Everything.. Norwegian Viva/Prima class #2

[Steff79]

Viva had her foat out. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Steff79

[theaviationbeat]

Viva floating. 

 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/thecruiseshipwallysofficial/

[Beezo]

On 8/21/2022 at 9:12 PM, styxfire said:

I was underwhelmed seeing the blue artwork on the Prima hull.  1) The design doesn’t look like anything tangible to me.  2). Just what we don’t need, another blue paint job.

          But now, seeing similar swirly graphics on Viva, and very similar color, I’m not just underwhelmed, I’m frustrated.  Or rather, majorly disappointed in the branding.  FOR ME, one of the great things about sailing NCL is coming back to your ship after a shore excursion, seeing the playful exuberance on the hull and being proud to ride such a lively animal compared to the other dull-looking ships at the pier.  But lately, with every NCL being blu & white, it’s drab.

 

Interesting - Thank you for your viewpoint! I was initially in the same camp but my opinion changed:

 

1.) When you look at the Norwegian Dawn - When was the last time the ship was based FULL TIME out of NYC? The ship had the Statue of Liberty on one side and (I believe) removed the decal. The name of the ship does not have any reference to the name of the ship itself.

2.) Norwegian Sun - Yes, has a huge sun on both sides of the ship, but for some reason, it looks just so out of place when you look at the ship sailing thru Alaska this season.

3.) Norwegian Spirit - I'm curious if this was the reason they changed the hull art from the Sea Nymph to current design.

 

So looping back to topic, if NCL does continue with the design of the hull-art, I hope we do see other color variants (Prima:-Blue/Gray, Viva:Blue/Purple, P3: Blue/Green, etc).  However, with P3 and beyond essentially Prima-Plus class they could easily go in another direction.

 

Not trying to convince you to change your opinion - just wanted to say that I was originally in the same place :).

 

 

 

[BenCoudon]

I recently mentioned that  Fincantieri will deliver 2 ships to NCLH in 2023.  During his speach today at the Christening of the Prima, FDR said that Fincantieri will deliver 3 ships in 2023.  We knew about the Viva for NCL and the Vista for Oceania.  Now we know that the Regent Seven seas Grandeur will be delivered in November 2023.  The ship is under construction at the Fincantieri's Ancona shipyard. Ancona is located about 300 km south of Manghera

As for the Oceania Vista, it is being built  at   Sestri Ponente, Italy, near the France border

The float out of the Vista occured on February 25, 2022.  So she should be ready for her initial sailing in spring 2023

[readytogo54321]

6 hours ago, BenCoudon said:

I recently mentioned that  Fincantieri will deliver 2 ships to NCLH in 2023.  During his speach today at the Christening of the Prima, FDR said that Fincantieri will deliver 3 ships in 2023.  We knew about the Viva for NCL and the Vista for Oceania.  Now we know that the Regent Seven seas Grandeur will be delivered in November 2023.  The ship is under construction at the Fincantieri's Ancona shipyard. Ancona is located about 300 km south of Manghera

As for the Oceania Vista, it is being built  at   Sestri Ponente, Italy, near the France border

The float out of the Vista occured on February 25, 2022.  So she should be ready for her initial sailing in spring 2023

The first three sailings of the Vista have already been cancelled. 

[RMS Olympic]

What’s your guess on where number 3 will be home based?

I originally thought the Viva would head for Florida, but instead Puerto Rico was selected.

So will it be Florida, California, remain in Europe or maybe head to Australia/Alaska?

The more ships means repositioning of away class ships....should be interesting adding to the equation the problems with flying to embarkation ports.

Your thoughts?

Thanks

[Nathan Graveson]

On 8/23/2022 at 4:58 PM, Beezo said:

 

Interesting - Thank you for your viewpoint! I was initially in the same camp but my opinion changed:

 

1.) When you look at the Norwegian Dawn - When was the last time the ship was based FULL TIME out of NYC? The ship had the Statue of Liberty on one side and (I believe) removed the decal. The name of the ship does not have any reference to the name of the ship itself.

2.) Norwegian Sun - Yes, has a huge sun on both sides of the ship, but for some reason, it looks just so out of place when you look at the ship sailing thru Alaska this season.

3.) Norwegian Spirit - I'm curious if this was the reason they changed the hull art from the Sea Nymph to current design.

 

 

So looping back to topic, if NCL does continue with the design of the hull-art, I hope we do see other color variants (Prima:-Blue/Gray, Viva:Blue/Purple, P3: Blue/Green, etc).  However, with P3 and beyond essentially Prima-Plus class they could easily go in another direction.

 

Not trying to convince you to change your opinion - just wanted to say that I was originally in the same place :).

 

 

 

From what I know each Prima Class ship will have a different coloured variation of the Prima's hull art.

[BenCoudon]

23 minutes ago, RMS Olympic said:

What’s your guess on where number 3 will be home based?

I originally thought the Viva would head for Florida, but instead Puerto Rico was selected.

So will it be Florida, California, remain in Europe or maybe head to Australia/Alaska?

The more ships means repositioning of away class ships....should be interesting adding to the equation the problems with flying to embarkation ports.

Your thoughts?

Thanks

My own opinion:  Prima class ships are designed for hot weather.  Forget about Alaska, it is already fully covered with Encore and Bliss plus some smaller ships. I think that Greece will be the home port for Leonardo #3 or 4.  Ideal temperature for this type of ship, lots of ports to choose from, 

As for Florida,  although they may do a rotation, they already have most of their mega ships sailing out of Florida in the winter. (Orlando, Miami, Tampa).  This is a huge market but I don't think there is much more room to increase the number of ships. Sailing season in Greece is also long, about 9 months per year.  And as the middle-east is not far, she ship can make nice trips there for the winter months. 

[Beezo]

I’ve wondered about Australia/South Pacific as well. They tested the waters a bit with Norwegian Jewel a couple years back out of Melbourne, I believe. 

 

Carnival Corp’s brands consistently send older tonnage there, while it is also one of the fastest growing cruise markets (pre-Covid). Royal Caribbean did have some old and newer tonnage in region as well (Ovation, Solstice, etc). Always been the old princess ships and P&O Australia hand-me- downs. 
 

With NCLs efforts to push upmarket, it may make sense to enter that market with the latest ship and segment. 
 

[Steff79]

no post over one month,

no news, no post,

 

some news in october?

some changes to Prima? i sthink it will be mostly the same.

shows? i still vote for &Juliet

[kenns]

I doubt there will be any "major" changes from the Prima as the ship is already basically built at this point. There will be some cosmetic differences, sure - but the layout will be 99.99% the same IMO.

 

The real question is will NCL listen to the feedback and incorporate that into Prima 3-4-5-6 - such as the venues being way to small, main pool deck being too small, etc. 

[SpacemanSpiff]

46 minutes ago, Steff79 said:

no post over one month,

no news, no post,

As someone who has a cruise booked on the Viva in mid-September 2023, no news may be good news from my perspective.

[Steff79]

yes, but i would like to hear some news for my planings what i do next year.

what show the viva will become.

 

i think too, that some changes will come with the third ship, is that the Leo+ ship or same size.

viva=prima

[Two Wheels Only]

7 minutes ago, kenns said:

The real question is will NCL listen to the feedback and incorporate that into Prima 3-4-5-6 - such as the venues being way to small, main pool deck being too small, etc. 

 

The lack of adequate sound-proofing between staterooms could be something that NCL deals with on future ships. Layout and location of certain things could be improved. 

[Beezo]

Per Cruiseindustrynews.com:

 

“We thought there was a gap as we had nothing between the Jewel class at 2,400 and the Epic, Breakaway- and Breakaway-plus class ships. We thought this would be a perfect thing to fill out our portfolio,” Sommer said, noting the Prima was “97 percent perfect” and the company would make some small adjustments on the Viva when it debuts in 2023."

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28441-harry-sommer-norwegian-prima-reimagines-the-cruise-industry.html

[RVACruiser43]

On 1/12/2022 at 9:18 PM, BenCoudon said:

I was waiting for the Viva announcement to book a cruise for fall 2023.

It won't happen.  Most of the summer/fall cruises are in the Mediteranean.  I have already cruised that area several times.  Then the TA in November:  a rather short one, 11 days.  Usually TAs are 13 to 16 days.  Departing from Lisbon allows them to reduce the lenght of the cruise.  Only 3 ports: Funchal, Azores and Royal Naval dockyard.  Like the Prima 1rst TA, ends in New York (doing it on the Prima).  I don't find it interesting enough to book it.  And it is not cheap!!!!.   

As we know, the prices for cruises on the Prima has more than doubled since they start bookings.  And the prices on the Viva are in line with the Prima.  It looks like that as many people have not yet resumed sailing and still have significant amount of FCC in the bank, they hope that people will book these very price inflated cruises.  When you use your FCC, the out of pocket money is often much less. So people will book it.  I used up all my FCC so I won't sail on the Viva for few more years. I am happy that I was able to book the Prima for the B2B in September at a decent price.

 

Interesting that they make Lisbon as the embarkation port for a new ship.  

I hope that one of the new ship will replace the NCL Star for the South America and Antartica cruises.  But if it happens, it appears that it won't be until winter 2025.

I was also hoping that they would use the launch of the Viva bookings to add more information about bars and restaurants on both Prima and Viva.  Still many unknown on both ships, even with the Prima sailing in 7 months.  

We will have to wait for that.

Ben I am just catching up on this 2nd thread.  So after the Prima TA would you still want to see one of these ships on the South America cruise?  I would not.

Tom

[BenCoudon]

8 hours ago, RVACruiser43 said:

Ben I am just catching up on this 2nd thread.  So after the Prima TA would you still want to see one of these ships on the South America cruise?  I would not.

Tom

Agree with you.  I still hope that one of the new ship of the Leonardo class will one day, replace older ships such as the Star that does the South America voyages.  But neither the Prima nor the Viva would be appropriate for those routes.  We will have to see what changes will be made on the subsequent ships (Leonardo 3 and 4) to be appropriate for colder weather.  At this time, I am not planning any cruise on the Prima or the Viva.  My preference will be for the Bliss, the Encore and the Escape.  I wouldn't mind to sail again on the Star or the Jade, although despite many refurbishing actions, they are really starting to show their age.

Right now, I am preparing my Oceania cruise on the Riviera  in March.

[BenCoudon]

On 10/7/2022 at 2:26 PM, Beezo said:

Per Cruiseindustrynews.com:

 

“We thought there was a gap as we had nothing between the Jewel class at 2,400 and the Epic, Breakaway- and Breakaway-plus class ships. We thought this would be a perfect thing to fill out our portfolio,” Sommer said, noting the Prima was “97 percent perfect” and the company would make some small adjustments on the Viva when it debuts in 2023."

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28441-harry-sommer-norwegian-prima-reimagines-the-cruise-industry.html

Sommer is basing his assessment on many comments made by both the travel agents and the Youtubers that were on the inaugural sailing Reykjavik to Amsterdam.  The problem of those reviews is that they sailed at 50% capacity.  They left Reykjavik with 2500 passengers, but once they reached the first stop (somewhere in the UK), about 800 people disembarked and they continued with 1700 passengers.  So they never had issues with the small size of most venues.   My cruise from Copenhagen to Southampton, we were only 2300 and had no issues for the shows or the booking specialty restaurants.  It was a different story when 3100 passengers were on board for the TA.  

 

I did not check cruise reviews since I disembarked the Prima.  I don't know that the people that were on the New York to Galveston said and now the 7 nights Carabean cruises out of Galveston.  It would be interesting to see 

[steamboats]

@BenCoudon we started out with more than 2,600 pax and still had 1,965 in Le Havre. And yes, we all did have issues with the size of the venues plus we were not able to book any specialty restaurants (basically because some special guests and then they said "invitation only"). We also had problems finding seats in the Indulge Food Hall. Syd´s was stuffed...

 

steamboats

 

 

[RVACruiser43]

7 hours ago, BenCoudon said:

Sommer is basing his assessment on many comments made by both the travel agents and the Youtubers that were on the inaugural sailing Reykjavik to Amsterdam.  The problem of those reviews is that they sailed at 50% capacity.  They left Reykjavik with 2500 passengers, but once they reached the first stop (somewhere in the UK), about 800 people disembarked and they continued with 1700 passengers.  So they never had issues with the small size of most venues.   My cruise from Copenhagen to Southampton, we were only 2300 and had no issues for the shows or the booking specialty restaurants.  It was a different story when 3100 passengers were on board for the TA.  

 

I did not check cruise reviews since I disembarked the Prima.  I don't know that the people that were on the New York to Galveston said and now the 7 nights Carabean cruises out of Galveston.  It would be interesting to see 

I had heard we only had 2200 on the TA.  All the inside cabins on deck 10 were occupied by crew.  But if we were at 2200 it had a very crowded feel.  Would not want to see 3300.

[BenCoudon]

2 hours ago, RVACruiser43 said:

I had heard we only had 2200 on the TA.  All the inside cabins on deck 10 were occupied by crew.  But if we were at 2200 it had a very crowded feel.  Would not want to see 3300.

My numbers are from The Haven concierge. He had the list of the TA guests the night before we arrived Southampton and total was 3125.  FDR disembarked after 3 days but Sommer continued to Amsterdam.  But we all agree that this ship is only for warm weather and most venues are way too small.  Note that the Prima is going back to Iceland next summer.  They will not see me on those ships anytime soon. 

[steamboats]

3 hours ago, BenCoudon said:

FDR disembarked after 3 days but Sommer continued to Amsterdam.  

 

Harry disembarked in Portland (I saw him leaving). Some guests also disembarked in Cobh. Not sure whether FDR left in Cobh or Portland.

 

steamboats

[JIMESOPUS]

It's been awhile for any news / updates - what happen to all those spies who leaked photos of the Prima, guess they are all back working their normal jobs at NCL.

[RVACruiser43]

2 hours ago, JIMESOPUS said:

It's been awhile for any news / updates - what happen to all those spies who leaked photos of the Prima, guess they are all back working their normal jobs at NCL.

Maybe everything is on hold figuring out how to make improvements to the issues with Prima?  A remodeled Thermal suite would be my first item to do.  

[Steff79]

Quite about prima and viva. 
has ncl still some pr employees? 

Have they ever played now supermarket game show at prima? No noise boys ncl trailer at YouTube? I think ncl fired all pr employees.

in the past ncl had great videos with the crew, or musicians, sadly they did this not more. 

 

they can send me a advent calendar then I post more :-)))

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck-1n2-s4LD/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

but the &juliet show rumor is still current. 
ok that is my rumor but never mind :-))

 

( btw. Today is premiere/ opening night at broadway for &juliet )

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Steff79