HBCcruiser

Thanks for traveling along. If other thoughts come to me I’ll jot them down on here. Next cruise will be back on the Discovery Princess for a 4-day out of LA in February with San Diego and Ensenada for more great wine tasting. 🥂

Did I miss being in the Haven?? Not as much as I thought I would. Haven-light is a smart way to go if you cannot afford to book the Haven, which on this cruise was $$$$. We mostly had specialty dining for our dinners, used the P+ package, and used the laundry service. Using the Platinum perks helped too. Plus, we were so busy doing things with our large group that I did not have time to miss it. What I missed the most was the Haven restaurant, especially for breakfast. I also do love the bigger cabins. Having the Vibe bar helped me not miss the Haven sun deck and bar too much. We were able to find the bars that carried our favorite wines and brands and went back to them as needed. I would have loved to have the priority tender service, but other than that, I did not miss the Haven too much. If we were not traveling in a large group then I probably would have missed it much more.

The Vibe: Yes, it was worth it. During the hot weather and on sea days when the pool deck was packed it was nice to have the Vibe to enjoy the sun, hot tub and fun bar...and no kids. Pool: Vibe:

The Ship: The Bliss is a pretty ship. I love the large chandelier. The observation lounge is great and reminds me of the Prima Haven lounge a little. Yes it got crowded, but it was a good place to grab coffee in the morning or a snack in the afternoon. The waterfront is another great area to grab a drink, hang out or even watch a football game. We enjoyed sitting out there many times. I also love the fact that the casino is non-smoking! They do have an area for smokers but not having to smell the smoke throughout the atrium is a major plus. We never really went to the pool deck or H2O because we have the VIbe but the pool deck parties at night were a blast! I like the layout of the ship and the fact that it has a lot of different venues for food and drinking and entertainment. It'd be fun to sail on her for a warmer itinerary and when she is not so crowded.

Entertainment: The Jersey Boys was absolutely excellent! Great plot and performers. I have seen SIX before and thought the performers were good but have never really enjoyed the plot. We really liked the comedians (18+ shows) and some of the bands on board were quite good as well. Loved the rock and reggae music! The country band in Q was fun and even took song requests. That venue is perfect for bands and dancing. I liked the variety of music offered onboard. I just wish they played it in different venues. Oftentimes the bands played in the atrium which was too small. My DDs complained that the DJ played the same old playlist every night so they did not enjoy the dance club as much as they wanted to. Why don't ship DJ's take song requests or at least mix it up a bit for the younger crowd? This happens on every cruiseline, not just NCL. Unfortunately due to time constraints we did not get to see the Beatle's show.

Tendering: As others before have stated - it was a major cluster! I knew from @laudergayle 's experience to be prepared for the mess. We were able to get off in a decent amount of time because we had excursion tickets, but getting back on was something I have never experienced before. We waited an hour+ in the long meandering line. Mind you, we have done this cruise many times on Princess and RCI and have never seen anything like this. Is it because they only use the small Cabo tenders? I don't know. We did see Haven staff escorting the Haven pax to the front of the lines as it should be. Tempers were flaring let me tell you. 😂 Be prepared.

Ports: The port times were short and odd. Getting to port early and leaving early or arriving late and leaving early. Six hours of port time does not leave much time to really enjoy the ports. Cabo - 11 AM - 7 PM with the tender situation more like 12:00 - 6:00. PV - (the longest) 12 PM - 8 PM Mazatlan - 7 AM - 2:00 PM Ensenada - 12 PM - 7 PM When you take into consideration the time it takes to clear customs and the all aboard times it makes for short visits. We always felt rushed during our excursions. We knew this when we booked, but I will consider this when booking future cruises.

Staff: We did not really feel connected to the staff on this ship. Usually we have a lot of staff members that we connect with, talk to, joke around with and feel deserve a Hero Card. Not so much on this cruise, and I am comparing it to ALL cruises and lines sailed - in suites or not. My guess is because it was so crowded and that the limited staff had to work quickly and hard to meet the high demands. NCL needs to hire more staff IMO. Most staff were friendly, just too busy to make those special connections. Our cabin attendant was excellent and in the survey I wrote that he should be promoted to the Haven. He was that good! Of course the VIbe bartenders and servers were amazing and tons of fun! That bar reminded me of the Haven bars. Great service and hospitality. I must say that for the first time we wrote a negative review of a staff member. My DDs reported that one of the bartenders at the A-List Bar treated them poorly by laughing at them and refusing to serve them in a timely manner - blatantly serving others who had been waiting less time than them. Not only did he try to ignore them, he was quite rude. This happened to them several times. Both DD's had the P+ package and have Latitude status. Really odd.

If you depart n a weekend (Sunday) you should be fine. Disembarkation was a breeze, but you must do it right. 1. Use your passport so they can use the facial recognition software during disembarkation. If you only have a birth certificate you will have to wait in line. 2. Either get off early and carry your own luggage OR get in line around 8:15 AM to get your checked luggage (they open up the checked luggage area at 8:15 AM). If you have checked luggage USE A PORTER! They escort you to the VIP line with no wait. Well worth it IMO. We were in line and off of the ship in a cab in about 20 minutes using the porter strategy.

Food: The specialty restaurants IMO had very good to excellent food. Booking the specialty restaurants made a huge difference. I wish they opened up more of the specialty restaurants for lunch like other lines do, and perhaps for breakfast. The main dining was hit or miss, and always had a longer serving time, especially for breakfast. The main dining food was often served warm - not hot. We did not have to wait long because we booked our times in advance - except for breakfast. The buffet was ok, but I only ate there for breakfast and lunch a few times. I am not much of a buffet person . There are always too many people, the food is not always hot, and the selections were not always cooked to my liking. For buffet food, though, it was ok. I was not impressed with the food in the Local. I had my favorite - the chicken salad sandwich - and compared to the one served on the Prima, this one definitely lacked. The service was slow and the food was not served hot. BLISS LOCAL: PRIMA: Yes, I missed the Haven restaurant. Best food on the NCL ships IMO.

Reflections - cabin. We were in a Club Balcony Suite category MA #13792. The location was great with a quick walk up the stairs to the observation lounge and buffet. The bathroom was nice. I like having 2 sinks and a big shower with shelves for shampoo and such. There was plenty of storage space as well and good lighting. The downside was that I felt that the cabin was too narrow and did not have a lot of drawer space. There are drawers under the sofa, but for those with back issues it might not work well. The bed was a queen size which made the twins very narrow when split apart. The pillows and mattress were comfortable though. Also, the cabins are pretty sound proof. My BIL cranked his speaker up and we could not hear it except when he played it on the balcony. So if you want to party late night do it inside your cabin not on the balcony. The balcony was a fair size with room for 2. I do wish they would allow the balcony doors to open up between cabins like they do on Royal Caribbean. We were next door to my BIL and it would have been nice to share the 2 balconies. All in all I give the cabin 8/10 stars.

True. On the warm sunny days that area was completely full and the hot tub had lots of teens in it. Vibe had lots of open chairs and room in the hot tub.

Disembarkation was very smooth. We were home by 9:30 AM. I’ll post a reflection tomorrow after I get unpacked and resettled.

Cowboy night:

Random Mexico pics

Glow Party:

Now that I have WiFi that works I can post more photos. New Years Eve:

Yes we arranged it on our own. I booked the driver through Viator then made the reservations online for the wineries we wanted to go to. Only 2 needed reservations.

Dinner last night was at Bistro. The food was excellent.

Wine tasting was a total success! We had a perfect sunny day. We were able to hit three wineries - Magoni, Vena Cava and Frida. My favorite is Frida where we did the reserve tasting in the hidden speak easy.

Dailies day 7

In Ensenada on our way to taste some wines! Saw a familiar friend in port. Great crew and fun ship.

Last night we decided to make it cowboy night. We all dressed in cowboy outfits and went to Q. It was a blast! We think people thought we were part of the entertainment getting everyone to line dance. That or they just thought we were crazy.😂