Norwegain Bliss should be amiss...

Norwegian Bliss Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

the1critic

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 41

Overall rating:

2.8 out of 5

7 Night Alaska Highlights (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 18, 2018

Ship: Norwegian Bliss

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

First, the review is solely my own experiences and majority of those that went with us on the Norwegian Bliss cruise ship (about 22 people). This is not a review of Alaska, which if i may say is one of the most beautiful and stunning wonders and the only true highlight of the trip. To be fair, i will break down the review in various categories. 1. Staff and services. The general staff and cabin teams are usually very friendly and they try to accommodate your specific needs. But their services are poorly handled and seems they are either inadequately staffed or trained to cover that amount of space. Although, our cabin staff was very friendly, we noticed for the 7 days we cruised on the ship, our sofa/bunkbeds were never collapsed back to a sofa. Our sheets were made and both childrens beds were made, but the bunk bed was never made back into a sofa, therefore as small as the room was, there was never any space to sit or walk in our stateroom. (bear in mind, we were mid section stateroom with a balcony). Collectively as a group, which we had about 22 friends and family in about 7 rooms, all of us jokingly stated if we could count openly all our fingers (10) whether the entire ships staff were genuinely happy to be there and working. We all agreed that the happiest individual which genuinely was happy was the women at the entrance of the buffet which kept singing "washy, washy, hands are happy". 2. Ambiance and Atmosphere. I truly expected more out of a luxury class ship like "Bliss", after hearing about it in Elvis Duran morning show stating how great the ship was (very disappointed in the accuracy of their continuous propaganda of the ship), my expectations of the ship was with a high expectation. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed with the presentation of the ship. The official entrance for passenger to embark inside the ship was through a small walkway that enters through the casino. (seriously, who designs a ship whose grand entrance is inside a casino) Their center space which the Atrium is held has a massive screen where they show movies and entertainment. With the shear amount of people traveling between the Atrium, who can enjoy a good movie or comedy/talent show with all that noise. All the restaurants except Le Bistro looked like a $$ value restaurant and not a $$$ or $$$$ value manhattan style décor. (again with the exception of Le Bistro French restaurant). Of the 5 cruises I have been on, Royal Carribeans Allure series ships beats this ship in almost all categories by a far margin. 3. Price and value For close to $5,500+ cost to a Stateroom with Balcony, I was extremely disappointed. The room was incredibly small and had absolutely no leg room to walk around. (Royal Carribbean and Disney Cruises have room to spare) But that is also probably because our room's sofa which converts to a bunk bed was never converted back to a sofa throughout the 7 days we were in the cruise. One of our friends which had a mini-suite and paid $7,300+ was extremely frustrated because their room was about the same size, with only the exception of a two vanity sink + tub (basically, the room size was the same and the bathroom was larger). Regarding extra spending, this cruise ship is a money pit. Everything cost extra, coffee, snacks (crepes, etc...), activities, it was unbelievable that practically anything worth anything would require your cruise key card to be charged. For the amount of money you need to spend on this ship, better to cruise on a more luxurious ship (ie: Disney or Royal Carribbean Allure series). 4. Entertainment and activities I recall Royal Carribbean Allure of the Sea had like 4 to 6 mini theaters for movies. Bliss has about 1 theater for movies and a Atrium that they show with the general crowd (I could be wrong, but I sure didn’t find any other activity for movies). I read somewhere that they have one of the largest casino for a cruise ship, but what they fail to understand is that if I want to only go to a large and grand casino, I definitely would not be on a cruise ship to indulge. (Las Vegas here I come). All of us were bored out of our minds. There were only two shows, Havana and Jersey Boys which most of us fell asleep on one of them (yes, no kidding and no back story). Jersey boys was definitely a winner and worthy of a Broadway play. The story was involving and truly wonderful to watch, so we deeply courage watching this one. They weren’t kidding when another review said to book your Race Car and Laser Tag as soon as you are onboard (ps: it cost $10 per game), we were onboard the boat about 1 hour after they started embarking and all the "sea" days were fully books. So you would be left for standby or odd times which nobody wants to take. After going multiple times and staying on standbys, both the Race cars and Laser tag games were definitely fun and worth the wait, but given the fact that it was limited space killed the fun. Their slides were very cool, only problem was, it was shut down many times or not open due to winds and the cold, so that was completely wasted. Although, for that one day we braved the chilly air, both slides were incredibly fun. 5. Food and dining. This one truly was shocking. We booked at least 5 days of specialized dining to try each of the venue. Only one didnt disappoint - "LeBistro". Disney and Royal Carribbean again had some truly gourmet dining experiences, but the Bliss was like a phlegm that was stuck on the back of your throat which you couldn’t get rid of (it sucks). We expected truly excellent food for specialized dining, but got at best mediocre experience. The LeBistro was the only dining experience that we can rate as 4+ stars. The décor, food and service was excellent in this restaurant. The fois gras was actually in the same class as Manhattan style French restaurants. If we knew then what I know now, we would have had 5 days of LeBistro. The buffet food at the garden was mediocre. Their seafood night was shrimp and mussels. We were expecting lobsters or crab legs, but I guess that was wishful thinking. (ps: we had crab legs and lobster with the other cruise ships RC and Disney). Last thing to note. All of this was balanced out by the fact that every excursion in Alaska was worth the trip. Good luck and hopefully if you were to book this ship, that you have a far difference experience than we did, because almost all 22 of us had similar experience. Not entirely bad, unless you are expecting a true luxury cruise, haha.