Norwegian Cruise Line - Norwegian Joy Reviews

Embarkation was a disaster. Thousands of people milling about and different excuses every 10 minutes. Would have believed them if I had not experienced the same situation on my last NCL cruise. Food was OK in the main restaurants. Very good at the steakhouse, and good at the other specialty restaurants. Entertainment was exceptional but we would have been disappointed if we were in the hundreds who did not get to see the primary shows because they were sold out for every show. A,B,C islands were beautiful, other stops and the Panama Canal were OK. We have cruised through the Canal in the past, so our expectations were low. Been there, done that. Our suite was great as it had a double sized balcony which we and our friends used extensively. The staff were polite and helpful for the most part, but were occasionally stressed trying to deal with the number of passengers. Public areas were attractive and the Observation Lounge was a nice place for a snack or just to sit and read a book away from the crowds. Safety drill was a joke as hundreds of us were jammed in a small corridor. Expect to pay for everything. Cruise price is reasonable if it includes a drink package, dining package, internet package, etc. Would have been more expensive than a luxury cruise if we had to pay for all the extras. Final comment. I would take this cruise again as long as the ABC islands were included.

Great! Met my expectations.

Except for $18/day/person that didn’t cover my people that gave me service. This is a add on to the price that is sold under faults pretense.

Too crowded. Layout of ship was not good. Inadequate entertainment activities. Service staff excellent. Our stateroom was very nice and spacious

Almost every bad review of this ship that appeared on Cruise Critic was true! The worst embarkation process ever. Debarkation was not much better! Food selections below average and so was food quality. Even the extra charge Ocean Blue dining experience was far below their previous standards. Teppanyaki restaurant was one of the few high points. Entertainment was slightly above average. Even though we have sailed with Norwegian many times probably will not again after the experience on the Joy!

Excessive waiting at airport for transportation to dock. Then long backup at dock waiting to board. After boarding cruise was good.

The boarding process was a mess, we waited in line 3-1/2 hours just to get on the ship, due to this, I missed the mustard meeting. This ship was just too noisy, the garden cafe served the same food items daily, couldn’t enjoy the balcony because I could hear all the activities & the music (very loud), going on, on the top deck until 1am daily. Some of my excursions were set at 7am. Tradewind stores were lacking souvenirs items, the rooms seemed dated, small, closets were small & hard to access, my excursions were a waste of time & money. The parts of Mexico that we visited looked like a 3rd world country. Once in Mexico I started feeling ill(I didn’t eat or drink anything while on shore). The Medical Doctor on board ways very pricey($200), All I wanted was my vitals read, I was told by the nurse that they didn’t do that(duh). I should have cancelled because this ship had several sick passengers reported in the news two weeks prior to my departure. Should have listened to my instincts.

Overall the trip was good. Boarding and disembarkation were absolute disasters! Food was not stellar but staff were friendly and efficient. Unfortunately the staff had a gstro intestinal virus break out towards the end of the trip and that caused a slow down in service and efficiency. Some said the ship may have had health issues before we even boarded. For my experience the Joy was too big a ship for us and we will look to smaller capacities for future travel.

The trip was amazing although we experienced bad weather in Panama and couldn’t do the excursion we had programmed.

Great itinerary and ship. The only downer was all shore excursions in the Panama canal zone were canceled for a lack of tenders.

We have gone on 15 different cruises and this one was our most enjoyable. Although on the last morning there was a 2 hour delay in getting off the ship. Causing us to miss our flight. Which caused us to spend the night in Miami and leave the next day. Other than that it was a Great trip.

Worst cruise of the 16 we have been on. Entertainment areas much too small. Poor customer service. Do NOT recommend!!!!

really dispointed in that i wanted to see costra rica and they cancelled that stop*

Although the cruise itself was nice, the big PROBLEM is that NCL cancelled my airline reservation for the flight after the cruise Miami. This was a serious error on behalf of NCL. Fortunately my travel advisor, Maria, is working on this to try and get reimbursement from NCL for the extra costs I had to pay for an alternate flight back home from Miami. She was specifically told by NCL that my return flight would NOT be cancelled even though I did not use the original flight from SFO to LAX to start the cruise.

We weren't happy about them changing the itinerary the week before (and still don't know why) and the transfers from the airport to port and from port to airport were horrible. We had to wait 1 1/2 hours each time to get on the bus! However the ship was nice, the service excellent as well as the food!