Appeared in Poker Digest.

CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE CASINO CHIPS
A BRIEF HISTORY

"Wet Chips" attracted me to the great hobby of chip collecting. This is the name hobbyist have assigned to chips used on cruise lines. Some of the first chips I obtained were from Carnival Cruise Lines. I realized there were several variations in the first few Carnival chips I acquired. With the help of Gene Trimble and a representative of Carnival Cruise Lines, I learned what those variations are.

Carnival Cruise Lines was established in 1971 by Ted Arison. With the backing of some financial partners he set out to obtain ships. The first ship purchased was from Canadian Pacific. It was called "Empress of Canada" and became Carnival's "Mardi Gras". It entered service March 7, 1972, and ran aground at the tip of Miami on her maiden voyage. In 1973 Carnival developed the marketing concept of the "Fun Ship". For the first time "having fun onboard" became the purpose of cruising while the destination became secondary. Until that time the destination had been the purpose for cruising. With this concept Carnival turned its first profit in 1975. With these profits Arison bought the "Mardi Gras'" sister ship, the "Empress of Britain". It went into service on February 7, 1976, as the "Carnivale". To make room for her at the port of Miami, Carnival shifted the "Mardi Gras" to Sunday sailings. No other line offered Sunday sailing and this became a very controversial decision. Eventually Carnival bought the "S.A. Vaal" which they renamed the "Festivale". Today Carnival is one of the largest cruise lines. It operates five separate cruise lines under the names Carnival Cruise Lines, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Seaborn Cruise Line and Winstar Cruises. They also own part of Airtours and together they own Costa Cruise Lines. The Carnival Cruise Line consists of the following ships:" Celebration", "Destiny", "Ecstasy", "Elation", "Fantasy", "Fascination", "Holiday", "Imagination", "Inspiration", "Jubilee", "Paradise", "Sensation", "Triumph", "Tropicale" and soon to be built Victory which is scheduled to have it's Inaugural cruise late summer of 2000. Other ships planned include the "Spirit" (2001), "Conquest"(2002) and "Glory" (2003).

Below are pictures of chips which are believed to have been used on the original three ships. Later, a more uniform type of chip was created for each ship that was in the Carnival Line. Although the exact year is not known, it is believed to be between 1980 and 1982. For those chips having a blue sky above the ship there appear to be several variation in the color of the mold of the chip and the inserts on each chip. For example one of the $5 chips with the blue sky has four grey and four light blue inserts. On another $5 chip with a blue sky above the ship the inserts are four dark blue and four gold inserts. This is also true with the $25 chip. One has four blue inserts and four gold inserts while another $25 chip with the same blue sky above the ship has four pink inserts and four purple inserts. It is not known why the brown and blue sky chips have what is commonly referred to as "the old boat" while all the other chips show "the new boat" on the chip. The year of the ship's introduction and the sky color of the chips that were used on each ship are as follows:
Mardi Gras 1972 Yellow
Carnivale 1976 blue
Festivale 1978 white
Tropicale 1982 green
Holiday 1985 red
Jubilee 1986 brown
Celebration 1987 purple
Fantasy 1990 orange

Over the years the chip colors became mixed among the Carnival ships. Even though it is believed that the chips have been purged from their original ships the different colors occasionally are found on other Carnival ships. Upon closer inspection there seems to be a few other variations. Some chips seem to have a peach color rather than orange. This could have resulted with a second run of chips. Additionally, there seems to be a lighter blue mold chip used than the more common colored dark blue mold with all other $1 chips. This also could be the result of an early run of chips, since it seems to appear only with those that have a blue sky above the ship. Additional Carnival chips identified are the 20th Anniversary $5 and Inaugurals from the "Sensation","Imagination","Inspiration", and "Fascination". More recently, a 20 cent and 50 cent chip have been introduced. Finally, a Millennium 2000 chip has become available.
If anyone has any other Carnival chips I would appreciate hearing from you.

John Long is an avid "Wet Chip" collector from Scottsdale, AZ, and member # 3656 in the Casino Chips & Gambling Token Collectors Club. He can be reached at Jhlmkl@earthlink.com
For more information on chip collecting, log on to ccgtcc.com, call 877-4CCGTCC or write to Jim Steffener at PO Box 368, Wellington, Ohio 44090.