Dorhead1230

@swimmer9 I’m going to answer your questions later! 🙂

You’re going to have a great time! We’ve done one 9-day, which was fantastic, and this past February was an 8-day, which was not great for various reasons (mostly us all getting sick by the end), but extra days onboard are generally better! 😎

Until I get a few extra minutes to write up our Days 6 and 7 activities, I’ll just write my final casino report right now for those who are interested. All in all, DH and I had fun on our nightly casino visits. There’s a decent game selection in the Joy casino (again, heavily skewed toward newer games). Make sure you really walk around if you’re looking for particular machines, because some are kind of strewn about here and there (for instance, different Buffalo machines). I appreciated the separation of the smoking room; although obviously some smoke gets out when the door opens and closes, it does stay fairly well contained. For most of our cruise, the tables seemed much busier than the slots, but I’m sure that just depends on the individual sailing. I did not win a darn thing. Small hits of a couple hundred here and there, but ultimately I just donated. I’m a lower-end Diamond player at Caesars (I do rank well enough for a host) and always the lowest tier at Mohegan (mainly because they reevaluate tiers every 6 months rather than every year). I definitely bet a little more aggressively on land than the ships, though, because I don’t feel my returns in terms of comps and offers through CAS warrant the kind of play I do on land. DH is the much bigger player. He’s Diamond Plus at Caesars (occasionally Elite) and is also designated VIP at Caesars because of the way he plays (high limits), and Ascend at Mohegan. He left the ship with what he came on with (maybe even up a few bucks? I lost track by the end lol). This is where my griping comes in, though. Although the general casino staff (servers and slot attendants) were the best of any of the mega-ships we’ve sailed, the hosts are absolutely useless. They sit behind their desk and do nothing whatsoever to interact with and check on higher-end players. And, no, I’m not pulling a “don’t you know who my husband is?” Lol. DH earned over 12,000 points this sailing. For those uninitiated into the ranks of degenerate gamblers, that’s equivalent to cycling over $60K through the machines over the course of the week. He regularly plays in the range of $10-50 per spin on slots. There’s not many people on a given sailing who play like that. And nothing. Not a how-do-you-do, do you need anything, not even more than chocolates sent to the room one time. Truly pathetic. And, no, we’re not the types to ask for anything really, either. We’ve been scolded by our AC host on multiple occasions for doing things ourselves she could do for us haha. We’ve honestly never come across good hosts on large NCL ships (the only great ones have been on the Dawn and the Gem), but this cruise was also the most aggressively DH has played onboard (he was hitting enough small-to-medium jackpots to keep him going on the higher-limit games) and still nothing. He plays those games because that’s what he enjoys, but it would still be nice to just be acknowledged and told let us know if you need anything. Maybe we’re just too used to our land experiences 🤷🏻‍♀️. Also, in terms of hand-pays, I saw none besides DH and one other man who I saw hit $1375 on a $48 bet. I’m sure they happened, and we didn’t spend time there during the day because we were doing things with LM, but it definitely looked like not many hits were happening if you weren’t betting big, which is also a little lousy. But that will also obviously vary widely—that’s why it’s gambling!

Thanks! Very kind of you to say that 😊. I still have to finish up with days 6 and 7, but alas, things get crazy again as soon as we get home (mainly that LM started his swim lessons today and I have 100 lb. of laundry because I’m so persnickety about laundry we didn’t use the Platinum service—may be time to rethink that next time lol). My 40th birthday is at the end of this year, and due to our work/vacation schedules, we probably won’t do the “big” celebration until next summer. I’m angling for a longer cruise than usual; I enjoyed this one on the Joy so much I’m giving some serious consideration to just asking DH if we can do our 1st B2B next summer on her!

@yankprintster So funny you posted this question! I am Platinum now and Ambassador is many many moons away for me. However, I just got off the Joy. I went to buy my CN and had my 4-year old with me. The CN rep made a comment about my son getting his status at 18 and I said yes he’ll definitely be Platinum or higher by then! (He’s actually already got Gold-level points based on triple points on our two cruises this year.) The man then told us the youngest Ambassador in the program was onboard our cruise—23 years old 😮!

Lol…it would definitely be a good replacement for American Diner (except I do think AD is a good overflow breakfast area). I started laughing when I saw this because when we were done eating at Q on the Joy, I said to DH and mom, “Maybe they can get rid of this place and put in a Moderno during dry dock? At least Los Lobos? Literally anything else?” 😅

I was just looking at my pictures and have to post this one of my favorite piece of art decoration on the ship. It’s near the entrance to the theater. It’s cool to look at even from far away, but when you get up close, it’s even better because it’s made from cut-up comic book pages! Be sure to check it out if you’re on the Joy! Also, on Day 6, I was able to get my geek on and check out the Joy ship model aft on Deck 6. I love looking at the detail on these models (all the tiny deck furniture, the slides, the go-kart track, etc.) and also checking out all the plaques from the ship’s first visits to ports around the world.

We were off the ship and walked to our car by our nice porter by 10:20 AM. They were using the facial recognition in the terminal so it was moving quickly. LM’s passport is still his original with his baby picture, so it couldn’t recognize him. The worker at the machine sent us over to a customs agent who looked at our passports, asked our son if this was mommy and daddy, and sent us through. A couple hours after getting home, we all fell asleep for hours—guess the fun cruise finally caught up to us lol! I’ll keep updating on the final two days later, but for now here’s a video I couldn’t upload during the cruise, from the BTS tour of Aris the laundry master demonstrating this crazy pressing machine. I want one for home! IMG_3430.MOV

There’s a free breakfast buffet out in the mornings, but then for lunch it is a specialty with a charge. I thought it was also open for dinner but I noticed on our last day yesterday it wasn’t. I have to look at all the Dailies to see if the specialty menu is lunch only. We never ended up doing it. A lot of the menu you could get at The Local or MDR 🤷🏻‍♀️. Aside from breakfast, I hardly saw anyone in there. Edited to add: on embarkation day, it’s free for lunch for Haven guests

DH and I said this morning too that we thought it went really fast. Sign of a good cruise, I guess! In February, we were quite ready to get off Getaway because that one wasn’t such a great time lol.

The NCL app makes me sad now 😭😭😭 Sitting in Maltings waiting for disembarkation. Nice, comfortable, empty place to sit. They’ve already called through the Lime tags, so a little ahead of schedule. Of course, I wanted to go wait in the OL, but it wasn’t practical to try to get elevators back up when there was a nice place to sit right here. We had a nice, leisurely breakfast at Taste. We always do that on disembarkation day; I can’t handle the buffet chaos, plus we have the carry-on bags with us. I took Red tags because we have no reason to rush off the ship. It’ll only be an hour drive home for us. Although it looked like the line into the terminal was moving steadily while we were eating, it’s still an awfully long line, so I’d rather just wait it out and exit when most people are off already. I’ll continue to update about days 6 and 7 later today!

@mking8288, no, we didn’t ask for them. I wouldn’t have had the heart to add to his workload, even knowing how excited LM would have been. Joel is a little on the older side compared to a lot of the stewards, so maybe he’s just from the old school and figured some towel animals would make a little guy happy. He’s been great all around, though! I just love this whole crew. I did do vacation hero cards earlier for the people who were extra special though 😊

Ode to a Cabin Steward Your name is Joel, you are the man. After sailing the Joy, I’ll always be your fan. You kept our cabin so tidy and neat, and to our little man you were so sweet. We tried not to be dirty slobs, but no matter what you did a great job. We know your job is harder than ever, but, dude, you’re an NCL treasure. Although too much work they’ve given you, you still made our little man a towel animal zoo.

Yes, I love Robert Moses when we feel like going a little farther away! Haven’t been this year, but I’ll have to take the little man! That chocolate cake is always the highlight of any Cagney’s meal for me 😋

After a MDR meal the other night, my mom and I said we don’t know why people always dump on the MDRs. We’ve had many really good meals there, and the servers are generally great!

DAILIES DAYS 5-7 Day 5: Day 6: Day 7:

I just realized I did not label the last post. It was Day 5, Bermuda Day 2.

We got ready early with the intention of going to Horseshoe Bay, but LM derailed our plans a little. He was…let’s say…not on his best behavior. He was probably overtired from partying too hard so far and was being argumentative and whiny. He’s usually a really good boy in public and saves the bad behavior for home lol, but when he starts acting that way, a tantrum is imminent 😬. So, we ended up taking our time eating breakfast at Garden Cafe, figuring the beach was not happening anytime soon. We were not going to take a chance that he started having a meltdown while traveling to/from the beach or while we were there. We took LM back to the cabin, told him no beach until he could calm down and behave, let him cry it out, and then made him lay down to nap for a while. We decided if he seemed in a better mood when he woke up, we’d just head over to Snorkel Park Beach for the afternoon. Certainly not our first choice to go to a man-made beach that charges admission on an island with some of the most beautiful free public beaches in the world, but in terms of timing, travel there, and dragging LM around, it made the most sense. We passed back by Garden Cafe before getting off the ship, because there’s no way I was paying the crazy prices to buy food at the beach. I have to say, I hate the chaos of the buffet so much (although it wasn’t bad on a port day), but this Garden Cafe is my favorite of any ship so far, in terms of both layout and variety of the offerings. We got off the ship and headed to Snorkel Park. When I looked at the website and it said admission was $15, I thought it meant $15 per person. We were still ok with it, because we had planned to take a taxi to Horseshoe Bay (didn’t want to do public bus or shuttle bus with LM), so that would have cost a bit anyway. However, they only charged us $15 admission, so I guess it’s per family? We also rented two loungers and an umbrella for $75. It was not crowded by the time we went in the afternoon, because I’m sure a lot of people had already headed back to the ship, but there were a decent number of people there. Overall, I can’t knock this option for people who have young kids, or who don’t want to travel far to a beach. It is probably the worst beach option in Bermuda, but the worst beach in Bermuda still beats most other places. It was clean, the water was calm, and there wasn’t a jellyfish in sight. If you want a place that’s quiet, this isn’t it, as there is a DJ and the music is loud; it was fun music though so I enjoyed that part. Here is the big warning if you’re considering going to Snorkel Park—WATER SHOES! Water shoes! Water. Shoes. I don’t care if you think they look dorky, if you think your feet are tough as steel, or if you were raised barefoot on a volcano. This beach is rocky, especially for the first few feet that you go into the water (depending on the tide). I was raised and still live on the north shore of Long Island. Our beaches are pretty much rocks with a little sand here and there lol. DH and I said Snorkel Park reminded us of beaches at home, but with way prettier water and scenery. I saw multiple people doing all sorts of funky pirouetting chicken dances trying to go in and out of the water barefoot. My mom also found a piece of glass in the sand near the water (not pretty beach glass; a sharp shard). Again, the beach isn’t dirty, but they do have a bar and they also do nighttime beach parties a few days a week, so stuff happens. Wear something on your feet. Several beautiful beach photos…upside-down 🤦🏻‍♀️ After a couple hours of beach time, we headed back to the ship. DH and I took LM right to the splash area so we could get any remaining sand off of us with one of the pool deck showers (Snorkel Park also didn’t have any showers we could find). After we got the sand off, we let LM go in the splash area. And then it happened. I saw a very little boy sitting on the floor of the splash area. I thought maybe he fell or got hurt, but then I saw something highly unpleasant erupting from his little shorts. LM was thankfully several feet away, and you’ve never seen two people move faster than DH and me. I hissed to DH “get him out of here now; there’s a kid ****ing himself over there,” and he swept LM up and hauled him out over the side before you could blink. The kid’s mother did go find a crew member to tell him (because let me tell you, I was already on my way to do it), but we did not stick around to see exactly what they did about it or how they cleaned. I’m assuming (hoping) they shut it down. And now I’ll rant for a minute—any kid can have an unexpected accident, but these people should be ashamed of themselves. This kid was in a diaper and they had him in the splash area anyway. DH said afterwards that he had noticed the diaper because he told LM to be careful not to knock the baby over. Prohibiting diapered kids from these splash areas is not the type of rule that’s made to be broken. It’s a serious health and hygiene concern. And it is posted clearly on the sign at the area. If you decide that you’re so special and important you don’t need to abide by that rule, you’re gross. Full stop. Keep your kids’ nasty diapers that will likely end up with poop in them out of the water that will end up in other kids’ mouths and eyes. Thank you for attending my Ted Talk. Anyway, back on track…dinner at Cagney’s. First and foremost, the highlight was again the service. This crew is so friendly, hard-working, and attentive. The food, though—I just don’t get the big deal with this place. It’s like a small notch above Texas Roadhouse. (Don’t get me wrong; I like Texas Roadhouse, but it’s…Texas Roadhouse. Lol.) My strip steak was of a similar or maybe lower quality than most land-based steak chains. I do love their port wine jus, though. I also really enjoy their wedge salad, and the crab cake appetizer was okay (was better than Q’s crab cakes, but that was a low bar). DH and I both ordered mushrooms (called sautéed garlic mushrooms on the menu). He tells me to taste them after he takes a bite and I say uh oh what’s wrong with them? He said they taste like nothing. He was right. Literally nothing. No garlic, oil, butter, salt, nothing. DM had to ask them to take the branzino off her fisherman’s platter because she took one bite and it was inedibly fishy. They were super nice about it and brought her two more scallops to replace it. To be honest, I had taken LM to the restroom before the entrees came, and I could smell fish from a couple feet away when we were walking back to the table. DM did say her creamed spinach was quite good, but it definitely isn’t as chopped up and creamy as you may be used to. Dessert was good, of course, because it was the chocolate cake. It’s not like I won’t go back to Cagney’s on future cruises; I just need to stick to the filet, I guess. ribeye strip steak fisherman’s platter We didn’t do any shows or anything because LM wanted to do a few arcade games and then it was time to put him to bed. Then DH and I went to the casino for a little while (surprise surprise) so I could donate some more (DH has been holding his own).

I’m in my cabin right now cracking up because you guys knew/saw more about the pier runners than we did! We were at The Local and didn’t finish up until right after we started moving, so we didn’t see the sprints to the finish line lol! There would have to be a major catastrophe for us to ever be among the pier runners. I’m a pretty anxious person so I definitely like to make sure we’re always back early, and I think on this issue, DH is even worse than me. He’s always checking the time and worrying we’ll get back late. Better safe than running up to annoyed officers, though!

Yes, the Dailies have been in the app working perfectly! I love that! I know that we’ve been able to check the activities in the app for years, but having the images of the actual Dailies there is so much more convenient. I’ve just still been snapping pictures to post because I wasn’t sure how it would work downloading them on my phone and then uploading them here. The specialty menus are there, as well. Just not the MDR menus. I feel like I remember years ago they did load the MDR menus into the app to view once onboard, and DH agrees. Anyone else remember that? I'm still doing well on minutes, mostly because I can pirate extra from the family 😜, but also because of your great advice about logging out once I get my thread to load! I have only needed to log in to upload photos and to reload the thread when it’s been idle a while. Thanks for checking out the maritime forecast!

We did do the pay ferry. The free NCL one is only to St. George’s, which we didn’t do this trip. Kids under 5 are free, so it was I think $26 or $27 total round-trip for DH, DM and me. If you’re going to use the ferries and buses a bunch of times, a transportation pass for a day or two makes more sense, but we knew we would only be doing the one round-trip. The only two times we ate off the ship here were several years ago when we came with my BIL, SIL, and young nieces and nephew (I was also pregnant then and needed the break) and then this time. Definitely can’t get through that long without a food stop when there’s kids with you!

LOL. I’m not much of a sleeper most of the time. Last night I think I went to sleep at 2:30 and then got up around 7:40 this morning. No one else was up and ready, so I was drinking a peach Bellini alone in the atrium at 8:45 😅

@bkrickles1 regarding The Local, we have only gone once late night, on Wednesday night maybe at about 12:30. It was crowded, but not 100% packed out. We did not have to wait. Not sure about other nights/sea day nights!

Oh I’ll have to look for those! Been missing out on my OL time while we’re in Bermuda!

You’re my hero.