NCL Prima eastbound 15 days TA (Live) 27 Apr, 2024 - N.Y. to Southampton via Halifax, Iceland & EU ports - preview intro

[dexddd]

Halifax coming over first TA.

 

Hope you get cruise dock not industrial dock.

[dexddd]

And peek what ahead.

[ontheweb]

13 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Statue of Liberty - 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Always impressive to sail by the Statue of Liberty. 😊😊😊

[JIMESOPUS]

Good Morning Prima, current track slightly east of planned route ( whales ? ), steady pace at 21 knots. Halifax a balmy 39 degrees this morning, Viking Polaris passing by Port side.

@dexddd Enjoyed watching them assemble the gangway in Halifax under the careful eye of NCL and how the pieces didn't fit so they to modify that one piece

 

 

 

Edited April 28 by JIMESOPUS

[Arzeena]

On 4/26/2024 at 10:54 AM, mking8288 said:

Backup - final prep: iPhone and Android smartphone do run out of storage space, sooner or later, regardless - while backing up to sync to home server ... click thru a couple of old NCL cruise folders - time flies. 

 

Found old photos of Alvin Oliver, CD currently onboard the Prima ... he's been around.  He was conducting the Platinum behind-the-scene tour on the Breakaway 10 years ago (2014) and ran into him over the years, this was from a Halloween cruise on the BA in 2017.  He did a great & fun presentation on cruise ship operations with slide presentations, go see it if and when scheduled onboard ... 

 

 

This was the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet, held in La Cucina b/c we had expected a fairly large turnout.  Alvin is 2nd on the right (photo taken from iPhone 5S then ... kind of fuzzy) and he was a little "slimmer" in those days, wish I found a picture from 2014.  NCL featured him, among others, on social media during the pandemic shutdown.  

 

 

If only Apple had developed AirTags then, maybe ... it would've help tracked down someone's CPAP, apparently checked and gone missing - do not, don't and shall not check medications and medical devices needed.  Carry it and keep it with you, really.  

 

 

How and why would it be under the bed or inside the closet of a stateroom, unless the occupant place it there ... in other words, just return it and no questions asked.  

 

Doing a test to see how the Samsung SmartTag2 perform vs. Apple's AirTag, putting 1 of each in the checked spinner tomorrow and drop it off with the porter ... let the tracking begin.  

 

@Arzeena old friends popping up on this thread, isn't that cool - just skim thru the details, check out the pictures and that's plenty already ... something for almost everyone.  

Say hello to Alvin from RJ and me. We knew him since he was the cruise director's staff doing bingo or trivia. Now he is CD. Wonderful person. We miss him.

And is that Yannis (talking) all the way right in your picture? He has been on MSC for a while now. Is he back on NCL?

I hope Susan and you and Barb are having a wonderful time.

[dexddd]

3 hours ago, JIMESOPUS said:

Good Morning Prima, current track slightly east of planned route ( whales ? ), steady pace at 21 knots. Halifax a balmy 39 degrees this morning, Viking Polaris passing by Port side.

@dexddd Enjoyed watching them assemble the gangway in Halifax under the careful eye of NCL and how the pieces didn't fit so they to modify that one piece

 

 

 

Yeah, it was like Jenga.  We only planned to walk around and go to Titanic Museum.  Even the bag pipers ran out of tunes and left as they added parts.

 

Ended up going to top Haven outside area to finally enjoy the area since most of the other days were shot.  Then lines for buses were long so we just hung out.  It was a very nice day.

 

Thoughts why used that dock while other area appeared to have room?  My Sail and Sustain would say cost but they had to have all those buses.  I haven't followed other Prima stops there. Let's see where they go this time.  It might be a ship config issue.

 

 

Edited April 28 by dexddd

[Sugar Magnolia]

@graphicguy just wanted to let you know that I witnessed the crew furiously mopping and wiping down this area at the Local every 10 minutes while overhearing the crew mumbling about some guy who tried some fancy dance moves to impress the ladies at the bar. Apparently, he made quite an impression. 
 

 

[mking8288]

Hi - en route to Halifax, ship change clock 1 hour ahead at 2 PM to ADT - 3 PM today. Slight confusion as onboard time was changed in the morning.

 

 

[mking8288]

Today's discounted WiFi Internet upgrade price (free - after using non-refundable OBC) after trade up credit of $145, computer at $25 p/d x 14 days. Not based on any Latitudes discount (25% for Diamond) not combinable. Daily rates is $30 p/d for 11 (10 ??) days or less.

 

 

[mking8288]

Freestyle Daily - full PDF Day 1 and Day 2

 

 

Prima TA Apr 2024 free-style-daily-01.pdf Prima Apr 2024 TA free-style-daily-02.pdf

[blaurie]

Hi there! Long time reader first time poster. I'm on the sailing as well, as a sapphire latitudes rewards member. 

 

Boarding in New York yesterday was an absolute catastrophe. Lines outside of the terminal were roughly 2 hours long to get inside, asked if there was any benefit to being sapphire... Of course there wasn't! 

 

The ship is clearly full. Every venue is packed and trying to find a seat in any dining venue is met with extremely long lines. 

 

Have talked to cruisenext already about the priority seating for the MDR, they said we should be talking straight to the hostess when we arrive at the restaurant. We did that last night for dinner, and the hostess said basically.. good luck get to the back of the line. Talked to cruisenext again today about that situation and they gave us phone number for our concierge to assist and told us that in fact we should have been able to skip the line. We might not have been sat right away, but we should have been given a pager. 

 

Hoping tonight's dinner goes better!

[Fogfog]

@graphicguy we have inspected the prep of your dance floor and @Sugar Magnoliahas determined it to be perfect.

 

@mking8288 we took advantage of the Wi-Fi upgrade for my device today

 

@JIMESOPUS slow going. No whales sighted. Though we were having lunch 

Did look up the interesting details and it can be impacted quite quickly.

 

What’s the deal with Halifax? 
 

Food has been good. Crew has been in good spirits. Captain has quite the sense of humor.
It was nice to see so many officers at the M&G this am. And great to put faces with screen names.
 

The am… TV had one time this am and we were confused by app. Concierge told us to go by the phone in our cabin because we didn’t know what time it was..and many were walking around either early or late for things this morning.

 

So who is doing the drop? My dear spouse is on the way to go do it now.

 

oh…and we had a plate of canapés..and a plate of cookies dropped off at the room. Who was nice enough to think of this? 😁
 

Edited April 28 by Fogfog

[MarkieMarkNYC]

21 minutes ago, blaurie said:

Boarding in New York yesterday was an absolute catastrophe. Lines outside of the terminal were roughly 2 hours long to get inside, asked if there was any benefit to being sapphire... Of course there wasn't! 

 

Yikes. That's crazy. What time did you arrive to the terminal? 

I have an upcoming sailing from Manhattan and have been alerted that the ship will arrive late and not to arrive to the pier until noon. I'm wondering if it's better to wait until 2 or 3pm. Do you know if people who arrived later had a shorter wait time?

[mking8288]

18 minutes ago, blaurie said:

Hi there! Long time reader first time poster. I'm on the sailing as well, as a sapphire latitudes rewards member. 

 

Hoping tonight's dinner goes better!

Thank you for helping us from writing up about this dining mess, Diamonds in 2 cabins and they can't do things right. 

 

Photos speak for themselves - roosters lost and dancing on circles while we stand & watch, pager reset & lost us, blamed the system reset and the white stripes looking busy.

 

Palomora tonight should be fine, tomorrow night is going to be fine ...

 

 

I have a background in hospitality and don't buy this BS

 

[mking8288]

Telling it like it is but being a "critic" calling it out as I see it, our 2nd time around on the Prima. 

 

Otherwise, calm seas and waves at 3 ft. slept like being on land w/o earthquake. Still a better day cruising then ...

 

 

 

[mking8288]

Menus and selections hasn't changed, good and portion sizes are small but fine. Buffet closed at 9 PM sharp but you can refill water there, clean cup to transfer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gallery operations front line view from Hudson MDR

Edited April 28 by mking8288

[blaurie]

10 minutes ago, MarkieMarkNYC said:

Yikes. That's crazy. What time did you arrive to the terminal? 

I have an upcoming sailing from Manhattan and have been alerted that the ship will arrive late and not to arrive to the pier until noon. I'm wondering if it's better to wait until 2 or 3pm. Do you know if people who arrived later had a shorter wait time?

The line was pretty much gone by 3:30 p.m. round 4:45 p.m., 5:00, they started making announcements about safety and departure. So things moved pretty fast since then. My check-in time was 1:30 p.m., I arrived at 1:00 p.m., did not get checked in and on the ship until about 4:30.

[blaurie]

10 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Thank you for helping us from writing up about this dining mess, Diamonds in 2 cabins and they can't do things right. 

 

Photos speak for themselves - roosters lost and dancing on circles while we stand & watch, pager reset & lost us, blamed the system reset and the white stripes looking busy.

 

Palomora tonight should be fine, tomorrow night is going to be fine ...

 

 

I have a background in hospitality and don't buy this BS

 

The lines have been absolutely insane! Sapphire and platinum here in one room, and platinum in another room, all of us were told there was no such thing as priority seating on the Prima. However cruisenext says yes, there is! They never put us on a wait list, or gave us a pager , they told us to wait in this huge line to get into the Hudson for lunch today. We left but also could not find a seat in the food hall or the buffet, we ended up in the overflow at food Republic.

[mking8288]

DW confirmed that strawberries are grown & bigger. Missing our 3 cartons of water and 2nd balcony got 2 only, first world problem with Latitudes perk.  Diamond = 2 and Gold = 1 for 3 per stateroom. 

 

Spoke w room steward, reported to supervisor - advised to call Guest Services, who then can inform CruiseNext, or go downstairs to stand in line & speak to them directly. 

 

Called 00 twice and it rang, nobody answered at all. Hang up & will try later - I really do not want to do a Dear GM notice in his mail Dropbox for a minor nuisance.

 

I hope if there is an emergency onboard and someone dialed the operator or 0, that someone answer & get help, STAT. My CPR & AED certifications are expired if I happened to be nearby. 

 

Huh, it's soccer season or football time, let punt the ball. 😳🙄😬

 

Edited April 28 by mking8288

[mking8288]

M&G was successful with very good turnout, CC'er came in full force ... 

 

Pub crawl later this week but no cabin crawl or slot pull. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mking8288]

This mess with the lines for the MDR, whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner is that the hostesses have their heads buried and 1 person trying to the triage the crowd surging toward the front, and it is plain poor crowd management and coordination. Set up 2 lines with signage and organize, 3 lines if they need to and direct everyone from the back, it doesn't have to be this - rearrange the mousetraps & minefields. 

 

They also were calling us with the wrong names and knew we were waiting patiently for 30+ minutes for our priority seating. 

 

BTW, it's the same team working the front and even the same assistant manager is onboard & working in a different section or area. They aren't new on doing this 😔🤔😬

Edited April 28 by mking8288

[graphicguy]

1 hour ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

@graphicguy just wanted to let you know that I witnessed the crew furiously mopping and wiping down this area at the Local every 10 minutes while overhearing the crew mumbling about some guy who tried some fancy dance moves to impress the ladies at the bar. Apparently, he made quite an impression. 
 

 

That’s why my parents didn’t name me GRACE!

 

Circle is the scene of the pirouette!!!!

[schmoopie17]

5 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

That’s why my parents didn’t name me GRACE!

 

That would have been your name if you would have been a girl. But they had their heart set on the first three letters of that name, so they named you Graphicguy.

[bedfordmom]

What is the deal with these late departures. The recent Escape TA was basically a ghost ship coming from Cape Canaveral and that too was late coming in like around 11am. They said that they were late because they wanted to reprovision in Florida but my theory is that they are trying to save on not providing the first lunch LOL to half of the passengers. 

[mking8288]