Pr1MA Hits and Misses

[egurbi]

Recently sailed on the Pr1MA to Bermuda from NY.  I've been on 17 NCL cruises prior to this one, staying in everything from Garden Villa on Dawn, Haven on Jewel and Breakaway and Breakaway Plus Ships, balconies, and insides.  7 NCL cruises since the restart. Here are my opinions on some of the hits and misses on the Pr1MA. YMMV

 

Hits:

 

1. Indulge Food Hall -- great concept, excellent food.  It adds a completely new element to NCL cruises.

 

2. Infinity pools on 8 --  creates a great vibe on 8 and nice alternative to deck 17 pool scene chaos.

 

3. Theater/Night Club -- well thought out, great flexibility, comedy works really well in the venue.

 

4. Observation lounge -- smaller than the plus class ships obviously, but an excellent room for relaxation.

 

5. Balcony furniture -- marked improvement over the hard back chairs on all other ships.

 

6. The Stadium -- interesting games, good use of the deck 18 mid space.

 

7. Metropolitan and Belvedere Bars -- excellent theming, creates distinct and interesting themes.

 

8.  Palomar -- wonderful views, excellent addition to specialty restaurant roster.

 

9.  3 deck atrium -- opinions differ but I liked it a lot over the crowded 2 story atrium on the breakaway and plus ships.

 

Misses:

 

1. Buffet -- fiasco.  Yes, too small, but also variety not there.  Yes, I know Indulge Food Hall supplements it -- but it needs to improve.  Use of it as a cut through when Palomar is closed to traffic makes it even worse.

 

2. The Gateway -- move the kiosk shops somewhere else. The crowding in this venue is ridiculous, particularly after a show lets out and the kiosks make it far worse.

 

3. Hudsons -- beautiful space, dinner service harried and uneven.

 

4. Hot Tubs -- they need more.  Without and H20, no chance of ever getting in one once the usual kids/suspects squat all day in the 2 located near the main pool.

 

5. Galaxy Pavilion -- money grab and frankly its placement next to Observation Lounge is just plain odd.

 

6. Storage in Balcony Rooms -- adequate for 2 adults, shudder to think how 3 or 4 could find room for their stuff.

 

7.  Fitness Center -- good equipment, but no tv access on cardio machines, stretching area is too small. Access walking through a hallway in the spa also seems like a design flaw. 

 

8. Syd Normans -- should be double in size.

 

9.  Space allotted to Photo Shop on 8 -- massive waste of space.

 

 

[ngrund]

I would add a couple more minor misses:

 

The main atrium bar that also serves as the casino bar-needs to be larger and with more staff if Belvedere isn't open. The 2 Bartenders were working non-stop and quite often had over a 20 minute wait to get a drink.

 

Outlets in our cabin-(Balcony) they should have regular outlets on both sides of the bed-our only had one on the wife's side-had to run an extension cord to the desk for my CPAP, and there was only one regular nightstand, the thing on my side was barely enough to have my CPAP on

[kasimir]

We are currently on the Prima and fully agree with your statement. 
 

Especially the smaller size of the buffet and Indulge are a serious problem, because at peak times it’s impossible to get a seat and the line at the buffet is in the way of the traffic flow going to/from the elevators. 
 

While the design of the Prima is completely different from the other ships, we do enjoy the Prima quite a bit, but the size of the buffet and Indulge is really dampening our total experience. 
What we noticed in Indulge, there should be more tables for smaller groups. Each time we went to Indulge, we see solo cruisers at a table of 4 or more. This is causing frustration. 
 

Side note… we noticed that The Local is also smaller and we feel that it should be roughly 20% larger, but it’s not a huge problem since you need to be assigned a seat anyway. 

[schmoopie17]

The Local bar is a fiasco. The location (in a main hallway/thoroughfare) is completely crazy, given the fact that people walking by push their way up to the bar, past people who have already been waiting a long time (due to understaffed/overworked bartenders). The Local/O'Sheahan's on the other ships have a much better bar situation.

[BirdTravels]

It is hard to understand how people can attribute rude, self center, inconsiderate  drunks who push their way to the front of a line to the bartenders. The bartenders did not raise these spoiled brats. Just last night, a very drunk kid spouted off, when I cut him off from jumping the line, that he was 21 years old and asked how old I was. Back of the line kid, if you were my grandkid and acted that way, you would be off the ship flying home. 

[schmoopie17]

3 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

It is hard to understand how people can attribute rude, self center, inconsiderate  drunks who push their way to the front of a line to the bartenders. The bartenders did not raise these spoiled brats. . 

I never blamed the bartenders. I blamed the people who pushed their way to the bar past people who have been waiting, due to the understaffed bars.

[Beer Belly]

21 hours ago, egurbi said:

Recently sailed on the Pr1MA to Bermuda from NY.  I've been on 17 NCL cruises prior to this one, staying in everything from Garden Villa on Dawn, Haven on Jewel and Breakaway and Breakaway Plus Ships, balconies, and insides.  7 NCL cruises since the restart. Here are my opinions on some of the hits and misses on the Pr1MA. YMMV

 

Hits:

 

1. Indulge Food Hall -- great concept, excellent food.  It adds a completely new element to NCL cruises.

 

2. Infinity pools on 8 --  creates a great vibe on 8 and nice alternative to deck 17 pool scene chaos.

 

3. Theater/Night Club -- well thought out, great flexibility, comedy works really well in the venue.

 

4. Observation lounge -- smaller than the plus class ships obviously, but an excellent room for relaxation.

 

5. Balcony furniture -- marked improvement over the hard back chairs on all other ships.

 

6. The Stadium -- interesting games, good use of the deck 18 mid space.

 

7. Metropolitan and Belvedere Bars -- excellent theming, creates distinct and interesting themes.

 

8.  Palomar -- wonderful views, excellent addition to specialty restaurant roster.

 

9.  3 deck atrium -- opinions differ but I liked it a lot over the crowded 2 story atrium on the breakaway and plus ships.

 

Misses:

 

1. Buffet -- fiasco.  Yes, too small, but also variety not there.  Yes, I know Indulge Food Hall supplements it -- but it needs to improve.  Use of it as a cut through when Palomar is closed to traffic makes it even worse.

 

2. The Gateway -- move the kiosk shops somewhere else. The crowding in this venue is ridiculous, particularly after a show lets out and the kiosks make it far worse.

 

3. Hudsons -- beautiful space, dinner service harried and uneven.

 

4. Hot Tubs -- they need more.  Without and H20, no chance of ever getting in one once the usual kids/suspects squat all day in the 2 located near the main pool.

 

5. Galaxy Pavilion -- money grab and frankly its placement next to Observation Lounge is just plain odd.

 

6. Storage in Balcony Rooms -- adequate for 2 adults, shudder to think how 3 or 4 could find room for their stuff.

 

7.  Fitness Center -- good equipment, but no tv access on cardio machines, stretching area is too small. Access walking through a hallway in the spa also seems like a design flaw. 

 

8. Syd Normans -- should be double in size.

 

9.  Space allotted to Photo Shop on 8 -- massive waste of space.

 

 

On our recent sailing the Main Pool was down till day 5 of a 7 day sailing, and when it did become available, the area smelled much like a Septic System, this caused crowding at Infinity Pools. We also only had one Hot Tub up and running. Crowding at the Main Pool due to the area being just too small, other ships I have been on have much more room. The Atrium, IMO, if it were totally open to all three levels, would ease some of the overcrowding on Deck 6 being you would be able to clearly view whatever entertainment is happening from above as an option.

[david_sobe]

Great to the point review. I am not a ship designer but I know why the Galaxy Pavillion is next to the Observation Lounge.  The Galaxy Pavillion does not need windows since its a giant game room that actually is better with less natural light.  The Observation Lounge is surrounded by floor to ceiling windows for views.  When you have such an observation room with all those windows, there is going to be an area without windows.  Thus the Galaxy Pavillion makes perfect sense.

Edited May 18, 2023 by david_sobe

[egurbi]

David,

 

That certainly makes sense about Galaxy Pavilion. That said, as you enter from the chaotic pool area and head toward the observation lounge for a little (hopefully quiet) bliss, it is a little disorienting to be greeted by the flashing lights at the entrance to Galaxy Pavilion before you make a hard left into the Observation Lounge.

 

I wanted to add one other MISS I neglected to mention (previous posters have discussed the slides, I won't beat that dead horse). The three deck Pr1MA speedway just takes up too much prime real estate on the ship. There are so many possibilities if it were not there, or at least smaller.

 

I can only hope they reconsider it for her future sister ships.