Live - NCL Prima - 06/23-07/04/2024 - Southampton, Belgium, Amsterdam, Norway and Iceland - Is it more beautiful than Alaska?

[Seas2mountains]

Some shops are setup like this so the sales person can easily interact with people walking by. 

[Seas2mountains]

Atrium photos. I loved the elegant look and the brightness. 

Be super careful on the stairs. 
 

[Seas2mountains]

Prime Theater and Prima Club were very impressive with the technology features. 
 

[Seas2mountains]

The Local bar area was separate from the Local restaurant. The bar had a different food menu.  

 

 

The hanging chairs seemed to be a popular choice.  
 

 Big screen TV. 
 

You can see the outside seating, too. 

[Seas2mountains]

A few Indulge Food Hall photos. 

The Food trucks were a nice touch. 

This is where there was a second Starbucks besides the one on deck 7 in the atrium. 

[Seas2mountains]

Pool on deck 17 seemed to be in use even when it was cold outside.  It looked like it was slightly sheltered. 
 

[Seas2mountains]

Final thoughts on Prima. I highlighted what we liked but did not list what we didn't like as many of those items have been covered by others. 

 

-          Hudson’s Dining Room - Wow on the views!

 

-          Vibe - The Infinity hot tubs and peacefulness of the area along with the dedicated bar servers.

 

-          Spa - The separate relaxation for the heated lounge chairs and other lounge chairs a was wonderful addition although the choice of being below the fitness center wasn't so good with weights being dropped along with the sound of the treatmills. We also liked the heated pool with side jets and the warm salt pool. We did use some of the special sauna and treatment rooms but did not use all due to time limitations.  It did not feel crowded, and we didn’t have to choose a specific time to go there on the sea day to find a heated lounge chair.  This is our favorite spa. Is there another cruise line that has a spa that can be compared to this one?

 

-          Los Lobos and Onda – outdoor dining areas were nice with heaters in the ceiling. I only realized today that Palomar had an outdoor eating area.

 

-          Concept of Indulge Food Hall. The food was served faster than The Local from our experience, while we personally weren't big fans of the menu we know others are and we think this is a wonderful restaurant addition!

 

-          Outdoor seating for The Local and Indulge was a nice addition but could only be used on nice weather days.

 

-          Atrium – We liked this area with the live entertainment but agree there isn’t enough seating. I liked how much light from the windows was in this area on all three floors.

 

-          Service – we had excellent service in almost all situations. We had quick bar service in the lounges in the evening.

 

-          Lounge musical entertainment – We were happy with the two duos, Essence Duo and Duo Rika, band, Familiar Strangers, and guitarist, Juci Do Carmo. We are in the minority that we tend to prefer listening to these groups rather than going to the theater for the shows but we did like Donna Summer. We had heard Duo Rika and Familiar Strangers when we were on the Bliss, I believe that was the ship?

 

-          We liked how some nightly games were held in Improv at Sea with about one game in the atrium. It meant we could park in the atrium to listen to music for most of the evening without having to change locations.

 

-          Overall look with decorating choices.

 

We have no reservations about booking another cruise on Prima as long as we like the itinerary despite some of the recent NCL cuts.

[ontheweb]

10 minutes ago, Seas2mountains said:

Final thoughts on Prima. I highlighted what we liked but did not list what we didn't like as many of those items have been covered by others. 

 

-          Hudson’s Dining Room - Wow on the views!

 

-          Vibe - The Infinity hot tubs and peacefulness of the area along with the dedicated bar servers.

 

-          Spa - The separate relaxation for the heated lounge chairs and other lounge chairs a was wonderful addition although the choice of being below the fitness center wasn't so good with weights being dropped along with the sound of the treatmills. We also liked the heated pool with side jets and the warm salt pool. We did use some of the special sauna and treatment rooms but did not use all due to time limitations.  It did not feel crowded, and we didn’t have to choose a specific time to go there on the sea day to find a heated lounge chair.  This is our favorite spa. Is there another cruise line that has a spa that can be compared to this one?

 

-          Los Lobos and Onda – outdoor dining areas were nice with heaters in the ceiling. I only realized today that Palomar had an outdoor eating area.

 

-          Concept of Indulge Food Hall. The food was served faster than The Local from our experience, while we personally weren't big fans of the menu we know others are and we think this is a wonderful restaurant addition!

 

-          Outdoor seating for The Local and Indulge was a nice addition but could only be used on nice weather days.

 

-          Atrium – We liked this area with the live entertainment but agree there isn’t enough seating. I liked how much light from the windows was in this area on all three floors.

 

-          Service – we had excellent service in almost all situations. We had quick bar service in the lounges in the evening.

 

-          Lounge musical entertainment – We were happy with the two duos, Essence Duo and Duo Rika, band, Familiar Strangers, and guitarist, Juci Do Carmo. We are in the minority that we tend to prefer listening to these groups rather than going to the theater for the shows but we did like Donna Summer. We had heard Duo Rika and Familiar Strangers when we were on the Bliss, I believe that was the ship?

 

-          We liked how some nightly games were held in Improv at Sea with about one game in the atrium. It meant we could park in the atrium to listen to music for most of the evening without having to change locations.

 

-          Overall look with decorating choices.

 

We have no reservations about booking another cruise on Prima as long as we like the itinerary despite some of the recent NCL cuts.

We also enjoyed listening to the musicians in the small venues even though the seating was often too limited because of card or game players taking tables. Also there was often too much noise from people at the accompanying bars for really listening to the music. I actually caught one of the musicians (a solo guitar player) as he was leaving the theater and asked him what it was like when he was playing and people were not paying attention. He just shrugged.

 

We enjoyed the Donna Summers show but agreed that it was not a show we would have paid money to see on Broadway.

[Seas2mountains]

Was it more beautiful than Alaska?

 

The views within and while entering and departing Geiranger Fjord were spectacular. The waterfall in the port made it even more special.

 

This cruise just added more fjords to our bucket list to view in the future. Norway, Scotland, Iceland, New Zealand and Chile. 

 

The views were also amazing going into and departing Isafjordur and other ports, too. We loved the canals in Bruges, Amsterdam and Alesund. 

 

Besides being so beautiful, Alaska has advantages with the following:

✔️Great views while cruising between ports even at 11pm that can be seen when the sun is still out.

✔️More wildlife sightings

 

We loved the ports on this cruise. This cruise had advantages with:

✔️Historical buildings, art and learning about the history of each area in general.

✔️Learning about other countries, cultures and some food with the limited port stops.

 

 

 

 

 

[TealGirl]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review - we are going on this cruise in a few weeks and it's been so helpful with our planning!

 

I only had one question - was there a laundry offer halfway through the cruise?  We are spending a few days in London before the Prima and are currently trying to figure out our packing/laundry plans.

[Seas2mountains]

1 hour ago, TealGirl said:

Thank you so much for your wonderful review - we are going on this cruise in a few weeks and it's been so helpful with our planning!

 

I only had one question - was there a laundry offer halfway through the cruise?  We are spending a few days in London before the Prima and are currently trying to figure out our packing/laundry plans.

Yes, there was. We sent laundry out two times and it all came back as expected. Have a wonderful cruise and I am glad to hear this was helpful!

[LottieET]

1 hour ago, TealGirl said:

Thank you so much for your wonderful review - we are going on this cruise in a few weeks and it's been so helpful with our planning!

 

I only had one question - was there a laundry offer halfway through the cruise?  We are spending a few days in London before the Prima and are currently trying to figure out our packing/laundry plans.

We did the same thing on this cruise. We did laundry in England on embark morning and then during the week in the ship. There was a laundry special on the ship but I don’t remember the day. 

[ontheweb]

22 minutes ago, LottieET said:

We did the same thing on this cruise. We did laundry in England on embark morning and then during the week in the ship. There was a laundry special on the ship but I don’t remember the day. 

I also don't remember the day, but I do remember asking our cabin steward about it, and it then showed up the next day.

[LottieET]

3 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I also don't remember the day, but I do remember asking our cabin steward about it, and it then showed up the next day.

There was an a page about it in the daily schedule. Maybe it was $34?

[ontheweb]

1 minute ago, LottieET said:

There was an a page about it in the daily schedule. Maybe it was $34?

It was somewhere around the middle of the cruise, and I don't remember the exact figure, but $30something sounds about right. I remember calculating it by the piece, and that came to a whole lot more.

 

I think they promised it back in 2 days, but we did it early in the morning and it was back the next day.

[UnbridledEnthusiasm]

Can you by any chance post any dailies that you may have had (don't know if you posted any...I went through most of the 19 pages but not all). Also were there any comedians at night or any big shows? Thank you!

[debenson0723]

1 hour ago, UnbridledEnthusiasm said:

Can you by any chance post any dailies that you may have had (don't know if you posted any...I went through most of the 19 pages but not all). Also were there any comedians at night or any big shows? Thank you!

There are dailies posted by @Ellis1138 in post #392. They can change from cruise to cruise but the ones on here can give you a good idea what to expect. 

[Ellis1138]

7 hours ago, debenson0723 said:

There are dailies posted by @Ellis1138 in post #392. They can change from cruise to cruise but the ones on here can give you a good idea what to expect. 

The NCL app didn't always have the updated daily, so I only got some of the pdfs. I'm still suffering with jet lag and unpacking and all, but will try to scan our sailing's dailies in.

[Seas2mountains]

10 hours ago, UnbridledEnthusiasm said:

Can you by any chance post any dailies that you may have had (don't know if you posted any...I went through most of the 19 pages but not all). Also were there any comedians at night or any big shows? Thank you!

I do have screen shots of all saved on my phone. I can post them soon. 
 

Yes, there were several nights with comedians. I believe they typically performed in the Improv at Sea. Donna Summer was the big show and they also had Price is Right. 

Edited July 10 by Seas2mountains

[Seas2mountains]

1 hour ago, Ellis1138 said:

The NCL app didn't always have the updated daily, so I only got some of the pdfs. I'm still suffering with jet lag and unpacking and all, but will try to scan our sailing's dailies in.

I hope you feel better soon and get back on track with the time change. I do have screenshots of all dailies. I have photos of day 6 and 10 when they didn’t put those dailies on the app. 

[Seas2mountains]

Day 1 

[Seas2mountains]

Day 2

[Ellis1138]

2 minutes ago, Seas2mountains said:

I hope you feel better soon and get back on track with the time change. I do have screenshots of all dailies. I have photos of day 6 and 10 when they didn’t put those dailies on the app. 

 

Thanks. It didn't help that, on the cruise, I was so excited and wanting to see so much that I was getting up on the ship at 4:30 am. 

 

The other thing that happened is I have a little digital luggage scale where you have to hold up the whole ag to be weighed. Well, the scale was blinking back and forth between 47 and 48 lbs and not fully registering. The smart thing would have been to just say "Well, it's under 50." and then put the bag down. I kept holding it, but then felt something in my lower back on the right side just give... and down I went. So, my lower back is a tad wrecked and I've had to do stuff in piecemeal at home.

[Seas2mountains]

Day 3 

[Seas2mountains]

1 minute ago, Ellis1138 said:

 

Thanks. It didn't help that, on the cruise, I was so excited and wanting to see so much that I was getting up on the ship at 4:30 am. 

 

The other thing that happened is I have a little digital luggage scale where you have to hold up the whole ag to be weighed. Well, the scale was blinking back and forth between 47 and 48 lbs and not fully registering. The smart thing would have been to just say "Well, it's under 50." and then put the bag down. I kept holding it, but then felt something in my lower back on the right side just give... and down I went. So, my lower back is a tad wrecked and I've had to do stuff in piecemeal at home.

Oh no. I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope your back is better soon. I’m sure things can get unpacked when you are feeling okay. That has to be so frustrating.