Just off the Prima, my thoughts

[cruiseny4life]

2 hours ago, Beer Belly said:

Don't recall exactly, thought it was originally shown as a charge on MyNCL prior to the cancelation of noise boys. Glad to hear it is no charge😋

Sometimes the website and app do show a charge for shows. Usually it's something outlandish like $8,382,942, but perhaps sometimes it looks like a reasonably-priced show. I guess you probably won't know until you board given the various changes NCL has made. I'm hoping there's no charge to your shows! 

[SakeDad]

We sail her in July. Hoping the soot issues are settled by then. Of course, the way NCL is charging for room service, upping the gratuities, ending turndown service and removing a lot of entertainment choices this may be our final cruise with them. But I love the ship look and London-Iceland was just too good an itinerary to pass up.

[davela2]

On 1/30/2023 at 9:16 PM, Beer Belly said:

Great, they took away noise boys from our May 7th sailing, so we won't get to see that, only show available has a charge. I thought mini golf was free ?

Maybe it's free when it's not working correctly, which seemed to be most of the time

[MONYMONY68]

This charter cruise bumped me off my scheduled cruise. I was so upset with NCL for canceling our cruise for a private charter. Thousands of passengers were inconvenienced because a rich group of people overpaid for this particular week and the rest of us minions were tossed aside. Shame on NCL and especially these rich elites for allowing thousands of regular people to be booted from their cruise. I want to be clear about my comments. I’m not attacking the original poster. I’m pissed at NCL because the charter company obviously had to pay them much more than they would have received with the original passenger list. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by MONYMONY68
Clarification

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, MONYMONY68 said:

This charter cruise bumped me off my scheduled cruise. I was so upset with NCL for canceling our cruise for a private charter. Thousands of passengers were inconvenienced because a rich group of people overpaid for this particular week and the rest of us minions were tossed aside. Shame on NCL and especially these rich elites for allowing thousands of regular people to be booted from their cruise. I want to be clear about my comments. I’m not attacking the original poster. I’m pissed at NCL because the charter company obviously had to pay them much more than they would have received with the original passenger list. 

I know the feeling. We once had a river cruise over the Christmas/New Years break chartered out from under us after final payment. I will never even consider that line again! 

 

Chartering for more money might be a short term gain, but I wonder how much they lose in bad will and future bookings.

[PTC DAWG]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I know the feeling. We once had a river cruise over the Christmas/New Years break chartered out from under us after final payment. I will never even consider that line again! 

 

Chartering for more money might be a short term gain, but I wonder how much they lose in bad will and future bookings.

I think they’ve done the math. 

[ontheweb]

20 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I think they’ve done the math. 

Or maybe the short term gain clouds their thinking. 

[davela2]

On 2/6/2023 at 2:16 PM, MONYMONY68 said:

Thousands of passengers were inconvenienced because a rich group of people overpaid for this particular week and the rest of us minions were tossed aside.

I get the extreme frustration of planning a cruise as far as a year out only to have that week closed by the cruise line for a charter.  But just to be clear, there are hundreds of these charters every year, on big ships from RCL, NCL, Virgin, Princess, Carnival, Oceania etc, for a huge variety of themes, from music, to star trek, to cancer, and friends of mine are on a cruise for nurses.  But believe me, these are not "rich elite", and yes, perhaps they do cost slightly more, but they are also getting more of an experience. But, no, that boat load of 4,000 nurses that are sailing this week on NCL are not "rich elite", they are hardworking people that probably make less than most of the cruisers on this site, Please don't bring them into your anger with NCL.  I also know that cruise companies will refund the cruise or reschedule the passengers with a price lock, and usually offer additional onboard credit and even assistance with airfare changes.  Hopefully you were able to book another cruise that same week.

[davela2]

On 2/6/2023 at 4:31 PM, ontheweb said:

Chartering for more money might be a short term gain, but I wonder how much they lose in bad will and future bookings.

If they were losing money, they wouldn't do it dozens of times a year 

[RocketMan275]

On 2/6/2023 at 3:31 PM, ontheweb said:

I know the feeling. We once had a river cruise over the Christmas/New Years break chartered out from under us after final payment. I will never even consider that line again! 

 

Chartering for more money might be a short term gain, but I wonder how much they lose in bad will and future bookings.

they don't lose money doing this.  And every cruise line does it.

[esimon]

Well I guess this will be very different -  Traveling on NCL because of itinerary - We are HAL fans -

We will not pay for dinners - drink costs sound reasonable -  We have a busy itinerary so not much free time to open $$ on things

[PTC DAWG]

On 2/6/2023 at 2:16 PM, MONYMONY68 said:

Edited February 11, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, esimon said:

Well I guess this will be very different -  Traveling on NCL because of itinerary - We are HAL fans -

We will not pay for dinners - drink costs sound reasonable -  We have a busy itinerary so not much free time to open $$ on things

We also book for itinerary, and have a Prima cruise booked this summer from London (Southampton) to Reykjavik.

 

We are also not foodies or drinkers. In fact DW once freaked out a waiter on a cruise line who could not believe what he was hearing when she ordered a baked potato as her main course.

[ppcox]

On 1/31/2023 at 3:18 AM, debenson0723 said:

I was on the TA and none of the shows had a charge either, that is why I asked.  And like your cruise, mini golf was free but I don't have any idea about the darts...we were barely able to spend time outside after the first day due to the weather. 

The mini golf’s interactive parts weren’t working on the TA that’s why it was free. We played it a few times and it looked like it was going to be even better when up and running probably. Interestingly there was soot all over the parts of the golf course on that cruise.  

[gkbiiii]

On 1/30/2023 at 5:49 PM, davela2 said:

Yes!  We saw your ship!

I have often wondered about Atlantis cruises: the pics and (onlyfans) videos must be amazing!

[davela2]

8 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

I have often wondered about Atlantis cruises: the pics and (onlyfans) videos must be amazing!

It's a very different experience, for sure! 😉

[davela2]

On 2/11/2023 at 1:15 PM, esimon said:

Well I guess this will be very different -  Traveling on NCL because of itinerary - We are HAL fans -

We will not pay for dinners - drink costs sound reasonable -  We have a busy itinerary so not much free time to open $$ on things

Thankfully, the beauty of the ship is free!  We can all do without go carts, putt putt and darts

[gkbiiii]

28 minutes ago, davela2 said:

Thankfully, the beauty of the ship is free!  We can all do without go carts, putt putt and darts

NCL & "Free" don't go together!

[PhillyTravelBug]

1. Great review! Saw some social friends that went on this cruise.  Our group opted for the Iceland sailing this summer and can't wait.  Glad you enjoyed your sailing.

[nextcruiseonmymind]

While reviewing the deck plans for the Prima I noticed that the go cart track is located very close to the pool deck. Will I have to listen to the go carts going round and round while i'm relaxing by the pool. Appreciate any knowledgeable response.

[CherylTN]

On 1/30/2023 at 10:50 PM, uneamie said:

I love your fair and honest review. You touched on all the things we really need to know about our May cruise on Prima other than the Haven, which personally we can't afford so I usually skip those reviews. LOL.  

About all the black soot on deck 8. This is very disturbing that they have not fixed this yet. I mean don't most ships have soot coming out of their stacks, yet somehow it does not land on the decks?....not that I have ever noticed. There must be a way to control that. Yikes! 

All in all a great review and happy to hear you had a great time. I love positive but fair viewpoints.  I am gifting this cruise to my husband who has gifted me more than I can ever repay in life......so I am glad I picked the Prima. Thank you for making my day! 

I was on the new Celebrity Beyond a few months ago and they also have a soot problem. The cushions at the Sunset bar had black marks all over them. 

[PTC DAWG]

17 minutes ago, CherylTN said:

I was on the new Celebrity Beyond a few months ago and they also have a soot problem. The cushions at the Sunset bar had black marks all over them. 

In my experience in aft cabins, the weather and wind has a huge effect on this....I have friends who sailed on the Beyond over Christmas, they frequent the Sunset Bar, had zero issues with this.  It really does vary.  

[awinte2]

3 hours ago, nextcruiseonmymind said:

While reviewing the deck plans for the Prima I noticed that the go cart track is located very close to the pool deck. Will I have to listen to the go carts going round and round while i'm relaxing by the pool. Appreciate any knowledgeable response.

You can hear the go carts but they are not real loud.

[jcscv]

Thank you for the review.  I'm doing the London to Iceland trip in August and can't get enough information about this ship!  I hope they fix the soot problem by then, I love sitting outside and watching the ocean go by, even when it's cold out.

[ontheweb]

55 minutes ago, jcscv said:

Thank you for the review.  I'm doing the London to Iceland trip in August and can't get enough information about this ship!  I hope they fix the soot problem by then, I love sitting outside and watching the ocean go by, even when it's cold out.

We are on the August 6th London to Iceland. If you also are and have not joined the roll call, please do.