summercruiser20

@BirdTravels

Thank you for your great review and your fantastic pictures.  We too were on this sailing and even though we missed the first day in Bermuda the captain kept us in the sunshine.  We were also on the Prima sailing with you last year - one day hopeful to meet you - since our paths have crossed (based on seeing your posts on CC) I felt badly for those who were having their first time in Bermuda but this was an unusually tough year with Tropical Storms for Bermuda and the chance you take at the end of hurricane season.  We had a wonderful time regardless.  (4th time for us on the Joy looking forward to sailing her after her refurbish)

5 minutes ago, jackieodonnell said:

Yes we found a cab driver. It was a quick drive. 20 min? We used the same guy all day. 

We have done CocoReef many times in the past going again next month so this is good information do you recall how much was the cab ride?  just so I can get an idea - we have done the local bus and also cabs - last time we were there after the storms pretty much beach was gone.

On 9/25/2023 at 7:58 PM, jackieodonnell said:

Hey all! I am just off the Joy for a 5 day jaunt to Bermuda. Let me tell you, the best Bermuda trip ever!

 

We had The Haven so we arrived at the NYC terminal at 11:30am. We were checked in at our muster station and eating lunch in the Haven by 12:30. Our room still wasn't ready so we walked around and got our bearings, found our go to bars and before you knew it, the room was ready! We dropped off our stuff and watched sail away from the Haven sundeck. We had the "dreaded" 13958 aft room that everyone said don't book. We loved it, vibrating and all. hahaha! So much room for us to stretch and relax. 

 

The room only shook when going slow coming into and out of port. When the ship was sailing fast there wasn't a problem at all. It was a great indicator that it was time to wake up soon to get the day started. 

 

So after we went under the Verrazano we went to our aft balcony with a spectacular view and watched as we sailed away from NYC. We saw a stunning sunset over our home state of NJ. 

 

Cagney's dinner - I had a prime rib and asked for it medium rare. It was a hockey puck. I wasn't hungry anyway so I didn't complain but it was truly terrible. We had 5 included dinners with all of our benefits so I didn't care...but I felt bad for anyone who paid to eat there. 

 

Le Bistro was good but the lobster taste stuck with me for a while. It could have been fresher for a $25 up charge.

 

I don't know why you all complain about Footloose. I loved it! Elements was also equally entertaining. 

 

We love the Wine Bar! Haven bar was always too crowded and took forever. We are big wine drinkers and the wine bar was our go to place to relax with a drink or load up before a show. 

 

Day 1 in Bermuda, got a day pass at a resort and loved every minute of it. Rained for a half hour but most of the time warm and sunny. Went to The Intrepid for dinner at the Hamilton Princess. Amazing!!!

Day 2 in Bermuda, Horseshoe Bay because, nostalgia. The waves were rough and so much fun! We stayed as late as we could before heading back to the ship. The food there sucks but we scarfed down our burgers and subpar drinks as if we had never eaten before in our lives. 

 

We ate Food Republic and loved it! 4 dishes each, no dessert. A little taster of everything! We began to feel the heft after this dinner. 

 

The Haven is the best restaurant on the ship. I got the prime rib to make up for Cagney's. It was amazing. They do it right up there. I would eat in the Haven every night. Breakfast and lunch were equally good. Eggs Benedict cooked to perfection!

 

Wasted 2 dining packages. We had so many free dinners and ran out of days to use them! 

 

Internet was as slow as expected...people were not happy that it wasn't like home. I found that funny.

 

The last night people were so drunk and angry. So many people yelling at each other. I was as happy as a clam. We had a near perfect trip!

 

The final day at sea was warm, humid and on and off rain but spend 90% of the day out on deck or on the balcony. 

 

This morning in NYC got off the ship at 8:30, found our bags and flew through customs. In an Uber and home by 9:45am. Unpacked, went to work, early to bed tonight!

 

Let me know if you have any questions. I didn't save the Freestyles. I can remember most of it. I miss the Quest! It would have been the perfect crowd for it. 

 

 

 

Jackie did you take a cab to Pompano?

It was a great cruise we really lucked out with the weather just the last sea day was not a good day for outside but we have travelled many times during hurricane season so we know you can expect anything - shows were fabulous glad we got to Elements especially since it was cancelled the last night for safety of the cast.  Saw Footloose which was our second time.  Food and drinks were great first time in Ocean Bleu - it was ok...did the usual Le Bistro and Teppanyaki as our other two specialties

I have to say we love Teppanyaki way too much food lol

20 hours ago, mma__leanne said:

 

Would you happen to know the bartenders' names at the Vibe?  My last cruise and next cruise (next month!) is on the Joy and I'm wondering if I'll be fortunate enough to have any of the same Vibe staff.  Long shot, I know!

It was Will, Chris and Jo - they said there were 6 Joes in the vibe lol my husband was one of them

All of them were wonderful

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam this month and we did the club orange upgrade.  We ended up being upgraded to an aft-facing balcony which was fantastic.  We have used club orange dining on the Rotterdam (neptune perk) and enjoyed it,  The dining room was a bit hectic on this sailing not sure if they sold too many club orange but we did have to have a buzzer a few times to wait,  but no big deal we weren't in a rush.  We enjoyed the smaller dining room and they do offer one extra entree that is not on the main dining room menu.  We did board early but there was a little confusion with that at the port as well but it was straightened out.  Holland is very good about service so you can be sure no matter what you do it will be a great vacation.

On 8/2/2022 at 1:26 PM, andychris said:

Thank you so much for your detailed review. I have a few questions:

Were the platinum perks available(wine tasting around the world or the ship tour)?

How full was the ship?

Thank you again!

We were on the 7/24 sailing they offered us the wine tasting no ship tour....back in April they offered OBC.

On 8/3/2022 at 5:36 PM, TenForward said:

 

I'm already booked in Dec. on the Getaway 😄  Was your first time on the Joy pre-Covid?  I'm curious your thoughts on this trip vs. your earlier one.  I've been on the Escape twice (my fave) and the Breakway.  The Joy seemed to have a different vibe to me and I'm not sure if it was the ship or being after Covid... or something else.

First time on Joy was April 2022 so it was post covid (our 3rd sailing since he start up) It was definitely a different vibe without the crowds.  We did have alot of cancelled shows on that sailing since the crew tended to have covid at that time.  Service was much better but also it wasn't as busy - we just knew to expect an overwhelming amount of people sailing NY in the summer...I think NCL should have taken more time before sailing full speed ahead lol

Great review!  We were on this sailing also it was our second time on the Joy.  We sailed not full occupancy in April and we fully knew it was going to be too crowded in July!  Bermuda was beautiful as always knew it was cup match week - Lots of crew were ending their contracts so lots of new crew onboard and in my opinion they went to full capacity too soon especially during summer out of NY.  On another social media site many are testing positive for covid which is to be expected/unavoidable, would not stop me from sailing again...we had a great time!

On 7/12/2022 at 2:19 PM, Laszlo said:

September of 2013 on the BA was $79..... and we thought that was expensive Lol

yes $79 then it went to $99 - then $129 then $159 then $179 now $229 but paid it always

this time so happy to not fight the crowds 

On 5/5/2022 at 9:23 AM, vacation44 said:

Thank you for the information.

 

We are sailing the 5 nighter in September and plan to buy the passes.   With the latest reports of no order for embarkation, I am concerned we will not be able to board as priority as a suite guest.   

Embarkation was very sketchy - we had issues with our pictures not being on the security line after checkin so that brought us back to check in - we had priority boarding as well but it didnt seem to matter hopefully by September as they will have sailed (fingers crossed) all summer they will have a system again.  The vibe is always tricky to get tickets but when the weather isn't due to cooperate it usually isn't a problem.  We were on the first sailing 9/26 and it was the worse getting on the ship and we were still able to get the vibe on the Breakaway.

12 hours ago, vacation44 said:

Does any one know if The Vibe was sold out on this sailing? 

Not at all.  We spoke with a crew member and he said only 25 tickets had been sold - most likely due to the weather forecast for the week. At the time we spoke with him he said only 5 people were in there

Thanks for the list!  Looking forward to great reads

11 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

We arrived at our assigned time:  Group A at 12:00pm.  Outside it was quiet and entry was quick.  Once I rounded the counter, however, I was shocked to see the terminal packed with people!  The staff were complaining about everyone showing up prior to their assigned time.  Personally, I am in no hurry to join that kind of mess but others don’t seem to mind.  Their faces didn’t look too happy, though.

wow that seems to defeat the whole process.  Our boarding times have changed but I would hate to show up on the right time and then have to wait with a crowd.  We cruised on the first sailing out of NYC in September and it was a mess but we expected that since it was new back to sailing for everyone - everyone just came whenever they wanted and they just processed everyone the same but like I said I expected that since it was the first sailing.

15 hours ago, bmlovell said:

We just got off the Bermuda sail sept 26- oct 3rd .we know first hand what happens if your second pcr comes back positive. You are quarantined on board ship , we met a couple on day one in vibe - very nice folks , did not see them rest of week figured they were just busy, but on last night of cruise, said couple called our room letting us know they had been moved after second pcr came back for Husbund positive , they were put in a different cabin along with other folks . They were very upset, ate out of styrofoam meals delivered to room , could not leave cabin , neither was sick or had any symptoms. We kept in contact with them as we were very concerned, they tested again when finally off ship Sunday oct 3 and they were negative ! Six days in a cabin and not sick . They asked to be retested by ncl but no dice .we will not cruise again if the port like Bermuda wants a test result after you are sailing , if you get a false positive too bad your still locked up in a cabin till ship returns to NY. If my test before boarding isn’t good enough and a Port of call wants a second PCR before you embark think again before taking the chance of what this poor couple experienced they were horrified and distressed with no options . I personally will not cruise to Bermuda again untill they change their policy for that second PCR ,I get it for Bermuda but I can’t imagine getting stuck in a cabin all week for a false positive nightmare.we were very fortunate this did not happen to us .

We were on this sailing with you as well.  That is horrible they should have at least allowed them to take another pcr test.  This was one of my fears of taking the first sailing - getting quarantined for the duration of the cruise but I was still willing to take a chance. I feel so badly for them hopefully they received compensation after testing negative.   

4 hours ago, megaphone84 said:

Interesting that you say that! I did hear from someone else that during the beginning of the cruise a younger guy who had come to be a huge nuisance was asked to leave and possibly had his spa access revoked as I knew who he was and I never saw him later in the week. When we were there it was pretty quiet; people were having conversations, but nothing too loud to prevent us from relaxing. 

Wow I was unaware of that - it was just very crowded for me and I didn't feel comfortable being in there but have used it on past cruises so I was not too upset about not being able to - I booked it because you never know what the weather would be like sailing from NY in the fall - lucikly for us we had amazing weather that week.

14 hours ago, megaphone84 said:

Completely agree on your points about the loungers and the noise level. I wanted to clarify my statement about alcohol in the spa- its probably not offered for a reason and while I chose to have a single drink on a lounger (not in the pool) while quietly reading a book I can understand that could be a slippery slope to a rowdy atmosphere that would be very disrespectful of other spa patrons. 

We were on this sailing as well had a spa balcony I agree mostly with your review I disagree with the relaxation in the spa area.  We have had spa balconies in the past and maybe it was just the time we stopped in but it was very loud, crowded and  boisterous on the first day so much so that I didn't give it a second chance on this sailing just went back to our room to relax.  Maybe it was timing but otherwise we enjoyed this cruise very much, crew couldn't have been nicer - there were kinks here and there but hey just like us they haven't sailed in over a year.

Thank you Bird.  So glad to see you had a wonderful trip - get back home safely.  

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

Just landed in Ft. Lauderdale. Next stop, cruise ship!

So excited for you!  Have a wonderful time.

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

Just emailed my PCC to see if she can update our bookings to get this promo.

Let me know what response you get on the 9/26 sailing - I was told it wasn't applicable.  But did get it for other sailings that are booked

On 6/30/2021 at 8:43 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

Yes, we made it official on February 18. A nice, masked ceremony at the town courthouse with just the judge (who happens to be a coworker of mine), a random clerk pulled from the hallway to be our witness, and the two of us. It was perfect!

Congratations and best wishes Jamie!   Our 40th was last year with cancelled cruises so we will be celebrating 41 on the breakaway September cruise

We moved our cruise up so hopefully with everything opening up we are a go!

Same here shows correct room number but category OX

wow that's wonderful -  just curious if you don't mind me asking what sailing are you on?

always interested in this bidding process 🙂

Just curious how much did you bid to win the upgrade for the spa balcony?