hondar

On 12/25/2023 at 7:29 AM, basketballdad said:

Went on the December 9 Panama partial out of Tampa on December 9th.

It is always good to be at sea.  Here are a few things I wish I had known on this cruise.  

PARKING.  It's been a few years (and maybe 40 cruises ago) since we sailed out of Tampa.  Thankfully we were close enough to drive.  Frankly it is a bit confusing because the lots near the ship are not ship parking, they are for the aquarium.   Do not attempt to park near the ship.  The ship parking is a 4 story structure a block or so from the ship.  There is a cheaper outdoor lot but you leave your keys your whole cruise with the people running it, and I did not feel comfortable with that.

This year we were on MSC, NCL, and Virgin.  WiFi calling and texting on Verizon worked perfectly on Verizon.  Not on this ship.  WiFi Calling and texting were blocked.  This was frustrating because to afford all these cruises I had to be reachable.  I tried setting up a VPN and still nothing.  So thankfully for outgoing calls I have a VoIP app (GoTo) from one of my businesses and had to download another messaging app to text.  We made it work, but it took time to figure out and was frustrating.  I know most people go on vacation to get away from the phone, but I am not able to.  I would say the internet seemed good (as far as speed, jitter, and packet loss) for most things people would do.  I tried to get help from both the customer service and Pixel staff (their IT dept) and all they could do help confirm I was online.  We even hotspotted to my wife's iPhone (I have an Android) and her texting worked but not wifi calling.  If their staff would just say yes, you have the internet, it is working, but unlike other cruise lines, our routers or service does block some services or apps.  

Food is subjective but I found it good.  My bathroom scales say I thought the food was really good.  No need to spend extra on a nice restaurant when good food is included and you can spend that $50 or $100 on a nice place when you get home.  I do like how on the free app you can see what the menus are (most ships do that now, in the old days we would go and look at the menu on the wall during the day which helped us determine how big of lunch we wanted).  

The shows were good but again subjective.  We had some rough weather and they could not fully perform, but a few great voices.

The band Boardwalk had a great variety of music for their demographic.  We really enjoyed them.  They knew what a lot of their passengers wanted to hear in my opinion.  Be aware that like many so-called bands of today, they just have a drummer and sing to a soundtrack and fake playing the instruments.  Sorry to reveal that, even so, the songs kept the crowd happy including me.

Even though the ship was recently refurbished, the standard balcony bathroom still had the old green sink.  Oh well, I would take a balcony at sea over a regular hotel room any day.

And the green slide was a must.  Did that while the ship was in the Panama Canal.  Unlike anything I have seen at sea.

Is there a specialty coffee bar on the Pride?

Did you feel safe in the countryside during the tour?

tulok - Exactly!  My husband and I went on Regent to Alaska in 2016 and it was beyond amazing!  When you add everything up, it really wouldn't have been a lot more to use Regent for this trip, but I had my grandkids and thought the kids would enjoy the Joy more.   I think that they enjoyed the cruse a lot more than I did!

BTW, we were booked on a Regent Intensive Cuba cruise in October, and the itinerary had to be cancelled.  However the new Eastern/southern itinerary includes some smaller ports we haven;t visited.  Best of all, due to the incovenience, you could either cancel with full refund or take the revised itinerary at a 50% discount!!!  I understand that NCL is providing $100 shipboard credit for their revised itineraries. Ha!

Final report from 5/25 Joy cruise.

Bottom line:  I, personally, would not sail on the Joy again.  That doesn't mean it isn't a beautiful ship with lots to do, and some might love it.  I have been on over 20 cruises with all cruise lines from Carnival to Regent Seven Seas, and this was my least favorite.  However, as I stated in the OP, I had not been on a ship this large.

PROS

Great shows and good reservation system.  We were able to walk in about 20 minutes prior to show with no wait and good seats.

Amazing crew.  Very friendly and helpful.

Lots of activities all of the time.  No getting bored on this ship.

The Observation Room on Deck 15 was amazing.  Plenty of seating, beautiful views.  My favorite place (besides my balcony)

We chose a later disembarkation time and it was very smooth, unlike previous cruisers encountered.

CONS

Food was terrible.  please note that I am not a "foodie" and not usually particular.  Also I didn't go to speciality restaurants.  (After paying $5,000+ for cruise I expected decent food at the complementary locations.)  I did  go to the MDR and the other 24 hour restaurant as well as the buffet.  The first day's lunch was excellent, but after that it went downhill quick.  

You absolutely could not get a table at the buffet without waiting and stalking people who were finishing their meal.  I've been on cruises with 2,000 people which had more seating than the buffet area.  I put this completely on the cruise line.  With all of the kids (3rd and 4th person), I would assume there were close to 4000 people on this ship. (3400 for double occupancy)

On the same note, you could never get a seat in the atrium during activities.  Again, a beautiful atrium, but better suited for 2000 people instead of 4000.

Apparently NCL has given each room steward 16 mini-suites to clean...by themselves.  This means that the room was often not cleaned until early afternoon.  This also means that the steward was overworked.  Hours were from 7-3 and from 5-9.  Again, on previous cruises, the stewards worked in teams, all rooms were cleaned before noon and stewards were off duty until 5.  Human rights issues?????  Left a bad taste in my mouth.

As I stated previously, Guest Services was a disaster.  If you don't  have to deal with them, then you probably will have a better cruise.

Was the trip horrible?  Absolutely not.  However, from talking to other passengers, I definitely got the impression that the guests in the Haven had a totally different experience (which they paid dearly for).  Excellent food, service, etc.  Didn't have to mix with the masses on a routine basis.

I just got a notice from RSSC and they have definitely cancelled Cuba itinerary. They have replaced it with a 10-day Eastern Southern Caribbean.   Very disappointing, but they do give you the option of canceling, or if you choose to go on the Caribbean cruise you get a 50% discount.  Great way to handle it I think.  BTW, we were fortunate enough to visit Cuba on a Land tour in 2015, and I absolutely love the country. Obviously not for everybody, and probably not politically correct, but the people are wonderful, the food is good and it is a beautiful country.

We're mid cruise now and I truly see why some love this ship and some don't.

The "physical" part of the ship is amazing! Nicely decorated, good amount of open space, and lots of activities.  Our mini suite, though, is smaller than a regular balcony on most other cruises we've been on. But it is still nicely decorated and well laid out with lots of nooks for storage.  All of the staff are very nice and friendly.

Of course, the absolute worst public area is the Lido deck. There is hardly ever a seat available, and your meal is cold by the time you get a seat.  Actual food lines were generally not bad.

The bad, to me, appears to be in the management of the ship. I usually have less than one trip to Guest Services on a cruise. On this trip I have already been there six times, and had to wait at least 20 to 30 minutes each time. Only a couple of those trips, I was then told they couldn't help me I had to go somewhere else. Even though I had been sent there to begin with.

  I have a CPAP. Normally I just ask my steward for extension cord.  Not here.  I had to GO to guest services...not CALL guest services.  After standing in line for 30 minutes, was informed they didn't have any  and would have to get them from HOUSEKEEPING the next morning. So no CPAP for me the first night.  To add insult to injury they informed me I would have to return the extension cord to guest services the last day or be charged$15.

Also, at different times, 3 of our 4 cards had charging privileges revoked.  Considering my CC on file had a $15000 limit that didn't make sense.  After additional trips to the dreaded guest services, we were informed that they had no idea what happened, but "not to worry"☹😠

More later.......

On 5/27/2019 at 3:47 PM, fstuff1 said:

i knew about no more animal towels.

but on my cruise on the Dawn last week, there wasnt any ice/ice buckets either.

(both still available upon request.)

 

i'm glad they stopped both.

i didnt need either but on previous cruises when i asked my cabin steward to skip them for me, he still did both. 

waste of time/effort. 😞

 

now, being cynical, does this mean more cabins assigned to stewards thus less labor costs for NCL?

 

 

I am on the Joy, and was shocked to find out the Stewards have 16 cabins EACH. And that is not per team like other cruises we've been on.  1 person does it all.  They are working from about 7 to 3 trying to get all the morning work done. Then they are back at 5 working till about 9.

Besdes being bad for the staff, the end result is it's very tricky getting your room cleaned when you leave.

And please don't say that is the way it is on all cruises. My husband and I in the past 20 years have been over 20 cruises on different lines (Carnival to Regent Seven Seas.) Never seen the housekeeping staff overworked the way we have on this Cruise. Kind of leaves a bad taste for the cruise line.....

Thanks for all of the responses and thanks for not too many flames!  We are absolutely excited and plan on making the most of our cruise.  Glad to hear there are others who love NCL and hopefully some of the kinks will be worked out of the Joy by Saturday.  I will definitely post updates and a final review.

I particularly loved the idea of getting food at the lido and bringing it down to the Observation Deck to avoid the hassle of trying to find a table.

😕We're sailing on the 5/25 NCL Joy to Alaska.  The first review in these Boards looked pretty good.  However, I read the reviews in the actual Cruise Critic section and they were pretty bad.

Even though I've been on numerous cruises, this is my first NCL, and the largest ship I've been on.  I was a little worried when I booked, and reviews seem to be confirming that it's not up to par.

If anybody has seen the better side of the Joy, I would love to hear about it.  It's me and my daughter and two grandchildren, and we've spent a lot of money on this trip.  I hope we aren't disappointed....but there's nothing we can do now except hope for the best!

Thanks to everyone for the great information. We will probably go with $20 bag for underwear, tee shirts, etc.

We will be on the Oosterdam next week and just noticed they don't have self service laundry. Does anyone know if they have any special packages for cleaning? We try to travel light, but don't want to spend a fortune on dry cleaning and laundry.:D

It's been 13 years since we sailed on the Oosterdam, but saw it was refurbished last year. Does anyone know if it has a coffee bar to get expressos, lattes, etc? If so, do they have a special coffee card you can purchase, or is it included in the basic soda package?

Thanks.

Am considering purchasing a Classic Alchohol package. Will mostly be for bloody marys, cape cods and beers. I'm assuming all of those are under $8.00 or $5.00 for beer? Are lattes included? It states premium coffee, but I'm not sure what that includes.

Thanks.

We had Claudio for our guide in Rome on 11/09/13 and he was amazing. We only had him for 6 hours, but we saw all of the Rome highlights and then some! We even had time to tour St. Peter's Cathederal and the Collesium.

One of the best private tours we have ever had. We would definitely use RomeInLimo again and would ask for Claudio.

hondar, I think an upgrade on the Mariner to a Penthouse is a big deal! So much bigger than the regular cabins (which are so nice), the added space is a real bonus in my eyes, having been on this ship many many times! Congrats to you for your choice, (especially from the great price on an H) you will love it!

You are so correct! We love our cabin so much we don't want to leave! LOL!

Loved our in room dining last night served by Jeet, our incredible butler.

Thanks!

We are in 912...love to meet you.

We are booked in a Category H - Guarantee on the Mariner for 11/10. We received an email last week offering an upgrade to Penthouse for $500 and didn't take it. We just received an e-mail this AM offering upgrade to Penthouse for $300 and decided to go for it. We were able to select our suite, but there were only a few available.

Can't wait to check it out!

We just upgraded to a Penthouse Suite on the Mariner for our upcoming cruise. This will be our first time with Butler service and we have a couple of questions.

Even though the gratuitities are included, should we tip the Butler?

What exactly does the Butler do, and is he readily available? i.e. press clothers, make dining reservations????

Thanks.