dshefter

Not sure about weekly costs but it is $15 for go-karts or $20 if you want to race on track alone. Golf is $10 per game.

We had 11:30 boarding time and showed up around 10:45 and walked right through. Took us about 15 minutes to get through everything.

Great review. We were on the Feb. 4 sailing. Agree with most of your thoughts.

You should not have difficulty. If you can't book a decent time prior to your cruise, I suggest getting onboard as early as possible on embarkation day and using the touch screens. You should get the restaurants you want.

With two sea days it might be worth it if you enjoy a little more privacy. Pool area fills up fast, especially if you are sailing on Viva. My only pet-peeve about VBC is the lack of a pool. And it's gotten pricey.

That is plenty of time to enjoy an excursion. Enjoy your cruise on Viva.

Seem to recall it being 7 to 4. Plenty of time to do any shore excursion.

You can book specialty restaurants. We were unable to book entertainment. Check with NCL as policies can change. But you should have ZERO difficulty booking the main show. Can't book comedy club or Syd Norman's.

We booked the Maho Beach Transfer. Basically a bus to the beach. They give you about 3-plus hours to enjoy the beach and the Sunset Bar. You can also take a cab. Just beware that we experienced a lot of traffic in St. Maarten the day we were in port. 4 ships (15,000 passengers). Check ahead to see how many ships are in port that day.

Yes. You can't pre-book shows. When you board the ship, you can make reservations for Beetlejuice as well as specialty restaurants. You can book specialty restaurants 90 days prior to the cruise. Keep on the lookout after making your final payment.

Did not stay in The Haven but on the same cruise. Definitely hit Food Indulge. We did not have a bad meal the entire week. 5 specialty restaurants and 2 in Main Dining Rooms.

Just got off the Viva (Feb. 11). Did all of those ports. Plenty of beach opportunities in these islands as well as snorkeling. How old are the kids? Zip lining is a fun activity.

Tortola: The Baths (a must) Barbados: Any beach. Do on your own. Harbour Lights allows you to book chairs in advance (they have a turtle snorkel adventure right there on property for $25) Great snorkeling in St. Thomas/St. Johns Antigua: Great beaches. We went to Valley Church Beach, but there are others St. Lucia: We zip-lined in the past there. Wonderful experience in the rain forest. The rum tour we did was not expensive and something different. Feel free to book outside of NCL You can take a cab to Maho Beach in St. Maarten. Just plan accordingly as traffic there can be brutal. Our 30-minute ride turned into more than an hour each way.

No shortage of bars. Plenty of bourbons fit into the regular beverage package. Have a great time.

We did not save them. Beatlejuice was on Friday. Rumours was on Thursday

We sailed on the Epic in October 2022 (Barcelona to Rome) and the food was excellent. Only bad experience was LeBistro. Just came off the Viva and the food was outstanding.

For Starters, this was my 15th cruise overall and sixth with NCL. Previously, I have sailed on Royal, Princess and Carnival. My DW and I find cruising to be a great value and an excellent way to spend a vacation. We chose the NCL Viva because it was a brand-new vessel, the price fit our budget and we love all of the ports, some of which we have visited multiple times (i.e. St. Thomas, Tortola and Barbados) At first glance, the Viva is a beautiful ship and once aboard, we found her to be bright, modern and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Before we set sail, I made sure to familiarize myself with the Deck Plans, and on embarkation day, we walked around to get a feel for where the public areas were. One thing I repeatedly heard from passengers is it was difficult to sometimes find things. That wasn’t the case for me. There were far more positives about the ship than negatives and I will get to both later in the review. Now I’ve never been on a bad cruise, dating to back to my first one in 1982 on the old Cunard Countess (cruising was far different then, think no drink packages or specialty restaurants, and no wow factor things like slides and virtual reality rooms). Now, there have been some weak ships, but never had I not had a great time aboard a cruise. As for our vacation, we made sure to fly into San Juan a day earlier. Even with a late departure (8:30 p.m. on Feb. 4), I never want to take a chance of a flight being canceled or delayed. There were several passengers who had to hustle to the ship on Feb. 4 due to flight delays. We stayed at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Resort & Casino on Marriott points, which turned out to be a 5-minute ride to the Pan American Port, where the Viva departs. UBER is ever-present in Puerto Rico and we had no issues getting rides from the airport, to our restaurant and to the ship the following day. We enjoyed a nice dinner at Casita Miramar, a restaurant that came highly recommended by a work colleague who grew up in PR. It was a short UBER ride from the hotel. Embarkation was an absolute breeze. We signed up for 11:30 a.m. check-in but arrived around 10:45. It took about 5-10 minutes from the time we walked into the terminal until we boarded. We went to our Muster station and within minutes we were enjoying the Viva. I quickly found my spot for the week: the Humidor Cigar Lounge. One reason we sail on NCL is all of its modern vessels have a dedicated cigar lounge. A huge feather in NCL’s cap. One key component of a cruise for me is the food and service from the crew. Viva gets an A+ in this area. Every restaurant was great. We did not visit Nama (sushi), Food Republic or Los Lobos (Mexican). But all of the other venues were terrific, including the two main dining rooms, Hudson’s and Commodore Room. Because my wife is Platinum and we already had 3 specialty dinners pre-booked, we managed to enjoy 5 specialty dinners. Those with Platinum or greater status receive two vouchers for specialty dinners, including one that includes a bottle of wine). The service was outstanding. Everyone we encountered had a smile and appeared to thoroughly enjoy serving us. Slotko from Montenegro who worked the Cigar lounge on Epic for our Mediterranean cruise in 2022, even recognized me at the pool area. He has since moved to the Viva and it was great catching up. Was shocked that he remembered me. Salomon, from Peru, was another great server in the cigar lounge. For food venues, don’t miss Cagneys (steak), Onda by Scarpetta (Italian), Palomar (seafood) or Le Bistro. You can also order off a portion of the Cagneys menu in the two main dining rooms for a small upcharge. Indulge Food Hall also was outstanding. Just make sure to get there when it opens as it fills up fast. You can order off an iPad and there are four different restaurants to choose from. I loved the pulled pork sandwich from the Smokehouse. We also enjoyed The Local. We rarely hit the buffet and like many have previously said, it should have been built to accommodate more people. Only have one side for all of the offerings just doesn’t work for the number of passengers on the ship. We managed to grab a quick bite during non-peak hours and never ate there for breakfast. We chose Hudson’s or The Local (limited breakfast menu) each morning and it worked well. You can also dine at Hudson’s for breakfast on debarkation day. Highly recommend over the buffet, and if you get there when it opens, there is never a line. As for the other public venues like The Improv, Syd Norman’s Pour House and pools, they are just too small in proportion to the number of passengers. The Improv and Syd Norman’s can barely house 100 people. And without reservations, you end up standing in line an hour before showtime (doors open 30 minutes prior) just to see the comedians or musicians. NCL should figure out a way to allow for reservations, and also have multiple shows of the same act to give everyone a chance to see the act. We thoroughly enjoyed Andrew Kennedy, one of two comedians on our cruise. Saw him 3 times (opening night in the main theater, and then his PG-13 and R-rated performances in The Improv). But we never saw anything in Syd Norman’s. Missed the popular Rumours show because our dinner was at 8 p.m. and by the time we got done, the room was already jammed with people. That is one show that belonged in the main theater or performed multiple nights. We did book Beetlejuice, the Broadway show on the Viva, and we saw it performed for the first time by this group of actors/singers. Not bad, but not awesome either. Again, I never worry about entertainment aboard a cruise ship. That is not why I book cruises. But I like to enjoy music and comedians and it was very difficult to do so on the Viva without standing in line. Other ships in the NCL family also do a better job of spreading around the entertainment. As for the bars themselves, there are plenty aboard Viva, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find one open before 11. On the Epic, the bar near the main dining room was open in the morning and I could get a soft drink. There are also only a select number of bars where you can get a frozen drink (Pool Waves, Observation Lounge and The Local). Keep that in mind when choosing a bar to enjoy a cocktail. But even though the ship was fully booked, I never had to wait more than a few minutes to get a drink, and that included the always-packed Pool Waves bar. And there were plenty of servers walking around on the pool deck. The pool area itself is rather small compared to other NCL ships. I think the designers of Viva wanted to make sure they had room for extra-fee activities like a 3-deck go-kart track, mini-golf and virtual-reality room. While the go-kart track was cool – my DW chose to spend $20 apiece to ride solo on the track – I wouldn’t be disappointed if future ships eschewed this activity to enlarge the pool area. The Infinity Pools on Deck 8 are very nice as well, but they, too, fill up fast. NCL also spent money for an enlarged Vibe Beach area that appeared to hold around 100-plus people. While I have enjoyed this area on past ships, we chose not to spend nearly $300 pp for this privilege. It does have its own bar, but not a dedicated pool. We just figured it wasn’t worth the money given the port-intensive itinerary. Now if NCL wanted to give a discount for Platinum members and above, we might have thought about it. We did enjoy the Infinity pools on Deck 8. Would be nice if NCL had put in a hot tub in this area. There were only two on the entire ship for the general public and both on Deck 17. One area that was beautiful was the Observation Lounge. It is very big and encompasses the entire front of the ship on Deck 17. This was a great place to hang out and enjoy a drink. It’s also where NCL had our Cruise Critic Meet-N-Greet. We had a chance to meet the GM and the rest of his team. The Captain did not show up, but the GM allowed us to ask questions. As for our stateroom, we stayed in an Inside Cabin on Deck 10 forward (10121). This was my first time in such a cabin since we sailed on the Pearl in 2008 when our daughter was 4. I was very impressed with the amount of storage space as well as the size of the bathroom. The water pressure was outstanding/ar There was an ample amount of plugs to charge our phones. I also was impressed with the workout facilities on Deck 16. Plenty of treadmills and nautilus/free weights. And you get a nice view, especially at sunrise or when pulling into a port. As for the ports, we love Barbados. Just took a cab to Harbour Lights, where we had two chairs and an umbrella booked. You can go onto their website and book chairs, jet skis and even snorkeling with turtles ahead of time. In Antigua, we took a cab to Valley Church beach and rented chairs and an umbrella for $20. Our snorkel excursion through NCL was canceled in St. Thomas due to inclement weather. A storm had come through the night before. In St. Maarten, we used NCL for a transfer to Maho Beach (where the planes fly right over your head to land) and glad we did as there was a lot of traffic. Took more than an hour to get there and return on what normally is a 30-minute ride. Four ships in port that day had something to do with it. Did a rum tour through NCL in St. Lucia and thoroughly enjoyed. Did nothing in Tortola as we had been there multiple times and already gone to The Baths (Virgin Gorda) and Jost Van Dyke. Debarkation was an absolute breeze. We waited for a color to be called (Pink) and we were off the ship and outside the terminal within 15 minutes. So where can NCL improve? Bigger public rooms would be a place to start. They could have easily removed some of the shops and art area on Deck 7 to enlarge The Improv and Syd Norman’s. Take out the go-kart track for more pool space. Replace the 8-story dry slides (The Drop and The Rush, both are fun BTW) with water slides. I think both would see heavier usage if they were water slides. Allow for reservations in the entertainment areas. Spread out the entertainment. Maybe add a piano bar. Would I sail NCL Viva again with the right itinerary and price? Absolutely. We had a fabulous time. Happy to answer any questions.

For our Viva cruise on Feb. 4, boarding begins at 11:30 a.m. Generally, one of the complimentary restaurants is open for lunch along with The Local, buffet and Indulge Food Court will be open for lunch.

NCL should have reservations for the show and then have a line for those who don't show up. If shows are similar, you only get to see it once to allow other passengers a chance to see it.

I have booked Vibe in the past and we enjoyed it. But with 6 port days on a 7-day cruise, we decided against it this time on Viva. Just too expensive. I know it's a great place to escape. But it doesn't offer a pool, which is a major miss IMO. Great to have a private bar and be away from the crowds. But we couldn't justify paying that much extra. Rather use that money for other things.

Encore or Escape are great for kids. If kids are in the same stateroom, they would not get the drink package. You can buy a soda package. Two adults would get the drink package. If in separate rooms, book it without the Free at Sea promotion with the Drink Package. Better off buying a soda package on your own, and then pay for any subsequent mocktails. .

Thanks for the advice. Might try to book teppanyaki. Already have Cagneys, Onda and Palomar booked

Never have had a bad experience on NCL. Never really have a bad experience on any cruise. Are they perfect? No. But I also don't expect everything to be perfect.

We will try to book when we get onboard. We're pretty flexible. Was hoping to be able to use at the Sushi place. My wife is going to call NCL. Thanks for the tip.

Do you receive these vouchers on embarkation day? Wife is Platinum. I am Gold.