A combo VP/Free Trip Report:
Just returned from a 7 day Florida/Bahamas trip which was a comp from Mohegan Sun. We had a "free" Oceanview room, meaning we had to pay for port fees & govt taxes. Total cost beforehand was about $500. That is less than the best discounted PP fare for one that I was able to find. Our only previous cruises had been on Carnival (CCL) so many of the comments that follow will make comparisons, which are our opinions, between CCL & NCL. Others may look at things differently, and have opposite opinions, but some like single line, others multi-line games.
Service/Food:
The boarding process in NY was extremely easy, especially for Casino passengers, with a separate line & waiting area, early boarding, etc. a definite plus. Freestyle cruising means you have more freedom to do as you please, eat when you want, etc. but it is harder to find out information on what's happening than on CCL. Foodwise, CCL wins on the quality in the regular dining rooms, the buffet and casual eateries like the Deli & Outdoor Grill. The buffet especially was pretty awful, overcrowded, with not very good food. Even trying to have a sandwich was agony, as they handed over cold cuts one slice at a time, with you having to ask for each additional slice, one-by-one. Kind of like trying to wheedle a bit more in comps out of a reluctant host.
A particularly nice NCL casual restaurant, however, was the Blue Lagoon, open 24 hours with a limited menu. Room service was about equal, perhaps a slight edge to NCL for the available 3 egg omelets 24/7.
Kudos to NCL though for the upscale dining restaurants. The Spanish restaurant was excellent, and the French restaurant was no less than superb. (The escargot & the mushroom soup deserve special praise, but everything we had was excellent). The cost varied from an additional $10 to $25 pp, but it was definitely worth it.
A definitive thumbs-down to NCL for their sugar-free deserts. Positively awful. Awful. Awful. And if you wanted NSA ice cream, your choices were vanilla, vanilla or vanilla. None of the 3 had much flavor at all. Diabetics, this is not the cruise line for you.
Service-wise, a little spotty. NCL has a $12 pp, per day charge added to your bill, higher than I remember on CCL. The room stewards were obsequious as hell to your face, but brought only 1 towel to a double room 3 days out of 7, and no face cloths/hand towels twice. Wait staff, since they knew they weren't getting any additional tips as they do on CCL where they serve you every night, varied from very good to adequate.
The room was definitely smaller than an ocean-view on CCL, but the bathroom was better, with a sliding door, rather than the shower curtain on CCL, which tended to flood the room.
Overall, NCL wins on upscale restaurants, CCL on non-extra charge dining, and on service, other than boarding.
Entertainment:
Cruise Director was an insipid washout, not very visible, didn't do much in the way of bringing you into the entertainment process.
The shows were pretty good, actually, energetic and upbeat, similar to CCL. We enjoyed them on both ships. This happened to be the end-of-contract cruise for the performers, but you wouldn't have known it from the energy levels.
Casino/VP
Very nice casino welcoming party, very friendly staff. Biggest comp on the trip were the free drinks, both alcoholic & non-. Those of you who have cruised before know that free drinks is the equivalent of gold. You could just wander in, show your card, and get whatever. Very handy when you stop by to get a glass of wine or a cocktail, then wander right back out and go to a restaurant for dinner.
As for VP, the expected horrible pay tables headed up by 8/5 DDB and 9/5 TDB.
Playing-wise, I can't complain:
Day One hit a $4K RF
Day Two hit a $4K RF . . .is a trend showing???
Day Three & following - no trend, unfortunately. The RF streak came to an end, never to reappear.
But I hit my share or perhaps a bit more of quads, and bonus quads (But no quad A's with kickers) walking out with the vast majority of the 2 RF payouts. As I say, can't, and am not, complaining.
As for comps, if I calculated correctly, I earned about .05% but they about doubled that much off my bill. I thought that was generous.
As for any additional earned comps, I have to call the club directly to see if I qualified for any free or discounted cruises or anything else. We'll see.
Both for the comps, and free drinks a thumb's up to NCL over CCL, though I've been extremely lucky (make that SKILLFUL) on all three cruises I've taken. I have yet to take a cruise where I haven't net-paid for the trip out of winnings, and then some. I know the pay tables suck, but if you get the cards, you win. We all play in the short run, and I don't live under the misconception that the next cruise must have the same positive outcome, or that its not better to play a better paytable machine if one is available. But it was still lots of fun, hitting those two RF's.
Overall, a very positive experience.
Guru
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." - Yogi Berra
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