So much room for improvement…
Norwegian Joy Cruise Review to Mexico
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 30
7 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 23, 2022
Ship: Norwegian Joy
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 11226
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
So much promise, and with little effort, it could be great in the feature, but it currently misses the mark. Here’s a list of suggestions: 1. Improve embarkation and disembarkation procedures so that it doesn’t take more than 30 minutes to get on and off the ship. Norwegian had the right idea by asking people to choose an appropriate time for getting on and off the ship, but then they didn’t enforce it. They also need more staff to help get people in and out of the ship more efficiently. 2. Fewer people, or more activities. With 4000 passengers, there just wasn’t enough for everyone to get on activities. More free activities as everything just seemed like a way to nickel and dime the passengers for everything. 3. Longer time at ports, to allow passengers more options for getting on and off the ship and to explore the ports beyond the touristy shops right on the port. 4. Better trained staff, setting clearer expectation for how things work and help passengers determine which packages make sense for their lifestyles and which didn’t. 5. More interesting food choices and fresher food made on board. I’m hoping these suggestions are taken to heart as my intention is to provide constructive feedback for the betterment of passenger’s experience. Hopefully future cruises would be more enjoyable, or fewer and fewer people will choose to cruise with Norwegian.Embarkation
We were asked to check in online and pick a boarding time. Once we arrived at the terminal, or rather, the tents setup by a port Berth (not the one the ship was on), we stood in line to check in again. Although we were asked to choose a boarding time, everyone was there from all times regardless of chosen time, which no one asked me about, they just told me to wait for a shuttle to take me to the berth the ship was actually on. We didn’t wait and chose to just walk over to the ship, which let us board about 1.5 hours earlier than if we had waited for the shuttles to take us to the ship. BTW, this was still an hour after are pre-arranged time. Once we boarded, we couldn’t go into our rooms because they were still getting cleaned up. This was not communicated beforehand, so we were stuck with our luggage going up and down places. Overall, the worst embarking experience I’ve had from all of the cruises I’ve been on.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The buffet was ok, although the breakfast options were always the same every day, and weren’t particularly great. Pastries were ok, but clearly not baked onboard, or at least not on the day they were served. Same for most deserts. The free icecream was ok. However, we still generally preferred the buffet to the sit down restaurant, mostly because the service was just not at the level one had become a costumed to in prior cruises. We happened to hear that many employees were on the first or second cruise, which really showed. One night we had a man from Colombia serve us, and it was clear that he did not want to be in the service industry. We did have a fairly good experience at the “Food republic” both times we went, and at the Tepanyaki restaurant we managed to get in for once. On that note, we were told on the second day that the restaurant was already fully booked for the entire trip, which was disappointing to say the least. The one time we managed to get in, they said they had room for two. Once seated, we noticed there were 4 seats next to use that were empty and were laster removed. It seems many passengers booked everything for every night, leaving the rest of us unable to get into any restaurant with a reservation. I do have to recognize the great service we received from a nice man from Zimbabwe at the Manhattan restaurant on our second to last night. He gave us the service we’ve come to expect. My wife has a gluten sensitivity and the ship’s staff told us that they’d make her appropriate food separately to avoid issues, which was very nice. However, this meant we had to review menus a day in advance and pick from a very limited selection what she wanted so that it could be ready by the evening. Even though there’s perfectly good gluten free food available nowadays, on the ship she was limited to spaghetti (for any pasta), frozen waffles, and other naturally gluten free items, such as fruits, eggs, etc. She was generally not very excited for our meals.
Onboard Activities
There were two small pools, one family and one adults only. The pools themselves were small but ok. The family pool left a salty flavor on my lips (I wasn’t drinking it, that was just from being in it) and was surprisingly uniformly too deep for any child to stand in it at 1.75m deep (about 5’10”) which wouldn’t be adequate for most children to spend much time in it. The pool area was generally too loud to be enjoyable with loud music either blasting from speakers or being played live.
The “tube” slide was fine, although too slow to be much fun for repeat use.
Laser tag was fun, although it was hard to get in even though you had to pay to use it.
go karts would have been much more fun with a wider racetrack. As it was, aside from being expensive and hard to get a reservation for, it was almost impossible to pass slower drivers given how narrow the track was.
Entertainment
All shows were instantly fully booked for all showings of all shows. Much like the rest of ship, which had WAY too many people everywhere without much to do. On the plus side, most people didn’t show up for most shows, so I could get in for the comedy shows without issue. For the more elaborate shows, footloose was impossible to get in as was the elements show, which I did end up getting into and watched while standing in the back the whole show, which looks like it might have been nice to watch with nice seats.
Children's Programs
I have two children, one was registered for the Splash zone (up to age 12) and the other for the entourage (13+). My younger tried twice going in but she says people were hogging the video games and there was nothing else to do, plus, at 11, she wasn’t excited to be surrounded by the mobs of 3-6 year olds that she said the rooms were packed with. My older one took a look at the entourage and refused to go in. In all fairness, it did look fun (no adults were allowed in) but crowded.
Service and Staff
Overall, I’d say that most personnel tried, but they seem awfully undertrained. Most couldn’t answer questions about food packages, queues, embarking, disembarking, etc. For our first stop, we didn’t know we needed to book a tender. My parents received a note telling them that, but we did not. They also got nice towel animals in their room, which my kids would have appreciated but did not receive. The waiters were a mixed bag, with some eager to help and please and others more aloof, just going through the motions. Every service gets an automatic 20% “service/tip” added, however, they have an additional tip line on the check. We did add a little once because the service had been great, but at least half the time we did not feel they had earned the 20% they forced us to pay.
Ship Quality
The ship seemed overbooked to all of us. There were always way too many people with not a lot of things to do. Elevators were always packed, so at least we got some exercise using the stairs when we were tired of waiting for room on elevators. Not enough shows or included activities and too much nickel and diming at every corner, from the time you book until the day you leave.
Cabin / Stateroom
We understand cabins are generally on the small side on cruises. Overall this was the best cabin we have ever had on a cruise and was personally quite pleased with it. The balcony was nice and the bathroom was surprisingly roomy. My only complain was the creaking and miscellaneous noises throughout the day and night that made sleeping without earplugs impossible. On a couple of nights it sounded like the walls and ceiling was being wrung by the ship’s movement through the waves. This seemed to trigger the door open sensor which I’m guessing is what kept resetting the room’s temperature control, which generally kept the room a bit too warm for sleeping comfort.
Ship tip
Go on the off season, book everything you want ASAP and hope for the best. My parents and brother have platinum status on Norwegian and avid cruisers overall (much more than us) and they said this was easily the worst run cruise they have been on.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
San Pedro (Los Angeles), California
Incredibly unorganized. Check in times should have been enforced so that a proper embarkation and debarkation times could be met.
We didn’t know we needed tenders and couldn’t get off the ship until after 3pm. With a return deadline of 6 (I believe), maybe 5:40) and over an hour long queue to get back on the ship, we barely got to spend any time here. Also, all excursions were sold out before we had a chance to book.
We did get to go on a excursion, which was nice, but as expected, always costing more than we receive, rushed, crowded. Overall, I did like the port though.
We had booked a zip line and tequila tasting tour. The tour was late to leave, incredibly crowded with 90+ people (two buses), constantly waiting in line for everything while we were being simultaneous rushed, even at the zip line platforms. Unsurprisingly, they had to skip the tequila tasting as the ship had an “All aboard” time of 1:30pm, which is right around when we arrived, so we had to rush to get back on the ship as well. I expressed my frustration to the shore excursion people, who were sympathetic but did not give us even a partial refund for the fiasco. All port stops were way too short to enjoy much on any of the ports.
All excursions were sold out, which probably worked out for the better. We ended up walking around, which was fine. We stopped at the Garibaldy restaurant recommended in the ship. DO NOT EAT HERE. Not only was food mediocre, the service wasn’t great and it was more expensive than most comparable restaurants in the US and ridiculously priced for Mexico. I ended up getting some food from a street vendor, which was delicious and under $10. My daughter and I ended up booking some horses and rode on the beach. It was less than half the price as the ship’s one, and it was just the guide, her and I, no queues, no rushing, just how it should be. We were returned to the ship with ample time and had probably the best time of any of the ports we stopped at.
Disembarkation
Anyone seemed to be able to queue whenever they wanted, regardless of the pre-arranged disembarkation time, so why bother? There were lines at the front and back of the ship, starting on deck 7 and going down the stairs to deck 5. After that, we again had to wait for a shuttle to get back or walk.