The Hidden Secrets of Norwegian Joy

[wilmingtech]

Day 5 - 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by wilmingtech

[wilmingtech]

Day 6- 

[wilmingtech]

Day 7 - 

[wilmingtech]

These 1st Two menus are from Skyline.  Skyline is the bar in the casino.  They have machines taking up most of the bar top and it is right across from the glassed in area for the smokers.  Wasnt really smokey but someone who is sensitive to smoke might think so.  Didnt seem like a place condusive to hanging out unless you were playing the machines on the bar top.  Note that all the menus in the bars look exactly the same.

Edited December 29, 2019 by wilmingtech

[wilmingtech]

These are the drinks from A-List

 

[wilmingtech]

Maltings Drink Menu -

 

Grass Clippings was interesting.  We asked Lester up in the Haven to make us one and it was night and day from what we got in Maltings.  Lester muddled fresh cucumbers and Cilantro whereas our Maltings bartender used all syrups.  

 

[wilmingtech]

These next 2 menus were found in Atrium and Mixx.  Same menu at both bars.  If there is suppose to be a different menu we did not see one. 

[wilmingtech]

Those were all the menus I took pictures of.  They do have some different mixed drinks in the brewhouse and Food Republic as well.  I have a picture from the digital menu from FR.  

[wilmingtech]

On 12/22/2019 at 10:25 PM, parmus said:

Would be curious to know about handicap boarding at the port. Are there separate lines for people needing assistance?

They did have porters with Wheelchair assistance from the parking lot side that we saw as we left.  I do not know how that works though.  I am sure there is a security line seperate for wheelchair access.  Other than being crowded inside the building the seating aisles were easily 10-12' apart to get from one side to the other from what I remember.

[SteamboatCruiser]

On 12/22/2019 at 6:58 AM, kenzie said:

Thank you for your time, hope you have a wonderful cruise. I wondered if you could see the usual minimum bet on 3 Card poke and Craps. Also what are they paying on 2 & 12 Field bets - is it double. 

I just got off the Joy a week ago today.  My husband wanted to teach my daughter and her boyfriend how to play craps.  The minimum bet was set at $25.  Needless to say, there were no lessons happening at that price.  

[SteamboatCruiser]

On 12/22/2019 at 9:33 PM, 2+2 said:

I am wondering how hard it is going to be to get into the late comedy shows if I show up as a standby. I don't want to make reservations as I want to decide on going based on how I feel. Any secrets just walking right in?

Just got off the Joy a week ago today.  We went to the comedy club four times and it was never completely full.

[wilmingtech]

21 hours ago, wilmingtech said:

I took some videos of some of the shops (I thought selections were awful but you may see something that appeals to you) and I walked through and videoed the casino.  It's very small with minimum slots and table games were all 10$ minimum except for craps which was 25$ minimum and was empty all week.  Stupid.  I even asked the pit boss if they would reduce the minimum to 15 or 10 and he said no.  I came back a few hours later, it was still empty and I looked at the pit boss and said still no takers eh?  Suprised?

 

I'll upload when we get off tomorrow and share them here.

Here is a walkthrough of the Casino.  It's pretty small with limited machines.  Sorry for the poor quality and vertical orientation.

 

 

 

Here is a walk through of the "Variety" style shop.  Very limited.  No real snacks or drinks for purchase and the NCL clothing selection was small.  

 

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by wilmingtech

[wilmingtech]

And another quick video of the cigarettes and chocolates available in the Liquor store.

 

Shopping on the ship (for us anyways) was slightly disappointing.   The largest stores were all watches and jewelry which we were not at all interested in.  The 10$ sales of all the cheap made in China/Taiwan stuff was not even interesting.  I thought I would be able to find a cheap pair of sunglasses but they were all stamped plastic and not one pair I tried on fit straight.

 

 

They did have a closeout on some neat NCL tshirts for 10$ each but they were all too small for me to wear.

 

[wilmingtech]

Some other notes about the Joy -  

 

1. The Local - This place was insane on Sea Days.  Going down to Mexico and the last Sea Day coming back was chilly outside and everyone was in here for lunch.  You do have to check in at the hostess stand if you want to order food.  Even if you sit at the bar to eat.  Wings and Fish and Chips fit the bill here.  Limited beer selection at the bar.

 

2. Speaking of Bars - We spent most of our time at the Haven Bar which was amazing.  The Haven Bartenders informed us that they are in the process of changing over the Liquor selection and in that Stoli flavored Vodkas were going away.  They couldnt tell us any more than that (Because they were low on Stoli which we were drinking and they were not replacing it)

 

3. The Hot Tubs (errr...  rather Warm Tubs) were not hot at all.  I am pretty sure they were between 85-90 degrees and NCL informed all of us in the Haven (as we all complained about it) that the Hot Tubs cannot be hotter than 37° and they cannot change that as its company wide regulation at this point.

 

4.  There are 2 big crew turnovers coming up on the Joy.  The first is January 12th and the next is March 15th.   Just a heads up for those cruising those weeks as service can tend to be a little off when they have large turnovers of crew at the end of their contracts.

 

5.  WIFI - If you use ship wifi, save your minutes and remember these two sites - 

www.logon.com

www.logoff.com

These are the 2 websites you need to bring up on your browser and if you dont go to  logoff.com your minutes will continue to wind down (even if your wifi is turned off).  I am assuming this is company wide with NCL.

 

6.  The Joy sails through 3 timezones.  Pacific, Mountain and Central.  But the only time change they make is one hour ahead on the way down to the Mountain Timezone.  So when you are In port in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta the Ships time will be 1 hour behind the local time.  You get the hour coming back on the 3rd sea day.

 

7. Most IMPORTANT - In Puerto Vallarta the all aboard time was 3:30pm Ship time.  On the NCL Itinerary and on the NCL app the time is listed as 5pm.  Many people did not get the all aboard memo coming out of Puerto Vallarta.  It was a scramble for some and there was chatter on board of at least one family that did not make the ship.  So make a note and check the All Aboard time before you walk off in Puerto Vallarta.

 

That's all I had for quick notes.  I'll post some more later when I unwind a little.  Overall we had a great cruise and met some wonderful people on our trip. 

 

The Haven Bartenders Lester and Ritesh were amazing.  They have some skills.  And we had a great server up in the Haven restaurant that we requested over and over (Agnes) who took great care of us for the week. 

 

More personal feedback to come later...

[teacher/bartender]

I was in that long long line on embarkation day!  I’ve cruise many time and this was our first on NCL. We showed up around noon, knowing there would be some line - but this was crazy. And no workers or signage just people pushing and shoving their way in. Sort of crazy. Took us almost three hours to get through security and then get checked in. 
 

Getting off the ship this morning was a similar story. Took us about 2.5 hours from the time our luggage tags were called until we were at the curb waiting for our shuttle. 
 

I’m not sure if all NCL cruises are like this - or if it was just the port of LA not being super great. It all worked out fine in the end - and I’ll be prepared next time to wait if we cruise out of San Pedro again. 
 

All in all an amazing cruise! 

[kenzie]

Is it possible for someone to advise what plug points are in the balconies, are they all American or do they also have European plug holes, the Getaway and Escape had both. Also is there a UK outlet. 

[hallux]

38 minutes ago, wilmingtech said:

6.  The Joy sails through 3 timezones.  Pacific, Mountain and Central.  But the only time change they make is one hour ahead on the way down to the Mountain Timezone.  So when you are In port in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta the Ships time will be 1 hour behind the local time.  You get the hour coming back on the 3rd sea day.

Time confusion must be an NCL thing - there was similar confusion on the last Bliss Mexican Riviera trip (Halloween week), with there being information related to time changes printed on the daily that shouldn't have been.

[coastcat]

49 minutes ago, wilmingtech said:

4.  There are 2 big crew turnovers coming up on the Joy.  The first is January 12th and the next is March 15th.   Just a heads up for those cruising those weeks as service can tend to be a little off when they have large turnovers of crew at the end of their contracts.

 

Oh dear. Well, I need to thank you a second time for a second warning - first the security line at San Pedro, and now this. I'll be on the January 12th sailing.

 

Packing a little extra patience into my suitcase...

[kenzie]

2 hours ago, SteamboatCruiser said:

I just got off the Joy a week ago today.  My husband wanted to teach my daughter and her boyfriend how to play craps.  The minimum bet was set at $25.  Needless to say, there were no lessons happening at that price.  

$25 minimum is a Joke, could never pay passline higher than $10. Was the table played at all, is it possible to ask for minimum to be dropped if no-one is playing at such high levels. 

[parmus]

2 hours ago, wilmingtech said:

They did have porters with Wheelchair assistance from the parking lot side that we saw as we left.  I do not know how that works though.  I am sure there is a security line seperate for wheelchair access.  Other than being crowded inside the building the seating aisles were easily 10-12' apart to get from one side to the other from what I remember.

Thank you!

[hallux]

21 minutes ago, coastcat said:

first the security line at San Pedro,

I've had two polar opposite experiences boarding in San Pedro.  The first time I breezed right on through security and check-in, boarding the ship within 30 minutes of arriving at the port on the transfer from the airport (around 11 AM arrival at the port).  The second time was a 2+ hour wait to even get to the security tent (the line looked similar to that posted earlier in the thread) but then breezed right through once through security.  On the second experience - there WAS a separate entrance for folks needing assistance and they were being shuffled in there even when they weren't letting anyone else through.

 

Both of those were for the Bliss, the second time was a long wait due to a CG inspection on the ship.  The folks at San Pedro DO know how to board these ships.

[DomoYoshi]

22 minutes ago, kenzie said:

Was the table played at all?

 

Empty every time I was at the casino. During the blackjack tournament finals, the spectator overflow had people using it as a coaster. The dealers weren’t bothering to ask people to stay clear.

 

And for coming from Asia, I was surprised there was no Pai Gow. 

[hallux]

2 minutes ago, DomoYoshi said:

And for coming from Asia, I was surprised there was no Pai Gow.

It could have been removed during the conversion process.

[wilmingtech]

54 minutes ago, kenzie said:

Is it possible for someone to advise what plug points are in the balconies, are they all American or do they also have European plug holes, the Getaway and Escape had both. Also is there a UK outlet. 

We were in a Haven Penthouse and had a US plug on one side of the bed, A Euro plug on the other and a US plug on the desk along with a second Euro plug.  Best practice is to bring a Euro plug to US converter and use it in the Euro plug to charge all your devices (Make sure they are rated 110/220v.  It's highly unlikely a battery charged device will not be compatible with 220v but sometimes...

 

I'll let someone else answer about plugs in the standard balcony rooms.

[Sand and Seas]

Thanks for the videos of casino and shops.  Surprising how small they look for a ship that size.  

It's really helpful seeing all these pictures too.  Thanks for sharing with us😎