Wesley1707 Cruise Review on Norwegian Bliss on Aug 11, 2018

Norwegian Bliss Cruise Review

Wesley1707

Contributor Level: Second Mate

53 Days Till Next Cruise

Reviews: 4

Helpful Votes: 107

Overall rating:

5 out of 5

Sail date: August 11, 2018

Ship: Norwegian Bliss

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Food/Dining: As expected with all NCL ships, the food and dining options were fantastic. With the addition of Los Lobos at the expense of Moderno Churascaria was quite nice to see, as it shows variety between different ships in the line. The introduction of the Q Smokehouse was great to see and we very much looked forward to eating there, although we thought the menu may need some little tweaks but the service was fantastic and very authentic to the theme. As usual Cagney’s, le Bistro and La Cucina etc. were up-to their usual standard with fabulous service and incredible food. As well as the complimentary dining options being as per usual, fantastic. Although I would like to see NCL work on changing up their restaurants more to different speciality restaurants more, perhaps an Indian specialty? Rooms: I got to experience both being in a Balcony suite and a Studio. With the suite there was certainly a noticeable increase in spaciousness. If this isn’t a huge concern to you, however, go for a regular balcony as the difference isn’t huge and the balcony is the same size. Staff: This was actually one of the best cruises in terms of our experiences with the staff. My room steward was probably thee best I have ever had; friendly, talkative and great at his job. Those in the poolside bars were brilliant and got to know you on a personal level which is always nice. A special shoutout to those at the CruiseNext Desk who were so friendly during the week and helpful in planning our future cruise destinations. Onboard Activities: The onboard activities were certainly different from usual ships I travel on. As of course most of them took place inside due to this being an Alaskan cruise (though the weather didn’t really bother us as we are Scottish). This caused a lot of congestion in and around the onboard activities especially in the atrium. I would have liked to have seen more outdoor activities in areas such as spice H20, instead of the very squashed Social Club. I was personally disappointed by there being no 18-25 meet ups as there usually is. We did however love the go karts, and thought it was well worth the charge. Ship Quality and Layout: With most of the NCL ships nowadays they all follow the same rough layout as the breakaway/getaway but of course each new ship has its on little differences. A big one we noticed was entourage and the arcade was moved from deck 17 to 5, which would have been a relief to many older passengers. Although the upper decks at the aft of the ship seems very confusing and compact due to the inclusion of the laser tag and gokarts which made it more difficult to move around in this area. The observation lounge (which we were very much looking forward to) came as a disappointment to us. As often the seats/couches were hogged by many fellow passengers, some who took a three person couch (sofa) to themselves in order to stretch their legs and go for a nap, many people we seen also took their shoes off on the ‘public seating areas’ which we found quite disgusting. Also many brought a large amount of food down from the cafe and made quite a mess of the lounge, in my opinion. The pool deck was actually very popular for us, as the weather did not bother us we had most of the deck (and the bar) to ourselves, and we made sure to take advantage of this. Also the atrium specifically was no where near big enough as many people gathered here because of the colder weather, and maybe they should have looked at expanding the size of the atrium in the bliss. As usual the cleanliness was of the highest standard onboard and the crew do an excellent job of upholding this. Embarkation/Disembarkation: I have cruised out of Miami, Tampa, Venice, Palma, New York and Honolulu before but none of these ports have came close to matching the quickness of the embarkation process of Seattle. We flew through the terminal and were on the ship in an instant. The same can’t be said for the disembarkation for us, although we understand we were at fault for our delays. We were schedule for priority disembarkation which began at 8am, but we seen no harm in exiting a few minutes before our time allocation. Big mistake, as we stupidly passed through customs without our baggage and were forced to wait outside in a large queue to get back into the terminal. The NCL staff member who was dealing with many aggressive passengers alone done a great job, but since he was working alone could only deal with one person at a time. This was an unfortunate end to a great cruise. Itinerary: Words can’t really describe Alaska so I’ll just reiterate what John Muir said in that once you go to Alaska “you’ll never be satisfied with any other place in the world for as long as you live.” Main Pros: Scenery, empty pool deck and the crew. Main Cons: busy lower decks (resulting in slow elevators), lack of activities for young adults (especially the 18-21 age range) and no space in the observation lounge.

6 Comments

Mickers 6 years ago

Excellent review thanks for sharing!

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Lokie666 6 years ago

Love your honest and well written review, thanks.

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Wesley1707 6 years ago

Very true 1957cruiser!

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1957cruiser 6 years ago

Excellent review! Keep hearing time & tome again about rude, loitering slobs in the Observation lounge. But you can’t teach people manners!

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agilmore66 6 years ago

Thanks for the information.

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IkeDeb 6 years ago

Great, thanks for your review 😋

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