I have just returned from a 2 week trip to the US from the UK and spent 1 week on an MSC Cruise out of Miami to Bahamas, Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Jamaica.
This trip was comped through UR Comped (thank you UR Comped) and I thought I would provide you with my feedback about the gambling on board the ship in case anyone else was wondering what it was like or are looking to take a trip.
Firstly the casino is only open when the ship is at sea (table games and slots), therefore, as the ship usually sales from about 5pm the casino opens about 1 hour later.
The casino on board this ship has no set closing time, therefore, if the casino is empty they will close it even if they are at sea and it is only 2am.
I gambled all 7 days I was on board, from anywhere between 4 and 8 hours a night, I was told by the pit boss at the end of the cruise that I gambled over 50 hours (total) in the week.
Your cruise card which gets you in to your room is also used on board as your players card, each time you play on the slots you put your card in the machine and it adds the points directly to your card, this is the same for tables, you hand over your card and they record your play.
I am pretty sure you earn 1 point for every $2.50 play on the slots, for the tables I have no idea how they work it out!
For every 500 points you earn you receive $5 free slot play.
If you register your credit card with the cruise you can quickly and very easily take money directly from your card in any slot - very dangerous! This is also the same on the tables, if you run out of chips just ask them for more and they bill it to your card!
I earnt a total of 10,300 points in the week, if you earn 9,999 or more they guarantee you a free cruise on any of their ships, therefore, I earnt myself a free cruise, however, this free cruise is for an inside cabin without a balcony and not something that I would be interested in taking.
SLOT & VIDEO POKER PLAY
There were about 150 slots on the ship and 6 poker machines, some of the modern favourites and a few classics are available.
When I first arrived on the Saturday I dropped about $1500 in the slots playing max bet from $2.40 to $6.00 a spin, when I did eventually hit a bonus (this took over $400 at times) the bonuses were bad, sometimes only paying out about $30.
The video poker wasn't much better either, they only had 6 video poker machines in total and they were always empty, I played the same machine for about 3 or 4 days and probably dropped about $800 into those with nothing much to talk about.
Because the play on the slots was so bad I concentrated on table games for the rest of trip (see below) however, on our last night (Friday) my wife joined me and wanted to play slots so we played! When she first started playing slots I gave her $500 and I had about 8200 points, by the time she had finished I had around 10,000 points, therefore, I know we played through about $4,500 and she gave me $400 back (she knows the rules!), so that was $100 loss in about 5 hours - Pretty good!
She hit multiple (good bonuses) ranging from $80 to $400 and she hit multiple progressives for anything up to $600, so the machines were much loser on our last night, that may say something or it just may mean she is a lot luckier than me!
The same night I decided to try the video poker again, I played Double Double Bonus and hit Quad Aces with a 3 kicker and hit for $2000, 5 hands later I hit Quad Aces again with a 6 kicker for $800 - So again, much better results on our last day of the trip.
TABLE GAMES
They had about 7 tables:
1x 3 card poker
1x Ultimate Texas Hold 'em
2x Regular Blackjack
3x Spanish 21 Blackjack
And 2x Roulette Wheels.
The min and max bets on all the tables were low all starting at $5 and during happy hour (usually when the casino has just opened) you could play all table games for $3.
The low max bets was a little frustrating for me as when I was chasing it was nearly impossible to get back up with BJ having a max bet of $100 or $200 and Ultimate Texas Hold 'em having a max bet of $50 per spot. I asked them if they could increase the max bets (even when the casino was empty with just me playing) and they weren't interested, I think they were afraid to be fair.
I had some good play on the tables, my best hand was quad 3's on UTH with $50 on each spot so won about $2000 on that hand, a guy next to me hit a Royal with $5 on each spot and won $3000, shame I didn't hit that as that would have really hurt them!
Blackjack was steady with the regular ups and downs and the idiots sticking on 13 and 14 with the dealer showing a 10!
I am not a big roulette player but played a couple of times and hit for about $1000.
All in all I was really happy with the atmosphere, the dealers were very polite and professional and fun to play with.
Yes the trip was free, however, I paid for the trip and some with my gambling losses but I would definitely go back and highly recommend it.
Here is a video of a walk through of the entire casino on the ship:
And here are some photos:
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
This trip was comped through UR Comped (thank you UR Comped) and I thought I would provide you with my feedback about the gambling on board the ship in case anyone else was wondering what it was like or are looking to take a trip.
Firstly the casino is only open when the ship is at sea (table games and slots), therefore, as the ship usually sales from about 5pm the casino opens about 1 hour later.
The casino on board this ship has no set closing time, therefore, if the casino is empty they will close it even if they are at sea and it is only 2am.
I gambled all 7 days I was on board, from anywhere between 4 and 8 hours a night, I was told by the pit boss at the end of the cruise that I gambled over 50 hours (total) in the week.
Your cruise card which gets you in to your room is also used on board as your players card, each time you play on the slots you put your card in the machine and it adds the points directly to your card, this is the same for tables, you hand over your card and they record your play.
I am pretty sure you earn 1 point for every $2.50 play on the slots, for the tables I have no idea how they work it out!
For every 500 points you earn you receive $5 free slot play.
If you register your credit card with the cruise you can quickly and very easily take money directly from your card in any slot - very dangerous! This is also the same on the tables, if you run out of chips just ask them for more and they bill it to your card!
I earnt a total of 10,300 points in the week, if you earn 9,999 or more they guarantee you a free cruise on any of their ships, therefore, I earnt myself a free cruise, however, this free cruise is for an inside cabin without a balcony and not something that I would be interested in taking.
SLOT & VIDEO POKER PLAY
There were about 150 slots on the ship and 6 poker machines, some of the modern favourites and a few classics are available.
When I first arrived on the Saturday I dropped about $1500 in the slots playing max bet from $2.40 to $6.00 a spin, when I did eventually hit a bonus (this took over $400 at times) the bonuses were bad, sometimes only paying out about $30.
The video poker wasn't much better either, they only had 6 video poker machines in total and they were always empty, I played the same machine for about 3 or 4 days and probably dropped about $800 into those with nothing much to talk about.
Because the play on the slots was so bad I concentrated on table games for the rest of trip (see below) however, on our last night (Friday) my wife joined me and wanted to play slots so we played! When she first started playing slots I gave her $500 and I had about 8200 points, by the time she had finished I had around 10,000 points, therefore, I know we played through about $4,500 and she gave me $400 back (she knows the rules!), so that was $100 loss in about 5 hours - Pretty good!
She hit multiple (good bonuses) ranging from $80 to $400 and she hit multiple progressives for anything up to $600, so the machines were much loser on our last night, that may say something or it just may mean she is a lot luckier than me!
The same night I decided to try the video poker again, I played Double Double Bonus and hit Quad Aces with a 3 kicker and hit for $2000, 5 hands later I hit Quad Aces again with a 6 kicker for $800 - So again, much better results on our last day of the trip.
TABLE GAMES
They had about 7 tables:
1x 3 card poker
1x Ultimate Texas Hold 'em
2x Regular Blackjack
3x Spanish 21 Blackjack
And 2x Roulette Wheels.
The min and max bets on all the tables were low all starting at $5 and during happy hour (usually when the casino has just opened) you could play all table games for $3.
The low max bets was a little frustrating for me as when I was chasing it was nearly impossible to get back up with BJ having a max bet of $100 or $200 and Ultimate Texas Hold 'em having a max bet of $50 per spot. I asked them if they could increase the max bets (even when the casino was empty with just me playing) and they weren't interested, I think they were afraid to be fair.
I had some good play on the tables, my best hand was quad 3's on UTH with $50 on each spot so won about $2000 on that hand, a guy next to me hit a Royal with $5 on each spot and won $3000, shame I didn't hit that as that would have really hurt them!
Blackjack was steady with the regular ups and downs and the idiots sticking on 13 and 14 with the dealer showing a 10!
I am not a big roulette player but played a couple of times and hit for about $1000.
All in all I was really happy with the atmosphere, the dealers were very polite and professional and fun to play with.
Yes the trip was free, however, I paid for the trip and some with my gambling losses but I would definitely go back and highly recommend it.
Here is a video of a walk through of the entire casino on the ship:
And here are some photos:
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
