psuboater

Sailing on her in June 24. Just got notification we got bumped from our original Club Balcony Suite to down the hall as our original cabin is being recategorized.

Our airport is now too small for the capacity it needs. The state tried to float another local airport to be built south of SEA but it was rejected because no one wanted it in their backyard. Thus, the never ending construction in SEA 🙂 I've stayed at the Hampton Inn and it was clean and convenient and close if they're still doing schedules. Alternatively, you can take the Wallypark garage shuttle and walk across the street to a Doubletree or a La Quinta. This is also a good reminder for anyone reading who asks "can I make an early flight?" This summer we have some of the highest passenger traffic ever. Construction is bad, and traffic is bad. Please reconsider- nothing worse than ruining a weeks worth of relaxation with missing your flight home! Flights are flying full, and Seattle doesn't have any other airports to help with the capacity (like going on an LGA flight if your JFK flight is cancelled). As a local, I'm not planning any flights until the end of September. Take that as you will 🙂

Doing a quick Uber fare estimate-- Airport to Olive 8 - $65-75 USD with tip, depending on time of day Olive 8 to Pier 91 - $25-35 USD with tip, depending on time of day Pier 91 to Airport -- $75-95 USD with tip, depending on time of day

Stayed at the Marriott Pinnacle in April and found it wasn't too far from most things we wanted. As long as you're comfortable walking a few blocks, it's a nice place to stay. We thought the bar was fantastic!

There's a Target on 2nd and Union, about a 14 minute walk from your hotel that would have what you're looking for.

Is disembarkation on a weekday or weekend? Weekday you'll run into city traffic as you have to go south to the airport. Do you have priority to check your bags with your airline? Do you have TSA Pre or CLEAR (or ideally both)? Can it be done? Sure. Is it worth the stress? Probably not. SEA has had record passengers this summer and that's not expected to ease up next summer. Lines for bags or security have pushed into the garage on some days.

https://www.uber.com/global/en/price-estimate/ This is a great tool - fares will change based on demand, but this will give you a fairly accurate price range by time and distance.

There was hot food there and maybe 3-4 people when we went up there on the last port day 🙂

Just got off the Joy on Sunday- some tips: 1) Plan on rooms not being ready until 3-3:30pm- they start with Deck 15 rooms first and then make their way down, so just plan accordingly. We hung out on the ocean front on Deck 8. In fact, we never saw Deck 8 get crowded at all - all week. Most people don't find it. 2) Reserving a speciality dining time for the first night was a huge win for us- as everyone is crushing the main dining rooms and still figuring out where to go. Having a reservation made night one way less stressful. 3) If it fits in your budget- Vibe is well worth the cost. If it's sold out or not in your budget- there are loungers right outside vibe on Deck 19 that provide quiet. That space didn't get crowded until the last day when people discovered it- a lot of chairs are behind the laser tag sign. 4) Gym- don't bother to go on the first day at sea. Everyone and their mother who has never worked out a day in their life will be there. I worked on on port days and then the last day after 3pm- gym was practically my own.

I was also on this cruise and sorry to hear you didn't have a good time. We were also on the Joy out of LA in Feb and had the same long wait for rooms day of so we were better prepared. We ended up seeking refuge at the outdoor bar on 8 to avoid the crowd. We also booked Ocean Blue on embarkation day to avoid the max crush of people trying to figure out dinner. We got to eat al fresco waving good bye to Lady Liberty which was a treat! My only major gripe of this cruise was disembarkation- which was highly disorganized (which makes sense of why rooms are so delayed). We've done Bermuda 4 times- twice in June and twice in May and crazily enough it's been better in May. Honestly the weather reports leading up to the week were so bad I didn't have an expectation of any sun. We skipped the beaches this time but had a lovely catamaran Day 2 and actually got into the water for a long amount of time (a first for us!). The very dark tan I am rocking in a very rainy very cold Seattle back home right now says to me we didn't do too terribly. NCL can be great--- with the right research. We had a much better time on this cruise learning from our quick cruise in February. However, as they promote "do what you want when you want" it can be disappointing for many.

(Special Credit to @LrgPizza for the title, and her feedback! 🙂 ) Just unpacking from our week on the Joy. A bit of background-- my mom and I have been doing a yearly Mother/Daughter cruise since my college graduation in 2007, give or take a few years, for things like moving, my wedding, or a global pandemic, but this was our 13th cruise together, (20 or so overall), 3rd time on Norwegian, 2nd time on Joy. th We were mainly Royal and Celebrity cruisers, reaching Diamond on RCL. We would take different Caribbean itineraries until trying out Bermuda on the Celebrity Summit in 2018. After that trip, I said "no need to look around, we're only doing Bermuda from here on out." My mom lives in NY, and I have to fly anyway from WA, so it works out well for both of us. We did the Summit again in 2019 and felt that it was slipping, and a little too boring for our taste. We decided to book the Encore for 2020 to try it out, but we know how that went. When cruising started again in 2022, we went back on the Summit and felt it had definitely slipped but was willing to give it another try in 2023. In December, I saw a great deal for the Joy leaving out of LA for a 5 day Mexican Rivera cruise. My mom visiting on the West Coast during that time I figured it was a great chance to try NCL to see if it was worth the switch. 2 days into our cruise on the Joy, we cancelled our deposit and moved over to the Joy for Bermuda. We took it as a "dress rehearsal" for this week, and started doing research after February. While we had the luck to get snow from Ensenada to LA, the Vibe was not used much but we could tell it was something that was going to be a must have for Bermuda. Thanks to @Sthrngary's review of the Haven Lite, we took his advice, booked a Club Balcony suite on 15 Forward and did the P+ package and the Vibe. So I was extremely nervous when after we booked this, the Vibe was all sold out, and reading things on here I thought it was now only sold online. I checked daily (and speaking to others, I wasn't the only one doing this!) Then I started to look into Haven upgrade bids, and even though I had max bids on some, looking at cabin availability dwindle meant that Haven wasn't happening. I figured with 3 days in Bermuda, we could get some time in the sun without issue while everyone was off board, and was determined not to let it ruin my trip otherwise. Our car ended up picking us 30 minutes earlier than planned and traffic into the city was light, so we checked in early and got Group 2 boarding. As we sat down to get a drink at Mixx, I told my mom I'd go check Teppenaki for the fun of it to see if there were Vibe passes. To my surprise, there were! But not many. We grabbed two of the last 7 spots. The man running it told me they have 90 online as first come first serve (and can be booked a year+ in advance for most ships), and 60 for boarding day. If Vibe is important to you, then get boarding EARLY and do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to Teppenaki and shoot your shot. The Vibe made a HUGE difference in our time on the ship as we spent most of our afternoons there. Taking away the stress of not only finding a seat, but being able to leave your things without worrying, and meeting the same people every day made it a worthwhile experience. Every bartender up there went out of their way to make the experience great - even on the last day the winds were so bad only one half of the Vibe could be used. They moved whatever chairs they could to ensure everyone had a spot to enjoy the last sea day. Boarding in NYC was a breeze - it was very organized, lines were short and we began boarding around 11:15. Disembarkation (which I'll get to later) was a whole other story. Overall, we had a great week. 4400 were on board, less than February (and today's sailing which was at 4800!), but thanks to this board, we were able to beat the crowds. Some tips -- 1) Embarkation -- while waiting for cabins to open up, if you need to get away from the crowds, head to the Oceanfront bars on Deck 8. The waiters say that most people don't even know the bars are there until midway during the week, so it's a great place to have space to sit, wait, and grab a drink. Most seats are sheltered so as long as the weather isn't horrible, it's a refuge. 2) Cabin -- we had a balcony 9 mid ship in Feb, and went for Club Balcony on 15 Forward. These rooms on 15 were great for several reasons. Where we mostly went was the Vibe and the Observation Lounge -- so elevators were less of a hassle knowing that we were only a few steps from the OL or a few flights for the Vibe. This helped with the elevator frustration. The floor also sits next to Suite and Haven cabins, so the room stewards are top touch. We had Jovito, who was the sweetest, kindest state attendant we probably ever had. When we were on 9, we never saw our steward (which to us, was fine, we don't ask/need for much), but having Jovito on our room added that special touch like cruising in the "golden years." 15 is also the first deck after Haven that the rooms are available Day 1, so that was a bonus as well. 3) Dining -Upgrading to FAS+ really upgraded our time. We're not huge cocktail drinkers but love wine in the evening hours. Besides the lack of Veuve (only found in Le Bistro), I didn't see any differences in the wine selection from February. I drank Napa wine all week and loved every sip. We did two nights in Le Bistro, one in Ocean Blue and one in La Cucina. Le Bistro was phenomenal - the Dover Sole not to be missed. Ocean Blue was very good. La Cucina we were dissapointed in because we loved it so much in February, but it could have just been an off day - it was still a nice dinner. We ate 2 meals in Taste/Savor and 1 in the Manhattan Room. All were OK. The only grievance I have is that in the MR I asked for medium rare steak -- it came out closer to black/blue than medium rare -- even the end pieces were dark red, which was the first tip off. I asked for a different meal as it was too rare and she just replied "oh, you asked for medium rare." Not a big deal in the grand scheme of the week, but it was hard to go back to main dining after such great meals in the specialty restaurants. I think next year we'll get one or two more dining nights. They don't sell dining packages after Day 2, so you have to make your decision quickly. 4) Activities - we felt that activities were lacking, but that seems to be the case on all lines these days. Most trivia games are audience participation, which we don't prefer. The one trivia we went to was the same exact trivia we had in February, so we didn't go to many. The Not So Newlywed game is always a cruise classic favorite of mine, and it was a funny one - but no idea why this has to be done in the Atrium, especially when Footloose was cancelled all week. A better time for all would have been in the theater, as we had to stand and many people were lying on the floor. 5) Entertainment- we really liked Sticktight, the country band (and we're not huge country fans). I felt putting them in Q was a miss -- not many people were there either by thinking they had to dine to listen (you can listen at the bar), or never found Q. I would have loved them in the Brew House one night. The latin musicians in Sugarcane were also great. It was fun to listen to genres we don't necessarily have on our Spotify playlists. The one thing that was lacking was a good old traditional piano bar player. Beau was the piano man, but it seemed like he was a crew member filling in for entertainers. Most of the time it was just the soundtrack behind him. Beau really tried his best, but we couldn't go back after day 1. 6) Bermuda - still is my favorite island that doesn't dissapoint every year. Last year the Clocktower Mall was half empty, still reeling from Covid. Happy to see the mall full again and business as usual. The locals are always so nice, so welcoming, and the natural beauty is unparallelled. With the wacky weather this week (very windy and pop up thunderstorms), we stayed closer to the port than we usually do, opting for shopping at the Clocktower one day, did a Catamaran the next and just stayed on the ship Friday. The only issue we had was Disembarkation. My flight back to Seattle isn't until tomorrow, so we didn't need to get off early. We had Yellow Priority, which granted us access after self walk off. However, it was a mess of miscommunication. The public areas they told us we could sit in, we were told we couldn't sit. They directed us to the Manhattan room where people were waiting to get off, and we told them we didn't want to get off yet, but they told us to get/stay in line. We ended up standing for over an hour (I tried to get a chair for my mom to sit in and they told me no), and when we got down to the luggage they told us they weren't ready to give us luggage yet (which we figured, but we were pushed along...and out!). The nice woman at the port (working for 20 years) who had us in the holding area explained that we were 30 minutes late coming in this morning, but the overall stance of the cruise ship is just to move bodies out as fast as possible. We prefer the disembarkation of RCL/Celebrity - where each color tag has a designated spot to sit in (Theatre, dining room, etc), and then escorted out. Every person we tried to talk to had a different answer, and even the Cruise Director was saying we were not ready to self-disembark as we were going off the ship. LA was also a disaster, so I'm starting to think it's a NCL thing and not a port thing. After reading through LrgPizza's review, the things that Haven could offer us that we didn't already have didn't interest us - like her, we're not the type that likes to be doted on (although no judgement if you do, it's just not our speed). The Club Balcony, FAS+,Vibe and Specialty dining, along with a few tricks and tips for beating the crowds, we felt we had an elevated experience at a fraction of the Haven cost. We booked again for the same week, next year....and yes, we already have our Vibe passes 🙂

Finishing up a lovely week on the Joy tomorrow. We were on her in Feburary and enjoyed Veuve and other great wines with our P+ package and got worried based on this thread that they gutted all premium wines. Champagne is not my default drink, so every premium wine that I loved on the Joy in February was still available besides Veuve, which was still offered at Le Bistro. I will absolutely get the premium package again next sailing.

I did just see some magnets starting some sparks on a door down on 11, but hopefully we'll get her to you unscathed.

Ah yes, the great magnet fire of 1992. Took a whole city down, never forget.

You sound fun at parties. I also hope to one day have the lack of problems that you have if door decorations disturb you so much. We booked a cabin where we don't walk down much of the hallways so I specifically went out of my way to LOOK FOR decorations one afternoon. I don't know why you feel the need to yuck other peoples yum, but happy to give you the sleep mask I took on the ship so you can cover your eyes walking past the horrors.

We did a last minute western Mexico trip in Feburary while we had the Summit booked for our yearly Bermuda trip. We enjoyed NCL so much (Non haven class) that we switched to NCL on the Joy before our final payment. We're not in Haven, but we booked a Club Balcony and upgraded to the premium drink package, the private adult deck area, unlimited Wi-Fi and more speciality dining- and it was still cheaper than the Summit.

The Courtyard by Marriott South Lake Union is newly renovated and close to what you're interested in. And while Seattle was a bit squirley in 2020/2021, it's back to pre pandemic in terms of safety. I commute downtown and I don't feel unsafe walking around. Seattle is also pushing return to office so even more people downtown is going to continue to help. We have some of the lowest violent crime rates in the country for a city our size- our issue is mainly property crime.

Just booked 6/9/24 on the Joy next year and the first thing we did is purchase Vibe passes 🙂

Ha! Too much time at the Vibe. 🙂 150.

On the Joy (in the Vibe typing this 🙂 )Stalked the website daily for 4 months for Vibe passes after we booked. When we embarked I figured to head down to Teppenaki to check. The guy told me 130 passes are sold- 90 are online and 60 are for embarkation day. We were one of the last few to get it, boarding group 2, got on around 11:15am.

On the Joy here currently and I've seen the Chocolate Cowboy with his hat at sugarcane walking by. Thinking of stopping in- what makes him so beloved?

Honestly if it's important to you, I would do the upgrade over the phone- it seems like the Joy is going out at full capacity. I think $2400 guaranteed saves you the stress of waiting on bids!

For our sailing in a MA Club Balcony Suite the difference between MA and the lowest Haven was around $3000 total. However, as we got closer, Haven sold out. I put a max bid of $1000pp for the lowest Haven and did not get it.

Space saver is for non-TSA precheck (General) only, you can't reserve for TSAPre.

You're cutting it close. The Ovation is also disembarking that day, so you're looking at 6,000pax trying to get home. 8/4 is a Friday, so you have to go North to South through the city on rush hour. Figure 45 minutes to get to the airport and that's after you're able to get your ride. Now since your flight is before noon, you can't use port valet. Checking bags for me on Friday when both of those ships disembarked took me 35 minutes with Delta Priority. If you have CLEAR and Precheck, it's been a max of 15 minutes. Precheck can be 15-45 minutes, general can be way longer on busy days. Boarding will start around 10:40. If your ship like mine last year was customs delayed and didn't start disembarkation until 9am, you're out of luck. Can it be done? Sure. Do you want to ruin your cruise with the stress of this, knowing that flights are at full capacity and you might not have options until much later in the day or the next? Up to you.