BrianLo

Sorry I meant long term, like five-ten years from now ‘if’ they make a better cold weather vessel.

I like Prima. It's very enjoyable in cold weather itineraries in my view. It's clearly not purpose designed for them. The promenade goes largely unused, which does exacerbate indoor spaces. Unlike say RCCL quantum vessels where a good 2/3 of the upper deck space is actually enclosed. Enclosed pool, enclosed solarium, enclosed sports courts etc. A cold weather future Prima vessel would need to have the ability to better enclose the outdoor spaces, probably ditch the racing track, have more hot tubs and some sort of enclosed solarium/pool space. With a bigger multi-use trivia/music type venue. I don't expect Prima will be sailing these types of itineraries down the road.

Sounds like your old concierge was not one for nature. Having followed along some of your other threads I am sure you will love most of the ports. It's a fantastic looking itinerary!

I'd go for Prima. It's a smaller ship obviously and it's a first iteration of said ship so has areas for improvement, but so did breakaway. YMMV, I was on the same cruise as UK Stages. Syd Normans requires lining up for and Indulge Food Hall is so good but is hard to navigate at peak times. Hudsons is like eating in a speciality restaurant and very easy to access if you are an early diner. Palomar is not really recommended. I don't tend to eat in the buffets. That's the majority of my own pinch points of note.

I'm on the Sept 2023 version of this itinerary and it is currently quite cheap. It also was pushing 4x Latitude points for a while. Cynically I wonder if it was really under-booked for next year and they decided the change would sell better.

No sorry day three was cheapest. From a cost per day perspective, using the discount. After day 3 you are paying the full price per day, that obviously also gets cheaper but then you defeat the purpose and are just paying the full daily rate for less days.

I think this is just a cognitive thing, the vouchers are a discount, one that just encourages a la carte without wastage. Treat the 4 drinks per day like a mini drink package. Allot your 40 pounds or whatever for each of you and spend it on a la carte drinks. That's about 16 drinks a day (4 vouchers each and 80 pounds to spend on 8 more drinks), if your girlfriend wants less of the share you have more. Plus you'll have some of those welcome amenities to get some more bottles of whatever and you can bring some alcohol on board for the mini fridge. I don't see that as really unreasonable but perhaps I am underestimating how much excess there was.

Data has come out the 2024 bookings are also looking to be strong (historical loads on 2023 Q3/4) - so I think they are looking like even if there is a travel slow down in consumer spending cruise lines might skip past it since the booking lead times are so long. NCLH is still significantly below its pre-pandemic market cap. Its stock was significantly diluted during the pandemic, but the market cap should slowly recover with post-pandemic normalization. Basically I think WallStreet has learned their answer that yes the market came back to cruising and is reasonably staying back. There was some fear the cruise demand would never actually recover, but that's now obviously not the case. It just took a good year+ longer than land vacations.

FYI this group seemingly rented out the Improv Club most nights. I have a feeling that's a large reason the comedians disappeared on the second voyage.

Yes, very similar experiences from a sushi perspective. Different rolls of course and at Nama they physically make the roll fresh at the counter. More of a classic maki experience. Food republic has views but I Iove the design at Nama. They are somewhat oddly overlapping concepts though. Not a complaint but I foresee gen 2 Prima vessels shuffling one out.

I don’t know, NCL certainly seems to be telling guests DSC is in lieu of gratuities for restaurant staff, cabin stewards and back of house. Is that not what they are saying here? It seems their position is to still tip your bar tenders and butlers… but not others covered by DSC.

I went to ask for you, it is indeed any four items for the dining package. Including dessert - but also you can forgo dessert for any fourth menu item.

Were you doing it strictly on your phone, by turning on the internet within the NCL app and not your internet browser? That’s my only idea of what I was doing perhaps differently.

A data point - I had 250 free minutes (pre FAS change) on a 10 day cruise. Saving was 125 instead of 200 and also lasted through the third day. I did not need to prevent activating my minutes to see it but I was always logging in via the app on my phone and it would pop up every login. Causing me to notice it was rapidly getting cheaper. The reason day three is cheapest is because the discount is fixed but the daily rate drops proportionally. I was kind of curious if it was going to go free at a certain point not realizing it was limited to 3 days. The ideal way to go about it is burn through minutes for the first three days then upgrade. I’m suspicious it’s limited to longer cruises.

No problem! I did not - just paid a la carte.

I thought it was certainly good cruise ship sushi. Not sure about the sake but their special cocktails were included in the beverage package. So I’d assume sake would be if it falls into the correct pricing for your package. It’s not a very popular venue for whatever reason, so don’t fret ability to walk up at any point. It was normally about 20% occupied at dinner. So your service will be fast and attentive.

I dined at Palomar last night. I agree it’s weirdly lacking an identity. The music was mostly Elvis, though I don’t know at what level the music is chosen (corporate versus onboard management). The table behind me pointed it out and I agree, 50/60’s rock and roll doesn’t scream fish house. Versus I recently did Ocean Blue on Bliss and it met the fine dining assignment well. Palomar has a beautiful location, though it needs a rethink.

That’s nice they gave some compensation. Have you heard about the same on this voyage? I was not expecting anything, but I wonder what causes the differentiation? I guess this voyage has one cancelled and one subbed, unlike two cancelled on the inbound.

I’m onboard right now. It’s actually amongst my preferred hull art, Bliss like everyone points out excepted. Most of the older hull art I find to be Caribbean tacky. The Hull art really carries through the ship, more than other NCL vessels I’ve been on. The white and blue is a unifying look. It’s modern and really feels elevated.

I’d be pretty surprised if you were two days late. Another ship is in port already here. I assume your port stop was cancelled today?

Good thing I'm in a Studio. 😅 See you onboard in two days.

I think there is a historical context to this as well, but an argument that really hasn't aged well. 15-20 years ago NCL leaned hard into specialty dining venues (I feel like I was on NCL Jade in the late 2000's and there was like 7 of them, meanwhile RCL Quantum class vessels still really only have three and the add on Chefs Table). At the time RCL vessels maybe had the additive steak house. That's where the 'nickel and diming' moniker wound up being placed on NCL. People latched onto you had to pay more to get a meal on NCL. Fastforward and NCL actually is trending towards more included dining than RCL (between its included bar food and Indulge food hall concept). Then NCL started giving away a generous amount of dining credit and alcohol package with their former iteration of Free at Sea. RCL is now also leaning progressively into specialty venues and their alcohol package remains hilariously expensive. Overall I like both lines, but I think while they did gradually converge for a time I see a lot of recent divergence. NCL seems to be sticking with the pseudo-all inclusive pricing and RCL I doubt will make that change. NCL tends to have more itineraries and port intensive variety. RCL seems to be sticking to their four markets that work for them (Caribbean, Alaska, Australia, Med) with very few examples outside that. Prima definitely goes for the smaller ship, adult feel and Icon skews big line kids theme park. I also see RCL going more towards their private destination, which can ironically include 'nickel and diming'

I am sympathetic. Had a repo Bliss from LAX to YVR. Was supposed to go to Ensenada, San Diego and San Francisco. They replaced Ensenada Mexico, with Victoria Canada (where I work/part time live...). San Diego was cancelled. Then to make matters worse it didn't actually manage to dock in Victoria. All the shows were cancelled as the cast had COVID, including Beatles. BUT, it was a great time! Hopefully you enjoy yours still.

For what its worth I sailed on Quantum when they went once daily service (but before they announced it). I know... totally different cruise line. There were still towel animals. I also don't mind the once daily service, but the cabin steward had way more cabins and the timeliness to reaching rooms left a lot to be desired. versus I did a 5 day repositioning Bliss in a studio that was severely under capacity this past spring and I actually never even met my cabin steward. They were that stealthy and clearly had a low room count.

I really like Jamies' Italian as well. The 270 shows are great, a pity they didn't really bring it fully formed to Icon. The skydive is obviously quite unique. They are also really built well for cold weather with 2/3rds of the pool spaces essentially being indoors. Sonic Odyssey I really enjoyed, which is the show on Quantum.