Just got off the BLISS and posted my review......how do I find a link to it??

[AZDivers]

lol.. just copy the whole review and paste it here?

 

 

Love to but no where to find a review that is in process. It's out there in the ethos somewhere.

[lilant]

The ship was great you said but the ports were horrible? Can you extrapolate a bit as I've followed a couple "Live From" threads and seems everybody enjoyed the ports.

 

 

 

I am looking at the eastbound crossing this November.

 

 

 

We were on the same 5/10 Panama Canal cruise and loved all the ports. We did our homework booked excursions on our own with viator like others did and had a great time in all the ports.

 

Zip line ,crocodile safari , ATV , taco tour, thermal spa circuit spa day.

 

Half full. Half empty. I made mine half full and had a great time.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[AZDivers]

We were on the same 5/10 Panama Canal cruise and loved all the ports. We did our homework booked excursions on our own with viator like others did and had a great time in all the ports.

 

Zip line ,crocodile safari , ATV , taco tour, thermal spa circuit spa day.

 

Half full. Half empty. I made mine half full and had a great time.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

You're the only person that I talked to out of probably 20 that did it, that enjoyed the ATV and Zip Line. Most said it wasn't worth the long drive and the area was very arid and dry. We did the Tortuga Island experience and although the Island was great. It was 5hrs of travel back and forth. Puntarenas is not ready as a tourist port. Everything is super far. Its also filthy.

[AZDivers]

My review finally posted:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=620627

[YVRBassElectric]

unfortunately the Bliss didn't moor in Puntarenas, we were in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica - 1/2 hour drive from Puntarenas, the cargo ports aren't as pretty as cruise ship ports

[fstuff1]

My review finally posted:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=620627

thx!

 

agree with you with the nickle and diming on go karts and laser tag.

Royal doesnt charge extra for the 360 degree observation ball that hangs you off the side of the ship.

 

but for your balcony room, you could have chosen one where the bed is by the balcony.

bed location alternates so if your room has the bed by the closet, your neighbor's room on either side has it by the balcony. and vice versa

 

yeah, i dont like shipping yard ports.

the additional wait for a bus to shuttle you in and out of the yard sucks. :(

 

Specialty Restaurants - yeah, ala carte price is ridiculous.

you're paying land restaurant pricing.

there's no discount for NOT eating at the free buffet/main dining room in lieu of the specialty restaurant.

thus ALWAYS get the meal package.

upgrading to 8day sdp is best bang for the buck because going from 7 day to 8 day is only $10 more (plus 20% tip).

so if you got the 4day sdp as a promo, then upgrading to 8day is $139 - 84 = $55 + 20% tip.

4more sdp for $13.75 each +20% tip

theme specials at the buffet/main dining room/24hr diner is usually listed on that day's dailies.

again, thx for the trip report.

Edited May 30, 2018 by fstuff1

[All-ready2cruise]

My review finally posted:

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=620627

 

Yay!! Congrats, apparently you did a good job, well worth the wait, thanks!

[AZDivers]

unfortunately the Bliss didn't moor in Puntarenas, we were in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica - 1/2 hour drive from Puntarenas, the cargo ports aren't as pretty as cruise ship ports

 

Correct. The itinerary said Puntarenus and it ended up being the shipping yard close to it in Caldera. Puntarenus itself was where most of us did our excursions through.

[AZDivers]

thx!

 

agree with you with the nickle and diming on go karts and laser tag.

Royal doesnt charge extra for the 360 degree observation ball that hangs you off the side of the ship.

 

but for your balcony room, you could have chosen one where the bed is by the balcony.

bed location alternates so if your room has the bed by the closet, your neighbor's room on either side has it by the balcony. and vice versa

 

yeah, i dont like shipping yard ports.

the additional wait for a bus to shuttle you in and out of the yard sucks. :(

 

Specialty Restaurants - yeah, ala carte price is ridiculous.

you're paying land restaurant pricing.

there's no discount for NOT eating at the free buffet/main dining room in lieu of the specialty restaurant.

thus ALWAYS get the meal package.

upgrading to 8day sdp is best bang for the buck because going from 7 day to 8 day is only $10 more (plus 20% tip).

so if you got the 4day sdp as a promo, then upgrading to 8day is $139 - 84 = $55 + 20% tip.

4more sdp for $13.75 each +20% tip

theme specials at the buffet/main dining room/24hr diner is usually listed on that day's dailies.

again, thx for the trip report.

 

I guess we had hoped the dining room foods would be better like it was on the Getaway or we were hoping for something much better like on our last RC ship we sailed on.

[sjbdtz]

so what did the mgmt say they were going to do?

 

what didnt you like about Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas? (the other 2 ports in my Mexican riviera cruise on bliss in oct)

 

 

Our ports were Cartagena, Puerto Caldera, PV and Mazatlan.

 

 

Maybe you can comment for the guy above on the ports. We thought they were not great.

 

We enjoyed Antigua Guatamala, Puerto Vallrta and Mazatlan but you do NOT need to do a Panama crossing to see those. Colombia and Costa Rica were docked in horrible locations.

 

 

We were relegated to the cargo ports, because Bliss is too big for the cruise terminal port. We had a bridge tour, and Captain Staffan was telling us that we were originally slated for Puntarenas, but they couldn't accommodate our size.

 

In Cartagena our private tour had us through the gift shop & on board our bus within a 5 minute walk from the ship, and we were in Old Town 5 minutes later. Not sure where you were trying to go, 90-120 mins away?

 

In Mazatlan we could see everything FROM the ship - it was a 1 minute tram ride to the terminal, then about 5 minutes to downtown.

 

In PV we took a bus to downtown - about 10-15 mins. If we had wanted to walk over to the Walmart or Sams Club, it was across the road.

 

In Puerto Caldera, we had a mini-van tour with multiple stops - the first of which was 10 mins away to see the white-faced capucin monkeys.

 

 

I'm baffled by your comments on the ports - the ship doesn't get to decide which berth the Port allocates, and as mentioned above we had the added problem of being the largest cruise ship passing several of these ports.

 

The APP was clearly indicated to be a new app for Bliss, and if you followed anything in the Everything Bliss, or the live reports from the TA you'd have known in advance that the software on Bliss wasn't going live until Seattle.

 

"They charge for EVERYthing.... why don't they charge for the pools & [multiple] water-slides"? You must have a different definition of everything, than I do. They don't charge for the pools, waterslides (multiple), the loungers, mini-golf, trivia, games, etc.

 

They DO charge for the unique features on the ship (laser tag $5 and go karts $7), which I felt was a fair price for both.

 

 

I didn't eat at any of the MDR, between the specialty restaurants and the Haven Restaurant (OMG delicious), we ran out of nights to try the MDR.

 

 

Stephen

 

.

[AZDivers]

Our ports were Cartagena, Puerto Caldera, PV and Mazatlan.

 

 

 

 

 

We were relegated to the cargo ports, because Bliss is too big for the cruise terminal port. We had a bridge tour, and Captain Staffan was telling us that we were originally slated for Puntarenas, but they couldn't accommodate our size.

 

In Cartagena our private tour had us through the gift shop & on board our bus within a 5 minute walk from the ship, and we were in Old Town 5 minutes later. Not sure where you were trying to go, 90-120 mins away?

 

In Mazatlan we could see everything FROM the ship - it was a 1 minute tram ride to the terminal, then about 5 minutes to downtown.

 

In PV we took a bus to downtown - about 10-15 mins. If we had wanted to walk over to the Walmart or Sams Club, it was across the road.

 

In Puerto Caldera, we had a mini-van tour with multiple stops - the first of which was 10 mins away to see the white-faced capucin monkeys.

 

 

I'm baffled by your comments on the ports - the ship doesn't get to decide which berth the Port allocates, and as mentioned above we had the added problem of being the largest cruise ship passing several of these ports.

 

The APP was clearly indicated to be a new app for Bliss, and if you followed anything in the Everything Bliss, or the live reports from the TA you'd have known in advance that the software on Bliss wasn't going live until Seattle.

 

"They charge for EVERYthing.... why don't they charge for the pools & [multiple] water-slides"? You must have a different definition of everything, than I do. They don't charge for the pools, waterslides (multiple), the loungers, mini-golf, trivia, games, etc.

 

They DO charge for the unique features on the ship (laser tag $5 and go karts $7), which I felt was a fair price for both.

 

 

I didn't eat at any of the MDR, between the specialty restaurants and the Haven Restaurant (OMG delicious), we ran out of nights to try the MDR.

 

 

Stephen

 

.

 

 

PV and Mazatlan were both great. As I stated. Guatamala was our favorite stop. As I stated the town of Antigua is awesome. It was a long drive from the port to get there though.

 

No one said they charge for pools and slides. They do not. Maybe slow down and read it again.

 

As for you not eating in the MDR and basically sticking to the Haven, thats great. Your experience is one you paid heavily for and will not be most peoples experience. Not sure how that somehow negates the MDR dining being average per the review.

 

As for your "private tour 5 mins from the ship in Cartagena", that was a little shop built to get tourists money, that was NOT Cartegena nor the experience of it. We walked the entire old town. Its very nice but the people there are extremely agressive and there are a ton of homeless in the town. There was more human feces to avoid than in the Sirloin district of San Francisco. Not appealing.

 

Feel free to leave your own review as well.