Take a nice, relaxing mid-December cruise from cold New York to.... New England and Canada

[Dan Druff]

Those cruise-owned islands suck. I went to one and it was crowded and shitty, plus took 90 min to get back on board at the end.

You didn’t miss anything.

Ive been to several.

The royal island is great for teens (big adventure park) and young adults (center pool with music and booze flowing)

The princess island is sprawled out and quiet.

Like the rest of cruising you need to have what you want to accomplish out or you can have a shit experiance.

Even if you rent a noodle for $5 you get priority tendering to. Fro if you leave 1.5 hours before its time to go you will have the boat to yourself. If you wait until the last second its a shit show. Needless to say if you have been several times you don't feel the need to wait it out to get every second in.

The industry wants to monetize everything they can. If you want to get there early and fight for lounge chairs you can. But just like the up charge dinners if you get your own bed or gazebo its reserved for you and it comes with plus service.

Kind of helps if you ate a beach person. If 364 days a year you hate the beach you probably wont love it.

The NCL one is complete shit -- at least the one I visited in 2017. I have not been to the Princess or Royal ones, but others criticized them, so I am surprised to see that you are positive on them. Is there really room for everyone on the Princess island? The NCL one was wall to wall people.

The only cool thing about the NCL island was that they placed large items at the bottom of the sea in the very deep areas, so reefs would form around them, and it attracted a lot of fish. So the snorkeling wasn't bad. However, you had to swim a good way out to get there, and had something happened to me, nobody would've seen it and I would have croaked. There was also a strong current attempting to drag me out to open ocean. The only reason I felt mostly comfortable was because I had fins on, plus a yellow snorkeling belt (looks dorky but is VERY useful for snorkeling, and is used in place of a life vest). So with that stuff on, it was hard to either drown or be unable to swim to shore. Once I got away from all the people and out into the deep area, it was a decent solo snorkeling excursion. But the beach... a crowded mess.

[Dan Druff]

Cruise ship, nuff said.

The white trash vacation minorities strive for.

Have been hammering this message at home to my wife who has never gone on one and wants to.

I hate being trapped in a ship with fat olds crushing food and drink but know it appeals to some.

Have been hammering this message at home to my wife who has never gone on one and wants to.

I hate being trapped in a ship with fat olds crushing food and drink but know it appeals to some.

You really do get what you pay for in Cruising especially with who you are surrounded by people wise, Carnival because its the "Fun Ship" is very cheap for most and has more rough people on it, fights could happen Carnival etc

Cunard is another Class up and expensive but you're not pinching pennies pay for the luxury and facilities its worth it, then the itinerary/destinations

You're wife will love it if you don't undersell the experience as all low class people its not, its mostly happy well meaning people

Never take a cruise that poor people can afford.

Garrett and Shawn's LD are correct.

There is incredible variance in cruise enjoyment, based upon various factors:

- The type of cabin you buy

- The type of cruise line you take

- The way you spend your money

- The quality of the port stops

- The effort you put in to plan ahead


The typical asshole crams his family into a tiny inside or oceanview cabin, eats with the masses in the main dining hall (or the buffet), goes on shitty ship-run cruise port tours, plays in the horribly -EV casino, and wastes $ on dumb shit onboard. Oh, and they book early, believing it's like an airline where early = best deal, when in reality it's the opposite.

If you do that shit, you are likely to have a bad time AND spend a lot of money.

Instead, you should price watch and only book a cruise AFTER their "final payment day" (meaning fewer than 4 months out, and preferably around 2 months out). You should always get a balcony stateroom, so you can sit out there and relax, without being surrounded by people. You should eat at the specialty restaurants. You should book your OWN private shore excursions, which can often come out cheaper than using the ship's bus tour, and are way better (and more flexible). If you play in the casino, stick to either poker (though the rake is horrid) or the blackjack tournament. Everything else has horrible rules/odds.

Book a cruise going to interesting places you'd like to see -- not just ones with beaches. You can find beaches anywhere. Pick ones with ports which are interesting and otherwise difficult/impossible to get to without a cruise ship.

Treat the cruise as a means of travel to interesting day trip locations, where you don't have to pack/unpack in between them, don't have to drive or fly for a week (except on the tours themselves), and don't have to search out restaurants to eat. Don't treat the ship as an entertainment venue itself, or you'll quickly get bored.

It is amazing how many people ignore this advice, book the cruise "their way", and then come home unhappy.

I ask them, "Did you get a balcony?" They say, "No, I thought we wouldn't be in the room much, so I got an inside cabin for the four of us."

I ask them, "Did you eat at the specialty restaurants?", and they'd respond, "No, I didn't want to spend the extra money."

I ask them, "Did you book your own private port tours?", and they'd respond, "No, it was too much hassle to research, I just took the bus tours for $90/person."

I ask them, "Did you wait until 2 months beforehand to book?", and they'd respond, "No, I was afraid it would sell out, so I booked early. But I think I got a good deal!" (Note, you'll NEVER get a good deal early. Never.)

Then they will tell me how shitty it all was, and how they spent way too much money.


And as already said by others, don't book Carnival or any other low-end lines. You'll be surrounded by trashy (and sometimes aggressive) people.

[mickeycrimm]

I'm considering taking some cruises next year. I get "free cruise" vouchers from the casinos all the time. But they don't really turn out to be free. After upgrading and the extras you're still shelling out 4 figures.

But there is a way to defray the costs of cruises these days. The cruise ships have casinos. And in those casinos are advantage slots. Probably unknown by most slot pros, there are people that take the cruises just to exploit the slots. The number of advantage slots varies from company to company and ship to ship.

Bob Dancer recently wrote an article in the Las Vegas Adviser of how he made $1500 by accumulated small wins in a cruise ship casino on a recent trip. That's not a lot of money but Bob admitted he doesn't know all the plays.

On Youtube I've poured over the cruise ship casino tour videos. I won't say which are the best. You have to do your own homework. But here's a couple of casino tour videos on the Norwegian Prima. The exploitable games I recognize are Cashman Bingo, Ultimate X, Cash Falls, Rich Little Piggies, Scarab, Lunar Disc, Hexbreaker, Regal Riches, Fu Dai Boost, Happy 8's, Wolf Run Eclipse, Mighty Cash, Ultra Rush, Tiki Fortune, Treasure Box.





Hints:

It's a way to defray the cost of the cruise.

Use the most recent videos you can find.

Play tight as the paybacks are comparable to CZR properties.

[Dan Druff]

That's a great tip, mickey.

I didn't think about that, but yeah advantage slot opportunities can exist on cruises because there are few (if any) APs around to vulture them.

I'm going to look for this on my next cruise.

[garrett]

That's a great tip, mickey.

I didn't think about that, but yeah advantage slot opportunities can exist on cruises because there are few (if any) APs around to vulture them.

I'm going to look for this on my next cruise.

Carnival Cruise lines players Club is "Carnival Players Club"

On my last 2 days bout a year ago i hit a good Slot machine payout was probably 5k but on a .25 spin i was only in the machine maybe $200 and i won a lot. Point is im sure Carnival on the backend knows whos won and lost, now i get these offers also from specifically the Premier Club. All part of the husle id imagine. Casino slots are a waste of money you dont get any bargain enjoy the cruise gamble and if you win you win, gg