After the second hit they immediately took it out of service and then converted it to a non-progressive machine. I always play a lot of two coin $1 quick hits and this was one of 6 they have in one bank. As far as I remember it was the only non-penny progressive.
Yes, they do still credit you on the last night for the 3% room charge advances if you are Gold. We use to both be VIP each year but since they eliminated almost every benefit of VIP we stick to Gold which requires $100,000 less play ($200,000 VP) which likely amounts to $15,000 or more in losses to the casino to achieve. My friend did go from Gold to VIP during the 10 trip and other than giving him a new VIP players card, he didn’t get the VIP remaining benefits until next cruise (soft drink package, slightly higher food & beverage and Spa credit . Same thing happened when his wife turned Gold on our last cruise with them in May, they wouldn’t credit any of the 3% fees nor give her any of the Gold benefits until this cruise. They also said as of right now on April 1 of next year your status should carry over to next year (that never happened with me and my wife when we were VIP, we had to re-earn it they would knock us back to Gold). But they emphasized that and other polices very well could change between now and next April.
Despite both couples gambling probably more than anyone else on the entire ship, they send almost nothing to your room each night. Prior to this trip we would get candy/strawberries, etc every night and up to 6 bottles of wine from the casino. This time zero wine and candy/strawberries only three times in 12 days. Christina did say to my friend when he made VIP that on his next cruise he would get a little something every night in his room. So they have obviously downgraded in this regard and what you used to get for being Gold now takes being VIP for room goodies.
Misc- Ian the casino manager is nice but you don’t see him much. Two of the hosts are both Christina and they are very helpful (I dealt mostly with Christina Bica Exec host whom we had cruised with before, Christina Masgo is also a host). Mary, Rowena & Gabi are all nice slot attendants and we have likewise cruised with all 3 of them before. The casino was all non-smoking, has a small coffee/tea bar with pastries in the am. I never saw any lunch or evening hot foods there like there normally is on other ships. VP is about the same as on all the other NCL ships (JOB6/5, Bonus 150 straight flush 6/5, DB 9/6, DDB 7/5, TDP 8/5) on most machines including the multiplay. There are 3 single line machines on the other side of the ship right next to the cashiers cage that were slightly differnt (JOB 7/5, DDB 8/5, TDP 7/5). They do the same "up to $500 slot tournament as the NCL ships
The ship itself seemed like the Getaway, except they made all the rooms just slightly smaller so they could stuff more rooms and call it their biggest ship. There was almost no storage in our mini-suite compared to the Epic and all the others. If you didn’t get the free full cruise dinner package you will generate a huge food bill as almost everything is a la cart priced dining. Even the “free” main dining rooms charge if you want anything nice like prime rib, lobster, etc. Teppanyaki & Moderno are still a flat fee because one is a set menu and the other like a buffet so they haven’t figured out a way to make them a la cart … YET. The activities are same as the Away ships, rope course, water slides, etc. They removed the adult only pool at the back of the ship in H2O which is a real bummer for those who don’t want to swim with a thousand kids during bring break.
Hopefully for you they will have smoothed out the kinks on the ship before you go. The internet was the worst of any ship we have ever taken on any line. They had 2 internet managers and both spent all their time refunding peoples wasted time. They didn’t receive or ran out of a lot of stuff on our cruise. Also our room safe didn’t work right and the bathroom sink leaked into the two drawers below it and soaked it and they never could fix either. Service in every restaurant was extremely slow. Typical wait in French, Italian, Cagney’s and Margaretville were 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours from the time they brought you salad/coffee, etc. and the main course. The shows were very professionally done, if you like them will depend on if you like 40"s Harlem music and 80’s breakfast club type music.
Dave
—In vpFREE_Crui…@…com, <iso3@…> wrote :
I will be on Escape in 2 weeks. What slot progressive do I need to look for? 
Mostly a VP player but usually blackjack on ship. Did they cover the casino advance fee for Golden? If reach the VIP level on first day, will they upgrade or wait till next trip? Any other useful casino or miscellaneous info is appreciated. Thanks!