NCL Prima 5-day NYC to Bermuda Semi-Live! (10/10/22)

[BirdTravels]

18 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Then they will be in for a rude awakening when they see the buffet is 1/3 the size of the buffet on the Away Plus ships.

I keep reminding people that from a passenger count perspective, the Prima is much closer to a Jewel class ship than a Breakaway+ class ship. So if you are doing comparisons, compare the Prima's features to the Jewel/Jade/Gem/Pearl,,, definitely not the Escape/Encore/Bliss/Joy. 

[BirdTravels]

On 10/24/2022 at 8:49 PM, PistolPete13 said:

And my cruise journey ends with a bus ride home.  It was too early for another subway ride and ferry ride back home so I splurged for the $6.75 and a more direct route home.

I'll post up a trip summary of my (rookie) cruiser impressions of the new ship over the next few days.  All this stuff called real life work really interferes with things!

@PistolPete13Thank you so much for your semi-live post from the Prima. I really appreciate your photos of the ship and very much enjoyed your commentary. Happy Future Cruising!

[PistolPete13]

8 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

@PistolPete13Thank you so much for your semi-live post from the Prima. I really appreciate your photos of the ship and very much enjoyed your commentary. Happy Future Cruising!

Thank you. 

This means a lot coming from someone who I consider sets the gold standard for reviews!

[VegasChic]

Thank you for taking the time and effort to write this review @PistolPete13 I really enjoyed the photos and commentary.  I will be on the Prima for Thanksgiving and planning on doing a review as well.

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

I keep reminding people that from a passenger count perspective, the Prima is much closer to a Jewel class ship than a Breakaway+ class ship. So if you are doing comparisons, compare the Prima's features to the Jewel/Jade/Gem/Pearl,,, definitely not the Escape/Encore/Bliss/Joy. 

So, would it then be 1/2 the size of a Jewel Class ship?  Don't know since all 4 of our NCL cruises were on the Bliss & Escape.

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Have a great cruise!  We did the Food Hall on embarkation day. As the buffet filled, the embarkation crew were directing people to the food hall. 

 

Remember, as of this moment, if you sit a counter at a restaurant stall, you can only order online from that restaurant. If you want something from another restaurant, you need to walk over there and pick it up '"take out". It is really fast, but still a pain. If you sit at a table or counter not at a restaurant, you can order from all restaurants and the waiters will bring you the food. 

Thanks Bird.  Looking forward to everything about the cruise except waiting in line outside Syd's.

[mypleasure]

I loved your review and the pictures. Not sailing on Prima until next September but the information you gave was invaluable and made me laugh at times.

[fstuff1]

13 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

So, would it then be 1/2 the size of a Jewel Class ship?  Don't know since all 4 of our NCL cruises were on the Bliss & Escape.

Um no.

Prima (3k pax) is in-between jewel class (2k) and breakaway (4k).

 

I did not like the new smaller atrium area.

It's in front of the casino on deck 6 instead of the usual deck 7.

 

That's because Starbucks occupies a big chunk of deck 7.

It's all about the $$$. 😞

 

Wished Starbucks was on deck 6

And all atrium activities (music, trivia, etc) was still on deck 7.

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by fstuff1

[CruizinSusan70]

23 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

So, would it then be 1/2 the size of a Jewel Class ship?  Don't know since all 4 of our NCL cruises were on the Bliss & Escape.

 

9 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

Um no.

Prima (3k pax) is in-between jewel class (2k) and breakaway (4k)

😞

My comment had nothing to do with pax that each class holds.  It has been reported by multiple reviewers that the buffet on Prima is 1/3 the size of the Breakaway Plus ships.  So I inquired regarding the buffet size of the jewel class, not the pax capacity comparison.

[fstuff1]

6 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

My comment had nothing to do with pax that each class holds.  It has been reported by multiple reviewers that the buffet on Prima is 1/3 the size of the Breakaway Plus ships.  So I inquired regarding the buffet size of the jewel class, not the pax capacity comparison.

ahh.. sorry.. misunderstood.

i would say prima's buffet is 1/4 the size of joy's buffet and 1/3 the size of jewel class.

 

it's hard to judge vs joy since joy has lots of small islands of food.

easier to judge vs jewel class.

 

on jewel class, you have 3 aisles of food.

the main isle has left and right sides, then you make a u-turn for the fruits.

prima is just 1 aisle 

[The Traveling Man]

On 10/25/2022 at 8:09 PM, BirdTravels said:

I keep reminding people that from a passenger count perspective, the Prima is much closer to a Jewel class ship than a Breakaway+ class ship. So if you are doing comparisons, compare the Prima's features to the Jewel/Jade/Gem/Pearl,,, definitely not the Escape/Encore/Bliss/Joy. 

Bird, from the standpoint of raw numbers, you are correct.  When comparing ratios, however, the picture changes.  The average capacity of a jewel class ship is 2392.  The Prima, rated at 3099 pax, is 30% larger.  The average capacity of a BA+ class ship is 4018, likewise 30% larger than the Prima.  That means that on the basis of passenger ratios, the Prima fits exactly midway between the larger and the smaller ships.  If we compare the displacement tonnage, which is a more accurate measure of the ship's actual size, the Prima at 144 kilotons is 53% larger than a Jewel class ship at 94 kilotons.  The average BA+ class ship at 168 kilotons is just 17% larger than the Prima.  Comparing the Prima to a BA+ class ship, then, seems quite fair.  On a passenger per kiloton basis Jewel ships rate 25 while BA+ ships rate 24.  The Prima comes in at 21.5, so there ought to be more room per passenger on the Prima than on any other NCL ship.  One recurring complaint about the Prima, however,  is that it has felt crowded, that there isn't enough room at many of the venues. 

[PistolPete13]

It would be interesting to get some feedback from those getting off the 12-day NYC to Galveston, TX sailing today.  Our 5-day sailing felt "rushed" if you wanted reservations or access to venues or shows.

The longer trip should hopefully spread things out a bit and make for a different experience altogether I would think.  

[njhorseman]

38 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

Bird, from the standpoint of raw numbers, you are correct.  When comparing ratios, however, the picture changes.  The average capacity of a jewel class ship is 2392.  The Prima, rated at 3099 pax, is 30% larger.  The average capacity of a BA+ class ship is 4018, likewise 30% larger than the Prima.  That means that on the basis of passenger ratios, the Prima fits exactly midway between the larger and the smaller ships.  If we compare the displacement tonnage, which is a more accurate measure of the ship's actual size, the Prima at 144 kilotons is 53% larger than a Jewel class ship at 94 kilotons.  The average BA+ class ship at 168 kilotons is just 17% larger than the Prima.  Comparing the Prima to a BA+ class ship, then, seems quite fair.  On a passenger per kiloton basis Jewel ships rate 25 while BA+ ships rate 24.  The Prima comes in at 21.5, so there ought to be more room per passenger on the Prima than on any other NCL ship.  One recurring complaint about the Prima, however,  is that it has felt crowded, that there isn't enough room at many of the venues. 

You're confusing different measures size of a ship which are not at all comparable.

 

Gross Tonnage (GT), which is what you're calling "kilotons", is derived from a standardized mathematical formula that measures the volume of all enclosed spaces on a ship . However higher gross tonnage does not mean a higher volume of space available to passengers in public venues. It includes all interior space so would include non-passenger use space such as engine rooms, crew quarters, storerooms, etc. Also two ships of identical GT, and let's say even identical non-passenger interior space and carrying an identical number of passengers could have substantially different amount of public space simply by varying the size of the cabins. A ship with larger cabins will have less public space for dining rooms, entertainment venues, etc. than an otherwise identical GT ship carrying the same number of passengers but in smaller cabins .

 

Displacement tonnage is a measure of weight, calculated from the weight of the volume of water displaced by the ship. It has not a direct measure of space available for use by passengers and is not  "a more accurate measure of the ship's actual size"  for purposes of this discussion. 

Edited October 27, 2022 by njhorseman

[aubreyc1988]

Thanks for the review - wow all the food looked great, with the exception of no hashbrowns...did you ever end up finding any in the morning?

 

Love love love the decor of this ship...and wow the inside staterooms look SO nice and roomy! If I go on the Prima in the winter, I'll have to go in an inside for budget reasons but it probably will be so nice I will not mind! 

[PistolPete13]

3 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

Thanks for the review - wow all the food looked great, with the exception of no hashbrowns...did you ever end up finding any in the morning?

 

Love love love the decor of this ship...and wow the inside staterooms look SO nice and roomy! If I go on the Prima in the winter, I'll have to go in an inside for budget reasons but it probably will be so nice I will not mind! 

You're welcome!

I think there were some hash browns in the sit down restaurants for breakfast based on a photo I saw in another site but I'm not 100% sure.  Breakfast is definitely a quick get it over with affair for me, I'd be too anxious to be tie down at a table for that!  LOL  

Edited October 28, 2022 by PistolPete13

[IrieBajan54]

A little feedback from the 10/15 cruise.

 

We had good weather pretty much the whole cruise so cruisers were spread out. Prima's design works best on warm/hot weather cruises.

 

I booked 5 days before embarkation and NCL assigned me to an accessible cabin. It was the most spacious inside cabin I've ever occupied. On 3 of the 12 days, there was limited flooding in the bathroom due to how it is designed for the handicapped and how it drains.

 

I only attended 3 shows and all were in the Prima Theater (Noise, Price is Right and Summer). Good attendance but they were not sold out. Some scattered  seats on deck 7 but more availability in the balcony on deck 8. Stopped by the Pemrose Atrium on different evenings when a duo was performing and there were no vacant seats.

 

Seating for breakfast and lunch during peak times in the buffet was very limited. However, there was a sign saying that Palomar was available for the overflow.

 

I ate breakfast in Hudson's one morning and there were plenty of tables available. Hudson's is definitely the most beautiful NCL restaurant I have been in and some of us solos ate dinner there several nights. It is gorgeous with floor to ceiling windows and panoramic view. At night, the pretty light fixtures reflect in the windows giving off a Christmas look. 

 

One more thing on restaurants. I was sharing Latitude dinners with another solo since there was no restriction yet. On the night we ate at Le Bistro, we showed up at the restaurant 45 mins. early because the solo gathering was already over. The hostess had no problem seating us right away. On another night, we had a reservation for 6:45 at Onda. Two other solos had an 8:00 p.m. reservation. We decided to eat together if they had a table for 4. Went over at 6:30 and was immediately seated together. 

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by IrieBajan54
correction

[PistolPete13]

2 hours ago, IrieBajan54 said:

A little feedback from the 10/15 cruise.

 

We had good weather pretty much the whole cruise so cruisers were spread out. Prima's design works best on warm/hot weather cruises.

...

 

Thank you for the feedback!

On a side note, I came across some amazing drone footage of your 10/15 NYC sail away today.  
 

 

 

[PistolPete13]

Well folks, tomorrow will mark two solid weeks since I came back from the short Bermuda cruise.  Like many of you I've devoured the reviews on YouTube and read everything I could about the ship before the cruise AND continued to do so afterwards as well.

I had intended to provide a write up of my impressions ASAP but maybe waiting a bit (thanks to work) has given me a bit of time to reflect now that the trip excitement has worn off.  Maybe it will let me be more objective.

So here are my thoughts on the new ship.  This will be done in one sitting with minimal editing for forgive me for any grammatical mistakes.  I tend to think differently and faster than I can type. 

[PistolPete13]

Forgive me but I am going to post in multiple smaller segments to avoid having a computer lock up after I've written a ton of things up.

Some background on myself.  I'm a cruise rookie compared to many of you.  This is only my third cruise ever.  All of my trips have been on NCL because they provided the right combination of itineraries, pricing, and multiple sailings out of NYC where i live.

May 2019: 7-day NYC to Bermuda on Escape.  A bit overwhelming and a blur

My rookie review here:

 

January 2020: 14-day NYC to Western Caribbean.  This was the trip where I earned my "sea-legs" and realized cruising was fun for me.
 

 

I was not planning on going on the Prima at all until I saw all the social media postings of the launch in September.  Much to my surprise I discovered that they had a sailing from NYC. Somehow it went from planning to photograph the ship to planning to be on her.

What I was looking forward to most on this trip was:

 

1. Exploring the new ship and being the one of the first to get good quality photos of it to share with others.

2. Finding quiet places to relax and stare at the ocean.

3. Eat to my heart's content.

So my "review" of the ship will be based on the above criteria.  You won't hear about the bars, the entertainment, the pools, the VR games, etc.  There are plenty of other reviews online that cover those areas much better than I ever could.

[PistolPete13]

In no particular order, here are my thoughts.

- The ship is beautiful.  Looks sleek and fast like a sports car.  I think we've gotten too used to the big rectangular shapes of the megaships the last decade.  I noticed this immediately on 10/15 when I photographed the Prima leaving NY harbor followed immediately by the Enchanted Princess.

The Enchanted Princess was built just last year but it looks so dated compared to the Prima.

 

[PistolPete13]

- The interior of the ship is a bit of a mess in terms of just traffic flow.  I hated having to walk by people in the 8th floor Starbucks, or the casino, or the buffet, etc. just to get somewhere.  Want to goto the gym?  Walk past the spa peeking at everyone there getting treatments.   

- The signs on the floors listing the cabin numbers were not visible until you walked into the hallway.  And 50% of the time (or more) it turned out I guessed the wrong side of the ship!  And this is without any drinking.  

[PistolPete13]

- The food was definitely a step up from what I remembered on my previous cruises.  The Indulge food hall was my favorite.  A ton of choices and fast service (when the ordering iPads were working).

- The prime rib at the buffet on prime rib night tasted like the real thing and not like the meatloaf they called prime rib on the Bliss (seared into my memory)

- Main dining room had a decent amount of choices to be had and I don't think I would get bored with the menu even on a 10 day or longer cruise.

Be warned, the portions are tiny (see my photos) and I think most of the dishes used a bit too much salt.  That wasn't needed at all because the ingredients were fresh and good quality.

[PistolPete13]

- The interior areas of decks 6, 7, and 8 felt crowded all the time.  I found myself dodging people left and right.  Soon enough I learned that the best way to avoid crowds was to the outdoor Ocean Walk, weather permitting, to get around quickly.

- Ocean Walk was the place to be for quiet relaxing.  Stay away from the aft area as the bar can get quite noisy at times.

- The sundeck on deck 19 (yes, the very top) was another quiet place to be for the first few days of the trip before people discovered it.

[CruizinSusan70]

5 hours ago, IrieBajan54 said:

A little feedback from the 10/15 cruise.

 

We had good weather pretty much the whole cruise so cruisers were spread out. Prima's design works best on warm/hot weather cruises.

 

I booked 5 days before embarkation and NCL assigned me to an accessible cabin. It was the most spacious inside cabin I've ever occupied. On 3 of the 12 days, there was limited flooding in the bathroom due to how it is designed for the handicapped and how it drains.

 

I only attended 3 shows and all were in the Prima Theater (Noise, Price is Right and Summer). Good attendance but they were not sold out. Some scattered  seats on deck 7 but more availability in the balcony on deck 8. Stopped by the Pemrose Atrium on different evenings when a duo was performing and there were no vacant seats.

 

Seating for breakfast and lunch during peak times in the buffet was very limited. However, there was a sign saying that Palomar was available for the overflow.

 

I ate breakfast in Hudson's one morning and there were plenty of tables available. Hudson's is definitely the most beautiful NCL restaurant I have been in and some of us solos ate dinner there several nights. It is gorgeous with floor to ceiling windows and panoramic view. At night, the pretty light fixtures reflect in the windows giving off a Christmas look. 

 

One more thing on restaurants. I was sharing Latitude dinners with another solo since there was no restriction yet. On the night we ate at Le Bistro, we showed up at the restaurant 45 mins. early because the solo gathering was already over. The hostess had no problem seating us right away. On another night, we had a reservation for 6:45 at Onda. Two other solos had an 8:00 p.m. reservation. We decided to eat together if they had a table for 4. Went over at 6:30 and was immediately seated together. 

 

Thanks for your brief overview of the 12 day report from NYC to Galveston.  Since you did not mention it, by any chance did you attempt to see any of the shows at Syd's?

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

The Enchanted Princess was built just last year but it looks so dated compared to the Prima.

Dated?  The Prima has an inverted bow and the Enchanted has a standard bow.  If you actually sailed on a Royal Class ship from Princess you would know it's not dated.

What a ship looks like from the outside means squat, IMHO.  What matters is the food, the bars, the entertainment, the ambiance, the venues.