Norwegian Bliss Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I have mixed feelings. The trip was beautiful and awesome. The ship lacked something and it was hard to put a finger on it. But overall the ship and cruise was a good one....not great.

Looking forward to my next Bliss cruise. The ship makes Alaska a wonderful experience. Great for a first cruise.

Our first cruise and we loved NCL. The Bliss and Alaska were beautiful!!! We had perfect weather! We had a group of 16 friends and never had a hard time finding a spot to sit in the Observation Lounge. It may not have been front and center, but you can always go look if someone sees a whale. Which we saw quite a few from the Observation Lounge and our balcony! The bar there was great along with all the staff, who worked their tails off! Our balcony room 10146 was beautiful and spacious. I’m very organized and never felt crowded. Authoreen our steward was the sweetest lady and so personable. Always called us by name, asked how our day was, or if we needed anything. We ate at specialty dinning 4 nights. They were all great. The Manhattan Dinning Room was also great. I made group reservations for all 16 of us for the specialty dinning and The Manhattan Room. We never had a problem and the staff and food were awesome. Entertainment was fabulous. Loved Havana and The Jersey Boys. We also went and saw the Beatles group play in the Theater. Don’t miss their performance it was awesome!! Embarkation and disembarking was a breeze. We stayed at Edgewater Hotel and just walked to the port, it was so close. We did the shuttle through NCL and used the Port Valet to the airport. I know I don’t have anything to compare to because it was my first cruise. But if you do your research, plan ahead and keep an open mind how could you not have a great time. Go with the flow and don’t let others bring you down. All 8 couples in our group had a fabulous time and didn’t want the trip to end!!

The ship feels way to small, narrow halls etc. The main dinning room didn’t have specialty meals like prime rib. That was only served in the buffet. I loved the lounge on deck 15. The best part of the ship. Overall I was dissipointed with the ship and wouldn’t pick it again intentional.

This was our first cruise so hard to do any comparison. But first I’ll start with embarkation which was an absolute breeze. Very smooth process and helpful friendly staff. The ship itself is absolutely gorgeous, everything is state of the art and all areas are nicely appointed and tastefully done. The areas around “678 Ocean Place” tend to be very noisy and have a “shopping mall” feel to them. Any time we walked through there it was just noisy and extremely crowded so we avoided this area at all cost. The Observation lounge. It’s stunning upon first laying eyes on it and you immediately see what the draw is for prime viewing and the “Observation” of Alaska and the sea. But the key word here “observing or observation” which is not what guests’ use it for which made even going up there a huge disappointment and futile attempt at utilizing the area for its intended use. Here’s just an example of what the typical experience was; at one point we looked everywhere for a place to sit (it was just my husband & I) there were no chairs, loungers or sofas that had vacancies. We did however spot the large white leather sectional in a corner that we could see only one man sitting at. As walked over to it we noticed a woman sprawled out from end to end, all pillows under her head sound asleep taking up the entire remainder of the sectional sofa. As we approached, I (politely) asked the man if we could share the sectional with them as there was no place else to sit and he said no, because his wife was sleeping! At that point the wife woke up hearing the conversation and angrily said “well now that you woke me up, I guess I’ll just have to go to my cabin”. The point is, this is an area everyone would like to enjoy at some point for observation purposes it is NOT YOUR CABIN to use as a bedroom! Be courteous about fellow guests wanting to enjoy the views and don’t commandeer the space like it’s your personal Stateroom for the day! Speaking of Stateroom. We had a mini-suite which was very well thought out and convenient with a nice bathroom area. My husband & I are very organized which made for a very comfortable space. Our Stateroom Steward, Joseph was wonderful. Restaurants; we ate in four upscale restaurants. Teppanyaki, Ocean Blue, Cagney’s and Los Lobos, all excellent and staff phenomenal & friendly. The Garden Cafe was just average food. Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville disappointing. Shows; !Havana! very good, Jersey Boys was AMAZING! Britain’s Finest, excellent and a must see in the Cavern Club. Shipboard activities; we did do the race track and even though that day was pouring it was still an absolute blast! Excursions; Ketchikan; our Seaplane excursion was canceled due to weather. But you roll with it and find something else to do even though all other excursions were full. So we found Fat Stan’s in town and had a great time meeting & enjoying new folks. Juneau; was by far the BEST excursion of our lives. We did The Pilots Choice Helicopter excursion. Words could never describe this day. Skagway; we did the White Pass Scenic Railroad Excursion which was just excellent. Overall we had an amazing time on our first cruise and will probably do another at some point but next stop is Ireland in 3 weeks but not on a ship! Happy cruising everyone!

We had a fantastic cruise. The Bliss is beautiful and well designed. We ate in 6 of the specialty restaurants and loved each of them. Be sure to have lunch at Margaretaville! The portions are huge and the staff is a lot of fun! We had a mini suite and found it quite comfortable. It was not much bigger than a regular balcony cabin inside but the bathroom was huge. We also had an extended balcony which we did not get to enjoy much due to the weather. The District Brewhouse is a great bar. Jim Badger performed there almost every night. He is so funny! I was worried about how this cruise was going to turn out after reading so many negative comments. Happy to report there were no problems at all! Great cruise...great ship!

Easy summary... you gotta take this cruise although it will only sail this year two or three times more.

Overall the cruise was nice. We didn’t get to see the glaciers due to weather conditions, which couldn’t be helped. This particular itinerary didn’t allow enough time in each port. If you took a tour, there wasn’t enough time explore the cities and towns. The ship is beautiful. The last day at sea all the shops and the casino were closed by 11 am because we were so close to land. It was boring and seemed like a wasted day.

The food was good and the ship is very beautiful .

My husband and I have been on 20+ cruises. The Bliss was only our second with NCL. We were in an aft Haven suite which was very nice, but we really missed out by not being in the Haven itself. It was a long trek from the aft and up a couple of decks. As far as the elevator complaints, the Bliss is no different than any other large ship. There are 2 banks of 8 elevators each and sometimes they are full and sometimes not. Usually, they are the most crowded after the shows and around dinner time. I didn’t care for the layout of the ship. Just uninteresting hallways with shops or bars and no grand atrium area. Nothing distinct. Unlike Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class ships with their 3 distinct zones which makes navigating the ships extremely simple. But... the Haven is perfect. Much nicer than the suite area on the Oasis ships. RCCL needs to revamp their suite area to compete with the Haven. As far as the food, we ate in 3 specialty restaurants and the Haven restaurant for dinner. Never in the Main Dining Room. We did eat in the Garden Cafe for a couple of breakfasts and lunches but only when we felt it wouldn’t be crowded. We’ve cruised many times and are very aware of the crowds. The food was adequate. Nothing extraordinary. We were very disappointed with Ocean Blue but did enjoy both Cagney’s and Teppanyaki. The Haven restaurant was consistently good, but their menu was the same every day. Some variety would be nice. The shows were ok. Jersey Boys was very good but Havana! was mediocre. Britain’s Finest was good as was the comedian we saw. There didn’t seem to be as many shows as we’ve seen on other cruise lines which basically had some type of production show each night. Also, this was an Alaska cruise, the last week of August. Our bad luck, it was foggy or raining at 2 of the 4 stops. So we didn’t get the full experience we we hoping. Of course, not the cruise lines fault. Just made for a disappointing cruise.

Perfect!!! Just arrived home to Arizona. This was a fabulous trip. All the negative things some people have written about this ship, the crew, the food, etc. are ridiculous. Some people are just negative and you couldn’t please them no matter what you do!!! Ignore those reviews. This was a 5 star ship, crew, food...perfect! Enjoy!!!

A great cruise for traveling solo that was made even better by Jose and the friends I made who were also traveling solo.

Most disappointing cruise ever. Read carefully before booking as this ship only cruised glacier country. I was expecting to cruise glacier bay as I had 20 years ago. Glacier bay was most exciting compared to glacier country viewing ice cubes . While the Bliss was everything as advertised the size of the ship limited it’s ability to cruise into the bay and observe the glacier activity.

Bliss deserves better entertainment options. Great Dining options.

First, the review is solely my own experiences and majority of those that went with us on the Norwegian Bliss cruise ship (about 22 people). This is not a review of Alaska, which if i may say is one of the most beautiful and stunning wonders and the only true highlight of the trip. To be fair, i will break down the review in various categories. 1. Staff and services. The general staff and cabin teams are usually very friendly and they try to accommodate your specific needs. But their services are poorly handled and seems they are either inadequately staffed or trained to cover that amount of space. Although, our cabin staff was very friendly, we noticed for the 7 days we cruised on the ship, our sofa/bunkbeds were never collapsed back to a sofa. Our sheets were made and both childrens beds were made, but the bunk bed was never made back into a sofa, therefore as small as the room was, there was never any space to sit or walk in our stateroom. (bear in mind, we were mid section stateroom with a balcony). Collectively as a group, which we had about 22 friends and family in about 7 rooms, all of us jokingly stated if we could count openly all our fingers (10) whether the entire ships staff were genuinely happy to be there and working. We all agreed that the happiest individual which genuinely was happy was the women at the entrance of the buffet which kept singing "washy, washy, hands are happy". 2. Ambiance and Atmosphere. I truly expected more out of a luxury class ship like "Bliss", after hearing about it in Elvis Duran morning show stating how great the ship was (very disappointed in the accuracy of their continuous propaganda of the ship), my expectations of the ship was with a high expectation. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed with the presentation of the ship. The official entrance for passenger to embark inside the ship was through a small walkway that enters through the casino. (seriously, who designs a ship whose grand entrance is inside a casino) Their center space which the Atrium is held has a massive screen where they show movies and entertainment. With the shear amount of people traveling between the Atrium, who can enjoy a good movie or comedy/talent show with all that noise. All the restaurants except Le Bistro looked like a $$ value restaurant and not a $$$ or $$$$ value manhattan style décor. (again with the exception of Le Bistro French restaurant). Of the 5 cruises I have been on, Royal Carribeans Allure series ships beats this ship in almost all categories by a far margin. 3. Price and value For close to $5,500+ cost to a Stateroom with Balcony, I was extremely disappointed. The room was incredibly small and had absolutely no leg room to walk around. (Royal Carribbean and Disney Cruises have room to spare) But that is also probably because our room's sofa which converts to a bunk bed was never converted back to a sofa throughout the 7 days we were in the cruise. One of our friends which had a mini-suite and paid $7,300+ was extremely frustrated because their room was about the same size, with only the exception of a two vanity sink + tub (basically, the room size was the same and the bathroom was larger). Regarding extra spending, this cruise ship is a money pit. Everything cost extra, coffee, snacks (crepes, etc...), activities, it was unbelievable that practically anything worth anything would require your cruise key card to be charged. For the amount of money you need to spend on this ship, better to cruise on a more luxurious ship (ie: Disney or Royal Carribbean Allure series). 4. Entertainment and activities I recall Royal Carribbean Allure of the Sea had like 4 to 6 mini theaters for movies. Bliss has about 1 theater for movies and a Atrium that they show with the general crowd (I could be wrong, but I sure didn’t find any other activity for movies). I read somewhere that they have one of the largest casino for a cruise ship, but what they fail to understand is that if I want to only go to a large and grand casino, I definitely would not be on a cruise ship to indulge. (Las Vegas here I come). All of us were bored out of our minds. There were only two shows, Havana and Jersey Boys which most of us fell asleep on one of them (yes, no kidding and no back story). Jersey boys was definitely a winner and worthy of a Broadway play. The story was involving and truly wonderful to watch, so we deeply courage watching this one. They weren’t kidding when another review said to book your Race Car and Laser Tag as soon as you are onboard (ps: it cost $10 per game), we were onboard the boat about 1 hour after they started embarking and all the "sea" days were fully books. So you would be left for standby or odd times which nobody wants to take. After going multiple times and staying on standbys, both the Race cars and Laser tag games were definitely fun and worth the wait, but given the fact that it was limited space killed the fun. Their slides were very cool, only problem was, it was shut down many times or not open due to winds and the cold, so that was completely wasted. Although, for that one day we braved the chilly air, both slides were incredibly fun. 5. Food and dining. This one truly was shocking. We booked at least 5 days of specialized dining to try each of the venue. Only one didnt disappoint - "LeBistro". Disney and Royal Carribbean again had some truly gourmet dining experiences, but the Bliss was like a phlegm that was stuck on the back of your throat which you couldn’t get rid of (it sucks). We expected truly excellent food for specialized dining, but got at best mediocre experience. The LeBistro was the only dining experience that we can rate as 4+ stars. The décor, food and service was excellent in this restaurant. The fois gras was actually in the same class as Manhattan style French restaurants. If we knew then what I know now, we would have had 5 days of LeBistro. The buffet food at the garden was mediocre. Their seafood night was shrimp and mussels. We were expecting lobsters or crab legs, but I guess that was wishful thinking. (ps: we had crab legs and lobster with the other cruise ships RC and Disney). Last thing to note. All of this was balanced out by the fact that every excursion in Alaska was worth the trip. Good luck and hopefully if you were to book this ship, that you have a far difference experience than we did, because almost all 22 of us had similar experience. Not entirely bad, unless you are expecting a true luxury cruise, haha.

We cruised the week of August 18th. The weather was great. No rain, nice temperatures in every port. That was the good. We had an aft facing penthouse, Haven amenities. Disappointing, the same type of room on the Getaway seemed bigger. While it was nice, considering what we paid, the value was not worth it. Couldn’t use the balcony. The smoke stacks spewed dirt and ash all over the deck and furniture. It was a real mess and a huge disappointment as that was one of the major features that made us choose that room. The ship is big, but we never really had an issue with the elevators or getting seats for shows. Didn’t go to the garden cafe that often as we had access to the Haven restaurant and had dinner at 3 specialty restaurants. The food was ok, nothing fabulous. The meals at the complimentary restaurants never changed the whole week. No crab legs or lobster anywhere on the ship. An Alaska cruise should have that, especially considering the price. Did laser tag and go carts. Didn’t have an issue getting into either one. As a Haven guest, I should not have to pay an additional fee for these activities. Jersey Boys and Beatlemania were fabulous. Prohibition was ok, but not worth the up charge. We did an excursion at every port. They were good, but expensive. It was unfortunate that you basically have to choose between an excursion or just going into the town at each port as there is not enough time for both. The service was pretty good everywhere on the ship, but Disney and Royal Caribbean are better at customer service. Use port valet in Seattle. This is a great service. You don’t see your luggage until you get to your final destination. I would go to Alaska again, but not on Bliss and not on NCL. This was our 4th cruise on NCL and it was hands down the worst and the most expensive. I expected more considering the base price of this cruise was $15k. Add airfare and excursions, and you’re looking at $20k. I would recommend a smaller ship for Alaska. This ship is better suited for the Caribbean.

This cruise trip was the first time my family and I went to Alaska. There were many bad things about the ship and I will review everything about the ship. BAD: There were a lot of bad! One thing bad about the ship is that everything was very crowded. The atrium was small and always full and there was always no place to sit. Plus there was no Royal promenade like on Royal Caribbean ships. The restaurants were always crowded and the three main dining room where smaller then royal’s one main dining room. Another thing that made the main dining room crowded is that there were no assigned tables. So you can come at any time which makes it even harder to get a seat. The buffet was always crowded and usually almost impossible to get a seat. Another example of things being crowded was the elevators there were only six elevators in the front and in the back of the ship which made things very crowded saying that the ship had over 18 decks. The theater was also smaller than usual with only one story, unlike royal that has two story theaters. Some of the food we’re also very disappointing such as the seafood night which we were expecting crab legs, crawfish, shrimp, and etc like we saw in the pictures but no we only got shrimp that was average and not the good we also got a lot of cold seafood and that was about it. Another disappointment was Alaskan night at the buffet here we thought that this would have crab legs crawfish, shrimp, and etc, but no we only got salmon, a lot of salmon! A little small thing I noticed about the crew is that they were unprofessional at some times and were very slow at things. A lot of things were all so overpriced for example I wanted a Norwegian Bliss keychain model that was $20 that’s right $20 and it was tiny! The Oasis of the Seas model was only $6.95 and it was way larger GOOD: The ship was clean and brand new and was very beautiful. The entertainment on the ship was amazing although the theater was small if you come early you will get good seats. The musicals Havana in Jersey boys were outstanding. Although jersey boys was inappropriate for kids under 12. The water slides were really cool and never got old. The entertainment crew were very funny and were always telling jokes. They have really fun game shows, trivia, and lots more. Alaska was beautiful and the ship was always on time. Our room stewardess was very nice and always give us what we desired. Overall the whole crew very nice and one person even gave me a complimentary Coke! The rooms were quite small but we’re layered out to be pretty spacey. The food was average but the desserts really stood out to me and they were really good. Embarkation was super fast and we got onto the ship under 30 minutes. Overall this was an OK cruise with more things bad than good and I don’t think I’d sail on Norwegian again.

The cruise was okay. The itinerary gave you little time to experience the port. I felt the excursions were very expensive for what you received.

The Bliss is gorgeous and I miss it terribly already! We had an excellent time, the entertainment and food we're great, the observation lounge is lovely and where I spent most of my time. Taste, Savor and the Manhattan room are all excellent! The bad thing about Norwegian is that they really do nickel and dime you for a lot of stuff though and I think more things should be included.

THE SHIP IS TOO BIG AND TOO MANY PEOPLE. YOU HAVE TO LONG TOME FOR EVERYTHING. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SEE THE GLACIER. GO WITH HOLLAND AMERICA. YOU WILL SEETHE GLACIER CLOSELY.