Just off the bliss yesterday

[cruiselover19811981]

Not really sure why people were complaining about the Bliss on here, so thought I would post what our family of 4 experienced (in addition to my parents/inlaw's opinions who joined us this past week).

 

Service/Cleanliness/Staff on the Bliss - top notch! No complaints on service in the MDR's, or in regards to cleanliness of our room, or the ship itself. Our room steward was AMAZING! He was great to our children, ages 8 and 10 who took a liking to him pretty quickly. They enjoyed our daily chats with him. The service was always impeccable. Pleasant staff, over the top genuine kindness and dedicated, too.

 

Food on the Bliss - we only ate in the Main Dining Rooms, and had made reservations each night for dinner, only because we were a group of 8 and wanted to be sure we could eat together each evening. We are of Italian descent (my parents and inlaws all born in Italy), so we were curious as to what our parents would think of the food - - - our family of 4 had sailed Escape 2 yrs earlier and enjoyed the MDR's, but were waiting to see what our "picky" parents would have to say. They all enjoyed the food, no complaints. They were actually quite impressed with the options and the quality of the dishes. Both sets of parents had sailed on other cruise lines, but they really did enjoy the food on this ship.

 

Pools on the Bliss - we did make use of the pools/slides despite the Alaskan itinerary. The hot tubs were full on the last day, but this didn't bother us as we don't utilize the hot tubs anyway. We enjoyed the aqua racer once again, as we had enjoyed it on the Escape as well.

 

Elevators - people complained about them on here prior to our cruise. My mother in law had a knee replacement and utilized the elevators frequently. We just used the stairs all day long from our room on deck 13 to anywhere, and most often would beat my mother in law to whichever deck we were going to, even when it was time to eat on decks 6 and 7. However, this isn't really a complaint, we all felt it was normal on a vessel carrying 4,000 + passengers and perfectly acceptable.

 

Observation Lounge - this is what made this ship a smidgen better for our family over the Escape. We never had issues staking out a spot. In fact, we spent a lot of time in here, particularly with the parents/inlaws. We enjoyed the light lunch spread that was provided each day in here as well. Excellent location for us to view the glaciers and whales altogether.

 

Did our kids make use of the bowling/arcades? Yes, but not every single day. They were content with our early excursions, then gathering back in the observation lounge for some family time, lunch and r&r. Never bored.

 

Overall, great ship. Our second NCL cruise. We are cruising Royal next summer, as the New England sailing they offer is during the summer when I am on vacation, but our family is definitely looking forward to trying out the upcoming Leonardo class NCL is coming out with. Any questions for upcoming cruisers, please do not hesitate to ask.

[BirdTravels]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review! We though the Bliss was wonderful too.

[cruiselover19811981]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review! We though the Bliss was wonderful too.

 

Thanks to you for answering my q&a prior to our trip. You had replied to me several times, and provided great tips/info, even in other threads that we had read.

[FLAHAM]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review! We though the Bliss was wonderful too.

 

I, also, really appreciate your review. Increased my anticipation of my upcoming cruise.

[cruiselover19811981]

I, also, really appreciate your review. Increased my anticipation of my upcoming cruise.

 

Enjoy yourself, Flaham! This was our first time to Alaska, but glad we were able to do it on the Bliss! Also, there is some type of chowder out each day. You can find it either on the pool deck, or in the observation lounge (either salmon chowder, clam chowder or seafood chowder).

 

Another tip....on cooler days, we sat out on the Waterfront under the big, comfy blue blankets we were able to get from the towel exchange kiosk on the pool deck. This was a tip I had picked up from Cruise Critic cruisers who sailed Bliss before us!

[maggieq]

The bliss has now become a contender for Alaska next year. 1.it sails from Seattle; which is easier for us to fly to 2. It cruises through glacier bay. So I have to ask how is the smoke on this ship. We have never cruised NCL before but I have read complaints about the smoke on the larger NCL ships. We are also looking at princess and HA for glacier bay. However, they do not sail round trip from Seattle. Thanks!

[tallnthensome]

Thank yo for the review, sounds good. Sailing with our 9 and 11 year old daughters on the Bliss on the Panama Canal in March and it's nice to read good reviews with those traveling with kids like us.

[Gottagonow2018]

First Timer Question:

Sounds like an honest review, thank you.

 

My wife is concerned about noticeable movements of the ship?

 

Did your family purchase any of the drink packages? Is it worth it? If we don't drink alcohol beverages?

 

Thanks

Sail date September 22, 2018

[cruiselover19811981]

The bliss has now become a contender for Alaska next year. 1.it sails from Seattle; which is easier for us to fly to 2. It cruises through glacier bay. So I have to ask how is the smoke on this ship. We have never cruised NCL before but I have read complaints about the smoke on the larger NCL ships. We are also looking at princess and HA for glacier bay. However, they do not sail round trip from Seattle. Thanks!

 

We did walk past the casino area many times throughout the week, and never really noticed the smoke. Perhaps once I noticed it, but again, walking past. We didn't utilize the casino area, and never smelled it when visiting other parts on the same deck. A non issue for us.

[cruiselover19811981]

To Gottagonow2018 re the movements of the ship and the beverage package:

My wife is concerned about noticeable movements of the ship?

my mother was pleasantly surprised that for the size of ship, minimal movement was felt (we were all on deck 13). Parents/inlaws each had an inside, midship cabin and my family of 4 had a family, oceanview stateroom which was located forward and just directly below the bridge (one of the circle windows you see outside of the ship when looking up). I get carsick easily, but with a patch, was fine all week long. I simply wear one as a precaution. Our children were both fine, too. No need for gravol or any other type of motion sickness remedy for them.

 

Did your family purchase any of the drink packages? Is it worth it? If we don't drink alcohol beverages?

I am going to be honest about the beverage package. My husband and I have discussed this since we got off the ship yesterday. We agreed that perhaps next time, we should just purchase drinks a la carte, or a wine package solely for dinners, as we have done on a previous cruise. We did not drink enough to make it worthwhile. Yes, it was convenient to have the alcohol, as we do love a glass or two of wine with dinner, and we did have an occasional afternoon drink. However, we did not drink 4, 5 or even 6 drinks a day. When we booked way back in Jan. of 2017, we got to choose 2 perks. We chose the beverage package and the $50 onboard credit for 1 person for each excursion booked. This allowed us to end up with virtually a $0 balance at the end of the week, and that was after I spent $40 on 1 bingo session, a couple of rounds for the GoKarts, and a couple of arcade visits. We even purchased a couple of photos. Excursions and gratuities I had prepaid from home ahead of time. Anyway, I digressed...back to the beverage package...we found we would have been better suited to use this in the form of a different perk...but didn't want to choose the dining package with our parents joining us...they did not have the dining perk, and the point of this was for all 8 of us to eat our dinners together each evening. They all booked after us, and only got to choose 1 perk, as they were booking an inside cabin. They did all 4 make good use of their beverage package perk. While they by no means drank excessively, they did enjoy themselves. They would have a couple of glasses of wine each in the afternoons, a before dinner cocktail, and then a couple of glasses of wine during our dinners, followed by a late night/show cocktail. So a bit better used by them, than by hubby and I.

[mrgoalie]

Anyone that has been on the Bliss that has/had a level 9 mid balcony room, I would appreciate your thoughts. Good location?

We're on it in October '18

Edited August 20, 2018 by mrgoalie
Spelling

[PATRLR]

So I have to ask how is the smoke on this ship. We have never cruised NCL before but I have read complaints about the smoke on the larger NCL ships.

Bliss was without question the least smokey cruise ship I've been on. Smoking areas are very limited and isolated. The problem with similar ships is the casino's central location and thus you are unable to avoid casino smoke. On Bliss, the smoking casino is enclosed/isolated so you don't even notice it.

[ppcox]

The bliss has now become a contender for Alaska next year. 1.it sails from Seattle; which is easier for us to fly to 2. It cruises through glacier bay. So I have to ask how is the smoke on this ship. We have never cruised NCL before but I have read complaints about the smoke on the larger NCL ships. We are also looking at princess and HA for glacier bay. However, they do not sail round trip from Seattle. Thanks!

We sailed on the Bliss in June and the “smoke” issues were much less than the Escape or Getaway. The smoking section of the casino is completed partioned off ( I made the mistake of entering once to see if a machine I like was available quickly came out again) I didn’t notice smoke anywhere else .

[gambit57]

The pools AND the water slides are heated? Was it super chilly emerging from the waters? Are they open a lot of hours?

 

And does the Starbucks onboard accept gift cards?

[CleverFirst]

How was your embarkation and debarkation experience? What time did you embark and debark?

[Gracie/petty]

Did they have a seafood buffet any night? I’ve heard it’s on Sunday night in the garden cafe. You gave an amazing count of your journey. I’m boarding September 1.

[cruiselover19811981]

We embarked by 11:30a.m or so and disembarked by 9:30.

 

Yes - seafood buffet is Sun evening in the garden cafe, we went. That was our only dinner in the buffet, all other dinners were in the MDR's

[cruiselover19811981]

We were abnormally lucky the week of Aug 11-18. Minimal rain, warmer temps. We used the pools/water slides 4 days. First day in Seattle, the next day at sea, then Thurs at sea & Fri before Victoria. Pools warm like bath water. Cooler air when you get out, but just have your towels ready. Hot tubs were packed like sardines. They aren't my thing, anyways so didn't care about that at all. We never use them.

[cruiselover19811981]

Mr. Goalie

Deck 9 mid will be a good location. Mdr's are on decks 6 & 7. Deck 8 is the observation lounge, and decks 15/16 are pools, buffet, Go Karts. We were on 13 & loved taking stairs all day up & down. Hence why we didn't gain any extra lbs. But the elevators are there if you need them. We just felt we would beat the in-laws to deck 5 or 6 from 13 when they took elevators, also thought we would leave them for those who really need them.

[littleboy]

Did anyone eat either lunch or dinner in the obrtvation lounch and what did they have.a.?

[cruiselover19811981]

So we ate lunch & "tea time" snacks in the Observation lounge pretty much every day after returning from our early excursions. They had a salad bar, tuna/chicken salad sandwiches, hummus, crackers, pita and veggies, a couple types of focaccia, always a chowder (either clam, seafood or salmon) and some fruit, as well as a dessert station, water/coffee/juice station. Hint...hubby wanted to grab us all a round of water from the observation deck one night to have in our room, but they shut it down...so he had to run up to Garden Cafe instead

[gambit57]

Oooh, that's a great idea. Some tuna salad and chowder after being outside sounds delightful! I should probably eat some salad or fruit... but I know I probably won't. :D

[cruiselover19811981]

Gambit57 there is "fruit salad" in there, which we had on the side :)

[MyTMo777]

Would you happen to know if you can redeem your Starbucks reward stars for free drinks onboard the Bliss?

 

Not a huge issue, but I started saving up mine for our November cruise, but if they don't take them, I need to use them up or some of them will be expired before I'm back on land!

[cruiselover19811981]

I didn't try to redeem anything from Starbucks, although we treated kids once. We are Canadian, thus I didn't try to redeem gift cards, etc because I figured ours wouldn't work either way. I could be wrong