LTH Cruise in Penang, Malaysia

Although this may be a semi food post, but it serves as an 'early warning' to people who are curious towards trying the LTH Cruise in Penang, Malaysia (based on own opinion and not biased)... Well, when you first think of a short getaway, may it be a romantic holiday or a 1 day trip after exams/work in Penang, LTH cruise might run across your mind as the cruise departs from Penang itself and is hassle free without any booking requirement (usually there's space, but you might want to make a reservation if you're really keen on going). You might also think that a cruise getaway is romantic holiday but boy, you're in serious trouble if you're thinking that.

Before I begin, let me first introduce what the LTH Cruise is all about. LTH Cruise is actually a gambling cruise that departs from the Penang pier (near esplanade) everyday at 10am and 9pm. As it is illegal to gamble under the Malaysian Law unless licensed to do so, the LTH cruise would sail from the Penang pier to international waters for gambling to commence. The cruise would then retun back to drop off its passengers at 8pm and 9am (the following day if you have chosen to depart at 930pm) daily. The price of the cruise is RM60 for day trips (depart at 10am) which includes 2 meals and RM70-80+ for night trips (depart at 930pm) which includes 3meals.

The pier (Penang, Malaysia) from where we depart using a small ferry

Pic of the LTH Cruise (looks not bad ain't it??)

After paying RM60 for the ticket, we were asked to gather at the waiting area at the pier for a speedboat to bring us out to the cruise. As a person who went in aims of a nice short holiday and maybe to win some money, we were rather excited about this trip. So for amateur gamblers or even professional gamblers in Penang, this might be the solution for you instead of having to go all the way to Genting Highlands ( but still dun gamble too often la... no good... just to relax or play play can la). There's also another advantage of this cruise that is : those over 18 years of age are ALLOWED to gamble because its on international waters unlike Genting casino which only permits those above 21... However, I do have some cheeky underaged friends who managed to slip past the Genting casino guards unharmed who were below the age of 21 years old as they dressed up more maturely it seems (lets hope no bribing is done there...jk jk...lolz)...Nways, back to LTH Cruise...

When it was time, everyone was to line up and pass through customs in which they will check your ORIGINAL ID (so those of you who still bring a photocopy of your ic, pls rmb to bring the original one for this) - NO ORIGINAL ID, NO ENTRY - as well as scan your body for any dangerous equipment. After passing customs, the speedboat would then transfer its passengers on to the cruise itself..Looks 'not bad'  from the outside. However, upon reaching, we were ushered to the lions bar where there will be a game of bingo, where the winner will win 70% of the sales of the Bingo ticket. A bingo ticket cost RM10 and usually there would be around a 100 tickets sold. There are 2 sessions for Bingo. One at 10am and another at 7pm.

The real gambling could only begin once we reached international waters as the casino starts. We could see that there were many frequent customers in the casino with gaming cards. Which I think u could use to redeem a free room, gifts, etc. The games provided in the casino included baccarat, blackjack, three card poker, Caribbean stud poker and slots.

The casino is located at the ground floor which is divided into two sides. One is the main casino, while the other is just a small corners for gamblers to play a very unique game. The small corner only has a game which is similar to those roadside gambling stall and lack in professionality as the 'dealers' are actually wearing t-shirts, jeans and are happily smoking away. The main casino is fine, but nothing compared to genting (in Malaysia).. Crown Casino in Melbourne and Jupiters Casino in Sydney, Australia is so much better as well... Far above the standard and the age limit is only 16 years and above...

Note : MUSKY ODOUR- The insides of the cruise emits a musky odour smelling like the butchery in the market especially the kitchen and the restaurant. The smell is really bad at those areas and is able to make people nauseas just from smelling it... - FOUL ODOUR ALERT- This certainly brings down the standard by half.(no kidding)....

Aside from gambling, the cruise has a rather disappointing buffet line. For a gambling cruise, I would expect at least something which would not fall much behind hotel buffet standard. Once i stepped the restaurant, what I saw was a sea of people all queuing up for the buffet, and the tables were all fully taken that sharing tables is a must if one wants to eat. The buffet serving was as bad as the odour and there was only 4 main dishes to choose from (chicken curry, belacan egg, cabbage, shellfish) even my universities cafeteria offer more than 4 dishes. There is also porridge and some common condiments along with it.The condiment of the porridge were placed in METAL POTS. Yes, Its metal pots not even in a proper bowl. Damnit. The metal pots really looked like potty from far. A 'specials' corner was set up. They served Wanton Mee as their lunch special but with NOTHING SPECIAL!!!

For those of you who like to take photos, don't have such high hopes for LTH Cruise.. Whenever people mention about cruises, my mind always picture those big Star cruises we see in movies with swimming pools, bars, jacuzzi etc etc... U get my idea... Or even a deck like in Titanic where we could stand on the edge and maybe take a photo or two of the beautiful sea scenery.....However, LTH Cruise actually BLOCKS up the passage way to the deck and therefore entry is restricted... *shattered* our hopes of at least having nice photos taken with the background or even the ship...Any ship-like memories that could be taken were mostly from the walkway where you can see the sea in the back as though you were at the seaside (den why go for a cruise?? wtf, right?).... Oh well, LTH Cruise.....

Overall, I still find Genting Casino much better than the casino in LTH Cruise. Genting casino offers class, quality and comfort while LTH Cruise is more convenient (only for Penangites)... However, if you're feeling the itch to gamble and pure gambling only, then just go for a try (mebe once??)... But its a never again for me if I had other choices....

PS: Sorry for the lack of pics guys... My mood was so down that I just left my camera in the bag... nothing much to take as well since no photography is allowed in the casino and don't get me started about even wanting to snap any pics at the dining area!!!! urgh...

Till next time....