As some of you know my husband and I were just on the Carnival Pride - a 7
night cruise of the Mexican Riveria from LA. There is now a slot club on
board, but getting details of the cashback was like pulling teeth. On the machine
I played $8 = 1 point. Cashback apparently is approximately $10 for every
100points which would be generous. But there are several kickers - you only
get the cashback the NEXT time you cruise with Carnival. Also apparently you
can only take out cashback up to the amount of the cruise. I am trying to
get more details - can the cashback be used for shore excursions, incidentals,
your spouse's cruise cost?
The VP on the ship was bad - all the machines required 10 coins to get full
Royal payouts - so for a quarter machine essentially you had to play 10 coins
making it more like a fifty cent machine. The best pay tables I saw were
9/6 DB and Ugly Deuces.
The good news was that despite awful pay tables such as 6/5 JB and 6/5 DDB
and the above, I managed to hit 2 Royal flushes, turning a significant loss
into a good win for the trip.
Also the machines had a weird quirk - they had automatic hold - which you
could change. This speeded up the game since many holds were correct, such as
holding 1 pair or 2 pair or a dealt flush, even 2 to a straight flush plus a
deuce in deuces wild. Some of the automatic holds were wrong though, like
AKQ without the J when an inside straight was dealt or 4 to a flush over a pair
on a bad pay table where a pair would be better, and so on. You had to
watch what was going on, but it did speed up the game (sometimes faster to unhold
1 card of 3 than hold 3 for example), especially when the holds were
correct.
The automatic holds were probably better for an amateur then if they held
their own picks, actually.
Best game on the ship - blackjack. They allowed resplits and doubling after
pairs, all doubling allowed - basically Vegas rules on a 8-deck shoe.
Other games - Poker! now available, but a 10% rake! Caribbean Stud, Let Em
Ride, Fun 21 (bad 21 game), craps, and maybe 3-card Poker too. Table games
generally had a $10 and up minimum.
Reel slots looked very tight. They also had a quarter progressive with bad
pay tables that got up to $4000 (equivalent to a fifty-cent machine which
should have had a $2000 royal).
I'll let you know if I find out more about the slot club - I now have a lot
of cashback so I would like to get it!
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