Fun, relaxing vacation on a half-empty ship!

Actually getting my room key was fine. I love, LOVE, the simpler/shorter/easier new Muster Drill process where you just go check-in right as you board the ship. Not fine, though: Directions to the port, particularly the onsite COVID test location and which order the follow the check-in process, etc., were NOT clear enough. Same issue for my November 2021 cruise on the Bliss, but here in New Orleans it sure seemed like even more people around us in the COVID Testing line were saying the same things: "We had no idea THIS is where we were supposed to go" or "Should we have waited to check our bags until after getting our test results?" or "Were you all lost too?" My mom and I ended up doing a LOT of unnecessary walking -- she made it with her bum knee, but clearly the NCL directions were unclear! Made it onboard in plenty of time, but the unclear process/locations was stressful. Embarking from New Orleans was cool, since you have to sail over 90 MILES down the end of the Mississippi River! What that means, though, is that drinks and other upcharges have to collect sales tax/other port taxes for HOURS after sailaway. The sales-tax signs were still on the bar counters until almost 10pm after embarkation, not a big deal but FYI because the casino is CLOSED that first evening, and every free drink will cost you an extra $1-$2 and any premium dinner would not be "free" either since they'd have to add tax. Not NCL's fault, at all! Just an FYI because most other embarkations don't take that long to reach international waters.

I'm only rating this 4 stars instead of 5 because the dining rooms had very odd, inconsistent hours throughout the sailing. Food on this sailing was noticeably fresher than my previous cruise, especially the desserts and everything at O'Sheehan's. The ship was not even 50% full, so only Taste was open not Savor (Manhattan Room was also open for dinner). In fact, except for the two Sea Days, one side of the buffet was roped-off and closed! That's how empty, EMPTY the ship felt! It was amazing to just walk-up ANYWHERE and have no lines or need to get a restaurant pager! Going back to the odd dining hours -- Taste was only open for lunch certain days, and Taste breakfast hours were really limited, some days only until 8am! I prefer to go to the main dining room for their good sit-down breakfast instead of the buffet/Garden Cafe, but some mornings we just had to go to the buffet or O'Sheehan's for breakfast because they had slightly longer hours. Breakfast sandwich at OSheehan's was one of the best surprises; it was really good! I love Shanghai's Noodle Bar! Went back almost every day of the sailing, especially on the Sea Days because the Noodle Bar was also open for lunch! I love watching them make everything fresh right behind the counter. The steamed dumplings were sometimes mushy, probably had just been sitting there a while and getting over-steamed waiting for someone to order them, but I LOVED the Spicy Seafood Udon bowl! It wasn't really udon noodles (and the "glass noodles" in one of the other bowls weren't actually glass noodles, either), but it was very tasty and there were BIG pieces of seafood in it! Highly recommend, especially if you go right at 5:30pm when they open so you can have something light to tide you over until your group goes to dinner at 8 or 9pm, Le Bistro was delicious for my mom's 65th birthday dinner. I highly recommend the Beef Tenderloin, medium rare, which pretty much melted in my mouth. It was perfect. Escargots were drenched in too much butter and garlic, but that's basically what it is anyway, right? Desserts were delicious. The comp slice of birthday cake our waiter brought was very pretty with moist layers inside, better than what I expected. Dinner at Moderno was delicious, and the Pao de Queijo was perfectly fresh and chewy! I'm glad the Breakaway still has Moderno; I really missed it on the Bliss since Los Lobos with its Mexican menu just doesn't seem as interesting as Moderno is!

Ropes Course was very fun! It was very windy on the last day at sea, but we enjoyed ourselves! I didn't realize it was free, since I had gotten used to the Bliss having more upcharges for that kind of thing. Glad it's still free! Waterslides were DELIGHTFUL with a half-empty ship and very few kids. Similar to my previous cruise on Bliss in November 2021, I rode each waterslide multiple times in a row with little or no waiting!

Only giving this 3 stars because "Six" the musical had to be cancelled, and "Burn the Floor presents: Wanna Dance" was surprisingly short. We were really bummed about "Six" because it's what we were most excited to see, but I know several things had to be altered on this sailing, and the previous week the shows had also been cancelled due to COVID issues. Burn the Floor was good, but it was only 45 minutes. I didn't expect it to be a different show than what I'd seen on the Epic a few years ago, so yay for variety! Joseph Reohm the comedian-magician was entertaining. Since Six was cancelled, he was booked in the theater an extra night instead. Comedian Quinn Patterson was very good! There was a lot of casual racism in the crowd and even in his own standup, as an African American comedian, which was a bit unsettling on the first night of the cruise. I hope Quinn doesn't feel like he has to be self-deprecating along racial lines in order to get a laugh. He did a very good job handling a number of audience callouts/hecklers as well. It was an odd first show of the cruise, but I would see him again! Dueling Pianos was fun. I was only in there about 20 minutes before going over to the nightclub, but clearly people were having a good time! The nighttime theme parties were okay. Weird since the ship was half-empty, so none of the parties looked particularly "crowded," but the SpiceH20 bartenders were definitely overwhelmed a few nights. The DJ in the Bliss Ultra Lounge was fine most nights. On the first night, several of us gays walked in after midnight and we were the only people in there; the DJ started playing some ABBA and a couple other dance songs, which was a delightful and fun response to who was actually in the room. LOL. We enjoyed it.

There were so few kids on this sailing that the Splash Academy was CLOSED! Wow! As a childless person, this was fabulous (LOLz) but I do hope that the families who did bring a few children were able to keep them busy with so few other children around!

Regina room steward was great! All three bartenders at Shakers martini bar were very good, and they handled a crowd pretty well each evening during the 8pm Friends of Dorothy meetup! Both Cristian and John at the Sail & Sustain bar (outside Shakers, deck 8 Waterfront) were very good as well -- they got people interested in the weird daily drinks with the recycled ingredients, and when I didn't like one of the daily drinks, each of them asked me some questions and made me something creative! The small size and personalization of the Sail & Sustain bar make it one of my favorite bars on the ship (tied with Shakers, because I love that Aviation martini)!

I actually like having the buffet in the back instead of the front! 6-7-8 Ocean Place as a design/layout concept is solid. I love the deck 8 Waterfront promenade areas! Having all the extra outdoor/Waterfront seating for the Deck 8 bars & restaurants has actually turned out to be a godsend during these COVID times! I love the Shakers martini bar inside Deck 8, but outside Shakers I sure did spend a lot of time at the Sail & Sustain bar since it was a lovely outdoor location.

I'm so glad we got our bid to upgrade from the standard Balcony to the Club Balcony (formerly "Mini-Suite")! Getting the bigger bathroom was great even though it was just my mom (65) and me (38); if there were 3 or 4 people in the cabin this is definitely something to consider so you have more space in there! The double-sink size was helpful, and although we didn't NEED the standard size tub, it was nice to have more space to turn around in the shower compared to the standard/tighter-spaced shower that the rooms usually have. The bed was comfy! My mom likes a firm mattress, so she felt it was a bit soft for her preference, but it was just right for me. It was my first time sailing with the beds separated as two twins instead of combined, but it worked out just fine and there was still enough space to walk around the end of the bed to get to the couch or restroom.

FAST and EASY! We purposely picked luggage tags for the latest disembarkation group (estimated time 9:10am) but the ship was SO empty and people were able to disembark SO efficiently that our group was already getting called at 8:45am! Be sure to go to the Dining Room for a good final breakfast, not just the buffet/Garden Cafe! Taste dining room closed at 8:00am, so we were seated at about 7:40am and finished breakfast about 8:30am. They don't rush you through breakfast but they definitely do cut off the seatings at 8:00 sharp, so any latecomers just had to go to the buffet instead.