Joy Recap - 8/6-8/13

[Hmmcminn]

Hi all,

 

I’ve been back from our cruise on the Joy on Sunday.  We had a fantastic time!  Now, the countdown to the Viva in February has begun!

 

I don’t think I’ll get around to doing a full day-by-day recap.  But, I will tell you a little of what we did and post the dailies.  Feel free to ask any questions.

 

——-

This was my 6th cruise, my fourth on NCL.  We are all Silver latitudes members.

 

We were a party of 4 in 2  Balcony cabins: 13198 and 13196.  I know there has been discussion about errors in the Joy deck plans regarding the angled balconies - I can confirm that the plans are. Orrery for these rooms and 13198 IS an angled balcony.

Our itinerary:

1. Embarkation in Manhattan

2.  Sea Day

3.  Sea Day

4.  Bermuda

5.  Bermuda

6.  Bermuda

7.  Sea Day

 

Dining:

Specialties:  Cagney’s, Q

For our other dinners we ate three times in the Manhattan Room, once at Taste, and once in the Local.   For breakfast, we ate in The buffet, Savor, and Taste.  We had lunches/snacks in The Local, the buffet, and the Observation Lounge.  We, as always, thought the food was great, but felt it was a bit better on the Encore in February.

 

Activities/Excursions:

Sea Days - We booked the Vibe for this cruise and loved every minute of it!

Day 4 - Glass Bottom Boat and Sightseeing excursion, Horseshoe Bay beach, Harbor Nights Festival in Hamilton

Day 5 - we went to St. Georges’s and visited Fort St. Catherine and Tobacco Bay Beach.  That night we did the Bermuda Triangle Cruise excursion.

Day 6 - Famous Homes and Hideaways excursion,  then walked around Clocktower Mall at the Dockyard

 

Entertainment:

We saw both Footloose and Elements.  We made reservations in advance for those shows the same day we did our online check in. We were able to book the comedy shows in the Social at a kiosk on embarkation day.  We ended up seeing the comedians twice each - once was their show in the theater, then we saw each do their 18+ show in the Social.  We saw all the Beatles shows - once in the theater and three times in the Cavern Club.  We got in line for the Cavern Club about 45 minutes early and they opened the doors within about 15 minutes.  My parents got the last two seats for the first show and my brother and I stood in the back, we all got seats for the other two shows.  We also saw the magician in the theater and attended the Glow Party on the pool deck.   

 

[Hmmcminn]

[Maleficent's Dad]

Glad you had a great time!  Sounds a lot like us a month ago, including balconies on deck 13.  Love the Joy!
Dis you have Chris or Jo in the Vibe?  Amazing crew members who made our trip in July!
 

[bkrickles1]

1 hour ago, Hmmcminn said:

 

Hi all,

 

I’ve been back from our cruise on the Joy on Sunday.  We had a fantastic time!  Now, the countdown to the Viva in February has begun!

 

I don’t think I’ll get around to doing a full day-by-day recap.  But, I will tell you a little of what we did and post the dailies.  Feel free to ask any questions.

 

——-

This was my 6th cruise, my fourth on NCL.  We are all Silver latitudes members.

 

We were a party of 4 in 2  Balcony cabins: 13198 and 13196.  I know there has been discussion about errors in the Joy deck plans regarding the angled balconies - I can confirm that the plans are. Orrery for these rooms and 13198 IS an angled balcony.

Our itinerary:

1. Embarkation in Manhattan

2.  Sea Day

3.  Sea Day

4.  Bermuda

5.  Bermuda

6.  Bermuda

7.  Sea Day

 

Dining:

Specialties:  Cagney’s, Q

For our other dinners we ate three times in the Manhattan Room, once at Taste, and once in the Local.   For breakfast, we ate in The buffet, Savor, and Taste.  We had lunches/snacks in The Local, the buffet, and the Observation Lounge.  We, as always, thought the food was great, but felt it was a bit better on the Encore in February.

 

Activities/Excursions:

Sea Days - We booked the Vibe for this cruise and loved every minute of it!

Day 4 - Glass Bottom Boat and Sightseeing excursion, Horseshoe Bay beach, Harbor Nights Festival in Hamilton

Day 5 - we went to St. Georges’s and visited Fort St. Catherine and Tobacco Bay Beach.  That night we did the Bermuda Triangle Cruise excursion.

Day 6 - Famous Homes and Hideaways excursion,  then walked around Clocktower Mall at the Dockyard

 

Entertainment:

We saw both Footloose and Elements.  We made reservations in advance for those shows the same day we did our online check in. We were able to book the comedy shows in the Social at a kiosk on embarkation day.  We ended up seeing the comedians twice each - once was their show in the theater, then we saw each do their 18+ show in the Social.  We saw all the Beatles shows - once in the theater and three times in the Cavern Club.  We got in line for the Cavern Club about 45 minutes early and they opened the doors within about 15 minutes.  My parents got the last two seats for the first show and my brother and I stood in the back, we all got seats for the other two shows.  We also saw the magician in the theater and attended the Glow Party on the pool deck.   

 

Yep!

Sounds like our trip on 7/23.

And we were in cabin 13216, which was a nice location near the forward elevators and we loved the bathroom in our CBS.

We've had a great time on Joy both times we've sailed her and it's led us to quickly book another sailing for next year on Getaway. We're constantly confused with all the negative reviews when we time and again have a great time.

Thanks for your positive review!

[wolft927]

we had a great time on the JOy this past April! Had a Aft facing Haven suite and traveled with 3 other people that stayed outside the Haven. We loved the Shade in SpiceH20! Booked on the Escape for January also in the Haven this time a 2 bedroom suite. The couple that we went with seen the Haven and our cabin and had to book, so we decided save some money and get the 2 bedroom suite.

[Sand and Seas]

@Hmmcminn,  can you check on your dailies to see if they were serving complimentary breakfast at the American Diner?    Some have reported it but I don't recall seeing it being available on our last Joy cruise out of Miami a few months ago.

 

Also, what time did you show up at the pier?  How were the lines?  Any advice on embarkation would be appreciated.  We haven't sailed from NYC for years.

 

We will be back on the Joy in two months!   Thanks for sharing your review with us😎

[bkrickles1]

10 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

@Hmmcminn,  can you check on your dailies to see if they were serving complimentary breakfast at the American Diner?    Some have reported it but I don't recall seeing it being available on our last Joy cruise out of Miami a few months ago.

 

Also, what time did you show up at the pier?  How were the lines?  Any advice on embarkation would be appreciated.  We haven't sailed from NYC for years.

 

We will be back on the Joy in two months!   Thanks for sharing your review with us😎

We were on Joy 7/23 - 7/30 and ate at the complimentary breakfast buffet at American Diner 3 times.

It's definitely available and convenient. It's limited in scope, but we enjoyed it thoroughly and it was never even 20% filled with people.

We showed up at the pier by 8:30 and zipped through as soon as they opened security. We were boarding by 11:30 and that was without any priority.

 

[Hmmcminn]

3 hours ago, Maleficent's Dad said:

Glad you had a great time!  Sounds a lot like us a month ago, including balconies on deck 13.  Love the Joy!
Dis you have Chris or Jo in the Vibe?  Amazing crew members who made our trip in July!
 

Yes - Jo and Chris were both there on our sailing.  The whole Vine staff was amazing, but they really are standouts!  

[Hmmcminn]

1 hour ago, Sand and Seas said:

@Hmmcminn,  can you check on your dailies to see if they were serving complimentary breakfast at the American Diner?    Some have reported it but I don't recall seeing it being available on our last Joy cruise out of Miami a few months ago.

 

Also, what time did you show up at the pier?  How were the lines?  Any advice on embarkation would be appreciated.  We haven't sailed from NYC for years.

 

We will be back on the Joy in two months!   Thanks for sharing your review with us😎

Yes - the American Diner was open for breakfast from 8:30-11:30 every morning. 
 

We live in upstate NY, so we didn’t fly for this cruise.  But, we did take a charter bus service from the Albany area, so we did not arrive to the pier as early as we’d like.  We arrived just before 10:30.  It was a little chaotic out where the bus dropped us off and got our luggage to the porters.  We took an elevator up to the check in area and went through security pretty quickly.  Took at quick restroom break before heading to our check in area.  The check ins are divided by floor, so we were sent to the crack of the terminal to check in for floors 15-16.  The line was not long and we were checked in within 5 minutes or so.  We were out in boarding group 24.  We were very disappointed as we are used to being in group 1 or 2.  After check in, we were told to find a seat and wait for our boarding group.  But, there were basically no seats in the 2 areas that were designated as general seating.  Lots of seats reserved for special needs, priority, and latitudes, etc.  that weren’t being used.  By this time it was nearly 11 and they kept making announcements threatening to delay embarkation if everyone didn’t sit down and clear the boarding area even though there was no place to go.  Despite this, embarkation started soon after 11.  It went pretty quickly.  They usually called 2 sometimes 3 groups at a time.  I didn’t check my watch, but it didn’t seem like we waited as long as I would have expected before our group was called.

 

Once onboard, we did our muster first and then had a drink at the District Brewhouse. They were handing out embarkation day Freestyle dailies by the stairs, so we grabbed a copy.  Then, we went right to a kiosk to try to make comedy reservations.  This worked out fine for us so we didn’t have to go to the Social to make our reservations.  Next, we headed to the Local for lunch.  It was busy, but we got a table right away.  I’d say we were up in the Vibe by about 2.

 

One weird thing I forgot to mention earlier is that for some reason you couldn’t make main dining room reservations.  I usually make them in advance when I book my specialty dining, but I didn’t this time because we had some evening outings in Bermuda and wanted to leave our options open.  Our plan was to make reservations on the app or at the kiosk each day to save time.  But, we couldn’t make reservations and when we called, they told us they weren’t taking reservations.  This meant we needed to plan ahead on the nights we wanted to go to the main dining rooms, so we could get in line right when they opened.  We like to eat early on cruises so we have time to get to multiple shows in the evenings.  This system worked out fine for us.  But, the lines for the dining rooms always seemed long as we were leaving dinner.  I don’t know how fast they moved.  I bet that was frustrating for some who didn’t plan ahead.

 

 

 

 

[Sand and Seas]

Thanks for the detailed answers!  That's what I love about this forum😊