NewPennCruiser

I'm not sure if all the bathroom doors are the same but we just got off the Island and showered with the bathroom door open all the time.  The bathroom door was not like the cabin door with an automatic closer.  It only closed if you wanted to close it and pull it shut.  As someone else mentioned, the door should stay open unless you're possibly in really rough seas.

You will have the option to purchase the other options when you order you medallion on the app as you go through your pre cruise registration. We ordered clips that would allow you to attach to a bag or belt loops, etc.  Honestly I kept it in my pocket and that worked great because it mostly works when it's close to a reader so even in my pocket, servers knew who I was and just walking up to the cabin door, unlocked it and I walked in without me needing to pull it from my pocket.  The only time I really needed to grab it and do something with it was for getting on and off the ship and needing to hold it up to the reader.  By ordering the clips early, everything came to our house about 10 days prior to our cruise, including the free lanyards which we really did not use.

10 hours ago, geoherb said:

I'm home after a long day in Philadelphia. I was tempted to take the train into the city to see some of the sights, but I decided to relax at my hotel most of the morning. I walked from one end of the airport terminal to the other and had a cheesesteak at Chickie's & Pete's. It was very good. The guy beside me at the counter had a huge order of fries. That was the only size offered. I decided against them and for a bowl of chicken tortilla soup. 

I just had to get a laugh that you managed to find a Chickie's and Pete's while you were stuck in Philadephia. Even though you didn't try them their crabfries are a true Philadelphia delicacy! I'm glad you finally made it home. We were delayed some at LGA but managed to get out before the storms wreaked havoc with the airport.

We also just got off the Island with geoherb and echo his comments about some of the issues. We didn’t have water issues but did notice a/c issues throughout the ship. We usually think the public places on ships are cool but on the Island, it was a mixed bag and you never quite knew when you might need a sweater or shorts. Of course, it was an interesting itinerary because we spent time in Nova Scotia and South Carolina so outside temperatures fluctuated greatly and we spent probably 7 of 10 days in cooler weather. That made me think about the complaints coming from the cruise prior to us that spent most of their cruise in the tropics. During the couple of days we were cruising into Charleston and back out we noticed our cabin getting warm and at some times, the Horizon Court was unbearably warm. One positive note though was that it was never overly crowded since we were sailing far from full capacity. Being roughly 500 passengers under capacity certainly made the experience more pleasant. No lines, easier elevator service, no chair hogs at the pool (temperatures contributed to that as well) but I thought if we were sailing full, it would have been a completely different experience, especially with broken water pipes and a/c issues in areas. You can’t move people if you don’t have available cabins.

We had a great time. The crew was fantastic, the public areas were clean and comfortable even if the décor is a little outdated and the passengers we met were all mostly friendly, held elevators, smiled, said hi, etc; all contributing to a nice relaxing vacation. But our main topic of conversation at the airport after disembarkation was over the fact that Princess really needs to make a decision about this ship. It needs upgrades and it appears a lot of the infrastructure of the ship needs overhauled and or fixed. Princess needs to either invest a lot of money and time into upgrades or make the decision to sell. This was our third time on this ship and we love how comfortable it is with the size and layout. I would hate to see it go but the ship seems to need more than a simple drydock to fix some of its issues.

On a side note, geoherb, we hope you made it home after your airline delays and it was very nice meeting you on the cruise.  

Dave

6 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

No. The price for the Crab Shack is $39 per person plus gratuity. People with Premier can go there for one of their two specialty dining options. 

Good to know..,,, thanks.  Very bad assumption on my part.

You brought up something I apparently was not aware of, Crab Shack is not considered one of the casual dining options if you have Plus?  I always thought it was although we have not attended that lunch.

2 hours ago, 10cruise said:

Thank you for taking the time to write back.  It's greatly appreciated!  What ship are you on?  Can you tell me what day the ship left the port?  We are arriving and departing on a Saturday.  I wonder if the drive time would be any easier vs departing M - F.  I hope you are enjoying your cruise.

We’re on the Island and got on the ship last Tuesday.  I didn’t think Tuesday morning traffic would be bad but I was sure wrong.  Saturday will probably be better.  We did a transfer from LGA with NCL to the Manhattan terminal last summer on a Saturday and traffic was not bad.  I realize that’s a different direction but Saturday results might be the same.

35 minutes ago, 10cruise said:

NewPennCruiser.  Can you tell me what time your flight was at disembarkation? How long was the ride?  Thanks again...

We are currently on the ship so we have not left yet but the disembarkation transfer says it required a flight time of 1:00 or later.  Our flight is 2:30.  The transfer to the ship took forever because traffic was in complete gridlock.  Princess said 40-50 minutes but it probably took 90+ minutes once we got on the bus and stopped twice at the airport and then crept along the Brooklyn Expressway.  Taking a taxi or Uber would have probably been just as bad.  In fact when I checked a cost for Uber they quoted basically the same cost as the transfer for the two of us.

We just did a Princess transfer from LGA to Brooklyn with lots of other people on 6/4.  Maybe they will be available closer to your sailing.  Also we had to go through our TA to book it, we could not do anything on line ourselves.  FYI, they are also offering the same transfers at disembarkation.

I think the one constant since covid is that all mainstream cruise lines have changed. As someone else mentioned, if you go to some of the other boards for Celebrity, RC and NCL you'll read the same thing; complaints of food choices, more nickel and diming, less services, etc. We have cruised twice recently and those trips were with Celebrity and NCL. While some of the changes were noticeable we still had a great time. We will be cruising with Princess in June for the first time in 6 years so for us there will be a lot of noticeable differences because we've never cruised with medallions, Princess Plus, "casual dining" options, etc. Our biggest decision in the past was whether we wanted to trade in our mini bar setup for coffee cards, lol. We realize times have changed and are looking forward to stepping on a Princess ship again, as for us cruising with Princess always felt like we were returning home even though we enjoy cruising with other lines. Our last cruise was on Celebrity and we had many conversations with people who were going to be trying Princess, so I really think it is up to each individual to figure out which cruise line best suits them and I guess it always was that way. Happy sailing everyone no matter who you choose to cruise with; it's still a great way to travel.    Dave

7 hours ago, Dr H said:

I've never heard of "future cruise credits", HOWEVER: When you are on board, Azamara permits, in fact encourages, booking a future cruise with a $550. deposit. A single, penalty free change of cruise is permitted. As is a return of your deposit for an almost full cancellation ($75 pp penalty?). The credit perks, discounts, etc will also transfer over to the new cruise. If final price drops before your final payment, both the perks you booked and the price change will be honored. We've done it, and have not had a problem. Future cruises are usually announced a good year and a half in advance. Just be aware that there is the risk of the cruise line going belly up in the future, and you've got money "invested" in them that could be lost. So far, there have been no overt issues with Azamara. If you like the line, and like the itineraries they offer, put a deposit down.

I was just wondering if you have used one of these future deposits recently?  We last cruised with Azamara in 2019 when they were still under the RCI umbrella and we purchased one of the future cruise deposits as you mention.  We didn't see a particular cruise that we liked at the time so my account online would always show the deposit as an "Open Passage" future cruise.  Of course the new system doesn't show you anything.  Our TA has a record of the deposit as do we so we're hoping the "new" Azamara will accept it.  We are looking to possibly cruise with Azamara again toward end of 2024 so I guess we will find out.   Dave 

We were recently on a 10 day in Aqua and as noted Lobster was on the second chic night.  Filet Mignon was also on the menu in Blu and most people around us either did "Surf n Turf" or ordered 2 lobster tails.  There were no extra charges.

OP, we will be joining you today on the Silhouette. We also have not cruised with Celebrity in quite a while but unlike you only have positive memories of our past experiences with Celebrity so it will be interesting to see how things have changed. Our last cruise with Celebrity was also on the Silhouette about 1 month before everything shut down in 2020 and it has been one of our favorite ships. We’ve only cruised once since the pandemic and it was with NCL. It was a great cruise. Anyway, we are looking forward to warm weather and some relaxation.  Happy Sailing!   Dave

Given the fact that Bermuda has been under Tropical Storm Warnings for over 24 hours I was surprised to look at the Bermuda Port Webcam this morning and see the Joy was still in port.  Wave action coming out of the north in the dockyards is intense and crashing over the docks.  I'm wondering if anyone on board can report back as to what things are like on the ship at the moment.  It would not be safe to leave the ship and I imagine the Joy couldn't leave now if it wanted to.

I apologize if this was discussed but will honestly say I have not read every comment in this thread.  A question for seasoned Haven cruisers....  Do you think there is a difference in service booking a Haven cabin that is not actually in the Haven space like the OP had on deck 10?  We recently cruised on the Joy in a standard balcony and put a bid in for a Haven upgrade but we only put a bid in for a couple of Haven categories that were actually located in the Haven.  I suspect they are more popular and our bid was not accepted.  We did cruise in a suite on NCL in 2013 and had a tremendous cruise but that pre dated Haven so we have not experienced NCL's current suite offerings.  By the way we had a great cruise in our non Haven room and enjoyed spaces like the Observation Lounge, the Waterfront, etc and didn't feel like we were missing anything.  Ignorance is bliss.  We didn't know what we were missing and after reading this thread I'm not sure if we would have enjoyed the cruise anymore than we already did if our bids had been accepted.

Personally I think most of the mainstream cruise lines are more alike than different anymore.  We have mostly cruised Princess with a few cruises each on NCL, Celebrity and Azamara and I agree with another comment that NCL is more laid back.  I also think the passengers skew a little younger although that will probably depend on length of cruise and port of departure.  Entertainment and food can be very subjective but again I think each cruise line sort of does some things better than others but honestly to me, they are all very similar.  Our most recent cruise was out of New York on the Joy and it was by far the most casual and laid back cruise we have ever taken.  We loved it!  As I get older I'm done dressing up and just want to relax and to be honest most cruise lines are getting more casual.  I know a lot of people don't like that but we have adjusted just fine.   Dave

3 minutes ago, jack300s said:

Next month we'll be on the Escape out of the Manhatten Cruise Terminal. Has anyone taken the Ship's Transfer to JFK after the cruise? If so, what time do you board the bus and about what time does the bus leave for the Airport? 

We recently cruised on the Joy through the Manhattan Cruise Terminal and had a transfer to LGA.  All airport transfers were scheduled for 9:00 disembarkation with Brown tags.  They actually called us early, closer to 8:30.  Once we collected our bags and exited the terminal we were directed toward buses that were clearly marked for JFK, LGA or EWR.  I remember seeing at least 2 buses for LGA and I'm not sure how many were heading to JFK although I remember seeing one.  There was a representative there crossing names off a list.  Our bus for LGA left first at about 9:30.  The JFK bus was still there but there were people boarding. I imagine the Escape disembarkation will be similar.  If you have a late flight in the afternoon or evening, NCL was offering a sightseeing excursion with drop off at the various airports if you had flights scheduled after 2:30.

6 hours ago, Always Cruising said:

Loved the music in the Q!  Just returned from Aug 6 Joy cruise, and wish I were still on the ship.  Did you have the couple from New Zealand and Australia doing American country at Q?  I thought they were great, and spoke with them a few times - very personable.  They got the  southern accent of the songs perfectly!

 

Yes, they were really good.  The night we had dinner in Q we listened to Julia Hatfield.  She was good too and often performed in the Observation Lounge.

2 hours ago, onebzyldy said:

Thank you for a great review. Cruising on JOY in September, Canada/New England out of Quebec City. Just a quick question. What is the “Q” and what does FAS stand for?

 

FAS is short for the Free At Sea program they are promoting and Q is the Texas Smokehouse specialty dining room on the ship.  They serve various options of BBQ meats, etc. and have live music.  The food was ok but the desserts were killer.  If I went back I would probably go to just order dessert and listen to some music.

17 hours ago, barb in ga said:

Thanks for such a positive review!  So often posters feel the need to critique everything in a negative way, overlooking the positive aspects of the cruise. This our first time on NCL; we chose Joy for the itinerary and for the age and condition of the ship. We most frequently cruise Royal on the Oasis class ships. We're fans of the opportunities for a variety of food and entertainment venues.

 

We are looking forward to this cruise; only 4 weeks from today we sail from New York to Quebec City, long a location on our bucket list. When we debark QC after an overnight on the ship, we are going to spend another day and night before taking the train to Montreal, where we'll stay 3 nights, then fly home to Atlanta. I booked our airfare and hotels last week, just need to reserve train tickets and make a list of highlights for the cruise ports and Quebec stays. All ideas welcome. I'm looking today at ship tours as well, but we frequently prefer to make our way around on our own.

 

If you have a schedule that shows the main entertainments, I would love for you to post it.

Thanks,

Barb in GA

 

We are looking at possibly doing the same itinerary as you next year but starting in QC and ending in NY.  Your plans sound nice, especially the train going onto Montreal.  I didn't keep any paper or schedules from the trip but if you look back for Dorhead1230's live thread a few weeks ago she posted the daily's and they were pretty much the same as when we just cruised.   Your itinerary is different so the schedules might not be the same but I can tell you there was at least 1 thing going on in the theater each night.  Footloose played the theater on Days 2 and 3.  Then an aerial act played the theater on Day 4, BeatlesStory Tribute Day 5 and then the big production show Elements on Days 6 and 7.  If you're interested in Footloose and Elements it is best to reserve those online before your cruise.  Generally I think you can do that 21 days out.  On those same nights there is usually comedy in Social and singers performing all over the ship in Q, the Atrium, Observation Lounge, Sugarcane, Mixx, etc.

17 hours ago, barb in ga said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

t

There have been a few great reviews and threads recently about the Joy and its Bermuda run, especially those from Dorhead1230 and T Byrd.  Thank you both for some great advice before we sailed!   In any case I thought I would also put a quick review out there that might help some folks who are similar to us. We have cruised a lot but NCL is usually not our first cruise line of choice.  We also prefer smaller ships and tend to cruise off season.  So why did we decide to cruise with a full mega ship with 4,000+ passengers in the middle of summer vacation season?  Call us adventuresome I suppose.  Plus things have just settled after a long period of elder care activity and I just needed to get away.

We last cruised in February of 2020 and it’s our first time back on NCL in 10 years.  And as I previously mentioned we have never been on a ship this large and usually don’t cruise in the middle of summer.  And if you look at my cruise history you’ll see I’ve cruised more with the Del Boca Vista crowd than with a ship full of kids.

Embarkation was a breeze.  We usually fly in 1 to 2 days before a cruise but chose to just fly in early morning on Sunday since it was a short direct flight in July.  What could go wrong?  Well there is always a chance that something could go wrong but everything was fine.  No smoke, no storms, flight was actually 20 minutes early.  We were using the NCL airport transfer so we got our luggage around 10:30, met the NCL rep and transferred to the pier by about Noon. We never feel like we need to be the first person on the ship and maybe missed the early crowd, but we were checked in and walked right on the ship in 20 minutes.  We immediately completed our emuster checkin, dropped our hand bags off at luggage hold in “Q” and wandered off to lunch.  We didn’t feel like dragging our bags around all afternoon so thanks to others for giving us a heads up that you could drop off luggage.  NCL really doesn’t advertise that.  At least we didn’t see anything.  We were having a relaxing lunch in Taste at 12:45.  Nice way to start a vacation.  After lunch we just relaxed in the OL with a few drinks and the “all rooms are ready” message finally came at about 3:45.  Some floors were ready before that..  

Food can be very subjective so I’ll just say we were very happy with everything.  We had FAS so dined in Q and Le Bistro as far as specialty restaurants and ate most of our other meals in Taste, Savor or Local.  We really loved all the options for breakfast and the fact that there are various complementary dining rooms available for dinner.  A lot of the time lunch for us was spent in the Observation Lounge when they put out snacks at 2:30.  We for the most part didn’t eat in the Garden Café and I had seen a lot of comments before our cruise about the operating hours.  Breakfast was available there until 10:30 every day and I had seen comments on the boards here previously that it was only open until 9:30.  Most complaints I heard from others walking around were about the buffet lunch hours.  People complained that it closed at 3:00 for lunch.  We typically had lunch in Taste or the OL so it didn’t affect us.  We did notice the OL would get really crowded after 3:00 with folks looking for food.  As far as complimentary dining vs specialty?  We enjoyed our dinners in Q and Le Bistro, Le Bistro probably our best meal of the week, but dining in Taste and Savoy were all very good and we didn’t feel like we were missing anything.  Yes they repeated some things on the menu, but we always found something that sounded interesting on any given day.  I do have a hard time figuring out what NCL should do with the American Diner.  We did eat breakfast there once, but they charge for lunch and not open for dinner?   It’s wasted space.  Offering breakfast was nice but they really should just turn this into a complimentary burger joint, the kids would love it.  Plus it is for the most part an outdoor dining venue and when we had breakfast there it was really hot and humid.  The food was ok, but we couldn’t wait to get out of there.  We had breakfast in Taste or Local all other mornings.   It was also nice that you could have a sit down breakfast on the morning of disembarkation.  Taste and Savoy were both open and it was a pleasant way to end the cruise.

As far as the ship goes, we loved it and maybe surprised ourselves.  We really thought it was designed well so that you can go off into different areas and separate yourself from the masses if you want to.  We’re not pool deck people and just ventured out there once to see the wall to wall loungers on a sunny day and we quickly retreated to the Waterfront area, H2O or various bars or the Observation Lounge.   The ship is beautiful and I can only imagine its sister ships are just as nice or nicer.   We have cruised Princess more than any other line and are not fans of their new ship builds.  They are still smaller than the Joy but they are more inward designed ships vs outward like the Joy (ie: Waterfront) and they just feel crowded.  Other than embarkation day we did not feel crowded all week.

We enjoy musical acts more than big production shows and really liked that there were various venues featuring live music throughout the week.  Everyone was very good and we especially enjoyed the Beatles shows.  Thanks to previous advice we watched all the Cavern Club shows from the Waterfront bar with the TV monitor above the bar.  A relaxing way to enjoy good music without being cramped inside.

The only annoyance we had was with the forward bank of elevators.  They were usually in a state of chaos and despite the fact that we had a forward balcony on deck 12, we found ourselves walking to the aft elevators when we needed to go somewhere.  They were always less crowded.  With the OL, Haven, buffet, theater, etc all forward, the forward elevators are just naturally the most used.  And don’t get me started on elevator etiquette.  Wow, I thought maybe the groups of kids would be the most annoying, playing around on the elevators but we didn’t see that.  It was the adults.  And this was certainly not everyone but there was a fair share of people who would get on the elevators and not move back.  So when the door opened they would just scowl at you and not move even though there was room behind them.  We laughed when we got on an elevator with a group of 12-13 year olds toward the end of the cruise and they were even complaining about that.  I really felt sorry for folks who had walkers and scooters.  We often held elevators for those folks so they could get places and then we would wait for the next one.  That said there were a lot of funny moments with people who seemed to like the challenge to see how many people could actually get on the elevator and then we’d all laugh about it after the door closed.  The elevators are actually quite large and even though some folks have elevator phobias or maybe even are claustrophobic, it would be nice if folks would just relax, get a grip and be kind about it. 

And finally I have to shout out to the crew.  It was probably the most engaging and friendly crew we have ever had the pleasure of sailing with.  They were all amazing and so many of them really seemed like they were having fun despite the hard work and long days.  I came away remembering more names than I ever have, Joanna, Maribel, Santan, Nelda, Oliver, James, Chris, Mervin, Eddie, to just name a few.   Note to T Byrd if you read this, Joanna was promoted to bartender and starts working in the Atrium Bar this week.

Anyway I guess that’s about it.  Disembarkation was easy and trouble free.  I wish other ports were this easy!   If you read this all the way through I hope I helped in some way.  Despite some reservations and wondering if we really should have booked this cruise, we loved it and booked a future cruise on the same ship.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll try to answer them.

Happy Sailing everyone.    Dave

On 7/22/2023 at 3:31 PM, T BYRD said:

You want an awesome Swizzle?

Tell Joana up in the Observation Lounge that Mr Todd sent you 😉

We’re sitting in the OL as we sail away and we told Joanna that Mr Todd said hello.  She laughed and had a big smile on her face.  🙂

I believe Dorhead1230 just posted them on her recent Live review a couple of weeks ago.  Look about half way through her review and you should find them.  She posted them in a few separate posts.

That happened to me too.   I played with it a bit and found if I unchecked the box that said "print header and footer", it corrected itself to 1 page.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us and safe travels home once you get back.  Enjoy the last sea day.  I had a quick question.  You shared a picture of a run swizzle from a bar in Bermuda earlier.  I'm curious, since the Joy right now is pretty much exclusively sailing to Bermuda for the summer, can you get a rum swizzle anywhere on the ship?