Love this Easter Sunday sailing: 5 nights, one-way from LA to Vancouver BC.

Coast Guard inspection surprise that day, eeeek! We heard that took about two solid hours, which meant that passengers with early check-in times had to stand outside the terminal -- in full sun -- for at least 2 hours before the doors even opened...some people we talked to had a span of almost FIVE hours from the time they parked to the time they finally got in to the terminal -- they had a 10:30am check-in but didn't actually reach the counter inside until almost 3pm. YIKES. Thankfully, we purposely had chosen a 1:30pm check-in/arrival time (the second to last time slot offered) so we "only" had to wait about two hours in the giant line outside the building -- we made it into the security tent about 3:30pm, then the last part of the queue inside was about another 40 minutes. There were three queues inside the terminal, divided by Deck. I hadn't seen it that busy since pre-COVID -- last Easter this sailing was only half-full, so check-in was a breeeeeeeze...not the case this year as the ship was almost fully booked! When we finally got to the counter, the agent was efficient with verification and check-in and we were soon on our way up the gangway!.

VERY glad I booked our dinner reservations in advance -- all of the main dining rooms were overwhelmed every night since the ship was full. The Local was often overwhelmed as well -- at night, the buffet/Garden Cafe does not stay open late enough for folks to get a bite after the stage shows/comedians/theme parties...so EVERYBODY ends up trying to go to The Local. We saw and heard a lot of cranky passengers throughout the week complaining about the lack of dining availability. We were usually seated promptly, though even folks WITH reservations often had about a 15 minute wait upon arrival. The Manhattan Room seemed to be less crazy than Taste/Savor, maybe because it's on a different deck by itself? Dining Room breakfast was also very popular on this sailing, maybe because 3 of the 5 days were Sea Days? The crew working the Host stands at Taste and Savor did a GREAT job trying to appease and accommodate as many passengers as they could, all week long. One morning we arrived about 20 minutes before the end of Breakfast hours and we were told there was already a waitlist with a half-dozen parties standing by, we could add our name and cross our fingers but no guarantee that we would be seated before breakfast cutoff time. Some people were PISSED at that response, but we decided to wait (and order a mimosa right there at Mixx while we waited), and thankfully we were able to be seated juuuuust in time before the breakfast cutoff time. Phew! Yes, we could have gone up to the Garden Cafe / buffet... but on the first day we took a lap up there and within moments my boyfriend (first-time cruiser) quickly started to feel antsy and intimidated by the HUGE crowds up there all across the buffet area. Since this is a big ship, it's a big buffet, but even with that large capacity the buffet was BUSY. And LOUD. So loud. We only took that one lap and then set a goal to do dining-room meals not buffet meals...and we were successful with that! Le Bistro was lovely, as always. FYI the menu now has a $10 upcharge for the Beef Tenderloin. Oh well. It was still melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I love the Marquis au Chocolat dessert. The tomahawk steak ($30 upcharge) could easily be shared by two people; if you are dining at Le Bistro a la carte, get that and split it. I ended up needing to take half that huge steak to-go, foolishly thinking I'd be able to eat it later. Our server re-plated it on a to-go plate with a cover, which looked pretty BUT that meant I couldn't fit it in the room's minifridge. Since I had to leave it out, not refrigerate, most of it ended up going to waste the next day. Bummer. I really felt bad about wasting that food. We love the Observation Lounge, especially a good Espresso Martini ($3.60 upcharge for the fresh espresso shots, unless you have the Plus drink package). Emory and Indra and Zandy were three Observation bartenders we saw often and enjoyed conversing with. They and the others did a great job turning out drinks as the lounge was frequently busy on this sailing. We also went every evening to The A-List Bar. Bartenders were very friendly and welcoming even though we weren't dining at either Cagney's or Los Lobos. Marly and Gilbert remembered us each evening as we went there for pre-dinner drinks -- it's the only place on the Bliss to get an Aviation martini, and the only place you can get a real Vesper martini (half gin, half vodka) because only the A-List Bar has Lillet Blanc. In fact, when dining at Manhattan Room downstairs, we took turns taking the keycard upstairs to order drinks from A-List and walking them back to our own table, since the dining room servers can only do "normal" drink orders for you. We wandered in to Q Smokehouse one evening before dinner to check out the country band. Got a couple drinks while the band played and I went ahead and ordered an appetizer a la carte, sure why not. Food on other people's plates looked good but we didn't actually have a full meal there. Clearly the Q and especially the Food Republic are the black sheep of all the dining options; lots of empty tables all the time, while the Taste & Savor are being overwhelmed with walk-up guests.

Last Easter the weather was sunny and warm enough to got to the pool on sail-away day and the first sea day, but this year it was too cold/windy out for me to enjoy that. Oh well. Mini golf is very small, we walked up there and then decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Go Kart hours were VERY limited and filled up quickly. We wanted to try the go karts but during multiple meals we heard other guests at nearby tables talking about how they kept trying and not getting in; one group was planning to go Standby the next day in case any of the reserved riders no-showed.

Stage Shows: GREAT! I had seen Six before, my boyfriend hadn't. It was both our first time seeing Jersey Boys. I especially liked how a few of the "Six" queens had different nuance with some of their solos and lyrics; there were parts of the show that I didn't particularly remember from my previous trip but this time really moved me. That's a pretty good effect for the performers to have on you, huh! Several parts of Jersey Boys felt rushed; I've never seen the full show for comparison but it felt like they were barely stopping to breathe. It was really good regardless, and I loved that there were so many live instrumentalists!! Musicians: We loved the piano man in the District pub. He took lots of requests, got the crowd going, lots of repeat guests watching his sets for multiple nights. Beatles cover band needs more performance times!! The Cavern Club is tooooooo small for an act that's so high-interest and on a ship this large. Even last year when the ship was half-empty it was very difficult to get a seat for the Beatles before they had to close the doors, so this year with a full ship I didn't even bother having us try. Oh well, maybe next time. Clubs/Theme Parties: The DJs are still awwwwwwful. Every night at the club was like a bad wedding reception; we really wanted to stay longer at The Social but just couldn't stand it. The nightly theme parties were lame, not promoted enough, not enough people going (why doesn't Norwegian advertise ALL of the theme nights explicitly in advance? No wonder there aren't many people participating onboard) we had even packed specific things for the parties (white/glow; 80s/90s; country; latin night) I knew the parties would all be moved indoors to the Atrium or to The Social, due to the cold weather, but I hoped those smaller spaces would make the parties feel busier? Not quite. We tried. And the DJs don't necessarily take requests; is most of it just pre-programmed and they just press play on the same mix every week? We need lots more fun contemporary dance-pop gay stuff not so much wedding-reception stuff.

No kids!

Everybody was working hard, especially the bartenders and restaurant staff. Every person who had to run the Host Stands at Manhattan/Taste/Savor/The Local should get a bonus because THEY had really tough jobs all week dealing with cranky passengers upset that they couldn't just walk-in anywhere anytime. (And some of that frustration IS justified...we were surprised to see how slammed the dining rooms were, day after day...but don't take it out on the crew! They are clearly trying to accommodate as many people as possible given the capacity and times available)

This was my third time on the Bliss; I'm sure I already wrote plenty for this section in last year's review.

Club Balcony cabin 11226. Boyfriend's first cruise ever, so I had been prepping him to expect low ceilings, small room, small bathroom... but it worked out to raise our booking from a Balcony to a Club Balcony thanks to the DoubleUp CruiseNext promo! I'm a little worried for our next cruise that we'll be in an Inside Cabin and he'll freak out because this Club Balcony cabin was so pleasant. The bathroom sink and counter is doublewide, so we could actually both stand in front of the mirror and brush our teeth at the same time. The shower in cabin 11226 is a full stand-up shower, not a tub/shower. Woohoo! I only turned on the extra spray jets (what IS the point of those? Are they boob washers?) because they HURT with very high-pressure spray and it was not pleasant. Even the lowest pair of sprayers which I assume are to aim at your feet, those weren't pleasant either. (I thought about giving the room a 4-star rating for that reason, but it's the only thing I disliked about the whole thing, so I'll stick with the 5 star).

For people who had color-coded luggage tags, the colors were being called pretty close to the estimated times. We opted to self-carry our luggage, since we would've needed to put the bags out before going out the last night in Vancouver. It worked out fine. We knew we wouldn't be getting up early enough for dining-room breakfast so we filled out the Room Service breakfast order to hang on the door handle overnight. Highly recommend doing that! We were able to relax a bit with our luggage and basic breakfast items in the room rather than attempting the buffet or dining room. Exit out the Canada Place terminal was easy. We planned to take the light rail from Canada Place to the Airport, since the rail station is just around the corner, but we got behind schedule and called a Lyft instead. The staff in the Canada Place terminal were very helpful -- we realized after passing the security exit that we had left an expensive watch box in our cabin!! Gisele was able to help us by taking our contact info, a picture of the forgotten item, and got on her radio to whoever was still onboard. We have to pay for the return shipping (obviously, it was our fault) but the staff we spoke to were very helpful and reassuring.