Norwegian Prima: Pre-Christmas out of Galveston. Our initial impressions and a few tips

[BirdTravels]

22 hours ago, Sand and Seas said:

Our favorites on Prima were Onda & Los Lobos.  We have enjoyed both on other ships and found them to be just as good on Prima.    And to echo others, Palomar was a disappointment for us.

As much as we wanted to love Palomar, we don’t. We have eaten there 3 times and we won’t go there again. 

[UKstages]

On 12/23/2023 at 1:48 PM, KKB said:

Yeah, not pasta eaters here

 

the best filet I had onboard the prima was at onda. the pizza is very good, too.

 

i share the sentiment of many that the incarnation of los lobos on the prima is one of the best in the fleet. an outstanding dining choice.

[graphicguy]

OP.....thanks for the review.  One quick question....what was the "60 minute Narrated Biography"?  Which historical figure was it about?

[alexirina]

Just now, graphicguy said:

OP.....thanks for the review.  One quick question....what was the "60 minute Narrated Biography"?  Which historical figure was it about?

That was our opinion of Donna Summers show whose art and music we love and looked forward to the musicle. Musicle it was not. Not by a long shot. Just our opinion.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

On 12/22/2023 at 6:50 PM, RocketMan275 said:

I had a similar wine experience in Fort Lauderdale where the person running the security screening wanted to retain my wine because there was no one there from the cruise line to collect the corkage fee.  I insisted she either let me board with my wine of call the ship for futher guidance.  I was allowed to board with my wine which I went to guest services and paid the corkage.

 

The issue is the personnel in the port doing security are not NCL personnel and may not be familiar with NCL wine policies. They try to impose the policies of other cruise lines.  In this case, it's probably the Carnival wine policy.  I expect with more NCL cruises, this will straighten out.

 

WRT to the taxes. It's a Texas thing.  When I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas in the early seventies at the post liquor store there was a big sign that anyone purchasing liquor for consumption off post owed Texas liquor taxes. The was a sheet to sign to pay the taxes.  I asked the cashier if anyone ever paid those taxes and was told it was extremely rare.  IOW, Texas is notorious for collecting liquor taxes.  

 

The reason liquor selection is limited is because the only liquor Texas allows to be sold while the ship is in Texas territorial waters are those that have paid the Texas liquor tax.  Rather than pay taxes on all the onboard liquor, the cruise lines have just a limited selection for sale that they have paid the taxes on.

 

IOW, Texas is screwed up.  Boomer Sooner.

Yes, it’s a Texas thing.  Other lines do the same thing.

[mking8288]

16 hours ago, alexirina said:

That was our opinion of Donna Summers show whose art and music we love and looked forward to the musicle. Musical it was not. Not by a long shot. Just our opinion.

Dan ... listened to DS in those days but not a big fan and I share that opinion, struggled during the first 20 minutes and being a long, busy sea day - not easy to be fully awake after 9:30 PM ... we managed to do the Virtual Queue & get inside on standby basis.  DW said she doesn't mind seeing it again - I'm not so sure, all these - highly personal and subjective opinions.  Was there a memorable scene from that production show, my mind is blank ... some of the scenes toward the end, maybe. 

 

Happy holidays ... Henry

[fun_one]

 

On 12/22/2023 at 5:55 PM, alexirina said:

Hello fellow cruisers!

 

This morning we returned from our first sailing on Norwegian Prima out of Galveston and while things are still fresh in our minds, we wanted to share thoughts on this journey, and offer a few tips. Not the kind of tips "bring flipflops, sunscreen and cash", but real advice that would have helped up a month or two ago.

If you'd rather watch a quick video with the same information and a few snippets of Prima, here is a link: https://youtu.be/RoLQ2TEs2S0

 

We are not travel agents, we are not sponsored and videos/posts are not monetized, so this is as close to honest opinions as it gets!

First things first: in general we enjoyed our time and this cruise was 10-20-100 times better than the mess of MSC Seascape (in a Yacht Club!) we experienced a year ago. 
What made this trip for us was the ship itself and Vibe Beach Club! Prima is relatively new, very beautiful and well laid out. Not without quirks such as tiny Comedy Club, but overall we were happy.
Food experience was very nice indeed. Close to the top of everything we ever tasted on seven seas over the past 15 years. Whether in the Food Hall or in one of several specialty Restaurants (we tried French and Mexican and enjoyed both), everything was fresh, very consistent and just overall yummy.
Entertainment was OK. While we did not fully embrace a 60 minutes narrated biography, that was advertised as a production show. Comedy was hit and miss, but we loved the shows they had when Prima theater converted to the Nightclub and all shows they had there were superb!
We stayed in a regular balcony room this time, none of that fancy Haven stuff. And we loved it for the comfort of the bed and overall unpretentious little details!

Now to the tips we promised:

1. Prearrange your parking in Galveston as early as possible, as good spots close to the port are selling out fast. We wanted to get into the multilevel parking garage right next to the port, but it was sold out, so we settled on EZ Cruise Parking open lot, which worked out well. Alternatively you may want to look into hotels that offer free or reasonably priced parking if you stay with them pre cruise.

2. If you get a beverage package, mind that the bottled/boxed water is not included. Quite unusual, probably the first time we experienced that. So we brought couple of aluminum water bottles and refilled them at the buffet with ice and water, as water packages are very expensive

3. NCL specifically states on their website that cruisers with drink packages can bring their own wine and pay no corkage fee. To our surprise our wine got confiscated by the security at the port and there was no point in arguing there. Took us a couple of trips to guest services on board to get wine returned, but we got it back after all... Our wine was not fancy, but a gentleman in line behind us brought along some vintage he was saving for this occasion and naturally he was not pleased...

And on the topic of alcohol: while you are docked in port or Galveston or even sailing in TX waters, expect a very limited selection of beverages and tax for those beverages will be charged to your room. Not an advice, but a curiosity really: why our great state thinks this is a good idea is beyond me. Or is this an NCL thing? If someone knows, please let us know, I'm genuinely curious when it comes to deviations without a logical cause.

4. Interestingly enough, on NCL private island Harvest Key in Belize you have to pay for food and drinks even if you have a drink package.

5. And we saved best for last: book Vibe Beach Club experience early. If you can't book it early, consider how important quiet 18+ experience is to you. Keep checking an app before the cruise: this is how we got our Vibe reservation: someone canceled theirs. And if all fails, run to the guest services the moment you are onboard: rumors are, they sell a significant amount of those reservations on the ship only...
In our opinion, Vibe is super awesome, it is not nearly as expensive as Haven, but it gives you freedom from kids, from noise and plenty of super comfortable loungers. Truth be told, we only spent time in Vibe and did not even bother going to the main pool or infinity pools

Cheers, again, if you found this useful, drop us a comment and feel free to ask a question! Happy cruising!

How much is the Vibe Beach Club?

[alexirina]

3 hours ago, fun_one said:

 

How much is the Vibe Beach Club?

For us it was 250 USD Per Person for 7 night cruise.

[marktwothousand]

@alexirina did you hear “deep in the heart of Texas” played at any of the ship‘s events and did you happen to notice if there was more line dancing on this cruise than there normally is, compared to a cruise leaving from one of the more traditional ports? (I.e. Miami) overall, how would you describe the crowd…? Younger, older? Party crowd or laid back? Thinking of this same cruise but it’s sold out mostly till February. Trying to get a feel for what it’s like sailing out of Galveston. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by marktwothousand

[EPTCB]

@alexirina Did you happen to save the disembarkation information sheet? Interested in when self-disembarkation might be scheduled to begin.....

[alexirina]

2 hours ago, EPTCB said:

@alexirina Did you happen to save the disembarkation information sheet? Interested in when self-disembarkation might be scheduled to begin.....

Unfortunately, we tossed away the disembarkation sheet. Self-disembarkation was scheduled for 7:30 and earliest non-elite "lime" disembarkation was at 8:30. The entire process was a bit of a cluster: probably mainly due to NCL being new to Galveston. We showed up on time and spent almost 2 hrs in line on the ship. A bit frustrating, but we have seen worth (looking at you, MSC!).

[graphicguy]

20 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Dan ... listened to DS in those days but not a big fan and I share that opinion, struggled during the first 20 minutes and being a long, busy sea day - not easy to be fully awake after 9:30 PM ... we managed to do the Virtual Queue & get inside on standby basis.  DW said she doesn't mind seeing it again - I'm not so sure, all these - highly personal and subjective opinions.  Was there a memorable scene from that production show, my mind is blank ... some of the scenes toward the end, maybe. 

 

Happy holidays ... Henry

Thanks, Henry.  I'm not a disco person, either.  I got the impression from the description it might have been a one man show like "Twain".  

 

I think you either are or aren't a disco fan.  Not much in between.

 

Warmest and best to you and your family during the Holidays.

[alexirina]

9 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

@alexirina did you hear “deep in the heart of Texas” played at any of the ship‘s events and did you happen to notice if there was more line dancing on this cruise than there normally is, compared to a cruise leaving from one of the more traditional ports? (I.e. Miami) overall, how would you describe the crowd…? Younger, older? Party crowd or laid back? Thinking of this same cruise but it’s sold out mostly till February. Trying to get a feel for what it’s like sailing out of Galveston. 

Excellent questions, thank you so much!

 

Sailing out of Galveston is without a doubt more of a "Texan Thing". To be clear, music, entertainment, etc did not adapt to the great (well, second greatest by area, technically) state of ours, but the crowd was defiantly more Texan.  Quite a few cowboy hats and boots (not joking!). But it was all good, we are fairly laid back and diverse these days, no banjo in the hallways, crowd was very diverse, from Deep Country to LGBT, and anywhere in between! Even a few foreigners. All good!

 

Overall we felt that there were significantly more kids than typical (probably early Christmas Break and fair amount of entertainment from the Galaxy Pavilion to the Racetrack), yet not enough party people. We went to most late night events, but felt a bit underwhelmed: Syd Norman venue is way too small and the Prima Club is way too big (although we loved all the shows they set there, those shows just did not turn into parties).

 

We also regret that while in the past (~10 years ago) NCL used to be more open minded/encouraging adult activities (not necessarily the pineapple level, just good grown up fun without PC BS), they certainly toned all of that down to PG13 and crew does not TRULY comingle with the crowd, which is a shame. 

 

As we mentioned, Vibe Club is a must, if one wants to separate from 18- crowd

 

Overall, we are not at all disappointed, we had great time and we will share more stories/thoughts as we get them organized, yet I'm not sure if I pick Galveston again on purpose. Galveston is visually VERY different from any of the 3 typical Floridian ports. We did Galveston because we thought it would be an "easy drive", but with the holiday traffic it turned out to be 5+ hrs from Dallas. If you are flying into Houston, port is not that close and roads are a mess on the south side (well, everywhere in Houston, let's just be honest). Looking back, we could have probably spent similar time flying out to FLL or MIA with a transfer and everything and had more cruise options with NCL, Royal or Celebrity -- after all Galveston can only accommodate 2 ships at a time.

 

Hope this helps and happy holidays. Shout out if there is anything we can help with!

[Jim The Lizard]

On 12/22/2023 at 6:55 PM, alexirina said:

Hello fellow cruisers!

 

This morning we returned from our first sailing on Norwegian Prima out of Galveston and while things are still fresh in our minds, we wanted to share thoughts on this journey, and offer a few tips. Not the kind of tips "bring flipflops, sunscreen and cash", but real advice that would have helped up a month or two ago.

If you'd rather watch a quick video with the same information and a few snippets of Prima, here is a link: https://youtu.be/RoLQ2TEs2S0

 

We are not travel agents, we are not sponsored and videos/posts are not monetized, so this is as close to honest opinions as it gets!

First things first: in general we enjoyed our time and this cruise was 10-20-100 times better than the mess of MSC Seascape (in a Yacht Club!) we experienced a year ago. 
What made this trip for us was the ship itself and Vibe Beach Club! Prima is relatively new, very beautiful and well laid out. Not without quirks such as tiny Comedy Club, but overall we were happy.
Food experience was very nice indeed. Close to the top of everything we ever tasted on seven seas over the past 15 years. Whether in the Food Hall or in one of several specialty Restaurants (we tried French and Mexican and enjoyed both), everything was fresh, very consistent and just overall yummy.
Entertainment was OK. While we did not fully embrace a 60 minutes narrated biography, that was advertised as a production show. Comedy was hit and miss, but we loved the shows they had when Prima theater converted to the Nightclub and all shows they had there were superb!
We stayed in a regular balcony room this time, none of that fancy Haven stuff. And we loved it for the comfort of the bed and overall unpretentious little details!

Now to the tips we promised:

1. Prearrange your parking in Galveston as early as possible, as good spots close to the port are selling out fast. We wanted to get into the multilevel parking garage right next to the port, but it was sold out, so we settled on EZ Cruise Parking open lot, which worked out well. Alternatively you may want to look into hotels that offer free or reasonably priced parking if you stay with them pre cruise.

2. If you get a beverage package, mind that the bottled/boxed water is not included. Quite unusual, probably the first time we experienced that. So we brought couple of aluminum water bottles and refilled them at the buffet with ice and water, as water packages are very expensive

3. NCL specifically states on their website that cruisers with drink packages can bring their own wine and pay no corkage fee. To our surprise our wine got confiscated by the security at the port and there was no point in arguing there. Took us a couple of trips to guest services on board to get wine returned, but we got it back after all... Our wine was not fancy, but a gentleman in line behind us brought along some vintage he was saving for this occasion and naturally he was not pleased...

And on the topic of alcohol: while you are docked in port or Galveston or even sailing in TX waters, expect a very limited selection of beverages and tax for those beverages will be charged to your room. Not an advice, but a curiosity really: why our great state thinks this is a good idea is beyond me. Or is this an NCL thing? If someone knows, please let us know, I'm genuinely curious when it comes to deviations without a logical cause.

4. Interestingly enough, on NCL private island Harvest Key in Belize you have to pay for food and drinks even if you have a drink package.

5. And we saved best for last: book Vibe Beach Club experience early. If you can't book it early, consider how important quiet 18+ experience is to you. Keep checking an app before the cruise: this is how we got our Vibe reservation: someone canceled theirs. And if all fails, run to the guest services the moment you are onboard: rumors are, they sell a significant amount of those reservations on the ship only...
In our opinion, Vibe is super awesome, it is not nearly as expensive as Haven, but it gives you freedom from kids, from noise and plenty of super comfortable loungers. Truth be told, we only spent time in Vibe and did not even bother going to the main pool or infinity pools

Cheers, again, if you found this useful, drop us a comment and feel free to ask a question! Happy cruising!

Great comments and I subscribed to your YouTube Channel.   Enjoyed your comments and positivity.   Thx for a great report. 

[alexirina]

2 hours ago, Jim The Lizard said:

Great comments and I subscribed to your YouTube Channel.   Enjoyed your comments and positivity.   Thx for a great report. 

Thank you so much Jim! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season whether sailing on, or planning the next adventure! Cheers!

[bobswife91]

Thank you for the dailies.  I appreciate your time paying them. 

[alexirina]

Thank you again, to everyone who read/watched and commented on our initial post! As we keep unpacking our digital memories, we are ready to share our thoughts on the embarkation process and the state room. We do have a short video 

https://youtu.be/MhObKStlzaA

that covers mainly the same thing as below, so feel free to either jump onto youtube or keep reading here.

 

Overall Embarkation was done well, considering this is a new experience for NCL out of Galveston. They had a lot of staff on hand in the port and we hardly had to wait at all, so the experience was very positive (especially when compared to how Virgin Voyages decided to do embarkation way back in 2021). 

 

For lunch we went to the Food Hall (as the buffet was super crowded). The Food Hall was busy, but we had a very nice fresh meal there and afterwards found our way to the Vibe Beach Club: the best place to enjoy a few drinks while we waited for our stateroom to get ready. That took some time, deck 15 happened to be the last that opened. Not a big deal, after all we were already on vacation!

 

A few words about a standard balcony room. In the past we never worried about being close to mid-ship, but our travel agent suggested that we consider that location, which was super helpful, since the Gulf was very choppy on the first day. We never experienced any sea-sickness issues, but were glad that we stayed close to mid-ship to minimize rocking. Many would have chosen a lower deck, but I like my views, so deck 15 it was. Interestingly, the right (starboard) side of the ship did not have good views on this sailing. In the past we have noticed that a ship would alter which side faces the dock/port (or maybe it was a coincidence?), this time the right side of the ship always faces away from the land. A minor bummer, we decided to NOT call the bridge to complain 🙂

 

Stateroom was super nice. Bright, nicely decorated, fresh and reasonably roomy. There are a total of 4 US outlets (2 by the fridge, as you enter the room; one under the mirror and one by the bed), one European outlet (under the mirror) and USB A and USB C plugs on nightstand lamps. Which is very handy considering that one would want to charge smart watches and phones daily on night stands. I also brought a 6 port charger for all our remaining gizmos. NCL stated several times via PA system that the room attendant will unplug electronics that you may leave plugged in while out of the room, just something to keep in mind...

 

If you are reading this in anticipation of your cruise: happy travels and we are super jealous! I know y'all will have a great time! If you (like us) just came back home: Happy Holidays and please share your thoughts with the fellow travelers, whether you agree with what we had to say or not -- it is all good!

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

[alexirina]

We wanted to share with y'all a few more thoughts and a full video walk through of Norwegian Prima

Overall we liked the design and flow of the ship. Atrium is on a smaller side, but so well designed that we loved it! The Observation Deck is lovely, I wish it would be bigger and/or resemble a Solarium on the Royal ships. But, again, the decor is very fresh and lovely, minimalistic without being cheap (you know, I'm looking at you, Virgin Voyages).

There were several things that made us go "huh", and those were all anticipated. The main pool on the top deck is tiny, BUT there are infinity pools on deck 8 on either side of the ship. And while we mainly stayed in the Vibe Beach Club (extra cost 250 USD PP, but well worth it for the 18+ area, no pool there, but 2 generously sized hot tubs), we never saw these 3 free pools being too crowded. Another point of concern is the main buffet: it is very small and is always crowded. Does not help that the only way to the back of the ship on Deck 17 is through the buffet. However, there are plenty of free dining alternatives around the ship, including Indulgence Food Hall, The Local Bar and Grill, as well as 2 complimentary restaurants. Honestly, we simply only went to the buffet once and after seeing the crowd have chosen other venues. Finally, the layout of the ship is weird because of the racetrack. And while I enjoyed the racetrack experience (it is extra 15 USD) and will talk about the race in the upcoming video, after all it is hard to justify why such a valuable top deck real estate was used for something as silly as go-karts making everything around the funnels (roughly mid-ship) just plain weird.

At any rate, if you are up for a stroll around the ship, here we go!

 

[zounds]

Thanks very much for the wonderful video !  We board Feb. 2 and I love learning as much as I can about the ship

[alexirina]

17 minutes ago, zounds said:

Thanks very much for the wonderful video !  We board Feb. 2 and I love learning as much as I can about the ship

Thank you very much, glad to help! We like doing as much research and watching reviews ahead of sailing! Personally videos help us as much (if not more) as reviews. As an example, overall rating of Prima seems to be rather low (around 4(5)), which I can not disagree with more. This ship is close to the top in our personal list where we try to balance out all aspects of experience (MSC Seaside being at the very bottom for the worst food and service; and Celebrity Edge being close to the very top for everything). So, again, glad you found our opinions useful and have a fantastic trip!

[medicalma'am]

On 12/26/2023 at 8:48 AM, alexirina said:

Excellent questions, thank you so much!

 

Sailing out of Galveston is without a doubt more of a "Texan Thing". To be clear, music, entertainment, etc did not adapt to the great (well, second greatest by area, technically) state of ours, but the crowd was defiantly more Texan.  Quite a few cowboy hats and boots (not joking!). But it was all good, we are fairly laid back and diverse these days, no banjo in the hallways, crowd was very diverse, from Deep Country to LGBT, and anywhere in between! Even a few foreigners. All good!

 

Overall we felt that there were significantly more kids than typical (probably early Christmas Break and fair amount of entertainment from the Galaxy Pavilion to the Racetrack), yet not enough party people. We went to most late night events, but felt a bit underwhelmed: Syd Norman venue is way too small and the Prima Club is way too big (although we loved all the shows they set there, those shows just did not turn into parties).

 

We also regret that while in the past (~10 years ago) NCL used to be more open minded/encouraging adult activities (not necessarily the pineapple level, just good grown up fun without PC BS), they certainly toned all of that down to PG13 and crew does not TRULY comingle with the crowd, which is a shame. 

 

As we mentioned, Vibe Club is a must, if one wants to separate from 18- crowd

 

Overall, we are not at all disappointed, we had great time and we will share more stories/thoughts as we get them organized, yet I'm not sure if I pick Galveston again on purpose. Galveston is visually VERY different from any of the 3 typical Floridian ports. We did Galveston because we thought it would be an "easy drive", but with the holiday traffic it turned out to be 5+ hrs from Dallas. If you are flying into Houston, port is not that close and roads are a mess on the south side (well, everywhere in Houston, let's just be honest). Looking back, we could have probably spent similar time flying out to FLL or MIA with a transfer and everything and had more cruise options with NCL, Royal or Celebrity -- after all Galveston can only accommodate 2 ships at a time.

 

Hope this helps and happy holidays. Shout out if there is anything we can help with!

Galveston has a new cruise pier that was built by Royal Caribbean, so it now can accommodate 3 ships at a time.  That is how NCL was able to now cruise from there I believe.  RC has their own parking near their pier.

[medicalma'am]

Thank you so much for this review!  I loved the video tour.  We will be sailing on her on 1-26.

[alexirina]

6 hours ago, medicalma'am said:

Galveston has a new cruise pier that was built by Royal Caribbean, so it now can accommodate 3 ships at a time.  That is how NCL was able to now cruise from there I believe.  RC has their own parking near their pier.

Thank you for that, you are absolutely correct, I forgot about it, even though we researched Royal last year and saw that new terminal. It is further to north west from two older terminals.

[alexirina]

6 hours ago, medicalma'am said:

Thank you so much for this review!  I loved the video tour.  We will be sailing on her on 1-26.

Thank you, so glad you found our review helpful! Have a great time, Prima is a lovely ship, not without quirks, but overall we really enjoyed the cruise!

[KKB]

19 hours ago, alexirina said:

Thank you very much, glad to help! We like doing as much research and watching reviews ahead of sailing! Personally videos help us as much (if not more) as reviews. As an example, overall rating of Prima seems to be rather low (around 4(5)), which I can not disagree with more. This ship is close to the top in our personal list where we try to balance out all aspects of experience (MSC Seaside being at the very bottom for the worst food and service; and Celebrity Edge being close to the very top for everything). So, again, glad you found our opinions useful and have a fantastic trip!

Thanks for your video review--we are on her in a week!

We put Celebrity Eclass at the top of our cruise favs & MSC at the bottom too (tho luckily I found MOST MSC crew to be lovely...officers & customer service could be less brusque)