Found 14 ratings (with comment) on this game

Probably the best cocktail ever made. It plays a lot like a widebody. fun theme, fun shots. Scoring is not very balanced (some features are not worth going for and some are dominant) but the game never seems to get old from a fun factor perspective. I love mine and can't see getting rid of it ever.

Caribbean Cruise is one of those games where I can't help but smile while I'm playing it, even when I'm playing horribly. The music is upbeat and cheery, the playfield art is so cheesy that it's great and the shots are varied, challenging and just plain enjoyable.

Now keep in mind this is a cocktail machine, faux wood grain paneling and all. And yet, for its diminutive size, it packs a wallop!

The playfield is a masterpiece. How in the world can you fit 4 flippers, 3 inlanes, 2 pop bumpers, 3 drop targets, 11 standup targets, 3 star rollovers, 2 spinners and a kickout saucer all on a small playfield without it seeming like a cluttered mess?! Well John Trudeau figured it out, and it works. It's kind of divided into 3 sections: main, top and left side. The flippers mostly have their assignments, but there are some backhand and across the playfield shots that are extremely satisfying and often necessary to avoid a cheap drain.

The dmd is inlaid into the middle of the playfield which is pretty nice. You can watch the rudimentary animations and keep tabs on your score while keeping your eyes on the playfield.

The scoring though, ugh. It's unbalanced for sure. Multiball jackpots while the multiplier is boosted is pretty much the way to go. This is so unfortunate, because one of the most enjoyable modes is the skeet shooting where you try to time your shot and hit the lit target for a million points. It sure feels more like duck hunting than skeet shooting though!

This game is for sharpshooters and, if you aren't one already, you will become one after a few hundred games. It plays fast due to the short playfield, and is often unforgiving with missed shots. Not much flow here except on the left side, flipper to the spinner. It goes warp speed after the second in a row. Getting three in a row feels amazing because the ball is moving so fast it's just muscle memory at that point. I've never gotten four in a row.

All in all a great game. Oddly enough, the reason I chose this game to represent the 80's, rather than a Williams System 11, is because I needed a machine that could go right in front of my breaker panels while still allowing access. It's perfect for that! Go shorty!

I can't in good conscience leave a proper review of this machine without the backstory of the company behind it, as best I understand it. International Concepts, based out of the Kansas City Metro area, contracted Gottlieb Premier to manufacture two cocktail pins in 1989, the only two machines IC would ever produce. The KS/MO state line runs roughly down the middle of the metro. Well IC had an office on the Missouri side to produce Night Moves, and an office 20 minutes away on the Kansas side to produce Caribbean Cruise. Big deal, who cares right? Ohhh no. Here's where it gets interesting, and really sad. From what I understand, IC went to trade/franchise shows around the country and convinced ordinary mom and pop couples to purchase their machines (which were cheaper if buying multiples) and promised them exclusive franchises in whatever county they lived in. They signed contracts basically stating that they could put these machines in bars and restaurants without fear that someone else would already have the same machine there. Don't forget back in the 80's, dine-in places like Pizza Hut still had cocktail arcades and seemed like no-brainer shoe-ins for a cocktail pin. Now comes the sad part. What IC didn't tell people, was that the restaurants and bars already had exclusive contracts in place with distributors that forbade locations from bringing in coin-operated machines from other sources. So the mom and pops that perhaps took out second mortgages to buy these machines found it next to impossible to put them on location. They were duped. Swindled. Taken for a ride. Remember when I said that one machine was produced/distributed from the Missouri side and the other from the Kansas side? Well I'm not a lawyer, but it sure seems like that would position them to absorb a lawsuit and declare bankruptcy in one state and, at the same time, take the money and run in the other. Fascinating story but I feel absolutely awful for anyone that suffered financially from IC's business dealings. I'm not stating any of this as fact. Feel free to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. It just stinks that such a good game has such a potentially nefarious background.

A great layout in a cocktail. Night Moves and Caribbean Cruise are truly the 2 greatest cocktail machines EVER made.

The first ever System 3 made by Gottlieb, NOT sys80A or Sys80b. Night Moves was the very last of the Sys80b boardsets and Gottlieb used Caribbean Cruise as the testbed for Sys3.

Contrary to popular belief, Caribbean Cruise is truly inferior to its sister game: Night Moves.
I would highly recommend the pair, but Night Moves has flow and more shots to make. Plus the Night Moves multiball isn’t horribly broken and unbalanced.

The 4 flippers still make this a formidable game, and the “modern” Sys3 hardware make Caribbean Cruise the most advanced cocktail pinball ever produced.
This game is FUN.

Picked up a real nice one to change things up. A pleasant surprise on this one. Quick,flow and colorful pin in a small package

So all cocktail pins are limited. They don't have to be terrible but the limitations require a special design and most cocktail pins just plain suck. This one is really pretty good. Most early SS games are worse than Caribbean Cruise and if there was ever a need for a tie breaker, you can sit your drink on this one! The flow and cross shots are great. The 1980's color, sound, art, and theme are really fun. Think "Love Boat" meets Magnum PI. The multiball is fun and actually pretty hard to keep going. The asymmetrical four flipper setup will take a little time to get ahold of. The same multiball is a little easy to get and slows down the game but still fun. The left orbit is occasionally relatable and the spinner action makes it very gratifying. I would like this and Night Moves sitting next to each other in my arcade.

This is a fantastic little game with a lot of fun shots and decent flow packed into a small package. There are more features in this machine than in most of the new machines being manufactured today. Cool shots can be made on all four flippers, many across the playfield (e.g. far L flipper to the yellow "skeet" target bank; side spinner shots, R flipper to green standups); very satisfying loop / spinner shots on both sides; pops and slings keep side-to-side action intense but fair IMHO, this is probably because there are limited places to drain; several key shots (skeet targets, jackpot target, drops, and the mystery loop) have a risk/reward feel to them that is, again, pretty fair.

Skeet mode is awesome, multiball is enjoyable, and it's fun to build the bonuses via the various targets. Gameplay overall is a nice balance between controllable and chaotic so games don't get boring if you're playing for fun. In some ways I'd compare it to late EM / early SS games in this sense -- games can be over quickly if you're not careful. You also have to thing about nudging differently as the physics of nudging is very diff. on a cocktail cab.

What's not to like about the playfield art and overall pink and aqua color scheme?

I like the theme as a departure from the super macho pins of the 80/90s and adherence to theme is solid ... callouts, art, animations, music, modes/goals, attract all work with the idea of a wacky caribbean cruise. My kids dig the colors, music, and size of the machine.

The mystery shot tends to puts a pause in the gameplay that might be annoying to some but this is a machine built for bars ... take the 5 seconds to sip on your pina colada.

Besides a grail machine like Joust, I'd say this is the cocktail machine to seek out (at least compared to others I've been lucky enough to play out in the wild).

Most of the parts are relatively findable as they are standard system 3s. It is my understanding that the alphanumeric display board for this one is unique to this game (it's a diff part number than other AN sys 3s anyway), but the other boards are more common.

What I don't like:
Would prefer to build toward multiball in some way, rather than a mystery award. Similarly, the jackpot is a bit too easy to get.
As mentioned by other reviewers, the GI is a little lacking and this is a good candidate for PinStadiums, led strips, etc. I've added 2 pin stadiums and may add a third as well.
The star post at the top of the right hand loop will frequently cause a stuck ball if you don't remove the rubber ring on it.
Replacement glass is unobtainium ... I'm looking for a local place that can cut me a replacement because what I have has been scratched up and generally abused. I think this is a common problem for cocktail pins that were out in the world and, given the rarity of the machine, that wasn't a dealbreaker for me.

I've normed the scores for cabinet and backglass art, as these categories are null for a cocktail pin.

Backglass rating is mandatory, but cocktail pins have no backglass.
Aesthetics:
Great music and speech.
Great Alphanumeric animations. This is a pin with a vibe to it, take my word for it.
Playfield art is a bit weak.

Rules:
The mystery awards seemed to be pretty swingy. I wonder if this game has a tournament mode.

Layout:
I'm not sure if I don't like the shots yet. I couldn't hit the center lane and the side loop consistently. But that might change with more games. They do look like they'll be fun to shoot. The spinner shot was pretty cool, too.

A very rare game & the pick of the small number of cocktail machines. Wonderful artwork on the pf & a well thought out pf layout in limited space. Always a talking point with guests this one is a keeper.

Caribbean Crusie is a game that will not be denied for its qualities.

The Pros:
An incredible layout with 3 layouts within a single COCKTAIL PINBALL layout. Seriously. 4 flippers on a cocktail? People can talk shit about him for the rest of his life, but his single level pinball layouts are NOT TO BE DENIED! The shots are incredible. The lower left pinball makes shots on the left of the PF as well as across the PF to the S-K-E-E-T targets (yeah I said it. SKEET-SKEET-SKEET!) and the million point cycling shot after completing the bank means that the game has multiple strategies. The cruise "tooooooooooot" and other effects are cheesy and spot on.

Cons:
Multiball is the big scoring opportunity. I believe the multiball score is built until collected, but it is utterly unbalancing. The start multiball award is random from the saucer heading into the upper right flipper and is treated as a mystery award. A big whammy on the multiball makes the rest of the game a waste, a chore or at the best... an opportunity to chop a LOT of wood. System 80/ 80b makes you ask Is this game a "fixer"? Break out the multimeter, logic probe and the oscilliscope if you can... do it and make this game WORK!

The Takeaway:
A great game for the party! Find one if you can. System 80A means that it is not as difficult to deal with as sys 80b. The wood paneling is straight out of 1973 and this game was released in 1989. But DAMN!!!! This table has GAME in it. Not for the timid or the closed minded. Find one and play it if you can today. Because this is the best cocktail pinball I have ever played. For reals.

Just got this and have put several games on it. So far it seems to be a lot of fun, the flipper arrangement along with the unusual shot angles make for a fairly good challenge. Have not had a really high scoring game yet. As others said, multi ball happens often but it is difficult to hit the jackpot shot before one of the balls drain. Cool Caribbean music and a bunch of decadent 1980s cruisin' guys and gals depicted on the playfield art really set the tone. A lot of game crammed into a small space, but it works. I give it high marks across the board with the exception of cabinet and backglass art because there is none. A cool and different pinball experience.

Game is hard to find but when you do it will never leave your collection..It has multiball..Cool artwork and fun gameplay..I think the best coctail pin ever made..Great lighting as well

More I play it the more I like it.it has to be the easiest multi ball to get ever and the hardest to keep going.it's not the best machine in the world and I just bought it because I know they're rare and I had a spot a full size machine wouldn't fit but now Im glad I bought it and find it fun and challenging.

This is a fun cocktail table that offers a nice change of pace from full sized machines. Even though it has a much shorter playfield, the 4 flipper set up offers lots of great shots. The 2 ball multi-ball is fun and hitting the jackpot target is a challenge with both balls in play. The music and call outs are good and fit the theme perfectly. The light show that this machine puts on is actually pretty impressive. I also really like the blue alphanumeric screen in the middle of the playfield. It's so easy to see during a game and I wish more tables offered this. This game even features some cool animations like sailing ships and anchors flying across the screen. The artwork is very 80's, but it's part of the machine's charm.

On the negative side, even though multi-ball is a lot of fun, it's shame that it's just a random reward for hitting one of the kick out holes. It would be nice to have to complete an objective or two to earn multi-ball. Overall, this is a unique machine that plays different than any other pinball I've played and it's a great compliment to a collection. Out of the handful of cocktail pinballs that I've experienced, this is best playing one by a large margin. With less than 400 made, this is a rare machine and I don't ever see it leaving my collection.

This cocktail pin was actually pretty fun with the 4 flippers and multiball. The skeet shoot tagets are fun too. I kept coming back for more.