fourofakind

Lauraine Casia is the Executive Casino Host on the Escape until October 21st. She is great nothing but nice things to say about her.

Oh I forgot to mention make sure all the kids bring something white to wear one of the days kids club will have a white hot glow party! The kids love this day it's a huge party with dancing, glow sticks etc. They also have a fun pajama party one of the evenings so super cool PJ's and crazy slippers are fun. Counselors usually have on funny footed pajamas too.

There is also a survivor day where they mimick the show survivor and do a bunch of tasks. Kids club is always decorated a different theme each day.

I haven't been on the Star in many years but my kids had a great time when we were on it. The 11 and 12 year olds will be in a group of others the same age and they will have plenty for them to do age appropriate. The 14 year old will be in the "teen" Entourage program where they will meet other teens and roam the boat like a wild hormonal pack of teens, lol kidding, sort of. They will make friends and have fun doing teen stuff. The counselors are great and have activities planned throughout the boat for them. They have a fun "no purple" rule in the teen club. The counselors will tell them boys are blue, girls are pink, no mixing colors and making any purple lol. I always got a kick out of that very funny.

Unlimited soft serve ice cream is usually only until 11:30 pm when the buffet closes.

Have a great time the kids definetly will!

Op pay no mind to anyone who has been abrubt or rude to you on this thread you are right to feel how you did and question your safety, there are MANY people who would feel the same way.

On one of my trips to Bermuda (a few years ago) I got off the boat and there was armed military every few feet in port and I remember thinking *** is up with Bermuda today! If there was some kind of threat it would be nice to know about it. Anyway after talking to the military guys they told me they do regular trainings and this was simply a training exercise. Felt much better. I'm from NY and I'm use to seeing armed military in Penn station etc. but that took me by surprise and made me question my safety, not from the armed military by WHY they were there on this particular day.

So, Im feeling ya I get it. That being said I wouldn't let it stop me from visiting I would just be extra careful and be street smart always no matter where you are, and most definitely in NY ;)

The Bridge Observation room it is very cool! One of my favorite things to do on the Gem is go check out what's going on in the Bridge. They also have some nifty gadgets in the room that will show you current conditions, expected eta's etc, If you want a more accurate arrival time go check those gadgets out they often say something different then the posted schedule.

Back to back's are great! Enjoy your cruise!

My prayers for you and your family *hugs*

Very odd this is not available on our December 8 2018 sailing on the Bliss online in any of the areas mentioned above. I even checked on the mobile app.

I have 3 upcoming cruises and this pass is available under the gifts section to purchase for only 1 of them (36 days away) so they must open it up for purchase close to sail. It also says LIMITED AVAILABILITY so they probably only sell a certain number of passes per cruise.

I was on the Escape sailing Sept 9-16 and I only found out about this pkg on the last day, UGH! We had so many sea days thanks to hurricane Florence that I finally allowed my kids some arcade time because they were getting bored. Unfortunately, it was our last sea day so didn't make sense to get it but quite a few kids in the arcade had it.

Alot of the fun games were the green swipe (including air hockey and basketball) but none that gave out tickets. Skee ball was 1.10 per game which wasn't bad.

I plan on buying this package for all the kids in the future unless they are strict about everyone in the cabin needing it, doesn't make sense for me to buy a package I will never use. If NCL is smart and just requires all the kids in the room to have it they will sell alot more packages AND keep more kids in the kid friendly arcade area and out of the public areas possibly getting into trouble. When my children aren't in splash academy they are with me and supervised but some parents just let their children run the boat freely and passengers are sometimes bothered by this (understandably). This arcade pass thing could cut down on that alot.

I have 3 upcoming cruises and this pass is available under the gifts section to purchase for only 1 of them (36 days away) so they must open it up for purchase close to sail. It also says LIMITED AVAILABILITY so they probably only sell a certain number of passes per cruise.

So thumbs up for the new arcade package it's a bonus for us parents and the kids, a real game changer!

Just got back from a fun cruise on the Escape and found out a new benefit I never knew before... Free pack of cigarettes everyday for sapphire and above! I'm not a smoker but figured what the heck there free I'll bring them home and give out to friends. In NYC cigs are $18.00 a pack yikes!!!

Anyways this isn't listed anywhere on the CAS benefits page and took me a couple years to discover so hopefully someone else will find it helpful.

Take care of your waiters/waitresses and they will take good care of you ;)

Just got back from another great CAS cruise and was able to chat with people who have different CAS Tiers to verify the OBC benefit. This is non-refundable OBC that is on your account when you step onboard. In addition to this OBC you can still earn additional credits to your account based on your onboard play.

 

If you are Pearl with 5000 points during the earning period of April 1st to March 31st, you will receive $100 of OBC for each cruise that and the following year.

For Sapphire status of over 15000 points, you will get $200 OBC.

For Ruby status of over 35000 points you will get $400 OBC and 400 minutes of Wifi. Your drink card in the casino for Sapphire and Ruby is upgraded from the standard 'well drinks'. Ruby says 'Ultra' drinks and I all I know is the casino bar manager said I could have anything I wanted. We don't bother to choose the UBP any more as any drink we might want outside of the casino is covered with our OBC. Sapphire and above can also request un-opened cans of soda from the casino bar to take back to your room....which is rare onboard!

 

Can't tell you how much Elite earns in OBC but perhaps someone will chime in.

 

For us, we find real benefit in concentrating our cruise casino playing to NCL where we walk onboard and know what can be comped. We also know we can call CAS after a cruise and be comped a great cabin on any ship (except Pride of America- no casino).

Same here CAS treats me really great so I stay loyal. I hardly do any land based gambling these days as I'd much rather gamble on a comped cruise where I'm getting something more for my money. Win lose or draw the kids and I are getting a great vacation and that's priceless.

Just wanted to add also with the premium drink card (sapphire level) or ultra drink card (Ruby level) you can get some great specialty coffee's from the servers in the casino. So you can follow that 15 year Glen Fiddich scotch up with a latte :D

Exactly, best answer so far. I bid $100 over the minimum for a 2 bedroom Haven from a mini suite. I bid when I first received the invite and was notified 6 weeks before sailing. This was on the 08/18/18 Baltic cruise on the Breakaway.

 

There are many on here who think they are experts on the bidding process, truth is what FLcruisergrl said, we don't know, some high bidders never win, some low bidders do.

 

In any event wishing you luck on winning and enjoy your cruise.

This exactly! I once bid the minimum $50.00 to upgrade to a balcony from ocean view and happily surprised that I won it. On the same cruise I was speaking with a woman in the casino who mentioned she tried to get a balcony (from OV) with a $100.00 bid but it was not accepted. So my $50.00 bid was accepted and her $100.00 bid for the same cabin was not. There is definitely more that goes into their acceptance process then just money.

Good Luck!

I'm on this cruise too and can't wait to see what happens! Either way I'm good as long as we go somewhere :)

First night of the cruise all the liquor in the duty free store is 10% off. They only have that promotion the first night and all the good stuff sells out fast so don't wait to buy if that's your thing ;)

Coffee bar on deck 6 tucked away in the corner of the atrium sells all Starbucks coffees. Great for a morning latte or afternoon Frappuccino and prices are about the same as a land Starbucks. Also, they have real straws here! Pretty much the only place on the ship you will find a real straw. If you're a Lavazza kind of person head to deck 7.

Definitely go to your Cruise Critic meet and greet and sign the attendance sheet. The hotel director Deepak is the best ever and will personally say hello to everyone at the meet and greet and then send all sorts of goodies to your room all week long. Escape's meet and greets are in the District Brewhouse and they are AWESOME. The officers/staff walk around and introduce themselves to you and they serve you lots of beer and yummy foods. Very upbeat and fun.

Very very similar. For me the Escape has a slight edge over Breakaway because I liked their casino better but both are awesome.

Other slight differences- Food Republic- Yummy! LOVED Food Republic! No ice bar on the Escape (that I saw) but they have a couple of other fun bars the Breakaway does not have so for me it was a bonus.

The duty free shop I thought wasn't that great on the Escape it seemed a lot smaller then the Breakaway and not a great selection of liquor. The guy told me they sold out most of the stuff on the prior cruise but IDK still seemed kinda eh.

Those are the only differences I noticed other then different locations for some venues (kids club deck 5 vs deck 12 etc). Most everything is the same and I would sail either one depending on dates and itinerary.

That is interesting! Were you getting a 'comped' cruise?

 

I ask because I call after the week of onboard gambling is done. Then when I get home and call CAS they can look at my stats for that cruise to decide what type of comp they will offer me for a future cruise.

Same here comped. I usually try to wait until I get home to book something but sometimes something good comes along and I like to book asap to get the room I like. They let us have 4 open cruises so they just peek at my prior play and then book it.

Calling Miami gets the best results ;)

The cruise next desk will allow you access to a back room and a phone for you to call CAS and book a reservation. I did this and they were very helpful in assisting me to get it booked, they couldn't book it for me but they did everything possible to help me contact CAS for the booking.

I am not a fan of the I concierge app in general but it does a great job of booking shows and restaurants when on board. If you can, download the app before you sail (it's free) and then once on board go sit anywhere and make all your reservations. Those screens throughout the ships usually have long lines but your app will not and I found it works pretty good for reservations. The wifi to run the app is free on board you don't have to sign up for anything just put your phone in airplane mode and turn your wifi on. The Escape wifi was pretty good.

I did the rum cruise in Bermuda through NCL and it was awesome! Highly recommend.

Chrome worked!!! TY!!!

YAY!!!!!! Weird right lol

I was yesterday. I was able to log in but then nothing was showing up under my account and all my future cruises were missing. I was just about to call NCL but decided to try logging in under chrome instead of explorer and it worked everything showed up and was like normal. So for some reason nothing is showing correctly for me under explorer when it worked fine a few days ago.

I'm not very tech savy so I'm sure there is a logical explanation but maybe try logging in under chrome. Hope that helps.

Wow just wanted to comment I LOVED your video!!!! The Haven was never something I considered before but now I am. Thanks for sharing!

Does anyone know if chips from the Getaway from last spring would be good on Escape this spring?

Yes they should be good. I once forgot to cash out a couple of black chips while on the Gem and I was able to cash them out on the Breakaway several months later. Cashier told me as long as the series was still in use it was fine. And even though the Gem chips were different then the Breakaway chips cashier was still able to accept them.

That said I wouldn't wait multiple years to cash them in as they do occasionally change series.

OP- maybe find someone local to you on one of the roll calls and see if they would be willing to cash them in for you.

That's good to hear.

Do you qualify to get the 3% fees written off? Do you get Tier status OBC in addition to other OBC from NCL?

 

The last night does the casino host attempt to write-off all of your other charges?

 

This is where some of us have run into computer accounting glitches.

 

I'm not complaining, but I do understand what some of the other posters have gone through as we have only had this work smoothly on one of our four CAS cruises this last year.

You have the patience of a saint :halo:

Most people just ignore egomaniacals posts.

Yes, but like Keith said when in port he can't sign himself in or out.

Old thread that's been revived here but I will add that this is mainly a problem for casino cruisers and that's why many others have not had this experience.

I have had the OP's exact experience on several occasions but always let it go, as frustrating as it is. What happens is the system automatically uses your obc for things that will be getting credited back (from the casino). On the last night when credits post to your account (from the casino) the system goes a little wonky and reapplies some credits but not all come off correctly. I have had bills where I spent thousands of dollars on shore excursions, duty free store, kids club charges, liquor upcharges (gotta love a good scotch) etc etc yet somehow I showed "unused" NRC... that's madness!

Of course you don't know this is a problem until you get that final bill morning of disembarkation (all was correct when you went to bed) and too late can't do anything about it because it's mayhem in the lobby. Don't think NCL is trying to deceive us but more of a case where the system is a little glitchy when late credits apply.