Joy Review: 7/23 - 7/30

[bkrickles1]

This was our 2nd sailing on Joy, with the first being last summer. It's our 4th sailing on a Breakaway Plus ship.

I'd have to say that our experience was very similar to last years, which was excellent!

In fact, I'd say that some things were actually better!

The ship looked to be in great shape to me. It was clean, with the crew constantly doing there thing to keep it spotless.

 

Embarkation was a little hectic as they seemed to start boarding a little later than last year, but with all that me and my party of 13 were boarding around 11:30am.

That was with no priority and with us showing up at the pier around 8:30am.

Once on board, we finalized entertainment/dinner reservations, did our muster and had a drink in hand within 30 minutes.

We then had lunch in Taste/Savor like humans and our vacation was underway!!

 

We had won a bid to be upgraded to a Club Balcony Suite on deck 13 and we loved our cabin. We had one last year but it was a "family" Club Balcony which has the tub in the large shower. We preferred the standard which has the large walk in shower with the extra jets. Just a great bathroom overall!

Our steward was excellent. Our cabin was ready by around 3pm and our steward came to introduce himself within 10 minutes of our arrival.

I provided him with a list of requests, which he promptly took care of. We saw him fairly often and our cabin was well taken care of even without the turndown service. BTW, I much preferred my bed by the balcony.

 

Service everywhere was really good. I never waited long for a drink and everyone we interacted with was so nice, except for one waiter at the Local, who seemed to be in a mood one day. Lmao! That was the super rare occasion though. Everyone was nice, friendly and I never got the sense that they were tired and over worked like others on here have been saying. There jobs are hard and everyone I interacted with were doing there best and doing it with a smile!

 

Food was same as always to us. Most was good, some was very good and some was mediocre. Be smart with what you order and you should be ok. And, of course, you can always get or order something else if dissatisfied.

Cagneys was enjoyable. Food was good to very good and the service was great! I almost finished the 7 layer cake, but I didn't want to explode like "Meaning of Life". Lol!!

Had lunch at Food Republic and that was very good to excellent. Service was a little slow, but it's always a very good experience and it might be the best food on the ship! BTW, I shared a dining credit here with my niece and ordered just one extra item (pastrami & sauerkraut dumplings), so we had 5 items and it was so much food for the two of us.

Shared a dining credit at Q with my wife before our sunset catamaran in Bermuda and while I wouldn't recommend anyone wasting credits on it, Q is a fun venue with tremendous service and we enjoyed listening to live music as we finished our meal. It's also the only kid friendly specialty restaurant and I mean little kids.

Part of our group were 2 families with 2 kids each anywhere from 1 to 5yo. They went there once for dinner and a couple of times later to listen to music and there's space for the kids to get up a little and they never felt that the kids didn't fit in or were a burden on others.

We were at the Local way more than any previous cruise. We had breakfast there one day, lunch another and it became a little bit of a hangout for all of us in the evening with the kids. We'd have snacks, drink and watch what was going on in the atrium, which was a lot. Wings and pretzel bites seemed to be everyone's fav.

Buffet was pretty much the same. Maybe there's some cutbacks there, but it was fine. Plenty of choices with the food being anywhere from mediocre to good.

Complimentary breakfast buffet at the American Diner was good for us a few days. We'd set up our day on deck 17 with some loungers and from 8:30 until 11:30 there was the limited buffet. It was never crowded and there was plenty to choose from. Very convenient to walk to from our pool spot and grab a quick 15 minute breakfast. You add that to the regular buffet, dining rooms and OL and you have many choices to go and eat in the morning.

MDR's were same as always for us. We went to the Manhattan room twice for dinner and got a table for 13 one night and 2 tables next to each other the 2nd time. Solid meals and I always enjoy the After Eight Mint Chocolate Mousse. 

 

Entertainment, which is one of the reasons why we started to sail NCL more than RCCL recently, was very good. There's really too much to do actually and you can't really see everything. Live music being the real draw in most venues.

We saw Elements again, which was really good. The Magic show was good too. We skipped Footloose this time but the newbies in our group went and most enjoyed it. I saw one of the comedians for his adult show and it was very funny. I didn't get to see the 2nd one though.

Beatles tribute band was better than last year and they were good last year. My wife and I sat close at the Cavern on the last night and it was a fun time!

All the music was fun and it was everywhere. I think you probably had, at least, 6 different venues to go to at night for some kind of live music.

District, Atrium, Q, Cavern Club, OL and Sugarcane were always places to go in the evening for anything from quiet music to loud and lively music.

My wife and I were babysitting our two little great nieces one night and we parked ourselves outside on the Waterfront by the Cavern Club and were able to have a drink and listen to the music too. The Waterfront is an outstanding space!

Parties at Spice were plentiful and fun, as was the Glow party on the pool deck. It seemed like the whole ship showed up for the Glow party!

 

We had the basic FAS drink package and it's perfect for us. I'm a beer drinker who dabbles in a few other cocktails and the basic package supports all of my needs. The wife doesn't drink much, so when she tries something and doesn't like it, she doesn't feel bad and will try something else.

You always can get 2 drinks at a time on a card and by the 3rd or 4th day, you could get more than that when you wanted.

I had no issue getting 2 Stellas, unopened, to go back to the room with.

 

Bermuda was gorgeous, as ever!

We did the sunset catamaran on our first evening and it was fun and beautiful! We even had a couple get engaged on it.

The 2nd day, as always, was Horseshoe Bay. We got there early, got 2 tents and 7 chairs, and it was an epic day!

Beach was crowded, but not insane like the first day (we were told). It was a wavy day, but the water was so nice.

The cove to the right was perfect for the kids and we stayed longer than I expected.

AND NO MAN O WAR!!

On the 3rd day a couple of the kids, with their dads, did that new water obstacle course thing right at the pier and they said it was hard.

The dads came back all banged up so I'm glad I didn't go. Lmao!

 

Weather was perfect all week until the final sea day. It got windy and we probably had an hour of rain in the morning. It got nice after that but the wind was pretty steady. We hung out less by the pool that day and that was ok after 6 straight days of blazing sun.

 

Disembarkation was fine too.

We walk off and, while it's slow, it's ok. We started to get off at 9am and we were in our van heading home by 10am. Not bad at all really.

We always have a sit down breakfast on the last morning and that worked out well. 7 or us went at 7:45. We had a 5 - 10 minute wait, got seated and had a nice final breakfast before heading home.

 

Miscellaneous: I upgraded the basic 150 minute wifi to unlimited basic. It served it's purpose. It was slow but I could send and receive emails for work and do some basic web stuff. I was able to video chat with my daughter every day. I'm android and she's iphone so we use google meet and it worked every day.

Also, my wife had a short zoom meeting while in Bermuda and the wifi held up for that too. She did her call from our stateroom. I was going to get on the Verizon travel pass, but it wasn't necessary. That was a plus, obviously.

Had fun one night in the cigar lounge after dinner. There was an attendant on call and someone came in regularly for drink orders. We had many laughs that night!

The two 5 year olds did Splash Academy most of the sessions they were open and loved it!!

I don't believe there were a lot of children on board this week, so it was easy to drop off at any time. No need to get there 30 minutes early. They even had a fun session on the pool deck one early evening for little ones of all ages and our kids loved it. The staff were all so nice!

The 5 year olds were able to ride the tube waterslide, and they loved it of course. And I did the drop down slide and didn't get stuck. Lmao!

 

All in all, a great trip!

I'm sorry that I don't have any real negatives to share. Of course it wasn't perfect, but we're fairly experienced cruisers and we are prepared from the tips received on these forums. Doing a little bit of research can really help to avoid some of the frustrating things that can occur in todays cruising environment.

The newbies in my group had a great time, but had a few minor gripes.

They found the pool deck to be slippery (someone fell and hurt their arm) and they weren't happy that they couldn't bring the little ones into some of the bars. District Brew house being one of them. Silly stuff that ended up being nothing really. All the newbies said they would cruise again.

 

AMA

[Hmmcminn]

I’m glad you had such a great time!  I’ll be getting onboard next week, so it’s nice to see such a positive review.

 

Do you happen to have any of the freestyle dailies?

[bkrickles1]

8 minutes ago, Hmmcminn said:

I’m glad you had such a great time!  I’ll be getting onboard next week, so it’s nice to see such a positive review.

 

Do you happen to have any of the freestyle dailies?

I'm sorry. I don't.

I wanted to save and bring them home but my wife destroyed them all by folding and tearing them every day. And I didn't realize until a few days in that you could download them from the app.

There's someone on here that posted dailies from a couple of weeks ago.

If you find them, they are probably 95% accurate.

[vacation44]

Happy to hear you reported back and had a great time. 

 

How much were the tents at Horseshow Bay and how many lounge chairs fit under each one?

[cruiseny4life]

I've been waiting for this review.....for so long!! I'm glad the cruise met your expectations, or even exceeded them. And, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and how everything went. Joy truly is a beautiful ship! 

[bkrickles1]

20 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

Happy to hear you reported back and had a great time. 

 

How much were the tents at Horseshow Bay and how many lounge chairs fit under each one?

I don't recall the breakdown and I should know because I paid for all of it. Lmao!

I paid $200 for 2 tents and 6 chairs. Our 7th chair was bought by a late attendee.

We fit 6 chairs under the 2 tents as we set them up side by side. So, 3 each.

We even brought a few clothes pins to hang a couple of towels to block even more sun.

This is our first time renting the tents and they are way better than the umbrellas and worth the few extra dollars.

[Panhandle Couple]

Glad you enjoyed everything, and took the time to post your experience!

[mexicobob]

Good review. Thank you for posting a positive and enjoyable account of your sailing. Glad you had a good time and hope to sail with you one day.

[bkrickles1]

Something I wanted to add that I remembered in the last couple of days.

 

Last summer, when I sailed Joy, there was a noticeable shortage of various items due to the pandemic.

It was the bars where I noticed it most.

For example, there wasn't any Captain Morgan and they ran out of vodka by the 2nd to last day.

The bars were very bare and I'm sure there were many things that were missing.

Last week I checked out the bars that I frequented on Joy and they were stocked.

I'm not a diverse drinker, so while I'm sure there could still be some shortages, it was a night and day difference from last year.

The other thing they didn't have last summer, and this was something I missed, was cream cheese.

I always have the bagel with smoked salmon in taste/savor and, last year, I was relegated to butter. Lol!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to bring up that their provisioning seems to be much improved over the past year.

[Panhandle Couple]

1 hour ago, bkrickles1 said:

Something I wanted to add that I remembered in the last couple of days.

 

Last summer, when I sailed Joy, there was a noticeable shortage of various items due to the pandemic.

It was the bars where I noticed it most.

For example, there wasn't any Captain Morgan and they ran out of vodka by the 2nd to last day.

The bars were very bare and I'm sure there were many things that were missing.

Last week I checked out the bars that I frequented on Joy and they were stocked.

I'm not a diverse drinker, so while I'm sure there could still be some shortages, it was a night and day difference from last year.

The other thing they didn't have last summer, and this was something I missed, was cream cheese.

I always have the bagel with smoked salmon in taste/savor and, last year, I was relegated to butter. Lol!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to bring up that their provisioning seems to be much improved over the past year.

The renowned Captain Morgan shortage...I remember it well.

 

We survived, but just barely.  Luckily I discovered Dark and Stormy's.  

My wife had to rely on various brands of coconut rum. 

[cruiseny4life]

20 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

The renowned Captain Morgan shortage...I remember it well.

 

We survived, but just barely.  Luckily I discovered Dark and Stormy's.  

My wife had to rely on various brands of coconut rum. 

I discovered the magic of Grey Goose and club soda due to the lack of my capt. My captain, my captain where were you?

 

@bkrickles1, thank you for the update on the rum chest.

[ggTexasGal]

@cruiseny4life were you using Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" above? 😉

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, ggTexasGal said:

@cruiseny4life were you using Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" above? 😉

No, I mean I came up with....errr, ok, fine....yes! Poetry has never been my strongest subject. 🙂

[ggTexasGal]

Just now, cruiseny4life said:

No, I mean I came up with....errr, ok, fine....yes! Poetry has never been my strongest subject. 🙂

You were so close! 😉😁

[cruisinggrandma57]

I'm a wine drinker, does anyone know if they had white zinn or moscato wine?

[bkrickles1]

25 minutes ago, cruisinggrandma57 said:

I'm a wine drinker, does anyone know if they had white zinn or moscato wine?

My niece had white zinfandel, so yes to that.

Sorry, don't know about moscato

[Pitzel]

On 8/2/2023 at 5:10 PM, bkrickles1 said:

The other thing they didn't have last summer, and this was something I missed, was cream cheese.

This wasn't just an NCL or even a cruise thing. Apparently, there was a HUGE cream cheese shortage in 2021-2022.

https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/dairy/tough-year-for-schmear-where-did-the-cream-cheese-shortage-come-from/article_573abcdc-b82c-5ceb-8fb5-a93ade3d31d0.html

[Dorhead1230]

@bkrickles1 glad you ended up having a great time! Thanks for the report!

 

@Hmmcminn if you didn’t leave yet (I think you meant you’re leaving this coming Sunday), this is a link to my semi-live from a few weeks ago. It’s a pretty long thread, but if you keep scrolling through you’ll see a couple posts where I posted photos of the Dailies. Have a great cruise!

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2947619-bringing-the-joy-with-as-live-ish-a-review-as-the-lousy-wi-fi-will-allow-bermuda-79-716/

 

[bkrickles1]

We gave such a glowing review of our Joy sailing to our daughter, who couldn't come this time due to a wedding, that she's slowly convincing us to take her on a 10 day Getaway sailing next April.

I've quickly looked into the Getaway and we're intrigued with the entertainment. A lot of focus on musical acts, which we loved about Joy.

It also received a significant refurbishment in 2019/2020 so this could be our follow-up to Joy.

 

BTW I now remember reading about the missing hash browns at breakfast and I can confirm that they were not present. With that being said, I like the breakfast potatoes they provide now.

[cruiseny4life]

15 minutes ago, bkrickles1 said:

We gave such a glowing review of our Joy sailing to our daughter, who couldn't come this time due to a wedding, that she's slowly convincing us to take her on a 10 day Getaway sailing next April.

I've quickly looked into the Getaway and we're intrigued with the entertainment. A lot of focus on musical acts, which we loved about Joy.

It also received a significant refurbishment in 2019/2020 so this could be our follow-up to Joy.

 

BTW I now remember reading about the missing hash browns at breakfast and I can confirm that they were not present. With that being said, I like the breakfast potatoes they provide now.

Hopefully Getaway will still have Broadway Unplugged, done by the same crew that perform Million Dollar Quartet. It's a really great hourlong performance in the Illusionarium. 

 

Second instance of no hash browns I've seen. I really hope y'all are wrong as I don't care for the home fry type potatoes. Oh well, less carbs. That's good for this diabetic! 

[bkrickles1]

36 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Hopefully Getaway will still have Broadway Unplugged, done by the same crew that perform Million Dollar Quartet. It's a really great hourlong performance in the Illusionarium. 

 

Second instance of no hash browns I've seen. I really hope y'all are wrong as I don't care for the home fry type potatoes. Oh well, less carbs. That's good for this diabetic! 

I'm cautiously optimistic that the entertainment on Getaway will still be very similar to what it is right now.

I don't believe MDQ is the type of production show that will be cut like Footloose and Kinky Boots.

Add that to Burn the Floor, 2 comedians, 3 different shows at Syd Norman's, dueling pianos, etc.  and you have the makings of a pretty entertaining ship. Fingers crossed. Lmao!!

And I did read that Broadway Unplugged was a fun one too.

As I said, I was super pleased with the entertainment on my Joy sailing so I'd suspect that Getaway would do it for me too. We just did Joy 2 years in a row and my wife wants something a little different next time. With some different entertainment and a couple of different restaurants, I think Getaway accomplishes that.

I'm waiting for the better cruise first certs to become available and I'll make a decision then.

 

I didn't miss the hash browns but if they take away my After Eight Chocolate Mousse or Cagney's 7 layer cake (I'm a chocolate junkie!), there will be trouble!!!!! Lol 🤣

[TenForward]

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Hopefully Getaway will still have Broadway Unplugged, done by the same crew that perform Million Dollar Quartet. It's a really great hourlong performance in the Illusionarium. 

 

Second instance of no hash browns I've seen. I really hope y'all are wrong as I don't care for the home fry type potatoes. Oh well, less carbs. That's good for this diabetic! 

 

I think we were on the same NYE Getaway cruise and I just loved Broadway Unplugged. Literally moved to tears by her version of "Momma Mia".   We are booked next April - hoping it will still be around. 

 

[cruiseny4life]

19 minutes ago, TenForward said:

 

I think we were on the same NYE Getaway cruise and I just loved Broadway Unplugged. Literally moved to tears by her version of "Momma Mia".   We are booked next April - hoping it will still be around. 

 

Yes we did share that cruise! I'm so glad you enjoyed the show. There were a couple times my eyes moistened - the songs, the atmosphere, the way the performers interacted with each other!