UKstages

as often as people say this, i will come along to say, yes, of course cabin noise is normal on a cruise ship… but, no, the type of noise people speak about on the prima is extraordinary and unlike anything you have experienced before… unless you’ve been unlucky enough to sail in one of these cabins on the prima. it will absolutely ruin your trip… it’s not a question of flexibility or attitude, this cabin noise is due to a manufacturing defect within the ship and can only be corrected in dry dock, by tearing down the walls of the cabin and fixing whatever the hell is causing the incessant noise. it is reprehensible that NCL continues to sell these staterooms.

what is interesting about the screen capture you provided is the reference to a third guest (without a fourth guest) being treated as a solo traveler entitled to just one dinner. currently, solo platinum and above guests get the same card that two people would get. as a solo traveler, my vouchers are for two diners for two and i can take a guest, perhaps somebody who i meet onboard. or a friend traveling in another cabin. what's also interesting is the specific wording... "this guest will be treated as a solo traveler who get [sic] one dinner only." i think what they are trying to say is that the voucher is good for only one person... you would get two dinner vouchers, each good for a solo diner. of course, that's not what happens now... as a solo traveler, you get two dinner vouchers, each good for a dinner for two. but then they go on to say: "the benefit is only good if there are 2 guests dining on the same visit." say what? well, yes, of course, if only one person shows up to dine and uses a voucher, we understand that they are only redeeming the voucher for one meal. but it is unclear from that gobbledegook if NCL is trying to say that the third person only gets one coupon redeemable for one dinner for one. after all "the benefit is only good if there are 2 guests dining on the same visit." and what is that benefit? the platinum and above benefit is two coupons for two dinners. i suspect, as with most NCL disclaimers, that is just horribly written... but... wow. just wow.

earliest check-in time is around 9 or 9:30 am. earliest boarding tends to be around 11 AM for haven, 11:15 or 11:30 for priority groups, general boarding by numbered group around 11:30 or 11:45.

they are typically the same menus as the haven breakfast and lunch menus. also, moderno usually hosts the breakfast (on ships that have a moderno), since they have a salad bar that can be co-opted for a breakfast buffet, which is available in addition to the menu items. cagney's typically hosts the lunch.

water as part of a platinum perk is delivered to your cabin. should be there upon embarkation.

at most bars and restaurants, pending availability. the restaurants would be more likely to have san pellegrino and aqua panna than water cartons. anything delivered to your room typically carries a charge, unless it’s part of your tier benefits or the cabin’s perks.

"never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." - robert heinlein

NCL does actually have a craft cocktail on tap at the local called "monkey business," which is pretty damn good: flor de caña four year rum, screwball peanut butter whiskey, banana, fresh lime, cane sugar, club soda. they serve it with a dried banana chip garnish. not sure if it's available elsewhere on the ship.

they could also remove coco's, which sells upscale desserts... unless coco's also prepares the free desserts. (but those could come from any central kitchen on the ship... it's not as if they are baking them in the indulge food hall.) i'm sure there are fans of this pay for play dessert shop, but i never ever saw anybody buy anything from coco's. the thing is, even if they removed starbucks AND cocos, there still wouldn't be enough seats zt the food hall. but it would help tremendously. it's a step in the right direction.

your cruise consultant should proactively offer this. if he or she doesn't, ask.

the "whiny" epithet is a bit of a misnomer. on cruise critic, quite often somebody who is accused of being "whiny" is just very passionate about something that the accuser is not interested in or holds a strong position with which the accuser disagrees or has successfully debunked an outrageous position the accuser has put forth. if you don't like what somebody has said, they must be a whiner! if they have a lot of negative comments about a ship or a cruise line, they must be a whiner! if you don't understand what they're saying, they must be a whiner! (or so it would seem, after reading hundreds of these accusations of whiny behavior.) the people who are on my "ignore" list are not whiners. they are the folks who repeatedly make straw man arguments and refuse to engage in civil discourse. their only purpose seems to be to stir things up and challenge; they are not devoted to sharing and learning; they are dedicated to confrontation and chaos and cries of "gotcha!" my "ignore" list has grown exponentially in the last two months or so. sadly, i can often still read their comments when they are quoted by others. occasionally, i will click on a missing post for context. never once have i said, "boy, i made a big mistake by ignoring this person... this person is a valuable contributing member of the community whose voice must be heard!" never once.

all my cruises have been comped through CAS, too, and you are correct that there is no fare basis to which you can apply a "percentage off" coupon. however, the percentage coupons do apply to the admin fee. it's a modest savings, but on a 10-day cruise, a 20% off coupon can save you forty bucks. i'm "ruby" in CAS, but it doesn't say that anywhere online. but, a few months ago, the designation "casino + rewards" appeared in my account. 🤷‍♂️

you are most welcome. in what?

if you go to a hotel and order a $20 hamburger from room service, they will tack on a 20% gratuity and a delivery fee of $6.00. there will be a $30 charge on your bill. but the price of the hamburger is still only $20. room service breakfast is free on NCL. there is, however, a service charge for delivery of $4.95+. you would prefer, for some reason, to look at the delivery fee as the "price" of the breakfast. and that's fine, if you choose to do that. but the breakfast is still free. you're paying for delivery. as you know, if you want, you can get get every one of the breakfast selections at the MDR or buffet. the same items are free there, too. and there is no fee when you pick it up yourself. you don't really have your own definition of the word "free." you have your own definition of the word "fee." and i don't think "fee" means what you think it means.

not all that well, frankly. just did the reykjavik/southampton route on the prima in may. when it's cold and rainy, the ship gets fairly crowded because nobody is spending much time outdoors. the prima was designed with an extraordinary amount of outdoor space, more than most other ships, and that is terrific, except when it's cold and rainy or windy or you're sailing with high seas and outdoor access is restricted.

they have egg whites in the philippines! they are called “egg whites.” in fact, during the spanish colonial era, egg whites were used in the construction of many churches as part of a mortar mix. rather than throw out the leftover yolks, they were used to create desserts, many of which are still served today. so, egg whites play a big role in filipino culture and cuisine.

i clearly said “in my case.” did you somehow miss those words smack dab in the middle of the sentence? in fact, NCL corporate has already compensated me for this. so, clearly there was some validity to my complaint. the curious thing about this is that i documented this issue in a lengthy cruise critic thread. well, that’s not the curious thing. the curious thing is that you yourself posted six or seven times in that thread, at first saying that “you feel for the OP” (that would be me). and you concluded: “if enough people bring this to NCL's attention, it should be fixed at the first dry dock. i haven't had a chance to peruse many of the prima reviews yet, but if what you say is true and many passengers had the same experience as yours, it certainly sounds like something worth investigating and fixing.” what made you change your mind? i’ve posted over 20,000 words about the prima here on cruise critic. I invite you to go find them and read them. there’s a detailed and lengthy review and there is a separate thread about extraordinary noise in my cabin. i gave the indulge food hall a largely favorable review, but noted the difficulty in finding a seat, as have many others. it’s not my job to figure out the optimum number of seats in a dining venue. it’s my job to walk in to the food hall, find a seat and chow down. if the design of the venue prohibits me from doing that, I’m duty bound to point that out in a fair and impartial review.

unless you have cookies disabled, they know you’re looking.

forget the compensation, they should fix the underlying problem or not sell those cabins. no compensation is adequate for (in my case) three nights of lost sleep and three more days to recover. many reviews mention the indulge food hall. the food is great, it’s an innovative concept, but flawed in its execution. if there aren’t enough seats, you don’t have have a viable dining venue.

loved your trip report... really well written and exceedingly entertaining. so glad you has a great time! there's just this one teeny weeny thing... i think many might disagree that the waterfront is barely used. to be fair, i haven't been on the escape, so, perhaps, there is something unique about its design that prevents it from being used. but on the NCL ships i have sailed, the waterfront is used a lot by people lounging, reading and dining (as several restaurants typically have outdoor dining on the waterfront). also, a lot of people, including me, use the waterfront for their daily walks, even on ships that have a jogging track on a higher deck. (many find it more interesting and navigable.) some might object if one side of the ship's waterfront were turned into a defacto smoking lounge... not to mention that there are likely balcony cabins above the waterfront and the smoke would drift up to them. frankly, the fact that you mentioned that royal allows smoking on the entire starboard side of the promenade has turned me off of royal. look, there's no easy answer to the smoking dilemma. smokers will always be concerned that there are not enough areas to smoke. and it sounds like it was a major inconvenience for you. but i'm glad you otherwise had a really terrific time. i'm confused as to how you got off the ship. typically, if NCL owes you money and you don't have a zero balance on your account, you can't leave the ship until they pay you the difference. unless this was nonrefundable OBC that you were working off of... then it just gets forfeited.

look, not really. look, i'm not here to edumicate you, but you're barking up the wrong tree. go back and read my posts and perhaps you'll realize i'm not advocating for the things you seem to think i'm advocating for, namely compensation for the OP. all my posts have been about who owns the customer relationship and, actually, if you read all the posts in this thread you will see that there is indeed widespread misunderstanding about that.

just to clarify... i have never been subjected to a formal sales pitch with a microphone and a powerpoint at these things. it's more like a cruise next rep cozying up to me and engaging me in a long and spirited (and boring) conversation about the "advantages" of buying cruise next. (for a variety of reasons, cruise next doesn't work for me.)

another vote for the chicken salad sandwich! it's quite good. i hadn't tried it till my most recent cruise a few weeks ago. i'll be ordering it again. if you ask, they can also put the chicken salad on top of a caesar salad. as for the bread, mine was on a tasty multigrain bread. if they have a croissant, i'm sure you could get it on a croissant. they do have a pretty bad breakfast sandwich that is served on a croissant. but a lot of times, these restaurants are provisioned for a particular meal service and just because they have croissants in the kitchen for breakfast doesn't mean they will have them at other times of the day.

i don't believe there are any non-haven suites at all on the breakaway or the getaway, etc. i should have said that non-haven suites come with suite benefits on most ships (that have suites). obviously, you cant get suite benefits if you're not in a suite or if your ship does not have suites. i was less than precise with my language and the use of the word "most." i regret the error. the point is, until they took the suite benefits away on the joy, all non-haven suites came with breakfast and lunch privileges and a butler. (not club balcony "suites," which aren't really suites.) but again, you can't get suite benefits if your ship does not have any suites.

i think most NCL ships have non-haven suites with butler service and breakfast and lunch privileges in a dedicated restaurant (not the haven restaurant), with the notable exception of the joy. they have the suites, but they carry very few suite benefits and have no butler.