NCL Escape Arcade

[Nator72]

I was reading a thread about things to pack for a cruise. One thing that was listed was a roll of quarters for the arcade. Does the Escape arcade take quarters, or do you have to swipe your room key?

[ljrfrm]

My son only used his key card at the arcade. I think he used it a little too much! :)

[Mattib]

Nope...no coins or tokens allowed...just a swipe of your room key card and each game is charged to your account. Games ranged from $1-$2.50 from what we saw on our cruise a few weeks ago on Escape.

[Nator72]

My son only used his key card at the arcade. I think he used it a little too much! :)

 

That's what I'm afraid of - LOL

[Nator72]

Nope...no coins or tokens allowed...just a swipe of your room key card and each game is charged to your account. Games ranged from $1-$2.50 from what we saw on our cruise a few weeks ago on Escape.

 

Thank you. We told our son he would have a limit and anything after that, he would have to pay for out of his allowance. Needless to say, he's started a vacation fund.

[Demonyte]

Thank you. We told our son he would have a limit and anything after that, he would have to pay for out of his allowance. Needless to say, he's started a vacation fund.

 

 

Just a tip: when checking in at the terminal, make sure to not include his keycard to your onboard account (probably backed up by your credit card) but instead set up a separate cash account to him.

 

That is the only way he is really limited to the amount of cash deposited (allowed limit plus his own savings) on the account and can't spend more without you refilling his account. There have been horror stories about even "good kids" spending hundreds of dollars in the arcade after getting carried away.

 

Only downside of doing this is that it requires you to prepay service charges before the cruise.

[packer99]

My son is 11. We gave him a limit every day in the arcade. He followed except once and went 1 game over. He came to us and told us right away. We joked that we already knew because we downloaded the iconcierge app. He's a good kid so we laughed it off. But the games do cost $1 to $1.50 so he better save his pennies!

[Jenjer]

Only cards sorry.

 

Its a great time to teach budgeting as long as you check their expense report thru the app or on your TV. We check daily and the kids know we have never had a issue maybe a game over like Packer said but nothing to big.

 

Every cruise my DD talks about kids who live in the arcade. Fortunately it bores her but my son that's another story.

[blackwing]

I have seen way too many little kids constantly swiping those cards in the arcade. Mostly it's on the games where you can win tickets... those games last 30 seconds and then it's swipe swipe swipe.

 

My kids are good kids but I understand the temptation of constant swiping and I think even they would succumb. Fortunately they are only 9 and 7 so I closed their accounts and we said that if they wanted to play games we would be there to supervise and swipe our card.

 

At some point in the future I imagine my older one at least would want some independence so at that point we probably would have to resort to the fixed amount of cash deposited on to the card.

[Slark]

At some point in the future I imagine my older one at least would want some independence so at that point we probably would have to resort to the fixed amount of cash deposited on to the card.

 

You can do that? Our son is 17 now and we travel with a friend of his. The boys have other distractions at this point.

 

But I will admit a few cruises back he went nuts with the card. I was dumbfounded. He spent more than everything else combined.:eek:

 

If you can put a limit on it, DO IT!

[ljrfrm]

That's what I'm afraid of - LOL

 

Our son actually did ok considering the temptations. We gave him a $100 limit for the whole cruise - for food, souvenirs or arcade. Of course, he spent it all on the arcade. He went a bit overboard the last night and ended up spending $115 total for the whole cruise - so only $15 over his limit. I just found it funny because he spent the whole wad on Guitar Hero - which we have at home. Oh well - he had fun!! And, we made him pay us $15 when we got home.

 

I very much wanted to give him an amount and have him budget. A great lesson. Especially with the temptation.

Edited May 4, 2016 by ljrfrm

[LakeWobegon]

We just gave our kids a limit and reminded them that through the iconcierge app, I could be sitting on the balcony with a drink and know what they were spending a minute after they spent it. I showed it to them and they stuck to the limit. :)

[Demonyte]

You can do that? Our son is 17 now and we travel with a friend of his. The boys have other distractions at this point.

 

 

 

But I will admit a few cruises back he went nuts with the card. I was dumbfounded. He spent more than everything else combined.:eek:

 

 

 

If you can put a limit on it, DO IT!

 

 

Yes you can, as I explained only few posts before yours (post #6).

[mjkacmom]

We just gave our kids a limit and reminded them that through the iconcierge app, I could be sitting on the balcony with a drink and know what they were spending a minute after they spent it. I showed it to them and they stuck to the limit. :)

Same here. I just tell them the limit, and that we can see how much they spend, and they will have to pay us back if they go over, and they've never even reached their limit ($25).

[fllcruisefriends]

Does anyone know if there is a Meet & Greet on the Escape sailing June 10! Would like to meet up and make some new friends! 🌴

[Yorkvillain]

Does anyone know if there is a Meet & Greet on the Escape sailing June 10! Would like to meet up and make some new friends! [emoji267]

 

 

Your new friends:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2313273

[packer99]

Thank you. We told our son he would have a limit and anything after that, he would have to pay for out of his allowance. Needless to say, he's started a vacation fund.

 

You can see how many games they play on your card so we would tell our son the limit for the day. He knew we could see it so no hiding or playing stupid,