Best Cruise Ship Casinos – Play with Slot Bonuses on Your Ship
The biggest and most luxurious cruise ships in the world are like full sized hotels floating on the high sea. Sometimes they even contain hotel-adjacent facilities, as well as cinemas, shops and gyms aren’t even particularly rare. But most importantly, if the ship has room for extras, there better be a casino.
In fact, as cruise ships tend to be less popular as a family holiday these days, cruise ship casinos that cater to adults are more popular than ever. There are a lot of cruises to choose from in this category, so before you go on your first voyage it can be good to read up on what to expect.
What to Expect From a Cruise Ship Casino
While many cruise ships offer only a small selection of slots or a table or two for blackjack, you can rest assured that this isn’t the norm for a cruise ship casino. A good rule for researching casino cruises on your own is to look for either big ships or cruises that specifically advertise as a casino.
The games that are offered on both are blackjack and the traditional variations of poker: Texas Hold’em, Three Card, Caribbean etc. Roulette is fine if it’s digital, but a real ball rolling around on a moving ship? Sounds like a recipe for complaints and rerolls. Craps is rare, although some American cruises does offer this.
A much more common casino game for cruises are slots. The relaxed mood you get from spinning the reels is multiplied when you combine it with an ocean view. It’s more common to find digital slots where you can select from numerous different games on a single machine, and if you find older kinds they tend to be classics.
Top 5 Casino Cruises
Life on a cruise ship seems to exist on an alternate timeline. Days stretch out forever, whether you’re doing nothing but lounging or meticulously exploring every single deck and trying everything the ship has to offer. This paradox of perceptual time goes together with the out-of-time magical feel of a casino like nothing else.
If you have sea legs – which, to be honest, on a cruise ship you don’t really need – and love casinos, take a look at this list of the very best cruise ship casinos out there.
Queen Mary 2
This list is starting off BIG. The RMS Queen Mary 2 is no ordinary cruise ship, as she was constructed to bring her passengers across the Atlantic. That makes her an ocean liner, and the biggest in the world at that. There’s no shortage of room here, so while the ship isn’t exclusively built to be a casino, you’ll find the facilities more than adequate.
There are nine tables for all the proper casino games: Roulette, blackjack and the most common poker variations. The tables are circled in by rows of slots, most of which are digital and with moderate bets. You can bet a fairly high amount on the tables – up to $500 – but it’s best to think of the casino as a fairly normal casino offering on a really great ship.
While you’ll find better casinos on our list, it’s the rest of the ship that puts Queen Mary 2 on top for most cruise veterans. There are fifteen different places to go to eat or drink, there are places to go to formal events, there are several swimming pools, and even a planetarium that also functions as a 3D cinema!
Sunborn Gibraltar Yacht Hotel
Now here’s an idea for those of you that have taken to heart how incredibly polluting cruise ships are. The Sunborn Gibraltar luxury yacht is permanently parked in the beautiful Ocean Village Marina, so you can enjoy a green(ish) stay with everything you’d find on a smaller size cruise ship. Including an amazing casino.
Sunborn Admiral Casino aboard the yacht has a vibe like few others. It’s on the smaller side, but over two floors, and it looks exclusive. A lot of reflective surfaces and cool lights makes it feel larger and gives it a futuristic look. Most importantly, it has a good variety of tables and slots – adding Punto Banco to the normal list of poker variations, as well as blackjack and roulette.
Carnival Vista
If you see Carnival in a ship name, you expect something a bit more jovial. For Carnival Vista this is clear from the overview, with her over-the-top colour schemes and fun atmosphere everywhere you go. While she has a lot to offer for children, there’s no shortage of adult activities on board.
For gamblers, there’s over 200 slot machines and 22 tables. Poker players get some extra love with their own pro tables, and there’s craps. You can tell the Carnival line puts a bit of extra thought into their casinos by having their own brand name game, Fun 21. And, the more you play, the more free drinks you get – a potentially dangerous but incredibly fun combination!
Allure of the Seas
Finally, a proper cruise ship on this list, right? This extremely American ship is just how you imagine it, whether that’s good or bad. It has something for everyone in the family, and honestly, it’s more like a whole city than a floating hotel. Numerous bars, restaurants, shops, a water park, and she’s almost all of five centimetres larger than her sister ship, Oasis of the Seas.
The casino looks like something you’d find in Las Vegas, and like all Royal Caribbean cruise ships’ casinos it’s called Casino Royale. 27 tables with all the usual games, as well as craps. Allure of the Seas’ casino is known for having a helpful and informative staff, and, naturally, for how incredibly large it really is. 18 000 square feet is more than most European casinos on land!
Norwegian Escape
Norwegian Cruise Line is well known for giving cruise experiences in really warm places. With the name, you’d expect at least a polar cruise of some kind. But nonetheless, this cruise line has made a name for itself by being one of the biggest cruise companies in the world, and Norwegian Escape is one of their newest ships.
This is where you’ll find one of the most complete casino experiences the cruise world has to offer, with an incredible 28 tables and over 300 slot machines. While it’s the most extensive casino on this list, it does however look a bit generic. Norwegian Escape is for the professional gambler, who’s more into the no nonsense vibe – while travelling through some of the most beautiful places in the world.
Play casino slots on cruise ships with special bonuses
Most cruise ships offer a comprehensive casino experience to their customers. Of course, the casinos that the cruise ships host are usually quite small and they are lacking the variety of slot machines you can find online or at the best land-based casinos – maybe they are more focused on table games. This can be tiring, especially when you travel for more than a few days. But worry not, dear!
If and when the cruise ship that you are on has a proper internet connection, you are covered. The web is filled with different online casinos. Most of them are packed with slot machines, and the total of those kinds of games can go as high as up to a 1 000!
The popularity of online slots has created a ripple effect. Most slot sites will offer at least one amazing slot bonus – UK players especially are spoilt for choice! Slots bonuses give the players a nice edge over Lady Luck, boost their winnings and are the great advantage that online casinos offer over traditional casinos like the ones hosted aboard cruise ships.
After a nice day of relaxing by the pool of the cruise ship, enjoy the comfort of your cabin or a suite and find the best online with the best slots for you!