Seas2mountains

We loved the ship. I’ll put together a summary like I did for the ports from our perspective. We would book future cruises on Prima.

For clarification as I may not have explained this well, the only NCL excursions we did were the Dalsnibba Mountain/Eagle Road tour in Geiranger and the Amsterdam canal tour. All other excursions mentioned were on our own and were researched and coordinated by me booking in advance or paying the admission fee at the location. We walked to all locations mentioned except Forest Lagoon, from the cruise port drop off to and from Bruges, and to the Van Gogh museum. The views from the cruise ship itself were fabulous. For me, the only ones I think I could see from a balcony would be in Geiranger for the fjord and Seven Sisters waterfall followed by the canal in Amsterdam.

Bergen ✅ Fish market ✅ Bryggen area with wooden buildings. - UNESCO world heritage site. ✅ Bergenhus Fortress and Rosenkrantz tower - so many stairs but it was interesting. ✅Mariakirken (St. Mary’s church) It was beautiful. 👉 We should have gone directly to the Floibanen cable car to miss the long lines that we declined waiting for in the rain. ❌ Bergen Cathedral - very plain compared to Mariakirken. ❌ The reindeer hotdog tasted like a regular hotdog. You aren’t missing anything if you don’t have one and like hotdogs. Alesund ✅ The 418 stair climb up to Fjellstua viewpoint on Mount Aksla was fun and challenging. The views at the top were gorgeous. ✅ Ålesund museum. Very interesting but hard to find as you had to climb stairs behind a building. ✅ Kvaefjordkake. Yummy. ✅ Canal through town was beautiful. It’s where the main photo of the ad for the cruise itinerary appears to have been taken. 👉 I’d consider Atlantic Sea Park aquarium based on reviews but would have to figure out transportation. ❌ Ålesund church. It was closed and while the exterior was pretty, it wasn’t as historic as the other churches in ports on this itinerary. Akureyri ✅ Forest Lagoon. Clean, organized, relaxing and fun. Great transportation by Forest Lagoon. ✅ Botanical Gardens. Beautiful and free. Amazing how many flowers are growing in this climate. The is a walk up a steep hill. ✅ Walk through the town area. More stores than I expected. We only window shopped. Isofjordur 👉 Wish we have booked an excursion to Bird Island.

Here is a summary of what I would do again or do differently in each port for excursions. Southampton - I liked skipping London as I felt it would have been too rushed. I had been there two times. ✅We do recommend Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, and the Titanic museum and newer harbor area with restaurants in Southampton. My husband liked the aviation museum. 👉 Next time I want to see Portsmouth as I heard positive things from people on our cruise who went there before the cruise. Bruges ✅ Our on our own walking tour was perfect and was the right amount of time. We loved the art and learning about the history in the churches as it was fascinating how much detail was in each art piece. The canal area and city were beautiful. 👉 I would consider adding the Friet (French fry/Belgium Frites) museum as suggested by @ontheweb Amsterdam ✅ Van Gogh museum and using public transportation to get there. ✅Walk back from museum through Amsterdam past canals. ✅The church in the attic was fascinating. 👉 Get up early to get Anne Frank house tickets. 👉While the NCL canal excursion was convenient and inexpensive with the $50 FAS and P+ discount at $8/person, there were canal boats with better viewing platforms. 👉Use the light controlled cross walks only when possible especially by the train station. We were too close to being hit by a biker. Geiranger ✅ Watching as we pulled into the fjord and the 360 view provided by the captain turning the ship by Seven Sisters waterfall. ✅ Walking up the waterfall in town toward the Fjord center. ✅ Cinnamon bun at Dalsnibba Mountain. 🤷‍♀️The Dalsnibba Mountain and Eagle Road excursion had some beautiful views at times but the stops were too long and waiting for the people on the bus who didn’t care they were late returning to the bus was frustrating. The additional time to view the Seven Sisters waterfall was a waste of time as we had a better view from the ship going in and out of the fjord. 👉 If doing the Dalsnibba Mountain bus excursion, get it early enough to get a morning time slot. Will add more on a part 2.

I still plan to add photos from Bruges and a summary of what we liked and would do different in each port. I have all the dailies as screenshots but don’t have the PDFs as it didn’t work to download on my iPhone for some reason. Does anyone want to see them? As previously requested, I can share the document I put together for our granddaughter when I have time to take out personal stuff. She and our daughter loved it and they said they read it everyday and asked us questions about each port when FaceTiming with them. I can also add more photos of Prima that were taken early in the morning on Day 2.

As mentioned by @Ellis1138, there were several groups of teenage kids and some around the middle school age who were in groups of 3-10 kids. We tended to see them near the elevator and stair banks. Other times they were in common areas but the groups we came across seemed bored with nothing to do. One group of older teens had “spilled” food from the buffet near the elevator on our deck. One of the teens asked the others if they knew how to contact the custodian or janitor to clean up the mess like happens at their school. When we walked up, they were laughing at the food mess. We didn’t say anything but they started to clean it up. It was sad to see as some of it was pasta with a red sauce. When we got to our next floor, my husband asked a housekeeping staff member if there was a way to let someone know so they could send someone to help clean it up. Another time, we saw teens were “messing” with the lights on the low ceiling near the elevator banks. If you looked up at them, you could see that several were broken off. They were like the small, clear Christmas lights. Of course, they stopped once we walked up and got on an elevator but you could see the sad damage that was done. They said they intended to touch the light and didn’t think it would break off. We did run across some who weren’t causing any issues and were hanging out on the stairs but they were trying to figure out what to do or where to go. We saw some who were picking on the kid who didn’t quite fit in with the group including some play fighting or horseplay. With it being a port intensive cruise, we didn’t see the “groups” until late afternoon and in the evening. I know this is typical during summer and holiday travel season. Since we travel with our granddaughter who is 9 years old and loves the cruise vacations with us, we are concerned about the transition as she gets older and asks to hang out with the “Teenage Homeless Encampments” as Ellis1138 called it. 🤣 I think that is what I’m going to call them from now on. I used the laughing emoji but some of it isn’t funny I know.

It sounds like we were on the same cruise. Your excursion info for each port is really helpful in case we do this itinerary with our granddaughter. Did you have to wake up early to get the Anne Frank house tickets? One woman on our canal tour said she set an alarm for 4am and the tickets were sold out in 5 minutes. We also loved Forest Lagoon and had fun with encouraging others including families with the cold pool plunge. Did you eat many breakfasts or lunches at Cagney’s since you were in a suite? We ate most breakfasts and a few lunches there. I agree with your suggestion to add handheld sandwiches like a cheeseburger as a choice for teens and adults on the dining room dinner menu. We were in an SJ family suite with a separate master bedroom with a sliding pocket door. It would have the same issue of only being a pullout sofa for two. It would be a great option for one kid or one kid and a baby or toddler in a pack and play. I also agree with you about the lack of space in the observation lounge and how the underutilized galaxy pavilion could be repurposed to solve that issue. I’m keeping your Reykvavik suggestions in mind for our return trip. Thank you for taking the time to share them! 😊

That does sound challenging for packing. That sounds like it would be similar for Honolulu to Alaska cruises. My husband is from a mountain state and I’m from the Midwest. I think I accidentally got someone’s hat in a photo.🙂

Thank you for sharing these details. We plan to go back to Reykjavík for a cruise from there to NY in the future. This info is really helpful.

We always say we are going to do that but seem to forget it when it is time for the actual trip. We do have Apple AirTags in each suitcase.

Yes, my husband wants to be the one to lift it off the airport luggage conveyer belts when everyone is looking but I try to handle it in most cases even thought he insists he should help when there is no audience. Great idea! But he tends to carry our shared items already since he usually has more space remaining. We are getting better at packing than we were about 20 cruises ago.

Thank you! That info is really helpful as we want to do a Golden Circle tour on our own. That is also good to know you can walk from the Aurora hotel to KEF. We did see there were several hotels close to the airport. Reykjavik downtown area was more touristy than I expected. And oh yes, that is how I would describe security, too. Both my personal items got flagged. I had a iPad and Surface laptop that I pulled out of my backpack and put in a separate bin as instructed but the woman in security said the sides could not be touching when going through the Xray machine so it had to go through a second time.

Thank you for saying that. The next day we were a little bummed that our great time listening to Essence Duo was impacted by this situation. We still don't regret saying something and it took more time and frustration as it would have been easier to walk away and say nothing. But then it might have happened again and again before getting stopped. I do think they may not have clearly understood the joke due to language challenges. If they did, I don't think they would ask if it was a good joke and if the person should get an extra point for their joke. But may not since they were defensive about it. We will be sure to highlight in the cruise survey that we thought the events we attended that were lead by the cruise staff were well done. When we were disembarking at 6am, cruise director staff were up directing passengers on deck 6 to the exits. We do not need to mention this incident in the cruise survey as it was resolved in our minds and handled well once guest services were told about it. Some think the Sun Voyageur is a Viking ship but it is supposedly "a dream boat and ode to the sun:" and was intended to honor the city's 200th anniversary . The artist, Jon Gunnar submitted the winning design of a competition to honor the anniversary. He was sick with leukemia so some say he was preoccupied with his death when creating this design.

Thank you. We had flights that arrived early. Have a wonderful cruise!

We arrived home safely last night and had no problem sleeping through the noise of fireworks in our neighborhood. Here are some photos my husband captured as we were flying over Greenland. We are strongly considering a Reykjavík to New York cruise in the future with 2-3 days before the cruise in Reykjavik.

Happy Fourth of July! Our flight to EWR went well with no issues and we will soon board our next flight home. We are missing the cooler temperatures as it feels hot here. Yes, we forget about each international airport having different access to get on the planes compared to what we are accustomed to at most US airports.

You’re welcome and thank you for following along. I think Bergen can be turned into a slower day to explore some highlights. There are plenty of outdoor food stands and restaurants in the Fish Market area. Go early to get on the Fløibanen. We liked the Bryggen area The only port we regret not having an excursion was in Isofjordur. If doing that port again, we would go see the birds on the island.

After scanning our boarding pass and having our passports checked, we boarded a bus to take us to where the planes are parked. We climbed up stairs to the plane which was more difficult for those with mobility challenges or those with a lot of carryon bags.

@mking8288 I figured out a way for Nomita and Adrian to say hello to you and Susan.

There is a large duty free store after security for all gates and several food options. Once we got to gate D, we went through immigration and got our passports stamped. There was another duty free store and more food options but there was a longer line for food. You had to scan a boarding pass to check out to pay for food.

There is a famous Icelandic hot dog stand at the airport in gate D with no line at 10am.

Dinner last night was at Cagneys. We had two dinners with FAS, two with the P+ package, and two for our Latitudes status. We had a large onboard non refundable credit we used to pay for one specialty meal at Hasuki. In summary, we had dinner at all specialty restaurants and ate at Los Lobos twice. We tried one item at Food Republic. We ate dinner two nights in Hudson’s, one night in the Commodore Room and one night at Indulge. We liked the concept of Indulge but didn’t care for the food options. We didn’t have trouble finding a table when we were there for a lunch and a dinner. We had a lovely dinner at Cagney’s as knew most of the servers from the breakfasts and lunches we had there since we had a suite, We both ordered the jumbo shrimp cocktail and the shrimp were huge. I got a Caesar salad and my husband got Lobster Bisque. He ordered a filet mignon and I got the Prime Rib. Our server asked us to cut into our steaks as we had ordered them medium rare. We could see that the Prime rib was cooked medium to medium well. The waiter offered to bring a new prime rib but I said that I didn’t mind eating the steak as it was prepared. He insisted and brought out one that was medium rare. While we typically decline dessert, my husband had his favorite dessert of 7 later chocolate cake and I got the OMG cheesecake but I shouldn’t have ordered it as I could only eat about two bites because I felt too full. Food and service was excellent.

We passed by the famous hot dog stand and waited a few minutes in line before deciding we didn’t want to wait. When we got to the Harpa area for the cruise terminal bus pick up and drop off area, a bus was waiting. We had the yummy lunch at the Local. The thermal spa pool areas were empty when we arrived there after the yummy lunch at the Local. There were many people in the pools when we left and it sounded like a party. The heated lounge chair area had about ten people and was quiet until a loud couple arrived but they were shushed by others.

Have a wonderful time at the Blue Lagoon. That’s great to hear you were able to leave your rental car close by without any issues. Yes, those teens seemed to like the stair areas. Did you go anywhere interesting yesterday?

Back to Reykjavík. Our last stop was at the Settlement Exhibition. It was interesting but I’m not sure if it was worth the admissions price. It was dark in the settlement area on purpose so I don’t have great photos. The rest of the museum was focused on the history of Iceland. We were hitting a “wall” on feeling like we had been to enough museums on this trip.