Anyone recently on the Dawn - Casino

[oprahcla]

Wondering if anyone recently was on the Dawn through CAS. I am thinking about booking a cruise but have only been on the Jewel a few times. I spend a fair amount of time in the casino and after reading various boards about the Dawn, most comments were somewhat negative about the Casino staff, perks etc.

 

Any info you could supply me with would be appreciated! Are the machines newer? Do they give you the free dinners? ..the lovely plates of fruit etc to your room.

 

Have a great day!!

[scoobygirl]

I too am anxious to hear from someone recently on the Dawn with a comped cruise. Does anyone remember if the Dawn casino has the 2 cent Hot Hot Super Jackpot machine? It was on the Gem and the Spirit and I'm hoping its also on the Dawn. It's my all time favorite.

[Teesa1021]

As a regular slot player in Atlantic City. I was not that happy with the slot selections on the Dawn. I enjoyed the casino on the Gem better.. The slots on the Dawn were very dated in my mind with a few goods ones here and there. I like the new ones with the bonuses and touch screens that were on the Gem. One plus that I liked about the Dawn was that it had the new automated roullette machine.. Can anyone comment on the Jewel Casino. I will be on the Jewel in June.

[terrymtex01]

OP.. My opinion if you are looking at the casino for NCL is to book a cruise on the Pearl. So far she has the nicest casino of the NCL ships we have been on. Newer machines, bigger casino, etc.

 

As far as the Dawn specifically, I do agree that they had older machines. The largest amount I won for the whole 15 day cruise was on a .02 machine and a quarter machine. I could never really hit anything on a dollar or above machine.

 

As far as the staff.. well.. hmmmm.. how do I say this.. The servers and slot attendants were very nice, as usual for NCL. The actual casino staff I found to be cold, not helpful at all and at times I saw them down right rude to folks. I am sure we got a plate of something here and there in our room.. chocolates, etc.. but never got a comp'ed dinner or anything else like that which we have recieved in the past. I just chalked it up to the economy. I miss the days when NCL CAS used to give out the $30.00 in free slot play to random folks sitting at slot machines during their special events like the Monte Carlo night, etc. They used to announce several times throughout the night "If you are sitting at slot maching abc123 you just won $30.00 in free slot play".. but they haven't done that on the last two cruises we were on. When I asked a casino manager about that she told me they still give them out, but they just don't announce it over the PA system like they used to and the winner is chosen at random by a computer back in their office. Yeah right. LOL. I think she was about to try to sell me the London Bridge too.

[suz1607]

We were on the Dawn the last of March and I found the casino staff to be among the best I have experienced. Alex was fantastic! Our room was comped and something special was always appearing. In addition, we were comped at Le Bistro. I am a "heavy" slots player and cruise NCL several times a year.

[oprahcla]

I am a "heavy" slots player and cruise NCL several times a year.

 

What do you consider a "heavy" slots player? I just got off the Jewel and had a little over 13,000 points. I know I was in there alot but not sure if that means a whole lot.

 

Thanks for your input!! :)

[Duff Man]

We were on the Dawn last November. We play table games, mostly craps, and not the slots, so I can't help you there. Otherwise, I agree with the comment that the staff at tables was "cold", not really that friendly. For the most part we enjoyed it.

 

One night we wanted to play craps (about 11:00 p.m., not like it was wee hours of the morning), and one end of the table was crowded, but nobody at the other end. So of course we stepped up to the empty end. The pit supervisor says that end of the table is "closed" (there was no dealer standing there). What? Are you kidding? I've been to casinos hundreds of times and never heard of such a thing. So DW & I stood there with our arms folded, just watching. As people would step up, puzzled, and ask what was happening, we would say (loud enough), "This END is closed. Can you believe it? A casino that doesn't want you to bet?" After about four others stepped up, they called in a dealer, opened the end, I bought drinks for everyone on our end, and we had a good time (despite the cold staff). :cool:

[terrymtex01]

We were on the Dawn the last of March and I found the casino staff to be among the best I have experienced. Alex was fantastic! Our room was comped and something special was always appearing. In addition, we were comped at Le Bistro. I am a "heavy" slots player and cruise NCL several times a year.

 

I know it is wrong to assume this.. but if Alex is a guy then they have changed staff since we were on the Dawn in Nov. The management of the casino was all female at that time. And trust me we met them all.. LOL. I don't know if we would be considered heavy slot players or not, but we spent into five figures in the casino and were never comp'ed a dinner anywhere. I guess they thought the fact they had comp'ed us the AD on a 15 night cruise was enough.. LOL

[suz1607]

That is about what I played, I think. Just remember what type of stateroom you are offered depends somewhat on the cruise you chose. Or at least that has been my experience. For example, you would probably get offered a higher catagory on the Dawn in October than on the Epic in July.

[suz1607]

Alex is a lovely lady!

[terrymtex01]

Alex is a lovely lady!

 

See.. told you it was bad to assume.. LOL.

[emsiam]

terry

do you remember what slots were on the dawn?? thanks

[A1SusieQ]

What do you consider a "heavy" slots player? I just got off the Jewel and had a little over 13,000 points. I know I was in there alot but not sure if that means a whole lot.

 

Thanks for your input!! :)

 

Wow - 13,000 points!! I too just got off the Jewel. I thought I did some damage with 6,000 points. I know I lost alot to accumulate those points. I was in the casino every night it was open for about 3 hours. (Never during the day) I played Wolf Run alot and sometime Southern Bell or Wheel of Fortune. What were you playing most often?

[terrymtex01]

terry

do you remember what slots were on the dawn?? thanks

 

I was ill at the time and unfortunately what I was going through limits my memory a lot, but I do remember a Martian machine.. a Hamberger machine, about 4 or 5 WoF machines.. a bunch . .and I mean a BUNCH of $.02 machines, a Pink Panther machine.. other than that, I can't recall any other specifics. If you can find my review here on the boards and scan through it I mentioned the ones that we won a little on and a few I saw others win on. (which wasn't a lot.. LOL)

[emsiam]

I was ill at the time and unfortunately what I was going through limits my memory a lot, but I do remember a Martian machine.. a Hamberger machine, about 4 or 5 WoF machines.. a bunch . .and I mean a BUNCH of $.02 machines, a Pink Panther machine.. other than that, I can't recall any other specifics. If you can find my review here on the boards and scan through it I mentioned the ones that we won a little on and a few I saw others win on. (which wasn't a lot.. LOL)

 

thanks so much leave next sunday on the dawn cant wait we were on the pearl last year and loved the casino

 

jan

[oprahcla]

thanks so much leave next sunday on the dawn cant wait we were on the pearl last year and loved the casino

 

jan

 

 

I am anxious to hear about the casino and the games they have on the Dawn. Will keep checking in here for more information from you.

 

Thanks!

[oprahcla]

What were you playing most often?

 

I played everything, except the $1 machines. I love the Southern Belle but found I won more on the machines closest to the guest services desk. I won $500 a few times on those machines. I guess I just kept recycling the money I won plus spent a few thousand of my own. I never bet lower than .60 - .75 each time.

[EileenN]

Terri, you won on a farm machine with rows of pigs if I remember correctly. It was a multi line 2c machine opposite the video poker low machines. I will never forget the smile on your face with that win.

[emsiam]

I am anxious to hear about the casino and the games they have on the Dawn. Will keep checking in here for more information from you.

 

Thanks!

 

i will let you know as soon as we get back we sail on the 9th ....... till then

 

jan

[WonderMan3]

We were on the Dawn in January and I have to echo the previous comments about the "cold" casino staff. There were two casino hosts during our cruise, one was a male who we never met and who always seemed to be hiding away in the casino office. I don't think I ever saw him interacting with any guests. The other host was Magdalena. She was around more often than the other guy but still spent a lot of time off the casino floor and back in her office. She usually was only out interacting with guests at "required" times like slot tournaments, hot seat promos, monte carlo night, nightly lotto drawing, etc. We found Magdalena to be very fake. She was all smiles when she would speak to you but it was very disingenuous and with a lot of forced laughter and uncomfortable chit chat; she was just not a people person at all.

 

As for the other staff, we found the slot attendants to be generally indifferent. There was one Asian male who was downright rude though. A few times I encountered him because of a jammed ticket in a slot and came over with a scowl on his face and threw open the slot with force and was just projecting a lot of anger. I thanked him when he was done and he just stormed off; very unpleasant. The cash cage attendants were a mixed bag. Some were very nice while others were not. All of the servers in the casino though were extremely pleasant and we wound up having one guy who sort of became our personal server. He was always around for us and would hang out and chit chat and he'd get top shelf liquor for our comped drinks even though he wasn't supposed to. We of course tipped him well. I think that's why he came around often. I think a lot of the players were being stingy with tips.

 

Beyond all the personality issues, the staff treated us pretty well with benefits. We had various treats sent to our cabin (we were in an AB, upgraded from a comped AE). Magdalena came up to us about halfway through our 9 day cruise and offered us a comped meal with free bottle of wine at a specialty restaurant of our choice. We wound up going to Le Bistro. Towards the end of the cruise we also managed to covince her to comp us another meal at another specialty as a reward to one of my companions as he won the slot tournament. (We were only joking but she went along with it so we didn't mind). We chose the Mexican restaurant for that one.

 

We had a much better experience on the Jade. The host Jules was much more friendly and sociable with guests and was a regular presence on the casino floor. The staff in that casino both attendants and servers were all great as well.

[WonderMan3]

In response to the question about slots on the Dawn. Here's what I can remember from January. They changed a number of machines during our cruise though so the ones I'm listing may have already changed:

 

Cleopatra

Bombay

Hoot Loot

Gusher

Roman Dynasty

Neptune's Kingdom

Neptune's Kingdom II

Glitz

Dean Martin's Wild Party

Game of Dragons

Davinci Diamonds

Jade Monkey

Hot Hot Super Jackpot

(Reels O'Dublin, Double Easy Money, Golden Chariots, Stroke of Luck)

50 Lions

Gifts of the Gods

Big Money Cheese Caper

Pegasus

The Munsters

Great Scott

Wheel of Fortune - traditional reels

Pink Panther - reels

Carnival of Mystery

Double Triple Diamond Deluxe With Cheese - reels

Money Mad Martians - reels

Little Green Men