Norwegian Joy Review
Great way to see the Panama Canal and a bit of South and Central America.
Rating by category
Additional details
This was our 9th cruise on Norwegian and our 17th cruise overall. This was our first time on the Norwegian Joy. Due to the size of this very large ship, embarkation was a bit frustrating with very long lines, but once we were on the ship, that was almost forgotten.
The Norwegian is only a few years old and is beautiful and clean. The ship has a lot of activities including a race car track and laser tag, for an extra fee, of course. Both were fun to do at least once. The pool deck is very large, but it was often difficult to find an open lounge chair because people will place a towel on a chair and leave it there all day, even if they are no longer on the pool deck. That is very frustrating! In the evenings, the staff clears off the loungers and puts out chairs to watch a movie on the enormous outdoor movie screen. We enjoyed several outdoor movies during the cruise.
We did notice that on the 5 sea days during the cruise, there were not touch day time activities. If you did not want to lounge by the pool (if you could find a chair), then you were left to entertain yourself. During the evenings, there were so much to do that we were not able to do everything that we wanted to do.
Cabin Review
Mid-ship Balcony Stateroom
We stayed in a mini-suite on the 12th deck midship. The cabin was very spacious with more storage room than two people needed. We used the balcony quite a bit, especially on the day of the Panama Canal crossings. The bed was comfortable and the room was quiet. There were plenty of electrical outlets, unlike the older ships.
Our cabin steward was efficient, but we did not meet him until half way through the cruise. He was nice, perhaps a bit shy. Usually we interact with our cabin steward on a regular basis, so this was a change for us. But he did a good job keeping the cabin clean.