A (Mostly) Joy Filled Review - Norwegian Joy - 2/5 - 2/12

[tripleboom]

Hello again fellow cruise lovers! I'm excited to share my observations, photos, and tips following our Joy sailing back at the beginning of February.  We had an incredible time as a family on this cruise, and I couldn't wait to get home and share our thoughts and review with you all!

 

First off, I always like to introduce our family a bit at the start of my reviews.  My wife and I reside in the great state of Iowa where we're raising two boys.  I'm employed in the insurance industry, while my wife, a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, runs the lab in a health clinic.  We've been married for 15+ years, and have enjoyed six NCL cruises prior to this one (Sky 2011, Sky 2015, Escape 2017, Breakaway 2019, Bliss 2021, and Breakaway 2022).  Here's a pic of all of us during our last cruise while we were in Roatan:

 

 

Because we're so far from any cruise port, we typically get to cruise about every 18 months or so if we're lucky, but because of the crazy cancellations of the past couple of years, this would actually be our third cruise since November 2021. After much hemming and hawing about itinerary, length, etc. we booked this sailing in November. 

 

 

Over the next few weeks we solidified our travel plans, excursions, etc. before heading out. It always feels like an interminable amount of time while you're counting down the days and staring down a Midwest winter.

 

 

 

Eventually the day arrived! I gave Stacy a little pre-cruise gift from Pura Vida...

 

 

Stacy got her Aspen Nails on.

 

 

And then we loaded up the car and headed to the airport!

 

[tripleboom]

We parked, rode the shuttle in, checked out bags with Southwest, cleared security, and waited for our flight to board.

 

 

Our chariot awaits!

 

 

Soon after, we boarded on time and were on our way to Phoenix!

 

 

 

 

A couple hours (and a re-watch of Ready Player One) later, we were descending into Phoenix.

 

 

We were fortunate to have booked a direct, so we were able to just stay on the plane, and about 30 minutes later we were airborne again and headed to Santa Ana.

 

 

It was a fairly late arrival, so we collected our luggage, called the airport hotel we stayed at, and the shuttle (actually a really nice Chevy Suburban soon arrived to bring us to The Avenue of The Arts Marriott Hotel. Very nicely appointed hotel! Just wish we could have been able to enjoy it a bit longer, but we turned in soon after arrival.

[tripleboom]

Day 1 - Embarkation - Port of Los Angeles

 

With a 9:30 check-in time select at the pier, we were up a little before the sun to get ready for the day. I ordered in some Uber Eats breakfast for us that was delivered right to the hotel room door. Having been properly caffeinated for the day ahead, we headed to the hotel lobby to checkout and wait for our Uber to arrive.  The boys enjoyed the swanky furniture in the lobby. Landon even quipped that he felt, "way to underdressed for this place." 😆

 

 

After about 40 minutes of driving, we were delivered curbside at Pier 92. We dropped our bags with the porter, snaked our way through the exterior queues, and found ourselves in the terminal building quickly thereafter. They had three separate sets of lines. One for those with Haven or Priority Embarkation of some kind, one for those with rooms on Decks 9-12 and one for passengers on all other decks. We stood in line for all of about 5 minutes in our queue before we were called forward, presented our citizenship documentation, health attestation, etc., received our stateroom cards, and took a seat in the large hall with Boarding Group #3 in hand.

 

 

We sat for longer than what seemed normal as it seemed as though the passengers from the Miami to L.A. trans-canal cruise before us were not getting off all that quickly. I later found out that they were not cleared to disembark until much later than planned which explains the delay in boarding on our end. Unfortunately that meant that the terminal building was VERY full, and I came to find out from my fellow passengers later that a LOT of people were left outside of the building, presumably because we were at full capacity. So there was a long spell where no one was in the check-in lines at all and lots of people were still outside on the curb. Yikes!

 

Fortunately we were able to make small talk with some nice fellow guests arounds us, had some pass & play games to play on our phone to keep us occupied, etc. Eventually they made the call that we were set to begin boarding! After the call for Haven and Priority Embarkation, they called for Casinos at Sea (CAS) to board.  Now, I've gambled in stateside casinos exactly one time in my life, and two times at sea. No one would mistake me for a prolific, regular gambler. But mysteriously our stateroom cards displayed the designation for CAS. I honestly hadn't even noticed it on our card until they made the call for CAS passengers, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth! We saddled up, proceeded to the embarkation area, our cards were checked for the appropriate designation, and up the escalator we went! If anyone has any idea why we may have gotten this designation, I'd sure love to know! It was our first trip as Gold Latitudes members, so maybe that had something to do with it? A dummy designation to allow us early embarkation? 🤷‍♂️

 

At any rate, we were soon heading up through the gangway and reached that Joyful (see what I did there?) moment where we stepped aboard!

 

 

As has been our tradition for the last several sailings, we headed down to Deck 6 and enjoyed our lunch at Taste or Savor to start the trip. We always enjoy the opportunity to decompress and have a relaxed paced lunch after a hectic morning at the port.

 

I started with the hushpuppy appetizer.

 

 

Followed by the fish & chips main course.

 

 

Connor, my oldest, opted for the first of many cheeseburgers to come. 😋

 

 

For dessert I opted for the Almond Basque Cake

 

 

While Landon opted for the chocolate mousse parfait! Always a solid choice.

 

[tripleboom]

After we wrapped up lunch, we began our exploration of the ship. I always love these detailed scale models on display. Having been on the Escape and the Bliss in the past, we were aware that the Joy's layout was largely the same, which makes navigation a breeze despite each ship's nuances.

 

 

For Christmas we bought the boys the Unlimited Arcade Package, so we had to head to one of the two arcade locations on the ship. First stop: Galaxy Pavillion!

 

 

The Unlimited Arcade Package costs $25/day, but is only available as a full cruise package deal, so it would have set us back $350 for both boys to have it. That said, we admittedly worked the system a bit and purchased the pass for only Landon's stateroom card. His card could be swiped at any GREEN colored swipe in the arcade and not cost us another penny. There were several orange swipes (for games that award tickets for prizes) and of course the VR games in this area as well, so it's worth noting that the Unlimited Arcade Package does not apply to these games. Landon could swipe up to 3x in 3 minutes without issue. If he tried to swipe MORE than 3x in a 3 minute span, then the card would be locked out for 15 minutes. Since more of the games lasted at least a couple of minutes, this meant that he could swipe for himself, allow his brother to swipe, and still have one more to use before the 3 minute reset. The boys remained VERY disciplined the entire cruise and never ran into issues with swiping on games that weren't included nor with getting locked out. We were proud of their diligence under such tempting circumstances. 🙂

 

This VR ride was actually part of the arcade and was included in the package as a green swipe. Normally $7 or $8 per swipe, this was a fun thing to have included!

 

 

Can't go wrong with air hockey!

 

 

Connor is 13, which means that he'll be getting his permit this August. His performance while playing this game raised my blood pressure and insurance premium. 🤣

 

 

There's a couple more games outside of this area, but not a bad arcade set up since most of the games lasted around 3 minutes per swipe. Most of them were in full working order too, though there were a couple where half the unit had inoperable controls or a similar issue.

 

[fethiyeden]

Thanks for doing another review. I loved your last one as we  were  planning our Breakaway cruise. We just got off the Breakaway 3 weeks ago.

[vacation44]

Looking forward to reading another family adventure!

[cruisebeachgirl703]

When you have a moment will you please post officers, i.e. assistant general manager, beverage manager. Thanks!

[tripleboom]

After the fun at the arcade, we headed upward to check out the upper decks.

 

 

The Joy has a very nice 9-hole course at the very back of the ship up on Deck 19. It also provides some nice views of the adjacent Speedway.

 

 

Nice view of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the background here.

 

 

Landon finishing strong on the very long Hole #9.

 

 

Pretty good round with Stacy in 1st, Connor in 2nd and teeny tiny Landon in 3rd.

 

Nice views of San Pedro and the coastal hills of Southern California.

 

[tripleboom]

Now that it was after noon, we headed down to Splash Academy to get Landon registered for the week. When we arrived they told us that we could actually get Connor registered for Entourage at the same time, so that worked out nicely! No need to run from Deck 5 up to Deck 16 separately. 👍

 

Because Landon is 10, we were given the option to give him some additional Splash Academy flexibility and freedom. Kids ages 10-12 can, with parental permission granted at the start of the cruise, check themselves in & out of Splash. However, if they check in, then they must stay until the end of Splash OR a minimum of two hours. Knowing Landon's level of responsibility, we granted him that additional freedom, but it was with the understanding that he'd always let us know that he was leaving and where he was going to. This is where the purchase of the $9.95/phone communication package came in handy. Both boys were able to keep in communication with us throughout the trip while on the ship.

 

Connor's Entourage registration was a breeze as well, and as is the case for all Entourage aged cruisers, he was free to drop in and drop out as he pleased, though again we asked him to keep us informed of his comings and goings.

 

Having edged closer to departure time, we worked our way up to the Observation Lounge to see if there were any seats to be found. However, because of the cool L.A. day with occasional overcast skies, we weren't the only ones with the same idea. I think nearly every seat near the windows was full, so I settled for a quick pic of the USS Iowa out ahead of us.

 

 

Shortly thereafter they made the call that staterooms were ready. However, when we arrived on Deck 9 Forward, we found that the doors on one side of the deck were still closed. Thinking it must be an oversight given the announcement, we entered on the starboard side, worked our way around the back of the ship to the port side where we found our room. Our stateroom card worked and we gained entry. We found 3 out of our 6 bags as well, so I drug them into the room and started unpacking. But not before checking out everyone's favorite cabin feature. 🙂

 

 

You can see that The Waterfront's canopy over the Deck 8 walkway partially obscured our view, but it was a non-issue to us. Plenty of ocean to be seen beyond these 4' of obscured view. 🙂 

 

 

As I was unpacking, our steward arrived in the room. He looked a bit alarmed to find us there. He told us that the cabins were not ready for passengers yet. I asked him if he needed us to vacate to finish the room prep (it looked fine to me upon entry), but he kind of sheepishly was non-committal on the issue. I got the sense it'd be best if we left to get out of his way for a bit, so we headed out, though confused about the earlier P.A. call that all rooms were ready. So odd.

 

At any rate, it was time to disembark, so we hustled down to Deck 8 to The Waterfront, our favorite spot for sailaway! You can already see the USS Iowa shrinking away in the distance.

 

 

[evanskl4]

I saw the pics you posted in the facebook group - thank you so much for sharing your trip with us!

I actually have a question about a previous cruise. I'll be going to the western caribbean later this year and wondering if you would recommend the excursion you took in Roaton. My kids are adamant about holding sloths!

[tripleboom]

2 hours ago, evanskl4 said:

I saw the pics you posted in the facebook group - thank you so much for sharing your trip with us!

I actually have a question about a previous cruise. I'll be going to the western caribbean later this year and wondering if you would recommend the excursion you took in Roaton. My kids are adamant about holding sloths!

 

I would definitely go to the same sloth, monkeys, and bird sanctuary again, but the snorkeling was underwhelming compared to some other experiences we've had. Admittedly, it may have just been a hit or miss situation as others taking the tour before us reported sea turtle sightings. But I was still very happy with the overall experience given the wonderful time with the monkeys and sloths!

[nybumpkin]

Hi tripleboom - I'm here because I'm sailing my first NCL cruise on Prima next month with my daughter-in-law, so I'm trying to "learn my way around." I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying your sons' obvious excitement at sailing. Our first cruise was in 2004 with our then-13, 8 and 4 YO sons, and they stayed with us on cruises for many years. Your photos are bringing me back to our early days of cruising.🙂

[tripleboom]

41 minutes ago, nybumpkin said:

Hi tripleboom - I'm here because I'm sailing my first NCL cruise on Prima next month with my daughter-in-law, so I'm trying to "learn my way around." I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying your sons' obvious excitement at sailing. Our first cruise was in 2004 with our then-13, 8 and 4 YO sons, and they stayed with us on cruises for many years. Your photos are bringing me back to our early days of cruising.🙂

 

We're eyeballing the Prima for our next sailing with just the two of us. We tend to alternate between a family cruise and a cruise with just us. It's been so fun watching our boys have fun and fall in love with cruising too! They seem to think they're real cruising veterans now that navigate the ship like pros! 😊

[tripleboom]

18 hours ago, fethiyeden said:

Thanks for doing another review. I loved your last one as we  were  planning our Breakaway cruise. We just got off the Breakaway 3 weeks ago.

 

Thanks for following along! I may have you convinced to sail on the Joy by the end of this. 😉

 

12 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

When you have a moment will you please post officers, i.e. assistant general manager, beverage manager. Thanks!

 

Sorry to say I didn't capture this info while on board. Sorry about that!

[tripleboom]

We enjoyed a picture perfect sunset from The Waterfront as the ship went out to sea. There were some enthusiastic well wishers shouting from the San Pedro Fish Market, and Connor was all too happy to wave back.

 

 

It's sure not the prettiest IN port, but sail away out of the Port of Los Angeles has its moments!

 

 

 

 

[tripleboom]

For supper on Night 1 we hit the buffet. This would wind up being the only time that Stacy and I dined in here for dinner. We've normally been pretty pleased with the buffet for dinner in the past, but we found most of the options were lukewarm at best on this night. Fortunately the desserts made up for it. You've got to love the custom crêpe station! With options like peaches, apples, blueberries, lemon filling, Nutella, chocolate, etc. you'd be hard pressed to find a tastier treat!

 

 

This picture was from our last cruise, but I had to track it down to share it again here. You've got to love the NCL crews!

 

 

I tried this tasty little cake too!

 

 

When the boys ran off to Splash and Entourage to meet some new friends, Stacy and I just wandered the ship for a bit, ducking into the stores, seeing what was happening in the atrium, etc.

 

We headed back to the cabin after a bit, and unfortunately, as the title of the review suggest, we hit a few sour notes early on during this cruise. A few weeks prior to the sail date, we won an upgrade to a guarantee mini-suite and were assigned Cabin 9268. As we would come to find out, you'd be hard pressed to find a worse cabin if you're someone who likes to get to bed at a decent hour.

 

 

As 7pm rolled around, we discovered that the Cavern Club on Deck 8 lay directly beneath our feet. While I will admit that the band playing there was VERY good, it was unfortunate that we could feel every thrum of bass and make out every word of each song being played. The band wrapped up at 10:30 or maybe 11 at this night, but each subsequent night of the cruise, the Cavern Club band wrapped up at 10:30, but we were then subjected to another hour of late night karaoke until 11:30 PM. There's nothing quite so good at lulling you to sleep than Glenn from Tulsa's drunken rendition of Hotel California. 🤣

 

I tend to look on the bright side of life, and realized a few things:

1. Only one port stop would have an early morning call, meaning that even as the music blared until late each evening, we could at least sleep in the following day if so desired.
2. The ship was sailing at full capacity, so complaining wasn't going to get me anywhere anyway.
3. I bid on a guarantee mini-suite, so I subjected myself to the whims of the cruise gods. And they laughed at me rather than smiled upon me this go round. So before you bid on a mini-suite yourself, make sure you're content with the possibility of a less than ideal location.

 

That said, our night was not left unmarred by other factors as well. The bathrooms in the mini-suites are larger which is obviously a big plus. Unfortunately, the full size tub/shower in ours was not properly draining. My own efforts to fiddle with the drain stop were to no avail; the problem was clearly on the other side of the drain. We also noticed earlier in the day that we were short a towel (and really needed a 5th for Stacy's hair) and a glass for teeth brushing. We were clearly a party of 4, but the room was outfitted for three. I called the housekeeping line before going to supper, but it was never answered. I tried calling the guest services desk instead and it also went unanswered. So while Stacy checked out an Atrium show, I went to Guest Services and asked for their assistance in addressing the tub, towels, and glasses. They assured me it would be taken care of post haste, though the tub would have to wait until tomorrow. Sure, no sweat. 

 

Later that evening when we returned to the cabin, all was the same. I found myself again not getting any answer at our steward's number nor the general housekeeping number. We finally gave up and dealt with shortage of towels and glasses, hoping for a better outcome the next day.

 

As I said earlier, I'm pretty easy going, and I'm on vacation so I'm not about to come fully unhinged. But after a comedy of errors, all Stacy and I could do was wait for the amps downstairs to get unplugged, and then drift off to sleep at the end of day #1.

 

However, I'm not going to leave you on THAT much of a bummer!  As anyone who's followed my reviews before is already aware, I'm a bit obsessed with the unique chandeliers hanging in the central 678 Ocean Place stairwell, so you could be certain there'd be a first night picture. 😉

 

[tripleboom]

Day 2 - Day at Sea #1

 

After setting our clocks forward an hour the night before, we slept in and greeted the day with the sun already high in the sky.

 

 

Once we were up and about, we headed down to The Local on Deck 7. I always enjoy the relaxed atmosphere in here for breakfast. Not the crazy of the buffet, nor the formalness of the MDR.

 

I opted for the breakfast sandwich this morning, always a favorite!

 

 

Connor went with the American breakfast:

 

 

And Landon opted for a stack of pancakes and a side of syrup.

 

 

Service was maybe a titch on the slow side this morning, but we had no where to go, so no worries! The food arrived hot and all agreed that it was delicious!

 

[tripleboom]

9 hours ago, tripleboom said:

 

And Landon opted for a stack of pancakes and a side of syrup.

 

 

Service was maybe a titch on the slow side this morning, but we had no where to go, so no worries! The food arrived hot and all agreed that it was delicious!

 

 

Obviously I meant to say a side of SAUSAGE for Landon, but an extra side of syrup wouldn't be unusual for that kid. He's constantly in a state of motion, so more sugary fuel for his body would have been keeping in line with the norm. 🤣

[acct1975]

I truly appreciate your balanced review of the ships you sail on. I read your review of your Breakaway cruise before my family & I went on our Breakaway cruise and it helped put in perspective what the on-ship experience would be and frankly made the trip move enjoyable. We're to go on the Joy this summer so reading this review hopefully will do the same thing. 

[KansasTexan]

I'm following along. Your writing is impeccable and a joy to read. Thank you.

[tripleboom]

So the day we arrived into L.A., our weather app updated with the local weather and the associated alerts. We actually were in a full blow GALE warning with threats of 10'-15' waves. The really, REALLY good news is that by the time we made it out to sea, the chop did not appear to be nearly as bad as was forecast. Maybe it was because we had the dominant winds at our back, but while there was some visible chop, the ride on the Joy was remarkably smooth. It did mean that it was a bit on the cooler side as we headed south, but again, anything is better than February in Iowa. 😄

 

After breakfast we circled back to the cabin, changed into our swimsuits, and headed up to the pool on Deck 16. There we found that the pool deck was largely full and active, including "The Wanted," the country band on board, doing their thing on the stage.

 

 

While the boys were all too pleased to be running up and down the slides with chattering teeth, Stacy and I settled into a pair of loungers we found on the sun deck above. If you blow the picture up, you can actually seem some of the moderate chop we were slicing through throughout the day.

 

 

Despite the cooler weather, I think it'd be a sin not to indulge in a frozen drink while poolside as you're heading to more tropical climes, right? A BBC for Stacy and a Bushwhacker for me.

 

 

The views of the ocean were wonderful, but it was nice to look straight up occasionally and see Landon or Connor zoom past above us.

 

 

When we returned to our room a few hours later, we discovered that some treats had been left for us. No note or explanations, but the boys indicated that they had seen the staff delivering these to most of the adjoining rooms too. I'm still not sure if this was something that's a blanket "sorry you're above the noisy Cavern Club" sent automatically or if it was a perk of the mini-suite? Either way, it's a nice touch.

 

 

I had tacked up a note for our steward in hopes that he might stop by and address the missing towels, glasses, and see if he could do something about the still backing up tub, but when we returned the room had not been made up (fully anticipated under the new 1x per day policy), nor had any of the concerns been addressed. Obviously someone had come in the room to deliver the goodies, so the fact that the note was apparently ignored was a bit befuddling. By this time, the time had come and gone when guest services had promised a tech would be by to address the tub, so I called the housekeeping line once more to restate our need for towels, glasses, and for someone, ANYONE, to address the backed up tub. The gentleman who answered was curt, but did in fact state that he'd be sending someone up right away. I told him we'd vacate the room to go snag a late lunch and return later.

 

Stacy and I decided to try our luck at Deal or No Deal being held in the atrium. We purchased our card, snagged a coveted pair of chairs nearby (they set up a ton of extra folding chairs toward the back, but we managed to get a pair of comfy ones), and settled in for the show.

 

 

Our name was never called to do battle with the banker, but a couple of our fellow cruisers were!  Poor Jean only wound up with $0.01 in her case, BUT, her actual Deal or No Deal card had enough matches that she won $50 anyway! Nice job, Jean M!  Both participants during our session were fun and entertaining. Fun way to spend a chill afternoon!

 

[acct1975]

7 minutes ago, tripleboom said:

 

When we returned to our room a few hours later, we discovered that some treats had been left for us. No note or explanations, but the boys indicated that they had seen the staff delivering these to most of the adjoining rooms too. I'm still not sure if this was something that's a blanket "sorry you're above the noisy Cavern Club" sent automatically or if it was a perk of the mini-suite? Either way, it's a nice touch.

 

 

 

FYI....A perk of Club Balcony Suites are treats delivered to your cabin one day on your cruise 🙂

[tripleboom]

2 hours ago, acct1975 said:

I truly appreciate your balanced review of the ships you sail on. I read your review of your Breakaway cruise before my family & I went on our Breakaway cruise and it helped put in perspective what the on-ship experience would be and frankly made the trip move enjoyable. We're to go on the Joy this summer so reading this review hopefully will do the same thing. 

 

Thanks for your kind words! I really enjoy getting to relive our cruise by sharing it with all of you! I'm so glad to hear that one of my previous reviews helped you to enjoy your subsequent sailing! That makes it all worthwhile. 😊 I do try to keep my reviews fairly balanced, giving it to you straight when I feel like NCL or some other party has fallen short, but also keeping perspective and a positive attitude through those troughs. After all, I find there's a lot more peaks to be seen when you're trying to look on the bright side!

 

1 hour ago, KansasTexan said:

I'm following along. Your writing is impeccable and a joy to read. Thank you.

 

I may have you write my high school English composition teacher to see if she'll give me a retroactive bump in my grade.😉  Thanks for following along!

 

1 hour ago, acct1975 said:

FYI....A perk of Club Balcony Suites are treats delivered to your cabin one day on your cruise 🙂

 

I knew someone would have a clue on this! Interestingly, we did wind up getting a second set of goodies, a tray of cookies, delivered the next day as well. Maybe that was the mea cupla platter. 😆

[vacation44]

57 minutes ago, tripleboom said:

 

I knew someone would have a clue on this! Interestingly, we did wind up getting a second set of goodies, a tray of cookies, delivered the next day as well. Maybe that was the mea cupla platter. 😆

There are suppose to be two deliveries of snacks with the club balcony suites.

 

Too bad you had a bad room location as we have stayed in this category a few times and do enjoy the larger bathroom.   However, every time we were on deck 8 on the Getaway and Escape.

[sun, sand, cocktail]

Thank you for taking the time to do this review. I’ve enjoyed your previous reviews also. I’m especially interested as we’ll be on the Joy in 2 1/2 weeks.

You’ve just made my day by saying there’s a crepe station on this ship!! I didn’t know that.

The room you were assigned would not be good with children, but you’re a very positive person and I’m sure you’re holiday only got better from there.

Thanks again.