Cattie

We stayed at the Omni Riverfront. Was great waking up and seeing our ship the morning of sailaway!

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I go to the java cafe every morning on a cruise for my cafe mocha with an extra shot. Runs around $12 for 2 for DH and I. Not that bad.

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I've done a discover scuba with Dive Bus back in 2012. They we're a great company. My husband who can't dive spent the time back at the shop drinking beer and chatting with the employees.

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I got to port around 10:30am and the ship was cleared around 11:15am. We boarded around 11:45am and Vibe passes on Breakaway was at guest services.

 

Be advised, Vibe passes on Escape was in Headliners, so it varies by ship. We boarded on Deck 7 from Pier 88.

Thank you!! We are plat and plan to get to the port nice and early!

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What time did you get to the port and what boarding group were You? Would you mind telling me which deck you board from and quickest way to guest services for Vibe. Our first big ship in Oct and really want Vibe passes!!

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Yeah that one time was just very strange. The box was just very disengaged while the dealer at my end was incredibly friendly. Oh well, that's life.

 

I guess when it comes to come bets I liked the "insurance" you get against a 7 on Roll 1, but I found an article this morning that told me I'm an idiot because you make no money on that first roll.

 

So, and this is my "I've only played $5 minimum craps tables" naivete, on a $10 minimum table as I'm laying a $10 pass line bet (since that's always on), I can make $5/$6 place bets and still be OK? Kind of like roulette where a $25 minimum just means I have to have $25 worth of bets spread across the table per spin?

There's no insurance you get from a come bet on the first roll. If a 7 is rolled on the come out, you get your odds back but all come bets will lose (the flat bet). You can bet a $1 any seven for each $5 you have risked on a come bet if you'd like to break even (By taking the any 7 down if it hits). Place bets give you instant payment when they hit (and are off on the come out roll), come bets need to hit twice to be paid. Think of a come bet as additional pass line bets or "points".

When teaching new players, I've always said pick a place bet or 2, once you have your initial investment back start to press small units each time they hit. This way you're always picking up a little something. Or after your initial investment start placing other numbers.

Making a $10 line bet on a $10 table, anywhere I've worked each bet has to be $10. So 6&8 would have to be $12 min you couldn't bet less. This could be different on a ship or west of the Mississippi since they tend to have different rules then the east coast. I've played a few times on the ship but prefer not to gamble since I spend enough time in a casino weekly!

On the rare occasion I play I only bet the pass line when I shoot with a $1 any crap per $5, if the crap hits I turn it into a 3 way crap then a horn if I'm lucky. I place the place side (point is 6, I place 8, 5 &9 etc) Once I have my initial investment back I start to place other numbers until I have the inside covered (5-9) then start to press from there. If the point could be a hardway I will bet that as a 2 way bet for myself and the dealers. When I shoot I always make sure to be the passline for the dealers with odds along side of mine.

You can always bet more aggressive, that would depending on your bankroll. I prefer to play more conservative.

That's the thing, that same casino I've never had a problem with dollar bets other than that one time. It was kind of a perfect storm: it was only my 4th time playing for real (I practice quite a bit with fun money online), it was the day shift, and the only other two players were non-English speakers. I was pretty sure the boxman was wrong, but I didn't want to push it. The rest of the crew was great so I just tipped them out at the end.

 

I haven't played much with place bets, I've mostly been playing the Pass with 345 odds and a couple of Come bets with single odds, but it feels inherently wrong to me to play against the shooter.

If you're not going to take advantage of max odds on your come bets, place the numbers. Odds are the only bet there is no house advantage on.

Sounds like the box person was just an a$$. 20 years in the casino industry as a craps dealer/supervisor and now shift manager you never turn a bet down for the dealer, yes we will make a players bet proper to benefit you, but we can pay anything if it's a tip!

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Also the cigar room on 6 next to Le Bistro. Be prepared for dirty looks on deck 7 even when standing next to the ashtray that says Smoking Permitted! Just off the Pearl on 12/23.

Absolutely

Thank god. I would have hated giving info to a Man U fan [emoji1] I just hoping I can find some matches on for our repo the end of Oct. Hopefully we will get Champions League matches.

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We've been on the ship around 12-1pm. So if you get to port early enough and they didn't have any issues with customs returning, you should be able to get on early enough, if not be able to catch the 2nd half.

I hope you're a Stoke fan not Man U!!

We've lucked out before catching footie on board. We can't always catch the match we want but some ships do have sky sports. The hardest time we've had was Champions League games to find. Good thing most of the time if its a match we really want to see and it's a port day we find it somewhere on an island.

We are sailing in 12006 and 12008 Friday. Hoping for fog free Windows!

I'll be in 12006 in Oct, would you mind taking pics of it for me! Thanks in advance!

Theo loss is basically what the casino "thinks" you're going to loose on any given trip. When you "win" that goes down. I'm not 100% sure how ship casino's differ from land based, but from being a supervisor in the business for many years, a lot of things going into comping. Avg bet and time played are big ones for us when we do comps. You give me $200 buy in and play for 20 mins you're less likely to get a larger comp, but you play on the $200 for 3 hours means you're more then likely playing any win back into the table.

There's no real staple way of comping, the more you loose the more you're "worth" to the casino. So with that thinking if you "win" you won't get as much.

Like I said, I've never worked on a cruise ship, but from being in the casino industry for close to 20 years between AC and MD this is what we go by.

Slots will always get better comps due to it being a machine and doesn't take into play game pace. So in 1 hand of BJ could be 5-6 spins or more on a slot machine, unless playing heads up.

The cake and decorations look great, thanks for the pics :) If the package is ordered, can you specify what day/date you want the cake or is it only on embarkation day? We're not sailing until next June but it will be my dd's birthday a few days in and I would like to get this for the actual day of her birthday. I saw on the link about picking your date for decorations, can I assume the cake would be delivered on the date specified also?

Yup I picked the date for the stuff to be done.

Here's a not so great pic of my moms we got her back in Feb on the Gem. We where in Puerto Rico that day, by the time we got back on board it was done.

I have not been on a tour with them yet, but booked with them for my November cruise on the Carnival Breeze. We booked the 3 hour Buggy tour as I still want time to wander the town afterwards. They are rated highly on TripAdvisor and so far all of my positive TripAdvisor experiences with past excursion companies have been dead on correct. Communication with them via email has been great and they answered all of my questions. You do pay in cash the day of the excursion, so no prebooking with a credit card, which I love!

Thanks so much! We're not going until Nov 2016, so if you could let me know how it was that would be great!

Did the baby beach one back in 2012. Had a great time. Would recommend it to anyone, it was good for our first time to Aruba. Picked us up at the port, headed back to the office to sign some waivers and pick up others from resorts and headed out.

Has anyone used this company before? I can't find any info on them besides on TA. We're thinking of the 6 hour tour since we're in port for so long.

http://www.atvbuggytours.com/

TIA!

I was married in Bermuda, it's a beautiful place to do a wedding =) Best bet is to contact a resort and use the planner they have there, saves some $$. Keep in mind, Bermuda isn't the cheapest island to get married at. We had a resort fee of $2000 for our wedding with 18 guests, that didn't include photographer, cake, champagne, transportation and other things. The marriage license isn't cheap either, I think it was around $300? It's been a few years.

We used a resort called 9 Beaches, but they've been under construction and closed for a few years now.

Just booked the 2016 Dawn repo from Boston to New Orleans and will be sailing Platnium. DD has been invited, but it's too far off for her to commit so I just might be going solo....................new adventures are good!

 

554 days and counting.

Congrats and feel free to join the RC for this trip. We have a great group of people already booked on this cruise!

We booked in Feb for a cruise in Oct 2016. It was a good deal on a suite so we jumped on it with our FCC. Good perks and plenty of OBC after transferring it to a TA. This far out all suites have been sold out since the beginning of March.

I had around $500 OBC for our last cruise. DSC was prepaid, I didn't put any cash down until around day 4 or 5, didn't have any problems.

Did a bday one for my mom on the last cruise we were on in Feb. A little blury but gives you an idea. This was in a balcony on the Gem.

We're booked in an SJ for Oct 16 repo on the Dawn, there hasn't been suites available since the beginning of March for this cruise and it's still a year and a half out. I know it can change, closer to final payment, but we jumped on a good price for a 14 day cruise!

I used the Dive Bus back in 2012, they were great. My husband can't dive due to ear issues, so he was able to hang out at the dive shop and have a few beers while I did my dive. This was a discover dive also so it was 3 of us and the dive master. Highly recommend them.