Great shore excursions but some negatives from the on-ship experience

Norwegian Bliss Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 45

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Bliss

7 Night Alaska Highlights (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 11, 2018

Ship: Norwegian Bliss

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 13718

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Everything (I mean everything from specialty restaurants to on-board activities like laser tag, go kart etc) are fully booked on Day-1. you need to book restaurants and shows at least 2 months in advance, and get on the ship early and book on-board activities. The ship has simply too many passengers and the "free-style" set up only works for people are planners. If you don't plan ahead, you will be frustrated and disappointed that everything is booked up. Sliding doors require a push of a button which I think is dumb design. They should just have motion sensors. Imagine your hands are full with food and drinks and you need to open the sliding door to get to the pool area.... Gym is rather small (compared to Royal Carribbean). But I think the target customers for NCL are not the gym type, so that might be okay. Water slides are fun, but for some reason, they are not open during the day where we are at-sea.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5
The Havana show is only so-so. Dumb story line. Jersey Boys was excellent, but lots of foul language that might not be suitable for young kids. The Comedy shows were kinda lame. Not very funny.

Children's Programs

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

5 out of 5

Ketchikan, Alaska

5 out of 5

Juneau, Alaska

5 out of 5

Skagway, Alaska

5 out of 5

Victoria, British Columbia

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 45

5 Comments

actionbronson    6 years ago

I agree ‘! We went 8/18 right after you. Same experiences.

sparkie1957    6 years ago

I am a “planner”. I feel that if you are taking a vacation, things should be reserved ahead. I am not comfortable flying by the seat of my pants, hoping to get into specialty restaurants, etc, especially when traveling with children. We made all of our dinner reservations and planned our excursions the day reservations opened up for these events. As for too many people, it’s a large ship, meant for lots of people. You may enjoy a smaller ship next time.

Autobot    6 years ago

But 4 stars 😎

msuzed    6 years ago

Thanks for observations

IkeDeb    6 years ago

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