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

[Seas2mountains]

Here are some ship photos taken when we woke up early yesterday morning.  
 

Deck 6 Atrium - some areas were blocked off and furniture was moved as the atrium area near Cagney’s is used for security to scan key cards for passengers getting off the ship and for screening returning passengers and bags at the port. 

Cruise Next 

 

Casino 

Belvedere Bar next to Cagneys. Chairs moved for security areas. 

Cagney’s 

Staircase - I like the carpet colors.  

 

[FlGoodShips]

If you have time, could you please list current officers and cruise director.

Thank you. Enjoy your cruise.

[jbfg8r]

On 6/20/2024 at 11:31 PM, TRTLscout said:

Need help please with the NCL Prima cruise 7/14-25 Southampton to Iceland. We are new to shore excursions and wondered if this group has recommendations or could direct me to reviews of specific ones and, answers to questions like: what if we just want to explore Amsterdam on our own? Is transportation from/back to the cruise terminal easy or challenging?  We have 8 ports to decide how or what to do.  Does anyone just do "their own thing" or should we book through NCL? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer.

Just got off this itinerary this week.  If you are new to excursions probably stick to official NCL excursion, although privately booked they will cost less. IMO the wow factor excursions in Iceland and Norway are very long days, just know that going in.  Bergen, Amsterdam, and Bruges were very walkable and easy to get around. 

[jbfg8r]

15 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

I’ll post updates on Bruges on the sea day. I’ll try to get up to date so this is live again 

 

After a great visit to Bruges, we enjoyed lunch at Indulge or Overindulge as my husband called it. He tried the fried okra, pulled pork sandwich, extra pickles, and chicken legs. I had the Pad Thai with shrimp. 
 

We also tried the bacon wrapped dates and while we have liked this in the past, these dates were huge and did not taste the same as the smaller dates wrapped with bacon. 
 

The Pad Thai with shrimp was excellent. My husband said he would go back to get the chicken legs. 
 

 

Try the pesto gnocchi in Indulge!

[ontheweb]

6 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

We didn’t put in any special requests when we requested to eat there. It was either luck or we don’t know if they looked at our latitude status or not.  I like how they have different table sizes next to the window so larger parties have the chance of being next to the window, too. 

 

Congratulations on 46 years!! You should have lots of smileys for that many years!!!!! 🎉🥳😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
 

 

Thanks, 46 years amazes me also! Where did the time go?

 

I used to have a joke that a successful date was the girl and I were still friends afterwards. And that is sort of how I met DW. I had a movie date with someone who it turns out was a friend and coworker of DW. And DW showed up. My first impression of her was who the expletive deleted is this! Years later, I asked her about that, and she said her friend was at first enthusiastic about the date, then apprehensive, and finally begged her to come along as a chaperone. And then there is a long story about how we first got together featuring the "magic kiss".

[Seas2mountains]

More photos of Belvedere Lounge area. I think they did a wonderful job with the colors and design selection. I have not been by the lounge in the evening to see if it gets busy. It’s right outside of the second complimentary dining room, The Conmodore and is near Cagney’s and the casino.  

[Seas2mountains]

Current situation - Amsterdam. Sunny. 81 degrees with a light breeze. The Vibe with about 6-8 other passengers. Margarita and water. 
 

 

[Seas2mountains]

We had a great day exploring Amsterdam.

 

The suite breakfast in Cagney’s has been wonderful for food and service. They have been great about getting us coffee within a minute or two of being seated. Food also comes out faster than we experienced recently in Moderno for suite breakfast on the Pearl and Gem. 
 

Here are breakfast photos from yesterday.  I love that we can order just berries as there is no buffet like there is for suite breakfasts on other ships. 

[Seas2mountains]

As mentioned, I’ll give an update on beautiful Bruges when we have a sea day tomorrow. 
 

I  purchased tickets online for the Van Gogh museum about a month ago. I had asked my husband about it to make sure he was okay with it. He said that was okay. This morning he had no idea what we were doing so I had to break the news about this and knew he wouldn’t be too happy but would do it as long as we had a decent amount of time in Vibe this afternoon. 
 

It’s good thing I did purchase these in advance as they were sold out. We didn’t want to walk 2.2 miles there and back so we had to figure out how to get there using public transportation.  It was fairly easy as we followed signs to the trams and purchased tickets at the Amsterdam Central rail station. 
 

The walk to the rail station was an easy 0.7 mile walk from the cruise port once we figured out we needed to stay clear of the bike lanes as there was constant bike traffic in both directions. 
 

Once we got to the museum which was next to the tram stop, we got in line with others who had tickets. Our ticket time was for 9:45am but it was 9:15am and we got to the person scanning tickets at 9:20am and she didn’t say anything about us being early. 
 

When we got inside, we waited in another line to get an audio system with a headset to give us a guided tour of the paintings. We had a choice to do a full tour or one that would take about 45 minutes with highlights. Well, with my husband not preferring to be there, the 45 minute one with highlights was the selection.  I thought it was a good for time management since I had other places I wanted to see. I would recommend it and my husband said it would be a good choice for people who like art. 
 

The bike traffic. We had to dodge the bikes to get across as they didn’t stop at the pedestrian cross walk. The locals did it like it was no a big deal and we thought a bike was going to hit us for sure. 

Van Gogh museum. 

 

Edited Tuesday at 02:41 PM by Seas2mountains

[schmoopie17]

Thanks for some great pictures and glad to see you're enjoying the Prima. The pictures remind me of just how beige and blue the Prima is. While it probably still has that "new ship smell", the ship was probably our least favorite. Not only the bland color scheme, the overall layout was very chopped up. It is difficult to get from here to there. Small public spaces, which seem to get smaller when passengers can't get outside on bad weather days. Also, the rattling of our balcony door/wall was the thing that told us we will probably never book that ship again. 

[Ellis1138]

Popping in again.  We're having a great time on the Prima. 

And for those who know the thread, there are cookies each night in the Studio Lounge. 

[Seas2mountains]

The museum had a special display with paintings from Matthew Wong who was inspired by Van Gogh. He painted over 1,000 paintings in the six years of his life that he painted before his death. 
 

Time to get ready for dinner and sail away. I’ll update later on the rest of our time in Amsterdam. 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Seas2mountains said:

The museum had a special display with paintings from Matthew Wong who was inspired by Van Gogh. He painted over 1,000 paintings in the six years of his life that he painted before his death. 
 

Time to get ready for dinner and sail away. I’ll update later on the rest of our time in Amsterdam. 

We did not have any pre-purchased museum tickets. The first museum we saw was Moco, which was near the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. After we left there DW went to the ticket window for the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh. They were not selling any Van Gogh tickets and none for the half hour we were there for the Rijksmuseum, but there were tickets available for the next half hour. After buying the tickets we got in line early figuring it would take some time to get in, but got there before our timed half hour and like you were let in. We had in previous land trips been to both Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum, but the latter was under renovation the first time we were there.

 

We next wanted to go to the Jewish section. We had bought the bus pass, but did not really know how to get there with it, so we walked. We were about to give up finding the Portuguese Synagogue, but asked and we were right across from it. It was fascinating, a synagogue from IIRC the 1500s. We were told our ticket also allowed admission for the Jewish Museum, We did not want to spend much more time there, and anyway it was near closing. We did ask and got where we could get the bus back to the port.

 

And YIKES, I do so agree with you about all those bicycle riders!

 

 

 

We next wanted to go to the Jewish Museum.

[Sugar Magnolia]

2 hours ago, Ellis1138 said:

Popping in again.  We're having a great time on the Prima. 

And for those who know the thread, there are cookies each night in the Studio Lounge. 

 

WOW! Good for you! Thanks for mentioning.

 

I and several members of my gang on the Prima TA in April asked for cookies but were told by the Solo Lounge attendant that it was a freshness issue...that they could not leave out cookies for long periods of time...(but the pound cake that no one touched could? 🤔)  I also asked someone high up in the food chain who told me that they stopped leaving out cookies because people were grabbing a bunch of them and end up tossing them in the garbage...(because only cookies are being wasted but nothing else on the ship?)

 

Guys...I think our Bring Back the Cookie Campaign is working.

 

Sorry @Seas2mountains for the interruption. I am really enjoying your Live and envious that you are on the Prima and sailing this great itinerary. And it's still only the beginning! 😊

 

[mking8288]

Thanks for taking the time to post, share and write up on your cruise vacation.  

 

Looking at the MDR menu as posted ... wow, the lack of varieties and selections.  For shorter cruises and/or port-intensive itineraries, mixed that with specialty dining options, it's probably okay but for sailings with multiple & consecutive sea days - can't imagine having French onion soup, Caesar salad and Cobb/Wedge salad, again & again.  Then, go into one of the specialty restaurant next ... more of the same old.  You already discovered Indulge, try doing dinner there one evening as there are more/different options to choose from, truly refreshing vs. the daily repeats and dare I say it, as good as Food Republic's fusion menu, except it is complimentary. 

 

Ah, yes ... those bicyclists in Amsterdam ride just like they belong to NY, and apparently most, if not nearly all, don't believe in safety helmets ... reminder of our trip to Ho Chi Ming City, Vietnam 15 years ago (worst with the motorbikes) nowadays, these electric bikes and boards (e-bikes) are silent & appear out of nowhere.  

 

The best ports are ahead ... Norway and Iceland.  

[DorothyB]

16 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

Looking at the MDR menu as posted ... wow, the lack of varieties and selections.  For shorter cruises and/or port-intensive itineraries, mixed that with specialty dining options, it's probably okay but for sailings with multiple & consecutive sea days - can't imagine having French onion soup, Caesar salad and Cobb/Wedge salad, again & again.  Then, go into one of the specialty restaurant next ... more of the same old.  You already discovered Indulge, try doing dinner there one evening as there are more/different options to choose from, truly refreshing vs. the daily repeats and dare I say it, as good as Food Republic's fusion menu, except it is complimentary. 

 

 

I didn't see a MDR menu posted?  I saw the suite lunch menu and then the Cagney's menu?

[dock]

Thanks for the review @Seas2mountains.

Do you find that Vibe was a good option for this cool weather cruise.

Ive purchased it for our Prima Iceland/ Norway cruise, but have been debating if it was the right call. 
 

 

[mking8288]

1 hour ago, DorothyB said:

I didn't see a MDR menu posted?  I saw the suite lunch menu and then the Cagney's menu?

Kindly refer to Post #151 above, I glanced at it earlier but didn't really look closely myself, then I zoom in and oh ... Picture is just below The Commodore Room.  It is the MDR Dinner Menu for the fleet, including the Classic Entrees and Today's Featured Entrees, taken from the display board outside the restaurant, we sailed the Prima twice and recognized the illuminated board.  

[Travelicious]

Whew!  Just catching up here.  I'm totally envious that you are on the Prima.  I ended up loving that ship, even though it was quite crowded during cold weather.  Thanks for sharing, and don't stress if you get behind and just don't feel like catching up.  Enjoy!

[DorothyB]

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

Kindly refer to Post #151 above, I glanced at it earlier but didn't really look closely myself, then I zoom in and oh ... Picture is just below The Commodore Room.  It is the MDR Dinner Menu for the fleet, including the Classic Entrees and Today's Featured Entrees, taken from the display board outside the restaurant, we sailed the Prima twice and recognized the illuminated board.  

Thanks!  Saw "Cagney's" below it and thought it was the Cagney's menu, but it is the MDR menu.

The good news is that while there are only 7 appetizers listed, at least a couple of them do change each day.  I'm glad the shrimp alfredo is still on the classic (every day) part because I don't like the entree's on all of the daily menus.

[Ellis1138]

The MDR is basically what you see on Prof Cruise for fleetwide. And it's monotonous.  They did manage a decent NY Strip, but mine is pre-ordered, so that might make a difference. 

My husband prefers Indulge, where he can mix and match from a variety of offerings. 

And the experiment of us in separate Studio Cabins is a success. He loves the room, the bigger bed and his own bathroom. 

A note, not quite a complaint: This is the noisiest thermal Suite I've been in. Not just the other passengers, but the staff are generally talking loudly. And the well-known heat loungers placed directly under the treadmills. But still worth my $, as I woke today with CFS pain and the thalassotherapy pool and salt pool reduced the magnitude. 

[Seas2mountains]

Good afternoon from the North Sea on our way to beautiful Geiranger. 
 

We had dinner last night outside at Los Lobos where the temperature and light breeze made it a perfect location to view the scenery as we sailed out of the canal. 
 

Before sail away, it sounded like 6 names were called twice after the 5:30pm all aboard time. I’m not sure if they got on board in time for sail away or not. 

 

Dinner at Los Lobos was lovely as the two person booths are cozy. We had classic margaritas to start. 

 

Next, we had the guacamole prepared at our table and the cocktel mixto as appetizers.

 

The guacamole was excellent but I didn’t care for the tomato sauce on the cocktel mixto but my husband said he liked it all except the fish in the cocktel mixto. 
 

For entrees, my husband had the steak fajitas which he said were really good and  I had the grilled Branzino which was perfectly prepared and delicious.  We should not have ordered sides of corn and red rice as it was too much food. Service was also excellent. We had no room for dessert and went back to our cabin to continue watching the scenery as we traveled along the canal. 

 

We got to the lock before 8:30pm but it seemed to take another half hour or more to clear the lock. Along the canal we could see many pairs of swans with their cygnets (baby swans) nearby. There were a lot of people at the beach and lock area despite the late time as it was such a beautiful evening. 
 

This was the second time this cruise we called it an early night as the walking each day wore us out. We walked about 23,000 steps in Bruges and Amsterdam. We slept really well last night as the ship was gently rocking at times. We did not hear any rattling from closet doors or other parts of the ship but again it was very gebtle. 

[Seas2mountains]

 

Since we had the Behind the Scenes tour scheduled at 8am, we went to breakfast at Cagney’s at 7:30am when they opened. My husband thought there would be no way we would be finished before 8am but I reminded him we were in and out in 30 minutes the day prior. Once again, coffee was poured within a minute of us being seated. We felt so spoiled as we were the only people there the whole time and easily finished at 7:55am. 
 

Here are photos taken mid morning and as you can see how calm the seas were  

[cruiseny4life]

Wow, what amazingly stunning weather it looks like you're having. Los Lobos looks great! Another live. Another kick of the pants to myself that I went to Teppanyaki (for the 2nd time) with my husband, rather than leave him for some Mexican. Those fajitas look simply delish!! 

[Seas2mountains]

The behind the scenes tour was scheduled to start at 8am. We were told check-in would start at 8am. It initially looked like we were going to have a small group of about 15 people but more people arrived at 8:05am, 8:10am and 8:15am.  Check-in started at 8:10am and the tour started at 8:20am. We were split into two groups of about 20 people. 
 

We visited the galley of Onda/Los Lobos, the laundry, crew bar (no photos requested), and the theater. 
 

At Onda/Los Lobos, the chef said they have a butcher shop on a different deck that had three separate areas and all fish was frozen. All specialty dining had their own galleys. The sanitation team comes in at night to clean everything.  

At the theater, there are 18 cast members in Donna Summer and I believe I heard him say there are 1500 costumes. They have 10 existing crew members who have the additional duty and get paid extra outside of their normal job to help the cast members with costumes.  
 

The LCD panels shown on the first photo  can raise up and they have an LCD screen behind it. 
 

Price is Right has a completely different set. 
 

In the laundry, we learned that they handle guest laundry from 250-300 cabins per day and they may wash up to 10 cabins of laundry in the washer and dryer. They have fancy pressing and steam machines along with the one that dries and folds the sheets. On Prima, the laundry area did not feel hot and humid like on other ships. 

 

The crew bar was super clean and it looked like a sanitation team had put everything away as you could barely tell it was a bar and most chairs were neatly stacked. We were requested not to take any photos when in crew areas. 
 

The tour finished at about 9:40am. We also heard the crew quarters on Prima tend to allow a cabin for 1-2 crew members with a Jack and Jill style bath in between. We heard from some crew members we knew from other ships that the accommodations on Prima are much nicer on the Prima and they have more privacy than on other ships.