Star Baltics review June 12 - 21, 2013 plus pictures

[herdingdogmom]

Great review. We are in one of the same SJ suites in September. different ports except for Copenhagen. Thanks for the Copenhagen tips. I still need to do more research for our 2 days there pre-cruise. You gave me a good head start! What is the fare for Tivoli these days? Do you know if it is more at night?

[Demonyte]

Thanks for your review, I'm always interested to see how people like Helsinki and what they will see during the short day here. :) However there is one odd thing that got my attention about the review:

 

On NCL, the basic packs are $20 to $25 and to really have a realistic chance of winning, one had to spend upwards of $100, which is ridiculous to us. The reason for this is NCL uses bingo machines, which basically play the entire game for those who purchase them (they are idiot proof) and replicate 70 to 100 game cards for each game. So, instead of spending our $10 to $20 per bingo session during the week, we played no bingo at all.

 

So just to be sure: As you didn't play at all, did you actually see that Star still had the automatic system? We sailed on her a year ago but I can't remember this for sure as that was one odd cruise during which we virtually played no bingo at all.

 

I do remember using those machines in 2011 and before on other NCL ships but on all ships I've sailed this year (Epic, Pearl, Jade) had the "Classic Bingo" with just paper cards or on sometimes with reusable shutterboards and they even promoted it with a phrase "Classic bingo is back!" on t-shirts. But even with classic bingo the largest package does cost around $70 that usually buys a lot of raffle tickets, a t-shirt, 5 to 15 instant-wins and 9 to 12 cards to each bingo game (there are usually three games per session).

 

P.S. On our cruise on Jade couple of weeks ago we attended only first and last bingo session but most games were won by someone that had bought only the smallest package with three cards to a game.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Demonyte

[rmandmm]

Thank you for the detailed review and great pictures. We did the Med in 2012 and we're going back and forth between the Greek Isles and the Baltics for our next European adventure. I appreciate you taking the time to share!

[kingpgmr]

Great review. We are in one of the same SJ suites in September. different ports except for Copenhagen. Thanks for the Copenhagen tips. I still need to do more research for our 2 days there pre-cruise. You gave me a good head start! What is the fare for Tivoli these days? Do you know if it is more at night?

 

Thanks for the kind words about my review. Unfortunately I don't recall the rates at Tivoli. I'm pretty sure they have them posted on their official website though!

[kingpgmr]

Thanks for your review, I'm always interested to see how people like Helsinki and what they will see during the short day here. :) However there is one odd thing that got my attention about the review:

 

 

 

So just to be sure: As you didn't play at all, did you actually see that Star still had the automatic system? We sailed on her a year ago but I can't remember this for sure as that was one odd cruise during which we virtually played no bingo at all.

 

I do remember using those machines in 2011 and before on other NCL ships but on all ships I've sailed this year (Epic, Pearl, Jade) had the "Classic Bingo" with just paper cards or on sometimes with reusable shutterboards and they even promoted it with a phrase "Classic bingo is back!" on t-shirts. But even with classic bingo the largest package does cost around $70 that usually buys a lot of raffle tickets, a t-shirt, 5 to 15 instant-wins and 9 to 12 cards to each bingo game (there are usually three games per session).

 

P.S. On our cruise on Jade couple of weeks ago we attended only first and last bingo session but most games were won by someone that had bought only the smallest package with three cards to a game.

 

You are correct that we did not bother to play at all. Our experience was negative enough on the Gem that we didn't make the effort to even try on the Star. Thus they may or may not have had the machines.

[Demonyte]

You are correct that we did not bother to play at all. Our experience was negative enough on the Gem that we didn't make the effort to even try on the Star. Thus they may or may not have had the machines.

 

Ok, thanks for your reply. I think that there have been a lot more pax like you that disliked the automated system and that's why NCL brought the old style bingo back.

[kingpgmr]

Ok, thanks for your reply. I think that there have been a lot more pax like you that disliked the automated system and that's why NCL brought the old style bingo back.

 

That's good to know. We might give it another try on our next NCL cruise!

[Kaboochi]

I was just on the Star and also ate at Moderno. Certainly agree with your comment on the table size on the four tops. Way too small! I mentioned this to the manager, and his response was that we should have reserved a larger table!!??! Oh well. How are you supposed to know in advance that a party of four needs to reserve a table for six???

 

Did you enjoy your cruise?

[js4rq]

Wow, great review....now it has got me thinking about doing a Baltics cruise! :D