8 Things We Liked On The Norwegian Bliss And 3 Things We Didn’t
Our Cruise 11/6/22 to 11/13/22 From Long Beach, CA
Ports of call: Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, Ensenada
Cabin Number 13798 Upgraded Balcony
Restaurants and Bars We Visited on This Trip:
Complimentary: Garden Cafe (Buffet), Manhattan Room, The Local Bar and Grill, The Observation Lounge
Specialty with a Fee: Q Texas Smokehouse, Cagney’s Steakhouse, Los Lobos
The Norwegian Bliss was built just before the pandemic, so it’s first cruises were delayed and it still retains that brand new feel. It is is a large vessel, with over 4000 guests at full capacity and it can feel a little crowded at times, particularly in the buffet and in The Local Bar and Grill, though those venues do a good job of handling the crowds.
Things We Liked
A unique feature of the ship is the Observation Lounge. This large area, one floor below the buffet, features a relaxing atmosphere with table, chairs, couches, and light dining options from a number of buffet-style stations. There are very nice continental breakfast options in the morning, and light sandwiches and salads in the afternoon. It never seemed crowded during our cruise.
The District Brewhouse. This quiet and comfortable spot on deck 8 features 24 beers on tap and 50 more in bottles. They also have a full cocktail menu. They have some live music and a television for sports, but most of the time it is just a relaxing space to have a great beer and watch the sea go by.
The Local Bar and Grill. This is the ship’s 24/7 dining option. It is fast and efficient, and the food is good. They have a full breakfast menu, a large variety of sandwiches and burgers for lunch and dinner, and a very good fish and chips plate. The bar features some specialty cocktails on tap including the Passion Fruit Lime Cooler, which was Jeanne’s favorite. She would go there several times a day to get one while I would head off to the District Brewhouse to get my beloved Guinness Stout. Jeanne would usually come up to the District because it was quiet and the Local was always a madhouse.
Spice H2O. Another generally quiet spot on the busy ship. I guess we like to avoid the crowds. This is quiet because they don’t allow kids and it is a little harder to find than the other pool-type areas. They have a nice bar and several hot tubs. Most of the patrons in this area are lying on loungers reading books. It’s a great place for a Bloody Mary and a morning soak in the hot tub.
Bliss Speedway. Anyone who had a go cart as a kid will love this. The carts are fast and the turns are tight. It is a thrilling ten minute race. -The entire process takes about half an hour with the safety video and loading the carts. Older kids and adults can do this. You have to be over 55 inches tall and under 265 pounds.
Texas Smokehouse. This place was a pleasant surprise. You don’t generally expect good southern barbeque on a cruise ship. We had the fried green tomato appetizer and the Pitmaster Platter which had a little of everything. It was all good.
Laser Tag. We weren’t very good at this. We spent most of our time returning to base to regenerate after being killed. But it was fun. There are two teams of about 12 people shooting lasers at each other. There was some kind of a scoring system that no one on our team understood. The other team must have had a better handle on the scoring because they beat us badly. Kids welcome. Closed toe shoes required.
Cagney’s Steakhouse. The steaks are always a treat here. The seafood is surprisingly good as well. The lump crab cakes are great. The food and the service make this the most popular specialty dining choice.
Things The Bliss Could Improve Upon
Disembarking was a disaster. We were made to sit in the Bliss Theater to wait to go on our excursions. In Cabo it was well over an hour past our scheduled time partly due to having to tender in to the port. They should have this working more smoothly. It wasn’t quite as bad in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, but was long again in Ensenada. The worst was upon returning to Long Beach. The ship personnel had no control. There were huge crowds packed onto the floor where we were exiting the ship. There was nothing orderly or organized about the process. Totally unacceptable.
The Gift Shop. We had onboard ship credit that was use it or lose it, so we headed to the gift shop to use it up on a few things for friends and family at home. This was annoyingly difficult because they have no prices on the food and candy options. Why? Who knows? But we had to call over a cashier to find out how much things were. The pricing on T-shirts and other clothes were unnecessarily complicated causing us to have to go back and pick out new things in order to get the multiple discounts. They are certainly not cheap, so they should at least try for easy.
The Crowds. As mentioned above, the Observation Lounge never seemed crowded. But that was it. Everything else did seem crowded much of the time. The buffet, the bars, the shows, everything seemed packed all the time. NCL seems to have more of that feel than other cruise lines.
