Will never travel with Norwegion again, nothing for kids and they nickel and dime you at every turn. Like a lot of folks spend a ton of cash to be on the ship and it is mind boggling that they still try and milk you dry at every turn and i get it's a business but WOW.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
This was our 1st experience on a cruise line and we will not be doing another cruise after our experience. I will start with the boat shipped off and it started out awesome, music and drinks to get things started off. Our 1st scheduled stop was for Juneau Alaska and we sailed an entire day and an hour before we got to Juneau we find out that we cant dock due to winds so we completely missed out on Juneau and we walked out on the deck and there was 0 wind so not sure what that was about. The next complaint was that there is absolutely nothing for teenagers to do on this cruise, they have a teens area where there are video games however it had weird hours and if there was an event in that room then all the kids had to participate or they had to leave the room, like why in the world would you not have this open all day for kids bored out of their mind.. Our son participated in an event they had and won a free go kart ride with another kid and they gave out 1 coupon with both the kids names on it and they had to show up at the same time to redeem the $7 go kart ride, like why not give each kid a coupon instead of giving out 1 coupon as we had no clue who this kid was and no way to contact them, we complained about this and kept getting shuffled around with no answer given, again we are talking about a $7 voucher as it appeared none of the staff has the ability to make a decision. We randomly recieved a call from the manager in our room and they apologized and brought us a free coupon that my son already won so he could use it whenever he wanted so that was nice but took us a couple of hours of back and forth. The free food locations were decent and the buffet was pretty decent overall. The events on the cruise got pretty repetitive after the 2nd day as it was either a band playing or a game show. The casino was decent but man are those machines tight. Another kids thing that was a total bummer was that there was an arcade on the ship however every play was $2.99 unless you had the arcade package and helpful hint even if you had the arcade package it doesn't cover all the machines in the room. The last bummer was our cruise came with a fine dining dinner of our choice and you cannot make reservations prior to departure for the restaraunt of your choice so by the time we figured out what we wanted the steakhouse was completely booked for the entire cruise so we had to go to the mexican restaraunt and the food was absolutely terrible, we all ordered carne asada and when it showed up it was about 2 inches thick of some sort of mystery meat (Not flank steak) and our entire table took 1 bite and didn't touch the rest so all in all we used our fine dining dinner on a meal we didn't eat. Last but certainly not least was the constant push to sell you other stuff by baiting you in with drawings, people with cameras all up in your face trying to take a picture of you so they can sell you these at the end of the cruise. Plenty of booze on the ship but for a person who doesn't drink a ton that wasn't a great perk for myself. I will leave you with this, the views were absolutely stunning and the couple of towns we actually got to stop at were very cool. All in all the amount of money we spent on the Norwegion could of been better spent....
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Our Specialty restaraunt was absolutely disgusting and would not recommend the mexican restaraunt. The buffet was decent and they had a lot of the same every day however each day had a different type of meat at the carving section, they also had asian and indian food options which was cool.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
Boring and repetitive after day 2 and there was absolutely nothing for kids to do.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
Jersey boys was fantastic, and the comedy show was pretty good. There was 1 outstanding band we enjoyed.
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
No internet unless you spend an arm and a leg and like i mentioned above the teen club was a disaster. You have a lot of families on the ship why in the world would there not be an area where they can go chill and game it up.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Staff was typically friendly and fun however it doesn't seem like Norwegion gives them and leaway on anything.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Very clean and nice decor
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
Size was horrible, it was clean and got cleaned daily for the additional charge of $20 per person a day which adds up.
Ship tip
Don't bring your kids and all inclusive is not what it appears to be. The Norwgion Bliss is a Big Nice ship however they want more of your money around every corner.
Apparently the weather was too bad however a ton of people were extremely dissapointed and confused due to the weather on deck being beautiful with no wind.
We have been here a ton however we arrived at like 8pm and from experience the best time to visit Victoria is during the day to see all the beautiful sights.
As one had said, if you book for kids during school and I'm Alaska don't expect a lot of kid options. The cruise line is not going to spend money on staff to tend to kids are suppose to be in school and not on a cruise ship. Maybe they should try another cruise line and do research before booking. I researched all of my past cruises 2 to 3 months before booking.
Last year I was able to reserve all of my specialty dining (Q, Teppanyaki, La Cusina, Cagney's, Ocean Blue, and Los Lobos ) well before departure. I'm guessing they got rid of that. I only did walk-ins for American Diner and Food Republic. But yes, the casino games are cheap and stingy.
Im guessing you haven’t cruises before. All of the standard (non-premium) cruise lines charge extra for some activities. I’ve never seen a ship with free arcade games, that’s always extra. If they didn’t charge for things like go karts it would become nearly impossible for people to do them since slots are very limited. The daily service charge is not for room cleaning, it is a shared gratuity for crew members such as your room steward, dining room servers, cooks, etc. all the cruise lines also charge for WiFi, and it’s never cheap.
There are pros and cons on every cruise line so I Dec think you should try again, but it is helpful if you read all the q&a on the cruise website because it will clear up a lot of confusion. And the arcade on every cruise I've been on comes at a cost, I will give my kids a $40 limit to use, once that's up it's up, but there still are so many activities on the ship that I'm surprised the kids weren't able to enjoy other things, even though I offer to load money for arcade my kids hardly use it because so much other to do, and as far as reservations for specialty restaurants they always get booked quickly, so it's best to reserve as soon as you get on ship.
Thanks for your detailed review. Sorry to hear the cruise did not meet your expectations enough for you not to want to cruise again. I don't disagree with the nickel and dime, it seems they're trying to make up for lost time. The$20 pp was not a cleaning fee, it was a daily gratuities that is the norm.
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