NCL Escape casino review

[VideoTech]

I've been to Vegas casinos & various Canadian Casinos numerous times and been on a number of cruises but never gambled on the cruises. As a result, these might seem like dumb questions, but here goes anyway.

 

1. Can you convert cash for chips at the tables or is it charged to your On Board account?

2. When playing slots, again, cash or your card?

3. Are chips and slot credits cashed in for cash or applied to your account?

 

Thanks

 

Doesn't look like you actually got your questions answered? Let me give it a shot with what I can help you with.

 

1. Can't help you here, don't play table games. I *think* it's just like any other casino though: put your cash on the table, get it converted to chips. Cash out chips at the cage, that I'm sure of.

 

2. Slot machines are Cash in / Ticket out. Keep the tickets to use in another machine, or cash them out at the cage.

 

3. You always cash out slot tickets for cash. BUT: the points you accumulate playing on your CAS card can be applied as a credit to your on-board account, once you're over a certain amount of points. This is usually done on the next to last night at sea, which means any play you do on the last day doesn't help you with credits against your account.

 

The alternative is to carry over your ponts to your next cruise, assuming it's within the same CAS calendar year (March to March). If you cross over into another CAS calendar year before you cruise again, your account resets anyway.

[VideoTech]

So when do you set sail, interested in information as well....

 

Actually going on the Dawn shortly, had read somewhere that they honored Vegas cards and had some type of perks for it, trying find it since it was only a certain card which I believe I have but all new at this so I could be mistaken.

 

Sadly, there is no direct relationship with NCL's CAS and any land based casino card program.

 

NCL and Caesar's are owned by the same holding company, so there is an indirect marketing relationship between CAS and Caesar's. However, points earned on NCL ships do not appear on your Total Rewards account.

 

Your Total Rewards status is valuable for your first cruise with NCL CAS. They will use it to evaluate your play, and possibly give you a better comp or start you off with some added perks. Once you've cruised, the only thing that really matters is your play on the previous cruise.

 

One of the other cruise lines does work directly with a land based casino system, and you do have the option, on that line of having your ship casino play credited to your land based account. That may have been what you heard about.

[VideoTech]

Thanks Eldrima for the info on table game tracking. I knew this was starting to happen in land casinos, but wasn't aware it had made it onto the ships yet.

 

Thanks for pointing this out. I did notice on the single line JoB game that the pay table did improve from $0.50 to $1.00 and so most of my single line play was at the $1 level. Based on the outcome of my VP play, I would have probably earned more points off of slot play but have never found them interesting enough to hold my attention.

 

As for tracking on the tables, the Escape does have a tracking system that is better than most land based casinos. The dealer swipes all players cards or room keys for each person at the table and then assigns them to their corresponding seat number in the system. On many occasions, I play 2 hands of BJ at a time and they note that on their input devise...if you stop playing 2 hands, they pause the play for that seat on the device. I also believe the betting circles have sensors that track how many hands per hour you are playing so you are getting more points in an hour if you are the only player at the table. I'm pretty certain they don't have RFID embedded in all the chips so they are not able to accurately track how much each bet is however they would occasionally update it in their system when a betting level had increased for more than a few hands. In the end, I would agree that you will earn more points per dollar played for slots than any other game in the casino but I do feel like they are making a concerted effort to accurately track table play and not leaving it up to the discretion of the pit boss.

[asubaru]

I didn't know this....what cruise line and land based corp?

 

 

 

 

 

One of the other cruise lines does work directly with a land based casino system, and you do have the option, on that line of having your ship casino play credited to your land based account. That may have been what you heard about.

[VideoTech]

I didn't know this....what cruise line and land based corp?

 

RCI and Celebrity are linked up with MGM. On our recent Celebrity cruise, my casino play went towards my MGM account. Don't know if RCI would work exactly the same way or not, as I haven't cruised RCI in ages.

[asubaru]

Thanks, VT, for the reply.

 

Casino-wise, how would you compare your Celebrity cruise to NCL?

 

 

RCI and Celebrity are linked up with MGM. On our recent Celebrity cruise, my casino play went towards my MGM account. Don't know if RCI would work exactly the same way or not, as I haven't cruised RCI in ages.

[drvmywifecrzy]

Also your CET Total rewards status will qualify you for discounted rates on NCL depending on your level.

[CaptainCampion]

The strategy on it is extremely simple though. If you have Q-6-4 or better, you stay. If not, fold.

 

Some people like to play hunches and all that, but to give yourself the best odds, that's the cutoff hand

 

If you're playing a hand 'blind', and the dealer is amenable to opening the cards slowly, to draw out the suspense, the enthusiastic player might spend their energy vocalizing the cards they'd like to see next.

 

Really....yelling near the dealer, not AT the dealer.

 

 

Sally introduced me to the game, though I think I've played it without realizing it had a name. :rolleyes:

 

 

Stephen

 

 

.

[RossE]

You may be better served by starting a new thread, rather than resurrecting one that's 3 years old. Just my opinion.

[CaptainCampion]

I did a search on this forum for NCL Casino Reviews

 

This thread came up

 

I responded to something on it. Didn't ask a question. Didn't need anything answered.

 

If you have a particularly date at which a thread should be dropped completely from the forum, you might want to suggest that to the moderators.

 

BTW, Q-6-4 is still the right play, regardless of how old the thread is.

 

 

You may be better served by starting a new thread, rather than resurrecting one that's 3 years old. Just my opinion.