This trip was a mixed bag. The ship was beautiful, and the staff was great, and the room was perfect. The food was excellent, and the stops were very nice. The amount of extra fees to do things and the lack of availability for shows and activities was very disappointing. The size of the venues was a challenge to get in and enjoy them. I would recommend it, but maybe only for a 5 or 7 day max.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Starting the trip was easy and the Galveston Terminal 2 was clean and everyone was nice and polite
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The food outside of the Buffet was excellent. Los Lobos Mexican was my favorite. The other specialty dining was superb. The complimentary dining was good with Hudson's main dining hall a real bright spot.
The Indulge Food Hall was good, but not great, but the Buffet was Meh bringing the overall ratting done a notch. The food was not bad, but it was nowhere near as good as any other location. The Buffet had 80% the same things every day. Even on the themed days they would only have maybe 3-4 unique items and everything else was the same. For the "all American day" they had a roasted turkey that was ultra dry and no "all American" deserts like n apple pie or anything. It just seemed the Buffet was treated as an after thought.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
The activities on the ship were lacking in a big way. Where to begin? The cruise director seemed to be a trivia nut since there were about 4-5 different trivia activities every day. If you like trivia, then this is a cruise for you. The onboard lounges and clubs were all used for trivia throughout the day. Activities like Darts, putt-putt, and go carts are all an additional cost. They had a painting class each day which intrigued us, but that was an additional charge as well. We would watch people get stuck in the dry slides (Rush and Drop) all the time. You could see them through the clear sections of the tubes. The people would have to shimmy themselves along the tubes, so we opted not to partake in the slides and the slides were largely unused except for a few people here and there.
The infinity pools were beautiful, but always packed full. There was only the one "main" pool. The "family" movies were on the pool deck and started at 8-9pm. I went up to see what this was about twice and found there were no chairs setup anywhere, so you had to sit on the pool ledge or on the ground.
The good of the activities was they had a "ballroom dancing" hour in Syd Norman's 3 days. They offered a few different dance classes for salsa, and other things. There was a pool deck dance night twice and they were a lot of fun.
Overall. There were activities to help fill about 3 hours of my day each day if I was lucky. The rest of the time I sat on the balcony reading or watching the tv in my room. There just was not a lot to do that didn't cost extra per hour or per session.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
The main theater is gorgeous!! Now that I have said that. They are trying to use the one theater for too many things. It is a show theater, presentation room, and dance club. Due to this they only had 3 showings of each of the main shows across 2 days (1 on one and 2 on the other) of an 11-day cruise. These shows were booked out in minutes. There were 2 main shows (donna summer and Noise Boys. Noise Boys was good, but the sound mix could have been better. Donna Summer was pretty terrible. The sound mix was horrible, and it felt very much like watching a high school production. In the first 10 minutes of it we watched at least 30 people walk out. We finally left after 30 minutes.
We could not get into the Improve club to watch any of the comedians since like the main shows they only did 3 performances each and you had to reserve tickets. The improve only holds about 50-75 people, so basically almost no one got to go.
In Syd Normans they had the band Rumors whom I have seen before and are great!!! The issue, Syd Normans only holds about 75 people, and Rumors only played 4 times, so again, almost no one got to see them.
The other performers that moved around the various lounges were good overall.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
The staff was great overall. Our cabin steward (Gary) was great and such a nice person. The other wait staff around the ship were all smiles and very friendly. The only issue I can think of was that since it was a new ship with a new staff, some of them did not speak English fluently yet, BUT I had no issues communicating with anyone it just took a moment longer sometimes is all. You could tell that the staff was still learning the ship as well, but again, this did not cause any issues at all and everyone was the Norwegian helpful and smiles :)
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
This is a brand new ship. First, it is Gorgeous!! The cabins are to die for. They are large and roomy and better than any other cabin I have stayed in on any other cruise line period. We had a basic balcony room and the balcony was spacious and the new lounge chairs on it were great. I don't have anything bad to say of the rooms or overall aesthetics of the ship.
The ship design though could use some work. The first few days you are learning your way around since it is a maze. There is no single pass-through corridor like on other ships. You zig-zag though it. The main atrium area is very pretty, but due to it being so open and really the only open area indoors it was always packed. The "Art Gallery" is just a few 15 or so pictures hanging on the wall between Syd Normans and the Improve. There really should have been a second theater to allow for more shows to happen. There is no dance club other than the main theater. It just felt like trying to do too much in one space. I felt there should have been more available outdoor space as well. Deck 8 was the only deck besides the pool that had outdoor space to walk around outdoors or to lounge as a group. and while deck 8 was great; since it and the pool were the only outdoor lounge spots, they were completely full almost all the time. Norwegian sells the Prima on the idea of more space per person as a new design philosophy. With so little outdoor space to be in though it felt very cramped. In addition, all the bars and kiosks were very small as well, so anywhere you went other than your room or the main theater or the library/lounge felt cramped due to the number of people there.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
This was the largest "basic" balcony room I have ever been in. The bed was nice the sofa was great. everything about it was roomy and comfy. The only complaint is the pillows were way too soft, but stack a couple together and hey! This was the best part of the whole ship.
Ship tip
Be ready to love your room and spend extra money. Most of the dining options are extra and many of the activities cost extra.
I had a last minute change to the excursion since my travel partner was not feeling good. I decided to go scuba diving instead of just snorkeling. I went with BlueBay scuba at the BlueBay resort. The group there was great! I have nothing but good to say. Cost effective and just so nice. The dive itself was nice, but the reefs were muted (lack of life) probably due to all the storms that had been in area recently.
I did another scuba dive here with VIP diving and I have nothing bad to say here. The island was nice, and VIP Diving were great!! We did 2 shore dives and the wildlife was everywhere.
Hurricane Nicole caused us to skip this stop. I am not sure why an alternate port was not selected. It would have been nice to maybe change and go to another port since we were not doing this one and did not do Cozumel either.
Thanks for the detailed review. I’ve seen comments on several newer ships that complain about venues feeling too small and feeling overcrowded. Hopefully they will change the designs on future ships.
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