The theme of this cruise was confusion. From day one they changed out ports, they swapped Cozumel and Costa Maya days, then limited us to only 6 hours in Costa Maya starting at 6AM! The ship layout is so confusing, and is based on a lot of smaller venues instead of fewer larger venues. The drinks were not the same bar to bar, or even bartender to bartender. Do yourself a favor and find Bong in the Metropolitan sooner rather than later. Food was average, room service breakfast was cold and bland and often missing items.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
The embarkation was pretty smooth.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Buffet is so tiny, never a place to sit. Specialty dining was great to Los Lobos and Hasuki. Main Dining room was slow, but that is expected, if we told them we had a show to go to it was faster.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Pools are tiny, Hot tubs were small and always full. Most of the extras cost extra. Mini Golf, Darts, Go-Carts, VR Arcade, and escape room. The escape room was fun but short for 15 dollars per person.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The entertainment was great, I enjoyed both comedians and Shane was a great musician to catch when we could catch his show. And Ocean fest was so good and so much fun.
Children's Programs
2 out of 5
We did not use, but rating a 3 because I heard it was always full and there were alot of unruly kids running around the ship.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Service was mixed. With the exception of our room steward and a couple bartenders, we did not feel the service was good at all. Seemed like you were bothering them to ask for a drink, rarely had people come around to ask for drinks, and if you got up to got to the bar you lost your seat. Could not hardly find a bar that would do shots, and when you did they would not do any fun shots, only shots we got were lemon drops at Syds.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
The ship was mostly clean with the exception of old glasses stacking up in venues and picked up in a timely matter, Esp at Syd's and Improv during the day and between shows. The ship design is so confusing, small venues, means standing in line if you want a seat. For the ship only being about a year old we could see some wear and tear on her already also.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We had an Oceanview Balcony and it felt roomy and the shower seemed a bit bigger than previous ships. I do not care for deck 8 stick out farther from the rest of the ship, as looking down from our balcony we had a view of what was going on on that deck, I am used to having a full Oceanview. The size of the balcony was average, and the chairs and table were nice.
Ship tip
If you want to see the shows in Syd's or Improv get in line early, or you will be standing. Dismemberment is pure chaos. I recommend either getting off first thing, or waiting to be last. Go enjoy breakfast and get off later when the line dies down. Our line wrapped around deck 6 and even part of deck 7....and they were still calling colors!
The worst disembarkation ever! Line was extremely long, no direction, people cutting, sick people not using masks properly or getting special area, and they continued to call colors. If you hadnt gotten a full tour of deck 6 by the time you finished disembarkment you sure did,
Just for reference I have been on several cruises on NCL and Royal and this one was ok except for what mentioned. I guess I set the bar too high. I loved the layout of the breakaway class.
Hated the Prima, terrible layout because of all the venues. The restraunts were average and the Buffett is a joke and the so called sports bar was pathetic with their design. It's too big, I prefer smaller ships. They had the worst disembarking process I have ever seen. Took 2 and a half hours of standing in line to get to customs, which was the easiest process. Many crew members were rude and appeared uncaring about doing their job.
So sorry you did not like the Prima. We thought the food was excellent. We did not go to the buffet often since there are so many other included options.
We were on it the Prima this summer. It was one of our top cruises.
We had some of the same issues with the Prima as you. I'll comment on one issue. We also found virtually no way to get a drink without standing around a bar and trying to get the bartenders attention. They seem to have almost eliminated the server type position. Our cruise was a year ago next month and I thought maybe it was an understaffed because of past covid shut down. We have been on three cruises since then on other ships in NCL'S fleet and there were plenty of servers. Ot sounds like the Prima still has this issue.
One cruise on the Prima was enough for us. We will stick with the older ships until we hear lots of good reviews for the Prima class ships.
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