bobkat11

2 hours ago, toryandrew said:

Sorry folks, I'm on the prima right now... And I'm Sapphire latitudes and this is a mess.  The way the ship is designed severely limits the space in every single venue. Every venue but especially the Atrium has limited seating with odd empty spaces. Sid's for Rumours is an impossible situation because it seats so few. Stand in line for 45 minutes and you are in limited standing room. They are skipping that Iceland port for every cruise but they have not updated the daily schedule. So it's boring, either you literally can't get into simple things like trivia or origami or there's hours with nothing scheduled for unexpected sea days.  The food is fine, the staff are good, I'm pleased with the size of my room but the ship configuration is a nightmare. People can say what they want but it's a fact that each venue is 50% or more smaller compared to other ships. 

Sorry you're experiencing a "mess" as you call it, but your comments at least validate how I felt and hence why I started this thread. Surely, SURELY, NCL will eventually get the message that there is much improvement needed.

I filled out my post-cruise survey today, for whatever it's worth.

I do hope you enjoy the ports (whatever ones you actually get to see, that is.)

16 minutes ago, HowardK said:

Sometimes I wonder if the lack off staff is due to the whiny passengers? I can't imagine who would want to work on a ship where people are picky about everything? 

It's "whiny" if a passenger complains here on CC about standing outside In the sun for several hours while embarkation is delayed? It's "picky" to be disappointed that 3 out of 8 tours had to be cancelled due to itinerary change? Or any of the other significant problems that various posters have mentioned in this thread?

BTW, I never once complained or was "whiny" to a single staff member.

4 hours ago, Mademypoint said:

Steak is sous vide so you run the chance of getting something that's been in the water much too long. Nothing like ordering medium rare and getting a steak that looks red/pink in the middle that's as dry as a rubber stamp. The next time I'm at Cagney's I'm not ordering a steak.

As for the Donna Summer musical, I thought it was wonderful when I saw it on Broadway as did anyone I know who saw it. I think as a rule, unless you make it a point to get to the venues early, you run the risk of not seeing "the best" of everything. I always love the activities in the atrium, sorry you didn't have a chance to see those, nothing like seeing people make fools of themselves in all sorts of ways. As for the weather and the ship, I agree that not all ships belong in that cool weather, but that's why sailing at this time of year was probably a lot less expensive.

Sadly, not true. This was by far the most expensive cruise we've ever taken. 

14 hours ago, jimsig said:

I'm a bit confused by this.  You said you arrived in you last stop in Reykjavik at 1:30 pm but then said you arrived at 6p the previous evening. 

Good catch, my mistake. It was Akeyruri that we arrived 6pm. Reykjavik we docked 1:30 pm.

But my point stands: we arrived in Reykjavik the day before disembarking, and we heard people complain that NCL had said they would not be allowed off the ship in time to make a 10am flight. According to some passengers, that is what NCL said prior to cruising. But then after they had already changed flights and/or added a night in a hotel in Reykjavik for one night, then NCL did end up allow early disembarking.

It didn't affect us, as our flight was 5pm. The only reason I mention this, is in case it's helpful for people whose only option home is a morning flight.

11 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Did you really pay $200 for a meal at Cagneys?  Most people just use the dining package.

Sorry for the misstatement. Our bill showed $200, but it was in our dining package. 

1 hour ago, Obobru said:

Sounds like a couple of issues happened like the ports and because you had arrived in a bad mood from your flight issue you found fault with almost everything. The delay boarding was most likely a customs/immigration search on the ship they have been doing more in Southampton. The missed port and delayed port isn't ideal but you just sat in your room stewing away making it worse for yourself. 

 

Unfortunately this is how many humans react including myself, off to a bad start it's hard to get into the mood and have fun. My partner always pulls me back saying we can't change it so let's find what we can do and make the best of it. 

 

I am sure you will find a new cruise line you prefer, we are not loyal to any which I find is the best way as loads of cruise lines do similar itineraries.

 

I didn't say we sat in the room "stewing." We sat in the room reading. 🙂 Very different. And we did a LOT of walking on decks 6, 7, and 8. Over and over. Had to reach our 10,000 steps every day! But regarding scheduled activities for sea days, there truly was surprisngly very little.

1 hour ago, UKstages said:

no, we can't all like the same things, and cruises and food and entertainment are highly subjective, but a clear trend has emerged from recent reviews of the prima... we see this in review after review (including mine) and in post after post:

 

the ship is ill-suited to cold and inclement weather, some of the food is exceptional, some is not, the staff does not operate cohesively or communicate clearly, embarkation and disembarkation delays are common, ports are canceled cruise after cruise with little accurate or timely information given about those cancellations.

 

review after review. cruise after cruise.

 

"fifty million frenchmen can't be wrong." when enough people say the same thing over and over, there's gotta be some truth to the comments. that doesn't mean you can't enjoy your cruise or aspects of your cruise or the ports or the excursions. it doesn't mean you still can't be a fan of NCL (i am). but it would be wrong to pretend that the prima is, you'll pardon the expression, a well run ship.

 

it is not.

 Unfortunately I was not at all aware (until just now when I read your post) of widespread negative reviews of Prima. I haven't spent much time at this site.

Previous cruise friends were doing this sailing, and we decided to join them. Of course i wish now I had done more research.

We returned home last night from an 11 night cruise on the Norwegian Prima to Norway and Iceland (and Brugge and Amsterdam). This was, by far, the most disappointing cruise we've ever taken (and I heard many other passengers say the same thing). I'm not the kind of person who is hard to please, or who easily complains, but I'm posting this review for people considering this ship. I'll try to briefly summarize this cruise:

1. Embarkation was a mess! No one was allowed on the ship for several hours past the expected check-in time (our pre-cruise paperwork told us to arrive at 9:30am). Guests were stuck standing in the sun outside the terminal, unsure as to why no one could board. We were told various conflicting explanations. Boarding finally started around 3pm if I remember correctly. My husband and I got on the ship around 4pm , and I got my luggage at 9pm. It was a frustrating and unwelcoming start to our cruise (on the heels of arriving exhausted in London 24 hours late due to flight delays and a missed connection.)

2. Itinerary. I know sometimes itineraries have to change, but I've never had one change to this unacceptable extent. First stop, we arrived late to Brugge, missing our tour for that day. The entire stop at Isofjordour was cancelled.  (We were told we couldn't stop there because the Prima doesn't have tender boats. Don't all of the life boats double as tender boats?? And other ships continue to stop there, so we Prima passengers were frustrated by no satisfactory reason for the cancellation.) So that day became an unexpected (and unwanted) extra sea day. For our last stop, we arrived in Reykjavik, not at 7 am as scheduled, but 1:30 in the afternoon, so once again, we could not do the tour we had planned. Missing 3 out of 8 tours was very disappointing, after traveling so far to see these sights.

3. Sea days. In a word, boring. Most of the time that we were on the ship, we just sat in our cabin and read books. There simply was nothing to do on this ship most of the time. We did go to a History of Iceland presentation in the Prima Lounge one day, which was interesting. The Observation Lounge, which would have been the single best place to pass extra time, was closed to the public for our whole cruise. In a nutshell, The Prima should never sail this particular itinerary. It is the wrong ship for the climate. It has far too much outdoor space for a chilly northern European itinerary, causing the indoor dining areas and lounges to be claustrophobically packed. Passengers did not want to be outside in the cold wind playing shuffleboard, mini golf, pickleball, water slides, Go-carts, pool areas, sitting lounges, or any of the other numerous outdoor offerings.

4. Entertainment. The Prima lounge had The Price Is Right a couple of nights. This is basically a glorified commercial for that game show, with embarassingly little given as prizes. A carry-on suitcase, and $25, were the only prizes won. The Prima lounge also had a Donna Summer musical which I suppose was the best show of the trip (but that's not saying much, as even the Broadway version of yhis show was poorly reviewed). There was a comedienne/singer two nights who was just ok, with her self-deprecating humor and mannerisms, and typical tired jokes about how much food we eat on cruises. I don't expect cruise entertainers to be on par with Broadway stars, but I've always been pleased with the entertainers on previous cruises. There is no shortage of amazing talent in this world, but NCL didn't bother to find and hire such talent. The lounge singers ranged from bland to awful. There was one small lounge that we were told had good music in the evenings (Syd's Pour House), but we were never able to get into there due to the small space. 

5. Food. I found the food to be good overall. Not 5-star good, of course, but similar to that on other cruises. My only disappointing meal was Cagneys, which is an a la carte menu. Our meal there was over $200, yet I can make a better ribeye steak at home. Maybe I just happened to get a dry bland piece, because my husband did like his steak. The Indulge Food Court was crowded, confusing, with online ordering difficult to figure out. Despite us having the beverage package, when we ordered any drinks on the table-top tablets, we had to accept the full charge for our drinks. Other passengers complained about the tablets not working well. Food highlights: Palomar mashed potatoes, and The Local Reuben sandwich were memorably excellent! Hudsons and Commodore were consistently good experiences for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The buffet on the 17th floor was a headache-inducing madhouse with far too little indoor seating.

6. This is a random, weird situation that was handled very poorly by NCL staff. My husband and I came upon two injured passengers, elderly women who had fallen down a set of stairs on top of each other, and we began screaming for help. Long story short, several crew members came and went, making phone calls, trying to get a wheelchair, but not one crew member offered to relieve us as we held and comforted the injured passengers. Crew knew we did not know the women, because we made that clear. We spent about a half an hour helping these strangers before a wheelchair finally arrived, and it was only then that I realized, "Hey, a crew member really should have taken over and not left us there taking care of these strangers." Just pretty weird that not one crew member relieved us, and also that it took so long to get something as simple as a wheelchair.

7. Cabins: layout worked well, bathroom was more spacious than other cruiselines'. Too cold to use the balcony much. Noisy at night, constantly sounded like a torrential rain storm. Other passengers mentioned rattles and other noises.

8. Disembarking. We got off the ship fine, at 8:30 as instructed, took our own luggage off, got on a shuttle to the airport outside of Reykjavik, arriving there around 9:30am. Unfortunately flights out to the US were all late afternoon and evening, so it was a long day sitting at the airport waiting for our 5pm flight, with very few chairs in the waiting area. Actually there was a 10am flight that some of us had looked into, but NCL said they would not allow anyone off the ship early enough to make that flight, despite docking in Reykjavik port 6pm the previous evening. We didn't understand that, but we had learned that unclear, non-answers from NCL was the standard.

So, despite getting to see some beautiful scenery in the ports we made it to, overall I am very dissatisfied with this cruise. NCL did give each guest $100 on board credit as an apology for the embarkation fiasco, changed itinerary, and unavailability of the Observation Lounge. But to me, even a full refund would not have made the frustrating experience worth it. The ratio of enjoyable, quality time enjoying ports, to time spent standing in lines or otherwise wasted time, was simply not worth it. 

I will not be cruising with NCL again.

It is impossible to know exactly what the dress code is, because here is a copy/paste of what is considered "Smart Casual" directly from Celebrity's website:

Men should feel comfortable wearing:

• Pants or jeans with a long sleeve sport shirt.
  

But here is another copy/paste of the Smart Casual dress code following a different link to Celebrity:

Gentlemen: Pant/trousers (no holes, rips or tears) with collared sports shirt or sweater. Shirts must have sleeves.

And another one says:

Men should feel comfortable wearing:

• Pants or jeans with a sport shirt that has sleeves
  

My husband and I found Monte Carlo to be quite beautiful and romantic. We just spent the day walking around.

Thank you everyone, for all the suggestions you've shared so far!

First Alaska cruise is a couple weeks away (Celebrity Infinity, 12 nights). We want to do a lot of hiking and just enjoying nature and the towns. Wondering if we really need to book excursions, or if we can just hike on our own? Maybe get a taxi if the good hiking area isn't walkable from the port. Of course, if there are any "must not miss" attractions or sights, we'd consider those instead of hiking.

We have booked excursions already for Skagway and Ketchikan, but we're also going to:

Sitka

Juneau

Haines

Nanaimo, BC

Victoria

Vancouver

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many ports and so many options so appreciate your suggestions!

Don't worry about what colors to wear, just make sure you have appropriate clothing for the weather outside. Take a jacket with a hood that you can layer underneath or a rain poncho. It beats carrying around an umbrella. I have a Columbia jacket that has a zip out lining that's actually a second jacket and it worked well, especially early morning when we would get up early for sightseeing from our balcony. It was always chilly in the morning but by afternoon, a lightweight jacket was all we needed. For dinner, sleeveless would be fine especially with a shawl or nice sweater in case it's cold in the dining room. Above all just have fun and enjoy your cruise!

Would you happen to have an exact style name or number, or a link, for your Columbia jacket? I need to order something like that before our May 26 Alaska cruise. Many thanks!!