from some reading on GC pages, i would tend to agree, though i havent personally played on one of these ships. it seems the rules are decent enough but pen is almost always the common denominator in making the games very hard to beat consistently. though from what ive read, sometimes you get lucky and find a dealer or two who cuts off a playable amount from the 8D shoe.
also, this is just a though, but i wonder how good the training of the cruise ship dealers is compared to land-based casino dealers. if cruise ships use less-than-stellar/sloppy dealers, other AP options might suffice such as shuffle-tracking, or especially hole-carding. but again, that is just a guess. anyone have any comments on the abilities of cruise ship dealers in general? i would be interested to know this.