Bliss Mini Review Pacific NW 30 Sep- 6 Oct The Good , The Bad and the Ugly

[jeffsnoy]

The Good

-          Beautiful ship, great colors & decoration

-          Explorer lounge on deck 15 very nice

-          Loved the shows.  Jersey Boys, Six & The Liverpool Beatles.  Clinton Jackson is an entertaining comedian.  The bands around the ship were pleasant.

-          The cabin steward did a decent job. 

The Bad

-           Most of the employees did not seem that friendly and excited serving the passengers.

-          Lines in the Garden Café were long.  Tables were hard to find.  The buffet is too small for the number of passengers on the ship.  Food was comparable to most cruise lines. 

-          It was hard to get a reservation for any of the shows mid cruise.  You can stand-by and it looked like every stand-by got into each show I attended.   Don’t be reluctant to stand-by for shows.

-          I did not hear the Captain address the ship.  I am used to a once a day update from the bridge.

-          If you like lines and a crowded cruise, then this is the cruise for you.

-          We had a good location for our cabin but it was noisy.  Many slamming doors and you can hear your neighbor’s TV since it is right against your wall.

-          We were supposed to board at 7pm and didn’t get on the ship until 9:30pm.  NCL still charged us for 6 days of gratuities even though we lost the 1^st day of the cruise.  It was advertised as a 6-day cruise with boarding at 7pm.

-          Muster drill at 11pm the 1^st day.  Many passengers sleeping through the drill after waiting hours in line to board.

The Ugly

-           Embarkation was a disaster.  We signed up for a 7pm check-in.  There were at least 3000 people in line when we arrived.  The line snaked all around the cruise terminal and outside into the cold.  Some water was provided.  No food.  The ship docked at 5:30pm after sitting all day out in the harbor waiting for 3 other ships to sail.  For some reason boarding was delayed.  Very bad way to start a cruise.

-          As we boarded the ship, we were given a notice that our 1^st stop in Seattle was cancelled due to an expected excessive time to clear customs.  We got an extra day in Victoria instead.  NCL gave a $100 non-refundable credit per cabin to our account to compensate.  The cruise was poorly planned by NCL.  Vancouver-Seattle-Victoria-San Francisco-Los Angeles.  Two times to clear US customs.

-          Clearing customs in San Francisco was a disaster.  We started at 08:00am but did not get off the ship until 11:45am.  Long snaking lines through the ship.  There were still two decks to clear behind us.  We lost almost half of our port call in San Francisco.

-          I have never been on a cruise with so many unhappy passengers.  The ship is beautiful but just too big for the infrastructure.  I will avoid NCL and the mega ships in the future.

[INDIANA JOE]

We were on this cruise too and I agree with some of what you mentioned.

 

Once the ship actually got to the dock and they got all the computers set up, then processing could begin. I'm sure Ncl knew it would be a zoo. I wasn't too happy with communications from Ncl pre-cruise either.

 

This was our 7th cruise with Ncl and definitely the worst all round! Will it keep me from cruising with them again....maybe, maybe not. There were so many changes/screwups that it might make a difference down the road.

Wasn't how I wanted the cruise to go for our 40th anniversary. The wife even got a card for her birthday for a free cake( BD is in Feb.)

 

Had 2-3 meals where we didn't get what we had ordered but we "took it in stride".

[bluesea777]

Wow! We were looking at the Bliss PC itineraries, and I'm afraid we did not pick your itinerary due to the US immigration - the Vancouver -Seattle-Victoria-San F- etc is a bad route. So we went on the Northbound one Los Angeles-San Fran-Victoria-Vancouver one and it was great except the casino closed early and the ship had one bar per deck open policy when we reached the Canadian waters. We overnighted in Vancouver on the ship.

 

I'm so sorry to hear your cruise turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I wonder if NCL would wake up and realize that your itinerary was a bad one. Was it really necessary to go to Victoria? 

 

On our April's PC on Bliss there was a great majority of Asians, therefore the Garden Café was so busy. The Noodle station was the one we could never managed to get in! But we had a great cruise and enjoyed the ship.

 

P.S. Bliss (and also Joy) have to wait until low tide to go under the Lions Gate bridge. And also there were 3 other ships already docked in Vancouver so Bliss had to wait for a ship to move out before being able to dock to let you all embark. But there is no excuse that you had to suffer with the embarkation nightmare. Hope NCL learns!!

 

 

 

 

[hladygirl]

This is why I have not sailed any of the mega ships yet. I have been hesitant due to crowds and lines. I don’t want to have to make reservations for shows. Love the smaller ships but may try a mega ship in the future. Thanks for the review.

[INDIANA JOE]

20 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

Wow! We were looking at the Bliss PC itineraries, and I'm afraid we did not pick your itinerary due to the US immigration - the Vancouver -Seattle-Victoria-San F- etc is a bad route. So we went on the Northbound one Los Angeles-San Fran-Victoria-Vancouver one and it was great except the casino closed early and the ship had one bar per deck open policy when we reached the Canadian waters. We overnighted in Vancouver on the ship.

 

I'm so sorry to hear your cruise turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I wonder if NCL would wake up and realize that your itinerary was a bad one. Was it really necessary to go to Victoria? 

 

On our April's PC on Bliss there was a great majority of Asians, therefore the Garden Café was so busy. The Noodle station was the one we could never managed to get in! But we had a great cruise and enjoyed the ship.

 

P.S. Bliss (and also Joy) have to wait until low tide to go under the Lions Gate bridge. And also there were 3 other ships already docked in Vancouver so Bliss had to wait for a ship to move out before being able to dock to let you all embark. But there is no excuse that you had to suffer with the embarkation nightmare. Hope NCL learns!!

 

 

 

 

 

Bluesea777,

We were aware for a long time about the low tide situation on our rollcall. What Ncl FAILED to do is show the arrival time as later for new bookings and their reps continued to give out regular boarding times. We had booked June 2018 and got an email early on about boarding time then it just kind of vanished until less than 30 days to go.

This cruise was a slow seller and Ncl, imho, held the info back to sell it out. Nothing illegal but not forthcoming either.

 

With the late boarding, cancelling Seattle and the long debark in San Francisco due to customs/immigration, I understand why so many unhappy people. Did I have a good time....yes. Did I have a great time.....not even close!

[jeffsnoy]

hladygirl

We have cruised over 20 times but never on a mega ship.  We were hoping and wanting to have a great experience but it did not happen.  Maybe because it was a repositioner.  Hopefully if it does a set route each week NCL & customs will be able to adjust and make it a pleasant experience.  Debarkation went well since there was no customs to clear in Los Angeles.

[Sauer-kraut]

Check-in time is not boarding time.

[INDIANA JOE]

52 minutes ago, Sauer-kraut said:

Check-in time is not boarding time.

 

I agree but the problem still was that phone reps were giving info regarding boarding at 12:00 (noon) and it was actually closer to 12:00 (midnight). People paid gratuities for that day. And Ncl never posted an arrival time on Ncl.com which would have kept lots of people from booking. Not illegal but leaves a bad taste.

 

[jeffsnoy]

I agree also.  We showed up at 7pm and got to the check in counter at 930pm.  On board at 9:45pm.

We were seated for maybe 30 minutes but met very nice people in line trying to make lemonade out of lemons.

 

[daffodiliaz]

Dup

Edited October 8, 2019 by daffodiliaz
Dup

[daffodiliaz]

1 hour ago, Sauer-kraut said:

Check-in time is not boarding time.

Especially when edocs (printed a few days before sailing) say:

THE TIME YOU HAVE SELECTED TO ARRIVE AT THE PIER: 7PM-730PM

Boarding begins at 12PM.

 

We got in line just as the Bliss started heading towards the pier.  And it was starting to get chilly outside at that time so I feel worse for the later arrivals

[jeffsnoy]

We were outside for about an hour.  My wife was cold and went into the hotel to get warm.

At least it wasn't raining.

[ceilidh1]

We were Haven passengers and it still took us two and a half hours to board the ship!