What a disaster!

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 6

Review summary

This is not just another review. This is a very well thought of explanation of why, no matter who you are, or what you do, and what you like, you should avoid spending a dime, and any of your time on an NCL cruise. We should have read the reviews. They voice the same things. And yet NCL carry on disappointing. I’ve attached the first review that comes up on google. First of all I have to say that the general design standard of the NCL Prima is like a premium hotel. It’s well made. And the bathrooms in the cabins are big compared to Royal Caribbean. Also the staff on board are really nice people. And they make you feel welcome. It’s the layout, the standards and the rules that are a big problem. HYGIENE & CLEANLINESS On the hygiene side. The room attendant is a lovely person. But the cleaning standards are lower than they should be. And I’m talking everywhere. To the point where sometimes the toilet which is an obvious element wouldn’t be cleaned. And I’m not talking minor things. Not to be too inappropriate, I’m talking major toilet dirt, hair on the counter… multiple times. Then you notice in the restaurants the washed knife with some food left on it. The glass that’s not clean on the ring, or worse that is chipped where it touches your mouth. When it happens often it feels like a standard. Or in this case a non-standard. We got to the room and the couch had stains. Big ones. The coffee mugs were dirty. And when I say dirty I don’t mean something most people won’t see. We’re not that picky. I mean black goo on the ring. We complained. Came back to the room to see that the couch cushions were turned. And the coffee mugs were not washed, just wiped with a tissue! And the tissue WAS UNAPOLOGETICALLY THROWN IN OUR BIN!! Motel standards at best. ROYAL CARIBBEAN: A BENCHMARK Having been on Royal Caribbean Wonders of the Sea before the NCL Prima. Both newest ships of both companies. The difference is HUMONGOUS. It’s like NCL are 20 steps behind. Or, as the Financial Times coincidently reported while I’m on the ship this week: while in 2022 they were at the same level, Royal Caribbean’s stock is now worth 3 times more. And now I know why. A FAIR COMPARISON The Royal Caribbean ship is spacious. The restaurants are in Avenue type spaces. Where there’s a pathway or greenery in the middle and restaurants on the sides. Which have seating outside, where the ceiling sometimes is full glass, or open sky. One of the avenues is kids friendly with a Johnny Rockets, a toy store, a show pool, climbing wall, and arcade basketball and such games. Restaurants that are not in the avenues are adjacent to the adult pool area. They’ve got a park on the ship! A water park for the kids, next to a big kids pool area. Even on the inside. It’s like a small city. Where rooms are rooms. And entertainment spaces are big, obvious, different. On NCL the open Space is just one. And it’s small. Like the lobby of a small building. And has Starbucks and customer service. A couple of wide corridors that have shops that don’t sell anything useful or interesting. And then then most restaurants are at the side of a kind of a labyrinth. Free included dining is good at the surf side bar on NCL. Which is a buffet. Always crowded. Food dropping on the floor is too frequent. But when there’s an excursion (that is very expensive) that comes back after lunch time is closed, they don’t change the schedule. They let you miss major lunch time and figure it out on your own. DINING The outlet called The Local has such a dreadful kitchen. Food is very bad. And always has that smell of cheap restaurants who don’t clean well after food production or after customers leave. Premium dining on NCL is good quality. But it should be great. Shouldn’t it?. But that’s just the main course and the desserts. For some reason the appetizers are generally bad in most of the restaurants. And the understanding of meat cooking has nothing in between medium and very well done. So either soft pink or burned. NCL has less outlets. And they only open at night! While on RC they open for lunch too. And are much much more pleasant. On RC we practically never had to dine in free included dining areas. Unless we wanted to. And when we chose to, at breakfast for example, their version of the buffet is separate areas that don’t intersect with each other. There could be 1,000 people there and you wouldn’t feel it. And the food options were bigger. On RC there’s even an afternoon big dessert buffet, just in case you wanted to indulge. While on NCL it’s just the dessert decision of the lunch or dinner buffet. And they close from 3 till 5:30. You buy a dining package on NCL you’re likely to waste a part of it. Unless you know beforehand that they only open at night. Then you buy less meals. You buy a soda package on NCL you get normal soda while you’re dining, or at the bar. Using your card. On RC, on top of the above, you get a beautiful souvenir cup with a chip that activates many Coca Cola machines on the ship with infinite choices of drinks. ENTERTAINMENT Entertainment on Royal Caribbean is a multitude of shows that are almost at Cirque du Soleil level. Amazing. And there are many. With actors flying around. Professional stuntmen doing mind blowing acts. Professional ones! Mechanical stages that change shape. One that turns into a pool with a superb water show. There’s so much entertainment that you can’t do it all on one trip. And you feel that you got so much value for your money. On NCL you’ve got ONE theatre that has a magician, one singing show and the game the price is right. And is too small to accommodate for the demand. So we’ve never been. And it’s incomparable. And since they don’t have any other decent space. They turn this theatre into a night club at night. Clubbing on RC is in the adults area with a view of the sea all around. A very different experience. OUTDOOR ENTERTAINMENT That’s beside the fact that when you’re going to put a cruiser in a part of the world where your outdoor facilities aren’t useable because of bad weather, you have to find replacement indoor entertainment, or just don’t put it there and disappoint! Iceland to England, there was barely an hour of sun in ten days. The rest was too cold. We tried the infinity pool on NCL it’s nice. But if people knew there was going to be good weather, and brought swimwear, the pools would’ve been too crowded. But either way, people would go out wearing layers. Only to find that the mini golf games didn’t work. “They need maintenance”. The darts they give you are bent and worn out like a cheap bar. The ping pong and such games area is dirty and unpleasant. And too small for the ship. The karting track is nice. The idea of doing that on a ship is cool. But you do it once. Then it’s not that great. They could’ve used that space to create four or five things. Like maybe a climbing wall, more theaters or things that entertain a big number of people. INDOOR ENTERTAINMENT They advertise that they have a VR place instead of an arcade. First it’s too small for such a ship. Second most of the games are low level. Low resolution. And all of the interesting games didn’t work. And, again “needed maintenance!” What?? I paid an arm and a leg to be here. And I get bad quality games or ones that don’t work and mediocre entertainment?? Are they allowed to claim that anything on such a ship with such a ticket cost “needs maintenance”?? HOW THEY RUINED OUR VACATION WITH UNREASONABLE COVID RULES And the cherry on top of the experience is when my son got mildly sick for one day mid trip and it turned out to be Covid. They forced us to keep him in the room, even without symptoms, for 5 days which killed the remaining days of the trip for him. And for us. And the hypocrisy is that the child who gave him Covid is also one who goes to the kids area, and is without symptoms (or mild ones) and who is running free in the ship. We said you, NCL, gave us Covid because of nonchalance or because you don’t care if someone comes in with Covid and roams on board. Then how come you ruin our kid’s vacation when his situation is not any different from the people carrying the virus, which you don’t care to identify? Their answer: because you were responsible and came to us. We have to apply the Covid rules to you. And keep your son in your room and unfortunately ruin his vacation. If you hadn’t come into the infirmary, even with extreme symptoms, we would let you go about the ship and risk infecting everyone. They got to a point where they had SIXTEEN confined guests with screwed vacations!! SIXTEEN. And the one who spread the virus was still free on the ship. Him and anyone who didn’t go to the infirmary when they got symptoms. Either you’re concerned about the general safety and so you treat the virus as a threat or you don’t. And you let the people who are without symptoms wear masks and enjoy their vacation. Whenever I said or pleaded didn’t work. They had security on us. Threatened us to throw us out of the ship at the next port if our son went out of the room. But oh by the way, we, his parents, who are in the same room as him, could go anywhere we want. No masks needed. They even didn’t let us take him off the boat to see the cities where we docked. Even with no symptoms. Even with a mask. The only way to get out of this was to disembark and leave the ship for good. Then they’d let him out. The irony on top is that they know some people have Covid on the ship and they only confined the responsible ones who came forward. And yet they apply all the “precautions” like cleaning our room last, asking our son to be escorted by security on the day of disembarking to “protect other passengers”. While they know that they can simply ask our son to wear a mask and enjoy his time. And he’d be acting safer than the loose people who carry the virus carelessly. All this hypocrisy in the approach to safety while they know that the virus carriers who didn’t come forward are probably breathing in everyone’s face, especially in the kids area and such. This remained till the last day. As we were asked to leave after everyone even though we paid for priority. Our luggage that was supposed to be in priority but it was in a “Covid area” partially wrapped in plastic. The most stupid thing I’ve ever seen. The funnier part is that they said that we have priority in-room dining because they confined us. As I write this review we have been waiting for close to TWO HOURS for lunch. The kids are cranky and hungry. And every time we call they ask us to wait. I’m glad that I am able to voice this to the world. Because NCL is not cheaper than Royal Caribbean. In fact it might be more expensive. And the difference in the experience between both companies is absurdly high. This is their best ship. The epitome of the NCL experience. Feels like a Royal Caribbean knock-off at best. The difference in the experience is so high, that even if NCL was 10 times cheaper. Which it should be. I wouldn’t buy a trip with them ever again.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Reykjavik, Iceland

Akureyri, Iceland

Alesund, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Southampton (London), England

Disembarkation

Other reviews of this sailing