mking8288

One can expect pier's security screening and check-in to be smoother & quicker starting next weekend, with Bermuda lifting the TA (and, ArriveCAN no longer needed) - both meant extra document checks, between security & getting check-in. Security does not open up until 9:30 a.m. at the earliest but apparently, folks thinking that getting there at 8:30 or 8 a.m. is a good idea ... when the earliest, likely boarding time to head for the gangway is no earlier than 10:30 if you are in Haven. Nowadays, it's a long walk to the middle of the terminal building and sometimes, all the way to the end of the building (750 ft. into the Hudson River complex) for VIP & to access the "special" waiting areas.

Dan - oh well, next time. Enjoy tomorrow's full sea day - excellent weather ahead here in NY, dense fog expected in the morning (again, like today) but warm for this time of the year. Watching ship's track on marinetraffic, she's still hugging very close to the shoreline - should still be pulling in a decent land (cellular) signal as you go past Duncans Cove. Ship captain must be in a hurry to bring her home to NY, they can slow it down - anyone in a hurry to disembark on a NYC Marathon Sunday. Forecast - ETA: 2022-11-06 02:30 LT (UTC -4) That's super early.

Just do it - was surfing for deals & specials for 2023 & seeing this, price for 14 nights deal for solo is better / lower for the club balcony vs. regular balcony (neither sold out ... probably upgrade bids pending) See what you can hustle together as a package deal, with your TA & Amex offers, why not if you can do it - change/cancel/rebook your original flight going home ... If they are running end of season sale in the gift shop tomorrow or Saturday, pick up some t-shirts & things with your non-refundable OBC & done, get 2 to 3 batches of free laundry done over the next 10 to 15 days, problems solved. BTW, great photos - rich colors & depth ... ours are the SS Galaxy S22P's and Pixel 6a (waiting to leap to the 7 or 7 Pro) have been cashing on great trade-in deals on our older devices lately. When doing the "semi-lives" - almost done entirely on the smartphones, sometimes using the backup iPhone SE with an 5000 maH integrated powerbank as a WiFi hotspot, hardly use the folding keyboard or iPad mini's What's on deck tomorrow after getting into Halifa ?? Disembarkation temperature for this Sunday is about 63 deg F, high of 73 and Monday, 75 - more like mid/late September weather in NY.

Ha, found your way to 180 Commercial St on the waterfront, proud of you. Route-66-Restaurant-BHME on your stop tomorrow is even better but next time, they are closed for the 2022 season - their lobster rolls in your choice of fixes, just out-of-this-world, a bit pricer than PLC but so good. Some of the local mom-n-pop shops are done for their tourist season. BTW, I chuckled with that screenshot of ship's WiFi - speed are actually better than other mega-ships. Are they metering your minutes by the MB data used, unlike the rest of the fleet with the minutes counter only ? You probably can slip by without adding extra minutes, just hunt for a 4G/5G signal once near the ports ... Bar Harbor is always tricky on overall land coverage. Enjoy dinner !

Nonsense, AFAIAC ... I call that BS. If the perks do not change or you aren't losing anything with the switch ... odds are you won't lose your chosen cabin (there's a chance, as always - being the conditional risks involved) just go ahead and get the new & lowered price now/tomorrow, especially if you are dealing with NCL direct and/or working with a good & trusty TA. Otherwise, just instruct them to cancel the existing reservation & book a new one from scratch - since you aren't losing out on anything if future/cruise credits that're applied might be involved. Also, some of the 2023 sailings are offering, still double points (and up) when you (re)book - you need to check it carefully after logging into your MyNCL account to do a mock booking, it's not always listed on the main page's promo section when you do a generic search by ships/ports/dates/destinations, etc.

Ditto what BirdTravel said re dexddd's comments - I guess we're lucky to be able to do Dine w Officers onboard the GA in March but both subsequent times on the Joy, was no can't do ... first go around in May, issued OBC but not in September, like everyone else. I even jokingly left a written comment with "Dear GM", hey - why not do a virtual tour instead, one of the CD onboard the BA and Escape, pre-Covid, did that in the atrium lobby and it was quite informative, for everyone interested vis-a-vis another CruiseNext presentation. Surely, they can come up with an in-house video production, maybe even make it a PPV (hate to do offer them ideas to generate revenue, but this poor shareholders just wanting to be fair & reasonable). Thoughts, dexddd ... for "their" convenience, right & biomed health safety. VIP and private/captain reception were jammed full inside the Joy Haven Lounge, elbow-to-elbow & not everyone masking up ... maintaining social distance, etc. etc. Skipped the Lats reception entirely as others from the CC circles shared that we didn't miss anything. Last time being on a bridge tour was just about 10 years, right after Sandy came thru NY (2012 ... it's been 10 years) and we left with an inbound Nor-Easter on the GEM, invited not because of Lats status but b/c the small group was with CC - escorted by security & done on a sea day. That was really nice but to such tour since then for security reasons, not b/c of infectious diseases and Covid. I don't expect ever to experience that again in my lifetime with NCL. Ron is a very good & friendly GM and has command & respect of the teams under him ... maybe, those sailing next / soon on the Joy can speak to him privately. Most likely, it's out of his hands & in the directives issued by Miami HQ. Just my thoughts. Now, what's this message about 50% sale, hahaha 🤣🤣🤣

That's what we did in late September, why spent 3 hours to/from the outlets strip mall or to see LLBean with the overpriced tour, shop LLB virtually later. Waterfront is just an easy 10 minutes walk, good for cardio & enjoy a nice, fresh lobster roll or go for a lobster special. Whatever you do, have a great day ... and Starbucks was open & busy as always. Henry P.S. you'll run into the real homeless, sadly.

Wait until tomorrow morning or afternoon (their I.T. aren't anywhere nearly responsive, if they are "staffed" or attended to during off hours & worst, on weekends & holidays) Depending on the issues, you can try to live "Chat" option after logged into the "MyNCL" account - we had an "Invalid Log-in" issue last week & despite resetting the password, continued to get an error message. Live help meant joining the queue with an extended wait time - live "chat" came on within minutes & the entire matter resolved within 30 minutes, which is well above average for NCL's typical wait/hold time lately. The current system is user-friendly generally, in the absence of 2FA ... which, IMHO, isn't best practices these days as far as cyber security, but what do I know from the days since IBM 270/370 and PC/XT/AT DOS.

Just an update, we saw these $100 coupon on multiple accounts within our F&F inner circles ... able to help apply it on a Prima balcony booking next April - first used 2 CN certificates as deposit. Then, return to the reservation and apply 2 additional coupons, one at a time, successfully DIY without having to call into NCL. Thus, it "reduced" the fare by $200 (as credits ... not shown on the confirmation) plus $500 as deposit ... final payment/cancel date is this December. Not bad, although fares could drop later on - being a new ship, some of the sub-categories already showing as "sold out" or not available anymore, including SailAway rates. Another friend has a CAS (casino) land-based offers and was able to trade their offers and booked, and got the coupon applied by a helpful NCL agent (knowing that it's supposingly not valid for CAS rates) but ... Now, we just have to figure out how to best use the remaining ones in the group as these expire on Nov. 17th with a cruise by 12/31/2023 date.

Dan, it's a beautiful, sunny morning in NY. FlightAware app showed your DL bird landed early ... should be riding Go Airlink's shuttle van by now & on the way - traffic flowing just fine per "Waze" in the area. Wishing you an excellent cruise ahead and bon voyage ... someone else we know (his 7th cruise since last November) also onboard, surely will get lots of great reporting. Hurry as they started boarding but you should be fine whenever you get dropped off.

This is relatively new that rolled out within the last 4 to 6 months for upgrade bids, as NCL's vendor doing the processing & accpetance of bids continued to fine-tune and tweak the selections of bids. Officially, they have until 1 day prior to embarkation to process and upgrade the bids, but continue to hold off on those "sorry, your bids were not accepted" (which used to be pushed out via email at 48 hours). This isn't a "problem" per se and is is just nail-biting ... yes. As you could find out that they upgraded your at the pier and/or until you are onboard on Day 1 - advantage to NCL, they get to "grab" all the money offered by the bidders, whereas you can cancel or withdraw your still "pending" offer up until 5 hours or so before embarkation ... (don't recall the specific wordings used, will look for them & amend this post, if I can) There is still hope and the chance that you bid can go thru ... of course, they also see it as an opportunity to entice & solicit you, to bump your offered bid(s) higher, in hope of winning that last cabin remaining in the inventory pool. On our September cruise on the Joy, we had an excellent "BA" location on Deck 15 and really didn't care for the club ("mini") balcony upgrade - but, put in (quietly & not a word to others on the roll call at all) the lowest, poor "minimum" bid for the sailing - just to see & learn a bit more about the changes forthcoming. We weren't surprised at pier check-in nor onboard the ship shortly thereafter, knowing full well by late afternoon's sailaway time that we didn't have to repack or move to another cabin. Good luck & you still have several days to wait & see how this go ... enjoy the cruise, regardless. # # # This "official" email was issued at 6 p.m. local time on the date of our sailing / cruise ... we're already underway, left the cruise terminal about an hour earlier. Ship was at 70% double occupancies but Haven categories were all filled & sold out ... and, packed upstairs. Unfortunately, we were not able to accept your offer to upgrade to Club Balcony Suite for your cruise below. Sail Date Ship Offer per guest Sep 16, 2022 Norwegian Joy (only the first and second guest will be charged) (Note: Prices shown are in US Dollars.) What happens now? Your original stateroom is unchanged and you need to do nothing. Your credit card will not be charged.

Have a pleasant, safe and on-time flight into LGA tomorrow by Delta ... and a prompt pickup by SS. Ground transportation area is just outside at Terminal C/D - it's a huge area, often with hundreds of for-hired, car services & black cars/limos waiting + assorted shuttles, drivers looking for their riders and vice versa. Just be prepared and have their local/toll-free # handy (which I'm sure you do ...) Not merely doubled-parked but triple-parked in this holding/staging & waiting/pick-up area as I passed by on our city bus ... over to Hertz. Have a wonderful cruise, will be following along - we decided to not go on this last minute, despite great prices, promo & deals, etc.

Refer to Post #98 - which stayed unchanged toward the end of September ... many of the officers and crew, apparently had came back from their vacation/time off/home leave. Captain in charge of the Joy was Hakan Svedung (he was either going to take his vacation or just assume command, relieving the duties of the other captain for vacation.) On a related note - per indirect source - FYI only (no further info/discussions hereon) due to an isolated, recent incidents ... NCL crew members are not permitted to go ashore for leaves while their ship docked in NYC - until further notice, conditions per CBP limited to NYC only that was previously allowed. It's a privilege that many looked forward to, even if it's just for 3 or 4 hours, as they can rush to pickup comfort food, personal items and/or do errands, etc. etc.

These are port side views of the Joy - mostly of the mid/aft section ... feel free to zoom in yourself for a closer look. There are no PrivaSea balconies anywhere, not from what I see (I stand corrected, please help & point it out if you can - find and pinpoint them) Sorry, don't have a closeup of starboard side - we stayed previously both on Deck 10 and more recently Deck 15, close to the elevators and locations are fine, as far as we are concerned. Relax, go with the flow and enjoy the cruise ... the cabin is only yours to enjoy for x number of nights anyway. Explore the rest of the ship, plenty of places to stretch out, i.e. Observation Lounge. It is a GTY balcony assignment 🤔

They are 500 ml or 16.9 oz. - tall & slim, should fit many pouches & pockets used for EDC, like daypacks and backpacks, etc.

Joy was running a special of Buy 3 get the 4th free last month on our Canada/NE run, for about $145 in total, which we purchased using part of our non-refundable OBC as gifts (not that we endorse or encourage the smokers to continue ...) Here in NY, each carton with sales is about $125 from what we heard.

Traffic is, usually, lighter on a weekend morning from NYC's cruise terminals to nearby airports ... including the busy, summer weeks. However, one of the reasons that Google recommend and put in 1 hour for travel time from Red Hook, Brooklyn to LGA is - because, there is long term constructions on the primary highway - known as BQE or I-278 that transverse thru Brooklyn to/from Queens, connecting the dots - with 2 highway lanes narrowed & merge into 2 lanes, in both directions of the elevated roadways, due to decades of pounding from heavy truck & commercial/bus traffic on the patched pavements, with the resulting bottleneck. Even at this hour (8 p.m. Saturday evening) - live "Waze" traffic GPS guidance showing a 40 minutes travel time from the waterfront to LGA's newly expanded central terminal (and, it has been a very short & quick walk to reach most of the airline's gates, after clearing TSA/security checkpoints). It doesn't take much for traffic to come to a grinding halt with a minor fender bender, let alone a major crash with fatalities that's been known to shut down the highway, sometimes for hours. Best to leave a little extra time for those unpleasant, unwanted & unexpected surprises - the terminal has free WiFi & numerous food courts, etc. should you get there much sooner than expected ... it's not the old LGA anymore. Not all "pro" drivers are good in using alternate bypass and/or local streets to cut thru the neighborhoods, along the waterfront (Kent Ave) to jump ahead to re-connect with the BQE, as that's a lot of traffic lights & stop signs ... not to mention, that we are a city full of speed cameras & bike lanes, and 25 mph speed limit on local routes strictly photo-enforced these days, summons by mail. I would suggest checking the roll calls for updates starting a few weeks before your planned sailings, to see how others ahead did with their ground transportation, taxi & Uber availability and similar encounters, to adjust & finalize your plan. Perhaps, recalibrate your own walk-off time earlier by 15 to 30 minutes. Fortune tellers find it uneasy to predict how things might look like next August ... given how the past 3 years had been. Happy cruising and make the best & most out of it.

Thank you for sharing a nice, short & concise report, friends of ours are taking Amtrak up to Beantown next week to embark on the Pearl, then head southeast toward Bermuda. They'll probably find this report informative & useful. How was your Inside cabin ? Any idea as to how full the ship was on your sailing ... fairly sure it wasn't close to full capacity ? Did you skip checking out comfort food at "The Local" a/k/a "O'Sheehan's" (Blue Lagoon) in the old days ?

Look, "honey" - they shrink the (paper) bag ... by 1/3 in size 🙄 while raising the price for the special 😳 Old"er" paper bag on the left, which our steward found & gave us to use ... the new paper bag now in circulation for use. Good news, those hotel plastic laundry bag/liner will fit these new paper bags just fine, pull tight to secure & good to sent out with the slip filled out for an itemized inventory.

Norwegian ship(s) - hmm, specifically, the "Joy" security has been using facial recognition onboard before/at the gangways and not limited while berthed in NYC, not perfect and sometimes "not working" & resorting to old fashion card swiping and/or with a tap (NFC chip techs) ... you'll see uniformed ship security tilting & adjusting the funky looking tablet/iPad mini/camera at passengers (and, crews too) as they exit the ship or return after going ashore. P.S. Take off those (sun)glasses or else, you'll be slowed down ...

Request a mattress topper, double up if necessary, via your friendly room steward. Or, ask if s/he can switch you to a newer/firmer mattress ... we're onboard one of the Away/+ ships several years ago in a balcony and found that to be too soft & the springs were worn. Subsequently, learned that they are in the process of replacing & putting in new ones ... some of the bedding do run into excessive wear & tear for variety of reaons. If you don't find the solution(s) given satisfactory & your back is not happy, escalate & ask for the housekeeping supervisor or assistant guest services manager, as they are usually responsive ... it's not as if most ships are sailing full at 100% capacity these days and they can't exchange or swap out a better one for you. Solutions are right there onboard ... read & share on CC afterward as we can't speed dial 00 on your behalf. Good luck & let us know since you are still on the ship/at sea, etc. etc.

I recommend the GEM too for a winter cruise, especially if your travel schedule is flexible & can wait for prices to drop further ... and you are not picky about deck/location/category (inside & oceanview "bargains" are known to come around) Take a closer look at Feb & March (the longer Carib cruises out of NY usually don't get lots of teens & children (except the small pre-schoolers, sometimes) Spinnaker Lounge on Deck 13 Fwd is a great place to watch the ocean, and there are a few 220 volts outlets around (bring your own adapter) to connect your gadget for a recharge (aside from using your own portable usb powerbank) & these mid-size ship's WiFi tend to be "usable" & better (speed-wise, compared to the Prima & other mega ships in the fleet ... come to think of it) The starboard side (Deck 😎 space above the atrium lobby where "The Local" a/k/a known as "O'Sheehan's" is a quiet place to sit, read, relax & listen to live music below in the morning and afternoon, while at sea ... when things are busy. It doesn't have the "big" variety of specialty restaurant dining options but still plentiful for us on a 10 nighters ... and they used to do poolside BBQ, weather-permitting. There's also the Bridge Viewing Room, Deck 10 Fwd Portside - open, usually, dawn to dusk on sea days, where you can visit & wave to say hello to the bridge officers on duty at their stations ... in years past, folks from CC Roll Calls have left "things" for the ship's Mermaid. It will yield a different experience for you to compare. Embarkation and disembarkation, and tendering for that matter, are much quicker and easier with 2,000+ (or less) passengers instead of 3,000 to 4,200 plus on a fully sold-out ship sailing at 110% double-occupancies. Ditto for what others already mentioned about these 90,000 tonnage ships.

Still, it's a long "Z" walk, especially when it's high tide at a steeper angle following the escorted passengers with their jumbo spinners, carry-ons and so forth ... BTW, Pete - excellent photos - rich in color & depth, sometimes hard to tell the ones from the iPhone 11. About that Fisherman's Platter, hmmm - they surely are serving petite ones ... you missed the old "Cooking Light" menus. With all that fried stuff, looked kind of on the greasy side to me, sorry - can't help with the subjective food "critic" part in me.

Nice ... can you report on the TV brand in use onboard the Spirit ... "Sole" or "LG" - these are the 2 HDTV brand that I've come across. Sole specializes in hospitality TV ... and theirs use HDMI as default input whereas LG default to coaxial/ethernet signals (and, firmware locked on the remote in the stateroom TV, "source" not selectable, AFAIK) That is, however, a direct/simple "casting" of the DVD player's signal output to a monitor, not the same as streaming over WiFi, which is a bit more complicated ... This is the LG TV in our Joy's 2 BR Family Inside Suite, input signal is ethernet/Cat 5+ signal. Whereas, if the stateroom TV is "Sole" - HDMI input is easy & simple, as long as you can easily reach it & switch it out, simple "unplug and replace" & just remember to reconnect.

@PistolPete13 - welcome home ... just to make you feel better about WiFi, we have VZ Fios and it's been out & offline lately in the Northeast, usually late night, sometimes for 30 to 60 minutes but some outages lasting hours into the morning hours. Unlike land coverage, there is no backup option for "broad"band access at sea ... but one would like to think & believe that NCL/vendor installed the newer, if not newest WiFi 6 or at least WiFi 5 dual-band route, their onboard hardware/server seemed fine - Princess's unlimited plan is just $25 per day, even if theirs aren't hooking up with Starlink yet. Now that you are home, look forward to plentify high resolution pics to be share plus comments/reviews. @BirdTravels - thanks, me ... think the shipyard is just an excuse. Seeing that the crew in the dining venues are now all using WiFi tablets too, I can't help - on their own SSiD's (multiple "names") - but think that NCL need a new vending partnership and review how they are deploying wirless tech onboard. Just wanted to say also, great photos, as always.