Spring Alaska adventure

Item: Norwegian Joy
Rating: 4.3
Author: KAYTORAMA

Norwegian Joy Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

KAYTORAMA

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 49

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Alaska With Inside Passage (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: May 11, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Joy

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 13310

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Overall the cruise was enjoyable. The ship was laid out very well. Clean, nice decor, and even 2 Starbucks!! The food was pretty good across the board. But if you want the best experience the premium dining was great but was booked almost solid from the beginning. The cruise line had been running a promo where you got free premium dining and I think they over promoted that one cause it was jammed up when on board. The accommodations for Disabled guests sucks. If you want a room that can hold scooters wheelchairs (as they cannot be left in the halls or common areas) you have to book WAYYYYY in advance, and the rooms are usually the higher cost ones which isn’t fair for those who need it but can’t afford those rooms. We had a balcony room and there is NO way anything besides a cane or a folded up walker was going to fit in there and even that was a challenge.. not ok. As for the elevators, Norwegian needs to take note that their decision to board people in ports via deck 5 and deck 4 is CRAP! the people with scooters and wheelchairs were directed to deck 4 while the bulk of everyone else went via deck 5. Well guess what happens when the elevators all stop at deck 5, and fill up? They head back up and everyone on deck 4 sits and rots FOREVER.. my parents are disabled and cannot go up the stairs. We waited for over 30 minutes to try and get an elevator. No one was policing them, helping assist disabled guests, it was a free for all with the occasional one that would come to deck 4, everyone that was physically more able would crowd it and stuff it full. NOT ok.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Smooth as could possibly be

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Main dining room food was decent, service speed was way better than past cruises. The teppenyaki restaurant was good but it was INCREDIBLY cold in there with the air conditioning on 110% and they used way too much garlic in the fried rice. The Q BBQ restaurant was pretty good but SO much food. Cagney's Steakhouse was incredible. Same problem with the premium restaurants as with shows. Everything already booked out the entire week by the time we got on board and tried to look. Was very difficult to get a spot.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Entertainment

4 out of 5

The evening stage show was good. However the ship was all booked out on everything the whole week by the time we got on board.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Everyone in the staff seemed pretty friendly and helpful

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

The bathroom was a nice size and the glass enclosure for the shower was appreciated. The mattresses were just ok comfort wise and the sofa bed was as hard as a rock, terrible. The room was very small for a balcony on a new ship. The closet was right next to the bed so it was impossible to navigate and use for the most part. The entire cruise there was a studder/vibration from the ship that radiated up into the bed day and night. Very hard to try and sleep with that going on. Every time we had the tv on the channel with the bridge cam and an announcement came on we wanted to hear, the Audio would cut out and you would have to hurry over and open the door and stick your head into the hallway to hear it. The tv channels were incredibly limited and didn’t appreciate the $9.95 charge to watch a movie when they rather pushed you into that with the limited channel and programming. The WiFi was INCREDIBLY overpriced!!! Princess is very fair for their charge and it’s blazing fast, and their TVs have plenty to watch.