Once and done with Norwegian. Ugh.

[ChiefMateJRK]

6 hours ago, J0Y0US said:

Know someone else who recently went on a NCL cruise and hated it. We let them know give NCL another chance but make sure you are Haven when you do.

What did they hate about it?

[kitkat343]

33 minutes 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. 

If all the venues are smaller than similar ships, do you know where did the extra space go?  More cabins? Or is it just that the common areas aren’t designed well and there’s wasted space?

Edited June 20, 2023 by kitkat343

[UKstages]

the cabins are bigger on the prima, but most of the public spaces are not located on decks on which there are cabins. so there was no exchange in square footage in that sense. the cabin space presumably came from smart design and, perhaps, fewer cabins. the prima is a smaller ship, intentionally so. but they probably could have had a few more cabins here and there on each deck, if they made the cabins smaller. i've said over and over that the prima was poorly designed. that isn't the case with the cabins... they are lovely... they provide lots of space and are attractively designed,  even if some of them were built haphazardly with structural defects.

 

the venues were also designed intentionally to be small and intimate. so there are small groupings in an atrium that holds few people. the flow of traffic is broken up by other small collections of oddly placed furniture throughout the ship and helter skelter placement of teeny tiny venues.

 

in some boardroom in miami, i'm sure it all made sense. NCL figured the crowds would be disbursed throughout the ship in equal measure. but  that's not the way it wound up working in the real world. everybody wants to go to the same extremely popular venues, such as the indulge food hall and hudson's and the improv and syd's. and those venues weren't designed to hold that many people.

 

 

[toryandrew]

28 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

If all the venues are smaller than similar ships, do you know where did the extra space go?  More cabins? Or is it just that the common areas aren’t designed well and there’s wasted space?

There's strange wasted spaces.  Empty spots that are not thought through, random architectural items. It'd be fixable if they took parts apart. It's just strange design choices that look good but aren't usable. The outside spaces are great but too cold for this itinerary most of the time. 

[mugtech]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

What did they hate about it?

They were not in the haven.

[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.)

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, bobkat11 said:

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

It's likely worth double a thread on Cruise Critic (or any other internet forum).

[robinium]

Just filling out my own post cruise survey… the irony of it asking what I thought of Isafjordur. Are you for real, NCL?

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, robinium said:

Just filling out my own post cruise survey… the irony of it asking what I thought of Isafjordur. Are you for real, NCL?

I am more and more afraid that my comment about Isafjordur will be I am sure I would have loved it with the excursion we booked. It is too bad you did not let passengers disembark to enjoy the port.

[graphicguy]

So, some like Prima…some do not.  The trend was bringing out bigger and bigger ships…particularly NCL and Royal.   They’re going to smaller designs, so some do not care for that.  I get it.

 

As best I can tell, Prima is about the same size as their Jewel Class.  Which, in turn, are all smaller than the “-Away” class.

 

This reminds me of when the EDGE class first came out with Celebrity.  A) it had been decades since I had sailed Celebrity.  B) had heard of the empty spaces and weird layout compared to the Solstice Class.  Went in, eyes open.  Did it have weird spaces?  Yeah, it did.  But, I enjoyed those spaces, while others did not.  Many here did not like the “Magic Carpet” moving (vertically) lounge area.  I loved it.  As such, there were few people there whenever I went….which was fine by me.  

 

But, I think that’s the point.  It’s not traditional NCL.  Neither is the Epic.  But, I’ll give NCL a pass because they are willing to try something new and different.

 

Maybe I’m the odd duck.  Actually, I probably am.  I like new and different.  I’ll go for the newly designed class of ships before sailing the older ships.  Matter of fact, you want to get a deal on fares, the older ships are the way to go.

 

Regarding the band in Syd Norman’s….NCL has a huge entertainment hit on their hands…probably a bigger hit than they were expecting.  If you don’t get in line early, you’re relegated to SRO.  I guess that’s both a good thing and a bad thing.  The good news is it’s some of the best entertainment I’ve experienced on any ship.  The bad news is, it doesn’t translate well in a larger venue.  So, Syd Norman’s it is.

 

I can’t wrap my head around anyone not finding anything to do on any NCL (or any mainstream cruise line) cruise.  You open the Dailies and it’s literally packed with stuff to do from sun up to well after sun down.  Now, if you tell me none of it appeals to you, I understand that.  Another cruise line may suit better.

 

Not an apologist for NCL.  I’ve had my own issues with some of what they do and certainly did to me.  None of it has anything to do with the service, the staff, the food, the comfort of the cabins or their ships in general.

Edited June 20, 2023 by graphicguy

[robinium]

12 hours ago, bobkat11 said:

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.)

Did you get your 20% off FCC that was promised for the issues? It hasn’t shown up in our account yet, despite the letter saying it would be added yesterday. 

[dexddd]

21 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

well, that's just the thing... there are no creak points. there is nothing that is "fixable" by guests or by maintenance or by engineers, unless they open the interior walls and fix whatever structural defect occurred when the ship was built. the calls are coming from inside the house!

 

and it's a complete crap shoot as to whether or not you'll get one of these rooms. and there are - apparently - a considerable number of rooms so afflicted.

 

and nobody knows if the same problem will be repeated on the viva.

 

i think everybody who has mentioned their struggles with severe cabin noise on the prima has previously experienced the normal creaking noises on a ship. this can happen on almost every cabin on every cruise line. it is to be expected and it is a minor annoyance, if it's an annoyance at all.

 

this type of cabin noise is not that. it is something altogether different, the likes of which none of us have ever experienced. it is insidious and it is torture. and it has the potential to ruin your vacation. and this is why the comparison to ordinary, manageable creaking noises and the dismissal of our warnings is so frustrating.

 

good people with love in their hearts and well-meaning people with kindness in the smithy of their souls can suggest noise canceling headphones and white noise machines and stuffing dailies at the creak points. we're trying to tell you in the best way we know how: that won't help.

 

until you experience this for yourself, you. have. no. idea,

Correct, until you've experienced it yourself, no idea.

 

I thought it was very odd and even had it in mild seas.  Didn't keep us from sleeping or really a bother, just odd and unusually loud in several places.  I was suspecting the only few weeks old ship would eventually show cracks, but then again, I'm not an engineer luckily.

[sanger727]

On 6/16/2023 at 3:29 PM, bobkat11 said:

 

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.

 

 

 

This strikes me as a highly personal thing. To physically hold someone and try to comfort them. Alot of people might appreciate that. Many would also not, me being one. I personally would be taken aback by a stranger whether guest or crew, touching me outside of providing medical assistance. I'm not sure that expecting crew to "relieve" you in this duty is reasonable. They could be accused of groping or taking advantage of the person while injured.

[jsn55]

21 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

well, that's just the thing... there are no creak points. there is nothing that is "fixable" by guests or by maintenance or by engineers, unless they open the interior walls and fix whatever structural defect occurred when the ship was built. the calls are coming from inside the house!

 

and it's a complete crap shoot as to whether or not you'll get one of these rooms. and there are - apparently - a considerable number of rooms so afflicted.

 

and nobody knows if the same problem will be repeated on the viva.

 

i think everybody who has mentioned their struggles with severe cabin noise on the prima has previously experienced the normal creaking noises on a ship. this can happen on almost every cabin on every cruise line. it is to be expected and it is a minor annoyance, if it's an annoyance at all.

 

this type of cabin noise is not that. it is something altogether different, the likes of which none of us have ever experienced. it is insidious and it is torture. and it has the potential to ruin your vacation. and this is why the comparison to ordinary, manageable creaking noises and the dismissal of our warnings is so frustrating.

 

good people with love in their hearts and well-meaning people with kindness in the smithy of their souls can suggest noise canceling headphones and white noise machines and stuffing dailies at the creak points. we're trying to tell you in the best way we know how: that won't help.

 

until you experience this for yourself, you. have. no. idea,

I so understand your frustration.  We here on CC are always trying to help, but sometimes we should just extend some sympathy and stop making suggestions that the OP knows are meaningless. 

 

I just had a go-round with a neighbor about an invisible fence for her dogs who keep running loose.  The invisible fence itself doesn't stop a dog from running through it, but a dog is easily TRAINED to be aware of the fence and stay home.  Many email rounds of trying to explain to her how the invisible fence works.  She couldn't understand and wasn't having any of it. 

 

Oops!  There go her two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, hot on the trail of a squirrel.  Oh well, I've tried.

[The Traveling Man]

On 6/16/2023 at 2:29 PM, bobkat11 said:

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.

 

Many of the problems you mentioned are specific to the Prima.  These issues have been reported ad nauseum on Cruise Critic and elsewhere.  I hope that at some future time you do decide to give NCL another chance.  You may find the smaller Jewel class ships or the larger Breakaway class or Breakaway Plus class ships more to your liking.

[The Traveling Man]

On 6/16/2023 at 2:51 PM, UKstages said:

"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.

"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Henry David Thoreau, On Civil Disobedience

 

However, I have to agree with you about the shortcomings of the Prima, and it doesn't take even close to fifty million to convince me. 

[JeanKC]

10 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

 

This strikes me as a highly personal thing. To physically hold someone and try to comfort them. Alot of people might appreciate that. Many would also not, me being one. I personally would be taken aback by a stranger whether guest or crew, touching me outside of providing medical assistance. I'm not sure that expecting crew to "relieve" you in this duty is reasonable. They could be accused of groping or taking advantage of the person while injured.

I think it is more the fact that a member of staff did not offer to stay with the injured passengers allowing the OP and her husband to leave. There was no requirement for said member of staff to physically comfort the injured parties in the same way as the OP, but surely, they could have offered to stay with them until the wheelchair arrived. As it was, it seemed that many staff members came and went but nobody actually said "We've got this, you can go about your day". 

 

[The Traveling Man]

On 6/16/2023 at 4:26 PM, tscoffey said:

I don’t understand the complaint about the entertainment, “The Price Is Right” not giving away expensive prizes.

If the entertainment had instead been a more traditional musical show, would anyone have been walking away with even a single prize? 
 

That's true, but there's entertainment and then there's entertainment.  I'm not sure that The Price Is Right truly qualifies as either.

[UKstages]

 

6 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

 

absolutely true.

 

but my reference was to a popular song from the 1920s (no, i'm not that old), the premise of which was that the french got it right with regards to freewheeling attitudes towards sex and drinking compared to then current puritanical attitudes and censorship and prohibition in the united states. the phrase became part of popular culture and is still used by many. it's equivalent to saying, "hey, a heck of a lot of people are saying this and that... there must be something to it... they can't all be wrong." the phrase was so entrenched in american popular culture that it was used a couple of years later as the title of the cole porter musical "fifty million fenchmen."

[The Traveling Man]

On 6/16/2023 at 5:12 PM, herbanrenewal said:

My review from last fall (2nd and 3rd Prima voyages)- had much of the same criticisms. It is ridiculous to keep this ship designed for warm weather environments, on a northern route. I loved the rooms, but felt entertainment sadly lacking. The best shows were at Syds, but it was impossible to get in. We sometimes listened for a bit from the hallway, unable to get in. Regular shows shared my most-common criticism of cruise shows - volume that sets off my apple watch alarm for decibels that are damaging to the ears. As for missed ports, I understand that happens, but on a longer cruise it means more effort needs to be made to have a ship capable of handling entertainment needs for all - maybe a matinee of the syds shows would let more people enjoy a highlight of the entertainment to try torebalance the disappointment of cancelled ports.

 

I also was on Prima's second voyage, from Copenhagen to Southampton.  I tried very hard to like this ship.  We checked in early on embarkation day and our Diamond Latitudes membership meant that we were among the first on board.  Despite that, and despite the fact that many of the entertainment options were not available to book prior to boarding, we were informed on embarkation day, early in the day, that every show for the entire cruise was already fully booked.  Things went downhill from there.

[The Traveling Man]

2 minutes ago, UKstages said:

 

 

absolutely true.

 

but my reference was to a popular song from the 1920s (no, i'm not that old), the premise of which was that the french got it right with regards to freewheeling attitudes towards sex and drinking compared to then current puritanical attitudes and censorship and prohibition in the united states. the phrase became part of popular culture and is still used by many. it's equivalent to saying, "hey, a heck of a lot of people are saying this and that... there must be something to it... they can't all be wrong." the phrase was so entrenched in american popular culture that it was used a couple of years later as the title of the cole porter musical "fifty million fenchmen."

Thanks for the info.  I had forgotten about that Cole Porter song.  I'll still stick with Thoreau, though.

[UKstages]

posted erroneously in wrong thread!

 

comment removed.

Edited June 20, 2023 by UKstages

[ExpatBride]

47 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

 

This strikes me as a highly personal thing. To physically hold someone and try to comfort them. Alot of people might appreciate that. Many would also not, me being one. I personally would be taken aback by a stranger whether guest or crew, touching me outside of providing medical assistance. I'm not sure that expecting crew to "relieve" you in this duty is reasonable. They could be accused of groping or taking advantage of the person while injured.

Edited because I read it wrong... I initially understood the OP to mean they were reassuring the women that help was coming and they were going to be ok. That's what I would expect the crew to do as far as comforting in such a situation.

Edited June 20, 2023 by ExpatBride

[seemoreroyals]

Count me in the group that does not want to wait in line for an hour to get in Syd's Pour House.  We have not been on the Prima yet but we have been to numerous showings on other bigger ships.  Band was fantastic and had no trouble getting in. How many people is capacity at Syd's on Prima?  How many showings during a seven day cruise?

 

There has to be a pragmatic way to deal with this problem.  I would be okay with getting reservations ahead of time.  I would be okay with being limited to one showing to make it fair to others that want to go.  With give or take 3000 passengers on the Prima it would still be impossible to accommodate everyone but at least if someone really wanted to go to one of the live shows they would have a better chance of getting in.

 

 

 

 

[The Traveling Man]

On 6/17/2023 at 5:30 PM, 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.

I have been in Cagney's on at least a dozen different NCL ships.  While I can't say for sure that some part of the preparation isn't performed via sous vide, I do know at every steak I have ever eaten there has spent at least some of its time on an open grill.  The chefs, the grill, and the food preparation area all are right there for everyone to see.