Bliss Panama Canal Trip Review 2/25/23 - 3/12-23

[lax19]

6 hours ago, LloydJr said:

Was this for a foreign port?

When we went on this itinerary in January, Columbia required proof of Covid Vax or negative test.

[lax19]

5 hours ago, luckybecky said:

 

I believe NCL is requiring either proof of vaccine OR a negative test result. 

Columbia required proof of Vax or Covid test back in January.

[luckybecky]

I want to comment on housekeeping which has been a topic of conversation on CC lately. We most definitely noticed the cutbacks. Our steward was so nice and working hard all the time! We have absolutely no complaints about him. He was working hard all the time.

 

But he has 25 rooms to take care of. With no helper. (Used to be a lead steward and an assistant I believe. No more.) We were not asked if we wanted morning or evening service, apparently this is a thing that they are asking some guests. Usually our room was not cleaned until at least 2 to 3pm. Since we had very early back on board times, this was annoying. Coming back from a snorkel tour, we wanted fresh towels so we could get cleaned up for the evening. Or sometimes he would be in our room when we returned from gym/pool/excursion and needed a shower. Again, not our steward’s fault – this is the fault of NCL policies.

 

We did not even meet our steward until the second day, maybe the first time that has ever happened. I’m not sure if our sheets were ever changed or not during 15 days. Maybe?

 

I even started making up our own bed because I felt so bad that our steward was so overworked. He got upset with me and told me to stop doing that! LOL

 

Sometime each evening, the next day schedule would be placed on our bed. That was the total extent of evening service. No dishes or trash removed, no used towels replaced, bed never refreshed if we had napped during the day or whatever. Not a big deal. I mean, we don’t have someone making our bed for us twice a day at home!

 

But it is nice to have used glasses or towels removed in a timely manner. Once I just pulled a clean towel off a cart in the hall so I could shower after the gym. I also wished we could have had daily service earlier in the day, prior to returning from excursions. But there is no way our steward could keep up with all this. Sheesh, I am exhausted after cleaning like two rooms in my own house – I don’t even know how the stewards are managing 25+ rooms – and forget twice daily service!

[Cruise5life]

21 minutes ago, lax19 said:

Columbia required proof of Vax or Covid test back in January.

Not when I was there in January.  Same cruise on the joy.   

[lax19]

3 minutes ago, Cruise5life said:

Not when I was there in January.  Same cruise on the joy.   

We were on the Bliss Miami to LA in January. Columbia required current Vax or negative test. It still does per NCL Safe Sail protocol 

https://www.ncl.com/travel-requirements-by-country

[Cruise5life]

12 minutes ago, lax19 said:

We were on the Bliss Miami to LA in January. Columbia required current Vax or negative test. It still does per NCL Safe Sail protocol 

https://www.ncl.com/travel-requirements-by-country

I was joy first week Jan La to Miami.    Never asked for vax card or proof of  test.     And I went in an excursion there too.    

[cruiseny4life]

18 hours ago, luckybecky said:

They are also available in the app. I had a moment of panic when they asked for our vaccine cards.

Nevermind - answered in subsequent posts! 

Edited March 16, 2023 by cruiseny4life

[cruiseny4life]

17 hours ago, luckybecky said:

More of the spa

 

Large shower in locker room

 

 

Thermal suite. It looked amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That snow room looks marvelous! Thanks for the photos. I'm cruising Joy Saturday without a thermal suite. That's what I'm going to miss the most! Someday I'll cruise on a ship with a snow room and it'll be the most fantastically cold experience ever!

[luckybecky]

Monday Feb 27

 

Woke up hearing our tender called at 0715. (Remember we had been told it would probably be around  9am)

 

Got dressed and Paul had a quick breakfast. We got off around 8. Tendering took a little while waiting for the tender to fill up; I think we stepped on land at 0830. We were the only ship in port. A friendly islander told us where to find our excursion provider, Captain Marvin. 

 

They loaded us up early on a bus to our boat. It was a nice big pontoon boat, quite a few passengers; we got a seat up top under a shade awning and did not feel crowded. Went to a snorkel spot, then Stingray City, then the barrier reef for more snorkeling. A beautiful day, friendly staff and crew. The water was crystal clear. A couple from our CC roll call were on board with us. We had intended to head over to the meeting point with them but they had priority tendering so we just found each other on our pontoon boat.

 

 

 

 

 

The water was as clear as a swimming pool!

 

 

[luckybecky]

Check out the stingrays! Our guide basically picked it up and put it into our arms. Paul even gave it a kiss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Back on board around 1:30pm. Showered then went to lunch. Buffet very busy for 2:30pm. Probably everyone else doing what we did, an excursion and then a late lunch. Our port time here was scheduled to be 7am – 5pm, but the last tender was at 4:00. So unless you were planning to swim back to the ship, our port time was effectively shortened by one hour.

 

Had a lazy afternoon after that. Only one bar open – an announcement about local regulations only letting them have one while we are in port. Met some CC members who said the bar line was long.

 

Sitting on our balcony watching the tenders. Last one was supposed to be at 4pm. A very full one pulled away from the dock at 3:50. Cutting it a little close in my opinion! Then began a series of announcements calling for certain guests to call Guest Services, seven in all, including 4 with the same surname. This was repeated several times. The number of guests being paged diminished, until finally only one name was left, a name that sounded foreign. A tender brought the shore crew and gear back. The announcement was then made several times in one or more foreign languages. Around 4:30 or 4:45, the thrusters came on and we rotated a little so I thought we were leaving, but then we stopped again. Finally started moving just before 5pm. I don’t know if the person ever made it on board.

 

We have noticed that our shower is draining very slowly and threatens to overflow by the time I can finish showering. I went to Guest Services and asked for service. A plumber was in our room within 15 minutes. I was impressed by the fast service. Wish I could get that kind of service at home!

 

We had a busy evening. The bars opened at 5pm and the casino shortly after, maybe 5:20. Since we had such a late lunch, we weren’t up for an early supper. So we played in the casino for awhile and both came out ahead. We like to sit at the casino bar and play video poker, and received very good service from the bartenders.

 

We had a stunning sunset!

 

 

 

 

Then we went to the 7pm show in the theater, a comedy magician named Rob Rasner. He was good, entertaining. The theater was very full.

 

 

 

The show ended around 8. We had 9pm reservations for the comedy show so we didn’t have time for anything other than a quick dinner in the buffet. I had a burger. It was good. Didn’t really check out the other options since we were short on time.

 

I've got to run to an appointment but I'll be back later today to continue our adventure. 

[Jordan61]

18 minutes ago, luckybecky said:

The water was as clear as a swimming pool!

 

The water there is unbelievable. I could literally sit and stare at it all day.

[luckybecky]

We got to the Social comedy club in time to get good seats. The comic Larry Omaha was good. Didn’t quite wow us as much as the first one, but we still had fun. The comedy shows seem to run a little over 30 minutes, 40 minutes tops.

 

 

 

After the show we had another short spin in the casino but the luck we had earlier has run out. We called it a night pretty early for us. We are night owls but after a long, busy day of cruising we often go to bed earlier than we normally would at home.

 

 

Tuesday Feb 28 Sea Day

 

Slot pull with CC members at 10am. We had 20 people participate for a $20 buy-in. It was a lot of fun but our machine was a dud! We (as a group) blew through the $400 in less than half an hour. We really enjoyed doing this (our first time to do a slot pull) and appreciated our CC members who organized it. I was sorry that I forgot to take pictures.

 

Lunch in Taste, took one hour for apps and entree. Skipped dessert. Asked for 2^nd glass of wine which never came until we stood up to leave. Philly cheesesteak was excellent.

 

 

 

Cobb salad

 

 

Roasted tomato soup

 

 

Philly cheesesteak

 

 

Fish and chips

 

[luckybecky]

We checked out the observation lounge; light fare very similar to 1^st day onboard.

Took a nap. Washed some clothes in the sink. Then lost some money in the casino but met a guy who said he had won $14,000 playing keno. Watched a silly balloon tying class that people seemed to be enjoying.

 

 

Tried to get in line for dinner around 5:45. I counted 60+ people in line at the Manhattan room. We went to Savor but they said the wait was 45 minutes. Then of course it would be 1.5 hours or so for supper, and we have things we want to do tonight. So we elected to go to the buffet again, even though we really prefer the dining room. The buffet isn’t bad, but we just aren’t big fans of buffets. This is one of the better ones we have had at sea, however.

 

Went to the atrium and watched the Temperature Band. They are very good!

 

 

 

Then watched the 55 To Stay Alive game show. And finally the Newlywed or Not So Newlywed show. This show is very popular on every ship I’ve ever been on and always hilarious. That’s why we went to the atrium so early and watched the earlier shows, so that we could have a good seat.

 

 

The piano was partially blocking our view, but fortunately they show it on the big screen so you can see it wherever you are sitting.

 

 

Finally, immediately after the Newlywed show, we went directly to the main theater for Six (reservations required). It was about 20 minutes before showtime and the theater was already quite full, but we were able to get good seats near the front but off to one side. The show was one hour 15 minutes. Excellent performances by the all female cast and band. No photos, sorry; they don’t allow any photos at this show.

 

The show was over about 10:50 and we had to get up early tomorrow so we headed to our room and went to bed around 11:30 or so.

 

 

[cruiseny4life]

1 minute ago, luckybecky said:

Watched a silly balloon tying class that people seemed to be enjoying.

 

The balloon animal session is a good time! We enjoyed it, especially as we were sat next to a group of adults that were taking full advantage of the drink package. The innuendo emanating from that group was phenomenal! 

[luckybecky]

March 1 Cartagena

 

So here’s one of my complaints about this itinerary: our port time today was 6am to 2pm (back on board time 1:30pm). This is just ridiculous.

 

We aren’t morning people, I admit, so early port times are off-putting to us from the get go. But nothing is open in virtually any port at 0600. If you want to just explore on your own there is almost no point because no stores, restaurants, museums or anything else are going to be open for at least 3-4 hours after docking time. I usually use private tour providers, but in this case I could not find any providers whose tours began early enough to get us back on time.

 

Sunrise in Cartagena

 

 

 

So we went with an NCL tour: Amazing Cartagena Bay and Walled City. $79 per person, but we had $50 off as one of our perks so it was pretty affordable.

 

We began with a 6am alarm, in order to be in the Manhattan Room for our 0700 meeting time. Pretty soon we were directed to our bus. We had a friendly, talkative guide. It was about a 20 minute or so drive to get to the starting point of the walking tour portion of this excursion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drumming cruisers]

Great review, a couple of questions. 

Is there pickleball game and if so, do you know the hours you can play?

Is the band Siglo aboard?

Edited March 16, 2023 by drumming cruisers

[luckybecky]

We did not cover a lot of ground on the walking tour. We learned about how the ancient walls were built from coral, which destroyed the coral reefs that won’t recover for centuries. We saw some interesting architecture.

 

Unfortunately we had to visit the emerald “museum” which was just a shop, with a back room that had been converted into a mock up of an emerald mine. I am not into these forced shopping adventures. We will have another similar experience later.

 

The walking tour was followed by a boat tour of the harbor which was fun. Beautiful city views, unlimited rum punch, and a couple of young dancers demonstrating typical Colombian dances.

 

 

 

 

The Virgin watching over the harbor

 

 

 

 

Entertainment on board

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

A surprising highlight of the cruise was the aviary at the Cartagena port. When we completed our tour and our bus dropped us back at the port, we had a little bit of a walk to get back to the ship.

 

To our astonishment this walk back to the ship included an amazing aviary filled with parrots, ducks, peacocks and many other birds. The plants and trees were also incredible. There were also shops and a bar. You could just get off the ship to enjoy this area if you didn’t want to do a full excursion. I was thrilled with the up close interactions with the birds, have never experienced anything of this kind in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

13 minutes ago, drumming cruisers said:

Great review, a couple of questions. 

Is there pickleball game and if so, do you know the hours you can play?

Is the band Siglo aboard?

 

I'm not sure about the pickleball. I don't think so.

 

Yes, Siglo was on board, playing often. They were very good!

[luckybecky]

 

These birds were just amazing. The aviary is free to visit.

[luckybecky]

Back on board we went to lunch in Savor. Chicken marsala, scallops, appetizer portion of spaghetti carbonara. All was good but not amazing.

 

Sorry I forgot to get the menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to our room to watch sail away from our balcony, then a nice long nap – interrupted by the captain shouting at us from the speaker directly above our bed. He was announcing our transit times scheduled for the Panama Canal tomorrow. I thought they usually only made emergency or “important” announcements in the room, with general announcements only going over the speakers in the hallways and public areas. I was wrong. Paul hit the casino for a little while and came out about $250 ahead.

 

[luckybecky]

Dinner in Le Bistro. Delicious! Sorry, my photos on the restaurants often came out with distorted colors, I guess something to do with the lighting. But everything looked great and tasted even better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scallops, small portion but good.

 

 

Endive salad

 

 

Goat cheese croquettes

 

 

French onion soup. Larger portion and more cheese, but the broth base tasted exactly the same as in the MDR. It was good.

 

 

Veal chop

 

 

Lamb chop

 

[luckybecky]

Dessert in Le Bistro

 

 

 

Marquise au Chocolat

 

 

Cheese plate was excellent and more than enough to share. The only thing that surprised me was that it was served with just a couple of ordinary saltine crackers.

 

[luckybecky]

The show in the main theater was a violinist, very good, not heavily attended so plenty of good seats available.

 

 

 

The following photo cracked me up!

I was trying to take a photo of the theater to show how big it is. The expressions on the faces of the people seated behind us made me laugh, but I didn't realize until I was writing my review that The Nashville Tenors were in the audience seated a couple of rows back! Unknown to me, they smiled and posed for us, unlike the others in the shot LOL! (Check out the guy at the lower right. I'm like, Dude! You're on a cruise! It can't be that bad!!)

 

 

 

Back to our cabin with a glass of wine from the wine bar before bed.

 

 

Here's a photo of the ship taken in Grand Cayman that I forgot to post earlier.

 

 

 

The next day we would do our Panama Canal transit! I'll be back later to share that.