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

[PistolPete13]

Thanks to all the research I did before the trip, I knew I had to book whatever I needed to as soon as I got onboard or I would be a LOSER for the rest of the cruise.  As soon as I got onboard, I resisted gawking at the shopping mall galleria atrium and ran up 2 flights to get away from the crowd to an empty touch screen free of greasy fingerprints.

 

Goal #1 achieved?  Not so fast.  This screen only displayed the map and was not interactive!  Keep calm, went to the next screen and proceed to scan my card to try and make reservations.  I then get stuck in a hellish loop of trying to enter my 5-digit room number (which I hadn't memorized yet) because every time I tried to enter a dinner reservation, the screen would come back with an error and bounce me all the way out so I needed to login again.  I tried all sorts of dining times and changing the number of people in my party.  Think they would be mad if I show up with a reservation for 8 as a single diner?  I didn't care, the clock was ticking and more people were boarding by the second.

After what felt like 15 mins, I had to give up, the kiosk was not going to work for making dining reservations.  I had been defeated and my Free At Sea perk was floating away into thin salted air.  But wait, there is an NCL app for my phone!  Maybe it will be active now that I'm onboard with their Wifi.  I boot the thing up and sure enough, reservations are listed.  Two clicks later, I had secured the my dinner at Palomar and another for the main mess hall, err, main dining room!

 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by PistolPete13

[PistolPete13]

While still in the mobile app, I click on excursions and jackpot, there was an evening Bermuda Triangle Sunset cruise scheduled for after our late arrival to Bermuda Wednesday evening.

 

I won't pay $10 for a cab to drive me one mile while carrying 60 lbs of luggage but would drop $80 for a 90 minute boat ride AFTER spending 2 days already on a boat.  Go figure.

 

Click on excursion purchase and....ERROR.  The mobile app would not let me book the excursion!  By this time I'm hearing the ship fill up with more people all trying to book the ONE nighttime excursion being offered probably because what else is there to do at night?  Go drinking? 

 

I was still standing in front of the touchscreen and decided to give that another shot.  And wouldn't you know it, I was able to book that excursion on the screen easy peasy.

So what's the lesson in all of this?  The on board systems are a mess and they don't work together well!

Edited October 16, 2022 by PistolPete13

[PistolPete13]

OK, big exhale.  Dinner plans for the week set and a bonus excursion too.  Phew.

 

Thanks to the old pros here on Cruise Critic, I learn three years ago on my first cruise to avoid the buffet on embarkation day and head to O'Sheehans.  But wait, they changed the names of all the venues because "new ship".  My wings and burgers fix is now at a place called The Local Dive Bar or something.   See, 6 days after my cruise I still don't know what that place is called.  So much for branding.

The elevators were a zoo at this time and not unexpected.  I drag my luggage up 2 more flights to the 8th floor/deck and start to run around looking for the Dive Bar.  My kiosk adventure had already eaten into valuable food gorging time and I was behind schedule.

By sheer luck I run into the new Indulge Food Hall.  Fancy seats and iPads which means no human interactions needed.  Let's give it a shot.  I was sweating by this time and didn't want to keep looking for the Dive Bar.

[PistolPete13]

I find a secluded corner facing the wall and plop my luggage and dirty subway jacket in a corner.  I'm building my homeless encampment in the corner of "Indulge" at least until the announcements that the rooms are ready.  They do still announce things like that right?  Because I NEVER HEARD THAT BEING MADE.  Wait, getting ahead of myself.  It's food gorging time.

I don't get out much but so this point and click interface with the photos of fancy foods was fascinating to me.  So after carefully crafting my complex order and I go place it to confirm and...

 

...

 

"SQL error"

Son of a B!  Just for some background.  I've been in the tech field since the late 1980's, a time before many of you readers were born.  I know what systems look like behind the scenes no matter how fancy a wrapper they put on it.  I can just imagine the mess of a backend database being used to run this food hall.

Instead of pouting, I switch iPads with an empty table across from me and yes, that one works.  I'll just need to flag down the server whenever I see him/her approach that table with MY food.  And for the next sucker that sits at that table?  Not my problem.  They probably had no problems making dinner reservations at a kiosk earlier.

My "inaugural" lunch on embarkation day:

 

 

Pulled pork platter, chili bowl, and fried Okra.

This was strangely filling so I decided to skip another entree.  Who knows when the rooms will be ready.

 

 

[Cruising Lynne]

1 hour ago, PistolPete13 said:

This letter was on the desk of the NCL check-in agent and was presented to me along with my keycard.  The timestamp on that photo is 10:13AM.  They may have run out of copies of that for the later check-ins.  You'd think someone could run off a few copies of something so important!

We checked in a little before ten, so maybe they weren't available yet? Thanks for the reply.

[JGmf]

1 hour ago, PistolPete13 said:

My issue what is that when you walk slowwwwwly up the gangway, you're prolonging the pain.  The faster you go, the faster the pain will be over!  Sheesh.

 

Ha! I have always felt that that walking up that gangway is one of the glorious moments of a cruise, where the cruise is finally here and the fun is about to start! So, I too, don't want to walk extra slowly.

[PistolPete13]

So I had been on board since noon and it was now almost 1:15.  I was in public areas the entire time and didn't hear a peep from the speakers about when they expect our rooms to be ready.

 

Being the ever observant native NY'er I started to notice a lot of people now walking around empty handed with no luggage whatsoever.  This means they had both hands free to grab all the swag NCL was offering for this Inaugural Cruise.

 

...

...

 

That was a joke, no freebies for you!

 

At this point I decided to take a chance and drag my stuff up 3 more floors to deck 11 to see if my room was empty or ready  And by some miracle, it was!  I was racking my brain to figure out when or if they even made an announcement that the rooms were ready.  The only conclusion was that they made the announcement before everyone was on board or that being a "new" ship means rooms are now normally ready as soon as passenger board.

So future Prima cruisers, please head right to your room when you get on board for your cruise.  Let me know how that works out.

 

I had an interior stateroom.  it was actually a few hundred dollars cheaper than the solo rooms they have (go figure) but I wouldn't get the benefit of using the solo lounge.  But unless they had a free Freestyle Coke machine in the lounge, I could care less.  Videos of the lounge show it to be nice, but the lack of windows or natural light makes it feel like a basement rec room to me.

Now I've had time to look at the pictures I took of my interior rooms on the Escape and Bliss and while the Prima room doesn't look that much larger but it felt larger for some reason.  I think the room was longer so that your knee didn't hit the desk every time you walked out from the side of the bed.

 

Storage space was excellent.  The dresser was huge with enough draws and hangers for a month long cruise.  It was also very fancy with a motion sensor activated light that would come on as you open the door or walk up to it.  

I found out it was motion sensitive when I tried to use it as a night light only to have it go out after I was in bed leaving me in the deep black darkness that only a coal miner or an interior stateroom guest can ever hope to experience.

 

The shower is huge and can fit two people at the same time if that is your thing.  There are buttons on the shower control that are supposed to control the water pressure but for the life of me I can't find the YouTube video that showed me this function.  This will haunt me for the rest of my days unless someone can send me the link.

 

Where was I.  Oh yes, the bathroom tour.  Very roomy and there is some space around the throne now.  The flush unit is still the pressure sucking thing so close the lid and get ready for some room shaking action and you don't even need to pay $15 for it like in the Galaxy Pavilion.

 

What also caught my attention were the fancy thin glass glasses (say that a few times) they are using.  This isn't a wine tasting room.  I bang my toothbrush like an egg beater in the cup to clean it.  The tiny rails that are supposed to hold the glasses from sliding off in rough seas look useless.  At least on the Breakaway class there is a cup holder that you need a pipe wrench to dislodge the glass with.

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by PistolPete13

[YVRteacher]

Really enjoying and appreciating your review!  Thank you!

[vettprincess]

Pistol Pete from NYC on the Prima, you are a fantastic writer and have great humor in your writings. 

I appreciate your reviewing and photos and they made and make my day.

And a few lmao chuckles!!!!!!

[PistolPete13]

OK, it's getting late on a Sunday night and I have to go back to work reality tomorrow.  I think I have it in me to get one more post out covering departure day or was that departure night we left so damn late.  OK, getting ahead of myself again.  

Deep breath now, here we go.

It was a bit of an adventure finding the room from the elevator bank because whoever designed the damn place didn't think to put the sign with the room numbers until you're INSIDE the corridor and it is offset so you can't see it from the hallway.  And the same designed must've been a failed optometrist because the sign was written in font the size of the last line in the eye chart.  I could just glance at me but needed to stop and READ the damn thing.  Meanwhile I'm usually halfway down the WRONG hallway before I see the sign with the room numbers.  My guess is that they didn't want practical features like a room # sign to distract from the artwork all over the hallways.

Being a left brained person with the creative ability of a roach, all the artwork was basically invisible to me.  But what was really invisible was the placement of the room number sign! 

[PistolPete13]

While searching for my room, the room steward saw my subway scowl face and offered to help by asking for my room number.  By this time I had it memorized because I had to enter it about two dozen times on that damn kiosk screen trying to secure a restaurant reservation.

As soon as I said the number, he's like, "Oh hello Mr. Pistol!"  I must have had a look on my face like someone had just published my Google search history on the weekly meeting agenda with my manager.  How the hell can someone remember a room number and the person assigned to it when it changes every cruise and you have to deal with dozens of rooms?   Bless his heart.

After I recovered I finally got into my room.

 

Oh damn, I just realized I posted all my room photos in a previous post.  So I've gone off the rails in telling this story already.  See what I mean about my memory???

[PistolPete13]

Now that I've settled in my room I was finally able to begin to de-stress from the morning.  I risked going to the buffet to get my soft serve before some idiot decides to skip using a cone or bowl and put their mouth directly on the orifice of diabetes for a direct serving.

 

Don't think I made that up.  What happens in the buffet stays in the buffet.

[PistolPete13]

I then went up to the upper deck to get some skyline photos of city and was immediately assaulted by Pitbull and Shakira.  Do they have it in their contracts to be on constant repeat and volume 11 for all sail away parties?

Thank goodness I saved that huge napkin from the Indulge iPad Food Hall.  I tore off some pieces and made some makeshift ear plugs.  You see to get the photos I want, I need to scout a good location on the deck and plant my but there for the entire sail away.  I don't care how many grandma's come up and want a photo in my prime spot with the city in the background, you're getting a photo of my bald head in the background, I'm not moving.  I still had 1 hour to go before scheduled sail and the loud music would've made me deaf before I risk getting an ear infection on my (reserved!) snorkel excursion.

   

[PistolPete13]

How many folks reading this right now was on this cruise?  Show of hands?  Nope?

OK, some background on the concept of punctuality.  You leave when you said you are going to leave with a small margin of error for our favorite dock runners, but you leave cause the port is going to fine you $$$ for overstaying your welcome.  Well NCL must own the Manhattan Cruise Terminal because they NEVER leave on time.

During the post-Covid times I tried to cheer myself up by focusing on hobbies like photography.  I'm lucky to live close to a lookout point where I can photograph all the cruise ships leaving NYC.  Royal Caribbean?  4PM on the dot.  Ships in the Brooklyn Navy Yard?  Set your watch by them.  NCL?  We leave when we feel like it.

So 4PM rolls on by and all I hear is a muffled announcement by someone with a heavy accent.  I grew up in NYC and can decipher dozens of accents without even trying.  Not this one.  And the PA system sounded worst than the systems on the NYC subway.  Everyone around me was standing around shrugging their shoulders.   Stopping looking at me grandma, I'm not leaving my prime spot, I will outlast you!  I stood on my feet for 10 hours last month to shoot an airshow so this is nothing, unless the Prima was going to stay in NYC overnight.  Which is not an outside the realm of possibility.  They already yanked a port stop in Norfolk and didn't contact anyone until check in time with a paper letter.  And from what I heard, they ran out of letters by 11AM.  Anyone that checked in after that was in for a nice surprise. 

[PistolPete13]

I don't even know what time it was but the sun was low on the horizon when the Disney cultist ship finally started to move.  I was leaning heavily on the railing for support by this time and even the grandma had left and given up on a photo on my spot.  I outlasted them all!

My reward was some nice twilight lighting for the sail away.  I still couldn't believe the ship was actually finally moving.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

 

Subway scowl face...makeshift napkin earplugs...orifice of diabetes...picture of bald head in the background...

 

I can't...I. just can't...😂

 

[PistolPete13]

After passing under the Verrazano bridge, it was finally time for my 7:45PM dinner at the Commodore mess hall after making my hard fought reservations earlier in the day.  

My Indulge food hall lunch was now about six hours ago and I was ready to wreck it, err, see what the new menu items are like in the mess hall.

[ngrund]

Wow on that pic of Lady Liberty-

 

wouldn't have gotten that if ship left on time

[PistolPete13]

The Commodore room.  Humm, how can I put this kindly when I walked in...

It was so loud that I found myself looking for my makeshift earplugs.  The tables were jammed packed next to each other and the ceiling was low enough that I bet I could palm it with my hand if I jumped straight up even at my age.

 

Note, do not ever accept the bread offered in the complimentary dining rooms.  I've always found them to have the consistency of a hockey puck and I didn't feel like having a dental emergency on the first night of my cruise.

My dinner consisted of:

 

- coconut shrimp

- crap cakes

- clam chowder

- fisherman platter (I've never see clams the size of a dime and thinner than a postage stamp, but they do exist!)

- some chocolate dessert with ice cream.

[rwf1]

I am truly enjoying your review. Great details and information with just the right amount of humor and snark. Love it! Thanks so much!

[PistolPete13]

10 minutes ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

Subway scowl face...makeshift napkin earplugs...orifice of diabetes...picture of bald head in the background...

 

I can't...I. just can't...😂

 

 

I'm trying but it's late and I'm running out of snark for the day...

Edited October 17, 2022 by PistolPete13

[PistolPete13]

5 minutes ago, ngrund said:

Wow on that pic of Lady Liberty-

 

wouldn't have gotten that if ship left on time

Thank you.  I appreciate what you're saying.  I live on Staten Island and take the ferry to work to  Manhattan so I see that thing twice a day for the last 23 years.  This photo was just a grudge photo because it was there and everyone else was fawning over it... LOLO.  All in good fun, no snark meant!

[ngrund]

2 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

Thank you.  I appreciate what you're saying.  I live on Staten Island and take the ferry to work to  Manhattan so I see that thing twice a day for the last 23 years.  This photo was just a grudge photo because it was there and everyone else was fawning over it... LOLO.  All in good fun, no snark meant!

Yep, I grew up in Bklyn, so I've seen it a lot too (obviously not as much as you have), the setting sun made the shot

[PistolPete13]

Be warned, the serving portions in the main mess hall are tiny.  Must be a European thing.  

So after dinner I needed to head up to the buffet for a night cap.

 

Prime rib and some chicken things along with my veggie serving consisting of one slice of squash for the day.  Skipped dessert #2 for a cup of coffee.  Yes, I always have a nice cup of java before going to bed.

Yes, I think that caffeine thing is all fake and made up.  If I want to goto sleep, I'm going to sleep.  Nothing will keep me up.

 

Alright folks, I've run out of gas for the day.  Four more days of the cruise to go but I want to manage expectations.  I may not be as inspired to rant and rave reviewing the rest of the days because heading back to work tomorrow will begin the mental beatdown process until my next vacation.

Until tomorrow then, goodnight!

[mking8288]

5 hours ago, JGmf said:

Ha! I have always felt that that walking up that gangway is one of the glorious moments of a cruise, where the cruise is finally here and the fun is about to start! So, I too, don't want to walk extra slowly.

 

Still, it's a long "Z" walk, especially when it's high tide at a steeper angle following the escorted passengers with their jumbo spinners, carry-ons and so forth ... 

 

BTW, Pete - excellent photos - rich in color & depth, sometimes hard to tell the ones from the iPhone 11.  About that Fisherman's Platter, hmmm - they surely are serving petite ones ... you missed the old "Cooking Light" menus.  With all that fried stuff, looked kind of on the greasy side to me, sorry - can't help with the subjective food "critic" part in me.  

Edited October 17, 2022 by mking8288