Casino experience since cruising resumed

[dleahy4444]

I Sailed on the Celebrity Edge in July and enjoyed playing the slots in the casino. I lost my budget, as expected, but had fun doing it. They had some of the more recent games such as wonder 4, and wonder 4 towers, but not the newer games that are in land based casinos currently such as Buffalo diamond or the newer version of dancing drums. Anyone else cruise gambling recently? Anyone on the Oasis? I’m sailing her on 9/19 and wondering what to expect. Thanks!

[c-boy]

come on fellow casino clan, where are ya. Inquiring minds wanna know.

[johnny75]

Just off the Gem.

 

Great casino.

 

No mask.

 

Great games.

 

Lots of fun.

[PigsCanFly]

We won't be on a ship until September 26th.  We will be at the tables as soon as Oasis opens them and likely until they close them.  I have been longing to cruise and the casino is my hangout when open.

[si4444]

i got 4 cruises in a row starting end of November, sadly I haven't been on a ship since i got off the pearl March 15, 2020.

[PigsCanFly]

On 9/17/2021 at 10:48 AM, si4444 said:

i got 4 cruises in a row starting end of November, sadly I haven't been on a ship since i got off the pearl March 15, 2020.

We have 14 days on Symphony otS in November, followed by a 10- day break covering Thanksgiving followed by 21 days on the Rotterdam.  Even I might need a break for Christmas!

We will rest up then for 2022 lineup.  We got off the Zuiderdam in March 2020.

[Sunshine3601]

On 9/17/2021 at 12:43 AM, PigsCanFly said:

We won't be on a ship until September 26th.  We will be at the tables as soon as Oasis opens them and likely until they close them.  I have been longing to cruise and the casino is my hangout when open.

See ya in the casino on the 26th!  

[SJ1_]

On 9/18/2021 at 3:57 PM, PigsCanFly said:

We have 14 days on Symphony otS in November, followed by a 10- day break covering Thanksgiving followed by 21 days on the Rotterdam.  Even I might need a break for Christmas!

We will rest up then for 2022 lineup.  We got off the Zuiderdam in March 2020.

doing our first Holland American in June Eastern Canada, looking forward to it

[seaturtle_808]

I was on Majestic Princess in September for 7 days and then again for a weekend in October. Masks required in the casino.

 

They've removed Let It Ride from the table games, we switched to 3-card poker. Slot machines were pretty good to us as well. 

 

Bingo was good but Expensive... basic package with the tablet is $59. No slot tournament, they blamed Covid regulations. 

 

Lots of servers for getting drinks. Bounce-back offer was okay, just OBC. Only gift from the casino was a pack of playing cards on the week long cruise, miss the days when they'd send champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and more goodies. 

[Cuedon]

Week on HAL in October:

 

Masks required.

 

They had 5+1min BJ, 15 shoe BJ, 5+1 Super Fun, some knockoff UTH, Craps, Roulette, Poker. There might have been a 3CP. Got premium dinners with no fuss, and they 'secretly' sent strawberries to the room (no champagne this time).

 

Multi-day slot tournament was running, but it was so poorly advertised I didn't even know it was on until 4th day. Had bingo. No poker tournament.

 

Servers were slow and quality questionable; a few times, people didn't get their order, and somehow, my Dirty Banana turned into a Peach Martini. They also somehow ran out of gin, tonic, and limes, so they subbed in a vodka soda with orange?

 

Can still bill to the room with no fuss, though they couldn't figure out when midnight rolled over.

 

Slot action was tamer than usual, though I can't say why (whether smaller action, less people, or tighter machines); pre-COVID, I was usually hearing a few W2-Gs a night... I heard 5 across the entire trip.

 

Cashier was shorthanded and understocked; Took forever to count, and I ended up getting paid in 50s and 20s one night. Paying down charges at the service desk was even worse.

[EZ1]

On 11/2/2021 at 8:01 PM, seaturtle_808 said:

I was on Majestic Princess in September for 7 days and then again for a weekend in October. Masks required in the casino.

 

They've removed Let It Ride from the table games, we switched to 3-card poker. Slot machines were pretty good to us as well. 

 

Bingo was good but Expensive... basic package with the tablet is $59. No slot tournament, they blamed Covid regulations. 

 

Lots of servers for getting drinks. Bounce-back offer was okay, just OBC. Only gift from the casino was a pack of playing cards on the week long cruise, miss the days when they'd send champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and more goodies. 

Same with Carnival-masks & no slot tournaments, but instead they give you  $25 free casino play (if you're platnium, or diamond status). Royal does have the slot & poker tournaments & no masks needed in casino, or any other adult areas!! (which makes so much sense)

[bucfan2]

10 hours ago, EZ1 said:

Same with Carnival-masks & no slot tournaments, but instead they give you  $25 free casino play (if you're platnium, or diamond status). Royal does have the slot & poker tournaments & no masks needed in casino, or any other adult areas!! (which makes so much sense)

Celebrity was awesome.  No masks shipwide.  Worth every penny, as it was a better experience than Royal, and way better than carnival's 'sip and replace spacesuit'.

Edited November 14, 2021 by bucfan2

[cruiseaddictColleen]

On 9/15/2021 at 8:54 AM, johnny75 said:

Just off the Gem.

 

Great casino.

 

No mask.

 

Great games.

 

Lots of fun.

Hi Johnny75! I will be on the gym in a few weeks and seeing you were just on it not too long ago I was wondering if you recall if they still had the banana king slot machines? I believe they used to have about six of them. Thank you

[Janthere]

We sailed on Celebrity Summit on November 3 and spent a good amount of time in the casino playing slots & video poker. My friend played blackjack. They did have the slot and blackjack tournaments and no masks were required anywhere on the ship which was really nice! Bar service was great (thanks Ari!) and it was nice atmosphere and good fun all around! Won 3 handpays on video poker so that was a bonus! Sailing soon on Princess so will be interested to see how the two lines compare casino wise. Not looking forward to wearing a mask onboard but whatever 🙂

 

[spunks]

We did B2B on the Independence in August when they first started back(Galveston). I have to say that the casino was excellent. Freddy, the Casino Host, was hands down the best Casino Host we have encountered in 83 cruises. When we returned for a B2B on the Indy in Sept the casino was again wonderful. Three card and Ultimate Holdem were all HAND dealt.....fabulous!

 

Next we did B2B2B on the Symphony out of Ft Laud. in Oct and November. They used dealing machines, but they were out of commission most of the time. The Casino was good, but we sure missed Freddy! We got off the Symphony and got on Oddyssy for B2B....not so good. They only had ONE cashier at all times and the cash out lines were long. ALL tables had dealing machines. On the 6 day (second leg of the B2B) the table limits were raised to $10......but there were no spots to play. They lost 7 dealers whose contracts expired but they got no replacements. On sea days they had one Ultimate Holdem table open and only ONE Black jack table open. No 3 card at all until after 7 PM.

 

Over 3000 passengers and only 2 tables open! The explanation was....it is not our fault!

 

I cannot say enough good about the Independence Casino and I simply will never sail Oddyssy again.

[ejnsb]

We sailed Celebrity Edge couple weeks ago.  About 1,000 passengers so no crowds anywhere.   Casino was fun, service excellent,  no smoking, only crew masked up (everyone on board vaccinated and tested negative). As is the case in many casinos, you had to play at a $25 BJ table to get a 3:2 payoff. $10 table stayed busy though.  UTH was $10 min, hand dealt.  VP payables were sorry.  Nice selection of slots.  Not much poker action and I refuse to play with their 10% rake (seems to be the norm on ships). 

[spiritkat090909]

I can confirm that Celebrity UTH was hand dealt on the Edge in November '21.  

 

In the BEFORE, Carnival's version of UTH was as well...unfortunately, just off the Vista in Feb '22 and the dreaded automated shuffle machine made an appearance. On the bright side, we were the last non-smoking week. There was one Royal Flush dealt, but you could definitely see the difference in the amount of normal, random hands that paid. Of course, it was the lower payout version of the game that had extra bets offered for pairs. Blech.  Bounceback offer to DH: Balcony.

 

So..next up..back to Celebrity! Equinox in May.

 

We also have a local land based offer of a free suite on Vista in September that I doubt we will take due to the 'machine'...and lackluster MDR food.