Norwegian Viva is the newest ship to the NCL family. Released in 2023 this is a reimagined take on cruising within their Prima Class ships. As someone who is a huge fan of the Edge Class Ships on Celebrity Cruise line, Viva’s modern design really resembled the sleekness of Celebrity. The modern design, mixed with fun add ons such as Go Karts and Mini Golf is a great new take on a new era of cruising.
While it was a beautiful design and one of my favorite aspects of cruising on Viva, there were some things that were disappointing. Let’s dive into my favorite things about Viva and some areas for improvement.
What I Loved
- Modern Design
I am a huge fan of the new design of cruise ships. With their modern interiors that make you feel like you are at a luxury resort. While the colorful world of Carnival and Royal Caribbean is fun and feels like vacation. I do love the elegance factor that Viva had by their muted yet modern design choice.
- Rooms
To add onto the modern design, I absolutely loved our room. The bathroom was huge, one of the larger showers I have had on a cruise ship and the room had plenty of storage with 3 closets. We had connecting balcony rooms which was nice when you are traveling with a group.
- Restaurant Options
Norwegian has always been known for their dining options. Particularly on Viva that had 12 restaurants onboard that included their complementary main dining room, The local Bar and Grill (complimentary), Buffet (complementary), food hall (complementary), and themed restaurants such as a steakhouse and Italian inspired dining. I also enjoyed that The Local Bar and Grill was open for breakfast and late night till 3am!
- Beetlejuice
I love onboard entertainment, especially when it is inspired by Broadway. On board Viva they performed their version of Beetlejuice the musical and I really enjoyed it. It rivaled the shows put on by Royal Caribbean like Mamma Mia and Grease.
What I Didn’t Love
- The Service
I didn’t love the service, especially in the dining room. We often had to wait awhile to be seen by a server, food was forgotten, drinks were late or never made it to our table. They also used tablets to collect our order and often slowed down the process or caused issues.
- Pool Areas
The main pool is incredibly small as well as the seating area around it. There are two additional infinity pools on a lower deck which were always incredibly packed and often had a lot of kids splashing around in them. A kid’s pool or adults on section would have been nice. Or the addition of hot tubs near the infinity pools rather than just by the main pool. You can pay to have access to the Vibe Beach Club however it was sold on our travel week. But even in the Vibe Beach Club there are only hot tubs available.
- Food Hall
Our meals in the specialty dining were great, and most nights enjoyed dinner in the main dining room. However, lunch in the food hall was incredibly disappointing. While you have about 5 different mini restaurants to choose from each restaurant only gives you a couple options. And nothing impressed us. We were really excited about the idea of a food hall on board a cruise ship since there are so fabulous on land but this left us disappointed.
