Arcade Budget

[Aisling]

My 13 year old loves arcade, so I'm putting money aside for it in advance. We don't cruise until Christmas. But I have no real idea how much to put aside. How much arcade time will $50 buy?
And do you buy a separate card for each time, or add incrementally? First cruise, and I'm clueless about this.
I've read that kids have run up big arcade bills, but what would big be? What's the average for a teen? Any help would be appreciated!

 

[FletchFab5]

Hi! I have 3 boys, 13, and twins that are 9 and we were on a 4 day cruise--I gave them each $20 (you use your KTTW card to get an arcade card which works like a charge card in the games.) The games were fairly expensive, they were about $1 a piece, some more than that. I suppose it depends on how much time you want them to spend in the arcade and how long your cruise is. You can always get him a $20 card and then when that runs out you can add more onto the same card, that way you can see how fast $20 will go.

 

[Aisling]

The games were fairly expensive, they were about $1 a piece, some more than that.

Carla, thanks for this information! We're going on a 7-day, so I think $50 would be just right!

 

[atakaratemom]

On our recent 7 day west coast cruise, I told my DS11 he was allowed $50 for the arcade and it worked out great. He purchased $10 arcade cards and he allowed himself one a day for 5 days of the cruise which gave him plenty of arcade time spread over the length of the trip. Also, the arcade cards were different each day and he saved them for his scrap book.

Mary

 

[LCTsMom]

Can anyone tell me what kind of games were in the arcade, and if there were any problems with games not working? Thanks.

 

[Aisling]

bumping

 

[atakaratemom]

Wish I could be more help on this one, but the best description I can get from my son is "They have lots of cool games and its really fun". Spoken like an 11 year old.

Mary

 

[DareTooDream]

The only game my 13 yr old son can remember at this moment is the Fast and the Furious. He thinks that one was $.50. We sailed not quite 2 months ago on the Magic (7 nts). He spent $105 in the arcade and that's all he can remember It was his own money (he'd just had a birthday). My 15 yr old son is asleep so I don't know what he'd remember (probably not much more) and he spent $65, which was all he had. Like FletchFab5 said, the arcade cards are purchased using a KTTW card. That's how some kids get into trouble - they just keep charging. You can allow your kids charging privilages on their KTTW cards, or you can go to Guest Services and have the privilages taken off. I would have liked to be able to put a limit on their cards - but it's either all or nothing. You can start out with charging privilages and cut it off anytime during the week - hoepfully not after they've run up a big bill

I think DS15 had spent his $65 by Monday evening, Tuesday at the latest. DS13 had spent $90 by then and went back later in the week for the last $15. They blew through it! DS15 regrets it since that was all the money he had. DS13 was fine with it - he however had $30 or so left.

Does that help at all?
Sherry

 

[ganurse]

My DH loves the arcade and we have now been on 2 cruises in the past 3 years. Very disappointed in the games as they are all old and most of them have not been repaired from our first visit. i would say 40% of the games actually worked. we were so sad we went to customer service to get a refund..
this was last september

 

[bridegirl]

We just got off the aug 13th magic, we had 7 kids aged six and under and we spent ALOT at the arcade.

Maybe more than the teenagers and I'll tell you why, my DS 6, his favorite game at the arcade is STAR WARS (trying to blow up the death star) but he isn't skilled enough to do it on "one credit" so you have to keep "loading credits" to get far enough in the game (usually 4-5 credits which is 4-5 dollars) to get to "the end".

My sister and I played alot of air hockey (one dollar per game), there were some driving games, fast and the furious, ms pac man, some prize grabber games, one really violent shooting people with a gun like thing that I didnt like at all, and my personal fave from child hood space invaders.

Some games are fifty cents and some are a dollar.

Susy