A Bliss-full Alaskan cruise

This was our first cruise to Alaska. We sailed with NCL aboard the Encore previously- so we were already familiar with the amenities aboard the Bliss - an amazing cruise ship! Embarkation: Flawless. This was really the fastest, most efficient embarkation we experienced with NCL to date. From dropping off our luggage to boarding took maybe 20- 30 minutes. Very fast. Cabin: We had a balcony cabin and it was quite comfortable with amazing views. We usually choose inside staterooms but Alaska deserved a cabin upgrade. Entertainment: Non-stop. From live music, to shows, wine tastings, trivia, bingo, casino etc - there's never a dull moment. Dining: NCL dining venues are all very good. Buffets are not my favorite kind of venue but for breakfast the omelette station was my go to - delicious and made to order. I never have a bad meal on NCL - it's all good. You don't need to spend extra on specialty dining but if you do, Cagneys, Teppan-yaki, and Le Bistro are worth the splurge. Tip: you can order a Cagneys steak from the menu at Manhattan room, Taste, or Savor for a reasonable upcharge. Itinerary: We knew this going in- that the Bliss had short stays in each port including the obligatory stop in Victoria (to comply with a 100 year old law) from 8pm to midnight. Excursions: mostly expensive, We opted for a guided tour in Sitka, rented a car via Turo in Juneau, whale watching in Icy Strait, and a Seaplane excursion in Ketchikan that was canceled due to rainy weather. NCL has a very efficient way to get everybody back on board. In the past, chaos because it was a free for all with extremely long wait times for an elevator. Now NCL has dedicated express elevators manned with employees to quickly take passengers up. Very efficient. NCL also now offers "Port Valet" and will check your bags all the way to your return destination. This makes disembarkation very fast, easy, and convenient. You no longer need to drag your bags off the ship!

8 days/7 nights to Alaska

We really enjoyed our time on the NCL Bliss this past week. The ship is in great condition and we had no problem staying busy with the amount of activities going on while out at sea. We saw Icons, The Beatles Experience twice (this was just okay imo) Jersey Boys twice and otherwise spent a lot of time in the hot tubs despite the rather bad weather. Making reservations for Icons and Jersey Boys was easy but it was unfortunate that the shows were fully booked but a lot of empty seats were left after the shows started. We ate at all of the complementary restaurants at least once and our favorite was Manhattan Grill. Our least favorite was American Diner but it wasn’t bad, they just had odd hours and the food wasn’t the best quality. The buffet was fine. We mostly went or the crepes and pizza occasionally. (We didn’t eat at any of the specialty restaurants nor did we ever order room service). The ports were all pretty short so that was a disappointment. I could have skipped a port or two for longer port times in another port. Our favorite port was Ketchikan due to easy access to Tongass National Forest and our least favorite port was Sitka, the city seemed ran down and we were bored after a short time in town. Sitka NHP saved the day for sure. We saw dozens of coastal brown bears, mostly in Hoonah, a few black bears, dozens of eagles, dozens of humpback whales and several orca whales as well. The embarkation was super easy and doing your muster drill as you embark made the process a lot faster. We had our luggage by 1200. We chose self disembarkation so we were off the ship by 0715. We stayed in adjoining studios that had a common door between the two. Since I went with my girlfriend we used one studio as storage and slept in the other. The shower is in the room itself so keep this in mind if booking a studio. Our steward was great at taking care of our needs.

Great time for a first cruise

We just recently returned from the first Alaska cruise of the season on the Norwegian Bliss. Overall: this was my very first cruise, so judge accordingly, but I enjoyed it immensely. Some of the pros were definitely the food at most of the included restaurants like Taste, Savor and Manhattan, absolutely buy the drink package if you do drink, a balcony is a must if you can afford it, bring binoculars, a ton of entertainment, and the crew was very pleasant, friendly, and helpful. Some cons were being the first ship out about 80% of the stores etc at the destinations were still closed for the season or had hours that didn’t coincide with the ship arrival and some of the premium restaurants had food that was not as good as those included in the cruise and still cost extra. I would say the biggest let down was Cagney’s. I did read prior reviews here and they were correct. The steaks were not well seasoned, the lamb ordered was chewy, the menu read there were truffle mashed potatoes but when we received truffle fries instead and asked for the correct item we were told this was the only item not just that they didn’t have any more (and I did recheck the menu on the way out and both were offered). I was also missing the maitre’d butter that was the topper of the steak and received a small ramekin of it instead. The wait staff however were very good, did try to correct as much as they could, and were very apologetic. I personally felt that the steaks at the Manhattan and even at The Garden were better (lower expectations maybe?) The hibachi at Teppanyaki was good though and the atmosphere was fun and engaging. I was disappointed by how slow the service seemed and felt maybe they were overwhelmed. When we would request items they had to be requested several times. It seemed they took forever clearing the dishes and bringing the dessert as well. I ordered a second drink while the meal was still being served but didn’t receive it until after dessert. That all being said I would eat here again if given the opportunity, it was fun and the food was good. I was traveling with friends who luckily had a balcony room and will definitely make sure to get one in the future on a trip like this. Definitely necessary. Otherwise, the boat was fantastic and I would definitely cruise Norwegian again.

Beautiful, bubbly Bliss!

We loved this ship and the transatlantic crossing that took the ship on its way to dry dock for renovations. There were a lot of solo travellers onboard and people wanted to keep occupied and organised group activities in addition to those offered by NCL. I organised the official Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle with 10 officers attending and 150 guests. The general manager provided light refreshments for the group and this was apprieciated as this is not standard practice for NCL now and at the discretion of the management. The group enjoyed the officers input and we held a raffle with prizes from some of our hometowns. I have to say the management onboard was top notch and responsive to requests. I also held a duck exchange with 47 people. This went well and was a lot of fun. Others organised slot pulls, water colour painting workshops and book clubs. I attended my first ‘Roper Romp’, a bar crawl organised by another passenger, it was great fun dressing up and there were so many of us we split into two smaller groups! I also joined in with two poker bar crawls again, organised by a guest and these were also good fun. Yet another guest ran an ‘Impro’ introductory workshop. This was also great fun to meet others and try new things. There were almost daily LCR games held and these had numbers averaging 44 people per game so lots of prize wins and a lot of laughter along the way! These were also led by guests. The ships entertainment was also good. We thoroughly enjoyed the Beatles Experience from Argentina. We went to all their Cavern shows and the theatre ones too. I enjoyed every single song and thought they were friendly too. The Elton John trio called ‘This One’s For You’ were also really good. They were all so talented and their two different shows were very entertaining. The parties were fun and there were many silent discos that were also great. The other entertainment, two bands, Siglo and Temperature band, and a couple of pianists were also good. The cruise director, Richard was the best we’ve ever had. We ate a lot in the buffet as we were so busy going from one activity to another that we needed to fit in food around our busy schedule! We loved the Asian area in the buffet and often found delicious stir fry and rice or noodle dishes. We also had five dines in Specialty restaurants and enjoyed Los Lobos and Le Bistro the most returning to them both during our 13 nights onboard. This time, as we knew we would be kept busy, we didn’t book a spa pass. We did have one for our Alaska cruise in May in the Bliss and then we enjoyed the views from the front of the ship. This time the views were mainly sea so we enjoyed that from our balcony instead! The captain decided to an avoid a storm, miss a port, and keep us comfortable. We were so grateful for this as, instead of heading to Azores we sailed further south avoiding all the bad weather, we enjoyed calm seas and glorious sunshine! This was so welcome and a real treat for us in January. Our cabin was kept clean and all staff onboard were friendly and hard working. We met some fabulous people onboard, both workers and guests. The worst thing was the queue for two hours to get a board but I think this was caused by lack of staff on the baggage carousel in customs. There was just one guy, overseeing the tray filling, then screening bags, checking contents if flagged! Also, some reported needing the print out of their ESTA for entry into the ship. We had ours printed and it was looked at. The night before we had endured a nearly 3 hour wait to get through customs at Miami airport too! Everything else was great. I wish bottled water was included in the drinks package and not a separate package. We get it included in our MSC cruises and in lots of ways we prefer MSC yacht Club experience but for a lively, entertaining, fun cruise with lots and lots of sea days this was unbeatable! If you want to read in more detail about my cruise and see photos, I write a ‘Live Report’ and here’s the link. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/3042491-live-report-from-norwegian-bliss-january-4th-to-17th-transatlantic/ In conclusion, would we sail with NCL again? Absolutely! We have some perks being Sapphire Lattitudes and having the Beatles onboard some ships draws us too. For us though, generally we like MSC for the Italian food but certainly do like the differences NCL offers. We usually do an annual cruise with NCL and look forward to the next one!