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Norwegian Viva

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My husband and I love NCL and have never been disappointed until now.

We chose the NCL Viva because we love cruising in new ships on their first transatlantic crossing.

The NCL Viva is visually stunning. 

The comedians onboard were fantastic.  The band in Syd Norman’s Pour House was wonderful.

However…

  The 6-7-8 common areas are no longer the hub of the ship and are too small.  On other ships you could always find fun, entertainment and make new friends here.  

  We do not cruise for the food alone, but this was beyond ridiculous.  The cruise line has opted to force passengers away from the buffet by limiting the hours of this dining option.  The Freestyle Daily (the daily activity schedule which provides the open/close times of restaurants and stores) indicated specific restaurants were open, when they were not.  Early or late breakfasts locations were very limited and there was little to no variety in the breakfast choices.  Meals times in general were very limited.  

  On other NCL ships we have thoroughly enjoyed the Vibe Beach club.  We were among the first passengers to board the ship but were unable to purchase Vibe access because it was already sold out.

  We purchased spa passes, in the thermal suites several of the rooms were not functioning properly.  There were frequent loud ship noises in the relaxation room. 

  We did not see or feel the energy of the cruise staff like we have on other NCL cruises.  We heard several staff members bemoaning their jobs and “jokingly” telling customers to go away.

  You should never take a cruise and feel frustrated or angry.  Unfortunately both of those emotions reared their ugly heads way too often on this NCL Viva cruise.

  Bottom line, there was more wrong with this cruise than right.  I’m always a little sad at the end of a cruise.  This was the first cruise that couldn’t end fast enough for me.

More aggravation that enjoyment

We are on the Viva after spending 2 weeks on Virgin Voyages. I have the impression that both ships are trying the same thing.

However where Virgin dares to be different Viva goes almost there and the bottles out

Take the Galley on VV it's great, really nice food made fresh to order. Viva has the same concept but limits the space & choice because it has installed a traditional too small buffet Same old kids hands in the food, a total scrum for half warm boring food. 

Children & older people. Virgin don't have under 18 & it's for the "young at heart" not the aged young with different entertainment concepts. Viva seems to want to do that same but then again at the last minute puts in a far too small children's area tucked away. The same with the entertainment lots of bright new concepts then suddenly there is a main stream low grade traditional cruise act- it seems unjoined 

The flow of the ship is not meant to be a traditional cruise layout. It's lots of small venues to make you feel you are in a different place each night. 

I think people are frustrated because they think they are going on a traditional cruise ship & it's not that but it's also not a new daring concept that it could easily be 

An opportunity missed but I hope NCL have some more bravery going forward to bring something new

The only issue is they should have gone further 

Just got back from the transatlantic on board the brand new VIVA.   The ship is beautiful.  

Cabins: The rooms are much bigger than other ships. Plenty of outlets and a real modern feel.  The bathrooms are large with great room in the shower.   

Food: The food options are virtually unlimited.  On an 11 day trip it was hard to eat at the same venue.  We really enjoyed the Indulge food hall, and the Italian restaurant was my favorite.  Plus, the Local (24 hour venue) was great.  Try the ice cream sundae.  All of the food in the Local is included. 

Drinks:  Bartenders and drinks are on point.  The young lady in the Whiskey bar makes amazing Old Fashions. 

Outdoor area:  Unlike a lot of ships.  The Viva has multiple pools and outside space on different decks.  Great to find a spot and relax.   If you want to be more social they have the bigger pool area.  Some days we liked to be by ourselves and relaxed near one of the smaller pools.  They waterslides are great too.  Not just for kids.  We did a couple of runs, and we all had fun.   On the upper deck, they have a very cool miniature golf and beer pong.  Great during our days at sea.  

Shows:  Went to all of them.  Top quality shows. Kind of amazing they can put on such great shows at sea with a large cast members.  Check out the production of Beetlejuice.

Staff:  Everyone was so helpful and friendly.  They truly cared about your experience.  

Was concerned that 5 days at sea would be too much.  Not at all.  Went by so quickly and with so much to do on the ship.  

Great ship, Great Crew, and very well worth the money.  Cant wait to get back on.

Amazing new ship 

Sailing on NCL's Viva in November, we embarked on a journey with expectations of a seamless blend of novelty and perfection. However, our experience unveiled a mix of highs and lows.

1. Expectations vs. Reality:

The Haven's loungers stained with airborne exhaust soot, leaving black marks on both furniture and clothing, was an unprecedented and unsatisfactory experience. The staff's friendliness and the ship's cleanliness were notable positives.

2. Vegetarian Culinary Journey:

Limited vegetarian options in the Haven were disappointing. A dedicated vegetarian menu would have been fair, as modifications to existing meals fell short of expectations.

3. Cabin Confusion and Noise:

The spacious cabin impressed, but the confusing lighting system proved challenging. Unusual noises, a first-time experience on any ship, were persistent, even in calm weather. Complaints from fellow passengers echoed our concerns.

4. Indulge Food Court, Pool Predicaments, and Lounger Reservations:

The Indulge food court disappointed with its busyness and subpar food quality. The main pool's location limited space and sunlight. The Haven pool's consistently low water level, rising only during port days, was a surprising inconvenience. The sunrise rush for loungers outside the Haven resulted in a scarcity of available spots, highlighting the need for NCL to address and manage lounger reservations more effectively.

5. The Theater Experience:

The theater, despite its high level of light effects, was marred by excessive noise levels. This detracted from the overall enjoyment of the performances and left room for improvement in balancing audio elements.

In conclusion, sailing on NCL's Viva in November revealed both positives and areas for improvement. Addressing issues like soot-stained furniture, vegetarian menu options, cabin noise, pool water levels, theater noise, and lounger reservations could significantly enhance the overall cruise experience for passengers.

Navigating the Experience on NCL's Viva: A Comprehensive Review

Saint-Tropez

Always on the new NCL ships as they come out and this time it was the VIVA. End of season 10 day 10 stops Italy trip so less humans and lucked out on the perfect weather. Added the inexpensive Trans Atlantic in place of flight home from Lisbon which was cheap since our final flight home was only from Miami to LAX. Added bonus on TA cruise of limited capacity (2900) for TA cruises by the coast guard. Had to change rooms since we did not book one continuous cruise in advance. Deck 16 first cruise Starboard side so we always saw land on the first 10 stops around the Med. Like the fact only one stair up to observation lounge and café for easy hot water for our personal coffee and tea. Great ocean view that high on the VIVA and Prima so all you see is ocean from your balcony and less noise from deck 8 water front people. Second cruise move to the 9th floor near aft elevators so one deck down for all restaurant's especially the Local Bar and Grill, our go to for avoiding the crowds at the café. Main dining room was the best for all times of complimentary breakfast lunch or dinner. Its like fine dinning with out the need for specialty credits. Los Lobos and Cagney's were are favorites for the specialty. Met all kinds of staff from Prima and Encore whom specialize in opening new ships so very comforting to be remembered across multiple ships. We do make it a point to take pictures with our favorite staff member's along with a clear image of their tags so we can include them in our survey after the cruise for proper recognition.

Back to back 10 port Mediterranean with Trans Atlantic and carribean finish

We have cruised with NCL 8 times and were looking forward to Viva. There are some positive features to this ship but there are some MAJOR FLAWS. 

Positive features: staterooms are very spacious, huge bathroom sinks, spacious showers, good water pressure, and ample closet/storage space for your luggage.

Negative features (where do I start?): the buffet is 4x too small for a ship of this size, the common spaces/walkways are poorly designed with multiple congestion points on every deck, the entertainment venues for both the shows are way too small, the overall food quality is poor in both the buffet and the main dining rooms, the overall menu selections are very limited for dining, the options for evening entertainment is minimal compared to the other NCL ships, and customer service is lacking.

It appears that NCL is focusing this ship on the "Haven" guests.  There are many more Haven staterooms, and the Haven now has dedicated access elevators to all of the main decks compared to the older ships.  There is also a dedicated Haven dining room.  Possibly more of the common space and attention is being diverted to the Haven suites and not those of us with standard balcony suites?

I don't know what happened to the food. It's just not prepared to the same quality as other ships. The food was an utter disappointment. In our experience from previous NCL cruises, each new ship/itinerary improved upon prior ships in food quality and menu selections, but this cruise was a failure in both for a new ship.  Even the Observation Lounge doesn't have their usual entertainment. Finally, NCL is charging you for just about everything now. You have to pay extra for the VR Games, the darts, etc. You also have to pay for the race cars. They nickel and dime you on everything. This trip was disappointing.

Utter Disappointment

This was our 14th NCL cruise, and we have cruised on several other lines, river and ocean.  With NCL, the gem class was our favorite class. We had tried the larger ships, Epic, and Breakaway, but preferred the smaller ones, but mainly  chose the itinerary.  Our Nov cruise, we went back and forth between the Star itinerary and the Viva's. After reading some reviews about the Prima, we were leaning towards the Star, but decided to give the new ship a turn. Sop happy we did, we absolutely loved the VIVA. 

Loved all the different spaces to hang, and relax after a heavy port intensive itinerary. The Spa was fantastic and never ever felt busy, as it wasn't. The food was great, loved Onda, for Italian, and Hudsons. Fabulous servers and staff all around. We loved the staff, and bartenders, esp. at the whiskey Bar. We are not bar flies, but enjoy a drink before dinner. 

Beetlejuice was really entertaining, and was the full show , 90 min long. We also enjoyed the comedians and musicians. and for $15, we found the racetrack so worth it .. almost 10 mins long, a hoot. 

Always found a seat in Indulge, the food hall, and the service was so fast, did I say we loved the food. Now yes the buffet was packed every morning, but there was usually no one in the spillover seating in food republic, where there was always juice and coffee. And the Surfside cafe, had no crowds. So if a basic breakfast is what you need, I never encountered crowds in those locations, actually we were mostly alone while eating breakfast, in a quiet Food Republic.  We figured out the ships layout by day 3 and the elevators were fast. All in all , this class is our new favorite. Look forward to our next cruise.

We loved this new ship 

I was HIGHLY disappointed with this Ship. From the food to the abysmal customer service, it’s never failed to continue to unimpressed me. Let us start with the smallest buffet at sea. It is one of the worst, poorly designed buffets in the industry. The selection of food was minimal and the service was trash. Not once during any of my meals was I asked if I would like something to drink. On another note, don’t think about sleeping past 9:30 AM because you’ll miss breakfast. The buffet closes its breakfast at 9:30 AM. This is by far the earliest I've seen any cruise buffet close for breakfast. The food around the ship except the Indulge is tasteless. One of the worst food experiences at sea. Overall, I would not recommend this ship to any cruiser that has cruised any high-end cruise line. Spend your hard-earned money on a Celebrity Cruise instead.

Don’t Cruise if you’ve Cruised with Celebrity Edge Class Ships.

Tortola

First and foremost, kudos to the service staff on the ship. The spa and restaurants/food staff members are incredible group of individuals who are dedicated, professional, and passionate about what they do.Ropa and Jay at the spa are amazing! The unlimited thermal pass, 359, is worth every penny! Everyone at the restaurants, regular, and specialty, always goes above and beyond. we did surfside café one day and that was it. Local bar and Hudson were the only place we ate after a couple of days. I think NCL gives you quite a few choices which is nice. All the agents precise a thorough and very kind. The ship is brand new and room is not too squishy. now the awful! And see how Nickles  and dimes every single chance they get. Do not pay for the priority access. Repeat, do not! it is colossal waste of money and it is fraud! You are supposed to have priority access for embarkation, disembarkation and tender. None of that happened! You will get a plate of canapé , which tasted beyond awful. whatever was described on priority access is nonexistent. I tried to tell them but no one seemed to care. They trust $269 for unlimited Internet and trust me, you can barely get to use it because it connection was slow as dial up many many many years ago, yes 269. Do not sign up for that. When you get on the ship, they give you a discount so it becomes 169. That Internet is worth zero dollars. We could not go to one port because of Weather. They refunded the money for excursion, but that is about it. I would never ever step foot on an NCL ship again no matter how new it was. The entire experience was very disappointing. Now I tell everyone I know who remotely consider a Cruise not to use Norwegian.

The service staff is stellar, precise agents. Fantastic, the Cruise itself is beyond terrible.!

My first impression upon boarding, the Norwegian Viva was wow it’s so new and shiny .  We opted for an inside cabin since we booked it three days in advance in the Mediterranean we basically booked it to get around the itinerary. It has a nine days with ports every day Sicily Croatia we boarded in Rome and it will drop us off in Venice, so that was our interest

The cabin is very comfortable the beds and the room and the closets are huge is so much storage space and the bathroom is brand new and very comfortable and the shower is large. Also there’s a 45 inch television with multiple channels and movies both free and paid. 

Most days we opt to eat outside in Italy for a large meal so when we come back around 8 o’clock, we go down not to the buffet but to deck 8  there’s a small, intimate food hall included that you order with an iPad. That seems like it’s some of the best food on the ship. If you want for free, the Indian food is superlative they also have tacos and noodle bar Salad bar and it’s all set up like a little food truck area so that’s excellent.

Our cabin Steward was also excellent. We had no problems he gave us quite good service. .

Now, for the not so good ..

Upon boarding, we went to the buffet, and the layout on deck 16 is cramped, and the tables you will hit into everyone. It cannot accommodate the amount of people on the ship I recommend do not go at all, unless you just want a cup of coffee. 

my husband burnt himself on one of the serving trays because it was not properly fastened. They move, and there’s boiling water underneath. 

Also, in our cabin above our head is the children’s center and even though they’re not many children on board, I guess they have events for the kids at night around 10 or 11 o’clock and they run on top of our head like crazy so it was only till around midnight, and then it stopped, but I called to complain to Security, and they moved the hours up earlier for that club .  However, Security called day after day waking us up from naps and early in the morning to ask us if the noise problem has been resolved. It’s so ridiculous that they’re actually creating noise. Eventually, I just unplugged the phone they refused to stop. 

The people who work on board are miserable they’re not happy they’re not smiling the Casino staff and the personnel, especially the managers are some of the single miserable people I’ve ever encountered on any cruise line 

I waited an hour and a half for a glass of water in the casino, and although the casino is phenomenal and large, one of the largest and nicest ones I’ve ever seen at Sea don’t expect any service in there .

Now we just came off two weeks in the Mediterranean of Virgin Voyages and that was absolutely phenomenal and intimate and the food was incredible and everything was made to order whereas here they are nickel and dime you for everything they won’t even give you a glass of water in your cabin everything is à la cart.  Their Internet packages are expensive. They are starlink service but if you want to pay $350 for the week help yourself.

The thermal spa is beautiful probably one of the most beautiful and largest at sea. It has many different rooms and baths and the whole thing is just gorgeous again not cheap.

As for the ship itself, it is a very wide large ship with the layout being both confusing and you end up walking around in circles most of the time because there’s just too many things everywhere and it makes it hard to find it.  If you’re expecting an intimate ship, you could forget it. Chances are you won’t see the same person twice.

In my opinion, and this is just my opinion ..the ship is a joyless soulless hotel that you can’t get out the front doors 

The thermal suite is gorgeous and huge.  But for $359 you think that they would not put the gym dumbbell room on the top of your head while trying to relax. Poor designs everywhere you look.

Ship was designed and built in Italy while most of NCL fleet built in Germany. 

Very odd flow through the ship.  

OK so back to the spa and thermal  suite area.  Super pricey.  Beautiful.  But has issues.  Poor layout. The gym is over the head so you have people slamming down weights and treadmills right above you when you’re trying to relax this is a very poor design by Ncl.

Also, very difficult to find another towel unless you go back to the men or ladies room.  

Other than that, there’s nice room, such as a salt room at charcoal room, and finish Spa and other rooms, including a cold room. 

Entry price per day $100

My friend spent a lot of time in the spa, and she had acupuncture treatments by what was supposed to be a very skilled acupuncturist. However, this acupuncturist left a needle in my friends neck that was found later on, luckily before she laid down and went to sleep on it she could’ve been severely injured. 

No salmon, anywhere on the ship not in the main dining room only for an extra fee

As a matter fact, everything on the ship is an extra fee.

The food is either extremely bland or very salty. No exceptions most of the fish is the cheapest that they could find tilapia..

The best food on the ship is the Indian 

Most people were dissatisfied with the quality of things on the cruise and the service although our cabins Steward again was exceptional most everything else although being new is very blasé, cold without any personality.  

If they’re obviously still in the process of training, people don’t be deceived by the beauty of the ship.

Last night, my husband burned himself for a second time at the buffet, because that very hot water splashes up when you try to get food out.  

We make our own fun, no matter where we go, but the ship just has a very depressing feeling about it. I’m looking forward to when it ends.

That’s rare for me.

We ate in the French restaurant one night. It was extremely average however, the presentation was beautiful and the restaurant itself is very pretty.

The food pretty much was mediocre throughout the ship, and the layout of the ship confusing.

Everything seems to be a problem for everyone on board.  I really enjoy other Ncl shifts but this new class of shit the prima and the Viva leave a lot to be desired and that’s my final conclusion.

One less word of advice, disembarkation, confusion, mob scene, packed people, trying to get off the ship

The only organization of disembark was a terror for all involved. It took over an hour. It was pouring rain, and the ship could not put the gangway up properly so we had a walk down a steep plank, dragging luggage, lined up, going all the way up several staircases and around the ship to get off it was a nightmare as a final insult.  Very unsafe

Very mediocre at best

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