VideoTech

Is there something special about these machines? Just curious if I should seek them out?

 

 

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No, they're just a normal multi-reel penny slot, with some fun bonuses. DW has done well on them in the past.

Did you do the ncl excursion to tabyana? We did Maya key and plan to do it again next year, but sail in less than 2 weeks and wanted to do tabyana.

 

On the spirit on first trip to roatan and we tendered. They used the life boats to tender us. It was rather different.

We have done the NCL excursion to Tabyana beach twice. It's a lovely beach, with great snorkeling on a reef right near the beach. There are free lounge chairs, and a fairly good amount of shade, but the shady spots do fill up fast.

They serve a buffet style lunch..nothing fancy, but it fills you up.

You can rent snorkel gear, and of course there are the usual locals doing hair braiding and massages, and selling things, but they're not obnoxious about it. There are showers to wash off the sand.

The beach tour operator runs buses back and forth from the beach all day, so you can head back to the ship almost anytime if you've had your fill of sun, sea, and sand.

Don't know what's changed at Roatan (it's been a while since we were there), but when were there and docked at Coxen hole, there is only space for one ship to tie up. If more than one ship is in port, the others had to tender.

We've done the 10 day Southern and really enjoyed it. It takes you off the normal cruise ship trails, and you get to see some of the less visited (at least by cruise ship standards) islands.

Seems like you answered your own question. If price is more or less equal, then a taxi is more convenient.

Thanks so much.

 

I did look at my previous review from the last time we went to get Beignets and there were $2.49 each, but that was a few years ago. Have they raised the prices any?

Found this blurry photo of the menu on line...not sure how old it is though!

Any way to know how many points I earned on my last sailing?

Not to my knowledge. You need to inquire before you leave the ship.

Are these points gained by playing the fruit machines or on the tables?

 

When I last cruised for 14 days my 'rated play' was rubbish. I got a very small amount of my bill even though I played for a good few hours everyday and a fairly good bet every game. Lots of passengers complained it was very bad comps etc.

 

I understand that this new system is better.

You'll always get the best tracking playing the slot machines. This is because the table play depends entirely on the pit boss observing and rating your play. If he or she is busy/in a bad mood/doesn't like your looks...whatever...your play gets underestimated.

Further, there's not much incentive for them to rate your table play accurately...where are you going to take your business if you don't like it?

On the other hand, slot play is tracked by computer. No human error.

Once you hit 5000 points you are automatically awarded and additional 5000 which goes towards your final bill reduction. So the extra 5000 will get you and extra $50 off.

 

I got $400 this cruise. I was given and additional $212 off. I should have got $188 off($10 for every one thousand points).

 

As far as you only getting $27 off because you won, thats BS. I guess it all depends on who they are feeling that day. On a cruise in 2005, I had my entire bill of $4700 taken care of(I paid for alot of things for my family of 23). I also walked off the boat with $36k more than I came with, so the losing thing does not make sense in this instance. I guess they wanted me back to have a another shot at getting their money back.

The amount of comp off your bill is completely in the control of the casino manager. They can be stingy or they can be generous...apparently they have guidelines, as discussed, but they can go above or below if they want.

Anyone? :(

Why don't you call NCL directly and see if they can tell you?

We are curious, what do you mean by local casino rep?

We have a local Harrah's marketing rep who takes good care of us. Many people have a casino host at their favorite casino who does much the same thing.

We just booked our first POA cruise, and read all the opinions about which side to book. If you look at the cruise map on the itinerary, you'll see that for most of the cruise, the Starboard side should be facing towards the islands. The exception is the Na Pali coast, where the ship turns around, and then the Port side would be better, as noted.

When we spoke to the NCL/CAS booking agent, they recommended the Starboard side, but I'm not sure if that comes from first hand experience or just hearsay. And when the ship is cruising between islands, it's probably fairly far out to sea anyway.

We went with the Starboard side, mostly to get the cabin type and location on the ship we preferred.

Our experience has been that the cruise offers really vary pretty wildly. My guess is that a lot depends on what ships and sailings CAS is trying to fill, and what they're working on with your local casino, or the casinos where you play.

We have cruised steadily for a while, and gotten lots of offers, and then cruised steadily and gotten almost no offers. We're consistent gamblers on our cruises, always accumulating substantial numbers of points, always at the highest CAS level, yet that doesn't seem to bear much relationship to the offers that come in...sometimes they're great offers, and sometimes they're awful.

What works best for us is to use our local casino host/marketing rep, and have that person contact CAS on our behalf when we want to cruise. We've always had a positive response from CAS that way, usually with a decent offer on the cruise we want.

Good luck to you!

One thing about ship casinos........You can't go across the street, so they know they have you.

True. But you have feet.....and there are plenty of other places to go on the ship....:)

It's my experience that all the NCL ships (at least all the ones I've been on) have at least one or two standard, "U.S. style" outlets in the cabins. They may not be in the most convenient places, and there may not be many of them, but they are there.

Glad to hear this..we are in an Aft Balcony on the Jewel in January...good to know the elevators will be fairly quick.[/Quote]

 

Well, I wouldn't exactly say that...a the main dinner hour, they're usually somewhat slow because they always seem to be full!

 

We will be on the 8th floor..does the aft elevator come out right at Tsars? Also is there ty[ically much of a wait for Tsars? We typically dine around 5-6:00

 

The aft elevators come out right at the upper entrance of the Tsar MDR. There is a flight of steps down to the dining room floor from the entrance. As mentioned above, there is one elevator that goes down to the dining room floor for wheelchair/Scooter access.

 

MDR waits vary greatly. There can be a line at the prime dinner hour...7pm...but they're very efficient in the MDR and they know how to turn the room over quickly!

incorrect. All the bill/ticket in, ticket out slots have been upgraded and all run on a network. Percentages can be changed at any time, from several locations. If a percentage is changed during a spin, the new percentage takes place on the next spin, or a predetermined amount of time.

I think it's a somewhat strong statement to say that "ALL" machines have been upgraded to networked versions. That ignores the realities of purchasing and leasing the equipment. Most casinos currently have a mix of older, non-networked machines, and newer, networked machines.

What you can say is that shipboard casinos are essentially unregulated as to changes in payback percentage. This is unlike Las Vegas and other land gambling areas, where payback percentage and changes to that percentage are regulated.

However, in both regulated and unregulated situations, the reality is that there is absolutely no need for a casino to make day to day or hour to hour changes in payback percentage. The skill of the slots manager lies in putting out a mixture of machines, programmed at a mixture of payback percentages that will keep the gamblers playing, and allow the casino to hit or exceed their revenue targets for the slots.

With the right mixture of machines on the floor, the casino can sit back and let the law of averages feed them their percentage of the money with every pull of the lever.

.....Never mind I don't have a clue what I am doing but spinning that wheel...

Well, that's really all you do on a slot machine. Beyond setting how much you want to bet each time you spin. There's no "system," and every spin is completely random. Nor will you win more at the beginning of the cruise or loose more at the end.

So, machine choice depends on what you like. If you like the long odds of a big win, play one of the progressive machines..the ones you see with the jackpot amount going up and up on a big display over the machine. With the progressive machines, you won't get a lot of little wins, but you have the shot at the big win.

If you'd like to feel like your money is lasting longer, don't play a progressive. Find a machine (and this is mostly just trial and error) that makes a lot of smaller payouts.

Beyond that, just sit back and have fun!

You should have no problem making a 1:10 pm flight. Ship docks early in the morning (usually around 6 am) and disembarkation, barring any port problems, usually starts around 8am. The airport is about 20 to 30 minutes from the cruise port.

You can take any elevator to Deck 7 or Deck 6 and use the hallways to get to the Tsar MDR. When you reach the MDR entrance on Deck 6, you are actually one level above the dining room floor. If I remember correctly, for wheelchair access there is one elevator in the aft bank of elevators that goes down one more floor to reach the dining room floor level. I think it's the left most one as you face that bank of elevators, but you'll need to double check.

This is a partial list on the NCL site, at the bottom of the page. There used to be a page in their site that had the complete list, but they've moved it and my old link doesn't work anymore.

You can search Cruise Critic in two ways:

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Breakfast and Lunch in Cagney's are definitely worth it. Peace, Quiet, no fighting the crowds, and a special menu. You can also order off that menu and have your breakfast or lunch delivered and setup in your suite. FYI, for dinners you can order from any specialty restaurant and have that delivered to your suite as well, if you choose.

The only thing negative I'd say about Cagney's breakfast and lunch is that the menu does not change for the entire cruise. But you won't eat there every day anyway, particularly not lunches.

Please remember that your suite butler & concierge do not participate in the ship's tip pool. You should plan on tipping them appropriately if you feel the service warrants it.

Jewel and the NCL Suite Life. Definitely worth it. But be careful: You and anyone else on the trip will have hard time cruising in a regular room after this one!

The Western Caribbean itinerary is great if you've never done it before. Roatan has great beaches with reefs so close you can snorkel right off the beach. Belize has part of the second largest barrier reef in the world. Cozumel is...well...Cozumel.

But the balcony was hard to see out of. I felt like it was a cove balcony. You couldn't see out unless you were standing looking out and around. It was my first cruise so I didn't realize it at the time. On my next cruise I had just a regular balcony on a different ship and it was much nicer on that balcony.

The room is amazing in 8500!!

We are going on POA again and have a midship balcony booked with hopes to upgrade to a penthouse with large balcony if we can. Would prefer this to the os just for the view, not the room.

Thanks bigmandog. That confirms what I felt might be the case, when I looked at the pictures and videos I could find. I also noticed that the balcony on the 10 and 11 deck forward suites is very narrow...so narrow that the lounge chairs were setup up sideways to the door.

We've gone with one of the OS's on the forward side. It has a big balcony, and I think we'll be very happy with it.

Unless you just have to get out of town, I agree with jgmpuma. Why not store your baggage, and extend your vacation by a few hours in New Orleans?

If you want to do the Baton Rouge flight, I'd hire a car service for your transportation. They can meet you at the New Orleans cruise terminal.

We've cruise out of New Orleans several times, and never found it to be much different than any other port. It's busy, and of course there are a lot of people trying to get checked in and onto the ship all at once, but it seemed well organized, and we had no shortage of porters.

We do not drive to New Orleans, so I can't help you with parking, but there is a lot of parking around the cruise terminal, and there are plenty of hotels that have stay & park packages.

I will say that I was in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago on business, and noticed that they are currently doing construction on the cruise terminal. I think they are expanding it? That could have an effect on port operations.

Thanks so much, appreciate your info. My flight is on a Sunday just after 12 noon!!! Hopefully that will be ok.

You're fine.

The ship usually docks in the early, early hours of the morning, around 5 to 6 am, but of course you can't get off until the port authorities clear the ship for disembarkation, which is usually around 7 to 8 am. The run from the cruise ship terminal to the airport is quick. You'll have plenty of time to catch a noon or later flight.

Received at comp cruise from our local casino. It comes with an inside cabin. We have never cruised before but now seems like a good as time as any to give it a go. Couple of questions.

I called NCL have to pay taxes etc which i already knew 318pp for epic jan 11th sailing includes insurance , Should i upgrade to Balcony cabin now or wait till about 3 weeks out and see if price goes down?

In the casino is it cash or do they use your cruise card?

anyone who has gone this route for their cruise have any other info

thanks Jeff

We are NCL/Casino cruisers, and do this all the time. We take the offer we want, and pay the difference for the upgrade.

If you have a particular type or location of cabin you want to upgrade to, I would do it now. If you wait, you may not have as many choices. Also, you mentioned that you're sailing on the Epic - that is popular ship and easy for NCL to sell out, so the chances of a price drop are minimal.

The casino is cash in/ticket out on the machines, and cash in/chips out on the tables.