Christmas 2023 on the NCL Joy: Observations and Tips

The embarkation went fairly smoothly and took about 30 minutes from the time we arrived at the parking garage until we boarded the ship.  We drove to the Miami Cruise Terminal from our home in Florida and arrived before noon.  It took us two attempts to find the entrance to the NCL Terminal where we parked our car and dropped our luggage off at the entrance.  The lines for security and checking in were long but moved quickly.  Since we had filled out our cruise docs ahead of time, there were no delays in getting our key cards.  After boarding the ship, we headed up to the 16th floor for lunch in the Garden Café where we met some friends who joined us for the cruise. The buffet room was very crowded, but we found a place and finished by one.  Afterward, we checked in for our muster drill and waited for the rooms to open.  Our floor was early around 3 PM, but many rooms did not open until closer to 4.  Late room openings seem to be a problem that becomes worse with each cruise.  I suspect that now the attendants only clean once a day, they have many more rooms to clean.  It appears the turnaround time on port days is not sufficient to allow them to get all the rooms cleaned by early afternoon.  Of course, Haven rooms were completed first.  All other rooms were ready later in the afternoon.

We used our dining package to book two specialty restaurants: Le Bistro and Cagney’s.  Our favorite specialty restaurant has consistently been Le Bistro and it did not disappoint this time.   We also booked Cagney’s Steakhouse and it equally turned out to be a great experience.  All our meals were exceptional and the service was perfect.  The dining packages are a good deal.  The rest of our main dining room dinners were eaten in the Manhattan Room.  The good news for us is that in our opinion, the quality of the main dish offerings has dramatically improved over the past three years.  We genuinely enjoyed our dinners in the Manhattan Room and the service was consistently good.  It’s important to note that dinners in the dining rooms on NCL generally run around 2 hours in length.  We love the slow pace and the opportunity to put away our cell phones and talk with each other.  We were never bored and enjoyed the pacing and presentation of food choices.  My wife enjoyed the appetizers more than the main courses and often ordered multiple choices.  We made a point to contact our servers when we needed something rather than stewing and complaining.  We did have some exceptional service and made a point to fill out comment cards.  Overall, our dining experiences were enjoyable.  We do miss the entertainment that was often featured on other NCL ships that have a Manhattan Room.  Music and dancing were nice atmospheric touches. We ate breakfast and lunch in the Garden Cafe and enjoyed the food,  My wife and our friends especially enjoyed the Indian food section.  This was a nice addition and their favorite food experience.  We had no complaints and enjoyed all the meals we ate there.  Of course, the buffet was crowded every day, but we were always able to find a table for 4 near the Indian food service area.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day can feel weird on a cruise ship.  Often the week feels more like a cruise than a holiday celebration.  On Christmas morning, I attended a service held by guests in the “Q” Lounge at 9 AM.  It was a great treat that was attended by many appreciative passengers and an uplifting way to start Christmas Day.  I thank NCL for supporting this effort that was initiated by fellow passengers.  It was a great gift to all who attended.  
 In general, we find the onboard activities on NCL to be below par compared to Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.  Most of the activities were the normal selection of poolside, game show, and trivia activities.  There was a fair selection, but some nights it seemed rather boring on the cruise ship.  The other passengers on board seemed to enjoy the activities and they were very well attended, but that may have been because there did not seem to be an exceptional number of choices.  There were the normal cruise ship things to do, but we did not find them as interesting as past cruise experiences.  We enjoyed a dance class but thought there were too many game show-type activities.  It would have been a great idea to have some learning experiences onboard that helped educate the travelers about the Caribbean.  There were art, cooking, and wine classes available for a charge. 
 My wife enjoyed playing Texas Hold’em poker in the casino every night. Unfortunately, most nights the game did not have enough players until around 10:00/10:30 pm.  She played each night but was shocked at how early the game ended.  Every night around 1 AM the management ended the game with a full table of players.  We have never seen a casino turn away revenue in the past.  She also found that the house’s rake of 10 percent up $25 was excessively high compared to casinos throughout the United States as well as other cruise lines.  
 One of our Free At Sea package choices was the 150 Internet minutes for each person in our cabin.  The regular Internet speed on the Joy was slow.  It was barely good enough to check email and did not allow for any downloads.  The ship’s onboard access seemed like Internet access found in old hotels ten years ago.  We know that it is possible to have good access on a cruise ship because we had really good access on Royal Caribbean ships in previous years.  We ended up using our T-Mobile and Verizon foreign data benefits to check emails and make simple phone downloads.  We were not able to do this through NCL’s Internet access.  If we had purchased an Internet package, we would have felt it was not worth it.  

We look forward to the entertainment portion of our cruises and try to do one or two things each evening.  In general, the entertainment on the Joy was good, but this is an area where it appears to us that NCL needs to improve. It has become common for NCL to reuse performers from other venues to do a main theater performance.  This occurred on the opening night with the Beatles tribute and on the second night with the stand-up comics.  It was repeated on the fourth night with another Beatles show highlighting the Sgt. Pepper’s years.  These three shows were good, but we were able to see the same acts in the smaller venues during the week.  The Joy also featured a Christmas Show, a magic show, and a production show called Elements. 
 Here is our critique of each:  
 >First Night Show: The Beatles Journey.  Many NCL ships feature a Beatles act and have a Cavern Club venue for Beatles shows throughout the week.  If you enjoy the music of the Beatles take advantage of opportunities to see these shows.  The Cavern Club is small and it is hard to get seats.  The shows featured in the main theatre provide ample seating. 
 >Broadway Cabaret: Best of the 80s:  I enjoyed this show very much.  It was held in the “Q” restaurant stage area during the afternoon of our first sea day.  The performers did a terrific job and it was nice being up close to the performance. 
 >Second Night: Levity Comic Group.  Both comics, Flip Schultz and Spencer James were very funny.  I laughed constantly through Flip’s performance.  He is a genuinely funny guy.  I went back to see his adult set on two additional nights along with a set by Spencer James. 
 >Third Night: Joy Christmas Spectacular: This show was entertainingly appropriate for the season and featured a variety of traditional holiday classics.  I enjoyed watching it and celebrating Christmas.  It wasn’t exceptional, but I applaud the cast for helping everyone get into the holiday spirit. 
 >Fourth Night: The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band:  I only intended to stay for a short while so I could catch one of the comedy acts in the Social Club, but I enjoyed the music and performance so much that I stayed for the entire performance.  I’m not sure what it is about the Beatles' performances on the NCL ships, but I really enjoy them and do not mind seeing them over and over again. 
 >Fifth Night: Memory Magic Show: Feng Zhang:  This was a fun show to watch.  There was good energy and Feng Zhang performed with a flashy style.  Most of the illusions we have seen in other shows, so it was fun to try and guess how it was done.  There were a few that stumped us.  It’s worth taking the time to see the show. 
 >Sixth and Seventh Nights: Elements:  I was not expecting much from this show, but it turned out to be the surprise winner.  This was a lavish spectacle of dancing, acrobatics, and magic.  It was well-performed and entertaining.  Make a reservation so you don’t miss it! 
 Overall, we felt that the entertainment options were not up to par with what we encountered on previous NCL cruises.  We missed performances such as Burn the Floor and longer Broadway shows.  

We did not have any children under 18 with us.

Our room steward, Louie, was exceptional.  He continually greeted us each day and made us feel valued.  We used the Do Not Disturb and Make Up My Room lights when we went in and out of our to communicate with him when it was okay to clean our rooms.  Everything went smoothly.  The service was simply outstanding. 
 The wait staff in the Garden Cafe was attentive, polite, and helpful.  We were continually greeted and made to feel welcome.  When we asked for help, we were given it immediately.  They were the friendliest and most helpful wait service staff on the ship.  We stopped to talk with the “Washy, washy” guys often.  They were a pleasant sound to hear in welcoming us to the Garden Cafe.  
 We found some exceptional servers in the dining rooms.  After we met the server, Surajit Pal, in the Manhattan Room, we asked for him the last three days of our cruise.  He was amazingly attentive and provided us with great food recommendations and service. Other servers were less memorable, but the service was overall good.  We can’t say enough about how great the staff and managers were throughout our cruise.

Even though the Joy was launched in 2017, it was in great shape and well-maintained.  It has a lot of space, but it seemed like it was difficult to find a quiet area.  The crew seemed to work hard to keep the ship looking in top shape.   Most of the nightlife happens on floors 6, 7, and 8.  It was lively there each night, and the venues were very crowded.  I found that I had to arrive at least 30 minutes early to a venue to get a seat.  The Cavern Club and Social Meeting Comedy Room were much too small.  Some of the music venues had people spilling over into the hallways.  The gym was not crowded on port days but was overcrowded on sea days.  It was small for the number of passengers on the Joy.  There were only 4 elliptical machines in the entire faculty and around 8 exercise machines.  It seems like amenity spaces for passengers are getting smaller to make way for more rooms and spaces that collect revenue.

Our room, 11222, was on the 11th floor.  It was part of a block of mid-ship junior suite balcony rooms.  The main difference between our room and other balcony rooms was that the bathroom was significantly larger.  The shower size was double what we experienced on previous NCL cruises, the sink was also larger, and there was ample space to stand and dry off.  We enjoyed the extra bathroom space greatly! The rest of the room was standard size and in good shape.  We had plenty of space for our clothing for the week and used all the closet and cabinet space near the desk.  Our ship featured three standard sockets for charging electronics.  There were also USB ports on the lights next to the beds. The room was comfortable and better than we have experienced on most ships in the past.

The NCL Joy docked early around 4:30 AM.  By the disembarkation time of 7 am the ship was ready for everyone to disembark.  Since we live in Florida and have about a 3 - 4 hour ride home, we chose a 7:45 AM luggage-assisted departure.  We were called around 7:15 AM.  The entire process was amazingly easy.  We got up around 5:30 AM, ate breakfast, grabbed our backpacks, and were at our car by 7:50 AM.  The facial recognition technology worked well and made our exit quick.  We did not wait for an elevator to retrieve our car in the parking garage and we were on Interstate 95 by 8:00 AM.