Arctic Cruise Reviews

Onboard Prima now and with 2 days to go we thought we'd post a review. There are so many positives for this review but i will try and keep it short and sweet. We have enjoyed the itinerary although we missed Belfast due to the weather. We have seen the Northern Lights, dolphins and whales from the ship so have been very lucky. The ship is beautiful and the layout is fantastic, the service ...

This was our fourth NCL cruise, but the first for quite a while preferring Celebrity and RCL but this itinerary included many of our “bucket list” ports, including Reykjavik and Lerwick (Shetland). It is very obvious that they are understaffed, and undertrained. The front-line help is courteous enough but not prepared or allowed to problem solve. There is lack of communication between ...

We booked this 22 months ahead of time. We were unable to get our favorite cabin, JS. We did not like the balcony cabin! Way too small for us. I can't remember how many times we ran into each other between the bed and door. The Jewel of the Seas is old, built in 2004 and updated in 2016. It needs so much work. Paint peeling, titles cracked, Wi-Fi was almost nonexistent. unless you were in the ...

The housekeeping staff were awesome. Arvin and Gene were very helpful and always friendly and had a smile. Greeted me by name each time they saw me. The assistant cruise director and Harry were there to play baggo. The wait staff were very friendly and very very good job. The one area I had problems with the cruise was when we signed up for excursions most and the best were already booked. ...

We travelled before with Quark Expeditions and it was fantastic (to the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica). This time (september 2023) we wanted to visit Greenland and the Canadian high Artic. The choice for Quark was easy because of our experience on the other trip and it was again excellent! Everything was fantastic, the room, staff, food (buffet lunch, a la carte diner with great wine), ...

Loved the destinations but the ship and amenities were terrible. The only great things onboard were the dancers and singer shows. What’s the good thing about using food clips to pickup your food when most people are coughing in their hands? There has to be a better way of serving. The wines were the cheapest I ever had. The package they sell is worthless. NCL has skimped on all their services even ...

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary, sailing dates, and to use a 20% discount certificate that was issued by NCL due to canceling the Epic's winter Mediterranean sailings. The terms were rather restrictive and this sailing qualified. We booked about 3 months ahead, so we were within the final payment date and could only use one CruiseNext certificate. NCL would not budge on this, despite ...

This was a great chance to experience Iceland and Greenland while trying out the new cruise line Explora Journeys. We amazingly arrived in every scheduled port during a period where bad weather was not experienced but was right around the corner. We used the ships excursions for all ports except those in Iceland. The Iceland excursions, called experiences, were extremely expensive (in the range ...

This ships is the pits, if this is a new concept for NCL, then they have got it drastically WRONG. The cabins, food and beverages where fine, but the service in the restaurants and bars left a LOT to be desired. A lack of staff and poor IT systems just lead to frustration and delay, wrong orders, etc. Far to much commercial space such as shopping, casino, pay per use dining, VR studio, go cart ...

I am perplexed by the negative reviews. The Prima is a beautiful ship with outstanding service and wonderful itineraries. I wouldn’t change a thing about it with the possible exception of an additional entertainment. Be sure to book dinners at some of the specialty restaurants, as they are very good. The main dining rooms offer very good food as well. We enjoyed some of the little surprises we ...