OrangeCatRamblers

Jam-flipping-packed, I'd say. Registering at Entourage, they told us there were 700 kids on board. It was school vacation week for MA, so all of us Massholes (she says, lovingly) were well represented. The Prima does a simply stellar job of funneling people into nooks. Even at 9pm on a sea day, the Belvedere and Metropolitan bars had ample seating, as did the upholstered seats near the whiskey bar. If you're smart about timing (to absolutely insure a seat at Indulge, just get there 10mins before opening times, play cards or twiddle your thumbs), you won't be shut out of much.

We just opened and closed it on our own, no issues at all. My son had no complaints!

Do you like long and poorly-edited reviews by opinionated Gen Xers? Do you want to know all about Indulge, and a screen-free atrium, and how many seats are available in any given place at any given time? Strap in! This review is long, and going nowhere, and I'm still in the car on my way home... apologies if you see this double posted anywhere. What can I say, I get around. This was the partially chartered Soca cruise, and by now we all know that everyone co-existed peacefully, despite a slick and kinda misleading ad campaign on their part, we'll put that to bed for now. Let's get started by addressing one of the Prima's main constant complaints: a lack of seating. I took notes on seat availability as often as I could remember. Getting a seat wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted, was a NON-ISSUE all week except for one time. We are a family of three, with one 15yo. We have sailed primarily on NCL, on the Gem, Pearl & Getaway. We have only ever sailed to Bermuda, and we always leave from the northeast and during school vacation weeks. I did not enjoy our last cruise on the Getaway (April 2022). The smoke in the casino and atrium area really bothered me. Enough so that when I saw the promotional material for the Prima, and realized it was a practically smoke-free ship, I knew it would be the cruise for me. I found the aesthetic extremely appealing, stylistically. I did not enjoy the big screen in the atrium on the Getaway. I used these groups and CC to research as much as possible before sailing. I booked all shows and restaurants at the earliest possible window. I had a list of "ship chores" to complete immediately after muster check in. NY embarkation was very easy compared to one year ago, when two terminals were being used, one solely for checking vax cards and Bermuda travel approval. We finished our "ship chores" quickly after boarding: booked my husband in for two individual go kart rides, purchased the unlimited go kart pass ($199), booked 2 sessions of darts ($20ea), booked the "Magic" escape room ($15pp), and registered our son at Entourage. Entourage registration happens inside Splash Academy, so we had to sit on little preschool chairs and our son complained it was "too bright." They do have their own space with FIFA/Mario Kart but it's not as inviting as on the Getaway. The Entourage staff get a double thumbs up from our son, he liked them. Entourage activities happen in other places on the ship as well - they had events in the stadium, their own pool party, and a group dinner. The teens also self-organized to dress up for their own dinners at Hudson's - so our son actually went more often than we did! (See below) Our Embarkation Day lunch choice was Hudson's. The view and windows were so lovely. All of the furniture and decor felt light and airy and modern. We enjoyed our lunch (California rolls, and Caesar salads with salmon), but it took almost 45 minutes to be served. That would be the last time my husband and I ate in Hudson's all week. Our son then did one run on the Speedway, and it made for a very cool photo with the NYC skyline behind him. We had a balcony room on deck 11. The room was spacious and gorgeous. The balcony furniture was definitely an upgrade from the Getaway. 🚨🚨It is definitely true that when the sofa bed is extended, there is a gap of only a few inches between the bed and the desk/mirror. It is a TIGHT squeeze. People who are mobility impaired would find this extremely difficult, if not impossible. 🚨🚨 We tried Indulge for dinner. At 5:45pm, there were open tables indoors and outdoors. We chose all of our selections from the Indian counter, and all were fantastic and arrived quickly. Then we attended Deal or No Deal. It started at 630pm. There was no queue to get in. There we learned that both comedians would be performing in the theatre all week, and not Improv. I found the theatre audio to be extremely loud - and actually wore earplugs to Donna Summer! Our son headed to Entourage for their programming for the night. We watched the talented musicians in the atrium for a while. All of the live music on the ship was very impressive, particularly the Blaze Band. The next morning, we had breakfast in the Observation Lounge. Such a beautiful space!! I had really felt the lack of a space like that on the Getaway. There was plenty of seating around 9am. I enjoyed the avocado egg white wrap. We then divided the morning between the Vibe (no problem reading outside wearing a hat and heavy sweater) and the stadium/speedway. 🚨🚨It is a valid complaint and I very much agree that there should be SOME seating in the stadium. If people would like to sit and watch kids play foosball or table tennis, there is no place to do so. Similarly, there is no place to sit & watch the go karts. Additionally, when planning the flow of your day, be warned that a full run on the go karts takes about 30 minutes start to finish - there is a lengthy safety briefing plus a long-ish wait for any group's turn to ride.🚨🚨 We had a quick buffet snack of focaccia pizza. Do not miss this! It's only available at lunch and it's an A+++ pizza. Our first sea day was a rainy day. At 2pm there were no indoor seats in Indulge, but there were plenty of covered outdoor seats. We tried the crab tostada and the ahi tuna tostada, A++ for both. The crab tostada ended up being my pick for best dish of the whole week. We attended the 630 show of Donna Summer. Our son elected to hang with teens instead of joining us. By the time the show began, there were still a few free seats in the back row, which could be easily accessed by entering on deck 7. After the show, we went to the Belvedere bar to try their drink menu. It was practically empty there, very cozy and very pretty. I had high hopes for "All About That Basil," but found it too sweet for my liking, it tasted like boozy Country Time pink lemonade. My husband had something with bourbon which he enjoyed. We tempted the fates at the slot machines, but no luck. On the Getaway, I had some great luck at the "OMG Kittens" slots. There were no kittens to be found on the Prima! Then we watched the Blaze Band in the atrium. There were a few seats here & there. I went up to the bar for a Mai Tai. There was no wait at the atrium bar even if it "looked" crowded, a few people hang there playing video poker, or leaning against the bar to watch the music. The time change on the way to Bermuda was pretty rough on one of us the next morning, and that was the one who chose to adhere to the 1am teen curfew as a law that must be followed 🙄 We had breakfast again in the Observation Lounge, with no problems getting a seat. I spoke to a lovely group from Quebec for a bit. We then did our time in the escape room. Our family of 3 was joined by an adorable younger couple. The 5 of us together were experienced at escape rooms, so it's possible we made things slightly more complicated than they actually needed to be, but it was great fun, the staff were cute and helpful, and we escaped with plenty of time to spare. A+ activity, would happily do again. We joined in for 6 Second Rule in the atrium, plenty of seats if you got there about 10 minutes before the start. Then we went to Indulge for lunch - it was 1pm on a rainy sea day and there were no free tables. ✳️However, there was plenty of bar seating at every station. When you sit at the bar, you can only order from that station. IMO, if they changed that rule, seating would open up by like 20%. I hope they consider that.✳️ We decided to have the bbq lunch and sat immediately at that counter. No wait. I highly recommend the bbq salmon. It was delicious and the portion was HUGE. We found open comfy chairs behind the Starbucks on deck 7. This was a very quiet and peaceful spot which was often empty. It was a nice place to read and hang out on a sea day. That evening, my husband and I went to Los Lobos (fantastic, particularly the guacamole and the grilled shrimp) while my son ate in Hudson's with his teen crew. We caught acoustic musician Francis in the Metropolitan, and his music was a big hit with me. Especially if you were a teen in the 90s, it will be right up your alley. He takes requests and has a songbook with an impressive 400 titles. We tried to catch Francis as often as we could. I tried the croissant Mai Tai in the Metropolitan, but it wasn't my favorite thing. The next morning we arrived in Bermuda. We had breakfast at the Local. There was no wait and no line at 845am. The fruit salad was a hit with me. Everyone else seemed happy with their omelettes. Despite the rain, we headed out to catch the free ferry to St George. ✳️There was already quite a queue 45 minutes before departure.✳️ Despite the rain changing our original plans (our son was to be sailing near Grotto Bay), we pivoted and had a fantastic day doing the Crystal Cave, lunch at the Swizzle Inn, and Dark&Stormy ice cream from Bailey's. It was easy to catch the public pink buses to & from St George. We had dinner at Indulge, no wait for a seat, and enjoyed the Indian food again. Watched a bit of soccer in the Local, our pick of seats, plentiful seating options at 8pm. We watched comedian Dean Edwards, he was great. It was a nice evening of family togetherness until our son abandoned us for Entourage. Spent the rest of the evening in the Observation Lounge, wonderful nighttime atmosphere, and by far the BEST Mai Tai on the ship. The next morning, we had grab&go breakfast at Indulge. Don't sleep on this! Plentiful seating and Starbucks right there. Between us, we tried the smoked salmon plate, croissant omelette sandwich, and scrambled egg bowl with potatoes. The fruit salad was also great. This is a really calm breakfast spot, I preferred it to any buffet breakfast experience I've ever had. We enjoyed a long day out on a whale watch. That evening, we experienced some annoying chair hog behavior in the atrium. There is an L-shaped upholstered bench seat in front of the "wall of vases." I was told by some dude that he was saving THE ENTIRE BENCH for his group of TWELVE people. Give me a break. We were able to find other seats in time for the Blaze Band Michael Jackson tribute. Wow!! They are so incredibly talented. Highly recommend this. No shortage of waiters taking drink orders. The next morning, our short day before leaving Bermuda, we did another grab&go breakfast in Indulge. We easily got on the $7pp minibus to/from Horseshoe Bay. Back on the ship, we watched for pier runners from the outdoor seats on deck 8 and had a nice time chatting with a couple from New Jersey, with kids a bit older than our son. We enjoyed some tea and snacks later in the Observation Lounge. There were various groups of kids playing board games, I even saw Ticket to Ride. Our son met up with us for dinner at Food Republic. We used 2 dining credits for the three of us - so that was 8 dishes and my son is a BIG eater. It was soooooo much food, way more than we had anticipated from a "sharing plates" restaurant. We all enjoyed the food and the service from Charissa, she was a lot of fun. Our son elected not to join us for the Price is Right, we were in for the 930 show. It seemed to fill up, we were lucky to get seats in the last row arriving at 910. It was great fun and the production value was really impressive. Lots of Massachusetts representation, which was fun for this Bostonian. We had dessert at the Local, I think the brownie cheesecake and carrot cake are excellent. Then we went up to the Observation Lounge for drinks, and "observed" our son hanging with his teen crew. Our last sea day, we had Indulge breakfast again. The weather was perfection. By 10am, most seats in the sun at the infinity pools were taken. We spent most of the day in the vibe. We managed to eat both lunch and dinner as well at Indulge. Eating lunch at an outside table, the wifi wasn't strong enough to use the tablets, but it was easy enough to place an order with any server. And they kept the BananaRumbles coming! Probably my 2nd favorite drink after a good Mai Tai. That evening we went to the atrium to watch the Blaze Band for the last time, and there were NO seats available around 845pm. We stood for a bit, it was ok. I limit myself to ONE mudslide a trip with an extra Gosling's floater. I ordered that from the Local around 10 on the last sea day, there were only 3 people at the bar. It was so chill in there. We had one last walk around deck 8 - do NOT miss doing this in the evening. So much seating and it's gorgeous and chill and EMPTY at night. It's so nice to walk out there and listen to the waves. You feel like you have the whole ship to yourself. Our son came in at 1am. I think. I hope. I was definitely asleep by that point. It was an early wakeup in NYC, we had breakfast in the buffet for the first time. We went right to the outside seating at Palomar. I never hear anyone mention this, so consider it a VERY HOT TIP 🌞The Palomar outside seating is available as buffet overflow for breakfast and lunch. It was never full. There is a separate drink station there with coffee, tea, water, lemonade, but no ice. It's very pretty and feels very chill.🌞 All said, we had a GREAT week on the Prima. It suited our design and aesthetic sensibility, it felt like a non-smoking ship, the food was great, the staff was wonderful. A few final thoughts (and bless you for reading this far): Complaints about being unable to find one's way around are completely ridiculous. There are signs at every elevator to help you. Think about the new neural pathways you're creating by finding your way around! We had no problems with the elevators. No excessive waits, or quick closing doors, or whatever other issues were. We had no problems getting seats basically anywhere, bar the one guy holding a bench for 12, and the popularity of the Blaze Band on the last night. The unlimited go kart pass was perfect for our son. He thinks he rode 15 times. Teens with the unlimited pass met up to ride together. Entourage also took over the track themselves one night. Indulge was THE BEST. We are big food hall people, and this is exactly the kind of food we like to eat and the way we like to eat it. Service was so fast, friendly, and extremely helpful with getting drinks etc. If you had told me that I wouldn't eat even ONE dinner in Hudson's, I would not have believed you! After our 45 minute wait for lunch on day 1, we weren't in a hurry to go back, even though we missed out on the Buddha Bowl and the creme brulee. Biggest hits there: any of the Indian, the crab tostada, the kale & romaine salad with added blackened tuna, and the BBQ salmon (big enough to share). Vibe was great, it felt much fancier than Vibe on the Getaway. Lots of shade for those of us who are sun-averse. Easy easy access to the buffet. Great cocktails there, especially Market Fresh, made with cucumber juice. Simon the cruise director was very visible and very fun. He bonded with my son, who is also a Simon. No complaints at all about the once-a-day cleaning. We saw Edmar our steward every day. We are extremely low maintenance when it comes to room needs. The only thing I ever ask our steward for is ice at night, gotta have my night ice. I decided just to bring my own yeti and fill it up at Indulge or the buffet. We had qualified for the Flow water promotion. The code on our booking was "WATER6PK." There were 12 cartons in the room when we arrived. In short, we loved the ship. It felt pretty, fresh, and modern, JUST LIKE YOURS TRULY. With a bit of advanced planning, we did everything we wanted, and actually ran out of time to "do it all." We missed out on the slides, both dry and water, and never made it to trivia. Our son had the time of his life with his teen crew, happily engaged in a mix of structured Entourage activities and self-organized hang time. Indulge is the best thing at sea. It will be very difficult to return to a ship without Indulge. Not sure I can deal without my daily crab and ahi tostadas. I hope everyone on the Prima had as much fun as we did. I'll try to answer any questions if they pop up.

Thank you for the details. I wonder why it's even possible to gift onboard credit to one particular guest, a minor, through the app. The availability to do that was the start of my incorrect expectation.

I'm just off the Prima which was absolutely fantastic bar one disappointment with my own planning/expectations and looking for feedback here. I have one teenager. On every cruise, I remove his charging privileges. He's generally responsible but why risk it, especially when in large groups of new kids. Peace of mind. Before boarding the Prima, I used to app to purchase two $25 onboard credits, there was a box to tick, choosing which passenger to receive the credits. I chose my son. I later had a text exchange through the chat confirming the credit would be loaded on my son's card. When we got into our room, there was also a paper card saying he had received the gift of the credit. After boarding, we bought an unlimited pass to the Prima go karts. This was $199. That evening, our son was out with new friends and wanted to buy himself a drink using his credit. It was declined. At guest services, we learned that even though I gifted our son $50 credit by ticking a box with his name and receiving a card receipt in his name, because he's a minor and shares the same onboard account, the credit can only go to the ROOM. Despite BUYING the credit only for our son, it could not be used only during the week by our son. It was immediately depleted when we purchased the go kart pass. Apparently there exists NO mechanism by which a child can have their own spending money outside of the main account. If there is an avenue to do this of which I am unaware, please do post here and let everyone know. I can't be the only parent who wants their child to have a fixed and finite amount of spending money. In my head, I pictured the earmarked onboard credit to work like Disney Dollars or a separate visa check card. So there is truly no way that Grandma can gift a child $25 for arcade games, but have it be untouched by the general room balance? Doesn't this seem like a missed opportunity?

I'm happy to report back that we had a wonderful time and everyone coexisted peacefully. For those of you that "knew" it wouldn't be a big deal, pat yourselves on the back, you somehow saw through a very slick pr campaign promoting bamboo and twerking in a way that I couldn't see through! Perhaps you also reached out to the organizers attempting to clarify salient issues (primarily: will the promoted pool party events be taking place, and will other outdoor parties be taking place at times when teens are traversing the ship doing their own activities) and you received information from them that I did not. Well, we all tried to get information from all possible channels, I just wasn't as successful in "knowing" that what was promoted as an on-ship musical festival wasn't going to be a big deal. I'd like to live & learn, so please feel free to dm me at any time telling me how I was unable to get the info that you had. Sharing information makes everyone prepare for a better time! The Prima is amazing! Best ship we've been on after gem getaway breakaway.

I live near the Fenway and it's mind boggling how much things have changed there, not to mention the entire Seaport. When I first moved to the Fenway, it was just parking lots and derelict music studios. It's so crazy.

I am! Ready to sail on Sunday, whatever will be, will be! Over-preparing with noise cancelling headphones, earplugs, plans to stay in our room with boardgames if it gets too crazy, and a family contract for expectations for our teenager, who may find his options for roaming curtailed/limited. The Fetetopia group is still planning events at the pools. I have asked for clarification and a schedule of their events specifically to see if it clashes with Entourage programming (recently Entourage had the pool to themselves for 1hr) and the organizers have not been forthcoming with any details, unfortunately. Thank you for thinking of us!

Sounds just about perfect!!

I eat low sodium and had no problems requesting no cheese, no sauce, dressing on the side, etc.

Beautiful blue skies in town today! Great photos!! I'll be following along!

Last year I stepped on a dried-out one, barefoot! It made the loudest popping sound!! It was alarming!! Hoping those guys give Bermuda a wide berth this April!

@styles27 If you make it to Horseshoe, I would be ever so grateful if you could report back on the prevalence of Portuguese Man o War. Hoping they've found another place to hang out, and hoping they have no impact on your trip! Bon voyage!

Great details, I appreciate your input. Wondering if cruise lines can/should do anything about the "campers"? Because that's pretty annoying.

I have read that wait staff will take your orders with a pen & paper.

@EPTCB your photos back up my point, which is to say that Indulge does offer "American" food. You'll see that I was responding to someone who said that there was no American food to be found.

There is a recent very detailed long review with a first hand account of being unable to eat anywhere on a sea day, and resorting to room service. That's not the first time I've heard that people are unable to eat lunch, so, since hearing that more than once, I'm trying to get more details....my son and my husband will be truly dreadful travelmates without lunch, if I don't have a plan!! Luckily, none of us mind wearing coats to eat outside. It's possible the common denominator with those unable to eat lunch has been "too cold to sit outside." I'm packing coats and hats for next week.

I'm reading more on the other site that people were unable to eat lunch onboard, I have seen that complaint more than once. This makesme nervous because the other members of my family will be truly difficult companions if they are unable to eat lunch. @Broons77 I'd love ANY details you can share about why you think other passengers are unable to eat lunch. It seems like you always were able to eat when you wanted to, right? And if you have any eating tips like "If you can't do A, here's how to do B..." I'd be most grateful for your expertise. If my teenager can't eat lunch...oh boy...thoughts and prayers, please.

Private adults only seating with a dedicated bar, capacity capped at very low #s. About $260pp for a seven night.

I think Rebellious Fish is the best NCL drink!

My eyes actually welled up. What welcome news.

Question about Indulge - the have American food like the salad station and the BBQ, right? The after-shows in the theatre, what was that called in the dailies? Sounds fun and I want to make sure not to miss! Which deck did you enter on, to find the couch seating in the theatre? Thanks! 🙏🙏🙏

Great photos!

All fans, including paper fans? What if I fold a piece of paper accordion style like a preschool craft? I call my fan my emotional support fan. There may truly be no sleeping without it!