Semi-live from the Bliss - Mexican Riviera - Feb 11-18

[laudergayle]

8 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

This may be my new favourite Platinum perk. I was met at the Manhattan Room by a CruiseNext rep, who walked me directly to the tender. No waiting. Amazing.

Well they sure have improved the Platinum tender process.  Our cruise in November there was almost a mutiny with a room full of Platinum +.  The entire tendering process was a total cluster.  

[OrcaGirl]

I will post the final sea day recap and disembarkation process once we get to the airport, but allow me two rants:

 

**** you to the dude and his wife acting like COVID and Norovirus aren’t a thing and were just grabbing food in the buffet with their bare hands. So awesome how you touched like five pieces of bread to grab the one you want to put in the toaster, instead of using the tongs that are RIGHT THERE.

 

I am not a fan of the Lord of the Rings survival of the fittest elevator situation on disembarkation day. No letting people in wheelchairs or walkers go first, no letting people waiting the longest go next. Just a madhouse.

[decrepit old man]

How close were the whales in Cabo? Like were they close enough to see clearly without binoculars? Also which side of the ship were they on?

[schmoopie17]

On 2/16/2024 at 10:14 PM, donnamatrix said:

I miss the eggs benny. 

I don’t eat eggs, benny or otherwise. Eggs are nasty.
 

But as much as I hate eggs, I love clever usernames…and yours is one of the best.

 

Edited February 18 by schmoopie17

[9tee2Sea]

22 hours ago, decrepit old man said:

How close were the whales in Cabo? Like were they close enough to see clearly without binoculars? Also which side of the ship were they on?

the whales I saw were not really close, but you could see he head when they breached the water, or see the tail when they were going under.  You could see the shinny hump of the back when they popped.  Look for a swarm of boats, all going fast in the same direction.  They are tracking whales.  The best place to see them was just a bit off the Arch.  You can see them without binoculars, but it was WAY better seeing thru binoculars.  I purchased a great pair of binoculars onboard using my OBC

( NCL credit card gives a nice OBC for a 15 day cruise)

[hallux]

23 hours ago, decrepit old man said:

How close were the whales in Cabo? Like were they close enough to see clearly without binoculars? Also which side of the ship were they on?

I was on the cruise prior to this one, we had some close enough that you could hear the 'blow', but by the time I got up (I was sitting on the Waterfront) to see they had gone under and didn't come back up in view.

[OrcaGirl]

Okay, perfunctory day 7 at sea recap.

 

 

Starbucks? Probably. Breakfast in the buffet. Still no bennies, hash browns or waffles, which were my three favourite breakfast things.

 

Popped down to 6 to change our Los Lobos reservations. I had made a reservation via the app for me, mom and Red, just minutes before the Fox and K confirmed they would be able to join us. And then I couldn’t change the reservation, only add a new one for 5 people. But somehow I ended up with three reservations? A quick visit to Teppanyaki took care of that.

 

Afterwards we took mom up to the thermal spa, and got her settled on one of the comfy chaises facing the ocean. While she rested, I was checking out walker / rollator options for home.
 

 

 

And then all of a sudden — a THUD. A man had slipped and gone down hard in the exact same spot as my mom. Fortunately he wasn’t injured, but also that meant no incident report was generated. One of the thermal spa attendants with a squeegee mop asked him his room number, but that was it. 

 

On my way out to grab a drink, I told the front desk staff what had happened, but it shouldn’t be me reporting this. 

 

After we were sufficiently spaaaaahed, we got changed and headed to the Observation Lounge for a light lunch. Good chicken salad croissants.

 

We hustled (as much as one can in a wheelchair) down to the Atrium to meet the Fox for Deal or No Deal. (Avid readers may remember that I got selected to play Deal or No Deal on the first cruise I took with the Fox)

.) Alas, we won nothing but a free photo. 😂

 

We headed back to the room for a rest and to do some pre-packing, which mostly consists of me staring at all of our **** and wondering how I’m gonna make it all fit.

 

Mom and Red were enjoying a nice afternoon nap with the sun steaming into our cabin, so I left them there and went to join the Fox and K for the final bingo and win a cruise raffle. We did not have any luck, although at one point the Fox was the only person left standing for the raffle … until the last two numbers and someone else eventually clued it that it was their ticket. Quel dommage.

 

The Fox and I then headed to Q to pick up our ‘confiscated’ liquor. We felt like such naughty ladies.

 

Then it was time to finally get packed. Amazingly, most everything fit.

 

We got dressed and headed to Los Lobos, meeting the Fox and K there. I still had one of my platinum vouchers, and they had one single FAS meal. So we ordered for three people but shared among five. And we still left food behind. The tableside guac remains a favourite, but the ceviche shrimp (appetizer) and tomatillo shrimp (entre) were excellent. The pork Al Pastor tacos were just okay, flavourful but chewy. Everyone declared the tres leches cake as the best dessert of the cruise. The not-actually-beignets were just okay.

 

And — with everything going on — I forgot to tell the hostess that we didn’t want a birthday cake for mom. We were STUFFED. 

 

We sent the Fox and K off to the Observation Lounge for a solo vocal performance by one of the Six performers, while mom, Red and I retired to our cabin to finish packing.

 

Tomorrow: the adventure of getting home.

 

Random Observations:

 

If someone was missing luggage with medical equipment in it, why did the notice only arrive on the last day?!?!

 

[OrcaGirl]

Disembarkation day wrap-up

 

What a cluster*&$#…

 

Never my favourite day of a cruise, this time is was 10x worse trying to manage the crowds with the wheelchair and trying to figure out where we needed to go.

 

We got up, got dressed, left a very nice extra tip for our room steward, and headed down to deck 6. That was my first mistake.

 

It was a 30 min wait for the MDR (actually only 15, we later learned from the Fox and K) and at this point we didn’t know how delayed disembarkation would be, so we didn’t want to wait. So we headed to the Atrium, and I ran up to the buffet to grab mom some toast and watermelon. That was my second mistake. 

 

The buffet was of course packed, and here is when the ‘touch all the toast’ dude really pissed me off. And the toaster wasn’t really working so I had to send my (untouched by random a-hole) piece of bread through three times and it was barely even golden. Then I tried to take an elevator down from 16 to 6, but after ~10 minutes or so of full elevators or people arriving after me taking any available space, I gave up and took the stairs down.

 

After giving mom her breakfast, I decided to walk up to deck 7 and figure out where we were supposed to go for wheelchair assistance. Except the aft stairway and central stairway were blocked off, and the forward stairway was full of people awaiting the ‘easy walk’ announcement. I tried talking to one staff member to find out his suggestion for getting to the Local for wheelchair assistance, but he wasn’t any help. Sort of a shrug and just try to get through.

 

Finally self-assist / easy walk was called; seemed like many, many more people chose that option than I’ve seen on past cruises.

 

Our plan was to head up to the Local once the colour before us was called, but by the time it was and we said our goodbyes to the Fox and K, our colour (orange) was being called at 8:52.

 

We headed up the nearest elevator bank and sort of merged into the line heading towards the Local. But when we got to the split point, the staff dude there basically said ‘you’re almost there’ and waved us on our way. And that was my third mistake, not listening to my gut and saying ‘no, we were specifically told to go to the Local for wheelchair assistance.’

 

So we basically cut the line (although everyone was very gracious about it), and got to the doors within minutes. Except this was the point that we actually really needed wheelchair assistance because I wasn’t going to be able to maneuver mom in the wheelchair across the disembarkation ramps. The lady ushering people off the ship was really trying to keep the line moving, but I dug my feet in and she called over her manager, who called for a wheelchair attendant to meet us there. It took about 10 minutes, and at this point, I was starting to sweat making our flight (which was for 12:40pm).

 

So the wheelchair attendant arrives and was fantastic, and we disembark… only to discover a loooooong line for the one (?!?) elevator to get down to the luggage hall. It seemed to be split in two, with people using NCL wheelchairs and attendants got priority over people in their own wheelchairs or with just a f***ton of luggage. 
 

 

At the entrance to the luggage hall, our NCL wheelchair attendant had to leave us (union rules). So I took over pushing mom (still in NCL’s wheelchair, which seemed weird) towards the luggage. 

 

In my entire lifetime of 20+ cruises, I don’t think I’ve ever used a porter, but this seemed like the perfect time to start. We flagged one down, and Red found our luggage for him to load. And having access to the porter line for immigration was handy. A quick facial recognition later, we were heading out of the building.

 

The porter brought us to the ‘ADA pickup area’, which, you know, seemed like a logical place to be at the time. Unfortunately it was also crowded and chaotic and staff kept yelling to move forward, move forward, and more than one passenger was having a very cranky morning.

 

At this point, I called the first of the two phones I was given by Guest Services. It was very hard to hear her, and for a while she couldn’t find any record of us. Eventually, though, she told me to go find Mario or Dabby (?) by going up to the stop sign and using the crosswalk to the far aisle. Which, doesn’t seem to be super accessible with a wheelchair and luggage. So I left mom and Red with the luggage and went to find where we needed to be before dragging everything and everyone over.

 

I don’t know if I was expecting someone holding a sign or what, but I couldn’t see any vehicle that looked accessible, so finally I approached a staff person loading the NCL airport busses and basically cried “I need help.” And she pointed behind her and said “that’s Mario in the long coat.” Not sure how I was supposed to figure all this out.

 

Mario told me to bring my party and our luggage to this location. So back I go, and tried to navigate the disembarkation crowds with the wheelchair and our bags. I tried to flag down a porter who had just dropped someone else’s bags off but he waved me off. So we get over to Mario, and still no one was told us what type of vehicle to expect. 

 

After several more minutes of confusion, Mario gets in touch with our eventual driver, except his vehicle was in the middle aisle, so we had to drag everything across the crosswalk again.

 

It took another 20 minutes to get mom transferred from the ship’s wheelchair to the transport van’s wheelchair and safely loaded into the van and strapped down. I’m glad we didn’t have more luggage as it just fit.

 

 

And then we were off. I hope NCL got their wheelchair back, I guess?

 

 

I was feeling better as we reached the outer edge of LAX about 30 minutes before the luggage drop deadline for our flight. But then our driver ‘took a shortcut’ and we ground to a halt. After many, many minutes of not moving, other people were actually getting out of their Ubers/Lyfts/taxis and pulling their luggage down the ramp and across the busy lanes in front of Terminal 5. Obviously not an option for us.

 

After much honking by everyone, the driver at the front of the traffic jam was persuaded to ignore the ‘no turn on red’ sign (the light hadn’t changed colour in over ten minutes) and merge forward, which got us moving again and we arrived at our Terminal.

 

My husband (with his good Air Canada status) had theoretically arranged for a wheelchair to be waiting, but they looked at me like I had two heads when I mentioned that. But anyway, a wheelchair arrived ten minutes later, we were able to get her transfer from one chair to the next, and released the transport van driver.

 

I shan’t bore you (too late?) with the rest of the transport shenanigans, but suffice it to say: travelling with a disability is a b*%$&.

 

But we got to Vancouver, spent the night, and then flew up today on a small plane that actually went smoother than yesterday’s business class adventure.

 

We just pulling into the farm now, and my momma will likely never let me talk her into a cruise again. 🤣

 

If anyone has questions, fire away and I’ll answer over the next couple of days.

[OrcaGirl]

Oh, the only hash brown I got all trip… 🤪

 

[NW Pacific]

I am so amazed how you handled everything,  You have a reserved spot in the beyond for you for sure.  Hope Mom recoups comfortably at home.   

[Frogger22]

Thanks for this semi-live despite your mom’s injury! I had my 76 yo mom and dad in bliss thermal suite over new years. Fortunately all was okay. Did your mom slip on wet floor or maybe hit one of the loungers? They have parts that protruded a bit into the walkway. We are heading on Viva next and excited to check out that thermal suite. 

[OrcaGirl]

5 minutes ago, Frogger22 said:

Thanks for this semi-live despite your mom’s injury! I had my 76 yo mom and dad in bliss thermal suite over new years. Fortunately all was okay. Did your mom slip on wet floor or maybe hit one of the loungers? They have parts that protruded a bit into the walkway. We are heading on Viva next and excited to check out that thermal suite. 

 

It was slippery tile right in front of the hot tub. Thank goodness she didn't bonk her head.

 

Over the week, in addition to my mom falling, two other guests also slipped and fell in the spa just that we saw. I can't imagine how many others have.

[JamesIowa]

10 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

travelling with a disability is a b*%$&.

 

@OrcaGirl I often cruise with my elderly mom who uses a (portable/foldable) mobility scooter. So much planning is needed, especially given that only 1 person can handle the luggage. Wrangling the luggage from the car to airport check-in, baggage claim to car, car to hotel, hotel to porter at pier. Flight and airport logistics, getting to seat on plane. Ground transport. 
Point is I have plenty of time to plan and remediate. First class air so easy to get on/off, plan for her to have handicap accessible cabin, figure out in advance what’s needed to get luggage from point a to b, bringing a portable walker in case scooter fails, just in general a chance to lay it out in advance to keep from getting overwhelmed.

It is very impressive how you persevered through this large, unexpected challenge and still had fun.

Def have my vote for the 2024 Suck it up Buttercup award. 

 

[OrcaGirl]

11 hours ago, NW Pacific said:

I am so amazed how you handled everything,  You have a reserved spot in the beyond for you for sure.  Hope Mom recoups comfortably at home.   

 

Ooh, I'd definitely take a reservation on the Beyond... great ship. 🤣

[doubledown_58]

Great trip report. Glad mom got to enjoy the cruise.

 

Do you have the Dailies for day 2 and day 3?

 

Thanks

[coolrider71]

If I have balcony cabin on the Bliss which side of the ship faces the Arch in Cabo while anchored?

[hallux]

39 minutes ago, coolrider71 said:

If I have balcony cabin on the Bliss which side of the ship faces the Arch in Cabo while anchored?

Nothing is assured, the ship could rotate while anchored (it did when I was there in 2019) so you may not always face the arch.  When I was there earlier this month the port side of the ship kind of faced the arch when I was able to see (when I wasn't on my excursion)

[FBegg]

2 hours ago, coolrider71 said:

If I have balcony cabin on the Bliss which side of the ship faces the Arch in Cabo while anchored?

We faced the Arch/rocks upon arrival on our Nov Bliss cruise👍. By the afternoon, the ship had rotated and we were no longer facing the Arch/rocks. We were on the port side. Hope this helps.

[cruiser2015]

2 hours ago, hallux said:

Nothing is assured, the ship could rotate while anchored (it did when I was there in 2019) so you may not always face the arch.  When I was there earlier this month the port side of the ship kind of faced the arch when I was able to see (when I wasn't on my excursion)

Same for the sailing before yours in January.

[Yesimapirate]

@OrcaGirl out of curiosity,  how was NCL with you guys after your moyour's injury?  It sounds like the crew themselves were helpful but was management accommodating or were they more interested in not accepting blame for fear of litigation?

[OrcaGirl]

8 hours ago, doubledown_58 said:

Great trip report. Glad mom got to enjoy the cruise.

 

Do you have the Dailies for day 2 and day 3?

 

Thanks

 

No, I was so entirely focused on my mom that I didn't even think to download them.

[OrcaGirl]

8 hours ago, coolrider71 said:

If I have balcony cabin on the Bliss which side of the ship faces the Arch in Cabo while anchored?

 

As others mentioned, we rotated so we started the morning facing the beach but by the time I reboarded the ship around 10am we were facing the Arch. We were portside.

[OrcaGirl]

4 hours ago, Yesimapirate said:

@OrcaGirl out of curiosity,  how was NCL with you guys after your moyour's injury?  It sounds like the crew themselves were helpful but was management accommodating or were they more interested in not accepting blame for fear of litigation?

 

So, we felt the medical centre staff were wonderful, our room steward was great, and all of the dining room and buffet staff were great at finding us a table to accommodate the wheelchair. I was not impressed by the Guest Services staff or the communication for disembarkation procedures. I'm also annoyed that we got two fruit baskets with a 'hope you're feeling better' card, but only the doctor from the medical centre actually followed up to see how she was doing. We never received any follow-up from either the thermal spa manager or the security team regarding the incident report while on the cruise.

 

We received a call from Norwegian head office yesterday, and that's all I'll say about that until I have something to report.

 

Re: my mother, we're still waiting to get in to see an orthopaedic surgeon here in Canada to get her looked at and get a better idea of recovery expectations.

[Yesimapirate]

That's quite disappointing.   The headaches after an accident are often as painful as the injury.   I wish your mother a speedy recovery and you an easy experience with what you're going through. 

[Andoria]

I'm glad your mother is okay. You had quite the cruise.

 

I sailed with my elderly parents at the end of October on the Escape. My dad uses a rollator and still managed to fall the first night in the men's room. A guy in a wheelchair was able to call for help. My dad thought he broke a rib(didn't). I love my dad but I told him our cruising days together have ended. It's too much work and worry and the opposite of relaxing.

 

I sail with my 81-year-old mom at the end of April. I bought her the thermal pass for Mother's Day. Now I'm worried about her falling. Are you allowed to wear water shoes? Any tips you can think of for me to keep her upright?