NCL Bliss Race Track Problem on June 9-16 Alaska Cruise

Overall this cruise was great and my family had a great time. However, the one issue that we, plus many other guests, encountered was the NCL Bliss Race track. We boarded the ship around 1pm on June 9. Because this was a late boarding, I saw that most of the race track appointments were already sold out before we had gotten on board. By late afternoon on June 9, all race track appointments were sold out.

I figured this was okay as there was a stand-by option listed and recommended by guests services. However, if you go to the race track, the workers will actually discourage you from standing around since cancellations rarely happen. Like many other passengers, we kept checking back hourly and daily to see if any cancellations would occur but not one happened throughout the entire cruise. Therefore, we did not get a chance to ride the go-karts.

I understand that with 4k passengers, not every passenger will get a chance to ride but NCL needs to do something about this. Either extend the hours of the race track, allow racing on port days, or only allowing each stateroom to make one reservation. I'm not sure what is the most fair or logical solution or if NCL even cares since they're getting their fees no matter what. All I know is that there were a lot of unhappy passengers that did not get to do something that was highly hyped and promoted about this cruise. Very disappointed with NCL and will probably not cruise with them for a while.

Interesting observations. On the Jun 2 sailing, I believe we made our reservations for Friday morning on Wednesday.

I think I mentioned this elsewhere, but what I saw on June 2 cruise was a very, very inefficient operation. If the track capacity is 10 cars (I believe it is), I'd guess I was seeing on average 5-6 cars on the track. Sometimes as few as 1 car on the track. Also, while one set of cars is racing, the 2nd set should be getting ready so they can launch as soon as the previous group is all back in the pits. For my group, we sat a long time after the other group was already in.

Efficiency - they need to improve it.

Folks must like it, price will go up until demand dies down...

Me, I’ll just have a cocktail or 3 and watch...

I was on this cruise. Unless you booked laser tag and shows before sailaway you were out of luck! I did see single gocarts available at a few times through the week, however doubles were completely booked. It was a very stressful way to start a cruise seeing everything booked up.

Also yes, it took a full hour from gocart checkin to finish.

Demand far exceeds supply on this ship. Hopefully they start having longer operating hours for the laser tag,go carts and more show times. Guest services and box office wont help you get in if its sold out so dont bother.

I also saw a LOT of unhappy passengers too. Im so sotry your family didnt have a chance to ride, thats really unfair.

We prob wont be sailing ncl for awhile anymore either

Sounds like NCL needs to make some changes to the go cart and laser tag scheduling.

I understand that with 4k passengers, not every passenger will get a chance to ride but NCL needs to do something about this. Either extend the hours of the race track, allow racing on port days, or only allowing each stateroom to make one reservation. I'm not sure what is the most fair or logical solution or if NCL even cares since they're getting their fees no matter what. All I know is that there were a lot of unhappy passengers that did not get to do something that was highly hyped and promoted about this cruise. Very disappointed with NCL and will probably not cruise with them for a while.

Someone was complaining about the cost on another thread. It's obviously too cheap. The solution is for NCL to play around with the pricing a bit. $9.99 is obviously too low a price if they are selling out and have unhappy guests. I don't know how elastic that price is, but if they doubled it they might reach a point where there are open slots for people, or even if sold out, people won't be as disappointed.

Someone was complaining about the cost on another thread. It's obviously too cheap. The solution is for NCL to play around with the pricing a bit. $9.99 is obviously too low a price if they are selling out and have unhappy guests. I don't know how elastic that price is, but if they doubled it they might reach a point where there are open slots for people, or even if sold out, people won't be as disappointed.

Why is the only solution to double the price? They offer these activities for limited hours, they need to keep them open for longer.

I was on this cruise. Unless you booked laser tag and shows before sailaway you were out of luck! I did see single gocarts available at a few times through the week, however doubles were completely booked. It was a very stressful way to start a cruise seeing everything booked up.

 

Also yes, it took a full hour from gocart checkin to finish.

 

Demand far exceeds supply on this ship. Hopefully they start having longer operating hours for the laser tag,go carts and more show times. Guest services and box office wont help you get in if its sold out so dont bother.

 

I also saw a LOT of unhappy passengers too. Im so sotry your family didnt have a chance to ride, thats really unfair.

 

We prob wont be sailing ncl for awhile anymore either

Its new folks they will adjust the times I am sure, But the cars are electric and only have a certain amount of run time and that will be a limiting factor! They also need to preserve the cars (in terms of hours in use) as they will have budgeted on an expected MTBF and replacement.

Folks must like it, price will go up until demand dies down...

 

Me, I’ll just have a cocktail or 3 and watch...

Doubtful. Ncl hasn’t demonstrated a great ability to price amenities like this. Knuckleheads RUN to get Vibe passes on Escape every week for passes that NCL could easily increase the prices 50%+.

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It seems that with all the new large mega ships ncl has this issue. We sailed the breakaway when it was new and had problem with the timing of the ropes course and rock wall. I no longer will sail a larger new ship because of that and am sailing the jewel to Alaska instead of the bliss

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Why are the carts not racing on port days? That would be the ideal time to race IMHO. Its also a great time to check out the water slides.

Why are the carts not racing on port days? That would be the ideal time to race IMHO. Its also a great time to check out the water slides.

most likely crew/staff availability issue. in port days, crew members have different duty's then on a sea day

most likely crew/staff availability issue. in port days, crew members have different duty's then on a sea day

That's crazy. If that is the reason then they should bring 4 more employees on the ship to keep such a popular attraction running for its guests. Its not a free attraction either. The more that ride, the more money NCL makes. Its odd it would not run every day.

Also yes, it took a full hour from gocart checkin to finish.

Why is the only solution to double the price? They offer these activities for limited hours, they need to keep them open for longer.

It's not the only solution, but it is the easiest. They can do that today and solve the problem. Ramping up the number of hours it is available will likely require more staff, and more training of the new staff, and that will take longer. There may be other restrictions by the ports that require them to not have them running on port days, especially in Alaska.

$9.99 is actually about what Kart racing costs on shore; locally it's about $20 per race that lasts about 10 minutes. If people said "Hey, let's go race the go-karts" and went up, and saw the higher price, they are less upset if there are no slots available. I don't recall the exact price of the zip line in one of the Alaskan ports, but because it was over $100 I wasn't upset to miss it. If it had been free I might have called my Congressman to complain about Alaska's treatment of entitled cruise passengers.

What were the hours for the race track. Was it running day 1 before leaving Seattle? Is it open in the mornings, afternoons, etc.? Thanks.

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That sucks! The go karts would be the big draw for me for that ship!

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Overall this cruise was great and my family had a great time. However, the one issue that we, plus many other guests, encountered was the NCL Bliss Race track. We boarded the ship around 1pm on June 9. Because this was a late boarding, I saw that most of the race track appointments were already sold out before we had gotten on board. By late afternoon on June 9, all race track appointments were sold out.

 

I figured this was okay as there was a stand-by option listed and recommended by guests services. However, if you go to the race track, the workers will actually discourage you from standing around since cancellations rarely happen. Like many other passengers, we kept checking back hourly and daily to see if any cancellations would occur but not one happened throughout the entire cruise. Therefore, we did not get a chance to ride the go-karts.

 

I understand that with 4k passengers, not every passenger will get a chance to ride but NCL needs to do something about this. Either extend the hours of the race track, allow racing on port days, or only allowing each stateroom to make one reservation. I'm not sure what is the most fair or logical solution or if NCL even cares since they're getting their fees no matter what. All I know is that there were a lot of unhappy passengers that did not get to do something that was highly hyped and promoted about this cruise. Very disappointed with NCL and will probably not cruise with them for a while.

I am so sorry you missed the opportunity!

I do thank you for this as we are scheduled for early boarding on July 7th, and now I will make sure to attempt to make a reservation for my grandson the first thing upon boarding.

If Norwegian is reading this, start an on boat Go-Kart league.

I've run numerous leagues indoors during the winters at home. It would be a blast to have X number of 30 minutes seasons throughout the week and gear heads like myself will happily pay to run it. Also it is easy enough to seat driver ability based on lap times.

When does booking for go-karts open? how many days in advance? Thanks.

Also, when does booking for shows start in advance?

That's crazy. If that is the reason then they should bring 4 more employees on the ship to keep such a popular attraction running for its guests. Its not a free attraction either. The more that ride, the more money NCL makes. Its odd it would not run every day.

This is not like a land based hotel or theme park. On a vast majority of ships, the crew capacity is full. They just can't add 4 more people. Even if there were extra beds (which there arent'), the lifeboat capacity would be impacted as well. The bottom line is if you keep the go-cart track open more hours, that will pull staff from somewhere else.

Overall this cruise was great and my family had a great time. However, the one issue that we, plus many other guests, encountered was the NCL Bliss Race track. We boarded the ship around 1pm on June 9. Because this was a late boarding, I saw that most of the race track appointments were already sold out before we had gotten on board. By late afternoon on June 9, all race track appointments were sold out.

 

I figured this was okay as there was a stand-by option listed and recommended by guests services. However, if you go to the race track, the workers will actually discourage you from standing around since cancellations rarely happen. Like many other passengers, we kept checking back hourly and daily to see if any cancellations would occur but not one happened throughout the entire cruise. Therefore, we did not get a chance to ride the go-karts.

 

I understand that with 4k passengers, not every passenger will get a chance to ride but NCL needs to do something about this. Either extend the hours of the race track, allow racing on port days, or only allowing each stateroom to make one reservation. I'm not sure what is the most fair or logical solution or if NCL even cares since they're getting their fees no matter what. All I know is that there were a lot of unhappy passengers that did not get to do something that was highly hyped and promoted about this cruise. Very disappointed with NCL and will probably not cruise with them for a while.

This post reminds me of an old Math experiment that Albert Einstein once conducted...he argued that 2-1 does not have the same "value" as "1"....here is how he tested this theory...he had (2) groups of monkeys....the first group had zero fruit to start with....he handed all the monkeys 1 banana each...the outcome: the Monkeys were very excited to receive (1) banana....the other group also had zero fruit to start...he handed all the monkeys in this group (2) bananas each....to which they showed signs of happiness...then he quickly took (1) banana away from each monkey.... the outcome: They were VERY UPSET !!! the point is..maybe NCL can stick to what they are good at...instead of always 'reinventing" the wheel before it has been tested. Before NCL advertised they had go-carts on-board know one knew they wanted to ride them. I cant imagine on the exit cruise paperwork that everyone receives post cruise in their mailbox asking what they could have improved on that one person out of 4000 would have written...well, i would have enjoyed riding a motorized go-cart onboard a ship traveling at 29 knots...

This is to be not surprising with the ship being brand new. Lines will get shorter in due time.

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This post reminds me of an old Math experiment that Albert Einstein once conducted...he argued that 2-1 does not have the same "value" as "1"....here is how he tested this theory...he had (2) groups of monkeys....the first group had zero fruit to start with....he handed all the monkeys 1 banana each...the outcome: the Monkeys were very excited to receive (1) banana....the other group also had zero fruit to start...he handed all the monkeys in this group (2) bananas each....to which they showed signs of happiness...then he quickly took (1) banana away from each monkey.... the outcome: They were VERY UPSET !!! the point is..maybe NCL can stick to what they are good at...instead of always 'reinventing" the wheel before it has been tested. Before NCL advertised they had go-carts on-board know one knew they wanted to ride them. I cant imagine on the exit cruise paperwork that everyone receives post cruise in their mailbox asking what they could have improved on that one person out of 4000 would have written...well, i would have enjoyed riding a motorized go-cart onboard a ship traveling at 29 knots...

Thank you for this - I needed it! I am booked on Bliss in September (first time with NCL) and am starting to stress after reading posts such as this with so many things being booked up. My vacation was starting to get ruined months before we even take it. Then I read your post and it put things in perspective - we have a go kart track literally down the street from where we live. Do you know how many times I have been there? ZERO! Do you know how many times my kids have asked to go? ZERO! Yet, here I am freaking out about the fact that we might not get to ride a go kart at sea. Sigh. First World Problems!!! Thank you for bringing me back down to earth!

This is not like a land based hotel or theme park. On a vast majority of ships, the crew capacity is full. They just can't add 4 more people. Even if there were extra beds (which there arent'), the lifeboat capacity would be impacted as well. The bottom line is if you keep the go-cart track open more hours, that will pull staff from somewhere else.

If that is the case then don't build a go cart track if you don't have the staff and resources to run it. Can you imagine RCCL telling its passengers on port days.... the zip line and wave runner are closed.

Something is majorly wrong and miscalculated.