Norwegian Bliss Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Loved the Bliss and the Haven, really enjoyed the cruise.

The cruise ship is beautiful. I loved the layout! The crew and the officers were all so nice!

Note: the "*" at the end of each paragraph are on the scale of * to ***** (five being the best) Arrival: Check in was fast and efficient. Once on board the rooms were not ready and hardly any room to sit down at the garden cafe as most people went there not being able to go to their rooms. Our luggage did not arrive in the room until about 7pm (we were at dinner at that time)** Room: Bathroom nice and for us big enough. The shower is well equipped and big enough for a standard size person. Living area:The closet doors overlap when open and not easy to access contents. Suitcases are stored under the bed, as such hard to store or retrieve. The bed is very comfortable as are the pillows. In our unit was a large sofa which is a hide away bed for extra person, with no coffee table. (a cube under the makeup table served as seat and table) The hair dryer was in an awkward position installed under the countertop with a short cord which did not flex sufficiently when standing. Our balcony on the 9th deck had an extended large ledge which was the roof of the "Waterfront" area on deck 8 below and because of that we did not have the feeling of sitting at waters edge. Overall the cabin is satisfactory. **** Restaurants: Freestyle, no reservations needed. Got used to it and it is not as much of a inconvenience as we thought. Savor was our favourite but we also dined at the "Manhattan". All the restaurants included with the cruise package are excellent in decor, quality of food and especially service.( The Manhattan was noisy however due to the design of the dining room)***** Specialty restaurants: We used 4 of them. LeBistro *****, Tapenyaki ****, La Cucina *** The Cagney's ***** Garden Cafe: We are not fans of buffets style eating because of witnessing a lot of food being wasted by guest who's eyes are way bigger than their stomach. Due to closer of the other restaurants during certain hours, we did visit the Garden Cafe a few times. Overall selection and quality is good, but compared to other cruise line only a 3.5. Entertainment: Staff especially the cruise director, Silas and his crew a very definite ***** Venues: Atrium a very bad design for most of the performances. For the most part way too small, foldable chairs have to be brought in, the bar in the back is noisy interfering with the performance or presentation, some people have to stand obstructing the view of other guests. * The Carvern: no dance or very little dance floor available when the band is playing. * The Q, same thing.. people dancing in the aisle making it hard for the waiters to serve.* H2O, excellent, outside but late for the old folks like us.. for the most part starting at 10:30pm*** Theater: Some excellent programs. For most of them no reservation required so be ready to arrive 30 min before show time, bonus you can order and enjoy a drink while waiting: ***** There were plenty of other venues which we did not visit. Observation deck, deck 15. beautifully appointed with cold buffet for lunch and dinner as well as a bar. The front of the deck has spectacular views but the lounges are limited so you have to be prepared to wait and act fast if one becomes available. Bad part of the observation deck is the temperature. Very nice in the front, but uncomfortable cold on the sides of the deck. *** (This cruise for us was the Panama Canal transit, unfortunately it was hard to get a decent place to watch it even though we came down at 6am. (Some people slept on the lounges to assure a place.) Overall we found the ships AC set to cold for our liking, but some other people may have been ok with that) The "Waterfront": A very beautiful area to relax, watch the ocean and have a drink, read or play cards.***** The pool deck: If we were pool people we would give it a definite ***** (from what we saw the guests all had a great time) The would go for the waterslides***** The race track: Unique and fun, but the staff is not particularly compassionate for old people. The help they provide is minimal. The cotton toque does not fit smaller heads and the helmet makes difficult to put on your glasses as the visor was difficult to open. I guess if you are willing to give it a few tries it will work fine. Venue***** staff *** Caution using the info sessions. They are hidden sales tactics for all kind of medical and cosmetic products. Other cruise companies give you a chance to see behind the scenes free of charge. Norwegian is charging. (We were told by other guest around $75) -* We asked to have a tour of the "Haven" floor to decide if we wanted to consider the Alaska cruise on this ship. They told us no except after all the guest from the floor have gone. Not practical as we had a flight to catch. There was a lot to like about the ship and the service, but, as they say, would you recommend it to your friends? Perhaps, if you are a family with children or are a pool person. Otherwise No.

This ship is stunning! Everything about it is amazing. I cannot even say what my favorite thing is about the ship because the entire ship is just perfect. Well, if I had to pick something it would be the amazing Observation Lounge. We could not get enough of that place!!! I can’t want to spend time on it again.

cabins are very cramped. no electrical outlets by bed. hallways are extremely narrow. food in dining rooms looked pretty on plate but very skimpy food wise, same in specialty restaurants. wife has food allergies and was severely limited to here selections in dining rooms. also the menus were almost the same every night with small revisions. found food on princess cruise lines much better. service was slow, and did not care for the open dining concept. prefer a set time and same table and waiter each night. go kart track charge should be done away with, should be part of cruise price. nice ship except for hallways not going from end to end and being so narrow. caused us some concern if there was a true emergency on the ship. will stick to our other cruise lines in the future.

Just getting back from the NCL Bliss and must say its the best from Norwegian. The Go-cart racetrack is a must do and the Havana show was amazing. Food was great and great selection on the buffet, specially the sea food theme. From crab legs to sushi, everything was great. One thing i must remind everyone is that you definitely want to make reservations ahead of time to any of the shows, activities or restaurants that you want to enjoy. They will fill up!! On my book the Bliss is a must do!! Plus you can never go wrong with Norwegian Free at Sea promotions. Take advantage of it and enhance your trip!! You will not regret it

It has been just over two weeks now since we got back from the cruise. We are filled with 15 days full of memories that makes it hard to know just what to say. Yes, we both had a great time. This was our 2nd trip through the Canal and our first time on the NCL Bliss and going through the new locks. We had a balcony room that we found very nice and we spent much time on the balcony. Things we liked: • Shows – Al of the shows were very good, and we didn’t miss a one. • Passengers and crew – As expected, we had a great time interacting with the other guests at meals, shows and on excursions. The crew was polite and helpful as I expected from this first-time cruise on the ship. • Food – Everyone has their own taste. I can’t see however with the massive variety of food on board how anyone could go hungry. • Dr. Roberts – Dr. Dave Roberts gave several informative talks while enroot. He filled the Theater to over flow for good reason. • Medical staff – you always hope that you never need a trip to the medical center. I did on this trip and I was so thankful for the kind and effective care I received. Things no so good: • Internet / WiFi – I was so hopeful that this ship would have 1st in class WIFI but it turned out to be the same old shipboard WIFI system. It was better than on most ships I have been on but nothing particularly new. In addition, I spent an entire 1/5 hour of my minutes trying to get the Norwegian iConcierge to work. Later and the help desk I was told that it doesn’t work. • Signs - The sign in the café and else indicating what food was being served are all printed for 20-year old’s. Considering the ages on this cruise the print size needed to be 2x. • Menus and lighting - Restraint Menus were also to small and hard to read in the low light. Needed to use the flash lite on my phone. • Elevator planning – There are I think 10 elevators at the front of the ship and I think another 10 at the back. Considering usage, especially after the theater lets out it would have been better to have 2 moved from the back to the front.

Just finished Panama Canal trip on brand new NCL BLISS from Miami to LA ... May 10 - 25. Absolutely stunning holiday. It didn’t disappoint. Definitely 5 stars.

The ship was awesome and definitely has something for everyone. (Food, entertainment, activities) Large ship so lots to see but you dont feel crowded and can always find a quiet spot...

NO defined gluten free section for dining, always waiting for a seat, food was very good, as a first time Norwegian cruiser we missed a lot of entertainment due to having to book shows, all gone virtually after first day or time we wanted.some very rude people around especially at the elevators. the observation lounge looks very good concept except that loungers were being booked by 6am with people just sleeping there all day a great waste of seating for other guests.as usual sun bed grabbers out early. the package we had included2 litres of water a day unfortunately this was delivered in bulk on day 1, taking up what little space we had, what really annoyed me was if you don't drink it all the advice was give it away to other guests or the steward or they would THROW it away. The closets are really small and dark no draws just shelves easy to miss stuff in the darkness. We have had better cruises on smaller ships. The Panama Canal was a bit disappointing as most vantage points were packed so unable to see much. Overall nice ship with some poor design spaces but would not travel on this ship again, but think some of NORWEGIAN'S efforts worth giving this cruise line another chance.

It was an inaugural cruise . It did not stop anywhere . There was no option to selet that kind of cruise.

I was very impressed with the District Brewhouse! The atmosphere was very relaxing. The chairs facing out to the ocean was a definite plus. The band playing 80's music was incredible. You have to be gutsy to ride the drop water slide and as a Marine, I loved it! I loved it so much I did it 3 times if that's an indicator of how enjoyable it is. The cabin was roomy and the shower itself was more spacious than I have seen in the past. I had a great time overall and can't wait to see what Norwegian does next.

The ship is amazing I had a great time. All the fun things to do onboard. The race cars were so much fun. Well worth the $7.00 pricing per trip . It is a little challenging if you are short, but the staff running the attraction was great and gave me lots of pointers. The food onboard was great we tried margaritaville, the Manhattan room , and taste main dining room. All were excellent the choices and quality of the food very high, normally I am not so pleased with cruise ship dining. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the Bliss. the ship is trying to support the environment with no straws onboard (except Starbucks) the idea is to keep excess plastic out of the ocean. We had not made advance reservations for the shows at night and unfortunately we were not able to see the show they were fully booked up. I would strongly recommend that you take the time to pre reserve the shows 90 days in advance of departure. The casino was fabulous and the ship truly has a separation of areas for smokers and non smokers. It’s the first time I as a non smoker really spent time in the casino. The Bliss is a ship that anyone could have a wonderful time on whether alone with friends and family or a large group. It is just a fabulous ship

This part of the review is to convey my as well as my wife’s high level of dissatisfaction with 12 Day sailing with The Norwegian Bliss from Southampton, England on April 21, 2018. Please note that I did not use the term inaugural because NCL did absolutely nothing to make this a special or memorable event as far as inaugural sailings go. There was not a shirt, hat, lanyard, magnet, deck of cards, poster or any other item in the gift shop that commemorated this as “special inaugural event”, (except a cheap poorly made in China bag for 16 plus dollars) and for us it was supposed to be a special event for several reasons. We were celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary and as we have spent several others on cruises and enjoyed them tremendously we thought this would be a new and special type of cruise. We will spend our 50th on a cruise but unfortunately not with NCL. We thought this would be special because it was inaugural and we had heard how other cruise lines had made such a big deal of them leaving different trinkets and keepsakes on their beds each night and having memories of their “special” sailing. All we heard from NCL once we got aboard was how important their three day stay and promotion in New York City and later Miami was going to be: How they were going to wow all of the Travel Agents, Tour Directors, and Dignitaries. The Hotel Director Jovo Sekulovic even joked about this being a soft opening at a Meet Your Officers event. It was not a soft price we paid for the cruise!

This was our first TA. We have decided it is not really for us. Although we like sea days 10 was a little too much for us. Perhaps if the weather had been different we could have use the outdoor spaces more.

Beautiful new ship! They are still working out some kinks.....but that is to be expected on an inaugural cruise. The casino is huge and the smoking area was very nice. But smoking areas on the rest of the ship need to be increased. I don't smoke, but the smokers were very unhappy. It was a transatlantic cruise and only one area on outside deck was available to smoke. I was part of a large group with a number of smokers.....and they need better areas to smoke. But it was an amazing trip!

This was our first Norwegian cruise. Don’t know why- we have been on over 40 cruises, mostly with Holland America. The Bliss is beautiful. I loved the smaller “complementary” dining rooms - Taste and Savor. We started out with the huge Manhattan dining room and liked the service until we ran into a problem with our wine package. I hope they get this computerized. We had the “stubs for the open bottles we had, but the wine steward made me go back to my room to get my receipt. Luckily I found it. But that was just a small glitch. The other “glitch” was rude cruisers who used the Observation Area as a place to take a nap, curling up on the sofas and chaises with their blankets. After a few days of that, the daily When and Where posted a plea for cruisers not to use the area as a bedroom. Perhaps the clientele is the biggest difference between HAL and Norwegian. It would be unlikely for older passengers who like bridge and classical music (HAL passengers) to be taking naps in public areas. I also must say that I liked the food better on Norwegian, although when all is said and done, it is probably better if I don’t like the food that much!! All in all, go on this ship if you get a chance.

Maiden Cruise, Ship/Crew performed like seasoned veterans. A shame the ship will be Alaska based instead of Europe.

It was just a preview of the ship, so it is sort of hard to give it a "this is how it works" review. But you certianly can see what NCL was trying to do with the Bliss. You were certianly "WOWED" when you got on board and throughtout the process. When you cruise you want to do things you do not normallly do. Crab legs in the buffett? Yes! Decadant Desserts in COCO's? YES! Casual eating environment in The Local? YES!

Great new ship with excellent entertainment and crew, we wish we were staying on to go through the Panama Canal.