Joy leaving Miami 4th Dec 2021

[SpainAlien]

Despite the edocs telling us we had to go to Terminal C, check in was actually at Terminal B.  You first drop off your luggage with the stevedors on the left side of the terminal then you go to the right hand end to check in with CVS for testing before finally returning to the left hand end to check in with NCL.

 

We had 9.30am check in time and were slightly early. Once we had been through testing and check in we had to wait to board before finally getting onboard at just after 11am.

 

Immediately on embarkation we were directed to our muster station to be scanned/logged in.  Once this was done we were free to explore the ship.

 

At 3.30pm the Cruise Director went through the muster drill announcement over the tannoy which took a couple of minutes.

 

Sail away was at 4pm

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by SpainAlien

[Wink87]

3 hours ago, SpainAlien said:

Despite the edocs telling us we had to go to Terminal C, check in was actually at Terminal B.  You first drop off your luggage with the stevedors on the left side of the terminal then you go to the right hand end to check in with CVS for testing before finally returning to the left hand end to check in with NCL.

 

We had 9.30am check in time and were slightly early. Once we had been through testing and check in we had to wait to board before finally getting onboard at just after 11am.

 

Immediately on embarkation we were directed to our muster station to be scanned/logged in.  Once this was done we were free to explore the ship.

 

At 3.30pm the Cruise Director went through the muster drill announcement over the tannoy which took a couple of minutes.

 

Sail away was at 4pm

 

Will be following! We are on the Joy exactly one year from today through the Panama Canal. It will be our first time in Haven. Have a great cruise!

[Beer Belly]

I have family on the ship with you, they said all went well.

[SpainAlien]

First impressions of The Haven:

 

lovely cabin: 12108, right at the front. A small amount of wobble as we sail but nothing to worry about.

 

Restaurant: I don't think we will eat there more than a couple of times because it's the same menu all the time. The first night was busy but there were still tables available.

 

Pool, Horizon lounge, Library and Sun deck. All very pleasant spaces with plenty of loungers available. The library has plenty of books and board games

 

Butler and room steward both came to say hello and stood waiting presumably for a tip just long enough for it to be uncomfortable. Now, we always prepay our tips but I am aware that we tip the butler on top of that which we are happy to do at the end commensurate with our experience not at the beginning before they have done anything.  We did call the butler to ask for milk and orange juice and it arrived within a few minutes, excellent service. 

 

Concierge: we popped in to see Luis and asked him to cancel all our dining reservations so that we could start again from scratch but as at this morning all the reservations are still there, we might need to see him again today

 

Overall we like it but probably won't splash out to do it again. It was worth it to do it just once for the experience.

 

[SpainAlien]

By the way there are 1600 passengers onboard so it is pretty empty

 

[SpainAlien]

Internet

When we first boarded we signed in and redeemed our upgrade to unlimited minutes however 15 minutes later we got a message telling us that we had used all our minutes.

 

We signed out, signed back in, restarted the phone, tried a different device and then went down to the Internet cafe to join the queue of other people with the same problem. One by one the internet manager had to reset the service for us. The connection keeps dropping out and I keep losing access to the app on my Samsung S8 but on my husband’s S10 he can normally get it.

 

[vacation44]

Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts so far.  Do you know if The Vibe sold out?

 

Enjoy your sailing!

[bkrickles1]

12 minutes ago, SpainAlien said:

By the way there are 1600 passengers onboard so it is pretty empty

 

WOW! I hope it's similar when we sail in January. 

How's the ship look? I'd imagine it looks brand new since Joy only sailed for a few months after the renovation and before the pandemic shutdown. 

[SpainAlien]

2 minutes ago, bkrickles1 said:

WOW! I hope it's similar when we sail in January. 

How's the ship look? I'd imagine it looks brand new since Joy only sailed for a few months after the renovation and before the pandemic shutdown. 

The ship looks good but they always maintain them pretty well anyway I think

 

[SpainAlien]

24 minutes ago, SpainAlien said:

Internet

When we first boarded we signed in and redeemed our upgrade to unlimited minutes however 15 minutes later we got a message telling us that we had used all our minutes.

 

We signed out, signed back in, restarted the phone, tried a different device and then went down to the Internet cafe to join the queue of other people with the same problem. One by one the internet manager had to reset the service for us. The connection keeps dropping out and I keep losing access to the app on my Samsung S8 but on my husband’s S10 he can normally get it.

 

 

[2cruzall]

Thank you posting your experiences so far!  We'll be boarding the Joy on Dec 18th. 🙂 

 

Have fun and looking forward to your future posts!

[Sthrngary]

17 hours ago, SpainAlien said:

Despite the edocs telling us we had to go to Terminal C, check in was actually at Terminal B.  You first drop off your luggage with the stevedors on the left side of the terminal then you go to the right hand end to check in with CVS for testing before finally returning to the left hand end to check in with NCL.

 

We had 9.30am check in time and were slightly early. Once we had been through testing and check in we had to wait to board before finally getting onboard at just after 11am.

 

Immediately on embarkation we were directed to our muster station to be scanned/logged in.  Once this was done we were free to explore the ship.

 

At 3.30pm the Cruise Director went through the muster drill announcement over the tannoy which took a couple of minutes.

 

Sail away was at 4pm

 

Have a great time.  I just go off.  It was an epic cruise, and you will enjoy every minute.  Feel free to look at my reviews from last week for idea's.  

 

Cruise well.

[SpainAlien]

Yesterday we did a cabin crawl and a poker bar crawl, taking in 5 bars, we would have liked to have gone to the Observation lounge but it was closed for the Latitudes loyalty event.  All in all it is a lovely ship with some great bar staff, everyone is so friendly.   Poor Dr Bong in Sugarcane mojito bar ended up making us 16 ginger mojito in one go.

 

We went to Savor for dinner last night which was very nice. We had decided against the Manhattan room because of the vibration noise at the back of the ship. One of our group hardly got any sleep on the first night because of the noise in an Aft Haven Penthouse on deck 10.

 

We are going to Big French Cay today so that should be fun

[20165]

On 12/4/2021 at 3:46 PM, SpainAlien said:

Despite the edocs telling us we had to go to Terminal C, check in was actually at Terminal B.  You first drop off your luggage with the stevedors on the left side of the terminal then you go to the right hand end to check in with CVS for testing before finally returning to the left hand end to check in with NCL.

 

We had 9.30am check in time and were slightly early. Once we had been through testing and check in we had to wait to board before finally getting onboard at just after 11am.

 

Immediately on embarkation we were directed to our muster station to be scanned/logged in.  Once this was done we were free to explore the ship.

 

At 3.30pm the Cruise Director went through the muster drill announcement over the tannoy which took a couple of minutes.

 

Sail away was at 4pm

 

Thank you for the information.  can you tell me when they let you to your stateroom?  we dont want to get there too early and drag our stuff around the ship. thanks

 

[Sthrngary]

12 minutes ago, SpainAlien said:

Yesterday we did a cabin crawl and a poker bar crawl, taking in 5 bars, we would have liked to have gone to the Observation lounge but it was closed for the Latitudes loyalty event.  All in all it is a lovely ship with some great bar staff, everyone is so friendly.   Poor Dr Bong in Sugarcane mojito bar ended up making us 16 ginger mojito in one go.

 

We went to Savor for dinner last night which was very nice. We had decided against the Manhattan room because of the vibration noise at the back of the ship. One of our group hardly got any sleep on the first night because of the noise in an Aft Haven Penthouse on deck 10.

 

We are going to Big French Cay today so that should be fun

Go back to the Sugar Cane for the music throughout the week at night.  Go see the famous Dr. Bong on the last day when he dresses up.  Have a great cruise.

[SpainAlien]

10 minutes ago, 20165 said:

Thank you for the information.  can you tell me when they let you to your stateroom?  we dont want to get there too early and drag our stuff around the ship. thanks

 

We had a Haven cabin so we were luckily able to go straight to our stateroom on boarding. I'm not sure what time it would have been otherwise I'm afraid

[SpainAlien]

We had snacks in The Local last night and boy was it loud. The music was so loud that when we went into the theatre afterwards we could still hear it.

 

The cottage pie potato skins are nowhere near as nice as the cottage pie you get in O'Sheehans, the meat to potato ratio is just wrong. The nachos were a bit short on pico de gallo but otherwise OK

 

The show: Footloose. The sound settings were off. The backing singers were too loud so the main singers were having to scream into their microphones at times.  Otherwise a good show but several people left early

 

La Cucina. We finished the night using one of our dining package meals in La Cucina. We both had the caprese salad followed by the fillet steak, both very good 

 

Harvest Caye today

[Sue Do-Over]

On 12/6/2021 at 8:35 AM, SpainAlien said:

We went to Savor for dinner last night which was very nice. We had decided against the Manhattan room because of the vibration noise at the back of the ship. One of our group hardly got any sleep on the first night because of the noise in an Aft Haven Penthouse on deck 10.

We were on the Joy Nov 20-27.  The first couple of days the vibration was significant... in Cagney's, the glassware was rattling.  We heard several different versions of the cause, blaming the stabilizers and the propulsion units, one even suggested that the ship was 'fighting the current', although seas were very calm all week.  By the third day it had largely subsided, so we assumed that the mechanical issues had been resolved.   Sounds like they didn't get it entirely ironed out.

[SpainAlien]

Parasailing and zip lining in Harvest Caye today was great fun, both well organised and you felt safe at all times. The lockers cost $5 which goes on your sail and sign card but you can then use any locker on the island through the day.

 

We enjoyed our meal at the Harvest Caye Bar and Grill before we meandered through the shops on our way back to the ship.

 

I think the Harvest Caye Bar and Grill used to be Margaritaville