While visiting Dollar Tree's Jessup, Maryland store, I stumbled upon 3 different types of Wai Lana's Cassava Pops. They're like potato chips but, they're made with cassava (yuca root) which is native to Central and South America. Wai Lana turns the root into a paste and then applies a little heat and pressure to make the chip like pops. The advantage of doing this is there aren't any added calories from frying or baking.
The pops come in 3 flavors: sea salt (125 calories per serving). luau bar-b-que (120 calories per serving) and volcano (110 calories per serving). Volcano is the hot and spicy flavor though I didn't find it that hot. The luau bar-b-que is supposed to sweet & tangy. As I haven't tried this flavor yet, I don't know if that's true or not. On the sea salt flavor, I found the chips tasty.
Each flavor comes in 3 ounce (3 servings) bags at Dollar Tree and cost $1 (of course).
Wai Lana states the pops don't have any gluten (certainly true as they're not made with wheat), are GMO and trans fats free, don't have anything artificial, are suitable for vegetarians and are kosher.
Allergy wise, Wai Lana warns that the pops are made in a factory that may contain soy, wheat and dairy though no peanuts or tree nuts.
The pops are made in the United States of America which is a little plus to me and are distributed by Wai Lana Snacks out of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Overall, I was very pleased with this product. I thought the 2 flavors I tried were tasty and, I look forward to having some more of this product. This product gets a thumbs up from me. Happy munching all!
Source of information on the product: the 3 bags I bought from the Jessup, Maryland Dollar Tree store with my own money. I'm not in any way affiliated with Wai Lana Snacks and all opinions stated in this review are my own.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Sunday, July 08, 2018
Review of Royal Caribbean's Scratch Off Games
I fancy myself something of an expert on lottery scratch off games as I've played a number of them in Maryland and a few in Virginia. I knew Royal Caribbean offered scratch off lottery tickets in their ship's casinos. While on my April 2018 cruise on Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas, I visited the ship's casino and proceeded to play each of their scratch off games.
I wrote a review previously on Royal Caribbean's scratch off games and, this review is a bit of an update. The biggest change I found with Royal Caribbean in this way was they added $10 and $20 games. The $10 game offers a top prize of $50,000 and, the $20 game offers a top prize of $100,000. In comparison to Maryland Lottery's scratch offs, these prizes are low. Maryland Lottery offers a top prize of $100,000 for $10 games and, $1,000,000 (paid over 20 years) for $20 games.
Another downside I found to the Royal Caribbean games is the odds get worse! as they get more expensive. According to one of the tickets I bought, the overall odds of winning something in their $20 game called Glittering Gold are 1 in 5.09. In Maryland, the normal odds for a $20 game are 1 in 3 or slightly less. This confounded me a bit.
Overall odds for the $5 and $10 games are the same at 1 in 4.48 which in my opinion is also poor. These odds are more in line with Maryland Lottery's $1 games which offer the worst overall odds of all their games.
Their $10 game called 20X THE CASH offered the most instant winner chances. This game is very similar to Maryland Lottery's 100X game except the instant win symbols go from 2X to 20X whereas in the Maryland game, they go up to 100X. The instant win symbols are 2X, 5X, 10X and 20X where you win the prize instantly times the instant win symbol example: if you hit a 5X symbol, you win 5 times the prize shown below the symbol so, if it was a $20 prize, you would win $100 in this case.
The $20 game does have a one instant win chance on this game. At the top of the ticket is a round covered chance which you scratch off and if you scratch off a coin with a dollar symbol on it, you instantly win $100. Otherwise, this game is like ALL the other games in that you try to match 1 or more of the 5 numbers at the top of the ticket to win some prize.
Another gripe I have with Royal Caribbean is they don't show the various prize amounts in their games except for the top prize. Presumably, you have a chance of winning at least what the ticket cost you but, it's anyone's guess what prize amounts are in between that and the top prize.
One last note: if you win a prize of $100 or higher on ANY of the games, you will have to provide the following information on the ticket: sign your name, print your name, the prize amount, your cabin number and the date. Also, the cashier will have to sign the ticket.
Overall, I wasn't impressed with Royal Caribbean's scratch off games. Like all scratch off games in general, they're easy to play and probably the easiest games in the ship's casino. Still, the poor overall odds and smaller prizes are a real downer for me. I can't recommend them. I think players in the United States of America at least could find better games in their home states. Best of luck to any gamblers among my readers. Cheers!
Update February 3, 2019: I did another Royal Caribbean cruise last month on their Grandeur of the Seas. While on-board, I played some of their scratch off games again. I found another annoying thing about their games. They don't have a system where you can check the ticket electronically i.e. have a box figure you can scan where it'll tell you if you have a winner or not. This is standard in Maryland and helps prevent the player from mistakenly throwing away a winning ticket. Also, it helps the cashier as they have to check each number on the ticket to see if it matches vice just scanning the ticket. I mentioned this to the cashier and, they recommended I mention it in my end of cruise feedback which I subsequently did. Hopefully, Royal Caribbean will come out with such a system which will help both players and the casino cashiers with the games.
I wrote a review previously on Royal Caribbean's scratch off games and, this review is a bit of an update. The biggest change I found with Royal Caribbean in this way was they added $10 and $20 games. The $10 game offers a top prize of $50,000 and, the $20 game offers a top prize of $100,000. In comparison to Maryland Lottery's scratch offs, these prizes are low. Maryland Lottery offers a top prize of $100,000 for $10 games and, $1,000,000 (paid over 20 years) for $20 games.
Another downside I found to the Royal Caribbean games is the odds get worse! as they get more expensive. According to one of the tickets I bought, the overall odds of winning something in their $20 game called Glittering Gold are 1 in 5.09. In Maryland, the normal odds for a $20 game are 1 in 3 or slightly less. This confounded me a bit.
Overall odds for the $5 and $10 games are the same at 1 in 4.48 which in my opinion is also poor. These odds are more in line with Maryland Lottery's $1 games which offer the worst overall odds of all their games.
Their $10 game called 20X THE CASH offered the most instant winner chances. This game is very similar to Maryland Lottery's 100X game except the instant win symbols go from 2X to 20X whereas in the Maryland game, they go up to 100X. The instant win symbols are 2X, 5X, 10X and 20X where you win the prize instantly times the instant win symbol example: if you hit a 5X symbol, you win 5 times the prize shown below the symbol so, if it was a $20 prize, you would win $100 in this case.
The $20 game does have a one instant win chance on this game. At the top of the ticket is a round covered chance which you scratch off and if you scratch off a coin with a dollar symbol on it, you instantly win $100. Otherwise, this game is like ALL the other games in that you try to match 1 or more of the 5 numbers at the top of the ticket to win some prize.
Another gripe I have with Royal Caribbean is they don't show the various prize amounts in their games except for the top prize. Presumably, you have a chance of winning at least what the ticket cost you but, it's anyone's guess what prize amounts are in between that and the top prize.
One last note: if you win a prize of $100 or higher on ANY of the games, you will have to provide the following information on the ticket: sign your name, print your name, the prize amount, your cabin number and the date. Also, the cashier will have to sign the ticket.
Overall, I wasn't impressed with Royal Caribbean's scratch off games. Like all scratch off games in general, they're easy to play and probably the easiest games in the ship's casino. Still, the poor overall odds and smaller prizes are a real downer for me. I can't recommend them. I think players in the United States of America at least could find better games in their home states. Best of luck to any gamblers among my readers. Cheers!
Update February 3, 2019: I did another Royal Caribbean cruise last month on their Grandeur of the Seas. While on-board, I played some of their scratch off games again. I found another annoying thing about their games. They don't have a system where you can check the ticket electronically i.e. have a box figure you can scan where it'll tell you if you have a winner or not. This is standard in Maryland and helps prevent the player from mistakenly throwing away a winning ticket. Also, it helps the cashier as they have to check each number on the ticket to see if it matches vice just scanning the ticket. I mentioned this to the cashier and, they recommended I mention it in my end of cruise feedback which I subsequently did. Hopefully, Royal Caribbean will come out with such a system which will help both players and the casino cashiers with the games.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)