bkrickles1

Our tradition is to always have a sit down breakfast in an mdr on the last day. We just sailed Joy 7/23 - 7/30 and we met some of our group at 8am in Taste for our last meal. We left all of our stuff in our cabin until after breakfast and then we walked off the ship on our own. We were on our way back to Long Island by around 10am.

Yes it does. 100% Was on Joy 7/23 - 7/30 and everyone I was with used imessage between each other on board and with anyone back home too.

The kids clubs are terrific! As Bird said, make sure you register as soon as you can on embarkation day and have him attend that first night. We've sailed Encore, but without children. Great ship! We just sailed Joy (very similar) last month and we had two 5 year olds in our group. Their parents got them registered right away after boarding and the 2 girls ended up going almost every time it was open. They loved the activities and really loved the staff.

I am about to book this exact sailing! Bermuda in April is a toss up. I don't believe it'll be real beach weather, but there's plenty to do on the island and since I just spent 3 days there on Joy in July, I'll be fine with that. The other ports should be great that time of year and, as someone else mentioned, it's safe to visit these places. You just need to be aware of your surroundings, like anywhere else you go. We love to just be on board the ship so Getaway offers some intriguing differences for us after sailing on Joy x2, Escape and Encore. We're just ironing out some details and I expect that we'll book this by mid September. Hope to see you! Lmao!!!

Was on Joy at the end of July and we chose Cagney's over Teppenyaki. We do hibachi pretty regularly at home so we decided on the steakhouse instead. We enjoyed the meal. It's definitely not high end but everything was good and the 7 layer cake makes the meal for me.

I have paid for my last 4 ncl cruises with my Costco visa card without issue. It's 100% not the card!

Yep. I'm aware of the plans and they're not all bad. We were discussing them with some other passengers when we sailed Joy last month. And quite frankly, the OL on Joy was not really a go to spot for us without that big circular bar so we didn't go much last year or this year. Especially on warm weather sailings. Gonna try Getaway next year and I don't have to worry about an OL. Lmao!!

I've never been in the Haven but the OL on Encore was fabulous! In my opinion, it had the best bar on the ship. I was a little disappointed when I saw that Joy did not have that same bar.

I think it depends on how you approach embarkation day. As I said previously, we've done it once and it was great! But, most of the time, our first day takes us in a different direction. We usually board by 11:30 and get our reservations finalized, muster and get a drink (or 2). Our tradition has become to go to Taste/Savor for lunch at around 1pm. We eat a big meal, as we haven't eaten at all yet and that usually takes us to around 2:30. The rest of the afternoon we bounce around drinking and exploring and, finally, getting into our cabin to unpack and get organized. Between the big lunch and the inevitable snacking that we'll do while exploring, we're not typically super hungry to fully enjoy a specialty dining experience that first night. With all the options available, we just play it by ear as we know it's probably going to be an early night to bed after a long day and be prepared for the rest of our week. So many ways to cruise and have a wonderful time! It's why we love it so much!!

We've only done it once, but it's a great way to start a sailing!

We were on Joy 7/23 - 7/30 and ate at the complimentary breakfast buffet at American Diner 3 times. It's definitely available and convenient. It's limited in scope, but we enjoyed it thoroughly and it was never even 20% filled with people. We showed up at the pier by 8:30 and zipped through as soon as they opened security. We were boarding by 11:30 and that was without any priority.

Yep! Sounds like our trip on 7/23. And we were in cabin 13216, which was a nice location near the forward elevators and we loved the bathroom in our CBS. We've had a great time on Joy both times we've sailed her and it's led us to quickly book another sailing for next year on Getaway. We're constantly confused with all the negative reviews when we time and again have a great time. Thanks for your positive review!

Obviously, just my personal opinion. I've seen them on Encore in 2020 and twice on Joy. I had so much fun seeing them on Encore a couple of times. One time I just walked into the CC on Encore as they were about to start and just stood right next to the stage and it was terrific! Last year was great too, on Joy, but I think that the guy playing Paul this year was a standout and made it better for me. I'm looking at Getaway for next year to finally experience Syd Norman's. It wasn't on Escape when we sailed it in 2018 and my daughter says I'd love it.

I was on Joy a couple of weeks ago and there's definitely no dance floor by the stage. We went the last night and waited on line to get seats right up front and it would have been impossible for someone to be up front blocking views. With that being said, the current band is excellent. Better than last year. The guy doing Paul was so good!

I just got off Joy a couple of weeks ago and there was more entertainment than I could possibly go to and most of it was pretty enjoyable. They're getting rid of Footloose soon, but I believe everything else is sticking. Now, with regards to Getaway, I'm looking to book Getaway next April for 10 days and I see lots of entertainment mentioned in various posts. There's Million Dollar Quartet, Burn the Floor, 2 comedians, 1 magician, 3 different shows in Syd Normans, Broadway unplugged and at least 3 musical acts. And this doesn't include the game shows, stuff in the Bliss Lounge and the parties up on deck. It's all of this that is driving me to book Getaway for next year. Am I missing something? Has all or most of this entertainment been cancelled?

I'm cautiously optimistic that the entertainment on Getaway will still be very similar to what it is right now. I don't believe MDQ is the type of production show that will be cut like Footloose and Kinky Boots. Add that to Burn the Floor, 2 comedians, 3 different shows at Syd Norman's, dueling pianos, etc. and you have the makings of a pretty entertaining ship. Fingers crossed. Lmao!! And I did read that Broadway Unplugged was a fun one too. As I said, I was super pleased with the entertainment on my Joy sailing so I'd suspect that Getaway would do it for me too. We just did Joy 2 years in a row and my wife wants something a little different next time. With some different entertainment and a couple of different restaurants, I think Getaway accomplishes that. I'm waiting for the better cruise first certs to become available and I'll make a decision then. I didn't miss the hash browns but if they take away my After Eight Chocolate Mousse or Cagney's 7 layer cake (I'm a chocolate junkie!), there will be trouble!!!!! Lol 🤣

We gave such a glowing review of our Joy sailing to our daughter, who couldn't come this time due to a wedding, that she's slowly convincing us to take her on a 10 day Getaway sailing next April. I've quickly looked into the Getaway and we're intrigued with the entertainment. A lot of focus on musical acts, which we loved about Joy. It also received a significant refurbishment in 2019/2020 so this could be our follow-up to Joy. BTW I now remember reading about the missing hash browns at breakfast and I can confirm that they were not present. With that being said, I like the breakfast potatoes they provide now.

Terrific review! Another positive one for Joy!! We got off when you got on and I have to agree that the crew was outstanding.

My niece had white zinfandel, so yes to that. Sorry, don't know about moscato

My wife brought hers last week on Joy and she would fill it with ice and water before leaving the cabin and then the bartenders would happily fill it throughout the day for her by the pool. Sometimes she'd just get a cup of ice from a roving server and fill her container with that and some flow water she would carry around.

Something I wanted to add that I remembered in the last couple of days. Last summer, when I sailed Joy, there was a noticeable shortage of various items due to the pandemic. It was the bars where I noticed it most. For example, there wasn't any Captain Morgan and they ran out of vodka by the 2nd to last day. The bars were very bare and I'm sure there were many things that were missing. Last week I checked out the bars that I frequented on Joy and they were stocked. I'm not a diverse drinker, so while I'm sure there could still be some shortages, it was a night and day difference from last year. The other thing they didn't have last summer, and this was something I missed, was cream cheese. I always have the bagel with smoked salmon in taste/savor and, last year, I was relegated to butter. Lol! Anyway, I just wanted to bring up that their provisioning seems to be much improved over the past year.

Just got off Joy on Sunday and I brought $100 in singles and 5 dollar bills and gave out most of it on board to various bar staff and servers on deck 17 overlooking the pool deck. It's to thank them for their service and, inevitably, leads to even better service. The bar service on Joy was exceptional anyway, so it was unnecessary, but my wife and I feel good doing it as this segment of the crew is on the front line having to deal with just about every passenger on board, including the somewhat rude and entitled ones. It makes us feel good and it certainly makes them feel good. We similarly treat our cabin steward to extra compensation, especially this sailing, as we had an excellent steward who exceeded expectations! Also, on our first night at dinner in the Manhattan room, we were a group of 13 (9 adults & 4 little ones), and I felt that our server deserved a little extra for dealing with all of us, so we showed her our appreciation too.

I don't recall the breakdown and I should know because I paid for all of it. Lmao! I paid $200 for 2 tents and 6 chairs. Our 7th chair was bought by a late attendee. We fit 6 chairs under the 2 tents as we set them up side by side. So, 3 each. We even brought a few clothes pins to hang a couple of towels to block even more sun. This is our first time renting the tents and they are way better than the umbrellas and worth the few extra dollars.

I'm sorry. I don't. I wanted to save and bring them home but my wife destroyed them all by folding and tearing them every day. And I didn't realize until a few days in that you could download them from the app. There's someone on here that posted dailies from a couple of weeks ago. If you find them, they are probably 95% accurate.

We just got off Joy and used the wifi while in Bermuda. In fact, my wife used the standard wifi from our cabin to join a zoom meeting and had zero issues. I used google meet every day to speak with our daughter too. Wifi is slow, but it gets the job done most of the time.