First time on Norwegian and the Bliss

Item: Norwegian Bliss
Rating: 3.8
Author: SeanJon

Norwegian Bliss Cruise Review

SeanJon

Contributor Level: Second Mate

269 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Reviews: 6

Helpful Votes: 84

Overall rating:

3.8 out of 5

7 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 21, 2021

Ship: Norwegian Bliss

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10168

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

Overall we loved the Norwegian Bliss ship. It’s beautiful and clean and enjoyed the amazing venues and entertainment. The Norwegian Cruises model of charging extra for every little thing instead of one all-in charge was disappointing. We just had the best time however and met some great people.

Embarkation

3 out of 5

The embarkation process was pretty efficient. We had done a lot of our stuff on the app prior so things went smoothly. Testing was done onsite which slowed everything down a bit but I just think leaving from the port of Long Beach makes it super convenient. We live in Orange County so just drive over, park right next to the boat, drop off the luggage and check in. Took about 20 minutes.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

The food was awesome. It was our first time trying Norwegian and the restaurants were great. Our favorite was Teppanyaki. Such a fun experience but food was delicious. We mostly ate in the main dining rooms which we had great menus and service. I found it so easy to walk up and get a table. I’m a planner so I usually like to have reservations for everything but I actually loved being able to not think about any of that for the whole week. We made it to every bar :)!!! We had the premium drink package and had two favorite spots. The first was the bar on the observation lounge. We typically had martinis here before dinner in the evenings. We love espresso martinis but was disappointed that even with our drink package, they charged $3 for the espresso martini. Our other favorite spot was the bar outside of sugarcane on the deck. It was the perfect spot for a cocktail at sunset I loved that it was outside and a great location to catch the warm breeze in Mexico.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Laser Tag and Karts are a must! So much fun.

Entertainment

2 out of 5

Unfortunately some shows had to be cancelled. The piano player that rotated venues for the entire week was just not at the level I would expect.

Ship tip

We loved the ship and made a point to try as much as we could. There is a big difference in the model that Norwegian has versus Princess cruises which is the other cruise I’ve been on. Norwegian seems to charge for everything. Want a water? $5. Want a different martini? $3. Want to access the internet that was included in your plan? $3. It’s not much but it adds up and just didn’t feel very customer centric. It was also very pricey to access internet at all which I didn’t find on princess. Something to note as well, the tv in the room doesn’t have the media library with on demand movies like Princess. I really would have enjoyed being able to select movies or tv shows at different times when we were in the cabin. I downloaded stuff on my iPad in advance knowing this and they didn’t have a set up where you could plug into the tv.

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