Norwegian Joy

[wsurrette2424]

Hi All....

 

New to NCL but I've done many cruises on Carnival, RCL, Celebrity and Disney....

 

Just booked a (sort of) a last minute cruise on the Norwegian Joy... 11 night Miami to Panama Canal transit in November.

 We have a balcony stateroom on deck 11.. with the FAS drink package, 2 specialty dining option and WIFI.

 

We're usually OK with MDR food... but would like recommendations for our 2 specialty dining options.  Also, any can't miss entertainment options?  Finally... we need to fly out of Panama City to Boston... we would really like to fly out the 1st day we dock in Panama City (we overnight there and officially disembark the next day).  Whom at NCL do we need to call at NCL to arrange that?

 

Thanks!  Really looking trying NCL... love new experiences!

 

Cheers..

 

Gus

[wsurrette2424]

Followup...

 

Looking at the dining options... I see Taste and Savor as the MDRs and a bunch of specialty restaurants, but no mention of a buffet or O'Sheehans type venues.... am I missing something?

 

Thanks!

 

Gus

[phoenix1181]

The Local is the 24 hour on the Joy.  Buffet is Garden Cafe on 16 & there's some food available on 15 in the Observation Lounge.

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by phoenix1181
spelling

[Smitheroo]

1 hour ago, wsurrette2424 said:

Followup...

 

Looking at the dining options... I see Taste and Savor as the MDRs and a bunch of specialty restaurants, but no mention of a buffet or O'Sheehans type venues.... am I missing something?

 

Thanks!

 

Gus

The Manhattan is another one of the MDR on the Joy.  It seemed to be quite popular when I was on the cruise to Mexico last February.  We tried to have dinner there one night and were told there was a 30 minute wait so went back to either the Taste or Savory which were both fine.

[jackieodonnell]

If it is your first time on NCL then Cagney's and Le Bistro are a must. We love the prime rib at Cagney's and have had the entire menu at Le Bistro at this point. haha!

 

Have fun!

[KKB]

Cagney's & Ocean Blue are our fav specialty dining--especially if we can get a seat out on Waterfront.

I WANT to like Le Bistro...but didn't have a super experience last year. Menu on the other 2 is always a win for me.

 

I've heard Food Republic is really good

 

We ALWAY eat at Manhattan Room--band, dancers. Nice ambiance.

 

Shows...well, Footloose closed a bit back so not sure what they have now.

(we sail in Nov so I am curious too!)

Edited August 27, 2023 by KKB

[BirdTravels]

On 8/26/2023 at 2:35 PM, wsurrette2424 said:

Followup... Looking at the dining options... I see Taste and Savor as the MDRs and a bunch of specialty restaurants, but no mention of a buffet or O'Sheehans type venues.... am I missing something? Thanks! Gus

 

Hey Gus,

 

The Manhattan Room, Taste and Savor on the Main Dining rooms. They all serve the same dinner menu. Depending on the Day, Taste and Savor are also open for seated breakfast and lunch. Much like My Time Dining on steroids, the Freestyle dinner service is open seating. Show up when you are hungry or when it fits your busy schedule. You always will get a 2-top (or table sized for your party). 

 

O'Sheehan's is the 24/7 restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, dinner (with a nightly special), and late night dining. 

 

The Garden Café Buffet is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All three have limited hours (i.e., the buffet is not constantly open morning to night, it closes for several hours between meals. 

 

Specialty dining is really up to your taste. If I had to pick two, I would pick Le Bistro and Teppanyaki. Our third choice would be Ocean Blue.

 

Ocean Blue - Seafood  with a decent menu, on our must do list

Teppanyaki - Japanese Steakhouse with a show and dinner, on our must do list

Cagney's Steakhouse - The name says it all. We don't care for the food or the service

Le Bistro - Elegant French dining, on our must do list

Q Texas Smokehouse - not a favorite. You can get a good smoke without open flame

La Cucina - Italian - o.k. and on our list

Food Republic - Small plate international foods and sushi - Great Food... for lunch

American Diner - fast food that you have to pay for - not on our list,,,, ever. 

 

[RMLincoln]

Thanks for the ideas. We’re leaving on Joy in a week. Have been on NCL before but it’s been several years and a lot has changed since our cruise on Jade. Joy is newer and larger. I’m hoping the app will help us get oriented. 
 

Footloose is scheduled for our cruise, we reserved it. And Elements. 
 

We don’t have a package so we’ll sample the other dining venues, Manhattan, Savor and Taste. Maybe theirs a hamburger or pizza place?  Is room service fee a flat fee or per plate?  I’m glad to hear there is a breakfast restaurant option other than buffet!  I’m sure we’ll be too well fed!  
I hope there’s entertainment other than the two shows but if not we’ll read. My needs are few. My experience has been good on NCL so not worried just curious. m—

[DZ77]

Room service is a flat fee for breakfast, $4.95 (+20% i think)

Pay attention to the hours Savor and Taste are open for each meal.  One morning, we arrived 9:31 am, and were not seated as their hours that morning were 8:00- 9:30. 

[nclsuncruiser]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

O'Sheehan's is the 24/7 restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, dinner (with a nightly special), and late night dining. 

But not on the Joy.

[ggTexasGal]

11 hours ago, DZ77 said:

Room service is a flat fee for breakfast, $4.95 (+20% i think)

Pay attention to the hours Savor and Taste are open for each meal.  One morning, we arrived 9:31 am, and were not seated as their hours that morning were 8:00- 9:30. 

Breakfast Room Service is $4.95 for the entire order.

All other times, the fee is $9.95 for the entire order.

Times for all restaurants will be listed daily on the Freestyle Daily.  Or you can check the hours daily on your television.

[RMLincoln]

Thanks for the info. I’m hoping the onboard app will show restaurant times and allow us to text each other to coordinate. 
 

Do they have room service breakfast on debarkation day?  

[BlushPell]

24 minutes ago, RMLincoln said:

Thanks for the info. I’m hoping the onboard app will show restaurant times and allow us to text each other to coordinate. 
 

Do they have room service breakfast on debarkation day?  

No room service on debarkation day.

[RMLincoln]

Thanks. I appreciate the heads-up.
We’ll try for a sit down breakfast and a late departure. If the room steward allows us to leave our last minute totes on the room, or we’ll take the to breakfast. Have to learn how it all works on NCL.  I’m sure it’ll all be fine. We won’t be in a hurry, taking a cab to Grand Central, train north to where we’re leaving our car at our grandkids house, staying the night in a hotel so no hurries, no worries!  Thanks for the info. 

[bkrickles1]

23 minutes ago, RMLincoln said:

Thanks. I appreciate the heads-up.
We’ll try for a sit down breakfast and a late departure. If the room steward allows us to leave our last minute totes on the room, or we’ll take the to breakfast. Have to learn how it all works on NCL.  I’m sure it’ll all be fine. We won’t be in a hurry, taking a cab to Grand Central, train north to where we’re leaving our car at our grandkids house, staying the night in a hotel so no hurries, no worries!  Thanks for the info. 

Our tradition is to always have a sit down breakfast in an mdr on the last day.

We just sailed Joy 7/23 - 7/30 and we met some of our group at 8am in Taste for our last meal.

We left all of our stuff in our cabin until after breakfast and then we walked off the ship on our own.

We were on our way back to Long Island by around 10am.

[cruiseny4life]

18 hours ago, nclsuncruiser said:

But not on the Joy.

Could you have thrown a sentence on to this to state that O'Sheehan's is named The Local on Joy? It's billed as 24 hour restaurant and has been, but now NCL seems to be closing it for three to four hours in the wee early morning hours. The drunkards have to order room service pizza now at 4 AM.

 

1 hour ago, RMLincoln said:

Thanks for the info. I’m hoping the onboard app will show restaurant times and allow us to text each other to coordinate. 

Don't put a lot of faith into the app. It is improving, but I don't believe it's showing times the restaurants are open. Am I wrong, y'all? I could be, but I know it hasn't before...also, you'll need to pay $10 per device to text between yourselves using the app. I can't speak to how good this service is as I've never used it. 

[RMLincoln]

Breakfast in an MDR sounds perfect. The app sounds less than perfect. We’ll be on a B2B so that’s $40. Hmmm. Maybe back to leaving sticky notes on the mirror!  
Carnival (2022) had been charging $5 per device. HAL had no fees in March. Neither app was perfect but both were useful for dining hours and menus plus keeping track of each other (both were family cruises) but with just the two of us I doubt it’ll be worth it. Thank you for enlightening us!  I feel like so much has changed!  
m—

[Smitheroo]

We liked La Cucina on the Joy.    I wanted Ocean Blue but we werent aware we could reserve before we sailed and when we embarked many of the specialty dining options were filled. So we "settled" for La Cucina because the open slot was a time we preferred  We were pleased.  It was a nice change but we found that the MDRs were fine. 

[sunshine55]

4 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

Thanks for the info. I’m hoping the onboard app will show restaurant times and allow us to text each other to coordinate. 
 

Do they have room service breakfast on debarkation day?  

Yes, we order our omlettes..etc to our cabin that morning so we don't have to deal with the crowds..very relaxing.

[RMLincoln]

34 minutes ago, sunshine55 said:

Yes, we order our omlettes..etc to our cabin that morning so we don't have to deal with the crowds..very relaxing.

Oh, interesting!  Thank you. We’ll inquire. Maybe even on turnaround day in Quebec. 

[wsurrette2424]

Hey All..

 

Thank you so much for all the great replies.... clears things up nicely!

We're really looking forward to our first NCL cruise.  Having done bit more research... looks like the free dining choices will suit us quite nicely.  I'm assuming the nightly MDR menus change nightly?  Seems the MDR breakfast and lunch menus are fixed.

 

Still trying to decide our two specialty restos...

 

Can anyone comment on Food Republic?  Looks like lots of small plates at reasonable prices.  I can see us stopping in just after opening and have a bit of sushi/apps and then heading to the MDR for an entree.

 

Thanks again!  It's going to be a busy 90 days!

 

Cheers...  Gus

 

 

 

 

[ajtraveler66]

On 8/26/2023 at 3:22 PM, jackieodonnell said:

If it is your first time on NCL then Cagney's and Le Bistro are a must. We love the prime rib at Cagney's and have had the entire menu at Le Bistro at this point. haha!

 

Have fun!

Of these two, I would vote for Le Bistro first.  It won't disappoint.  Every time we cruise, we HAVE to include this restaurant.

[jackieodonnell]

1 hour ago, ajtraveler66 said:

Of these two, I would vote for Le Bistro first.  It won't disappoint.  Every time we cruise, we HAVE to include this restaurant.

Do they still have the fondue? I love that fondue!! 

[Mike C]

22 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

Thanks. I appreciate the heads-up.
We’ll try for a sit down breakfast and a late departure. If the room steward allows us to leave our last minute totes on the room, or we’ll take the to breakfast. Have to learn how it all works on NCL.  I’m sure it’ll all be fine. We won’t be in a hurry, taking a cab to Grand Central, train north to where we’re leaving our car at our grandkids house, staying the night in a hotel so no hurries, no worries!  Thanks for the info. 

Just a heads-up, it might not be that easy to get a taxi near the cruise terminal, especially for a short trip to GCT. There is a taxi stand across the street, but the city doesn’t staff it. It’s chaotic. Someone will be screening the people looking for a cab, trying to find the airport fares.  There will be a few fake “Uber” drivers looking to grab fares, telling you that their car is a down the block.  If you take your time coming off the ship, it might be worth it to try and grab a cab outside the second floor of the terminal where the taxis are dropping off customers.  Last time, we tried for a cab to GCT and then called an Uber.  The driver told us he prefers to pick up on the second floor, since it’s less congested.  Good luck, and have a great cruise.

[Sand and Seas]

1 hour ago, jackieodonnell said:

Do they still have the fondue? I love that fondue!! 

We loved it too, but sadly, it is no longer on Le Bistro menu☹️