Is the Bliss T/A in Feb 25th likely to be full?

[ace2542]

Is it the sort of cruise that would be full do we think? It's one of the earliest T/As of the year. Thinking about booking it but not if it is gonna be dead.

[schmoopie17]

TAs are typically the least populated cruises...due to the length, as well as most TAs are "off season" it's primarily retirees or people with lots of time to kill. Very few, if any, kids. Our TA last November was probably 60% full and I recall seeing one toddler.

 

Edited January 23 by schmoopie17

[ace2542]

1 minute ago, schmoopie17 said:

TAs are typically the least populated cruises...due to the length, it's primarily retirees or people with lots of time to kill. Very few, if any, kids. Our TA last November was probably 60% full and I recall seeing one toddler.

 

The RCL Anthem seems pretty full this coming april. I am mid 40s and solo traveller it's a good price on the bliss.

[cruiseny4life]

If you have time to kill, go to ncl.com and do a mock booking. You'll get a rough idea of how many categories are sold out. You can find a travel agent site where you can see the number of rooms, but if I did know what site it is (I don't), I wouldn't be allowed to mention it due to CC rules. I know that's totally not helpful, but it'll give you an idea.

 

The Transatlantic I was on in November was at double-occupancy, and possibly over, so not all Transatlantics are light on guests. It is a good general rule though. 

[hallux]

The Bliss is not doing a TA Feb. 25, she'll be doing a Mexican Riviera cruise.  Or are you asking about the Feb. 2025 one?

[ace2542]

15 hours ago, hallux said:

The Bliss is not doing a TA Feb. 25, she'll be doing a Mexican Riviera cruise.  Or are you asking about the Feb. 2025 one?

I mean feb 2nd 2025 westbound T/A.

[The Traveling Man]

8 hours ago, ace2542 said:

I mean feb 2nd 2025 westbound T/A.

You may want to look more closely at this cruise before you book.  February is an unusual month for NCL to be sailing westbound across the Atlantic.  According to the posted schedule, the Bliss sails from Miami on 4 January, arriving at Southampton on 17 January.  There are no listed cruises for the Bliss from then until your cruise departing Southampton on 2 February.  It is quite possible that the Bliss is scheduled for a dry dock, refitting, or refurbishment during that gap of just over two weeks.  Many experienced cruisers will advise you to avoid any cruise just before or just after a dry dock.  Frequently the repairs that have been scheduled cannot be completed during the time allotted.  Some cruises have been cut short to allow extra days to complete the work.  This means the possibility of missing planned ports of call.  In a few cases the workers remained on board the ship and continued with their hammering, sandblasting, painting, etc. while passengers were denied access to parts of the ship that were still undergoing repair.  The noise, fumes, and inconvenience of sailing on a work in progress certainly are not what they expected when they paid for their cruise. 

 

There may be some other explanation for the timing of the cruise or the gap in sailing dates.  Without further information from NCL, though, I would recommend choosing a different cruise.

[yakcruiser]

 

1 hour ago, The Traveling Man said:

You may want to look more closely at this cruise before you book.  February is an unusual month for NCL to be sailing westbound across the Atlantic.  According to the posted schedule, the Bliss sails from Miami on 4 January, arriving at Southampton on 17 January.  There are no listed cruises for the Bliss from then until your cruise departing Southampton on 2 February.  It is quite possible that the Bliss is scheduled for a dry dock, refitting, or refurbishment during that gap of just over two weeks.  Many experienced cruisers will advise you to avoid any cruise just before or just after a dry dock.  Frequently the repairs that have been scheduled cannot be completed during the time allotted.  Some cruises have been cut short to allow extra days to complete the work.  This means the possibility of missing planned ports of call.  In a few cases the workers remained on board the ship and continued with their hammering, sandblasting, painting, etc. while passengers were denied access to parts of the ship that were still undergoing repair.  The noise, fumes, and inconvenience of sailing on a work in progress certainly are not what they expected when they paid for their cruise. 

 

There may be some other explanation for the timing of the cruise or the gap in sailing dates.  Without further information from NCL, though, I would recommend choosing a different cruise.

The Encore is scheduled for the same two week break in Nov/Dec of 24. They are probably going to shrink the Observation Lounge by 50% on those two ships like they are on the Joy this winter so they can add more cabins. Oops! Did I really say that?

[hallux]

33 minutes ago, yakcruiser said:

They are probably going to shrink the Observation Lounge by 50% on those two ships like they are on the Joy this winter so they can add more cabins.

Maybe.  Something to consider is that the Joy was originally built with cabins where they're being added back.  Bliss and Encore were not.  Can it be done?  Sure, but not as easily as on the Joy.

[The Traveling Man]

1 hour ago, yakcruiser said:

 

The Encore is scheduled for the same two week break in Nov/Dec of 24. They are probably going to shrink the Observation Lounge by 50% on those two ships like they are on the Joy this winter so they can add more cabins. Oops! Did I really say that?

I really hope that is not their plan.  One of the strongest selling points for traveling on one of the -Away class ships rather than another is if the ship still has its observation lounge or not.  The Bliss has been my favorite of NCL's large ships, in large part because of the lounge.  NCL obviously needs to make money, but squeezing every last dime by adding more cabins simply diminishes the cruise experience for everyone. 

[The Traveling Man]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:32 AM, ace2542 said:

Is it the sort of cruise that would be full do we think? It's one of the earliest T/As of the year. Thinking about booking it but not if it is gonna be dead.

It won't be dead.  The Cruise Director likely will find lots of activities to keep you busy, but it also is likely that there will be many empty cabins.  That may be owing to the timing.  It really is rather early in the year for a westbound TA, so there may not be a lot of folks looking for that itinerary at that time of year.  Another reason that it may not be crowded is the possibility of a refurbishment immediately before this cruise and the chance that there may still be workers on board completing their work assignments while your cruise is ongoing.

[schmoopie17]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:41 AM, cruiseny4life said:

If you have time to kill, go to ncl.com and do a mock booking.

It;s not nice to mock bookings. Bookings have feelings, you know. It's not nice to mock them.

 

Okay...having gotten that out of the way, our very best cruise was a TA. Mainly due to the lack of tons of passengers. At about 60% capacity, drink lines were unheard of. Buffet was never crowded. Kids were essentially non-existent. Fighting/jostling over elevators never happened. It was sheer Bliss...even though it was the Escape.

[zqvol]

On 1/23/2024 at 11:32 AM, ace2542 said:

Is it the sort of cruise that would be full do we think? It's one of the earliest T/As of the year. Thinking about booking it but not if it is gonna be dead.

Whatever answers you get are simply uneducated guesses 

Edited January 24 by zqvol

[ace2542]

16 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

You may want to look more closely at this cruise before you book.  February is an unusual month for NCL to be sailing westbound across the Atlantic.  According to the posted schedule, the Bliss sails from Miami on 4 January, arriving at Southampton on 17 January.  There are no listed cruises for the Bliss from then until your cruise departing Southampton on 2 February.  It is quite possible that the Bliss is scheduled for a dry dock, refitting, or refurbishment during that gap of just over two weeks.  Many experienced cruisers will advise you to avoid any cruise just before or just after a dry dock.  Frequently the repairs that have been scheduled cannot be completed during the time allotted.  Some cruises have been cut short to allow extra days to complete the work.  This means the possibility of missing planned ports of call.  In a few cases the workers remained on board the ship and continued with their hammering, sandblasting, painting, etc. while passengers were denied access to parts of the ship that were still undergoing repair.  The noise, fumes, and inconvenience of sailing on a work in progress certainly are not what they expected when they paid for their cruise. 

 

There may be some other explanation for the timing of the cruise or the gap in sailing dates.  Without further information from NCL, though, I would recommend choosing a different cruise.

I just noticed eastbound and westbound sailings with a couple of week break. Why are they doing a couple of week break not long enough for a dry dock of a ship that size. Not for anything more than carpet fitting and new chairs maybe. Are they trying out T/As for size thinking about taking on Cunard maybe do we think?

Edited January 25 by ace2542

[ace2542]

15 hours ago, yakcruiser said:

 

The Encore is scheduled for the same two week break in Nov/Dec of 24. They are probably going to shrink the Observation Lounge by 50% on those two ships like they are on the Joy this winter so they can add more cabins. Oops! Did I really say that?

I doubt they can do that in two weeks but I might be wrong. That would be a very big undertaking ripping up a whole part of the ship.

[BirdTravels]

16 hours ago, yakcruiser said:

 

The Encore is scheduled for the same two week break in Nov/Dec of 24. They are probably going to shrink the Observation Lounge by 50% on those two ships like they are on the Joy this winter so they can add more cabins. Oops! Did I really say that?

The Joy has fewer cabins because it was built for the Asian market where they had a lot of Haven and Concierge Suites and fewer steerage cabins. Being in “First class” sells in Asia. Americans, not so much, especially since they reclassified most of the Suites as Haven rooms and jumped the price. So, adding the 25+ cabins back gives them more cheaper rooms for the US market. 

[BirdTravels]

On 1/23/2024 at 11:32 AM, ace2542 said:

Is it the sort of cruise that would be full do we think? It's one of the earliest T/As of the year. Thinking about booking it but not if it is gonna be dead.

Just be aware that if this is really a repositioning cruise before a dry dock, there will be construction/demolition going on during the cruise. We, personally, don’t mind and can avoid most of the construction impacts, others will take every opportunity to complain about it… knowing that they were on a pre-/post- dry dock cruise. 
 

We were on a post-dry dock cruise and there were still some areas not complete. And some of our room amenities slowly showed up each day (sofa throw pillows, closet drapes, cleaning construction residue). It was all part of the adventure and we enjoyed it. They did some mini-sea trials (mostly at the most inopportune times like dinner - where you are trying to keep your plates from falling off the table) like full speed starts, emergency stops, hour-long turns in harbors to reset the compass. 

[ace2542]

6 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Just be aware that if this is really a repositioning cruise before a dry dock, there will be construction/demolition going on during the cruise. We, personally, don’t mind and can avoid most of the construction impacts, others will take every opportunity to complain about it… knowing that they were on a pre-/post- dry dock cruise. 
 

We were on a post-dry dock cruise and there were still some areas not complete. And some of our room amenities slowly showed up each day (sofa throw pillows, closet drapes, cleaning construction residue). It was all part of the adventure and we enjoyed it. They did some mini-sea trials (mostly at the most inopportune times like dinner - where you are trying to keep your plates from falling off the table) like full speed starts, emergency stops, hour-long turns in harbors to reset the compass. 

The studio cabins won't be affected by this I don't think. I have been on bliss before the studios are locked away in the centre of the ship at least they where on the deck I was on you need the special card to access them I think.

[hallux]

2 hours ago, ace2542 said:

Why are they doing a couple of week break not long enough for a dry dock of a ship that size

Compare the break to that for the Joy, it may be an indication of what they plan to do.  If it's short, the primary focus may be the technical requirements for a regulatory dry dock rather than replacing part of the OL as is being done on the Joy.  @chengkp75 can enlighten us on approx. how long is needed for a dry dock in order to satisfy regulations.

 

25 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

the studios are locked away in the centre of the ship at least they where on the deck I was on you need the special card to access them I think.

Yes, there are 3 areas of the ship that are key-card access - The Haven, Vibe, and the Studio area.  All other passenger areas outside of cabins themselves are freely-accessible to all.

[ace2542]

9 minutes ago, hallux said:

Compare the break to that for the Joy, it may be an indication of what they plan to do.  If it's short, the primary focus may be the technical requirements for a regulatory dry dock rather than replacing part of the OL as is being done on the Joy.  @chengkp75 can enlighten us on approx. how long is needed for a dry dock in order to satisfy regulations.

 

Yes, there are 3 areas of the ship that are key-card access - The Haven, Vibe, and the Studio area.  All other passenger areas outside of cabins themselves are freely-accessible to all.

I don't think they will touch the lounge myself though I may be wrong. Didn't they design the ship for Alaska so they want the lounge for that purpose and still will?

 

Is the local/o sheehans (it's o sheenans to me) open 24/7 as it used to be? Doesn't say 24/7 on the website

Edited January 25 by ace2542

[The Traveling Man]

11 hours ago, ace2542 said:

I just noticed eastbound and westbound sailings with a couple of week break. Why are they doing a couple of week break not long enough for a dry dock of a ship that size. Not for anything more than carpet fitting and new chairs maybe. Are they trying out T/As for size thinking about taking on Cunard maybe do we think?

It may not be long enough for a dry dock, but two weeks sounds like just the right amount of time for a refurbishment.  It may include a change of furniture in restaurants and public areas, new decor in hallways, significant upgrades in the theater, or some combination of these or other renovations. 

[ace2542]

11 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

It may not be long enough for a dry dock, but two weeks sounds like just the right amount of time for a refurbishment.  It may include a change of furniture in restaurants and public areas, new decor in hallways, significant upgrades in the theater, or some combination of these or other renovations. 

They can get that done in two weeks probably do all the carpets as well and new bed mattresses that sort of thing.