Although I'd been on 10+ cruises in the past, this was the first cruise in over 10 years. My former cruises had been on Royal Caribbean and Princess, but it has been so long that it is difficult to draw an objective comparison, but I will do my best herein, as we relied heavily on reviews in making our selection, and hope that our review can help others make a decision as to how they invest their hard earned dollars and valuable vacation time.

When making the selection for this cruise, we were initially deliberating between Celebrity and RCCL. The rationale behind choosing NCCL was that both the RCCL and Celebrity ships that were sailing in Alaska were aged, and many comments reflected that. So, we flipped a coin and opted for a brand new ship where we at least knew that our stateroom and the common areas would be in great condition. In this regard, we were happy with our decision. The stateroom was very comfortable, great decor, picture a W hotel or something in similar contemporary class. Very nice. Corridors and common areas maintain this high quality fit and finish.

Dining was a mixed bag - while I appreciate the fact that NCL does the "freestyle" dining (no set dining times for everybody, can make reservations or just show up and get seated after a short or no-wait), i feel that this adversely affects the service experience. We opted for the upgraded dining, so we ate in the upgraded dining venues 4 of the 7 nights. Generally, these were very good, much like an on-land restaurant, one or two service members taking care of you, food very good. The main dining venues (Manhattan, Savor, Taste), however, left something to be desired. Not sure if it is part of the learning curve, first night jitters/scramble by staff, or what, but Manhattan was very disappointing. Staff that seats you wears a t-shirt from a different venue, then another person comes to fill water, then 3 or 4 people come by to take order, only to realize that 2 or 3 people preceded them and already did, then the order arrives and is messed up, very disappointing in comparison to my expectations and in comparison to what I can recall about my prior experiences. The food in these venues was OK - lunch here was extremely underwhelming, while dinner was mixed - a few good, a few not so good. It wasn't to the point of disgust by any means, I just expected better for the pricepoint of the cruise. The specialty restaurants far better. Another aspect about this freestyle dining, I seem to recall folks getting dressed up a little bit for dinner on past cruises - here on Bliss, we were dressed up nicely, while others in same dining room are wearing t-shirts, hoodies, and hats. Sort of cheapened the experience for me. Would be nice if there was some enforcement of the dress code. Read more