We have a pretty straightforward question from a player who is wondering about cruise ship casinos:
How often do cruise ships change out their slot machines?
Karen H.
We had an experience once boarding a cruise ship two years after a previous cruise on the same ship, to find that virtually every machine was basically the same as it was on the previous sailing.
To be fair to the cruise line, the sailings were before and after the COVID shutdowns, when for a time the cruise lines were more focused on just getting things back to full capacity vs. installing fresh machines.
The answer is like land-based casinos in that it varies. But many cruise lines seem to be embarking in more investment in this area, just like their land-based casino counterparts.
For instance, Carnival Cruise Line has been adding more smokefree casino options, part of the reason why Brian Christopher has partnered with them. As these are new spaces, this no doubt means an investment in some new games. But even on ships that have this more established, we’ve been pleasantly surprised on more than one occasion to find new games we had yet to see in land-based casinos.
It was a Carnival ship where we saw one of the first instances of Devil’s Lock, for instance. And one of Brian’s favorite games to play on a ship, Dragon Legends Fire Gem and Aqua Gem, was a game we first played on Carnival ships.
The competition for the gambler between cruise lines is growing, and with that marketing that touts the installation of new slots. We’ve seen multiple lines touting these investments as a selling point, so we expect this more regular and quicker investment in casinos to be maintained for awhile, just like the addition of more smokefree casinos on cruise ships continues.
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