Snagler

FYI depending on your dates traveling, I read somewhere Dunking of the wench is not year round. We are going in April and I know it is not performing then. 

We bought the spa pass. We have never used the spa on any ship. I saw folks suggesting putting your swimsuit in your carry on so you can go as soon as the spa opens. 

Wondering if there are secure lockers in the spa? Also is it like going to a YMCA? You change in a locker room and then walk around in your swimsuit? 

Sorry to be such a dunce but I have no experiemce how this works or how to prepare. 

On 12/20/2018 at 8:32 AM, PJTM said:

Sailing on the GEM out of Boston late May 2019. Any info on Thermal Suite Pass? Cost and what is included and times?

Thank You

 

We just booked unlimited passes today on the Gem out of Boston for end of April for $139 per person. 

Will they serve you drinks in the spa? Can you bring in food? 

13 minutes ago, eiloo said:

Is there an escape room game held on the Joy?

No. They do have laser tag.

FYI You only get to play laser tag 10 minutes though. Guest Services told my husband that laser tag was an hour so he signed up himself and our 2 adult sons to play. They were quite surprised to find out play only lasted 10 minutes. Felt it was definitely not worth the cost. 

On 6/6/2019 at 7:25 AM, Melli56566 said:

any MDR menu pics?

Sorry I do not. I scanned through all the pictures posted over on the Everything...Norwegian Joy Westernization 2019! board topic. These are the menus I found there. Only the Local is complimentary.

American Diner page 15

Ocean Blue p 20

Q  p 20

District Brewhouse p 20

Starbucks p 22

Cellars p 24

The Local p 24 (they also had a "special of the day" each day in addition to this menu)

La Cucina concierge lunch menu p 30

2 hours ago, dexddd said:

Those look like items on Haven menus except Haven for bf has things like pancakes and french toast.  The lunch one would have salads and other entrees like pork chop and chicken, etc.  I'm curious if they just didn't show the full menu or if it is just a subset.

 

ETA the Haven burger actually is named differently as it has a certain cheese.

The menus shared here by Coloradocruiselovers88 that I posted on another thread are the full menus served in the La Cucina at breakfast and lunch for Concierge guests. They were the exact same menu choices each day.  Menus were one page for breakfast and 2 pages for lunch.  If you read close under Morning Specials, they did have pancakes and french toast, just had fancy names!

At breakfast, they also had a small self serve buffet with tons of excellent fresh fruit, cheese, yogurt parfaits, pastries, etc and they brought a basket of pastries to your table as well.  

The food and service in the La Cucina was excellent. We ate at each of the complimentary dining options throughout our week hands down La Cucina served the best steaks of all.

FYI They do change the hours of breakfast each morning based on the port and sea days. Be sure to watch your Freestyle Daily as to the times because we missed the hours one morning even though we had eaten there the same time the day before. Quite a bummer!

16 hours ago, jfbbarry said:

Taxi to and from Medenhall Glacier: how much was the fare?

How long of a ride- I know it is 12 miles?

Were taxies readily available at the pier and at the Glacier?

How long should you plan to stay at the Glacier to go through the Visitor's center and hike to the Glacier?

 

The fare was about $35 each way. That covered four of us riding in the cab. 

The park only allows certain taxi companies actual access all the way into the park and up to the parking lot by the Visitor Center.  If you take one of those companies, the cab will collect a visitor fee per person on top of that (I can't remember exactly how much....around $12 I think).  If you take a cab company that does not go all the way into the park, you do not have to pay that visitor fee.  The park did not collect it themselves. The cab will drop you off about a 10 minute walk from the visitor center.

We did not know this part when we pre arranged a cab ride with a company that did not take you all the way to the visitor center. (We have National Park passes so we would have not had to pay a fee if the park was collecting it but if you take a cab inside, the cab companies are required to collect the fee even if you have a pass). 

While we were waiting at the dock for our taxi to show up, other taxi companies were there waiting at the dock for anyone to hire them.  One of the drivers explained how his company would be able to enter the park and pick us up at the Visitor Center after we finished our hike.  He gave me his card and said to just call him when we were done and he would be there within 20 min. 

The company we prearranged a ride with to take us to Mendenhall was Glacier Taxi and Tours (907) 796-2300.  They were about 15 minutes late picking us up.  They do not have entrance privileges (apparently the taxi companies pay for this priviledge)  so she dropped us off at the top of the drive and we walked the 10 min to the Visitor Center. It was an easy walk and we felt it was worth it to save the per person entrance fee we would have had to pay otherwise. 

We stayed about 2 1/2 to 3 hours then called the other company to pick us up at the Visitor Center. We only took a few of the trails and were tired of walking by then so we were glad to be able to have this company pick us up without the additional hike back up the drive and out of the park.  If you like to hike and have the time, you could easily stay there longer. 

The company that picked us up in the park was Juneau Taxi and Tours (907) 723-6323. 

It was about a 25-30 minute drive.

One tip, if you take the path to the waterfall and glacier, there is a path that veers off to the left and you can walk along the "beach".  We took that path back to the Visitor Center after visiting the waterfall and glacier. It has spectacular views of the waterfall and glacier. We wish we had taken that path when walking TOWARDS the glacier instead of staying on the path that went through the dense trees.  The beach path was packed hard dirt and an easy walk. It had rained on our walk to the glacier and the beach was not any wetter/muddier than the gravel path through the trees. 

Taxis were readily available at the pier. We had no problem using a cab. We would do it again. There is also a shuttle bus company that charges $40 per person to ride to and from the pier to Mendenhall Visitor Center. They had several buses running. You can get on and off at each end as you please. You may have to pay the additional entrance fee with that as well though.

This is the map they gave us as we exited the ship. I really didn't pay attention as we grabbed a cab to Mendenhall Glacier right as we got off the ship and then another drove us straight back. 

17 hours ago, timf2001 said:

 

In these cases, it's best to set the time zone on your phone manually.  On iPhones, it's Settings > General > Date & Time.  Android phones should be similar.

Who knew? Thanks for the tip!   (That could be helpful if I was smart enough to know what time zone we were in, lol. They never told us that part).

We just sailed last week on the Joy.  There were people wearing sandals and shorts throughout the cruise both inside and into port some days. At the same time others were in sweatshirts and jeans. It just depends on how hot/cold you run normally.

Inside is always comfortable, just wear what you would as if you went to a restaurant at home if it was in the 50's outside. The staff and servers wore long sleeves and long pants inside.  Outside on deck the staff wear jackets. 

On the Joy, there are places outside on the decks that have clear plexiglass shields to block the wind and heaters in the ceiling. You could be "outside" but still have some protection. Other deck areas are open and exposed. Depending on the day's weather, you may need warm layers.  I brought more clothes than I needed. We had sunny, dry days every day but one morning. The staff said that was unusual tho.

On a few days it was warm enough that the pool was busy and active. Other days, people hung out there in the sunshine but wrapped up in the plush blue blankets they have at the towel exchange bar.

I wore jeans, tshirt and zippered sweatshirt inside almost all the time and my Columbia winter jacket over my sweatshirt in ports but my husband and adult sons dressed much lighter. There were times I took off my winter jacket and wrapped it around my waist but still had on my sweatshirt.  I wore tennis shoes everywhere. I brought an old pair of tennis shoes for shore excursions but we only did mild shore activities (salmon fishing, whale watching, walk throughout Mendenhall Glacier park on the paved paths). 

Shore excursion wear depends on what you do. If you dress in layers and have waterproof rain jacket, you will be ready for whatever the day brings.

8 hours ago, drumming cruisers said:

 

Do you have the breakfast and lunch menus for La Cucina?

 

 They were the exact same menus every day. In addition, at breakfast they had a small self serve buffet set up with fresh fruit choices, yogurt parfaits, etc that you could help yourself to while they cooked your order and they would bring a variety of pastries in a basket to the table. 

My family ordered the steak often. Said it was the best place to get steak on the ship. I finally listened and ordered the steak and eggs on the last day and wow the steak just melted in my mouth. 

1 hour ago, Andrea n steven said:

 

Unfortunately we will be flying in from the uk. Then straight to ship so no chance to bring our own sadly. 

For our cruise last Sept, I emailed the address given on the FAQ part of NCL website to request distilled water and recieved a confirmation email within a couple of days. The water was in our stateroom when we boarded.

For our Alaska cruise last week, I emailed again. Did not hear anything for two weeks. Called them to follow up on it and spoke with a representative who said they didn't do it by email anymore but she assured me she put a notice on my account to have distilled water in the room.  About two weeks before sailing, I received a confirmation email saying they received my request and water would be in my room. 

When we boarded early afternoon, there was no water in my room. We called guest services right away and requested the water. By 8:30 pm we still didn't have the water. I was exhausted and wanted to go to bed. We asked our room steward to please get the water. We were told they were still waiting for it to be unpacked.  I finally got the water about an hour later.

So your mileage may vary even if you prearrange it. Just check when you arrive and alert them if they don't have any in your room when you get there. 

And in our room, a 6 foot cord would not have reached for me.  There was only one single outlet in the master bedroom and far from my side of the bed. I stretched a 15 ft cord I brought along the top of the bed (behind our pillows) over to my side.

4 hours ago, Falfurrias said:

Here is a review (actually a complaint) about this same cruise on Christopher Elliott's website.  Hard to believe this was the same cruise.

 

https://forum.elliott.org/threads/ncl-joy-maiden-voyage-not-ready-for-passengers.10343/

We also had clock issues last week on the Joy. Somehow my husband's phone got pinged in Seattle while still in port and located him in Singapore. He had Singapore time on his phone for 2 days until it pinged again in Ketchikan and finally reset itself.

We were advised in the Freestyle Daily to turn our clocks ahead or back an hour the night before arriving in certain ports. Since our phones did not get signals at sea this didn't work automatically. We set a phone timer instead of alarms to wake us in the mornings just to be sure we got up when we hoped to. 

I did have on an old fashioned watch with hands, no other tech to it, so I was able to set the actual time on my watch. There were days we only could use my watch to really know what time it was on the ship. The Internet connection didn't reset the time on our phones.

13 hours ago, cksv said:

Do the concierge cabins have the rock hard mattresses that are in the standard cabins, or do they have the comfortable one piece pillow top mattresses from The Haven?

The master bedroom mattress in our concierge family suite this past week was very comfortable. My husnband and I had no complaints on the comfort.  May not have been a pillow top exactly like a Haven as I haven't been in one to compare but certainly not a rock hard mattress. 

While I did not lie on one of the bunk mattresses in the second bedroom, my sons say it was "not stellar but fine" (coming from previous college campus experiences, I'm taking that as better than a dorm, lol)  

Here is a picture of the second bedroom in a Concierge Family suite. The top bunk is hidden in the ceiling until the room steward lowers it for you. 

My 5ft 10 inch 24 yr old sons shared this room and were perfectly comfortable in the bunks. 

The room steward put the bunk back into the ceiling the second day when making up the room. If you don't want it put back up each day you have to tell them or it gets locked back into the ceiling.  We had to ask to leave it down at all times so it could be relaxed on anytime throughout the day. 

1 hour ago, trip111 said:

Can someone tell me where the smoking areas are on Joy?

There is a glassed off part of the casino that is smoking. I believe there may also be an area somewhere near the big hot tub in Spice H2O because my son mentioned it smelled like smoke while he and his brother were in that hot tub one evening. 

On May 21, 2019 at 4:07 AM, mikembs said:

 I had crab legs on the Joy the next week. The king crab was ok. The dungeness was really good. 

No crab legs were to be found on the Joy this past week for us. :(

They do not allow full water bottles in or out of your luggage. They would not allow us to bring our empty recyclable plastic water bottles on board the Joy this past week. You could bring empty personal reusable water bottles on board if they were empty when entering the ship. 

You can ask for water at every bar and restaurant and carry the glass with you throughout the ship however. It's free. I did it constantly. We didn't even use all the complimentary bottled water they gave us in our room as it was so easy to order water anywhere on the ship and I constantly drink water all day. 

On May 25, 2019 at 1:59 AM, luvincruising said:

Great review.  Thank you for taking the time compiling this detailed review.  What type of shoes/ boots did you wear in ports and on the ship?  Waterproof? Insulated?

On the ship people wore a variety of shoes from dress up to flip flops. I wore my tennis shoes, nice jeans, a short sleeve shirt with a zipper sweatshirt all the time on the ship. Other people wore tshirts, shorts and flip flops on the ship. It kind of depends on how hot or cold you usually feel indoors. Inside it was probably around 70 degrees. Outside it varied from high 40's to 70's.  They do have nice soft blankets you can borrow in the pool area to wrap up in to stay warm on outside decks. 

In ports it would depend on your excursion. If you are just walking around town regular walking shoes are fine. My 23 yr olds wore flip flops in Victoria but tennis shoes the rest of the ports. 

It was 77 degrees and sunny on Memorial Day in Ketchikan. Most other days was in the sixties. 

It only rained lightly one morning in Juneau. We wore old tennis shoes and rain jackets to Mendenhall Glacier park. The paths are paved or packed down sand so we're a little wet but not muddy. 

I saw very few folks wearing boots or hikers. 

On May 24, 2019 at 1:47 PM, rrrijah said:

do people (and does Joy allow) decorate their room doors?

We did not see any decorated doors. There was no rule saying Norwegian would care if you did tho. 

On May 29, 2019 at 6:46 PM, x2tpd said:

 

Great photos... is there a tv in the big bedroom? What about power outlets? Do we need a power strip? 

We just returned from our cruise in the concierge family suite 12529. There were three tvs. One in each bedroom and one in the living room. In the master suite, there was only one electrical outlet over the desk area. There was one USB port in each lamp base on the nightstands on either sides of the bed. I have a CPAP machine and luckily brought a long extension cord as that was the only outlet in the room. There was no outlet inside the bathroom. 

Min the bunk bed room they had a few extra electrical outlets and USB ports. None in the bathroom. I did not pay attention to outlets in the living room. 

I would advise bringing a power strip or extension cord for the master bedroom. 

They assigned color tags to groups based on the time they wanted to disembark. People then gathered in different areas of the ship to be called off in groups. As priority, we were to head to the Joy Theatre area between 8-9am to disembark. We got there about 8::30 am to disembark. We had eating breakfast at La Cucina (best steak and eggs of the week!) at 7:30am and then returning to our room to gather our belongings and one last check for anything left behind. 

When we got to the 7 Th floor where the Joy Theatre is we exited the elevator and there was a crew staff person directing you where to go based on your color ticket. When we said we were priority, they pointed us toward the Theatre but just before the entrance to the theatre they guided us to a gang plank was set up to take you off the ship. We rolled right out and down to the customs and Border Patrol inspectors then were realeased to collect our luggage in port terminal. Luggage was staged in groups by colored tickets. It was well organized. 

It went very swiftly. Many staff were situated around to guide you and help. 

We grabbed a taxi right outside and headed to the airport about a half hour through traffic costing $45 for four adult riders and luggage. 

SEA-TAC airport was jammed with passengers. It took prob 45 minutes to get luggage checked through and follow the long line of the security check point. There are so many thousands of passengers arriving off the cruise ships and many more folks arriving in time to get to their cruise. SEA-TAC is wildly busy. All of our flights departed after noon so we had plenty of time to eat, disembark, ride to the airport and get through security. 

13 hours ago, drumming cruisers said:

 

What amenities do you receive in concierge?  Priority Embarkation area? meals in private restaurants? a private lounge/bar? Priority disembarkation? 

Priority boarding and disembarkation (jwe just left this morning and disembarkation was a breeze with concierge status. Definitely worth it) If you are heading to the Seattle airport I would definitely recommend just grabbing a taxi after you exit the ship. There are plenty of taxis waiting and you bypass the long line of passengers waiting to load luggage and board the buses the ship provides. 

We had private breakfast and lunch dining in La Cucina. No lines or crowds. Wonderful. 

No private bar or lounge though but there are SOOO many bars and lounges on board you have no trouble finding a lively or a quiet one depending on your preference. Bar service was plentiful and never an issue. 

We also had our own concierge guy although we never used him. 

On May 30, 2019 at 8:10 PM, drumming cruisers said:

 What amenities did you get in a concierge Cabin??? Priority embarkation??? Priority disembarkation??  Breakfast and lunch in a private restaurant? Free laundry? Free dinners?  Thanks for any info

We just cruised this week. We got priority embarkation and disembarkation. We could walk right off the ship anytime between 8-9am. It was a breeze. 

We got private breakfast and lunch each day in La Cucina and it was sit down great service, no lines. Watch your Daily newsletter though for times they serve breakfast. It varies by port and we missed it one day as it closed earlier than the day before. 

No free laundry service. All dinners for us were in the normal complimentary dining areas but you can buy a dinner package or reserve one of the pay restaurants ahead. We never found our concierge guy but were told on Friday he was available in the La Cucina each morning during breakfast. (That was not explained anywhere). 

The concierge family suite was awesome. The master bedroom alone was More spacious than most hotel rooms. We didn't miss having a balcony at all. The virtual balcony window was live feed off the side of the ship and most people with balconies said it was pretty cold out there even though we had one of the best weather weeks so far since they started the Alaska itinerary in May. There were plenty of places to go watch the scenery that were protected from the wind. Most outdoor public spaces on decks had plexiglass shields and some had ceiling heaters running. 

We would definitely go Concierge again just for the priority disembarkation and the private breakfast and lunch dining space. (Although the menu never changed each day but we had the best steaks of the trip in the La Cucina hands down.)