Norwegian?

We have just booked a cruise on Norwegian Joy. Can I tag along?

The Joy looks like a fabulous ship. We will be on the Encore next which is very similar, and will be our first time on a mega ship - on any line. Up until now the largest ship we've been on is the Disney Fantasy.

Where are you going?

I know you've sailed a lot on Carnival in the past. There is a YouTube channel I watch occasionally by a couple that sail a lot on both Carnival and NCL. I like them because they seem pretty honest about what they like and don't like, but also pretty much just go with the flow and don't sweat the small stuff - which is basically our philosophy when we are on vacation :) .

Here are a couple from the Joy:


 
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They Joy looks like a fabulous ship. We will be on the Encore next which is very similar, and will be our first time on a mega ship - on any line. Up until now the largest ship we've been on is the Disney Fantasy.

Where are you going?

I know you've sailed a lot on Carnival in the past. There is a YouTube channel I watch occasionally by a couple that sails a lot on both Carnival and NCL. I like them because they seem pretty honest about what they like and don't like, but also pretty much just go with the flow and don't sweat the small stuff - which is basically our philosophy when we are on vacation :) .

Here are a couple from the Joy:



Thank you so very much for the videos.

We are going to Bermuda (from NYC). It's been on my bucket list forever.

I've sailed on Carnival, DCL & RCCL... I can't wait to discover Norwegian. :D
 
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Thank you so very much for the videos.

We are going to Bermuda (from NYC). It's been on my bucket list forever.

I've sailed on Carnival, DCL & RCCL... I can't wait to discover Norwegian. :D

You're welcome. We love sailing out of NYC. Be sure you're up on deck for the sail out and the sail in as well (it's worth getting up before dawn!!). It's pretty incredible. They have a few more videos on the Joy, but I'd also recommend checking out the ones from the Bliss as it's very similar and they were on that one for a full week long cruise. I think this one on the Joy was some type of travel agent preview cruise.

I've not sailed on NCL's big ships, (yet) but if you've got any general NCL questions, I'll try my best to help.
 


You're welcome. We love sailing out of NYC. Be sure you're up on deck for the sail out and the sail in as well (it's worth getting up before dawn!!). It's pretty incredible. They have a few more videos on the Joy, but I'd also recommend checking out the ones from the Bliss as it's very similar and they were on that one for a full week long cruise. I think this one on the Joy was some type of travel agent preview cruise.

I've not sailed on NCL's big ships, (yet) but if you've got any general NCL questions, I'll try my best to help.

I just added this to my itinerary. Thank you!

And thank you for your help! :)
 
I don’t know why everyone is poo pooing the Pride Of America. I just got off the ship and it was wonderful. It was nice to have American workers that were friendly and helpful. The ship was clean, but small. I loved the pro-American Motif. The food came much hotter than it ever comes on the DCL ships at dinner time. And the excursions were well organized. Just took it this past Dec.
 


Help. :) My husband and I are debating between a cruise on the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas to Alaska and the Norwegian Breakaway from Miami to Honduras, Belize, and Mexico. This will be just us no kids. Going first week of August. I am leaning towards the Norwegian a bit because of cost. What do people think about this ship? Plenty for adults to do? We have not done Norwegian before.
 
Help. :) My husband and I are debating between a cruise on the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas to Alaska and the Norwegian Breakaway from Miami to Honduras, Belize, and Mexico. This will be just us no kids. Going first week of August. I am leaning towards the Norwegian a bit because of cost. What do people think about this ship? Plenty for adults to do? We have not done Norwegian before.

If it's August, I'd much rather be in Alaska than steamy Honduras, Belize, and Mexico.
 
Well we just did it. We have booked the Norwegian Gem out of Boston to Bermuda the first week of August. Anyone have any thoughts on this one? Hopefully good. :)
 
Well we just did it. We have booked the Norwegian Gem out of Boston to Bermuda the first week of August. Anyone have any thoughts on this one? Hopefully good. :)

A friend of mine sailed on the Jewel (sister ship of Gem) a few years ago and she had a lovely experience on it.
 
Well we just did it. We have booked the Norwegian Gem out of Boston to Bermuda the first week of August. Anyone have any thoughts on this one? Hopefully good. :)

We spent 12 days on the Gem in 2018 and loved it. It's a smaller ship - probably slightly larger than the Magic/Wonder for a DCL comparison. It definitely does not have all the bells and whistles that the larger ships do, but that was fine with us. It was a beautiful ship and the service was great. We enjoyed the food and entertainment. Just be aware that the entertainment on the smaller NCL ships is a combination of live music and your typical cruise musical shows. You have to sail on one of their larger ships to get the Broadway type shows. That being said, we really enjoyed our time on that ship and wouldn't hesitate to sail on it again. We also just spent 14 days on the Jade (pretty much identical to the Gem) in Oct/Nov 2019 and loved it as well.

I don't know if you have younger children, but that would probably be my one warning. They do have kids clubs, but we have no experience with them (our son is 21). Other than that, there won't be as many activities geared towards children as you'll see on the larger ships. There was a sports court, the pool and I seem to recall an arcade, so it's not as if there is nothing for children to do, but it's not like the larger ships.

If you don't care about that, I think the Gem is a great option. It's small enough that it's easy to navigate and there are still lots of dining options. It also was probably one of the cleanest ships I've ever been on (including Disney ships). We loved our time on the Gem.
 
We spent 12 days on the Gem in 2018 and loved it. It's a smaller ship - probably slightly larger than the Magic/Wonder for a DCL comparison. It definitely does not have all the bells and whistles that the larger ships do, but that was fine with us. It was a beautiful ship and the service was great. We enjoyed the food and entertainment. Just be aware that the entertainment on the smaller NCL ships is a combination of live music and your typical cruise musical shows. You have to sail on one of their larger ships to get the Broadway type shows. That being said, we really enjoyed our time on that ship and wouldn't hesitate to sail on it again. We also just spent 14 days on the Jade (pretty much identical to the Gem) in Oct/Nov 2019 and loved it as well.

I don't know if you have younger children, but that would probably be my one warning. They do have kids clubs, but we have no experience with them (our son is 21). Other than that, there won't be as many activities geared towards children as you'll see on the larger ships. There was a sports court, the pool and I seem to recall an arcade, so it's not as if there is nothing for children to do, but it's not like the larger ships.

If you don't care about that, I think the Gem is a great option. It's small enough that it's easy to navigate and there are still lots of dining options. It also was probably one of the cleanest ships I've ever been on (including Disney ships). We loved our time on the Gem.
So we actually just changed our minds. :(
 
So we actually just changed our minds. :(
Wow - sorry! I don't want to discourage you, as we actually quite love the NCL product. We've very much enjoyed all three of our cruises on NCL and look forward to our next one. I just don't think their smaller ships are the best choice for families with small kids. I'd recommend really looking at their website and seeing what is available on each ship.

One big difference between NCL and DCL is that you really have to pay attention to the ship you're on. DCL - eh - they are all basically the same (almost to a fault), but the NCL experience definitely varies depending on which ship you are on. Some of NCL's larger ships with all the bells and whistles (and fun things for kids) do make the Bermuda trip, so maybe just look a little further?

Looking back when our son was younger, I have no doubt he would have loved NCL's larger ships - with go karts, laser tag, cool water slides, virtual reality games, etc - and heck, he'd love them now if he wasn't always too busy to go with us!!! (darn you college and internships :rolleyes:.) You just aren't going to find that on the smaller ships. It's funny, though, he did sail with us on the NCL Sun (one of their smallest and oldest ships) and had an absolute blast. Sometimes cruising is just what you make of it! :flower1:
 
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We have just booked a cruise on Norwegian Joy. Can I tag along?
I haven't experienced this ship, but my DH and son{17] did and it's my DH's favorite ship. He's been on over 20 DCL cruises and one Royal. He really liked the entertainment. Since I wasn't there he didn't try the dining room and ate in the buffet every night. My youngest child[15] and are Disney loyalists but were all sailing on Allure next week. I'm looking at NCL in Europe next year since there prices and itineraries are a little better than DCL.
 
A little late to this party, but we're very fond of NCL overall..... we've cruised in many stateroom categories, from inside to the veryveryvery best, and we've loved each of them for different reasons. Yes, the Haven experience can be spotty from ship to ship, but all our other experiences have been wonderful. Personally, we prefer the smaller ships (Jade, Gem, Sky) to the larger ones, (Epic, Joy) but that's just personal. One thing we are VERY grateful for is NCL customer service. We experienced am engine failure experience and our entire cruise fare was immediately refunded, plus half what we spent towards a future cruise! Crazy good.
 
The Joy looks like a fabulous ship. We will be on the Encore next which is very similar, and will be our first time on a mega ship - on any line. Up until now the largest ship we've been on is the Disney Fantasy.

Where are you going?

I know you've sailed a lot on Carnival in the past. There is a YouTube channel I watch occasionally by a couple that sail a lot on both Carnival and NCL. I like them because they seem pretty honest about what they like and don't like, but also pretty much just go with the flow and don't sweat the small stuff - which is basically our philosophy when we are on vacation :) .

Here are a couple from the Joy:


Elysa and Jason! I watch their videos sometimes too. Their series of vids from their Alaskan cruise on NCL (Breakaway I think) is what got me excited to do an NCL/Alaska cruise. I also like Gary Bembridge on cruising tips.
 
Not gonna lie... I've been exploring virtually the Norwegian Joy in the last days (not seen videos yet, keeping that for the week-end) and it looks like a gorgeous and exciting ship to sail on.
 
Our first cruise ever was on a Disney cruise last spring and then a few months later, we decided to go on a NCL cruise to Alaska, via NCL Joy. We were worried because we loved our DCL cruise. NCL doesn’t have the magical touches of Disney, but the service was great, the ship was clean and the food was good too (Disney food was better though). If we didn’t have Disney to compare, we would have been 100% happy with it. And it is so much cheaper too!
 

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