Overall, I'd rate our trip a B-, mainly due to a lot of little hiccups that tarnished an otherwise great vacation. The ports were wonderful, great scenery and a lot of walking. This is not a "lay on the beach" cruise.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Overall, embarkation was smooth. There was a long line to embark, but by doing everything including taking a face picture through the app ahead of time, it went quickly.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Indulge Food Hall
5 out of 5
Food was delicious, service impeccable. Food came out quickly. I highly recommend the gnocchi with pesto! My only complaint was one of the dishes shows 4 or 5 tempura vegetables, however, they only do one, and its chef's choice. Breakfast us grab and go, we did not try breakfast there.
Surfside Café & Grill
5 out of 5
The buffet, aka the Surfside, was delicious. The big issue, as most have said, is seating. Partly because cruisers tend to sit and enjoy the view after they eat. I even saw people playing cards there, taking up tables. Also, there's a covered outdoor eating area that got underused. For breakfast, they open Food Republic for buffet seating. It also was under utilized. My major complaint was the cook to order omelette station made the buffet line confusing.there should be a separate line just for the omelette orders. Lunch and dinner didn't seem to have the same lube issue.
The Local Bar & Grill
4 out of 5
We only ate on the bar side late night. We had issues early on, where the bartenders refused to order food for us. They told us to go go the other side and bring our food back. One in our party complained and the Bartender said he'd send a server over. After waiting a while I went to the other side and talked to a manager. I brought him to the bar side and showed him our party of 12 guests who were hungry and upset they had no service. He apologized and immediately sent a server over. The server took good care of us. I made sure to go back after eating and think the manager and praise the server. As far as the food goes the pretzel bites were good, if served hot, otherwise blah. The Reuben was delicious, fish and chips were good. The thai chili wings tasted good, just not meaty, the Korean bbq wings not so much.
The Commodore Room
2 out of 5
This had the same menu as Hudson's, but what a different experience! It seems the food comes up from Hudson's, so everthing took longer. One member of our party has a seafood allergy. The day we went, almost every item on the menu had seafood in it, in some form. He ordered Veal Piccata, after the appetizers were eaten, he was informed that the sauce for the Piccata contained fish sauce and the cook had put the sauce on the veal already. No where on the menu did it mention fish in the veal dish. His second choice was a chicken dish, but it had oyster sauce in it. After complaining to the manager, she offered to remake it with no sauce, but we remembered the dry veal in Onda. He opted out. She did eventually show up with a veal with a mushroom sauce on the side, but only after getting an earful from us about the lack of notifications about food allergies. We were not impreseed.
Le Bistro
2 out of 5
Not our favorite venue. Service was poor. In fact, the waiter actually made a sour face when we ordered soda instead of wine or cocktails. At all other venues you can order 3 starters, here it was only 2. Portions were small, and bland. The Coq au Vin was rubbery. Wish we had chosen a second meal at Cagney's instead.
Cagney's Steakhouse
4 out of 5
Cagney's was one of our favorite spots. We almost went back a second time. French onion soup was awesome, in fact it was served all over the ship. Our only issue was the seafood was overcooked. Our fault for ordering seafood at a steak restaurant. We know better!😎 However, the scallops were cooked perfect, but shrimp, calamari and branzino were tough. Service was awesome.
Hudson's Main Dining Room
5 out of 5
We found the food in the Main dining room as good as the specialty restaurants, in fact some dishes came from other restaurants. Our server was Vanessa, she was fantastic! Always smiling and upbeat. They were very accommodating with food allergies, unlike the Commodore. The menu did change everyday, but also had standard dishes that remained on every menu.
Onda By Scarpetta
3 out of 5
This was the 3rd of our specialty restaurants. The fried seafood appetizer was delicious, however the veal milanese was dried out to shoe leather and no sauce at all. The lobster ravioli were a bit too al dente for my taste. I'm not a fan of extra firm pasta. This was a trend across the ship, underdone pasta. Several in our party mentioned it.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
I enjoyed the hot tubs, and made use of them daily. Although, there was one that continued to have problems.
The pool was small, but on this cruise, never crowded. It was heated salt water. Not very deep, but refreshing.
The Tee Time interactive mini golf was free to use, but the electronics were not working. I would have rather paid the $15 to have the full interactive experience.
The ship had 2 escape rooms. We did one and managed to escape in less then the 45 minute allotment. Some of the props had been damaged by people forcing them.
The Galaxy Pavillion was entertaining. There were several VR rides/games. VR Starship was our first. The attendant recommended one of the roller coasters. It was great. In fact, we tried a second which was also great. In the Pavillion they charge $8/ride/game, $29/hour or $49/day. We decided to buy a day pass and come back the next day. When we started our day pass, we began to notice that very few games were working as they should. Our beloved VR Starship was getting glitchy and the sound was cutting out. This was happening more with other games as well. In fact, over half of the games were either down or not working properly. One game used hand held devices that kept running out of charge. I spoke to an attendant who said the repair tech lived in the US, and it would be a while until they could get someone on board to fix them. After getting more frustrated by the glitches, I eventually spoke to the manager of the Pavilion. He was aware of some issues and thanked me for bringing others to his attention. I recommended they have a tech remain on board who can service the machines, also they might want to have several sets of the hand held devices, so they can be charging all the time. We were given a reduction in the charge. Which was fair, since we did enjoy some of the games.
Finally, we tried the speedway. Head's up, there is a weight limit of 260 pounds. I just made it, coming in at 255 😁. Tip, don't wear Jean's and go before dinner, LOL. The raceway was fun, although the track had some bumpy spots. You don't have full control of your speed. I could tell I was pressing the pedal and barely moving and at times I lightly touched the pedal and the car flew.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
The bands playing in Syd Norman's were great, but we could never get in, other than poking our head in to listen.
There was always a band in the atrium which was nice, except when you are trying to carry on a conversation 3 deck up and are shouting over the music.
The musical tribute to Donna Summer was interesting. The music was good, I learned her story. There were 3 singers who portrayed Donna through various stages in her life. The one who played the older version was outstanding. The actress who played young Donna did a great job as well. Unfortunately, the main actress was a bit off key. I've seen much better performances on other cruiselines.
The DJ in the disco was good, music was upbeat.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Overall, service was excellent. There were a few issues with certain waiters and bartenders. I made sure not to go back to them, and I tipped the ones who were outstanding.
The room steward was practically invisible. The room was always tidy and clean, but we almost never saw him. I think that was the idea. We had friends say the same about their steward as well.
We never needed anything so there was no issues.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Prima is a different ship than most. If you're expecting the same old cruise ship, you'll be disappointed. If you are open to change, its a great ship.
The ship was clean and they were constantly painting. However, for a ship less than a year old there were a lot of repairs needed. Elevators were slow and constantly more than one was out of service. Screw heads poking up through the stairs outside from deck 17 leading up to 18. Not dangerous, but disappointing.
Restaurant open times were scattered. You had to check the daily planner each day to see what times they were open.
The excursion meeting points were in the theater in the front of the ship, but then everyone had to leave via the back of the ship. One morning, the crew was performing safety drills and the fire doors throughout the ship were closed locking half of the guests on our excursion on board an extra 15 minutes. I would have thought this could have waited until all the excursions had disembarked.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The balcony cabin was clean and spacious. Shower was wonderful, plenty of room to move. There is a US standard outlet by the bed as well as desk area. There are USB ports by the bed and desk. Also the round European outlets by the desk. Lots of hanging space, 4 sliding baskets, a drawer in the desk and 2 drawers by the bed.
Ship tip
Be open minded about the design. And if you're eating in the buffet area, when you are finished eating, leave and relax some where else. Let others have the table to eat. There is and observation lounge which is suited for chilling.
We took the NCL excursion Briksdahl Glacier by Troll Car. I highly recommend doing the troll car if you have any mobility issues. Its a long walk up to the top. The views are amazing! There is still a bit of a climb from where the troll cars drop you off, but even if you only go this far, its outstanding.
My only reason for not giving it 5 stars was due to lack if organization. Because the ship ran safety drills and licked members of our excursion on board, we were late departing for the mountain. This meant we had less time on top to explore. We were told the bus would be departing by 2pm. At 2 PM there was no sign if the bus or our guide. I found another guide who said our guide had to go pick up another group, and would be back to bring us to the ship. We cut our time short at the top of the mountain to wait around in the bus parking lot.
We took a private excursion by bus(this one was air conditioned😇). We went up to the observatory overlooking Alesund, then to a viking village and finally to the Lighthouse. Beautiful scenery.
It was rainy, so we just took the hop on/off bus to the Funicular and went to the top of Mt Floyen. The views were still amazing even though I'd was overcast.
We did a private tour of the area by bus. It went to Godafoss falls, the Psuedo Craters and mud flats, finally to the lava spires. It was all very interesting, however, it was an 8 hour excursion on a bus with very little air conditioning (which seems to be the norm. Other companies had the same issues).
We took a private tour of Brugges. It was a combination walking and canal tour. There was a mix of medieval and modern. Plenty to see. A lot of walking.
We took the canal tour Waterways of Amsterdam through NCL. With the free at sea perks, one cruise in the cabin was free. It was very informative. A great way to see the city. We tried to venture out after, but quickly got lost and confused, so we retraced our steps back to the ship and relaxed by the pool.
We self carried our luggage since we had a bus waiting. It was a seamless process. UK customs agents boarded the ship while we sailed from Norway to Amsterdam. They rechecked everyone, so there were no lines at South Hampton.
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