A tale of Prima Positivity 4/16 from NYC

[ontheweb]

9 hours ago, OrangeCatRamblers said:

 

We bought Vibe passes and spent some time there every day, including colder and rainy days, if just for a bit. If we didn't want to do "Enforced Family Fun Time"™ so frequently, we would have clocked more hours up there 😉

 

And since we roamed the ship a lot at different times of day, I can say that even on nice warm sea days, the upholstered seats on deck 8 both outside of Indulge and closer to the front of the ship (the sculpture park part of Ocean Boulevard) was never full. We always found outdoor seating on deck 8. As I said before, I'm sun-averse, so I'd never choose to sit in a deck chair in the sun by either the main pool or the infinity pools. 

Could you write some more about the sculpture park, please. DW is (actually now retired) art teacher, and I am sure we are going to spend some time there. For instance, how large is it?

[McFins]

12 hours ago, OrangeCatRamblers said:

 

Go to deck 18 when you boarded. You'll see the sport stadium, and the desk for the go karts is right there. On the other side, you'll see the mini golf, and you can book the darts right there. 

 

Go kart rides - $15pp

Darts - $20 per group, 45m

Escape room - $15pp. You could book in for a group of 6 if you did it at once. We booked in the three of us, and we're paired up with a couple. Even if it's a little simpler than your classic big city escape room, you'll have fun! 

Thank you so much!   Very helpful!!
 

[pag111]

Great review.  We were also on the cruise and had a great time.  Will definitely be sailing on the Prima again.  

[buddah1950]

great review, we are booked for a Mediterranean  cruise on Prima the end of Oct. You review is very helpful

[sharonann24]

14 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

Our trip on the Prima in September was only the ship’s second cruise, so perhaps some of the negatives we encountered could be attributed to growing pains.  I agree with you that the food court is the best thing going at sea.  One of your photos captured a view of our absolute favorite ship, the Celebrity Edge.  It’s about the same size and capacity as the Prima, but it’s night and day difference between the two.  Everything that NCL passengers have complained about the Prima, Celebrity got right on their Edge class ships.

I will be making that comparison in July!  We were on the Edge in February to the Panama Canal and will be on the Prima for the Iceland cruise.  I read all of the reviews prior to our February cruise bashing the Edge and we loved it, so take those reviews with a grain of salt.  I guess my primary concern for Prima on the Iceland cruise is that many people have said they feel Prima is better suited to warmer weather venues.  I know we will not be using the pool area much but we will see.  

[Red-Sol]

Thank you so much for a great review and done in a "Fresh Air" Manner. We are very excited to set out on Prima Next Sunday and this has helped a lot.

 

I do understand that not everything can be perfect on a cruise and there will be certain disappointments. However I am so tired of reading the hugely negative posts all the while knowing many of those posters are doing nothing but trolling.

 

Thanks Again!

[Laszlo]

12 minutes ago, Red-Sol said:

Thank you so much for a great review and done in a "Fresh Air" Manner. We are very excited to set out on Prima Next Sunday and this has helped a lot.

 

I do understand that not everything can be perfect on a cruise and there will be certain disappointments. However I am so tired of reading the hugely negative posts all the while knowing many of those posters are doing nothing but trolling.

 

Thanks Again!

Looking forward to your review!

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, sharonann24 said:

I will be making that comparison in July!  We were on the Edge in February to the Panama Canal and will be on the Prima for the Iceland cruise.  I read all of the reviews prior to our February cruise bashing the Edge and we loved it, so take those reviews with a grain of salt.  I guess my primary concern for Prima on the Iceland cruise is that many people have said they feel Prima is better suited to warmer weather venues.  I know we will not be using the pool area much but we will see.  

We will also be on one of the London--Iceland cruises and are hoping for good weather with all the comments about the Prima being an outdoor ship

 

Though as long as it's not raining or really miserable, DW will be swimming. And maybe not so great weather will make the pool less crowded.  We once had a cruise that went two extra days because a hurricane kept us from returning to Fort Lauderdale. On one of them DW swam and was the only one as the pool had waves that made it look like the ocean. She swam in the morning, and by the afternoon, they had drained the pool.

[vacation44]

Thank you for taking the time and reporting back!   I am glad you and your family had a wonderful cruise.    

[The Traveling Man]

4 hours ago, sharonann24 said:

I guess my primary concern for Prima on the Iceland cruise is that many people have said they feel Prima is better suited to warmer weather venues.  I know we will not be using the pool area much but we will see.  

We sailed on the Prima last September in Norway.  The cold, rainy weather limited the usefulness of the outdoor areas of the ship.  I don't recall ever seeing anyone enjoying al fresco dining at any of the specialty restaurants.  At the Indulge Food Hall, much of the available seating is outdoors.  Even though some of the outdoor seats are under awnings or canopies, the cold weather you are likely to encounter will mean that many of the dining venues, especially the food hall, will be quite crowded because only the indoor seating will be usable.

[roscoe123]

20 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

Tell us about the soca group and any impact it had on your experience

I was on the same cruise and they didn’t impact the sailing at all.  At night you could hear the music from the land based portion of the festival and see all of the Aunties leaving the ship to go. I spoke with a bartender on Friday and other local bar patrons and it seemed to be a fun event.

[OrangeCatRamblers]

20 minutes ago, roscoe123 said:

I was on the same cruise and they didn’t impact the sailing at all.  At night you could hear the music from the land based portion of the festival and see all of the Aunties leaving the ship to go. I spoke with a bartender on Friday and other local bar patrons and it seemed to be a fun event.

 

Yes it was very clear that their paid web presence and all pr marketing materials (advertising/encouraging bamboo, twerking, and on-ship pool party takeovers) in no way represented the reality of the group on the ship. You have to wonder why there was such a big disconnect between the digital image they presented and the actual reality of the participants. It's also unfortunate that they chose not to answer the one question I had for them before the cruise (would their advertised public parties in shared public spaces be happening concurrently with teen Entourage programming which also happened in shared public spaces).

 

Since all we had to go on were YouTube videos and other reviews of similar Soca cruises, it's just too bad their marketing presented them in a very different light. As a parent of a teen, I think it was reasonable to be concerned about an event promoting on-ship weed smoking, drinking, and twerking. I stand by that. 

[InfrequentPNWCruiser]

Great review! Was on the same cruise so agree with all your points. We tried to do Indulge on embarkation and it was such a zoo we didn't go back until we reached Bermuda then it became our go to place. Excellent all around there. Only did Hudson's a few times because of these and other choices. Probably spent too much time in Vibe but it's a great place to will an afternoon away on a warm day. Only 79 passes were on the list and we only saw between 12 and 30 on any given day. I also want to add that the elevators were generally not crowded and wait times were minimal given the approximate 3600 on board. I was surprised at the number of open seats at any bar venue even when acts were playing outside of the Penrose atrium bar. Great cruise and would go on this ship again without concerns.

[InfrequentPNWCruiser]

5 minutes ago, OrangeCatRamblers said:

 

Yes it was very clear that their paid web presence and all pr marketing materials (advertising/encouraging bamboo, twerking, and on-ship pool party takeovers) in no way represented the reality of the group on the ship. You have to wonder why there was such a big disconnect between the digital image they presented and the actual reality of the participants. It's also unfortunate that they chose not to answer the one question I had for them before the cruise (would their advertised public parties in shared public spaces be happening concurrently with teen Entourage programming which also happened in shared public spaces).

 

Since all we had to go on were YouTube videos and other reviews of similar Soca cruises, it's just too bad their marketing presented them in a very different light. As a parent of a teen, I think it was reasonable to be concerned about an event promoting on-ship weed smoking, drinking, and twerking. I stand by that. 

The Soca participants seemed fall into the typical NCL demographics with a lot of them in their 50's, so no worse than anyone else.

[ggTexasGal]

9 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Could you write some more about the sculpture park, please. DW is (actually now retired) art teacher, and I am sure we are going to spend some time there. For instance, how large is it?

The Sculpture Park is approximately 1/4 of Deck 8, Starboard, Mid.

Attached are some photos my DH (retired bronze sculpture) took last November while onboard PRIMA.

You can tell how large they are by comparing the windows and doors in the background.

 

(The wooden "wavey wall" might be on the Port side of the ship (I just don't remember).

[ontheweb]

54 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

The Sculpture Park is approximately 1/4 of Deck 8, Starboard, Mid.

Attached are some photos my DH (retired bronze sculpture) took last November while onboard PRIMA.

You can tell how large they are by comparing the windows and doors in the background.

 

(The wooden "wavey wall" might be on the Port side of the ship (I just don't remember).

Thank you. I just showed them to my art teacher DW, and she said, "Very Nice".

[Swin-2-win]

We were also on this sailing and share many of your pros and cons for the Prima.  Here are a few more thoughts...

 

Room:

We also were a party of three (47/48/15) in a regular balcony room and when that couch is fully extended, it's no joke how little space there is to get by.  Whatever the legal limit is for the amount of space available in an emergency situation, they pushed it right to that limit.  I must have hit my knee 3-4 times on overnight bathroom visits trying not to hit my daughter's overhanging feet (she's 5'8").  When the bed was 'tucked in', the room was plenty big for us.  Not sure if I missed it, but it would also be amazing to have a nightlight in the bathroom so you don't have to get blasted with full light in the middle of the night.

 

Seating:

The only places we found it difficult to find seats was the Observation Lounge in the afternoon, the buffet for breakfast and lunch (this room was bonkers) and the pool area in the afternoon.  One tip if you have a relatively low amount of little kids on the sailing like we did, the chairs up on the deck with the kid's aqua park were plentiful and it was pretty quiet. 

With three early days of rain, the lack of indoor seating in the Observation Lounge was probably to be expected.  With more sunny days, you'll love all of the outdoor spots to hang out and relax.

One other note on people commenting about the dirty chairs and couches, sadly they're right.  So many of the spots on deck 8 looked really awful for such a new boat.

 

Galaxy Pavilion:

Fun overall, but by the time we hit it at the end of the week, many of the best games were either broken or not fully functional.  For example, the cool VR truck that you've all seen by now, it could be driven but had no motion.  Kinda seems pointless.  I would also say that about half of the games already have pretty outdated VR.  We did the 'Pearl' escape room and found it a bit easy but enjoyable.

 

Speedway:

Well worth the $15 for a drive, I just wish they didn't throttle our speeds so much throughout the experience.  Those things could really move if they weren't being held back.  Maybe I needed to try the solo time-run experience.

 

Food:

Indulge is exactly the greatness everyone is saying that it is.

The Local was awesome for pub food and desserts.

Hudson's was beautiful and laid-back, the Commodore always felt more rushed and loud.

Hasuki was a blast, just don't book here if you have any sensory issues or want to talk to anyone farther away than the person on your left and right.

 

Layout:

I can't say I loved the layout of the boat.  I think I'm pretty good with directions and it took me forever to get used to where everything was.  The Prima got me to realize that I prefer the style of mega boat like the RCL Oasis where there's a mall type of atrium where I can get coffee/water/pizza at any time of day.

 

Bermuda:

If you've never been to their Aquarium/Zoo, I highly recommend it.  Lots of great up-close animals and super cheap.

 

Thanks for reading. 🙂

[DMP609]

 

@OrangeCatRamblers, as a family of 3 in a balcony cabin, how was the storage space for you? Were you able to unpack or did you have to keep a lot in your suitcases? And how did you handle towels (hand and bath)? Were there places to hang them for the 3 of you? Thanks! 

[OrangeCatRamblers]

17 minutes ago, DMP609 said:

 

@OrangeCatRamblers, as a family of 3 in a balcony cabin, how was the storage space for you? Were you able to unpack or did you have to keep a lot in your suitcases? And how did you handle towels (hand and bath)? Were there places to hang them for the 3 of you? Thanks! 

 

We kept nothing in the suitcases. Effectively there are 3 storage "bays," 1 for each of us, my husband and I took each side of the closet, and my son left his stuff in a jumbled heap on the open shelf to the left of the closet. We kept all of our shoes in an Ikea bag in an open shelf to the left of the closet. 

 

Plenty of places for towels. There are 4 metal hooks on the wall to the left of the bathroom door. 

 

I had absolutely zero issues with storage space. We probably had 12 pairs of shoes and multiple bulky hoodies/vests/puffer coats, too. 

 

I'm 5'4" and did have trouble with the hangers that you can't take off. They are definitely not made with shorties in mind, but I guess you could stand on the vanity stool 😂

Edited May 3, 2023 by OrangeCatRamblers

[DMP609]

Uh oh, I'm only 5'1". Looks like hubby will be get to help out (which he's happy to do). Thanks very much for the info!

[McGarrett5oh]

Thanks for the positive and detailed reviews.

 

How much did the unlimited go kart pass cost?

And did Iunderstand they offer a solo time-run experience where the car is not throttled quite as much?

 

Cheers!

[jcscv]

Thank you so much for your positive review.  I'm booked on Prima in August (London to Iceland) and have been a bit trepidatious after all I've read. Thankfully you, and a lot of these responses, have reassured me about my upcoming trip.  Now I can't wait!

 

[OrangeCatRamblers]

22 hours ago, McGarrett5oh said:

Thanks for the positive and detailed reviews.

 

How much did the unlimited go kart pass cost?

And did Iunderstand they offer a solo time-run experience where the car is not throttled quite as much?

 

Cheers!

 

$199 for the pass

 

No idea about the solo, my apologies! 

[Sam The Cat]

OrangeCatRamble  Just a note regarding Prima.  I got a lot of information, Up till yesterday morning I was booked on the Joy for an August, 2024 cruise, which seem like a good time in the Carribean.  The only thing that I did not like was that we would be docked in San Juan ftill 8pm.  I spent 2  years in San Juan working and was called back 2 more times 30-60 days each time.  One thing that we were told is not to go to Old San Juan at night, this was early 70s when one guy owned two "houses" where mostly guys were go to.but he was never bothered by the police.

 

When I saw the Prima and that where in port in Old San Juan it is during the day where you can walk around, shop, walk to ethe forts, have a couple of drinks before going back to the ship.  I was sold.

 

I called my PCC and told her what I wanted to do and within 10 minutes my reservation was made with the room I wanted but I will be sailing the end of November 2024 to the first week of December which does not bother me since I am retired,