Overview
About
Passengers: 4,004 | Crew: 1,716
Passengers to crew: 2.33:1
Passengers to space: 38.8:1
Launched: 2018
Decks
- Deck 5
- Deck 6
- Deck 7
- Deck 8
- Deck 9
- Deck 10
Additional decks
Deck 5 layout
Cabins
Family Inside Stateroom (I1)
Inside Stateroom (IX)
Inside Stateroom (IC)
Mid-ship Oceanview with Large Picture Window (OB)
Oceanview with Large Picture Window (OX)
Family Oceanview with Large Picture Window (O8)
Family Oceanview with Large Picture Window (O1)
Cabins
Balcony
Cabin size: 175 - 495 sq. ft.
Connected rooms: 223
Accessible rooms: 16
Maximum passengers: 6
Number of cabins: 1088
Reviews
Traveller rating
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I booked a 7 day Alaska cruise a year in advance. At the time of booking, my reservation specialist recommended that we fly into Seattle the day before our cruise was scheduled to leave just in case there were any flight issues. I thought that was a great suggestion and agreed. Fast forward 8 months later when I get my flight details and I’m shocked to see that they have us arriving at the airport approximately three hours before the boat is scheduled to depart the port. I don’t panic because I figured it’s just an oversight and they will easily fix it so I called my friendly reservation specialist and let her know about the error. Sadly, she wasn’t so friendly this time. She told me “I speak to a lot of people and can’t remember what I tell everybody. You should’ve caught it on the confirmation that was sent to you. There’s nothing that can be done.” Now I’m upset. I call customer service hoping that this reservation specialist was just being difficult and that somebody else who didn’t make the mistake will be more accommodating. I sit on hold while they review the recording of my original reservation phone call. They return only to confirm that what I’m saying is in fact, true. They tell me that someone will be in contact with me sometime between now and September when I am scheduled to depart and they will let me know if they can do anything. this doesn’t sit well with me but I don’t seem to have a choice. In July, I receive a phone call pretty much telling me the same thing the reservation specialist told me. There’s nothing they’re gonna do about it. I should’ve caught the error on my confirmation. Now I’m crying over how poorly they are treating me. I managed to find an email address for the CEO of the company and I email them. Within a few hours someone who says they are their assistant calls me and while they were very nice they to tell me there’s nothing they can do unless I want to pay $200 extra to change the flight. I’m highly insulted because this tells me that they can fix their error. They’re just not going to unless they get more money out of me. I don’t seem to have any other choice and I am terrified of my flight being delayed, because flights are delayed all the time now, and I’m literally flying across the country so I pay them the $200 and they changed my flight so I’m arriving the day before. I spoke to somebody else on the boat who had the same thing happen. This suggests to me that this is a common error made by there team. As for the actual cruise. We were departing from Seattle and getting on the boat was very easy. I booked a club balcony room, which I believe provides for a larger bathroom. I was very happy with the size of the room and it was more than comfortable for two adults. Any more than that might be a little crowded, but having the slightly larger bathroom was nice. Overall, the food was good. The days of being able to sample new foods on cruise ships seem to be gone as all included food was pretty standard. If you wanted anything more upscale or less common, there was an up charge. I did get the drink package and getting a drink from any bar was never a problem. I will say, though that all of the restaurants were extremely slow with drinks. I believe they had to travel to one of the other bars to get them which caused a delay, but it took up to 20 or 30 minutes to get drinks at the restaurants. This Alaska cruise was definitely an older crowd which was fine with me, but I think the entertainment on the boat reflected that. I was definitely care towards an older crowd. I’m 48 so when I say older, I mean more retired ages. As is common with many boats getting reservations for shows in specialty dining, or any dining reservations was nearly impossible when she got on the boat. Everything was booked up. Fortunately, I had no trouble getting into the main dining rooms without much of a wait. Only once Did I go to the Buffet and have to leave because it was too full of people and nowhere to sit. The staff were ok but none of them were as friendly as I’m used to on cruises. I barely saw my cabin attendant. In fact, there was one day that I know he didn’t show up at all. None of the staff was overly friendly. In fact many of them appeared, burned out. This cruise has some staff there for 8 months at a time so no wonder. When I booked the screws, the port of calls were known, but the times at the ports or not. Those were not released till later. Had I known of the times I would not have booked this cruise. A plus is that almost every day of the seven day cruise you were going somewhere which is what I wanted as I didn’t want to be stuck on the boat, however, Norwegian seems to have gotten the short stick when it comes to these Alaska ports, because if there was a pier far away from where tourist want to be, that is where the NCL ship docked every time. Every single stop required that we were shuttled and at some parts the wait to get back on the bus to get back to the boat was two hours long. Completely unacceptable! Even worse was that every stop was early in the morning, as early as 7 AM, and we had to be back on the boat as early as noon though there was one stop that was his latest three, but we didn’t get off the boat until 10 so…. For most people, this will be a once in a lifetime trip to cruise to Alaska. Getting into a port at 7 AM when nothing opens till 10 AM leisure limited to excursions only. If you’d like to walk around and check out local sites that will not happen on this cruise because everything is closed when you were at the port. By the time they open, you have to start making your way back to get on the boat. And the last stop, which is in Canada until 8 PM at night and when I saw that they were once again bussing people I didn’t even get off the boat. I figured we would have to turn around and get back on it because we had to leave again at 11 and be up at the crack of dawn when they start rushing you to get off the boat or at least get out of your cabin. One more tip if you do make the mistake of ending up on Lennie‘s belt and you need Wi-Fi service you will have to buy the unlimited package. Buying just minutes even if you just want to check email once a day will not work because it heats up all your minutes just trying to connect. Save your precious vacation time and money and pick another cruise line. Princess seemed to be at all the same ports but for much longer. They were there when we arrived and still there after we left yet would magically appear at the next port before us everyone. I should have checked them. My loyalty to NCL got me nothing but regrets. They won’t ever see me on one of their boats again. …
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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We cruised the Panama Canal in March 2023. We cruised NCL several years ago but will need to significantly lower our standards if we should ever cruise NCL again. Poor customer service attitudes/policies re: refunds. We purchased our NCL cruise based on the overall value with the various upgrade packages that were offered. When our itinerary was reduced from 7 ports to 6, we lost the value of one of the shore excursion discounts ($50) but no compensation (onboard credit, specialty dining, etc.) was provided. While changes to the itinerary are listed as a possibility on the website, there should at least be some sort of compensation for any lost value. Two ports were removed from the original itinerary and the one port which was added in lieu of the deletions was on the US State Dept.'s "Do Not Travel" alerts. This did not make us feel safe enough to go onshore at this port. Many of the shore excursions were already sold out before we could book them due to higher tiered cruisers having first dibs. They need to provide more availability for the most popular excursions. One of the shore excursions offered was listed as a sunken submarine with the conning tower only 5' below the surface. Turned out it was only a sunken ship, not a submarine as shown and described, and the shallowest part of the ship with ~ 30' down. No way for us or most of our excursion companions to snorkel down to it. Not enough seating in the Garden Cafe (buffet) dining room so had to fight for a seat at every meal eaten there. Extremely loud music on the pool deck very early in the morning until late at night, so loud that we could hear it from our stateroom on Deck 10 midship. We were over an hour late departing from Miami and the Captain shortened our time in Cabo by an hour. Our room steward on Deck 10 was excellent! We provided him an additional gratuity for his efforts and friendliness. Don't take the safari drive-thru in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. The animals were in deplorable conditions and they'd recently had several animal deaths.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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we added Denali park land tour after a cruise. NCL agent LIED to me about the tour returning us to Seward for the 2nd cruise ship to come home. NCL left us stranded in Fairbanks 300 miles north of Seward with no way to get back. we had to fly to Anchorage then bus down to Seward. cost an extra $525 and worried us everyday that we could make the connections.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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Worsed cruise we have ever been on. Good buffet was terrible. Powder scramble eggs, couldn’t get reservations for specialty restaurants, casino didn’t know how to take care of gamblers, smokers treated like second class citizens, cigar room ventilation didn’t work, only a 30ft section to smoke outdoors, employees not friendly overall. Just a terrible trip! Do not recommend!!! Oh and port docks were terrible, shuttled everywhere!…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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My wife and I as grandparents plus with the rest of our family of 9 additional people aged from ages 3 to 41 all just got back from a Jul~Aug NCL Bliss 7 night Alaska Dawes Glacier Juneau and Ketchikan cruise. ONBOARD STAFF: They all kept extremely busy dealing with the large crowds of demanding people and lines but most of the ships staff my family interacted with maintained genuine smiles and were helpful. The whole ship was kept clean even during sea days with all 4000 passengers on board. ENTERTAINMENT: The whole vibe created on board is reminiscent to what one would expect during a stay in Las Vegas. Lots of noise and people. You could hear music from adjacent cabins way into the night. Between the hot tubs, splash pads, arcade, and various daily activities provided by the staff you always had something to do. My 9 year old granddaughter during a pumpkin painting craft event inquired about getting some red paint and was led to the bathroom; however, overwhelmingly we had little problem communicating with staff. The safe environment allowed the older kids some independence to spread their wings and do things on their own. The two shows Six and the Jersey Boys got a big thumbs up from all that saw these. The 6 hole mini golf is pretty lame for anyone over 7 years old. The go karts are slow so very safe but in no way going to raise anyone's heartbeat. The water slides everyone really enjoyed. The one slide that extends over the side of ship has a minimum weight requirement that excluded use of any of our grandchildren ages 3 to 14. FOOD: The food everyone had on board all week was really excellent. We could not get over the wide variety of choices, all well presented that would more then satisfy anyone's pallet. The Garden Cafe was where we most often ate. Every night would feature a different main entree protein, all done to perfection. The kids were just bug eyed at all the choices and they really looked forward to any meal at the Garden Cafe as a food adventure. NCL maintains a freestyle dining arrangement for any restaurant that does not require a reservation. This is nice as it gives you freedom to eat and sit whenever and wherever you wish. The down side though depending on the time you need to eat can result in a very tough time finding a open table, particularly if you looking for seating for 6 or more people. The menus at Manhattan, Taste, and Savor are very modest and reservations are required for dinner. The meals we had at these restaurants were really good. The night we reserved for Manhattan must have been a busy one as we spent twice as long there due to long waits between appetizer and salad , entree and then dessert. As no reservation for breakfast is needed for Taste and Savor we found it very nice to have breakfast there as it was a much more relaxed quiet venue as opposed to the hectic hubbub of the Garden Cafe. ITINERARY: We opted for a cruise that packed in more stops but this meant less time at each port. After you subtract time for shuttles into town it leaves little time to explore town, especially if you opted to sign up for one of the NCL featured shore excursions . In the future I would select an itinerary that provides a full 8 hours in port to enable a more leisurely time to explore town and catch a local meal while still taking the opportunity to sign up for a nature/wildlife/adventure tour. By far though the top of the list for sightseeing on board was when we entered the Endicott Arm fjord and got to see the floating chucks of ice coming from the Dawes Glacier. The Bliss is too big to get to the actual glacier before having to turn around; however, you do pass by mountains that have small glaciers on them. In Ketchikan I recommend seeing the totem pole museum as well as the salmon ladder area if you are visiting when salmon are spawning. It was an awesome sight to see these fish battle their way upstream. SHORE EXCURSIONS: NCL did a great job of organizing all the required shuttles and meeting points for the plethora of different shore activities anyone had signed up for through NCL. Passengers simply walk off ship to dock area where very visible signs are posted as meeting points for each of the excursions. At the appointed time you simply show your excursion ticket and you are led to wherever you have to go. No muss no fuss and they guarantee you are back before ship leaves port. All 11 of us opted for 3 shore excursions. (1) The SEA OTTER & WILDLIFE QUEST in Sitka which was excellent. The tour operator did a fantastic job narrating what we were seeing with lots of information about the surrounding area. Very knowledgeable. Saw seals, otters, and many bald eagles. (2) The SLED DOG DISCOVERY & MUSHER CAMP in Juneau which was the absolute best experience for each and everyone of us. This was led by a team of very dedicated men and women who have mushing in their blood and compete in the various dog sled racing events in Alaska. We were given an in person presentation full of information and actual equipment to see and touch. We learned a lot and got to ride on a 6 man wagon pulled by 16 dogs through the woods. An added bonus was the opportunity to hold one of the many small baby pups they had that soon would be starting their training. I cannot say enough about this great experience. (3) The WHALE AND MARINE MAMMELS CRUISE in Hoonah gave us the opportunity to see two different brown bears walking the shores looking for and eating fish. We saw no orcas and only a few of what we think were hump back whales. You can never guarantee sightings of any wildlife much less how much you can see of any whale when spotted. The only downside regarding expectations for this shore excursion was the fact the boat staff did not say a thing during the whole tour. We were hoping to get some kind of narration regarding what we were seeing and some information about typical migration activities and the area, etc. The boat staff stay silent and simply focus on getting the boat to where they feel the highest chance to see something will be and then after times up head back to shore...end of story. 6 WARNINGS: 1. The NCL App on shore and on board is absolutely horrible. Surely a combination of poor back end server administration and bad shipboard WiFi. If there is anything I would ask NCL to improve on it is the usability of this app. What made it worse is we purchased for $10 per phone the capability to message each other only to find that most of the time you could not use it. 2. We booked an aft cabin 11316. Great views from balcony and nice cabin but half the time we could not sit on balcony or leave balcony door open because we were inundated with the diesel fuel exhaust from the ships stack getting sucked into our veranda and room. 3. Do not expect your luggage to get to your cabin much before 5PM on boarding day. The crew is overwhelmed with turning ship around for the new batch of passengers and we found that everyone in our party were waiting a long time for luggage. 4. Not much provided onboard NCL for anyone looking to hear talks from experts regarding the area we were sailing or ports we would be sailing too. There was a single 1 hour very high level overview of Alaska but that was it. So do your research before you go. 5. If you are not up to climbing up and down the flights of stairs between deck 4 and 16 then expect to deal with lots of people all vying for whatever space they can squeeze into on any elevator going their way. This was always the case during the wave of people leaving for shore after docking and then their return from shore and also during the typical meal times. 6. If you are cruising with a party booked in multiple cabins and you would like to eat together at any of the restaurants requiring reservations make a concerted effort to let NCL know you want to link these reservations together. Then importantly verify and then re-verify. We ran into an issue with this during our first dinner all together. The maitre d' assured us that moving forward our 11 person 3 cabin party would be linked together for upcoming group reservations we had. This never happened so the 11 of us always ended standing at the hostess desk with staff surprised and scrambling to minimize as much as possible all 11 of us being scattered from one end of the restaurant to the other. …
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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