We would love to sail on the Viva again!
Norwegian Viva Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 17
7 Night Caribbean: Barbados Antigua & St. Lucia (San Juan Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 17, 2024
Ship: Norwegian Viva
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 5114
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 2 months ago
Review summary
All in all a great experience. There are certainly some things that could have been better (most centered around better attention to detail from the staff), but we will sail with Norwegian again and hopefully on the Viva, but maybe out of a different port.Embarkation
Unlike other cruise lines we've sailed with, we were able to board the ship as soon as we arrived at the port. We did not have to wait until our assigned check in time.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The Free At Sea program allows for free alcoholic beverages. Not having to pay for an expensive drink package was a WONDERFUL bonus. We felt as if the food portions throughout the ship were rather small compared to other cruise lines. Everything tasted wonderful, but most meals we were left wanting just a little bit more.
Onboard Activities
As far as the pools and hot tubs: The very first rule on the pool rules is "No life guard on duty". However, there was someone dressed as a life guard (in a shirt that said life guard), sitting in a life guard chair and carrying a life guard's rescue float. The appearance would be that if an emergency occurred, there is someone ready to assist. That is most definitely not the case. We watched the "life guard" take bathroom breaks while on duty. He left the pool deck to talked to other employees with his back to the pool. His main job seemed to be the person responsible to make sure no one had a drink in the pool. One rule for the hot tubs, was no children under 16 without adult supervision. Every time we used the hot tub over the course of 7 days, we ended up leaving because of large groups of young children without any adult present splashing and screaming in the hot tubs.
I'm unsure if there is a rule about personal speakers in public places, but there was one large group of people that we seemed to constantly encounter who carried a speaker with them around the ship. They had music playing in the hallways, in the buffet area in the mornings, but the most annoying time was on deck 8 area the infinity pools. They played their music extremely loud. So loud that their group of people was yelling to have conversation over the music. We saw multiple guests complain to staff after these people brought the speaker into the pool. We never saw a staff member speak to them or address the noise complaints.
Entertainment
As far as shows: We really enjoyed seeing Beetlejuice. The cast was wonderful. The Press Your Luck show was also very entertaining. I cannot give the activities 5 stars because I felt that the staff really needed to do more to help create a better environment. It is very distracting when you have people coming in late to these shows - especially Beetlejuice. It must also be distracting to the performers on stage. We felt like the doors should be closed once a show starts and latecomers should not be allowed in.
The musicians around the ship were decent. Our favorite performer, who we made sure to see as often as possible, was a gentleman from Estonia who labeled himself a troubadour. He was fantastic!
Service and Staff
Unlike on other cruise lines we've sailed with, we only saw our room steward once and it was because we happened to pass him in the hallway and saw his name tag.
The wait staff around the ship seemed to be in too much of a hurry to really make any quality assessment of their jobs.
We did have a favorite bartender, Gusti. Our favorite server was in Hudson's, Perfect. Both gentlemen were very personable and we enjoyed them very much.
Ship Quality
The ship is very well laid out. Things are easy to find and it was very clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
We were skeptical about being on deck 5. It's the lowest we've ever stayed on a ship, but it was wonderful. If we sail on this ship again, I would choose deck 5. Deck 4 was the gangway so we avoided having to use the crowded elevators to exit and enter the ship at each port. Most of the activities we took part in were on decks 6, 7 or 8 so everything was close enough that we didn't use elevators every time we left our room.
Ship tip
Try everything! Especially Le Bistro, the French restaurant. It was delicious and the room was gorgeous.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We did a rain forest excursion on the the morning before we had to be back at the airport. It was a great way to kill 4 hours while waiting for a late flight out of Puerto Rico.
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
We did not stay on Tortola. On the advise of a friend, we took a ferry over to Virgin Gorda and did a tour of the baths. It was a beautiful excursion, but bring your patience. It is a lot of "hurry up and wait" with long lines of people moving slowly through small corridors of rocks.
Not much to do here other than shop in the local market and have a drink at Rum Runners by the Sea.
Barbados was our favorite port. We booked a day pass through Resort For A Day. We visited Copacabana Beach Club. While we were there was joined a snorkel group and saw a shipwreck and sea turtles. After we came back to the beach and enjoyed the best FISH TACOS I've ever had. Our server recommended them as the best item on the menu and she wasn't wrong.
The did the Volcanic Mud Bath excursions. My only complaint was that the advertised 45-60 minute bus ride was actually almost 2 hours on VERY narrow and VERY winding roads. Getting to the excursion and back was very stressful. The mud bath itself was enjoyable and I'm glad we did it.
We did the Maho Beach excursion to see the planes fly in. It was really neat to watch and we got some really great video. BE WARNED! The undertow is very strong and even being from Florida and spending a lot of time in the ocean, we were not prepared for it.
This was our 2nd time in St Thomas. We decide to take the sky ride to Paradise Point. Highly recommend. There are a few small shops and a restaurant at the top and the views are amazing!!
Disembarkation
We had an excursion booked for the morning of disembarkation. My only suggestion would be that Norwegian have the people booked for the excursion meet outside of the boat rather than at one of the restaurants and then try to make our way off the ship in a massive group along with everyone else that's trying to leave the ship at the same time.