Bliss 1/22 - 1/27 LIVE - Question Gathering

[New2cruise2022]

My brother @drwbrt and I are meeting up in a week for a 5-day down to Cabo and Ensenada out of Los Angeles. I’m a first time cruiser, this will be his 3rd and first with NCL. By nature, both of us read, research, and analyze. We organize the information, add an opinion or two and spit it back out for other to enjoy or hate, read or not. For some nerdy reason we love it and will enjoy our vacation observing and figuring out how things work (and how they don’t). 
 

In preparation (so we can be on the lookout) what questions do you have about the Bliss specifically or NCL and policies that we can try to find answers for when we cruise next week?

 

We will NOT have access to the Haven, so we won’t be much help there. We plan to eat in as many places on the ship as we can including the buffet, MDR, the Local, some specialty, and room service. We both have FAS+ and will be checking inventory at the bars (I know, tough job that we hope to do as well as @Sthrngary), many trips to Starbucks, and will even it all out with San Pellegrino (him) and Aqua Panna (me). We will find the entertainment on board (pianos, singers, Atrium games, Jersey Boys, SIX, comedy shows, etc.). We will look at the mundane (wait times, service, crowds, etc) and try to report back with answers, descriptions, and pictures. 
 

(We know we are weird for doing this and actually enjoying it. If we could turn it off, we would. But we can’t. And that’s why we are best friends.)

[willsears94]

We are boarding with FAS+ on Bliss on the 22nd, as well. We will be drinking 2 bottles of Veuve/night since dinner runs 1.5-2 hours anyway. Italian water will be nice, too.

 

I don't usually drink liquor nowadays, but I will have to try some of single malts.

 

We had been on Celebrity but with their price increases on their beverage program, I want to see if Norwegian has in 2023. I'm not getting my hopes up, but we are trying NCL again since it was half the price.

 

I'll look forward to reading your reviews.

[Wintersun48]

Might bump into you on the ship. Looks to be busy as only inside cabins available now.

[drwbrt]

2 minutes ago, Wintersun48 said:

Might bump into you on the ship. Looks to be busy as only inside cabins available now.

Do you have insight on this?  We've been checking RedTag 2-5 times per day over a week now.  The inventory has shifted heavily in BOTH directions.  We've seen the Haven appear and disappear many times (this is likely people running the quote and occupying the room for curiosity). The Haven makes sense.  What doesn't make sense is the 40+ insides that disappeared.  There's no way they sold them, right?  The balconies have come and gone and come back again.  It's all very strange.  If you or anyone has insight on this I'll be very interested.  I will be looking/asking on the ship to see how full it really is.  We think there's no less than 50 staterooms that are vacant, even if all of them are insides.

[willsears94]

Balconies will go away this weekend as upgrades go through, or it sounds like they already have. Expect to see more insides available. And outside of holiday cruises, NCL is supposedly trying to keep cruises at 75-85%. I guess we'll see if that is true when we get on-board as I am skeptical of that messaging. 

[New2cruise2022]

2 hours ago, willsears94 said:

Balconies will go away this weekend as upgrades go through, or it sounds like they already have. Expect to see more insides available. And outside of holiday cruises, NCL is supposedly trying to keep cruises at 75-85%. I guess we'll see if that is true when we get on-board as I am skeptical of that messaging. 

I assume that is is a percentage of the max pax occupancy and not a percentage of the published double occupancy number. 

[eileeshb]

If you can find out what’s happening with the entertainment for the rest of the year that would be great.

I’m in the process of trying to convince a friend to join me on an Alaskan cruise at the end of the season so I’d like to know if Six and Jersey Boys will be continuing after the news that NCL has cancelled contracts for some performers and shows on other ships. 
 

[New2cruise2022]

3 minutes ago, eileeshb said:

If you can find out what’s happening with the entertainment for the rest of the year that would be great.

I’m in the process of trying to convince a friend to join me on an Alaskan cruise at the end of the season so I’d like to know if Six and Jersey Boys will be continuing after the news that NCL has cancelled contracts for some performers and shows on other ships. 
 

I will see what they are willing to share and report back. Added to the notes on my phone. 

[chloe173]

A few things I'd be interested in -

• What time do you need to line up outside Cavern Club to get a seat for the Beatles show?
• BBQ restaurant - worth it? skip it? when does the country band perform there? 
• Names of the current comedians if possible

[New2cruise2022]

Just now, chloe173 said:

A few things I'd be interested in -

• What time do you need to line up outside Cavern Club to get a seat for the Beatles show?
• BBQ restaurant - worth it? skip it? when does the country band perform there? 
• Names of the current comedians if possible

Great questions!

 

- We will definitely be going to the Cavern Club. We will let you know our experience and ask others about theirs. 
- I don’t know if we have plans to go to the Q, but if we do we will let you know. If we don’t, we will ask others about their experience. 
- We will definitely be going to the comedy shows. We will report about reservations, lineup times, comedian names, set lengths, and any info about number of shows and/or repeats. 
 

 

[cruiseny4life]

YESSSS!!! I'm so glad you're doing this!! Thank you! I hope the internet allows you to really do a live.

 

Here's what I'm curious about: number of passengers and how crowded the Observation Lounge is. If it's a full ship, or close to full, I want to know if there is space to spread out in the Observation Lounge. I'm pretty sure we'll be doing an Alaska cruise on the Bliss, so this is really important to us as we intend to spend a ton of time in that lovely lounge.

 

I did just take a look at available rooms. I'm able to book two inside rooms, one Haven 2 bedroom, or a Guaranteed inside. That's all that's available on NCL's system at the current moment.

 

I'm thinking your cruise will sail at higher than 100% capacity (two per room). There's no truth to NCL trying to keep occupancy at anything less than 100%. If they can, they will sell all rooms on the ship. It is true that NCL is expecting their occupancy (fleet wide) to be about 85%, but they're (and shareholders) hoping for higher.

 

Regardless, have one heck of a fun time!!

[New2cruise2022]

The internet will be one of our metrics. Does it work? What can you do with it? Email? Posting to CC (purchased and ship internet; just text or pictures too)? What times of days are fastest/most reliable? What times are slowest/least reliable? Best places on the ship for accessing/using internet? 
If there is internet to be found, we will find it. 
 

We are going to pay attention to times throughout the week. Peak times for public areas including the pool deck, waterfront, atrium, and observation lounge — as well as times that things are quieter and less busy feeling. So, best times and places for people that are social and want things buzzing and the best times to find a little peace and quiet among 4000 other people. 
 

We will attend the Meet and Greet and will get as many answers about actual passengers on board. 
 

And I vow to push the limits of shorts-wearing, flippy-floppies donning, casual, freestyle cruising. 

[Inscrutable]

14 hours ago, chloe173 said:

A few things I'd be interested in -

• What time do you need to line up outside Cavern Club to get a seat for the Beatles show?
• BBQ restaurant - worth it? skip it? when does the country band perform there? 
• Names of the current comedians if possible

Seems I tended to get there maybe 30min ahead and had no problem. I should point out this was 2018, Bliss first year of operation, so maybe the word wasn’t out entirely. Although Seemed same on both Bliss and Joy and next year (though the band on Bliss was better … not sure who plays on what now).

The BBQ place was our least favorite specialty in 3 cruises, by a large margin … and I love to bbq/smoke at home very very frequently.

Comedy clubs not our thing so can’t help you there.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Inscrutable

[curlstravel]

In Dec we got there 5 min early and there  were still a few seats left.  Unfortunately we really didn’t enjoy the show. The singing wasn’t that great and the music was extremely loud for that small of a room.  Alot of people left durring the show.  I was surprised because NCL usually has fairly good entertainment.  We loved Sid Normans on the Prima and went back a couple of times. 
The best comedian was Flip Schultz.  We really enjoyed his show.  We saw him twice.

Edited January 15, 2023 by curlstravel

[New2cruise2022]

2 hours ago, curlstravel said:

In Dec we got there 5 min early and there  were still a few seats left.  Unfortunately we really didn’t enjoy the show. The singing wasn’t that great and the music was extremely loud for that small of a room.  Alot of people left durring the show.  I was surprised because NCL usually has fairly good entertainment.  We loved Sid Normans on the Prima and went back a couple of times. 
The best comedian was Flip Schultz.  We really enjoyed his show.  We saw him twice.

Great insights. Helps me know what to look for. 

[New2cruise2022]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:37 AM, willsears94 said:

Balconies will go away this weekend as upgrades go through, or it sounds like they already have. Expect to see more insides available. And outside of holiday cruises, NCL is supposedly trying to keep cruises at 75-85%. I guess we'll see if that is true when we get on-board as I am skeptical of that messaging. 

Checking inventory today, again huge swings. Saw insides (more than 15) early in the day and no balconies. Then later today, no insides but 3 balconies. Then again later, still no insides but 6 balcony. Note: there were no club balcony suite or Haven suites to upgrade to. 
 

I think guessing is the best anyone can do. 

[New2cruise2022]

@LauraS This thread was just to gather some questions for our LIVE posts. I would like a clean topic to start the LIVE. If you see a new topic, that is what it is. Thank you for your help. Sharing our experience will be a pleasure for us. Many thanks. (Will be sharing the LIVE with @drwbrt, my brother, and he will be posting regularly on the thread as well.)

[22KristenB]

Hello, on this boat for my first cruise ever in August. I am VERY interested in the wine on board. The plus beverage list has some wines listed, but I’m curious if there are MORE (additional) premium wines by the glass in Cellars, A list or other bars. A photo of the current Cellars wine list would be amazing! I’m deciding if I want to upgrade, and this will help inform us. 🙂 Also want to know if people are taking wine from bars or restaurant (glass or bottle) back to their room. I’m on the 8th, so thinking taking a glass back may work in lieu of the new “bottles to be consumed in dining room” policy. 

[New2cruise2022]

2 minutes ago, 22KristenB said:

Hello, on this boat for my first cruise ever in August. I am VERY interested in the wine on board. The plus beverage list has some wines listed, but I’m curious if there are MORE (additional) premium wines by the glass in Cellars, A list or other bars. A photo of the current Cellars wine list would be amazing! I’m deciding if I want to upgrade, and this will help inform us. 🙂 Also want to know if people are taking wine from bars or restaurant (glass or bottle) back to their room. I’m on the 8th, so thinking taking a glass back may work in lieu of the new “bottles to be consumed in dining room” policy. 

I have read about the new policy. We will observe and report if this is a strict provision or if there is wiggle room. Menus and lists will be made available as we find them. Great question. 

[vacation44]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:28 AM, New2cruise2022 said:

My brother @drwbrt and I are meeting up in a week for a 5-day down to Cabo and Ensenada out of Los Angeles. I’m a first time cruiser, this will be his 3rd and first with NCL. By nature, both of us read, research, and analyze. We organize the information, add an opinion or two and spit it back out for other to enjoy or hate, read or not. For some nerdy reason we love it and will enjoy our vacation observing and figuring out how things work (and how they don’t). 
 

In preparation (so we can be on the lookout) what questions do you have about the Bliss specifically or NCL and policies that we can try to find answers for when we cruise next week?

 

We will NOT have access to the Haven, so we won’t be much help there. We plan to eat in as many places on the ship as we can including the buffet, MDR, the Local, some specialty, and room service. We both have FAS+ and will be checking inventory at the bars (I know, tough job that we hope to do as well as @Sthrngary), many trips to Starbucks, and will even it all out with San Pellegrino (him) and Aqua Panna (me). We will find the entertainment on board (pianos, singers, Atrium games, Jersey Boys, SIX, comedy shows, etc.). We will look at the mundane (wait times, service, crowds, etc) and try to report back with answers, descriptions, and pictures. 
 

(We know we are weird for doing this and actually enjoying it. If we could turn it off, we would. But we can’t. And that’s why we are best friends.)

No questions here....just wanted to wish you both a great cruise and I look forward to reading about your experience.

[New2cruise2022]

2 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

No questions here....just wanted to wish you both a great cruise and I look forward to reading about your experience.

We are looking forward to all of it and sharing it!

[ellenw]

10 hours ago, 22KristenB said:

Hello, on this boat for my first cruise ever in August. I am VERY interested in the wine on board. The plus beverage list has some wines listed, but I’m curious if there are MORE (additional) premium wines by the glass in Cellars, A list or other bars. A photo of the current Cellars wine list would be amazing! I’m deciding if I want to upgrade, and this will help inform us. 🙂 Also want to know if people are taking wine from bars or restaurant (glass or bottle) back to their room. I’m on the 8th, so thinking taking a glass back may work in lieu of the new “bottles to be consumed in dining room” policy. 

While I wasn't on Bliss, but I did spend 27 days on Escape last fall. So glad we found Cellars! They did not have a set wine list. It was more of an interaction where you tell them what you like, and they have you try some wine. We had the basic drink package, and paid the couple $ upcharge for some of the wines.

 

And, the staff there was wonderful!  

 

Hope you have the same great experience on Bliss!

Edited January 20, 2023 by ellenw

[New2cruise2022]

3 hours ago, ellenw said:

While I wasn't on Bliss, but I did spend 27 days on Escape last fall. So glad we found Cellars! They did not have a set wine list. It was more of an interaction where you tell them what you like, and they have you try some wine. We had the basic drink package, and paid the couple $ upcharge for some of the wines.

 

And, the staff there was wonderful!  

 

Hope you have the same great experience on Bliss!

Thanks for the insight. I’m sure I will wander over there!

[22KristenB]

11 hours ago, ellenw said:

While I wasn't on Bliss, but I did spend 27 days on Escape last fall. So glad we found Cellars! They did not have a set wine list. It was more of an interaction where you tell them what you like, and they have you try some wine. We had the basic drink package, and paid the couple $ upcharge for some of the wines.

 

And, the staff there was wonderful!  

 

Hope you have the same great experience on Bliss!

 

[22KristenB]

This is good to hear - sounds wonderful!