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Norwegian Prima Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 27
11 Night Northern Europe: Iceland & Norway (Southampton To Reykjavik)
Sail date: May 12, 2024
Ship: Norwegian Prima
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 12100
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 months ago
Review summary
The cruise itinerary is overwhelmingly the best thing about this cruise. The ship has its deficiencies . Don't think I would use the Prima again. Service and staff A+. Ship and especially cabin design is C-. Tipping policy on drink and food packages is exorbitant! Passenger tipping at $20 per person per day is approaching deal breaker status.Embarkation
We include accessibility to cruise port as part of experience. Know that embarking from London requires long bus or train trip to South Hampton England. Most of our cruises in past required a 15 minute taxi or Uber trip. So to negotiate a bus trip and then another taxi trip to get to port is a challenge. We recommend National Express Bus travel to So. Hampton and then taxi over to port. That is most affordable and takes about 2 hours from London. Pick-up at Heathrow's Central Bus Station is chaotic but doable. Once at the ship , boarding was pretty much average, not perfect but not horrible. There was some problems with Norwe
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We have many cruises under our belt so our observations come with much expectation of the cruise line to provide great food and drink at today's cruising prices. The major complaint is the buffet is about one third the size of other ships that are of comparable size. Seating was a challenge, especially during busiest hours. We found you could take your food to the Observation Lounge , just a short walk from the buffet. But that becomes crowded as well once people realize you can do that. Food at the buffet is on par with most other ships. but the aggravation of crowded and rude people( and every cruise has those who don't think common decency applies to them) really puts a damper on your experience. We did find the food to be a notch better in the MDR. Making a reservation for the MDR is recommended if you have a group of 4 or more. Our observation is that the main dining rooms are much smaller in order to have 8, yes 8, specialty restaurants. At $59 to $85 a person for those restaurants you can do the math as to why there are so many. We found Hasuki's to be exceptional, but it is BeniHana style so you are seated with 6 or 8 other people. Food was worth it. Cagney's Steak was a little disappointing. The service was very good( thanks Jinkie!). But the steaks almost tasted like they were prepared earlier and then reheated. So at $85 per person plus we opted for the complimentary restaurants. And now what used to be free, room service will cost you $5 for breakfast and $10 any other time. TIP: If you miss cut off time for dining the Local Bar and Grill is a 24 hour operation . Now for the biggest thorn-in-side problem with food and drink packages. The accessed tipping of 20%. The drink package cost us $515 in tips alone for two people before you even board. . According to my math a person would have to drink 12-14 drinks every day to warrant being accessed $257 per person. This grows even larger if you only have soda. Now couple that with the highly suggested $20 a day per person ADDED to your bill for onboard tips ( all service help supposedly gets a cut) and a couple is subjected to $950+ in tips for this cruise! Nearly a hundred dollars a day in tips alone . No wonder tipping has become so controversial. Consider that before you opt for the drink or food packages.
Onboard Activities
The fitness 'room' is very limited. The weather was the culprit for outdoor activities on ship. Pools and spas unused for the most part. The motor cars and super slide were a ghost town( also an upcharge of $20). Most outdoor activities took a hit because of upcharge or weather.
Entertainment
We were surprised that the 11 day cruise had only one stage show, Donna Summer show. This production is fantastic, even if you are not fond of disco. The other entertainment , Price is Right type game show events we did not attend. Same for the magician and comedians. They had cover bands at Syd Normans . Most of the bars had some sort of entertainment, from musicians to trivia games.
Children's Programs
We had no children with us. In fact there were very few children on this cruise.
Service and Staff
The service and attitude of ship personnel is exceptional. No problems there. Room stewards come once a day now if you didn't know. Almost all personnel were very friendly and cheerful. Our room steward was very good as well .
Ship Quality
If it were not for the Observation Lounge the ship would warrant a less than good rating. Buffet; waaay too small for amount of people. Dining commons much smaller and more crowded due to half-empty specialty dining rooms . Midship lounges have limited seating. Very few areas that one could just kick back and enjoy some quiet time, other than your cabin.
Cabin / Stateroom
Cabin was underwhelming. Compared to balcony cabins on other cruise lines, the square footage was smaller, bathroom much smaller, and why was the coffee table removed ? Had to resort to the couch for room service trays. The biggest problem is the front facing balcony. My wife who is 5' 2" could barely see over the safety wall. Then one has a view everything through a very dark smokedglass windows. The side walls completely enclosed the balcony, giving one the feeling of looking out of a bunker. Do not get a forward facing balcony cabin!
Ship tip
The Prima is unfortunately is lacking in too many areas to be regarded as a ship we would return to. We have been on the Breakaway and did not experience such an odd lay out. The itenerary was exceptional. But it doesn't make-up for the ships defecientcies
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
As stated, tricky to get there. Takes much organization to travel there. Cruise ship costs for bus travel there is triple National Express Bus line.
Great surprise! Worth the long bus trip over. Be prepared to walk , and walk and walk. Belgium chocolate....yes!
Been to Amsterdam before but still found much to do. First timers have to do obligatory canal ride, Van Gogh museum, Ann Frank House and Rijksmuseum ...time permitting.
Any of the excursions are incredible. ( Tip: You can use Get Your Guide or Viator for more option$)
The Tollistigen Tour....Wow. Mt. Strand! Operator was exceptional through Get Your Guide. Long tour but worth it.
Again, Bus Travel Icelandic operator to see Golden Circle is a must do. Daniel as your guide , exceptional !!
Disembarkation
Depending on which cruise port in Reykjavik , the disembarkation ramp was treacherous...so steep. We had early flight so opted for self disembark. Ship allowed people to leave ship as early as 6am if that helps with your planning to get to airport which is 45 to 50 minutes from port. Port is pretty chaotic with all the different busses
11 Comments
bubbles60 6 months ago
We took that same itinerary last July and loved it.
We took the NCL transfer from the hotel to South Hampton. It was about a 1.5-hour drive.
Yes, the buffet is smaller than most. We ate at the other included restaurants for breakfast and lunch. My favorite was Indulge, and my husband's favorite was Local.
mckey70hotmailcom 6 months ago
I just priced this cruise and between the sail away rate and the free at sea price it is about $70 per person. So $140 for the duration, the drinks tips were $516, so for 2 people for 10 days was about $656. Which averages out to about 4 drinks a day to get your moneys worth and that doesn’t include any soft drinks, we stick with NCL for this reason alone. And then you also get 2-3 specialty dinners included, some wifi and a shore excursion credit. We have done numerous cruises with NCL and have never had a bill at the end if we paid gratuities up front. Compared to other cruise lines you can do better than the free at sea.