Cabin Choice

• #8726 - Oceanview Balcony

  • Balcony size - plenty of room.  Rarely does a standard balcony accommodate chaises And a table for two.

Crowded?  Kid Friendly?

• This 11 night Greek Isles and Western Caribbean voyage was not crowded.  However, a couple ports with tenders required made the excursions feel busier than otherwise necessary.
• With only one at-sea day, the focus was not on children’s activities, although the ship has many options, including:
  • Rock Climbing
  • Basketball Court
  • Slides - Free Fall and Whip
  • Rope Course
  • Entourage Teen Lounge
  • Splash Academy (for ages 3-12)
  • Aqua Park

Entertainment

• With so many port days, many cruisers were getting early rest, and the entertainment venues were not packed.
• Highlights included the musical “Six” (based on Henry’s wives; I’ve seen this advertised for Broadway, too), and Burn the Floor, a musical dance show, as the name suggests.

Dining (also, see Tips)

• Besides the Main Dining Room, the Joy has two very similar venues - Savor and Taste, which share a common waiting area.  Menus are comparable and our choice was based solely on whichever had the shortest line, although it’s nice to stick to one, once you become familiar with the staff.
• Almost specialty, but no extra cost:  Manhattan.  Cagney’s may be a little more upscale (at an extra charge), but we’ve always found the Manhattan room to be of similar quality.
• There are several specialty restaurants; we mostly rotated among the “no extra cost” locations.  But, we enjoyed La Bistro, a lovely French restaurant.  When NCL was our regular cruiseline, La Bistro was a frequent stop

Will We Do It Again?

Absolutely.  NCL provided a wonderful experience.  After several Norwegian cruises in our early “cruise life,” this trip refreshed some of our positive past experiences.  Note that a significant portion of our NCL cruises have been on the Breakaway and Breakaway Plus classes.

Other Breakaway Class Cruises

(Note:  Encore, Bliss, Escape and Joy are “Breakaway Plus” and feature the go-cart tracks that the original Breakaway and Getaway do not have.)

This 2023 cruise was our first of two Norwegian in recent years (i.e., 2023-2024).  We enjoy the larger vessels and had previously cruised on similar ships between 2015 and 2019, as follows:

• Joy  - January 2024 - Miami to Southampton - 10 days
• Encore - November 2019 - Southampton to New York - 9 days
• Bliss - April 2018 - Southampton to New York - 12 days
• Escape - November 2016 - Miami, Eastern Caribbean - 7 days
• Getaway - September 2015 - Miami, Eastern Caribbean - 7 days

NCL Epic Class

We also cruised the NCL Epic (of the eponymous “Epic Class”) four times between 2011 and 2014 — twice from Port Canaveral, once from Miami and once from Rome, Italy.  Each was a 7 day round-trip.  (There is currently no separate review of this ship.)

Ports

Port Highlights