Joy 5 Night Bermuda from NYC 4/26

[NicoJ113]

Hi All,

 

First time poster but frequent NCL cruiser and reader of the forums here.  Just returned from 5 nights on the Joy on her first cruise from NYC and had some thoughts.  Our sailing had 2,300 passengers, roughly half capacity.  

 

Pre Departure: My partner and I were on this sailing with my parents and there's been plenty said about the Bermuda TA in these forums so I won't go into too much detail.  None of us received our approvals after uploading our negative Covid tests resulting in 2 separate calls to Bermuda.  An annoyance but calling the hotline number the morning of the cruise and waiting on hold to have it pushed through was worth the effort and not have to deal with it at the pier.

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the pier at around 12:30 and the new set up now that they aren't testing everyone pierside left the efficiency expert in me squirming.  First, you go through a security line where they check passports, boarding passes, and scan your bags.  Then you get in a second line for document control where they checked your passport, vax card, and Bermuda TA.  If you don't have the Bermuda TA there is separate line where they help you deal with that.  Only then, do you actually get to go stand in the check in line where they again checked passports, boarding passes, etc. and give you your key card for the ship.  There must be a more streamlined way to do this.

 

Worth noting only the Haven gets a dedicated lane to breeze through all 3 stations.  The third stop to check in has a separate line for CAS and Latitudes members.  We booked through the casino and are Sapphire Latitudes so that sign was a very welcome sight by the time we got there.  In reality the whole process only took a little over an hour but it certainly felt much longer.  We saw some pretty nasty attitudes at the front of the check in line from people who didn't quite understand that Casino and Latitudes guests had their own priority lane at the third stop.  Can see how ugly the embarkation process would be on a full capacity sailing like the Gem and Getaway had recently.

 

Cabins: We had 2 standard balcony cabins near the aft elevators on deck 15.  Both cabins had the bed near the closet and it felt tighter walking around the bed than I remember from our last Breakaway class cruise on the Bliss pre-pandemic.  It was fine for us, especially for only 5 nights but could see how this would be an issue for others.  We had 2 different room stewards and both were nice and attentive, seemed like we had some empty cabins around us.  We tipped both on the second day and final night of the cruise.  We asked them for towel animals on the final night and each had 2 of the largest towel animals I've ever seen, a fun surprise to end the trip!

Ship: The Americanization of this ship is honestly impressive, was hoping we'd find some little hints of her early life sailing from Asia but there really isn't much save for some venues being in different locations.  If you didn't know her interior and pool deck were originally designed for the Asian market you never be able to tell.  The only thing that felt out of place to us was Maltings being tucked away in a large bland room next to the comedy/night club.  Dad is a cigar smoker so it was also a little curious that you can only access the Humidor from outside but he enjoyed the space regardless.  We did not have any issues with creaking or vibrations in the cabins but there was plenty of creaking to be heard in the stairwells, hallways, public restrooms on sea days.  The weather was not great on the way to or from Bermuda but it seemed more prominent than previous trips to Bermuda on Breakaway, and Gem.

 

Food/Drink: Very typical NCL fare and quality.  Cagney's is always our favorite and was once again the best meal of the trip.  Also dined in Ocean Blue, Q, Teppanyaki, and the Manhattan Room.  Have enjoyed Q in the past but no one was impressed by the meat this time, I know almost nothing about BBQ but could tell neither the short rib nor the brisket had been butchered properly.  The apps and sides were all delicious though.  Service in all the restaurants and bars was quick and attentive.  We attended 2 wine tasting events in the wine bar, lots of fun and great wine!  The sommelier Yuliana is a real character, even if you just go for a glass of wine highly recommend stopping by to chat with her.

 

Entertainment: Oof.  This was a rough cruise for the entertainment team.  All performances of Footloose and Elements for the cruise were cancelled on day 2 due to a medical emergency in the production cast.  Then, the acrobat show on night 4 was cancelled due to rough seas.  Totally understand that the situation was beyond anyone's control but 3 out of 5 nights of entertainment being cancelled was very unfortunate and very disappointing.  There were 2 comedians onboard who had both already performed family and adult comedy sets by night 4 so their last minute performances to replace the acrobats had some recycled material but they were funny enough and at that point we were taking what we could get.  The Beatles tribute band also performed twice in the theater and were enjoyable, some of them could use better wigs though.

 

Couldn't tell you much about about the cruise director, Jerry.  He hosted the sail away party and the first Beatles show on night 1 and we never saw or heard from him again the rest of the sailing.  Not sure what happened there.  Assistant CD Beancka was great though and a very busy lady doing all of the announcements, the morning show, hosting the parties each night, and even led the crew emergency drill while we were in Bermuda.  The rest of the CD staff were also great and the parties each night were fun.  The Glow Party had to be moved inside from SpiceH20 due to the weather which was a bummer but a good time nonetheless.

 

Bermuda: A Carnival ship beat the Joy into the channel on the morning of our arrival and was therefore attended to first by the port staff.  Our scheduled 8am arrival turned into 9:30 before anyone was able to leave this ship.  Only once we were out on the pier did we learn our scheduled 8:45am excursion to St. George's was postponed to 11:15 because our late arrival caused us to miss the ferry...even though we were standing right next to the NCL branded ferry boat that eventually took us to St. George's.  A logistical nightmare I'm sure.  Our tour of St. George's was great though and we made the last ferry back to the Dockyard.  Ferries are still running on the winter schedule and the gentleman at the pier we asked about it wasn't sure when they were switching to the summer schedule.  It was on the cooler side and a bit windy but were very happy the sun was out both days we were there.

 

Spa: We all had treatments in the spa and the staff were great, my massage was excellent!  No thermal spa as has been reported but I did notice the men's locker room had small steam and sauna rooms.  Never got a chance to enquire how usage of them worked.

 

Disembarkation:  We were thrilled to see no line to get off the ship only to be met with a huge line on the pier waiting to go inside.  Fortunately, it moved pretty quickly into the terminal for a quick passport check by customs.  We were out on the street in less than a half hour ready to enjoy a beautiful spring day in NYC.

 

Overall, we had a great cruise despite having to roll with the punches more than a few times.  Hopefully the rest of the Joy's season in Bermuda is smoother sailing, literally and figuratively!

[mking8288]

Thank you for writing up a concise post-cruise on your "Joy to Bermuda" - this pretty much matched what our niece shared with us, she was on the ship & upgraded from Deck 11 to Deck 15 - she was told that about 3,000 guests onboard ... whatever.  Sailing well below capacity is always good - we look forward to it, shortly.  Cagney has become our top choice too as Le Bistro really dropped off the cliff, was going to book the Q once we get onboard in lieu of Moderno on other ships, maybe we'll do La Cucina & Food Republic instead - we've seen close to a lifetime's worth of onboard Teppanyaki show, LOL.  Of course, opinions on food are always personal & subjective.  

 

Bermuda generally don't come out of their winter mode until the beginning of May ...  yet, NCL is put the island for its winter itinerary in 2023, going to get interesting.  Read elsewhere about some of the shops remaining closed but restaurants are open for tourist business, that TA head tax isn't helping either per local businesses.  I am a bit surprised that a single medical emergency resulted in the cancellation of both major production shows - they are supposed to have one or more understudy to cover ... unless.  That's a bummer - let's see how things go this week, the Roll Call has been quiet & not posting much, if any.  This is going to get read but quite a few of us - much appreciated. 

 

[Alegeeter]

I was on this sailing as well. Footloose and Elements were cancelled because dancers came down with COVID and there weren’t enough others to go on and cover the track. CD Jerry also tested positive for COVID and ACD took over midday on Day 2. This was confirmed by several different crew members who also told me they were not supposed to say anything except that there was an “accident” and that they had to wait until returning to NY to get new dancers. NCL Broadway production shows sail with understudies so I didn’t buy this reason anyway. Additionally, the Beatles cover band had COVID last week and their shows were cancelled then so it seems something is going around the entertainment staff.

 

I understand the risk of traveling during this time but really did not appreciate NCL having crew lie to us about the reasons shows were cancelled (my butler alone gave me two different explanations on two different occasions). I appreciate transparency and it seems NCL just wanted to prevent any news headline. However, it would have been respectful to know if COVID was known to actively be spreading so those who felt they needed to could take extra health precautions.

 

Oh, and they were so desperate for entertainment that one night the show was…a movie in the main theater. Again, things happen and I get that but we never got a letter in our cabin, an acknowledgement, a true explanation, or anything. I do think it would have been a nice gesture to extend a small amount of OBC given the circumstances, acknowledging that NCL was unable to deliver any amount of the main entertainment they are known for. Only 2200 passengers so it wouldn’t have put them out much and would have left passengers in much better spirits.

 

That said, the ship was beautiful and the crew exemplary! We made the best of non ideal situations 

[UKstages]

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

I am a bit surprised that a single medical emergency resulted in the cancellation of both major production shows - they are supposed to have one or more understudy to cover ... unless.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Alegeeter said:

Oh, and they were so desperate for entertainment that one night the show was…a movie in the main theater.

 

on the gem two weeks ago, "swing! the musical" was canceled, presumably due to covid and they substituted an extra performance of "blazing boots," until that got canceled, as well... due to "illness."  they elevated a lounge guitarist to the main stage for the early show and ran the movie "lincoln" in the theater for the late show. the CD announced gleefully that the food and beverage team would be serving popcorn! even so, this was the last night of the cruise, there were a thousand kids on board during spring break... nobody wanted to watch a three hour movie about a dead president! (and my first thought was... you can't just pop a DVD in and show it to a commercial audience. DVDs are licensed for private home viewing.)

 

as for understudies, i have a lot of friends who have worked in shows on cruise ships... they've never had understudies. i'd be really surprised to learn that NCL shows have understudies. i'm not saying it's not so... i'm simply stating that i'd be surprised. in any case, understudies are rarely a viable option in the case of covid on board ship, if the entire cast has to be quarantined due to potential exposure.

[Alegeeter]

7 minutes ago, UKstages said:

 

 

 

 

as for understudies, i have a lot of friends who have worked in shows on cruise ships... they've never had understudies. i'd be really surprised to learn that NCL shows have understudies. i'm not saying it's not so... i'm simply stating that i'd be surprised. in any case, understudies are rarely a viable option in the case of covid on board ship, if the entire cast has to be quarantined due to potential exposure.

The Broadway shows on the Breakaway and Breakaway+ ships absolutely have understudies. From Rock of Ages back when Breakaway first started to Six, those shows all have a few covers. I can confirm from Instagram and one I’ve seen live that they’re there. The older shows like Blazing Boots, I’m not so sure.

 

Good point about them having to quarantine though. It’ll be interesting to see if the shows are pushed to later in this week’s sailing when quarantine would end or cancelled again altogether.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Alegeeter

[RunBikeCruiseDC]

Thank you so much for the trip report! We were supposed to be on that cruise but ended up getting covid the week prior so we had to cancel.    Hope you were able to find enough enjoyment even with some cancellations.  

[chiapet]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.  We’re on the sailing on the 15th and appreciate any news being provided during these changing times!

[NYFirstTimeCruiser]

I was on this cruise.  I asked for OBC for shows cancelled.  They were not giving any.  Did anyone get OBC for cancelled shows?

[JGmf]

I was on this cruise as well.

 

The embarkation process was nutty.  Agree about how odd it is they have two series of lines, I supposed, to triage the health form/Bermuda trouble cases.  We arrived at the port at 9:30am.  After line step one, we were issued a group 13 card to sit-tight and wait to line-up at the line step two to get our key card and share our cruise docs.  In 10 minute spurts they called groups 1-3, then 4-6, then, very odd, they announce "groups 7 through 20 can line-up"....it was a crazy rush.  Staff were yelling "don't run", but everyone scrambled out of their seats and ran/rushed to line system anyway.  Very, very odd.

 

Regarding how many were on board, three of us on this thread heard different numbers on passenger counts.  I heard 2,700, 2/3 capacity, from a Footloose actor/dancer who I had a drink with on the Waterfront.  The bartender said the same about passenger counts. 

 

Agree on the rest of the cruise director staff doing a wonderful and entertaining job.  Tina from Argentina was/is a standout. 

 

I really think they need to extend the 80's party in the Social to later into the night.  When they switched to club music, I stayed, but the place cleared out really fast.  Too bad. People were having a great time.

 

Of note, the aft section was was vibrating like crazy on our way back to NYC.  We were eating back by the windows in the Manhattan Room that evening and the place was rattling.

 

Regardless, it was a fun cruise.  Thankfully we had good weather for our full day in Bermuda.

 

[NicoJ113]

Interesting that people have heard different numbers 2,300 passengers is what the Captain said at the 'How to Run a Cruise Ship' Q&A.  We got the same number from a server in one of the restaurants as well. 

 

My immediate thought when I heard the shows were cancelled was Covid but I was thrown off when we asked and they said medical emergency.  Made me think someone they couldn't go on without had injured themselves or something.  Kind of odd to call it an emergency if it was really Covid.

[vacation44]

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

[D.B.]

I was on this sailing as well.

 

As soon as CD Jerry went missing on day 2, I assumed there was likely Covid onboard. (Which now seems to be the correct assumption.) Between a likely outbreak combined with rough seas, it wasn’t surprising that most of the stage shows were cancelled. But I was surprised there wasn’t a better “plan B” in place.

 

And, btw, there were several Haven Restaurant waitstaff missing by the last night of the cruise. Staff from other venues, still in their outfits from the other restaurants, filled in.

 

Not sure how I feel about the apparent secrecy of it all — it seems irresponsible.

 

However, I must say that despite the challenges and poor weather, I had a nice time onboard.

[summercruiser20]

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

Edited May 5, 2022 by summercruiser20

[vacation44]

1 hour ago, summercruiser20 said:

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

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.   

[CruisinMaterial]

I was on the Getaway over New Years and had the same thing happen. NCL did bold faced lies on the ship about the COVID spread and yet the production cast had it. We had Burn the Floor but they kept pushing off the other production until finally it was gone completely. A lot of the other acts disappeared during the voyage including the DJs. We had two cruise staff members trying to do the deck parties. They were clearly exhausted and overwhelmed as the cruise went on (it was 9 days), we lost more and more staff. That's why when it ended on January 5th, the ship was taken out of service. It couldn't function with the number of crew and staff in quarantine.

 

For those looking for anything from it, we had karaoke most nights after the New Years celebration and NCL didn't care and offered nothing. There was nothing else to do besides karaoke and gambling and drink! During the cruise a lot of bartenders went missing as well. We had people from O'Sheehans working at the Prime Merdien bar aft during the night time because they didn't have enough people. Hopefully the Joy gets her COVID situation sorted on the next voyages so she's back up to speed when people I know sail on her in a couple of weeks.

[mking8288]

Perhaps, no news is good news for this week's Joy cruise - they've been at Dockyard since yesterday morning, 2 overnights & sailing home to NY tomorrow afternoon at 4.  T-Mo users (most plans) have "free" 4G data services included roaming there on BTC.  It's been quiet and perhaps that it is a good sign.  The recovery timeline for fully vaxxed & boosted person exposed to the sub/variants are fairly quick unless there are other risk factors.  Crew & others quarantined on board should've recovered by now as long as ... assuming the "facts" given are accurate enough & not distorted. 

 

The next group, followed by those afterward,  etc. approaching their staging, tomorrow is the big day for getting tested & uploading results, etc. before Sunday's embarkation ... hope, watch and wait.  

[NYFirstTimeCruiser]

On 5/4/2022 at 5:16 PM, JGmf said:

I was on this cruise as well.

 

The embarkation process was nutty.  Agree about how odd it is they have two series of lines, I supposed, to triage the health form/Bermuda trouble cases.  We arrived at the port at 9:30am.  After line step one, we were issued a group 13 card to sit-tight and wait to line-up at the line step two to get our key card and share our cruise docs.  In 10 minute spurts they called groups 1-3, then 4-6, then, very odd, they announce "groups 7 through 20 can line-up"....it was a crazy rush.  Staff were yelling "don't run", but everyone scrambled out of their seats and ran/rushed to line system anyway.  Very, very odd.

 

Regarding how many were on board, three of us on this thread heard different numbers on passenger counts.  I heard 2,700, 2/3 capacity, from a Footloose actor/dancer who I had a drink with on the Waterfront.  The bartender said the same about passenger counts. 

 

Agree on the rest of the cruise director staff doing a wonderful and entertaining job.  Tina from Argentina was/is a standout. 

 

I really think they need to extend the 80's party in the Social to later into the night.  When they switched to club music, I stayed, but the place cleared out really fast.  Too bad. People were having a great time.

 

Of note, the aft section was was vibrating like crazy on our way back to NYC.  We were eating back by the windows in the Manhattan Room that evening and the place was rattling.

 

Regardless, it was a fun cruise.  Thankfully we had good weather for our full day in Bermuda.

 

Ha.  I thought I was the only one who was bummed out when they ended the 80's party and switched djs.  I left after the 2nd song and true enough, I see people coming out later on.  I even saw a couple that was on the dance floor at the sugarcane. 🙂

[JGmf]

1 hour ago, NYFirstTimeCruiser said:

Ha.  I thought I was the only one who was bummed out when they ended the 80's party and switched djs.  I left after the 2nd song and true enough, I see people coming out later on.

 

Yeah, really.  Read the room!  It was like they were on a hard and fast schedule, like the 80's DJ had to catch a bus or something.....  Fun killers!!

[Alegeeter]

On 5/4/2022 at 11:06 PM, D.B. said:

I was on this sailing as well.

 

As soon as CD Jerry went missing on day 2, I assumed there was likely Covid onboard. (Which now seems to be the correct assumption.) Between a likely outbreak combined with rough seas, it wasn’t surprising that most of the stage shows were cancelled. But I was surprised there wasn’t a better “plan B” in place.

 

And, btw, there were several Haven Restaurant waitstaff missing by the last night of the cruise. Staff from other venues, still in their outfits from the other restaurants, filled in.

 

Not sure how I feel about the apparent secrecy of it all — it seems irresponsible.

 

However, I must say that despite the challenges and poor weather, I had a nice time onboard.

I did notice some staff in their Q uniforms up in the Haven restaurant and how the service up there seemed much slower and high stress than usual. Our waiter was running around like a mad man. Makes sense given what you described 

[summercruiser20]

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.

[vacation44]

34 minutes ago, summercruiser20 said:

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.

Thank you for your post.   We are three for three in securing Vibe passes.  When we were on the Joy in the Haven this past February,

We opted not to by them.  This time even we upgrade ourselves from a non Haven Suite to a Haven Suite, we definitely want to obtain passes.   I do realize though that the Joy Vibe is double the size do that is in our favor.

 

Still frustrating to read about the non organization at the NY pier .