We really enjoyed our cruise, and would give it all 5 stars, if not for the swimming pool shortage and no straws for drinks. Very good cruise overall, mostly thanks to the people who run it. We felt were welcomed there! The Cruise Director Dan Dan is super energetic and funny, he has a wonderful Assistant Director and the rest of the staff. They taught simple dances, played funny games, organized parties. Never slept!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Very smooth and fast process, we were on the ship by 12:30 pm. Our luggage was delivered by about 2:30 pm, which we considered very fast for such large crowd.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The food in main dining rooms was very good and greatly presented. Excellent service by the wait staff! They were all very friendly and professional. The buffet food was acceptable, some choices were very good, some OK. Plenty of desserts at the buffets, OK quality. Buffet area was kept very clean by the wait staff, they worked hard to make sure there was no waiting for the tables. And we NEVER had to wait for a table! Considering the number of passengers, that's excellent! Our BIG complaint is that NCL decided to do away with the straws for ALL of the drinks! It made it very uncomfortable to have a drink with ice. The ice would either run down your chest or be shoved up your nose! Plus, some cocktails' ingredients don't mix easily, I need a straw to keep them homogeneous. For this reason, I only had one cocktail on the ship.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
This ship takes on 4,000 passengers and has only TWO tiny swimming pools on the upper deck! It's good for Alaska, but NOT for the Caribbean! It was next to impossible to even reach the water, since the deck space was so crowded with lounge chairs, there was no walk way to the pool. We love to have water time on the ship, but had to quit trying on day 2. Plus, nobody enforced the rule of not reserving lounge chairs for more than 30 min. We observed these chairs being 'reserved' with towels, we waited for someone to come and remove the towels, so that we could use these chairs. Nobody came…So, we basically did not have the opportunity to enjoy the pool.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The shows on this ship were top-notch! All of them! Havana, Jersey Boys, Beattle Mania Live, Happy Hour Prohibition, Levity Comedy club. The costumes, the lights, the music - all perfect. The dancers and singers are so talented and in love with their jobs. It's hard to say which show was the best! The comedians had audience rolling in stitches: Mike Paramore, Clinton Jackson, Shawn C were so charming and funny, we went to see them as many times as it was possible! The band Familiar Strangers was wonderful, we could listen to them for hours. The piano player Tatjana was also very good, she even played some country songs for sing-alongs!
Children's Programs
We had no children with us.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The service was excellent everywhere, couldn't ask for better. Guest Service and Shore Excursions staff were super helpful, fast, and showed sincere desire to understand our questions. We felt we received personal attention every step of the way.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
This ship is modern and nicely decorated, but no frills (which is fine). There are plenty of elevators, we never had to wait long for them. The atrium is too small for the number of passengers, it was very crowded during busy time of popular activities. The always brought out more chairs, but the space is just not large enough for this number of passengers. The ship is very clean in all areas, but there were a few incidents when the restrooms in the common areas were 'out of order' for quite some time, and there was an odor of sewer in the vicinity of the common restrooms, especially near the stairs.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
The cabin was very good size and comfortable layout. The bed was comfortable, with good quality bedding. The bathroom with the glass shower was great! The balcony is a very good size. There was enough storage room for two people. We especially notices the abundance of outlets in our cabin, and USB plugs on both sides of the bed! Our cabin was kept very clean by our steward. Every night we came back to find funny towel animals on our bed!
Ship tip
Expect Great service but don't expect to spend much time by the swimming pool.
There is still some damage left from the hurricanes, but it does not have any impact on the excursions. The beaches are gorgeous and the water was warm. One of us did Helmet Dive excursion, loved it! There is plenty of shopping for the ones interested.
What a beautiful island and very welcoming people! Just a word of warning that the roads to pretty much anywhere are rather steep. The drivers were very skilled in navigating them, the views from the open- air taxi bus were breath-taking! White sand beach and turquoise blue water make a perfect combination! Beach personnel were super friendly and helpful, they were happy to see us there!
The views are very pretty and the people were friendly. We took a snorkeling trip to the Athol Island. We thought it was an OK spot for snorkeling, with pretty coral reef, but not too much fish variety. The catamaran crew were nice and helpful. What we didn't like was the ladder that was just thrown into the water and it was swaying in the waves there. It needs to be fastened somehow, so that it's easier to climb both up and down. This free flying metal object is a safety hazard, I got a few bruises on my legs, not a big deal, but were they on the head - a different story...
Yes, straws are major envirnmental problem for so many cruise ships so are being phased out by cruise lines. As far as crowded pool deck on BLISS, not rocket science to figure that deck space area on ship with double the number of decks and passengers is going to be crowded. We liked the Bliss but prefer a smaller class ship with around 2000 to 2500 passengers.
Straws are probably soon going to be a thing of the past. So we need to either bring our own straw or practice to not dribble. 😊
Best time to get a good deck chair and pool time is after 4 pm when people start getting ready for dinner.
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