Jen731

I sailed the bliss in June with a group of 13. Around the time that booking opened for dining reservations, we were Advised to email our dining requests to specialeventsbliss@ncl.com. I sent them our reservation numbers along with our dining location and time requests. It took a few weeks but they finally emailed us back and everything was arranged with no problem. Our confirmation indicated that due to our large group size that we might have to be split into tables near each other, but that was not the case once we got on board. When I got to my room,I had a letter reminding me of all the reservations for our group waiting for me.
 

Most of the big groups are assigned the Manhattan dining room if they want MDR because they have room for lots of long tables. 13 was not a problem. However, our meal took forever and we traded our Manhattan reservations for Taste or Savor; they did a much better job with our large group.  Teppenyaki- obviously you can’t squeeze 13 into a table for 8. But we had group table seating at Cagney's and Q. We were always seated at rectangular tables and so were all the other big groups I saw. 
 

Have a great cruise!

Of course tastes vary from person to person, but I thought that the pizza from the buffet was tasty! It is infinitely better than the cardboard ncl was serving on our last ncl cruise 9 years ago. We had told my daughter how she could eat pizza every day if she wanted (she was 8, it was a big deal) and then one bite into her first piece and she was over it. If an 8 year old won’t eat pizza, you know it’s bad.  This time around my youngest begged for buffet pizza every day, and I reluctantly tried it, was pleasantly surprised, and went back for more for both of us! 

I didnt have a burger on our cruise but the ones in Taste and Savor for lunch looked yummy. And my extended family really liked the ones from The Local. 

13 hours ago, seanan2 said:

We've cruised many times but on other lines (Princes, Holland & Royal). What is muster like on NCL?

Thx in advance, 

Nancy

Boring. We were smooshed into The Local, and I mean smooshed. Early folks got chairs, the rest of us stood shoulder to shoulder.  Muster was just a series of announcements over the PA system. I think crew did a live demo of the life vests but we couldn’t see from where we were. 

1. Pools are definitely open as soon as you get on the ship, but the waterslides weren’t. We brought our swimsuits in our carryon bags, luckily for us but the time we got out of lunch our staterooms were open so it was easy to change and go grab some sun. 

2. Taste and Savor are open and we loved eating there on boarding day. The service is very fast and food is great. The Local is open and also has delicious food and a fun space.  Margaritaville is open as well (for an extra charge). 

3 & 4. You’ll go to The Social for all these sign ups. It’s not a quick line, be prepared for that. 

I posted a copy of all the recent Freestyle Dailies when I got off the Bliss, feel free to take a look! 

We had no issue whatsoever. Didn’t bring any clothespins. Quite dark with the curtains closed. The one night we didn’t close the curtain completely we knew about it at 4 am when it started getting light, but we usually have our curtains wide open at home so a little light doesn’t bother us. 

6 hours ago, riverhikerva said:

Resurrecting this one - can anyone chime in with additional color commentary?

 

I will be hiking for a week before my Alaskan cruise on Norwegian. I'm bringing larger bags of nuts, moon cheese, peanut butter pretzels to refill the small ziplocs I'll carry while hiking.

 

How strict will NCL be about me having some leftover snacks that I'd like to use as hiking snacks during my excursions and port visits? (all in AK and everything I'm bringing is also allowed into Canada) I plan to carry on my suitcases. An open 1-pound bag of nuts would probably get stopped, right? How about small ziplocs of snacks in the pockets of my hiking pants or in my backpack? If they find food will they then tear my bag apart to get it all?

 

And while I have ya...I want to fly home with a 12-pack of cans of Alaskan kolsch. I know I have to check it into security until I disembark. But it sounds like I'd have to buy it in a port, right? I can't check it in when I embark?

 

Thank you!

The Freestyle Daily says no taking food or drinks off the ship. Having said that, no one checked anything leaving the ship and coming back on board I think they were just checking for bottles of liquids. We brought back cookies and popcorn - lol. 😂 

I wanted to add, I had this letter waiting for me when we got to our room on Day 1. By booking ahead we were able to get most of our dining around 6 pm, but it looks like they will be happy to help larger groups if you don’t mind dining a little earlier. 

On 6/19/2019 at 9:36 PM, sagrs said:

Thank you so much.  I have 2 requests. 1- a copy of the fitness club schedule and cost for classes. 2. let me know how hard go Kart times are to get.  Have a great cruise!!

Here is your fitness class schedule! 

On 7/10/2019 at 11:26 AM, tokidoki said:

cant wait thx😍😍😍

Okay, I got the Freestyle Dailies, kids club schedules, and even the menus I managed to get uploaded. I posted in a separate topic.  Here you go!

Just for fun, I’ll throw in the MDR menus I caught on my phone. I didn’t get them all, sorry! Kids menu is included too. 

Splash Academy & Entourage 

Day 7: Victoria

Day 6: Ketchikan

Day 5: Glacier Bay

Day 4: Skagway

Day 3: Juneau 

 Day 2: At Sea

By request, here are the Freestyle Dailies from our recent cruise to Alaska. I wanted to offer these in a separate topic so they are easy to find! Please let me know if there are any issues reading them, I tried to light them well and they look fine on my device, but if they are too dark, I can try again. I also did not include every insert with the jewelry offers, laundry, etc but if you have a specific request let me know and I’ll upload them. 

Day 1: Sunday (Seattle)

On 7/10/2019 at 11:56 AM, Srosenthal said:

Yes, there sure is! We did not participate so I can't comment on price.

There are two mini-alleys attached to The Local on deck 7. It’s $6 a game. The kids started the games by themselves so I didn’t see all of it, but it looks like 2 people at a time can play and there’s a time limit for each frame of 20-25 seconds, so it’s not a leisurely game, you have to be focused and paying attention. Probably good to keep people moving in their games, though. 

On 7/10/2019 at 3:40 AM, xcell said:

I heard that the laser tag is free on the 1st night for teens who sign up in the teens club.

 

Is that true?

Great question, my kids didn’t make it there the first night because our dinner took so long, but the teen schedule I have had laser tag night on Thursday. I can’t say whether they charged the kids' rooms or not. 

On 7/10/2019 at 8:04 PM, SEAGURRL said:

We're looking at the Bliss for Alaska so appreciate the input.  Since the kidlets are all young (8yrs and under) we'll probably avoid the specialty restaurants.  Thanks!

Totally up to you, but the two younger kids *loved* Teppenyaki (never been so full in my life!) and they enjoyed Q smokehouse quite a bit as well because the room is so cute and the food was so tasty. 

14 hours ago, Lduane1815 said:

Can you view the glaciers from your balcony or do you have to go upstairs onto the deck

 

You can 100% see the glaciers from your balcony. BUT keep in mind if you’re starboard, you won’t see them first. The ship moves toward the Margerie Glacier and it appears first on the port side. The ship is moving very slowly toward it, then stops for a few minutes, then turns 180 degrees and stops for another 20-30 minutes.

Then after leaving Margerie Glacier, the ship heads toward the Johns Hopkins Glacier. You’ll have a map from Glacier Bay park service the night before and can follow the ship's location on the screens. We had perfect views of Johns Hopkins Glacier from our balcony, the the ship turned around to exit the inlet. On the starboard side, we then passed the Gilman glacier, Hoover glacier and the Lamplugh Glacier. The passengers on the port side would have seen those on the way into the Johns Hopkins inlet. 

The photos below are of the Margerie Glacier, a long shot of the Johns Hopkins glacier, and the Gilman glacier, all take from our balcony. 

15 hours ago, Montykins said:

We are traveling with 10 people.  Would love to know the tricks of getting an earlier group number.  Is the trick to just ask? 🙂

 

What is the escape room?  

He just asked with a wink. My brother is one of those people that just asks and gets what he wants. I don’t know what else to say! 

The Escape to the Big Top is a puzzle based challenge that takes place in the Q Smokehouse around late morning/mid afternoon. You are in a group of 10. They introduce the challenge for the day and you are given a bag of props/puzzles to solve. There are also stations throughout Q that have posters or props that help solve the puzzles. It is a 45 minute activity, family friendly (I suggest teen and older just to be able to work the puzzles), and a good mental challenge!

15 hours ago, madre2 said:

Great, Great review.  We will be on the Bliss this fall.  One question...do you suggest scheduling dining times in Taste, or Manhattan for dinner ahead of the cruise (and if that can be done, how do I do it), or can a party of 5 just have a short wait for a table if we just show up whenever we want to eat.  Thanks for your advice!

Someone else may need to help me out here... You can reserve specialty dining ahead of time, 120 days out if I remember correctly. I think we could only reserve the main dining room because we were a large group? Having said that, you *can* reserve in any of the 3 dining rooms through the app once you get on board. You can also definitely just show up, I saw plenty of people waiting standby to be seated. I would suggest Taste or Savor, the line for the Manhattan both nights we were there was long. I doubt it took long, I think it was more just walking people to available tables. I think you can also use the touch screens to see which eateries have openings and what the wait times are like. The Local never seemed to have long waits and they are super yummy with nightly dining specials (I was very bummed we couldn’t stop by for schnitzel night). The ship staff really pushes the buffet too, they hold signs with the nightly specials for each night (Alaska night, seafood night, prime rib night, mixed grill night). 

Day 8: back to Seattle 

The deboarding announcements started at 6:45 so even locals like us in no hurry to get off the ship had no chance at sleeping. They were also quite a few decibels louder than the normal ship announcements from the week. Yes, we get it NCL, the cruise is over. 

I was getting off the ship with my parents, who were port valet service and were told they absolutely had to be off the ship by 8 even though their flight wasn’t until 5:30. So we got in line around 7:30 and it was a disaster. The line on the stairs barely moved for 30 minutes due to “congestion in the terminal” and when it did move, it moved down to 7, around the local, and then out the doors. I finally got through customs and out the door by about 8:40. Man, the grumbling and complaining during the wait was quite loud. And what’s worse is we weren’t even halfway through The Local when they started calling color groups to join the queue. 

In any event, we made it home before 10 and had many, many, many loads of laundry to do while we pondered back on out great week on The Oasis. I’m happy to answer any questions and will try to get the menus, dailies and schedules posted by this weekend. I told my husband, when we finished our week on the RCL Oasis, I remember feeling like it was fun but I was ready to go. I was sick of the crowds and elevators and lines. But I was not ready to leave the Bliss Sunday, I felt like there was still so much I hadn’t explored or done. I will say this, it’s Wednesday and I still feel like I’m full from last week. 😂🤣 Thanks, Bliss!!