NLC Joy Panama Canal - LA to Miami 2/24/23

[PTC DAWG]

Good stuff..thanks for all the work. 

[Sailing12Away]

[Sailing12Away]

Traveling around Panama today with a private tour we booked through toursbylocals.com

[Sailing12Away]

[dwr777]

Great review, thanks for posting. I’ll be on NCL Joy in the Haven in a few weeks. I can’t wait! Looks like it will be a great cruise.

[Sailing12Away]

We found a brewery, of course. Went to the old locks and saw 2 cargo ships transiting.

[Sailing12Away]

Finally some lighter snacks in the room. I had a burger at the local, hubby had just a plate of French fries. Then lots of drinks (way too many, first time I've ever been drunk on a trip) up at the bar. Sitting on the balcony with fresh air in my PJs while hubby closes out the bar again. I had to tap out around 11pm when drinks were coming faster than I can put them down.

 

They've changed our departure time 3x, so I think we'll pass under the bridge at 5am, first locks around 7am. Who the heck puts mayo on a burger? Had to eat mine without the bottom bun tonight as it was covered in gross goo.

[Sailing12Away]

Way too many drinks, trying to sober up before climbing in bed for my 5am alarm to see us under the bridge. This was not a well planned out evening. To quote UK Bob, I'm bollocks. We're even now at least...

[Sailing12Away]

Sitting on the balcony using my free TMobile WiFi this is my speed test results. For comparison, the other day using ship WiFi I had the second set of results (tonight is the results with Dallas as they server).

 

I think I still have about 25 mins of free internet under my name and another 300 mins to tap into under hubby's name.

 

So for us and having free WiFi at port with our cell phone carrier, the unlimited internet is not a value add. I think I've been checking in here a decent about of time considering I'm no travel blogger, and I still have plenty of time left. All depends on what you want to do and what is important to you. But the Internet is slow when you're in certain parts of the world. So just because it's free doesn't mean it's good.

[cruiseny4life]

Hope you made it for your 5 AM alarm! Pretty sure I would have thrown my phone into the ocean if an alarm went off with me still all drunky drunk! 

[HBCcruiser]

25 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Hope you made it for your 5 AM alarm! Pretty sure I would have thrown my phone into the ocean if an alarm went off with me still all drunky drunk! 

Agreed! I’d be moving mighty slowly if I mixed drinks like that. According to your FB posts you were up early for transit. You are a better woman than I @Sailing12Away Hats off to you! 

[PTC DAWG]

I like Mayo on my burger.  🙂

 

Still enjoying the review....some cool stuff.  

[Sailing12Away]

Just made it to Grand Cayman, so tons of photos from the canal transit, Cartagena, and sea days to catch up on with posts. But for now, enjoy the gorgeous sunrise I caught while watching Carnival pull in near us. We've got a sunken ship snorkeling adventure booked for today.

 

Not sure how some of you guys do B2B, but 15 days is loooooong.

[Sailing12Away]

Some views of the moon last night, dinner at ocean blue, and lunch off menu in the Haven restaurant yesterday. We've been skipping meals because there's just too much food. Between what is waiting for us in the room, meals on the ship, meals off the ship, cocktails.... 

 

I'll have to revise my Butler letter for next trip to specify 1 tray only per delivery. For us it's meant to be a snack, not meal #4, 5, 6...

[Sailing12Away]

Dinner on the previous sea day at the Haven restaurant, and more snacks in the room. You can see how repetitive they've gotten where they're just not even enjoyable any longer. We've tried to leave notes to say stop, but they keep coming. Just a waste of food at this point.

 

The "specials" in the Haven restaurant are just a pick from the MDR offers of the night. I went with the kids menu for an app as the regular food there just doesn't appeal to me.

 

We've been fine with the food in general, but I've heard others complaining about declining quality in general (no particular restaurant). Except apple pie - cannot find a decent apple pie anywhere on the ship. It's an odd gelatinous mush. The small pie at Cagney's was the best of the bunch, but bring the best of the worst isn't a real compliment.

[cruiseny4life]

Oh yay! I was wondering what happened. Figured the internet wasn't great. My friend saw you all...well Joy...in Cartagena when he was on Zaandam. Well...they just went through the canal and are starting up the west coast. 

 

That is so much food! I thought it was a lot when butlers would bring one tray to our cabin. I'm a little bit worried about the amount of food wasted when we get onboard next week. Now here's an area NCL could use "rational optimization" for! No more snacks, except chocolate covered strawberries. Or, give us a list to choose from at the beginning of the cruise where we select what is desired (and quantity).

 

Sorry the food is getting repetitive and just not that appealing. The mac and cheese looks alright. Creamy, at least. 

 

I hope you have an enjoyable next few days onboard! 

[PTC DAWG]

At some point on the longer cruises I have been on, I just go make myself a nice salad in the buffet.  That seems to help when I've grown tired of the heavier entrees.  Oh, and I rarely, if ever, eat desert, I'd rather drink the calories.  🙂

[Sailing12Away]

35 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

At some point on the longer cruises I have been on, I just go make myself a nice salad in the buffet.  That seems to help when I've grown tired of the heavier entrees.  Oh, and I rarely, if ever, eat desert, I'd rather drink the calories.  🙂

Same. I've been sticking with a scoop of ice cream or splitting one thing with hubby then getting frozen cocktails as dessert.

 

I've got some photos of the Holland ship that day, and Celebrity Apex just joined us here in Cayman. Those edge villas sure look nice....

[Captain-John]

Great review and pictures, thank you.

 

Any noise from the public decks above the HH cabin? Or traffic passing en-route to the observation lounge?

[PTC DAWG]

I have sailed the Apex..great ship and overall experience.  

[Sailing12Away]

6 hours ago, Captain-John said:

Great review and pictures, thank you.

 

Any noise from the public decks above the HH cabin? Or traffic passing en-route to the observation lounge?

Late at night (1am) they power wash the deck above. If we're already asleep we never heard it, but when we were just stumbling into the room you did. Nothing obtrusive. Early in the morning around 6-7am folks start shuffling deck chairs. Again, not enough to bother us.

 

The folks going to deck 15 observation lounge are bigger piggies than the buffet hounds. Can't tell you how many times they would come out of there with 3 players of snacks pulled high and race me to the elevator. But again, on the Joy these HH, HI, HJ rooms are by far our favorite and a great value.

[Sailing12Away]

Snorkeling trip was great, hubby didn't get in the water though. He's blind without his glasses, we have prescription goggles for him but folks took all the seats on the lower deck so we were up a narrow ladder on the upper deck. Juggling carrying his fins (my fins, we brought the wrong ones from home - oops), wearing his goggles, having them fog up, and getting down the ladder just to get to the deck to get off was too much for him. If we were sitting on the list deck he would have tried but just too much to navigate.

 

Will post the underwater pics & videos when I'm back home.

[EngrJones]

9 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Dinner on the previous sea day at the Haven restaurant, and more snacks in the room. You can see how repetitive they've gotten where they're just not even enjoyable any longer. We've tried to leave notes to say stop, but they keep coming. Just a waste of food at this point.

 

The "specials" in the Haven restaurant are just a pick from the MDR offers of the night. I went with the kids menu for an app as the regular food there just doesn't appeal to me.

 

We've been fine with the food in general, but I've heard others complaining about declining quality in general (no particular restaurant).

 

Food is highly overrated.  People seem to worship it here on the forum, but I just want something that tastes decent and gets me to my next meal.  I can generally find that in every venue on the ship.  

 

Your photos of the ocean are far more appealing (and zero calories).

Edited March 9, 2023 by EngrJones

[farmecologist]

On 3/5/2023 at 10:38 PM, Sailing12Away said:

Way too many drinks, trying to sober up before climbing in bed for my 5am alarm to see us under the bridge. This was not a well planned out evening. To quote UK Bob, I'm bollocks. We're even now at least...

 

Wow...and I thought we drank a a lot when we were on the Joy a few weeks ago!  Good work!  Haha...

 

What bar did you hang out at the most?  We absolutely loved maltings.  Awesome bartender there! 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by farmecologist

[CptBoatface]

Glad to see a post, was worried piRATes might have gotcha