Just off the Joy, 6/4 to 6/11...some thoughts

[dcipjr]

Hello all!

 

We just disembarked from a 7-day cruise NYC to Bermuda aboard the Joy, so I figured I'd post a quick review.

 

"We" constitutes me (38), my wife (38), and my daughter (5). My wife and I went to Bermuda for the first time in 2012 as a first-anniversary celebration, loved it, and went back almost every year since, up until the pandemic hit.

 

We love Bermuda, and being from outside Philly, cruising from NY to Bermuda is as close as an effortless vacation as we can get. We hadn't been there all together as a family since 2019, so we were excited to go back again.

 

Embarkation

- We left the house around 9:45 AM, and got to the pier around 11:30 AM—and in a stunning turn of events, practically *nobody* was in the terminal, and we breezed through embarkation and were onboard having lunch in Taste by 12:20 PM. Talk about getting the vacation off to a great start!

- For those of you that are accustomed to the $40/day rate to park at Pier 88, be advised that it has gone up to $45/day. It's a bummer, but honestly it's still worth it to park up there. Sometimes we take Amtrak to New York, but we decided to go the faster route this time and just drive ourselves.

 

Onboard Experience
- The Joy has become one of my favorite ships in the fleet. It was full to capacity for this sailing, but we've learned some tricks to avoid the crowds, and honestly it didn't feel that crowded. We had difficulty reserving restaurants and shows, but the standby lines always seemed to work for us.

 

- Service was excellent. We didn't have long waits at restaurants, and we found the food to be good to excellent. Food Republic is an underrated gem. 

 

- For the fans of the Indian buffet in the Garden Cafe (like me!), the Joy's offering was top-notch. Everything was delicious and there's LOTS of selections. 

 

- The entire Garden Cafe experience, though it can get crowded, was superior to that of our Jewel trip a couple months ago -- way better selections on the Joy, notably better food quality as well.

 

- We're Beatles fans, and the Beatlestory tribute group was excellent. They incorporated a lot more of the material from the Get Back sessions into the normally-all-Abbey-Road final show, did the "shoobie-doo-wops" during their performance of "Revolution", and even included "Don't Let Me Down" (the rooftop take, no less!). They were great, and we love the Cavern Club venue. Only the Beatles could make music that still packs the house 60 years after it was recorded.

 

Kids
- For years, we cruised as a couple, but now we're parents, so for us, the newer ships like the Joy are just so much better -- there's way more for kids to do. My daughter had a great time in the Kids Aqua Park, and really enjoyed the inner-tube Aqua Racer slide. We were on the Jewel a couple months ago during Spring Break, and Splash Academy was very undersized for the 600 kids onboard -- drop-off was frequently suspended, and my daughter said there wasn't much to do on the Jewel. We didn't have these issues on the Joy -- she had a blast, and we never ran into long lines at drop-off. Granted, not all schools are out yet, but our experience was very positive.

 

- The mini golf was also a huge hit. It's nice to have a freebie like that on sea days.

 

- It's great fun watching the giant bucket in the Kids Aqua Park upend itself all over unsuspecting adults.

 

Stateroom
- We cruised with a guarantee balcony, and lucked out with a cabin right off the aft lobby on Deck 12. It was a perfect location, and the balcony cabin offered plenty of space and organization for a family of three.

- The balcony size was bigger than I expected. I guess we got used to Breakaway-class sized balconies.

 

- The cabins being serviced only once a day honestly isn't a big deal for us -- it's the same as in hotels. However, I've never come back to a hotel room at 4 PM and it's still not been cleaned. In my opinion, the cabin attendants are stretched too thin -- they're the most visible, personal staff member for many cruisers, and from what I see, they're *tired*. I think NCL needs to hire a few more attendants and give them fewer rooms to attend.

 

- Our attendant was super nice and told us that he would start from one end of his block of cabins one day, and the opposite end the next day, so you'd alternate between getting your room done early and late. That was fine for us, but I still think NCL needs to hire more stateroom attendants.

 

Crew
- The crew was wonderful. The GM (Rohinton) is running a great operation, in my opinion. 

- Cruise Director Jake was solid. He was there for the Meet and Greet, took time to say hello, and I think he did a good job.

 

- There was a Code Bravo issued after midnight on the day we left Bermuda; evidently a fire broke out in an AC room on Deck 14 aft. I heard the "Code Bravo" announced over the PA, and a few minutes later, Jake issued an announcement saying that there was a fire onboard, that a team had been dispatched, and that he would provide an update in five minutes' time. And he did -- and he continued to provide updates, letting us know that the fire was contained, no damage was done to the ship, there was no injuries, and no risk of re-ignition. Captain Hakan then spoke to let us know that everything was all right. Obviously you don't want a fire onboard, but the team handled it really well.

 

- On a lighter note, I observed crew members competing with each other to snatch up the rubber ducks. One waitress told me she had 17 ducks in her collection.

 

Bermuda

- Bermuda is hands-down our favorite place to cruise to. It's such a wonderful island. The people are great, and there's so much to do.

 

- We were forecasted one day of good weather (Wednesday), one day of showers (Thursday), and one washout (Friday), but it didn't really rain at all on Friday, and the showers on Thursday didn't settle in until around 3 PM, after a morning of sunshine. We lucked out; I heard the previous cruises were a bit soggy.

 

- We had some beach time and went to Harbor Nights on Wednesday, visited the Botanical Gardens and the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo (BAMZ) on Thursday, then went to the Crystal Caves on Friday.

 

- NCL's free ferry to St. George is super helpful; it takes a load off the Bermuda Orange Line ferry to St. George, and fills in some of the gaps in timing. We used a combination of the free and paid ferries.

 

- The island hasn't lost any of its beauty in the past few years...it's such a gem. We'll be back!

 

Disembarkation
- We did self-assist walkoff, and took us about an hour to get from the line on Deck 7 through the Manhattan room, through the face recognition on the pier, and up to our car. Then we were home about an hour and a half later. No complaints.

 

Final Thoughts

This was one of the best cruises we've had, ever. We had such a wonderful time. Yes, there have been some cutbacks, but at least on the Joy, the service is still pretty stellar. We'd gladly sail her again.

 

My only bit of criticism is that the room stewards are stretched too thin; it's affecting service levels, and I don't like to see people overworked. The rest of the crew was great. I'll be writing in my post-cruise survey that I think NCL needs to hire more cabin stewards, to decrease the workload and improve turnaround times.

 

NCL is still delivering a pretty compelling product, even with some cutbacks. We'll be back.

 

If anyone has questions, etc, feel free to let me know!
 

[goldmom]

Thank you for the great review.  We will be on the Joy in August, so really appreciate any and all information.

 

Oh, and I assume you were on the 6/4 - 6/11 cruise not the 4/4 shown in your title.  You may want to see if you can have the title fixed.  Guess you're still in vacation mode.  Lol!

 

Glad you had a great time.

[BoundForSea]

Great review. Thorough and to the point. Sailing July so thank you was concerned about the feeling of it at capacity. Care to share any “tips” on maneuvering to help it feel less crowded? Love to hear them!

[dbrown84]

excellent review.  I'm think of doing Bermuda in August.  I've never been before nor have I ever cruised out of NY.  I had a co-worker that was on the cruise before you, and yes they got a lot of rain.  How was the temp/humidity?  And did the NCL shuttle run late enough to attend Harbor Nights?

 

thanks

[dcipjr]

1 hour ago, goldmom said:

Guess you're still in vacation mode.  Lol!

 

Glad you had a great time.

 

Such a great time that I forgot what month it was…twice! I’ll see if I can fix it…

[dcipjr]

12 minutes ago, dbrown84 said:

excellent review.  I'm think of doing Bermuda in August.  I've never been before nor have I ever cruised out of NY.  I had a co-worker that was on the cruise before you, and yes they got a lot of rain.  How was the temp/humidity?  And did the NCL shuttle run late enough to attend Harbor Nights?

 

thanks

Temperatures were comfortable…surprisingly cool. 

We’ve been to Bermuda many times in August—it’s when we usually go! It is usually warm and humid, but not oppressively so. It never kept us from cruising there in August, that’s for sure. 

 

The water temperatures will be super comfortable in August. Low 80s if I recall.  Great for snorkeling. 
 

NCL’s ferry runs to St. George, not Hamilton (Front Street in Hamilton is where they hold Harbor Nights). The Bermuda Blue Line ferry does run several late ferries from the Dockyard to Hamilton for Harbor Nights, so you’ll have no issue getting back and forth. 
 

This time around, we got back to the ship from our beach day at around 5 PM, showered and got cleaned up, went straight to the Local for a burger and a beer, then caught the 7:15 ferry to Hamilton for Harbor Nights. It worked out perfectly—we got there right in time to watch the Gombey Dancers!

[meatball_nyc]

3 hours ago, dcipjr said:

The Joy has become one of my favorite ships in the fleet. It was full to capacity for this sailing, but we've learned some tricks to avoid the crowds,

 

Thank you for your review!

 

We will be sailing to Bermuda on the Joy next month (third time to our favorite destination), first time on this ship.

 

Our “tricks” on Breakaway were to be a half hour ahead of the crowds...but are interested in hearing your tricks for Joy. Thank you!

 

 

[Always Cruising]

Were you affected by the Route 95 tanker fire that destroyed part of the highway?  Excellent review - thank you!

[dcipjr]

9 hours ago, Always Cruising said:

Were you affected by the Route 95 tanker fire that destroyed part of the highway?  Excellent review - thank you!

We don’t have to go on that section of 95 to get home, so we weren’t affected yesterday.

 

We’ll undoubtedly be affected over the next few months. I try to avoid that stretch of 95, since it’s pretty miserable, but now all the other roads will now get that traffic.

[dcipjr]

In terms of tricks to avoid the crowds, I don’t have anything too earth-shattering—it’s mostly just knowing what to avoid based on past experience. 
 

For instance:

 

- Avoid the buffet on embarkation day, and eat lunch at Taste / Savor. 
 

- Don’t bother with the Manhattan Room on Day 1—everyone will be there. Taste and Savor will be much less crowded, with the same menu. Head straight there ahead of the crowds that will inevitably show up once they can’t get into the Manhattan Room.

 

- Get up early and go around the ship while most people are still asleep. 
 

- In Bermuda, don’t go to Horseshoe Bay on the first day, since everyone and their grandma will go there once they get off the ship. Doubly so, because the Celebrity Summit is usually in port at the same time as the Joy. We usually go to St. George first, since the NCL ferry departs at 9 AM, and the Celebrity passengers have to wait for the 9:45 Orange Line ferry. 
 

- The American Diner is open for breakfast, and nobody goes. It’s a smaller buffet but it’s plenty to get you started, and a lifesaver for port days when everyone is in a rush to get off the ship (and thus crowd the Garden Cafe). 

[bkrickles1]

1 hour ago, dcipjr said:

In terms of tricks to avoid the crowds, I don’t have anything too earth-shattering—it’s mostly just knowing what to avoid based on past experience. 
 

For instance:

 

- Avoid the buffet on embarkation day, and eat lunch at Taste / Savor. 
 

- Don’t bother with the Manhattan Room on Day 1—everyone will be there. Taste and Savor will be much less crowded, with the same menu. Head straight there ahead of the crowds that will inevitably show up once they can’t get into the Manhattan Room.

 

- Get up early and go around the ship while most people are still asleep. 
 

- In Bermuda, don’t go to Horseshoe Bay on the first day, since everyone and their grandma will go there once they get off the ship. Doubly so, because the Celebrity Summit is usually in port at the same time as the Joy. We usually go to St. George first, since the NCL ferry departs at 9 AM, and the Celebrity passengers have to wait for the 9:45 Orange Line ferry. 
 

- The American Diner is open for breakfast, and nobody goes. It’s a smaller buffet but it’s plenty to get you started, and a lifesaver for port days when everyone is in a rush to get off the ship (and thus crowd the Garden Cafe). 

All very good tips! Thanks!!

The small buffet at American Diner for breakfast is the least known place to eat on the entire ship!

They also put out coffee, juice and danish in Spice at around 6am. I'll go out there after hitting the gym and have a cup of oj and watch the water go by. Very relaxing!

And, I totally agree with not going to Horseshoe Bay on arrival day.

We're taking Joy in July with a group of newbies (including little ones) and I recommended they do a nice family excursion that first day, while my wife and I will enjoy Spice and the pool area without any crowding. We have a sunset catamaran tour scheduled for that first evening, so we'll have a leisurely day on the ship before hopping off for that. We've visited Bermuda many times, so we're not as anxious as others to get off the ship.

We'll all do Horseshoe on the 2nd day, where we'll get up early and head over before it gets so crowded that getting chairs and umbrellas becomes difficult. We had that happen last summer and then we got run off by the man o war (jellyfish). They actually closed off going in the water by around 1:30 because of it. Lots of people got stung that day. I've never seen that amount of jellyfish at Horseshoe in all of my years going there and, hopefully, they won't be there this summer.

Thanks for the review!

 

If you have anything more to say about Splash Academy, I'd love to hear it.

Part of our group includes 2 five year olds (1 is my grand niece) and both sets of parents intend to get the kids involved.

[dcipjr]

50 minutes ago, bkrickles1 said:

We had that happen last summer and then we got run off by the man o war (jellyfish). They actually closed off going in the water by around 1:30 because of it. Lots of people got stung that day. I've never seen that amount of jellyfish at Horseshoe in all of my years going there and, hopefully, they won't be there this summer.

 

We didn't make it to Horseshoe this time around, but there were some Portuguese Man o' War on the beach at Tobacco Bay. The attendants were removing them from the beach and water when they were seen.

 

Unfortunately, because of climate change, Bermuda is getting way more sargassum (seaweed) washing ashore, and with it comes the Man o' War. I was talking to some of the locals about it.

 

The Portugese Man o' War is actually fascinating—they're made of many different organisms, living together, it's not a single species. But yeah, you don't want to see them—or worse, trod on them.

 

As for Splash Academy, I can say that the staff we met (Purple, Ginger, and Alaska) were wonderful. My daughter seemed to gravitate towards playing Mario Kart. She's five, so I doubt she was very good at it..but she loved it all the same (we don't have a game console at home).

 

Unlike on the Jewel, we never had an issue or a long line getting her checked in, and it didn't seem like the place was bursting at the seams with kids, even though there were a fair amount onboard. 

 

Splash Academy is a godsend, too—head to the buffet first, get your kiddo(s) something to eat, drop-off at Splash, and then it's Date Night!

[Dajbman22]

Thanks for the tip re: American Diner's free breakfast buffet. This is the first I've seen it mentioned, and it would be perfect, location-wise for a quick continental breakfast to bring back to the stateroom now that cold breakfast has a room service fee too. 

[weisla]

Thank you, I enjoyed your review and will follow this thread! Sailing on the Joy, July 1-9, to Bahamas & Bermuda w/our 9yo. DH & I are seasoned cruisers & our son has cruised once on DCL when he was 5. This will be our first post-Covid cruise, first on NCL, and first trip to Bermuda. At 5 he wasn’t excited to be dropped off at DCL kids club, and we’re hoping he has some fun at Splash Academy. Do you think there are a good range of activities for multiple age groups? 

[dcipjr]

11 minutes ago, weisla said:

Thank you, I enjoyed your review and will follow this thread! Sailing on the Joy, July 1-9, to Bahamas & Bermuda w/our 9yo. DH & I are seasoned cruisers & our son has cruised once on DCL when he was 5. This will be our first post-Covid cruise, first on NCL, and first trip to Bermuda. At 5 he wasn’t excited to be dropped off at DCL kids club, and we’re hoping he has some fun at Splash Academy. Do you think there are a good range of activities for multiple age groups? 

 

There seem to be, based on reviewing the Splash schedule and dailies (which I wish I had saved, but I didn't...). There are different age groups, and three or four different activities at any given session offered for each age group, so there's plenty to do.

 

My daughter didn't like the Jewel Splash Academy because she found it boring, but the Joy's Splash Academy is much bigger. 

 

At first she didn't want to go, because she remembered the Jewel, and also found it a bit overwhelming to walk into a room full of kids she didn't know. It helped us to get in line early, so she could be the first kid there. After she went once, she was raring to go each time.

[bkrickles1]

1 hour ago, dcipjr said:

 

We didn't make it to Horseshoe this time around, but there were some Portuguese Man o' War on the beach at Tobacco Bay. The attendants were removing them from the beach and water when they were seen.

 

Unfortunately, because of climate change, Bermuda is getting way more sargassum (seaweed) washing ashore, and with it comes the Man o' War. I was talking to some of the locals about it.

 

The Portugese Man o' War is actually fascinating—they're made of many different organisms, living together, it's not a single species. But yeah, you don't want to see them—or worse, trod on them.

 

As for Splash Academy, I can say that the staff we met (Purple, Ginger, and Alaska) were wonderful. My daughter seemed to gravitate towards playing Mario Kart. She's five, so I doubt she was very good at it..but she loved it all the same (we don't have a game console at home).

 

Unlike on the Jewel, we never had an issue or a long line getting her checked in, and it didn't seem like the place was bursting at the seams with kids, even though there were a fair amount onboard. 

 

Splash Academy is a godsend, too—head to the buffet first, get your kiddo(s) something to eat, drop-off at Splash, and then it's Date Night!

Thanks for the response!

The Man o' War were everywhere and hard to spot, being transparent and floating on top of the water. Can't wait to see for myself when we sail in July. Hopefully not much to see.

Appreciate the Splash Academy info too.

Both sets of parents we're traveling with have a 5 year old and a much younger sibling.

The 5 year olds are cousins and best friends, so they'll probably love Splash Academy, and it will give the parents a little break, only having to care for 1 out of 2 kids. Lmao!

And I'm sure my wife will do some babysitting and the parents can really have a date night!!

41 days for us!!!!

[scooter6139]

4 hours ago, dcipjr said:

---
 

- The American Diner is open for breakfast, and nobody goes. It’s a smaller buffet but it’s plenty to get you started, and a lifesaver for port days when everyone is in a rush to get off the ship (and thus crowd the Garden Cafe). 

 

Thanks for confirming this is back again!  We loved going here for a quick bite pre-covid, but it wasn't open on our last sailing.

[Sand and Seas]

2 hours ago, Dajbman22 said:

Thanks for the tip re: American Diner's free breakfast buffet. This is the first I've seen it mentioned, and it would be perfect, location-wise for a quick continental breakfast to bring back to the stateroom now that cold breakfast has a room service fee too. 

We were on the Joy in Mid April.  We checked the Dailies for breakfast options but didn't notice American Diner.  Was it open for breakfast and we missed it?  

 

[Maplemoose]

Do you remember how many performances of Footloose and Elements there were? And the Beatles? Did they have a Beatles show in the theatre as well? Any other bands in the Cavern Club? Thanks

[dcipjr]

1 hour ago, Maplemoose said:

Do you remember how many performances of Footloose and Elements there were? And the Beatles? Did they have a Beatles show in the theatre as well? Any other bands in the Cavern Club? Thanks

We didn’t see Footloose this time around—already saw it before. There were two nights of Footloose, but can’t remember the performance times. Both were early on in the cruise.
 

Elements was on Day 6 and Day 7, with an early show and a late show (7 PM and 9 PM). We did see Elements and enjoyed it. 
 

The Beatles tribute band had three nights in the Cavern Club, at 7:30 and 9:30. They played early Beatles on Monday (Day 2), psychedelic Beatles on Thursday (Day 5), and late Beatles (Abbey Road / Get Back) on Saturday (Day 7). 
 

The Beatles also were in the Joy Theater on Wednesday (Day 4), but we missed that since we went to Harbor Nights. 
 

There was a magic show on Day 1 in the theater, so I’m thinking Day 2 and Day 3 were the Footloose showings. 
 

I do remember a pianist covering Beatles tunes in the Cavern Club; not exactly sure when that was. There may have been other shows there, but I missed them.

Edited June 12, 2023 by dcipjr

[Maplemoose]

Thank you. Great info I have read that one needs to get to the Cavern Club an hour in advance to get a seat. Any advice based on your experience?

[dcipjr]

1 minute ago, Maplemoose said:

Thank you. Great info I have read that one needs to get to the Cavern Club an hour in advance to get a seat. Any advice based on your experience?

We got there about 30 minutes before the show and got seats 2 out of 3 times. The other time we were able to get standing room but close to the stage.

 

It’s not as much as a hassle as you’d think to get there early. Wear a hat or something, put it on the seat, and then go grab a drink from the bar. The 30 minutes tended to go pretty quickly.

[dcipjr]

Thanks to @Host Jazzbeau for renaming this topic, since I evidently forgot what month it was…twice. 
 

Post-cruise brain? I guess there is such a thing!

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 6/11/2023 at 12:22 PM, dcipjr said:

We just disembarked from a 7-day cruise NYC to Bermuda aboard the Joy, so I figured I'd post a quick review.

How crowded was the observation lounge on sea days?

[dcipjr]

Just now, ChiefMateJRK said:

How crowded was the observation lounge on sea days?

The loungers up front were frequently filled, but seating was usually available close to the buffet area.