Yet another Prima recap—Feb 5-12, 2023

[Kierste]

Just off a week on the beautiful Prima. There have been lots and lots of reviews and live posts, so I will keep it short.

 

Our club mini-suite #10350 on the bump of the port side aft was beautiful. Balcony may be a smidge larger than standard, and the new balcony chairs are lovely (hope they roll them out fleet wide!) 

 

We had the UBP (regular) and 2 included specialty dinners and I upgraded to get 2 more. Ate at Los Lobos, (the lovely server gave us extra chips and salsa to take back to the room after a discussion about lack of snacky stuff—I miss the bar mix!) Le Bistro, Cagneys, Onda and Teppanyaki. Paid ala carte for Los Lobos (for us it was the cheapest meal.) Food was all good, some even great. Did MDR for breakfast each day, Local and Indulge for most lunches and a couple dinners, buffet once for lunch.  We did not go hungry!  I put in my survey to NCL that Indulge should stay open till 4 pm, with a shorter break between lunch and dinner, it closing at 2 was too early and created chaos at Local and the buffet for hungry people just back on the ship from port excursions.  I also hope they institute some sort of assisted seating at Indulge, as I disliked stalking people who were eating while waiting for someone to finish and free up a table.

 

The drinks of the day were mostly meh, and really could only be ordered on that specific day. Found that locating what I was in the mood to drink and which bar could make it tricky.  I believe the only bars with blenders that could make a BBC or Mudslide were deck 17 at the pool (loud and raucous up there) or deck 6 at the Penrose Atrium bar.  I drank way more Mai Tais than normal as most (but not all) bars could make them.  Hubby quite liked the whiskey bar (when it was open, which was not all day).

 

Seating on deck 8 was beautiful and varied, never had a problem finding a place to sit in the shade (we did have to ask an attendant one late morning because everything had a towel “reserving” seats in the shade. He said no worries and cleared two chairs for us, we saw them enforcing the no hogging rule often, which is lovely.

 

Made it to Noise Boys (lots of fun) and that is about it. Found finding a place to sit and listen to live music tricky the way the did the public areas—the atrium is so broken up you can’t very well sit at another level and listen to the band on 6.  We are also not night owls so waiting in line to get into Syd’s for a 10 pm show didn’t happen.

 

The thermal suite was amazing—first time I have done one!  Loved it so much and miss it already!  I went post dinner and it was quiet and not crowded, except for Ladies night was way too many people drunk on champagne and saying things upon opening the door to one sauna or another like “wow it’s so hot in here, why is it soooo hot?!” 

 

Did the race cars twice (was a hoot, but ate up nearly an hour each time), rode all the dry slides (they are not fast in the afternoon if you are chicken), and played darts (key to booking—book for one person and bring up to 6 people to your time slot, it’s $20 total for the hour no matter if it’s 1 or 6 people.)

 

I think that pretty much covers it, wanted to touch on a kind of hot topic however.  I had a lovely chat on day one with our steward.  Back when there were 2 room “servicing” times a day, he had 14 rooms, which he serviced in the morning until about noon, took a 3 hour break and came back around 3-8 pm for the evening turndowns—that is 28 room make-ups a day.  Under the new schedule he has 34 rooms and works 8-6 pm with a half hour lunch.  No break in the afternoon to go into port for necessities or sightseeing.  This guy was working his butt off trying to keep the rooms to the same level of clean so that on the last day of the cruise when the rooms changeover he could actually get it done and done well between 9 ish when everyone gets booted from the ship and 2:30 pm when the next batch of guests get allowed in their rooms.  I tipped him well, and I think he deserves even more.

 

If you have ever been to both Disneyland and Disneyworld you will get this analogy.  There are a lot of similarities between the two but you can’t really compare them.  That is how I feel about the Prima compared to the Pearl, Escape, Spirit and Dawn.  Yes, it’s NCL, but it’s very different at the same time.  They have kinks to work out, like the material they used on the pool deck and around deck 8 is terribly slippery when wet, and will be changed for the Viva.  We were also told Food Republic will be open for buffet seating on the Viva.  They are also making Indulge work so even if you are sitting at a specific restaurant bar table you can order from anywhere.  They are reading the comments and complaints and tweaking—and joked that they should have it all sorted by ship #10 (they are building 6 ships in this class.)

 

Would I sail her again?  Yes, but have my eyes on the Sun next which is the polar opposite of the Prima.  Take that as you will.

 

Thank you for reading!

Edited February 14, 2023 by Kierste

[Sand and Seas]

Thank you for sharing your review with us!  We had a great Club Balcony (starboard deck 11) on our Prima cruise.  Loved the ship, and yes, it's very different from other NCL ships.  

 

Thanks for the details on how much is expected of our room stewards now!   For us, getting our room serviced once in early afternoon will be fine.  However, will definitely be planning to provide a little extra 'Thanks$$'  to a hard-working steward.

 

Loved Indulge food hall and like you recommended in our post cruise interview that they keep it open for longer hours at lunch.    Some hiccups, but all-in-all loved the Prima.   As soon as we got home we searched for another great cruise on Prima and have it booked for for April 2024😎

[Dawnya00]

Thanks for the well rounded review. I like the analogy and will likely appreciate it more when we go on next week. 

[vacation44]

14 hours ago, Kierste said:

Just off a week on the beautiful Prima. There have been lots and lots of reviews and live posts, so I will keep it short.

 

Our club mini-suite #10350 on the bump of the port side aft was beautiful. Balcony may be a smidge larger than standard, and the new balcony chairs are lovely (hope they roll them out fleet wide!) 

 

We had the UBP (regular) and 2 included specialty dinners and I upgraded to get 2 more. Ate at Los Lobos, (the lovely server gave us extra chips and salsa to take back to the room after a discussion about lack of snacky stuff—I miss the bar mix!) Le Bistro, Cagneys, Onda and Teppanyaki. Paid ala carte for Los Lobos (for us it was the cheapest meal.) Food was all good, some even great. Did MDR for breakfast each day, Local and Indulge for most lunches and a couple dinners, buffet once for lunch.  We did not go hungry!  I put in my survey to NCL that Indulge should stay open till 4 pm, with a shorter break between lunch and dinner, it closing at 2 was too early and created chaos at Local and the buffet for hungry people just back on the ship from port excursions.  I also hope they institute some sort of assisted seating at Indulge, as I disliked stalking people who were eating while waiting for someone to finish and free up a table.

 

The drinks of the day were mostly meh, and really could only be ordered on that specific day. Found that locating what I was in the mood to drink and which bar could make it tricky.  I believe the only bars with blenders that could make a BBC or Mudslide were deck 17 at the pool (loud and raucous up there) or deck 6 at the Penrose Atrium bar.  I drank way more Mai Tais than normal as most (but not all) bars could make them.  Hubby quite liked the whiskey bar (when it was open, which was not all day).

 

Seating on deck 8 was beautiful and varied, never had a problem finding a place to sit in the shade (we did have to ask an attendant one late morning because everything had a towel “reserving” seats in the shade. He said no worries and cleared two chairs for us, we saw them enforcing the no hogging rule often, which is lovely.

 

Made it to Noise Boys (lots of fun) and that is about it. Found finding a place to sit and listen to live music tricky the way the did the public areas—the atrium is so broken up you can’t very well sit at another level and listen to the band on 6.  We are also not night owls so waiting in line to get into Syd’s for a 10 pm show didn’t happen.

 

The thermal suite was amazing—first time I have done one!  Loved it so much and miss it already!  I went post dinner and it was quiet and not crowded, except for Ladies night was way too many people drunk on champagne and saying things upon opening the door to one sauna or another like “wow it’s so hot in here, why is it soooo hot?!” 

 

Did the race cars twice (was a hoot, but ate up nearly an hour each time), rode all the dry slides (they are not fast in the afternoon if you are chicken), and played darts (key to booking—book for one person and bring up to 6 people to your time slot, it’s $20 total for the hour no matter if it’s 1 or 6 people.)

 

I think that pretty much covers it, wanted to touch on a kind of hot topic however.  I had a lovely chat on day one with our steward.  Back when there were 2 room “servicing” times a day, he had 14 rooms, which he serviced in the morning until about noon, took a 3 hour break and came back around 3-8 pm for the evening turndowns—that is 28 room make-ups a day.  Under the new schedule he has 34 rooms and works 8-6 pm with a half hour lunch.  No break in the afternoon to go into port for necessities or sightseeing.  This guy was working his butt off trying to keep the rooms to the same level of clean so that on the last day of the cruise when the rooms changeover he could actually get it done and done well between 9 ish when everyone gets booted from the ship and 2:30 pm when the next batch of guests get allowed in their rooms.  I tipped him well, and I think he deserves even more.

 

If you have ever been to both Disneyland and Disneyworld you will get this analogy.  There are a lot of similarities between the two but you can’t really compare them.  That is how I feel about the Prima compared to the Pearl, Escape, Spirit and Dawn.  Yes, it’s NCL, but it’s very different at the same time.  They have kinks to work out, like the material they used on the pool deck and around deck 8 is terribly slippery when wet, and will be changed for the Viva.  We were also told Food Republic will be open for buffet seating on the Viva.  They are also making Indulge work so even if you are sitting at a specific restaurant bar table you can order from anywhere.  They are reading the comments and complaints and tweaking—and joked that they should have it all sorted by ship #10 (they are building 6 ships in this class.)

 

Would I sail her again?  Yes, but have my eyes on the Sun next which is the polar opposite of the Prima.  Take that as you will.

 

Thank you for reading!

Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughs.  

[Briji04]

We will be on the Prima in March. Did it bother you that the spa pool was open to the walkway? I’ve read that it’s open on one side. Can you confirm if it’s an issue or not?  Thanks 

[catgags]

Thank you for posting! I'll be on the Prima in 11days!

Can't wait!

Cat

[Kierste]

2 hours ago, Briji04 said:

We will be on the Prima in March. Did it bother you that the spa pool was open to the walkway? I’ve read that it’s open on one side. Can you confirm if it’s an issue or not?  Thanks 

when you check in to the spa, you go down a curved flight of stairs, and can see the spa pools from the stairs, at the bottom of the stairs you can go right to the hallway to the locker rooms or left to the door to the steam rooms, it isn’t exactly like everyone is walking past the pools. There is a walkway next to the pools but it is within the confines of the spa area and not really the “path” people take. People go into the sauna areas typically closest to the eucalyptus steam room and come out on the other side by the ice room, which is on the opposite side of the pools. Hmmm, imagine like a capital D… the doors in and out of the sauna area are the top and bottom of the curve of the D and the walkway is the straight back of the D… that walkway bit is skipped over by most people.

[Kierste]

This picture is taken from the stairs, you can’t even see the door to the lockers and steam room in this pic as they are behind me, and the red arrow is pointing toward where most people come out by the ice room, beyond that red arrow also to the right is the hall to the lounge area (and the fabulous heated loungers.) The walkway is where most people leave their flip flops and hang their robes.

[OrangeCatRamblers]

Where did you go to book the darts?

[Kierste]

9 minutes ago, OrangeCatRamblers said:

Where did you go to book the darts?

On the touch screens by the elevators… just pick one person when it has you select which guest and the dates and times show up.

[OrangeCatRamblers]

Perfect! Thank you!

[curlstravel]

25 minutes ago, OrangeCatRamblers said:

Perfect! Thank you!

The Spa pool on the Prima is actually more private than on The other ships where it is in the same room with the loungers and all of the other facilities. I like the set up much better on the prima.