Seas2mountains

Thank you. I didn’t realize they had a different menu for dinner. We will definitely go there for dinner this cruise.

I’ll see if I can get more photos of the officers. Here are some photos of the sun setting at 11:30pm. We had dinner with the officers tonight and were honored we got to have dinner with Captain Roger Gustavsen and Cruise Next Manager Natalie. The captain has done a wonderful job with daily announcements telling us what to expect. It was a fun and interesting dinner with them and several other Latitudes passengers. We saw the Donna Summer show at 9:30pm. It was fantastic!

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am anticipating the public areas will get more crowded as the weather gets colder. So far we have had no noises in the cabin. Maybe that will change as the weather changes. I have enjoyed several “Matador” drinks made by one of our favorite bar tenders, Froilan, who was in Henry’s Pub on the Spirit but is now in Prima’s Whiskey Bar. He said it is a copy cat with a modified ingredient. It tastes the same to me. I remember you also recommended this drink and it is one I really like.

I’m not sure if can read names from this photo? Thank you!

We spent some time this afternoon in one of the Vibe hot tubs and enjoyed being outside even though it started getting colder and is now foggy. Seas are still very calm. We are still happy with the decision to purchase the Vibe passes even if we can’t use it when it gets colder. It was especially enjoyed the first day and yesterday afternoon. Here are some afternoon butler treats over the past few days. My husband asked for cheese daily and I asked for potato chips which they do have on Prima. I have not yet checked Surfside cafe for cookies. The chocolate strawberries were full whole strawberries.

After the behind the scenes tour, we went to the spa and enjoyed the pool and heated lounge chairs. It was mostly quiet but we did hear the weights being dropped above in the fitness center along the sound of the treadmills. Despite the noise from the fitness center, I think this is my favorite spa on NCL ships. We didn’t see a single “saved” heated lounge chair and having that area separate from the pool meant that people were quiet at least so far. This tiered area by the pool is heated. We also attended the military reception which was very well done. individual photos were taken with the captain and I believe the general manager. A cast member did a wonderful job singing the National Anthem. Alvin the CD and another CD staff member had each person give their name, military branch and years of service. Drinks and appetizers on spoons were served. We decided to go to Hudson’s for lunch to have more menu options than the Cagney’s suite lunch. It looked like it filled up quickly and we were there from about 12:10pm until 1:20pm. I had the yummy bay scallops and chicken flautas. My husband had the Spinach Caesar and BBQ pork ribs. We both had tiramisu for dessert. Service was excellent but the kitchen must have been slammed as it looked like the dining room filled up quickly. The food was great as usual as we had no complaints. As we were among the first guests to arrive at Hudson’s, we got another table along the window in the center of the dining. We really love that dining room and the views. Here is one of the lunch menus

The behind the scenes tour was scheduled to start at 8am. We were told check-in would start at 8am. It initially looked like we were going to have a small group of about 15 people but more people arrived at 8:05am, 8:10am and 8:15am. Check-in started at 8:10am and the tour started at 8:20am. We were split into two groups of about 20 people. We visited the galley of Onda/Los Lobos, the laundry, crew bar (no photos requested), and the theater. At Onda/Los Lobos, the chef said they have a butcher shop on a different deck that had three separate areas and all fish was frozen. All specialty dining had their own galleys. The sanitation team comes in at night to clean everything. At the theater, there are 18 cast members in Donna Summer and I believe I heard him say there are 1500 costumes. They have 10 existing crew members who have the additional duty and get paid extra outside of their normal job to help the cast members with costumes. The LCD panels shown on the first photo can raise up and they have an LCD screen behind it. Price is Right has a completely different set. In the laundry, we learned that they handle guest laundry from 250-300 cabins per day and they may wash up to 10 cabins of laundry in the washer and dryer. They have fancy pressing and steam machines along with the one that dries and folds the sheets. On Prima, the laundry area did not feel hot and humid like on other ships. The crew bar was super clean and it looked like a sanitation team had put everything away as you could barely tell it was a bar and most chairs were neatly stacked. We were requested not to take any photos when in crew areas. The tour finished at about 9:40am. We also heard the crew quarters on Prima tend to allow a cabin for 1-2 crew members with a Jack and Jill style bath in between. We heard from some crew members we knew from other ships that the accommodations on Prima are much nicer on the Prima and they have more privacy than on other ships.

Since we had the Behind the Scenes tour scheduled at 8am, we went to breakfast at Cagney’s at 7:30am when they opened. My husband thought there would be no way we would be finished before 8am but I reminded him we were in and out in 30 minutes the day prior. Once again, coffee was poured within a minute of us being seated. We felt so spoiled as we were the only people there the whole time and easily finished at 7:55am. Here are photos taken mid morning and as you can see how calm the seas were

Good afternoon from the North Sea on our way to beautiful Geiranger. We had dinner last night outside at Los Lobos where the temperature and light breeze made it a perfect location to view the scenery as we sailed out of the canal. Before sail away, it sounded like 6 names were called twice after the 5:30pm all aboard time. I’m not sure if they got on board in time for sail away or not. Dinner at Los Lobos was lovely as the two person booths are cozy. We had classic margaritas to start. Next, we had the guacamole prepared at our table and the cocktel mixto as appetizers. The guacamole was excellent but I didn’t care for the tomato sauce on the cocktel mixto but my husband said he liked it all except the fish in the cocktel mixto. For entrees, my husband had the steak fajitas which he said were really good and I had the grilled Branzino which was perfectly prepared and delicious. We should not have ordered sides of corn and red rice as it was too much food. Service was also excellent. We had no room for dessert and went back to our cabin to continue watching the scenery as we traveled along the canal. We got to the lock before 8:30pm but it seemed to take another half hour or more to clear the lock. Along the canal we could see many pairs of swans with their cygnets (baby swans) nearby. There were a lot of people at the beach and lock area despite the late time as it was such a beautiful evening. This was the second time this cruise we called it an early night as the walking each day wore us out. We walked about 23,000 steps in Bruges and Amsterdam. We slept really well last night as the ship was gently rocking at times. We did not hear any rattling from closet doors or other parts of the ship but again it was very gebtle.

The museum had a special display with paintings from Matthew Wong who was inspired by Van Gogh. He painted over 1,000 paintings in the six years of his life that he painted before his death. Time to get ready for dinner and sail away. I’ll update later on the rest of our time in Amsterdam.

As mentioned, I’ll give an update on beautiful Bruges when we have a sea day tomorrow. I purchased tickets online for the Van Gogh museum about a month ago. I had asked my husband about it to make sure he was okay with it. He said that was okay. This morning he had no idea what we were doing so I had to break the news about this and knew he wouldn’t be too happy but would do it as long as we had a decent amount of time in Vibe this afternoon. It’s good thing I did purchase these in advance as they were sold out. We didn’t want to walk 2.2 miles there and back so we had to figure out how to get there using public transportation. It was fairly easy as we followed signs to the trams and purchased tickets at the Amsterdam Central rail station. The walk to the rail station was an easy 0.7 mile walk from the cruise port once we figured out we needed to stay clear of the bike lanes as there was constant bike traffic in both directions. Once we got to the museum which was next to the tram stop, we got in line with others who had tickets. Our ticket time was for 9:45am but it was 9:15am and we got to the person scanning tickets at 9:20am and she didn’t say anything about us being early. When we got inside, we waited in another line to get an audio system with a headset to give us a guided tour of the paintings. We had a choice to do a full tour or one that would take about 45 minutes with highlights. Well, with my husband not preferring to be there, the 45 minute one with highlights was the selection. I thought it was a good for time management since I had other places I wanted to see. I would recommend it and my husband said it would be a good choice for people who like art. The bike traffic. We had to dodge the bikes to get across as they didn’t stop at the pedestrian cross walk. The locals did it like it was no a big deal and we thought a bike was going to hit us for sure. Van Gogh museum.

We had a great day exploring Amsterdam. The suite breakfast in Cagney’s has been wonderful for food and service. They have been great about getting us coffee within a minute or two of being seated. Food also comes out faster than we experienced recently in Moderno for suite breakfast on the Pearl and Gem. Here are breakfast photos from yesterday. I love that we can order just berries as there is no buffet like there is for suite breakfasts on other ships.

Current situation - Amsterdam. Sunny. 81 degrees with a light breeze. The Vibe with about 6-8 other passengers. Margarita and water.

More photos of Belvedere Lounge area. I think they did a wonderful job with the colors and design selection. I have not been by the lounge in the evening to see if it gets busy. It’s right outside of the second complimentary dining room, The Conmodore and is near Cagney’s and the casino.

Here are some ship photos taken when we woke up early yesterday morning. Deck 6 Atrium - some areas were blocked off and furniture was moved as the atrium area near Cagney’s is used for security to scan key cards for passengers getting off the ship and for screening returning passengers and bags at the port. Cruise Next Casino Belvedere Bar next to Cagneys. Chairs moved for security areas. Cagney’s Staircase - I like the carpet colors.

Congratulations! Will you take any of your new fancy bags on your Princess cruise?

Good morning from Amsterdam. Here are photos taken as we were going through the canal.

We didn’t put in any special requests when we requested to eat there. It was either luck or we don’t know if they looked at our latitude status or not. I like how they have different table sizes next to the window so larger parties have the chance of being next to the window, too. Congratulations on 46 years!! You should have lots of smileys for that many years!!!!! 🎉🥳😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Thank you for posting a video. The Starlink connection on Prima is too slow to play the video as all I see is the attempt to show it and then it fails.

The Prima suite breakfast and lunch menu is not the same as the Haven breakfast and lunch menu. I know on the Jewel class ships the suite and Haven lunch menu is the same and is similar to the breakfast and lunch menu on Breakaway and Breakaway Plus class ships with the Haven. Your favorite starter is probably still on the Haven lunch menu.

Thank you! Me, too. I think the pool area might be a bit noisy as the some were taking when using the stairs that come down from the reception to the pools. With the abundance of heated loungers in a separate room, at least we won’t hear anyone taking loud in the pools since it is a different area. They did have signs posted which was better than the Breakaway where they had no signs.

No worries! I don’t mind. I didn’t see chicken breast chunks on the Indulge menu except as an option to add to salad. Do you remember what restaurant in Indulge had those if it wasn’t Q?

Thank you for your comments! I was laughing out loud to the Spanish moss in Myrtle Beach. I’m sure you won’t forget that memory. I’ll keep that Logan, MT restaurant in mind. We drove through there a few months ago. I love Montana! We have stared at so many buildings in awe of the architecture and beauty. So far we haven’t heard any slide noise. There are plenty of kids and young adults on this cruise so we should know more on the sea days as they may have been busy the first two days. Thank you again for following along. It sounds like I have company with having a fast traveler husband. My husband tends to sing different songs and often dances if people aren’t around to see him so I have built in entertainment being married to him. 😂

Thank you! I hope you have a wonderful cruise. I recommend going to the dining room for lunch on embarkation day to avoid the buffet and Indulge. The buffet always seems busy on embarkation day to include Prima. NCL seems to be sailing full on most cruises including ours which sold out a few weeks ago.

Tonight, we enjoyed listening to Juci Del Carmi who is so talented with his guitar. Duo Rika also were wonderful and kept playing after a woman tripped and fell down a staircase and had whst looked like a head injury with blood on her head. We hope and pray she is okay.