Unlimited Arcade Pass on the Bliss: Review

[New2cruise2022]

We were on the Bliss last week (1/22/23-1/27-23). It was me (45) and my brother (37) @drwbrt and my two sons (17 and 15). We are by no means gamers — none of us — but my brother and I enjoy the nostalgia of arcades and my boys enjoy games enough (and would be without internet access) so we decide to get the unlimited pass. 
We paid $125 each for 2 passes. I had one that I shared with my brother, my boys had one they shared. 
The arcade is on Deck 5 away by the teen social club and little else, but only 1 deck away from 678 where the casino and most restaurants are. 
The Deal
The rules for the unlimited pass clearly contemplate sharing. 3 swipes every three minutes. If you do more than this, there is a 15 minute lockout period. We only had a lockout once, and I don’t know if it actually lasted 15 minutes. 
The pass is only good for green lighted games (the color is from the swipe/tap interface). This is basically any game that doesn’t dispense tickets. 
The Games

There was some redundancy with the games. They had racing games. This included two side-by-side car games that you could compete head-to-head. (There was a third side-by-side car games that you could compete head-to-head in the Local — a fun Mario Kart game that was also included in the package.) There was also a side-by-side motorcycle game that you could compete head-to-head, and a single car game. All were fun, some a little more fun than others, but really great to pair up. 
They also had three team shooter games. One was a pirate ship and then there was a Halo Co-op and a Jurassic Park co-op game. All three were like a booth to sit side by side and use a mounted shooter. All very similar, all fun for what they are. 
There was a Guitar Hero Arcade game. Two player for co-op or head to head. Solo play was fine too. The songs were much more for the older crowd like me. The guitars were mostly responsive. 
There were two pop-a-shot basketball arcade games. There was a timer count down and if you made enough baskets it would grant you another round up to four rounds. My 17 year old made a point of having the high score the entire cruise. 
There was an air hockey game that had pretty nice paddles and a good scoring system. 
They had a virtual reality game that was a roller coaster experience with a VR headset and some motion on the system. It would accommodate 2 people. 
Lastly there was a Star Wars pod game. Pretty decent projector style game. Fairly hard to get the hang of, but fun. 
Dollars and Cents 

For us, the pass made sense. We used it because we had it, but we didn’t go out of our way to get value. We just got it. Games were $1.66 to $6.99 per play. They were one tap per person. So most of the driver and shooter games were the $1.66 per play. But if we were playing with another, it was easily $3 per head-to-head. Conservatively we played the driving games 30 times each. It was probably closer to 45. For four people, that was 180 swipes. ($1.66 x 180= $298) On that alone we got the value of the passes. The virtual reality rollercoaster was on the high end at $6.99 per person. I think we each did it once and had our fill, but we still enjoyed it. That alone retailed at $28 for the four of us. Worth that much? No. But the value on the pass was good. We had good and bad success on Guitar Hero and my sons loved air hockey, playing multiple times per day. 
Was it busy? 
Almost never. With exception of a few moments on sea days, we had the place to ourselves almost anytime we went. It is worth noting that there were not many children or teenagers on our sailing. It may be much busier on a summer cruise when school is out. On the other hand, the weather was not hot. The pool and slides were never busy either because the weather didn’t warrant it. 
 

The true value of this was it was fun and convenient. When we weren’t eating or playing cards or going to shows, we would meet at the arcade. Sharing was easy. It was really fun to be together doing something we wouldn’t do if we were at home. It was different than playing Xbox. When we were waiting for our turn to leave on a tender, we just played more games. It may not be for everyone or every cruise, but it worked for us. 

[drwbrt]

It really was a good time.

 

Someone that was motivated could run the story line on any of the co-op shooters to completion. Between learning the watch outs and tapping for a continuance this could be easily done.  We weren't that invested and would rather go head-to-head on driving.

[rjm11]

this is a great review. We've gotten the pass on the past several cruises (one pass for the two teens) and never had an issue. We had it on the Bliss in June- there were more kids on that cruise than you likely had, but it only seemed crowded one overcast sea day. I never did the calculations, but always felt like it was worth it- after dinner we had some fun family "tournaments" and I think it made sense for us.

[wcook]

Nice review. We don’t see many Arcade reviews. Thanks. 

[darstamp]

Thank you.  This is helpful.

[drwbrt]

2 hours ago, rjm11 said:

this is a great review. We've gotten the pass on the past several cruises (one pass for the two teens) and never had an issue. We had it on the Bliss in June- there were more kids on that cruise than you likely had, but it only seemed crowded one overcast sea day. I never did the calculations, but always felt like it was worth it- after dinner we had some fun family "tournaments" and I think it made sense for us.

Good news is with the increase in kids comes better pool deck weather. 

[New2cruise2022]

It’s worth noting we were two grown men that were also suckers for some of the games not included. @drwbrtkilled it on Skeeball and the Willy Wonka coin pusher did a great job of taking our money. We both had success with the claw games, which I have never experienced on land before. We took our loot to the MDR for lunch and they were treated like kings. Ordered a whiskey for the boss. 
 

[latebloomer56]

Thank you for this post. Not a lot of information about this pass. Was going to check for our 2 adult sons and 13 year old grandson, but they generally play air hockey so don't think it will pay for itself especially with only a couple sea days. 

[drwbrt]

3 minutes ago, New2cruise2022 said:

It’s worth noting we were two grown men that were also suckers for some of the games not included. @drwbrtkilled it on Skeeball and the Willy Wonka coin pusher did a great job of taking our money. We both had success with the claw games, which I have never experienced on land before. We took our loot to the MDR for lunch and they were treated like kings. Ordered a whiskey for the boss. 

NCL looked the other way when I ordered the baby a whiskey from my Prem+ plan.

[New2cruise2022]

1 minute ago, latebloomer56 said:

Thank you for this post. Not a lot of information about this pass. Was going to check for our 2 adult sons and 13 year old grandson, but they generally play air hockey so don't think it will pay for itself especially with only a couple sea days. 

We went down and checked it out the first day. Took inventory of the games. Walked around. Discussed whether we would want to do it or not. We used them on sea and port days almost in equal measure. It was a great place to pop in for 10 or 15 minutes sometimes. Other times, we might spend an hour hanging out there. 

[New2cruise2022]

Signing Up For the Unlimited Arcade Pass:

I know that it can be prepurchased online before the cruise, either through the app or on the phone with customer service. As I noted above, we waited until we were on board to make our decision. If you decide to sign up while on board, you sign up in the casino. Easy. 

[Srpellot]

Thanks for this. We are sailing on Sunday on the Epic with a 14 yr old and I was considering this so this review was posted at the best time possible. 

[latebloomer56]

1 hour ago, New2cruise2022 said:

Signing Up For the Unlimited Arcade Pass:

I know that it can be prepurchased online before the cruise, either through the app or on the phone with customer service. As I noted above, we waited until we were on board to make our decision. If you decide to sign up while on board, you sign up in the casino. Easy. 

Good tip thanks, I will have them check it out and then determine how many I need. They want to bowl this trip and climb the rock wall. Do you do either of these. Never see any information on this items either.

Thanks

[drwbrt]

6 minutes ago, latebloomer56 said:

Good tip thanks, I will have them check it out and then determine how many I need. They want to bowl this trip and climb the rock wall. Do you do either of these. Never see any information on this items either.

Thanks

We did the bowling. It is $7 for 10 frames. We chose to just share the frames and bowled 5 frames each. It's fun, but it goes quick. You could easily spend some cash if you wanted to bowl for a while.

 

We didn't have a rock wall. We did the aqua loops though. I enjoyed that but I rarely find the slide worth the climb (wait).

[latebloomer56]

17 hours ago, drwbrt said:

We did the bowling. It is $7 for 10 frames. We chose to just share the frames and bowled 5 frames each. It's fun, but it goes quick. You could easily spend some cash if you wanted to bowl for a while.

 

We didn't have a rock wall. We did the aqua loops though. I enjoyed that but I rarely find the slide worth the climb (wait).

Good to know will try and get a lane, thanks.

[New2cruise2022]

Just now, latebloomer56 said:

Good to know will try and get a lane, thanks.

We never saw it extremely crowded. Seems like you can find it open quite often throughout the day and late at night. 

[juanvald]

We were on the Escape last week(1/21/23) and the arcade pass was so worth it. It cost $175.  We bought one and shared it among our party of 6. It included the pool tables and darts in O’Sheehans. We easily played $500+ worth of games. Darts and pool were never busy since most people didn’t want to pay. I was bummed that bowling wasn’t included. 
 

If we maxed out our swipes we had to wait 3 minutes for it to reactivate. 

[3OfDiamonds]

Any pinball and/or retro video games in the arcade?  If not I’ll probably see what the arcade on my upcoming cruise (Jewel) offers anyways, and try to stay away from the ticket games… I might as well play in the casino instead of getting started on those 👀😅

[drwbrt]

4 hours ago, 3OfDiamonds said:

Any pinball and/or retro video games in the arcade?  If not I’ll probably see what the arcade on my upcoming cruise (Jewel) offers anyways, and try to stay away from the ticket games… I might as well play in the casino instead of getting started on those 👀😅

The only classics were Air Hockey, Pop-a-shot, and Skeeball (Skeeball is for tickets and not included-$1.66 each play). Not really the pinball/pacman variety I think you're looking for.

[vacation44]

On 1/30/2023 at 3:57 PM, New2cruise2022 said:

We were on the Bliss last week (1/22/23-1/27-23). It was me (45) and my brother (37) @drwbrt and my two sons (17 and 15). We are by no means gamers — none of us — but my brother and I enjoy the nostalgia of arcades and my boys enjoy games enough (and would be without internet access) so we decide to get the unlimited pass. 
We paid $125 each for 2 passes. I had one that I shared with my brother, my boys had one they shared. 
The arcade is on Deck 5 away by the teen social club and little else, but only 1 deck away from 678 where the casino and most restaurants are. 
The Deal
The rules for the unlimited pass clearly contemplate sharing. 3 swipes every three minutes. If you do more than this, there is a 15 minute lockout period. We only had a lockout once, and I don’t know if it actually lasted 15 minutes. 
The pass is only good for green lighted games (the color is from the swipe/tap interface). This is basically any game that doesn’t dispense tickets. 
The Games

There was some redundancy with the games. They had racing games. This included two side-by-side car games that you could compete head-to-head. (There was a third side-by-side car games that you could compete head-to-head in the Local — a fun Mario Kart game that was also included in the package.) There was also a side-by-side motorcycle game that you could compete head-to-head, and a single car game. All were fun, some a little more fun than others, but really great to pair up. 
They also had three team shooter games. One was a pirate ship and then there was a Halo Co-op and a Jurassic Park co-op game. All three were like a booth to sit side by side and use a mounted shooter. All very similar, all fun for what they are. 
There was a Guitar Hero Arcade game. Two player for co-op or head to head. Solo play was fine too. The songs were much more for the older crowd like me. The guitars were mostly responsive. 
There were two pop-a-shot basketball arcade games. There was a timer count down and if you made enough baskets it would grant you another round up to four rounds. My 17 year old made a point of having the high score the entire cruise. 
There was an air hockey game that had pretty nice paddles and a good scoring system. 
They had a virtual reality game that was a roller coaster experience with a VR headset and some motion on the system. It would accommodate 2 people. 
Lastly there was a Star Wars pod game. Pretty decent projector style game. Fairly hard to get the hang of, but fun. 
Dollars and Cents 

For us, the pass made sense. We used it because we had it, but we didn’t go out of our way to get value. We just got it. Games were $1.66 to $6.99 per play. They were one tap per person. So most of the driver and shooter games were the $1.66 per play. But if we were playing with another, it was easily $3 per head-to-head. Conservatively we played the driving games 30 times each. It was probably closer to 45. For four people, that was 180 swipes. ($1.66 x 180= $298) On that alone we got the value of the passes. The virtual reality rollercoaster was on the high end at $6.99 per person. I think we each did it once and had our fill, but we still enjoyed it. That alone retailed at $28 for the four of us. Worth that much? No. But the value on the pass was good. We had good and bad success on Guitar Hero and my sons loved air hockey, playing multiple times per day. 
Was it busy? 
Almost never. With exception of a few moments on sea days, we had the place to ourselves almost anytime we went. It is worth noting that there were not many children or teenagers on our sailing. It may be much busier on a summer cruise when school is out. On the other hand, the weather was not hot. The pool and slides were never busy either because the weather didn’t warrant it. 
 

The true value of this was it was fun and convenient. When we weren’t eating or playing cards or going to shows, we would meet at the arcade. Sharing was easy. It was really fun to be together doing something we wouldn’t do if we were at home. It was different than playing Xbox. When we were waiting for our turn to leave on a tender, we just played more games. It may not be for everyone or every cruise, but it worked for us. 

Thank you very much for taking the time to post your review of the arcade pass.   It was very informative as I had no idea on how it works.   

[shoptom]

Thank you for reviewing the arcade pass.  I didn't even know there was such a thing.  Heads up that these games are free on Virgin Voyages and there are no kids to share with!  🙂