mertziek

One lunch special was an egg wrapped in sausage and a breading then deep fried. My husband liked it. A dinner special involved salmon but we did not try it so don’t know more about it. Sorry those are the only 2 I know were available.

Casino did see a lot of us. It’s big, very nice and has a secluded area for smokers but they have no Wheel of Fortune machines. 😡

I’m sure there are others who feel differently. Beautiful ship but design is a bit off.

I know. I met a couple of ladies my age who loved it, too. As I said everyone experiences these cruises through their own personal lens. I just reviewed it from mine.

Recently off Prima on b2b cruises from Copenhagen to NYC. We were in the Haven on both cruises. I want to emphasize we had wonderful b2b cruises and loved our time on board. We were happy to sail on the Prima but do not feel this ship is a good fit for us again unless the itinerary can’t be beat. I finally understand why many people prefer different ships after our experience on the Prima. I always felt a cruise ship is a cruise ship but Prima’s design is different enough from other ships we sailed that if given the chance of 2 similar itineraries, we would opt for a ship other than Prima. A few of our observations - *The staff was as wonderful as always. They will bend over backwards to take care of any of your requests, always with a smile. We saw several staff we were onboard with on the Joy in February and every one said they missed the Joy. They did not outright criticize the Prima, commented on how nice and new the ship is, but they liked the Joy better and we could read between the lines. *Never once saw the Cruise Director. Usually they would be at all of the shows but not on these 2 cruises. *The food was absolutely the best in all areas. We ate in a few specialty restaurants, the main dining rooms (food choices were a fixed menu but varied and really good), the Local, the buffet, the Indulge Food Court but mainly we ate in the Haven. By the way we were offered the special of the day in the Haven restaurant for lunch and dinner a few times so I’m hopeful this will become the routine. The Haven food was as good as in the specialty restaurants and we liked the familiarity of the Haven waitstaff and the quieter environment. The buffet is much smaller than on other ships with fewer selections but we always found something to eat and all things were fresh and tasty. The biggest problem is the seating area is also significantly smaller so it was very crowded and we were sailing at about 60-65% capacity. We were sailing in cool weather so outdoor venues were infrequently used; when in warmer climates, it might not be as crowded. *The Atrium is located on 3 levels and much smaller and chopped up than other ships. It always felt crowded and not a good area for activities as we experienced on other cruises. The decor was beautiful but all 3 Atrium levels felt crowded. *There were fewer shops than on mega and mid size ships and most merchandise was geared to expensive items. I missed shopping for Anne Klein and Fossil watches. Plus the sundry shop was sparsely stocked. *Since so many venues are so small, not only did you have to make reservations for specialty dining but also for lectures, painting classes (and why they had Canvas U Paint in the Local where whenever the outside door was opened everything went blowing because of wind tunnel effect frustrating the staff as well as passenger participants), some games, as well as major shows. Many people over 2 cruises could not get in to see shows due to the small venues. Plus, when they had performers in these smaller venues and bars, the sound was overwhelming and too loud. We really do not like the chopped up feel of the ship. In addition, all this need for pre-booking has defeated the intent of Free Style cruising. *I missed the production shows by the dedicated NCL performers. They seemed to offer a better variety of show. Donna Summer was ok although I know most people loved it but we felt it was a bit disjointed and not that good. The Noise Boys were 45 minutes of rap, beat boxing and tap dancing. A few minutes would have been ok and the artists were good but given the age group on TA cruises I’m not sure it was the best fit. Why they did not have the Rumors group perform in the theater is beyond me because what little we heard in passing was very good but they were in Syd Norman’s Pour House so few people could see them at one time and you had to prebook so there was no way the majority of passengers could see them. Definitely did not need a show of ballroom dancers. They were good but 45 minutes was hard to sit through. Enjoyed The Nashville Tenors a lot. *The staterooms are beautifully decorated and we heard no complaints about accommodations other than creaking in the ceilings on several decks. The showers are bigger than those teeny tiny ones on other ships. Others say the creaking in ceilings is due to a new ship so hopefully it will work it’s way out. *Light switches are tough to figure out and are delayed in responding. I prefer a simple on/off light switch. One night at 11 pm we discovered we could not turn off any of our lights (even after we turned the switch off the lights automatically came back on) and maintenance was there in a few minutes and worked over an hour to fix it. Fast response time! After 22 days onboard, we still had trouble using our lights or figuring them out due to the delay in responding. Same with the tv. It took a long time for the system to load. But in the Haven we had free movies with a wide range to select from and they cycled many of these same movies on the regular tv channels available to all cruisers so a lot of variety free to all cruisers. They also aired NFL football on a special channel. *The internet service is terrible and often just not available. Now I recognize when we are in fjords with mountains around us can make service hit or miss but even at open sea, we experienced serious delays that I feel are inexcusable in this day and age. Yes, I know many will say you should not be on the Internet on your vacation but some of us need to stay connected for family and business purposes. This internet issue is not unique to Prima and something we have experienced on several NCL ships so I’m hoping they will figure out a way to upgrade/improve their service. They certainly charge enough for it! *The Haven 2 and 3 bedroom staterooms with hot tubs are stunning with a lot of room. Quite luxurious and we felt pampered. The shower floors are very slippery and with the rough seas we had, I held on to the safety bar for dear life so I would not slip and put hand towels down on the floor in the shower. I told our steward to let the CEO know about that hazard since he was going to be in our suite this cruise. Also the vanities in the 2 and 3 bedroom premier suites have terrible lighting. I do know the regular balcony rooms have a big light around the mirror with great lighting and should not be a problem in those. First world problems… *There is no dedicated walking/jogging path and is a design mistake. People did walk on deck 8 but there are outdoor venues on Deck 8 that in good weather will be heavily populated so not conducive to walking. Also there are a lot of twists, turns and dead ends on several decks but eventually we learned our way around. Miss the fish showing you forward but most floors have triangles in the carpet pointing the way. *The Haven is spread out over several decks and feels a bit big. The Haven elevators are very nice but often we found the regular elevators were quicker. Now the Haven was fully booked so the other areas were less populated so that may account for some of that. There were no stairs within the Haven to use so if you went up one floor or down a flight, you needed to use the elevators. *This ship has a lot of outside venues that will be nice for warmer climates but given our itinerary they were not used this trip. I think that will help relieve some of the congestion. But be forewarned, the Haven overlooks many of the outdoor venues so if noise bothers you you might want to reconsider your room. We heard noises echoing up from deck 8 even with the cold, rainy cruise we were on. It will only get busier and noisier when cruising in warmer climes. Did not bother us but it might bother those who love the peaceful wake view. Also, the aft balconies are set back due to the Indulge outside area so another thing to consider. You do not directly overlook the wake but are set back from it. *And finally we really are not aft ship passengers and much prefer the forward facing rooms. We like seeing our cruise into the ports and missed that this cruise. We also noticed soot on our balcony several times. *Despite the low passenger count, the spa was reportedly crowded every day. This might be due to cruising in the north in the fall and not an issue in warmer climes. There were a lot of technical things with port stops on both cruises but most things are to be expected with a new ship into these ports. The Captain kept everyone well informed and explained late arrivals, missed ports, etc. He was also around the ship a lot. I saw him 4-5 times which I thought was a lot. Also we had several days of rough seas with rain - thank you North Atlantic hurricane residuals - but all in all felt the crew/Captain did their best to keep us on schedule. Would we do this cruise again? Knowing what we know now probably not if the same itineraries were available on other ships but the Prima is a beautiful ship and hopefully they can work out some of the bugs. We were happy to do her first TA itinerary and are going home really tired out. I’m sure there are others who will have strong opinions different from my own and I recognize we each experience cruises through our own personal lens. Hopefully this will help others decide if they want to book Prima in the future.

We’re on this last cruise of season to Alaska, too. Still wondering if we will be getting to Skagway.

And just as you predicted, this morning I was only 85% checked in and was able to select a port arrival time.

I just completed my checkin for Sept 13 Prima cruise and have all green arrows, 100% checked in, but did not ask me for my port arrival time. Is there somewhere to denote that on the checkin that I missed?

Well we booked onboard the Star just a week ago and received the 10% discount plus my sister got the one category upgrade within the balcony group.

I do love the ability to pre-purchase the Vibe passes. It seemed so senseless having early arrivers rushing to buy the passes on embarkation. I hope they save a few passes for people who don’t frequent the internet to buy once onboard much like they do for dining reservations.

We decided for the first time to give it a try in Nov 2023 on a Panama Canal cruise (yes, they are booking out that far through our TA) since there are several ports we are not going to get off the ship and to pre-book the Vibe even though we are in the Haven. Reasons: 1. No worrying about place to sun. On our Feb 2022 Joy cruise the Haven sundeck was very crowded and loungers were not readily available in desirable places. Lots of loungers “saved” with no one around using them. 2. No kids in hot tubs - we love our grandkids but when on vacay, we need/want quiet kid-free time 3. We like knowing we have a reserved cabana for our use. On the Joy Haven in Feb there were saved Cabanas with no one there for several hours and we are happy to pay in advance for the privilege of knowing we have our own cabana whenever we want to use it. 4. The private bar appeals to us and wondering if we will get better, faster service than on the Haven sundeck - I know it’s a first-world problem. 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️ Now this may be a one and done, been there done that for us but we decided we will use the cabana more than we would use an upgrade in our beverage package and we’re interested in seeing if all the Vibe hype is worth it or not. If we don’t care for it, the next cruise we may try the premium upgraded beverage package just to say we tried it, too.

Hope this is ok - pricing for Vibe I found online

We’ve stayed in Epic 17004 and loved it! Our balcony was not enclosed like those on deck 16 are. We are people who like seeing where we are going rather than watching where we’ve been so we usually will not book aft suites despite the generally bigger balconies. But YMMV. We never noticed any noise from above either.

We are not Vibe users but glad to see NCL wised up to allow purchase of the passes pre-cruise online. Hopefully, just like dining reservations, they will save a percent to be sold only on the ship after embarkation since I realize there are many cruisers who don’t pre-plan everything for their cruise.

Thank you. Love it!

I need to look for that on our Oct cruise. Do you have a picture to share?

Come back and let us know if you make it. Air travel is a huge crapshoot right now. So sorry you are dealing with all this stress. Hope you make your cruise! You are going to need it after the past 24 hours.

Just say there will be more coming later in the cruise when you give the tip to them.

If I were booking I’d go with the 2 bedroom suite and not the Haven. The pool area is small and save yourself $2000. We are usually Haven people but in this case, go with the suite outside the Haven. You’re not missing anything significant. And the 2 bedrooms are the same as in the Haven.

Wonder what the problem really is. It would be nice if NCL or the ship where it’s happening could be transparent and explain what the reasoning is behind this. As people who often like staying on the ship when in port, I’d be perturbed if I couldn’t get my afternoon mudslide! 🙄 First world problems, I know, but ncl charges enough for the beverage package (yup, it’s not really free) so if they don’t provide what they say you’re supposed to get access to then they need to explain why not. JMHO

As above - call and it can be removed. But call before final payment.

The pool at Harvest Caye is so nice. We enjoyed our day there, too, in February.

This was a truly scary and dangerous situation. You’re really at their mercy. Exactly why we do not travel in Mexico and when on a cruise only do ship sponsored tours. I’ve read in the past that on rare occasions the ship sponsored tours have been intimidated by local thugs, too, but at least a bit more secure. Now I realize things like this can happen anywhere but seems like most stories are about Mexico.