Not Quite Live from the Not-so Inaugural Prima with Freestyle Dailies

[hallux]

Interesting to see that NCL has taken some of the criticism of Q as a specialty venue and moved it to be included in the food hall (even if the selection is pared down some).

 

While the food was good at Q on the Bliss, I just can't justify using a dining credit to eat there as it was reasonably-priced.

[Karaboudjan]

3 hours ago, ColdCruise said:

I don't think there were any DIY options in the Indulge Food Hall (deck 8 ), that is set up as a food truck or small take away concept. 
You will probably only find a salad bar in the Surfside Cafe (deck 17) and that was pretty basic the day I looked.

 

The Indulge paper menus look very disposable.  Do the offerings change at all from day to day?

[laudergayle]

On 9/6/2022 at 5:06 PM, ColdCruise said:

Wine Menu at Hudson’s (MDR) - dinner menu is basically the same at both MDRs for duration of cruise, will post later.

 

Wine Steward said they were out of the #236 Sauvignon Blanc & #456 Malbec

Hmmm, I only see 1 choice for Premium Plus by the bottle.  That is very disappointing. @BirdTravelsrecently posted wine lists from the Breakaway and there were several choices which included bubbly, white and red.  Hopefully this a just a temporary supply chain issue.

 

[PistolPete13]

Thank you for posting this live review!  Looking forward to following along.

[ColdCruise]

4 hours ago, ConnieTact said:

I hope Surfside cafe will be okay for us. Thanks for info. 
How are you getting along with same menus in dining room and I guess it’s the same menus in Indulge too….is it monotonous?

Ww haven’t duplicated a meal yet, even without using the specialty restaurants i think theres enough variety for a 7-10 day cruise easily.

- MDR menu although the sane every day its different for lunch and dinner

- Indulge different menu for lunch & dinner (although again its the same dinners all the time and the lunch us the same)

- The Local (similar to O’Sheehans)

- SURFSIDE

- i think I’m missing another included restaurant 

 

With FAS, you'd get at least 1 specialty to add variety.

 

Even for someone who wants to watch their budget, there are reasonably priced options at Los Lobos. And the pizza at Onda was under $20, so thats a low cost option. 

[ColdCruise]

3 hours ago, hallux said:

Interesting to see that NCL has taken some of the criticism of Q as a specialty venue and moved it to be included in the food hall (even if the selection is pared down some).

 

While the food was good at Q on the Bliss, I just can't justify using a dining credit to eat there as it was reasonably-priced.

I’d agree with that - I’m also finding it hard to justify a dining credit on Los Lobos given the offerings & prices now that we’ve dined there.

Edited September 8, 2022 by ColdCruise

[ConnieTact]

1 minute ago, ColdCruise said:

Ww haven’t duplicated a meal yet, even without using the specialty restaurants i think theres enough variety for a 7-10 day cruise easily.

 

Even for someone who wants to watch their budget, there are reasonably priced options at Los Lobos. And the pizza at Onda was under $20, so thats a low cost option. 

All good info to know. Good that lunch and evening meals are different. I also looked at a couple of videos of Surfside and that offers plenty of choice too. So I’m happier about the sound of the total food offering now. We have 6 specialities and 6 normal days so should be fine but may opt to pay for one of the others if we fancy it once onboard. 
Thanks again for sharing your inside knowledge!

what has been your favourite meal so far?

[ColdCruise]

2 hours ago, Karaboudjan said:

 

The Indulge paper menus look very disposable.  Do the offerings change at all from day to day?

Same dinner menu and same lunch menu. The paper menus are only outside, in the inside tables theres an iPad tyoe tablet you order from. Outside you tell the server snd they put it into a tablet they have. One guy said it’s do they devices don’t go overboard.

[ColdCruise]

25 minutes ago, ConnieTact said:

All good info to know. Good that lunch and evening meals are different. I also looked at a couple of videos of Surfside and that offers plenty of choice too. So I’m happier about the sound of the total food offering now. We have 6 specialities and 6 normal days so should be fine but may opt to pay for one of the others if we fancy it once onboard. 
Thanks again for sharing your inside knowledge!

what has been your favourite meal so far?

Onda - superb! That is our specialty repeat.. just for the pizza (altho the whole menu is enticing)

[ConnieTact]

15 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

Onda - superb! That is our specialty repeat.. just for the pizza (altho the whole menu is enticing)

I think that will be our fave too.

We loved it on the Encore and it sounds like it’s rolled out well onto the Prima too! 👍🍕

[sid_9169]

On 9/6/2022 at 4:42 PM, ColdCruise said:

Lunch at Indulge Food Hall - great outdoor seating, food hit or miss (per our selections).

Lunch Menu

 

Wow, I think that I could make a really nice meal every day just at this one area!... I can't wait to check it out for myself in February.

[ColdCruise]

Lunch on Day 2 was a quickie at Surfside due to our stay in the Spa. 
The buffet only spans one side, with the grill area on the aft. Some folks may find it smaller than other NCL ships, but the space was well used. 
 

heres a sampling  of our choices that day: 

mini pretzel pizzas 

excellent hot & sour soup

very good desserts 

 

 

[ColdCruise]

Frittered away the rest of the afternoon doing nothing in particular but looking at the ship and unpacking.

 That prepared us for dinner at Los Lobos : 

 

average margarita, better spicy margarita 

Unfortunately the fat juicy shrimp was very tasty but came out undercooked twice . The chef was sweetly apologetic and offered to butterfly those big biys and they came out cooked enough to enjoy. I also ordered an Elote as a side,  which came on the cob. Server offered to de-cob it (us that a word?), which saved my teeth from corn silk flossing. Unfortunately the corn was not fresh and had already turned starchy.

 

 The quac was amazingly good and definitely a shareable size. The steak fajitas were also very good.

 

We finished with tres leches cake (very moist) and churros, which was a stack if 6 churros formed into ⭕️ - definitely shareable and a highlight

[ColdCruise]

A glass half full

 

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by ColdCruise

[ColdCruise]

That crazy bear 🐻- playing tricks with my photos!

 

We finished the day with the Donna Summer Musical in the theater. Sorry, no photos out of respect for the rules of the house. However it might show up on youtube or other video sharing site as I saw at least 1 man recording from row 2.
 

The show was fantastic - the 3 leads ( representing 11 yo, 20-something and mature Donna) had great voices and the rest of the crew worked so hard in multiple roles to put on this great show. The 10-day cruise had 3 showings, including 1 PG-13 matinee.

 

After the show, crew kicked us out to transform the seating area into a disco, which opened an hour later.

 

seats folded up a la highschool gym style
 
 

Some people attended in 70s era style… this might replace the white party as the must attend cruise party 😉

 

 

and some great moves happening on the floor

Edited September 8, 2022 by ColdCruise

[ColdCruise]

Day 3 …. And a port day (kind of)

our Daily Freestyle 

 

 

 

 

[ColdCruise]

12 minutes ago, ColdCruise said:

Day 3 …. And a port day (kind of)

 

 

  From having a long port day, our stop in Kiel was whittled down to 4 hours … at night. Anyone who’s spent much time in Germany is aware things of touristic interest are closed by 5, maybe 6, rarely 7. So our time in Kiel really only left time to walk the dark streets or eat/drink. 
By a stroke of luck, there were 2 brauhaus a 10 minute walk from Ostseekai, where Prima docked.

 

NCL cancelled all excursions when they made the port times change, then apparently added in a handful of options a couple days before porting. The revised excursions consisted of 2 brewery tours with beer (or bier) tastings (2.5 hr $99) and 2 walking tours of the downtown (1.5 or 2 hr, $79 & $99, resp.). Too much money to do in the dark w sites closed fir my pocket.

 

We took the short stroll downtown and had dinner and some local brew at the Kieler Brauerei, finishing our meal as the first if the Brewery tour groups arrived.

[ColdCruise]

Some Brauerei photos 

 

[ColdCruise]

[ColdCruise]

If anyone could explain why CruiseCritic suddenly, today, started randomly uploading photos upside down, I’d appreciate it!

[Kierste]

We saw Purple Sundaze on the Dawn this summer… that girl has got pipes! Hoping they will still be on the ship come February.

[more2sea]

Thank you so much for a great detailed  review!    Verry helpful.

Wondering about Latitude reward coupon.  Which restaraunts are paired as choices.

Really enjoying "sailing" along with you.

[ColdCruise]

Now I’m jumping back to earlier in Day 3.

 

Since we were not arriving in Kiel till evening and no longer picking up a rental car for a day of exploration , we decided to participate in the 2 wine tasting events ($22 per person per event) scheduled in Palomar.

The late morning tasting was a wine and cheese pairing 

 

 

[ColdCruise]

7 minutes ago, more2sea said:

Thank you so much for a great detailed  review!    Verry helpful.

Wondering about Latitude reward coupon.  Which restaraunts are paired as choices.

Really enjoying "sailing" along with you.

@more2sea (great moniker, btw!)

 

see my posts #20&21 on page 1 for details on how the Latitude program has played out so far this cruise. We’re Platinum, so YMMV.

thanks for “sailing” with us 😁

[ColdCruise]

13 minutes ago, Kierste said:

We saw Purple Sundaze on the Dawn this summer… that girl has got pipes! Hoping they will still be on the ship come February.

Definitely a versatile singer! I’ll see if i can find out.