Recently, my friend and I went down to the Bahamas for a few days of fun in the sun. We decided on going with the Norwegian Sky as our boat, as it only cost us about $250 each for the 4 day mini-vacation. Being the gambling degen that I am, much of my time on the ship was spent in the on-board casino. We probably spent about 4 hours per day over a period of 4 days so here is a little write-up about my experience in their casino.
Casino Overview – The casino on the ship is relatively small. I am guessing on these numbers, but there are approximately 100 slot machines and 10 table games. The casino offered demos for games (if you didn’t know how to play) and also hosted a series of slot and blackjack tournaments where prizes reached up to $500.
Games – The casino had pretty much all the games you could ask for in a casino with the most popular being blackjack, roulette, craps (my personal favourite) and of course slots. There was also a single table for Casino Hold’em, and another for Let it Ride. They even had a single poker table tucked away in the corner, but I never made it over there to play. Most of the tables had a $10 minimum, with a few blackjack tables posting a $25 minimum. Slots ranged from pennies up to a few dollars.
Staff – The staff in the casino were amazing. After playing for a few hours on the first day, I think pretty much every staff member (dealers and pit bosses) knew my friend and me by name. This was definitely one of the highlights for me as I felt the staff made the experience in the casino much more enjoyable. The guy bringing drinks around always checked in on us (almost every 10 minutes) to make sure we were topped up. That might be due to our excessive tipping, but it was well worth it for that level of service.
Comps – This is one of the biggest downfalls of the casino. My friend and I both had average bets of around $75/hand over a period of 25+ hours. In exchange all we received was a drink card for free drinks in the casino and $10 in slot play. We tried to get them to at least comp one of our dinners in the paid restaurants on board (approx $15-$25/person) but they wouldn’t budge and said for that kind of a comp we would need to lose $3000 (a bit excessive in my opinion and comps should be based on play, not losses!).
All in all it was a lot of fun gambling on the high seas and I had a great time in their casino, but just don’t go to try and get any comps!
That one the comps is unfair! Normally, casino would go for profit, and very understandable. But to base your comps on losses is just plain unfair. Good thing, online casinos give great promotions. They even are very generous in terms of bonuses!
Obviously, I am not a fan of land-based or even ‘sea-faring’ casinos. Going online is my choice.