

Very first cruise and we had a limited amount of funds. We aloted so much to the casino and blew most all of it one night. On our way back to our room after dinner, I had 2 quarters in my JEANS (yes I wore jeans to dinner) and put it in a machine and got 3 back, put it in a different (3 line machine) and won $450 and got the Ocean players club tshirt. We decide we could play a little more. Later that night I won another $400 playing nickels. Have given back that and then some on subsequent cruises.

[Fuzzyape]

These are such wonderful stories. I had to share my own.

In 2005 my DW and I sailed the Mexican Riveria on the Diamond Princess.

 

The hit came 2x. On the first 2 days at bingo, I split the final jackpots (it was the 300 variety as no one made the coverall in the required amount of numbers). So I had made 300 on bingo (all of which was returned to the bingo folk because of how often we played :).

 

The miss... same cruise we were in the casino playing Let it Ride. For those that don't know the game you get 3 cards. There are 2 common cards. You place 3 bets of equal value. When you see your three cards you have the opportunity to pull back one of your bets. The dealer flips a common card and you can pull back one more of your bets (of course you can also "let it ride") then the last card is turned up and winning hands are paid out. As an extra bonus you could pay another bet for 3 card poker hands. So if you had certain cards in your hand of 3 those would pay out also.

 

After winning some and losing some, I was left with 2 $5 chips (not enought to play a full hand.) So I sat out getting ready to retire for the evening. I stayed to watch the hand I would have received, as I had been talking to the other people at the table. They deal the cards 3 at a time, not 1 to each then 1 to each and so on. Because of that I knew that whatever hand the person to my left got, would have been mine.

 

She received 3 5s on that hand. It was a nice payout for her. I think she won a total close to 500, after the 3 card hand payout and the let it ride payout.

 

As has been said, "but for a nail the horse was lost". It was neat to see, just wish it could have been me. Everyone at the table was very excited about the win, the person was a good person, not mean so it was easy to cheer for her.

 

Here's to hoping for even more luck on the next cruise!

[Cabinetdr]

Back on my 1st cruise I hadn't really done much Gambling. But the ship had classes on how to lose your money. I guess you could call it beginners luck but won enough to pay for the trip, the on ship account and still came home with about 3,000.00 ahead. But since then they have gotten it all back and then some. My friend says the best way to double your money is to fold it in half and leave it in your safe, but what fun would that be?

[biensur]

Our best man and his wife won a 6lb 8oz baby girl, delivered 9 months after their cruise. He tells everyone he hit the jackpot playing...um...a certain card game (wink).

 

I've won drinks of the day on trivia and a t-shirt and pen playing pool games!

[mtuttle328]

My very first cruise was onboard the ms Ryndam, a Holland American ship visiting the eastern Caribbean back in 2000; I grabbed the cruise for a total of $960, out the door, for two...in an outside room, via the oh so missed online auctions.

My first night I went to visit the Casino, and after hitting for $500 on a single coin dollar machine, I went to bed very happy..hey, we were going to have a great time when we got off the ship and visited the ports!

Our second evening I took $80 of my winnings back to the casino, and after spending $60 of it with no luck on those dollar machines, I headed for the door. Wait! I'll use my last $20 on this cool looking quarter machine right next to the exit!

After playing for about 3 minutes, I hit for a whopping $1,280....making my total winnings for the two days, minus what I spent, $1,600. That not only paid for our cruise in full, but even paid the $500 total airfare bill for two from Phoenix to Ft. Lauderdale, tips and taxi fare! We ended up purchasing a "portable" suitcase to fit all of the goodies we found in port, and I gave a bottle of their favorite spirits to all 4 of our tablemates, along with ordering a farewell bottle of moet chandon for the table on the last night--after all, why not share a bit of the winnings with the wonderful group of people with whom we swapped daily adventure stories over the delightful cuisine each night...

It may not have been a million bucks, but it was sure fun to come home and bid on my second cruise using the winnings from my first one! Oh, and we did go back to the casino two other nights, and actually walked away even both times...one just can't be too careful when it comes to blowing our winnings! As one bright gambler once mentioned to me onboard, : "Slot players never really win--they just make more money to play!" Unfortunately, without some real will power and a set limit on how much you are going to allow yourself to lose, this is often times the truth!

Good luck on future cruises! We are leaving in exactly three weeks and one day to visit the Mexican Riviera, and I would love to win in the casino again--on our fourth cruise to the Caribbean I also won over $800 and my husband hit for $1,400 onboard Celebrity's Millenium. So I guess that the ships slots aren't always as tight as their reputation.

Oh, I just returned from seeing Elton John at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas--I won three dollar progressive jackpots: one for 1,610.00, another for $1,198.02 and the final one for an even $1,600...I came home with $2000, double what I left with! I sure hope my luck continues over the next month or so...it would be very nice to hit for another big jackpot onboard our next cruise!

[RevSmith]

Carnival Paradice~ 545 the second to the last night on a seven day cruise...at a 25cent slot machine! I stopped going to the Casino after that!

[salandjim]

Several years ago I won 2200. on dollar slots on the last night of an Alaskan cruise.Never before or since!! Since it was the last night, I had no time to give it back! Going on the Regal again in Oct. and hoping for a repeat.(Fat chance )

[JENANDGENE]

Well, I won $350 playing bingo last Sept. on Jewel of the Seas. However, since I spent more than that to play throughout the week.....I didn't walk away with much! ;)

 

~Jen

[FrogLover215]

My mom's a bingo fiend. I find it a little fun but not enough to justify the ship's price. When we cruised with my parents in August 2004, I decided to buy a card just so she won't be alone during bingo. Needless to say, I won the first game for $500 (a lot of money for us). I went back to the cabin, where my husband was already asleep. He woke up a little when I came in and asked how it went. Ever so casually I said, "Oh, it was OK. I won." That woke him up quick! Boy were his eyes huge when I pulled out the stack of $20s!!

 

Ironically, my mom never wins at bingo on cruises, she must be good luck for her companions. On another cruise, my grandma won a free cruise while playing with her!

[cruzinmecrazy]

I won my Freedom from my Four Bickering Boys for eight solid days. The ultimate....Peace and quiet.:D

 

I have won hundreds at bingo and slots.:)

[iamsaz]

We just returned from our first cruise on the Carnival Miracle yesterday. On our last evening my son, who is 18, decided to go into the casino to play the slots. He put a total of $4 into a dollar slot machine and walked away with $960! Not bad for a young kid and the perfect ending to his cruise. He wisely cashed out and informed me of his winnings. I couldn't believe it and neither could he. :D

[celbercrz333]

Just keep in mind that for those of us who sit next to the lucky people that there is all kinds of luck. If the rest of my life is lucky, then I don't mind if my husband is the winner at slots.