. We will be back on Disney next summer!
We just returned from a week long Alaskan Cruise on the Norwegian Bliss. We were hopeful being on a new ship would be enough to overlook it not being Disney, but we were really disappointed! There is no comparison to the level of service and the desire to be sure you have an “excellent” cruise that Disney provides. NCL didn’t even provide us with a cruise survey at the end of our trip
The AK ports are busy not due to the size of your ship but because every port will have 2-3 large ships in Port at the same time.
It's my understanding that, generally, NCL cruises are not that great on the service level.We just returned from a week long Alaskan Cruise on the Norwegian Bliss. We were hopeful being on a new ship would be enough to overlook it not being Disney, but we were really disappointed! There is no comparison to the level of service and the desire to be sure you have an “excellent” cruise that Disney provides. NCL didn’t even provide us with a cruise survey at the end of our trip
We've been on 4 NCL cruises and never had any service problems. We actually prefer them to the other lines. I guess it depends on your expectations. Or where you're reading reviews...
Entered the cruise terminal in Seattle and boarded the ship in what seemed like a hallway. No crew to welcome us aboard
. There was a person that squirted us with hand sanitizer and yelled, “washy, washy!” We found our way to our rooms. Had lunch at the buffet and it was okay. Walked around the ship to get a lay of the land and went to room. They could not find our luggage and it was after 7. After many phone calls they finally located it and told my husband “you put the wrong tags on it.” We actually put the tags we were sent on our luggage. Our room steward delivered the luggage to our door and told my husband we had the wrong tags on it also. (I promise we did not print our own luggage tags at home and place them on our bags to confuse the cruise staff!). All restaurant staff had limited English language- nightly errors, no coffee refills, missing items, orders wrong or mixed up. No seafood on the Alaskan Cruise except shrimp and previously frozen salmon
. No lobster, no crab legs or anything else crab either. No fresh Alaskan salmon. We could never see a comedy show as we were told there were no more openings but we could wait in a stand by line. We saw Jersey Boys which was very good but only other show in theater was Havana ( Latin music and dance). Theatre was ugly inside for being a new ship. The Walt Disney theatre is beautiful in comparison. Didn’t like all the cigarette cartons they had lined in the hallway as you entered the gift shops. Port times were too short in British Columbia and Ketchikan. (But we did know that before we booked.). Area where most activity took place was too small and they to put out folding chairs most days. Most of all is was truly the disinterest of the staff. Officers ignored us, no one spoke to us, no relationships built. On the last day of the cruise the breakfast server 
Viking no longer allows passengers under 18, so it's not something that families with kids (DCL's target demographic) can even consider.
I agree about the price. We are going in 2021 also, but on the Jewel. I really wanted a one-way cruise that went to Glacier Bay. We are staying in a Haven Deluxe Owner's Suite. It has two full bathrooms, a wall of windows, and a hot tub on the deck. It is still less expensive than a non-concierge family verandah room with Disney.
