We were on the same ship. It was our first cruise, so the things that bothered you with embarkation and disembarkation didn’t phase us since we didn’t have anything to compare it to. We were on the ship by 12:15 enjoying a nice lunch at Taste which was not crowded at all even though we heard the buffet was a madhouse. We enjoyed all of the Christmas decorations and walking around in our Christmas PJ’s on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. It was fun seeing a large family open their gifts that they had placed under a Christmas tree in the observation lounge. We had Christmas Eve dinner at Teppanyaki and a lovely Christmas dinner in the Manhattan Room. We only ate at the buffet for breakfast a few times and had a couple of salads for lunch.
We bought the WiFi upgrade which was well worth it, although the internet was sketchy at times. Not as bad as I was expecting though considering the ship was very full. We never heard a peep from the cabins next to us. The floor shook quite a bit though. It was like driving on a rumble strip which made it more difficult to sleep. Next time we’ll pick our own cabin location so that we are in the middle of the ship and not so close to the back where the engine is located.
We were on a private whale watching tour in Cabo on Christmas Day and were treated with seeing 15 whales and 10 bottle-nosed dolphins. It was spectacular and the highlight of our trip! The weather was sunny and warm in Cabo!
On our last morning (12/30), our color to disembark was called rather early, but we ignored it and went to the buffet to have breakfast instead. By the time we disembarked, the line was not terrible at all and we didn’t get rained on. Traveling home was a a different story though as our flight was delayed, and then we were put on a different flight because we’d have missed our connection. This made our day very long. It took 10 hours to get home instead of 4. Our travel companions had a direct flight and were home while we sat in airports all day and night. Our checked luggage didn’t make it home, but we retrieved it from the airport the following day. Other than the long day getting home, we had a great time and enjoyed our cruise on the beautiful Norwegian Joy.