We were so excited to board the Norwegian Viva!
This is one of NCL's newest ships, and we loved how they were taking a different approach to this ship. Even though it's a really large ship, they aren't putting as many people on it. Instead, they're giving more open space and gathering places around the ship. They made lots of room for fun activities too. It never felt overcrowded, the whole ship was incredibly clean, and service was top notch. There was beauty all around, and we were ready for it!
We decided to go a little extra on this trip, so we booked a two bedroom suite in The Haven area; we were in Room 15316. There are many perks to staying in this area. I've heard it described as being "a ship within a ship," and I'd say that's pretty spot-on. It was keycard access only. Once inside The Haven area, you could enjoy it's own lounge, bar, restaurant, and two decks of pool area. One had a beautiful infinity pool with lots of lounge chairs while the other had a couple of hot tubs, lounge chairs, and cabanas. There were two concierges available to help with anything we needed. Other perks included priority boarding on tenders, separate boarding at ports, and priority seating at the shows. It was 110% worth the cost of the upgrade, and we've decided it will be difficult to sail any other way now.
Our suite was absolutely lovely. The two bedrooms were spacious with good size closets and underbed storage. Both bedrooms had tvs with tons of streaming and live channels which nice. Both bathrooms had a good size shower, double sink, and a separate toilet area. Having this extra space throughout this trip was super helpful and made us more comfortable.
We had a pretty living room to share with a sofa, a really big tv, table, and two chairs. It was a nice place to relax. The living and Ryan and mine's bedroom opened up to a very large balcony, and we spent a lot of time out there. The cushioned chairs made a wonderful reading spot!
We enjoyed a few meals and snacks out on the balcony throughout the trip!
Our room steward, Julito, was incredibly friendly and attentive. He would have a fresh bucket of ice in the room each evening so we could make an icepack for Lily's knee as she was dealing with an inflamed tendon throughout the trip. He also made sure we had fresh little snacks in our room each afternoon. It was fun to come back from an excursion to these!
Our favorite snack were the chocolate chip cookies. He brought these in around day 4 or 5 and realized how much we liked them. He then had a fresh batch for us each day which we loved!
We always enjoy seeing the big shows on a cruise ship. NCL has Broadway shows on their ships we absolutely love. We were all thrilled when we saw that Beetlejuice was the show on the Viva. They had four performances, and we were able to go to two of them. Both times we used The Haven's priority seating. We'd gather at the concierge desk about 45 minutes before showtime, and walk down together. Then, they'd let this group go in first; they had the first three rows in the center blocked off which allowed us to have front row dead center both times which was amazing! After we were all seated, they'd open the theater to let others in. They'd leave one section on the side about halfway up blocked off in case other Haven guests came in closer to showtime. Then, about 5 minutes before the show started, they'd open up those seats to anyone.
The shows were absolutely fantastic! The whole cast did an amazing job in this incredibly fun show.
For other shows, we found that we liked sitting on the second level on the side. They had very comfortable seating which gave great views while also allowing us to sneak out if we needed to (which we never did).
There were two shows featuring magician Greg Gleason. These were so cool! He did all sorts of fun slight of hand tricks, and he had great audience participation. My favorite part of the show was when he "painted" with cards. He'd shuffle them up and then run the deck down the desk as if he were painting it. Four cards would come out, and he'd do that three times. He'd then flip the cards over, and it would be a modern-looking picture of something like the Statue of Liberty or Marilyn Monroe. In addition to the two shows, he also led a seminar on how to improve your memory. It was actually really insightful, and Ryan is already figuring out ways to incorporate it into his classes at school to help students.
Ryan and I went to a show called "Icons" one evening while the girls stayed in and watched a movie. It was a six person group and a band who played some of the biggest hits of different musical icons. You had everyone from Dolly Parton to Celine Dion to Elton John in there. We thought they did a great job with this show.
Ryan and I both used to love the game show Press Your Luck, so we were looking forward to the live version in the theater. They wouldn't allow pictures during the show, but it was exactly like what you saw on tv. Three contestants had been chosen from auditions earlier in the week, and they competed to win some fun prizes all while trying to avoid the whammy. In between rounds, they'd run through the audience to pick a few people to come play a min-version for small prizes. The onstage host did a wonderful job, and we loved seeing that the sidekick who ran the audience version was the actor who played the dad in Beetlejuice. This evening was a lot of fun with a ton of laughs.
The Viva has a pretty fabulous arcade onboard. The girls always have fun racing in Mario Kart. They played this a few times. They had other fun games available as well as several really cool looking VR activities. We actually never made it down for any of the VR; maybe next time.
They have two escape rooms by the arcade. We were excited to try one out. Sadly, we totally didn't make it out in time to escape. Part of this may have been because Mia was accidently "trapped" inside an elevator and couldn't be of much help (it totally should have been me instead of her; she's way better at these then I am); it also didn't help that our clue-giver was of absolutely no help. For example, we couldn't figure out a four digit combination lock, and her clue was "it includes a 4 and a 5." Oh well. Fun memories made nonetheless!
The Viva has a three story racetrack on it, so you know Mia and I had to try that one out, and I'm so glad we did. It was amazing!
Spectators could join in the fun by trying to shoot lasers at the carts as they raced by; they would get points in their own competition. I think Lily enjoyed getting to shoot at us.
They had a great game space on the sides of one of the decks, so you had good views and a nice break while you played. Ryan and I enjoyed beer pong (with no beer) and hand shuffleboard.
The girls played a little bit of pickleball before Ryan and I joined in for awhile. Mia and I came out as victors in that game!
This was a really interesting ping pong getup. It was circular so the ball could hit and go any which way it wanted. It was not easy to play this! It did lead to a lot of laughter though.
We were really thrilled to learn that they have a putt putt course similar to Puttshack. These are very creative holes, and each person's ball has some kind of electronic devise in it to keep up with their score. We ended up playing this twice on the trip. The first time was in the afternoon, and Lily and I ended up tying for first. The second time was at night. It was crazy windy which added a whole other factor. On top of that, Lily's ball had some kind of a glitch in it. It said she got a hole in one on every hole (and she most definitely did not get a hole in one on every hole)! Some may say she won but others of us know the truth.
There's lot of outdoor space to simply walk around the boat, take in some quiet, enjoy the outdoors, or admire the views. They even have a little walk through art installation garden. There is one area where it goes out over the side of the ship a little, there's a glass floor to see straight down to the water, and you're about 8 floors up. A little trippy to walk over!
I loved this one walkway inside of the ship. There's this really long board that looks like a bunch of butterflies sitting side by side. As you move your hand over it though, the butterflies follow the path you make. It was kinda difficult to walk past and not touch it.
One evening just before Beetlejuice started, the captain came over the intercom to say that in a couple of hours, we would be passing by Stromboli Island which had an active volcano on it. Obviously we couldn't get too close, but we headed out to The Haven deck after the show to watch. Sure enough, you could see it in the distance with spots of red jumping up out of it. When you looked through the ondeck binoculars, you could see it really well. Ryan set his phone up to the binoculars and was able to snap this picture. It didn't capture the volcano shooting up like we could see sometimes, but it's still a really neat picture. Seeing an active volcano was not something I thought I'd ever be able to say I saw!
One of the many things I love about a cruise is all the fun food. Viva has more dining options than many ships. We ate many meals in The Haven's private restaurant. Not only was it absolutely delicious, but it was quieter and peaceful. We enjoyed lunch here as soon as we boarded. Then I'm pretty sure we had breakfast here almost every morning. We had several dinners here too. Here's Mia in a window seat one evening when she and Lily ate here.
Of course the ship also has the regular dining room (it was absolutely beautiful!), and they also have about a dozen specialty restaurants, a buffet, and a food hall. The food hall was a favorite of ours because you would sit at a table and use an iPad to order little portions of whatever you wanted from the variety of restaurants. Our orders could include guacamole from the Mexican restaurant, salads from the healthy salad place, noodles from the noodle shop, garlic naan from the Mediterranean spot, bacon-wrapped dated from the tapas bar, or jalapeno cornbread from the Tex-Mex restaurant. Pretty sure we enjoyed all the items we tried. I usually am not one to take many pictures of food, but there's something about this food that makes it where you want to! Here are some of our favorites.
Ryan and I enjoyed a date night at Le Bistro French restaurant one evening. It was delicious! Appetizers included onion soup and goat cheese and beet salad. Ryan loved his lamb prepared two ways, and I thought my Dover sole was wonderful. Of course, dessert was quite yummy too.
Other fun desserts during the trip.
This last one was from The Haven, and it was one of the more unique ones we ate (and loved!). It was a blueberry-violet yogurt mousse. This is a red velvet cake in yogurt with a blueberry sauce, crystallized blueberries, and violets on top. It was so good!
Ryan and the girls absolutely loved The Haven's pancetta wrapped lamb ribeye and with good reason. It was fabulous. My favorite meal was their surf and turf. It included two lobster tails with butter, a filet mignon with hollandaise, a baked potato, and asparagus. I shared the lobster with the girls who realized they actually really liked it (yeah because it's delicious). This was a wonderful meal all around.
Lily took this picture of us one evening on the deck, and I loved it.
We saw a rainbow one evening, and it was beautiful!
We saw several gorgeous sunsets too; this one was my favorite.
I can't recommend this boat enough to others. It made this vacation absolutely exceptional. We loved it!