Live From: Bliss 5 Day Coastal Mar 31-Apr 5 with Hollywood Pre Cruise

[fastpitchdad]

See you on Sunday (this is our 3rd year in a row on this cruise). 

[edspec]

Very interested to read your impressions of current upgraded drink package and bar service, as well as food and entertainment.  The first time we were on the Bliss the bar service, food, and entertainment were wonderful.  That was 2019 and there were still a couple of decent wines included on the regular package, good food, two stage shows, the Wine Musical, Prohibition, and comedians.... 

I've upgraded the drink package on every cruise since then since I'm a wine drinker but the upgraded package of today doesn't seem to compare to that in 21 or 22. 

 

[ceilidh1]

Good morning from sunny Hollywood! Today is Universal so we are up bright and early. Planning on getting an Uber from the hotel - currently priced around $12. The hotel serves breakfast at 7:30am so I will check that out, though I believe as part of the tour there are pastries and such…

 

Had a decent night sleep - we have the ground floor with the parking lot next to the window so I worried about noise but it was fine. I did hear the folks in the room above walking around a few times but that was before we went to sleep so no worries there. The rooms don’t have carpet - it’s all laminated floors so no sound protection. It wasn’t an issue last night.

 

The shower needed an engineering degree to figure out. Three large taps but none labeled. After much turning and varying combinations of turns I think I figured it out. I felt like a safe cracker and expected it to rain money on me once solved. Alas. Just water. Part of the problem was that it took a really long time to heat up so initially I was turning the hot water up but it was still cold. The temperature was very hard to get right. I prefer hot, scalding your skin type showers but I was only able get either peel your skin right off or take a plunge in the arctic type temps. I went for the peel your skin off and instead of standing underneath I just sort of sucked and weaved under the spray. That shower served several purposes- mental math to figure out how to work it, cardio and stretch to keep from blistering or frostbite, and I came out semi-clean. Not completely clean as there is no body wash/shower gel provided. I always travel with this but not this time (duh). CVS is in my future.

 

I may or may not have screamed out loud this morning. I woke to go to the bathroom and didn’t realize DS had closed the bathroom door. I also didn’t realize said door had a full length mirror. In my semi awake state, in a dark room, walking towards the bathroom…I see some old lady walking towards me. I screamed. Loudly. DS shot up, thinking we were being attacked or something. Then I realized the old lady was just my reflection in the mirror. Oh, how we laughed (spoiler -we did NOT laugh.)

[ceilidh1]

Things I wish I had packed part 1

 

- Toiletries: DD is very particular about what products she uses so we always come equipped with shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, etc. Since she isn’t with us this time I figure I would just use whatever is provided. Bad mistake. The hotel has tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner and a tiny hand soap bar. Nothing else. The shampoo produced no suds. I’m a total lather up your head gal. Shopping is in my future.

 

- Slippers: there is no carpet and the laminate floors make for a skating rink when wearing socks. DS and I both almost wiped out last night. I refuse to walk near foot cause who wants my gross feet on their laminate floor?

[Sadebud]

Jumped over from the Tribe to follow Have a great cruise!  Sounds like a good time so far!

[travelingtink]

Enjoy Universal today, it’s been a number of years since I’ve visited and now I wish I had added a day to my trip so I could go. 

[marksind]

We'll be following your observations closely, as we are taking the first cruise ship cruise out of Seattle this season on the Bliss, leaving April 6 for a week doing the Alaska panhandle.  Horrible time to be going that way, but we live in the Puget Sound area, the price is right, and we've been to all the stops but Sitka.  We're mostly curious about how we'll enjoy Norwegian and such a large ship.  May not get off all week!  Enjoy your cruise and please share +/-'s freely.

[ceilidh1]

Before I share our epic day at Universal, I’m going to share a negative and have a little whine…

 

To get from our hotel to universal I used Lyft. I use Lyft all the time and have never had any negative experiences or problems. This morning I put in our destination as universal studios and trusted that the Lyft app would do its thing (why would I think any different?) We were picked up and off we went. Bear in mind that I’m not from this area and have no idea where anything is or what direction we should be going. 15 minutes later, we turn into a random motel on sunset boulevard (right after passing through a sizeable tent city). I was confused and asked why we were there. To which the driver replied that was the drop off address. Again, I put universal studios as the drop off and that showed clearly on her app, too. For some unknown reason Lyft had assigned a random address to it. However, here is my frustration and gripe - the driver obviously saw universal studios, regardless of the address. She saw a mom and kid get into her car. Could she not have at least asked if we were, in fact, going to universal rather than a pay-by-the-hour motel in a dodgy part of town? She became quite aggressive when I tried to ask what the protocol was for this obviously incorrect ride. She insisted she had done her job and got us to the address. I didn’t even try to reason with her. Just got out and immediately booked another Lyft - instead of it being the $10 it should have cost it ended up being an additional $21 on top of what I had already paid for the first ride. I did try to dispute the charge but no joy from Lyft. Ugh. Here is what shows in my ride history for the ride - that did not end anywhere close to universal!

[ceilidh1]

Now the negative is out of the way, let’s talk about the amazing VIP tour of universal studios. Now I’m normally quite budget conscious, and these tours don’t come cheap, BUT I applied some girl math to the situation and decided it would be worth it. I am SO glad I went this route!

 

We got to the park around 8:40am and went to the VIP check in, where they gave us our lanyards and let us know who our guide would be. We were then invited to go upstairs to the VIP lounge to enjoy breakfast and refreshments while we waited for our guide. 
 

Breakfast offerings included smoked salmon croissants, breakfast sandwiches, and ham and cheese croissants, pastries, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, and a fancy coffee machine with lattes and cappuccinos. I was glad I skipped breakfast at the hotel this morning!

Edited March 28 by ceilidh1
Pics

[ceilidh1]

Around 9:15am our tour guide, Andrew, came to introduce himself. He asked what we were interested in and if there were any “can’t miss” things. For DS it was Nintendo world and Jurassic Park. For me it was the studio tour and Waterworld. Our tour group consisted of 11 of us, so it was a decent size and felt very personalized.

 

Our first stop was the studio tour. We got to ride in a much smaller, more comfortable tram than the regular tour uses. They gave out bottles of water and a far more in depth tour. I had done the regular tour twice before and I learned much more on this one. After  we had covered the regular tour route, we went back to do the VIP aspect. This involved us actually getting out of the tram and walking around on the sets, going into the sound stages, going into the props storage and, my absolute moment of joy - getting to stand underneath the Back to the Future clock tower, 

 

I loved every second of this experience!

[ceilidh1]

The studio tour dropped us off at the back entrance to Harry Potter world and this was the beginning of finding out exactly what power those lanyards had! Universal Studios was packed to the rafters the entire day. Every ride had at least an hour wait most of the day. Our lanyards allowed us to not only use the express lane but, with Andrew, we actually got to go in secret entrances to just bypass everyone and get right on the ride. Priceless! We rode the two Harry Potter rides and got lots of insights and information about Harry Potter world. 

[ceilidh1]

By now it was lunchtime. The tour included lunch at Margaritaville. The restaurant was closed other than for VIP tour guests, so we were seated immediately and service was fantastic. In addition to the entree choices, there was a salad and dessert bar. Soft drinks were included, but of course I had to try a Pina Colada Margarita (which was awesome).

 

For lunch, DS went with the cheeseburger and I went with the steak. Both were great! I didn’t try the salad but the dessert was top notch - mini cheesecakes, fruit tarts, chocolate cake, Bundt cake, and cookies.

[ceilidh1]

After lunch, we made our way down to the lower lot and rode Transformers and The Mummy. Once again, we bypassed all lines (wait time was 75 minutes at this point) and Andrew held everyone’s bags so we didn’t need to waste time getting lockers.
 

Next up was the ride we had all been waiting for -Mario Bowsers Challenge. This ride had a 90 minute wait and there is NO fast pass or skip the line UNLESS you have the VIP tour. In addition to getting in the ride in under 10 minutes, Andrew gave us all the tips and tricks to “win” the game. DS loved this ride. If I’m honest, I thought it was kind of “meh” (probably because I’m not a gamer and literally had no idea what I was doing). Judging by the lines I was in the minority. 

 

DS had his mind set on eating at Toadstool Cafe, which required reservations. It had nothing available and he was disappointed BUT Andrew gave us a secret QR code and told us to go to it at 12:30pm and there would be spots opening up! He was right! We snagged a reservation for 6:30pm. I know 100% we would not have got this without him.

 

 The final ride in the lower lot was Jurassic World. We love all the Jurassic movies and were looking forward to this ride. Andrew asked is we would like to get wet or stay dry -before I could stop him, DS announced he wanted to get soaked! Ugh. The VIP tour guests were provided with ponchos, so we donned our rain gear, skipped the line, and got front row seats. The ride was everything I had hoped for. And they weren’t kidding about getting wet. The first (smaller) drop we went through resulted in a wave of water that ended up in my shoes and formed a huge pool in my lap (I guess my poncho had created a little dip and it filled with water). That water was COLD. Now the fun bit comes. As you near the final drop there is a huge animatronic T-Rex roaring and snorting. For some reason, the ride broke down right there. So for the next 10 minutes or so we just sat there with the T Rex breathing on us. I had visions of us having to wade out or, worse, swim. Thankfully, it started back up again and sent us hurtling down the final drop where I got drenched. And I mean drenched. I got off that ride looking like I just stepped out of the shower!!!! So fun.

[ceilidh1]

Since we had been held up on Jurassic World, Andrew arranged for a bus to pick us up and take us up to the Waterworld show so that we didn’t miss it. We had reserved seats and were in the perfect spot. That show is fabulous!

[ceilidh1]

To end the tour, we were taken through the VIP line and secret entrance to Minions and Secret Life of Pets. Neither ride is on my top 10, but they are cute and worth doing if there is no wait. We said goodbye to Andrew (he had been with us from 9:15am to 5:15pm) and tipped him. We then used our VIP passes to do the Simpsons ride (the passes continue to get you express access after the tour, too)

 

We then went back to Nintendo World where DS got a power up band ($46!) and played some of the mini games. To me, it looked like “playing” basically consisted of punching stuff with an “M” emblem and getting some flashing lights, but what do I know? I honestly could not figure out what was so appealing about this Nintendo World as there was only one ride and not a lot of other stuff to do, but it was wall to wall people.

 

We made our way to Toadstool Cafe for dinner. DS was so excited. I was surprised it wasn’t more expensive (not that it wasn’t overpriced, but I actually expected it to be more overpriced) and the food was pretty decent. DS ordered a Mario Burger and a Star Lemonade and I ordered a Luigi Burger and a coke (no alcohol here). We also ordered a Beanpole for dessert (no actual clue what this was, but it was really good). The food was presented really well and came with little take home souvenirs. You could also pay extra for Mario plates/cups/etc. We didn’t. The place was cool with interactive windows but it was so loud!!!

[ceilidh1]

We did some souvenir shopping, played a few more games, then headed back to the upper lot to finish our day. Last ride of the day was Kung Fu panda. Quick stop at the Hello Kitty store to grab something for DD and a duck into Hogsmeade for a butter beer to go! Headed out of the park exactly 12 hours after arriving and got a Lyft back to the hotel.

 

Whst a fantastic day! I don’t think I would ever do universal without a VIP tour again!

[YVRteacher]

Your day sounds incredible, as does Andrew. This VIP pass definitely bumps you higher in the running for the mom of the year award than the zombie apocalypse last supper did!! 
 

I’m so happy for you and K!

Edited March 28 by YVRteacher

[fethiyeden]

Glad you had a fabulous day. Do you book the vip tour on the universal website?

[ricksurf]

You made the perfect choice for Easter week by getting the VIP pass.  Isn't it fun to see how the movies are made?

[edspec]

Okay, that VIP pass sounds like a definite for us.  We've been planning to go to Universal in Orlando and assuming it is available there as well.  Thank-you @ceilidh1 for sharing more ways for me to spend vacation money 🙂

[cruiseny4life]

We're heading to Disney and Universal in October, so will now be looking to spend an extra few hundred bucks on these VIP tours! Thank you for pointing them out!

[tsahall01]

Out of interest, how much are the VIP tours?  Does the price vary with the time of year (summer, holidays)?  Thanks, Susan

[ceilidh1]

12 minutes ago, tsahall01 said:

Out of interest, how much are the VIP tours?  Does the price vary with the time of year (summer, holidays)?  Thanks, Susan

Price depends on when you visit. They have a limited number so you do need to book early/in advance. The Universal site was sold out for the day I wanted but there is a site that specializes in all things Disney/Universal that we have used many times. It turned out less expensive and available on this site. Our passes cost $389 each. The girl math calculated that without them we would have paid for 2 days park admission (instead of one), plus 2 days of universal express (which wouldn’t have helped for Mario), plus early admission to Nintendo world, plus a night at the universal hotel since we would be doing two days there, plus lunch at the park. I think we ended up spending less by getting the passes and had a much more enjoyable experience.

[ceilidh1]

4 hours ago, fethiyeden said:

Glad you had a fabulous day. Do you book the vip tour on the universal website?

undercover Tourist site. We’ve used them a lot for Disney and universal and they are great. The Universal site was sold out for the day I wanted!

[ceilidh1]

Things I wish I packed part 2

 

- Toilet paper: Yes, the hotel provides it. BUT it is not the triple soft, super thick, cashmere, velour brand I use at home. Not sure if anyone here is familiar with the “paper” they used to have in British elementary school bathrooms. This was actually boxes of what can only be described as squares of plastic. I know it’s not really plastic, but it sure as heck wasn’t paper either. This stuff was stiff, waxy, slippery, crinkly and not designed to serve the purpose for which it was attended. The hotel paper isn’t that bad, but of all the paper I have ever used, this one is up there as second worst. 
 

- Sunscreen: I know, always use it even when there’s no sun. I know this. I don’t follow this. I only ever use sunscreen if I’m somewhere super hot or I’m heading to the beach. For this time of year it never even entered my head to bring it to LA. My face is a beautiful shade of lobster this morning!