Galaxy Pavilion VR - Post your experience

[Sim1979]

I was on the Joy lately (Eastern Canada, October 12th to 22nd, 10 days) and i did try the Galaxy Pavilion VR experience (since it was practically empty being on a cruise with many elderly people, i took the 1h package so i could try all attraction).

 

I can say that my experience was pretty much... meh...

 

Here are my review for attractions i've tried... i would like to know if any of you had a different experience... if i was simply unlucky or something.

 

• Dinosaur run (this is basically a movie VR, non-interactive, with the seat moving), this was fine, but i don't think worth the 8$ per run (if paying single)
• Car roller-coaster (once again a movie VR, non-interactive with seat moving)... this was fine also, but not really worth it paying single IMO.
• The descent, this was interactive where you must hit a button to descent in some sort of cave were you need to shoot like 1 millions monsters jumping at you... for this attraction the centering was pretty bad, i was off by about 1 foot in diagonal, meaning i would have to aim the gun way right (and lower) to actually hit something... and also was very hard to push the button to descent as it was way off on screen.   I told the NCL crew about that (during and after) but he doesn't really seem to care/know about that and didn't seem to have made any correction afterward.
• 7D Experience Werewolf (i don't know where they figured out so many dimension...), this is not VR as you only have 3d glasses on a moving seat... you also have a gun and you have to shoot werewolf (i could also have picked the more realistic zombie scenario), once again the centering was very off even though i sit pretty much in center seat... it was pretty hard to actually hit a target since there was no cursor on screen to help compensate for bad centering.
• Terminator VR, this one was not too bad, it was VR, with moving seat and a big rotary cannon, centering was almost correct, but since you get to see your cannon in the headset it is easier to compensate for centering... the game was not that fun though but at least it worked properly.
• Drone Race, (VR, interractive, multiplayer) you get to race with 2 others players, but it wasn't working for most of the whole hour as the staff had to work with multiple issue, we only had 1 try before our pass expired and my VR headset kept disconnecting and my screen would go black every 30 secs for like 5 sec... which pretty much kill the experience... i guess the staff still need to work on this one...
• Ferrari Racing VR, this is pretty much the "featured" game of the Pavilion were 8 players can compete at the same time in a race using VR headset on moving seats... and it was actually pretty disappointing... out of the 8 cars, only 4 were working... and out of those 4, only 2 were working in VR (and sometimes for some reason the headset view would switch to side view for a couple second before getting back to front view)... for the other 2 you had to simply play with the TV (no VR headset).  Actually i liked the seat as you get great feedback and sensation... but you only get to play for 8 minutes... which is pretty odd as a lap would last about 2 min 30 secs, so you basically have 3 laps and some.  I asked the NCL rep if we could get unlimited lap or something (since there was no-one else) and that they could stop us anytime whenever someone else would show up (so we could get some kind of race or something) but no, it is 8 minutes and that's it, they stop simulator and restart.

 

I don't know if that's me being too "picky", but owning a VR headset at home (properly calibrated), i don't think it give a great "first time experience" for most people trying VR for the first time... i also don't think NCL crew in the pavilion know/care on how to calibrate or set each station.

 

Sorry for the long post...

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

Thanks for the feedback.  We are on Encore in January, and I have been debating whether to try out the simulator.  Now I know that if I don't, it might not be a bad loss.

[PTC DAWG]

How much  was the hour pass? I will be on The Joy in April with some younger family members…younger than me anyways.  

Edited October 24, 2022 by PTC DAWG

[Sim1979]

Well like i said... i might have been unlucky... your experience might be different (that's why i'm asking if others might had a better experience)

 

Definitely get the day (49$) or 1 hour (29$) pass though as it is a much better value than paying 8$ per attraction...

 

Still, I don't think 29$ for an hour was a ripoff as those machine get pretty expensive to maintain for sure... i just think that they don't spend enough time to calibrate/setup the machine so the experience is pretty bad (most of the time), and it's a shame... the pavilion is pretty nice.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Sim1979

[Sim1979]

4 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

How much  was the hour pass? I will be on The Joy in April with some younger family members…younger than me anyways.  

 

With the 1h pass i was able to do 9 attractions (all 7 listed previously + 2 extra Ferrari race)... some attraction are like 3-4 minutes while some other could be like 7-8 minutes... but you might not be able to do as much as i did as the pavilion was pretty much empty so i didn't wait anywhere (go to the restroom prior  😉 )

[PTC DAWG]

24 minutes ago, Sim1979 said:

 

With the 1h pass i was able to do 9 attractions (all 7 listed previously + 2 extra Ferrari race)... some attraction are like 3-4 minutes while some other could be like 7-8 minutes... but you might not be able to do as much as i did as the pavilion was pretty much empty so i didn't wait anywhere (go to the restroom prior  😉 )

Thanks…