NCL Prima 5-day NYC to Bermuda Semi-Live! (10/10/22)

[www3traveler]

Reports are that you can not dock in Bermuda until after another large cruise ship sails.

[PistolPete13]

Messed up last post. 
 

meant to say as soon as I posted group boarding announcements began. 
 

maybe if I post I’d like to have a suite my wish would come true as soon as I post?

[fstuff1]

6 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Reports are that you can not dock in Bermuda until after another large cruise ship sails.

 

someone posted in facebook the Bermuda ship docking schedule for the week.

the royal ship leaves our assigned dock at 3pm.

why can't we dock at 3;30pm instead of 5:30pm?

Edited October 10, 2022 by fstuff1

[www3traveler]

13 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

someone posted in facebook the Bermuda ship docking schedule for the week.

the royal ship leaves our assigned dock at 3pm.

why can't we dock at 3;30pm instead of 5:30pm?

 

13 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

 

someone posted in facebook the Bermuda ship docking schedule for the week.

the royal ship leaves our assigned dock at 3pm.

why can't we dock at 3;30pm instead of 5:30pm?

Your time to dock is probably determined by the Bermuda Port Officials

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, fstuff1 said:

 

someone posted in facebook the Bermuda ship docking schedule for the week.

the royal ship leaves our assigned dock at 3pm.

why can't we dock at 3;30pm instead of 5:30pm?

 

1 hour ago, www3traveler said:

 

Your time to dock is probably determined by the Bermuda Port Officials

The departing ship has to clear the ship channel before the incoming ship enters it. The channel is too narrow for safe two way traffic.

[PistolPete13]

Onboard since noon. 
 

Food squared away at the new food court place.  Just walked by buffet and it’s absolute chaos.  Way too small. 
 

We will be in Bermuda late but I managed to book a sunset sail excursion so I’m happy.  The big screens on the ship crapped out when I tried to book dinner reservations but the app worked for that. It was the opposite for shore excursion.  The app crapped but the screen worked. 
 

Tiny upper deck with clear views. The other areas have glass blocking the views.  Not good for photos. 

[CleverUserNameHere]

4 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Slight change. 
 

 

 

I'm so bummed you all are skipping Norfolk (although I bet you're not!), we were excited to see the ship in dock!

[CleverUserNameHere]

5 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

On security line now.  There is a separate Haven line. 
 

 

Looks like nothing has changed with Norwegian departures out of New York... We went in May in a regular old suite (not haven) and it took 2 1/2 hours to get from the doors to the boat. I'm still scarred lol

[cruiservictor]

Hey @PistolPete13  I was enjoying your pictures and commentary. I hope the only reason you have not posted in almost 24 hours is that you are too busy having a good time. 

[vacation44]

23 minutes ago, cruiservictor said:

Hey @PistolPete13  I was enjoying your pictures and commentary. I hope the only reason you have not posted in almost 24 hours is that you are too busy having a good time. 

Ditto.................

[luvcruzing]

1 hour ago, cruiservictor said:

Hey @PistolPete13  I was enjoying your pictures and commentary. I hope the only reason you have not posted in almost 24 hours is that you are too busy having a good time. 

Probably poor WiFi.  

[mking8288]

Maybe OP decided not to use ship's satellite WiFi, even if he has the limited free minutes and or upgrade to the unlimited base plan. Dexddd did mentioned during his TA crossing last week that WiFi was inconsistent & nothing close to near fully reliable.  Once the ship get to or near Dockyard, 4G signals would & should make a big difference. 

 

It is very slow to upload HD photos at sea 😳

[PistolPete13]

I’ve made it to Bermuda!

 

Apologies for zero updates.  The WiFi on board is beyond horrendous.  I’m wasting all my minutes just trying to connect!  
 

it’s the same on phone and laptop. 
 

I have a ton of photos to upload but will need to wait until I return on Saturday.  

[fstuff1]

2 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

I’ve made it to Bermuda!

 

Apologies for zero updates.  The WiFi on board is beyond horrendous.  I’m wasting all my minutes just trying to connect!  
 

it’s the same on phone and laptop. 
 

I have a ton of photos to upload but will need to wait until I return on Saturday.  

 

I upgraded to unlimited.

$60 trade in value for the 75min promo.

So day 2-5 is (4days x $30) - $60 is $60.

Paid for by my $400 casino obc.

 

Haven't had a problem surfing but I've been connected continuously.

 

Also, cruise critic forum is free.

Don't need to use minutes.

Just need to be connected to ship wifi

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by fstuff1

[PistolPete13]

Strange. I’ve been able to connect to the main page of cruise critic on ship WiFi but I’m unable to login or access the boards.  
 

Something is asking me to curb my online addiction!  
 

be back soon. 

[PistolPete13]

And we are back in NYC. 
 

Must’ve snuck in under the bridge around 3:30am. By the time I got up at 4:30 we were already docked. 
 

Having a breakfast of fruit before disembarking.  I’ve eaten so much that the sight of any greasy food will make me gag!

[BirdTravels]

On 10/11/2022 at 3:49 PM, mking8288 said:

Maybe OP decided not to use ship's satellite WiFi, even if he has the limited free minutes and or upgrade to the unlimited base plan. Dexddd did mentioned during his TA crossing last week that WiFi was inconsistent & nothing close to near fully reliable.  Once the ship get to or near Dockyard, 4G signals would & should make a big difference. 

 

It is very slow to upload HD photos at sea 😳

The Wi-Fi was down or unusable most of the cruise. I talked to the Wi-Fi manager who said it has been a problem since the shipyard  and that they have not resolved it yet,,, the shipyard was a long time ago. The internet is run by a vendor, not NCL. 

[mking8288]

@PistolPete13 - welcome home ... just to make you feel better about WiFi, we have VZ Fios and it's been out & offline lately in the Northeast, usually late night, sometimes for 30 to 60 minutes but some outages lasting hours into the morning hours.  Unlike land coverage, there is no backup option for "broad"band access at sea ... but one would like to think & believe that NCL/vendor installed the newer, if not newest WiFi 6 or at least WiFi 5 dual-band route, their onboard hardware/server seemed fine - Princess's unlimited plan is just $25 per day, even if theirs aren't hooking up with Starlink yet.  

 

Now that you are home, look forward to plentify high resolution pics to be share plus comments/reviews.  

 

@BirdTravels - thanks, me ... think the shipyard is just an excuse.  Seeing that the crew in the dining venues are now all using WiFi tablets too, I can't help - on their own SSiD's (multiple "names") - but think that NCL need a new vending partnership and review how they are deploying wirless tech onboard.  

 

Just wanted to say also, great photos, as always.

[PistolPete13]

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

The Wi-Fi was down or unusable most of the cruise. I talked to the Wi-Fi manager who said it has been a problem since the shipyard  and that they have not resolved it yet,,, the shipyard was a long time ago. The internet is run by a vendor, not NCL. 

I was having lunch in the Indulge Food hall when most of the tables went belly up due to Wifi issues.  I felt so bad for the servers trying to deal with all the orders and some people were being a bit unreasonable with their demands unfortunately.

Were you on board Thursday AM when the ship lost power completely and emergency lights came on?  I ran off the ship from the 11th floor immediately not wanted to get trapped onboard and missing my excursion.  I think some people were trapped on the elevators.

By the time I got down to the 4th or 5th floors, power was back.

[PistolPete13]

Alright folks, let me upload the photos from embarkation day on Monday and then I'll fill in my thoughts on the process and things seen from my eyes.

 

 

[PistolPete13]

I was in an inside stateroom.  This room was actually cheaper by a few hundred dollars compared to a solo cabin.  I knew I wasn't going to be spending much time inside the solo lounge so it made no sense for me to go for that.  The money saved went to my snorkel excursion!

That said, I was very surprised at the size of the inside cabin compared to the same class of cabins on the Escape and Bliss.  The biggest difference was in the feel of the bathroom.

 

[PistolPete13]

Day 2 was a sea day.  Got some sunrise and sunset photos and spent most of it walking around exploring the ship.


 

[PistolPete13]

Day 3, a late afternoon arrival in Bermuda.  We ended up pulling into the harbor and waited for Mariner of the Seas to pull out before we went horizontally into the dock nose to nose with the Carnival Legend.

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by PistolPete13

[Maleficent's Dad]

Beautiful pics.

The sunrise/sunset and NYC departure shots are great.  The shots of the ship are fabulous!  Thanks for these!

[The Traveling Man]

On 10/12/2022 at 5:58 PM, fstuff1 said:

Haven't had a problem surfing but I've been connected continuously.

 

Also, cruise critic forum is free.

Don't need to use minutes.

Just need to be connected to ship wifi

 

My experience on the Prima a couple of weeks ago was that when trying to access Cruise Critic, the NCL website, or other "free" sites the connection speed was interminably slow.  If I shifted to "pay to play," however, the connection usually ran at NCL's regular snail's pace.