Good Alaskan Cruise - with caveats.

Item: Norwegian Bliss
Rating: 4.5
Author: bblumentritt

Norwegian Bliss Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

bblumentritt

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 12

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Alaska With Dawes Glacier (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 07, 2024

Ship: Norwegian Bliss

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 11114

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 months ago

Review summary

This was our first cruise and we enjoyed it, except for my wife's sea-sickness during the at sea days.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

The embarkation process was smooth and well-run.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

The food quality was excellent, with a very wide variety of choices, including gluten-free options that we enjoyed

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

We did the onboard go-karts, which is a lot of fun. The onboard mini-golf was so-s0.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

"Jersey Boys" was excellent in every way. "ICONS" was very professional, although the choice of 'icons' is a bit suspect, and agenda driven. The onboard bands were excellent - Big Iron and Seaside (I think that's their name.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Wow. Superb, excellent. Every staff member we encountered was friendly, smiling, and professional, without exception.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

All areas of the ship are clean and well maintained. Guest Services and the Internet Cafe are in the same room as a busy stage, and the noise level of the presentation and/or band makes it very difficult to talk to the staff. Internet Cafe is not fully staffed, and when they had an outage, there were three dozen people in line and no one on staff in the middle of the day. On day one, the Internet Cafe again had a very long line because the published instructions are unclear and not very thorough. I say this as a computer engineer experienced in Mobile Device Management, and even I could not understand their instructions.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

The balcony stateroom was great, and we loved it.

Ship tip

You can eat for free the entire voyage, especially with the Free at Sea package with two specialty restaurant meals. Stake out your table in the buffet before look for food. Take your naps in your stateroom instead of on the Observation Lounge so that people who are there to actually observe can do so.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

5 out of 5

Sitka, Alaska

3 out of 5

Sitka had a 100% internet outage when we visited, which meant that no merchants could process payments other that cash.

Thumbs Up 0

Juneau, Alaska

4 out of 5

We were in Juneau from 6:30am to 1pm, so when we disembarked, only one business was open, and the young woman working there didn't even greet us - we were there when she opened the doors - so we moved on. The gondola was socked in with fog, so beware.

Thumbs Up 0

CRUISE ENDICOTT ARM & DAWES GLACIER

5 out of 5

Amazing. The ship sailed down the channel and we saw a glacier in a cove and we thought that was it, but at the end of the Endicott Arm channel, the ship turned sideways, and then did a zero radius 360 turn to allow viewing of a stunning glacier from anywhere on the ship. Even the bow was opened up to passengers.

Thumbs Up 0

Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Alaska

5 out of 5

Hoonah was fine, but the weather was a little iffy. We enjoyed hiking in the woods and hills.

Thumbs Up 0

Ketchikan, Alaska

2 out of 5

Talk about a nothing port, this is it.

Thumbs Up 0

Victoria, British Columbia

5 out of 5

We took a horse drawn tour. We learned a lot of history and personalities of Victoria, but it was not worth the high price of the excursion.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

4 out of 5

It would have been great, but we had scheduled our morning based on Norwegian's published schedule, and our group was scheduled for 8am to 9am. They called our group at 7:30, and then at 8:40 they called the next group, so we got delayed by the large crowd of 9am people.

Traveler Photos

6 Comments

sdsunny 2 months ago

Thanks for sharing about the ports we enjoyed our balcony on the Radiance going to Alaska passed Celebrity ship quite a few times.

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Gwbigdog 2 months ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise

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RC2cruises 2 months ago

Thanks for your comment about people sleeping in the Observation Lounge. It also happens on the waterfront on ships that have it. It’s very disheartening to try to find a place to sit outside and find many people sleeping. Or saving whole sections of seating for their whole group when only one or two people are there. You can sleep in your cabin or at home at the end of the cruise

Thumbs Up 2

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AuntPinkie 2 months ago

Appreciate your feedback. Glad you mostly enjoyed your Alaskan cruise.

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HeavySeas 2 months ago

Awesome......thanks for sharing your cruise experience and glad you enjoyed your cruise

Thumbs Up 1

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cruising2004 2 months ago

Welcome, glad you had a wonderful first cruise! Thank you for your review.

Thumbs Up 1

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Other reviews of this sailing

An adventure with gal pals

The cruise was very relaxing and fun. Ship was very nice.