NCL Bliss: Provisioning a Ship for Thousands

[drwbrt]

After returning from a 5-night cruise to Mexico from LA we found that supplying a ship is a real challenge. This issue comes up a lot but we noticed some things we didn’t feel had been mentioned in one collective post.

 

One our sailing we saw supply issues on lettuce, other vegetables, ice cream mix, and paper towels. There were also some discrepencies in the available spirits on board.

 

Like any other cruise, our ship was furiously being loaded with steel baggage bins and pallet after pallet of provisions as we crossed the gangway. For whatever reason, our sailing was shorted on many things. 

 

We covered/discovered the fresh produce miss in another post about lettuce. There was a miss that happened in LA and was corrected in Cabo. The ship was short on lettuce and greens. This was noticed in the buffet at both the salad bar and the burger station. On the dock in Cabo we saw tomatoes, carrots, and onions, but mostly greens.

 

While we noticed this in the buffet, we didn’t identify it as a total miss. We thought it was bizarre. I was confused why there wasn’t any. It was well hidden. A salad ordered at an MDR would be missed; lettuce missing from the salad bar may look like restocking. This method of “hiding” the provisional miss became a theme. NCL did a good job of trying to minimize the impact to passengers.

 

On embarkation day we all enjoyed some soft serve in the MDR. By day two the mix had definitely been switched out. The soft serve went from creamy, light, and airy to a thicker, almost clay-like texture, with much darker chocolate than day one. We were resupplied with the original mix after stopping in Ensenada. They had another mix on board, even though they knew it was inferior. They tried to make the smallest impact to the passenger.

 

By day three we realized that there was a shortage on paper towels. The towels at hand washing stations and in the bathrooms became thinner. You needed more to get your hands dry. On day three we also saw toilet paper showing up in the paper towel dispensers on some bathrooms and at the observation lounge (pictured below). For the most part this was limited to bathrooms that also had a hand dryer option. The towels in the buffet seemed to be the top priority, as they should be. Again, NCL was trying to lessen the impact to passengers.

 

I also noticed some discrepancies in the drink list. I've uploaded the latest drink list and marked the drinks as green (definitely available on my sailing), yellow (I don't remember seeing this on my sailing), and red (I was looking for this on my sailing and it was not available).

DrinkListAvailability.pdf

[amby6063]

Haha we were on the same sailing. I noticed the lettuce and overall lack of fruit. I always look forward to big plates of fruit and some days there were only apples. 
My husband mentioned the toilet paper in the paper towel dispenser, I’m glad you got a pic because I was only half believing him, that’s pretty funny!

My big issue was overall cleanliness. It was nice to get a table by the window in the dining room, too bad we couldn’t see the water with how dirty the windows were. I won’t even comment on the state of the bathrooms by the buffet the last day in Ensenada, it was absolutely wild. Stinky too. 

[drwbrt]

39 minutes ago, amby6063 said:

Haha we were on the same sailing. I noticed the lettuce and overall lack of fruit. I always look forward to big plates of fruit and some days there were only apples. 
My husband mentioned the toilet paper in the paper towel dispenser, I’m glad you got a pic because I was only half believing him, that’s pretty funny!

My big issue was overall cleanliness. It was nice to get a table by the window in the dining room, too bad we couldn’t see the water with how dirty the windows were. I won’t even comment on the state of the bathrooms by the buffet the last day in Ensenada, it was absolutely wild. Stinky too. 

Sorry we didn't meet on the ship (though maybe we did). The windows were cloudy and hard to see almost everywhere on the ship.  That said, my balcony was cleaned while we were ashore in Cabo. When I woke the next morning, my balcony glass looked the same because of the seas spray. I was mid ship (closer to the aft elevators) and on deck 13. 

 

I do wish I had clearer views from the windows, especially in the buffet and observation lounge. I wonder if it is just challenging with the chop in the Pacific. It also could be a staffing problem. 

 

I didn't have the same experience with the bathroom cleanliness. I found them to typically be very clean. We laughed a lot about the urinal splash guard and air fresheners—they were very strong. The paper towels were really my only bathroom complaint.

 

I thought the cleanliness (both observing the ship and the crew at work) I would rank this NCL sailing above our Harmony OTS sailing in October 2022 and below our DCL Fantasy sailing in 2018.

[amby6063]

We may have met! It was a packed ship! The windows could be a pacific thing, but I don’t remember it ever being that bad on prior sailings and I’ve been on the west coast multiple times (most recent last April coming up to Vancouver). 
 

Uploaded photo is just one of the toilets I encountered by the buffet. Why there is a pen in there probably speaks more to the other people on board rather than the cleaning staff, but I looked in 4 stalls and this was the best looking one (which also didn’t have toilet paper). Funny for once it seems the men’s bathrooms were less of an issue than the woman’s, haha! 
 

We still had a great time though, although I’m not sure if I’m rushing to go back to NCL. We’re cruising to Cabo on Royal in April so that will be a good comparison! 

[New2cruise2022]

They were thoughtful where they used the paper towels. They put the best ones at the buffet washy washy stations and never ran out of them there. 
 

The toilet paper was functionally worthless as an alternative in the bathrooms, but did send the message “We don’t have the stuff in stock, it isn’t because our staff is lazy.”

 

The bartender in the buffet told me they were provisioned in Cabo but the oranges were different than usual (smaller) and warned me the fresh orange juice would maybe be different or not as good. It tasted great for me, but I didn’t mind the advisory. 
 

The windows were cloudy with sea spray (most notable in the MDR). It was surprising but I do think they run out of time trying to turn things over. The windows in the observation lounge and the buffet were clean with great views, either because their cleanliness was prioritized or those venues benefitted from being further away from sea spray on decks 15 and 16. 

[New2cruise2022]

On the drinks, Captain Morgan is resting his leg on a barrel on some other ship because he was nowhere to be found on the Bliss. Nowhere. EH Taylor must have been partying with the Captain, because he missed the Bliss as well. 
 

I had read some scarcity reports about royalty from Canada, but have no fear I saw full bottles of Crown Royal in most bars throughout the trip. 

[New2cruise2022]

Also, FWIW, I am a restaurant owner and I have experienced similar difficulties with nearly every delivery. Almost every time something is omitted, something less is delivered than what was ordered, something is substituted with a different brand or product. 
 

Rarely, if any, advance notice of these shortages is given. I can make trips to Sams or Costco to supplement shortages and missed deliveries. But my restaurant isn’t leaving port in a number of hours. 
 

Im not intending to be an apologist for NCL, but the supply chain issues post Covid are real. Whether they should be or not is an argument for another day. But it is hard to hold NCL responsible for many of those issues. Remembering, that there are probably only 2, maybe 5 distributors that could accommodate the volume NCL required to stock a ship. Because of the lack of alternative distributors, restaurants, ships, and hotels have little to no leverage with these distributors. You can’t threaten to take your business elsewhere because there is nowhere else to go. 

[Panhandle Couple]

Just back from the Breakaway.

We didn't notice any shortages, but they did a crew presentation "How to Run a Floating Hotel".  It was recorded and available the rest of the week on the ship's TV channel.

 

Lots of facts about amounts of food, and laundry done, etc.  One that I remember is that they estimated for 1,800 gallons of ice cream for the week.  And that was low due to fewer school aged kids for this week.

 

They do look ahead at future bookings and try to predict needs based on previous sailings with those age mixes.  But as you said, if a supplier lets them down at the last minute, very little they can do.

 

Their purchasing office must be working OT keeping up with all these problems.

[New2cruise2022]

26 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Just back from the Breakaway.

We didn't notice any shortages, but they did a crew presentation "How to Run a Floating Hotel".  It was recorded and available the rest of the week on the ship's TV channel.

 

Lots of facts about amounts of food, and laundry done, etc.  One that I remember is that they estimated for 1,800 gallons of ice cream for the week.  And that was low due to fewer school aged kids for this week.

 

They do look ahead at future bookings and try to predict needs based on previous sailings with those age mixes.  But as you said, if a supplier lets them down at the last minute, very little they can do.

 

Their purchasing office must be working OT keeping up with all these problems.

Nerd here. Sorry I didn’t get to see this crew presentation on our cruise. Sounds dry and fascinating. (There is no sarcasm here. I love hearing about this stuff.)

Edited January 29, 2023 by New2cruise2022

[Panhandle Couple]

15 hours ago, New2cruise2022 said:

Nerd here. Sorry I didn’t get to see this crew presentation on our cruise. Sounds dry and fascinating. (There is no sarcasm here. I love hearing about this stuff.)

 

It ran about 4 times a day on the ship's TV channel.  We never watched from beginning to end, but did get 15 min or so portions while changing, etc.  For every "why don't they do this?" questions, there are some good reasons presented.

This cruise never ran out of shrimp.  It was available every night.  Makes sense since NO is in the heart of shrimp fishing.  That wouldn't be the same in Seattle or Boston sailings. If someone compares the two, they would claim NCL is cutting back on shrimp when sailing from Boston.  But it is simply price and availability (and freshness) between the two.

 

[drwbrt]

22 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

 

It ran about 4 times a day on the ship's TV channel.  We never watched from beginning to end, but did get 15 min or so portions while changing, etc.  For every "why don't they do this?" questions, there are some good reasons presented.

This cruise never ran out of shrimp.  It was available every night.  Makes sense since NO is in the heart of shrimp fishing.  That wouldn't be the same in Seattle or Boston sailings. If someone compares the two, they would claim NCL is cutting back on shrimp when sailing from Boston.  But it is simply price and availability (and freshness) between the two.

 

This is a great comment.  It isn't always NCL out to stick it to customers. In fact, I would argue that they make every effort to avoid these shortages and minimize their impact.

 

I was really disappointed that a particular bourbon wasn't available. A little reflection though places that disappointment on circumstance rather than choice. I was so excited about this bourbon because I haven't had access to it in more than a year. I haven't had access because of supply and availability. I was encouraged by the "drink list", but I really shouldn't have been.

 

There is always an argument that NCL could update those lists and communicate better, but even then we don't know what they are hearing. @New2cruise2022 runs a restaurant and I know he is often told something like, "Great news, we got that item back in stock and we'll be delivering it with your next order!" only to find that item still missing on delivery day. He's still waiting for product from Coca-Cola after an initial request months ago. These issues happen at all levels, with all size of suppliers. My experience on Bliss last week was a cruise line trying to minimize impact to passengers for all of these supply issues.

[New2cruise2022]

I think this is less excusing NCL but painting a picture that in all likelyhood, there isn’t a restaurant or cruise line that is immune from the shortages and price increases. 
 

Everyone on CC that is buying eggs knows that once upon a time (not so long ago) they could buy a dozen eggs for $.79 to $.99. Now it is anywhere from $3.00 to $5.00 per dozen depending where you live. One place that NCL hasn’t shown any flinching is breakfast. Walk through the buffet. There is fruit, some French toast, some pancakes but the theme is clear in there: eggs, eggs, eggs. Poached eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets. Eggs were everywhere. 
 

Doing your grocery shopping will help you appreciate how much NCL actually is providing, and the areas where there is some understanding that provisioning for 4000 is difficult. 

[Laszlo]

I'm still amazed at the amount of consumables that go onto a ship in the amount of time given. A few years ago we had a day in port at Port Canaveral. I stayed on our balcony for most of the day. NCL used this port on this run to provision and fuel. At the end of the day I counted 35 45ft tractor trailers and about a dozen 24ft trailers. 

[New2cruise2022]

Just now, Laszlo said:

I'm still amazed at the amount of consumables that go onto a ship in the amount of time given. A few years ago we had a day in port at Port Canaveral. I stayed on our balcony for most of the day. NCL used this port on this run to provision and fuel. At the end of the day I counted 35 45ft tractor trailers and about a dozen 24ft trailers. 

I know! I watch this and feel like a 4 year old seeing a backhoe or a fire truck for the first time. Fascinated. 

[drwbrt]

5 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

I'm still amazed at the amount of consumables that go onto a ship in the amount of time given. A few years ago we had a day in port at Port Canaveral. I stayed on our balcony for most of the day. NCL used this port on this run to provision and fuel. At the end of the day I counted 35 45ft tractor trailers and about a dozen 24ft trailers. 

I watched the lines of tankers fueling Harmony OTS in Port Canaveral. That and the luggage, being distributed the hard way.

[Panhandle Couple]

On 1/29/2023 at 9:47 AM, New2cruise2022 said:

On the drinks, Captain Morgan is resting his leg on a barrel on some other ship because he was nowhere to be found on the Bliss. Nowhere. EH Taylor must have been partying with the Captain, because he missed the Bliss as well. 
 

I had read some scarcity reports about royalty from Canada, but have no fear I saw full bottles of Crown Royal in most bars throughout the trip. 

 

On our Breakaway last week, one bartender told us that the Captain was in the hold.  IE, delivered, but not sent to each bar.  The next day, yes, each bar had Captain Morgan Spiced Rum.  Probably not true by the end of the cruise, as it is a favorite for many (including my wife).

 

The Maltings bar will have the best selection of whiskies and Scotch.  Pool bars will not, although they were displaying Buffalo Trace on this cruise.