by Jim Bellomo | Jul 5, 2019 | Uncategorized
My last post was all about Cunard and I mentioned we were going to be doing our next visitation on NCL’s (Norwegian Cruise Line) Joy. So last Saturday we joined three of our fellow agency buddies (Deborah, Ruth and Christa) and headed down to Seattle’s Pier 66 (where we met Candy, another of our team) for a tour of Norwegian’s Joy. We were met by NCL’s Business Development Manager (BDM) Angie West, who runs a great tour plus she’s a bunch of fun. I need to mention for comparisons sake, that Joy can hold up to 4,600+ cruisers and is by far (along with NCL’s Bliss) the largest ship we have ever been aboard. Yet at no time did I feel crowded. There were crowds but it was livable. In the next few months (between now and mid-October) we will visit and sail on two larger ships. That should be interesting.
We were escorted onboard almost immediately upon our arrival and started with a look at the high-end section of the ship, The Haven. After the Haven, where we saw suites and spa staterooms, we went on to visit typical verandah staterooms, outsides and insides. We even saw an unusual stateroom you can only find onboard Joy, a “Concierge Interior” which is almost a suite, but an inside. (See my pics for more about that.) Unlike Cunard where we never saw any accommodations, on Joy we got to see them all before getting about a half an hour by ourselves to take pics of public areas before lunch.
Then it was off to the Taste dining room for some lunch. (Joy has three main dining rooms, Taste, Savor and Manhattan) It was not quite as good as the meal we had on the NCL Bliss last year when we mistakenly were given the entire lunch menu to choose from, but we did have a choice of some pretty decent food. I found it far superior to the Cunard lunch from 10 days before. One highlight (and proof that NCL is pretty darn cool) was that at the end of lunch, our lovely server brought Christa a birthday cake. It turns out that Ruth had just mentioned it to them when we came in and they took it from there. That’s my kind of service. Travel agents on board for lunch get a birthday cake to share—well done NCL Joy.
After lunch we were given total freedom to tour the ship and take pics of everything we wanted…so I did. If you are at all interested, please watch these three sets of photos as a slide show and read the captions. We enjoyed our day a whole bunch and we have two more visitations coming up—one on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas in a week or so and then on Celebrity’s Solstice (a ship we know well) about a week after.
First set of slides are from The Haven, NCL’s ship within a ship. Very high end, very spendy.
Norwegian Joy
In the lounge area of The Haven
In the lounge area of The Haven
The Haven has a private pool area. Adults only.
The Haven has a gorgeous front-facing lounge.
Just beautiful
More of the front facing lounge
It’s like their living room
One of the top suites in The Haven (The Deluxe Owner’s Suite)
The living room
Its bathroom
Another Haven bathroom
Inside a different shower (this is bigger than some staterooms we have stayed in)
The library of The Haven
More of the library of The Haven
Beautiful corridors inside The Haven
Looking out the library windows.
More of the front facing lounge
A living room of a Haven Spa Suite
The second bedroom/TV room of the suite
Inside a different bathroom
The shower
Inside another of the suites
Just the shower
More of the front facing lounge
Back in the pool/spa area
It is really impressive but besides the overhead there is no way to see outside
The next set of staterooms are a typical verandah, a special Concierge Family Inside stateroom and a handicapped accessible outside. All pretty cool.
Inside a typical stateroom
Inside a typical verandah stateroom
Inside a typical verandah stateroom
Inside a typical verandah stateroom
Inside a typical verandah stateroom
Inside a typical verandah stateroom
Impressive double sink
Walk in closet
The master bedroom of a family Concierge inside stateroom
The living room of a family Concierge inside stateroom
In that room, the virtual balcony
The living room of a family Concierge inside stateroom
The living room of a family Concierge inside stateroom
The second bedroom of a family Concierge inside stateroom
An outside accessible stateroom
An outside accessible stateroom
An outside accessible stateroom
An outside accessible stateroom
An outside accessible stateroom
The last set is everything I took of the public areas. If you are a ship junkie like we are, you will enjoy them. We have never sailed on NCL but this ship and Bliss have made us want to try them out eventually. They are priced well but if you are going to sail NCL, you need to know up front that much of what they tell you is “free” actually comes with a charge. They are the cruise industry champions of add-on charges. With that said, they do a great job and our many clients who have sailed with them, have had a great time and many have gone back for more cruises.
The Kid’s Club
The main atrium
Wanted to show the lines to make reservations
This is inside around 11:00 am
An actual Starbucks onboard.
In the main atrium
Back on deck 18 (there are 20)
The view from up top
Even a Starbucks cart
And a pool
Lots of places to lounge
In the sun or the shade
Water slides
Water slides
Water slides
The Speedway (only on Joy and Bliss)
The Speedway
More Speedway
It’s pretty cool. Electric cars on a two deck track
Upstairs on the Speedway
On the Speedway
On the Speedway
Looking down from above
The waiting area for The Speedway
Check in ahead
Above the Speedway, the miniature golf course
Above the Speedway, the miniature golf course
American Diner
American Diner
Car-themed restaurant next to The Speedway
An adults only area at the rear of the ship
Inside Spice H2O
Adults only area bar
Lounge area in Spice H2O
Giant hot tub in Spice H2O
NCL Joy’s gym
NCL Joy’s gym
NCL Joy’s gym
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
Inside the Galaxy Pavilion arcade
This F-1 type racer can be used on The Speedway
Back on the pool deck later, when it is much fuller
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
Wine machine
Great seating
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
Sometimes feels like a mall food court
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
In the buffet—lots of room and great food choices
One of the many alternative restaurants on Joy
Inside Food Republic
There are outside areas to dine in for many of the Joy alternative restaurants.
Inside the wine bar
More wine bar
Inside another specialty restaurant
More of the same place
Inside the main theater. I was surprised how small it was and that there was only one level.
Inside the atrium from the second level up
Another shot of the main chandler
The casino
More casino
Looking down into the atrium
The chandelier from the other side
The Skyline Bar
Inside the Manhattan Dining Room
Joy has three main dining rooms and this is the largest
It is twice the size of the other two, Savor and Taste one deck down.
Went back to the reservation area about 1:30 and it was packed.
In the Japanese specialty restaurant
Very reminiscent of Benihana.
Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it. —Chuck Palahniuk
We found Joy!
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 29, 2019 | Uncategorized
This is a little belated but I had to get all the posts from our European trip out before I could cover this. Last Thursday (June 20) we were lucky enough to be able to go north to Vancouver, BC to tour Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth. We have never sailed on a Cunard ship and this would be our first chance to go aboard what I consider to be the last outpost of traditional cruising (which I miss). We expected a very beautiful and classy ship and that is exactly what we got (check out my photos to see what I am talking about).
Our journey started on Wednesday when we headed north to Chilliwack to see our best buddies, Bob and Judy. If we are going to B.C., we go to the Wack first. We hadn’t seen Bob and Judy since before our European trip so we had a lot to talk about. Plus, they had found an outstanding new restaurant we wanted to try out. After a great time and a super breakfast, we were off to Surrey, where, to avoid the traffic, we parked our car and jumped on a very crowded Skytrain into Downtown Vancouver.
We arrived before 10:00 (when we needed to board) and the balance of the travel agents who were touring with the Cunard BDM (Business Development Manager) did too. Many of them had come up on a bus from Seattle early that morning. We had the option to do that as well but we would rather have seen Bob and Judy.
When we do ship visitations we usually have to go through the same security that we do when boarding a ship for a cruise. Pretty much what you have to go through to get on an airplane and clear the TSA. Once we were onboard we split into two groups and one went with the BDM and the other (ours) were escorted by the ship’s Future Cruise Salesperson who was a very nice German woman.
Some overall observations.
The Queen Elizabeth is one of three Cunard Ships. She was built in 2010 and her capacity is 2077 with two people in every stateroom and completely full, 2503. I am still not sure where they put them as the ship just does not look that big, either inside or out.
Unlike any other ship visitation we have ever done, we were not allowed to see a single stateroom. No suites, no verandahs, no outsides, no insides. That is just wrong. That’s a huge part of why we want to go onboard—to check out all aspects of the ship to advise clients. Sadly, Cunard chose not to let us see any of the staterooms.
The ship is gorgeous and VERY classically decorated in an Art Deco style. The wood everywhere is gorgeous. Lots of places to sit, relax and enjoy your friends and family. The classic beauty carries on in the crews’ uniforms, the chandeliers, the sconces and so much more. Everything is truly beautiful.
Not only is the ship a classic beauty but it is a much more traditional kind of cruising. Kind of like cruising in the past. There are still real formal nights (you don’t HAVE to dress up except in the dining rooms and the entertainment venues on those nights), a gorgeous ballroom with a full dance band, individual boxes in the theater that you can rent for $50 per show (comes with Champagne and snacks) and just an all around class those who like that kind of cruising will appreciate. They even still have dance hosts on board. If you aren’t familiar with dance hosts, those are single men who are employed by the cruise line to ballroom dance with the single ladies on board. They used to be rather common on many cruise lines (we had a dance host at our table on Celebrity Galaxy in 2005) but most other lines have discontinued them.
I should also add that they do have kind of a class system on board even though they don’t call it that. There are regular guests and then those in the Princess Grille and if you really spend some money, the Queen’s Grille. You eat in a better restaurant, have a different area to relax in and a few other perks.
The one thing we were a little surprised with was lunch. Having just come off Celebrity’s Reflection less than a week before, the lunch we were served was not in the same caliber as any meal we had eaten aboard Reflection. Yes, it was in the dining room and yes, it was fancy and the service as impeccable but the food was beyond bland. It was edible but totally boring. I expected better.
I am going to let you look at the pics to see more and if you have questions, please ask them in the comments and I promise to get back to you.
Summing up
If you love traditional, classical cruising then Cunard is for you! We would sail on the Queen Elizabeth or either of her two sister ships as we like that kind of cruising.
We first see the ship moored at Canada Place. She just does not look big enough to be a 2000 passenger ship from the outside.
Time to board
They are truly proud of their name as well they should be. They are an historic cruise line.
When we first entered we were in this incredible atrium
From a different angle
The upstairs section of the library
This spiral staircase connects the two floors of the library
The card room
A number of jigsaw puzzles were in different stages of completion.
The elevator doors are beautiful
This should give you an idea of what’s on what floor.
Looking down into the center atrium
More of the interior
Love the Art Deco carpeting
The Grille’s Lounge
The Queen’s Grille
Outside the Kid’s Club. Yes, there are kids on this ship but NOT very many. This is NOT a kid’s ship.
The Garden Lounge
The Lido Restaurant (the buffet)
Outside the Lido Restaurant aft
Looking back at the ship and Vancouver from the far aft
This pool is open to all, including kids.
Inside the gym. Not very large for a ship of 2,000
Still well equipped.
Inside the Yacht Club, a nightclub type facility.
In the Commodore Club, the front facing lounge on the top of the ship.
History of their line is everywhere.
Another interior shot
Inside the theater, taken from a private booth
From the bottom of the atrium
A British Pub onboard
The ballroom dance floor and bandstand
These booths are above the ballroom where you can relax and watch your friends dance.
Our table, set for lunch!
This is the incredible entrance to the mainlining room.
You’re dressed in a tuxedo, you wear a bow tie. A bow tie with a tuxedo is more formal than a straight tie with a tuxedo. —Bill Nye
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 25, 2019 | Uncategorized
This is it. The last post of our more than three week 2019 trip to Europe. Yesterday I told you about our short and sweet visit to Cork and Cobh and the next morning found us sitting at the dock in Dublin. But unlike previous cruises, we did not have to get off the ship. Celebrity, in their great wisdom, had decided us to give us an overnight stay in Dublin before we had to disembark. So we arrived on Thursday the 13th at 7:00 am and didn’t have to leave the ship until 9:00 am on Friday the 14th.
This left us with an entire day to do something else in Dublin. This might have been really important to us if we had not just spent three full days in Dublin before the cruise but that all worked out since we were going to the Guinness Storehouse to celebrate Bob and Holly’s anniversary by taking part in the Guinness Connoisseur Tasting Experience.
If we hadn’t already known quite a lot about beer, this would have been a super learning activity but we had pretty much been schooled in beer by Kathleen’s daughter Michelle and her husband Brian who are level one cicerones (the beer equivalent of a sommelier). Since we pretty much had the beer facts down pat, it was a very fun way to spend two hours with friends and family and drink a sample of every beer that Guinness makes (six to be exact) plus learn to draw the perfect pint of Guinness (as we had learned about Beamish the day before in Cork). By the way, one thing we learned was that the Guinness Storehouse has been named one of the top tourist destinations in Europe. It’s a really slick presentation and very well done. If you are in Dublin, it’s worth the time and cost.
Once you have looked at the pics below, our trip is done. We have been home for more than a week now and if you missed the story of our flights coming home, you can read about that by clicking here. We hope you have enjoyed traveling with us and I plan on returning to posting about travel in general for the rest of June and most of July…right up until we cruise again, to Alaska on July 26th on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas with our kids and grandkids. Can’t wait.
In the meantime, since it’s summer, we are doing ship visitations and those deserve some posts as well. Last Thursday we went to Vancouver to tour Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, so you can watch for that one coming soon. This Saturday we are touring Norwegian Cruise Line’s Joy and I will get some info and photos from that one. Later in the month we will be on our old friend Solstice as well as Ovation. Watch for these.
We get the welcoming talk at the Guinness Storehouse
The famous lease that lasts for 9,000 years at 45 GBPs signed in 1759
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
The story of beer
It’s the water
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Kathleen in the advertising section of Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Kathleen in the ad section of Inside the Guinness Storehouse
In the marketing section of Inside the Guinness Storehouse
Inside the Guinness Storehouse
The Guinness harp in its many incarnations
Waiting for the Connoisseur Experience
Our instructor for the Connoisseur Experience
Getting ready for beer tasting
Lots of beer tasting
Bob pulling is pint
Kathleen pulling her pint
On the top floor of the Storehouse is the Gravity Bar. It is a 360 degree view of Dublin but it was a really flat day, thus not a lot of pics.
My favorite food from my homeland is Guinness. My second choice in Guinness. My third choice – would have to be Guinness. —Peter O’Toole
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 23, 2019 | Uncategorized
When I was about five I had a great grandmother that we just called Grandma Kinney. She was my maternal grandmother’s mom and her claim to fame was being born in County Cork, Ireland. Three summers ago we visited Cork and did the usual stuff you do when you hit the port of Cobh. That would be going to Blarney Castle, the Blarney Woolen Mill, the epicurean village of Kinsale and a few minutes in downtown Cork. So this time we didn’t need to do that so we (us and our good friends Bob and Holly) wanted to head into Cork to the English Market. It’s a typical old-style English market and bills itself as the oldest English Market in the world—and it’s not even in England.
We got off the ship, got Steve, Jamie and family off on a tour van to Blarney and grabbed a cab (took a little while) and headed into Cork. Our cab driver dropped us off at the back door to the market, just down an alleyway to the market, past a really cool mural dedicated to everyone in the world…except George Bush (really—see the photos).
We wandered through the market (which was very nice and really cool) but much smaller than we expected. So when we were done we had only been in Cork for about 45 minutes (which was kind of ridiculous for a 25 euro cab ride) so we thought we should find something else to see. On the way in from Cobh (where the ship docked), our cab driver had recommended that we see Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, the biggest church in Cork. It was pretty impressive (see the photos).
After we had seen the church, we all needed to use a rest room and Kathleen mentioned that in the last block she had seen Fordes pub and thought we could kill two birds with one stone, use their restroom and get a pint. It turned out to be a GREAT idea. Not only did they have really clean restrooms, they also had a super barman who told us the history of the bar (been in the same family for generations) and offered to teach us how to pull the perfect pint of Beamish. For the uninitiated, in the north of the republic of Ireland, Guinness is king but in Southern Ireland, Beamish is king. So now Bob and I both have certificates that we are certified to pull the perfect pint of Beamish (did you know that a Beamish must sit for a 117.5 seconds after the first pull to let the nitrogen bubbles settle?. Well I do.)
After a nice break and a pint, we took a taxi back to the ship and took a break while the others toured all over southern Ireland. The whole journey comes to an end in Dublin which I will show you a little more of tomorrow.
And monkfish
Just another pilot boat
They got olives
The cathedral of Saint Fin Barre
Quite the façade
Holly, Kathleen and Bob check ou the mural
Fordes Pub. We will come back to this later.
Along the River Lee
The sign on the back entrance
The mural on the alley entrance to the British Market in Cork
And figurines on the front of the pulpit
230 years. Can you believe it has been here for 230 years
Ad lots of other fish
Sailing into Cork, I saw another example of alternative energy in Ireland
Angel on the front…
Along with some saints.
On a fountain.
Heron alert.
The cathedral in Cobh
And an excellent altar
A magnificent ceiling
Mosaics in front of the altar
More great stained glass
Another outside shot
More doors
And more great stained glass
Along the River Lee
With a gargoyle or two
These guys were NOT amused
Then let it sit like this for 117.5 seconds
Then fill it all the way up.
The inside was beautiful and very well preserved.
WIth beautiful stained glass
The graveyard behind the church
Two fun people in front of the cathedral
Looking forward inside
Bob pours his Beamish
Here, in Cork district, you have in combination all the dangers which war can inflict. ——Eamon de Valera
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 22, 2019 | Uncategorized
I was glad we had come back a little early from our first day tour so I could be up at what would be dawn at home (5:30 am) to see old town Akureyri and I got lucky and had a great walk. I didn’t get rained on but the by the time I got back it had really started coming down. I will leave it at that and you can see what I saw in my photos. Later on, some of the group went into town but Kathleen was wiped out so we stayed on board and the whole gang was back for a late lunch at The Porch (a Reflection alternative seafood restaurant) and it was wonderful. A great lunch. Some super fresh seafood and some of the best sangria I have ever had. Drank way too much of it. We sailed out late in the day and it was a beautiful sail out up the fjord. This was followed by two sea days before we would dock in Cobh, Ireland. More about that coming on Sunday.
But it has cool doors
Reflection in Akureyri
Straight on at Reflection
A very cool sculpture that would have looked better in sunshine
Found this great statue in old town Akureyri
The harbor in Akureyri
Another boat on the shore in old town Akureyri
Old town Akureyri at 5:30 am
This is the oldest house in Akureyri. It dates to the late 1700s
We couldn’t believe these people were going whale watching like this. It was freezing!
Akureyri has a big church as well but not as big as Reykjavik
And this one
And a red and white boat
Here’s the 10:45 from Reykjavik
Our crazy gang having lunch at The Porch
And this family of swans
I got off the ship to mail some postcards and found these trolls
This ship is a Ponant Cruise ship. They are a French cruise line that sails small (100-200 people) cruise ships.
The Akureyri Airport was right off our verandah
When I prepare, I am not messing around. I find the right places, the right people, and the right environment. Iceland is one of those places. —Conor McGregor
