I Test Norwegian’s Latest Ships To See Why Cruisers So Unhappy

I Test Norwegian’s Latest Ships To See Why Cruisers So Unhappy

I met so many regular cruisers on my Norwegian Viva cruise that disliked this new class of ships that I started wondering if Norwegian had actually gone out of their way to create a totally new type of ship that they knew current Cruisers would not like perhaps to attract different Cruisers perhaps

Cruisers like me now 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 different ly it made me rethink my position as you will hear and also you’ll find out whether Norwegian

New class of ships are right for you too this new class of ships are called Prima class ships the first being Norwegian Prima Norwegian vivva was the second that I was on and the third is Norwegian Aqua they hold between 3,100 and 4,000 passengers based on how many people are

Sharing cabins and on these Norwegian have discarded their existing ship layouts to embrace a concept I found incredibly like virgin voyagers ships which is instead of having a having these big Grand venues they’ve turned it instead to lots of small venues dotted all around the ship to basically spread

People out across the ship so although it’s a big ship carrying thousands of guests there are almost no big Central venues before I get into some of the drawbacks of this overall layout and concept I do though need to explain some key additions and some very interesting and notable introductions one is having

A surprisingly small pool and pool deck considering the up to 4,000 passengers instead they’ve created the Ocean Boulevard for people to hang out on and around instead of a big pool deck again much like on Virgin ships this is basically a widened prominar deck running all the way around deck 8 around

This Ocean Boulevard are infinity pools seating areas two glass floor walkways called The Ocean Walk some bars and outside seating for quite a few restaurants the boulevard becomes a bustling and busy space day and night and it can get rather noisy creating a problem for the cabins on the decks

Above it which many people I spoke to said they found an issue another change akin to Virgin voyages is they have dispensed of their usual traditional Cruise Line theater to have a large Flex ible space where seats retract to enable each show to have a different layout so

A traditional theater layout for the Broadway show which on Viv with wheatle juice and then game shows they run like 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 show night inspired by one in Back to the Future it was an open space with dancing and podium and so on most evenings it also became a big open nightclub it seemed to have what I thought a rather small capacity for the size of the ship so

Getting bookings for the shows I found I needed to move really fast on which also people commented on one introduction that I and everyone I met liked again very similar to Virgin voyages is the indulge Food Hall the while on Virgin voyages it actually replaces the traditional Cruise buffet with a range

Of different dining stalls and carts and cabins on Norwegian they have kept the Surfside Buffet but they’ve added the indulge food hole now this is included within the fair and I use an electronic plant at my table to order food from a wide range of different themed food

Stores Asian Indian Tapas and so on and they are then delivered directly to my table it has an inside space and then outside space on the Ocean Boulevard they have though kept and built in many of the big entertainment features from other Norwegian ships things that are

Not on Virgin ships on top of the ship is the huge Speedway go-kart track which on Aqua is a water slide attraction also in this area on Deck 18 is the Bulls ey darts area Tea Time Crazy Golf the stadium as they call it with table tennis shuffle board pickle board and

Other games like that they also have a wave water slide ride kids Aqua Park and then these long slides down the side of the ship from deck 8 18 all the way down to deck 8 there’s also the Galaxy games area full of virtual reality games but

What did not work that well and why I found that creating these small spaces dotted around the ship to spread people around created a less intuitive layout and many people me included found it pretty hard to just find my way around it was so alien this was made more

Challenging by the lack of a big Focus area with all the main bar the shops music venues and restaurants are usually cluttered around on most cruise ships that we’re all used to so unlike other Norwegian or in fact most cruise ships that I’m used to with a big Central

Atrium this was not the case on Prima class ships there is one sort of multi-level Atrium with guest services a couple of bars Starbucks and some shops but then I had to hunt out the other bars the other restaurants the other venues because they were dotted all

Around the Ship Without what I felt a clear theme or clustering that did all feel a bit random it also meant there were some of these strange long hallways on some decks they kind of shoehorned then in things to fill up these hallways with things like the Park West artworks

A couple of shops the layout to me felt all a bit random and I found finding places was less easy than on other cruise ships and other Norwegian ships I have to say I didn’t find virgin voyages particularly intuitive either for exactly the same reason now on the positive side I kept

Stumbling across new places and venues right until the end of my 10 days of cruising on the ship so that was the first main frustration people I spoke to had with this Premier class of ships the sense of it not being very intuitive and easy to find venues it kind of lacked a

Sense of logic now the second key criticism they had is because of the focus on these small venues some of the venues Prov to be too small for how popular they are and they were actually quite hard to get into at times now the main ones I found that were guilty of

This were the indulge Food Hall which is probably way more popular than Norwegian had expected I often found it really hard to get a table at popular times especially on my cruise where it wasn’t always great weather so you couldn’t really sit outside so everyone had it pack inside the Surfside Buffet also

Seemed way too small for breakfast and lunch they had to use the nearby food Republic and Palama restaurants to have enough seating and even then it was often still challenging The Improv at se comedy club was always standing room only and across the way the Sid Norman’s

Poor House live music venue was ramful and hard to get into most evenings I think what’s also important about this ship is that it’s designed for warm weather sailings as I saw my sailing which was actually a chillier November in Europe and the ship became pretty cramped inside when people could not be

Out on the open deck spaces but this was further exacerbated by something Norwegian dialed up on this class of ships and it was the cause of the third big complaint most Cruisers I spoke to had they felt a lot of the ship was closed off to regular guests making it

More crowded than it needed to be as on this new class Norwegian has not only carried a cross 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 the biggest offender people I spoke to that felt was the

Haven this is an access controlled area for sweet guests only I could see because I was staying in there that Norwegian have leaned into this very heavily on these ships it’s clear this class of ship is designed to carry and cater for more premium sweet Travelers a

Lot of space is taken over Bar 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 twole Deck with infinity pool bar hot tub sauna and steam room it’s a

Lot of space they also have on the ship a large access controlled solo cabin area with lounge kids clubs of course also take up a large space too there’s also a paid for adult only Vibe beach club with pools and bars shutting off another section of the ship then of

Course the go-karts and the game Space closes off another big part of the ship especially if you addd into that and don’t want to use those so we could see why for those not in the Haven solar cabins or you see in the kids club or

Adult only area it would feel like they were being crammed into a smaller amount of space though when it came to dining like on all Norwegian ships few complained about the lack of choice the included dining venues were the local bar and grill the Surfside Grill and

Cafe the buffet Hudson and the Commodore room which the main dining rooms indulge food hall and then in the observation Lounge there were snacks and a pretty good afternoon tea those things were all included the addition paid for specialty dining included huku which is Tepanyaki Kagney Steakhouse food Republic a

Contemporary Asian place that I really liked labistro French Los Lobos Mexican Nas Sushi an by scarpet Italian and pelar seafood so a lot of added venues there were many many bars but as I mentioned they were dotted all over the place I did feel this new class is a

Conscious decision though to create a different concept for nor region and also to their big Resort competitors like Royal Caribbean MC cruises and Carnival who do focus on these big iconic spaces for crowds on all of those cruise lines so as a result of the smaller venues I did actually find the

Ship was way less boisterous much quieter it was much less noisy compared not only to those other lines but even to my experiences on Epic Breakaway and on core Norwegian ships I did feel like this is a ship designed to attract a different type of person because certainly for me I actually really

Enjoyed it because I felt although I was on a big ship and I’m not a big fan of big ships and but I still had all the the choice but it wasn’t as manic it wasn’t as loud it wasn’t as crazy on those other ships certainly if I was

Heading back to Norwegian the prier class would absolutely be the choice I would have versus their other ships now I mentioned that I traveled in the Haven and to find out what that is really like and if it really is worth the Hefty price join me in this video where I

Reveal something rather startling about it that most people don’t appreciate see you over there

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.

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