Viva from San Juan. Any reviews?

[maggieq]

Looking at cruising in the viva next march.  Haven’t seen any reviews from San Juan.   Thanks!

[luv2gonow]

Did the 9 day itinerary I think 12/29 to southern Caribbean.

Easiest Embarkation, i arrived 2 walked on ship and room was ready.

Ship felt very Luxurious, I appreciated the multiple smaller venues. 
Buffet is small but very good and many more options and seating if you look.

Stateroom easily has the best bathroom/ shower at sea.

 

I liked cruising from San Juan, yes it definitely had lit of latin music live, i think people dressed nicer than a normal Caribbean cruise.:-)

 

They didnt get their act together for the Beetlejuice show. "Technical" difficulties.

anyway im not a complainer and i have never had a bad cruise.

 

Cons

Need extended Buffet hours.

DisEmbarkation nightmare but i think that was a fluke

 

Honestly I loved the ship and we are booked again from Rome n June.

Edited February 3 by luv2gonow

[luv2gonow]

Oh and No Joke Nicest Spa at sea and worth the spa pass price!

 

Also Big Con for balcony peeps.

I purposely choose my balconies to look straight down at ocean. This ship does not have this option.

Again, i have booked this ship again just moved cabin to slightly less busy area.

Edited February 3 by luv2gonow

[cfelbab]

We cruised with a multiple members of our extended family in the middle of January out of San Juan. There were ten of us in 4 different cabins. This was our second time out of San Juan - we did the Epic out of the same port the year before. Compared to the Epic, getting onboard was much simpler. No long lines - we went to the port at 2 and were on the boat by 2:30. So that was nice given the issues people have experienced at that port previously ( a tricky location to get to with just one little road leading to the port). As for the Viva, very shinny nice and clean. A different feel than the other boats we have cruised on with NCL. The boat is broken down into a lot of little sections as opposed to bigger areas. For example, the area on the pool deck is tiny. But there are quite a few other areas where you can get sun and several smaller infinity style pools on both side of the boat once you find them. In some ways, it made it feel like you were on a smaller boat with less people. OTOH, even at the end of the week I was still getting lost wandering around the boat. The food in the main dining room was very good - the specialty restaurants even better. I was impressed that each time all ten of us wanted to eat together they were able to find a table for us all to sit at with almost no waiting. I expected that to be hard.

 

The Indulge food hall was a very useful and tasty as well - some really good spicy Indian/Asian food there which I really liked.. We did not have much trouble finding space to sit anytime we at be it in Indulge or the buffet. The entertainment was pretty good - my favorite was the Fleetwood Mac show. The venue was too small for it - a lot of people have commented here on how you end of waiting for a long time to make sure you have a spot in the tiny room for this and the comedy. I am not sure why they can't figure out that people want to go to things like this on the boat and design the spaces to be big enough for that! The comedy room was particularly poorly designed - it felt like a long skinny bowling alley meaning almost nobody had good sight lines to the comedians. The cabin itself was pretty nice - we had a balcony mid ship on deck 11. I miss the little fishy carpets in the hallway that many of the other boats have which make it clear which direction is forward. It took us several days to realize that the patten in the carpet had triangles in it point forward every few feet - much less obvious than the swimming fish carpet. I did not care much for the Beetlejuice show - it felt long. The music was not that captivating although you could see that they spent time on money on it just not as fun as some of the other shows on the other boats. The theater is also used for the disco on some nights. Awesome sound system and good lighting effects but the room has almost no seating so if you don't want to dance there is no good place to sit and drink between songs you like. I found that people did not seem to hang out there very long and I think that was part of the reason.

 

On the whole, a very good experience for us and I would cruise on this ship/class again. Compared to the Epic (which I know is not a good comparable), I preferred this. Compared to the Encore which we took through the Panama canal two years go, I would take the Encore over this. 

[rodndonna]

We are just off the Viva (San Juan) yesterday and really enjoyed our experience.

We don't write reviews, but would recommend you check the the NCL thread titled ""Why are people unhappy? Prima class review" 

The referenced video is a very good overview of the ship.

 

We pretty much agree with everything he stated, and if you watch the video (only about 10 minutes) you can think about pros and cons for your preferences.

 

He does mention that it is geared better for warm weather - and we had perfect weather!  Our cruise was sold out and the outdoor space on Ocean Boulevard always had places to lounge or sit at any time. We were lowly insiders and not pool people, so spent almost all of our week on deck 8 (never and issue finding places with shade or sun to lounge/eat/drink) so the Viva was perfect for us for a Southern Caribbean cruise. 

 

[Lolomazz]

Oh my goodness I unloaded $7,000 on Mediterranean cruise on the Visa that leaves this August all these negative reviews are making me want to cancel the trip please help reassure me am I making the right decision I'm new to Norwegian I typically sail royal Caribbean and I'm very happy with them what are the differences should I cancel?

Edited February 15 by Lolomazz

[cruiseny4life]

9 hours ago, Lolomazz said:

Oh my goodness I unloaded $7,000 on Mediterranean cruise on the Visa that leaves this August all these negative reviews are making me want to cancel the trip please help reassure me am I making the right decision I'm new to Norwegian I typically sail royal Caribbean and I'm very happy with them what are the differences should I cancel?

You have plenty of time to cancel and get all your money back,  unlike Royal Caribbean (if you booked in USA, that is). I cruised on Pr1ma back in November which is the first of the two Pr1ma class ships. Pr1ma and V!va. Personally, I would cruise on Pr1ma again. My husband would not.

 

Do yourself a favor. Go YouTube and watch at least two videos on V!va. One is Gary Bambridge's V!va trip. The second is Ben and David's. Gary enjoyed V!va, but offered useful feedback. Ben and David did not like V!va, though I believe a large part of that is the price they paid for Haven.

 

You should also look here and read the various "live" reviews about V!va. Use the search feature, but search for Viva as I'm about the only one still calling it V!va (it was NCL marketing when the ship was announced). I'm just an odd duck!

 

I think you'll be fine, especially if you go into the trip with an attitude of "I'm going to have a blast!" If you keep doubting, then you may want to cancel before final payment is due.

 

EDIT: Here's a very recent review of V!va. I haven't read through it yet, but you should take a look.

 

 

Edited February 15 by cruiseny4life

[cruiseny4life]

Here's another recent one: