Amazing food, staff, and aesthetic. This ship is something different.

Norwegian Prima Cruise Review

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 33

Overall rating:

4.6 out of 5
Norwegian Prima

7 Night Caribbean: Great Stirrup Cay & Cozumel (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 29, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Prima

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 12718

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

We booked this ship because we wanted to try something different, we were not disappointed!

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Very smooth process. We had a 9:30 check-in time and boarded the ship in one of the first few groups aboard (around 11:00). They told us our rooms might not be available until 2:00 but they made an announcement before noon that all rooms were ready.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
This ship has some of the best food we’ve ever had on a cruise!

Indulge Food Hall

5 out of 5

This place is so unique! We ate here for breakfast multiple days and lunch twice. There was tons of seating available for breakfast but finding a seat during lunch was a bit more challenging. It made it easier for us since we didn’t have a big group. Favorite food for me were the Indian plaice and BBQ.

Los Lobos

5 out of 5

The decor in Los Lobos was amazing! We ate here on a night we weren’t overly hungry and it worked out perfectly. My wife and I split the Queso Fundido and the fajitas, both delicious!

Food Republic

5 out of 5

We loved this meal. Food is ordered through an iPad (like Indulge). The potsticker appetizers were our favorite, we even returned later in our trip to have them one more time!

Cagney's Steakhouse

5 out of 5

This place is a classic!

Le Bistro

5 out of 5

This may have been our favorite meal on the ship! The service was amazing and the food was fantastic. I had the pork chop which was unreal and the chocolate dessert blew our minds (Chocolate Napoléon).

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5
The go-karts were fun but took up an incredible amount of space for something you’ll only do once or twice while aboard.

Entertainment

4 out of 5
The production value of all the shows really impressed us, as did the actors. Having said that, we felt the shows were all geared towards a slightly older crowd (we’re in our early 30s).

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Staff worked their tails off and most seemed to be in excellent spirits!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
The new ship layout was a great change of pace and we loved all the decor. Having said that, there were some elements to the layout that weren’t intuitive — we found ourselves hitting dead ends a lot on the first few days of our cruise. It’s my understanding that the non-traditional layout allowed them to squeeze in some more venues. As the food (and variety of food) was our favorite part of this cruise, I’d say the change was well worth it!

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
The cabin was perfect! The bathroom was surprisingly roomy. My only small complaint is one side of the bed had no outlet (besides USB).

Ship tip

1 - if you want to do shows book them in advance or right when you board the ship. There will be a line into the theater that breaks into two lines inside the venue, one for restaurant reservations and one for shows. If you’re ambitious, you and your significant other (or travel pal) can split up here to tackle both sets of reservations. 2 - yes the bars get busy but you’re never very far from an overlooked (off the beaten path) bar with no line. For the infinity pools on Deck 8 everyone lines up at The Local but the bar inside/outside Indulge almost never had a line and is only about 20 yards away. Also noteworthy, that bar keeps more hours than Indulge (i.e. it is often open even if Indulge is closed). For the main pool, the bar gets nuts (this is the 30 min wait people love to complain about). However, the bar in surf side (again, maybe 20 yards from the pool) never seemed to have a line. 3 - water! I highly recommend paying for water to be delivered to your room in advance. It’s not cheap but is way pricier if you pay by the bottle or purchase the package on the ship. I do not believe the standard drink package includes bottled water. 4 - if something is booked (go-karts a show, a restaurant) don’t give up hope! We saw people have luck walking up to do go carts without a reservation and we personally showed up and got a table at a specialty restaurant with no reservation. I’ve heard you can also get standby seats for shows but we didn’t have to use that. 5 - the standard beverage package allows two drinks per person at a time, take advantage of this! I felt weird ordering 4 drinks for my wife and I but it saved us so much time. Oftentimes we’d order one cocktail each and then two beers that we’d either drink there, walk around with, or throw into our refrigerator for later! 6 - the observation lounge is a gem and the light bites they put out were perfect for light meals when we didn’t want to spoil a dinner we were looking forward to. 7 - read the daily cruise pamphlet! There are so many events we would have missed out on if we skipped this. And more importantly, they show the open/close hours for every venue on the ship — stay on top of that because nothing is more frustrating than showing up for a meal (or drink) to find the venue is closed.

Ports of call

Cozumel, Mexico

3 out of 5
We’ve been to Cozumel a few times to know the deal, it’s fine but always seems to fall a bit short of our expectations. After our first excursion was canceled (cave swimming), we opted for a beach day, short city tour, and a tequila tasting. It was fine. We bought some tequila from the tasting but after looking into it, seems that we likely got duped (paid a lot of money for average or below average tequila). Oh, well! Ya win some ya lose some.

Great Stirrup Cay (Cruise Line Private Island), Bahamas

4 out of 5
We tried not to compare this beach to CocoCay but it’s hard not to when you can see if from the beach! This was a great beach day but a few tweaks could have made it perfect. There was no beverage service at our beach chairs and the food was all mediocre.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

4 out of 5
We stayed on the ship for this one after reading how aggressive the street vendors can be. However, the scenery from the ship was beautiful!

George Town, Grand Cayman

5 out of 5
We got off here to have lunch and explore the port area — we were not disappointed! The water was beautiful. We actually wound up at a local super market on the hunt for a hot sauce we tried at lunch. This was such a unique experience!

Port Canaveral, Florida

5 out of 5
We love this port, it’s so accessible and being able to park on-site is a huge perk!

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
We chose a later time to disembark (8:45) and pretty much just walked off the ship and right through customs, couldn’t have taken more than 10 or 15 minutes.

Traveler Photos

Food Republic Onda Le Bistro's Chocolate Napoléon
Was this review helpful? 33

9 Comments

MoggyUK    1 year ago

This is a very informative and thorough review. Packed with information and tips for a future traveller all delivered in a very readable style. I am now looking forward to our Prima sailing later this year.

cgillen2    1 year ago

This was a great review. Thank you for taking the time.

dealcatcher    1 year ago

Great review. Very informative, interesting, and well written. Thanks!

AuntPinkie    1 year ago

Appreciate your very detailed review. Glad you thoroughly enjoyed your cruise.

Gammi6    1 year ago

After all the horrible reviews it is so nice to see a good review. We were on the Prima in January and also had a wonderful time. I also loved the observation lounge. And you are correct that you can find a bar if you want to. We brought water bottles so we didn’t need to buy water. Just fill up at any drink station. And as far as the snarky remark about not going on a cruise to stand in line, I wish you luck. I have stood in line for different reasons on every cruise I have been on.

bubbles60    1 year ago

Wonderful review, we are looking forward to our trip this summer

ScottandAmy    1 year ago

Awesome review. Thank you for the notes and suggestions. Seems like there so much negativity towards the Prima.

javawoody    1 year ago

Sorry I don’t go on a cruise to stand in line for a show or dinner

Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us

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