slakko

@natefish95, thank you so much for this review. My wife and I were also on this one, and agree with your assessment of both the Wi-Fi and the immigration process at Kodiak. We were lucky enough to have picked up tender tickets and been told to show them even if our tender had gone before getting through immigration, so we managed to get to Kodiak in enough time for a late lunch (and the French Dip we just couldn't get on the Jewel...). The Sea Life centre in Seward was probably our external visit highlight of any of the port stops.

Last November my wife and I had a 5:30pm flight out of FCO day of disembarkation. The free shuttle to Civitavecchia train station followed by a ~€10pp regional train got us to Roma Termini (main station) for 10:15am. Stored luggage at the facility there for €8pp, then we had 5 hours for sightseeing (Baths of Diocletian and Palazzo Massimo) and lunch. Even if you don't have the spare days, a few hours in Rome can be a great way to finish the cruise and that method still only cost us half the price of the NCL transfer and had zero traffic anxiety.

I see Captain Kevin is still there, or as we call him Captain OUT!

The guac is one of the options for starters, so you only get it for the whole table if you each order it. To be fair, I would say that the amount I received as my one serve was enough for two people as an appetizer. We were all sharing so that worked out great.

We had 4 on the Prima back in May, and then 2 more in November. We went to Palomar both times and would recommend it to anyone who likes seafood. Definitely the most upscale, even compared with the massive chandeliers in Le Bistro. My ranking order of the 5 we went to: 1. Palomar 2. Los Lobos; tableside guac was great and all the mains were amazing. Be aware that the queso fundido is sweeter than you may be used to given the honey on top. 3. Le Bistro. Really high quality so this is a close run third behind Los Lobos. 4. Food Republic. Lots of good individual items and 4 selections is definitely more than most people need, but the breadth of offerings means the theme is kind of missing. 5. Hasuki. It's a good teppanyaki restaurant with chefs that out on the traditional hibachi show; that said it's not really as upscale or distinctive as some of the others.

On two Prima cruises last year, we had to wait only once for more than 2 minutes to get seated at Hudson's. That was the last night On board on one cruise, there were 5 of us, and all they did was give us a beeper while we had a pre-dinner cocktail about 100 feet away in the Metropolitan Bar. If you really want to dine early then reservations may be an idea, but for a group like us who never wanted dinner before 7 it was never an issue.

After one incident last time, we realised just how valuable these cards are. At lunch in Hudson's one of the staff spilled something on my wife completely accidentally. He looked like he had just been given a death sentence! His service otherwise had been great, and we wanted to make sure that was what was remembered. So my wife wrote him a positive comment card, and the 4 of us on that trip agreed we would identify one staff member each day that had been great to us for a comment. It makes such a difference to them and all it costs us is 2 minutes to write it.

If you pre-book and want to go to a fixed price restaurant, book that first so NCL doesn't try to charge you. Sample (pretty accurate) menus are available on the NCL site accessible from the ship deck plan pages (select Specialty Dining once you've clicked "What's on Board". if you miss out on your preferred days and/or times, a lot of slots are left for embarkation day; there will be a single site on board (usually a restaurant) where you can get in line and adjust / make reservations. They're also available at lunch time on later days if you urgently need to adjust days / times.

That was still the case in May; hopefully it hasn't changed since then because I have to try to book Nama next month!

Has anyone had a good answer from NCL as to how this works in conjunction with jurisdictions where you pay a charge, including VAT, for the FAS? Surely those people are being charged VAT in 2 jurisdictions for the one service?

Most one off trivia on the Prima in May had little or no prize value, just bragging rights. However, the sea day progressive trivia (totals combined over the 5 scheduled sea days, 12-1 in the Metropolitan lounge, teams of up to 6) did at least have a little something, even if it was branded merch mostly. As the winning team we each received a T shirt, coffee mug, deck of cards, voucher for 1 Galaxy Pavilion ride, and the very silly laminated certificate. We also won 3 bottles of prosecco between the three of us. None of this had been announced upfront. It's not much, but wasn't completely nothing 🙂

You can't get bottles /boxes of water free. If you want soda from the beverage 'gun' at any of the bars, that will not incur an extra charge. Given how much I get through on a cruise that's a much better deal than $5.50 per bottle of San Pellegrino.

120 days prior to our Med cruise on Prima as of mins but WE this morning, and I wanted to book our 2 FAS dinners. All specialty restaurants could be selected, except Nama which was showing "Not available to book". Anyone else seen this lately?

Disembarkation times in Reykjavik are likely to range from 6:30 to 8:30am depending on which on going plans you have, and/or whether you choose self-assist exit. (Based on our disembarkation 25th May although that was after a loss of the overnight stay due to storms).

We found it a great option when 1 of our 4 was up for sushi but another member of the group wouldn't really want more than 1 or 2 pieces of it. The theme is a little more disjointed than for the other specialty dining restaurants, but you definitely don't go hungry; the 4 of us really couldn't get through more than 12 items between us and everything was good if not great. My favourite would have to be the black cod skewers.