Live! NCL Joy, NYC to Bermuda, April 14-21

[Mlake09]

As long as the internet is decent I will post updates! We’ve had a smooth check in so far- we arrived early to a packed security line, but the line moved fairly quickly. We always travel out of NYC during the school breaks but typically end up on the Breakaway/Getaway/Gem. This is our first time on the Joy, and we turn Sapphire on this cruise! 

[BirdTravels]

Have a wonderful cruise!

[DRGrammy]

Looking forward to reading.  We’ll be on the Joy in a couple of weeks.  Enjoy your trip.

[vacation44]

Looking forward to your live review.  Thank you and have a wonderful time!   We are on the Joy in June.   If you can, can you please post the dailies.

[stinkyharriet]

I’ll be on the Joy next month so I’m looking forward to your thoughts on the ship after the recent dry dock.

[graphicguy]

Thanks!  Looking forward to this.  Will sail her in June!

[Mlake09]

 

Good morning from day 2! We just got back from the Latitudes Behind the Scenes Tour, which was interesting but a little hard to hear. We had a large group, which was broken into two smaller groups, but still fairly big. We’ve done the tour on the Breakaway and the stops were all the same (main galley, laundry, I-95, dressing rooms/stage). We probably will not do the tour again but it was interesting to see all the crew posters, etc.

 

The ship is rocking and it’s windy outside (apparent wind 60 knots), so the waterfront is closed. The navigation channel says high seas and the vomit bags have been out since last night. We are on the 10th floor and the sea spray has made it so we can open our balcony doors, but can’t sit outside without getting wet. The fresh warm air is still fantastic though, so we have our doors open and are enjoying the breeze. Temperatures are comfortable (70 degrees) and I’m planning to change into shorts soon; I’m from MA and want to soak up as much warm weather as possible!

 

We don’t typically eat at the buffet when we cruise, except for the soft serve cones, which I can’t stay away from.  For breakfast today we ate at Taste, which was fine, and last night for dinner, we ate at Ocean Blue with our two friends. Ocean Blue is one of my favorite specialty restaurants, and the food was wonderful. The only change I noticed was that the bread is no longer the rectangle of buttery focaccia goodness and instead is now similar to the bread served at La Cucina. It was good, but not as good as whatever the past Ocean Blue magical bread was. Service was excellent.  

 

This is a school vacation cruise and it is definitely busy. I’ve never seen the NYC terminal so busy before 10am and we have done many cruises out of that port. Luckily the ship is large and people seem to have spread out quite a bit. We’ve had no trouble getting drinks from the bar, and service has been good overall. I did notice that in the Moscow mules, there are no longer pieces of candied ginger.  

 

We’re going to head up top shortly for some walking, and will plan to try the American Diner for lunch now that it’s included. We’ve never eaten there before. My wife and I have reservations to try the Q for dinner too. 

 

FYI internet speeds: I just ran the speed test and it’s a little slow even on the unlimited WiFi package. Download 1.82 mbps per second/upload .65 mbps per second.

[cruisegirl1976]

Following along, hopefully with winds calms down for you soon. 

[andychris]

Have. Wonderful time!

[Laszlo]

10 hours ago, graphicguy said:

Thanks!  Looking forward to this.  Will sail her in June!

What is your sail date?

[graphicguy]

1 minute ago, Laszlo said:

What is your sail date?

June 16th!

[Laszlo]

54 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

June 16th!

Two weeks before us on the Gem. I'll be looking forward to any review you write on Bermuda. June is the perfect month in Bermuda

[tstahl]

Could you post some of the dailies if possible?  I just want to see the page with all the activities.  Thank you!!

[vacation44]

12 minutes ago, tstahl said:

Could you post some of the dailies if possible?  I just want to see the page with all the activities.  Thank you!!

I am interested in the NCL ferry schedule too.

[graphicguy]

49 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

Two weeks before us on the Gem. I'll be looking forward to any review you write on Bermuda. June is the perfect month in Bermuda

I'm debating about whether to do a live review.  Not sure, yet.

 

I looked at the GEM cruise, too.  I love the GEM.  But, I had never sailed the Joy previously.  So, that tilted it to the Joy.

 

Would love to hear your impressions of the GEM, too!

[Laszlo]

7 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

I'm debating about whether to do a live review.  Not sure, yet.

 

I looked at the GEM cruise, too.  I love the GEM.  But, I had never sailed the Joy previously.  So, that tilted it to the Joy.

 

Would love to hear your impressions of the GEM, too!

We have sailed the Gem 4 times in the past (twice in a suite) and love the Gem. I like the size of it, has never felt crowded. We are passing on Thermal Suite passes this time around however I think its one of the nicer one's for the size. I love the Great Outdoors, probably one of my favorite places on the ship to have breakfast or lunch. We debated between the Joy and the Gem. NYC is only a 90 minute drive for us vs Boston is 5 hours, the Joy when we booked was cheaper. However is really wanted a smaller ship and are looking forward to at stop in Bar Harbor. This will be the last year NCL stops there unless something changes

[Mlake09]

End of Day 2! We had a relaxing day and enjoyed the sunshine, once we found a spot to hunker down against the wind. The waves and wind improved in the late afternoon, but the vomit bags are still out and I think a bunch of people are still feeling a little sick. The waterfront was closed for the entire day due to the waves/wind/sea spray, which was a little unfortunate because the cruise is packed. This is my first time on the Joy and I definitely missed the sundeck options that the some of the other ships have (I didn’t purchase the Vibe, which probably would have helped). We did find a spot in the back of Spice for a few hours, which was fine.

 

We are big walkers and it was tough not to have a spot to do our normal loops today. It’s completely understandable that some of the outside spaces like the waterfront and life boat deck were closed because everything really was getting soaked. Our room is on the 10th floor and even though there was no rain today, the carpet by our balcony door was damp from sea spray. The jogging track up top was completely covered with loungers, and we tried but it was too crowded to make it work. In the end we walked a few miles looping in a very small section of the space outside the Vibe. 

 

We had an appetizer-y lunch with friends at the Local, which was fun. We were going to try American Diner but the menu wasn’t the best for our friend who is a vegetarian. The wings at the Local were the best we’ve had on any ship since they started serving them without the breading. I was surprised to see that it was closed when we arrived, right around 11:55am, but we moved through the line quickly. Service was ok, and it was really busy and also pretty loud. We walked by tonight at dinner and there were plenty of seats available (and big lines for Taste, Savor, and Manhattan).

 

Today we had dinner at the Q for the first time. The banana pudding jar was fantastic. It was fun to try a new speciality restaurant but we would probably not eat there again. We used one of our platinum meal vouchers and it was seriously so much food. I was curious how the platinum vouchers worked at this restaurant and for those of you wondering, we each had an appetizer (deviled eggs and fried green tomatoes, both very good), baked potato, a main meal, two sides, and a desert. The portion sizes are much larger in this restaurant than in the other speciality restaurants- do with that what you will! We could not eat all of the food served. 

 

After dinner we went to the casino, where we promptly lost $40. The casino on the Joy has a new glass enclosure for smokers, which made the rest of the casino much more enjoyable for us as non-smokers. The games on this ship are mostly the digital games without the traditional reels. The casino attendants were on top of everything, and asked us if we wanted a drink at least four times in the half hour we were there.  We finished out the night walking on the actual jogging track up top, since the loungers are all tied down now.  We arrive in Bermuda tomorrow at 8am and I’m hoping to post the dailies once I have better internet; I am saving them and will post when possible!

[Mlake09]

On 4/14/2024 at 6:52 PM, vacation44 said:

Looking forward to your live review.  Thank you and have a wonderful time!   We are on the Joy in June.   If you can, can you please post the dailies.

Yes I will, once we have stronger internet!

[Mlake09]

9 hours ago, vacation44 said:

I am interested in the NCL ferry schedule too.

[debenson0723]

28 minutes ago, Mlake09 said:

Thank you for the ferry schedule.  I am on the June 16th sailing too and have never been to Bermuda so this is very helpful. Enjoy your time on the island!

[Barb Nahoumi]

11 hours ago, graphicguy said:

I'm debating about whether to do a live review.  Not sure, yet.

 

I looked at the GEM cruise, too.  I love the GEM.  But, I had never sailed the Joy previously.  So, that tilted it to the Joy.

 

Would love to hear your impressions of the GEM, too!

If I had my choice of the Gem or the Joy it would be a hard decision.  I like both ships.  The Gem has the Great Outdoors which is an out door part of the buffet.  It has two pools, whereas the Joy only has one.  

 

There is more entertainment on the Joy, such as the Cavern Club where we watched "The Beatles" perform.  In Q there was a vintage Broadway performance.  In the theater, we had 2 great shows.  I'm not sure if the Gem still has song and dance shows.  Magicians and lousy comedians don't interest us, if that was they reduced it to.  Since the Gem sails from Boston, we will sail on her.

[graphicguy]

The GEM has one of my favorite cabins on ANY ship....the Aft Suite.  Priced just a little higher than a balcony cabin but way less than the Haven but with nearly all the same amenities.

 

Still, looking forward to the Joy.  I've heard nothing but good with regard to sailing her.

[stinkyharriet]

17 hours ago, Mlake09 said:

After dinner we went to the casino, where we promptly lost $40. The casino on the Joy has a new glass enclosure for smokers, which made the rest of the casino much more enjoyable for us as non-smokers.

They had that separate smoking section on the Joy when I sailed in 2022.  I know the new Prima class ships also have it and I’ve read that the Breakaway ships will be doing them as they enter dry dock.  As a non-smoker and someone with asthma I really appreciate it.

[Mlake09]

Day 3!

 

We had a fantastic first day in Bermuda! We woke up and the ship was still slowly moving towards the pier, which was great because we didn’t feel rushed during breakfast (Taste or Savor, but I can’t remember which). Food was good and service was fine. After breakfast we packed up and headed off the ship around 8:45am. There was no line to get off. We’ve rented a little Twizzy style “car” for our trip, so we checked in and then headed off to Clearwater Beach. It took about an hour to drive over and we were excited to see it was not crowded when we arrived. We paid $25 to rent two chairs and an umbrella and we were there for a few hours. There are clean bathrooms, ample parking, and a small store selling pre-made sandwiches, drinks, and snacks. The beach was clean and really nice to be at. We love to snorkel and were hoping to see a turtle or two, but the water was cloudy and we didn’t see much of anything. We did encounter some jellyfish, including three Portuguese Man O War, so heads up if you’re planning a trip in the near future. 

 

We left Clearwater beach and headed over to the Blue Hole, and plugged in our little vehicles to charge. We’ve been to Bermuda and the Blue Hole multiple times before, but this was the first time the water has ever looked so cloudy. We didn’t get in as a result. We had our friends with us, and were disappointed that we had talked the Blue Hole up only to find that other wasn’t as lovely as it has been in the past, at least today. Instead of swimming there, we hung around in the water on the edge of the park, and saw some of the biggest parrotfish of all time. They were at least the size of my torso! 

 

We had to kill a little time for the cars to get enough juice to make the drive back, but once we reached that point, we drove back to the ship and stopped at a few beaches on the way. When we got back on the ship, it was around 6:45pm, so we showered and went to dinner in the Manhattan Room. There was no wait for a table for four. Food was fine overall (desert of tiramisu was the best part) but it did take a long while to get drinks, then the appetizers, then the main course. Our server was wonderful and he came to check in multiple times to let us know that one of the meals (gluten allergy) was taking a longer time to make.  That meal came later than the rest of ours but my friend said it was excellent, fresh, and piping hot.

 

After dinner we went to Maltings and played a few rounds of a new game. Service was excellent. It was a good day today so I’m headed to bed!

[Mlake09]