New to Norwegian, what to expect?

[FlyingAnchor]

Greetings all, 

We've booked our very first cruise on Norwegian for summer of 2023. It includes 3 specialty dining reservations. About how far out in advance does NCL load the ability to reserve these in the Cruise Planner? Also, same question for shore excursions - when will they show available? 

Also, is there a deck plan for Prima anywhere on NCL's website? I can't find one there. Only on third party sites and I'm not sure how accurate they are in terms of connecting rooms/etc?

Finally, are there production shows in the theater nightly in addition to the musical scheduled to be onboard? We'll be sailing on Prima and they're currently advertising the Donna Summers musical. We'd love to know if we can expect other production shows with the ship's cast of dancers/singers? Not sure how that works on NCL. 

Thank you for humoring my rookie questions. I'll add more if/when they come up! We're looking forward to trying out NCL finally. 

With gratitude, 

FlyingAnchor

Edited October 3, 2021 by FlyingAnchor

[hallux]

1 hour ago, FlyingAnchor said:

About how far out in advance does NCL load the ability to reserve these in the Cruise Planner?

Usually 120 days (130 if Haven), but some have reported on this board that reservations were not available.  Also note that the pre-embarkation availability is only a portion of what is available, the rest open on embarkation day.

1 hour ago, FlyingAnchor said:

Also, is there a deck plan for Prima anywhere on NCL's website? I can't find one there.

There's a link to NCL posted in the Everything.. thread for Prima, need me to go find it for you?

 

WTH, I did the Google search for you, here - https://app.ncl.com/cruise-ship/prima/deck-plans

[FlyingAnchor]

10 minutes ago, hallux said:

 

WTH, I did the Google search for you, here

 

Thank you! I was trying to go straight from the Prima's page on the website. We watched all of the videos but I couldn't find an actual deck plan from the Prima page for some reason. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

We are currently booked on deck 9 but I now see that its directly above the infinity pool. So tomorrow we shall call and ask for a higher deck! 

[FlyingAnchor]

Oh, one new question. Does NCL book future cruises on board? If so, is it its own department and location, usually? Thanks again, all. Its going to be hard remaining patient until this sailing! 🤣

[hallux]

27 minutes ago, FlyingAnchor said:

Oh, one new question. Does NCL book future cruises on board? If so, is it its own department and location, usually? Thanks again, all. Its going to be hard remaining patient until this sailing! 🤣

You probably can book cruises on board.  Actually, I think I have read here that people have and have gotten a free cabin category upgrade on that future booking for doing so.  If you're not sure when or where you want to cruise again there is also the CruiseNext program - https://www.ncl.com/cruisenext

Edited October 3, 2021 by hallux

[beerman2]

MDR is freestyle, show up when you want and host/hostess will seat you. You don’t have the same table every night. Many NCL ships have a bar you can wait at right outside MDR’s.

 

It’s usually not a long wait though.

[coastcat]

3 hours ago, FlyingAnchor said:

Greetings all, 

We've booked our very first cruise on Norwegian for summer of 2023. It includes 3 specialty dining reservations. About how far out in advance does NCL load the ability to reserve these in the Cruise Planner? Also, same question for shore excursions - when will they show available? 

Also, is there a deck plan for Prima anywhere on NCL's website? I can't find one there. Only on third party sites and I'm not sure how accurate they are in terms of connecting rooms/etc?

Finally, are there production shows in the theater nightly in addition to the musical scheduled to be onboard? We'll be sailing on Prima and they're currently advertising the Donna Summers musical. We'd love to know if we can expect other production shows with the ship's cast of dancers/singers? Not sure how that works on NCL. 

Thank you for humoring my rookie questions. I'll add more if/when they come up! We're looking forward to trying out NCL finally. 

With gratitude, 

FlyingAnchor

If you read the Prima thread referenced by Hallux, you'll see that there are a lot of unknowns. NCL hasn't released a huge amount of information yet. The two main shows are the Donna Summer musical and Light Balance. We know there will be improv comedy, but I think that's it for the entertainment announced so far. On NCL, each show has a separate cast. We're in the same situation for dining options - only some have been announced.

 

And yes, NCL removed the deck plans from their website. Presumably we'll soon get a new version with more of those blank spots filled in.

 

Assuming things don't change, you can book specialty dining 120 days out (sooner if you're in the Club Balcony & higher cabin categories). Only about 1/3 of the dining reservations are available ahead of time so don't fret if you can't book the time you want before boarding.

 

Yes, you can book future cruises onboard. What they'll really push are CruiseNext certificates, which are non-refundable (but transferable!) deposits. They're a good deal but don't buy them until you've decided you like NCL.

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, FlyingAnchor said:

We've booked our very first cruise on Norwegian for summer of 2023. It includes 3 specialty dining reservations. About how far out in advance does NCL load the ability to reserve these in the Cruise Planner? Also, same question for shore excursions - when will they show available? 

You are booked on a ship that is still in the ship yard and will sail for the first time late 2022. And it is a first-in-class, so there are no other ships like her in the fleet. Lots of anticipation and speculation on how/what/when things will be on the ship. Enjoy!

[phillygwm]

2 hours ago, FlyingAnchor said:

Oh, one new question. Does NCL book future cruises on board? If so, is it its own department and location, usually? Thanks again, all. Its going to be hard remaining patient until this sailing! 🤣

Yes.  There's a special area where cruise consultants will book future cruises or allow you to buy certificates (with an onboard credit equal to about half the value.)  

[Drews_Cruise]

On 10/3/2021 at 7:35 PM, BirdTravels said:

You are booked on a ship that is still in the ship yard and will sail for the first time late 2022. And it is a first-in-class, so there are no other ships like her in the fleet. Lots of anticipation and speculation on how/what/when things will be on the ship. Enjoy!

We are also sailing on NCL for the first time and also on Prima, but we’re doing the inaugural sailing in 2022.  We are anxious to try NCL after trying so many other lines.  It’s about time I think.

 

[FlyingAnchor]

Thank you, everyone, for sharing your NCL and Prima knowledge! I'll read through the Prima thread listed above. I knew the ship was new but didn't realize exactly how new :) 

We were able to move our cabin to a higher deck and even got our first price drop in the process!