Prima Iceland / Norway August 2023

[golden6911]

We left yesterday evening.  If you have an evening flight out of London like I did (5:30pm), I would highly recommend the Scenic Tour excursion.  They stopped at the Albert statue, Big Ben/Abbey and then lunch at the tower of London.  It was a good way to get a glimpse of London while you waited for a later flight.

 

I ate at 7(!) specialty dining venues and I would rate them in this order:

 

1) Onda

2) Hasuki

3) Food republic

4) Los Lobos

5) Cagneys

6) Palomar

7) Le Bistro

 

Onda was absolutely amazing (that bread service!) and Hasuki I rate higher for the entertainment although the food was also very good.  My husband raves about Food republic, particularly the sushi.  I thought it was okay, nothing crazy, but I am limited by food allergies, and I don't care for Sushi.  Los Lobos I basically ate mostly chips, queso, and fresh guac, but it was worth it!  Palomar was very meh and Le Bistro was a dud for us. 

 

For me, I can't believe I considered cancelling this cruise based on some of the negative reviews.  Does the Prima have some flaws, yeah, particularly the gym above the spa and too small cafe.  But the itinerary and Indulge made up for it.

 

It was the trip of a lifetime. 

[PhillyTravelBug]

@golden6911 love the ranking of the restaurants.  I was getting quite worried about the prima and the two big flaws you mentioned, especially those weights in the gym above a spa. *****!? that never occurred to anyone when designing this ship? 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

So glad to hear you overrode the negative reviews.   So many people slam minor faults with cruise ships, especially younger, newer cruisers who have unreal expectations for a mainline ship.  We have so many cruises under our belt and I would say only one was awful, and those things happen, but it never for a minute kept us from booking another cruise.  Cruises, like life, are what you make of it.  So glad you had a joyful experience. 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

So glad to hear you overrode the negative reviews.   So many people slam minor faults with cruise ships, especially younger, newer cruisers who have unreal expectations for a mainline ship.  We have so many cruises under our belt and I would say only one was awful, and those things happen, but it never for a minute kept us from booking another cruise.  Cruises, like life, are what you make of it.  So glad you had a joyful experience. 

I know I focused more on the good reviews for the Prima than the negative ones. And things were not perfect, but we very much enjoyed the cruise.

[PhillyTravelBug]

7 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I know I focused more on the good reviews for the Prima than the negative ones. And things were not perfect, but we very much enjoyed the cruise.

 

What are you thinking for your next cruise? would you do the prima next or wait? Personally, I'm thinking of going back to the breakaway class or older.

[chillyw]

20 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

You can't leave us hanging! What's the right stuff? We're planning two meals at Food Republic to use up our Free at Sea/2 dining package. Thanks 🙂 

 

 

Our favorites are the dumplings (multiple kinds too), Korean fried chicken, elotes, firecracker shrimp, pork belly bao buns, and can't go wrong with Edamame. The chocolate dessert is really good too.

 

The broth based dishes (like Ramen), the fried rice, and the chicken teriyaki were misses for us. Those just don't quite have the flavor you'd expect.

[bluesea777]

1 hour ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

 

What are you thinking for your next cruise? would you do the prima next or wait? Personally, I'm thinking of going back to the breakaway class or older.

We’ve been on all NCL ships except Sky and Prima, and also the new Viva. We chose to bypass Prima to go on the Viva for our Transatlantic in Nov.

 

Each ship has its pros and cons, but we will still cruise any ship if the itinerary is good! 
 

 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

 

What are you thinking for your next cruise? would you do the prima next or wait? Personally, I'm thinking of going back to the breakaway class or older.

Not thinking of anything until I get DW out of the hospital. But before that on the ship, we went to the Cruise Next presentation. DW highlighted all the cruises out of NY City (where we would not have to fly. I looked for itineraries that included Zeebrugge, so we finally get to Brugge, but I did notice they were all on the oldest ships.

 

I would do the Prima again, but preferably in warm weather. We've been on the Epic, and frankly it was too large for me. I do think a Syd Norman's Pour House on a ship would be a positive for me, but really we mostly choose a cruise for the itinerary.

 

Not on topic here, but I thought I would mention something I noticed on their itinerary schedules. They listed the actual ports as opposed to listing Rome or Florence. Given that, I was surprised to see Edinburg as even on a small ship (the former Ocean Princess less than 700 passengers), we were at a port outside of Edinburg. So, I asked if they actually went there as opposed to another port. The answer was yes, but a long tender. (I forget if she said 20 or 30 minutes.)

 

[fruitmachine]

3 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Given that, I was surprised to see Edinburg as even on a small ship (the former Ocean Princess less than 700 passengers), we were at a port outside of Edinburg. So, I asked if they actually went there as opposed to another port. The answer was yes, but a long tender. (I forget if she said 20 or 30 minutes.)

It depends exactly where in the anchorage "box" the master and pilot decide to drop anchor, but it's usually a 10-15 minute (20 at the extreme) tender to Newhaven Harbour.  Newhaven is a small district on the north side of Edinburgh about 2 miles from the city centre.

 

Some Norwegian vessels are using South Queensferry, where it's a shorter tender to Hawes Pier and more sheltered anchorage, so this tends to be at the end of the season when the weather may be more likely to be difficult.  But South Queensferry is a separate town, about 8 miles to the west of Edinburgh city centre, so transport is longer and more limited.

 

For different cruise lines, the choice between the four docking or tendering points for Edinburgh will depend on a wide set of parameters including size of ship, passenger convenience, possibility of cancellation and cruise line preference.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, fruitmachine said:

It depends exactly where in the anchorage "box" the master and pilot decide to drop anchor, but it's usually a 10-15 minute (20 at the extreme) tender to Newhaven Harbour.  Newhaven is a small district on the north side of Edinburgh about 2 miles from the city centre.

 

Some Norwegian vessels are using South Queensferry, where it's a shorter tender to Hawes Pier and more sheltered anchorage, so this tends to be at the end of the season when the weather may be more likely to be difficult.  But South Queensferry is a separate town, about 8 miles to the west of Edinburgh city centre, so transport is longer and more limited.

 

For different cruise lines, the choice between the four docking or tendering points for Edinburgh will depend on a wide set of parameters including size of ship, passenger convenience, possibility of cancellation and cruise line preference.

We were on a small, less than 700 passenger Princes ship, and docked in Rosyth. We bought roundtrip train tickets, but by the time we got back to the train station, the last train to Rosyth had departed. We ended up taking a taxi back to the ship. There was an overnight, so there was no chance we would be left behind,

[golden6911]

What I realized that for me, I think the itinerary >>>>> the ship.  I didn't end up using the things like the slides or the go-carts, mostly because they were closed on the chilly, rainy sea days, but I don't really feel like I missed a lot. 

 

My husband loved this part of the world so some of the Baltic cruises look promising.  I might look into other cruise lines though - I am pretty agnostic.  I do love the thermal spas of NCL though - I used it every day except one. 

[cruiseny4life]

5 hours ago, chillyw said:

 

Our favorites are the dumplings (multiple kinds too), Korean fried chicken, elotes, firecracker shrimp, pork belly bao buns, and can't go wrong with Edamame. The chocolate dessert is really good too.

 

The broth based dishes (like Ramen), the fried rice, and the chicken teriyaki were misses for us. Those just don't quite have the flavor you'd expect.

Thank you! I agree with you about the items that are not great. I've had the Korean fried chicken, but will have to try everything else you mentioned! We didn't have any of those items, so now you've made me excited for Food Republic. Thank you!

[PhillyTravelBug]

1 day back from Europe and I'm already searching for the next cruise. lol.  Still haven't even had to go back to work yet. 

[Markj]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:07 PM, MagnoliaBlossom said:

Philly, did you do a tour in Bruges, or do it on your own.  We are doing the BI with our kids and grandkids, all Brit Ish Isles rookies.  We have been to all our ports except Bruges and wondering how to best see the sites.  The grandkids are 14 and 18 and very academically minded kids.  Not your average teenagers and very interested in architecture.  Any insights are appreciated.  Thank you for all your marvelous photos.

We are on the Rek to Soton cruise next week and are planning to get the train from Zeebrugge to Bruges. It's really easy and only 4 Euros each way.

[chillyw]

57 minutes ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

1 day back from Europe and I'm already searching for the next cruise. lol.  Still haven't even had to go back to work yet. 

 

I'm back at work today and am so jealous of you!!

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Markj said:

We are on the Rek to Soton cruise next week and are planning to get the train from Zeebrugge to Bruges. It's really easy and only 4 Euros each way.

I am jealous! We had Brugge so planned out. and then got a cancellation notice saying the tides were too low, only 1 foot. Have they cancelled Isafjordur for you yet?

[Markj]

Yes it's cancelled. I put a post on here 2 or 3 days ago with the revised schedule. We dock now at Akeyuri at 3pm on the second day and overnight there

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, Markj said:

Yes it's cancelled. I put a post on here 2 or 3 days ago with the revised schedule. We dock now at Akeyuri at 3pm on the second day and overnight there

I wonder if they will ever finish that dock. 😒

[PhillyTravelBug]

46 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I wonder if they will ever finish that dock. 😒

 

I can't imagine it will be finished this season.

[ontheweb]

3 minutes ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

 

I can't imagine it will be finished this season.

I meant ever!

[shelleymp]

What a FANTASTIC review-thank you!!  We have this booked for June '24 and its so helpful to read such a detailed, balanced review and I LOVED all the photos!  We live outside PHL and have the BOGO air (2 day deviation before in Reykjavik & 1 after in London).  Would you mind sharing your flight details there & back and how many days before the cruise you received the flight info?   We've cruised alot with NCL but I've never felt comfortable using their air (yep I've read all the nightmare reviews lol).  With prices so high though its hard to turn down.  I know its unlikely it will be the same but I'm just trying to get a feel for what to expect out of PHL as far as departure times, layovers etc.  Really appreciate it!

[bwpaterson]

We are going on this cruise September 2924 and also interested in your travel from Philly.  We too are in Philly and looking to spend 2 days before cruise in Iceland and 2 days in London on the end.  We took are taking advantage of NCL air as it is almost half price.

[PhillyTravelBug]

22 hours ago, bwpaterson said:

We are going on this cruise September 2924 and also interested in your travel from Philly.  We too are in Philly and looking to spend 2 days before cruise in Iceland and 2 days in London on the end.  We took are taking advantage of NCL air as it is almost half price.

I’m hoping you meant 2024. 😝. We had jet blue to Boston and then Iceland air to Reykjavik. I usually do American. Jet blue was god awful and Iceland air was one of the best, except for the red eye. Barely slept. On the way back we had air Canada all the way, stopping in Montreal. Loved them!!! Staff were great. Once NCL gave us the air details I was able to choose the fire exit row for all flights for that extra leg room.

[Let Me Travel!]

On 8/30/2023 at 3:17 PM, bwpaterson said:

We are going on this cruise September 2924 and also interested in your travel from Philly.  We too are in Philly and looking to spend 2 days before cruise in Iceland and 2 days in London on the end.  We took are taking advantage of NCL air as it is almost half price.

Are you going at the end of September into October Reykjavik to London? If so, so are we! I’m really looking forward to it…I do think I’ll buy the BOGO NCL flight, but I really want to upgrade to at least Premium Economy…just because we have to fly so long from ATLANTA. We are doing 2 days on both ends also…have you booked your hotel or are you doing the cruise tour…we want to go to chartwell house when we are in England, so I think we have to do our own tour..let us know if you have booked your extensions yet…we can’t get anything booked until 10/15 or so, just because that will be a year out.

[Let Me Travel!]

I have looked up “tours” (just googled)…I see that icelandair does do tours..I think a three night minimum, but I wouldn’t mind that…then I guess I’ll just book a hotel in London and do the Viator tour to Chartwell.  If anyone has any better ideas, please, please share!

 

Hey PhillyTravelBug…your day by day review and photos have made my heart flutter!!! Thank you so much for your time and effort!