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.
Any idea if they intend to change that? We sail Viva in Nov24 and Prima May25 and most of the reviews are moans about things NCL could possibly fix by a few small changes mostly around not enough seating or restricted seating in Indulge.
Ok on Ncl Prima May 22 2025. From what I see and all I read Prima a bad design Buffet small and lot of through traffic Eat at Hudson more. Will have great time
All the other lines went big Ncl went small More ports are easy Outside seating bigger Cost lot of things we use small and bad location Rated worst ship Will be charitable but honest in my review
As a follow up Viva was disappointing and doesn’t make us look forward to Prima in May 25 :(. Indulge was not great, over crowded, tables not cleared, closed from 3pm to 5pm when everything else is also closed apart from burgers. Seasoned cruisers and this was 5th NCL cruise and by far the most disappointing. NCLs standards are slipping badly. Maybe Prima is run better than Viva let’s hope so.
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.
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 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.
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
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.
Regarding the shows, it’s best that they have two performances per evening since people eat dinner at various times. Otherwise, not everyone would be able to see them all. The entertainment is top notch. They have offered amazing musicals like Jersey Boys, Six, Beetlejuice, Summer, Burn the Floor, and so much more!
Just reviewed this video because we are going on the Prima tomorrow. After watching this video I am very excited about this cruise. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I enjoyed this video very much. One of the best videos I’ve watched.
Im glad I watched your review. I've seen too many negative ones that I was questioning my decision to sail on Prima, in December 2025 New Years cruise in the Caribbean . Cannot wait! If Norwegian cancels another itinerary on me though, this could be it for them!
Hi! We are booked for New Years 2025 out of Cape Canaveral. We just got off Celebrity Ascent and it was amazing! We have heard mixed reviews from friends that have been on Prima. We shall see…..
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 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.
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!
We just booked this ship for a 7 day first week of March and are looking forward to it. Thanks for the good review as I like to get a little familiar with a ship before we get on it. Kinda glad to hear you say the food was good as that was our biggest disappointment (compared to our previous NCL cruises) on the cruise we just got off of on the Getaway. We happened to mention that to a maitre d' and he told his that was a complaint across all NCL because at the beginning of the year they lowered their food standards. Also the Getaway doesn't have an observation lounge which is a big let down on a transatlantic. We loved everyone that worked on the ship though and that has stayed a huge plus on every NCL we have done.
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.
we sailed a transatlantic cruise on Prima in Nov of 2023 from Barcelona to NYC. It was an 11 day cruise. We had a beautiful balcony suite on the ship and I thought the ship was amazing. I also agree with your ratings on the shows. Donna Summer, Price, etc. Excellent! The staff was a highlight for us as well. They couldn't be more accommodating, friendly and so helpful. Same thing, by Day 2, I was known by name at Starbucks and they knew my drink. Where we differ, was the quality of the food. Especally in the free areas, So, this might be because this was my first cruise since I went a bunch in the 80s & 90s. My Last cruise was a NCL Cruise in 1997. So, my comparisons are from those 80s & 90s experiences. To me, the food in free areas was mostly comparable to an Applebees, TGIF Fridays, and the paid restaurants were higher quality, more like I remember back in the day. Yes, they throw a lot of food options at you, but individually, none of it is all that impressive. Nothing to me was bad, no, but it was just okay. With the gorgeous ship as your surrounding, the food seemed a little out of place. We ate at the Steak House one night, my steak was of the quality of a Texas Roadhouse. There are many much better places than that to have a great steak. It wasn't the best quality steak. So I was a little disappointed with that. Again, my reference is what dining was like back in the day where everything was top shelf and the Main dining rooms with your early or late seatings were your only choices. I life the freestyle options, its just a shame that they lowered the overall quality of the food. Enjoyed your review, thanks!
I sailed on the Norwegian Prima back in March of this year. Overall I was not a fan of the actual ship, even though I loved the food (entertainment, for me, was sorely lacking), but I LOVED the port stops: Costa Maya, Harvest Caye/Belize, Rohatan/Honduras, Cozumel. P.S. I love your accent ;)
Just got off Celebrity Ascent and we fell in love with the ship, food, design, and entertainment on board. We have booked Prima for New Years 2025 and it’s going to be tough for them to beat our Ascent experience with HUGE POOL, PLUS AMAZING SHOWS! And delicious food venues. We shall see if NCL can compete with Celebrity Edge class.
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.
Thanks for the review! We sailed the Prima a couple years ago, and will do the reverse of your cruise next summer. It’s an odd ship, I got lost a lot, but really enjoyed her. I was concerned about being on her in more inclement weather, but your balanced review put my mind at ease!
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.
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.
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 😊
Hi, this is the first of your videos we’ve come across - thanks RUclips 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
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
The best production show I’ve ever seen on a cruise was RCCL’s musical rendition of the movie “Saturday Night Fever”. They even had the scene of the bridge jump.
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 . 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 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 ❤
Each cruise line has its promoters and detractors. I appreciate your videos and I get it that negative hype draws in more views.... so thanks for sharing!
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. 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!
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
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 .
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.
I think the similarity of design is a minus, not a plus. To me, they are both generic modern beige/taupe craze ships that don't have the distinctive qualities their previous classes of ships had. Once the "modernity" of the ship wears off, then what do you have? Why does the Edge have less clubs and social spaces in it than the previous smaller classes? Because it has so many restaurants that Celebrity can use for revenue enhancements. The Prima has space after space after space for revenue enhancement as well. And you don't get all of the ship unless you're in a suite. If not, a significant portion of both ships are suite only. Suite passengers love that. Non-suite passengers may or may not care, but they don't get to use the full ship.
We just decided against the prima, after seeing how much smaller the Haven looks compared to when we were on the Joy. We will probably do a duplex yacht club on msc for the next trip
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 ..
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.
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 feel like I would love Prima if not for the really small venues. However in fairness the venus on the Escape are small as well but I managed. They definitely need a larger space for Sid Normans.
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.
Loved the Norwegian Prima, not one complaint, I have a unique taste palate, it has to be very good, main dining was great. Viva was not as great, this was after we went on the Prima, our cabin guy was not as friendly or thorough in cleaning but on Prima it was great. Indulge food on Viva not as good as the Prima, not sure why.
Im yet to do a cruise, but I know I wanna do Norwegian and I wanna sail on the Prima. Was lookijg at their Northern Europe cruises next year, youve got me wanting to try then and this ship!
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.
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.
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.
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!
Thank you for providing such a thorough and enthusiastic review of your recent North Atlantic NCL 27:1127:11 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
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!! 🙂
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.
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.😀
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,
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 husband and I went on the Viva in August this year and so far, its identical to the Prima, in every way we did a 10 day Med cruise and had a great time our real complaint is the same small pool so packed in a summer in Europe and being from Australia and coming from winter we had looked forward to it. our cabin was awesome we had a balcony on deck 9 and the bathroom so good as it fit my 6ft 2 tall husband well so With everything you have mentioned its exactly the same, and we loved Palamar
@@ZachtheTravelingMan A question if I may.... Did you find the excursions on this cruise to be extraordinarily expensive? The prices I'm seeing are much higher than any other cruise I've even been on. Since I will be doing the same itinerary that you've already done, can you provide any guidance about the best ones? Thanks much.
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
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.
I haven't been on Prima yet. And I just did transatlantic on the Encore, Jade and Escape. Always had a great time. But every time I go I seem to get surrounded by people complaining and just plain bitching about everything. Most of the time they were trying to get something for free. Do you have any suggestions for how to escape these winers. Thanks G Foley.
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 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
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 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 also think Cruiseships should air all the Shows on Cruiseship Cabin TVs so we can watch them there if we can't see it in person. If they can air Port Talks why not the shows? I know its because of Piracy, but it'd be nice.
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?
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm thrilled you enjoyed the video. You can book the cruise through their official site or a trusted travel agency. Happy sailing!
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 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!
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.
Any idea if they intend to change that? We sail Viva in Nov24 and Prima May25 and most of the reviews are moans about things NCL could possibly fix by a few small changes mostly around not enough seating or restricted seating in Indulge.
Ok on Ncl Prima May 22 2025. From what I see and all I read Prima a bad design
Buffet small and lot of through traffic
Eat at Hudson more. Will have great time
All the other lines went big
Ncl went small
More ports are easy
Outside seating bigger
Cost lot of things we use small and bad location
Rated worst ship
Will be charitable but honest in my review
As a follow up Viva was disappointing and doesn’t make us look forward to Prima in May 25 :(. Indulge was not great, over crowded, tables not cleared, closed from 3pm to 5pm when everything else is also closed apart from burgers. Seasoned cruisers and this was 5th NCL cruise and by far the most disappointing. NCLs standards are slipping badly. Maybe Prima is run better than Viva let’s hope so.
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.
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 sail out of Galveston on this ship this coming Friday...
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.
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
I totally agree that the Local isn’t great in terms of times and food availability. Just go back to the O’Sheehans model, everyone loves that.
We were on a cold weather cruise on the Star and I had similar comments about the ship not well suited well for cold weather.
I'm a big NCL cruiser and had heard so many bad things about Prima, but now I want to go on it. Thanks for an excellent video...as usual! 😊
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.
Before covid Norwegian was known for its entertainment. They cut back a lot after the restart.
Zach, that was an excellent review!
Regarding the shows, it’s best that they have two performances per evening since people eat dinner at various times. Otherwise, not everyone would be able to see them all. The entertainment is top notch. They have offered amazing musicals like Jersey Boys, Six, Beetlejuice, Summer, Burn the Floor, and so much more!
Loved your review! Thanks! We're sailing on the Prima in 4 days; can't wait!!
How is it!??!
I really appreciate your reviews! Seems honest and fair, you've convinced us to try the Prima class shiips!
Glad to hear it!
Just reviewed this video because we are going on the Prima tomorrow. After watching this video I am very excited about this cruise. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I enjoyed this video very much. One of the best videos I’ve watched.
Im glad I watched your review. I've seen too many negative ones that I was questioning my decision to sail on Prima, in December 2025 New Years cruise in the Caribbean . Cannot wait! If Norwegian cancels another itinerary on me though, this could be it for them!
Hi! We are booked for New Years 2025 out of Cape Canaveral. We just got off Celebrity Ascent and it was amazing! We have heard mixed reviews from friends that have been on Prima. We shall see…..
You are the most enthusiastic tell it like it is cruise reviewers i dont subscribe to many channels but you sir have earned that much at least ty
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!!!
Glad you like them!
I loved your review. I'm looking forward to cruising on the Prima real soon!!
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.
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!
We just booked this ship for a 7 day first week of March and are looking forward to it. Thanks for the good review as I like to get a little familiar with a ship before we get on it. Kinda glad to hear you say the food was good as that was our biggest disappointment (compared to our previous NCL cruises) on the cruise we just got off of on the Getaway. We happened to mention that to a maitre d' and he told his that was a complaint across all NCL because at the beginning of the year they lowered their food standards. Also the Getaway doesn't have an observation lounge which is a big let down on a transatlantic. We loved everyone that worked on the ship though and that has stayed a huge plus on every NCL we have done.
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.
we sailed a transatlantic cruise on Prima in Nov of 2023 from Barcelona to NYC. It was an 11 day cruise. We had a beautiful balcony suite on the ship and I thought the ship was amazing. I also agree with your ratings on the shows. Donna Summer, Price, etc. Excellent! The staff was a highlight for us as well. They couldn't be more accommodating, friendly and so helpful. Same thing, by Day 2, I was known by name at Starbucks and they knew my drink. Where we differ, was the quality of the food. Especally in the free areas, So, this might be because this was my first cruise since I went a bunch in the 80s & 90s. My Last cruise was a NCL Cruise in 1997. So, my comparisons are from those 80s & 90s experiences. To me, the food in free areas was mostly comparable to an Applebees, TGIF Fridays, and the paid restaurants were higher quality, more like I remember back in the day. Yes, they throw a lot of food options at you, but individually, none of it is all that impressive. Nothing to me was bad, no, but it was just okay. With the gorgeous ship as your surrounding, the food seemed a little out of place. We ate at the Steak House one night, my steak was of the quality of a Texas Roadhouse. There are many much better places than that to have a great steak. It wasn't the best quality steak. So I was a little disappointed with that. Again, my reference is what dining was like back in the day where everything was top shelf and the Main dining rooms with your early or late seatings were your only choices. I life the freestyle options, its just a shame that they lowered the overall quality of the food. Enjoyed your review, thanks!
I sailed on the Norwegian Prima back in March of this year. Overall I was not a fan of the actual ship, even though I loved the food (entertainment, for me, was sorely lacking), but I LOVED the port stops: Costa Maya, Harvest Caye/Belize, Rohatan/Honduras, Cozumel.
P.S. I love your accent ;)
Just got off Celebrity Ascent and we fell in love with the ship, food, design, and entertainment on board. We have booked Prima for New Years 2025 and it’s going to be tough for them to beat our Ascent experience with HUGE POOL, PLUS AMAZING SHOWS! And delicious food venues. We shall see if NCL can compete with Celebrity Edge class.
We loved Prima. So much so that I just booked on the Aqua. Can’t wait!
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.
Great Review and really highlighting all details on Prima. thanks!
Thank you. Zach. Just booked a trip last night on the Prima for Nov 2024 to Bermuda, you made me so happy we picked this ship.
Thanks Zach, great review. Sailing on Prima in November; cant wait!
Thanks for the review! We sailed the Prima a couple years ago, and will do the reverse of your cruise next summer. It’s an odd ship, I got lost a lot, but really enjoyed her. I was concerned about being on her in more inclement weather, but your balanced review put my mind at ease!
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.
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.
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 😊
Hi, this is the first of your videos we’ve come across - thanks RUclips 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
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
The best production show I’ve ever seen on a cruise was RCCL’s musical rendition of the movie “Saturday Night Fever”. They even had the scene of the bridge jump.
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 . 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 !
Thanks for your review of the Prima and the itinerary! I’m sailing soon and your videos are a great first look for my adventure!
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 ❤
Great review…more excited than ever for my cruise! We are doing the same itinerary later this month.
I love the review. Norwegian used to have phenomenal Broadway-esque shows, but stopped that in cost cuts a couple of years ago.
Each cruise line has its promoters and detractors. I appreciate your videos and I get it that negative hype draws in more views.... so thanks for sharing!
Taking this exact cruise next month! Thanks for the vlogs. So excited! First time on Prima
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. 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!
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
Great review. Sailed on Prima in March out of Galveston and had a wonderful time.
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 .
Great information!
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.
I think the similarity of design is a minus, not a plus. To me, they are both generic modern beige/taupe craze ships that don't have the distinctive qualities their previous classes of ships had. Once the "modernity" of the ship wears off, then what do you have? Why does the Edge have less clubs and social spaces in it than the previous smaller classes? Because it has so many restaurants that Celebrity can use for revenue enhancements. The Prima has space after space after space for revenue enhancement as well. And you don't get all of the ship unless you're in a suite. If not, a significant portion of both ships are suite only. Suite passengers love that. Non-suite passengers may or may not care, but they don't get to use the full ship.
We just decided against the prima, after seeing how much smaller the Haven looks compared to when we were on the Joy. We will probably do a duplex yacht club on msc for the next trip
I will be on the VIVA out of San Juan this winter, and I cannot wait to see these ships!
You truly give great reviews...sounds wonderful!!!
Thanks so much!
@@ZachtheTravelingMan You are welcome!
We had a great time on board of Prima! We Love it! Absolute recommend it!
I will be talking my 2nd cruise on the Prima November 7th. A 16 night transatlantic from Rome to NYC. Can't wait.
Sounds like an amazing cruise!
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 ..
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.
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 feel like I would love Prima if not for the really small venues. However in fairness the venus on the Escape are small as well but I managed. They definitely need a larger space for Sid Normans.
Great video Zach. Totally makes me want to do that itinerary.
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.
Loved the Norwegian Prima, not one complaint, I have a unique taste palate, it has to be very good, main dining was great. Viva was not as great, this was after we went on the Prima, our cabin guy was not as friendly or thorough in cleaning but on Prima it was great. Indulge food on Viva not as good as the Prima, not sure why.
Im yet to do a cruise, but I know I wanna do Norwegian and I wanna sail on the Prima. Was lookijg at their Northern Europe cruises next year, youve got me wanting to try then and this ship!
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.
Wow, got to the end of the full video. Impressive score!
Thanks for this review! Trying to decide which ship to book.
Great review! Sad I missed the Price is Right, but I'll jump on that the next time I see it!
Great review , and I really agree with you in everything. Amazons ship. We can’t wait to comeback. Beautiful, amazing food and very fun.
We loved Prima - Caribbean March 2023. ❤ Indulge food hall, our favorite too!
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.
I’m so excited!! I just booked this for my first solo cruise next year! Thanks
Hope you enjoy it!
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.
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!
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
I loved the Prima, went to the carribean, I think it’s more for warm weather for sure. It’s a beautiful modern ship food great!
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!! 🙂
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.
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.😀
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,
Enjoyed this video so much--so helpful--thank you!
You are so welcome!
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 husband and I went on the Viva in August this year and so far, its identical to the Prima, in every way we did a 10 day Med cruise and had a great time our real complaint is the same small pool so packed in a summer in Europe and being from Australia and coming from winter we had looked forward to it. our cabin was awesome we had a balcony on deck 9 and the bathroom so good as it fit my 6ft 2 tall husband well so With everything you have mentioned its exactly the same, and we loved Palamar
Thank you so much. Sailing next summer on this ship and this same itinerary!!!!
You are in for a treat!
@@ZachtheTravelingMan A question if I may.... Did you find the excursions on this cruise to be extraordinarily expensive? The prices I'm seeing are much higher than any other cruise I've even been on. Since I will be doing the same itinerary that you've already done, can you provide any guidance about the best ones? Thanks much.
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
Thank you, however we already booked
I loved the prima. The buffet is small,however the food was always hot and tasty. The ship feels very upscale.
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.
I haven't been on Prima yet. And I just did transatlantic on the Encore, Jade and Escape. Always had a great time. But every time I go I seem to get surrounded by people complaining and just plain bitching about everything. Most of the time they were trying to get something for free. Do you have any suggestions for how to escape these winers. Thanks G Foley.
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.
great video the ship is very lovely the cabin and ports and food looks great as well
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
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 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 also think Cruiseships should air all the Shows on Cruiseship Cabin TVs so we can watch them there if we can't see it in person. If they can air Port Talks why not the shows? I know its because of Piracy, but it'd be nice.
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?
Love your video. Where do you go book this cruise?
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm thrilled you enjoyed the video. You can book the cruise through their official site or a trusted travel agency. Happy sailing!
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.
We cruise RCL- Oasis, Celbrity - Edge class- NCL - Leonardo...rotating from one to the next... Prima is D*** nice
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!
Wow! Your review is going to make me take a look. What was the previous #1?
Valiant Lady from Virgin Voyages
@@ZachtheTravelingMan I thought it was one of the Celebrity Ships. Where did you rank Ascent?
@jervettaburns9374 Ascent was 4.44 and Valiant Lady was 4.60.