Norwegian Prima

We have now been on five cruises, including a previous Norwegian Cruise Line cruise on Norwegian Getaway in the Mediterranean in 2023, so we have a reasonable basis for comparison. Unfortunately, our experience on Prima was comfortably the poorest of the five cruises from a value-for-money perspective. For context, I would probably rate our previous NCL Getaway cruise at around 7/10. We also sailed on Carnival Glory in the Caribbean, which I would rate around 8. 5/10; (the only significant negative there was the large number of young families, which meant it could be hectic and noisy). We had two pretty good MSC cruises many years ago. Unfortunately, I would rate our Norwegian Prima cruise at approximately 4/10. There were some definite positives, particularly Grand Cayman, which we thoroughly enjoyed and would happily visit again, and the dolphin interaction in Cozumel itself was memorable. However, there were too many disappointments elsewhere for this to feel like good value overall. Food and dining The biggest general disappointment was the quality of the food. In our view, it was the worst food we have experienced on any of our five cruises. The Indulge Food Hall is an interesting concept and initially seemed like a good idea, but we found that the menu was substantially the same each evening. For a seven-night cruise, it became repetitive surprisingly quickly. The Surfside Café was also consistently overcrowded, which made using the buffet far less pleasant than it should have been. Drinks package and additional charges We had a soda package, but there were several frustrations with it. Drinks often did not taste right and were frequently served with far too much ice. More importantly, we were actually charged on more than one occasion for soda water, despite soda water being included within the soda drinks package. This added to our concerns about the accuracy of the onboard billing. Serious billing concerns We had a particularly concerning issue regarding my wife's onboard account. My wife actually went to Guest Services and asked for her onboard spending to be transferred to my cabin account and my payment card. Despite doing this, NCL continued taking money from her card. When we raised the issue, we were told that the amounts charged to her card up to that point had been reversed. However, those funds have still not been returned to her bank account. Combined with the incorrect soda-water charges, it left us with very little confidence in the onboard billing arrangements. Unacceptable comments from crew Unfortunately, there was also an incident involving members of staff which we found particularly unpleasant. Some staff began discussing us amongst themselves in Zulu, apparently assuming that none of us would understand them. My wife speaks Zulu. The comments were derogatory and were along the lines of: "Look at the White folks, they go straight to the white salesperson because they won't buy from Blacks. " This was then followed by another comment along the lines of: "They aren't even white now, they're pink from the sun. " They then chuckled together. Apart from being wholly inappropriate comments for crew members to make about passengers, the assumption was completely wrong. We had met the White salesperson previously. When she saw us, she called over to say hello, which was why we started speaking to her. We also bought items from a Black South African salesperson, and we enjoyed spending time talking with several other South African members of the crew during the cruise. Our issue is therefore not with South African staff — quite the opposite. It is that members of crew felt comfortable making derogatory racial remarks about passengers because they assumed the passengers could not understand the language they were using. We found that unacceptable. Entertainment We found the Cruise Director uninspiring, particularly given the importance of the Cruise Director in generating atmosphere around the ship. We were also extremely disappointed with the Bossa Nova show. The singer was poor, some of the dancers appeared noticeably out of sync, the choreography felt disjointed and difficult to follow, and we thought the music choices were poor. One exception was the drummer, who we thought was excellent. There was also a significant problem with the seating. We were seated in the balcony and simply could not see substantial parts of the performance because of the sightlines. Paying for or being allocated seating from which parts of the production cannot actually be seen is obviously disappointing. Ship design and overcrowding The ship itself did not work particularly well for us. The main swimming pool was very small for a ship carrying this number of passengers. The infinity pools looked attractive but were almost always full, making it difficult to use them. Surfside Café, as mentioned above, was routinely overcrowded. Interestingly, during the cruise we had multiple passengers and even some members of staff comment that the Prima was not a particularly good NCL ship and that other Norwegian ships were considerably better. That was notable because our previous experience on Norwegian Getaway had been considerably better. Great Stirrup Cay We were looking forward to Great Stirrup Cay, but this was another frustrating experience. Tendering took a considerable amount of time, reducing the amount of useful time available on the island. A proper jetty would obviously make the experience significantly better. I believe this will be operational soon. More importantly, we had been expecting the water park to be available. It was not open on the day we visited, and we subsequently understood that it was opening the day after our visit. If a significant new attraction that customers might reasonably be expecting to use was not going to be operational on the date our ship visited, we feel that should have been made very clear to us before booking or, at the very least, well before the cruise. Falmouth, Jamaica – Bamboo Beach excursion Falmouth was unfortunately the worst day ashore we have experienced on any cruise. We booked the Bamboo Beach excursion at approximately £83 per person, so around £415 for our family. For that price, the experience was extraordinarily poor. The beach itself was disappointing. The staff did not appear particularly interested, and the food was mediocre. Rather than being able to help ourselves to food, it was delivered to us, and dessert included melted ice cream. My wife was also having a massage when, partway through it, she was told that she had to leave. The massage therefore simply ended before it had been completed. The excursion was supposed to last approximately four hours, yet the entire period from collection to being dropped back was well under the promised four hours. We had also expected some opportunity for shopping on the return journey, but there was nothing other than the shops at the cruise port itself. For a total cost of around £415, this represented exceptionally poor value for money. We genuinely came away feeling cheated. It was such a disappointing experience that we remarked afterwards that, if we ever returned to Falmouth on another cruise, we would probably simply stay on the ship. Grand Cayman By contrast, Grand Cayman was excellent. We thoroughly enjoyed our day there and would happily choose a future cruise itinerary that included Grand Cayman again. It was easily one of the highlights of the holiday. Cozumel and Dolphinaris Cozumel was more mixed. The excursion was ultimately operated by Dolphinaris, and in hindsight I wish I had better investigated booking directly with Dolphinaris rather than buying the excursion through Norwegian. The first part of the excursion was snorkelling. It felt rushed and was average. More frustratingly, we were given several contradictory instructions about where and when we were allowed to snorkel. Eventually, we simply gave up and waited for the dolphin experience. While we were waiting, we noticed another family sitting in the first-floor restaurant eating their lunch. They had actually arrived at Dolphinaris after us, yet they had apparently already completed both their snorkelling and their dolphin interaction while we were only doing our first activity. That seemed to demonstrate how poorly organised our particular schedule had been. The dolphin interaction itself was amazing, and seeing and touching the dolphins was undoubtedly memorable. However, it was not good value for money. Each person probably received only around two minutes of individual interaction with a dolphin. There was no free swimming around the dolphins. Instead, each person entered the water individually, went a few metres away from the platform, held onto their life jacket, and the dolphin came over for a "kiss" and performed a small trick before the next person had their turn. We subsequently went into the water individually again to feel the dolphin's heartbeat. At another point, we formed a line in the water and treaded water for a couple of minutes while dolphins swam past us. It was enjoyable, but the amount of actual dolphin interaction was extremely limited for the price paid. Dolphinaris photography and additional costs There was then another significant cost. Throughout the dolphin experience, two photographers were constantly taking photographs, while customers were not permitted to take their own cameras into the experience. At the beginning we were offered lockers to store our belongings. These were $16 each, so naturally our valuables and cameras were locked away. When we were eating lunch afterwards, we were approached about purchasing the photographs. We were told that a single digital photograph download was $41. We could alternatively buy photographs of individual family members, although family photographs would not be included. We were offered a full package of all of the photographs for approximately $350, which was subsequently reduced to $300. We reluctantly paid the $300. There were more than 140 photographs, which I have now downloaded. I appreciate that 'professional' photographs are optional, but after paying a substantial amount for the excursion itself, charging $41 for one digital photograph or around $300–$350 for the package felt excessive. The fact that customers cannot use their own cameras obviously makes the professional photographs much more difficult to decline. Taken together with the locker charge, it felt as though there were additional costs at almost every stage of an already expensive excursion. Service and communication There were also occasions where communication with some members of staff was difficult because their spoken English was limited. We fully appreciate that NCL employs an international crew and we enjoyed meeting crew members from many different countries. However, on a cruise catering predominantly to English-speaking passengers, frontline staff need to have a sufficient command of English to communicate effectively with customers. Overall assessment We have now completed five cruises, so Prima is not being judged against an unrealistic expectation of what cruising should be like. Our approximate ratings would be: - Carnival Glory – 8. 5/10 - Norwegian Getaway – 7/10 - Norwegian Prima – 4/10 The fact that we previously enjoyed Norwegian Getaway is important. We know from personal experience that NCL is capable of providing a considerably better cruise than the one we experienced on Prima. However, from a value-for-money perspective, Norwegian Prima was comfortably the worst of the five cruises we have taken. The combination of poor food quality, overcrowded facilities, repetitive dining, disappointing entertainment, poor sightlines in the theatre, expensive and disappointing excursions, additional charges, billing problems and the unacceptable comments we overheard from crew meant that the cruise simply did not represent good value. If we were booking another cruise today, we would choose a different cruise line. At present, we would be much more inclined to look at Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or MSC before considering Norwegian again. I would not say that we would never cruise with NCL again, particularly because our experience on Norwegian Getaway was reasonably good and because several people told us that Prima was not representative of NCL's better ships. However, NCL would now have to offer us a particularly compelling ship, itinerary and price for us to choose it ahead of the alternatives. In simple terms, Norwegian Getaway demonstrated to us that NCL can provide a good cruise. Unfortunately, Norwegian Prima came nowhere near that standard. I hope this detailed feedback is useful.

Itinerary was really good. There was a really good variety of food options available and the specialty restaurants were really good, especially Le Bistro and Los Lobos. The staff were always friendly and professional. Entertainment was really good but we found the venues were all small and you couldn't make reservations so most of the entertainment we saw we had to stand for.

Great ship , rooms are brilliant and kept emaculate. restaurant staff are excellent. Food very good. Bars busy and beer/larger not the best. Seemed to be based on American market which I suppose you would expect.

Other than the outward flight being cancelled And losing a day from the holiday everything was great prima has a strange layout and had difficulty getting into popular venues unless you get there over an hour before the start, the staff in the restaurants we use were very good. I rated the activities as 2 but we actually never used them.