Snate

Yes we end in South Hampton tomorrow morning. I don’t consider that a port stop since it’s the end and we just head to Heathrow. We got on board and we’re able to beet ready and have a quick dinner at Le Bistro. I’m now waiting in line for the Syd Norman show. It all worked out except for the waiting a few hours with 2K grumpy, tired passengers. Big negative for Bruges is the stop needs to be a few hours longer as we felt rushed in Bruges and I thought that city was awesome. It takes some time to get to the city and return and the port time to return was 4pm. Needed a 7pm or something departure to get a full day there. Needed a little more time to just sit at a cafe on the canal and drink some Belgian beer. Amsterdam was similar. Still a great 2 weeks of a vacation. Now back to the grind.

Welp. Interesting last day of the trip. Bruges was great. On our way back to board the Prima it turns out the ships ropes snapped, the ship floated out from the dock and the gangway collapsed into the sea. Tug boats had to push the boat back to the dock. We have been sitting for 2 hours with a thousand plus people waiting to board. They finally started boarding but at this port you have to take a bus to the ship. They can only run 6 buses at a time so it’s a pretty bad last day on the ship. Ruins my evening plans as we had Le Bistro and then wait in line for Syd Normans so not sure what we will do now.

The waiter said they switched a few weeks ago due to complaints. They have some standard every night and 3 steaks up charged from cagneys.

It rotates every night.

No it did not which sucked but that is the ports fault for not having the pier ready from what I understand. We did go to Akureyri at 1pm the day before we were supposed to and had an overnight stay which gave us time to do another excursion so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. We did skip Geiranger for Flam and was notified the day before. It had to do with port traffic or congestion. That also sucked as Flam is pretty but there is not much to do there. I think the London to Reykjavik direction gets an extra sea day and not the overnight so hopefully the pier is done by then.

I am currently on the Prima (we disembark on Sunday) and so far I am not sure all the things I have read about this ship on cruise critic have turned out to be true. This is my first cruise on NCL. Done Celebrity, Princess, Royal a ton of times. The ship is totally full yet I don’t feel that crowded on the ship other than the buffet which does have a lack of seating. The food lines aren’t bad but you have to really look for a place to sit but I have always found one. The complaints that the Indulge Food Hall is hard to find seating doesn’t seem to be that way on this cruise. We have gone there 4-5 times for breakfast, lunch and dinner and always found a seat. The main dining room has always been able to seat us and I haven’t seen this posted yet but they have a different menu every night in Hudson’s as of a few weeks ago so they dropped the same menu every night for a 10 day cruise apparently. Food has been solid so far in the main dining room, specialty restaurants, and food hall so no complaints there and I am a real foodie. You just can’t have the expectations that you are going to get a Michelin Star meal on a cruise ship. For entertainment, the shows have been the best I have seen on a cruise ship. We liked the Donna Summer musical, the Fleetwood Mac show, the guest entertainer (Michael Sterling) who has a great voice, and the magician who was decent. So far we haven’t had any lines getting on and off the ship so that has been run really well. Our cabin (deck 13 mid ship balcony) has not had any of the sound issues. Speaking of the cabin, its seems nice, good sized bathroom, bed is comfortable and no real issues with it. The biggest negatives I have is this ship isn’t built for the cold weather so a lot of the outside deck areas are empty. This includes the putt putt, pickle ball court, go karts, etc… The only other negative which I have posted on another thread is the food hours from 3-5 and late night which they could use a few more options. Other than that it seems like a great ship and we have been having a great time. Some people want to complain about everything and not find things to enjoy but that is no way to go through life, at least for me.

Long post incoming. They don’t need to staff an entire buffet for late hours. Do like some other cruise lines do where you have some of the desserts out in one area and 2 people making pizzas. That is not an exorbitant cost to a cruise line. Also, I am still on the Prima and I am pretty sure they aren’t staffing The Local correctly. We have gone a few times and I have had to grab a waiter after waiting for 15 min for someone to just bring us a menu each time. The Local staff are nice but not trained well in my opinion. I asked the waiter yesterday what the soup of the day was and he stared at me like I asked him to solve world peace and then he had to go ask the manager. It may sound like I am bitching but actually I am enjoying the cruise and the ship. My room doesn’t make weird noises, the food has generally been good, indulge food hall is pretty good and the food hall breakfast is good but the hours suck. It is only open from 8-10am where you would think for grab and go they would open earlier for people wanting to get off the boat early. The ship doesn’t seem strange to me or chopped up. It’s actually a really pretty ship. The shows have been pretty good (Donna Summer was really good) so no issues there. The negatives that have been hashed over repeatedly are the buffet is a zoo and there really isn’t enough seating. Part of the issue is the cold weather where we are at so nobody uses the outside decks that much. Another big negative is for the teens on the ship one of which is mine. They are all hanging out but seem bored since they don’t really have a teen club (they get a few hours a night and the rest of the time goes to younger kids). They were basically an afterthought. The mini golf, go karts, etc… are not getting used since its so cold outside so the teens don’t have a ton of places to hang out. This comes into play with having a pizza station open to say midnight like on other ships. Then you would have the teenagers grabbing pizza and hanging out in the buffet area late at night. It seems like a few small changes here and there would really make everything a much better experience. Now, a big gripe I do have with NCL is they cancelled our stop at Geiranger, Norway for tomorrow. Notified us a day ago and said it was going to be too crowded so we will stop at Flam instead. There is not much to do in Flam so kind of ticked about the reason for the changed port. Had to cancel my excursion I already had set up and there is not much excursion wise in Flam since we are a day out. We already had the missed port in Isafjordur which we knew was going to happen.

PSA- just had breakfast at the indulge food hall on Prima since the buffet is pretty crowded. It was pretty empty so you could grab a table easily. They have grab and go items but the food was pretty good and I had a bagel and real smoked salmon platter that was quite good. Wife had a breakfast bowl with eggs, potatoes, chili and cheese. Some bowls of fruit and some pastries and we were good to go. So far I have had no issues with the food and I’m a foodie. Some food has been good and some not so good, the bananas foster was not edible. Like push away to the middle of the table bad after one bite. Cagney was decent and the main dining room has been decent.

I am on currently on the Prima (Day 3) and this is my first NCL cruise. My biggest gripe about the buffet is it closes at 3pm-5pm and isn’t open late 9pm-midnight as an example. The food hall also closes around 3-5pm along with everything else except The Local meaning if any of the 3K people want something to eat it has to be at The Local which becomes a total zoo. Also, for late night snacks (9pm to midnight) everything is closed so my kid said all the teens are complaining that you can’t even get a slice of pizza during that time which I find kind of strange. I get that people should not have to eat all day long on a cruise but based on excursions and getting back on the ship without lunch there have been a few days where we wanted to get a snack or something around 3-4pm and the choices were limited and incredibly crowded since they are so limited. For late night I am surprised they don’t have some of the desserts out at the buffet so you can grab a cookie or something along with some pizza or something for the kids or adults who are hungry at night.

Got that email also. Better than a sea day to me so at least I can try and find something else to do the next morning with the family on land.

Just to add on for the sailing July 6th, my external tour just notified me it is cancelled since they were notified that Prima won’t be docking on the 7th. It is my first time on a NCL ship but they def dropped the ball on communicating this to their customers. I guess they can make more money by making it a sea day and forcing people to spend money on the boat versus off it.

I actually said I understand not stopping based on weather. I have an issue if they know for example 3 weeks before the sailing they won’t be stopping because of a known issue (dock being repaired, they don’t want to spend money on tenders, etc…). Totally different than weather.

I'm on the Prima in 2 weeks. Should I expect to not stop at this port? I already booked a private excursion so kind of important to know if we are stopping are not.

So, since I am going to be on the Prima in 2 weeks can anybody tell me if they are definitely not stopping in Isafjordur, Iceland? I have a private tour set up that day and was wondering if the ship has stopped there on any of its voyages or if this was just a one off for not stopping. If NCL knows they aren't going to stop there for whatever reason (not weather or something sudden but way in advance) I think its fraudulent on their part to not let the guests know who paid money to stop at that port.

I was kidding about cancelling. Only thing that will tick me off is if we miss ports like the same ones they did in Iceland where NCL knows in advance they won't stop but didn't inform anybody and sold the trip to us knowing they would not stop there.