Hello and welcome to our trip report October 2023 repositioning cruise from the port of Southampton to Barcelona onboard the new Norwegian Prima from the Norwegian Cruise Line.

This was our 3rd cruise with the line and our return as they were the line we first cruised with and who we enjoyed our 2nd cruise with, but we hadn’t sailed with them since.

We had had some poor experiences with the land side operations of the line but had always enjoyed the onboard experience with them, so would that continue this journey?

Sadly, the answer must be no to that as the experience was much different onboard this ship and whilst some of that was down to the ship itself and the type of cruise we were on, we also experienced issues with staff for the first time ever onboard a cruise.

Aside from those negatives, we still enjoyed the holiday overall and there were many positives to like about the ship, especially the boardwalk and Indulge food hall areas and never forget that these are just our thoughts of our cruise on the Prima, which are all subjective.

We set sail from the port of Southampton on the south coast of England and whilst we had sailed from their before, this was our first-time setting sail from the new Horizon terminal.

We had quite the adventure in getting there as we travelled down from Yorkshire to park at Birmingham Airport.

The original plan had been to get the train down to Southampton directly from the airport but with strikes cancelling that option, we would need to take a coach from the airport to Oxford and then from Oxford to Southampton.

Thanks to an issue with the Oxford coach, we had a long delay and didn’t arrive into Southampton until late at night and after a poor nights sleep in a hotel that turned out to be nothing more than hostel for those on stags and hen do’s, we would arrive at the terminal nice and early.

Thankfully, things started to improve at this point and after dropping our bags off outside, we waited briefly for security to open, before breezing through, heading upstairs and checking in.

The whole process was quick, easy and the staff friendly- what more do you need from a cruise terminal?

As a new build, the terminal is spacious, clean and there is plenty of seating whilst you wait.

Our journey was a port intensive one, so there was no day at sea to ease into the cruise as the we would arrive early into the port of Le Havre in France the morning after leaving the UK.

Le Havre

This was our first visit to Le Havre and overall, we have to say that it was well worth visiting.

When doing our pre-cruise research, it did seem to be a port people like or hated and we can understand why that is the case.

The town is certainly not a tourist one and if you have only ever seen France on travel shows, it may not live up to expectation but what it is, is a slice of ‘real’ France and we always like somewhere that feels authentic.

It is the sort of place where you just walk around, see what you come across and just enjoy a day exploring but that can be an issue for those with mobility issues, especially as it is around a 30-40 minute walk from the dock to the town centre and although there were shuttle buses for E7, in true stereotypical French fashion, the drivers spent more time on breaks than driving!

Le Verdon-Sur-Mer

After our only sea day, we arrived at the port of Le Verdon-Sur-Mer and sadly, this must go down as been the worst ever cruise port we have visited.

A big part of that is down to the fact that is just isn’t a cruise port at all as it is a small container quay but what draws a limited amount of cruise ships is its relative closeness to Bordeaux.

It is still around an hour to the city and to the many vineyards in the region, which is why a line such as NCL are amongst the few to visit Le Verdon as they can sell incredibly overpriced excursions to Bordeaux and to those wineries.

Le Verdon itself has nothing there apart from a small village, which is still a long walk through scrubland away, although there was a shuttle to a nearby seaside town for $20 dollars per person.

We knew this wasn’t going to be a port for us before arriving so had planned for it to be a relaxed day onboard the ship, where we could take advantage of it been quiet to enjoy all that the ship had to offer.

Unfortunately, most of our fellow cruisers had come to the same conclusion and that meant the ship was busy all day long in what turned out to be a bit of a wasted port day for all but the handful of cruisers setting off on excursions.

La Coruna (A Coruna)

Thankfully our next port proved to be much better as we would call into Spain for the first time and the port of La Coruna.

This was the first big organisational problem to crop up on our trip as the port itself wasn’t ready for us when we arrived and after waiting around an hour for clearance, the security staff didn’t make use of the main disembarkation area.

Instead, they opened 1 temporary desk in the main atrium, so not only did that leave to a huge cue, but people were coming from multiple decks and areas leaving to lots of confusion and lots of angry cruisers.

The layout of the city on a peninsula flanked by an estuary on the east and a large bay on the west, with the town centre in the middle means you can walk from the ship, along the seafront, through the town centre and appear at another promenade.

That makes for a very walkable city and that is exactly what we did but one issue that we did have was the fact that we didn’t dock until 1pm, so a lot of the shops and attractions were closed for siesta.

La Coruna was the first port where many had to spend their time once back onboard queuing at reception or at the shore excursion desks as all of the delays led to many ,missing out on excursions or pre-booked attractions.

Vigo

Our next port was also in Galicia, and it was also a port we enjoyed but it was a port we shouldn’t have been at. When we booked our cruise, just a few months before sailing, we were supposed to visit the port of Leixoes, near Porto, and that was one of the big draws for booking the cruise.

Porto was somewhere we had wanted to visit for some time but thankfully its replacement, the Spanish port of Vigo still proved to be a good day onshore.

Vigo is another port where you can simply stroll off the ship, head into the town centre and either explore or head for a café but we decided to explore.

That involved walking up a huge hill to the cities Fortress of El Castro, although there are some handily placed travelators to take some of the strain.

The Fortress gives great views of not just the city but of the whole region, including the port where your ship is docked.

After walking back down the hill, we walked around the cities shopping district and then headed back to the ship and the Indulge Food Hall, somewhere that had quickly become our go to place for a quick bite to eat.

Lisbon

The next day saw us visit Portugal for the first and now only time on this cruise, when we sailed down the Tagus River to the capital city of Lisbon.

Lisbon, or Lisboa is you prefer, is somewhere we had visited twice before, but never on a cruise so it was great to sail under the Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge.

Lisbon must be one of the best entrances to a cruise port in Europe as you sail past the seaside resort of Cascais, past the Monastery and Cathedral at De Belem before sailing past the city centre before docking within walking distance to the old town and adjacent to a number of the city’s main attractions.

Having already spent some time in the city, we simply bought a metro card for the day and headed down to De Belem by using the metro and train.

Unfortunately, there a military parade going on when we got there, which closed some streets and made it impossible to enjoy walking around the many attractions in the upmarket part of the city, so we took a stroll around the small Botanical Garden before jumping on a bus pack into the city centre.

After arriving back at the Cais de Sodre station, we walked across the road to Time Out Market to enjoy a Pasteis de Nata- something we always must enjoy when in Portugal.

After that, we walked around the Bairro Alto old town, before wondering around the amin shopping streets and heading back down the river front to our awaiting ship.

Tea was once again in the Indulge Food Hall before we grabbed a comfortable seat at the back of the ship and watched the comings and goings of Lisboa.

After arriving into the city in the dark, we headed up to the top deck to get a good view of our sail away which saw hundreds wave us off from the town centre, before getting the chance to get an up close view of the cities impressive suspension bridge.

Cadiz

Cadiz is a wonderful city and somewhere that we would love to explore and one of the great things about the port is that you dock within walking distance of the old town centre, but we would never get the chance to explore the town as we would opt for an excursion to the nearby city of Seville.

Seville, or Sevilla as it is known in Spanish, is somewhere both my wife and I had wanted to visit for some time and with Porto disappearing from the schedule, it was one of the destinations we were looking forward to visiting the most.

It can often be the case that when you build somewhere up in your head, you are disappointed when you get there but Sevilla lived up to expectation with the incredible Plaza de España been the highlight of our visit.

The city centre is smaller than we expected but with the heat been in the mid 40’s Celsius, that was somewhat of a relief as we still racked up around 10 miles walking around the city’s streets.

One of the great things about Cadiz is that you can see a lot of the city from the top deck of your ship, so when we got back to the Prima, we grabbed a bite to eat and sat at the back of the ship enjoying the views and watching the sun go down.

Motril

Motril is another one of those European ports where there is little to nothing there, you dock a long walk from the town and whilst there was certainly more there than Le Verdon, we were glad that we had an excursion booked this time around.

We would jump on a coach and take the hour journey to the historic city of Granada and to the famous Alhambra.

If you don’t know about the palaces of Alhambra, they sit atop a large hill overlooking the city of Granada and whilst our excursion was only a shuttle between the ship and the city and didn’t include Alhambra, roughly 50% of those on the coach were headed there.

Thankfully, the driver and guide agreed to take those of us heading up the hill on the coach, which saved us lots of time and plenty of effort.

Alhambra is an incredible place, and we would recommend anybody heading to either Malaga or Motril on a cruise to visit there, but make sure you book in advance as you cannot pay on the day.

After exploring all that was on offers at Alhambra, we walked down the hill and explored the old town of Granada which still features the old Islamic Street layout from the days of the city been under the rule of the Moors.

That meant cobbled streets, lots of narrow winding streets and a few close calls with traffic.

From there we walked around the newer parts of town before heading back to the coach for the journey back to the ship and as you have probably guessed by now, we once again headed to Indulge for tea.

Ibiza Town

Our arrival into the Balearic Island of Ibiza started by passing the nearby island of Formentera and what a stunning sail past it was as you sail pasts its dramatic cliffs.

That was helped by our midday arrival into the capital of Ibiza Town as the sun was shining over the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Ibiza Town itself is quite a dramatic entrance as you enter into a vast bowl of a harbour and for us, we had to slowly reverse past a ferry into our berth.

That gave plenty of time to look around the city and over towards the beautiful Castell d’Eiviss, where we would spend the bulk of our day ashore.

After getting fed up with paying $20 dollars at almost every port for a shuttle into town, we did some research ahead of arriving at Ibiza and found a ferry shuttle that went from next to the cruise terminal into the heart of old town.

This was not only a much more pleasant journey than a packed shuttle bus, but it only cost E7 each and with the shuttle buses dropping off a 10-minute walk from the old town, we were glad we had found the ferry.

We walked straight form the boat to the Castle and through its narrow, winding and cobbled streets to the top for some incredible views of the harbour and back towards the Prima.

After taking the most direct way up the hill, we took a much more indirect route back down and took in much more of the streets inside of the Castell, which is now much more of a walled town than a defensive castle.

We would then walk around the new town, pop into some shops and sit down by the side of the harbour to watch the constant movements of ferry’s heading to other Islands and back to the mainland.

As it was now the mid to late afternoon, it was time for some food and yup, that meant heading back to the ship and to the Indulge Food Hall but sadly things weren’t going to be straight forward once back onboard.

The huge queues at reception and the shore excursion decks were hard to miss, as were the many fellow guests loudly voices there announced of having to pay $20 for a shuttle when a ferry did the same trip for less than half of the price, with most asking the same question of why Norwegian hadn’t told people of that option.

Unfortunately, that is something you have to expect when sailing with Norwegian as there staff are seemingly trained firstly to get as much money out of you as possible and secondly to make your holiday as great as possible.

What was unexpected from the staff of a cruise ship was somebody actually refusing to do their job but that was going to be our experience soon after having to join all of those queues of people complaining about things.

After going back to our room, we checked our onboard account and noticed that we had been charged twice for one of our excursions and one of our $50 discounts as part of the ‘Free at Sea’ dela had been removed.

We went to the reception desk and explained the issue with been charged twice and the discount removed to be only greeted with a complete lack of interest by the receptionist who simply printed of our account statement.

Suspecting that there was a breakdown in communication, we used the printout to explain the problem to only be told that she was too busy, and we would have to sort it later.

After having to queue for some time due to all the complaining guests, we really didn’t want to waste more of our holiday the next day trying to sort the issue, but that is exactly what we would have to do.

With regards to Ibiza Town itself, if your thoughts of Ibiza are drunken youngsters and huge night clubs, that just isn’t what you get in the capital as it is a small but nice historic city full of Catalan culture and well worth a visit.

Palma de Mallorca

Our second port in the Balearic Islands was the Mallorcan capital city of Palma, which was somewhere both my wife and I had visited before but not together.

After spending another $20 each for a shuttle to somewhere close to the city centre, we simply enjoyed a stroll around, taking in some of the sights we had seen before, heading up to the historic Soller train station and then back through town to the stunning Palma Cathedral.

If you have not visited the city before, it is well worth it to see the Cathedral, but it doesn’t have much else, so we jumped back on the shuttle bus to the ship.

Of course, that meant heading to the food hall, grabbing some to eat and drink and then sitting in our favourite spot at the aft of the ship which afforded great views of the city.

Sadly, our next challenge was to queue up once more to try and get our onboard account sorted but once more it was to be a long wait with 100’s queuing up once more but with the arguments getting louder and more aggressive as the ongoing lack of organisation was really starting to spoil the cruise for many cruisers.

Thankfully, once we got to the front of the que, the problem was sorted straightaway, which just made it more frustrating that on the previous day, the member of staff had refused to help.

Valencia

Our return to the Spanish mainland saw us arrive at Valencia and after spending another $40, we were dropped of outside of the cities science museum in what is an impressive, in somewhat underused, arts part of the city.

From there is around a 3.5km walk into the centre of the cities old town but you can walk along a dried riverbed that has been turned into a popular park for much of it.

Valencia is a huge city but the actual city centre is easily walkable and mostly flat, so that was our day on shore, simply walking around the shops, bars and cafes of Valencia and enjoying its main attractions.

As our last night onboard the Prima, it was the dreaded repacking that awaited us once back onboard before a night of relaxing.

Our disembarkation port was Barcelona, where we arrived early morning at Terminal A and whilst we were finishing our holiday with a few days down the coast in Sitges, we booked an excursion that gave us a small tour around the city before dropping us off at the airport.

Barcelona is somewhere we had been before, but it was good to see the main sights once again before jumping on a bus from the airport down to resort town of Sitges.

After lots of organizational problems throughout our journey, we were somewhat dreading disembarkation but whilst chaotic, as it often is, it did work well and we picked up our bags relatively quickly and boarded our coach within around 30 minutes of leaving the ship.

As mentioned, we sailed onboard the impressive looking Norwegian Prima, which had only been in service for a little over a year when we sailed on her.

I will only write our brief thoughts on the ship here as we have already done an in-depth review of the Prima which can be viewed via the link below.

As mentioned, we sailed onboard the impressive looking Norwegian Prima, which had only been in service for a little over a year when we sailed on her.

I will only write our brief thoughts on the ship here as we have already done an in-depth review of the Prima which can be viewed via the link below.

Looking from the outside, the ship is simply stunning and looks impressive from every angle and despite spending the best part of a couple of weeks seeing her docked in ports but also experiencing several of her issues, we still feel that way.

Onboard the ship there are quite a few issues and some that seem like they really should have been caught at the design stage.

The buffet is about a third of the size of other buffets, even on much smaller ships we have sailed on and whilst there are lots more eating options on the ship, it was still far too small.

That led to it becoming a struggle to find a table, get food and grab a drink to the point where we simply avoided it.

The swimming pool is also incredibly small for a ship of its size and on a Med cruise, it also became incredibly crowded.

On the plus side, we loved the Indulge Food Hall, which I am sure comes as a big shock after reading our trip report above and had a great meal in Le Bistro.

We also loved the outdoor lounge section at the aft of deck 8 and quickly became our go to place to sit, relax and take in the views.

The onboard theatre is a great innovation where it can change from a theatre to a nightclub, but we found it felt more like a lecture auditorium rather than a theatre, which does take away form watching the shows there.

We stayed in cabin number 11137, which is an internal cabin on deck 11 and close to the forward lift (elevator) bank.

It was a cabin that we chose ourselves, so we were happy with the placement which is relatively central on the ship.

The cabin itself was a decent size, although it was smaller than similar cabins on Celebrity ships but was plenty big enough for me and my wife.

It had a good range of storage, lots of space for your luggage and a decent sized bathroom that included the all-important glass door on the shower.

The biggest issue we did have with the room was the cleanliness of it. Our cabin steward cannot be faulted for his effort has he was always working but it just seemed to be that he had far too many cabins to clean which meant somethings would be missed.

The biggest issues we had was there was some cake left in our fridge from a previous cruise, that we only found towards the end of our journey, the bathroom often got overlooked and on one day, the cabin never got cleaned at all.

This was a trip full of ups and downs in pretty much all aspects of it.

We enjoyed some of the ports we visited whilst some not really worth visiting, without an excursion at least.

Some parts of the ship we loved, some we hated and that was the same with the service that we had from NCL.

Any cruise holiday is better than a day at work, but some aspects of the holiday were so frustrating, the thought of wishing to be back at home did cross my mind but looking back at it, the good things certainty outweighed the bad things.

Sadly, it did confirm that the issues we have with the line are still there and perhaps even worse than they were before, so we are unlikely to cruise with them again anytime soon.

It should be said however that if a great offer was to be had with NCL on an perfect itinerary for us, it wasn’t enough to put us off fully but it was enough for us to know that there are better lines out there for us.