1/8/23 Embarking Norwegian Prima

 

We had an easy embarkation yesterday onto the Norwegian Prima. It was just a passport check, security, and check in. We got to in the Priority Access line because we are Platinum. They give you the cards at check in. We headed first to the muster station. Right when we got on the ship they had a huge list of all the locations so it was easy to find ours.

We headed to Indulge Hall. It was 11:20 am and it doesn’t open until noon. We got a table because we read online it gets really busy.

 I headed down to the theater to wait in line to make our entertainment appointments. It took about 40 minutes. Then, I headed up to Galaxy Pavilion to get reservations for the escape room. They have two – one about magic and one about animals. I picked the animals one. It’s up to six people and $15 pp. You will be filled in with strangers. I also reserved a private darts area for $20. We’ll see what that is like.

I finally joined Glenn around 12:20 pm.  The Indulge Food Hall has about eight different small quick service restaurants. You sit at a table and order from an ipad from any of them. We had nachos, Korma, smoked turkey, pad thai, ahi tuna tostada, and little meat and cheese tapas. It was so fun. After lunch, we headed to Metropolitan to find Lovely. She's been our favorite bartender on several cruises with my parents. My mom keeps in touch with over email. She wanted us to bring magnets of where we live. It was great seeing her. 

After delivering the magnets, we headed to the cabin. The cabin is great. Good size bathroom. Plugs right next to the bed on Glenn’s side. Hallelujah. 

We unpacked and rested. Dinner was a Palomar. We went up to the Observation lounge for a cocktail. It’s so much smaller and decorated in all browns. Very different from the Encore and Bliss. 

Palomar was terrific. Great service and a great meal. I had the grilled octopus, beet salad, monkfish, carrots, and asparagus. My favorite dish was the grilled octopus.

Everything was prepared well and tasted great. Dessert was a chocolate mouse cake with salted caramel popcorn. It was good with the popcorn, but when the popcorn was gone I didn’t like the texture. Too loosey goosey for me. (That’s a culinary term).

After dinner, we went by Metropolitan, but it was slammed. It’s also right next to the Cigar Lounge so it really smells. We were searching for a place to hear live music. The party band was playing the Atrium, but it’s really hard to get a seat down there. We sat at the bar at the Whiskey bar two decks up where we could kind of hear the band. The acoustics are terrible – unlike Princess where you can sit in the upper levels and still here.

As we were sitting at the bar, Glenn says That’s Emir! Emir -the bartender with glasses from the Encore on the Haven in 2019. He was the one always working on his cocktail for the competition. We called him over. He’s the Head Mixologist now. He’s responsible for the cocktail menus and training all the bartenders on how to make the cocktails. He didn’t really remember us, but it was good to see him.

We headed to bed.