What is a poker cruise?

I have many people ask me, “What is a poker cruise?” I know many people who have been playing poker for a while have heard of poker cruises, but many new comers have not. A poker cruise is a great way to spend a vacation; it is really two vacations in one. Instead of flying to Las Vegas or another “poker mecca” to play poker; a poker cruise offers you a way to see exotic places, the luxury of being on board a floating resort and the ability to play poker. A regular cruise offers you a casino on board the ship, which is great for the black jack or slot player, but most do not offer live poker; they do however have one or two computerized tables…for many of us this just doesn’t cut it…we could stay home and play Full Tilt, or one of the various other online sites. A poker cruise offers you a full service poker room on board the ship; and is open anytime the ship is not in port. Since the ship’s casino and the card room must close when in port it gives plenty of time to check out the port of call.

These days there are a few poker cruise companies out there; Crown Poker Cruises being one of them. Our inaugural cruise was November 2008 to the Caribbean ports of Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. This was a wonderful cruise; we were able to meet some really great people that have continued to book on every subsequence cruise. Since then we have taken two other cruises – Mexico November 2009 and the Caribbean March 2010. Our most recent cruise in March took us to the magnificent islands of St. Maarten, St. Lucia and St. Kitts. As many of you have read, I had a terrific time in St. Maarten aboard the Random Wind sailboat! We are currently taking bookings for our next great escape – 8 day Thanksgiving cruise, November 20-28, 2010. This cruise will take us to three exotic ports of call that we have not been to yet, Cozumel, Mexico - Limon, Costa Rica – Colon, Panama; this cruise departs from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We are currently organizing an amazing excursion through the Costa Rica rain forest! In April of 2011 we will be departing from Galveston, Texas for the first time! We are offering a wonderful 7 day cruise to Montego Bay, Jamaica – Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands - Cozumel, Mexico. Then is September of 2011 we have a fabulous surprise cruise – 14 days and you will not believe the destinations! I can’t tell you just yet, but make sure you check our website (www.CrownPokerCruises.com) routinely because you won’t want to miss this one!

Life on board a poker cruise…

If you have never cruised before a cruise is a wonderful way to experience a world class floating resort, the best thing of all is a cruise takes you to exotic locations all around the world, and if you so choose you can get there in your bath robe or bathing suit! On board a cruise ship you will be pampered by the crew, you won’t have to make your bed or pick up your towels – the towel ninja will do that for you! You will have the opportunity to eat gourmet meals, enjoy Broadway style shows and entertainment, sit by the pool, go to the gym, or enjoy the spa…there is so much to do on board a cruise ship and when you add in the poker room it makes a cruise simply irresistible!

Crown Poker Cruises poker room…

We operate a friendly poker room that is very inclusive whether you are a novice player or the seasoned pro. Our poker room is staffed by professionals that have been in the business for many years. Deb Wohle run’s the poker room; she has been in the poker industry for well over 20 years! She has owned her own card room in California, played all over the world, worked card rooms all over the country, played in the World Series, worked the World Series, is an accomplished dealer, floor person, card room manager, and the best of all my partner and mother in law! Crown Poker Cruises only employs professional dealers; whether they are from Las Vegas or your local card room, they are simply the best dealers around. For the novice player we offer daily beginner lessons, a beginners table so that they can test out their new skills and a final beginner tournament.

Anytime the ship is at sea the poker room is open! Well…if everyone decides to sleep, then we close! We offer our players a friendly card room that they can let their hair down, relax and play poker…they are multiple tables, structured and no limit. We offer tournaments throughout the cruise with various buy-ins. There is a $1000 Free Roll Tournament for early bookings on the next two cruises as well as a $500 Free Roll Tournament for past cruisers, so it definitely pays to cruise with us again and again! There are always great raffles and a grand prize raffle that will nock your socks off at the end!

We love our cruisers and truly believe our motto, “We treat our PLAYERS like ROYALTY”. Join us on the next cruise and we will make sure that you get the ROYAL TREATMENT too!

Check us out on the web: www.CrownPokerCruises.com

You can reach Christina or Deb at 877-38-POKER

HERE’S TO CRUISING THE HIGH SEAS!

Favorite Excursion ~ St. Maarten

The island of St. Maarten is located in a beautiful part of the Caribbean ocean, the azure water turns to a turquoise color that defies imagination. While visiting the island on a previous cruise I had rented a Jeep and drove around the entire island…that was fun, but to see the island from the bow of a 54 foot traditional sailboat is one of the best experiences I have ever had. In April we were in St. Maarten. As an early cruise booking bonus we, Crown Poker Cruises, charted a sailboat named the Random Wind and took a group of cruisers out for a wonderful day of sailing around the island. Our terrific experience started out with the crew of the boat. The owner of the boat Diane walked to the cruise terminal and picked us up. The sailboat was a short walk down the bustling highway that encompasses the island. I say a short walk, but if you are elderly or unable to walk long distances I would not recommend the walk, instead hop on the water taxi, it is located close to the cruise pier exit and the water taxi will deliver you a short distance from where the sailboat picks you up. When we made it to the sailboat awaiting us there was Trevor, a tan salty dog with a charming British accent, he fit the role of boat captain to a “T”. He helped everyone board the boat and he and Di made us all feel welcome aboard the vessel. After our safety briefing we were off to sail the high seas, well maybe the low seas around the island… The view of the island was breath taking! Our cruise ship happen to be in port on a day like no other, there were 7 other cruise ships in St. Maarten that day, that is a huge population increase for an island that is 36 square miles and has a population of 75,000 people. We found ourselves the lucky ones, only 18 of us on a beautiful sailboat with only the amazing views of the sea and ocean surrounding us. We had wonderful sail and tossed anchor in a little cove where we were able to swim and snorkel. Unfortunately this is where we ran into the masses…or rather they ran into us. We were the first boat to anchor in the cove and along came another half dozen catamarans loaded with enthusiastic passengers who were just dying to get into the same water we were leisurely snorkeling in. Saved from the schooling humans by the conch horn blow, we all made our way back to the boat for a fabulous chicken curry rice dish, salad and fruit. Di our hostess made sure that we were all plied with the beverages of our choice; I being a rum girl, on a sail boat with Jimmy playing in the back ground was all too happy to consume boat drinks! After our “scrum-delicious” lunch Trevor and Di had a surprise for us, they called it the Tarzan swing; we all just called it a really good time! Almost all of the cruisers tried their trapeze skills, many of us got a bit crazy with attempts of flips off the swing, but not this girl! I saw the ways those guys belly flopped and face flopped – they looked like a freight train crashing into a wall, I saw all the pink, it looked painful! I did enjoy flying through the air and free falling into the water. It is amazing to be able to swim in water that you can see 20 to 30 feet below you and is as warm as bath water. After our circus show was complete we had to make our way back to the dock, toss our crazy group off the boat and watch the Random Wind sail off into the horizon. It really was a day of pure happiness and joy for this pirate girl who is getting way too close to turning forty!