The NCL Joy was a great ship. Well designed and fun. Main dining room was disappointing, but buffet in Garden Cafe on 16 was outstanding, with a delicious carving station at each meal. Our particular cabin attendant was disappointing - super slow - probably burned out in her job. Ports of call were all great, with the exception of Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. Taxi Mafia runs the port. Either pay what they want or, literally, you are NOT allowed to leave the port. You are a hostage to their fees or you do not see anything beyond the port.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
Lines were incredibly long to check in, although sort of expected for a 4,000 passenger ship. Still some opportunities there to improve. Worst part was after dealing with all the check-in chaos, you had to wait to board a bus just to cross the parking lot to the ship. They would not allow anyone to walk across the lot, even though it was seriously only about 300 yards. So after waiting one hour to check in, we had to to endure another hour on the bus - 2 minutes to drive to the other side, and almost an hour waiting behind other buses to offload. Ridiculous.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Main dining room was disappointing. Menus have been drastically reduced from prior years. However, the food in the Garden Cafe buffet on Deck 16 was outstanding. Never have I had such good food in a buffet - and this was our 24th cruise!! Very well done!!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Lots of the typical activities, but we don't really get too involved so cannot comment much beyond that. The Cruise Director seemed a bit "dry" in his role. Most others we've experienced on other cruises had more character and flare.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Decent. Sure do miss the Jean Anne Ryan entertainment days of NCL. They had the best entertainment back then. Today's shows are kind of amateur-ish, but decent.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
As always, hit and miss. Some (most) staff were outstanding. Our room attendant was probably burned out in her job and just terrible. We would often leave the cabin for 2-3 hours and it still would not have been attended to.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Very well designed and very clean. Would have preferred a more continuous walking area, but the designated jogging track on 17 was very short, and the area most passengers used for walking was Deck 8. But since Deck 8 is closed off on the front part of the ship, you have to go inside to cut over to the opposite side of the ship to continue. Seemed awkward, but it worked. Elevators were great. Abundant, and rarely a wait to use one.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
A little bit tight, and the balcony poorly designed. NCL Joy "pushes" the bed about 12 inches into the adjacent cabin to reduce the overall footprint of the stateroom, so it feels way more cramped than other ships. The balcony in this cabin is a bit larger than the others because of the exterior transition angle, but most cabins on this deck have a ceiling overhang from Deck 8 that blocks your view downward from the balcony (ie the balcony railing is about 5 ft back from the edge of that overhang). Should have opted for a higher deck to be able to see more vertically downward.
Ship tip
When checking in at the San Pedro cruise terminal in LA, do not arrive during the first 2-3 hours. Try to arrive during the last 2-3 hours of the check-in period. We arrived at 1 pm and waited about one hour to check in, but by the time we were done, there was almost no line.
Disastrous port - run by taxi mafia. If not on an excursion, you are forced to pay whatever the mafioso taxis want to charge. If not, you cannot leave the port. You are not allowed to walk to the street, and you are not allowed to have another taxi or Uber come to the port. Those taxis were screwing us and others around us, and became rude when passengers didn't succumb to their extortion. Will be writing NCL directly about this, and recommend the port be removed from future itineraries. We've sailed 24 times now, and NEVER, EVER have we been held hostage at any port of call like we were at Puerto Quetzal.
The Amador Causeway is really developing nicely. Although the cruise ship terminal is not ready, they used buses to transport across the construction to the nearby island, which worked out well. Lots of nice restaurants and a very vibrant atmosphere.
First time transiting through the new Neo Panamax canal. Very cool, and a very nice experience always. The local narrator became a bit boring and annoying after talking non-stop all day, but I can see how others might find his constant feed of information interesting.
Did the Everglades excursion from the ship on arrival. Took us to a nearby tour center located adjacent to Weston. OK experience. They talk about protection of the Everglades, but then they use these massive, 30-passenger airboats which use dual 500 cc engines and just make a crap-load of noise. Didn't see any gators, and probably figured the noise scared them all away. Just didn't seem like an "eco" experience at all. However, the 30-minute gator show afterwards, using rescued gators, was very good!! Kudos to the trainer for being funny, and for caring for the rescued gators as much as he does.
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