Seas2mountains

We are in London. The flight was only a few minutes late. It was a peaceful and quiet flight. I got about an hour of sleep and feel fine now while my husband got about 3 hours of sleep. It was about a 12 minute walk using escalators and walkways to get from the plane to passport control automated scanners. The machine scanned our passports and did facial recognition and then the gate opened. Our bags were ready about 10 minutes later and we walked out the exit in terminal 2 with no customs checks.

Our flight is delayed slightly but is expected to make up time flying over the pond. We are flying a day earlier than planned and at a later time to take advantage of an upgrade option. We should be taking off soon.

Robots in airline lounge to move dirty dishes.

It was a busy day doing last minute errands, tasks and packing. I had some eggs for breakfast but skipped lunch as I wasn’t hungry. The Airline lounge has plenty of hot and cold food options. I picked chicken piccata, mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini. The chicken was delicious and the zucchini tasted fresh and was perfectly prepared. My husband got a Chipotle chicken sandwich with cheese on the side. He really likes cheese. He said it was good.

We each checked one large suitcase which was so easy to check as there were no lines. My suitcase is 16 pounds heavier than it was for a 7 day warm weather cruise on Breakaway almost a month ago. I packed a lot of layers for Iceland and more toiletries for the additional week of travel. My husband’s suitcase is 5 pounds heavier. My husband tries to help me with my bag since he is a wonderful husband but I try to be Army tough by handling it myself and don’t want him to deal with the consequences of my over packing issues. As the day and time were off peak for travel, there was hardly a line in TSA Pre check. We are waiting in an airline lounge as we got here earlier than we normally do for flights. First drinks were a white blend for my husband and a red blend for me.

Thank you! At the end of the cruise, I expect to say that both are beautiful for different reasons.it is difficult to see some areas of Alaska without access to a plane or helicopter. It is such a personal and subjective answer as you pointed out.

Thank you! Hope you have a great cruise next year. Thank you for following along.

Thank you! I hope you will be able to go on this itinerary in the future.

Thank you! Your recent wonderful live review on the Prima was really helpful and inspired me to do this one to try to share some photos and our experience. Feel free to add your own Prima comments at any time. I hope you will do a live review on Cunard.

This will be our first time on the Prima. I’ll do my best to share more about our experience on the ship along with the itinerary. Feel free to ask any questions.

Thank you so much! I get so hooked on the Live reviews that I know how boring it is when they end. I have been on a boat (not a cruise ship) in the Norwegian fjords and I think the height of the mountains on both sides and the color of the water makes it one of the most beautiful places in the world. I hope you will get to see the Norwegian fjords in person someday, too.

Here is the weather forecast for Southampton (Thursday-Sunday), Bruges (Monday), and Amsterdam (Tuesday). Looks perfect or almost perfect to me. Warm clothes are packed for Norway and Iceland where it will be much colder.

Today is travel day! We are mostly packed and have a few last minute errands to run before we leave to catch our night flight to London. We will stay in Southampton for 3 nights before embarking on the Prima on Sunday. I created a 20 page document with photos and fun facts for our 9 year old granddaughter to follow along on our cruise to include information about each country and port locations. She recently cruised with us on the Breakaway last month with her auntie (our daughter) and auntie's boyfriend. This was our granddaughter's fourth cruise with us and she thinks it is very "rude" of us to go on another cruise without her. My husband asked for a copy of the 20 page document so he would know where we are going and what we are doing! Ha ha!

Here is our itinerary.

I have absolutely loved reading the many Live reviews that keep coming in this forum. Thank you to all who are contributing. I will make an attempt to give back with mostly live information from our experience with photos. However, if the live review gets to be too much, My husband and I will be traveling on this adventure. We both have been to Europe but it has been many, many years since we have been there with the exception of a business trip to London about 10 years ago and a cruise in the Mediterranean about 12 years ago . I lived in Germany and served in Bosnia while in the Army. This meant that I was able to travel to many European locations including Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and the UK but this was about 25+ years ago. My husband was a pilot in the Air Force and he flew to many locations in Europe. We are super excited to see these locations on this itinerary together. The weather is looking fairly decent for the first few days of the cruise. I read some comments on a recent live review about whether Norway is more beautiful than Alaska. My last live review was on the Spirit for a B2B in Alaska last June/July. I'll do my best to include photos of Norway so you can decide.

I wondered the same thing. Why get bothered to have the butler bring bad coffee at 6am when the Nespresso maker produces decent, consistent coffee on demand?

Agree. We have seen these same reports on social media from people using the BOGO promotion who are flying in the day of the cruise only to report that they missed the cruise.

The Haven restaurant will be open for lunch on embarkation day. They are also open every day for lunch whether in port or at sea which I know is different than how it is in Luminae on Celebrity as it is only open when at sea or on embarkation day. The breakfast, lunch and dinner menus will be the same every day in the Haven but there might be some specials offered for dinner. We were given the option to order off the MDR menu in Luminae but that option isn't available in the Haven without giving 24 hour notice to ask for a special food request. We can find dinner options we like on the Haven menu and mix it up with having specialty dining reservations. Our only experience on Celebrity which was in a Retreat suite was on Reflection in the past month. While we have had a few Haven suites, we have not experienced the Haven on the Joy or on ships with a Horizon lounge. We liked the self-serve refrigerators in Michael's Club to grab waters to take back to our room or to take off the ship. You will have to get bottled water at the bars and they will not be stocked in the cabin by the butler. That is good that you got the Free at Sea Plus package as it will give you similar wine options that you may be used to with Celebrity - if you are a wine drinker. The wifi speeds on Reflection seemed to be faster than what we have experienced on NCL ships. The snacks offered in the Retreat embarkation lounge in Fort Lauderdale were definitely better and of higher quality than we have experienced in the Haven embarkation areas in New York and Miami. Your Haven butler will bring you daily treats such as a cheese tray, gummy bears, M&Ms, canapés, sandwiches with chips, chocolates, cookies, mini-desserts, tortilla chips and salsa, and more. You should give your butler your snack preferences when you meet him or her on the first or second day. My husband asks for a daily cheese tray and I ask for tortilla chips or potato chips. The buffet on NCL closes early at about 9pm or 9:30pm so if you are a late night snacker, keep this in mind. The Local/O'Sheehan's is open 24 hours or close to 24 hours or you can always order off the room service menu. We thought the buffet on Celebrity had more options and seemed to be of the same or higher quality than NCL. If you use the solarium on Celebrity, you may consider getting thermal spa passes as the Haven pool area may have many kids. The thermal spa area on the Joy is newly added this year and may be a little different experience than the thermal spas on the larger NCL ships. We liked the Celebrity Retreat experience so much that we booked four cruises on Celebrity in the Retreat in 2025. We are still very happy with NCL and are very excited for our upcoming NCL cruises. Have a wonderful cruise! I hope you share about your experience on NCL Joy.

Yes, the voices get magnified and are more annoying when the loud conversations last 15 minutes and aren't a one-time comment. We do find other peaceful locations outside of the spa and do love the heated lounge chairs and water features enough to keep paying for thermal spa passes despite the recent disappointments.

I agree with you. It says the status right on the cruise card. It is frustrating that it is promised on the Latitudes benefits but we have had the same thing happen. We don't usually say anything. We tend to get assigned to better tables if DH has had a chance to tell bad jokes to the host/hostess to make them laugh. Then the next time we return, somehow they remember his name and give us a good table such as a window one. But otherwise, we get random table assignments.

We embark on the Prima in about 12 days. I can try to remember to come back to this post to let you know how it goes since I can see from your signature block that you are cruising on the Dawn from Southampton a few days later. Thank you for the warning as this is the first I have read about needing to wait for the baggage handlers to open their station. This same thing happened to us in Honolulu when waiting to embark on the Spirit. I think it was about 10:30am or so when we could drop our luggage. Each port is so different.

Thank you for your review. I'm sorry to hear about the lost/stolen phone and understand how that had to be so frustrating at the end of the cruise while also having a few disappointments with dinner at La Cucina and with the entertainment. We also love going to the veterans reception and never know what to expect since each cruise director seems to run it differently. Thank you to your DH for his service. Which latitudes experiences did not shine besides the poor embarkation process? Did you do the sail and sustain mixology experience on this cruise? We experienced it for the first time on the Breakaway and really found it interesting and fun to chat with the other Diamond passengers. We tend to skip the latitudes party, the wines of the world tasting and the behind the scenes tour for ship classes we have already toured. When and what ship is your next cruise?

Here is the response I received from the guest experience team after creating a ticket. This was my first experience with submitting a ticket. My husband sent in a ticket like this about 10 years ago when the pool and hot tubs were shut down on the Jade for the first day due to equipment from a charter cruise before our cruise. We received some FCC for the loss of the use of the pool/hot tub on the first day of the cruise. I did not ask for any compensation as I just wanted to ask about the expectations and to share that it was not a great experience. We are concerned to learn of your disappointment with the experience you had at the thermal spa. We make every effort to ensure a positive cruise experience for all our passengers and we regret yours was diminished due to these circumstances. Please let us to assure you that your experience was unusual and not at all indicative of the experience provided on a Norwegian Cruise Line voyage. Feedback from our valued guests is vital to the continued success of our organization. Please be assured the constructive criticism you have offered has been forwarded to the various departments involved, so they may be aware of your impressions. It is by receiving feedback such as yours that we are able to highlight areas that may need closer attention. Thank you for this opportunity to review your concerns. We certainly hope that aside from the points mentioned, you found other aspects of your voyage enjoyable and trust you will consider Norwegian Cruise Line for your next vacation. It would be our pleasure to welcome you back onboard any one of our vessels soon. I would interpret that to mean that the sentence I changed to bold font indicates NCL also expects it to be a quiet area? We will find out on the next few cruises with thermal spa passes. As mentioned, we had a great time on this cruise and are fortunate we have had the ability to cruise and get the opportunity to go again so I don't want to sound like too much of a complainer. It seemed like something that could be corrected with reminders, signs (no signs on the Breakaway), and with the spa personnel who are present in the area with the authority to provide gentle reminders to offenders with the spa manager walking in the area on occasion. I can only hope it improves but know there will always be inconsiderate people who won't care to include spa personnel who don't wish to confront passengers. I may reluctantly pack some ear plugs but don't care to use ear buds or headphones in the spa at this time. Thank you for the responses as I appreciated reading about the experiences of other CC members.

I wondered that, too, which is why I asked the question here on CC and also followed up with a ticket to guest experience team and did get a response. Since the Breakaway had no signs posted warning people that it was a quiet place, I wondered if NCL was intending for it to be like a lounge or pool area where talking was the norm. The response I received indicates that NCL also expects it to be a quiet area. I'll post the response I got below.

This is wonderful to hear as you can guess which ship we are on next and if you guess the Prima, ding, ding, ding, you are correct! We did get the thermal spa pass and hope it is as quiet as you described. Fingers crossed. Yes, this cruise had a lot of large groups of friends and families sailing together which meant they went to the thermal spa together. We did try going in the morning around 9am. What ship will you be on? That is great to hear that you have another cruise booked!