nice review, we have been on both Prima and Viva... and you have summed this up very well. Missed a couple of the watering holes though.... Wiskey bar!! The Haven experience is a major upgrade and we have done this on both Viva and Prima and you did not cover that, or the Beach Club adult only areas....
Thanks for the video, getting on the Prima in Galveston in two weeks. I normally use Carnival but thought I would try a new experience this year. The video helped me with the food questions I had
@@alano9936 I thought the ship was beautiful. I really thought the food was mediocre at best. The indulge food place was unique but overall i think Carnival has much better food. There was a lot of music shows to see throughout the evenings but the areas they were in were so small and horribly overcrowded. The pool and deck area was very small and closed much to early in the evening and never offered entertainment like Carnival. Overall the experience was somewhat negative I would say. I would not want to sail on the Prima again.
Pretty sure that anyone who has cruised on NCL knows about these things with the drink package and love the changes with catering to the upgrade golf option and virgin style food hall. The problem is, they are catering less and less to family however still allow bookings to go over 100% so there is space crunch
We sailed on the Prima in September out of Iceland. This ship is not made for cold weather. No one used the outdoor seating areas, so the inside spaces were very busy. The go cart track only ran once over the 11 days. We feel the buffet was too small, as on Port days when everyone is in a hurry for their excursions, the buffet can’t handle the crowds. And on Sea days the buffet closed too early. People like to sleep in on Sea days, but the buffet closed at 930 am. And the Indulge Hall was only open for two hours at lunch time, with little seating. No more NCL for us.
We were on the prima, 5/7. Never again for me. The indulge food area had different , better than good food, and the local bar (adobo on the menu so my wife was happy ) both had good menu, but no seating/severely restricted seating. They have these tight booths with ?obstructions/rails at your feet which made it difficult for me to get in/out. They had the gokart, etc, which is ok. They have 1 large area, no secondary spinnaker- lounge-large area like on all the other ncl ships Ive been on, So only 1 large show a night. Fortunately, they only had 1 "broadway" type show, A Donna summer tribute- standard cruise fair, and 2 comedians. Thats it. I believe they were going to do "something like crazy? boots" but it was canceled early on. Maybe from injury. I wouldn't blame ncl if it was injury related. The killer is the small rooms, syds, improv. We had the rumours band, but at 8:15 you could not even stick your head in the room to see. At 8:30 there was a 100 person line, i counted, to get into the 10:30 show. There are only 60 seats/chairs in the rooms, I counted, and maybe room for another 100 or so bodies, so the people at the back half line are gonna be standing for 3 hours to see a cover band.uh-huh The mid ship atrium has an 6th floor stage, but it has roof over it?, so you can't see the stage from deck 7 or 8, and it has a wall of knick-knacks/bottles/sculptures surrounding the stage so you can't hardly see the stage while sitting on 6th floor. So, no show at night (once you've seen the one show available), and you cannot reasonably expect to get into the smaller rooms unless you wait 2 hours in line, what does ncl want you to do? Drink?. I don't drink.. I'm going on escape tomorrow, to Canada, looking forward to it
We did the Prima too about a year ago. I have some of the same complaints as you do. Also the atrium being on 3 floors was difficult to see entertainment if they even had anything going on. Beautiful design on outside of ship, but interior not so much. Balcony cabins were roomier and full size showers was great.
@@effie-Torontowe sailed Prima last month for two weeks. Really quite angry how much time and money we wasted booking it. We are gold latitude members, so not first time NCL cruisers. I cannot explain my level of disappointment with the whole Prima experience.
We were on Prima very early on our of Port Canaveral. It was a good looking ship and our cabin was great, BUT functionally we thought the Prima sucked. Pretty much all venues were too small to accomodate the number of passengers who wanted to enjoy them. The Local bar that is shown in this video was always packed 2 people deep trying to get drinks. It was nearly impossible to get a drink there. Don't be fooled by people who say you can watch sports at the Local bar. It's a super tiny space and in the middle of a very busy hallway. For sports fans, there is no place for the crowds to watch sports. They completely missed the boat on the sports bar thing. The Whiskey bar (no TVs) seemed to be the best place on the ship to get a drink (beer and wine for us) and it did have a nice view of the water out the large windows. The outside upper deck area available to us steerage passengers who were not Haven or lucky enough to get a Vibe area pass was tiny. Ridiculously tiny for a cruise ship. Between the go cart track, the Haven and Vibe Beach Club (limited paid access), there wasn't much upper deck space left. As mentioned in the video, one side of the ship is also typically in the shade which only leaves one side of the Boulevard in the sun. Sun worshippers may find this ship frustrating. We lined up 1 hr and 15 minutes ahead of time for Sid Normans and manged to get a seat off to the side. I spoke to a bandmember and they agreed that the venue was way too small and felt they should be playing in the theater instead so everyone could see them. A good portion of the passengers will never have the chance to see them due to the limited size of the venue. While I sat there during the show and looked around at all the people standing shoulder to shoulder, I just kept thinking what a fire trap it was. Again, great "looking" ship, but we felt let down after the cruise because functionally the ship was so frustrating in comparison to other lines, and even other NCL ships.
Cruised the NCL Viva Nov 2024. We will be on Prima in May 25 so hope they have the problems sorted. Nearly all is spot on with the review as Viva is the Prima’s sister ship. BUT the Indulge food hall was a disaster for us on the Viva. NCL for some stupid reason only offer scones, pizza, burger and chips between 3pm and 5pm when the buffet and the Indulge food hall all close!! Of course these are the times when everyone comes back from day trips so we spent a week eating burgers for lunch 😢. Never have we been on a ship that did this and this was our 5th cruise with NCL and 16th overall in the last decade. This needs to change as Indulge had dirty tables with dirty plates, overworked staff, we got undercooked chicken in a korma and people all around us were losing it with mixed up orders, cold food or no food arriving. NCL have a lot to fix with this class of ship or else they are going to lose loyal cruisers.
Nice video! (I want to one day sail on this ship). Note: I did hear that NCL built this one too "small" (144k) tonnes, trying to go for a "smaller" but nicer more refined look + vibe. However I think they admitted their mistakes and will build its next ships 10%, and then 20% larger (going more back the original size of about 170K tonnage - like the bliss, and encore are). Can't wait for those too! (I do wish they would build one or two "mega ships" to add variety into their fleet: Perhaps 200k + tonnes.
No. Only the premium beverage package includes bottled water. Even if you get the Starbucks package or soda package, you cannot get bottled water. Sneaky right?
@@harrisonjonesRVAVenues are for 30 people Buffet is so small good luck finding a table,,,,,,,,,production show only ONCE and you have to line up for over 1 hour in order to get a seat due to the theater being so small......Indulge if you do not go 1 hour before it opens well then there is no table for you........Good luck by the way we have cruises 30X and this was WORST ship ever
Can you still change your booking because having sailed Prima last month I highly recommend you do. We are gold latitude members so not new to NCL. This ship fails and disappoints dramatically on so many levels. Returned home wishing we’d not even bothered.
@@effie-Toronto we’ve not sailed NCL as many times as you but we are gold latitude members. I absolutely agree, this ship although beautiful both externally and internally, is the worst cruising experience we’ve had with any cruise line. Absolutely awful. I’m so disappointed we wasted vacation time and quite a lot of money for us. So so sad to be honest. I actually feel we were scammed.
We are regular NCL Haven guests, and just completed a 11 day Spain to NYC transatlantic on Prima in December 2023. I liked the Galaxy pavilion I didnt like the escape room due to rough seas and the small room caused me to start feeling sea sick. The buffet is definitely smaller and finding a seat in the morning was tricky. Thankfully as Haven guests the breakfast buffet was not a priority and we just ate breakfast in the Haven. The Prima class are not cooler temperature/ water ships. Even in the Haven there are only outdoor hot tubs and pool. As we approached NYC in December the Haven sundeck, pool, an hot tubs were useless. *** Please tell viewees to not go to the public buffets in the morning disheveled and wearing pajamas --- nobody needs to see that
Heading out to sea in a barge with more than 3,000 others. You spend half your time standing in line for something you get at home, but cheaper. And the other half of the time you are kept awake by the question that is not answered: why do I want this?
Haha! Not a bad synopsis really. I do love cruising when it goes well, but crowding was an issue on this ship and has been on others. We are going on Virgin at Christmas this year. I’ve heard good things about it. Hopefully not crowded.
I am on the Prima now. Here's a comment I sent through Norwegian's website. As I type this, my knee pain is still bad and the knee and ribs/side on the left side of my body had aggravating pain for 18 hours (I could barely walk) This is my first and without question my LAST cruise with Norwegian!
I went on the ship and I tried to get into the CID Norman's I thought I was going to be okay by waiting an hour and a half before the show started and sure enough the line was out the door I'm probably 150 deep
The food sounds good. I'm going to go on NCL once more because I have some cruise first money but unless they have show one can get into this last time, I'm done. They have very few shows once can actually get into, the small venues on all their ships require one to stand in line at least a hour. The theater is mostly those awful game show, no stand hardly any shows. Going to my cabin shortly after dinner is dull, one can pay for streaming TV but if I want to watch TV I do better at home and the streaming often stop working when if been on the open sea, so I expect to say goodbye NCL
I had sailed on the prima shortly after its premiere and then again April 25 and noted the decline in the experience. The ship was designed to decentralize food and entertainment. That worked better when the staffing was adequate. The buffet was small and crowded the struggle to find food and then find seating was exhausting. The indulge food hall was equally crowded and the technology used for ordering was not operating correctly about half the time. The wait staff filled in the errors of the technology and was unavailable for long periods as they tried to fill in. Hudson’s was the traditional main dining room. The staff there was poorly trained and seemed to struggle with basics. I was served a wedge salad that was such a wilted mess that in a professional setting the waiter would never have brought it to the table. The pool area is too small. The ocean boulevard areas fill up quickly and the staff hasn’t been trained to handle “chair hogs” with unattended belongings holding spots for hours while people try to find chairs. The embarkation and debarkation were chaotic. And set an industry record for delays. I was told the port based personnel were to blame, but Royal Caribbean leaves from the same port with much more organization. One great entertainment production. It was excellent but of course the venue was too small to accommodate the demand. The informal performances were also very good but in awful venues. The Penrose atrium was jam packed with folding chairs at night. Really, folding chairs, because it was the only entertainment available. The frustration level was high, the staff disappeared when ask to explain. The sushi restaurant was very good but never had more than 6 or seven diners in it. The observation lounge is a great place to sit and read, but is often jam packed. I am going to put NCL on hold for a while in hopes they address these issues
Thanks for the update. It often happens that cruise lines move the A team staff to the newest boat, so perhaps they are on Aqua now. Shame as the boat has potential but it has to be managed carefully.
Please read and watch unbiased reviews of this ship. The ship itself is beautiful. That’s where the good points end. It’s massively overcrowded. Service is lacking. Food is not the usual NCL standard. Entertainment, if you can call it that, is just insulting to be honest. Please consider very carefully before booking this ship. We returned home hugely disappointed.
Did not like this ship at all. This is ship has so many extra charges, the mail pool is very small, you have to book the shows and the venus for a ship this big really stink
This is a new style type of ship and it was awful small venues,only 1 production show and you had to line up 1 hour before to get a seat because theater is very small, buffet was so small and you can never get a table.............we have cruise over 30 X and this Prima ship was AWFUL
Excellent video. In 10 minutes you point out the best and not so great areas of the ship
Thank you for this review. Mostly, I only eat at cruises ship buffets for breakfast when I'm tight on time before an excursion.
nice review, we have been on both Prima and Viva... and you have summed this up very well. Missed a couple of the watering holes though.... Wiskey bar!! The Haven experience is a major upgrade and we have done this on both Viva and Prima and you did not cover that, or the Beach Club adult only areas....
Thanks for the video, getting on the Prima in Galveston in two weeks. I normally use Carnival but thought I would try a new experience this year. The video helped me with the food questions I had
Hope you enjoy it!
Do you like the ship ?
Curious how your experience was? I too sailed on the Prima and I’m curious if we share the same opinion?..
@@alano9936 I thought the ship was beautiful. I really thought the food was mediocre at best. The indulge food place was unique but overall i think Carnival has much better food. There was a lot of music shows to see throughout the evenings but the areas they were in were so small and horribly overcrowded. The pool and deck area was very small and closed much to early in the evening and never offered entertainment like Carnival. Overall the experience was somewhat negative I would say. I would not want to sail on the Prima again.
Mike! How was it?
Pretty sure that anyone who has cruised on NCL knows about these things with the drink package and love the changes with catering to the upgrade golf option and virgin style food hall. The problem is, they are catering less and less to family however still allow bookings to go over 100% so there is space crunch
Thanks for your honest opinion. Based on that, I don’t think I would sail on her.
We sailed on the Prima in September out of Iceland. This ship is not made for cold weather. No one used the outdoor seating areas, so the inside spaces were very busy. The go cart track only ran once over the 11 days. We feel the buffet was too small, as on Port days when everyone is in a hurry for their excursions, the buffet can’t handle the crowds. And on Sea days the buffet closed too early. People like to sleep in on Sea days, but the buffet closed at 930 am. And the Indulge Hall was only open for two hours at lunch time, with little seating. No more NCL for us.
We hated this Prima ship could not wait to get off............Never again...we have cruises 30 so we know ships
@@effie-Torontowhy such a bad review?
It looks beautiful ship…..are you saying it’s not a great experience?
Your review doesn't quite make sense. OK, you didn't like Prima. Why does that translate to no more NCL?
We were on the prima, 5/7. Never again for me. The indulge food area had different , better than good food, and the local bar (adobo on the menu so my wife was happy ) both had good menu, but no seating/severely restricted seating. They have these tight booths with ?obstructions/rails at your feet which made it difficult for me to get in/out. They had the gokart, etc, which is ok. They have 1 large area, no secondary spinnaker- lounge-large area like on all the other ncl ships Ive been on, So only 1 large show a night. Fortunately, they only had 1 "broadway" type show, A Donna summer tribute- standard cruise fair, and 2 comedians. Thats it. I believe they were going to do "something like crazy? boots" but it was canceled early on. Maybe from injury. I wouldn't blame ncl if it was injury related.
The killer is the small rooms, syds, improv. We had the rumours band, but at 8:15 you could not even stick your head in the room to see. At 8:30 there was a 100 person line, i counted, to get into the 10:30 show. There are only 60 seats/chairs in the rooms, I counted, and maybe room for another 100 or so bodies, so the people at the back half line are gonna be standing for 3 hours to see a cover band.uh-huh
The mid ship atrium has an 6th floor stage, but it has roof over it?, so you can't see the stage from deck 7 or 8, and it has a wall of knick-knacks/bottles/sculptures surrounding the stage so you can't hardly see the stage while sitting on 6th floor.
So, no show at night (once you've seen the one show available), and you cannot reasonably expect to get into the smaller rooms unless you wait 2 hours in line, what does ncl want you to do?
Drink?. I don't drink..
I'm going on escape tomorrow, to Canada, looking forward to it
We did the Prima too about a year ago. I have some of the same complaints as you do. Also the atrium being on 3 floors was difficult to see entertainment if they even had anything going on. Beautiful design on outside of ship, but interior not so much. Balcony cabins were roomier and full size showers was great.
Yeah, Kinky Boots would have been a good addition.
We hated NCL Prima never again we were on it sept. 2023
@@effie-Torontowe sailed Prima last month for two weeks. Really quite angry how much time and money we wasted booking it. We are gold latitude members, so not first time NCL cruisers. I cannot explain my level of disappointment with the whole Prima experience.
@@effie-Torontowhy?
Awesome review thank you
Thanks Teresa!
NCL Should have declared this an adult cruise ship and not waste space on an unimaginative "kids" area.
Great review
Thanks!
We were on Prima very early on our of Port Canaveral. It was a good looking ship and our cabin was great, BUT functionally we thought the Prima sucked. Pretty much all venues were too small to accomodate the number of passengers who wanted to enjoy them. The Local bar that is shown in this video was always packed 2 people deep trying to get drinks. It was nearly impossible to get a drink there. Don't be fooled by people who say you can watch sports at the Local bar. It's a super tiny space and in the middle of a very busy hallway. For sports fans, there is no place for the crowds to watch sports. They completely missed the boat on the sports bar thing. The Whiskey bar (no TVs) seemed to be the best place on the ship to get a drink (beer and wine for us) and it did have a nice view of the water out the large windows. The outside upper deck area available to us steerage passengers who were not Haven or lucky enough to get a Vibe area pass was tiny. Ridiculously tiny for a cruise ship. Between the go cart track, the Haven and Vibe Beach Club (limited paid access), there wasn't much upper deck space left. As mentioned in the video, one side of the ship is also typically in the shade which only leaves one side of the Boulevard in the sun. Sun worshippers may find this ship frustrating.
We lined up 1 hr and 15 minutes ahead of time for Sid Normans and manged to get a seat off to the side. I spoke to a bandmember and they agreed that the venue was way too small and felt they should be playing in the theater instead so everyone could see them. A good portion of the passengers will never have the chance to see them due to the limited size of the venue. While I sat there during the show and looked around at all the people standing shoulder to shoulder, I just kept thinking what a fire trap it was. Again, great "looking" ship, but we felt let down after the cruise because functionally the ship was so frustrating in comparison to other lines, and even other NCL ships.
Cruised the NCL Viva Nov 2024. We will be on Prima in May 25 so hope they have the problems sorted. Nearly all is spot on with the review as Viva is the Prima’s sister ship. BUT the Indulge food hall was a disaster for us on the Viva. NCL for some stupid reason only offer scones, pizza, burger and chips between 3pm and 5pm when the buffet and the Indulge food hall all close!! Of course these are the times when everyone comes back from day trips so we spent a week eating burgers for lunch 😢. Never have we been on a ship that did this and this was our 5th cruise with NCL and 16th overall in the last decade. This needs to change as Indulge had dirty tables with dirty plates, overworked staff, we got undercooked chicken in a korma and people all around us were losing it with mixed up orders, cold food or no food arriving. NCL have a lot to fix with this class of ship or else they are going to lose loyal cruisers.
How much was the extra stuff, like the go carts, escape room etc?
We didn’t do any of that so don’t know. Don’t seem very busy either.
My wife and I took a cruise on the Prima last year and I was not impressed.
If you have the premium plus beverage, does it include a Starbucks frappe?
Yes it includes all Starbucks beverages.
Nice video! (I want to one day sail on this ship). Note: I did hear that NCL built this one too "small" (144k) tonnes, trying to go for a "smaller" but nicer more refined look + vibe. However I think they admitted their mistakes and will build its next ships 10%, and then 20% larger (going more back the original size of about 170K tonnage - like the bliss, and encore are). Can't wait for those too! (I do wish they would build one or two "mega ships" to add variety into their fleet: Perhaps 200k + tonnes.
Thanks for the info!
Does NCL have a bottled water package you can order? Royal does that
No. Only the premium beverage package includes bottled water. Even if you get the Starbucks package or soda package, you cannot get bottled water. Sneaky right?
NCL absolutely has a a water package. You can order ahead and have 6,12 or 24 liters waiting in your room when you get on board.
@@fatmongo hi quick question what does that cost? TIA
@@m-ay8844 There are a few options. Google "NCL water package."
When did you all sail? We are booked on the Prima in February, and we have had great NCL past experiences
May. Are you somewhere warm! We left from NY and the weather was beautiful.
@@tnptravel I'm in VA, warm enough, but sailing from TX to Mexico Belize etc. I don't really care where we go, I just want to get on the Prima
@@harrisonjonesRVAVenues are for 30 people Buffet is so small good luck finding a table,,,,,,,,,production show only ONCE and you have to line up for over 1 hour in order to get a seat due to the theater being so small......Indulge if you do not go 1 hour before it opens well then there is no table for you........Good luck by the way we have cruises 30X and this was WORST ship ever
Can you still change your booking because having sailed Prima last month I highly recommend you do. We are gold latitude members so not new to NCL. This ship fails and disappoints dramatically on so many levels. Returned home wishing we’d not even bothered.
@@effie-Toronto we’ve not sailed NCL as many times as you but we are gold latitude members. I absolutely agree, this ship although beautiful both externally and internally, is the worst cruising experience we’ve had with any cruise line. Absolutely awful. I’m so disappointed we wasted vacation time and quite a lot of money for us. So so sad to be honest. I actually feel we were scammed.
We are regular NCL Haven guests, and just completed a 11 day Spain to NYC transatlantic on Prima in December 2023.
I liked the Galaxy pavilion
I didnt like the escape room due to rough seas and the small room caused me to start feeling sea sick.
The buffet is definitely smaller and finding a seat in the morning was tricky.
Thankfully as Haven guests the breakfast buffet was not a priority and we just ate breakfast in the Haven.
The Prima class are not cooler temperature/ water ships.
Even in the Haven there are only outdoor hot tubs and pool. As we approached NYC in December the Haven sundeck, pool, an hot tubs were useless.
*** Please tell viewees to not go to the public buffets in the morning disheveled and wearing pajamas --- nobody needs to see that
Heading out to sea in a barge with more than 3,000 others. You spend half your time standing in line for something you get at home, but cheaper. And the other half of the time you are kept awake by the question that is not answered: why do I want this?
Haha! Not a bad synopsis really. I do love cruising when it goes well, but crowding was an issue on this ship and has been on others. We are going on Virgin at Christmas this year. I’ve heard good things about it. Hopefully not crowded.
the drinking package is clear about Starbucks and water not being included-people don't read !
I am on the Prima now. Here's a comment I sent through Norwegian's website.
As I type this, my knee pain is still bad and the knee and ribs/side on the left side of my body had aggravating pain for 18 hours (I could barely walk)
This is my first and without question my LAST cruise with Norwegian!
You are mad because YOU are fat and you slipped. Makes sense
I went on the ship and I tried to get into the CID Norman's I thought I was going to be okay by waiting an hour and a half before the show started and sure enough the line was out the door I'm probably 150 deep
The food sounds good. I'm going to go on NCL once more because I have some cruise first money but unless they have show one can get into this last time, I'm done. They have very few shows once can actually get into, the small venues on all their ships require one to stand in line at least a hour. The theater is mostly those awful game show, no stand hardly any shows. Going to my cabin shortly after dinner is dull, one can pay for streaming TV but if I want to watch TV I do better at home and the streaming often stop working when if been on the open sea, so I expect to say goodbye NCL
I had sailed on the prima shortly after its premiere and then again April 25 and noted the decline in the experience. The ship was designed to decentralize food and entertainment. That worked better when the staffing was adequate. The buffet was small and crowded the struggle to find food and then find seating was exhausting. The indulge food hall was equally crowded and the technology used for ordering was not operating correctly about half the time. The wait staff filled in the errors of the technology and was unavailable for long periods as they tried to fill in. Hudson’s was the traditional main dining room. The staff there was poorly trained and seemed to struggle with basics. I was served a wedge salad that was such a wilted mess that in a professional setting the waiter would never have brought it to the table. The pool area is too small. The ocean boulevard areas fill up quickly and the staff hasn’t been trained to handle “chair hogs” with unattended belongings holding spots for hours while people try to find chairs. The embarkation and debarkation were chaotic. And set an industry record for delays. I was told the port based personnel were to blame, but Royal Caribbean leaves from the same port with much more organization. One great entertainment production. It was excellent but of course the venue was too small to accommodate the demand. The informal performances were also very good but in awful venues. The Penrose atrium was jam packed with folding chairs at night. Really, folding chairs, because it was the only entertainment available. The frustration level was high, the staff disappeared when ask to explain. The sushi restaurant was very good but never had more than 6 or seven diners in it. The observation lounge is a great place to sit and read, but is often jam packed. I am going to put NCL on hold for a while in hopes they address these issues
Thanks for the update. It often happens that cruise lines move the A team staff to the newest boat, so perhaps they are on Aqua now. Shame as the boat has potential but it has to be managed carefully.
Vibe?
Very friendly vibe on this ship. Fellow passengers were nice and laid back. Not rowdy but lively.
May 22 not august
NCL never had an inside pool.
The Haven has an inside pool on all Breakaway class ship
Please read and watch unbiased reviews of this ship. The ship itself is beautiful. That’s where the good points end. It’s massively overcrowded. Service is lacking. Food is not the usual NCL standard. Entertainment, if you can call it that, is just insulting to be honest.
Please consider very carefully before booking this ship. We returned home hugely disappointed.
Did not like this ship at all. This is ship has so many extra charges, the mail pool is very small, you have to book the shows and the venus for a ship this big really stink
You lost me with the buffet whining.
This is a new style type of ship and it was awful small venues,only 1 production show and you had to line up 1 hour before to get a seat because theater is very small, buffet was so small and you can never get a table.............we have cruise over 30 X and this Prima ship was AWFUL