It only took me almost the whole week, but…
Day 7, final sea day:
We had our final The Local breakfast to start the day. We had begun our cruise with the most delightful server from South Africa, Sanelle, and were fortunate enough to have him again for this meal. If you visit The Local on Joy and encounter him, you’re lucky indeed! Two random comments about breakfast—first, whoever was cutting the fruit for The Local fruit salads is an absolute machine. It would always be in these very small cubes and so completely uniform lol. Second, each time we ordered toast, they brought marmalade, strawberry preserves, and apple jelly. I finally tried the apple jelly on Day 7 and it’s not half bad. Is that a European or British thing? Because I’ve never had it before. Traveling to PA often enough in my life, I’ve had apple butter plenty of times, but never jelly. Anyway, let me tell you my life is not exciting without saying my life is not exciting.
posted previously, but, the fruit salad and toast with accompaniments at The Local:
We only did a couple activities that day, as we were gradually getting organized and packing over the course of the day. Prior to breakfast, I made a final attempt to win LM a giant glitter duck from a crane game in The Local’s arcade area. I finally emerged victorious. I can’t imagine what DH and I spent over the course of the cruise on a duck that probably costs a buck lol. But you’d think the kid never had a toy before, he was so excited.
First after breakfast was mini golf. I enjoy this feature on the ships that have it. While there are no big bells and whistles, it’s a perfectly nice, occasionally challenging mini golf course with the best view you could hope for. LM had never played before and he enjoyed himself. We then took him for his final arcade visit (except for DH taking him back later to cash in his ticket receipts for prizes).
part of the mini golf course
beautiful views from the mini golf
watched this crazy slide for a few minutes; I probably would have done it when I was younger and more fun…now it just looks like plastic tube to bake in lol. If you’re thinking of doing it, be aware that the crew member there does not play—she was checking everyone for metal on bathing suits, any jewelry whatsoever, and having people weigh themselves (for both minimum and maximum weight).
I already covered our MDR lunch in a post above.
I had really wanted to see a Beatles show all week, but had not managed to squeeze one in. I did not intend to try to watch from inside the Cavern Club. I knew I wouldn’t get there early enough for that and I don’t like being packed in, as I knew I would be if I tried to stay inside. I ended up missing probably about the first 20 minutes of the show (which was 45-50 minutes long). I walked straight through the inside part of the Cavern Club and right out to the Waterfront. I could tell it was super crowded inside even though I didn’t really look around. I didn’t even bother to try to sit at the outside bar to see the TV monitor (they’re not actually The Beatles and I don’t feel compelled to pretend lol); I just wanted to hear the good music. So, I relaxed at a table on the waterfront where a nice server brought me a Bahama Mama (I try not to OD on the sugary drinks the whole cruise, but this was so good!) and listened to the very talented band for the rest of their show. This was the Abbey Road show, which are some of my favorite Beatles songs, anyway, so I was very happy! If you don’t need the “full” experience of being inside the venue, I highly recommend sitting outside. You can hear perfectly (see, too, if you watch at the bar) with no crowd and the ocean going by, and it’s so easy to get a drink out there!
We still had one Platinum voucher for 2 and when we went to Cagney’s, we did not cash in a FAS meal for LM because he doesn’t eat anything on that menu. So, we still had a specialty dinner for 3 to use up. We decided to wait until a little on the later side to see if La Cucina had any no-shows, as obviously everything was showing up fully booked for the night. I think perhaps people make reservations on different nights for more meals than they actually have. Because everything was pretty much booked solid shortly after embarking, but there were empty tables everywhere each night (except when we were at Cagney’s, which was quite full the whole time we were there). If La Cucina didn’t work out, we were just going to return to Food Republic. We didn’t plan to try at Ocean Blue or Le Bistro without knowing if we could get in. It sounds dumb, but unless he’s really in the mood to wear pants, I don’t want to force DH to wear pants on vacation because he has to wear a uniform every other day of his life. If we had planned to go there, it would be different, but without knowing, I didn’t want to make him bother.
We were able to be seated at La Cucina, but it just needed to be in the section that’s closer to the corridor outside the restaurant proper. Fine by me, as it was quieter and fewer people! I ordered a completely different meal this time to change it up, but I did end up eating the gnocchi again as my mom ordered it and then didn’t care for the pesto, so I gave her my carbonara instead. Interestingly, this time the gnocchi had some toasted pine nuts sprinkled on top. I’m not sure if this was an oversight last time, or if it was that the first server informed the kitchen of DH’s pine nut allergy and this one didn’t (he has to ingest them to have a reaction, so it’s no big deal if they’re on someone else’s plate). DH had the fettuccine Alfredo appetizer portion. All the pastas were pretty good. We had started with salads that were also fresh and tasty. I’m normally not a pear person, but I tried the salad with the pear, Gorgonzola and walnuts and it was very good. I think everyone enjoyed their entrees more the first visit than this one. There was nothing wrong with any of them, just personal preferences were all more in favor of what we got the first time. DM ordered the margarita pizza, which wasn’t bad but they were a little heavy-handed on the oregano, which she doesn’t much care for. DH had the beef tenderloin and while there was nothing wrong with the meat, he said there was “too much going on,” and he felt the beef was getting a little overwhelmed by the peppercorn sauce and the blue cheese, which for him was not a super enjoyable combination. I tried the pork scallopine (it doesn’t say on the menu, but it comes with roasted potatoes and sautéed spinach). Oh my, was it salty. I’m a little sensitive to salt so sometimes I’m not the best judge, but I truly believe most people would have found this over-salted. Also, there was too much coarse-ground pepper as well, so it was kind of killing what would otherwise have been a tasty Marsala sauce. LM wanted pizza with a side of mac and cheese. I asked for a small portion of the mac and cheese and it was maybe a tad smaller, but still a lot. He put a decent dent in all of it, though. (Pointless aside: yesterday, I had to bribe the kid to finish about 1/3 slice of pizza and a single garlic knot, so he really was getting his cruise eating on for the week lol.) Dessert was cannolis all around, brownies for LM. DH tried to order the chocolate tart, but the waiter came and said it wasn’t “stable,” so I assume the tart filling hadn’t set. Nice of them to say instead of serving something subpar, though. The cannoli taste completely fine there, but the filling should be thicker. Cannoli filling shouldn’t leak out when you bite the cannoli!
pear and Gorgonzola saladgnocchi pesto, this time with pine nuts
carbonarabeef tenderloin with blue cheese ravioli
pork scaloppine
margarita pizza
cannoli trio
kids’ brownies
After LM went to bed, DH and I had our last hurrah in the casino, and wrapped it up when they gave the 30-minute warning for closing as we approached American waters.
Final Thoughts:
I already discussed disembarkation, which was smooth, easy, and ahead of schedule. If you have nowhere to be and don’t have a long trip home, I think it’s nice not to rush off the ship, let the lines die down a bit, let a lot of bags be collected/claimed, etc. We were far from the last people off, but waiting a while worked out well!
I would definitely do this cruise (or probably almost any itinerary on the Joy) again in a heartbeat. DH has another vacation next month, but it doesn’t include another Sunday-Sunday week as it starts on a Wednesday and ends the following Friday (annoying NYPD schedules). If the days would have worked out, I think I could have talked him into us calling CAS to see what they’d have given us for next month to go again. The ship is beautiful (yes, there are spots where you can tell she’s a little worn, but people are inconsiderate and gross and mess things up over time) and kept so clean by the crew. I walked out of the cabin one morning to Joel washing the walls in the hallway and doorways. The walls! I was constantly running into the housekeeping ladies with the carts going in and out of the public restrooms. The few times we were in the buffet, the servers were so on top of clearing stuff you practically had to smack their hands if you weren’t done 😝.
The crew as a whole was friendly, efficient, accommodating, helpful, and kind. After LM got his T-Rex from the arcade claw machine, he was walking around with it constantly for at least a day. At least 4 separate random crew members all pretended to be scared at different times when he held it up and made little dinosaur roars. That’s how sweet these people are.
Although food is incredibly subjective, overall I was happy with it. I have been sailing NCL long enough to be fully aware of the cutbacks and ways of penny-pinching on the food offerings. And yet, I don’t have to plan it, shop for it, cook it, or clean up after it, so it’s all good. For the most part, there was decent variety, the food was fresh, and a majority of what I ate tasted good. You can go anywhere and order something that turns out to not be great; the wonderful thing on a cruise is that if that happens, they’ll happily bring you something else, so I can’t complain! Here’s a random picky beverage service gripe…we’re talking serious first-world problem here. As I mentioned, I try not to drink too much sugar, but I’ll generally let myself do one frozen or fruity drink per day. My favorite is a Miami Vice. When I would get them, it didn’t matter from which bar, they just weren’t frozen enough. Is it because the piña colada part is coming out of machines premade now? I don’t know, but they were so liquidy. If I’m getting a frozen drink, I better need to suck hard enough for my cheeks to hurt lol. The one frozen drink that was better was when I asked at the OL bar for a strawberry daiquiri made with Malibu. That one was nice and thick. Maybe I’m just a crazy person and most people prefer frozen drinks less thick and frosty 🤷🏻♀️.
As far as entertainment, there were more options than I could possibly have fit in. There were multiple very good musical acts around the ship every night, plus the theater entertainment, Cavern Club, and comedy shows. I did skip all the comedy shows. If something has to give, for me it’s that. I usually get a few good chuckles out of them, but never quite find them hilarious, so I’m okay with skipping them.
Most likely, it’s going to be next summer before we’ll cruise again. We will never make the mistake of doing February break again, and I’m not sure my April vacation dates would work out with DH’s vacation options and the cruise schedules. Planning will be fun, though, as next summer I’m going to push for either two cruises, a back to back, or a longer itinerary. So, thanks so much for following along with the continuing adventures of Little Man and crew! I’m happy to try to answer any remaining questions anyone has!
To sign off, probably my favorite of the many versions of this chandelier:
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Rare
Rare
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