RVACruiser43

Sorry I do not

Prima introduced a fixed menu so the goal was better food quality and consistency. The menu is larger than the normal MDR menus and I found it plenty for a 14 day cruise with having some specialty dining to use in addition. Just the pasta options could be varied for a number of meals.

I agree. I wonder how the Prima reviews will be with the summer iceland schedule? I figure any day we might see redeployment for Prima

My comment was based on what happened to us on the Gem Thanksgiving cruise 2012. Concierge handed out itinerary changes when we were in the Haven terminal waiting area. Charleston SC was dropped and an overnight added in Port Canaveral. Not my choice to stop there to begin with, then the Thanksgiving day GSC was cancelled and we left right away. Would have been better to stay in the warmer area of GSC just to enjoy the warm weather, sigh

No way, they would wait until embarkation day and hand out a flyer at checkin.

Which pool or both or a new hot tub? Some folks seemed to think NCL was going to solve the issue by installing an actual hot tub. No idea where they would find the room everything on that ship is so crowed.

People have a way of revising information to meet their own hopes and views. I suspect you are correct. NCL announces a new timeline for the ships and its due to supply chain issues and someone decides its really for a design change LOL.

I am wondering if anything has been done for VIVA to eliminate/reduce the awful creaking of the room ceilings in rough waters? Prima was the noisiest ride I have experienced. We met a couple ladies that had a handicap room but couldn’t sleep due to the noise. NCL gave them a second cabin just to sleep in! They needed to keep the handicap room for showering and storing the scooter. That will be a problem when the ship is fully loaded with passengers.

After much thought I went ahead and changed our Nov 2024 PofA 7 day booking to the 15 day Viva TransAtlantic Lisbon to San Juan. PofA was a bit pricey and I was able to move from an Aft Balcony on it to an OV on Viva with the Air promo for only $400 additional. Will be upgrading the OV using worldpoints in another week after my next statement cycle. I am hoping this cruise is warm enough to reduce the shortcomings of Prima in the Northern climates and unusable outside spaces. I am particularly looking to see if NCL has improved the Spa Thermal area from the poor design on Prima. Tom

I saw a post elsewhere yesterday that said the #3-6 ships were put on hold and are being redesigned. Anyone know if this is true, or if It is mentioned here and I just have not reached those posts?

This may have been answered, but after cruising on Prima’s TA I would not book the thermal again. I found it very lacking and preferred even the Dawn And Star thermal to Prima. No Hot tub or any hot water with jets. The locker area is poorly designed and very small lockers and tight quarters. 1. The entry door is right at the lockers and when open gives folks in the hallway a view of people changing! 2. It is uncomfortable to get from the toilet area to the sink area which are on opposite sides of the lockers when someone is changing, not enough space to comfortably pass. 3. Lockers are much smaller than any other thermal area I have used -Dawn, Star, Jewel, Gem, Pearl, Bliss and PofA. The Men’s locker area did not have a single robe on three different visits towards the last few days of the cruise. One good thing was there were plenty of hot stone loungers in two areas.

I guess I will have to agree to disagree with his analysis LOL My main concerns were with the Thermal area and the cold weather keeping us from enjoying the outdoor area. That Thermal issue could easily be corrected, and keeping the ship in warmer climates solves issue #2 so I am open to trying Viva 🙂 Plus the price for an OV for the 15 day cruise is within a couple hundred $$ of our PofA booking and will use worldpoints to upgrade to balcony. How are you doing in cold Canada? We are feeling it down here today Someone left your doors and windows open to let the cold air blow into Virginia from north of the Boarder. Tom

I am looking to move our November 2024 Pride of America Cruise to something else. We do our first PofA next week and wife is thinking once is enough, we will see in a couple weeks if that changes LOL. I was thinking about the Viva Transatlantic in Nov 2024 ending in San Juan. At least this should be a bit warmer weather not repeating the cold weather shortcomings of Prima on the TA. I will be following this thread to take in any changes that may be integrated into Viva from the Prima feedback. I wonder when the smaller ship itineraries will be released for 2nd half of 2024 and into 2025? I really appreciate all the input you have provided on Prima. Tom

Maybe everything is on hold figuring out how to make improvements to the issues with Prima? A remodeled Thermal suite would be my first item to do.

I had heard we only had 2200 on the TA. All the inside cabins on deck 10 were occupied by crew. But if we were at 2200 it had a very crowded feel. Would not want to see 3300.

Ben I am just catching up on this 2nd thread. So after the Prima TA would you still want to see one of these ships on the South America cruise? I would not. Tom

Is the Viva construction going to be discussed here or is there another thread? I would love to follow the construction process and any adjustments being made as a result of feedback from Prima. Tom

I was on the TA and agree. NCL really needs to pull the ship from the Northern Europe itinerary in 2023 and redeploy it to the Med, or Caribbean. Loss of the outdoor areas due to cold and weather just compounds the space issue inside. Tom

It depends on the timing. Prior to the 120 day payment due deadline, you can reprice as many times as you wish, just be careful that you don't lose any important perks, they will update to the current offerings. If you booked a long time ago, the meal and internet perks have changed. If after the payment due deadline, yes only one reprice is available, it is paid in the form of FCC and only posted after you complete the cruise being repriced. there are some hoops to pass though, if you have the BOGO air there is a time deadline for any repricing, I forget the #days but it might be as long as 90 days. Perks you have on current cruse much match the offerings on the pricing you want to reprice to. If not then they will not approve the FCC. Tom

I saw a comment that the current deal is short term and will end in a day. But I have heard that before LOL

My PCC was non responsive today, never connected in the past 2 weeks via a number of calls and messages, so I gave up and called the Platinum Latitudes support line. Those reps are great and I called twice today, repriced 2 Joy cruises for Nov/Dec 2023 and then later during a break from work, looked at 2024 cruises and called again to have 5 cruises repriced, each cruise was about 300pp savings so it added up to some nice savings. Getting the balances ready for the Nov 5th Bank of America special day. BofA is giving a one day 2 point bonus for every $1 charged that day. I am getting the account into a small credit balance so I can charge the future cruises and max out the card 🙂 I like to keep my cruise balances to an even $500 or $1000 so its easy to see if NCL has done anything to mess up the cruise pricing. This just happened on a PofA cruise later this month, a fully paid cruise all of a sudden showed a $19+ balance. Hahahaha that came back to bite them. I had a FCC that expired Dec 31 2022 and was not the $$ type that could be used for excursions, this was a discount off the base price of a cruise. By having a balance due, I was able to apply the FCC coupon at payment checkout, when you do this it requires a 2nd form of payment, added credit card for $.01 🙂 The system applied the FCC coupon and now the cruise is overpaid and they refunded the overpayment to my card. Tom

Th internet on Prima was the worst I have experienced in 20 cruises dating back to 2012. And I prefer the smaller ships which have older equipment. I really expected better. I wonder how long the moving chairs in the theater will last before falling apart?

Wow! I was on the TransAtlantic. Weather was too cold and windy to use the outdoor areas so those items didn’t even have more than a couple weeks usage. I don’t know how you can blame all hose broken chairs and stools on new ship kinks. I hope there is a good warranty on the items.

Everyone has been very quiet recently. I have a friend who claims there are some posts with damages on the ship. Cracked slides, Cracked Ocean walk glass, cracked mirrors. Anyone have any info on what is happening? Makes me think this is the Enterprise-A at the beginning of Star Trek V Yikes! Or is it fake news?

My cruise was soured by entering my booked cabin and finding someone already living there. Guest svs decided to allow a B2B'r to remain in the room saying it was not convenient for him to move. I suspect he was a Covid Quarantine victim which I could heartily understand the situation. Where the team fell short was no plan was put in action for what they were going to do with us. We had to stand in line at guest svs, and then a lengthy wait while the agent tried to determine where to put us. That and Poor Internet which kept me frustrated due to cruises being working remote for me and the awful Thermal area. The rest of the ship was quite nice. I enjoy the Dawn/Star and Jewel class thermal areas, and Prima not having a hot tub or anything with hot bubbles was a sore point, Had I realized I could cancel on day one, I would have. I did get a whopping $50 credit from the Internet cafe for the poor experience. I went into the cruise expecting poor signal due to the distance to the satelites, but we did a South America Cruise on Star with much older equipment in Feb-March 2020 and that internet was fine. I really expected better from more modern technology and new equipment. We did love the Hudson MDR for Breakfast and Commodore room for Dinner along with Indulge. Did not like Palamar and cancelled a repeat reservation for the last night in favor of a 2nd visit to Onda. I thought the Fisherman platter in Commodore was tastier than the scallops I had at Palomar, and wife didn't like the Fillet saying it tasted Fishy. The only bad meal I had was the beef wellington in commodore, the beef was very firm and difficult to cut and had no flavor. I have seen reports of folks on both the good and bad, so seems NCL has some consistancy issues with the entree. In restrospect I should have sent it back and ordered something else, but usually don't deal with things that way.