Norwegian Prima: Pre-Christmas out of Galveston. Our initial impressions and a few tips

[alexirina]

12 hours ago, KKB said:

Thanks for your video review--we are on her in a week!

We put Celebrity Eclass at the top of our cruise favs & MSC at the bottom too (tho luckily I found MOST MSC crew to be lovely...officers & customer service could be less brusque)

Thank you much for your comment and I'm sure you will have great time on Prima!

 

A tiny off-topic on MSC -- that was the first and only time when we treated ourselves to the Yacht Club (or any of the similar "up-sales") and that, honestly, was substantially subpar experience when compared to a regular balcony cabin that we always get. We get "the European Style" of management (I can say that, I was born in Europe :)) but when MSC does US/Caribbean cruises, we expected what we all are so used to on this side of the pond. Those differences are unimportant to many, but just rubbed us the wrong way, whenever everything on the ship was "we'll get to it whenever, likely never" way. And you are right on, MSC officers/managers are in a league of their own...

 

But, back to Prima, happy travels, and hope you have a fantastic cruise!

[KKB]

@alexirina

If you have your dailies, could you do me a favor?

Could you tell me the times & days of the Syd Norman shows in the evenings?

We are trying to figure out what days to do specialty dining.

Thanks.

[alexirina]

30 minutes ago, KKB said:

@alexirina

If you have your dailies, could you do me a favor?

Could you tell me the times & days of the Syd Norman shows in the evenings?

We are trying to figure out what days to do specialty dining.

Thanks.

We have scanned all dailies we had and they are up above in this thread (not sure if this link will work, but they are on page 1, post "lucky" #13 
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=1651419&key=e9d9f21c881915b60f05d66726742ff8

[alexirina]

We wanted to share a few notes and a video on the topic of destinations or ports of call on this cruise

 

For cruises out of Galveston, your destinations are very predictable: on a 7 day cruise we can only get to Western Caribbean: Mexico, Honduras and Belize. This time we had 4 ports of call.

Cozumel was the only port where we stayed onboard. Weather was windy and the sea was choppy. We were not in the mood for yet another stroll through the touristy port. Instead we enjoyed a beautiful day in the Vibe Club and just wandered around the ship.

Belize was more enjoyable: we docked at Harvest Caye -- which is not a true private island, but rather a collaboration between NCL and the Belize Government. As such, all restaurants and other venues on the island are operated by Belizeans and tourists have to pay for food and drinks (USD are happily accepted). This was a new experience for us: all other private islands we visited had food and drinks (if one has a drink package) included. Overall the island was exactly what we expected: plenty of loungers, nice shallow beach, a few places to eat and drink, some mild activities in the form of kayaks, SUPs and a zipline. Nothing remarkable, but not a bad place either.

Roatan, Honduras is where we decided to get a bit adventurous and ventured out into town. We did not set very high expectations, simply wanted to do something different. As expected, the town is very busy, "islandy" and one will have a hard time finding picturesque views here. Yet, again, we knew what we signed up for and enjoyed an hour or two of just wandering through town observing local life.

Finally in Costa Maya, Mexico we docked alongside three other megaships. Having so many people in a relatively small port caused very much expected crowds. Despite better judgement, we ventured to the port just to see hundreds or thousands of fellow tourists. Luckily, it started to rain and that gave us a perfect excuse to get back onboard.

Finally, we feel that if one sets proper expectations with the western Caribbean ports, they can be enjoyed. Enjoy a quick overview of all ports in the video below!
 

 

 

[MamaToMany]

Thank you for your lovely review, @alexirina! I’ll be aboard next week, and it’s looking pretty rainy the entire week. I’m not a huge pool deck gal, so I’m not sad about that. But I am wondering if you found any little spots that are good for a little quiet and avoiding the worst of the crowds on a busy day? 

[alexirina]

2 hours ago, MamaToMany said:

Thank you for your lovely review, @alexirina! I’ll be aboard next week, and it’s looking pretty rainy the entire week. I’m not a huge pool deck gal, so I’m not sad about that. But I am wondering if you found any little spots that are good for a little quiet and avoiding the worst of the crowds on a busy day? 

Ah, rainy days can get tricky. Yet I would not put a lot of faith in the forecast: our weather was expected to be all overcast, storm and rain, yet we managed to do just fine weatherwise!

 

As far as finding a quiet place to hang out indoors, I would say your best bet in a very early morning is the Observation Lounge (front, deck 17). I loved it for my first cup of coffee, but it does get crowded once the sun is up.

 

We could usually find a seat in the 3-level atrium (which we loved!), but of course it gets busy as well. 

 

Best quiet spot I can think of is either the Metropolitan lounge (deck 7), when there is no entertainment there, or even better (probably the best) a Belvedere bar (deck 6) that is tucked away all the way at the back and seems to be fairly quiet most of the time (and the ambience and the service there is quite lovely).

 

If weather does cooperate, deck 18 left side at the front has quite a few loungers and a decent amount of shade, maybe because it is close to the smoking area and there is a kids park on the right side, but all and all we liked that part too. 

 

Cheers and wishing you a fantastic cruise!

[MamaToMany]

37 minutes ago, alexirina said:

Ah, rainy days can get tricky. Yet I would not put a lot of faith in the forecast: our weather was expected to be all overcast, storm and rain, yet we managed to do just fine weatherwise!

 

As far as finding a quiet place to hang out indoors, I would say your best bet in a very early morning is the Observation Lounge (front, deck 17). I loved it for my first cup of coffee, but it does get crowded once the sun is up.

 

We could usually find a seat in the 3-level atrium (which we loved!), but of course it gets busy as well. 

 

Best quiet spot I can think of is either the Metropolitan lounge (deck 7), when there is no entertainment there, or even better (probably the best) a Belvedere bar (deck 6) that is tucked away all the way at the back and seems to be fairly quiet most of the time (and the ambience and the service there is quite lovely).

 

If weather does cooperate, deck 18 left side at the front has quite a few loungers and a decent amount of shade, maybe because it is close to the smoking area and there is a kids park on the right side, but all and all we liked that part too. 

 

Cheers and wishing you a fantastic cruise!

Thank you for this! I’ll check all of these spaces out. Still crossing fingers and toes for better weather than is currently forecast. You’ve given me hope!

[alexirina]

1 minute ago, MamaToMany said:

Thank you for this! I’ll check all of these spaces out. Still crossing fingers and toes for better weather than is currently forecast. You’ve given me hope!

Sure thing, and honestly in all our Caribbean and Gulf cruises we have never experienced a complete rain-in situation! You are not going to Alaska 😉 Keeping our fingers crossed for your cruise! 

One thing that we keep mentioning is the Vibe Club: honestly it made our cruise! It is open to the weather at the back of the ship and one have to pay for access to it (about 250 USD per person). It is, by far, the quietest and nicest place on the ship that we enjoyed tremendously. But, of course, it only works in good weather, as it is completely opened to the environment!

Cheers!

[alexirina]

And a final set of (somewhat organized) comments from us. This time: Entertainment, nightlife, activities

 

Prima offers an interesting variety of entertainment options. Two smaller venues (Syd Norman's and The Improv, both Deck 7) are very-very small and we had to get in line ~45 minutes before the show start (they open door 30 minutes before scheduled show times). Syd Norman's shows were very enjoyable, Comedy (Lucas Bohn) was not for us: the first comedy show ever we walked out of. The main theater is different. It can work in a variety of layouts. When they have "bleachers" (with very comfortable seats, by the way) extended all the way that makes it for the fully functioning theater or a game venue). Bleachers can be completely stowed away and then the venue turns into a night club. There is an in-between option that worked well for couple of shows. Either way, we enjoyed all the shows (with the exception of Donna Summer). Night life shows with production crew were awesome, night life parties were not what we expected, DJ was so-so...

 

As many know, Prima is one of a few ships that has a go-kart track on the top 3 decks. We were extremally skeptical of that concept (it takes away a good chunk of premium space). So I had to test it and enjoyed the experience tremendously. It is just something different that I have never done before on a ship. Still can't say that I agree with NCL's decision to build this thing, but since no one consulted me when they planned this ship out, I just went ahead and enjoyed it anyway.

 

We tried a few rides that they had, including "The Drop" and that was good fun. 

 

Still, the highlight and the best feature for us was The Vibe Beach Club. Just to chill with a drink without noise and running kids...

 

At any rate, if any of that is visually interesting, feel free to check out our final video about this cruise.

 

Enjoyable experience for sure! Will we do it again? Can not answer for sure, but NCL is back on our list.

Cheers!