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I Test Norwegian's Latest Ships To See Why Cruisers So Unhappy
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Jul 19, 2024
I met so many regular Norwegian cruisers on my Norwegian Viva cruise that disliked this new Prima class of Norwegian Cruise Line ships that I started wondering if Norwegian had actually gone out of their way to create a new type of ship they knew current cruisers wouldn’t like! Perhaps to attract different cruisers, perhaps cruisers like me. I’m not a regular Norwegian cruiser, largely because I’ve not been a fan of the Norwegian ships I’ve been on, but this ship did some things so differently it made me rethink my position, as you will hear. For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: --------------------------------------------------- * Blog: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers
View Video Transcript
0:00
I met so many regular cruisers on my Norwegian Viva cruise that disliked this new class of ships
0:06
that I started wondering if Norwegian had actually gone out of their way to create a totally
0:12
new type of ship that they knew current cruisers would not like, perhaps to attract different
0:18
cruisers, perhaps cruisers like me. Now I'm not a regular Norwegian cruiser, largely because
0:24
I've not been a fan of the Norwegian ships I've been on, but this ship did some things so different
0:29
so differently, it made me rethink my position, as you will hear. And also, you'll find out
0:35
whether Norwegian new class of ships are right for you too. This new class of ships are called
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Prima class ships. The first being Norwegian Prima, Norwegian Viva was the second that I was on
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and the third is Norwegian Aqua. They hold between 3,100 and 4,000 passengers based on how many
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people are sharing cabins. And on these, Norwegian have discarded very good
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ship layouts to embrace a concept are found incredibly like Virgin Voyages ships, which
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instead of having these big grand venues, they've turned it instead to lots of small venues
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dotted all around the ship to basically spread people out across the ship. So although it's a big
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ship carrying thousands of guests, there are almost no big central venues. Before I get into
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some of the drawbacks of this overall layout and concept, I do though need to
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to explain some key additions and some very interesting and notable introductions. One is having a
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surprisingly small pool and pool deck considering the up to 4,000 passengers. Instead, they've
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created the ocean boulevard for people to hang out on and around instead of a big pool deck
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Again, much like on virgin ships, this is basically a widened promenade deck running all the way
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around deck eight. Around this ocean boulevard are infinity pools, seating areas, two-glass floor walkways called the Ocean Walk, some bars, and outside
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seating for quite a few restaurants. The boulevard becomes a bustling and busy space day and night
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and it can get rather noisy, creating a problem for the cabins on the decks above it
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which many people I spoke to said they found an issue. Another change akin to Virgin Voyages
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is they have dispense of their usual traditional cruise line theatre to have a large
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flexible space, where seats retract to enable each show to have a different layout
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So a traditional theatre layout for the Broadway show, which on Viva With Beetle Juice
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and then game shows they run like a deal or no deal For their production show called icons a review show featuring songs of iconic stars through the ages it had a cabaret style layout And then for a prom party
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show night inspired by one in Back to the Future, it was an open space with dancing and podiums and so on
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Most evenings it also became a big open nightclub. It seemed to have what I thought a rather
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small capacity for the size of the ship, so getting bookings for the shows, I found
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I needed to move really fast on, which also people commented on. One introduction that I and everyone
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I met liked, again very similar to Virgin Voyages, is the indulge food hall. The while on Virgin
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Voyages, it actually replaces the traditional cruise buffet with a range of different themed
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dining stalls and carts and cabins. On Norwegian they have kept the surfside buffet
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but they've added the indulge food hall. Now this is included within the fair, and I
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and I use an electronic plant at my table to order food from a wide range of different themed
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food stores, Asian, Indian, tapas and so on, and they are then delivered directly to my table
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It has an inside space and then outside space on the Ocean Boulevard
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They have, though, kept and built in many of the big entertainment features from other Norwegian ships
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things that are not on virgin ships. On top of the ship is the huge Speedway go-car track, which on Aquare is a war
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water slide attraction. Also in this area on deck 18 is the Bulls Eye Darts area, tea time
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crazy golf, the stadium as they call it with table tennis, shuffleboard, pickleboard and
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other games like that. They also have a wave water slide ride, kids aquapark, and then these
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long slides down the side of the ship from deck 18 all the way down to deck 8. There's also the
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Galaxy Games area full of virtual reality games. But what did not work that well and why
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I found that creating these small spaces dotted around the ship to spread people around created
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a less intuitive layout and many people, me included, found it pretty hard to just find my
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way around. It was so alien. This was made more challenging by the lack of a big focus area
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with all the main bars, the shops, music venues and restaurants are usually cluttered around
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on most cruise ships that we're all used to. So unlike either Norwegian or in fact most cruise ships that I'm used to
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with a big central atrium, this was not the case on prima-class ships
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There is one sort of multi-level atrium with guest services, a couple of bars, Starbucks, and some shops
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But then I had to hunt out the other bars, the other restaurants, the other venues
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because they were dotted all around the ship without what I felt a clear theme or clustering It did all feel a bit random It also meant there were some of these strange long hallways on some decks They had kind
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of shoehorned then in things to fill up these hallways with things like the park-waste
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artworks, a couple of shops. The layout to me felt all a bit random and I found finding
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places was less easy than on other cruise ships and other Norwegian ships. I have to say I
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and find virgin voyages particularly intuitive either for exactly the same reason
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Now on the positive side I kept stumbling across new places and venues right until the
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end of my 10 days of cruising on the ship. So that was the first main frustration people I spoke
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to had with this prima class of ships, the sense of it not being very intuitive and easy to
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find venues. It kind of lacked the sense of logic. Now the second key criticism they had is
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because of the focus on these small venues. Some of the venues proved to be
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too small for how popular they are and they were actually quite hard to get into at times
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Now the main ones I found that were guilty of this with the indulge food hall, which is probably
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way more popular than Norwegian had expected. I often found it really hard to get a table
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at popular times, especially on my cruise where it wasn't always great weather so you couldn't
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really sit outside, so everyone had a pack inside. The surfside buffet also seemed way too small
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For breakfast and lunch, they had to use the nearby Food Republic and Palomar restaurant
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restaurants to have enough seating and even then it was often still challenging. The improv
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at sea comedy club was always standing room only and across the way the Sid
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Norman's Poorhouse live music venue was rammed full and hard to get into most evenings
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I think what's also important about the ship is that it's designed for warm weather
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sailings. As I saw my sailing which was actually a chillier November in Europe and the ship
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became pretty cramped inside when people could not be out of the open deck spaces. But this was further exacerbated by something Norwegian
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dialed up on this class of ships and it was the cause of the third big complaint
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most cruises I spoke to had. They felt a lot of the ship was closed off to regular guests
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making it more crowded than it needed to be as on this new class Norwegian is not only
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carried across but increased several of its well-known segregated spaces, reducing and absolutely definitely cutting off a lot of the ship to many of the passengers
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The biggest offender people I spoke to felt was the Haven. This is an access
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controlled area for sweet guests only. I could see because I was staying in there that
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Norwegian have leaned into this very heavily on these ships. It's clear this class of ship
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is designed to carry and cater for more premium suite travellers A lot of space is taken over by Haven Suites across multiple decks at the rear of the ship The Haven itself covers a large space on Deck 16 with a lounge bar restaurant
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two-level deck with infinity pool, bar, hot tub, sauna and steam room. It's a lot of space
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They also have on the ship a large access-controlled solo cabin area with lounge. Kids clubs
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of course, also take up a large space too. There's also a paid-for, adult-only
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vibe beach club with pools and bars, shutting off another section of the ship. Then, of course
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the go-karts and the game space closes off another big part of the ship, especially if you aren't
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into that and don't want to use those. So we could see why, for those not in the haven, solo cabins
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or using the kids club or adult-only area, it would feel like they were being crammed into a smaller
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amount of space. Though when it came to dining, like on all Norwegian ships, few complained about
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the lack of choice. The included dining venues were the local bar and grill, the surfside
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grill and cafe, the buffet, Hudson's and the Commodore room, which are the main dining
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rooms, indulge food hall, and then in the observation lounge, there were snacks, and a pretty
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good afternoon tea. Those things were all included. The additional paid for speciality dining
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included Hasuku, which is tepaniacne steakhouse, food republic, a contemporary Asian place
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that I really liked. La Bistro French, Los Lobos Mexican, Nomas Sushi, Anada by Scarpete Italian
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and Palama seafood. So a lot of added venues. There were many, many bars, but as I mentioned
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they were dotted all over the place. I did feel this new class is a conscious decision, though
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to create a different concept for Norwegian and also to their big resort competitors
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like Royal Caribbean, MSC cruises and Carnival, who do focus on these big iconic spaces
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for crowds on all of those cruise lines. So as a result of the smaller venues, I did
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actually find the ship was way less boisterous, much quieter, it was much less noisy
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compared not only to those other lines, but even to my experiences on epic, breakaway
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and on core Norwegian ships. I did feel like this is a ship designed to attract a different
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type of person because certainly for me, I actually really enjoyed it because I felt
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although I was on a big ship and I'm not a big fan of big ships, but I still had all
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the choice but it wasn't as manic it wasn't as loud it wasn't as crazy on those
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other ships certainly if I was heading back to Norwegian the prima class would
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absolutely be the choice I would have versus their other ships now I mentioned
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that I traveled in the haven and to find out what that is really like and if
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it really is worth the hefty price join me in this video where I reveal something
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rather startling about it that most people don't appreciate see you over there
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