April 2023: Our Fun Norwegian Joy Caribbean Cruise

We have taken several trips cruising the Caribbean, and each time we find something new to do and see. Here’s our Norwegian Joy Caribbean cruise recap for April 2023.

Back on Norwegian Joy again only two months after our bucket-list Panama Canal cruise, we felt like we were coming home. The Joy is a beautiful ship and very familiar to us, this being our fourth cruise on her, so it made settling in quite easy on embarkation day.

On this twelve-day cruise from Miami to Miami, the itinerary called for stops in George Town, Grand Cayman; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; Colon, Panama; Cartagena, Colombia; Oranjestad, Aruba; Willemstad, Curacao; and Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas.

Getting to the Port of Miami

Normally, I don’t go into the details of traveling to or from the port, but this trip was different.

Two days before the cruise, we had flown from Spokane to Seattle, with a connection to Fort Lauderdale. Unbeknownst to us, South Florida had received rains of biblical proportions, with Fort Lauderdale getting nearly 26 inches of rain in 24 hours. The airport at FLL was flooded and closed to all traffic for at least 24 hours.

Here’s the screenshot I sent to my sister, explaining why we were stuck in Seattle.

We were able to snag seats on a flight to Atlanta, which would arrive that evening, and we would have to spend the night. The next morning, we would catch a flight to Miami, getting us there twenty-four hours before our cruise left port.

This type of situation is exactly why I always recommend that cruisers arrive at their port at least a day early, preferably two.

We were flying cross country and losing hours, so there was no way we could fly to our port the same day of the cruise. We could, however, have flown in one day early, and had we done that, we would have been stressed to the max. Thank goodness we traveled two days early, giving us a cushion of time so we wouldn’t be so stressed.

The Cabin

We like to stay in The Haven on Norwegian and have already enjoyed a Courtyard Penthouse and a Two-Bedroom Family Villa. This time we decided to try the Forward Facing Penthouse instead, and found a new favorite!

Our cabin was approximately 416 square feet consisting of a living/dining room, separate bedroom, and a large bathroom that we loved. The balcony is a little small in this cabin, only large enough for two chairs and a small table, but it turned out to be fine for us.

And the storage, oh my! There were many storage compartments and drawers that we never used, and I don’t pack light. The downside to that is you forget where you stashed things, and I ended up leaving a few pieces of clothing in a drawer. Lesson learned.

The Excursions

We usually choose excursions from the ship’s offerings to have peace of mind if the excursion runs late. It relieves your stress when that happens, knowing the ship will wait for you. It would be horrible to be left behind, late on a third-party excursion.

George Town, Grand Cayman

For George Town, we chose to do the Discover Cayman excursion, only two and a half hours. Now that we’ve been on many excursions, we’ve learned that “Discover” in a cruise excursion name means “bus tour,” which was fine by us.

This excursion made three stops: in Hell, a small area with its own post office that features a forbidding patch of land with black stone formations, the sight of which gave the area its odd name.

The next stop was at the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory, where we tasted rum and the cakes that were made from it. Delicious!

The last stop was at the Turtle Farm, where we saw huge green sea turtles and how they are raised to replenish the sea.

Cartagena, Colombia

In Cartagena, we chose a foodie tour, Aromas and Flavors. We boarded a boat that took us to Old Town, where we went on a guided tour before having free time.

As always, I love taking photos of the gorgeous buildings. In Cartagena, though, the door knockers on the buildings are fascinating. They’re ornate and varied, representing the wealth and the type of business the family was in.

During our free time, we scoped out a stationary vendor on a street corner with his hats displayed to buy hats from. We ended up with three and paid way too much for them, but we liked them and they were a little different from the ones the walking vendors have for sale.

For the record, you can get hats for $5 each from the wandering vendors, and they’re made of coconut fiber and are foldable.

On the boat, we enjoyed the views of Cartagena from the water, along with numerous Cuba Libres and Colombian finger foods such as arepas and empanadas. We were soaking wet from the oppressive heat, but we had a good time.

Back at the port, we spent time in our favorite aviary, and this time we both got to hold and pet a blue macaw, which was quite a treat for us.

Willemstad, Curacao

The original tour we’d booked, Let’s Take a Selfie, was canceled due to a Saint’s Day parade in Willemstad that afternoon, so we replaced it with another tour, Taste of Curacao.

We had a walking tour of Willemstad, where we saw fascinating Dutch Colonial architecture and amazing murals and street art. Then we were bussed to the Curacao distillery and ended with a wonderful lunch at The Green House at Mambo Beach.

Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

We’d never been to Great Stirrup Cay before and weren’t quite sure what to expect. The tendering process took a little longer than we were used to, but it all turned out well.

It was quite nice. The beach was lovely with a slight breeze, and we noticed many amenities: a buffet, several bars, a taco stand, equipment rentals, and more.

Deciding to just enjoy a beach day, we scoped out a couple of chairs that were unfortunately in full sun and parked there until we could move to a shady spot.

It was wonderful. We drank cocktails and chatted with the couple next to us, then had a nice lunch from the buffet, which included burgers, hot dogs, chicken, and ribs.

What a great way to round out a Caribbean cruise!

The Ports We Skipped

Once you’ve sailed the Caribbean frequently, you begin to pick and choose the stops you decide to get off on and those you choose to remain on the ship. There were no excursions that excited us for Puerto Limon or Colon, which we hadn’t visited before, so we stayed onboard. The only excursion that interested us for Colon was visiting the Embera Tribe, something that we’d already done.

We’d seen most of Aruba already, so we skipped going ashore for that port as well, in favor of taking a Behind the Scenes Tour on the ship.

Sea Days

Ah, sea days. We love those. Sleeping as late as you want, skipping breakfast and showing up for a leisurely lunch, followed by lazy activities on the ship while cruising the Caribbean.

On the Joy is a Formula 1 race-car simulator, which my husband loves. He spent a lot of time during sea days in the Galaxy Pavilion where it’s located.

The casino is another place where we spend a lot of our time, especially on sea days, which isn’t smart but is fun. They installed two new machines during our cruise, and I got the first jackpot on one of them. Then they proceeded to take a lot of my money.

We had upgraded to the Free at Sea Plus package for this cruise, which allows us any liquor onboard for free, which can get you into a bit of trouble. On one sea day, we went to Maltings, the whiskey bar, and asked the bartender to set us up with a private top-shelf Macallan tasting. Myron isn’t much of a scotch drinker, so he didn’t enjoy this as much as I did. For the record, my favorite of the three was the Terra, the mid-range selection.

The Food

As always, we enjoyed The Haven restaurant, but we also branched out to the specialty restaurants on the Joy. We dined at Teppanyaki, our first-night ritual dining choice, as well as American Diner, Q Texas Smokehouse, La Cucina, Cagney’s, and a new one for us, Food Republic.

Getting Home from Our Cruise

Again, this cruise turned out to be different travel-wise.

The day our cruise ended, we lined up with everyone else to disembark the ship and go through Customs, expecting it to take about 20 minutes. What we didn’t know is that Customs had decided to forgo facial recognition and to inspect each passport personally, which turned a 20-minute wait into two hours.

Everyone in line was stressed out, not knowing at the time when the end would come, and we were hot and tired of standing on our feet for so long without moving. Tensions ran high, and some people were berating the port authority employees nearby.

Those who had morning or noon flights were especially stressed out – and with good reason. Some were flying out of Fort Lauderdale, now that the airport had reopened, which is a good 30 minutes from Miami. They were at serious risk of missing their flights.

It’s never a good idea to schedule your flights home before noon or 1:00 p.m. Delays can happen, which will stress you out and possibly make you miss your flight.

Luckily for us, I’d followed my own advice and scheduled our flights home for the afternoon, 5:10 p.m. to be exact. We weren’t stressed at all, just annoyed, and a little worried about the driver who was outside waiting for us in the parking lot. He was a champ, though, and we kept him updated.

All ended well.

Where We Are Going Next

Want to keep up with our cruise schedule? Here is a current list of where we have been and where we are going next.

Final Thoughts on Our Norwegian Joy Caribbean Cruise

As always, we had a wonderful time on Norwegian Joy, and cruising the Caribbean on her was a delight. The cabin was fabulous, the excursions were great, and the food…well, the food was the star.

If you’re thinking of booking a Norwegian Joy Caribbean cruise, don’t wait. Book it! You’ll have a ball.

Happy cruising!