Royal Flush or Royal Failure? The Best and Worst Cruise Ship Poker Rooms, Ranked

_{Test your poker face aboard a luxury cruise ship, where the stakes are high and the seas even higher. (Image: Casinos.com)}

Picture the scene: practicing your poker face, bluffing your way to victory while sipping on a cocktail and taking in the view. You could be in the Caribbean. You could be in the Med, floating through the icy seas of Alaska. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? 

Well, the good news is that poker is available on a lot of cruise ships, and you just need to be 18 or over to play. Some ships even hold poker tournaments for more serious players, so you can spend your time perfecting your game rather than partaking in the other (sometimes cringy) cruise activities. 

On the other hand, some cruise ships are happy to stick a single poker table in a dingy corner of a smoky casino room and call it a day. We’re here to lay the cards on the table and help you figure out which cruise poker rooms are worth it.

And if you’re planning your next vacation but aren't too into boats? Check out these top casino destinations around the world. Before we kick off, not all of the cruise ships we looked at mentioned poker at all. That would suggest they don’t have a poker offering worth mentioning, or there’s none at all.

These are the ships that made our list:

• Norwegian Encore
• Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas
• Norwegian Joy
• MSC Cruises MSC Seashore
• MSC Meraviglia
• Britannia
• MSC Virtuosa
• Norwegian Bliss
• Arvia
• Oasis of the Seas
• Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas
• Cunard Queen Mary 2 (QM2)
• MSC Grandiosa
• Iona
• Costa Smeralda

To determine which cruise ship offers the best poker, we trawled through thousands of Tripadvisor reviews, looking for certain keywords like “poker,” “poker room,” and “Texas Hold’Em.” 

We ranked each ship based on the number of keyword mentions per hundred reviews, and the results were actually quite shocking. 

So, which topped our list of the best cruise ships for poker? It was Norwegian Encore, with a score of 3.6 mentions per 100 reviews. Granted, there were only eight mentions in total, but still. 

“Cash game” came up three times, and “poker” and “poker room” were also mentioned. Unfortunately, one review said, “The tournament arranged was not ideal for serious players and a table for cash games for those that wanted it would have been better,” but if you’re going on a cruise, chances are you’re not looking for professional-level poker, just a bit of fun.

_{Norwegian Encore tops the poker charts with the most mentions. Casual cash games and a scenic setting? Yes please. (Image: Ian Dewar / Alamy)}

Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas came second, with a decent rating of 2.11 mentions per 100 reviews. This one claims to be “the most awarded ship in the world,” and when we did a bit of research, we found out that it even has a zipline, a climbing wall, and cuisine from all over the world.

Poker should be a no-brainer, right? We weren’t disappointed. One person complimented almost all aspects of the ship, including the cabins and the live entertainment, and even went on to say, “I won a poker tournament—yahoo!”

Norwegian Joy ranked third, but it received only five keyword mentions, which resulted in a total rating of 1.78 per hundred reviews. If you cruise on this one, you might be visiting exotic locations like Alaska or the Mexican Riviera, and the ship has plenty of activities, like a racetrack, water park, mini golf, and a casino with slots and table games. 

While the poker offering was called out in a few reviews, one person mentioned that the minimum bet was a little high, so they gave it a miss. 

_{Zipline by day, poker by night is possible on Allure of the Seas. (Image: Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg 8+ / Alamy)}

Down on the other end of the spectrum, Costa Smeralda came dead last. This ship only had one mention of any of our keywords out of 771 reviews. Named after the stunning coastline in Italy, this ship has 11 restaurants, 19 bars and lounges and 13 swimming pools, so perhaps you don’t need to play poker while you’re on board? 

Indeed, only one of our keywords got called out, and it was “cash game,” but upon closer inspection, we found out the person wasn’t even talking about poker.

Iona also received one keyword mention, resulting in a rating of 0.15 mentions per 100 reviews. This P&O ship usually cruises around the Norwegian Fjords, Northern Europe and the Canary Islands, and it boasts more than 30 restaurants and 10 entertainment venues. 

_{Norwegian Joy brings poker tables to Alaska views. (Image: Joe Hendrickson / Alamy)}

Although the only poker-related review mentioned “cash game,” the overall reviews were pretty positive, so maybe, just maybe, it’s possible to have an enjoyable experience without playing poker. 

Rounding out the worst of the worst, MSC Grandiosa got a rating of 0.18 reviews per 100, and that was also based on just one lonely keyword mention. One person used the word “cash game.” That’s it. Not one single mention of “great poker games” or “I wiped the floor with my poker opponents.” We’re also highly skeptical of the review that called this ship “Las Vegas on the sea” and proceeded to not mention the casino at all.

Overall, maybe it’s not worth booking your cruise holiday based on the poker rooms. We struggled to find even one that seemed to be worth our time. Serious players might want to stick to playing online (or perhaps swapping that cruise for a trip to Vegas), but if you just want to have a few casual games, Norwegian might be the best cruise company for poker.

Methodology

Casinos.com utilized Tripadvisor reviews to do an in-depth analysis of phrases associated with poker to determine the cruise ship that has the best poker. We calculated the percentage of poker-related mentions per hundred Tripadvisor reviews.

Keywords tracked: poker, poker room, poker night, Texas Hold’Em, poker tournament, cash game, no-limit poker, video poker, live poker.

Disclaimer 

The data in this article is intended for entertainment purposes only. Casinos.com does not claim any one cruise ship to offer “better poker” than another. Please don’t use the information presented in this article as gambling or betting advice, and as always, please bet responsibly. 

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