icicle

Hi, If you have a chance I'd love a copy of the map.

g3n3ric3mail33@gmail.com

Thanks a bunch!

We me made a 10:45 flight at FLL with plenty of time to spare on a Sunday during spring break with 8 ships at the port. 

We cruised last week for spring break. The majority of the teens we saw (including my own) looked well put together and neat, even when in casual clothes. Once we visited the islands, a lot of teens were wearing shirts from the ports of call. 

11:30

Don't wait to book excursions, especially if you want to do any kind of helicopter tour. Most excursions will sell out months before the cruise, even privately booked ones, especially if there are other ships there the same day as yours. 

Thanks everyone!

 

And we go around 6/6:30 so that we aren’t at a peak times.

We are going on bliss ...

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

On the Bliss 6-8 is peak time. You might want to make reservations, especially if have a bigger group otherwise you may find yourself waiting just to get a table.

I just looked at a ton of cruises for Spring break and finding a balcony room that could accommodate 5 was rare. Most ships only offered ocean views for 5. (NCL Bliss, HAL Nieuw Statendam (2 showers!), several carnival ships)

MSC Seaside had a family double balcony that was pretty reasonably priced. It is two connecting balcony rooms. It's a little tricky to find on their website. Search for a room for 2 and when you get to the room selection page, change your passengers to 5 and it should show up.

We chose a different cruise based on itinerary. My parents are coming with us so they are taking one of the kids in their room.

To those that prefer any time dining...how big of a party do you travel with? Does it work with a larger party, say more than 6? We just sailed with NCL and found we needed to have reservations anyway with a party of 9 or the wait was long. Kind of felt like it defeated the purpose of "freestyle" since we were limited by the times available.

Our next cruise is on carnival and I picked early dining for our group. I think most of our party will enjoy having the same waitstaff and our schedule is set so we don't have to worry about coordinating plans. Somehow I'm always in charge so it takes the burden off me. :)

Maybe you need to clarify...I assume with a group that large you'd be breaking into smaller groups and following a schedule? That's the only way I can imagine a pub crawl with that many people working on a cruise ship.

Pools are heated on the Bliss. We cruised what I think has been the coldest, rainiest week of the summer and my kids swam everyday that the pool/slides were open.

We sailed on the Bliss to Alaska in late June. Our family had a great time. There was plenty of entertainment and things to do but sometimes the ship felt packed. My daughter is 11 and she wasn't crazy about the kids club. Like she would go, but reluctantly. She did always seem like she had a good time once she went.

We met a couple on one of our tours that was cruising with Princess (maybe the Star Princess?) and they said there was not any kind of night life and activities fizzled out after 10. That was definitely not the case with the Bliss. We'd tuck the kids in and then find plenty of stuff to do later than we could possibly stay up.

If anyone in your party has limited mobility and needs to use the elevators, the Bliss may be frustrating. Lots of complaints about the number of elevators and access to them. We used the stairs our entire trip. It wasn't worth waiting for the elevators for us.

Can someone share the email they are sending their info to? Thanks!

NCL Bliss has Jersey Boys. We really enjoyed it!

So I just priced out a bunch of different cruises for spring break for a group of us. I can tell you exactly why Celebrity didn't make it as a possibility for us -- prices for 3rd and 4th guests were higher than fares for 1st and second. The only cruise line more expensive was Disney. I guess if you only have couples it would be a more competitive option.

Does anyone know if the Manhattan dining room has a live band playing dinner music? On the Escape, they had Jazz, Latin and easy listening type music and people could get up and dance but I thought I read somewhere that Bliss is not doing this.

Thank you.

No band on Bliss and no room to dance.

“I am booked on the Bliss for 9/22-29, and just an fyi if you book Teppanyaki for the 5:30 seating you will not be able to book the 7:30 show for Jersey Boys online. It's billed as a 2hr dining experience ending at 7:30pm and the computer says you have a conflict with another item scheduled for that time. We'll need to hurry once onboard to get our theater tickets!”

 

 

Can I reserve some specialties at 5pm or 515 pm to avoid this conflict? I noticed some open at 5? Or is 530 the earliest you can book?

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

5:30 is the earliest you can book online. You may be able to call and book for an earlier time.

BirdTravels, can you please tell me what deck is used to embark on? My brother and I want to make Kart reservations as soon as we get on board however, we'll have my 87 yo dad (mobility issues) with us and want to try and get him seated and settled somewhere so we can run to get signed up.:o

 

I would appreciate any advice you could give.

You can make go cart reservations at any of the touch screens near the elevators. Get you dad settled somewhere then find a free screen. When we boarded everyone was lining up behind the first screen they saw. We just went up a floor and found one with no waiting. You and your brother could always split up. Just make sure you have both keys if you are in separate rooms. It only takes a few minutes to book.

No. Our room had the bed near the balcony and the fold out couch near the doors. The oceanview family rooms that sleep up to 5 would have additional seating. I think they have a fold out couch in addition to the regular bed.

We were on the June 23 sailing and we definitely had some rougher sea days. Both sea days we had a lot of side to side motion that left some in our group feeling pretty queasy. The captain (someone?) even made an announcement that just because The Bliss is big doesn't mean it won't move. I think a lot of passengers were surprised by how much motion we felt. We definitely had moments where there was enough motion that you couldn't walk in a straight line down a corridor. Hopefully our experience was an exception...

Great review! Thank you!

We board Saturday with a large group and lots of kids. How do the go cart and laser tag reservations work? Like shows where I can only book for those in my cabin or like restaurants where I can book for a bigger party?

I really appreciate the info about the heigh restriction on the go carts. How tall would you guess for a minimum height? My youngest is 54". Will 6" taller than the minimum be enough?

Glad you called!

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

Me too!! Really glad I was following this thread. Huge thank you to whoever mentioned the pricing! I'm going back and checking prices for the rest of our excursions.

Are you sure it's the exact same excursion? Sometimes they will have 2 or 3 variations of the same excursion. Some might be longer or include something more.

Yes, same excursion. I called and they rebooked the excursion for our family of four. Refunded me $248!

Entertainment is available to book by calling NCL for Bliss 6/2 sailing. :D:D

What shows are you able to book? Havana and Jersey Boys? Are reservations available for the Cavern Club and Comedy Club too? Or those are first come first served? Thanks! First NCL cruise. :)

I think we know a lot of it. Whenever NCL closes the window to make upgrade bids, they accept the highest bids for the number of available cabins (i.e., if there are 7 available cabins, the top 7 bids get their bids accepted). I would assume if there are several bids of equal amounts, they are prioritized by who bid first, but I don't know that part for sure - there might be a different sorting mechanism at this step. Once the pool of accepted bids is finalized, the computer randomly assigns the winning bids to the available rooms - nothing else is taken into account. Not Latitude membership, not the amount of the bid (as long as it makes it into the "winning bid" pool), not number of people in the room, not how "good" the new room is. I've seen no evidence that there is anything more that gets considered than amount of bid and number of available rooms.

I agree that it is not as simple as taking the top bids. You are not taking into account room occupancy/capacity. Both room capacity and overall ship capacity will affect which rooms receive upgrades. In some cases, it may be better to free up an inside with 4 people, for example.

Are there ping pong table on the ship?

Just checked my reservation for Bliss in late June and "Onboard Payment Preference" has been added as step 5 of 6. It was not there when I did online check in a week ago.