Norwegian Joy Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I am an experienced cruiser and wanted to share Alaska with my kids, ages 9 and 13. I am horrible at committing to vacations and only decided to book a cruise a month before we sailed. Given that our passports had expired and the kids don't have them, I didn't want to jump through a bunch of hoops so I had to sail out of a roundtrip port. Seattle it was!
We had last sailed on the Breakaway so I decided to give NCL another chance. We weren't in love with that ship, but we also had crummy weather on our previous cruise which didn't help. I chose the Joy over the Bliss just based on the available dates.
After I booked it, I started reading reviews and was getting a little nervous. There seemed to be few positive reviews, but I figured we'd make the best of it. When I looked closer at the itinerary, I started worrying that there was going to be too much time at sea on the ship. By the end, my entire family concluded there was not ENOUGH time at sea! We ran out of time to do everything we wanted. So now on to the cruise.
Cabin Review
Balcony Stateroom
We traveled with 4 suitcases, 2 smallish rolling duffles and 4 backpacks. We were able to fully unpack our largest suitcase. I used all the hangers in the closet and the two hooks by the door. We used three of the remaining suitcases as drawers and slid them under the bed so they could easily be pulled out from under each side of the bed as needed. Just as we finished, we met our amazing cabin steward, Gete. He pointed out that there was a large empty drawer under the couch. We didn't even need it, but it would have been nice to know about it before we unpacked. Bathroom storage was plentiful as well. When we were on the Breakaway, we had a mini-suite balcony. The only difference between them is the bathroom. The shower and sink in the regular balcony rooms is tiny compared to the mini-suite. We soon got used to it, but it was a surprise at first! The bed itself if not very comfortable, and of course, it's a tight squeeze when you add a ladder for the bunk bed, but we knew what to expect so it worked great for us.