Norwegian Joy Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We chose this cruise as it allowed us to go to warm-weather ports in the winter, and we could use 2 Cruise Next certificates. Our last NCL cruise had not been great - especially the service.
We'd been on the ship before, as well as its sister ships Bliss and Escape, so we knew (and don't love) the design. We booked an inside cabin, which was OK, although I had hopes of winning the bid for a balcony upgrade as has happened previously. That didn't happen this time.
So we boarded the ship with reasonably low expectations, but we were immediately pleasantly surprised with the service in the dining room where we had lunch, as well as the quality of the food. Our steward introduced himself promptly upon our arrival to our cabin, which was clean and well-designed, although obviously quite small.
Cabin Review
Inside Stateroom
Our deck 11 aft inside cabin was exactly as similar cabins on the big NCL ships. It was small, but clean, efficient, and quiet. Our steward made it up twice a day, but no towel animals, which we were fine with skipping. For the price, it was fine.
Port Reviews
Cabo San Lucas
We did a whale watching tour that we booked independently in the port, and it was great. We saw lots of whales! I think it was $50 pp.
Mazatlan
We took a little golf-cart cab from the cruiseport market for $5 total to the old town near the cathedral and went to a huge market there. It was very interesting. On the way back, we were offered a rate of $10 for a similar cab and I said, "no thanks, we only paid $5 to get here." So he offered $6, which we took.
Puerto Vallarta
We took a tour organized through our Cruise Critic group to Sayulita, a charming beach town about an hour away on the other side of the peninsula. On the way, we did the obligatory but nice tour of a local tequila maker. Had a great time, but there was some confusion about the time since the ship didn't switch to local time for PV, so we came the closest we ever have to missing the ship (we weren't the only ones - they called out a lot of names after we got back).