Celebrity's Summit -- one of the line's four Millennium class ships -- is a far better bet than most upscale cruise ships if you are a Wynn Las Vegas or Bellagio type player looking for a great cruise and a good-sized, active casino.

On many high-end cruise ships, the tradeoff you make for those nicer accommodations and fine meals is a casino that has relatively few tables, short hours, and low minimums/maximums.

But Fortune's Casino on the Summit, on this latest cruise, not only had a busy $25/$500 blackjack table, but offered evening players a $50/$1,000 game and some nights upon request a $100/$2,000 game.

Moreover, the tables generally were going strong well after 3 am, and on at least one occasion were still dealing winning hands to players at 4:30 in the morning.

A strong positive for VIP players on Royal Caribbean's Millennium class ships is the use of "shoes" -- rather than continuous shuffling machines -- for all blackjack games. A slight negative is that the house hits on "soft" 17.

Entering the Summit's casino from any direction, a player runs a gauntlet of slot machines before reaching the bank of 12 table games arrayed in the middle of the floor.

On this cruise, the slots were also busy since Celebrity's Blue Chip Club -- the cruiseline's tracking program for VIP players -- was holding an invitational tournament for slots as well as a tournament for blackjack players.

In addition to the multi-deck blackjack games, Fortune's Casino offered single-deck blackjack, three-card poker, Caribbean stud poker, roulette and craps tables.

Off to one side of the table games just in front of the bar was a Texas Hold 'em table (shown below), which was the scene of heated action much of the cruise.

A strong point of every Celebrity casino, in our experience, is the dealers. They are not only competent but are among the most personable at sea. Fortune's Casino supervisors also were very attentive to Blue Chip Club members, and comped drinks were quick to appear for higher-stakes players.

Celebrity casinos, in our view, have gotten a lot better in the last couple of years. The Blue Chip Club continues to evolve, and the Celebrity cruise experience, for ships of this size, is hard to beat. For players accustomed to high-end Las Vegas casinos, Celebrity's casinos are winners.

--The Savvy Cruiser