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We just finished a 3 day Memorial Day weekend trip on the Wish.  It is a stunning ship and we had a magical time. This was our 10th Disney Cruise and we always travel Concierge cabins so this report is from that perspective. We have been on 50 plus cruises on a variety of cruise lines. First I want to say Disney has stepped up their food significantly.  That was always my complaint with Disney in the past. The food was below average. Not anymore!  The rotational restaurants were excellent and the Mickey and Friends Festival of Foods is awesome!  The  BBQ ribs were some of the best ribs I have had anywhere, land or sea.  We did not try the buffet but it looked good.  The service was impeccable and the Concierge lounge on the Wish is a welcome upgrade. I always felt the lounges were way too small on the Dream and Fantasy.  They have corrected this on the Wish with a GIANT lounge which now offers a very limited selection of hot foods. One let down was there is still no concierge pool. Just 2 hot tubs and a water feature that you can sit on a bench while water flows down and over the bench.  In fact we notice almost all the pools on the ship are only 1 to 3 feet deep. This is strange.  The adult only area in the back of the ship does have what I would call a "normal" sized adult pool.  The entertainment on board is excellent. Never a lack of things to do.  One welcome addition is they have really expanded your shopping selection on the ship with a partnership with Diamonds International.  So in addition to all the Disney merch, you can now shop high end watches and jewelry.  One thing missing in concierge is the private character meet and greet as they have on the other ships. We were told they are working on this whatever that means. It shouldn't take much work to do this! I also want to say Disney concierge level on the wish still only offers two types of rooms... the family veranda suite and the one bedroom suite. The family verhanda is tight. I slammed my sholder into the TV on the wall several time as they give you about 2 feet of clearance between the end of the bed and the wall. They need to offer a larger suite that is between the current room choices. NCL, Royal, MSC and many others all offer 4 to 6 room types in concierge.  Having only 2 on Disney doesn't cut it in today's market. Yes Disney still has the uber expensive Royal suites but they are very limited.  Finally I want to address the Cabanas at Castaway Cay.  They are old and dated compared to other cruise line cabana offerings. Also the swimming area for the cabanas is not really a Bahama  beach. It appears to me to be  all man made with clay and concrete under the sand.  Also the BBQ at Castaway Cay is not very good.  I was served the same stale buns and undercooked macaroni that we have had on the Cay for years. If we do another Disney cruise we will not get off the ship at Castaway Cay.

My daughter is a nurse and she is caught up in this mess. She just wants her money back and apparently its Nursecon and Blake Lynch (Nurse Blake the promoter) who are refusing the refund. I suspect to keep their commission?

Bunch of cry babies.  No refund. Take your future discount or get off at the next port and fly home.

MSC will be getting my money in the future 

18 minutes ago, trician24 said:

 

I may be canceling my upcoming Haven cruise too.  I agree, I am not competing with those who are non-Haven guests.  When we were on the Getaway last year the bar and restaurant were always very busy.  The concierge were also very busy and if they have to worry about this new "idea" and that affects the service we get that is another issue.  We spend thousands of dollars for a Haven cruise to be away from the crowd, exclusivity and to get a certain level of service.  If NCL can't deliver the product they are advertising we will take our money elsewhere for a vacation.  There are plenty of other options.  If NCL wants to money grub and change how things are in the Haven then that's their choice but we also have a choice where to spend our money. 

Well said. 100% agree.

8 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Well, there are a few areas where Haven beats Yacht Club just as there are areas where Yacht Club beats Haven. I enjoy both but since NCL hasn't done anything POSITIVE for Haven guests in at least 5 years (the "16 and up" sundeck isn't a positive for my family), this latest change is just another negative for NCL. 

I agree. We just had our first cruise With MSC and we felt the same. YC exceeded Haven in every category except room variety. On the Seaside the only offer the standard YC suite or the Royal Suite. Nothing in between. With Haven the 2 bedroom suite works better for us. But this change by NCL makes the decision to drop them easy. 

I am not going ballistic but I am done with NCL. I always book a Haven suite but if non Haven guests are now competing with me for a table I am done. I just cancelled 2 of my upcoming cruises and am rebooking with MSC in Yacht Club. The power of the consumer is supreme! 

Ditto on Yacht Club. We just got off the ship (June 1 sail date) and loved it. Yacht Club was amazing, food was spectacular and the staff was very friendly and fun. Prior to this cruise my favorite ships were NCL where we always stay in the Haven. Its a very high bar set by NCL but I will sail MSC Yacht Club again as the equaled or exceeded the NCL Haven in every category except rooms. My only negative is NCL offers serval types of rooms in the Haven. MSCO only offers 2 types in Yacht Club....standard and large. Nothing in between. And the chocolate bar on the Seaside was out of this world. All included with Yacht Club. 

I did not know that information. Thank you for clarifying. It would have been nice if we had been told that on the ship.  The other two instances of getting different answers to the same question would indicate to me there was a disconnecte somewhere on that cruise.

2 hours ago, SeaShark said:

 

That makes more sense. The original statement didn't indicate that it was a one-off situation.

 

FWIW, the Latitudes reps have a number of functions on the ships...including CruiseNext and Port Shopping. The Latitudes stuff is almost a side job...they are far more focused on the other duties.

 

Their desk...in the ship's atrium, is well marked with the appropriate signage (which, btw, does not say anything about port shopping). 

Yes, as you can see from this photo there is no Latitudes sign. Not marked at all.  And I must correct my previous post...The Latitudes people were at the Cruise Next desk...not Port Shopping. 

Quote

 

10 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

 

I know that the post is a month old at this point, but I'm honestly confused on this statement.

 

Could you please provide some explanation and/or context behind why you would be asking the same question of different staff members? Is this done as a test to see if they all give the exact same answer? Is this done to fish for the desired answer? I don't see why, once a question is asked and answered, a person would repeatedly ask the same question...

Of course I would be happy to accommodate you with an explanation. Here is one example. On the second day we were trying to find the Latitudes desk to find out why we did not get out vouchers for the free specialty dining. The first crew member I asked told us the Latitudes desk was next to the camera shop. It was not. So while at the camera shop we asked another crew member and she said it was next to the internet cafe. When we got there we could not see a Latitudes sign so we asked a 3rd crew member. She could not speak english.  Finally we found a 4th crew member who knew the correct answer and it turns out Latitudes does not have their own desk but rather they share the desk with port shopping so there was no signage.

3 hours ago, myjillian said:

and a couple of people take over and save an entire 1st row in the theater ..night after night.....and nothing being done...because employees are told they can't say things to people....they are afraid they will be sued.  ......people come in all personalities.....we just have to make sure that we are good cruisers and show good examples and...not sweat the "small stuff"🤗

We have encountered this on other cruise lines. With NCL its a non issue when we are in the Haven. On other ships we just sit down in what ever row we want, even "saved" rows. 

at 6'2" and 250 I have had no challengers yet! lol I pity the fool that tries to save a row of seats!

Escape

This is exactly why they should make alcohol illegal and marijuana legal. They have it backwards.  Drunks are dangerous. People who are high are simply hungry and mellow! lol

Now thats funny! Merry Christmas to All and to All A Good Night

This is so funny.  The ME generation in classic form.  

NOTE TO ANDREW STUART, CEO

Please revoke this guys Latitudes status immediately and ban him from NCL.  Because if I have to share the Haven with non Haven guests you will lose my business and many others. By the way he currently has 6,431 subscribers to his youtube site. My youtube site has over 1.2 million subscribers and I always pay for Haven and never would ask about VIP Press status. 

One more thing....the internet situation is tricky.  If you take the 250 free minutes package you get the lowest level of service which means WiFi calling, video streaming and a few other things are blocked and the data speed is very slow. If you need to have a more robust package like RCCL Ultimate Internet at Sea offers, you need to go down and have them give you credit for the 250 free plan and then buy the top level service. It costs more but if you use your phone for work it is worth it. However you must make this decision on the first day.

11 minutes ago, ClaireAndMike said:

I could be wrong, but I want to say that I read in another recent review that the contract for many of the staff just ended so maybe this was a largely new crew on your sailing?  Might explain part of it?  I'm on it this Saturday so I'll soon experience it for myself.      

That is true and may have been part of the problem. Our crew had just started their contracts.  

11 hours ago, yankees111 said:

I doubt NCL would kick someone off the ship for aggressive driving of the go-Karts. Too bad they don’t have separate times for kids to ride the go-Karts.

You misunderstood. I meant kick them off the KART track, not the ship.

30 minutes ago, gmbhardy said:

 

Just wondering what are better options, in your opinion?

We were talking about that I think we would go back to the Escape or Getaway again before we would do the Bliss. Now for an Alaska cruise I would book the Bliss again because it is by far the best ship for Alaska so far that I have seen.

1 hour ago, Trimone said:

I think NCL are losing the plot, cheap food, cheap booze and overpriced 

I hope not as we really like the Haven format.

1 minute ago, BirdTravels said:

Sorry you were disappointed with the Bliss. 

 

We are platinum plus members and loved the Bliss and have booked her again. 

Alaska or Caribbean? 

Just got off the Bliss and what a let down. We are Platinum members and always stay in Haven cabins so this was not our first rodeo with NCL. Let me start with the positives. The ship was beautiful and we loved the Wyland art on the ship bow.  Through gale force winds and 8 foot seas she was very stable. Almost no rocking. The interior art is very nice and the Haven forward facing lounge (designed for Alaska) is amazing. Boarding and disembarkation ran smooth for Haven guests as it always does.  The Haven staff was excellent as was our Butler and room steward. Now for the not so good.   The staff seemed overwhelmed and confused. Even in the Haven they had two bartenders who were not trained well. Asking questions of staff in the main hotel would yield different answers for the same question.  One employee at the Garden Cafe could not speak english. It was a point and nod deal.  The worst part was the food.  Both "pay extra" restaurants and free ones. I have always enjoyed NCL food especially in the pay places but this time its as if the had a machine that sucked all flavor out of the food.  Now I understand tastes change from one person to the next so I am only commenting on our experience. Maybe others loved it. But I can say the filet at Cagneys was no where near the quality of meat we had on other ships. Having gristle in a filet is unusual. Especially when I wrote a review of our time on the Escape and commented how I cut my filet with a fork.  Not on Bliss. And I do have the mention that the new "Q" BBQ was not good. No flavor at all and the meat was low quality.  On to activities. KART racing was fun. We did it twice but be aware we saw some aggressive driver put smaller kids into the wall with no punishment from NCL. They say they will kick people off for that but they don't and honestly that cant see everything at once. Lazer tag was very fun. Completely safe for all ages. Water slides are fun but its a water slide. Nothing special.  All in all I would only cruise the Bliss again in Alaska. For Caribbean there are better options.

We looked at the menu and it was almost the same as 2 years ago. It did not offer many choices so we decided on Cabanas. Since we did not eat at AP that night but our friends did, we can only go by their comment that the food was barely warm and not very good. That was our experience two years ago as well.

I can only comment on the Patron. It depends on your preference. A shot of Silver will be around $8.75 Ańejo around $10.75. Silver Platinum around $40.