Review: First time Norwegian cruiser Joy to Bermuda on May 29th out of Manhattan

[CleverUserNameHere]

We got off the Joy Bermuda sailing out of Manhattan on May 29th and these are a few observations/critiques that I hope will help out another first time Norwegian Cruiser. For background we have been on one Royal Caribbean cruise on the Anthem, and two with Celebrity. This was our first cruise with Norwegian, first cruise since COVID, first cruise with a toddler, and third cruise to Bermuda. My mother-in-law traveled with us.

 

We booked the indoor family suite which I believe is unique to the Joy due to its prior life in the Chinese market. About the suite:

• It has a virtual balcony which was nicer than I had expected and definitely made the space feel less claustrophobic. We could also see when we were pulling in/out of port.

• It was about 500 square feet and had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a shared common space with a pull out bed and a table and chairs

• There is not much left from the “suite” status, although it did have robes, a large umbrella in the closet, “upgraded” L’Occitan toiletries and drumroll… a Nespresso machine!

• The toiletries were nicer than I expected and ended up using them instead of the ones I packed and the Nespresso machine was indispensable for someone who is used to grinding their own beans fresh and making espresso at home.

• Our baby monitor worked really well in our suite between the sleeping and living areas which was a big plus.

 

Food:

• The food was overall consistently “good.” Nothing was particularly bad, and some things were actually great. They always had a really good Indian station for breakfast, lunch and dinner and a ramen station for lunch which was really cool. We ate breakfast from the buffet most days which started at 7 on sea days and 6:30 on port days. Same basic options every day, can’t complain. There is a light “continental” breakfast available in the Observation lounge starting at 5:30 every day (pastries, milk and cereal, yogurt and whole fruits) and breakfast at the Local every morning at 5:30. We never ate breakfast in the dining rooms but I think they started at 7:30.

• The specialty restaurants were underwhelming compared to Royal and Celebrity. We ate at the Italian restaurant (the name escapes me), seafood restaurant (Ocean Blue), and sushi restaurant (Food Republic) twice. With the exception of the sushi option, I can’t say that I really noticed a difference in quality from the main dining rooms which I always did on Celebrity or Royal. The service at Ocean Blue was particularly lacking and dinner took close to 2 hours with a squirming toddler. Thankfully we were sitting outside so we could just take him for a walk and weren’t bothering many people. We sat at the table for about 30 minutes before our waiter even came and introduced himself. There were many empty tables and seemingly plenty of staff.

• We had the dining package for 2 meals for 2 people but both times we opted to use it they never charged for my mother-in-law who was traveling with us. We were debating purchasing the package for her so I am REALLY glad we didn’t. We paid a-la-carte at the sushi place and went back for lunch on the last sea day and just ordered two rolls. Since it was the only place on board to get sushi it seemed worth it to me.

•  One MAJOR critique about the food is that there is no 24 hour grab-and-go option for food. The local is open 24 hours but you have to sit down and order your food and it is all really “heavy” options and the service was really slow. On Royal and Celebrity they have grab and go snacks, pizza or sandwiches available between breakfast lunch and dinner services on the buffet and we found ourselves having to wait until the buffet opened more than once so we could feed our toddler and put him to sleep.

 

Bermuda:

•  As beautiful as always, but some casualties from the pandemic were noticeable including the glassworks at the port closing.

• Taxis, shuttles and buses are still available right as you walk off the dock. Masks still required on officially licensed taxis and public transportation

• The complimentary shuttle to and from St. Georges was a really nice perk unique to Norwegian.

 

Other observations:

• The smoking “box” in the casino does very little to contain the smell and if I had accidentally booked a cabin on deck 9 near the stairs on the aft of the ship I would have been livid.

•  Embarkation out of Manhattan was the worst. I suggest arriving at 8:30 or after 1 pm. It was organized chaos and line after line after line. Security line, Bermuda TA line, covid testing line (for some), and only THEN check in line which moved the slowest of all. The whole process took 2- 2.5 hours. I highly doubt we will be choosing to sail out of there again, although sailing past Ellis island and the Statue of Liberty was pretty cool.

• The service in the specialty restaurants and dining rooms were slow, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preferences. We have always experienced feeling “rushed” when sitting down to eat on ships and feeling pressured to order our drinks, appetizer, main and dessert all at once within the first 15 minutes. Not the case on this ship, not sure if it is a Norwegian thing or post-pandemic thing

• The Observation Lounge on deck 15 and Waterfront on deck 8 were definitely the places to be and were usually uncrowded and easy to get a drink. The snacks in the Observation lounge were some of my favorite things to eat (quiches, sandwiches, meats and cheeses, desserts and fruit) and I wish they were available for more than a few hours in the afternoon (could have been a 24 hour grab and go area)

• We had the basic drink package and never felt constrained by it. Basically any spirits and cocktails less than $15 are included and you pay the difference if you want anything that isn’t included. A few of the cocktails included top shelf spirits and were still less than $15. The Whiskey bar downstairs was always uncrowded and offered everything, not just whiskey so definitely check that out. 

• Wine selection was strangely limited. Again not sure if it’s a Norwegian thing or pandemic thing, but only one option of each wine available by the glass all over the ship. One rose, one chardonnay, one merlot, etc. Even at the wine bar. That being said, the prices for bottles were not bad, around $20-$40 if you don’t have the package and you get a 20% discount with the package.

 

Thanks for reading until the end! Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and would book with Norwegian again.

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by CleverUserNameHere

[CleverUserNameHere]

I forgot to include my comments on the entertainment so here they are:

 

Entertainment:

• There were always plenty of things to do on board, a good selection of movies in common areas, trivia, games, music, and of course shows. 

• The theater was very small considering the number of people the ship holds and they only did the headlining shows (Footloose and Elements) one night each with two shows each which was surprising because on day one the reservations for Footloose were already taken. My MIL got in at the 10pm show in the standby line. Our cruise was only 1/2 -2/3 full so I don’t know what they do when it is at or over capacity. 

• I would rank the quality of the shows above Celebrity and below Royal. You can tell they are spending a good amount of money on programming.

• The onboard “gimmicks” are cool. My husband and I did the go carts one night during dinner time which was a good move because it was just the two of us on the race track, when ordinarily 8 cars run and it is a constant pile up where one driver crashes on each turn and everyone stops up behind them. There is an observation deck where you can watch and it was amusing. We didn’t get a chance to do the laser tag but that was definitely something we had wanted to do. I don’t know what they were thinking with the VR arcade though. We walked through it twice and there were never more than a few kids in there and it’s a huge space. Maybe it’s more popular during the summer holiday but it definitely will not age well.

[mking8288]

Welcome back.  Summary is well written, short & concise and on points.  Thank you for sharing as I'm sure there are many CC'ers here looking for the newest update, as the Joy is the one and only NCL ship sailing from NY this summer.  Later in August/early September, the Getaway & Breakway will join up and cruise out of NY ... but, that MCT mess.  

 

Since you're traveling with a toddler and not just in the "SP" family suite, that's supposed to entitle you to priority embarkation or at least pier check-in, none was given.  I know we booked 2 family suite just for the extra space & comfort, not expecting to be "pampered" but we've concluded, not paying for the extra suite space as it's really not worth it.  

 

Services at The Local was slow, very slow and pretty of crew members running around like headless chicken lost on a farm, just couldn't figure out what they're busy with ... and I've spoken to one of the asst. manager on duty, twice on the same day.  Part of the new "normal", I'm sure someone will say.  

[CleverUserNameHere]

4 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Services at The Local was slow, very slow and pretty of crew members running around

 

Yes I would say the services at all of the sit down restaurants were slow, but there seemed to be plenty of staff around running about. Like I mentioned, depending on your preferences it could be seen as a good or bad thing. On our previous cruises where it was just me and my husband we often felt rushed through dinner so this would have been a plus. On this cruise with a toddler it was bad. He could hold it together through the first 45 minutes but then if he didn't have his food by then he was ready to GO!

 

My husband thought maybe they didn't feel a rush to turn over tables since we were sailing so "empty."

[toohod]

I really enjoyed this format of write-up as well as we look forward to our upcoming cruise on Joy.  Thank you for taking the time to highlight your vacation.

[vacation44]

2 hours ago, CleverUserNameHere said:

We got off the Joy Bermuda sailing out of Manhattan on May 29th and these are a few observations/critiques that I hope will help out another first time Norwegian Cruiser. For background we have been on one Royal Caribbean cruise on the Anthem, and two with Celebrity. This was our first cruise with Norwegian, first cruise since COVID, first cruise with a toddler, and third cruise to Bermuda. My mother-in-law traveled with us.

 

We booked the indoor family suite which I believe is unique to the Joy due to its prior life in the Chinese market. About the suite:

• It has a virtual balcony which was nicer than I had expected and definitely made the space feel less claustrophobic. We could also see when we were pulling in/out of port.

• It was about 500 square feet and had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a shared common space with a pull out bed and a table and chairs

• There is not much left from the “suite” status, although it did have robes, a large umbrella in the closet, “upgraded” L’Occitan toiletries and drumroll… a Nespresso machine!

• The toiletries were nicer than I expected and ended up using them instead of the ones I packed and the Nespresso machine was indispensable for someone who is used to grinding their own beans fresh and making espresso at home.

• Our baby monitor worked really well in our suite between the sleeping and living areas which was a big plus.

 

Food:

• The food was overall consistently “good.” Nothing was particularly bad, and some things were actually great. They always had a really good Indian station for breakfast, lunch and dinner and a ramen station for lunch which was really cool. We ate breakfast from the buffet most days which started at 7 on sea days and 6:30 on port days. Same basic options every day, can’t complain. There is a light “continental” breakfast available in the Observation lounge starting at 5:30 every day (pastries, milk and cereal, yogurt and whole fruits) and breakfast at the Local every morning at 5:30. We never ate breakfast in the dining rooms but I think they started at 7:30.

• The specialty restaurants were underwhelming compared to Royal and Celebrity. We ate at the Italian restaurant (the name escapes me), seafood restaurant (Ocean Blue), and sushi restaurant (Food Republic) twice. With the exception of the sushi option, I can’t say that I really noticed a difference in quality from the main dining rooms which I always did on Celebrity or Royal. The service at Ocean Blue was particularly lacking and dinner took close to 2 hours with a squirming toddler. Thankfully we were sitting outside so we could just take him for a walk and weren’t bothering many people. We sat at the table for about 30 minutes before our waiter even came and introduced himself. There were many empty tables and seemingly plenty of staff.

• We had the dining package for 2 meals for 2 people but both times we opted to use it they never charged for my mother-in-law who was traveling with us. We were debating purchasing the package for her so I am REALLY glad we didn’t. We paid a-la-carte at the sushi place and went back for lunch on the last sea day and just ordered two rolls. Since it was the only place on board to get sushi it seemed worth it to me.

•  One MAJOR critique about the food is that there is no 24 hour grab-and-go option for food. The local is open 24 hours but you have to sit down and order your food and it is all really “heavy” options and the service was really slow. On Royal and Celebrity they have grab and go snacks, pizza or sandwiches available between breakfast lunch and dinner services on the buffet and we found ourselves having to wait until the buffet opened more than once so we could feed our toddler and put him to sleep.

 

Bermuda:

•  As beautiful as always, but some casualties from the pandemic were noticeable including the glassworks at the port closing.

• Taxis, shuttles and buses are still available right as you walk off the dock. Masks still required on officially licensed taxis and public transportation

• The complimentary shuttle to and from St. Georges was a really nice perk unique to Norwegian.

 

Other observations:

• The smoking “box” in the casino does very little to contain the smell and if I had accidentally booked a cabin on deck 9 near the stairs on the aft of the ship I would have been livid.

•  Embarkation out of Manhattan was the worst. I suggest arriving at 8:30 or after 1 pm. It was organized chaos and line after line after line. Security line, Bermuda TA line, covid testing line (for some), and only THEN check in line which moved the slowest of all. The whole process took 2- 2.5 hours. I highly doubt we will be choosing to sail out of there again, although sailing past Ellis island and the Statue of Liberty was pretty cool.

• The service in the specialty restaurants and dining rooms were slow, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preferences. We have always experienced feeling “rushed” when sitting down to eat on ships and feeling pressured to order our drinks, appetizer, main and dessert all at once within the first 15 minutes. Not the case on this ship, not sure if it is a Norwegian thing or post-pandemic thing

• The Observation Lounge on deck 15 and Waterfront on deck 8 were definitely the places to be and were usually uncrowded and easy to get a drink. The snacks in the Observation lounge were some of my favorite things to eat (quiches, sandwiches, meats and cheeses, desserts and fruit) and I wish they were available for more than a few hours in the afternoon (could have been a 24 hour grab and go area)

• We had the basic drink package and never felt constrained by it. Basically any spirits and cocktails less than $15 are included and you pay the difference if you want anything that isn’t included. A few of the cocktails included top shelf spirits and were still less than $15. The Whiskey bar downstairs was always uncrowded and offered everything, not just whiskey so definitely check that out. 

• Wine selection was strangely limited. Again not sure if it’s a Norwegian thing or pandemic thing, but only one option of each wine available by the glass all over the ship. One rose, one chardonnay, one merlot, etc. Even at the wine bar. That being said, the prices for bottles were not bad, around $20-$40 if you don’t have the package and you get a 20% discount with the package.

 

Thanks for reading until the end! Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and would book with Norwegian again.

 

Thank you for reporting back in detail.   I was following your posts before your sailing so I was looking forward to your review which, by the way, is very well done.  Glad you enjoyed yourselves.    

 

[Jac199]

Thank you for the review. We will be saiing on her in 77 days and I found your comments/insights helpful.

[Woodholme Cruiser]

Thank you for your comprehensive review.  We are sailing on Sept. 6th and your comments are most helpful.  Interesting about the wait staff and the Footloose presentation.

[pokerguy90]

Curios as to what cabin # you had. And do you have any cabin photos to share.  WE booked the same category.  Very anxious to see the layout.  

[Lagranger36]

Hi - since you had a toddler with you, could you confirm whether or not there was the kid club available?  I've been reading online and it's hard to tell whether it's available at all, available for only 5+, or normal operations.

 

I'm headed for Joy on June 19th.  Thank you!

 

 

[mking8288]

13 hours ago, pokerguy90 said:

Curios as to what cabin # you had. And do you have any cabin photos to share.  WE booked the same category.  Very anxious to see the layout.  

"SP" on the Joy too - not OP, but here - we had two of them - post #26 - Deck 10 Port side #10453

 

Several more pictures of the 2 bedrooms, 2 baths family suite - slightly different in layout #10439, starboard side & diagonally across the hallway/corridor from us.  Very quiet - our main bedroom is behind the wall from the white space, a large room used by the crew for hotel supplies, storage & work area during their duty hours,.  

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2850872-semi-live-norwegian-joy-to-bermuda-norfolk-va-may-8-2022/page/7/