Norwegian Joy NOW BOOKABLE

I was curious if NCL had published the sun's new itineraries for next year. I wanted to see if doing a Cuba cruise was in my budget. I then found out the Joy was available for booking. I selected the ship. It turns out there's a variety of sailings ranging from 4-6 nights. Although, only balconys and mini suites are available for the majority of the sailing. I still don't know if it's worth flying all the way to China to sail onboard her. I think I will just wait to try the new features onboard my cruise on the Bliss to Alaska next year!

You could have booked Joy over 2 months ago.

Thank you for posting. I missed the alert 2 months ago, so this is the first I've heard it's bookable.

I booked 2 land vacations and a cruise this year so not sure I can fit in a trip to China, but might be fun to do next year.

Thanks,

Stephen

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I'm sure it's going to be another beautiful ship but just speaking for myself I have absolutely no interest in sailing on her. From what I've read on here a lot of cruisers have a similar opinion.

Thanks for the heads up though.

I am not a china expert, but traveling on a boat of almost entirely Chinese travelers would be an experience for sure based on couple weeks I spent in China. Very different cultural norms which would be magnified on a cruise ship.

Some of the Beijing-->Shanghai (and reverse) could be interesting as a way to get between two points.

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On the Norwegian Star last week, the CruiseNext consultant advised us that the Joy is not an English-language ship. All staff must speak either Mandarin or Cantonese, but not necessarily English. Furthermore, the casino on the Joy will be 3x larger than on any other ship.... so they must be taking the space away from something else.

IHMO, book another NCL ship to sail those ports & itineraries. Even T/A booking other cruises are not advising or recommending non-Chinese cruisers to sail this purporse-built ship intended for the mainland China market.

Expect plenty of smoke & odor from the triple-sized casino and dining menu items dominated by Chinese & Asian-influenced food onboard. Duty-free shopping onboard is apparently big. Non-Chinese passengers are responsible for getting their own visas for the countries being visited, etc.

This USA Today article has a ton of pictures:

https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/cruises/2017/04/26/first-look-norwegian-cruise-lines-new-norwegian-joy/100920474/

Behaviors and manners of the Chinese travelers abroad are infamous and legendary ... to put it mildly, just "Google" it & check out Youtube.

Ports for Shanghai & Beijing are far, far from downtown and city centre, ground transportation logistics can be a major nightmare and you will barely see anything on a day stop ... and these urban metropolis are best toured, explored & seen on foot with an escorted land tour, with a fluent English-speaking guide.

Of course, feel free to do whatever :rolleyes:

That ship would NOT be my idea of fun!

A beautiful ship.. for a Germany - Southampton leg that she didn't do... :(