The ship is outstanding. Every area has a different but cohesive design so the ship never was monotonous and always had something to discover. We had reservations at one restaurant that I didn’t know was there until I found it that final night. Always a myriad of events to pique an interest. The food was good - only one meal was amazing (Cagney’s). The water slides were fun as was laser tag and go carting on the ship top. The room was well designed and had plenty of storage. Staff was pretty much always friendly and made you feel welcome. Only two cons pool(s) area could be a bit larger. Kids club needs to be both larger and have a second string support staff to assist when busy. One night there was a 45 minute line and the hostess and server at the restaurant had a bit of an attitude when the entire party hadn’t arrived on time. Other wise it was a fantastic trip. Read Less

The ship was beautifully and tastefully decorated. The cabins were cleaned perfectly. Rose was great at cleaning our rooms multiple times a day. All of the latest technologies with touch screens, key card tap entry to the cabins, and outside activities. The shows "six" and "Jersey boys" were spectacular. So much talent!! A large variety of complementary food was available 24 hours a day in many different places. The only complaint I had, was not being able to bring any type of soda or water, only Pepsi products were available. We are Dr.pepper fans. The photos were nice, expensive as usual. Getting on and off the shop was relatively smooth. The staff was friendly and always helpful. Joy ,a waitress in the Manhattan dining room made the cruise for us. So glad that we tried Norwegian again after the first bad experience. Extremely relaxing week!! We will definitely be back.... Read Less

Had a good experience cruising with the Bliss through the Panama Canal. Thought we would go again with the Bliss on the Canada and West Coast Cruise. Bad mistake, it took us 3 hours standing in line in Vancouver to get aboard the ship. There was no priority boarding for anyone other than the Haven. We then find out Seattle had been cancelled from one of our stops and we would spend 2 boring nights in Victoria BC. The food aboard the Bliss was average and we could not get a reservation to the Specialty Restaurant Cagneys. We had to make reservations to go to the show Jersey Boys ( this was a very good show). The other show about the wives of Henry the 8th was a disappointment, I thought being loyal to one cruise would reap some benefits like priority boarding, apparently being a Gold member meant nothing for boarding in Vancouver. I will start looking at other cruise lines for my future trips. Read Less

We chose this cruise to explore Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and San Francisco with a total of 4 couples. We arrived several days early to Vancouver to explore the beautiful city. It was a great day. Already we had been told within the week prior that boarding would not be at 12 noon as sold Finally the day to embark arrived. We saw the ship sitting in the harbor long after all other ships left their berth. Decided to go to a restaurant to eat since it was so late. Our 7:30 pm boarding time came and left. We stood in line until 10:15pm when we finally picked up our cabin card. Finally making it into the cabin we discover a letter that all our specialty restaurants reservations were worthless. The tickets for the Jersey Boys was changed to another night -conflicting with the 2 hr minimums the restaurants required. We were in a balcony room and had adjoining rooms which was fun. Didn’t notice the noise through the walls. DAY 1 of the cruise was over about 11:30 pm as we were just sitting on the bed! I think the ship pulled out about 2:30 am. DAY 2. Notice was given that our next stop Seattle was CANCELLED. yup. All the plans and reservations were done for - no harbor cruise, hop on/off bus tour, Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. We were less than 24 hours notice so NO Refunds!! About $250 for each couple. Viator is an outside company that have great tours and prices but they need 24 hours advance notice to cancel. We were in Victoria BC. Beautiful city with lovely gardens. We had scheduled a 2.5 PediCab ride around the town. The owner sent a text early on that stated,” it seems your ship is in port, want to go today?” We did and had a delightful personal tour of the city. Ryan our pedal driver was quick witted and knew Victoria history. We visited parks and heard some tantalizing stories of old government with the hanging alley. Ate at the Garden Cafe for dinner. It was jammed, with mediocre cafeteria food. People didn’t know what to do. No scheduled entertainment. Seems the JB didn’t get picked up in Seattle!! Listened to a couple of singers in the atrium area that were good. DAY 3. Still in Victoria. Almost every thing, place or activity on the ship is closed. We are in port. Limited bars, no racetrack, lazer tag, casino, stores. What do 4400 people do for another 24 hours. Nothing to do. Dinner at the Q Smokehouse- hard to go wrong with a chicken breast and baked beans! At 10:30 pm We enjoyed the production of SIX-Louis VIII six wives. Action paced and very cleverly done. We are now underway to San Francisco.. DAY4. Cruise in under the Golden Gate Bridge. That was amazing so quiet at 6:30 am. Dressed and ready to go. Hop on/ off bus tour, get some sourdough bread and have clam chowder in the City. We are all excited to go @ 8 am. We have all day until 6:30 pm in town. Wait, it’s Noon and we are still on board! Seems NCL didn’t pick up the Immigration official in Seattle. So 4400 people wait. We were off by 1 pm. So we did the bus tour. Went out to Sausalito, crossed the GGB 4 times due to bus route, saw a jumper and made it back at 5 ish. No clam chowder, no sourdough to take home. Specialty dinner in Ocean Blue was fantastic. Giant scallops, shrimp and blue fish were plated well and the dinner was a success. Finally got to see Jersey Boys at 10:30 and it was fantastic. The songs were easy to listen to and enjoy. The cast of both shows are outstanding. Day 5 at sea so headed out to some activities. Alaskan beer tasting. The District. Double doors closed before 2 pm. Showed up with about 30 others. After 15 minutes waiting, I went around to the wine event and got an employee to go inside to see if there was a problem. Barman stated no one was there so he cancelled it. Guess he should have opened the door!! Not an apology to anyone. Nothing available for the racetrack, or laser tag, casino, did our bit to give back to the ship. . Ate dinner at the Manhattan Room. Was pleasant and complimentary. Not hurried like the Cafe. Day 6. Pull into LA. Cruise is over. Disembarking and getting luggage was easy. Was looking forward to fun time doing things with friends and family. It was uneventful. Can’t say I would recommend NCL after this fiasco. We have enjoyed Royal Caribbean and carnival over the years. Carl our room steward was delightful. The room was tidy each day. Loved the continental breakfast each morning. Didn’t have to fight the elevator masses for coffee. The Observation Deck was very pleasant. Light food and drinks available with wonderful views. Read Less

We can’t wait to get off this cruise ship. This is the last day of our cruise on the Norwegian Bliss from Vancouver to LA. We stayed in a balcony room in 10246. The room is spacious and modern, but it’s not sound proof enough so we constantly hear the TV from the next room at night when we’re trying to sleep, people “doing it” at night, and just general stomping noises and people slamming their doors. The worst part is the food. It’s terrible. The teppanyaki served really salty food, and the Q Texas had the worst food we’ve had all year. The buffet and main dining rooms also had either really salty or bad food. It’s worse than a mall food court sometimes. The only good meal we had was at Cagneys, but you pay extra for that. Also, the gym was very good with excellent weight machines. The onboard process was long and terrible, and it pissed off a lot of people. We were supposed to board at 7:30pm, and we didn’t board until 10pm because they were disorganized and boarded late. We had 30 minutes to grab something to eat at the extremely crowded buffet (we were not offered food or drinks in the 3-4 hour wait to board the ship) before we were told to go to the muster station. After our Seattle port was cancelled, they offered each stateroom a $100 onboard credit. Nothing we could do about that. However, when we got to SF and had to clear customs, they called floor by floor to try and be efficient, but everyone still had to stand in line for almost an hour. They could have organized it to minimize the wait time. I’ve done customs clearing on another ship and it was done within ten minutes! Just very thoughtless and inconsiderate. The last straw was that we spent $50 to purchase a couple of photos, and the photographer said I could download the digital copy from the Norwegian app. I could not find the photos so I went to the photo station. The guy then told me that if I wanted the digital copies, I’d have to pay another $50 for the two photos. I asked if I could exchange the physical prints for the digital copies, he said no, you have to buy the prints first, then you can buy the digital copies. That would cost $100 for two photos! We will not cruise with Norwegian again. Going to try Celebrity next based on other equally unhappy cruisers’ suggestion! Read Less

We booked this cruise only 30 days before sailing. Reading the reviews, many people had booked this 6 day cruise well over a year ago. This was billed as a 6 day cruise, and everyone paid tips for a 6 day cruise. It was really 5 days. The ship arrived at the pier in Vancouver at about 6:30PM and check in was slated to start at 7PM. Guess what happened at boarding? Most people started lining up at 4PM and by 7 there were several thousand people standing in a line that wound around Canada place. This is part of the ugly. We had done 2 other late departure NCL repositioning cruises from Vancouver before. The first was really bad and a woman waiting actually had to be taken away by ambulance due to a panic attack it was so bad. Well this time we did not even show up to check in until 9:40pm! We still waited about 10 minutes in line and we were just about the last 2 passengers to board the ship. We tried to eat as soon as we boarded but we had our drill and everything was shut down. Still the ugly! When we arrived in our room, we found a letter letting us know our itinerary had changed. Since the cruise was announced it had its first day in Seattle. Now it was changed to eliminate Seattle and we had an overnight in Victoria. This was OK for us but many passengers were disappointed. The excuse was not having enough time to notify the US authorities for immigration purposes. Now, all 4,000+ pax had to go through US customs in San Francisco! We did the drill and enjoyed the ship. The next morning we arrived in Victoria. This would be the good for us. Victoria is a beautiful place to visit and we had a beautiful day there. We took a nice walk to Craigdarroch Castle (about 3 miles) as we had never visited there. Well worth the visit. Then we headed back to town and enjoyed happy hour! Swan's was our first stop then we visited Canoe. Both fun places for adult beverages! We had enough energy left and walked back to the ship. The Liverpool Beatles did a show at 7:30 in the showroom and it was standing room only. They did early Beatles in this show and everyone enjoyed it. The next day we were to leave at 2PM so we just walked into town and back. Again it was a beautiful day. Sail away was nice and we just explored the ship. We had dinner at the Q which was good. DW stayed and to watch the CW band (ok but not great). I went to the Cavern club and got there early enough to get one of the last seats there. The 9PM Beatles show was the early years. This was great for me as a Beatles fan to see these guys performing in a small club environment and I could imagine what it was like to see them in Liverpool in 62/63! Now for our first sea day. We received a notice that we would be refunded our port charges for Seattle and they gave each cabin $100 OBC. This was a positive move as NCL knew full well the immigration situation long before our cruise but did not tell the passengers until we were onboard and could do nothing about it! Our Cruise Critic M&G was at noon. This was also the time the ship scheduled the Veterans get together at Maltings. I went to the Veterans and DW went to the M&G at the District Brewhouse. I visited with the one other Vet at the bar for a few minutes and then wet off to join in the M&G. NO SHIPS OFFICERS attended the M&G but they did have champagne for us (nice touch). There were 30-40 cruisers there. Great to meet those we were chatting with on the roll call. The schedule said there would be an Alaskan Beer tasting at 2PM at the District Brewhouse. I was in a group of 10-20 standing outside the closed doors to the District at 2 pm. I just left and came back about 10 minutes later figuring I could join in the tasting a little late. When I got to the District, it was empty. They had kept the doors closed and then the bartender said nobody was there at 2 so he just cancelled the tasting! Poor management! Dinner was at the buffet and it was fine. Then we went to Six. DW liked it, she was listening to each of the "wives" as they sang about their life with King Henry. I was a well done show but not up my alley! Overall, the sea day was good. Now for San Francisco. Since we now needed to clear customs in SF (which was originally going to be handled in Seattle) it meant that EVERYONE would be getting off the ship when we arrived. We had booked a trip to Alcatraz on our own for 10:30AM. I had gone to the front desk on the sea day and managed to get with the correct person to assist us in getting off the ship in the first group to go through customs. This did work fine and we were walking around in SF by 8:30AM. I heard the ship was cleared by around 11AM. We had a good day and BEAUTIFUL weather in SF. On Alcatraz, they were saying how unusually beautiful and clear the day was. Parts of the island were opened to the public that normally are off limits. We spent the remainder of our day walking in the Fisherman's Wharf area. We would have ridden the cable cars but it was way expensive and a long line just to get on. Not for us. Back to the ship and the buffet for dinner. We finished dinner and it was about 7 so we wandered by the theater. There was no line so instead of sail away we went into the Jersey Boys show. Mistake missing sail away! Jersey Boys was an excellent show right up until the point in the show where they dropped the first "F" bomb! There was an audible gasp in the theater. To be fair NCL does have a sentence to warn passengers in the Daily and a piece of paper size sign at the theater when you walk in. We never saw either of these. That just tainted our enjoyment of what otherwise was a great show. It is just sad that NCL feels like this language is necessary in their primary entertainment show for a ship that is marketed to families! The language could be changed without damaging the performance. Another example for us of the BAD! We did eat breakfast and lunch at the local. They did an outstanding job and the food was fresh and hot. Dinner on our last sea day was at La Cuchina and it was good food and the service was good. We just wandered a bit and packed. The ship is new. It is well maintained and the crew were all happy. We did not care for the size of the ship. You have 3 levels of shops, shows and places to eat (6,7 and *8). Then you have 7 levels of hotel and 15 and 16 for food and pools. The only place they used for games, trivia, presentations etc was the atrium. This is typical of NCL in that they really do not pay attention to those types of activities. The atrium in big and impersonal and when we cruise, we typically make friendships at trivia and other small group activities. Not so much on NCL. Disembarkation went great. We walked off with our bags. That started at 7:30 and we left at 8 with NO LINES! this was a good! We have continued to try NCL but sometimes it is just not a good fit. I tried to add photos but the review would not allow it! Read Less

Cruise was spoiled by problems with embarking, disembarking, cancellation of Port of Seattle, very late night safety drill and lack of half day on ship in Vancouver. Cruise also spent too long in Port of Victoria, where we live. Management blamed the tides on our loading problems, which was ridiculous because tide conditions are posted months in advance. Our ship came up empty from Seattle and had plenty of time to dock and let passengers on to enjoy the ship before we embarked. Maybe they forgot to reserve a spot on the jetty? Two meals, lunch and supper were missed. Getting on the ship (3 1/2 hours plus) was a nightmare with too long lines, being kept in holding rooms where no refreshments were served. Not enough crew were hired to assist, as they knew they had to process 4000 plus people. Passengers who had sailed with Norwegian before said this had not happened before. Why this time? Why not do the safety drill when we were held in holding rooms? I realize the drill is mandatory, but 10:45 is ridiculous. Why couldn’t people with small children, send one parent and let the kids sleep? We were not shown where the life jackets were, which is foolish in an emergency. Why wait until we were boarding to inform us by letter that Port of Seattle was cancelled. What was the real reason? Many people were meeting loved ones in Seattle or had their day planned. Others chose this cruise because it was the only one going to Seattle. We were lucky to get off the ship quickly in San Franscico, but many were not. Floor 9 didn’t get off until after 1:00 which ruined their days’ plans. When did the lower decks finally get off? We heard the crew didn’t get any shore leave. Customer service lineups seemed to at least twenty people deep whenever we went. We were also charged for 6 days gratuities when we didn’t get our day in Vancouver. Disembarking in Los Angeles was smooth because management hired some Princess cruise staff to assist. Finally. Staff on ship were very good. Loved the observation lounge for reading and light lunches. Jersey Boys were excellent. Food in Cafe was good but maybe a bit bland without spices. Loved the food choices. Great weather. Hop on and off in San Francisco was excellent and visiting Pier 39 for outstanding clam chowder in a sourdough bowl was yummy. Unfortunately, the Management planning was terrible and needs to be vastly improved Read Less

A beautiful ship with excellent people serving the guests. The overall trip was ruined by in competent senior staff on board, and incompetent senior management at Norwegian Cruise Lines. The trip started out as a disaster from Vancouver. The ship was originally scheduled to board at 7PM. The original cruise documents said boarding could begin an hour earlier (6PM). However, this changed the day of departure, and no one was allowed to board until 7PM. You can imagine what it was like when 4,000 passengers all showed up at 7PM to board the ship. There was one line that twisted and turned the full length of the terminal and wound around and doubled back outside the terminal. We stood in line from 7PM until 9:30 when we finally boarded. We paid the extra fare to stay in the Haven, because of the additional perks included. One of those perks was supposed to be expedited boarding. After two hours and 15 minutes in line, a guy finally came down the line with a Haven sign and led us to the Haven check-in line. Never once while in line, nor after we boarded did anyone explain what had gone wrong. No announcement over the loudspeakers apologizing for the disastrous start. Instead, to add insult to injury, they came over the loudspeaker and announced that everyone had to go through the lifeboat drill at 11:00 at night. Even after they covered all of the information on how to put on your life vest in case of an emergency, the Captain didn’t bother to come on the speaker, explain what had caused the horrible delays, and apologize for the disastrous start to the cruise. Next morning we wake up to find out that our scheduled port of call in Seattle had been cancelled. Instead we spent two days tied up at the first port of call in Victoria, B.C. On our next port of call, after a day at sea, was San Francisco. The night before arriving there a note is left on our bed telling us to meet the concierge in the Haven Lounge the next day at 7:45AM to get off of the ship because everyone on board had to get off the ship and go through customs, since this was the first stop at a US port. Furthermore, no one would be allowed to get back on the ship until everyone on board had exited and gone though customs. So, regardless of what you may have wanted to do that day, you had to hang out in the terminal for about two hours before getting back on board. I fully understand that sometimes things don’t go as planned. Glitches occur. However, great companies develop contingency plans to handle unforeseen circumstances. And the very best o take extra seps to see to it their customers either never know a problem existed, or that they far exceed their customers expectations when addressing the problem. From my perspective after this Cruise, Norwegian Cruise Lines hasn’t got a clue about how to deal with uncertainties when they occur. That’s actually scary when you think about being in a boat on the open seas. Read Less

We have been on 25 cruises, 3 so far this year. We have been on multiple NCL cruises and we were excited to try out the Bliss! The cruise did not start out well and was lacking through out the entire cruise. The Good: 1. We loved the observation lounge. 2. The entertainment was good. We loved SIX and the Beatles. The bands were good. 3. We enjoyed the Laser Tag. 4. The ship was extremely clean. 5. We liked our balcony stateroom, especially the shower size! The Okay: 1. Food was hit or miss, with not much variety. 2. Raceway cars were pretty slow, overpriced, and you had a hard time passing people. The Bad: 1. Embarkation was delayed due to NCL issues, which meant one less day onboard that we paid for. The process was 2 1/2 hours. We finally got on board around 9 pm. The only dinner that was offered to us was an overcrowded buffet for 1st night. 2. The first port, Seattle, was cancelled due to NCL problems. After guests complaints the compensated guests $50pp, which is about the cost of the port fee we paid for Seatle. They let us know about the cancellation only 10 hours before we were supposed to arrive. 3. Customs/immigration in San Francisco was done very poorly, causing 3-4 hours delay in getting off the ship. They only had one extremely, long, slow line that snaked throughout the ship. There was lots of misinformation with the process. 4. The service was poor through out the ship. It seemed like there were lots of new or improperly trained staff. The service in the dining rooms was slow. We were directed many times to certain areas, only to be re-directed somewhere else. Several times when we returned to our room in the evening for a brief moment our steward who ask: "If we needed service for that night." We have never experienced this on any other cruise. We are pretty flexible and know that there might be some problems or mishaps on a cruise. The negatives far outweighed the positives on this cruise. The attitude of NCL has been extremely disappointing. It seems like everyone has downplayed any and all problems and dismissed the guests’ concerns as unimportant and irrelevant. When problems arise you find out quickly who values their customers and acts with integrity. Norwegian has shown that they do not value their customers. There are many good choices in cruising industry and unfortunately, we can no longer count Norwegian Cruise Line as a good choice. It will be a very long time, if ever, if we choose to cruise NCL again. Read Less

not enough info given to guests --- we were told while traveling to Victoria that we would stay overnight in Victoria and not going to Seattle was not right. not enough to do in Victoria , could have stayed over night in San Francisco. Trying to get in a restaurant to eat was impossible tables open all over but told you need reservations, but none were avalilable.( We were in the Haven so we ate there alot,and the service and food was great.) Food was good when we able to get in to eat It was the same with the shows if you did not make reservations the day they were available,you didn't get them you could try and wait in standby line but you had to get in line at 6pm for a 7:30 show. We were on a BTOB cruise, over all not real happy with this part of the cruise. we usually like Norwegian and will probably sail with you again but not in near future and not on the Bliss. Read Less

I took the Pacific Coast re-positioning cruise on 9/30 which was supposed to stop in Victoria, Seattle, and San Francisco. As others have pointed out, boarding was a nightmare. When we booked the cruise many months before, boarding was supposed to be at 3:30 PM. Then when we received our luggage tags in the mail, the boarding time had magically changed to 7:30 PM. Then, due to the ridiculous line on the departure day, we didn't actually get on the ship until at least 10:00 PM. This was particularly crappy, because we have have a 6-year-old and had to return our rental car before 6:00 PM. And obviously we had to check out of our hotel much earlier in the day. So we ended up hanging out at a food court across the street from the cruise terminal for hours after 6:00 PM. Pretty awful. Once on board, we read that the itinerary had changed such that we were no longer stopping in Seattle. Of course, there was no legitimate or concrete reason provided for this, nor did the Captain or anyone else bother to explain or apologize for ripping us off. I was eating at the buffet one day, and one of the head dudes on the ship (not the captain, but the second or third in command) was going around talking to people. When he approached me, I asked him why we didn't stop in Seattle. He made up some excuse about not being able to coordinate enough Customs workers to process passengers. As if this was all new to them and the ship didn't spend all summer going in and out of Seattle. Ridiculous. I suspect the real reason we didn't go is because of extreme disorganization/incompetence on the part of the crew/ Cruise line which was a common theme throughout the trip. We eventually got a $100 credit to our cabin for the missed port. How generous. Just as others experienced, getting off in San Francisco was also a nightmare. It took 45 minutes to get off the ship, and this was with a few line cuts (thanks to some of the crew) because we had an excursion that we were late for. This was not our fault, as we were initially told that we had to disembark the ship floor-by-floor, and were supposed to wait for our floor to be called before disembarking. Regarding the ship, it was reasonably nice, but I felt that there was not enough common space for the number of passengers aboard, and this was consistently evident based on virtually everywhere being overcrowded when at sea. I think they should have designed the ship with fewer cabins and more common areas, but of course, this would yield a few less dollars, so I guess it may not have been tenable. Even though the weather was starting to cool down, I went on the water slides. There weren't even that many people in line for either of the slides, but the wait was still extremely long to use them. I can't imagine how miserable it must be waiting for the slides in a more temperate climate such as the Caribbean. Our balcony cabin was very average, nothing special. It was a bit loud and we could hear toilets flushing and some voices from other rooms. The toilets were also unreasonably loud. The free TV choices were extremely limited, and movies cost $10 each. Total rip off. Also a ripoff was the "free" internet package we received. It was a hassle to log on and off (this is undoubtedly intentional so that people don't use it as much), and we weren't even able to access YouTube or other streaming sites unless we paid for upgraded internet. Also, we were limited to using one device at a time. Again, a total ripoff. Regarding the food, I felt it was very average. Not amazing, not terrible. All in all, this was probably one of the the worst cruises I've been on all things considered. I actually think that Disney is worse than NCL (bad food, no casino, too expensive for what you get), but the wife and kid like Disney at least. None of us liked NCL much, and for this reason, we probably wont be back on an NCL ship for a very long time. They really blew it with this cruise. Read Less

I had high hopes for this cruise since some friends of ours took it just a few months ago. Unfortunately, my husband and I were a bit disappointed. I have cruised many times on different liners and have always been in awe of the friendly smiling crew. This cruise was very limited on that. We were not greeted with smiles, some of the bar staff were rude, some of the servers in the restaurants were rude and not many staff members had smiles on their faces and were ready to help if you were "lost". One night our group of 9 wanted to take some pictures since we were all celebrating our 55th birthdays. We got dressed up and went in search of some of the ships photographers. the very first photographer we saw stated that he would take the pictures yet we had to do exactly what he said, when he said it and a few of us would have to "LAY" on the ground. He saw we were all dressed in dresses and suits. We left there immediately and moved on. The photographer at the Atrium stairs was wonderful and help us and also let us do some "fun and cute" pictures. Another photographer we went to would not let us do a "fun" picture. She also kept telling someone in our group to smile and she was waiting to take the picture until she smiled. The woman in our group DOES NOT smile (for personal reasons) and we kept telling her to just take the picture. It was uncomfortable. The bartender and wait staff (Antonio) in the Mojito bar was FABULOUS! The specialty dining was amazing yet the food in some of the other dining areas was dry and not that good. Read Less

This was such a disappointment Took over 4 hours to board the ship and it was disorganized. By the time we boarded ship it was after 10 pm. Missed out on dinner as there was a mandatory safely meeting at 11pm Completely missed out on porting in Seattle. So because we missed out in Seattle spent an extra day in Victoria Was looking forward to San Francisco and we couldn’t get off the ship until after noon even though ship was ported in the early morning. Not what our itinerary had told us Public washrooms we’re discussing. Toilets seemed to not be flushing properly and guesses continued to use them..... Food was undercooked a few times and service was terrible. We had two dining speciality packages and one of those evenings our waiter forgot to submit our food order and it took nearly an hour and 40 minutes to receive our food Terrible experience all around! Read Less

We are a platinum latitude member but normally took a NCL cruise on a small ship. My wife and I wanted to try a larger ship. The embarkation was a disaster. It took us more than 4 hours to check in and embark. Personnel at the pier in Vancouver were so disorganized and they waited until 7pm to start the process. They could have started earlier and gave us our passenger pass. NCL deleted our stop at Seattle without any prior notice. We found out this deletion when we boarded the ship. NCL however compensated us with $50 each. Entertainment were mostly Broadway musicals without any variety. Some of the entertainment has an entrance fee. The inside room was smaller than the smaller ship. When we reached San Francisco, all passengers must check with the immigration at the terminal building. With more than 4000 passengers to process, NCL provided only 1 checkout counter to check IDs. No wonder the cue was really long. Because of this long line, I started to get sick and passed out while on the line. Per my wife, NO NCL PERSONNEL assisted us while I was laying on the floor. Thank God, one of the passenger called 911. I was taken to the emergency room of California Pacific Medical Center. It took the hospital more than 5 hours to complete the medical tests and diagnosis. I missed the ship and NCL provided us a hotel room and a flight home to Los Angeles the following day. I believe the long line gave me the stress and sickness. I will never a large NCL ship cruise again. Read Less

Embarkation in vancouver was a disaster! embarkation staff was incompetent and overwhelmed by the number of passengers. there was no special line for handicap or platinum members. Lifeboat drill was at 1100 p.m.-stupid time to have it. passengers were tired after being up all day then waiting for the embarkation process. Our seattle stop was cancelled-we were not informed of this until later that night. had we have known in advance that we were not going to seattle then we would have changed our booking. overheard several passengers saying they had friends/family meetings in seattle. a big disappointment for a lot of people. Ncl's excuse was that it would take too long to disembark and embark at the seattle port. bs: they should have known from experience how much time was involved and planned accordingly. Main dining staff was "lost". they were getting orders messed up and appeared as though this was the first cruise ship they had ever been on. besides being incompetent, most were not friendly. The first day of using the spa facility, there was a constant flow of perspective clients being toured through-so much for peace and quiet! Last year we were on the bliss for a 7 day cruise and it was fantastic. this time it was not. Read Less

My husband purchased this cruise for me as a holiday gift - we love cruising, and have cruised several times with NCL. The fact that Jersey Boys (one of my favorite musicals) was on-board was the proverbial icing on the cake! We were excited! We flew into Vancouver late the night before, with the expectation of boarding the boat in the late afternoon. We enjoyed the sites, ate a really good lunch, and proceeded to the cruise terminal. At this point (after receiving an email) we knew that the embarkation process was delayed, and that boarding would begin at 7pm. There was a line 3,800 strong. Luckily, we were seated in a holding room due to the fact that my husband is a disabled veteran. But it went down hill from here. The check-in process did NOT go smoothly. I had entered my CC information online prior to leaving home, but the agent at the desk failed to notify me that it didn't save. Once we stepped on the ship we found out that one of the ports had been cancelled (Seattle). (This was especially disturbing as I had forgotten some medication and had arranged and paid my neighbor to overnight it the port for pick up - except, now.... ). Then, by the time the agents make it through the line, we have the mandatory safety drill at 11PM - no one is "feeling it" at this point and tempers are flaring, including the lady doing the demonstration who actually yelled at passengers to SHUT UP! at one point. Nice. We awake the next morning to a letter that a cash deposit is required, since there is no credit card on file and we proceed down to the guest services desk and wait another hour or so in line. (they tired to close the line just in front of me, but I wasn't having anything to do with that. I made them listen. I am not a rude nor normally pushy person by nature, but I was already pretty dissatisfied.) My husband and I decided to schedule a spa day. We arrive for our appointment in the spa (couples massage) and are taken to a "pre-massage" relaxation room... that has 10 warmed beds, music, curtains in between for privacy, except 9 of the 10 bed are full and there are two of us - hence the couples massage. We offer to reschedule, however they WILL NOT let us leave (obviously fearing missing out on the up-charges) and throw my husband and I into the spa haven place where others have paid to enjoy private saunas and jacuzzis. Whatever. The massage was decent. Thank goodness! I'm not sure if it was the sheer size of this ship - now the largest in Norwegian's fleet - or the way this vacation started, but it really felt like one huge disappointment. Like when you're excited because you're going to Disneyland and you know you're going to have a fun filled day - except you spend all day waiting in line! That's this cruise to a "T"! LOWLIGHTS that make me say skip it: *Staff was not as welcoming or friendly as other NCL trips we have been on *Ship is SO large that you wait to dine anywhere or even to see a show *Don't dare ask for a non-alcoholic cocktail *Buffet food could be fresher at times *No where to sit - again, too many people, not enough planning *Lack of options for food during non peak meal times *No fun towel animals on the bed - c'mon, this makes you feel special! *Feeling like numbered cattle HIGHLIGHTS that make me say consider it: *The entertainment was PHENOMENAL!!!! *99% of the food we had - outside of the buffet - was out of this world! *Hey, you're on a boat! All in all, two thumbs down on this one. And this previously hard-core loyal NCL sailor is seriously reconsidering if they earned my loyalty on this one. This ship itself is beautiful, but I would not sail on this vessel again. Read Less

We have been on many cruises usually 2 or 3 a year and we looked forward to trying out NCL and their newest ship the Bliss. Right from the beginning it was frustrating. The drink packages are way over priced. $99 a Day is crazy compared to other cruise lines. Most of the Shore Excursions were way over priced. I rented a car for the day and drove all over San Francisco and Victoria. It was far cheaper and a much better value for the money. Then we finally get to the day of departure and I had been speaking to NCL by phone asking to get instructions for getting to handicap and elderly parents aboard. And was told to ask at the pier. We dropped luggage very early in the day and asked at the pier...to no avail. They said it will be set up when we embark later that evening. We stood on line with two elderly handicap parents for 2 1/2 hours to board the ship. It was a disaster. Not only for us but many people with elderly parents or young children. I have been on 20 cruises and this was the worst process I have ever seen. Not a single NCL person around. Only people employed by the pier. I have not experienced a more chaotic departure. We were doing our safety meeting at 11:30pm ... that’s tough on the elderly and young kids. Not to mention anyone. Then many of us were surprised to find out the next morning that NCL decided not to got to Seattle like scheduled ... and just go directly to Victoria. We saw the piece of paper at 11pm the night before but a vast majority of the people had no idea. You would think NCL would make arrangements for the arrival into Victoria and it was a ghost town at the pier for transportation. Again, No NCL people on the pier. 70 people waiting to get a cab into downtown ... not one cab. We started calling all of the cab companies and they had no idea the ship was there. Peoples book shore excursions were a mess. I could not make this up if I tried. The NCL staff on board the ship are very good. The dinning was great. The Beatles shows were amazing... but there were so many organization issues on this cruise. We will stick with RCCL. Read Less

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. - Disembarkation was good since we did not have to clear customs. It started early. 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 1st day of the cruise. It was advertised as a 6-day cruise with boarding at 7pm. - Muster drill at 11pm the 1st 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 1st 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. Read Less

Daughter and Son in law took this cruise in July 2019, They loved it. I found the web page and customer service via phone to be outstanding. Easily changed a return flight so as to get back the last day. Wife and I (first time) had a great time. The ship was great. The Staff was excellent. Daryrl was in charge of the room. Talked to a young waitress Christine and found her very Friendly. I noticed one of the Restaurant managers once in The French Bistro and in the Taste. She was an excellent manager(blond short hair) of her staff and treated all the customers with respect. This being the last cruise of the season, I expected lost stops for weather. None happened, the weather turned out great and turned warm enough to use the pool. Entertainment was great, Six, Jersey Boys, Prohibition, music in the atrium and Beatles review. Excursions were outstanding and the bus drivers were professional and friendly. I found Juneau to be very interesting even in the rain. We took the Skagway rail ride, it was great the views and guides full of information. Ketchikan took the pub crawl. the young lady who took us on the tour was a local and full of knowledge. I intend to take another cruise next year and will use NCL. Read Less

This cruise was a cruise in memory of a good friend and a bucket list kind if thing. This was also my family's first cruise. We went on this cruise With a group of friends that have cruised before and told us this was the most incredible ship that they have been on. The food was amazing in every restaurant we went to: The buffet was our favorite we also went to the Manhattan for an adult dinner and it was amazing. When joyed the local and Taste and Savory. The one restaurant we didnt enjoy was Los Lobos, The service was slow and the food was not that great. Other than that the water slides were open every day the race track was open every day as was laser tag. I can't say enough about the people that they have working on the ship always very friendly got to know us and made our trip feel like we were at home. I am already getting ready to book my 2nd cruise with Norwegian! Read Less

High marks for Norwegian Cruise Line! The ship was wonderful, the service was very good, and the scenery was tremendous. It was a great way for my wife and I to celebrate our 25th anniversary. A few minor annoyances worth noting: 1) There aren't enough elevators for a ship this large, so plan on waiting several minutes before one becomes available; 2) Every time you walk onto the ship or into a dining area, a staff member with hand sanitizer will chant, "Washy, washy, happy, happy," which gets old quickly; 3) The daily menus for the main dining rooms aren't posted in the on-board app or shown on one of the ship's informational TV channels, so you won't know what's being served until you go to the restaurants; 4) Specialty restaurants are VERY expensive, with prices significantly higher than other cruise lines; 5) The ship was only in the Ketchikan and Victoria ports for about 4 hours each, which doesn't leave much time for sightseeing -- not to mention that we didn't arrive in Victoria until 8 p.m., when it was dark and places of interest were closing. Read Less

Every staff person we came across was friendly and very helpful. These people work hard to make our cruise the best possible. We got a card to pick a Hero on the cruise. I couldn't pick just one. They all were heroes. There is so much hard work that goes on behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. I don't think we even saw a small portion of what all these people do for us. From our Stewart to the servers in the restaurants, they all had a smile and greeted every guest as if they were the most important person on the ship. This was my husband and I's first cruise. The experience was wonderful. The Bliss is a beautiful ship. The shows were awesome. The food was the best we have ever experienced. The verity of food, beverages, and entertainment was wonderful. So much to see do and try. We are excited to cruise again! Read Less

This was our first Cruise, it was great to see Alaska. I would like to say that Jake the cruise director was lots of fun and did a great job in keeping everyone happy and laughing all the time. Being our first cruise I would like to say that the food was fair, went to a few of the show and they were great. Some of the special dinning were fair to middle. The store were lots of fun to shop at. The service of the cabin was great. leaving the ship was nice but the trip to the towns were a little stuff in the trams. But I would like to say the over view of the total cruise was great. Great staff and Entertainment. The ports were lots of fun. Really enjoyed Skagway Alaska. I would recommend this cruise line to everyone who wants to take an cruise. The Bliss was very beautiful and very clean. Great crew and really enjoy the ships talent show and entertainment on board the ship. Read Less

I wanted to explore a new destination Alaska and what better way than on a cruise ship especially the Norwegian Bliss which was designed for Alaska Cruises. I've been on several Norwegian Cruises over the years and to me they are very well organized especially with both the embarkation and disembarkation. A lot of people don't understand that the disembarkation process depends a lot on custom but once clearance has been given from customs, Norwegian has a very well organized options for getting off the ship. I always get the spa pass and on this trip it was very important for me since I had acute back pain/sciatica nerve pain throughout my trip. I also had a 3 specialty dining package which I enjoyed very much plus 2 free specialty dinning options with 1 free bottle of wine as a courtesy for being a Platinum Lattitude Member. Norwegian always has a nice line up of great entertainment consisting of music venues, shows etc. I saw a Beatles cover band which were awesome but missed the theatre shows on account of being ill with the back pain issues on some evenings but overall I made the best of it and still had a relaxing vacation. I did one excursion in Skagway which was a 6 hour bus tour of the Yukon which included a nice lunch and the option to get off the bus several time during the road trip to take some awesome pictures. It was a very well run excursion which I booked through Norwegian. As a platinum member I received a 10% discount. Overall Norwegian offers a great value on their cruises with great dinning options, entertainment, excursions and they offer generous perks to their repeat cruises through the Lattitude Program. I even had all my clothes washed and folded for free for my Platinum Lattitude status which I appreciate.. Read Less

We left from Seattle, and arrived the day before ship departure. We stayed at Hotel Ändra, highly recommended and great location. We were pleasantly surprised and had a great time exploring Pike Market, Space Needle etc. We actually would have spent more time here! But we came for a cruise, and it sure delivered. This ship is absolutely fantastic, but what makes it even more of a spectacular experience is the multi cultural staff and the personality of the staff. ALL of the staff was amazing, smiling, pleasant, eager to help and just happy! Embarking was so smooth, came at allotted time and we were literally never waiting for more than a few minutes in a line. Very well organized. Same with disembarking, we never new they set up the paths or anything and it was smooth sailing. We used the shuttle service to the airport and had our bags shipped to our destination and that as well went without any problems. We had a stateroom with a balcony and it was roomy, clean and beautiful views at all time. I’m so happy we did this because I enjoyed sun out on that balcony more than once and enjoyed grabbing fresh air in privat. We chose 250 WIFI minutes and I have to say I checked in w my adult kids daily and never used up the minutes. We also had the beverage package and high end beer/wine and liquor was part of that so we could vacation “properly”. For us it was well worth it! We also chose to do the upgraded dining package for 4 days. We chose this because we wanted to try out some of the restaurants and wanted to be able to have reservation...we realized after you could still make reservation at the main dining room but we were blown away with the Mexican Los Lobos and Cagneys....food was to die for!!! Elizabeth at Los Lobos was the best waitress we’ve ever had!!! The food is so good everywhere though and you will never go hungry, never. For excursions we had chosen to do a whale watch in Juneau followed by a quick tour to the Mendenhall Glacier. We saw plenty of whales and the tour was awesome, they even provided binoculars! We saw the glacier right before it got dark so we were happy! The second excursion was in Skagway where we did the train ride, goldpanning and dog sledding. We learned so much this day we’re still in awe. The train ride was spectacular and our guide, Klondike Mike, was incredible at telling the history! We’ll definitely be following the Iditarod race in March! So overall, the excursions where absolutely worth the money. We did our own thing in Ketchikan, which worked out perfect for us. We travelled with another group of 3 other couples but had already decided we were doing our own thing. It was easy communicating with our company through the app so we could meet up whenever. There were always some activity going on if you were up for it. I ended up splurging and got the spa pass for the week and enjoyed the time in there immensely. If there was something I would “suggest” changing it would be the Beatles show, we never got to see that show because you had to stand in line for at least 45 min everyday, how about reservations for that? And the Observatory Lounge is such beautiful space to take in all the views,how about a child free section? There were times when groups of 10-15 people with their young children took over whole areas for a full day. We absolutely recommend this trip and are already thinking about where our next cruise will bring us. Read Less