Sustainability

UGH! We chose one of the newest large ships for our adventure because this new build has been touted for her climate friendly policies related to fuel consumption, single use plastics, water stewardship and greenhouse gas emissions. The Norwegian Prima promised to introduce the world to a new standard of sustainable cruising with some wonderful new features that reduce emissions, filter water, increase energy efficiency, consider sustainable menu ingredients and even plan exterior paint that reduces algae buildup for the sake of better efficiency. 

I hope these policies are having a genuine impact. I'm not an engineer so it's impossible for me to evaluate how well they are doing on most of these measures. I do pay a lot of attention to single use plastics as one easily visible measure of a company's commitment to environmentally sustainable policies. On this front, I'd give the Norwegian Prima a C-Plus. It's a huge pet peeve of mine that more venues (ship or otherwise) don't have water bottle filling stations. The Norwegian Prima has some great places to refill water, but Covid's influence seems to have had a greater impact than environmental concerns. All of the water filling stations have signs instructing travelers NOT to fill up water bottles (Several travelers, myself included, got around this restriction by filling a glass and pouring it into our water bottles). Single use plastics are also still far too common on the ship. There are a handful of recycling bins, a modest addition, but it would be great if they could eliminate the single use plastics completely. I was particularly perplexed as to why the bar in the buffet had only single use plastic cups available, when the buffet itself had reusable glasses only a few feet away. The bartender quickly picked up on my concern and was happy to allow me to bring my own glass from the buffet for him to fill, but I didn't see any other travelers taking this extra step. The only way we're going to successfully eliminate single use plastics is if we make it convenient for people and this definitely wasn't the case here. 

What I can say with confidence is that the Norwegian Prima isn't 'introducing' the cruise world to more sustainable approaches. Several small ship cruise companies have been working from a climate friendly, sustainable model for nearly two decades. I'm thrilled that large ships are following in their footsteps and very grateful that the Prima is taking steps in the right direction.  I just hope it's truly having an impact and that climate friendly policies are given the priority they require to be effective.