Review of the NCL Bliss to Alaska

My husband and I took this cruise as our 3rd on NCL. We have also cruised Carnival, RCL, Princess and Margaritaville. We are in our early 50's and traveled with a cousin, his wife and teenage son and their friends who are married and have 2 teenage daughters.

Embarkation was easy. I thought the ship was beautiful and well maintained. Things were clean. Our balcony stateroom was adequate. We had tried for an upgrade one category above just a standard balcony, but only bid the $50 minimum. We did not get it and never received any communication about whether we had or not until after we got on the ship when I saw an email that we had not gotten it.

When we first were on the ship we went to guest services to request a fan, coffee maker in our room and robes as others have mentioned. We told our friends and family we were with to do the same. They ended up getting all of their requests and we got none of them. When I asked our room steward to check on these items he explained he might be able to get the coffee maker, but only after feeding me the excuse that maybe our friends were higher Latitude members. I came back with the fact that this was our 3rd NCL cruise and both of their first ever cruise. He had nothing to say after that, but did manage to find an in room coffee maker and robes. We rarely saw our cabin steward, but the room was always cleaned. It was difficult for us to find out how to contact him or even guest services or dining services. Nothing on the phones about how to do so, eventually that information did show up on the tv in the room after we watched the mandatory safety briefing video.

Dining on this cruise was a little disappointing and I'm not a big foodie. We went to dining services to make our specialty restaurant reservations as soon as we got on the ship. We ended up eating twice at Cagney's and once at Le Bistro. I enjoyed my steak and the baked potato at Cagney's very much. Le Bistro was just ok for me. They stopped serving drinks at the bar in the restaurant when we got to Canada even though we were dining at that restaurant. (Only one bar per deck remained open once we were in Canada which ultimately was the rest of the cruise.) We ate at the buffet a lot. Breakfast was good everyday, though some might find the variety lacking, I thought it was fine. Other standouts for me at the buffet were panko crusted chicken tenders that I paired with a caesar salad with no dressing for a healthier option. I also enjoyed a pecan crusted chicken. My husband enjoyed the taste of Asia. I don't like Indian food though, so the Taste of India everyday was just nothing for me. They did have a Mexican day one time, but I didn't think it was that great. We did have the American Diner one time for lunch. Enjoyed the pork sliders and chicken pot pie there as something different. That restaurant is mostly outside though, so oftentimes it was too cold to go there. Ate a lot of times at the Local. Pretzel bites were dry. Chicken wings were pretty good. We also had the fish and chips from there and burgers.

We had the drink package and tried almost every bar on the ship. I had high hopes for the Mojito Bar's raspberry and guava mojito, but it was a little sweet. We liked the District Brewery's options and went there several times. Most of our times we couldn't tear ourselves away from the wonderful Old Fashioned's at Malting's Bar. We drank several drinks at the Local and found the service at that bar to be good. All the service at the bars were very good. Never had to wait long for a drink. They do not open the beers or ciders when you order them so you can "bank" some of them to put in your refrigerator in the room. They also let you order 2 at a time with no drink limit per day.

Other areas of the ship we enjoyed were the Observation Lounge (get there early for continental breakfast, coffee and great lounge seating with fewer people there). The hot tubs were nice and not overrun with children. We didn't use them as much as I thought I would though or as much as we normally would on a Caribbean cruise. The library/game room had some really limited hours. I thought they could've honestly just opened that up a lot more. I also did go to the spa for a 75 min massage and mini facial for a last day special of around $179. My treatment was wonderful, but I was surprised that they didn't then give you a tour of the spa or let you use any amenities before or after your treatment. Maybe that's just for the people that buy the thermal suite pass? Spice H2O was underutilized because of the weather. Teens we were traveling with liked the teen club activities. Never swam in the pool even though it was heated to a nice temperature.

Entertainment was a disappointment for me. Initially part of the reason I booked with cruise was because I wanted to see the Broadway show Jersey Boys but apparently that has been replaced with Choir of Man and the Icons show. I did not go see either of those on the ship. I also was really interested in the Beatles show at the Cavern Club because I've been to the original Cavern Club in Liverpool so I just thought that would be cool. Instead, the Beatles band seemed overly costumed and not as authentic as I thought they would. It was always way too crowded in there and you could never find a seat unless you went very early. We watched a Jeopardy type game show which was fine. The Newlywed game they did I really didn't enjoy. The questions part was fine, but then they did this really awkward and distasteful thing where the women kneeled in front of their man and had to slide a frozen lemon around the front of his pants. I think the older lady of the older couple actually hurt herself doing this. Then, they had some kind of game with pans where you swing your crotches together. Honestly, I'm not a prude, but it was just cringy. What I really thought was lacking was activities during the day. No card meet ups. We love the game "euchre". Why not have a designated time to meet up with others for some card games during the day? Or, more music or just anything. Daytime entertainment was lacking and it's hard for someone like me to stay up for the late entertainment with a 4 hour time change being from the East Coast.

What I probably enjoyed the most about the cruise besides the beautiful Alaskan scenery were my port excursions. Our best day might have been in Sitka. We did Captain Gary's whale tour direct with him and not through the ship. This was a fantastic tour where I finally got to see a bear and even her 2 cubs in the wild. Great whale watching along with sea otters and other marine life. A small tour, only like 15 people. It was fantastic.

In Juneau, we probably bit off a little more than we could chew, trying to do 2 tours in one day. Did the Mendenhall Glacier through the ship and the walk to Nugget Falls. We did it like this to use our onboard credits and just to ensure we got back in time for our second excursion. I loved that area, really beautiful. We had a quick stop into town. Forget about trying to find any wifi at places. I think there were 2 places and they both looked shady. Afterwards, we did the Endicott Arm and Glacier Explorer excursion. This was a fantastic tour if you want to get up closer to Dawe's Glacier, but it was an extremely long trip. They kept us in a holding room on the ship for an hour (not sure why) until we left. Then, we were just stuck sitting on a smaller ship paying for drinks (when we could've been just lounging in our room or anywhere on the ship relaxing while we sailed the 4 hours to get there). At that point, I was really questioning my decision to take this trip. However, when we finally did get up close to the Glacier, I didn't think that you could beat that experience, it was still worth it to me to have done that. It was fun to see everyone from the ship waving to our small little boat as we caught up to the Bliss and got back on the ship too.

Icy Point Straight we had not booked an excursion but walked to the town of Hoonah after riding the free gondola over. It was a long walk, but I really enjoyed the scenery. Could've taken a shuttle if you wanted to. Once you got to the town though, there was nothing to see or do. The ziplining there looked amazing. I would do that there if you haven't done that before or have interest. I had just already done it in Hawaii and Costa Rica, but it looked just as awesome as those places were.

In Ketchikan, we just walked around Creek Street. I thought that would be a little better than it actually was and maybe wish I would've booked another excursion here. The salmon run was interesting, but there were no bears just feasting on the salmon when we went. We were going to ride the Funicular, but it was closed. Still, there was a lot of shopping there and I probably wouldn't have had the chance to get souvenirs if we hadn't had done it here. Really you didn't even need to hit Creek Street for that, just off the ship at The Mill at Ward Cove had everything you ever want to buy as a souvenir--and finally some free Wifi. I do want to mention as well that docking in Ward Cove sucks. I had read others that commented this and knew that I had not chosen the best itinerary as far as how long and where you were going to port at, but that really does make a difference and I wish I would've possibly thought about another ship for those reasons.

We were not planning to get off the ship in Victoria, BC because we had been to Canada. We thought we would spend some extra quiet time in the hot tubs then, but they closed them all down. I'm not sure why, but was disappointed in that too. We decided to maybe get off the ship then, but by the time we did, our friends and family were already headed back so I guess there wasn't really much to see there anyway, so we elected to still not get off.

Overall, I still enjoyed this cruise and would sail NCL again, however, this was not really a bucket list location for me like Alaska is for some. My goal is to complete visiting all the 50 states so it helped me to accomplish that. If your goal is to really see Alaska, then maybe consider another ship for a better experience.