Norwegian Joy port of call announced: Hong Kong

Not sure if anyone has found other "official" announcements of Joy's ports of calls, but according to the website of the Hong Kong Kai Tak Cruise terminal the following dates has been scheduled for Joy:

日期 Date	船名 Ship	                STA	STD	
Mo 12 Jun 2017	諾唯真。喜悅號 Norwegian Joy	0700		     母港 turn	
Tu 13 Jun 2017	諾唯真。喜悅號 Norwegian Joy	        2000	

http://www.kaitakcruiseterminal.com.hk/schedule/2017-2/

Hopefully more information will be released soon!

Nice, together with "Homeports: Shanghai and Tianjin (Beijing)" from the NCL Joy page things might unfold themselves a bit..

This is the first site I've come across where there's more booking info to be found re. Joy, eg. destinations, booking policies and reservation requirements (use Google translate and it all makes sense :)). Note, under Booking Policy of this particular booking site it says: "Please provide the exact name (Chinese characters and Pinyin)", surely they would accept English names as well! I tried to make an online reservation, but for the moment the only option is to leave your contact details for them to call back. Already asked a CC to let us know once reservations will be taken, but have not heard from him yet. If anyone has more concrete info, I'd be interested to hear!

http://www.zyoulun.com/product/14770

Days	Ports of call	arrival time	Sailing time	Long shore sightseeing
Day 1	Shanghai	-	17:00	-
Day 2	Jeju Island	14:00	20:00	-
Day 3	Fukuoka	09:00	19:00	-
Day 4	Sea parade	-	-	-
Day 5	Shanghai	09:00	-

I'm starting to see cruises advertised (and bookable) on Chinese websites, but only a couple of dates so far:

• 2017-07-29: 4 day round trip Shanghai, Jeju, Fukuoka (Kitakyushu), Shanghai
  
• 2017-08-22: 4 day one-way Shanghai, Jeju, Busan, Tianjin
  
• 2017-09-20: 5 day one-way Tianjin, Jeju, Kitakyushu, Shanghai
  

They also list daily service charges in dollars: $13.95 per person per day, $16.50 for suites. (Does this mean the currency on board is USD? :confused: )

I assume the prohibition on naming travel agency still applies, even for Chinese TAs, so I can't provide any links.

Thanks for the info. Interesting, on this site http://www.zyoulun.com/product/14772 not included costs are

"cruise service charges, Common cabin Standard Suite and below 55.8 dollars / person, executive suites and suites Haven 66 dollars / person." That's quite a difference compared to your quotes!

I'm hoping to get on one of the maiden cruises, if there's any, before she sails to Asia, I prefer to have a more relaxed and quieter cruise (I'm Chinese myself btw)

"cruise service charges, Common cabin Standard Suite and below 55.8 dollars / person, executive suites and suites Haven 66 dollars / person." That's quite a difference compared to your quotes!

Nice find by OP on the Joy - scanning Kai Tak's ship schedule in greater details, the Joy isn't returning anytime soon after this overnight stopover.

Gentling, meanwhile, launched its newest megaship, the "Dream" and homeport in HKG - basically, the *Away/Plus class ship with less staterooms and better staff ratio - and, like the Joy, the staterooms looked - by-and-large - identical to the *Away class ships that many veteran CC'ers have sailed on already. Dream is doing 5 nights and really, a 2 nights CTN out of HKG on weekends.

There are just 4 sailings on the posted link - all 7 nighters - leaving from one of PVG's 3 ports, Baoshan - north of the city and is 90+ minutes from the international airport, and, there's no easy HST (High Speed Train) connections, private car service or taxi (Uber is available) along with cruiseline transfer (although, given China's air traffic management system & track record, plan to arrive at LEAST 1 day earlier than sailing to avoid missing the ship - no joke).

These itineraries, based on translated descriptions, are designed and intended - specifically - for Chinese passengers. Prices quoted including the services for the escorted tours for the 2 ports by Chinese speaking guide(s) - so, if English is your language - don't even think about it ... you will be in for a huge cultural & linguistic shock, etc. etc.

Presumably, the ship will be sailing out of its alternate homeport in Tianjin, near (but - not next to) Beijing, where there's better HST and other transport services on land, but not for those unprepared. For both mainland ports, make sure to budget plenty of lead time for travel, lodging overnight (as those from the Americas will be dealing with jetlags ... and transportation costs, plus, post-cruise time to return home or stayover for extra land stay) IMO - the port stop in So. Korea is barely adequate to see the popular resort island/seaport and do a little duty-free shopping, LOL - and you do get a little more time to experience Japan's coastal cities ... not really very cost-effective & compounded by the travel logistics.

In one of the descriptive comments written by the site's editors/travel staff - it strongly urge those accustomed to the traditional cruising experience to stick with the Dream and stay clear of the Joy ... including cautionary notes about the "current" expectations & standards for MDR and buffet food, no longer serving lobsters and/or steak without add-on fees & surcharges, etc.

There's apparently no efforts, whatsoever, to translate the information into English as those posted sailings are NOT intended for the non-Chinese pax market from the China mainland.

To get a feel for what the Joy's interior & setup looks like - check out some of the early YT videos & posts already shared - some of the public areas looking good, like the 2 submersible submarines for pax to go below the surface for sightseeing the underwater (and, far better than go-cart ride :D)

If you book an Inside or Oceanview, you will easily feel at home as if you are on the Breakaway, Getaway or even the Escape ... even the "regular" balconies for that matter. For comparative purposes - I selected one of the many YT ones on the Joy (narrated in Chinese but subtitled in English) - additional ones displayed on that page, feel free to click & go thru some of them.

The Joy is apparently, from my oversea sources, relatively easy to book and sailing twice weekly out of HKG's Kai Tak. Plus, there are plenty of ships from other lines sailing from/to HKG, some are round-trips while others are one-ways ... with far more interesting & better itineraries.

Just my nickel's worth of initial impression following some of the discussions - if we're to plan ahead & book, our preference would be to NOT book with this line's Asia division and deal with TA's, etc.