BirdTravels

Good Night

Settled on a regular mojito and an assortment of tropical drinks.

As soon as you embark, the concierge staff can helpe you with all reservations. Option 2: The Birds sailed in the Haven last month and still stopped by show reservations (Syd Normans on the Prima) to get a show menu, then went to the concierge to book. wrt restaurant reservations, the concierge has the ability to [slightly] oversell a restaurant. So, something that shows up as sold out on the app, may still have a few seats for Haven guests. Once a restaurant is totally sold out, even the concierge won’t be able to get you a seat. While there are 25% fewer total guest on the Prima compared to the BA+ ships, there are 25% more Haven rooms and Suites that use a Concierge to book.Kinda like the Joy they had 100% more than sister ships. The Bird was in steerage for this voyage. And was in the Priority boarding group. And went straight to show reservations and then restaurant reservations. When we tried to book Palomar, in particular, it was not available during prime time most nights. So make reservations your top priority.

Yes,,, if you are looking for al fresco dining, there is Los Lobos, Onda, and Palomar. Ok,,, the Seaside buffet, The Local and Indulge Food Hall have tables outside, too. That is, in part because it was important to put big windows in the Whiskey Bar.

Drinks by the pool?

The Bird was on the Wonder of the Seas recently. It was the newest cruise ship earlier this year and still the biggest. With nearly double the capacity of the Prima, her comedy club was not whole heck of a lot bigger.

We were unsuccessful in our quest for a blueberry mojito. We were in the Haven last month and the bartenders started preparing them as they saw us coming.

What’s to drink around here?

The breakfast croissant was lovely. Did not try anything else.

Back to breakfast in the Indulge Food Hall. Once the saucer section separates, you goto the stations with the food you want. And serve yourself.

@aubreyc1988The Prima is no better or worse than any other NCL big ship. People (including The Bird) will compare it to other BA+ ships so that people have a basis for comparison. This is not the Escape (and the Escape is the only ship with the failed Supper Club). So,,, the Prima has a max double occupancy of 3100 compared to the Escape with 4266. So, there are over 25% fewer passengers. Things don’t have to be the same as the BA+ class ship. The ship is smaller, so there is less space. NCL “fixed” some of the “issues” with BA+ and innovated their approach to cater to the contemporary cruiser. The Bird is old. We have been cruising since the days you had to reserve hard wooden deck chairs and have the chair attendant to set them up. But we are not set in our ways like others. We hate traditional dining. And we love the variety of entertainment (when we started cruising, tea time and a performance of a string quartet playing classical music was the highlight of the afternoon). The Bird would recommend the Prima. And this thread is intended to answer the most common questions on Cruise Critic and provide hints on making your Prima cruise successful! Yup, it is hard choice between a comp’ed cruise on an Oasis class ship (we were just on the newest, Wonder OTS) and NCL’s most innovative ship. @aubreyc1988you have been around NCL for a while. You know its quirks (not too different from RCCL). And you will be very successful on either line maximizing your cruise (e.g., book early and often, show up early for shows to get the best seat).

Again, this is the same on cruise lines with big ships. You have a reservation system for crowd control. You have big venues like a theater. And small venues like a comedy club. Even for the main theaters, ice rinks, and Aqua theaters, there are never enough seats (like the titanic) if every single passenger wanted to go. So, this is how most cruise ships work. Like it or not. This is not just the Prima. Just like there is insufficient capacity if every guest wanted to ride Dumbo at Disneyland.

Breakfast at the Surfside buffet There is a single buffet line so it is about 1/3 the size of the line on the BA+ ships.

Breakfast at the observation lounge. There is only a small food area in the observation lounge. One display case and a very small hot/cold table. And coffee area.

Breakfast at Indulge Food Hall. Each of the restaurants has some sort of self serve breakfast items set out.

This cruise is the first real test of the casino. The few UK/Iceland cruises, VIP a cruises, and TA had only light weight use of the casino. This cruise has a large percentage of NY and NJ residents and they are here to gamble. Over 15% of the adult passengers are guests of the casino guests (discounted or comp’ed). That’s a pretty good number considering that there are a lot of convention passengers. And that most land-based certificates and discounts excluded the Prima during this inaugural period. So, most of casino guests are direct guests of CAS. BTW, NCL decided not to have a casino bar. The casino uses the atrium bar which is overflowing at night with people enjoying the live music in the atrium.

And,,, unlike all of the urban legends of doing all of your bookings while in the terminal, The Bird actually got a Wi-Fi signal from the ship pre-embarkation, but the ship had not switched to our cruise, so there was no way to log on and book.

Good Night!

Unfortunately this is incorrect. We sail on multiple cruise lines on their big ships. And most passengers can not participate in all activities. The idea is like Disneyland. You spread your guests out all over the park and there is no way to see everything.

They did not limit bookings.

There is no expectation that all 3500 passengers will do and see everything on a ship on major cruise lines. There is no expectation on a Royal Oasis class ship that all 6500 passengers will fit in their 150 seat comedy club. Or 500+ seat aquatheater. If you expect to see and do everything, maybe book a river cruise.

This Week’s Menu

Here’s something cool. Since the orchestra section of the theater moves to make a dance floor, they partially move it for the Noiseboys show. This gives them about 20-30 feet more stage space and some floor seating. (Normally the first row of seats is right up at the stage.

The Bird will work on something when there is better Wi-Fi.