Norwegian Prima Cruise - January 29th 2023 Sailing

The Norwegian Prima is a brand-new ship, only months old.  She is beautiful, elegant and very large.  This is a new style of ship that we are not used to, it's called a boutique-style ship.  We are used to grand open spaces but on the Norwegian Prima, the spaces are tighter and a little bit on the claustrophobic side, for me. Everything is done in small boutique-size units.  I am writing a critique for this boat, so if I sound overly negative then you will understand why.

There are two things about this boat that I really don't like. The first is the Haven.  If you have copious amounts of money, you can pay for a Haven Suite and with this, you have the Haven dining room, Haven sun lounge area with Haven pool and there is also a Haven bar.  This takes a great deal of space away from the majority of the passengers and creates a two-tier system which is a bit archaic.  The other thing I don't like about this boat is that the Speedway takes up a tremendous amount of space when it could be used for sun loungers and more wide open spaces.  The Speedway is not used very much because it costs extra and is ridiculous and frivolous to have on a cruise ship.

We are used to a large buffet area where we go for breakfast and lunch but on the Prima, it is a small little boutique-size buffet and you are encouraged to go eat at the smaller little restaurants instead.  This may be an attempt to downsize or limit the amount of food that people are intaking. This is not a bad idea because everybody eats too much, especially Americans/Canadians.  The salad bar in the Surfside Cafe and Grill is not only small but very uninspired.  It has a total of about 10 items and all of the salad dressings are store-bought, cream-based and unappetizing such as Thousand Island-type dressings.  I had to resort to oil and vinegar and salt and pepper.  First-world problem, but seriously Thousand Islands?

At the same restaurant, my husband let them know that he had allergies to garlic and they made him up fresh from scratch, shrimp with a tomato-based pasta, which he found very delicious.

On the Prima, it does seem that is a bit of a money grab even at the complimentary dining rooms you have the option to pay for a prime rib etc. I refuse to pay more to eat on any cruise. I have already paid for my cruise and it is the principle of it. Personally, I would have loved to have prime rib, but I am not going to get it on the Prima unless I pay more, whah, whah whah. 

The Observation Lounge was in the bow of the ship on deck 17.  Every morning I would go and get my Starbucks coffee and watch the ship come into port or sail the Caribbean and read my newspaper that I get on my Kindle and wait for my husband to get up.  I spoke quite a few times to one of the crew members Akash who is from India and you have never met a more friendly personable guy.

The picture below shows the inside of the ship in the center where everything is happening.  It is quite pretty but not super roomy like other large ships that I have been on like the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas.

Another thing that has changed with Norwegian is that the perks that you're offered when booking has been chiselled away.  For example, your free Wi-Fi package is now limited to 150 minutes per person for the week which is not enough for a person learning Spanish on Duolingo every day.  Free to me does not mean limited to 150 minutes, it means free. Watch what you get for perks because if you don't read the fine print you may only get a drink package that limits you to an $11.00 drink. My package limited me to a $15.00 drink each time, which was perfect for moi.  I tend to have a snobbish outlook on wines.  I believe that life is too short for awful wine.

Our first stop on the cruise was Great Stirrup Cay which is Norwegian's, Private Bahamian Island. 

You have to tender off the boat which was about a half-hour lineup for us to get off the ship and a very bumpy ride to the private island.

While on the island your drink package transfers to the island so if you have a free drink package the drinks are included.  One thing about this island it seems like there are about 14 million people here and the chaise lounges are sardined in and you can barely sit on one or get your foot in between to sit down.  The beach is simply not big enough for the number of people on the island.  While we were on Great Stirrup Cay, one other Norwegian boat The Encore was here as well, so approximately  6,000 people were on this island.  

Later when we went back on the ship and on deck 17 in the  Surfside Cafe, I was looking out the glass windows and I saw two dolphins surface a few times and swim under the boat. I have never actually seen that before while on a cruise ship, that was the highlight of my day.

With the drink package, there is no sparkling water or specialty coffee, so you have to pay extra for them and I believe that is another money grab because they use to be included.

We were surprised when we went to the Commodore and the Hudson dining rooms that they had the exact same menus.  Furthermore, we were even more surprised when Hudson's and the Commodore have the exact same menus every night!!!!  These are the dining rooms for the Prima and what we want is to have a different menu each night because this is part of the excitement of a cruise in what you are going to eat each night. This is a new concept for Norwegian and they plan to move this to all of their boats.  I hope this is an epic fail.  I am NOT impressed with the fact that the menus are the same every night.  I believe it is another money grab to try and force you to pay for the specialty dining restaurants.  If Norwegian sticks to this new distasteful plan, then I will not be booking with Norwegian in the future.  Towards the end of the cruise, the menu was getting boring and I couldn't wait to get onto a boat that has a different menu every night in the dining room.

The elevators were cool on the Prima and I couldn't help but take a selfie.  You can see the hubby in the red shirt reflected in the mirror looking away.  He has a phobia of taking photos and especially selfies.  I like to laugh at how bad my selfies are, too funny.  Photogenic is not in my wheelhouse.  

We like to hang out during the day in the sun in the Soleil Bar area which is at the stern of the ship on deck 8. It has tons of very comfy seating and lots of room and it is fairly quiet.  You can read and listen to the water as the wake is created and watch the Caribbean waters drift by.

The Donna Summers musical entertainment was incredible on board!  It honestly was the best musical that I have ever seen.  The pipes on those girls were absolutely fantastic and remarkable.  Onboard entertainment has always been one of the things that I love to see and I have seen many, but this was absolutely freaking fantastic!!

We saw the Price is Right in the Prima Theater and it was super fun.  It was exactly like you would see on the game show on TV.  People were called down from the audience and they participated just like the audience does on TV. 

We attended the Noise Boys one evening and this was a conglomeration of beatboxing, tap dancing, singing exedra.  It was a very lively show that was highly entertaining.  The female lead singer needs to be stronger but other than that it was well worth watching.

Our second port on the Prima was  Ochos Rios Jamaica.  

Down at the base of the Dunns River Falls at the beach.

We have been to this port before but have never taken in the falls.  Because we had a $50 credit for shore excursions per port, we decided to purchase the Dunns River Falls shore excursion.  The falls are pretty and nice to watch.  We decided to do the dry route so we were called Dry Walkers.  You could walk up the falls if you had water shoes which we did not and we did not want to purchase for $12 US each and rent lockers for $8 US each.  It was actually less about the money grabbing and more about the fact that there was a human chain moving slowly up the falls. 

Not my idea of a good time.  We did the stairs alongside the falls and with the extra time we went down to the beach got on some wifi and practiced my Spanish on Duolingo.

We tend to be more independent and like to take things at our own pace.  I had no desire to hold on to some stranger's hand and help them up the falls. They fall, you fall -get the picture?  Regardless it was nice to see and I'm glad we went and we never need to go again.  Do I sound jaded?

This Banyan Tree to the left was quite a remarkable shape and it is inside the Dunns River Falls Park.  

Below is another tree that I have no idea what it was so I quickly snapped a few pictures of it before the bus left without me.  I did not have time to go to my google lens view to identify the type of tree it was.  It had large gorgeous hairy pink frew-frew hairs on the blooms, see below.  If you zoom in on the photo it is quite an extraordinary bloom.  

If you know what it is then please let me know.

The third port that we docked at was Grand Cayman Islands.  We've been here several times before and so we didn't purchase or utilize our $50 cabin credit because there really weren't any shore excursions that we wanted to do or have not done already.  We have done the Stingray Alley numerous times and highly recommend that.  We got off of the ship and walked to the left and down the sidewalk for about 15 minutes to the entrance to the beach.  From there it took another 10 minutes to get to a spot that was not too crowded.  We brought our ship beach towels that you can sign out and we laid down and surprise - I practiced my Duolingo.  I also went for a swim and it was really lovely just floating around in the clear turquoise Caribbean Sea.

The 4th Port on our Prima sailing was Cozumel, Mexico.  We have fortunately been to Cozumel before it became a cruise port and it was a sleepy little island.  We did Chankanaab Park in 1995 and that was excellent snorkelling.  Now you can have up to 6-8 cruise ships on the island and it becomes quite chaotic.  We did utilize our $50 credit and came to Playa Mia Beach Park.  If you like a crowded Beach, you may like Playa Mia.    There were free water toys at the Playa Mia Beach Park and we used the big floating 3-wheel tricycle that works your quads. 

This thing was a very good workout.  If you look to the right you can see in the picture the floating 2 person water trikes.  

We also utilized the kayaks which were fun as well. 

 Unfortunately, a very nasty storm moved in and cut the beach park fun down by 50% when it started to blow like crazy and the rain pounded down. 

We were a bit wet sitting on the 30-minute bus ride back to the ship.  But we were thankful to be out of the downpour.  I felt like Grumpy Cat on the ride back.  On board, I grabbed a couple of Tequila Funshines and Grumpy Cat quickly vanished.

Concerning food issues on the Prima, waiters ask if you have any food allergies.  This is great but three times my husband was served sauces or other things that actually had garlic in them and he found this out later when it was actually done thoroughly and checked by the head Maitre d.  Consequently, he didn't feel well for quite a few days which is negligent on Primas's part or just poor training of the waiters.

This photo to the right was at a specialty restaurant Palomar.  This was one of the perks that Norwegian gave us when booking this sailing.  The meal was delicious and we did not have to pay a thing except I did tip the wait staff. (I am not that Scottish).

The views were tremendous as well and I had a nice French white wine that night.

On the second day, we ate at Indulge Food Hall and found a great outdoor table on deck 8, where I first discovered the Tequila Funshine Cocktail.  They actually have this drink on tap in a few of the bars on the Prima.  It is a great citrusy cocktail that I continued to enjoy for the rest of the voyage.  

Don't worry about bringing your gowns ladies.  The dining room attire ranged from blue jeans to dresses.  I like to dress up every night but a lot of people don't and this was obvious with men even in shorts in the dining rooms.  

What I found to be unacceptable in the dining room was that the Prima ran out of 3 of the white wines that I had been drinking and they ran out in the first half of the voyage.  What was up with that?  They kept on trying to force their Californian whites on me.  I wasn't having any of that nonsense, so I switched to reds.  I am flexible like that. 

We mostly travel on large cruise ships when we cruise for many reasons.  One reason is the stabilization systems they usually are equipped with.  The Prima does not have a great one and for a couple of days and nights, the ship was rocking more than it should have been.

Our inside cabin was lovely.  The Prima has definitely got this right.  This was the nicest and most well-organized inside cabin that we have ever lived in.  The design was elegant and the storage was the most I have experienced.  My guess is a bunch of women got together and strategized for this design.  Was that sexist?  Anyways the bathroom was very large with the largest shower I have ever experienced on a cruise ship.  Well done Norwegian, congrats you got this right. 

On the day of disembarkation, we chose self-assist.  This basically means that you are taking your own bags off of the ship and can manage on your own.  We had to be out of our rooms by 8:30 am and this was a fairly slick process.  There was a lineup that did not move for about 10 minutes and then we continued to move for another 10 minutes and we were off the ship and onto the customs border crossing and back into the USA.  We decided to Uber it back to MCO-Orlando International to pick up our rental car.  Uber provided great service and was cheaper than a taxi.

Overall, it was a great cruise, with great food and drinks and remarkable entertainment.

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