Bingo

The daily high-stakes bingo games are even more popular than the casinos. You can play for as little as a dollar a card. Most ships have a bingo game with a jackpot that snowballs throughout the cruise into hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Another popular cruise pastime is the so-called "horse race": Fictional horses are auctioned off to "owners." Individual passengers can buy a horse or form "syndicates." Bids usually begin at around $25 and can top $1,000 per horse. Races are then "run" according to dice throws or computer-generated random numbers. Audience members bet on their favorites.

Game Rooms

Most ships have a game or card room with card tables and board games. These rooms are for serious players and are often the site of friendly round-robin competitions and tournaments. Most ships furnish everything for free (cards, chips, games, and so forth), but a few charge $1 or more for each deck of cards. Be aware that professional cardsharps and hustlers have been fleecing ship passengers almost as long as there have been ships.

There are small video arcades on most medium and large ships. Family-oriented ships often have a computer learning center as well.

Casinos

Once a ship is 12 miles off American shores, it is in international waters and gambling is permitted. (Some "cruises to nowhere," in fact, are little more than sailing casinos.) All ocean liners, as well as many cruise yachts and motor-sailing ships, have casinos. Larger vessels usually provide such table games as poker, baccarat, blackjack, roulette, and craps. On most ships the maximum bet is $200; some ships allow $500.

Payouts on the slot machines (some of which take as little as a nickel) are generally much lower, too. Credit is never extended, but many casinos have handy credit-card machines that dispense cash for a hefty fee.

Casinos are usually open from early morning to late night, although you may find only unattended slot machines before evening. In adherence to local laws, casinos are always closed while in port.

Lectures

Some ships may offer a lecture series featuring expert speakers. You can attend the lectures in person (usually they're held in the main lounge) or watch them on your in-cabin TV. These lectures can be the highlight of your cruise, providing insight into your next port of call. They can also be (and often are) nothing more than shopping talks.

If enrichment is high on your list of cruise priorities, check the credentials of the speakers. Cruise lines with serious lecture programs usually list the participants in their brochures and outline their expertise. On a few big ships, there may be as many as five expert speakers on any given cruise, representing anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, geology, oceanography, and other fields. There may even be a theme tying all the disciplines together. The smallest ships may have only one speaker -- a historian or naturalist -- who conducts shipboard talks and leads excursions ashore.

Movie Theaters

All but the smallest vessels have a room for screening movies. On older ships and some newer ones, this is often a genuine cinema-style movie theater. On other ships, it may be just a multipurpose room. The films are frequently one or two months past their first release but not yet available on videotape or cable TV. Films rated "R" are edited to minimize sex and violence. On a weeklong voyage, a dozen different films may be screened, each one repeated at various times during the day. Theaters are also used for lectures, religious services, and private meetings.

Many shipboard libraries also stock videotapes that can be played on the in-cabin VCRs. Almost all ships these days show recently released movies on their closed-circuit television systems. Some also show satellite news programming like CNN International, which has become standard fare on most in-cabin TVs.

Nightlife

On ocean liners, the main entertainment lounge or showroom schedules nightly musical revues, magic acts, comedy performances, and variety shows. During the rest of the day the room is used for group activities, such as shore-excursion talks or bingo games.

Generally, the larger the ship, the bigger and more impressive the productions. Newer ships have elaborate showrooms that often span two decks. Some are designed like an amphitheater while others have two levels -- a main floor and a balcony. Seating is sometimes in clusters of armchairs set around cocktail tables. Other ships have more traditional theater-style seating.

Many larger ships have a second showroom. Entertainment and ballroom dancing may go on here late into the night. Elsewhere you may find a disco, nightclub, or cabaret, usually built around a bar and dance floor. Music is provided by a piano player, a disc jockey, or by small performing ensembles such as country-and-western duos or jazz combos.

On smaller ships the entertainment options are more limited, sometimes consisting of no more than a piano around which passengers gather. There may be a main lounge where scaled-down revues are staged.

Entertainment

Many cruise lines publish a daily schedule of events, listing all of your entertainment options. It becomes the equivalent of your daily newspaper, delivered to your cabin every evening.

You will probably want to get a sense of what a typical day on board will be like before you sail. To see a sample daily events schedule, it's possible to call the cruise line and request a recent copy of the onboard newsletter. Some cruise lines also send out booklets detailing the daily schedules before sailing. Most cruise line Web sites list the entertainment options available on board. Both Holland America and Princess Cruises publish their daily itineraries on their Web sites.