NOOOO, Zach...we absolutely *love* Prima, and your mostly positive review (excellent, as always) is only going to make it more popular. :). We totally agree with all your positives/negatives, especially the Indulge Food Hall's Indian offerings...we ate our annual quota of poppadoms on our last 2-week sailing. One thing to note: if you sit at a specific station at Indulge (vs. a table), you can only order from that station, which we found annoying. This class of ship has gotten so much hate and we've never understood why. Seriously, I'm glad to see that Prima/Viva are finally getting some appreciation.
@@rossfortini1856 oh man you hit the nail on the head with sitting at a specific station. That WAS annoying considering those spots were usually empty and the "full menu" spots always taken.
These ships have such bold, beautiful, creative designs! The carpets, furnishings, decor, recessed lighting are all spectacular. It must have been nice to be surrounded by such lovely aesthetics. So glad you had a great time.
The Prima is a beautiful ship. My wife and I sailed on the April 27th Transatlantic cruise from NYC to Southampton. It was a 15 day cruise. The weather was cold, which we knew it was going to be so we were prepared. It handled beautifully in the rough North Atlantic. The problem we had with the ship is that it was sold out and it's not geared for cold cruises. People camped out at venues and spaces inside and there was nowhere to go. I get the idea of a multitude of smaller venues but when you have 3000 people trapped inside, there's nowhere to go. I disliked Indulge food Hall and the Local. I love O'Sheehans on other ships, it's big, lots of tables and is truly open 24 hours. The Local is divided in two, the dining portion is small an closes at 10:30, the bar is open all night but has a very limited menu. Indulge food hall has some hits, but a lot of misses. It's hours of operation really limit when you can dine there, and it's not that big. If you're a seafood fan Palomar was superb, we were blown away at how amazing it is. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have used our 3 complimentary dining packages at that restaurant. The one advantage of the cruise we took was double Latitude points. It bumped us from Bronze to Gold This is not a ship you want to take in a colder North Atlantic cruise that's full to capacity. The only entertainment we enjoyed was an awesome comedian they had and that's it. I'm really picky about entertainment because I have been spoiled. Maybe Andrew Lloyd Webber can start some productions onboard NCL. LOL Thanks for the Video
Zach, let me disagree with you... We HATE the PRIMA and here's why: the lack of a traditional Atrium made a big difference as our cruise to Bermuda was overbooked by 1200!!! Ya, not a lot if seating anywhere. No question it's a beautiful ship and beautifully appointed and I would agree on par with Celebrity Edge class ships BUT there is no flow and it is disjointed. Pools well just try getting into one of the other small pools as they were overun by children and overly indulgent parents. I don't care about food because I have extensive food allergies so if they can accommodate me that's a plus right there. However, the issue we had with all the restaurants is they all closed between 9:30 or 10:00 AM! We're on vacation and one can't sleep in as my husband likes to get up at 9? Yes, the buffet is tiny comparably because they sacrificed the back end of the ship to the HAVEN. I hope they fill the overly priced exclusive area to capacity to warrant such a cash grab. Oh and the Food Hall well the tablets didn't work and seating again was limited. We LOVED the HUDSON dinning room and Le Bistro as they are the most beautiful rooms on any cruise line we've ever sailed: NCL, Princess, MSC or Celebrity. And before anyone calls me out, we've sailed the most with NCL - seven times and are Platinum status - but we make it a point now to never book the PRIMA again even though it seems to exclusively have itineraries that we want, Bergen and Baltic 😢
I sailed on Prima twice. First was a 4 day inaugural. The other was 10 day Europe. Here is my thing. I am one of those who was disappointed. There are many great features. Outdoor spaces, staterooms and Indulge are "primo." But as a frequent NCL cruiser IMO it fell short in several areas. They had no headliners, and no comedians in the Comedy Club. Get past Summer and the entertainment was just got up to their standards. The atrium layout does not work as well as the Piazza on Princess ships. Syd Norman was way too small, especially since it was just about the only music spot on the ship. The cigar bar is in a horrible location. The smell emanated everywhere. I also do not like the flow of the ship. Also, the pool deck is not inviting and too small. I don't know what they were thinking there. I had a wonderful time on the Prima, but I enjoy the Breakaway Plus, and even Breakaway class more.
I'm a big NCL cruiser too. They usually don't have the comedians on the European cruises due to the language differences. They also didn't have the comedians when I was on an Australian/New Zealand 14-day cruise. I love watching the comedians on the Caribbean cruises that they have. By far, the best comedians are on Carnival, as they get known comedians, and they have a giant comedy club on the back of their ships. Even on the larger ships on NCL like Epic, I wish the comedy club was larger like Carnival has on their ships.😃 Agree with you too that Syd Norman's venue is ridiculously small on the ships that I've been on that had it. They should have made it double the size because it's so popular. I haven't been on Prima yet, but Zach's video makes me want to try it.
We are doing the exact same itinerary you did. We leave in 7 days. I was very excited about the Prima and after watching your review I cannot contain myself! Thank you for this review.
You have knocked it out of the park AGAIN! Zach, your take is always refreshing and well thought out. I'm sailing Prima in Feb 2025 out of Galveston and cannot wait! Thanks for the review.....now, off to find your other Prima videos!
We went on the cruise immediately following yours! Loved the ship, the food, the entertainment, and the staff. We loved the Donna Summer show and went twice. The Fleetwood Mac show was fantastic. Price is Right and Deal or No Deal were fun too. The port stops had some great excursions.
We just got back in late July from 25 nights on Jewel of the Seas on back to back cruises exploring Iceland and Norway. Like you we were just blown away by both countries. Absolutely spectacular and we can't wait to go back and explore more of both countries. Thanks for the promotional discount on The Cruise Maps! I just ordered a framed map to commemorate our adventure.
Just stumbled across your videos and I'm pleased to see the quality and thorough cruise reviews on your videos. Great review of the Prima and it goes to show that sometimes people need to experience something for themselves rather going by other people's reviews or experience. I had seen a few not so good reviews of Prima, but your insight and detailed review is completely different. It made me look into booking a Norwegian cruise. Never done one. Great job!!!
I'm going on NCL Aqua cruise in August 2025 for a bermuda cruise, I have a solo studio stateroom, I get my own studio lounge that serves drinks and food 24 hours, the Studio staterooms look better than the interior or balcony stateroom, but smaller,
Great review. I sailed the Celebrity Ascent in March and the NCL Viva in April and agree with the similarity in design. I loved my solo studio cabin, solo lounge and activities, Indulge Food Haul, Hudson's, and Ocean Blvd. The venues and pools were too small. Food Republic was my favorite specialty restaurant. My meals at Onda and Palomar were not that good. The Local was also good.
About ready to go on the sister ship Viva. A 19 day double in the Mediterranean. I have heard some of the negatives, but I am still looking forward to it.
I kind of feel like the ports are going to skew the results a bit on this particular cruise. You could probably take the Margarita at Sea cruise ship and do this same itinerary and get a pretty good overall rating. With that being said, I think you are spot on with everything you said regarding food, entertainment, etc. To me, if you take this ship on a basic Caribbean cruise out of Miami, this is probably a 4/5 ship. Luckily it does seem like NCL has been improving some of the flaws on Aqua and Viva.
Great review . Thank you so much Zach. We went on the prima last November on Mediterranean cruise and absolutely loved the ship and our balcony cabin ( best decor, bathroom, storage and balcony furniture we’ve ever experienced on a ship ) and dining options . As you mentioned, it was a bit disappointing that there was only one major theatre production but it definitely didn’t spoil the cruise . We even loved the observation lounge , with very classy decor, although agree with you about its size. Can’t wait to go on another prima class ship !
I’d recommend next time trying out the solo room. To be honest, it’s the exact opposite of the inside rooms because they are pretty small, but they use the space well as the bathroom seems to be just about right for a solo. Besides, I don’t need a lot of space. Unfortunately, it took me four days worth of trips down to guest services to get the soda machine fixed in the solo lounge. I do soda instead of coffee so that was a nuisance. Like you, I loved the indulge food Hall, which was good because the buffet wasn’t a great experience because of the crowding. I sat in the overflow a couple of times. The trick was to offset from the peak eating times. The only negative about indulge is that its hours are very short. I do think they set aside too much space for the go karts and the pay to play areas which ripple down to the rest of the venues. I don’t mind standing, but getting into the comedy club or the music hall was too much effort for a vacation. The pool kids area is pretty abysmal, which I like. once that word gets out it seems like they’re actively discouraging the little ones to use this ship. Finding a place to kick back on the eighth floor was never a problem, and it seemed like getting around the ship was more intuitive than I’m used to. They have smaller elevators, but they have more of them. I regularly used the stairs, but that was for Exercise more than avoiding a wait. Glad to hear you didn’t encounter any unruly guests but that was the one real negative in my experience. I was on back to back and got to see two different times where drunk people got out of control and instead of NCL security shutting it down, they waited until there was blood on the floor before they did anything, and security largely relied on other passengers to restrain the drunks. One of the passengers who was trying to calm down a completely out of control drunk, got a broken nose for his efforts while protecting himself, so NCL ended up kicking him off at the first port along with the drunk. It seems their “zero tolerance policy” means that if you are attacked by somebody and defend yourself in any way, including merely Restraining your attacker without hitting them, you get kicked off the boat too. I do like this ship, it’s very different from the others, but as a usually solo traveler, their security was completely unacceptable. While I do keep to myself, I’m in the bars quite a bit. I know how to keep my mouth shut and avoid most Problems, but sometimes drunk people aren’t reasonable. In both situations, NCL personnel had the opportunity to diffuse the situation and took no action. When two security people are standing there, and a passenger is loudly cursing and threatening to kill employees and other passengers, I had always assumed that at a minimum that would get your drinking privileges suspended, and sent to your room. That didn’t happen. Since I saw the lack of action twice, it makes me reluctant to sail on another NCL cruise, and I just made it to the next level on my card status. It’s very disappointing.
My friends have sailed on the Prima and they informed me that it’s the perfect ship for warm weather cruising. They said so many areas are outside and they love the ship because of that. Given that you were sailing in a cold climate, I’m curious to know if the indoor venues were more crowded since people were not sitting outside. Also, I just came off of the Norwegian escape in Europe.the escape does not have an observation lounge and I previously sailed on the encore which has a great observation lounge, but I read that it’s going to be downsized because they’re making suites on that floor and the new suites will be consuming part of the current observation lounge. Great video I look forward to sailing on the prima, but it will more than likely be in the Caribbean.
Your review of the Prima makes me even more excited than I already was (if that was even possible) for my Baltic cruise next year on her! It will be an 11-day cruise in October 2025, starting in Copenhagen and ending in Southampton. I have been on two NCL cruises so far, on the Pride of America and the Epic, and I really wanted to try one of their newest ships for my third. The Indulge Food Hall sounds amazing and the ship looks stunning.
Thanks for the ship review Zach. I have enjoyed all of your vlogs on this itinerary. I will be sailing this same itinerary on Prima on 9/5-9/15. As an Elite Plus/Diamond Plus member on Celebrity/Royal, I have been somewhat anxious about sailing NCL and especially on Prima after reading so many terrible reviews. It is nice to see a positive review for a change! I’m trying to keep an open mind for my sailing! But no matter what, I am so excited for this itinerary! Thanks again for sharing.
Great review Zach. I sailed on the Prima back in February from Galveston to the Caribbean and my experience was largely the same as yours. I can say that from all the cruises I have taken so far and resorts I have stayed at all around the world, the service on the Prima was the best I have ever experienced. They treated my mom and I like royalty and we weren't even staying in the Haven. Just from that experience alone, we've almost exclusively shifted our cruising to NCL and I'm saving the cash to get the full Haven experience on a future cruise. We'll be sailing on the Aqua in 2026 from Miami and looking forward to what new touches NCL brings to what will be the Prima-Plus class
Had a gorgeous, balcony stateroom. The food excellent, entertainment poor and some of the service average (while other areas very good). The Donna Summer show was on one night only or at least according to the daily activity letter. Overall, we preferred the Gem but it's possible that I'm influenced by the fantastic itinerary, Venice to Athens! PS agreed re Indulge Food hall, brilliant concept. Also the bar at the end had a excellent choice of quality beer, amazing 😊
Great video review Zach, very helpful information. What I like to point out regarding the "hate" on the Prima class is that even though it was designed to spread the guests around the ship to avoid over crowding, however, that's not how human behavior works. Even you admitted you hung out a lot on deck 8 and at the food hall often. The issue is that cruisers are used to looking at a ship having two sections, one is for cabins and the other is public spaces. By dissecting the public space into small bits sprinkled throughout the ship that made getting to see different venues a hassle. Passengers now have to travel longer distances to see different venues. Then they don't want take the risk to invest the time to go somewhere and it sucks and you have go back to some venue you were at and unfortunately it is not close by. Fact is, NOT ALL THE PUBLIC SPACES ARE CREATED EQUAL OR AS EQUALLY APPEALING TO HANG OUT IN. This is the issue with the Prima design. It assumes that there are enough passengers with different preferences and they would automatically spread out on their own. For example, the Pour House is always popular and everyone gravitated towards that venue and thus crowding and waiting became an issue. So instead of spreading the guests around the ship, it created issues of overcrowding in certain areas of the ship that are already small and then many others areas of the ship are totally ignored. However, if you put 80% of venues in one part of the ship, all the guests know where to go to find things. The reason you didn't experience the crowding issue is because of the itinerary. Iceland and Scandinavia are not the most popular destinations in July, is it the Mediterranean region. The ship designers wanted to change the habits of cruisers, but cruisers are still clinging on to old habits and not accepting this change. Eventually, it is possible this design can catch on and other cruise lines will follow, however, I believe the Prima-Plus class ships coming out in 2025, which is slighter larger will most likely not follow this design layout. So there will only be two ships with this layout, so basically, they already know it is a failure and they are not building more of the same ships. Previously, the Breakaway-class ships have 6 in that category and the Jewel-class ships has 4 in that category. Suffice it to say, the Prima class ships are aesthetically beautiful, but not very functional or intuitive to navigate.
And YES ... the observation lounge is usually one of my favorite places on a ship, but this one was SO small and was bisected by the arcade, so you couldn't see across from one side to another ... HATED it. Great crew however, NCL crew is almost ALWAYS superb.
This video brings back such fun memories for me. I sailed this ship last summer and it was one of my favorite cruises after 31 cruises. This was my first solo trip and I also had an interior cabin. The first night I slept for 12 hours lol . The ship is so beautiful and deck 8 was my favorite place to be. I also love the observation deck but it fills up quickly and was often closed for private events. I ate most of my meals in the food hall and enjoyed every meal. My only complain is that there wasn't enough interior public places for times when it was too cold to hang out on deck 8. This is my favorite ship. Zack, your review is spot on.
I absolutely looooved Prima. Our first family cruise. The ship felt like a spaceship to be honest. I was always saying wow looking at different areas. The food we thought was great. The staff was great. Hoping to get back on board next year.
Wonderful review. I loved my voyage on the Prima! 100% agree with you regarding the indulge food hall - by far my favorite. We did a number of specialty restaurants - Palomar, Los Lobos, and La Bistro were our favorites.
Sailing on Aqua next year, and can't wait!! I've heard these negative reviews before about Prima class but I personally haven't experienced them. Have had good experiences on other NCL ships before, though.
Great review. If you love Iceland, try to either do a land visit there or go a few days early before a cruise or after. So, so much to see in that country...I have been twice and haven't even scratched the surface. Going on the Prima for the 2nd time in November...16 days, Rome to NYC. So Med cruise and TA combined (but one cruise not B2B). Join us!
I was on the ship on the cruise to iceland right before you! I also have the same thoughts about the ship and everything and dont understand the hate it gets from some people.
I took this same cruise last Fall, and it was definitely my favorite cruise of all time. I did the reverse cruise so finished in Reykjavik, where I stayed 3 days after the cruise...it was amazing. I totally agree with you on the Indulge Food Court. I spent most of my lunches there and loved the whole idea and food. Entertainment was the weakest thing for me. I'm not a game show fan, so didn't go those nights. I loved the Donna Summers Show, but my favorite show was the last night where they had a concert with all the performers from around the different venues on the ship performing. Great review, and thanks for the memories ❤
Thank you for a great Review! I am also going on this cruise Sept 5-15 and loved all your reviews of the ports & ship etc. I have been following ya for awhile, and appreciate your hard work! I have been on the Prima before this (out of Galveston Jan 2024) and loved it! I am also a you tube content creator, and thank you so much for the discount and IDEA of the map you showed, I utilized your discount and ordered mine! :) Great Job Zach!
Great video, were going on the same cruise in 2 weeks. Except in reverse. Thanks for sharing. I've been on 5 cruises with Norwegian cruise lines, love them .
Thank you for the review. I have to say that I used to think that you were a Negative Nellie. But, I went on a cruise to Alaska on the Encore and your review was spot on!!! I was actually surprised you sailed on the Joy to Bermuda. Anyway, I appreciate your honesty. If you say Prima is alright, then it's alright. I am Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you for providing such a thorough and enthusiastic review of your recent North Atlantic NCL 27:11 27:11 Prima experience Zach. As my wife and I, along with two dear friends of ours, are preparing to embark on the Prima in Southampton on 9/15 to take your cruise in reverse I was very curious to hear what your thoughts were regarding your experiences-and you didn’t disappoint. Given that during this aquatic adventure my wife and I, with the assistance of our friends, will be celebrating our 33rd anniversary and my 67th birthday (same day-9/21) by renewing our marital vows onboard the ship I was really hoping that you would be able to weigh in with a positive review of your entire sojourn, including ports of call. So for that, and more, my sincerest thanks! -Todd
Hi, this is the first of your videos we’ve come across - thanks RU-vid algorithm! - and we really enjoyed it. We’ve not been on the Prima but we are on the first Aqua itinerary next year and your review of the entertainment has me and my partner Steve worried… we’ve been on about 20 NCL cruises since 2015 and the entertainment have been getting ever worse. The first few years we’d average four production shows on a week-long cruise, but that’s been lessening ever more post-Covid. Our last trip was a ten-day Alaska itinerary on the Sun and we had two production shows. The rest was lounge acts promoted to the main stage, a couple of not-so-new movies, a US comedian (as Brits we didn’t find the humour translated) who appeared three times and game shows… we’re really not fans of entertainment you have to pay for, such as Deal or No Deal or that tacky couples game. It sounds like we’d better take a fair few books! Ah well, at least there’s a Local (it’ll always be O’Sheehans to us) and the Indulge Food Hall sounds great. Like you we love a good curry, and the French and Mexican places are always good. We don’t like Onda at all, the La Cuccina Italian on older ships is great but Onda is trying far too hard - so much truffle oil! The cabins look great, we’ve a balcony booked on the Aqua (which makes little sense as the only view is the sea!) Inside cabins are indeed great for sleeping, so womb-like. Shutting up now, keep up the good work! - Martin
I won't be on the Prima but on the VIVA next summer in Turkey & Greece ! This is good info for me. I am so excited. I had the feeling it will compare to the Ascent, which I will be on this November ..
Zach thank you for sharing your honest review but before I saw this I was following you on this cruise and I enjoyed it so much I booked one same one for July 2025
Thanks Zach! ...no surprise to you, but we're loyal to Celebrity. Your review is impressive. We're under a month away from our next Aquaclass adventure in the Med on Equinox!
Thanks, Zach. Good to hear how beautiful the ship is. I am nervous about the months and years ahead on NCL, though. The company is not being shy about more big cuts coming. From the WSJ: Norwegian is also looking for $300 million in costs to cut, Kempa said. To do this, an internal group that reports to the CFO is looking across the business for improvements, he said. They benchmark against the company, the cruise industry and the broader travel and leisure sector to determine whether jobs can be done better or differently. “We are maniacally focused on that,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Kempa said.
Hi! I have recently been on board Norwegian Prima. A change has been made to the onboard entertainment which began on cruises commencing 14 July 2024. Syd Norman's tribute to Rumors has been moved to the Prima Theater.
I didn't like it because I was with a person that needed a rollator and I had to plan how to get around the ship maze with maps because one wrong move and you're stuck with someone who can't back track very easily. Comedy club was crowded and there was a post blocking view of the stage. I didn't like the restaurant Indulge as it was very crowded and found a stool to sit on by one food station and unfortunately the I-pad of the restaurant only allowed ordering from that ONE food station. Why? If I sat at the table or booth I could order from any food station, I checked out the other I-pads and they allowed any order, just the stools around the cooking station was restricted and having nowhere else to sit I was limited to what I could order. The walkway with clear floors was closed the entire time so I never got to experience it. The non-water slide somehow had everyone get stuck and have to do the 'wiggle worm' to get out of the tube and on the way to the bottom. Didn't matter if the person was a kid or big adult, people got stuck in that one spot.
It is so sad- the lack of theater production shows on NCL now. I had sailed on their ships for a number of years until they decided to cut their entertainment budget. They used to have 2 major theater production shows + other smaller production shows. Did do the Prima from NY to Iceland. The Sid Norman shows were great but, again, not enough entertainment. And couldn’t make use of outside deck 5 because it was freezing out!! 🙂
Just realized you never talked about the Solo Lounge. I've only been on two cruises so far. The Escape and the FOS. I hear a lot of the Cruise Tubers talk about Shore Excursions Group. But I was wondering with your free at sea and getting $50 per excursion wouldn't you use those credits instead.
I booked the Prima because I loved the upscale experience on the Apex, and it looked like it was going to be a competitor. We’ll see how it goes! July 2025
We are going on this trip in June 2025. We will be starting in Southampton and ending in Reykjavik. I'm so excited! Thank you for the fun review! Trying to find the best place to stay in London though! Any ideas? We are going a few days early to tour around London.
huh. Struggling to understand how the inside is a "huge' stateroom'. It looks tiny. We had an inside cabin on another line that looks to be at least 50% larger if not more.
I done 18 nites nites, 2 cruise, I really enjoyed the ship, all restaurants are outstanding, really enjoyed the Food Halls!! Japanese steakhouse was outstanding, only complaint was the smokers very small smoking area, staff was a problem, not very helpful bar service.
I've been looking at both the Celebrity Apex and the Norwegian Prima for a Norwegian Fjords cruise next summer, and I keep going back and forth on which one I want to book. The two things that keep me waffling are the Prima seems better suited for warm-weather cruising on the whole (lots of outdoor space vs tight indoor spaces), but its spa appears infinitely better than the Apex's, and on a cold-weather cruise, I anticipate spending a lot of time there.
This ship fascinates me - I feel like it's really ground-breaking for Norwegian, but my big hesitation with booking it is the price point. Booking from the UK, I'm finding it almost IMPOSSIBLE to secure a decent price for these ships - it's much cheaper to book with Celebrity on EDGE class, from what I'm seeing!
Good to hear the food was above expectations on Prima. Many of us on Encore just recently commented on the institutional (nursing home) food quality in every venue which was disappointing. Food on Norwegian ships can be hit or miss I’ve found. So…..When are you going to sail on a Cunard Queen and the experience they offer? I want to see that review.😀
Your review of Prima really made me want to revisit and book it. We love NCL and Celebrity, my favorite ship overall is the Beyond. So interesting you made that comparison. I have heard great things about Indulge Food Hall but also that it was over crowded and you couldn't get a table. So you never had that issue?
Prima is absolutely beautiful However, the ship is way too small for the ideas they had in mind… The top pool deck is absolutely awful.. can’t believe they signed off on that… Some of the reasons why I don’t like it….Amazing food though… I MUCH PREFER THE BREAKAWAY/BREAKAWAY PLUS FLEET…NCL needs to go back to the drawing board and build off of the success of the breakaway class..
Prima is absolutely our favorite ship. I know there was a ton of hate for it when she first launched but we thought everything was amazing and we enjoyed the smaller venues. Agreed on all the food. Le bistro and los lobos are our Ncl favorites and loooved Indulge. We went every day for at least one meal in the food hall. As someone who has cruised ncl for over 10 years now it is sad they have cut back on the Broadway shows. They were always amazing.
I didn't really enjoy the Prima ... I did a Transatlantic cruise and the weather was, of course, not so great and the ship's outside areas were not usable. I think it's definitely a warm-weather ship because the interior spaces are FAR too small to have everyone cooped up for days because no one can use the pools or hot tubs .. in fact, they drained them on my crossing. They had activities in venues that were far too small ... for instance, there wasn't much else to do on sea days than trivia and they help it in Sid Norman's ... a very small venue. Not to mention those venues were often the site of a HUGE queue at least an hour and a half before comedy or music shows. I do NOT cruise to stand in the hallway for a couple of hours just to see a comedy show. The one thing I really DID love was the Indulge Food Hall ... it was a cross between the MDR and the buffet, but I didn't have to worry about everyone on the darned ship touching everything ... however, I still ended up disembarking with a case of Covid. My bed was super comfy ... it was basically brand new, since I was on about the 3rd sailing and my stateroom was very nice ... but I really don't know why they didn't place this ship in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean.
We stayed in a Penthouse Haven suite on this ship. Must say in terms of value for money the Prima does not match up to the Retreat or Star Class on Celebrity and RCCL respectively. The Haven aside the ships top decks layout has so many wasted spaces which resulted on our cruise with guests arguing over sunloungers--the speedway track whilst nice once takes up so much space, the kids water park area is also an absolute waste of space along with the games area.
My partner and I sailed the Prima with some friends last April, and while we had a good time overall, we all left with the same question: who is this ship for? It seemed to us that Norwegian were trying to edge more into the premium market with this ship, but their core customer base still mainly comprises families. The result, in our experience, was a ship ill-equipped to cater to all the families on board. We overheard many parents complaining that it was nearly impossible to enroll their children in the kids’ club. On a few occasions, we could not obtain seating at bars because the seats were taken up by young children accompanying their parents. Worst of all, in the absence of a proper teen club, spaces like the observation lounge would become completely overrun by dozens of unsupervised teenagers. At one point, they started a pillow fight in full view of the crew, and no one intervened. It’s not like we expected this to be Cunard, but having been on Disney and Royal Caribbean, it seemed like both of those lines did a much better job keeping kids and teens entertained away from adult spaces.
Zach, was the ship at capacity when you sailed? I’ve been on the fence about giving NCL another shot after better experiences on Celebrity, Princess and HAL. But I’ve only sailed the NCL Epic and that was pretty bad. After watching this, I think I might give the Prima class a try on a repositioning. Love your content!
After our last cruise on the NCL Epic in February 2023, I do not think that I could get my DW to sign off on another NCL cruise. Too many overcrowded venues and very indifferent service which was a major contrast to the cruise on the Celebrity Millennium the week before.
I give Prima a 3 at best out of 5 But only because I loved indulge food hall and the amazing food onboard… take away the food and I really dislike this class of ship… Disappointed because NCL is my favorite cruise line and I only cruise on them… I’m sticking to the breakaway/plus fleet…
I sailed on The Prima in The Haven. Most beautiful ship ever with "meh" food. Also, way too big getting on and off, especially with the port security lines. Paid a huge amount of money, would not do it again. Sorry, just my opinion!
We did prima last year. Terrible, terrible. Food was fine, indulge eating was good, but seating was poor. I couldn't hardly get in and out of their closed in booths. Only 2 elevator banks for poor people, , mid elevator was reserved for havens. Ship seemed more geared for havenites Entertanment? What entertainment?. We had one show, summer show, other show was cancelled smaller show Rooms ( sids and the other one, ) had 60 chairs ( i counted them) and space for maybe another 60 or so standing room only. I tried to get into room to see rumours, couldnt put my head in the door. At 8:30 there was a 100 passenger line, for the 10 30 show, which meant 60-70 people would be standing for 3 hours to see a cover band. I realize you have to kiss up to the cruise lines, but what are you talking about? More venues? . Most ncl ships have 2 large rooms, theater and spinnaker , etc, this ship had only one big room, 2 100 people capacity lounges, and nothing else. There was nothing to do, there were no other venues that you could get into. never again
I'm just going to have to disagree here. I love your content Zach, but I wholeheartedly disagree on the Prima. The layout of the ship makes whole sections of the ship unavailable for the Haven and speciality restaurants that are only open for dinner. Probably a third of the ship is unaccessible. On a rainy day - which we had two - it dramatically changes the feel of the ship. This ship is designed to be out in sunny weather where everyone is out on deck. If you eliminate the outdoor spaces - 4000 people crammed in the already haphazardly available space. I was not a fan. Two days on our cruise, the "ipad" ordering system at Indulge food hall was non operational. It made a really great concept incredibly tedious and difficult. I found the outdoor spaces the best part of the ship - but only from 6am to 8am - before hoards of folks descended on the main pool and two infinity pools. It's the smallest pool I've ever seen on a ship that size. and it just made me feel like the pool areas were designed to be or intended to be relaxing. We also saw sections or venues on the ship closed for "private events" multiple times. After my experience with this ship - I don't think I'd ever sail on a large ship like that again. I'm much better suited for the experience on Holland America or Oceania or Viking. Those cruise lines are destination focused - versus trying to make the ship the destination that happens to pull into ports.
Been on edge class ships and the prima. Preferred the edge class by far. Not even close. Food, service, horticulture and design on celebrity much better than NCL.
Zach Love your "Truth" reviews.Will you do a review on the brands you have sailed about security. The FBI has come out with the report of 2023-24 and maybe you could examined...Thanks.
