Adventure on the High Seas ~ Boat Gambling in Little River, SC

Let me preface this article by saying that I love to gamble.

On Tuesday, Gloria (nanatosevencutiepies) and I rode aboard the Suncruz Casino out of Little River, SC. Gloria had gotten free tickets from a time share viewing and we opted to use them to satisfy my gambling fix. I have been dying to go to Las Vegas again for over 2 years now, but have been unable to go. Tuesdays are free slot tournament days on the boat. So that was the hook that made us choose Tuesday rather than today.

There were a lot of storms that had passed through the area in the prior 24-hours. I actually had to drive right through the heart of them on Monday when I was leaving Atlanta to come here to South Carolina. That was an adventure in and of itself. But Tuesday morning in SC, the sun was breaking through the clouds and the afternoon promised to be partly sunny.

Once we were aboard the ship, we waited in line to get our Players Club cards. There was a no photo-taking policy inside the boat. So I won't have any photos of the actual games or us playing them I'm afraid.

After getting our cards, we climbed up to deck 3 for the free buffet and the slot tourney. First, the food was really sparse. Not only were there very few items to choose from, but what was available was kind of gross. I opted for 2 plain biscuts since nothing else looked even remotely appitizing and I like all things bread. The boat was cruising down the river during this time.

One we had achieved sustinance, we proceeded to spin the slot wheels for 2 minutes in the tornament. I ended up with 1409, which is pretty good earnings. However someone had gotten over 2K and that was a tough score to beat.

I went out on the deck to take a few photos and videos, and then came back inside to scout out the various slot machines available for play. They had several I'm familiar with from Vegas.

You could tell once the boat hit the actual ocean as the water became a lot rougher. They had said 3 ft seas, but I later found out they were 6-7 ft. Gloria immediately didn't feel so hot. The machines came on and I proceeded to lose my first $20 on quarter slots.

We headed to the basement of the ship to find the restrooms and that's when I was done in. I immediately became dizzy down there and knew the sea sickness was starting. I got finished and quickly headed upstairs to try to recover from the queezy feeling that was thretening to take over.

Sitting under an AC vent definitly helped. I was feeling somewhat better within 15 minutes, but Gloria was still feeling sickly. The roulette game was directly infront of where we were seated and I sat down to play.  I like roulette because if you simply play the minimums and if your numbers are lucky, you can actually win quite a bit of money, not to mention take up a lot of time. With the two of us not feeling so spunky, killing time was definitely called for.

I don't know how long it took, but at one point during play, I felt that stomach gurgle and knew I was going to toss my biscuts (pun intended). I had scoped out a trashcan with a large opening was only about 10 feet away just in case, and this time I dove for it. That was the first of several times I had to hang my head into the trashcan during the ride. I haven't thrown up so much since before I quit drinking almost 15 years ago. It was awful.  I was glad I had a lot of tissues (to clean up), a hair tie (to save the hair from barf splatter) and that Gloria had several packs of breathmints (to save the other people from having to smell me).

For most of the remaining cruise, I alternated myself from playing at the roulette table and hanging my head in the trashcan. What a wild ride, ugh.

The game table guys were offering up jokes - she takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin, and information after each of my puke sessions. It was at this point I was told that a lot of people were sick onboard because of the rough seas. They were all laying on the benches on the upper decks for the entire ride.

It apparantly is not normally this rough out on the water. I was also given a pointer that anytime the wind is blowing from the Southwest, don't go on one of these cruise boats. I am storing that info away for the future since I would like to try the other casino company, Big M and their newer boat, at least once. I'll just make sure that it's a glorious and wind free day when I do, lol.

Because my back was to where Gloria was seated, I didn't see her several trips to the trashcan. She and I seemed to alternate throughout the 5 hour ride though. And I don't think she's ever willing to go back again, lol.

As far as winning big, I didn't. I had saved up $200 to gamble with and I had $86 when we docked. I had gotten down as low as $40 but was able to win some back on the roulette table just before the games ended.

My assessment is that the slots are not loose at all. I think one of my best spins yielded me 30 quarters. Considering I have hit a progressive jackpot of over 3K in Vegas before, these slots were a freaking joke. I probably wouldn't waste much time on slots in the future. I did do well off and on with roulette though, at one point being ahead about $115. Plus I have fun playing it. My luckiest numbers were 22, 29, 32, 19 and splitting the 0s.

Being sick the whole time, and not having anything left in my system by the time we docked, made me realize how starved I was. After finding a few geocaches, Gloria and I headed to Quiznos for some good eats. We also visited Mrs Fields to pick up some dessert.  Now THAT hit the spot.

Thanks for reading about our crazy adventure.