UKstages

housekeeping housekeeping in all cabins was good, the stewards (all of mine were male) were personable and attentive, although i didn’t have the cabin made up at all in the room i used just for sleeping. both of the other attendants introduced themselves on embarkation day, asked about my schedule and my preferences and when i wanted the room made up. i explained that later in the day was usually good for me. and so my cabin was always made up according to that preference. i did not have any problem whatsoever with the once-a-day service; it worked out fine for me. one thing i’ve noticed, however, and i haven’t seen commented on elsewhere: there appears to be a lot more room service trays, plates, glasses and such left outside staterooms in the halls. service items removed from the buffet and the indulge food hall, too. i believe it’s not because people are dining in their rooms more… i think it’s because cabin attendants don’t have a second shift, so they are not picking up these items as promptly as they used to. no harm, no foul, i suppose, but it doesn’t look great and could be a tripping hazard for some. i did ask for extra towels and got them. i noticed on the second cruise, that the steward had placed four or five extra towels in the cupboard under the sink, along with several rolls of toilet paper. not sure if that was there for his convenience or mine, but i appreciated it. check under the sink in your cabin… there might be extra supplies in there. my attendants told me they used to have 15 cabins, and with the recent change, they now have 20. i get a lot of “treats” delivered to my cabin from the casino and i get at least one bottle of prosecco on embarkation day, although i got none on the second cruise. not a problem for me, as i don’t drink it… it’s better than the bad sparkling wine they used to offer, but it’s just not that good. it’s the same stuff you can get at any bar if you order prosecco. i had that and a couple of bottles of “platinum dinner” wine unconsumed at the end of the cruise and i asked my cabin attendant if he wanted them. i wasn’t sure if he could take them. (i had offered them to my casino host and she said she was unable to accept tips of any kind.) he was very appreciative… not sure if they were for him, whether he actually drank them, or if he was accepting them to exchange or barter with others. i get “ultra” drinks in the casino, so i will often bring back a bottle or two of pellegrino and put it in the fridge. on day 2, i was surprised to find a promotional “for sale” hangtag on my bottle of pellegrino! i explained to the cabin attendant that it was “my” bottle (from the casino) and not a bottle for purchase and there was no problem after that. i thought housekeeping service was very good. and so i tipped both cabin attendants PHP 6000. (that’s 6000 filipino pesos, which is equivalent to about $120. the cruise duration was 11 days and 10 days.) i gave the non-filipino attendant for my additional sleeping room twenty bucks. he didn’t actually do anything in the room for me, but he was very attentive and always asked if i needed anything. housekeeping: A

prima theater the prima theater is a technological marvel. as you’ve probably heard by now, the theater itself features seats which fold up and get tucked away and slid under the balcony so they can transform the theater into a 3-story disco and event space. if you have an opportunity to watch this, do it! in my opinion, it’s more fascinating than most things they actually present on stage. the cruise director will often host a “show” after the first night of “summer” performances in which she invites people onstage to dance as the rest of the audience (in the mezzanine and balcony) watch the transformation, which takes about 25 minutes. they use the empty space for embarkation day restaurant reservations and to accommodate disembarkation lines (if deck six is where the gangways are set up) and other special events. now, the same things that make the theater so flexible also are drawbacks when it comes to being a theater. the seats are, to put it politely, flimsy and not cushioned all that well. and not all of them work properly, since they get slammed down and put away on an almost daily basis. also, the seating in the mezzanine and balcony don’t offer great sightlines, although they are usually fine for solo performers who stay center stage. most seats offer pull down drink holders and pre-show drink service is good. the theater features a state-of-the-art LED screen that offers stunning presentation capabilities and opportunities, most of which are squandered. the legit shows (“summer” and “price”) make good use of these, but otherwise they just display sloppily made boring powerpoint images which haven’t really been prepared by design professionals. still, the theater is a wonder. such a shame that nothing in it is as good as the theater itself. the theater: A-

other entertainment other entertainment, such as it was, was downright weird… a woman you’ve never heard of did a show called “how to be a headliner.” a violinist was brought on board for a solo show to accompany pre-recorded music tracks. some of the cast from “donna” and “syd norman’s” did a broadway revue that could have benefitted from more rehearsal… and a director. it, too, used prerecorded music tracks for half of the numbers presented. (the cast members on the joy do a similar show to much better effect.) there are solos, duos and trios playing in the atrium and at other spots around the ship and they offer theme shows, saluting the likes of johnny cash and ABBA. these were mostly good. and atrium-style events like “deal or no deal” are elevated to the theater on this ship. and while it’s good to get that nonsense out of the atrium, it’s not really a show. again, there were no comedians brought onboard for the 5/25 sailing… none! my score for prima entertainment overall: C-

entertainment: syd norman’s people raved about it. i never felt like waiting in line to get in. i saw a few of the performers in other venues, in other shows, and they were quite good. i can’t really rate syd’s because i never went in there. but i’ll rate it anyway. A for the quality of the entertainment (based on what people have told me) C- for the size of the venue and the inconvenience involved in getting in to see the shows

entertainment: the price is right the other big show on this ship is “the price is right.” it’s a live version of the popular daytime game show classic. hosted by an affable, but rather plastic and stepford husband type of guy. assisted by his real-life wife, the show runs about an hour. yes, contestants are chosen from the audience to populate “contestants' row” and, yes, four or five them do make it to the stage. and, yes, the show does feature all the familiar games you’d expect like the big wheel, plinko, cliffhangers and such. and, yes, somebody will have the chance to win a brand-new car! but nobody is really going to win that car, as they’ve created unrealistic hurdles you have to get through in order to do so. they’ve essentially drafted new rules for the games and dumbed down the dollar values and the prizes. the most money most people will win – if they’re really lucky - is $200 or so. similarly, the top prize you might walk away with will be a TV set or a pair of beats headphones. i’ve seen other versions of this show in land-based casinos and this is a very slick, well produced version, with good production values. but you don’t have much of a show if the most entertaining things presented onstage are archival film clips from the TV show itself. it’s essentially a really slick game show, something that would play in the atrium on any other ship, but here… it has been pimped out and promoted to a featured spot. strictly, speaking, it isn’t really cruise ship entertainment, but it’s better at doing what it sets out to do than “summer.” oh… and there is this… you’re required to wear a name tag, just like contestants on the real show. no problem, except the distribution of those name tags has not been thought through very well. it’s another example of folks on the prima not paying attention to small details. hidden within the daily on show days is a small line item that says “name tag distribution at the box office” or some such... three 90-minute periods throughout the day. there is no other notice. a lot of people didn’t see that. so they also give out name tags as you enter the theater. but it’s incredibly inefficient for two reasons… there is no reason they couldn’t just send your name tags to your cabin in advance. it’s not like they don’t have your name. (and they sent a “price” letter to my cabin on embarkation day informing me of a change to a reserved show time.) the other reason is because the person who gives you your name tag and laboriously writes your name out on the spot is located before the person who swipes your card for entry. so even the people who already had their name tags had to wait in line behind the people who didn’t. simple fix: put the entry key card swiper BEFORE the guy who writes the name tags. boom! you’ve just freed up more of your guests’ time, not penalized those who were good doobies and already had their name tags, and you’ve given more time for your drink servers to tend to more people inside the theater. simple things like this make a big difference in guest satisfaction and the prima fumbles and stumbles at almost every customer touchpoint. also, it should be noted: as you find elsewhere on the ship, when they call you to the stage, they use your first middle and last name because that's what's in the NCL database. but it does make it seem like contestants' row is populated by serial killers... "lee harvey oswald, come on down, you're the next contestant on the price is right!" interestingly, the original concept for the prima was to have FOUR game shows as entertainment! “the price is right” was to have been joined by “supermarket sweep, “press your luck” and “beat the clock.” this is one instance in which corporate is to be commended for coming to their collective senses and aborting that plan! and does anyone remember that when the prima was first announced, one of the primary slots for onboard entertainment was to have been filled by the “light balance” troupe, the AGT favorites? what ever happened with that? my score for “the price is right” is a solid C+.

entertainment: donna summer “oh, donna, oh, donna, looking for my donna…” if you’re looking for your donna, you won’t find her on the prima! the big deal entertainment on this ship is the broadway musical “summer: the donna summer musical.” a critical and commercial failure on broadway some years back. it’s a “jukebox musical” featuring donna’s greatest hits set amidst the backdrop of her personal struggles and successes. or at least it’s supposed to be. it was never a very good musical to begin with and it’s even less so in this mounting… partly because they’ve cut so much of the story out. it ran nearly two and half hours on broadway… as presented here, it’s a truncated 90 minutes or so. there is a whole photo montage at the end of the show of friends who donna lost to AIDs, but it falls flat because there is no context. that part of her story is never explored in this version; they cut all that out. the cast is uniformly good and the show has strong production values. so, it’s a really nice looking, well performed version of a confusing and decidedly lackluster show. i had a reservation to see it a second time on the second leg of this B2B cruise and i passed. my score for summer: D, as in donna.

entertainment: comedians entertainment on this ship is lacking, with one notable exception. the comedians on the first leg of this cruise were truly exceptional. usually, out of three comedians, one will be pretty good and the other two will be terrible or one will be so-so and the other terrible. all three comedians on the 5/14 sailing from NYC to reykjavik were sensational, both together and individually. NCL should continue to book them... NCL should clone them and put them on every ship! midway through the cruise, i hadn’t seen any of them, but i read in the daily that they were giving a midafternoon presentation on “how to give a comedy talk” or some such. well, the description was a complete misnomer; in truth, it was just the three of them holding court, talking about the biz and kibbitzing with each other. (they are all friends and know each other from the comedy club circuit.) these three have incredible chemistry and this impromptu talk was one of the entertainment highlights of the cruise, i kid you not. scheduled for just 45 minutes, it easily could have gone on for two hours! not everything was funny; one particular anecdote that one comedian related was quite a touching story that brought tears to many. the three funnymen said this was the cruise director’s idea, to hold this banter-fest… and it was a great idea and should be continued on this and other ships. later in the week, i had the chance to see each of them perform individually and they did not disappoint. if you have a chance to see any of these guys onboard a ship or at your local comedy club, do not miss the opportunity. they are: jay black, frank townsend and lucas bone. my score for these three comics: A+. all comedy concerts are now presented in the prima theater, as the purpose-built “improv” venue is too damn small. management has finally recognized this. sadly, and inexplicably, there were NO comedians on board the second ten-day cruise… not a single one! i asked about this and was told that it was a corporate decision, that NCL had determined that humor is highly subjective and that on “international” itineraries not originating in the USA, the audience doesn’t “get” comedians. hmmm… that may have been true years ago, but it is no longer true. we live in a shrinking global community. american movies and sitcoms are exported all over the world. in fact, many people learn how to speak english by watching “friends” and “seinfeld,” so that excuse just doesn’t hold water in my book in this day and age. are there some culture and language differences, sure! but nothing that would prevent someone from enjoying a comedian. and why do they have to be american comedians? book a brit, an aussie, an indian or other southeast asian comedian. book a nigerian comedian, for goodness’ sake or someone from lithuania or poland! funny is funny! besides, there were a lot of aussies and brits on board, as well as a large number of americans. even if NCL’s data were true, it wouldn’t necessarily apply to those english speaking groups. and if we’re worried about an international audience not understanding english idioms or comedy, how do we expect them to appreciate “summer” or “the price is right” and its wisecracking host? my score for having no comedians onboard whatsoever: F

cabins i booked a club balcony “suite” on the first leg of this B2B, cabin 11344, which is neither a suite nor does it afford any benefits in any club that i’m aware of. (it’s not as if all the exclusive “club” balcony members got together every day for high tea while exchanging our secret handshakes.) but it was a great room, spacious and comfortable… until we set sail on the high seas. that’s when it became a hellscape from which there was no escape. i’ve documented that (mis)adventure in another forum post and encourage you to read it, a link is provided in the first post of this review. if you read that thread, you know i was eventually given an additional room to sleep in. that cabin, 10180, was a standard balcony. it was more spacious than balcony cabins on other ships and the bathroom – in all my cabins – was quite big, with an oversize shower that could easily accommodate somebody who was 6’4”. this cabin was quiet, with only some minor noise from the party crowd in the cabin next door, coming through the connecting door. the cabin booked for the second leg of this B2B was a family balcony, cabin 13190. it too was fine… large room, well appointed, big bathroom. (but i missed the extra space from the club balcony room, not to mention my fellow club members and that secret handshake.) pro tip: there is no traditional dial on the shower heads to adjust the flow of water. but if you take the handheld shower head down and look on the back, you will see three or four buttons to adjust your stream. i’m willing to bet a lot of people never remove the shower head and miss that. prima cabins: A* *unless you get one of the rooms known by NCL to have an excessive noise problem caused by a structural defect, in which case: F

embarkation embarkation was relatively easy. it isn’t always that way at the manhattan cruise terminal, but this was painless. i live about 12 blocks from the pier, so i walked down around 9 AM. (i had a 9:30 am check-in time.) at check-in, the agent insisted on taking a new photo. i asked why. he said for “verification purposes.” i said, “there’s an approved photo in there already. there’s nothing wrong with it. it has been accepted and approved.” he said, “no, that’s just for online check-in. this is different. we have to retake everybody’s photo when you show up in person… for verification purposes.” he was wrong, but i wasn’t going to press the issue... choose your battles. this wasn’t worth fighting over. and that’s how i would up with a photo of me - for 21 days - that looks like i just woke up in my cave in afghanistan, rather than a carefully posed and well-lit head shot that makes me look like brad pitt. i am not in fact brad pitt. (if i were, i wouldn’t be on NCL.) but i also don’t live in a cave. the idea of the early check-in time was to get onboard early and make last minute tweaks to restaurant reservations, book the behind-the-scenes latitudes tour and the wines around the world event, as well as shore excursions. i was onboard around 11:20 am and rooms were available shortly after 2 pm. i was able to complete most of my tasks within a half hour (more on that later) and was dining at the indulge food hall before noon. embarkation: A

spoiler alert: EVERYTHING you’ve heard is true. the prima is truly “a tale of two cities”… it is indeed the best of times, the worst of times. it is the most technologically advanced, most splendiferous, most engaging city at sea and a truly dreadful example of corporate blindness. there’s a good chance you will wait for elevators and bartenders and not be able to find a seat at the buffet or the food hall, just as you’ve read online. there’s a reason people have mentioned this in their reviews… because it’s true! NCL proudly proclaims the prima has more outdoor space than any other ship and that’s probably true… but just as you’ve heard, that is also a drawback when faced with inclement and/or cold or windy weather conditions. this ship should not be cruising the north atlantic… it should be confined to the caribbean. as on most ships, the crew is comprised of magnificent overachievers and recidivist slackers, some of whom should not be in customer contact positions. the senior officers, except those in food and beverage, are resistant to customer feedback and don’t really listen to their guests. the food is delicious (in some cases) and (in many other cases) not. but one thing is for sure: in the main dining rooms, the food will always be served room temperature. the hot food is invariably served colder than most people would like; the cold food is invariably served warmer than it should be. (i took the behind-the-scenes tour and one of the things they pride themselves on in the galley is their adherence to food safety regulations and temperature checks… you walk away scratching your head after that because clearly nobody has dined at hudson’s, the primary MDR. everything has been sitting around there so long that it invariably becomes room temperature.) i wanted very much to like the prima and was sure that all those online naysayers didn’t know what they were talking about, but, on balance, i’d have to say that the prima is not yet ready for prime time. the prima is like going to hear your favorite band or artist and hearing only songs from the new album. some of those songs are good, but you still want to hear some greatest hits, too. there are few - possibly none - of those greatest hits on the prima. oh sure… you can replace the fish on the carpet with triangles. you can do away with card rooms, libraries and meeting rooms. you can beef up outdoor space at the expense of having suitable indoor space. you can build venues that only seat a fraction of the number of people who want to visit that venue. you can build a casino without a dedicated service bar. you can have a fixed menu in the MDR for the duration of the cruise. you can build a restaurant with limited seating that relies on tablet technology that doesn’t always work. you can build a buffet with limited seating. you can attempt to pass off a game show as professional show business cruise ship entertainment. you can hang confusing signage. but if you do all that, people will clamor for what they liked about NCL’s other ships. you can’t change it all at once… you simply can’t. well, clearly you can… but then you run the risk of getting too many things wrong. and, unfortunately, that’s what’s happened on the prima. they’ve pretty much changed everything… some of it works, but quite a lot of it doesn’t... and management is not receptive to feedback and is sticking to its guns. in nearly a year, the only two things they’ve changed are the menus in the main dining rooms (they brought back rotating menus) and they’ve now put all comedy shows in the theatre to accommodate larger audiences (which makes the “improv” branding on their comedy venue confusing and unnecessary. it would be like having an ice cream shop that only served soup.) overall grade for the prima: C

i recently completed 21 days on the NCL prima on back-to-back cruises: new york --> halifax --> sydney --> akureyri --> reykjavik reykjavik --> alesund --> gerainger --> bergen --> amsterdam --> zeebrugge --> southampton the ship left new york on 5/14/23 and docked in southampton on 6/4/23. along the way, there was some bad weather, some bad tempers, some even worse weather, some canceled ports, some good food, some bad food, copious cocktails and a lot of laughs. i experienced one major service issue, as well as a lot of relatively minor ones. the large service issue was documented in the thread captioned below and resulted in me having to sleep on the bathroom floor in my room in order to rest without being disturbed by excessive cabin noise: due to bad weather and other mysterious reasons, several ports were skipped, namely isafjörður on both cruises. in addition, we arrived in reykjavik 21 hours late, so folks who were just doing the first cruise, missed out on that port as well. in fact, the 11-day transatlantic had a total of 6 or 7 sea days, depending on how you calculate them. and they added an extra day in reykjavik on the second cruise (in other words, the second cruise started with an overnight in reykjavik). this allowed the B2B passengers (nearly 400) to actually see the city or go on a tour. my intention with this review is not to provide a day by day, play by play chronicle of my time onboard, but to mention things i thought were exceptional, things i thought were good and, yes, things i thought were bad or silly or that were missed opportunities or poorly executed. i’ll do this in a series of topic-specific posts.

i was on the may 25th prima sailing, disembarking in southampton on june 9th. on that cruise, three of four days earlier, they did an onboard "oversea enroute" UK immigration inspection/clearance. so when we arrived in southampton, there was no local inspection as the immigration requirement had already been met. the only bottleneck was the usual queue of passengers clamoring to get off. once in the terminal, you walked straight through. of course, the inspection was kind of mishandled by NCL, and they ran considerably behind schedule, so it might take the better part of an hour to get processed through. the inspection was done in the observation lounge. also relevant to this discussion... the UK immigration clearance letter they sent out said that it was mandatory, unless you were disembarking in amsterdam or zeebrugge. so, clearly, there were people onboard that cruise who were getting off prior to the last port.

yes, in my experience, bathrobes are an amenity in club balcony rooms and above. that would include suites and the haven.

on the gem, both suite guests and haven guests can enjoy breakfast at moderno and lunch at cagney's.

ah, well, my recent experience on the prima was a little different, but, yes, with some notable and disruptive exceptions, the people are wonderful. i'll be posting a lengthy review of the prima soon. you might not agree with everything in it, but i think you'll enjoy reading it. you seem to suggest that you've enjoyed the entertainment. is that just "donna" and "price is right?" or other entertainment options? i thought the entertainment on the prima was lacking.

the problem with the prefab response that the OP received is not that no additional compensation was offered (it wasn't requested). it's that none of the key questions posed were answered! companies use templates and prefab responses all the time when responding to customer inquiries. that's to be expected. but they must be customized to address the concerns unique to each individual customer. that didn't happen here and it didn't happen in my case recently when i reached out to katty bird's office. they pigeonhole you into one of their prefabricated responses. in this case, that meant taking a cursory glance at the OP's letter and quickly determining that he was another customer complaining about missed ports. and that wasn't really the thrust of his inquiry at all. he was asking about whether corrective measures had been put in place to ensure that passengers would have full use of all all the advertised venues on NCL ships and whether or not any necessary closures would be communicated properly to passengers. he also asked whether the information given to passengers about port cancellations was accurate and asked about how those decisions were made and communicated and why those onboard pretended that they knew nothing about it, even though the same port had been canceled in at least two prior cruises. those questions remain unanswered by NCL look, companies screw up all the time. it's to be expected and it is by and large accepted by their customers. what separates a progressive customer-focused company from the also-rans is how they respond when something goes awry. have they learned anything from it? did they fix the underlying problem? are they making good with some sort of service recovery or apology? NCL continues to deny and obfuscate at every customer touchpoint.

some ships provide storage, some do not. recent data point from a few weeks ago: the prima uses "the improv" for storage of luggage on embarkation day. but whether or not your ship provides embarkation day storage is beside the point. the OP indicated that there are two people each of whom has "1 medium bag and a backpack or tote with a trolley sleeve." tote with a trolley sleeve, no problem. backpack, no problem. medium bag... problem! as noted upthread, your carry on bag must be able to fit into a standard airport-style x-ray machine. "medium" sized bags will not. the medium bags must therefore be checked. as for passengers dropping bags in their rooms prior to rooms being announced as ready, my experience is yes, for suites and the haven. (although you might have difficulty getting past the fire doors for suites.) no, for "regular" rooms.

they would typically fly you to LHR. just a guess, but from houston, they would probably fly you on united to ORD and then on to LHR. if there is a nonstop, you could luck out and get one. but it's a crap shoot. could be a red eye. could be day flights arriving in london in the evening. you relinquish almost total control when you book NCL air, but you might save some money.

i think it's a common misunderstanding that the club balcony rooms have larger balconies. the balcony ranges are all over the map, just like regular balcony rooms. they do indeed have larger bathrooms and the room itself is slightly larger, but it's not actually considered a suite. there isn't much else... you get a free bag of laundry (in addition to your latitudes benefit if you also qualify for that). you're able to book reservations a few days earlier. and you allegedly get "treats" delivered to your stateroom a couple of times (mixed success with this) and a bottle of sparkling wine upon embarkation (mixed success with this). you also get a purple keycard, not that it means anything at all to anyone. that's about it.

more accurately, they said the covid-19 "emergency" was over, which translates into relaxed and largely voluntary protocols at most pubic gatherings and on cruise ships. biden actually urged congress to '“remain vigilant” and said that “we still need to monitor dozens of variants and support new vaccines and treatments." so... it's far from "over." nearly every roll call on cruise critic contains after-cruise reports of a small number of people who contracted covid. anecdotally, on my most recent B2B, which ended last week, this was a very hot topic for discussion, with many expressing concern, although i'd say fewer than 5% wore masks. the familiar "covid cough," however, could be heard throughout the ship and on all excursion busses. (and, no, i have no way of verifying whether those folks had covid, but i'm hearing this same cough in every public gathering... and i never used to hear it prior to 2020.) covid-19 and its variants will be with us for a good long while, and even though more than 1,000 people continue to die each week (worldwide), it should not be a major obstacle for most people considering cruising. it has, however, had a major impact on the talent pool available for hiring in the hospitality sector, including cruise ships. many, including me, believe that has affected the quality of service on board NCL ships. and that may indeed have a knock-on effect in reviews of NCL cruises.

data point: embarked in NYC three weeks ago on a transatlantic on the prima. arrived 9:30 am, stress-free relatively short lines at security and checkin, pre-boarding of non-haven guests began around 11:15 or 11:20 am. YMMV.

it is of interest to me, and to many others, judging by comments here on cruise critic; some consider it among the best cuisines on the ship. it is available every day in two other venues on the prima. that old chestnut? the “port hasn’t yet been dredged and restored” excuse is what we were told on both legs of our B2B on which isafjordur was skipped. at the time, they said they were hopeful it would be ready by the time the may 25th cruise departed. they were told by the port that they needed just a little more time. that was three weeks ago. is it true? it may well be. it might not be. the point is that NCL (of which i am indeed a fan) bends and distorts the truth so often, they have lost all credibility. the observation lounge wasn’t really closed for a private function for the duration of the cruise! it’s like that other current thread in which somebody mentions their cabin wasn’t cleaned properly on embarkation day… if there are leftover dailies and the fridge hasn’t been emptied… why would one feel confident that the sheets on the bed have been changed? if NCL lied about the purpose and duration of the OL closure, why wouldn’t they lie about a port closure?

they are not dailies any longer. they are now “weeklies” and they are being printed on the backs of CVS receipts, for your convenience.

i was there last week, as the prima called in amsterdam. highly recommend! note for the mobility impaired: the museum involves a good deal of walking, including climbing several very steep and narrow staircases that are more like ladders than stairs. i can add that tickets go on sale exactly six weeks before the day in question and they sell out quickly, within a few hours, as capacity is limited. they are timed admission tickets, in fifteen minute windows, and are only available online directly from the museum. (you can stay as long as you like, but your entry is timed. the average visit will take 60-90 minutes.) any tour operator that tells you they can get you into the anne frank house is stretching the truth. they can get you near the anne frank house, but they can’t get you in. NCL itself runs a tour of “jewish amsterdam” or some such… but it doesn’t include this museum. i recommend an early morning visit, so you have the rest of the day free to explore the city or book formal tours. it’s very much a city to walk around in… I walked 13 miles that day!

assuming it wasn't a special, did you have it a second time? and was it the same? my experience at the local and o'sheehan's (except for the desserts) is that the dishes often vary wildly from one day to the next in terms of taste, portion size and presentation.