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I didn’t have any problem at all. I booked all my dining reservations on the app at the 120 mark. It will depend on your party size though because they only open up certain times for certain part sizes before the cruise. That doesn’t mean they are all sold out, though, because they open up more reservations once the cruise starts. I even made reservations for the main dining rooms which you don’t have to do. I’m just a planner, so I like to get early dining times so I can make it to all the shows/activities I want each evening. For the dining rooms, there was never much of a que at 5 or 5:30, but I did notice lines as we left dinner each night.

We were on the 2/18 sailing. Our assigned check in time was 10:30. But, we arrived at the port early - probably just before 10. They checked boarding passes and passports just after we dropped our bags with the porters. Next was security and there was no line at all. After that we sat in the waiting area briefly. They must have let us head into the check in area at around 10:30 or so. Short wait to check in - maybe 5 minutes. Check in went very quickly for us and our parents. We got our welcome aboard pics. Then, we were on board just before 11am. Smoothest check in ever!

Hi all, I got back from our cruise on the Viv on Sunday. We had a fantastic time! Now I’m just disappointed that I don’t have another cruise booked yet to look forward to. I won’t do a full day-by-day recap. But, I will tell you a little of what we did and post the dailies. Feel free to ask any questions. ——- Pre cruise: We booked the BOGO airfare as usual. We flew into San Juan a day early from Albany on JetBlue with a layover in Fort Lauderdale. We arrived around dinner time. We stayed the night at the Hyatt Place. This was my 7th cruise, my fifth on NCL. My brother and I are Gold latitudes members and our parents are Silver. Cabins: We were a party of 4 in 2 cabins: we were in balcony 16130 and our parents were in inside 16139. Our itinerary: 1. Embarkation in San Juan, Puerto Rico 2. Tortola, BVI 3. St. John’s, Antigua 4. Bridgetown, Barbados 5. Castries, St. Lucia 6. Philipsburg, St. Maarten 7. St. Thomas, USVI Dining: Specialties: Los Lobos, Onda For our other dinners we ate three times in the Hudsons, once in the Commodore Room, and once at the Indulge Food Hall. For breakfast, we ate in the buffet, the Local, and Indulge. We had lunches/snacks in The Local, Indulge, and the Observation Lounge. We, as always, thought the food was great. But, five cruises in we are getting tired of the same old menus in the main dining rooms … I know there are supposed to be many different rotating menus, but we always have basically the same ones on every cruise. On the other hand, we loved Indulge and thought it definitely lives up to the hype! This was also our first time at Onda and we loved it! Excursions: Tortola - Discover Tortola Antigua - Scenic Antigua Drive Barbados - Barbados Beach Break St. Lucia - Between the Pitons Catamaran St. Maarten - Open-Top Double-Decker Sightseeing Bus St Thomas - Discover St. Thomas and Magen’s Bay Onboard Activities: We utilized one of the infinity pools on deck 8 the afternoon of day 2. We found that it wasn’t too crowded. But, we were surprised by how cold it was. We preferred the hot tubs on the pool deck. We were able to basically have them to ourselves in the mornings before our later excursions. We also enjoyed Tee Time. It was fun, but I’m not sure it was worth the $10/pp charge. We were interested in darts and the escape rooms as well, but we waited too long to look into it and no reservations were available. We also attended the 80s Party on the Pool Deck for a bit which is always a good time. Entertainment: We made reservations in advance for Beetlejuice and Press Your Luck the same day we did our online check in. No other shows required reservations. We enjoyed Press Your Luck much more than we thought we would. It was pretty entertaining and there were some opportunities for audience participation. Unfortunately, our performance of Beetlejuice was canceled due to a cast injury. Originally, they said they might reschedule for the next night, but that didn’t pan out. We were able to see Icons which was quite fun! We also saw three comedy shows in the theater. We diid not bother to try to see the comedians in the Improv since most of the show times conflicted with other entertainment options that we prioritized. In addition to the theater shows, we saw three shows in Syd Norman’s, including Rumors. The shows were all fantastic even though it was a brand new cast (it was the first cruise for both the girls, at least). While we love Syd’s, the criticism of this venue is valid. It is too small and there is not enough seating. We stood in line probably about 45 minutes before showtime for Sail Away with Syd’s and were able to get seats. For Rock the Pour House 1, I stood in line almost an hour and a half before showtime and did not get a seat, but enjoyed the show anyway. For Rumors, I got in line at 7:12 for a 9pm show. We did get seats, but had a bit of a conflict just before showtime as a couple tried to stand right in front of us. I feel like Sy’s shows need to require reservations and/or they need to do something about the seating to address the small venue size. We also caught Nil and San, one of the lounge acts, several times and thought they were really great. Overall, we enjoyed all the shows we saw on the Viva, but we disappointed, not only that our Beetlejuice show was cancelled, but also that there was no Syd’s Prom in the theater or Ocean Music Fest offered on this cruise. Post Cruise: We had late flights, so after disembarking, we booked a sightseeing bus through San Juan Happy Tours. The tour was $40pp and made 3-4 stops over 3.5-4 hours. The tour ended at the airport. Our only real complaint about our BOGO flights was that NCL booked us and our parents on separate flights on the way home. We had Southwest with a layover in Baltimore and our parents flew United with a layover in Washington. Fortunately the flights were at about the same times and we made it back to Albany just after midnight.

We just got off today. The Latitudes party was at 6pm on the Antigua day.

Thanks for the great review! I’ll be on the Viva next week, so I’ve been looking for info. Do you happen to have the dailies from your cruise?

Do you have their contact info? I’ve looked for them on the internet too and their website doesn’t appear to be active and their last social media post is from April 2023. Trip Advisor doesn’t even seem to have any way to contact the company or book a tour.

I was just on the Joy in August. Yes people line up early. We usually got in line 45 minutes before the show. They open the doors 30 minutes early. So we were only in line for about 15 minutes. The bar is open once the doors open, so you can get drinks while you wait. I would not recommend cutting it much closer than 45 minutes before showtime. The first show we attended, my parents were the last to get seats and we stood in the back. Another thing you should know is that cavern club on the Joy is very, very small. It seemed smaller than the one on the Encore to me. And they rearrange the seats into rows in front of the stage instead of leaving the tables and having people sit in small groups like on the Encore. In the end, I didn’t mind this too much because even though they pack you in really tight, you don’t have the problem of people without seats getting up and dancing right up in front of the stage to block your view like happened a lot in the Encore.

Yes - the American Diner was open for breakfast from 8:30-11:30 every morning. We live in upstate NY, so we didn’t fly for this cruise. But, we did take a charter bus service from the Albany area, so we did not arrive to the pier as early as we’d like. We arrived just before 10:30. It was a little chaotic out where the bus dropped us off and got our luggage to the porters. We took an elevator up to the check in area and went through security pretty quickly. Took at quick restroom break before heading to our check in area. The check ins are divided by floor, so we were sent to the crack of the terminal to check in for floors 15-16. The line was not long and we were checked in within 5 minutes or so. We were out in boarding group 24. We were very disappointed as we are used to being in group 1 or 2. After check in, we were told to find a seat and wait for our boarding group. But, there were basically no seats in the 2 areas that were designated as general seating. Lots of seats reserved for special needs, priority, and latitudes, etc. that weren’t being used. By this time it was nearly 11 and they kept making announcements threatening to delay embarkation if everyone didn’t sit down and clear the boarding area even though there was no place to go. Despite this, embarkation started soon after 11. It went pretty quickly. They usually called 2 sometimes 3 groups at a time. I didn’t check my watch, but it didn’t seem like we waited as long as I would have expected before our group was called. Once onboard, we did our muster first and then had a drink at the District Brewhouse. They were handing out embarkation day Freestyle dailies by the stairs, so we grabbed a copy. Then, we went right to a kiosk to try to make comedy reservations. This worked out fine for us so we didn’t have to go to the Social to make our reservations. Next, we headed to the Local for lunch. It was busy, but we got a table right away. I’d say we were up in the Vibe by about 2. One weird thing I forgot to mention earlier is that for some reason you couldn’t make main dining room reservations. I usually make them in advance when I book my specialty dining, but I didn’t this time because we had some evening outings in Bermuda and wanted to leave our options open. Our plan was to make reservations on the app or at the kiosk each day to save time. But, we couldn’t make reservations and when we called, they told us they weren’t taking reservations. This meant we needed to plan ahead on the nights we wanted to go to the main dining rooms, so we could get in line right when they opened. We like to eat early on cruises so we have time to get to multiple shows in the evenings. This system worked out fine for us. But, the lines for the dining rooms always seemed long as we were leaving dinner. I don’t know how fast they moved. I bet that was frustrating for some who didn’t plan ahead.

Yes - Jo and Chris were both there on our sailing. The whole Vine staff was amazing, but they really are standouts!

Hi all, I’ve been back from our cruise on the Joy on Sunday. We had a fantastic time! Now, the countdown to the Viva in February has begun! I don’t think I’ll get around to doing a full day-by-day recap. But, I will tell you a little of what we did and post the dailies. Feel free to ask any questions. ——- This was my 6th cruise, my fourth on NCL. We are all Silver latitudes members. We were a party of 4 in 2 Balcony cabins: 13198 and 13196. I know there has been discussion about errors in the Joy deck plans regarding the angled balconies - I can confirm that the plans are. Orrery for these rooms and 13198 IS an angled balcony. Our itinerary: 1. Embarkation in Manhattan 2. Sea Day 3. Sea Day 4. Bermuda 5. Bermuda 6. Bermuda 7. Sea Day Dining: Specialties: Cagney’s, Q For our other dinners we ate three times in the Manhattan Room, once at Taste, and once in the Local. For breakfast, we ate in The buffet, Savor, and Taste. We had lunches/snacks in The Local, the buffet, and the Observation Lounge. We, as always, thought the food was great, but felt it was a bit better on the Encore in February. Activities/Excursions: Sea Days - We booked the Vibe for this cruise and loved every minute of it! Day 4 - Glass Bottom Boat and Sightseeing excursion, Horseshoe Bay beach, Harbor Nights Festival in Hamilton Day 5 - we went to St. Georges’s and visited Fort St. Catherine and Tobacco Bay Beach. That night we did the Bermuda Triangle Cruise excursion. Day 6 - Famous Homes and Hideaways excursion, then walked around Clocktower Mall at the Dockyard Entertainment: We saw both Footloose and Elements. We made reservations in advance for those shows the same day we did our online check in. We were able to book the comedy shows in the Social at a kiosk on embarkation day. We ended up seeing the comedians twice each - once was their show in the theater, then we saw each do their 18+ show in the Social. We saw all the Beatles shows - once in the theater and three times in the Cavern Club. We got in line for the Cavern Club about 45 minutes early and they opened the doors within about 15 minutes. My parents got the last two seats for the first show and my brother and I stood in the back, we all got seats for the other two shows. We also saw the magician in the theater and attended the Glow Party on the pool deck.

I’m glad you had such a great time! I’ll be getting onboard next week, so it’s nice to see such a positive review. Do you happen to have any of the freestyle dailies?

Thanks for the review. I’m glad you had a good time. I’ve got 42 days to go before my cruise on the Joy! Do you happen to have any of the dailies to post? Thank you.

From what I’ve seen in some dailies that have been posted lately, the showtimes for Footloose on the Joy are different because it’s so long. Looks like it’s usually a 6:30 and a 9:30 show. Elements seems to be 7 and 9:30.