A mixed bag
Norwegian Joy Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 47
7 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 08, 2020
Ship: Norwegian Joy
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
Our cruise was one of the last ships to leave before all cruises were canceled. Lots of washy washy and necessary safety precautions. The Joy was a mixed bag. Some parts of the trip were enjoyable, while other parts were disappointing (which is to be expected). Overall, I did not fall in “love” with NCL or the Joy.Embarkation
Relatively smooth once the line started moving. Touchless temperature taken for all passengers and 2 health survey questionnaires (March 8 sailing)
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Service was super slow in the main dining rooms but the food was good. Loved the local, especially the wings. 😋 Speciality restaurants were excellent. Huge portions. Reservations really not needed for the main dining rooms. Same for specialty dining except on sea days, the restaurants did get busier. However, we traveled as a group of four. For Larger groups, I would say reservations are needed.
I miss not having a spot to just walk up and grab a bite to eat. Although the local is open 24/7, it is a sit down restaurant. The garden cafe is open for late night snacks but the selection is limited.
Q Texas Smokehouse
Huge portions and great food. With specialty package you get a ton of food and plenty of choices.
Teppanyaki
Love the chef’s entertainment and the food was excellent!
Onboard Activities
Our family enjoyed the laser tag the most. Too much stop and go to really enjoy go karts. Lots of free activities not available due to safety precautions related to the virus (ie: ping pong, giant chess). The bill added up with all the “fees” for activities that were not included.
Entertainment
The shows were top notch. Really like Footloose and the Elements. The comedian was fabulous but the venue was way too small. Definitely want to have reservations and arrive early for the comedy show or anything in the Social.
Children's Programs
My 12 did not enjoy the splash academy. Not much to do for her age. Tailored more for the younger kids. The entourage for teens is super small but my son enjoyed playing video games there and the activities offered.
Service and Staff
Service was definitely a mixed bag. We didn’t even know who our room steward was until day 3 when we tracked him down because we had a request. Some staff were friendly but others we rude and not caring or unprofessional. It was very hard to get your needs met after you ordered. Long waiting times to get acknowledged and/or to receive your order. Service went downhill as the week progressed. Not sure if this was related to the stress of the coronavirus, but the poor service is one of the reasons why I will not be sailing with NCL again 😔
Ship Quality
Ship was definitely clean! Washy, washy!
The layout of the atrium is not efficient. Tons of fun activities offered there but limited space/seated. Difficulty hearing if you’re at guests relations or the port excursions desk as all these services are housed in the same small atrium area.
Cabin / Stateroom
Nice spacious balcony cabin. They no longer do towel animals. Didn’t know you had the option to request them until the last night.
Ship tip
Make reservations for any show you want to attend in the social. Enjoy your trip after all this virus stuff is finally over!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Did the beach 🏖 resort getaway excursion. Very relaxing! The resort had 5 pools and a very tasty buffet. Must have a t-shirt to enter the restaurant. No swim suits allowed. Beach was beautiful but the vendors can get annoying.
In my opinion this port has the best prices for routine souvenir shopping.
Disembarkation
Went very smooth. Did self-disembarkation. Long line, but it went fast. Be prepared to carry your luggage down the flights of stairs if you want to expedite your exit, as the elevators were packed and super slow.
Traveler Photos
4 Comments
cruiserrick 4 years ago
Hello setsail
You and I were on the same cruise and I have to totally agree with you on some of your review. I also didn’t totally fall in love with NCL and the Joy she was OK.
It’s my first time to go on NCL I’ve only been on many Royal Caribbean cruises and we decided to do the NCL since it was leaving out of San Pedro and it was easy for us to drive there from Las Vegas instead of flying
I am the same as you I missed the finger food you can just walk up and grab a slice of pizza or finger sandwich or even a pastry
Or you can go out to the poolside and grab some ice cream but that wasn’t on NCL you literally had to sit down either at the buffet or go to the local to eat
The layout of the ship was OK I just didn’t like they had the atrium right next to the guest services and also the cruise next booth and even the port shopping booth.
It was hard to conduct any sort of business next to the atrium where events were happening.
Tried to go to the comedy club several times but it was always packed and full and a room.
The buffet was OK for breakfast but didn’t care for it for dinner as another cruiser had mentioned the food was cold and not really appetizing
We were lucky to do the three specialty dining package which we had paid for in advance and already made the reservations before we boarded thank God we did because we tried to rebook the Teppanyaki and it was completely booked.
This place had amazing food same with Cagney’s and also ocean blue they gave you plenty of food compared to the main dining room.
And we didn’t make any reservations for the main dining rooms since it’s free style dining we never had a problem eating whenever we decided to go eat for dinner in the main dining rooms there was only two of us my wife and I.
And also we really didn’t know our room steward until later on day number two and yes we were wondering what happen with the towel animals didn’t know we had to asked to have those made which is silly
I know I heard on the news a while back about cruising some of the cruising companies we’re going to stop doing towel animals just to save on washing a bunch of towels so I thought maybe that was the reason.
Yes the cruise was a lot more strict when the coronavirus alert went up on the second day could no longer serve yourself for breakfast buffet and also the gift shop they had half of it blocked off. I wasn’t that impressed with the gift shop as well wasn’t that big of a selection I normally buy T-shirts but I didn’t care for the T-shirts they sold in their gift shop are usually buy a T-shirt that has the cruise company logo. Gift shops are much bigger and better on Royal.
And also the weather was too cold to do any pool swimming or go on the slide as the other cruiser said.
But we were happy to make the cruise at least it didn’t get canceled since we were the last cruise to make it back and the rest of the cruises were canceled after us
But it was definitely a different experience to be on NCL compared to royal Caribbean
We’re not going to say we’ll never do NCL again I do like some of the ports they go to compared to Royal as well
And also I think the coronavirus really put so many striction’s on everybody that worked on the cruise and I do understand all of that. And I’m glad the crew did a good job keeping everything clean and always washy washy.
I was reading a comment from another cruiser he was saying the vendors were low in Cabo to me he was wrong we got bombarded by vendors soon as we got off on port and they didn’t understand no they kept bothering us we kept telling them we already had a planned excursion
Or if you’re going to the shop they were trying to pressure you to buy something
But other than that it was all good the excursion was awesome we did get to go see the arch and take a tour of the city.
I thought it was funny seeing Walmart in Puerta Vallarta off the ship lol. My wife says wow we can do some Walmart shopping ha ha Ha but we never did since we had an excursion that day as well.
We were going to walk to the beach near the port but we were told those hotels will not allow you to the beach access unless you’re staying there as I read also from another cruiser here.
But in all it was an enjoyable cruise we never complain about cruises we’re happy to always be on a ship there’s always going to be good and some bad sometimes and we never try to look for the bad we’re not that hard to please.