Once and done with Norwegian. Ugh.

[Agaveti]

18 hours ago, Snate said:

Dang.   I am on the Prima in a little over 2 weeks doing the reverse of this trip.  Maybe I should cancel.

Hi Snate!

I wouldn't cancel. It's too close to the start of your trip. I was on prima over Thanksgiving of last year. I loved her. Of course, I was in the Caribbean and she is a warm-weather ship. However, the observation lounge is lovely. Hopefully, it will be open. 
 

[UKstages]

19 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

But do those Good Samaritan laws provide legal protection for crew members who do not have medical training and know that there are crew members who do have that training?

 

crew members are acting in an official capacity and would not be considered good samaritans.

 

(unless, possibly,  they are delivering veuve cliquot to the underserved.)

Edited June 17, 2023 by UKstages

[ngrund]

12 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

 

I’m still trying to find a deal on PRIMA, as I really want to sail her.  Might be a while.  They seem to be sailing full and being NCL’s newest, will probably have fares higher than I want to spend. I’ll give it a while before looking again.

 

 

Prima will probably always have higher fares that other ships. NCL has stated that this was their intention all along-larger cabins, more open desk space per passenger,etc.

 

i enjoyed my trip on her (last trip to Bermuda in May before the repositioning) but probably one and done on her.

[Liljo22]

40 minutes ago, ngrund said:

Prima will probably always have higher fares that other ships. NCL has stated that this was their intention all along-larger cabins, more open desk space per passenger,etc.

 

i enjoyed my trip on her (last trip to Bermuda in May before the repositioning) but probably one and done on her.

I am booked on the Prima out of Galveston in December and it’s cheaper than the Encore and Escape the same week.  There are deals to be found on the Prima.  Paying about $4,500 for my family of 4 in a balcony.  Same week on the Harmony of the seas out of Galveston is over $6k and it would cost me probably another $1300 for the drink package.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Liljo22

[Liljo22]

50 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

 

I’m still trying to find a deal on PRIMA, as I really want to sail her.  Might be a while.  They seem to be sailing full and being NCL’s newest, will probably have fares higher than I want to spend. I’ll give it a while before looking again.

 

 

Try pricing her out of Galveston.  Since NCL is just starting to sail out of here, I don’t think the general population has figured it out yet.  You can get pretty good deals especially during the off season.

[ngrund]

1 minute ago, Liljo22 said:

I am booked on the Prima out of Galveston in December and it’s cheaper than the Encore and Escape the same week.  There are deals to be found on the Prima.  Paying about $4,500 for my family of 4 in a balcony.  Same week on the Harmony of the seas out of Galveston is over $6k and it would cost me another probably another $1300 for the drink package.

Good show! as they would say across the pond.

 

Of course, exceptions can always be found. NCL said it themselves that Prima would in general be pricier than their other NCL ships.

 

It is probably not fair to compare Prima to Harmony as RCL is usually pricier than RCL, but that is a big difference. I recently sailed Oasis of The Seas, and that trip/ship got me more inclined to jump ship to RCL. We felt the service, food quality, entertainment and Coco Cay worth paying a little more for a similar itinerary.

[ngrund]

2 minutes ago, Liljo22 said:

Try pricing her out of Galveston.  Since NCL is just starting to sail out of here, I don’t think the general population has figured it out yet.  You can get pretty good deals especially during the off season.

Yes, we are looking at trips from Galveston in the future once I'm retired (flights, drives to get to Galveston from NY), but there were too many negatives we found with Prima/NCL recently.

 

I'll look towards CCL, RCL or other NCL (Breakawy/Breakaway Plus class) ships first.

[Liljo22]

11 minutes ago, ngrund said:

Good show! as they would say across the pond.

 

Of course, exceptions can always be found. NCL said it themselves that Prima would in general be pricier than their other NCL ships.

 

It is probably not fair to compare Prima to Harmony as RCL is usually pricier than RCL, but that is a big difference. I recently sailed Oasis of The Seas, and that trip/ship got me more inclined to jump ship to RCL. We felt the service, food quality, entertainment and Coco Cay worth paying a little more for a similar itinerary.

My last two cruises were with Royal on the Oasis and Liberty.  I had a great time on both cruises but found them to be similar to the other mass market lines in those areas.  I will sail with them again but not for thousands of dollars more than other lines.  
 

 

[RocketMan275]

2 hours ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

This is hot take is both nauseatingly cynical, and legally untrue in most Western nations. 

 

Good Samaritan laws provide legal protection for people providing assistance, and many nations/States have even stronger "duty to rescue" laws, where you have a legal obligation to provide assistance.

 

Exactly which Good Samaritan laws are applicable outside of the US?

[destar]

20 hours ago, Snate said:

Dang.   I am on the Prima in a little over 2 weeks doing the reverse of this trip.  Maybe I should cancel.

Never, Never, NEVERRRR!!!! cancel your cruise base on someone else experiences. The Prima is a lovely ship, with lots of open spaces and great dining selections. If you have sailed any of the main stream cruise lines, you should be familiar on what to expect. The OP had a bad experience on their cruise, don't let that dictate how your cruise is going to be. Some people let 1 bad experience or interaction ruin the whole vacation. Life is too short enjoy it, don't stress on vacation.

[Ellis1138]

I second destar.

I had also been eyeing this itinerary. Other cruisers' experiences makes me think: Okay, when we do this, we should book more days on land in Iceland so that if the ship skips the port(s), we can still do them or will have done them prior to the sailing. I realize it sort of defeats the idea of cruising, but for us, this would be something we can only afford once, in both time and money.

[ExpatBride]

21 hours ago, bobkat11 said:

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.

 

 

I will not be cruising with NCL again.

 

 

My SO had a seizure aboard an NCL ship and the crew had no idea how to respond. I had to tell them to call for medical help and to please stop people from filming him seizing and bleeding on the floor. Some of my fellow passengers were of more help than the crew, with one woman telling people off and even blocking their phones so they couldn't film.

 

In addition, the medical centre ran up the bill and it wasn't until I threatened to remove his IV myself that they let us go back to our cabin. They charge per hour and there was no reason for us to be there on an IV drip for 5 hours other than to run up the tab. The ship also offered no help for the rest of the cruise (e.g., it would've been nice for them to comp room service since our trip was clearly ruined).

That was the last time I cruised with NCL.

[graphicguy]

1 hour ago, Liljo22 said:

I am booked on the Prima out of Galveston in December and it’s cheaper than the Encore and Escape the same week.  There are deals to be found on the Prima.  Paying about $4,500 for my family of 4 in a balcony.  Same week on the Harmony of the seas out of Galveston is over $6k and it would cost me probably another $1300 for the drink package.

Nice find!!!!!

 

I'm going to have to keep scouring fares on Prima.  

Edited June 17, 2023 by graphicguy

[graphicguy]

A side note about medical services on a cruise ship (ANY cruise ship).  The ship medical center is set up for minor problems.  You fall and scrape a knee, they can handle that.  Something more serious?  That's why you see helicopters land on the ships to remove passengers with more serious issues.  The on board medical just isn't set up to treat very serious issues.

 

I was on a "listing" cruise a few years ago on NCL.  Lots of people fell down.  When it happened, I was in bed, in my cabin and was literally thrown out of bed.  I dressed and went to the Atrium to see what was happening.  There were some people who had fallen and as myself, and some others, tried to get these people off the floor, crew were summoning other crew members who were trained for minor medical requirements.

 

Most crew are trained in getting guests to their muster station, how to organize and load guests onto life boats.  As far as giving on site medical treatment, unless they're trained, they wait for someone who is trained to offer medical assistance.

 

Couple of reasons...an untrained person giving medical treatment can make matters worse, not better.  I'm sure there's liability factored into having an untrained medical crew member trying to provide medical treatments.

 

INSURANCE....INSURANCE.....INSURANCE!!!!!!!  Ask anyone who has cruised, we will tell you it's not cheap being treated for even minor medical issues on board.  Let alone, the possibility someone has to be airlifted.  You're at sea, with access to a small medical facility and staff...sometimes hours (maybe even days) from any port with hospitals and a large enough staff to handle more serious injuries.  Like any land hospital, drugs, care, medical evaluation, hospital beds, etc are crazy expensive.  

 

Whatever medical coverage you have at home, usually does not transfer to a ship and/or international waters.

[graphicguy]

1 hour ago, destar said:

Never, Never, NEVERRRR!!!! cancel your cruise base on someone else experiences. The Prima is a lovely ship, with lots of open spaces and great dining selections. If you have sailed any of the main stream cruise lines, you should be familiar on what to expect. The OP had a bad experience on their cruise, don't let that dictate how your cruise is going to be. Some people let 1 bad experience or interaction ruin the whole vacation. Life is too short enjoy it, don't stress on vacation.

Well said!  

 

A lot of the OP's experience is because they didn't know what to expect.  That's not their fault.  They were just surprised, and not in a good way.  Sometimes people are surprised and are not ready for it.

 

DO NOT let that affect anyone else's cruise.  The vast, vast majority of cruise guests have a great time, sometimes on the same exact cruise someone else did not like.

Edited June 17, 2023 by graphicguy

[mjkacmom]

16 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

A side note about medical services on a cruise ship (ANY cruise ship).  The ship medical center is set up for minor problems.  You fall and scrape a knee, they can handle that.  Something more serious?  That's why you see helicopters land on the ships to remove passengers with more serious issues.  The on board medical just isn't set up to treat very serious issues.

 

I was on a "listing" cruise a few years ago on NCL.  Lots of people fell down.  When it happened, I was in bed, in my cabin and was literally thrown out of bed.  I dressed and went to the Atrium to see what was happening.  There were some people who had fallen and as myself, and some others, tried to get these people off the floor, crew were summoning other crew members who were trained for minor medical requirements.

 

Most crew are trained in getting guests to their muster station, how to organize and load guests onto life boats.  As far as giving on site medical treatment, unless they're trained, they wait for someone who is trained to offer medical assistance.

 

Couple of reasons...an untrained person giving medical treatment can make matters worse, not better.  I'm sure there's liability factored into having an untrained medical crew member trying to provide medical treatments.

 

INSURANCE....INSURANCE.....INSURANCE!!!!!!!  Ask anyone who has cruised, we will tell you it's not cheap being treated for even minor medical issues on board.  Let alone, the possibility someone has to be airlifted.  You're at sea, with access to a small medical facility and staff...sometimes hours (maybe even days) from any port with hospitals and a large enough staff to handle more serious injuries.  Like any land hospital, drugs, care, medical evaluation, hospital beds, etc are crazy expensive.  

 

Whatever medical coverage you have at home, usually does not transfer to a ship and/or international waters.

Plus the medical center leases space on the ships, like the spas.

[graphicguy]

2 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Plus the medical center leases space on the ships, like the spas.

Forgot about that.  You're right!

Edited June 17, 2023 by graphicguy

[ExpatBride]

33 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Most crew are trained in getting guests to their muster station, how to organize and load guests onto life boats. As far as giving on site medical treatment, unless they're trained, they wait for someone who is trained to offer medical assistance.

 

 

Of course, but the common issue is see in both my experience and the OP's experience is that the crew didn't know how to respond. That should be part of their basic training. In a medical emergency, you do ABC and then XYZ until medical staff arrives.

If the crew can be trained to get people into lifeboats, they should be able to handle calling for medical assistance and asking people to stop being idiots and put their phones away.
 

Edited June 17, 2023 by ExpatBride

[graphicguy]

26 minutes ago, ExpatBride said:

 

Of course, but the common issue is see in both my experience and the OP's experience is that the crew didn't know how to respond. That should be part of their basic training. In a medical emergency, you do ABC and then XYZ until medical staff arrives.

If the crew can be trained to get people into lifeboats, they should be able to handle calling for medical assistance and asking people to stop being idiots and put their phones away.
 

I think most crew are trained to keep the areas clear until trained medical help arrives.  That probably IS the training.  Not saying they aren't capable of doing more.  It's probably ingrained in their training to allow medical personnel deal with medical issues.  I can't say I disagree with that.

 

No disagreement about idiots more worried about taking vids and pictures of people who had accidents or are ill.  I actually saw some "stage" their cabin after my cruise ship listed.  Some actually would not accept medical help until someone would take a picture of them on the floor.

 

Guessing that was done for legal capital if/when they went to court.

 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

5 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Some actually would not accept medical help until someone would take a picture of them on the floor.

Sounds like Slippin' Jimmy! 🤣

[graphicguy]

5 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Sounds like Slippin' Jimmy! 🤣

LOVED that show!!!!

[Snate]

So, since I am going to be on the Prima in 2 weeks can anybody tell me if they are definitely not stopping in Isafjordur, Iceland?  I have a private tour set up that day and was wondering if the ship has stopped there on any of its voyages or if this was just a one off for not stopping.  If NCL knows they aren't going to stop there for whatever reason (not weather or something sudden but way in advance) I think its fraudulent on their part to not let the guests know who paid money to stop at that port.  

[Agaveti]

23 hours ago, 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.

 

Sorry for your experience. I've been thinking about it for the last few hours and want to share a different perspective. You had a lot go wrong. Probability says that if you sail with NCL again, you will most likely have a good time. However, that's not why I'm posting.

I'm posting to say thank you for helping the two ladies. Apparently, they didn't have the ability to scream and yell to get help. But, fortunately, you were there to help them. You were their voice and screamed. It was because of you that they got help. I know the staff was kinda clueless, etc, but you were not clueless. The fact that the situation frustrated you a bit does not take away from the fact that you are good people and did the right thing. Thank you.

 

I also understand that you spent some time in your cabin. The cabins on the Pr1ma are lovely!!

It is ok that you didn't want to be social after your experiences. And, as you wrote, there were some good parts to your trip.

 

Thanks for sharing, hang in there and maybe we will meet someday on a cruise!!

[PATRLR]

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

This was, by far, the most disappointing cruise we've ever taken (and I heard many other passengers say the same thing).

I'm always suspicious of posts that include statements like this.  It's as if they don't have confidence in what they are writing so they need to make a claim about others to support their statements. 

[Sinbadssailors]

The Observation Lounge was closed? For the whole week?!

 

We were on the Bliss in May and spent entire days in the OL, along with hundreds of others. 

 

We enjoyed it so much, I've been looking at only ships with an OL for our next NCL cruise. 

 

I  have no idea what we would've done without it since we didn't have a balcony and it was often raining. 

 

I would've been livid to find it closed for an entire week on a cold weather sailing.