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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

Thank you, so glad you found our review helpful! Have a great time, Prima is a lovely ship, not without quirks, but overall we really enjoyed the cruise!

Thank you for that, you are absolutely correct, I forgot about it, even though we researched Royal last year and saw that new terminal. It is further to north west from two older terminals.

Thank you very much, glad to help! We like doing as much research and watching reviews ahead of sailing! Personally videos help us as much (if not more) as reviews. As an example, overall rating of Prima seems to be rather low (around 4(5)), which I can not disagree with more. This ship is close to the top in our personal list where we try to balance out all aspects of experience (MSC Seaside being at the very bottom for the worst food and service; and Celebrity Edge being close to the very top for everything). So, again, glad you found our opinions useful and have a fantastic trip!

We wanted to share with y'all a few more thoughts and a full video walk through of Norwegian Prima Overall we liked the design and flow of the ship. Atrium is on a smaller side, but so well designed that we loved it! The Observation Deck is lovely, I wish it would be bigger and/or resemble a Solarium on the Royal ships. But, again, the decor is very fresh and lovely, minimalistic without being cheap (you know, I'm looking at you, Virgin Voyages). There were several things that made us go "huh", and those were all anticipated. The main pool on the top deck is tiny, BUT there are infinity pools on deck 8 on either side of the ship. And while we mainly stayed in the Vibe Beach Club (extra cost 250 USD PP, but well worth it for the 18+ area, no pool there, but 2 generously sized hot tubs), we never saw these 3 free pools being too crowded. Another point of concern is the main buffet: it is very small and is always crowded. Does not help that the only way to the back of the ship on Deck 17 is through the buffet. However, there are plenty of free dining alternatives around the ship, including Indulgence Food Hall, The Local Bar and Grill, as well as 2 complimentary restaurants. Honestly, we simply only went to the buffet once and after seeing the crowd have chosen other venues. Finally, the layout of the ship is weird because of the racetrack. And while I enjoyed the racetrack experience (it is extra 15 USD) and will talk about the race in the upcoming video, after all it is hard to justify why such a valuable top deck real estate was used for something as silly as go-karts making everything around the funnels (roughly mid-ship) just plain weird. At any rate, if you are up for a stroll around the ship, here we go!

Thank you again, to everyone who read/watched and commented on our initial post! As we keep unpacking our digital memories, we are ready to share our thoughts on the embarkation process and the state room. We do have a short video https://youtu.be/MhObKStlzaA that covers mainly the same thing as below, so feel free to either jump onto youtube or keep reading here. Overall Embarkation was done well, considering this is a new experience for NCL out of Galveston. They had a lot of staff on hand in the port and we hardly had to wait at all, so the experience was very positive (especially when compared to how Virgin Voyages decided to do embarkation way back in 2021). For lunch we went to the Food Hall (as the buffet was super crowded). The Food Hall was busy, but we had a very nice fresh meal there and afterwards found our way to the Vibe Beach Club: the best place to enjoy a few drinks while we waited for our stateroom to get ready. That took some time, deck 15 happened to be the last that opened. Not a big deal, after all we were already on vacation! A few words about a standard balcony room. In the past we never worried about being close to mid-ship, but our travel agent suggested that we consider that location, which was super helpful, since the Gulf was very choppy on the first day. We never experienced any sea-sickness issues, but were glad that we stayed close to mid-ship to minimize rocking. Many would have chosen a lower deck, but I like my views, so deck 15 it was. Interestingly, the right (starboard) side of the ship did not have good views on this sailing. In the past we have noticed that a ship would alter which side faces the dock/port (or maybe it was a coincidence?), this time the right side of the ship always faces away from the land. A minor bummer, we decided to NOT call the bridge to complain 🙂 Stateroom was super nice. Bright, nicely decorated, fresh and reasonably roomy. There are a total of 4 US outlets (2 by the fridge, as you enter the room; one under the mirror and one by the bed), one European outlet (under the mirror) and USB A and USB C plugs on nightstand lamps. Which is very handy considering that one would want to charge smart watches and phones daily on night stands. I also brought a 6 port charger for all our remaining gizmos. NCL stated several times via PA system that the room attendant will unplug electronics that you may leave plugged in while out of the room, just something to keep in mind... If you are reading this in anticipation of your cruise: happy travels and we are super jealous! I know y'all will have a great time! If you (like us) just came back home: Happy Holidays and please share your thoughts with the fellow travelers, whether you agree with what we had to say or not -- it is all good! Cheers!

Thank you so much Jim! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season whether sailing on, or planning the next adventure! Cheers!

Excellent questions, thank you so much! Sailing out of Galveston is without a doubt more of a "Texan Thing". To be clear, music, entertainment, etc did not adapt to the great (well, second greatest by area, technically) state of ours, but the crowd was defiantly more Texan. Quite a few cowboy hats and boots (not joking!). But it was all good, we are fairly laid back and diverse these days, no banjo in the hallways, crowd was very diverse, from Deep Country to LGBT, and anywhere in between! Even a few foreigners. All good! Overall we felt that there were significantly more kids than typical (probably early Christmas Break and fair amount of entertainment from the Galaxy Pavilion to the Racetrack), yet not enough party people. We went to most late night events, but felt a bit underwhelmed: Syd Norman venue is way too small and the Prima Club is way too big (although we loved all the shows they set there, those shows just did not turn into parties). We also regret that while in the past (~10 years ago) NCL used to be more open minded/encouraging adult activities (not necessarily the pineapple level, just good grown up fun without PC BS), they certainly toned all of that down to PG13 and crew does not TRULY comingle with the crowd, which is a shame. As we mentioned, Vibe Club is a must, if one wants to separate from 18- crowd Overall, we are not at all disappointed, we had great time and we will share more stories/thoughts as we get them organized, yet I'm not sure if I pick Galveston again on purpose. Galveston is visually VERY different from any of the 3 typical Floridian ports. We did Galveston because we thought it would be an "easy drive", but with the holiday traffic it turned out to be 5+ hrs from Dallas. If you are flying into Houston, port is not that close and roads are a mess on the south side (well, everywhere in Houston, let's just be honest). Looking back, we could have probably spent similar time flying out to FLL or MIA with a transfer and everything and had more cruise options with NCL, Royal or Celebrity -- after all Galveston can only accommodate 2 ships at a time. Hope this helps and happy holidays. Shout out if there is anything we can help with!

Unfortunately, we tossed away the disembarkation sheet. Self-disembarkation was scheduled for 7:30 and earliest non-elite "lime" disembarkation was at 8:30. The entire process was a bit of a cluster: probably mainly due to NCL being new to Galveston. We showed up on time and spent almost 2 hrs in line on the ship. A bit frustrating, but we have seen worth (looking at you, MSC!).

For us it was 250 USD Per Person for 7 night cruise.