bkrickles1

Thanks for the review! We sailed Joy last summer and we're doing it again in 26 days!! We've also been to Bermuda many times and love to sail out of NYC as we live on Long Island. It sounds like your experience was similar to ours last summer. We had so much fun! We didn't have crazy elevator people, but we tend to use the stairs more than most. Also, I'm surprised by the "showing it's age" comment. Joy seemed to be in fine shape last year, but it has been a year. Lmao!! It's only been 4 years since the last refurb and much of that time we were either shut down or they were sailing with drastically reduced capacity. Either way, I know it's going to be a great time! We have a sunset cruise set for day 1 in Bermuda and day 2 is Horseshoe Bay and hopefully the man o war situation is better than last summer. I have some newbies joining so I'm trying to prepare them to avoid some of the common frustrations. Thanks again for the review.

Unfortunately, no Howl at the Moon on Joy.

I was on Joy in Bermuda last summer and the casino was open. And, as others have said, it would be shocking if that stopped as it's a moneymaker.

I mentioned this in a thread a couple of months ago, but we had so much man o war present last summer when we cruised to Bermuda, that they closed off going in the water at Horseshoe Bay. I'm sailing again in 27 days and was wondering if anyone that's been there recently has been to Horseshoe and are the jellyfish a problem again this year? I definitely plan on going to the beach and we have a crew of about 13 that'll be joining, but we love to stay in the water for pretty much the whole time so I'm hopeful that things are better this year. TIA

You've misunderstood me. I was speaking of the specialty dining packages. A 5 meal specialty dining package is $238pp. That's the price now and, I believe it's the same after you board. That's 5 complete meals for one person. Of course there are different combinations of these packages. And, yes, I have seen deals on these packages advertised in the dailies. I don't have specifics as I've never been interested.

I understand that some deals are better prior to sailing, but if you have $250 obc and you "don't buy much on the ship", why can't you just use it for the specialty dining after boarding? You'd have enough to buy 5 meals, approximately. And, they usually run some deals on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th day etc.

Are you saying that after you board you cannot use your $250 stock obc to purchase specialty dinner credits or, actually, pay for a meal with that obc $$? I haven't seen that anywhere and I thought you could. I have a $100 stock obc and planned on using it to supplement lunch at Food Republic on Joy when I sail in a few weeks. I know that I can't use it before because it's called on board credit.

Actually, that might be the same before and after. I was referring to the deal that I have on my reservation where I can buy 2 extra meals for $82pp for either my wife or I or both. That is more after boarding, to the best of my knowledge.

I could be wrong but I don't remember being able to use OBC on Royal before boarding. And, you can use your obc for specialty dining package as soon as you board. It costs a few dollars more, but it's not outrageous. I'm considering doing the same.

I'm sailing Joy July 23rd and I received my upgrade from inside to Club Balcony Suite at the 45 day mark.

The write in request is a great idea! We're sailing Joy in 30 days and we plan on, at least, 1 day of ordering breakfast to our cabin and ordering some extra bacon sounds good to me. As you said, they might not accommodate us, but they might. Lmao!!

I believe I got some at the Mixx bar on Joy last summer, but I might be mistaken. I'm sailing Joy again in 30 days and I'm making a mental note to check on this at all the bars I frequent. Call it a "Quest"!! Lmao!!!!!!!!

I've sailed Escape and Encore pre covid and I sailed Joy last summer. I love the Waterfront (that and the OL are 2 of the great things NCL has done and I know Escape doesn't have an OL) and frequent it almost every day on a sailing and I've never seen it crowded. On Escape and Encore, I'd go out there around 7am after working out, and they had coffee set up at the bars. I never saw 1 person out there. I love having a pre dinner cocktail out at the Cavern Club bar and, again, never crowded. I've gone out there for drinks in the evening and never crowded. That's 3 sailings that I've done and the Waterfront never had a lot of people using it. And I can count on one hand the amount of people I've seen eating out there at the various specialty restaurants. Now, that's just been my observations. And these were all tropical sailings. I am glad that NCL has reduced the areas that you can smoke. I used to really like smoking a cigar on my balcony back in the day, but I totally understand why that was eliminated. Anyway, I'm sailing Joy again in 30 days and I plan on paying attention to what's going on at the Waterfront.

Good for you! I bought 200 shares last September for around 11.50 and just sold 100 @ 19.50. Almost 70% gain and I've got my $100 obc in 32 days for my Joy sailing. I'll keep the other 100 shares for future cruises.

Last summer we caught a shuttle at 8am.

I have heard differently and I'm sure the cutbacks have affected the other lines similarly. How could it not? And both explorer and liberty are smaller than Joy. Explorer has several hundred fewer cabins, I believe. My point was more that it's not a big deal to wait a little longer. There's plenty to do and plenty of space to park yourself. I carry my backpack all over the ship and still have enough energy for 12oz curls.

Are you sure it doesn't happen on other lines? I mean it's only recently that they reduced the amount of stewards and went to once a day service and, I believe, rccl and carnival have done the same recently. With that being said, how could they possibly have cabins ready much earlier than 3:30? 1 - 1:30PM was the average time cabins were ready on most sailings I've ever gone on, so it's not really a big deal and it makes zero sense not to check the bulk of your stuff with the porters. I get to the pier at 8:30am so I have a chance to board around 11am and start my vacation. I don't "need" my cabin until I'm ready to pass out around 11pm. Lmao 😂 I sailed Joy last summer and I'm going again in 33 days and I believe most of the complaints made by the op are due to having higher expectations than the current cruising climate can achieve and not enough planning/research of the ship your sailing. It's not the old days where you could just walk on board and enjoy everything without much thought. It takes a little work nowadays.

https://profcruise.com/ncl-menus-2023/

Thank you!! And yes, I have seen magnets and paper like substances randomly combust and take down a building. It's all scientific and very common!! Lmfao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not an expert like some on here purport to be but my daughter was on the Escape 5/21 - 5/28 and she put door decorations on my nephews cabin door (in the solo area) and nobody said a word. Also, we were on Joy last summer and my wife put decorations on my daughters cabin door for her college graduation. Again, nobody said a word. Just saying....... BTW we're sailing Joy again July 23rd, so please take good care of the ship and don't burn it down!! Lmao!!!

I hope these dates are accurate. I'm sailing Joy on July 23rd for the 2nd time and I hope Footloose is still playing so that the newbies in my group can experience the full level of entertainment that we did last summer.

I totally agree! We sailed Joy last summer and we had Footloose (not the best, but not the worst), Elements (really good!), a magician, 2 comedians, Beatles tribute and at least 4 or 5 different live music choices every evening. More entertainment than on any other ship I've sailed. We're sailing Joy again in July, partially because we enjoyed the variety so much. Hopefully, Footloose is still playing when we sail as I'd like the newbies that are coming with to experience that full level of things to do. I was planning to skip it this time. Lol!!

I recently used a cruise first certificate with my military discount.

Do it as soon as you board and there'll be no problem.

Teppenyaki