NevadaCruiser2023

Hello, fellow Cruise Critic folks. As the title said, we're just back from the Norwegian Bliss Mexican Rivera cruise out of Los Angeles. First and most importantly, if you have mobility issues or social anxiety, I would think hard about choosing this particular ship for your cruise. According to the agent who checked us in, the cruise had 5,000 passengers this week. The official passenger capacity is 4,004, but I think we exceeded that. Let's assume the agent was being hyperbolic and the count was 4,004 passengers on the nose. The Bliss has 16 passenger elevators, a ratio of 1 elevator for every 250 passengers. The elevators are located fwd. and aft. There are no midship elevators. If you have mobility issues and must take the elevator everywhere, prepare to wait at least 15 minutes for an uncrowded one. It was so ridiculous that people in the elevators were closing the doors when they stopped at a floor without waiting for someone to attempt to enter. Some elevators looked like clown cars, and people kept popping out. If you have issues with being cooped up in a small box with 20 other people, think hard or consign yourself to using the stairs. If you are a smoker (I'm not, but my wife is), be warned that there are only 2 areas on the Bliss that accommodate you. The casino has a smoking area (but you have to be actively gambling) and a small section in Spice H20 on deck 17 starboard side. The cigar lounge does not allow cigarette smoking. We had dinner at 3 specialty restaurants: Los Lobos, Ocean Blue, and Teppanyaki. Los Lobos was underwhelming, and we didn't finish the food. The queso fundido, did not use queso asadero as the cheese. I think they used something like white cheddar, which melted atrociously and was just a big blob of hardened cheese. It didn't get better. I would never recommend this to anyone. Ocean Blue, however, was a completely different story. Everything was perfection. We were able to eat on the "waterfront" as we were leaving Mazatlán, and it was great! The Crab Cake and Tuna/Avocado Tower apps were fantastic, and the roasted beet salad was delicious. My wife had lobster, and she loved it. The new champagne on the P+ package (Pommery Brut Rose) was outstanding. The black sea bass with white wine lemon butter was mighty tasty, too. Teppanyaki, we did it on the final night of the cruise. While the food was excellent, the pitter-patter routine of each of the chefs was precisely - word for word - similar to each other. Our chef arrived as the one on the opposite side grill was finishing and we heard the same jokes and songs and "impromptu" actions all over again. Our chef wasn't as naturally funny as the other guy, poor guy suffered by comparison. The people next to us got their meal comped because (apparently) their scallops were not fresh. We had chicken/steak and shrimp, so can't speak to scallop-gate, but apparently, they were convincing enough for the manager to take care of them. I'm not a big fan of scallops myself, so if it's not fresh, I wouldn't be able to tell. Let's see - the Garden Cafe was good for a quick breakfast in the morning before an excursion or a bite to quiet a rumbling stomach, but we didn't have full-blown meals in there. Good Soft Serve Ice Cream though, but I'm a heathen and will eat any soft serve without discrimination. The Local was very good. We never had a bad item of food, and it was a great place for lunch most days. The room steward situation. While I am sure our steward was a nice man, we only saw him three times in the seven days. One day, we saw him not at all. Our room was not attended to. He saw us entering and apologized for not being able to "get" to our room but promised to do it "first thing tomorrow." I don't blame him; I imagine he has probably twice as many rooms to clean in the same time span. Obviously, there is no turn-down service in steerage; not sure about The Haven. Last but not least - the Vibe Beach Club. A speck of tranquility in the chaos that is 4,004 or 5,000 other human beings in a confined space. Other than the fact that there were 6 people who made it their life mission to occupy the sole hot tub for (maybe) 16 hours straight, the VBC was good to grab a drink or just hang out for an hour or so. During our cruise, it was either too cold or too hot to stay for an extended period since the hot tub was unavailable. We are probably missing a few things. All in all, we won't be sailing on the Bliss again. This was our first ship that accommodated this many people, and it was not for us. I heard from Ben and David that the MSC Yacht Club may be the way to go. I'll just be sure to leave my camera at home. Ciao.

It has to be America-owned to do that. A foreign-owned ship transporting passengers has to comply with the Passenger Vessel Services Act. Although, if they come back to the same port, it may not be applicable. CFRs are not light and easy to read.

I'd recommend you check on the day final payment is due for your cruise.

Not concerned in the least. I don't think a cruise ship has been the victim of a terrorist attack since the Achille Lauro in 1985 and that was in the Med. Besides, with the sizes of cruise ships nowadays, it's quite possible that you'd never know it was hijacked. 😀

You might not want to. We ate in Luminae every night. The food and service were spectacular and the MDR would have (probably) not hit those standards. I think you'll find the same in Blu. You can always order off the MDR menu if you want to try that food.

Just be assured that any new contract language will benefit Celebrity.

Yeah, we just stopped by the muster station once we got our sea-pass cards after boarding. Checked in and on to the Martini Bar. All in all, took less than 5 minutes.

Actually, that's a good idea, never thought of the port agent info. I'll remember to snap a photo of the daily.

They (the ship) have never asked for that "photo id" you allegedly need to get back on the ship,or into the terminal, you just flash your sea-pass card to the local security. Your seapass card, when scanned, pops a photo of you onto Security's screen. I've never taken my passport off the ship, talk about a nightmare that a stolen passport would be.

I don't think the table on the balcony is big enough for a full breakfast spread. Coffee for 2 with a few plates is doable. As to the room itself, I don't recall seeing any table in the room. You can always ask your butler how to go about it. They can maybe bring in a table, but it's not something we explored.

I do, but they're still in my phone and I haven't uploaded them yet. I can tell you that I was worried about that "bump" too, but the partition between the Royal verandah and 6102 was frosted and there was no way - absent them hanging over the edge of their balcony and then peering over their shoulder, could they see into ours.

The key word is "additional". You'll lose your non-refundable deposit regardless of when you cancel. If you cancel within those specific date ranges, you'll lose your deposit and then the additional % of the "Total Cruise Fare" (which is the amount BEFORE deposit is deducted from amount owing).

Hello all, We just left the Millennium a few days ago. We went for a Sky Suite and the Retreat Experience. First the good: We arrived in San Juan a few days early and stayed in Old San Juan. If you can do so before a cruise, highly recommended. Embarkation: We arrived at the Pan American Pier after Hotel Check out (around 12:30pm) on Saturday. The Retreat Check in area wasn't as visible as it could have been, we checked our luggage into regular bag check before we spotted the Retreat Check-in. We told them where our luggage was and someone went over to the bag check area and retrieved our suitcases. From the moment we gave our passports to the agent at check in, until we were stepping foot onto the deck of the Millennium was 6 minutes and 30 seconds. ✔️ We made our way to our stateroom (6102 Sky Suite) and grabbed our sea pass cards, opened the door and dropped off our carryon. Luminae was still open for lunch, so we made our way down and introduced ourselves to the Maitre'd (the only time we had to the entire cruise) and was immediately seated at a window table. The food was outstanding as was the service. Prawn Ceviche and Seared Bronzino for me and Pea Soup and Lobster Roll for by DW. ✔️ I won't go into what we had every day in Luminae (except for Day 4 when we went to Le Petit Chef), however each day was amazing and on Lobster night, the lobster was regular sized (the table next to us got one from MDR and it was huge too). I also want to nominate for a nobel peace prize, the Yellow Beet Risotto. That was the best risotto I have ever had, even better than the Hells Kitchen Lobster Risotto. ✔️ Our Butler (Push), Room Attendant Arnel were great. We didn't really ask for much, but they dropped by several times a day to see if we needed anything. We always had a bottle of wine and cheese plates every day. ✔️ There was a downside and it's not really Celebrities fault. The retreat sundeck was always WINDY and not just a little windy, they could have performed aerodynamic tests of air-frames up there. It was never crowded, even on sea-day, we saw that maybe 10 people were up there. Kind of a shame, I think on the newer ships, the windbreaks are much higher than on the Millennium. ⬇️ Martini Bar was entertaining and the bartenders have the multi glass pour down to a science. But it wasn't something that we really felt we couldn't wait to get back to. I actually preferred the Rendezvous Lounge for a pre-dinner drink. Le Petit Chef was - interesting - but nothing like the video of it made it out to be. It was cute, but the food wasn't great and I didn't really get the sense that the plates were "prepared" by the little guy. The video makes it seem as though the little chef makes the food on your animation and then it becomes "live" when the waiters present the plate in front of you. It wasn't like that. It was a nice one time thing, but I don't think we'd ever do it again. ❌ The Sky Lounge had the rudest bartender I have ever experienced. I actually had to say "excuse me, what did you just say?" and she repeated it. I ordered drinks for us as there was no waiter in sight and she said "go sit down and someone will be over ". I felt like a child being reprimanded. I mentioned it and her in my after cruise review. We never set foot in the Sky Lounge again after that. ❌ ❌ I won't mention her name here, but that kinda ticked me off for a few hours. Overall: Loved the ship, loved the ports and the people were fantastic, except for the Sky Lounge bartender mentioned before.

Could you imagine the chaos were someone to trip over that cord? Mayhem!

I think Tesla is working on putting solar chargers in the ocean along the route, It'll take 1,500 hours to charge the ship enough to make it to the next charging dock, but hey, it's for the environment.