First time NCL cruiser thoughts

[NightOne]

I just got off the NCL Bliss this past Saturday and it was my first cruise on NCL.

 

Before taking this cruise I also had NCL Breakaway booked and will be going on that in less than 100.

 

First, let me say that I had a wonderful time on Bliss and it was a great cruise on a phenomenal ship. I would not have any hesitation sailing on Bliss again.

 

I have previously sailed on Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival and my current favorite is still Carnival. So what follows is a collection of my thoughts comparing a lot of LITTLE things that I found better or worse than Carnival. I'll leave the big picture reviews to other people. Many of these things are petty and some of them are subjective (the food for example) but I wanted to talk about the details on what make the experience different across the lines.

 

So here are my personal thoughts in random order:

 

The GOOD stuff:

There are lots of bathrooms around the ship. You are close to one no matter where you are at and they are easy to find. The public bathrooms are also very big and accommodtae multiple people easily.

 

They have an automatic paper towel dispenser by the door leaving the public bathrooms. They have big sheets of paper towels unlike the tiny ones on Carnival.

 

This was the best food I have ever eaten on any ship at any time. Everything I ate was delicious and phenomenal.I was blown away by the food!

 

The waterfront is the best ship feature available on any cruise ship without comparison. We spent many hours sitting out there enjoying the breeze and ocean.

 

The observation lounge is great place to spend some quiet time, play cards, relax, etc. This would be even better on cold climate cruises.

 

The race track is so much fun.

 

The stateroom bathrooms are fantastic. The shower with the glass door. Good water pressure in the shower. The drink holders by sink keep glasses in place. Plenty of shelves for your toiletries.

 

I have Celiac sisease and have to have a special diet as a result. This was handled without issue and I was able to eat something everywhere. (gluten free food)

 

The stateroom balcony was covered and had full view glass wall. (mine was deck 11 aft) Loved sitting on the balcony.

 

The TV info is excellent (map channel, onboard account, etc) and modern.

 

The entire ship is beautiful. I am sure I missed a zillion things around the ship but it is absolutely gorgeous everywhere you go.

 

There are tons of dining options in addition to the main dining rooms.

 

There is an adult only pool.

 

There are 2 main pools.

 

Spice H20 is a lot of fun and a great place for sailaway out of Miami.

 

The crew talent show was wonderful and ended with a crew appreciation event which was nice.

 

The bed was very comfortable and luggage fits under the bed.

 

Walking is pretty much confined to between forward and aft elevators which reducing walking. For a big ship it doesn't feel like you are having to make long trips to get places.

 

The lines at guest services were short.

 

Good elevator service 99% of the time.

 

The bowling was a hoot.

 

Drink service at bars is easy without signing slips.

 

Lots of ocean views on this ship.

 

You can hear ship announcements on TV channel 2 (Bridge channel) so you don't have top open your door to hear them.

 

The fellow passengers were great. No issues with anymore. All quiet and well behaved. (well mannered)

 

The Movies under stars are also available on your TV.

 

The MDR is open on embarkation day for lunch.

 

The Internet Social Plan was good all cruise long.

 

No dressing up. Ever. I left my dress shoes and pants at home and wore shorts everywhere. (including Manhattan room and Cagney's as did others) No one cares what you wear as long as you look neat and clean.

The not so good stuff:

The public bathroom hand dryers are terrible and take forever. Use the paper towel machine by the door.

 

The food to the table is slow. Ity takes 42-46 minutes for the very 1st food to come and 1+ hour for entrees. However, I will say that it is worth the wait. (Phenomenal)

 

They never seem to take drink orders for dinner. I had to ask for iced tea every single time and it took 15-20 minutes to get it. By the 3rd day I was ordering them 2 at a time because refills were normally non-existent.

 

The Comedy venue is too small, too hot, and too crowded. They also have standing room only people that block the view of some people.

 

Reservations as a whole are a bad thing. Having to book everything is a pain. Things book full. Also, lets say I have a dinner reservation for 6 and we meet another couple who wants to join us. They can't because the venue is booked full and I cannot expand my reservation to 8 people. Reserving things just wasn't fun.

 

The Water slide weight limits are terrible and placing scales next to the entrances and weighing people is just ridiculous. For example, women don't want to step on scales in front of people. I seen couples that wanted to ride together on the tube slide but the combined weight limit means they have to step on the scale and weigh in to make sure they are under the limit. Thus they ended up riding solo to avoid the weigh ins. Furthermore, the slides should be designed and built in a manner that they hold 1000-2000 pounds to insure that they are strong and durable under multiple conditions. It scary to think about their durability.

 

This leads to: people get stuck on the drop slide. Yes, they make it over the 1st "hump" up the 2nd and slide back down. They then have to be removed from the slide via a special door that they have setup for this. So in a nutshell this is a poor design and not well thoughout.

 

The toilet paper is very bad. It is practically worth bringing your own. Your butt will thank you at the end of the week.

 

The is no "grab and go food" except at the buffet. This means you spend a lot of time dining during a day if you cannot go to the buffet. (which special diets pretty much cannot)

 

There is less storage in cabin than on Carnival (less closet and drawer space) but it is adequate.

 

The bottled water is simply too expensive compared to other lines.

 

The shows are too long for my taste and require reservations. I don't like 2 hour broadway shows.

 

The Cruise Director and staff not an integral part of the experience like on Carnival. You find yourself missing the Fun Squad. We attended several atrium events but had little interaction with entertainment staff.

The pillows could be better.

 

The casino is TIGHT. Tightest I have seen on land or sea. Part of the casino is a smoking room that confines the smoke and makes it worse than being open and excludes 1/2 the casino for the true non-smoker types. it is not pleasant to be in even for those that don't mind the smoke.

 

The 24 hour Local is not 24 hours for food. They do a brunch menu and there are times you cannot get any food as they switch back to the regular menu.

 

There is no towel exchange in Spice H20 which means you have to walk all the way to the main pool or take wet towels back to your room.

 

The hot Tubs not so hot. The main pool area hot tubs are one deck up and looked very crowded all the time.

 

The NCL App doesn’t show the full Freestyle Daily content. For example, if you want to find open and close times for restaurants you are out of luck. Everything that is printed on paper should be available in the app. It is not.

 

The NCL App chat has issues with missing messages. We couldn't find a way to turn on notifications/sounds when messages were received.

 

There is quite a bit of "filler" in daily activities (i.e. Race Track is open, go play ping pong by yourself, etc.) that list things that are not really time specific activities.

 

Order accuracy in all dining venues is an issue. They use tablets to take the orders in most venues and they still cannot seem to get it right.

-----------

 

I may have forgot some things and will add them in replies if necessary.

 

Overall I am impressed with NCL. I certainly like it better than Royal. I am cruising them again next March and would cruise them in the future without question.

 

Happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

Thanks

 

Carl

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by NightOne

[BirdTravels]

Thanks so much for taking the time to give us your thoughts. And glad you enjoyed your cruise. We loved the Bliss when we sailed on her to Alaska earlier in the year. 

[JamieLogical]

Great lists! Thanks for posting. I've only ever sailed on NCL and have been on the Escape (Bliss' sister ship) twice. So, none of this is a huge surprise to me, but it still helps me prepare for my Sailing on the Bliss in 54 days.

[fabby50]

I generally choose a ship based on itinerary, not for a particular line.  I too like Carnival, something I don't hear many people say.  It seems to me like they get such a bad rep, that they try really hard to make you happy when you're on their ships.  I love the Alchemy Bars (best bars of any ship I've been on) and I still think we've had our best steakhouse experiences on Carnival.  I am a vegetarian but my husband loves his filet, so we'll go a couple of times during a weeklong cruise.  The chef usually comes out and asks me what I want for dinner.  I usually tell him "surprise me" and I've gotten great meals that way.  I'm glad to hear of another Carnival fan (though I really like NCL and our next cruise is on the Star).

[ev98]

Thank you for the report. Looking forward to our cruise on Bliss in less than a week!

 

One caution: I would highly recommend *NOT* bringing your own toilet paper. Yes, the provided single-ply stuff is unpleasant, but anything thicker than that has the potential to clog up the plumbing and put whole blocks of cabin bathrooms out of service. A sewer backup would ruin many people's vacations and causes grief for the maintenance crew as well. 

[NightOne]

15 minutes ago, ev98 said:

Thank you for the report. Looking forward to our cruise on Bliss in less than a week!

 

One caution: I would highly recommend *NOT* bringing your own toilet paper. Yes, the provided single-ply stuff is unpleasant, but anything thicker than that has the potential to clog up the plumbing and put whole blocks of cabin bathrooms out of service. A sewer backup would ruin many people's vacations and causes grief for the maintenance crew as well. 

 

I'm not even sure they would let you bring your own toilet paper on but I was under the impression that all U.S. toilet paper is designed to work with septic systems and would thus work on the ship's systems as well but I have no clue.

[kochleffel]

3 minutes ago, NightOne said:

 

I'm not even sure they would let you bring your own toilet paper on but I was under the impression that all U.S. toilet paper is designed to work with septic systems and would thus work on the ship's systems as well but I have no clue.

 

This may be true, but there are written notices to use only the toilet paper provided.

[NightOne]

3 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

 

This may be true, but there are written notices to use only the toilet paper provided.

 

So sandpaper it is LOL

[tallnthensome]

Thank you for the review! Are you saying that the Bliss has Movies Under the Stars now on deck in the evening? You stated you could watch them on tv as well so .......

[Martini Mom]

New to NCL. You don't sign slips when you get your drinks?

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, Martini Mom said:

New to NCL. You don't sign slips when you get your drinks?

 

Not if you have the Ultimate Drink Package. If you have the package, then they swipe your card and send you on your way with your drink.

[SNJCruisers]

4 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Not if you have the Ultimate Drink Package. If you have the package, then they swipe your card and send you on your way with your drink.

Or drinks.....you're allowed two.  A Corona and a shot of Fireball 🥃 at Howl at the Moon on the Escape was a staple.

[NightOne]

18 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

Thank you for the review! Are you saying that the Bliss has Movies Under the Stars now on deck in the evening? You stated you could watch them on tv as well so .......

 

Yes. Unless I am mistaken they were listed in the Freestyle Daily as being at the pool deck. I saved them all so I can go back and look to see if I am mistaken. I didn't actually attend any movies outdoors though.

[LD Silver]

Great review.....love the "bullet point" style.  Easy to read.

[tallnthensome]

5 hours ago, NightOne said:

 

Yes. Unless I am mistaken they were listed in the Freestyle Daily as being at the pool deck. I saved them all so I can go back and look to see if I am mistaken. I didn't actually attend any movies outdoors though.

If you could take a peak at them and confirm they were on deck and not just inside the ship I would very much appreciate it. The kids love movies outside. Thanks in advance! 

[NightOne]

29 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

If you could take a peak at them and confirm they were on deck and not just inside the ship I would very much appreciate it. The kids love movies outside. Thanks in advance! 

 

Will try to remember to do that and get back to you here. :)

 

That is going to require me to unpack which I still have not done yet. LOL

Edited December 11, 2018 by NightOne

[raynvic]

Thanks for the comparison.  I am soon to be Diamond on Carnival and taking an NCL in 2019.  My only other NCL was in the early 80's so I don't count it.  Sounds like you appreciated some of the differences that I am looking forward to.  Glad you were able to come back and share!

[NightOne]

19 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

If you could take a peak at them and confirm they were on deck and not just inside the ship I would very much appreciate it. The kids love movies outside. Thanks in advance! 

 

I checked the Freestyle Dailies last night and they were indeed on the pool deck (weather permitting it said). Also, the times were pretty early (6pm and 7pm on the ones I saw)

[tallnthensome]

Just now, NightOne said:

 

I checked the Freestyle Dailies last night and they were indeed on the pool deck (weather permitting it said). Also, the times were pretty early (6pm and 7pm on the ones I saw)

Thank you so very much for following up! We have a 15 day Panama Canal coming up in March and this will be great news to tell the kiddos. 

[NightOne]

A couple of other things I remembered that I will add to my original thoughts (without categorizing them):

 

The cabin door swings out instead of in on NCL - That is pretty neat

 

The closet and balcony doors on NCL are sliding doors vs doors that swing out on Carnival

 

You're basically paying for a drink package on NCL whether you are a drinker or not

[newmexicoNita]

On 12/10/2018 at 2:07 PM, NightOne said:

I just got off the NCL Bliss this past Saturday and it was my first cruise on NCL.

 

Before taking this cruise I also had NCL Breakaway booked and will be going on that in less than 100.

 

First, let me say that I had a wonderful time on Bliss and it was a great cruise on a phenomenal ship. I would not have any hesitation sailing on Bliss again.

 

I have previously sailed on Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival and my current favorite is still Carnival. So what follows is a collection of my thoughts comparing a lot of LITTLE things that I found better or worse than Carnival. I'll leave the big picture reviews to other people. Many of these things are petty and some of them are subjective (the food for example) but I wanted to talk about the details on what make the experience different across the lines.

 

So here are my personal thoughts in random order:

 

The GOOD stuff:

There are lots of bathrooms around the ship. You are close to one no matter where you are at and they are easy to find. The public bathrooms are also very big and accommodtae multiple people easily.

 

They have an automatic paper towel dispenser by the door leaving the public bathrooms. They have big sheets of paper towels unlike the tiny ones on Carnival.

 

This was the best food I have ever eaten on any ship at any time. Everything I ate was delicious and phenomenal.I was blown away by the food!

 

The waterfront is the best ship feature available on any cruise ship without comparison. We spent many hours sitting out there enjoying the breeze and ocean.

 

The observation lounge is great place to spend some quiet time, play cards, relax, etc. This would be even better on cold climate cruises.

 

The race track is so much fun.

 

The stateroom bathrooms are fantastic. The shower with the glass door. Good water pressure in the shower. The drink holders by sink keep glasses in place. Plenty of shelves for your toiletries.

 

I have Celiac sisease and have to have a special diet as a result. This was handled without issue and I was able to eat something everywhere. (gluten free food)

 

The stateroom balcony was covered and had full view glass wall. (mine was deck 11 aft) Loved sitting on the balcony.

 

The TV info is excellent (map channel, onboard account, etc) and modern.

 

The entire ship is beautiful. I am sure I missed a zillion things around the ship but it is absolutely gorgeous everywhere you go.

 

There are tons of dining options in addition to the main dining rooms.

 

There is an adult only pool.

 

There are 2 main pools.

 

Spice H20 is a lot of fun and a great place for sailaway out of Miami.

 

The crew talent show was wonderful and ended with a crew appreciation event which was nice.

 

The bed was very comfortable and luggage fits under the bed.

 

Walking is pretty much confined to between forward and aft elevators which reducing walking. For a big ship it doesn't feel like you are having to make long trips to get places.

 

The lines at guest services were short.

 

Good elevator service 99% of the time.

 

The bowling was a hoot.

 

Drink service at bars is easy without signing slips.

 

Lots of ocean views on this ship.

 

You can hear ship announcements on TV channel 2 (Bridge channel) so you don't have top open your door to hear them.

 

The fellow passengers were great. No issues with anymore. All quiet and well behaved. (well mannered)

 

The Movies under stars are also available on your TV.

 

The MDR is open on embarkation day for lunch.

 

The Internet Social Plan was good all cruise long.

 

No dressing up. Ever. I left my dress shoes and pants at home and wore shorts everywhere. (including Manhattan room and Cagney's as did others) No one cares what you wear as long as you look neat and clean.

The not so good stuff:

The public bathroom hand dryers are terrible and take forever. Use the paper towel machine by the door.

 

The food to the table is slow. Ity takes 42-46 minutes for the very 1st food to come and 1+ hour for entrees. However, I will say that it is worth the wait. (Phenomenal)

 

They never seem to take drink orders for dinner. I had to ask for iced tea every single time and it took 15-20 minutes to get it. By the 3rd day I was ordering them 2 at a time because refills were normally non-existent.

 

The Comedy venue is too small, too hot, and too crowded. They also have standing room only people that block the view of some people.

 

Reservations as a whole are a bad thing. Having to book everything is a pain. Things book full. Also, lets say I have a dinner reservation for 6 and we meet another couple who wants to join us. They can't because the venue is booked full and I cannot expand my reservation to 8 people. Reserving things just wasn't fun.

 

The Water slide weight limits are terrible and placing scales next to the entrances and weighing people is just ridiculous. For example, women don't want to step on scales in front of people. I seen couples that wanted to ride together on the tube slide but the combined weight limit means they have to step on the scale and weigh in to make sure they are under the limit. Thus they ended up riding solo to avoid the weigh ins. Furthermore, the slides should be designed and built in a manner that they hold 1000-2000 pounds to insure that they are strong and durable under multiple conditions. It scary to think about their durability.

 

This leads to: people get stuck on the drop slide. Yes, they make it over the 1st "hump" up the 2nd and slide back down. They then have to be removed from the slide via a special door that they have setup for this. So in a nutshell this is a poor design and not well thoughout.

 

The toilet paper is very bad. It is practically worth bringing your own. Your butt will thank you at the end of the week.

 

The is no "grab and go food" except at the buffet. This means you spend a lot of time dining during a day if you cannot go to the buffet. (which special diets pretty much cannot)

 

There is less storage in cabin than on Carnival (less closet and drawer space) but it is adequate.

 

The bottled water is simply too expensive compared to other lines.

 

The shows are too long for my taste and require reservations. I don't like 2 hour broadway shows.

 

The Cruise Director and staff not an integral part of the experience like on Carnival. You find yourself missing the Fun Squad. We attended several atrium events but had little interaction with entertainment staff.

The pillows could be better.

 

The casino is TIGHT. Tightest I have seen on land or sea. Part of the casino is a smoking room that confines the smoke and makes it worse than being open and excludes 1/2 the casino for the true non-smoker types. it is not pleasant to be in even for those that don't mind the smoke.

 

The 24 hour Local is not 24 hours for food. They do a brunch menu and there are times you cannot get any food as they switch back to the regular menu.

 

There is no towel exchange in Spice H20 which means you have to walk all the way to the main pool or take wet towels back to your room.

 

The hot Tubs not so hot. The main pool area hot tubs are one deck up and looked very crowded all the time.

 

The NCL App doesn’t show the full Freestyle Daily content. For example, if you want to find open and close times for restaurants you are out of luck. Everything that is printed on paper should be available in the app. It is not.

 

The NCL App chat has issues with missing messages. We couldn't find a way to turn on notifications/sounds when messages were received.

 

There is quite a bit of "filler" in daily activities (i.e. Race Track is open, go play ping pong by yourself, etc.) that list things that are not really time specific activities.

 

Order accuracy in all dining venues is an issue. They use tablets to take the orders in most venues and they still cannot seem to get it right.

-----------

 

I may have forgot some things and will add them in replies if necessary.

 

Overall I am impressed with NCL. I certainly like it better than Royal. I am cruising them again next March and would cruise them in the future without question.

 

Happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

Thanks

 

Carl

 

 

his is what I call a very balanced ad objective review. Thanks for sharing and I hope it helps people to know ahead of time what is good and what to expect when sailing the Bliss.

BTW: I agree about the TP it is awful!!!

[kathy884]

I'm so glad you enjoyed your cruise and appreciate your detailed comments.  Even though we won't be on the Bliss this makes me excited about our upcoming Getaway sailing.  We sailed on the Escape two years ago, but because of unusually stormy bad weather in March the waterfront outside area was closed most of the time, so hoping to be able to experience that.

 

We have a lot of 5:30 p.m. dining reservations and I'm hoping service won't be super slow.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

23 hours ago, NightOne said:

The closet and balcony doors on NCL are sliding doors vs doors that swing out on Carnival

 

We were on Jade last month, and the closet doors are a-swinging...

[mizLORInj]

On 12/10/2018 at 4:04 PM, fabby50 said:

I generally choose a ship based on itinerary, not for a particular line.  I too like Carnival, something I don't hear many people say.  It seems to me like they get such a bad rep, that they try really hard to make you happy when you're on their ships.  I love the Alchemy Bars (best bars of any ship I've been on) and I still think we've had our best steakhouse experiences on Carnival.  I am a vegetarian but my husband loves his filet, so we'll go a couple of times during a weeklong cruise.  The chef usually comes out and asks me what I want for dinner.  I usually tell him "surprise me" and I've gotten great meals that way.  I'm glad to hear of another Carnival fan (though I really like NCL and our next cruise is on the Star).

 

Agree--love the Alchemy bar.    The Carnival steakhouses are very good.   Cagney's on NCL is hit or miss.  Last 2 times were not great.   And Carnival's new ship, Horizon, was fabulous!   

 

We were on Bliss' sister Escape last month and had a great cruise.  Not perfect (why expect that on a cruise) but we had fun anyway.   🙂    I agree that NCL's food is delicious for the most part.   Well--let's say it's to my taste.   

 

 

[heelfan94]

On 12/10/2018 at 4:07 PM, ev98 said:

Thank you for the report. Looking forward to our cruise on Bliss in less than a week!

 

One caution: I would highly recommend *NOT* bringing your own toilet paper. Yes, the provided single-ply stuff is unpleasant, but anything thicker than that has the potential to clog up the plumbing and put whole blocks of cabin bathrooms out of service. A sewer backup would ruin many people's vacations and causes grief for the maintenance crew as well. 

I just sailed on the Pearl and also noticed the single-ish ply toilet paper in our cabin's bathroom.  I assumed this was a logistical issue like you mention.  But in the public restrooms they had the fancy 2 ply paper.  It seems like it would have to all be the sandpaper kind, right?  Those public restrooms get a lot of traffic.