Bliss 1/5/2020 sailing from NYC

[PistolPete13]

The FreeStyle Daily's from the cruise.

NCL-Daily-1.pdf NCL-Daily-2.pdf

[Arzeena]

Pete,

The Roatan pictures: where is that beach with the island? it looks great!
We went to Tabyana Beach and then moved over to Infinity Bay.

 

Wildlife spotted this cruise:

Pod of small dolphins on the morning of Cape Canaveral.
Turtle from pier in Harvest Key close to the mangroves.

Big Barry.... the pet Barracuda from pier in Costa Maya. This guy is always around the same spot with a mate. Alone this time.

 

Service at Los Lobos was painfully slow the night we went. It wasn't that busy. Perhaps just an "off" night.

Chocolate mousse cake in Ocean Blu was to die for!

Mason Jar Banana Pudding at Q was yummm, although I was not that impressed with the food. I enjoyed the experience though.
Le Bistro food was good but the experience was meh since one of the stupid people in our dinner group got up to complain to the head waiter that our waiter did not bring her the mint jelly that was supposed to be eaten with her lamb, almost at the end of the main course!!!!!!🙄....so everyone had to wait for the princess's mint jelly to arrive and then for her to take her sweet time finishing the meal before they gave us dessert menus.🙄 By this time I was ready to throw my glass of water at her!!!! There! you would have had another story !!!! My patience was tested in this way by the same person at many a meal in the Manhattan Room as well. The staff and waiters were so cooperative that it was just wrong to get up and go to the head waiters to complain about the chewy potsticker or the brand of free wine bottles they got every other day!!! What else could I  do but go out and sit on deck peacefully to watch the sunset!😉

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by Arzeena

[PistolPete13]

9 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

Pete,

The Roatan pictures: where is that beach with the island? it looks great!

Le Bistro food was good but the experience was meh since one of the stupid people in our dinner group got up to complain to the head waiter that our waiter did not bring her the mint jelly that was supposed to be eaten with her lamb, almost at the end of the main course!!!!!!🙄....so everyone had to wait for the princess's mint jelly to arrive and then for her to take her sweet time finishing the meal before they gave us dessert menus.🙄 By this time I was ready to throw my glass of water at her!!!! There! you would have had another story !!!! My patience was tested in this way by the same person at many a meal in the Manhattan Room as well. The staff and waiters were so cooperative that it was just wrong to get up and go to the head waiters to complain about the chewy potsticker or the brand of free wine bottles they got every other day!!! What else could I  do but go out and sit on deck peacefully to watch the sunset!😉

 

 

 

Hi,

 

That island was at a place called Beach Club Roatan on the north side of the island.  This is where the NCL Horseback riding excursion took place.  The horses actually walked out to and around the island.  The water was shallow enough for them to do that.

 

I don't have a lot of photos from there besides that one from my iPhone.  They said be prepared to get wet during the excursion so I left the cameras back on the ship.  I do have video of the ride that is pretty boring but will post on YouTube and link back here once my photo processing is done.

 

That dinner story is hilarious.  I was solo and found the slower pace and size of the MDR a bit off putting.  If I had do it again, I would stick with the Taste/Savor combo since the menus are identical and service seemed to be a tick faster.  The MDR just had too many people and the servers were a bit overworked at times I think.

 

[soccermommy]

Thank you for the wonderful review and stunning photography. DH is a New Yorker,  exiled, he says, for 40+ years to the wilds of Massachusetts ( Boston suburbs) and he was impressed and excited by your pictures of NYC. In fact, your review has made us rethink this itinerary, even though we have been to several ports more than once.

We’re Platinum, but have been sailing on Celebrity more recently.  I have been curious about the mega ships since all of our NCL cruises have been on the smaller ships. 
I have to say the Bliss is a gorgeous ship, but the pictures of the couch hogging on the ship gives me pause. I just don’t know how much of the crowding will be an annoyance, but your pictures are a great selling point for sailing on the Bliss!
 

[PistolPete13]

Does anyone know how to access the roll call thread for this trip?  It seems that the roll call discussion threads disappear as soon as the cruise date has passed.  Or at least I'm too dumb to find it.

 

I find it hard to believe there will be no followup on some of those long threads.

[PistolPete13]

1 minute ago, soccermommy said:

I have to say the Bliss is a gorgeous ship, but the pictures of the couch hogging on the ship gives me pause. I just don’t know how much of the crowding will be an annoyance, but your pictures are a great selling point for sailing on the Bliss!
 

 

Thank you for the compliments, I really appreciate it and makes the work of processing and posting here worth it for me!

 

I won't lie, the ship does feel crowded on sea days.  I still have 5 or 6 more days of photos to process.  Some of the photos will show what I'm talking about, especially on the pool deck.

 

I had an interior cabin and would try to find quiet areas for reading and just relaxing.  Deck 8 on the Waterfront is the go to place for some quiet if the weather was nice enough.  They will close this place off if the wind is too high and they did do this for a day or two on this trip.

 

Not sure if you're planning on the buffet, but I found that to beat the crowd to had to go early or late and avoid the prime hours.  Of course going late could me slim pickings for some of the food choices.

 

The aft elevators are much faster than the front ones, especially in the evenings when shows let out.

[EllieinNJ]

Did you go to any shows in the theater other than the ones that needed reservations?  What night and show do they do the goodbye with the officers and staff? 

[Fire Chief 2481]

2 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Does anyone know how to access the roll call thread for this trip?  It seems that the roll call discussion threads disappear as soon as the cruise date has passed. 

 

I find it hard to believe there will be no followup on some of those long threads.

great job with your report, i was on the same cruise as well. good to be home. here is a link

https://www.cruisecritic.com/rollcalls/norwegian-bliss-january-5-2020/

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, EllieinNJ said:

Did you go to any shows in the theater other than the ones that needed reservations?  What night and show do they do the goodbye with the officers and staff? 

 

The do the goodbye with the officer and staff after the crew talent show which usually takes place in the theater in the afternoon of the last day.

[tokidoki]

Thanks so much😍 for the dallies! U r a man of your word! Just wondering how u enjoyed the Bliss, as I am seeing a recent cruiser who felt the layout wasn’t conducive of the amount of pax and that they were quite understaffed.

[PistolPete13]

Dzibanche & Kohunlich

 

Day 10

1/14/2020

 

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by PistolPete13

[PistolPete13]

Tulum Mayan Ruins

 

Day 11

 

1/15/2020

 

 

[amelia3171]

Really enjoying your review, especially the pictures, thank you

[KateQ22003]

20 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

The FreeStyle Daily's from the cruise.

NCL-Daily-1.pdf 7.22 MB · 39 downloads NCL-Daily-2.pdf 719.15 kB · 15 downloads

This is fantastic! I have to assume that we will have the same activities since we are doing the same itinerary. These will be a big help planning dinners and shows. Thanks so much!

[PistolPete13]

2 hours ago, KateQ22003 said:

This is fantastic! I have to assume that we will have the same activities since we are doing the same itinerary. These will be a big help planning dinners and shows. Thanks so much!

 

You’re very welcome.  

 

This is was a long cruise and being only my second cruise ever I was afraid of being bored.  Turned out I was wrong and the days went by fast. And I didn’t even sleep in because I wanted to see what the sunrise looked like each day!

 

Make a point to attend one of the shows from the house band Siglo, they’ll definitely win you over with their playing. 

 

Please let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. 

 

You’re going to have a great time. This is a pretty unique itinerary for a NYC cruise.    

[BoatParts]

Thanks again for this review. We’re on the 2/3 Bliss with this itinerary. Your pictures and details have helped pass the time until departure!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[EllieinNJ]

We are on the 21 day Bliss in April NY to Seattle with 12 sea days.  I also am hoping we won't be too bored.  We have a very active roll call and are planning many activities but it is a long time.  Do appreciate you posting the dailies, even though we will have a very different itinerary.  It gives us an idea of when the shows are so we can schedule when to eat.  Also your pics are great.

[PistolPete13]

8 minutes ago, EllieinNJ said:

We are on the 21 day Bliss in April NY to Seattle with 12 sea days.  I also am hoping we won't be too bored.  We have a very active roll call and are planning many activities but it is a long time.  Do appreciate you posting the dailies, even though we will have a very different itinerary.  It gives us an idea of when the shows are so we can schedule when to eat.  Also your pics are great.

 

Now THAT is a trip and a half!  One day...

[mking8288]

One of my BIL just booked 2 cabins on the Bliss, collection of pro quality pictures are going to be very useful to preview.  Pictures from the port stops literally tell the stories.  You are absolutely correct on the steep climb up those historic ruins; and, mine, coming back down.  Knowing DW, she would just stay on the bottom of the foothill & admire them from a distance.  Perhaps, folks should be wear long pants suitable for climbing in the tropical climate.  

 

One of these days, on our bucket list - to combine the Western Caribbean itinerary again and stretch it with the South or East Carib routing, on a B2B ... 

How about it @Arzeena - 2021 or 2022, perhaps - start stashing away some of our retirement funds aside to make that final payment later on.  Or, wait for the newer class of Norwegian ships ??  Spring is around the corner, not seeing us doing a last minute cruise since it's now a green light to fly to Asia, probably a 2 country land tour.  

 

 

[PistolPete13]

This last set of Tulum Ruins photos wraps up the shore excursion parts of the cruise unfortunately.  I still have three sea days of ship interior photos that I took and will be uploading those over the next few days.

 

If you're interested in seeing and/or downloading higher resolution versions of any of the photos, feel free to follow the link to my Flicker album below:

 

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmKQn61V

 

I didn't have time to fill in all the descriptions but most are pretty obvious.  Again, this is still a work in progress and I will be adding photos for the next few days.  Then the videos will come but don't expect too much in terms of their quality.  This is my first attempt at video documentation.

 

 

[PistolPete13]

Day 12

 

1/16/2020

 

At sea.  The only day we had a clear horizon for both the sunrise and sunset.  Also note how packed the pool deck was.  This was the last time for sunbathing because the following day the chill was definitely in the air as we got close to Florida.

 

[Arzeena]

21 hours ago, mking8288 said:

One of these days, on our bucket list - to combine the Western Caribbean itinerary again and stretch it with the South or East Carib routing, on a B2B ... 

How about it @Arzeena - 2021 or 2022, perhaps - start stashing away some of our retirement funds aside to make that final payment later on.  Or, wait for the newer class of Norwegian ships ??  Spring is around the corner, not seeing us doing a last minute cruise since it's now a green light to fly to Asia, probably a 2 country land tour.  

 

 

Gem looks likely for Jan or Feb 2021, but not a B2B.

[mking8288]

13 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

Day 12

1/16/2020

At sea.  The only day we had a clear horizon for both the sunrise and sunset.  Also note how packed the pool deck was ... for sunbathing because the following day the chill ... as we got close to Florida ...

 

Amazing pictures & beautiful sunset ... I've passed along the album link to share with others.  Sounded almost like our 14 days last January on the Escape, with everyone indoors on last 2 full sea days due to the chill, wind & weather transitioning back to winter.   Some of the lucky souls doing B2B then, staying on after doing a quick turnaround at Pier 88 to do CBP. 

 

Thank you for taking the time & efforts to sort, organize & do all these to share, much obliged !

[PistolPete13]

18 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

Thank you for taking the time & efforts to sort, organize & do all these to share, much obliged !

 

You're very welcome!  

 

It's not quite over yet, I still have a lot of interior ship photos and the Verrazzano bridge crossing at night to process and post.

 

On a side note, I was very impressed seeing the MSC Divina up close in Costa Maya so I looked to see if they had any sailings from NYC.  It looks like they have several 10-day fall trips up to Canada for very reasonable pricing (~$120 a day for example)

 

As a cruise rookie, what am I missing there? What's the catch?  Maybe they're trying to break into the US market?

[bones774]

Divina does a nice transatlantic crossing in March from NY with quite a few nice ports and then you can fly home from several different euro ports it disembarks

Edited January 23, 2020 by bones774