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Luxury section of ship or Luxury Cruise ships?


Travelcat2
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This question has been asked periodically on this board as well as the General board. As a 14 year luxury cruiser (31 cruises on Regent and 3 on Silversea), I am currently on NCL's newest ship - the Bliss - staying in a Haven Penthouse.

 

First, it is only right to say that we are invited guests on this christening cruise of the Bliss and are doing a 3 night cruise. The ship was christened on June 30th in Seattle - it's new "summer home". The ship is approximately half full (it holds 4,000 passengers) and the passengers are mostly TA's, the media, friends of family and special guests (one special guest for the christening was the Governor of Alaska). So, it is fair to say that this is not necessarily the "typical" NCL guest mix (few children, etc.). NCL is not charging passengers for alcohol, water, juices, specialty coffees, specialty restaurants or even service charges (aka tips) or special shows.

 

Due the short length of this cruise, specialty dining reservations and theater reservations were made for everyone.

 

Rather than reviewing the Bliss, I want to make comparisons between the luxury section of a mainstream cruise line and sailing but forgive me if I get off track a bit as this is truly an amazing ship (photos to follow this weekend).

 

Our suite is one of the larger PH suites in the Haven because it is a "handicapped" suite (no - thankfully this is not a requirement for us but we do appreciate being in such a large, lovely suite). The suite compares well against similar suites on Regent and Silversea. The bed and bedding are lovely, the bathroom is spacious (but with less storage that luxury ships) and the balcony is a good size. The toiletries are Bulgari (no choice of other brands). There is an issue with noise traveling through walls. In our case, there seemed to be doors slamming periodically throughout the day and night. One reason for this could be automatic doors. Our suite has one but it could be to allow wheelchairs into and out of the suite without the necessity of holding open the door.

 

As you know,mainstream cruise lines have the space to have multiple restaurants and lounges. I believe this ship has about 13 specialty restaurants and many regular restaurants. There are also several regular restaurants in addition to a Starbucks and Margaritaville (both of which typically have charges to dine there). The best dining experience that we have had is at Le Bistro - a French restaurant with amazing food and service (definitely equal to any luxury cruise ship). Despite the size of the ship, a decision was made to not have very large specialty restaurants. Their Teppanyaki (misspelled) restaurant - like Benihana's seats 60 which would be about the average amount of guests that we have seen in specialty restaurants on luxury cruise lines. The only rather large specialty restaurant venue that we've seen is their Smokehouse BBQ restaurant where will dine tonight. Again, photos of several restaurants and some menu's will be posted later.

 

The Haven also has their own restaurant and lovely lounge for guests to hang out and relax in during the day. At this point I need to mentioned that I have been quite outspoken on the Luxury boards about not wanting to be in an environment where there is a "class system". The class system is alive and well on mainstream cruise lines and on some premium cruise lines. Now, actually being on a huge cruise ship - even with half of the ship empty, I can see why people want to stay in a private area (but this has not changed my view of everyone being treated the same on luxury cruise lines).

 

Many areas of the ship are stunning - the atrium has a very large chandelier that somewhat reminds me of the atrium on Regent's Explorer. Really lovely area. The Observation Lounge is the largest that I've ever seen. There are lounges to lay on while watching the sea go by. While I consider this lounge nicer than on some luxury ships, luxury cruisers would not be saving these lounges with towels, etc. that is typically done by the pool. Passengers also are taking naps, etc. and it somehow seems strange to see this. OTOH, for those of you that have sailed on Regent, part of the Observation Lounge is like the Coffee Connection (but better). There are various types of food, salad, soup, juice and coffee (no barrista) - just in case you are hungry.

 

To be continued (going to check out the 2 deck car racing area where there are no reservations left but we're going to check it out anyway).

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Had to take a photo of the peanut brittle! There was also caviar but I didn’t get a photo. In my opinion, this compares favorably to luxury cruise lines

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

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0e403c3d763adc2ac6f0ab3c8fa13488.jpg

 

The stage during christening. Remote locations to watch were in different places around the ship. When the champagne bottle broke, it showed up on the big screen.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

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I tried to acknowledge earlier that this is not a typical cruise. I assume that the service and food is at least close to normal and the ship and staterooms/suites are not going to change between today and tomorrow (when it sails to Alaska on her first “regular” cruise).

 

orchestrapal, thank you for your kind words. I am also surprised at how much we are enjoying this cruise. I’m posting so many pictures so that other posters can see the food and the ship and can make their own determination as to how much like luxury it is (or isn’t). To be fair, only The Haven is considered luxury and the rest of the ship is mainstream.

 

Must admit that we are having a second childhood while on this mini cruise (eating every sweet and fattening thing in sight and drinking a bit too much which we likely have not done in at least 30 years).

 

We leave the ship at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and will drive 100 miles home so there will be a break in my posts.

 

My DH and I frequently envision the ship with another 2,000 passengers which will likely include 100+ children And it is not something that we would enjoy. But there are some positives that we will miss when we return to Regent.

 

I’m not done with the comparisons and I will hopefully have a conclusion at the end so stay tuned. Time for our BBQ restaurant experience.

 

P.S. Texas Tilly - I only have stated reasons why I do not care to sail on Crystal - have not said anything negative about the cruise line (unless stating facts is negative). The suite that we are in on a NCL ship is larger than most suites on Crystal...... that is really surprising. And, NCL has had open seating way before Crystal did.

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