mandy98d
Book restaurants and shows early.
Thumbs up
0
Norwegian Prima Cruise Reviews - Tips
243 Norwegian Prima Tips
ajmartucci
2 pieces of advice, first thing you need to do as soon as you get on the ship is make your reservations for shows. Make sure you make your specialty restaurant reseverations before you get on the ship!!
yogadancer
Book as much as you can the minute you sign on to go on this ship. Bring some bottled water if you don't want the tap water. The tap water just smells like chlorine to me.
mkrep
Board early so you can book everything
MemphisTraveler
DON'T! There are much better options than NCL and especially the Prima. NCL customer service and commitment to health and safety no longer exist.
2rs4travel
If you like to walk on the ship decks avoid this ship. The only walking deck goes around areas and you have to walk around people looking for restaurants, chairs, etc. 3500 people on a ship of this design is way too many.
brodyloucks
very odd layout!
gersh08
Not the ideal ship for a Caribbean vacation. Pool deck is extremely small, and hot tube have never worked. With the exception of the Customer Service desk the crew is exceptional.
GWM165
The Observation Lounge offers a light breakfast and afternoon sweets and sandwiches.
reppink1
My best advice is to choose a different ship. If you are an experienced cruiser, you will be completely disappointed before the end of day 2.
ColinR1983
Avoid the prima class ship. We will be cancelling Viva, our experience unfortunately put us off using NCL again
Forget the main dining rooms. Service was lpoor and the food was served cold. Imagine cold fish and chips! Service for breakfast in the Local Pub and Grill was the best. Fast and Hot! Texas BBQ was good for diner and their salmon for lunch was excellent. Skip the Steak House - Cagneys. Steak is clearly 'Choice'. When a ribeye is tough there is a problem.
rfalk555
Don’t go on. The Haven customers occupy about 30% of space.
MartyMcFlyin
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.
courtnithibault
Be prepared to be bored because there is not enough room at the amenities for the amount of people that cruise on this boat. Everything on the brand new ship was breaking down and the dining rooms served the same menu every night so you would pay for specialty dining. So many of our fellow cruisers have all of the same complaints. Too many to list them all.
JCastellucci
Be sure to find the observation deck as quickly as possible. It's a wonderful way to relax in the afternoon and watch the ocean. They also have light a light menu at their buffet.
geniakendrick
Make sure to make all of your reservations either prior to or as soon as you board, especially if your party is more than 2.
dnbsundance
When compared to other cruise lines and ship configurations, there will be a period of adjustment to the design of Prima.
Kbuckley
Not exactly for families, a lot of the activities cost money and things were already full when you board. Even go karting you have to make reservations prior to going.
frana19
Check out Syd Norman's Pour House - so much fun! Be sure to book all the entertainment when you board.
61 - 80 of 243 Tips
Find a cruise on Norwegian Prima
*Cruiseline.com is not a booking agent or travel agency, and does not charge any service fees to users of our site. Our partners (travel agencies and cruise lines) provide prices, which we list for our users' convenience. Cruiseline.com does not guarantee any specific rates or prices. While prices are updated daily, please check with the booking site for the exact amount. Cruiseline.com is not responsible for content on external web sites.