Recap: Part I & II
If you’re just joining us, this is the third and final part of our 17-day trip report covering our incredible Panama Canal cruise aboard Norwegian Joy.
- In Part I, we kicked off the adventure with our flights to Miami, a pre-cruise stay during Ultra Music Festival weekend, and the excitement of embarkation day. We settled into The Haven, explored the ship, and enjoyed two sea days before spending a brilliant day in Cartagena, Colombia.
- In Part II, we transited the legendary Panama Canal (a major bucket-list moment!), explored Panama City, cruised to Costa Rica, and enjoyed more sunshine and cocktails during our days at sea. We wrapped up with a DIY tour of Antigua, Guatemala, soaking up colonial charm and dramatic views.
Now, in this final instalment, we continue up the Pacific coast toward Mexico and California, stopping in Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, before disembarking in Los Angeles. Let’s dive into the final leg!
Day 12: At sea
The Horn That Wouldn’t Quit
We were fairly tired following our day in Antigua, so we retired to our cabin at 8 pm to watch some television. At around 9 pm, we heard the ship horn blowing for a solid two seconds. This continued every 2 minutes through the night and into the early hours of day 12. This is typical during heavy fog, which is exactly what we were experiencing. Nothing to worry about, but alarming when you weren’t expecting it, and annoying when you’re trying to sleep. The horn seemed to stop around 3 am, just in time for the seas to start swelling up to 4.5 meters. Now the wardrobe doors were opening and closing on their own – there would be no sleep for us.
Surviving the Swell
We decided to get up around 6.30 am, the ship was rolling with the sea swells, and the wind was some of the worst we have experienced at sea.
We headed to the gym. I managed about 5 minutes on the elliptical trainer, which was extra challenging because it was now rolling left and right, as well as forward and backward. I called it a day, and when Ben finished, we went for breakfast.
After breakfast in the Haven Restaurant, we sat in the Horizon Lounge for all of twenty minutes before Ben declared that he felt seasick – and he was turning a shade of green. Oh-oh. We went back to bed in the hope that we could nap the bad seas away. While nowhere quite as bad, we picked up a top tip from Ben & David‘s expedition cruise, where lying flat helped to quell the sickness.
It worked! We were up again for lunchtime, and things had settled down, and more importantly, the sun deck was open again for business. Ben wasted no time, he had some catching up to do.
Later that evening, we enjoyed a fantastic meal at Le Bistro, the onboard French restaurant. I took some photographs.
Rough seas on the Norwegian Joy
Escargot at Le Bistro
French Onion Soup at Le Bistro
Dessert at Le Bistro
Day 13: At sea
A full night of sleep later, and we were ready to go! The weather was looking great, the seas were much smoother. One thing we haven’t mentioned so far is that there were several clock changes on this trip where we would go 1 hour back. This meant that there was literally no chance of us lying in as every time we felt like we had adjusted, the goalposts shifted again. So, we were up just before 7 am again, took in some views and headed to breakfast at the Haven restaurant.
The day at sea pretty much followed the now-standard formula of breakfast, sun, lunch, sun, wash up, and dinner. We were super relieved that the sea had calmed down. The humidity felt like it was coming down, too, the heat was far from dry, but the rainforest climate was now behind us.
Casino at Sea dreams
In the evening, we decided to try our hand at the Casino. Over on YouTube, we follow the adventures of The Traveling Gamblers, who are always cruising and enjoy a slot machine. We proudly announced our intentions to Mr X (the Haven concierge), he high-fived us for luck, and we headed down. We figured out how to credit the Casino account from the room account with the help of the cash desk, and off we went. No more than 20 minutes later, we had lost half of our casino budget and decided that this wasn’t for us. The same occurred in Vegas a few years earlier, so it shouldn’t have been any surprise. Gone were our dreams of free cruises courtesy of the Casino at Sea program.
Haven restaurant’s outdoor space
An Espresso Martini from the Haven bar
Day 14: Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta turned out to be one of our favorite days. We absolutely adored the Malecon boardwalk. We took a taxi downtown and had a great day. Read more about the day here: Puerto Vallarta: Oceanfront art, balloon hats, and crocodile caution.
The stunning Puerto Vallarta coastline
Day 15: Cabo San Lucas
We didn’t go far, only around the harbour on foot, but this was still a memorable day and comes highly recommended. Read more here: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: arches, tenders & touts.
We decided to use up our last specialty dining credit at Food Republic. We spoke with the concierge who made arrangements for us at short notice. We had dined here on another ship, so we were familiar with the gimmick; iPads are used to order the food to the table. We got to work and the food soon started arriving. We really enjoyed this meal and would recommend the venue to others.
Cabo San Lucas
Day 16: At sea
Our last full day of cruising on the Norwegian Joy; tomorrow we will disembark the ship and head home.
We went to grab some breakfast, we ate inside owing to the temperatures, which had come down considerably overnight. From the 25c and zero wind in Cabo San Lucas, we were now 18c with gusts of cold wind. The sundeck was not open “due to inclement weather”, so we decided to chill in the Haven Courtyard. There was a loud whistling sound coming from the wind that only seemed to increase during the course of the day. We relaxed, read and hydrated until lunchtime.
After lunch, we decided that we ought to pack the room up (after a quick trip to the duty-free onboard shop). Most of the previously impossible amount of toiletries had now been used up. A lot of our laundry was already washed and folded – we had sent a few loads during the cruise to stay on top of it. Packing was fairly straightforward on this basis. We kept out what we would wear that evening and travel clothes for tomorrow, and some toiletries. Our cases needed to be outside of our cabin no later than 9 pm if we wanted to make use of the ship’s porters and collect our items again shoreside on disembarkation.
Once we were mostly packed, we decided to go to the Haven bar for a few drinks. It was pretty busy, we spoke with the crew about their next few weeks, which would see them on a 7-day Mexico Riviera Cruise, followed by 3 days without any passengers as they relocated to Seattle to begin their Alaska season. The team was excited about the 3-day break but knew that it was also going to be hard work (cleaning, training, etc). We made some final tips for the team who had worked so hard in looking after us, and went to dinner.
Ben was toying with dessert but couldn’t quite manage it in that moment. Our waitress, sensing some hesitation, made arrangements for it to be sent to our room, where we would later find two OMG Cheesecakes waiting for us. Bedtime came around quickly enough, our cases now collected, ready for disembarkation. The room was stripped bare. It was almost time to leave!
OMG Cheesecake, a previous effort.
A personalised cocktail from the Haven Bar.
Day 17: Los Angeles Cruise Terminal and the journey home
Our day started at 7 am, when we were told over the tannoy that the ship had been cleared for disembarkation and groups would be called. We expected to be called up around 10:30 am as we had scheduled an airport transfer with the cruise line and they had provided tags and timings, etc in the nights prior.
Knowing that there was no immediate rush, we ignored the initial calls and headed to breakfast. Room attendants were already whizzing around cleaning out rooms and getting them ready for the next round of guests. As a Haven guest, you get priority disembarkation, so we could have left earlier than our allotted time, but decided to stick with it. Our flight wasn’t until 3:45 pm.
Top tip: Once shore-side, pay a porter to carry your bags. They skip the main immigration line, and have 2 immigration officials working to get this separate queue down. Much quicker. We didn’t know this until afterwards.
Disembarkation was halted around 9.45 am due to congestion in the port, which was our first signal that something wasn’t quite right. At 10:40 am we were called, we took a shortcut with the concierge team and walked off the ship and into the LA Cruise Terminal. The queues were insane. In order to leave the terminal, we would need to go face-to-face with immigration, which in itself was not an issue. But there were almost 4,000 passengers and at most, 8 immigration officials. Ouch. We queued for 2 hrs before being allowed out. We saw one man pass out while waiting in line.
Now released from the terminal, we sought out the coach transfer. Another huge line, with no coaches in sight. We waited 15 minutes before we decided to get an Uber to the airport. We were done with queuing, but honestly, it was just the beginning of this trip home!
LAX
The taxi to LAX was an interesting ride. Our driver asked within the first 2 minutes what we thought of Trump. We were initially shocked, and played it safe with a “we [British] have enough of our own issues to worry about”. It turned out he was a Republican but had some real issues with the current administration.
LAX check-in was a breeze, but security was slow. Once through, we found the One World Lounge and started to relax. Our flight was on time (BA282), I managed maybe 40 minutes of sleep, but it was comfortable, albeit a little bumpy to begin with.
London Heathrow
We arrived in London 30 minutes ahead of schedule, and there was no gate ready for us. We were parked up somewhere away from the terminal and bused into T5. This is hugely frustrating when you just want to get off or have a sharp connecting flight, but we had several hours to wait.
Once in Heathrow proper, and back through security (another long queue that wouldn’t move), we headed to Wagamama for breakfast. They do a good Full English, better than the Gordon Ramsay place nearby. After that, we headed for the business class lounge, which was packed. We found some seats and passed the time.
Newcastle, at last
Our flight to Newcastle (BA1334) went by quickly, I think I fell asleep (we had been travelling for over 24 hours at this point). We arrived in Newcastle and went to baggage reclaim. The belt would run for a minute, drop 4 bags, and stop before being manually restarted. This went on for 40 minutes before our cases finally turned up. Newcastle International really needs to sort out the baggage reclaim situation!
Bags in hand, thinking of a hot bath and my bed, we headed out into the car park. Only, when we got there, the car wouldn’t start. It wouldn’t even open. The Starter (12V) battery on our BMW iX was completely flat, despite the main battery being at 60%. Eugh. We agreed that Ben should head home in a taxi while I called roadside assistance. A few hours later, I was finally on my way home. What a nightmare!
LAX to LHR, here we go!
Car no starty.
Summary
Total flights of stairs climbed: 403! We stayed the course and avoided the public elevators.
Despite the chaotic finale — from cruise terminal queues to car park letdowns — this trip was everything we’d hoped for and more. Sailing through the Panama Canal, enjoying the luxuries of The Haven, and exploring some truly unforgettable destinations made for a bucket-list experience that we’ll be talking about for years. Would we do it again? In a heartbeat.
