Spaniel Lover

7 hours ago, parmus said:

Great review! We’re traveling spring break on the joy and your review was just what I needed!  We unfortunately don’t have a Haven suite to get priority boarding.  Question....at LA port Do you know if there is a separate line for handicap boarding? DH uses a walker and I’m concerned about long standing wait times.  Any info you might have seen while waiting would be helpful!

 

I don't think there is.  I think your best strategy will be to talk to the first NCL employee you see and ask if they could bring out a wheelchair for him while he waits in line.

 

Actually, the best strategy might be to arrive there about 10:45 AM, before there's much of a line.

1 hour ago, rockfsh said:

What time did embarkation begin?  How were you able to find the NCL employee that knew about the Haven line? Nice review and pics, as usual.

 

There's a longer answer to that question than you might imagine there would be!

 

There was conflicting information from NCL about time boarding was supposed to begin.  My cruise docs said 11 AM, but then I got a text message from NCL that told me not to arrive until 1 PM.  I assumed that this had something to do with the Norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise.  I figured they were going to do some huge disinfecting of the ship and that they had decided to delay boarding until 1 PM so that they could get it done...  thus the text message.  And because they very clearly told me not to arrive until 1 PM, I figured it would be stupid to arrive at 11 AM because I would just end up standing around for two hours before they even began boarding.  So, we arrived a little after 1 PM.  Very bad mistake on my part!!!  That is the last time I will ever believe a text message about delayed boarding from a cruise line.  Carnival does the same thing...  they start their boarding at 11 AM but they send you a communication shortly before the cruise telling you not to show up until 1 PM.  They do it to try to spread the crowd out a bit, so that not everyone arrives at 11 AM.  You'd think I would have recognized that NCL was doing the exact same thing to me when they sent me the text, but I made the mistake of assuming that this time it was different, because of the Norovirus outbreak the week before.

 

Anyway, from what I could tell from talking to other people on the ship, boarding began at 11 AM.

Regarding how I found that one NCL employee that understood that Haven guests didn't need to stand in that long line for security...
I just got lucky!  When three different NCL employees told me that Haven passengers needed to be in that huge long line, I believed them.  So, we stood in the line for about 15 minutes.  At that point, our place in the line was right near the spot where Haven passengers were being let in to a special bypass.  I saw someone get taken through the bypass and heard them say they were Haven passengers...  and I made note of who the employee was that let them through.  Once that employee came back, I let them know that we were Haven passengers, too.

 

I was really lucky to see that when I did, because if another ten minutes had passed, the line would have advanced enough that I would no longer have been able to see the bypass and I would have been stuck in that line for at least another hour more.

I really wish that the folks at NCL would communicate to every one of their employees at the Port Of Los Angeles and educate them on the proper boarding process for Haven passengers.  It's frustrating that three different employees didn't understand the process.

43 minutes ago, wilmingtech said:

Quick answers to Boarding in  San Pedro -

 

HAVEN - Once you get past the initial security entrance where you dump your liquids, they do have a separate line in Security for Haven Guests.  Dont be afraid to go around the lines in the 3 left side lanes.  You wont see the Haven sign on the far right side through the crowd until you get right up to it.  They give you little card holders for your Haven room key.  

 

I'm glad that you arrived early and had no trouble getting onboard quickly.  For everyone else, be aware that the lines get outrageously long later in the day.  For example, if you arrive at the Port Of Los Angeles at 1 PM, you might be looking at a two hour line to get through security.

 

For Haven guests who arrive later, when the lines for security are outrageously long, be aware that as a Haven guest you actually DO NOT have to wait in that huge security line.  They actually have an entirely different metal detector and x-ray machine that they use for Haven guests once the lines start to get long.  What you need to do, rather than getting in the huge line outside of the tent, is find an NCL employee (not a luggage handler or other Port Of Los Angeles employee) and let them know that you're a Haven guest and ask if they would please get you past the line of other passengers.

On embarkation day our December 1st cruise on Norwegian Joy, we asked three different NCL employees if Haven passengers needed to stand in that gigantic security line.  All three told us that yes, we needed to be in that line.  After about fifteen minutes wasted in that line, we saw some other Haven passengers get escorted around the line by a more senior NCL employee.  We walked up to that NCL employee, showed them that we were Haven guests, and they took us around the line and directly to the completely separate metal detector and x-ray machine that they use for security screening of Haven guests.  It saved us about two hours in that line.

 

During our cruise, I checked with numerous other Haven guests to see if any of them had to stand in that gigantic line for security, and everyone I spoke to told us that they were escorted around that line and directly in to the terminal for boarding.

It won't be a problem if you arrive early, but if you're a Haven guest and you get to the Port Of Los Angeles and find a huge line for security...  remember this story!  Three different NCL employees gave me incorrect information and had me wasting my time in line.  Thank goodness I found the fourth one that understood how Haven boarding is supposed to work.

We recently returned from a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise in The Haven on Norwegian Joy.  This cruise was a pretty big milestone for us!  It was our 50th cruise since we started cruising back in 1996.  It was our ninth cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line and our sixth time in The Haven.

 

 

 

While Norwegian has been steadily raising the prices for The Haven over the last few years, this one was priced a little more reasonably.  It turns out that demand for cruises on Norwegian Joy had been a bit soft recently, so they had to keep pricing a little lower than on their other ships in order to encourage people to book it.

 

My wife and I had a fantastic Panama Canal cruise on Norwegian Bliss last year... but weren't able to afford a suite in The Haven.  Ever since then, I've been keeping an eye on the pricing for The Haven on Norwegian Bliss, looking for an opportunity to experience The Haven on that ship, but it's been tremendously expensive.  It was a delightful surprise to find much more reasonable prices in The Haven on her sister, Norwegian Joy.  At least, if you're willing to cruise during times of the year when demand is the lowest.  The total cost for this cruise in The Haven was $4794...  which seemed about right to me for a cruise in The Haven...  and one of the few times I've seen prices under $5000 for The Haven lately.

 

While cruise prices are always sky high for cruises over Christmas week and New Years week, if you're able to cruise in the weeks before Christmas, you'll find the prices to be among the lowest of the entire year.  Our cruise was from December 1st through the 8th.  And since this cruise began and ended in Los Angeles, we didn't have to fly to get to it.  LA is a four hour drive from our house.

 

The Haven Courtyard

 

We stayed in a very nice suite that was located directly adjacent to The Haven Courtyard.  I loved being so close to the courtyard because it felt like we had our very own sunroom with a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, loungers, and daybeds.  I could step out of my suite and take a quick look in the courtyard to see if it was empty before deciding if it was the right time to put on my swim suit and use the Jacuzzi.  It was literally a 15 second walk from our front door to the courtyard...  about a minute walk to The Haven restaurant...  a minute to get to The Haven Sun Deck...  30 seconds to get to The Haven Bar.  This was one of the greatest suite locations we've ever had in all of our cruises!

 

This view only shows a portion of our suite

 

We really loved the color scheme they used in decorating the suite.  It was mostly warm earth tones such as brown, tan, and beige.  We're going to be using a similar color scheme in our dream house, which will begin construction in early 2020 in anticipation of our move to Washington state in the Fall of 2020.

 

Now I'd like to share a video I put together, which does a pretty good job of explaining something about our suite that was very different than on most of our previous cruises in The Haven:

 

 

To start the video playing, click the triangle in the middle of the video screen
 

Since we were on a Mexican Riviera cruise that visited Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlan, the weather was quite warm once we got down in to that area.  Kellyn and I spent a lot of time at The Haven Sun Deck...  lounging around on the very comfortable loungers, or sitting in the Jacuzzi which looked out over the side of the ship.  I liked that the sun deck is for adults only.

 

 

It's not uncommon for families to stay in The Haven...  in fact, there are suites specifically designed for families.  But children aren't allowed on the sun deck...  so they tend to use the pool in the courtyard during the day, and the adults gravitate up to the sun deck to be away from the commotion the kids make when they're in the courtyard pool.  Families have every right to enjoy their vacation in The Haven, just as do the people who are cruising without children.  But when families do take over the courtyard pool area, it gets quite noisy in the entire enclosed courtyard.  So, it's good to have that adults-only area out on the sun deck.  On a cold-weather cruise such as Alaska, I bet noisy kids might be more of an issue since adults wouldn't be able to just escape out to the sun deck.  But in that case, adults could move to the Haven's private observation lounge at the front of the ship, which tends to be a quiet place.

 

Another quiet place within The Haven is The Haven Library... which doesn't get much use, as far as I could tell.  It's fully enclosed... so it would be a fantastic place for a noisy group of Haven guests to have a Cocktail party or a loud card game.  I found this unique piece of art in The Haven Library to be interesting...

 

I've stayed in The Haven on NCL six times now, on six different ships.  This was definitely the best Haven of them all!  The sun deck is twice the size of the one on Norwegian Getaway, Norwegian Breakaway, and Norwegian Escape...  and features two Jacuzzis instead of just one.  Between the Jacuzzi in The Haven Courtyard and the two up here on the sun deck, there are three Jacuzzis for the exclusive use of Haven guests...  and that's a lot, since there aren't that many Haven guests!

 

 

The enclosed Haven courtyard is fantastic for itineraries such as Alaska where the weather isn't as warm as it is in the Caribbean or on the Mexican Riviera.  That previous picture shows that in addition to all the seating on the lower level of the courtyard, there is also an upper level with additional chairs and loungers...  all with very thick, soft cushions.  That upper level gets used more on cold-weather cruises like Alaska more than it does in warmer locations.  Also, that overhead glass dome can be retracted on sunny, warm days to make the courtyard an outdoor venue instead of just an indoor one.

 

But even if you don't stay in The Haven, the Norwegian Joy is a really great ship!  All the rest of the photos of this page are of things available to ALL passengers on Norwegian Joy, not just the ones staying in The Haven.

 

One of the most unusual features on Norwegian Joy is a go-kart track...  something you wouldn't really expect to see on a cruise ship!

 

 

Another really fun feature on Norwegian Joy is the free-fall waterslide.  You climb the tower, get in to a glass tube, and suddenly the floor drops out from under you and you free-fall.  It scares the heck out of you for a few seconds!

 

 

But there's more to it than just that first scary drop!  There are curves and loops, and at one point  the tube even has you going upside down.

 

 

Note that in that last picture, the direction of travel inside the waterslide is from left to right across the picture, and the woman is basically shooting upside down through that section of the tube.  The other thing that jumps out at me is that she is wearing a one-piece swimsuit.  That's actually not such a good idea on this type of waterslide.  You'd think that a one-piece suit like that would be the smart choice, because a bikini might tend to have a "wardrobe malfunction" on a ride involving so much speed.  But actually, the more fabric you wear in the waterslide, the more friction there is with the tube and the more likely you are to get stuck in it!  With a lot of friction from your swim suit, your speed inside the slide is slightly lower, and you might not have enough speed to make it over the hump of the tube that the woman in that last picture was approaching.  So, the skimpier the swim suit, the less likely you are to get stuck!  Girls should wear bikinis on this waterslide, and guys...  do not wear a t-shirt.  Too much friction!  Also, the more you weigh, the greater the speed you'll have during the free-fall, which will give you enough speed to get over "the hump".  The ones that tend to get stuck are usually the skinny ones, or wearing a lot of fabric.  In the following video, you can actually see a skinny girl get stuck in the ride...

 

 

I consider myself something of an expert about cruise ship water slides!  It's an aspect of cruising that I've always found fun, and when a video I made about a waterslide on a Carnival Cruise went viral and got 94 million views, it turned me in to something of a cruise ship waterslide fanatic!  In case you've never seen that viral waterslide video, here it is:

 

 

 

94 million views of that video is crazy, isn't it?  I doubt I'll ever replicate that, but I'll keep trying!  I do have a model train video that recently passed 65 million views, so I guess it's not out of the question to think that it might get in the 90 million range someday.  So far, eighteen of my YouTube videos have gotten at least a million views...  so I feel like I'm doing something right!

 

If you do like a few thrills during a cruise, you might also like the Virtual Reality Gaming area on Norwegian Joy, known as the Galaxy Pavilion...

 

 

 

In that last photo, note that the big flat panel display isn't actually for the rider...  everything he sees is in the goggles.  I think that big display is so that family members watching during the ride can see what the riders see.  Also, when you're considering whether you want to spend your money to do the ride or not, the display helps you get an idea of what the ride is all about.

 

Of course, there's a lot more to Norwegian Joy than just thrilling stuff like go-karts, waterslides, and virtual reality gaming.  In fact, for the older passengers who probably couldn't give a hoot about any of that stuff, the Norwegian Joy is still a great choice.  There is a lot to love about this ship!  One of my favorite things is the big observation lounge that takes up the entire forward portion of deck 15.

 

 

This is one of the most brilliant design ideas I've seen on a cruise ship in quite a long time.  They're not looking to make money from you here...  they're just giving you a place to be comfortable on the ship, with fantastic views, plenty of places to sit or stretch out, and no weather worries.  No matter what the weather is doing outside, it's always perfectly comfortable in the observation lounge!  The buffet is just one floor above, if you're hungry...  but there are also free snacks here in the lounge.  And on Norwegian Joy, they took it even one step further than they did on Norwegian Bliss.  Joy has a Starbucks in the observation lounge that Bliss doesn't have!

 

 

Believe it or not, there are actually two Starbucks on Norwegian Joy!  Besides this one in the observation lounge, there is also a larger one on deck 6, near the atrium and the guest services area.

 

One other thing about the observation lounge...  it's huge!  There's much more to it than just the section at the very front of the ship, which you saw two pictures ago.  That's only about 1/5 of total space in the lounge!  It stretches from the front of the ship almost all the way to mid-ship, and on both the starboard and port sides.  It's tremendously bigger than anything like it on other cruise ships...  and they made it really comfortable by outfitting it with very plush furniture.  Here's a photo showing another part of it:

 

 

The furniture was more comfortable than what I've got at home, and it's fantastic that the observation lounge is available to all passengers at all hours of the day or night, at no additional charge.  There's even a bar, for those who would like a drink while they relax.  And the views out the windows are fantastic!  They don't call it the observation lounge for nothing!  On a Mexican Riviera cruise, the ship travels in the busy shipping lane that runs along the Mexican coast...  where you'll not only see a lot of cruise ships, but also a lot of cargo ships that are traveling between the Panama Canal and California.

 

If you'd rather relax outdoors rather than indoors, a great place to do so is on the "waterfront" which runs along both sides of deck eight.  There are several outdoor bars, outdoor seating for several of the ship's specialty restaurants, and numerous places to just sit and relax and enjoy the views...

 

 

A small thing that I like about the Waterfront on NCL ships is that they put these big binoculars along the railing, so that you can take a closer look at any interesting things that you might see.  And there's no charge to use them...  which is a refreshing change from the way that some cruise lines charge you extra for every little thing!

 

 

Another considerate little thing that Norwegian Cruise Line does involves the carpet in the hallways outside of the cabins.  The carpet features fish that are all swimming in the same direction, and they're always swimming towards the front of the ship.  So, when you come out of your cabin, if you're trying to figure out which direction to go, you can use the fish in the carpet to help you figure out which direction takes you to the front of the ship and which takes you to the back.  Other cruise lines should do something like this!  It's such a simple thing, but so helpful.

 

 

Another little detail you might overlook on a big ship like this is a small feature on the Waterfront, at the very back of the ship.  There are several parts of the deck that feature glass panels providing a view straight down to the waterline below.  If you've got any issues with heights, it can be a little intimidating to stand on the glass and look down!

 

 

If you've sailed on other Norwegian ships, you're probably familiar with the adults-only outdoor area known as Spice H2O.  Horrible name, in my opinion...  but it's great that they made such a nice adult's-only area on the ship.  At night, they have big outdoor parties here...  but during the day it's usually a good place to stretch out and get some sun.

 

 

The downside to this part of the ship is that there's a bar right next to it where smoking is allowed.  So, in those loungers you can see in the photo, not only are you downwind of all that cigarette smoke, but you here a lot of loud drunk people at the bar, too.

 

They did something really great at Spice H2O on Norwegian Joy that is hugely better than on other NCL ships such as Norwegian Getaway, Norwegian Breakaway, and Norwegian Escape.  They put in a gigantic whirlpool tub...

 

 

That might just be the biggest Jacuzzi I've ever seen on a cruise ship!  If I hadn't been staying in The Haven, which has three Jacuzzis itself, I suspect I probably would have spent a lot of time in this Jacuzzi!

 

One other thing I noticed on Norwegian Joy that I thought was a very thoughtful design was the amount of shade they offered out by the main pool at mid-ship.  Getting a sunburn on a cruise is a good way to ruin your vacation, and on some cruise ships it's very difficult to find shade out by the pool.  But on Norwegian Joy they had gone to the trouble of building in a lot of unobtrusive structures that provided shade...

 

 

I've spent a lot of time talking about adults-only venues on Norwegian Joy, but kids will love this cruise ship, too.  If you've got kids cruising with you, they will love the children's water park...

 

 

 

As a 62 year old guy traveling without kids or grandkids, I didn't spend a lot of time shooting pictures of the features of the ship that kids would be interested...  but if you've got kids and you like to cruise, Norwegian Joy would be an excellent choice of cruise ship.  There is LOTS for kids to do.

There was also a lot within the ship that I did not take the time to photograph.  Decks six, seven, and eight are full of restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues.  It's where you'll spend a lot of time at night.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of the big chandelier that hangs from the ceiling of deck eight and is a focal point of this area...

 

 

The early versions of NCL's Breakaway-class ships had a big design mistake in this area.  The casino is located on deck 7, and the smoke from the casino would rise up through this open area by the chandelier...  making the smell of smoke quite noticeable on deck 8.  If you ever cruise on Norwegian Breakaway or Norwegian Getaway, you'll notice this when you walk through deck eight.  But NCL learned from that mistake and Norwegian Joy is designed much better!  Most of the casino is non-smoking, but there is an area of the casino where smoking is allowed...  which is fully enclosed in glass and has its own ventilation system...

 

 

I like the specialty dining options on Norwegian Joy...  especially the Texas Smokehouse and the American Steakhouse.  That's my kind of food!  Sorry that I didn't get any photos of the food there...  it's just too dark in most of the restaurants to get a good quality photo, and I don't like to use the camera's flash because it might bother other guests in the restaurant.

 

One restaurant I was quite curious about is the American Diner.  It's located in the space that was occupied by Margaritaville during my cruises on several of the sister ships.  To give you an idea of the kind of food they serve at the American Diner, here's a menu...

 

If you have any trouble reading the text in the menu,
click here to bring up a larger version of the photo

 

I got a kick out of the design of the tables at the American Diner.  There was artwork on the tabletops...  a photo of a collection of license plates.  The thing that put a smile on my face was that out of the eight license plates, two of them were from Washington state...  which is where we'll be moving in 2020.

 

 

 

Internet Access

 

Internet access on Norwegian Joy was slower than I expected.  When I did a Panama Canal cruise on Norwegian Bliss, the Internet speeds were incredible.  I was hoping that Norwegian Joy had the same technology, whatever it was, that produced those impressive upload and download speeds on her sister, the Bliss.  But actually Norwegian Joy's Internet service was fairly slow.

 

Royal Caribbean and Princess have the best Internet access because they use O3B Networks, which uses a series of low-orbit satellites to provide Internet service.  Most other cruise lines, including Norwegian, use satellites that are in a higher orbit around the earth, which creates more latency in the signal, and slows down the feel of accessing the Internet.  I did some testing using Speedtest.net to objectively quantify the Internet service on Norwegian Joy, and here some of the results:

 

 

You can tell from the ping test that Norwegian Breakaway was using a satellite in a high orbit around the earth.  On Royal Caribbean, using the O3B network, that ping number would be several hundred milliseconds faster.  Of course, if you were at home, using a cable modem, the ping number would be ridiculously small...  like 6 or 10.  That's one of the reasons that the Internet feels so responsive at home...  low latency, as measured by the ping time.

 

4 Mbps was about the fastest download speed I saw on Norwegian Joy, and 2 was a more typical number.  That pretty much sucks.  The upload speeds were about the same, as you can see in the chart.  I'm sure that someday, perhaps when Elon Musk's network of satellites is fully operational, we'll shake our head and laugh at these kinds of Internet speeds on cruise ships.  But for now, that's what we're getting on a lot of cruise ships.

 

Norovirus

 

About a week before our cruise on Norwegian Joy, I was surprised to find the ship making the news for a Norovirus outbreak that affected 127 passengers and six crew members.  And then the day we were going to get aboard, it made the news again for a smaller number of Norovirus cases...

 

 

I didn't worry about it too much, because I know that when there's a Norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship, the crew takes extreme measures to stop the outbreak.  I figured by the time we got onboard, after two weeks of intense sanitation measures, it would probably be the cleanest cruise ship we had ever cruised on.  Indeed, during our cruise we saw a lot of disinfection activities and protective measures designed to prevent any further cases of Norovirus...  and by about the fifth day of the cruise there had been such a reduction in new cases that they were able to reduce the level of precautions they were taking.  Neither my wife or I came home sick from the cruise, nor did we hear of anyone onboard who had been sick during the cruise.  So, it sure seemed like they did a good job dealing with the outbreak.

 

Special measures to prevent the spread of illness were noticeable all over the ship.  In the buffet it was especially noticeable...  they didn't let you serve yourself at all.  You would tell a crew member what items you wanted, and they would place them on a dish and hand it to you.  But there were other things we noticed all over the ship.  In the Haven Library, all the books were removed!  In the public restrooms, the outer doors were propped open so that you wouldn't have to touch the door with your hands to enter the restroom.  We also saw the cabin stewards taking extreme measures to disinfect in the cabins.  They even wore a hazmat-type of protective suit to do certain cleaning procedures in the cabins.  I felt bad for all the extra work the crew had to do, but it worked...  and Norwegian Joy stayed out of the news the week we sailed on her.

 

Entertainment

 

The big musical onboard Norwegian Joy was "Footloose", based on the 1984 hit by Kenny Loggins.  People who were teenagers in 1984 are now in their 50s...  so that's a nearly perfect era for a cruise ship musical.

 

 

I thought the show was OK, and I certainly enjoyed all the music from that era...  but at more than 90 minutes long, this show seemed about twice as long as it really needed to be!  Big theater shows are not really a strong suit for NCL.  If you're looking for the best big theater shows at sea, give Royal Caribbean a try.

 

There was a lot of other entertainment onboard Norwegian Joy besides the big production shows in the main theater.  They have some fun audience participation game shows in the atrium on deck six, and lots of music in numerous venues around the ship.

 

After 50 cruises, one thing really stood out for me on Norwegian Joy...  a country music band.  You don't see that very often on cruise ships.  They play in Q, the Texas Smokehouse specialty restaurant, and they call themselves "Top Shelf".

 

 

Sorry about the purple lighting!  Cruise lines like to use unusual colored lighting for musical performances, to add some extra excitement.  It looks OK for the audience watching live, but it never looks very good in photographs of the band!

 

Another musical performance that tickled me was an Abba tribute performed by this duo (known as "Cryptic Duo") in the Cavern Club...

 

 

 

The Ports Of Call

This was a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise embarking from the Port of Los Angeles and visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas.

 

We actually made an unscheduled stop in Cabo San Lucas on our way to our first scheduled port of Puerto Vallarta.  A passenger onboard had some kind of medical emergency and needed to be evacuated to a hospital.  Mexico sent out a helicopter on the first sea day, but their helicopter was unable to successfully evacuate the passenger.  The US Coast Guard makes it look easy, but I guess it's not as easy for Mexico to make it happen.  So, the next day the ship made a detour to Cabo San Lucas to evacuate the passenger by tender.  While we were there, I took this shot of the famous arch there in Cabo San Lucas.

 

 

After completing the medical evacuation of the passenger, Norwegian got back on course for our scheduled first destination of Puerto Vallarta.  I guess we had a lot of extra time in our travel schedule because it took them about two hours to complete the medical evacuation in Cabo, but we still managed to arrive on time in Puerto Vallarta the next day.

 

In Puerto Vallarta, we took one of my favorite cruise ship shore excursions.  It's called the "Las Caletas Hideaway" excursion, and we've done this same excursion on several previous visits to Puerto Vallarta.  It's such a fun day, that we pretty much do the same excursion on every visit to PV now.  Basically, it's a beach day at a private beach, including an open bar and a lunch.  To get to the beach at Las Caletas, you have to get on an excursion boat for about a one hour ride south.  The crew does a good job of entertaining you during that time, and they make it fun.  Upon arrival at Las Caletas Beach, you are free to roam around choose your favorite place to spend your time there.  There are hammocks, lots of loungers, remote isolated places where you can have privacy, or rows of chairs and loungers at several different little beaches.

 

 

The whole time you are there, roaming bar servers will take drink orders and deliver your drinks right to you at no additional charge.  There are kayaks and stand-up paddle boards that you can use, and floatation devices for those that just want to swim or hang out in the warm water.

 

 

About 50 feet off shore of the beach are several little floating wooden platforms with hammocks on them.  You can swim out to them and call one your own...

 

 

They also have a whole bunch of macaws at Las Caletas, and they sometimes let them fly around.  My wife and I just totally love macaws...  we used to have one as a pet, years ago.  It is so cool to see them flying free above Las Caletas Beach.

 

 

We spent several hours at the beach, enjoying the drinks they brought to us, and swimming in the warm ocean water.  It's one of my favorite ways to spend a vacation day!  After a few hours of that, lunch is served...  and they have things like barbecue chicken and ribs, plus a few Mexican items like taquitos.  And then, all too soon, it was time for the one hour boat ride back to our cruise ship.  I can't wait to come back to Las Caletas beach again during our next Mexican Riviera cruise!

 

The next day, Norwegian Joy was docked in Mazatlan.  Frankly, I don't find Mazatlan to be all that interesting...  so we decided to just stay onboard Norwegian Joy and enjoy a lazy, relaxing day in The Haven!  I spent some time in a Jacuzzi on the Haven Sun Deck, with a nice view of Mazatlan.  One of the things I always get a kick out of seeing near the dock in Mazatlan is the Pacifico Brewery, where they produce several types of beer for export to the United States.  At one of my favorite restaurants in my hometown in California, they have a big painting on one of their walls that is all about one of the beers they sell at the restaurant, imported from Mazatlan.

 

 

While we're on the subject of Mazatlan...  it's always a little sad for me to see the air pollution there.  I work at a nuclear power plant in California, where we proudly generate electricity without producing any significant carbon emissions.  California environmental regulations are some of the strictest in the world, and that means that where I live we have amazing air quality.  So it's sad for me to visit Mazatlan and to see how the power plant there, which probably burns either coal or oil, creates tremendous air pollution.  This picture has not been doctored in any way...  it's what the air looks like there in Mazatlan.

 

 

After a nice day relaxing in The Haven while the ship was docked in Mazatlan, we sailed north to our final port of call:  Cabo San Lucas, part two.

There is no dock in Cabo San Lucas that is capable of handling cruise ships, so all visiting cruise ships (and there are usually several of them!) position themselves just off shore and tender their passengers ashore.

 

I certainly expected to see other cruise ships in Cabo San Lucas...  but as I sat on my balcony that morning I was completely surprised and delighted by what cruise ship pulled up next to us!  It was the Carnival Panorama.  This was quite a surprise, as the Carnival Panorama is a brand new ship that just came over from the shipyard in Italy and hadn't even had her maiden voyage with paying passengers yet!  There were only crew members and a few Carnival big wigs onboard.  Notice in the following picture that there isn't even one passenger out on the balconies!

 

 

My wife and I have a cruise scheduled on Carnival Panorama in January, since we do like to sail on brand new ships, but we generally like to wait a month or more for them to work all the kinks out.  It was a real treat to see her, quite unexpectedly, in Cabo that day!  While she was there, someone came aboard via tender.  I don't know if it was local dignitaries welcoming the brand new ship, or what.  She also launched a lifeboat as a training exercise.

 

 

Carnival Panorama only stayed in Cabo for about two hours, and then headed north to her new home port of Long Beach for her official naming ceremony and maiden voyage.

 

We had originally planned to take a tender in to Cabo and have lunch at "The Office"...  a fantastic little restaurant on Medano Beach that has delicious Mexican food.  With no decent Mexican restaurant onboard Norwegian Joy, going ashore for Mexican food sounded great to us when we planned our cruise.  But upon arrival in Cabo, we were feeling quite lazy!  We had such a nice day the day before, staying aboard and just enjoying the amenities of The Haven, that we decided to do it again on this day in Cabo.  Perhaps on our next Mexican Riviera cruise, on Carnival Panorama in January, we'll make it to The Office for lunch.

 

 

Downloads

 

Here are links to a couple of pdf files that I think you would find useful:

 

Norwegian Joy Deck Plans

All 7 Norwegian Joy "Freestyle Daily" Newsletters

List of all the shore excursions offered  (including prices)

Disembarkation Information

A Map Of Las Caletas Beach in Puerto Vallarta

 

 

 

Room For Improvement

 

We had a really good cruise on Norwegian Joy...  in fact, it was one of the most enjoyable cruises we've ever been on.  I love the design of the ship, and I think that Norwegian does a pretty good job of running things.  These days, we consider NCL our cruise line of choice, and Norwegian Joy and her sister ships are clearly the best ships in their fleet.

 

But with all that said, there is always room for improvement!  No cruise line gets everything right.  So here are a few things that I think could have been better on our cruise...

 

• The Cruise Director was from Italy and spoke with a very thick Italian accent.  I would expect that on MSC or Costa...  but not on NCL.  In fact, in my nine cruises with NCL, I've only had one really great Cruise Director and quite a few really bad ones.  Whoever hires the Cruise Directors for NCL needs to pick much more qualified people...  and especially people with excellent speaking skills, with no trace of an accent.  After all, the vast majority of NCL passengers are Americans.
• Embarkation at the Port Of Los Angeles was a complete and total mess.  Prior to embarkation, I received conflicting information about what time embarkation actually started.  I arrived at the port to find a line that took people about two hours to get through in order to board the ship.  That part was mostly not NCL's fault...  the Port Of Los Angeles has failed to modernize their cruise ship terminals and they are completely unable to handle the number of passengers on today's mega cruise ships.  Other ports, such as Long Beach, Miami, and Ft Lauderdale have amazing cruise terminals that can get you onboard in 15-20 minutes.  The facility at the Port Of Los Angeles is dysfunctional.  But NCL employees were also disorganized during certain aspects of the embarkation.  Three different NCL employees told me that there was no special line for Haven guests at embarkation and that I need to wait in the massive line outside of the terminal.  Finally, a more senior NCL employee came along and took me to the special Haven security line when she found out I was a Haven guest...  and this probably saved me two hours of waiting in line outside the terminal.
• The Musical, "Footloose", at over 90 minutes long, was about twice as long as it really needed to be.
• The gigantic balcony on my suite was so large, it could have easily fit several loungers or a daybed...  but NCL didn't bother doing this.  That was a missed opportunity to "wow" your Haven guests.  At a minimum, put two loungers out on that big balcony, not those two regular chairs.
• Internet access was bad compared to the state-of-the-art on cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and Princess that use the O3B network of satellites.
• There are eight specialty restaurants onboard plus six complimentary dining venues...  yet not one restaurant serving Mexican food, other than the buffet.  NCL must not realize how popular Mexican food is with Americans.  I love what they've done with Q, the Texas smokehouse.  Whoever thought of that was a genius.  But the ship really needs a restaurant for casual Mexican food.

 

So, that's it!  Or as the Brits say, "Bob's your uncle".  That's the story of our cruise on Norwegian Joy...  one of the best cruises we've been on, and we've been on 50 cruises!  If you have some time to kill and you'd like to read some of my reviews of other cruises we've been on, head on over to my web site at JimZim.net

 

I'd love to hear your comments about what I've posted here today, so now it's your turn...

 

 

There's a LOT that I love about Norwegian Cruise Line, and my recent cruise on Norwegian Joy certainly reinforced that fact.  I'll be working on editing several new videos about my cruise, but here's the first of them.  The video touches on some of the many great things about a cruise on NCL, and then focuses on one particular aspect I like better about Norwegian compared to Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, etc.:  NCL has the best waterslides!

It's just a two-minute video, so it doesn't require much of a time commitment to endure it!!!
 

 

I'm onboard the Joy this week.  The brief unscheduled stop in Cabo was to evacuate a passenger that had a medical emergency earlier in the cruise. They tried to evacuate the passenger by helicopter the day before, but were unsuccessful.

 

The ship made it to Puerto Vallarta on schedule the next morning, and also made it to Cabo as scheduled later in the week.

 

It's been a great cruise on a great ship!

 

11 hours ago, Cyn874 said:

I didn't know Jim Zim was on Cruise Critic! I booked a cruise immediately after watching your Ovation of the Seas video, entirely because of your video, and it was the best cruise I've ever been on.

 

I'm glad you liked Ovation Of The Seas.  Royal Caribbean really did a nice job with the Quantum Class of ships.  That's my favorite class of Royal Caribbean ships.  The Oasis class gets all the attention, but the Quantum Class actually are better in several aspects that are important to me.

I actually really started out doing cruise reviews on Cruise Critic, years ago, long before I got any followers on YouTube.  I've slacked off on my Cruise Critic reviews in the last year or two simply because between my "real job" and YouTube I just didn't have the time after I got home from a cruise to put together a quality Cruise Critic review with photos and videos.  But with my retirement coming up next year, I am hoping to be able to get back to doing a full review on YouTube and a full review on Cruise Critic after each cruise.

I'm in Cabo San Lucas today (aboard Norwegian Joy) and as I was sitting on my balcony enjoying the morning sun, Carnival Panorama pulled up right next to us!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think she's even carrying paying passengers yet.  If I'm not mistaken, she just came out of the shipyard in Italy, did a transatlantic crossing, sailed around the tip of South America to get in to the Pacific, and sailed up the west coast of the Americas on her way to her new home port in Long Beach, California.

 

 

By the way, can anyone explain why she didn't sail through the Panama Canal?  I don't think she's too large for it.  I came through the Panama Canal (the new side) on Norwegian Bliss about two years ago.  Seems to me that the new side of the canal could have fit Carnival Panorama, but perhaps I'm wrong about that.  Maybe Carnival just didn't want to pay the canal fees.

 

 

So, if there are no paying passengers aboard...  who is onboard besides crew members?  Some VIPs perhaps?

 

I wonder if she'll spend the full day in Cabo today, or if this is just an exercise for her crew to get used to visiting here.

 

In any case, I sure am delighted to see her!  I'll be sailing on her about a month from now.

 

If you'd like to see some video of her interior, shot at the shipyard just before she began her voyage to California, take at look at this:

 

 

If you are a tall person, or a large person, you definitely want to get the mini-suite, due to the larger shower.

If you are part of a romantic couple that loves to shower together, you definitely want to get the mini-suite, due to the larger shower.

If you have ever taken a shower during a cruise and found yourself thinking how much you hate the tiny little showers in cruise ship cabins, you definitely want to get the mini-suite, due to the larger shower.

If you take a look at

, you can see what the shower in a spa mini suite looks like. You'll probably find the entire video of interest, but if you only want to see the shower, skip to the 3:30 point in the video.

Most will tell you the EPIC haven is the best. It was the first ship that was designed with a haven, there are fewer suites so you get more personalized service.

I'm afraid that you're completely wrong about that. You're off by four ships and five years!

 

Long before Norwegian Epic came along, there was the Norwegian Jewel and three sister ships. Norwegian Jewel was the first NCL ship with The Haven. Norwegian Epic came along five years later.

 

I actually really liked The Haven on the Jewel Class because there were so few Haven passengers compared to the newer, larger ships with The Haven. We were sharing The Haven Courtyard and Sun Deck with a fairly small number of other Haven passengers.

 

The Jewel class ships do not have an actual Haven Restaurant... but at breakfast and lunch, one of the specialty dinner restaurants becomes an exclusive restaurant for Haven guests only. I really loved my breakfasts in that restaurant because there were so few other Haven guests there. I really felt like I had the complete attention of my servers, and they treated me like a king!

 

So, for me, even though there was no Haven dinner restaurant on the Jewel class ships, I have some of the best Haven dining memories of that ship because they treated me so well during the other meals.

Carnival really has nothing similar to compete.

 

I think you haven't been paying attention to the last couple of new Carnival ships... the Vista class. They've got something on Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon (and the upcoming California-based Carnival Panorama) that Haven and Yacht Club people might find very appealing... especially those of you who wish The Haven was adults-only.

 

They have a Haven-like area called the Havana area at the far back end of the ship, on deck 5. It's adults only, and the only people that have access to it are the small number of people staying in a nearby Havana cabin. So, you get an un-crowded pool and sundeck area, like you do with The Haven, but it's adults-only and it's super inexpensive compared to The Haven. They even have very inexpensive inside cabins in the Havana area.

 

I think this video I made about my cruise on Carnival Vista will help you see what's so cool about Carnival's adults-only Havana area:

 

 

 

In a Havana cabin on Carnival, you do not have a butler or a concierge, and you don't have a private restaurant. But it's hugely cheaper than The Haven, and there are those delicious Guy Fieri burgers! :p:p

 

You can learn more about the Havana area on Carnival's Vista-class ships by reading my full review here.

That's my review of our 15-day cruise on the Norwegian Bliss! I hope you enjoyed it.

 

If you follow the links in my signature, below, you can read reviews of other cruises I've been on.

 

It's time for you to take over this conversation now. Any questions or comments? I'll keep an eye on this discussion for the next couple of weeks and try to reply to questions. If you're reading this in July 2018 or beyond, I'm no longer reading the comments... so don't expect a reply from me... but of course, feel free to post your thoughts.

 

If you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you will always stay up to date on my latest videos.

 

Before our cruise on the Norwegian Bliss, we spent five days at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville resort in Hollywood, Florida. Here is a video I put together to give you a taste of the fun we had there:

 

 

We booked a fairly basic room at Margaritaville, but when we arrived at the hotel, they upgraded us to a suite! Here's a time-lapse video I shot from the balcony of our suite, on the top floor of the hotel:

 

 

I was totally impressed with Norwegian Bliss, and saw fewer "areas for improvement" on this cruise than any of the other cruises I've ever been on... and the ones I did see weren't big things. But here they are:

• They need to add a staircase leading from the most forward part of the buffet restaurant, to the observation lounge below
  
• There weren't enough tables in the buffet restaurant
  
• They charged way too much for Internet access
  
• The swimming pools are too deep to stand up in, and don't have a shallow end
  
• They charge too much for lunch at the Margaritaville restaurant
  
• They should offer some food in Q while the country music band performs
  
• There should be Mexican food offered in the buffet at every lunch and dinner
  

To recap some of the very positive things about Norwegian Bliss, here's what I loved about the ship.

• The specialty restaurants
  
• The buffet, especially breakfast
  
• The entertainment, which NCL spent a LOT of money on
  
• The crew knew exactly what they were doing, and I didn't see a single SNAFU in 15 days onboard
  
• The observation lounge at the front of the ship
  
• The thermal suite within the spa
  
• The fastest Internet upload and download speeds I've ever experienced on a cruise ship
  
• The go-kart racetrack
  
• Two very fun waterslides... one that's gentle, and one that will scare the heck out of you!
  
• The brilliant design of The Waterfront on deck 8, which hides the lifeboats from view
  
• Improvements to The Haven
  
• Some very funny stand-up comedy
  
• A creative comedic take-off on Dancing With The Stars
  
• Very painless embarkation and disembarkation
  
• Lots of interesting wildlife on this itinerary
  
• There was a separate, fully enclosed area of the casino for smokers, and only two other places where smoking was allowed
  

In this section, I'm just going to include a few photos/videos that didn't seem to fit in anywhere else in this story up until now. For example, this photo of the unusually wide video screen they have out by the main swimming pool on deck 16. That's a very unusual aspect ratio for the screen. Most HD video content is produced in a 16x9 aspect ratio these days... but that screen is hugely wider than that. They even had some scenic Alaska videos that had been produced for a very wide format screen like that.

 

 

The downside to having such a wide format screen like that is that if they decided to show a movie or TV show, they had to letterbox it. So, there wasn't a whole lot of content they could run on it in full wide screen format, and all the rest got letterboxed. It seemed like an unusual design decision to me. Why not just install a much taller 16x9 screen that would perfectly fit most of the world's HD video and movie content?

 

 

Silas did a good job as Cruise Director, and it was easy to see why NCL gave him the plum assignment of CD on their new flagship. I've actually seen a few bizarre choices for Cruise Director on some of my previous NCL cruises, so it was good to see that they got it right on Norwegian Bliss.

 

The only strange thing I noticed about Silas is that he never used his last name. He was always referred to as "Cruise Director, Silas" or "Silas, your Cruise Director"... never as Silas Cook. That seemed odd to me, since Cook is such a straight-forward last name. I could see just going with your first name if your last name was Smolinski or Ruotsalainen... but Cook?!?!

 

 

 

 

If you look at the photo carefully, you'll see it's actually a crappy photo! I shot it with my GoPro. Because of the design of the GoPro, when you go to push the trigger with your finger, it's easy to shake the camera a bit... which was just enough motion to blur the photo. I wish I had shot the photo with my big Canon DSLR camera instead!

Towards the beginning of the cruise, there was actually a small incident. A "code bravo"... which is cruise ship code for a fire. They had to have the ship's emergency fire team respond to it. My wife and I were having a drink at the bar in the Observation Lounge when the first "code bravo" announcement was made. They use that term, rather than announcing that there is a fire, so that they don't panic the passengers. I've been on enough cruises that I knew exactly what a code bravo was as soon as they made the announcement.

 

The bartender heard me talking to my wife about the code bravo announcement, and offered his opinion that it was almost certainly nothing to worry about since the announcement had specifically said that the incident was in the incinerator room. I learned later that these type of situations are common in the incinerator rooms of all kinds of ships, and that the incinerator rooms are designed specifically to contain a fire that might occur.

 

But I also had a little bit of skepticism in my mind. I knew that there were crew members on the Costa Concordia who tried to calm passengers by telling them that there was absolutely nothing to be concerned about when that infamous incident first occurred. So, I decided to do just a little bit of investigation of my own to make sure that this wasn't the start of a bad fire on Norwegian Bliss. Plus, I'm a YouTuber now... so if there was some kind of fire, I wanted to at least get some video of smoke rising out of the ship somewhere.

 

I finished my drink and headed to our cabin to get my camera. Then I went up to the highest view point on the ship to look to see if there was any smoke coming out of anywhere. There was not. I wasn't really surprised. I didn't really think I was about to witness some big incident on Norwegian Bliss, but I wanted to have my camera with me just in case I was wrong. I stood out there watching for any signs of smoke for a few minutes, and then I was confident that the code bravo announcement was no big deal. Something similar to the time at the nuclear power plant where I work when a spark from welding started to ignite a little piece of something next to the welder, and I grabbed a fire extinguisher and shot it off, to make sure that no fire ever got started. Technically, I guess you could call it a fire, but not really. Whatever happened in the incinerator room on Norwegian Bliss was probably some minor thing like that.

 

So there I was, out on the top deck of the ship with my camera, confident that the code bravo was nothing to worry about. I started to shoot some video of the pool deck and the waterslides with my camera. And it happened to be recording when the Captain came on the public address system to announce that the previous code bravo announcements had been about. Here's a video of that:

 

 

I posted the video to YouTube just because I was impressed with the professionalism of the Captain for fully explaining the incident to the passengers... and also because I thought it was noteworthy that there had been an incident requiring an emergency response on Norwegian's brand-new ship... even if the incident was basically nothing to be concerned about.

 

Later in the cruise, when NCL was sending me champagne and Haven bath robes and sending me to Cagney's for dinner... I felt kind of bad that I had posted that video about the code bravo to YouTube. I hope it did not cause NCL any embarrassment. I really do think the Captain did a nice job in fully explaining the situation to the passengers.

While I was onboard, I uploaded a LOT of YouTube videos about all the cool things I was experiencing on the Norwegian Bliss. I uploaded videos about the observation lounge, the water slides, the go-kart racetrack, our journey through the Panama canal, and several others. This did not go un-noticed by the folks at NCL. Apparently the folks in their social media department noticed the stuff I had posted to a Facebook group about the Norwegian Bliss and the videos I had posted to YouTube. They were very appreciative of all the great free publicity I was generating for their new ship. So, they started sending small thank you gifts to our cabin.

 

 

During the course of the cruise, I think there were three bottles of champagne delivered to the cabin! The first two times it happened, we took the champagne up to the observation lounge, asked the bar staff for champagne glasses, and sat around and drank champagne like we were big shots. It was fun. By the time the third bottle arrived, I was pretty much over champagne... and we ended up leaving that bottle in the cabin at the end of the cruise. I wonder if our cabin steward got to enjoy it, or did he simply return it to wherever it came from?

 

The best gift they sent ended up being our dinner at Cagney's steakhouse. For you to fully understand the situation, I have to explain that while I did manage to book several shore excursions from home, before the cruise, I neglected to make any dinner or show reservations. I figured I would just make reservations for the restaurants and the shows when I was actually on the ship, on the first day of the cruise. Big mistake! A lot of other people made their reservations long before I did, and by the time I got around to trying to make dinner and show reservations on the first night of the cruise, I was shocked to see that it was going to be a challenge to find a decent dining time at some of the most popular restaurants. For example, the only available reservation for Cagney's during the entire 15-day cruise was at 9 PM. That's just way too late to eat a gigantic meal, so I reluctantly had to admit that I had screwed up badly, and I accepted that I was simply not going to be able to dine at Cagney's during this cruise. Which was very sad, because I love the food at Cagney's! The moral of the story is: If you've got a cruise booked on Norwegian Bliss, make those specialty dining reservations from home, before the cruise, as soon as they are accepted. (I think it's 60 days before your sail date, but I'm not sure.)

 

Imagine my delight when this letter arrived in our cabin one night, along with a bottle of champagne:

 

 

The key phrase in that letter was to "just call the concierge office" to make a reservation. I knew, from having sailed in The Haven on several other NCL ships, that there is only one concierge onboard... the Haven concierge. And the Haven concierge can get you a reservation to any restaurant, on any night, regardless of whether that restaurant is already fully booked up or not. It's one of the greatest perks of staying in The Haven. So, this letter they sent was my golden ticket to a reservation at Cagney's. And on top of that, a $25 discount, too! The perks of being a big deal on YouTube!!!

 

There was one other gift that they sent to the cabin that I got a real kick out of. Again, there's a little bit of a back story...

 

I really wanted to cruise in The Haven on Norwegian Bliss, but it was just too pricey since it was a 15-day cruise. Plus, NCL was able to get even higher prices than normal for this ship, since it's the newest in the fleet and the one everyone wants to go on. That's supply and demand in action. Fair enough. I'm a capitalist, so I accept that. But still, I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed at not being in The Haven this time around. My last four NCL cruises had been in The Haven, and my next two were going to be. But I just couldn't afford it for Norwegian Bliss.

 

Then this gift arrived in our cabin one night...

 

 

It's a Haven bath robe! They sent two of them to our cabin, plus one to my sister down the hall! We really enjoyed having them since we had access to the thermal suite in the spa during the cruise. It was nice to just change in to swimsuits in our cabins, and then throw on the Haven bathrobe for the walk from our cabin up to the spa.

 

The dinner at Cagney's was the best gift, but the Haven bath robe was a very close second! And I really appreciated the nice treatment from NCL. I still would have given them all the free publicity even if they hadn't done all that... because I was really impressed with the ship... but it was really nice that they showed such appreciation for all that great free publicity they got.

In some ways, I was a bit disappointed in the Internet situation on Norwegian Bliss... because it was quite pricey, and also because they blocked access to YouTube on all but their most expensive Internet access plan. Being able to have access to YouTube is an absolute must for me, if for no other reason than I have to be able to monitor the comments on my YouTube videos so that I can delete anything offensive or inappropriate. Also, I didn't really want to go 15 days without uploading a single cruise video to YouTube. So, I basically had to buy their most expensive Internet plan.

 

Since this was a 15-day cruise, not just a 7-day cruise, the Internet access plans seemed especially expensive. Here is the price list. Before you freak out at the prices, just remember that if you're trying to figure out what Internet access will cost you on a 7-day cruise, divide the numbers you see here by two.

 

 

I think most people would be just fine with the "unlimited social media" plan, which for a 7-day cruise would be $105. That still seems pricey to me, but not as bad as the $420 I had to pay to have access to YouTube. Given the importance of the Internet in today's society, I really think that NCL is making a mistake by pricing their Internet service so high. It's going to offend a lot of people, and only further the reputation that NCL has for nickel and diming passengers.

 

But the good news about Internet access on Norwegian Bliss is that the "Unlimited Premium WiFi" plan that I bought was absolutely amazing. It was so good that I had to go down and talk to one of the Internet experts to find out why it was so good. I knew that Royal Caribbean has an exclusive deal with O3B networks for use of O3B's advanced network of low-orbit satellites... therefore Norwegian Bliss was not using O3B. Royal Caribbean has a lock on that. Plus, I did a ping test on Norwegian Bliss and the ping time was still fairly high,

. So Norwegian Bliss was clearly not using the O3B network. But I was able to upload gigantic video files to YouTube in just a matter of minutes... way faster than it would work at home, on my cable modem. So, some very cool technology was clearly in play here.

 

Like I said, I went downstairs to talk to the Internet experts on Norwegian Bliss... to find out what technology they were using to get such blazingly fast upload speeds from a cruise ship. His answer really surprised me. He said they had the exclusive use of an entire satellite. In other words, Norwegian Bliss had access to a satellite all its own... not shared with any other users on land or at see. A dedicated satellite! Plus, he said, they were using all sorts of optimization technology.

 

After speaking to him about that, I also started thinking that the high price of the "Unlimited Premium WiFi" plan probably also contributed to the speeds I was getting. It was priced so high, that probably very few passengers had bought it. The people who bought the lower priced plans all had their speeds throttled and web site access restricted. The few folks like me that forked over the big bucks for the "Unlimited Premium WiFi" plan did not. It was kind of like being on a 4 lane freeway and almost everyone else was restricted to the three right lanes, and me and just a couple of other cars had access to the left lane and no speed limits.

 

So, while I didn't appreciate having to pay $420 (on top of my already substantial cruise fare) just to be able to upload videos to YouTube, I sure did appreciate that once I paid all that money, I had an Internet fast lane. It was the fastest upload speeds I had ever experienced from a cruise ship.

 

Before we move on to another topic, I do want to clarify that while the upload and download speeds were blazingly fast, the ping times were slow... and that meant there was a lot of latency in the Internet connection, as one would expect when connecting to the Internet via a satellite in a high earth orbit. (As opposed to the

low earth orbit satellites.) With high latency and slow ping times, the Internet feels a little sluggish when you are clicking around from one thing to another. But once it starts downloading a big file... like a high resolution picture or video... that happens very quickly. So, for someone NOT uploading YouTube videos... the Internet connection on Norwegian Bliss might not seem so amazing. There was latency, making it feel sluggish. But upload and download speeds were fantastic... which was great for this YouTube content creator! And that leads me right in to the next story...

Sailing out of the port of Miami is one of the most beautiful sailaways you'll ever experience on a cruise ship. Here are a few photos I snapped as Norwegian Bliss began her cruise.

 

 

As we were sailing out the port of Miami, I got my first look at the new terminal that Royal Caribbean is having built for them. This will be known as terminal A at the port of Miami, and should be completed in the Fall of 2018. It will be the home for two of the biggest cruise ships in the world: Symphony Of The Seas and Allure Of The Seas.

 

 

Not to be outdone, Norwegian Cruise Line is also having a brand new terminal built. In fact, it will be right next door to Royal Caribbean's, at terminal B. There's an interesting article by the Los Angeles Times about the two new terminals. Read it here.

 

 

Here's a short time-lapse video of our sailaway from Miami:

 

The incident I'm about to describe to you happened when Norwegian Bliss visited the country of Guatemala. The ship docked in Puerto Quetzal, and little did we know... we were about to experience one of the biggest shore excursion snafus of our entire cruising history! Some might even say we had a brush with death that day. Here's what happened...

 

We had booked a shore excursion to a beach resort in the city of Monterrico, a 20 mile bus ride down the coast. I actually looked it up on Google Maps before we left the ship, just to assure myself that we weren't going to have to do some horrendously long bus ride. Google maps said the 20 mile ride would take 55 minutes. I figured it must not have been a very good road.

 

Much to my surprise, when our bus drove away from the cruise terminal in Puerto Quetzal, it did not head down the coast... it headed inland. This should have raised a red flag in my mind, and in retrospect I should have just checked with the tour guide to see what that was all about. I figured that the road along the coast must have been too nasty for a big bus, and that our driver knew some much better route to Monterrico via inland roads. It never occurred to me that our bus driver might be an idiot. I figured he was a professional bus driver... he must know where he was going. He didn't!

 

I didn't know it at the time, but found out what I'm about to tell you later that day... as our bus full of tourists tried to figure how the heck we had gotten so very lost in Guatemala!

 

It turns out that Guatemala is a pretty big country, and the bus driver was actually from the complete other side of the country. It's somewhat analogous to a bus driver from New York City getting hired to do a special job in Florida. He had no clue about the roads in the southern part of Guatemala... so he made a very critical mistake. He used an app on his smart phone to tell him how to get from Puerto Quetzal to Monterrico.

 

Now allow me to show you a map of the area where I have traced out two routes. In green, the route the bus should have taken to get from Puerto Quetzal to Monterrico... a 20 mile straight-shot down the coast. In red, you see the route our bus actually took, thanks to the app on the bus driver's phone. We got an interesting view of the interior of Guatemala that day from the windows of our bus! I could even see several of Guatemala's famous (dormant) volcanoes.

 

 

This map doesn't show enough detail for you to see what happened when we reached the end of that red route. We had been in that bus for an hour and a half already when we reached the little town of La Avellana... which is located at the northern end of the Chiquimulilla Canal. The road runs out when you get to La Avellana, and reach the canal. If you want to take a car from La Avellana to Monterrico, you have to drive your vehicle on to a little wooden ferry, which will take you down the canal to Monterrico. Here's a photo from the Internet, showing you the ferries at the canal. They are each barely large enough to ferry a couple of small cars. We were in a gigantic tour bus!

 

 

When we reached the canal, and I saw them putting cars on to the rickety little ferries, I was slowly starting to figure out that our driver had screwed up... but it hadn't fully dawned on me at that point, so I didn't reach for my camera to get a photo of my own. That's why I had to use that little photo from the Internet. But really, if you imagine a small car going down those wooden planks on the lower right side of the photo, and on to one of those ferries... you are getting a pretty good mental picture of what I saw out the window of our tour bus.

 

Our driver got out of the bus, talked to one of the locals, and then got on his cell phone and made a call to someone, presumably his boss or head office. I could tell from his body language it wasn't a good call. I was starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together in my mind, but still hadn't completely realized that our visit to the beach resort was not going to happen. And I still didn't think to get my camera out and get a photo of those rickety little ferries taking small cars down the river!

 

When the driver got back in the bus, he turned it around and started driving it back in the direction we had just come from. He eventually told the tour guide what the situation was, and the tour guide eventually told us. They decided to stop at a little hole-in-the-wall market along the side of the road and buy us all beers or Cokes. That was a good move, as it was a nice "I'm sorry for being the worst bus driver in the world" gesture. They also let us know that we would not be attempting to get to the beach resort at this point, and that we would instead proceed directly back to the ship. And I'm pretty sure that the entire bus load of people was glad to hear that news at that point!

 

One of the passengers on the bus with us happened to be a travel agent, and he not only had service on his smart phone, but he knew the email addresses of several officers on the ship. So he fired off an email to the ship, and let them know that our beach resort shore excursion had gone bust. By the time we got back to the ship, the shore excursion staff had the names of all the passengers on the bus, and had issued full refunds for the cost of the excursion.

 

You might think that that's the end of the story right there... but wait, there's more!

 

About two weeks after that day we were lost in the interior of Guatemala, one of Guatemala's volcanoes erupted... covering the surrounding countryside in hot ash, and killing about a hundred people. It was a pretty big news story... and when I first heard about it, I thought to myself "Guatemala... wasn't that where we got lost on that tour bus?" So I went to Google maps again and studied the map of Guatemala... comparing the route our bus driver took through the interior of Guatemala with the location of the Fuego volcano that had erupted there. Guatemala is a big country, and has a lot of volcanoes, so I figured it was likely that the Fuego volcano was a few hundred miles away from the part of the country we had been in. I was shocked when I located the Fuego volcano on the map!

 

Let's review this map of Guatemala that I showed you earlier...

 

 

So, the red route is the route our bus actually took in a futile attempt to get to Monterrico. Notice on that red route, we travelled north to the town of Escuintla, before switching to a different highway and heading southeast. Using Google maps, I located the Fuego volcano and measured the distance from it to that northern most part of our actual bus route. I was shocked to find that, two weeks before the volcano erupted and killed 100 people, we were on a bus just 15 miles from the volcano. I had actually seen the Fuego volcano out the window of the bus that day... completely unaware of what would happen two weeks later!

 

How's that for a story?!?!

Puerto Vallarta wasn't the only place we ran in to free-flying macaws, either. I knew that Central and South America was known for macaws, so I was really hoping we would encounter some during our Panama canal cruise... and we actually ended up seeing macaws in three different ports of call. Besides Las Caletas beach in Puerto Vallarta, we also saw one just sitting among some shrubbery along the side of the road in Cartagena, Columbia... and then our best macaw encounter was in Costa Rica, where we took a shore excursion to a macaw sanctuary.

 

Most of the macaws in the sanctuary were in big aviaries, because they were either being rehabilitated for later release back to the wild, or they had some permanent disability that would prevent them from ever surviving in the wild again. And it was very cool to see all the beautiful macaws in the big aviaries, for sure. But the coolest sight at the sanctuary was to see that quite a few of the macaws who had been rehabilitated there and then released were content to just stick around on the grounds of the sanctuary and live their lives in the company of their friends who were confined inside the aviaries. Macaws are very social in that way. We got a real kick out of seeing the macaws who were outside the aviaries, just enjoying life as free birds, but content to stick around the sanctuary grounds.

 

A picture from the macaw sanctuary is better than a thousand words, but a video is even better than that! So, please take a look at this video I shot there...

 

 

The macaw sanctuary was literally located in the jungle of Costa Rica, and they had a lot of very beautiful plants growing on their property... thanks to the abundant rainfall. And luckily for us, the weather was perfect the day we visited.

 

 

The original itinerary for our cruise on Norwegian Bliss had us scheduled to stop in the Mexican port city of Manzanillo. However, once we actually got onboard the ship in Miami, we were informed that there had been an itinerary change... and that Manzanillo was out, and we would be stopping in Mazatlan instead. I've been to both places before during "Mexican Riviera" cruises out of Los Angeles, and I'm really not a big fan of either Manzanillo or Mazatlan. So, it made no difference to me. We would just stay aboard the ship that day.

 

Our ship arrived in Mazatlan before sunrise that morning, and the area was gorgeous in the morning light. I snapped this photo...

 

 

We had a nice day aboard the ship while most of the other passengers went out on shore excursions in Mazatlan, and that's pretty much all there is to say about our day in Mazatlan. But I've got quite the story to tell about what happened in one of our other ports of call!

 

We enjoyed the Norwegian Bliss so much that we could have easily spent 15 days aboard without ever getting off the ship. The fact that we actually stopped at a few ports along the way was just a nice bonus! Here's a look at what we did in the various ports of call.

 

Our favorite shore excursion of this entire cruise was in Puerto Vallarta, where we took an excursion to Las Caletas beach, which is a private beach accessible only by boat. Vallarta Adventures owns the property, and has been developing a fantastic little place for tourists to visit. We first discovered it on a Carnival cruise several years ago, and were eager to go back. Much to our delight, Vallarta Adventures has continued to invest money in further developing the property since our last visit, and it was even more fantastic this time around. We were happy with it when it was just a secluded private beach with lots of hammocks and loungers, a nice restaurant, plenty of bathrooms, and a bunch of domesticated macaws who were often allowed to free-fly over the beach to the delight of the tourists. That's Kellyn in the previous photo, having some one-on-one time with one of them.

 

During this visit, I was totally surprised and delighted to find that much had been added to the property since our last visit. The most amazing new item can be seen in this next video...

 

 

Another new thing they had added was a dolphin and sea lion encounter. I have no interest in paying for a photo op with a marine animal, but I found out that this actually wasn't just a grab for more tourist dollars. They actually have a sea lion that is so friendly, they simply bring it over to the beach and let it play with the tourists, with no money expected from them. It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen on a shore excursion! Take a look...

 

 

A funny thing about that encounter with the sea lion is that it was totally random. They never announced it was going to happen, I just happened to be on the beach with my camera when they showed up in a small boat with the sea lion, and had him jump in the water for a frolic with the tourists. To have something so spectacular happen unexpectedly like that... it was simply a moment of sheer vacation joy for me. I totally loved it, and can't wait to go back to Las Caletas beach again some day. And Kellyn was super happy because she got to see macaws flying around the beach, and even got to have that one on her shoulder for a while.

Another thing that really surprised me about the Panama canal was how long it took to get through it! We entered the Caribbean side of the canal at about 6 AM, and we didn't reach the Pacific until about 8 o'clock that night! Just getting through each lock of the canal took close to an hour... and there are three locks on the Caribbean side, plus three more on the Pacific side.

 

When they opened up the gate on the third lock on the Caribbean side, I snapped this next photo which shows you what's on the other side of the locks: Gatun lake.

 

 

Yet another thing that surprised me about the Panama canal is that it doesn't really go from east to west. Since the Caribbean is east of the Pacific, it's only natural to think of a trip from the Caribbean, through the canal, and in to the Pacific as being a trip from east to west. But when the local folks talk about a Caribbean to Pacific trip through the canal, they say it's a north-south trip! And if you take a look at this map of the canal, you can see why they say that...

 

 

Perhaps this wider view of the geography of Central America will make the situation even more clear. The isthmus of Panama actually runs east-west, so when you go through the canal from the Caribbean to the Pacific you are very definitely going north to south. I was not previously aware of that!

 

 

Still photos and maps of the Panama canal are fine, but the thing really comes to life in a video! So, please enjoy this video which I made to share what I saw the day the Norwegian Bliss went through the Panama canal:

 

 

In that last video, I showed you a few little bits of some time-lapse video I shot as we went through the Panama Canal. A time-lapse video is a really good way to show something that occurs over a long period of time in real life... like, for example, cruising through the Panama canal! Here's a time-lapse I shot of the first part of our journey through the Panama canal. The video begins before the sun had even come up, as we were sailing in the Caribbean towards the entrance to the canal...

 

 

I shot that time lapse video with my GoPro Hero 6 camera. I've shot lots of time lapse videos before, but never one of something that happened over such a long period of time. I wasn't exactly sure how long the battery on the GoPro would be able to shoot for. I found out about three or four hours in to the trip, when I checked the camera and noticed that it was completely dead. It had run completely out of battery before we even made it out of the first lock of the canal! Luckily, I had several spare GoPro batteries with me, just in case this happened. But by the time I figured out the first battery had run out and I popped in a new battery, we were already through all three of the first set of locks, and sailing across Gatun lake. So, that's where part two of my time-lapse video picks up:

 

 

While I'm sorry the three hour battery life of the GoPro prevented me from capturing every moment of our transit through the Panama canal, I'm happy overall with the way the time-lapse turned out. And maybe if I ever take another cruise through the Panama canal, I'll get another shot at making one continuous time lapse of the whole thing!

 

Making a time-lapse video with a GoPro Hero 6 is actually really easy, and I think the results speak for themselves. One key to a good time-lapse is positioning the camera somewhere very stable, where it won't move. I like to use 3M command strips to attach my GoPro to things, because those command strips are rock solid, yet can be easily removed when you're all done, without damaging whatever you attached the camera to. For my Panama canal time-lapse, I simply used command strips to attach the GoPro to a piece of glass along the side of the ship.

 

 

Here's a wide shot, that shows the thing I attached the GoPro to... which, ironically, also had two security cameras mounted on it. That structure was simply a little wind-break along the Waterfront, not far from the Mojito Bar.

 

 

I picked that particular spot for my GoPro because I wanted to stay close to it all day... and there was some nice seating in the shade not too far away, the Mojito bar was nearby if I got thirsty, and the men's room was fairly close, too. It wasn't the most perfect spot to place the camera for a time-lapse of the canal, but it was the most perfect spot that I had access to! The ultimate location to shoot a time-lapse of the canal would have been from one of those forward-facing bar stools on the sun deck of The Haven... but that was not financially possible this time through. Maybe next time?