Travel Weekly - July 27, 2009

At Nick and Nora’s Supper Club, plate presentations are intricate and beautiful, from appetizer to entree to dessert.

From casino to spa, Carnival strives to keep adults busy, too

By Jerry Limone

Besides providing a vacation ser- vice for parents, Carnival’s kids’ programs boost onboard revenue. With the children under Carnival’s upervision, parents have more time to spend money on the ship. And on an eight-day cruise with four days at sea, there’s a lot of time for the spa, the casino, shopping and drinks on the pool deck.

Here’s a review of three adult activities during a Carnival Miracle cruise that departed New York in June:

• Nick and Nora’s Supper Club: During the cruise, I chatted with several passengers about Carnival’s alternative restaurant. They asked me if dinner at the Supper Club was worth the charge of $30 per person.

If your desire is a restaurant that’s quieter and more romantic than the bustling main dining room, then the Supper Club delivers. The restaurant is located on the sun deck, so if your reservation time coincides with the sunset, you won’t be disappointed.

Service in the main dining room is impeccable, but the Supper Club wait staff is even more attentive. Also, there is more culinary artistry at the Supper Club. Plate presentations are intricate and beautiful, from appetizer to entree to dessert.

How about the food? The Supper Club, which specializes in steaks and chops, cooks a mean New York strip. But steaks and chops served in the main dining room are just as good. The portions are bigger at the Supper Club, but that’s a weak value proposition on a cruise ship, where there’s food everywhere you turn.

dealers’ tips when they win a pot.

From Carnival’s perspective, it doesn’t have to pay a dealer. For that reason, I was disappointed that the rake was so high. For every $10 in the pot, the casino kept $1,

with a maximum rake of $7. The maximum was reached quite often. In comparison, casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City typically cap the rake at $4 or $5, and that’s for games that use a human dealer.

Unfortunately, that’s the type of anti-player mathematics one typically finds in any cruise ship casino, not just on Carnival. The payouts for video poker also are well below Vegas and Atlantic City standards.

Nick and Nora’s Supper Club is quieter and more romantic than the Carnival Miracle’s main dining room.

• Spa Carnival: It’s not unusual to encounter the hard sell on a cruise ship. For example, aggressive sales tactics are used in the photography areas and outside the spa.

In our case, that hard sell continued even during the treatment. My wife, Christa, received a pedicure and a massage at the spa and was perturbed that the spa attendant relentlessly pushed products.

• Mr. Lucky’s Casino: As an avid poker player, I was pleased to see an automated poker table on the Carnival Miracle.

When there’s no dealer, the game moves along a lot faster, enabling you to see a lot more hands. That’s good for the player and Carnival, which stands to make a lot more money in rake (the percentage that the casino takes from every pot) with the game moving so quickly. Plus, players save on