Live(ish) report from the Norwegian Bliss to Alaskan may 26th 2019

[Cruisingcouple22]

Good afternoon all and happy Sunday! Or whatever day you happen to be reading this 😁 

We’ve have just got on the Norwegian Bliss for our 7 day Alaska cruise and are waiting for the muster drill to begin, so I thought what better thing to do than start my live trip report! 

 

We flew in from London yesterday and had a wander around Seattle, a beautiful city but a bit hilly! We grabbed some sushi for dinner at Ohana, which I highly recommend,

Not cheap but great food.

 

Then did the Wings over Washington ride (similar to soarin’ at Disney world)

 

Got a good view of the Joy, a bit cloudy and rainy though!

We stayed at the Kimpton Palladian hotel about 10 minutes walk  from the port. I’d highly recommend this as the hotel is very cool. It’s quite quirky and has excellent amenities!

 

We tried to combat the jet lag by sleeping for about 12 hours, which was pretty effective! 

 

We got up about 5 this morning, as we are still partially on in time, so felt more like midday! One benefit of this is 6am on a Sunday is the only time that the original Starbucks in pike place doesn’t have a queue outside. We then grabbed breakfast at biscuit *****, which is actually called Caffe Lieto. We walked past it three times before we realised it was where we wanted to go! 

Food was delicious and very filling

 

[collectingcoke]

Looking forward to following along, we are on that cruise in September! 

[rockfsh]

Just got off the Bliss. I'm following so I can continue to enjoy this cruise.

[Cruisingcouple22]

After breakfast it was time to head back to the hotel and collect our bags to head to the cruise port. The walk wasn’t too bad from the hotel, mostly downhill and the pavements were good quality. 

 

We got to the terminal at 1025 and went through check in pretty quickly. We were allocated group 8 for boarding, they started letting people on at 10:45 and we were on board by 11, so not too bad at all! 

 

We made some reservations for shows and activities first of all and then took a wander around the ship. It really is an awesome ship and the observation lounge in particular is amazing! Those double height floor to ceiling windows give incredible views.

And I love they have some snacks and coffee available in there throughout the day, as well as a bar. One thing to note is that if you order drinks whilst in Washington state waters you’ll be charged tax at 10.1%, although we weren’t charged this everywhere, only at the district brew house. 

We grabbed some lunch at the garden cafe and checked out the brew house and played some of their table games. This is a really nice touch, as well as some card and board games in the corner.

[Jen731]

One month til we leave on the Bliss, we can’t wait. If you have the chance, we are hoping to get a peek at the kids' club schedule for the week. If you see it and can get a quick pic, that would be amazing! Thanks. Have a great week! Will be reading along in anticipation of our upcoming week. 🚢 😊 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Then we had the muster drill, which was over in half and hour and it was time to hit the spa! We are in a spa balcony for this cruise so access to the thermal suite is included, but we heard a couple of different prices quoted for its use, fro 80$ for one day to 270$ for the cruise, plus tax and gratuities! So it’s quite pricey. 

It is great though, there’s a sauna, steam room, sanirium, salt room, snow room, jacuzzi, hydrotherapy pool, about 15 heated loungers and about 30 padded loungers! They also have water, hot tea and fruit available. Very refreshing. 

After the spa it was time for dinner, we had the Manhattan room booked tonight and the views as we were coming through Puget Sound were incredible, with mountains and islands all around us. It reminded me a lot of cruising through the fjords in Norway. Dinner was nice, although service was a bit slow at times, we didn’t get our drinks until after our starters had been cleared. The food was nice though, although the Molton lava cake wasn’t quite hot enough. 

Menu

Still not having recovered from jet lag we decided to have a rest in our room and ended up falling asleep! We missed our comedy show reservations but figured we could catch another one the next night. 

 

Sunset from the the balcony was beautiful tonight. 

A lovely relaxing sea day to look forward to tomorrow!

[Cruisingcouple22]

View from the thermal suite in port in Seattle

 

The spin studio had some very funky lighting 

 

The water feature in Spice h2o. Can’t imagine this will get a lot of use in Alaska!

 

You can see Seattle’s football and baseball stadiums in the background

 

We are from the UK and get a litre of water per person per day as part of our package. Apparently they deliver it all on the first day! At least we won’t run out 😄

This slide looks like fun!

[Cruisingcouple22]

 

Day 1 Freestyle Daily 

 

Day 2 Freestyle Daily 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Apparently you aren’t allowed to smoke cigarettes in the cigar lounge. In fact the only place I’ve seen smoking allowed is on one side of spice H2O. As a non smoker I quite like this, I always found on RCL walking through the smoking side of the pool deck is a bit rubbish 

 

The centrepiece in the casino is pretty impressive. 

 

These princess and Holland America ships were in Seattle with us, and followed us out of Puget sound, but we lost them once we hit the open ocean 😄

 

The race tracks looks pretty awesome, can’t wait to give it a go! 

 

Some incredible scenery around Seattle, can’t wait to see even more in Alaska

 

Hot tub in the morning sun. Is there a better sight!

 

I love how this sweetener manages to be zero calories. It’s empty!

[sunshine3838]

Thank you! Following this thread. Any more dinner menus? 

[Sand and Seas]

Loving your review so far.  Great pictures!   

Thanks for taking us along😎

[tracyfitzs]

I’m on June 16. Can you post the draft and bottle beer list for district brew house? Do they still do the contest for who can try the mist beers? 

[Cruisingcouple22]

We had an early start to the sea day, as we are still trying to get over the jet lag! I love wandering the ship in the morning with so few other people around though. We headed to the observation lounge for a coffee and enjoyed watching the sea go by. We then headed down to the local for breakfast which was very good and great service. The menu is small but has a good variety to it, and it’s fun doing some people watching in the morning too. 

 

After that we headed to the spa for a bit, as it was a sea day it was quite busy in there, but there was still plenty of space on loungers and in the rooms. Hopefully they haven’t sold too many passes and it stays this way for the week. 

 

We headed to the buffet for some lunch and had another wander around the ship, and then decided a nap was in order as we had a lateish night tonight. Late for us is after 10:30! 😂 

 

We went to the district brew house for a drink and to play some of there games again, and I lost at cards twice, before we headed up to the go kart track for our first try at it.

It was great fun, check in was simple and the safety briefing didn’t take long and then we were in the karts. They give you a single use balaclava and then the helmets come on. These things are tight! But I guess you don’t want it coming off. Then we were off the the races. The karts go pretty quick and there are a couple of spaces where it’s possible to overtake so everyone can go at there own speed. We had a couple of safety stoppages but overall I think we got about 12 laps in. I would say it gets a bit windy up there on the top of the ship though so dress warmly. 

 

Then it was dinner time, and tonight we had Q Texas smokehouse.

We ordered the pitmaster platter to share and it was delicious. The brisket just fell apart and the ribs and sausage were both great. The chicken was good too, but the other meats were better. It came with sides of cornbread, potatoes, pickles, coleslaw and beans.

The red cups in Q look awesome but they don’t allow you to take them out to other bars, they switch your drink to a plan glass. I guess too many went missing!! The band in Q where incredible as well, a country artist called Mickey Utley. We didn’t recognise many of the songs but his voice was amazing. 

 

We then headed down to the late night comedy show with Flip Schulz which was great fun. As you can imagine being the 18+ show it was a bit edgy it places but overall h was a very funny guy. The release all spare seats 10 minutes before the show, but some people in the standby couldn’t get in, so make sure you get three early if you want to make sure you’re in. And then it was off the bed. Juneau tomorrow, and an extra hours sleep so I’m looking forward to that!

[Cruisingcouple22]

On 5/27/2019 at 10:48 PM, Jen731 said:

One month til we leave on the Bliss, we can’t wait. If you have the chance, we are hoping to get a peek at the kids' club schedule for the week. If you see it and can get a quick pic, that would be amazing! Thanks. Have a great week! Will be reading along in anticipation of our upcoming week. 🚢 😊 

 

We haven’t been down there yet but I will try to get a picture for you 😊 

[Cruisingcouple22]

15 hours ago, sunshine3838 said:

Thank you! Following this thread. Any more dinner menus? 

 

We’ve only been there one time, but I’ll try and get a look at todays if I can 😊 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Freestyle daily day 3

 

Freestyle daily day 4

[ZsaZsa2019]

Love the trip report.  We sail on June 9th.  I'm concerned about packing, so curious about that.  Sweathshirts?  Shorts?  Heavier coats or simple rain jackets?  I'll be watching how your week goes.  Thanks for posting.

[mamamusings]

I noticed on your day 1 daily that it mentioned the 19.95 “fill a bag” laundry special without specifying a day. Was it available every day instead of the usual once a week?!

[Cruisingcouple22]

Day 3 Juneau

We weren’t due to arrive in Juneau until about two this afternoon so had a relaxing morning around the ship. We were cruising through a fog bank this morning, and seeing the mountains appear and disappear right next to us was very eerie.

 

 

We headed to the spa about 8am, and whilst it was busy there was still plenty of spaces available.

 

After that we headed to the observation lounge about 10am to listen to a couple of audio lectures about the wildlife and glaciers. They were very informative and interesting but the observation lounge was packed. We had to do two laps before we found a seat. We may have seen a whale whilst we were cruising this morning, but it may just have been a big wave!

 

 

 

 

 

the lamps in the observation lounge have usb chargers in them. Very handy! 

 

 

We grabbed some lunch in the buffet and then got ready for our tour, Mendenhall glacier and mount Roberts tram.

 

[ZsaZsa2019]

Is that ice/snow on the window??????

[GrabMyWrist]

1 hour ago, ZsaZsa2019 said:

Is that ice/snow on the window??????

 

The spa has an ice room. Great pick me up!

[Cruisingcouple22]

 

 

All the ships in port with us!

 

The Joy left her spot for us just as we arrived

 

Our tour was booked though the ship and started with a drive through town to the glacier and our guide was excellent. He had lots of interesting facts, like how the tram is the steepest in North America and they prevent avalanches by carrying our controlled explosions on the steep slopes above the town on a regular basis. Juneau is the 4th largest city by population in Alaska but the largest state capital by area in the United States. The Gastineau channel has a tidal difference of 25ft, one of the largest in the world.

Whilst driving through town we spotted a couple of eagles perched on lampposts by the side of the road. You can just make him out on the top right of the power line. Our guide told us that when the salmon are spawning you can see 90-100 perched around the road! 

Our first stop was the glacier and we walked on the trail down to the falls.

The first view you get of the glacier is just incredible. It is so huge that it’s difficult to understand. We’ve been to Iceland and walked in a glacier there, but the Mendenhall is so much taller! Absolutely breathtaking.

And the water fall is pretty incredible too! You get a little damp from the spray but it’s quite refreshing after the walk. They mention how there may be bears around but we didn’t see any evidence of any. We walked back and took a quick tour of the visitors centre, where you can see a time lapse of how far the glacier has receded in 10 years, it’s astonishing how quickly it moves.

 

They also have some 200 year old ice that fell off of the glacier for you to touch. 

[Cruisingcouple22]

On 5/27/2019 at 11:48 PM, Jen731 said:

One month til we leave on the Bliss, we can’t wait. If you have the chance, we are hoping to get a peek at the kids' club schedule for the week. If you see it and can get a quick pic, that would be amazing! Thanks. Have a great week! Will be reading along in anticipation of our upcoming week. 🚢 😊 

 

 

 

This was all I managed to find for the kids club schedules. Hope it’s helpful.

[Cruisingcouple22]

On 5/29/2019 at 7:54 AM, tracyfitzs said:

I’m on June 16. Can you post the draft and bottle beer list for district brew house? Do they still do the contest for who can try the mist beers? 

 

Here’s the beer menu, I didn’t see anything about any competitions though. The menu is very extensive with some very good beers on it!

 

 

[Cruisingcouple22]

On 5/29/2019 at 8:33 AM, ZsaZsa2019 said:

Love the trip report.  We sail on June 9th.  I'm concerned about packing, so curious about that.  Sweathshirts?  Shorts?  Heavier coats or simple rain jackets?  I'll be watching how your week goes.  Thanks for posting.

 

That was our biggest problem too, especially with flying in we had to make sure our luggage came under the 23kg limit! The best advice is to wear layers. Some days we have needed tee shirt, sweatshirt and coats in the morning, but later on when the suns out have been fine in just a tee shirt. I’d go for a lighter rain jacket and then a thicker sweatshirt, as sometimes it’s quite warm but raining and you don’t want to overheat. Layers are definitely key! We were very lucky with the weather on our trip, only a bit of rain in Ketchikan. I hope the weather for you is as good.