ChipNDale86
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2015
- Messages
- 219
Happy Sunday everyone,
We just got off the Norwegian Bliss yesterday after a 7-night Alaskan cruise so I thought I'd make a little comparison thread since we did Alaska on the Wonder last August.
Before I go any further I will admit that we are huge Disney fans so I am admittedly very biased.
Ship: The 2 ships are hard to compare.
The Bliss is brand new and has a very sleek/modern feel to it and is a VERY large ship. The hallways, atrium, casino, etc felt more like a hotel than a ship. Everything was very clean and cared for but time will tell how well the design/decor holds up. Pool areas and slides were nice; I think there were a couple of hot tubs in the 'adults' area on the top deck but no pool and the adult-only part had a weird time frame, it was like 9am-6pm or something like that. I want an adults-only area AFTER 6pm personally. While the ship was huge it was easy to navigate and we figure out how to get everywhere very quickly. As a runner I missed the Deck 4 jogging track. They had a jogging lane on Deck 16 or 17 but it wasn't even half the length of the deck so 8-laps make up a mile compared to only having to go 3 (I think) laps on Deck 4 on the Wonder. Deck 8 on the Bliss included 'The Waterfront' where you can dine al fresco at several of the 'speciality dining restaurants. We never dined at those but did sit out there a little and it was nice.
The Wonder is almost 20 years old but IMO does not show her age AT ALL! I love the old-school "ocean-liner" design of the Disney ships that I feel hold up very well throughout the years and while I love modern design, I think the Disney style of ships will still look great while the modern design of the Bliss will feel dated in 10 years. Love the adult-only areas, both After Hours and the adult pool, etc.
Staterooms: Very similar between the two ships. The biggest difference are the bathrooms. The Bliss had one large bathroom instead of the split rooms. We personally enjoyed the larger bathroom more. There was a double sink and a larger shower. We liked having one larger space and didn't feel like we were in each others way at all. There is just 2 of us so don't know how it would be with a family or 3 or 4. Otherwise everything else was about the same. The TV had some on-demand movies but each cost about $10. The free TV options included several NCL specific channels, a sports channel, a special channel that was typically showing the World Cup, BBC, MSNC, CNBC, Fox News, 'Action Movie' channel, 'Drama Movies', 'Comedy Movies', 'Family Movies', and "Favorite TV Shows' channel. Most of the movies were Disney-owned and the kept showing the same 5-6 movies on each channel. Finding Dory, Thor: Ragnarok, Maleficent, Sweet Home Alabama, & The Proposal seemed to always be on.
The Wonder still doesn't have the on-demand Disney movies as far as I know but seemed to have a larger selection of movies playing. Though we didn't spend as much time in our stateroom watching TV on the Wonder as we did on the Bliss (more on that later).
One thing that did bother us was that they told us they were unable to open up the verandah doors between staterooms. Our party had 4 rooms in a row so we were excited to open them up but apparently they had been having some safety issues (we think with the doors not staying in the locked position and flying back and hitting people, but never got real confirmation on that). So that was annoying and I hope NCL can fix whatever the issue is.
One thing that the Bliss has that cannot be beat is the Observation Lounge on Deck 15-forward. It wraps all the way around the front of Deck 15 and offers incredible views, especially for an itinerary like Alaska. We spent a lot of time up there playing cards, eating snacks, grabbing drinks, etc.
Food: To be honest, I didn't have the best food on our Wonder cruise, though my fiance says it was some of the best DCL food he's had so far so take that for what it's worth. But everyone in our party (6 adults, 3 children) all agreed the Bliss' food was mediocre at best. The buffet was pretty good the first day but the quality drastically went down after that and was pretty much the same stuff every day. The Bliss had 4 complimentary dining options: The Manhattan Room, Taste, & Savor are your traditional cruise dining rooms, and The Local which is like a sports bar. We did dinner 3 times in Manhattan and lunch once at The Local, everything was just okay. The desserts across the board were pretty terrible. We did 3 of the specialty restaurants: Cagney's (steak house), Q (Texas BBQ), and Teppanyaki (Japanese hibachi); they were all good not great. Nothing came even close to Palo IMO. They have a lot of different specialty locations but other than the 4 complimentary ones everything else was an up charge.
We also hated the whole "Free-Style" cruising model. I get the concept of being able to eat where/when you want but you have to make reservations for everything (not just dining) so you're still locked into a specific time/location and if you have a group of 7 or more you are pretty much stuck eating at either 5pm or 9pm. We much prefer the Disney style of having a set dining time/rotation.
Service: Service on the Bliss was fine. Everyone was nice and did their job well but we left without making connections to any of the staff like we almost always do on Disney. Part of that is obviously because you don't see your dining room staff every night, but even our stateroom host was hardly around and on a couple days didn't make up our room until late in the afternoon. My fiance's 5-year old nephew has Celiac's disease so is entirely gluten-free and despite his mom calling NCL ahead of time it was still an issue with the dining room almost every night. Most servers initially reacted like they had never dealt with an allergy before. The managers would always come over and they truly went out of their way to accommodate his needs, but it was a little frustrating to deal with at almost every meal. I've heard on DCL in Cabanas they will go back and make you anything you see on the buffet in their allergy-friendly kitchen to avoid cross-contamination, but that was clearly not an option on NCL and it was impossible to make sure he didn't come into contact with any gluten while at the buffet.
Activities/Entertainment: I'm going to be honest, we were pretty bored most of the cruise which I can absolutely say as never been an issue for us on DCL. Again we're huge Disney fans so the activities they offer usually excite us, but most of the activities on NCL seemed to revolve around you giving them more money with things like Deal or No Deal or art auctions, etc. We did a few trivias that were fine and did have a blast doing "Escape The Big Top" an escape room type activity which was very well put together (and we even won!). We don't go to most of the comedian type stuff on DCL so we didn't do any of that so if you like that type of thing it may be great. We also didn't do any of the stage shows; we heard Havana was bad, we've both seen Jersey Boys, and Prohibition cost like $20-30 per person (I can't remember how much exactly) which we later found out was because you get 4-5 speciality cocktails but that wasn't mentioned when we were making reservations before the cruise. Which by the way, you also have to make reservations for all this stuff as well. I heard some people talking and they said you can wait stand by for most stuff and get in just fine though. We did the 2 slides a few times both which were fun, were not huge slides people so even on the Disney ships we don't do those often. Both the go-kart and the laser tag cost $10/person and by the time we looked mid-way through the week to book something everything was all gone so again we didn't get to do that. Seeing as we didn't do a lot of the offered activities I may not be the best to make this comparison but overall we missed the Disney activities! We were really just annoyed that you 1) had to reserve most of the activities and 2) most had some sort of up-charge.
Itinerary: Bliss went Seattle - Sea day - Ketchikan - Juneau - Skagway - sea day - Victoria - Seattle.
Wonder was Vancouver - sea day - Skagway - glacier day - Juneau - Ketchikan - sea day - Vancouver. On the Bliss we were only in Juneau until 1pm which left us no time to explore the town after our dog mushing excursion. We left so early to head towards a glacier but we weren't able to get to it due to icy waters (obviously not NCL's fault) but on Disney we had an entire day at the glacier where as even if we did get there on the Bliss it would have only been for about an hour or two. Reason for this is because since we left out of Seattle we had to make that last stop in Victoria to have a non-U.S. port. I can see the advantage of leaving out of Seattle (which by the way we fell in love with the city of Seattle during the 12ish hours we were there) but overall I'd prefer going out of Vancouver so you're not forced to make that Victoria stop. Speaking of which we docked in Victoria at 4pm and left at 9:30pm, apparently it's like a 10-minute cab to downtown Victoria so we didn't get off the boat here. I've heard that there is great whale watching and a beautiful Japanese botanical garden in Victoria worth checking out. In addition to the dog mushing in Juneau we also did a Duck Boat in Ketchikan, both were booked through NCL and were fun. On DCL we did kayaking at Mendenhall Lake in Juneau which was awesome, it was our only excursion that trip.
Overall: I feel like I've spent pretty much all of this post complaining about NCL which isn't fair to them. It was a great trip and we did all have a good time, but throughout the whole week we constantly found ourselves comparing everything to DCL. From the moment we stepped on board things just weren't the same. There wasn't that same 'magic' and excitement like being on a Disney ship. NCL and other lines definitely serve their purpose and I can understand why people would love those lines and hate DCL but we're just not those people. If you want to go to the same places for a cheaper price NCL offers a great product, just know that there is A LOT more nickel-and-diming then what's on DCL. If you want to relax by the pool or on your verandah, get a drink package, or spend time in a casino and/or comedy clubs, this is your kind of cruise. I say that genuinely, people vacation in very different ways so because we didn't love it doesn't mean you won't. If you really want to do an itinerary like Alaska that Disney is notoriously crazy expensive for, I 100% would recommend you trying out NCL.
One quick note on the drink package: We got it for free as one of their current promotions which was nice. We normally aren't big drinkers but it was nice to be able to go get a drink and not have to think about it. However, do know that you do still have to pay gratuities on the cost of the package even if you get it free, I think it was 18% of the actual cost, which you pay before sailing so you don't need to tip your bar tenders. One thing we weren't aware of is that while in port you do have to pay the taxes on any drink you get from the bar. Makes total sense but it took us a little while to figure out what the $1.34 charges were on our account after the first day.
Sorry for the super long post but I wanted to include everything I could think of. Please let me know if you have any specific questions!
We just got off the Norwegian Bliss yesterday after a 7-night Alaskan cruise so I thought I'd make a little comparison thread since we did Alaska on the Wonder last August.
Before I go any further I will admit that we are huge Disney fans so I am admittedly very biased.
Ship: The 2 ships are hard to compare.
The Bliss is brand new and has a very sleek/modern feel to it and is a VERY large ship. The hallways, atrium, casino, etc felt more like a hotel than a ship. Everything was very clean and cared for but time will tell how well the design/decor holds up. Pool areas and slides were nice; I think there were a couple of hot tubs in the 'adults' area on the top deck but no pool and the adult-only part had a weird time frame, it was like 9am-6pm or something like that. I want an adults-only area AFTER 6pm personally. While the ship was huge it was easy to navigate and we figure out how to get everywhere very quickly. As a runner I missed the Deck 4 jogging track. They had a jogging lane on Deck 16 or 17 but it wasn't even half the length of the deck so 8-laps make up a mile compared to only having to go 3 (I think) laps on Deck 4 on the Wonder. Deck 8 on the Bliss included 'The Waterfront' where you can dine al fresco at several of the 'speciality dining restaurants. We never dined at those but did sit out there a little and it was nice.
The Wonder is almost 20 years old but IMO does not show her age AT ALL! I love the old-school "ocean-liner" design of the Disney ships that I feel hold up very well throughout the years and while I love modern design, I think the Disney style of ships will still look great while the modern design of the Bliss will feel dated in 10 years. Love the adult-only areas, both After Hours and the adult pool, etc.
Staterooms: Very similar between the two ships. The biggest difference are the bathrooms. The Bliss had one large bathroom instead of the split rooms. We personally enjoyed the larger bathroom more. There was a double sink and a larger shower. We liked having one larger space and didn't feel like we were in each others way at all. There is just 2 of us so don't know how it would be with a family or 3 or 4. Otherwise everything else was about the same. The TV had some on-demand movies but each cost about $10. The free TV options included several NCL specific channels, a sports channel, a special channel that was typically showing the World Cup, BBC, MSNC, CNBC, Fox News, 'Action Movie' channel, 'Drama Movies', 'Comedy Movies', 'Family Movies', and "Favorite TV Shows' channel. Most of the movies were Disney-owned and the kept showing the same 5-6 movies on each channel. Finding Dory, Thor: Ragnarok, Maleficent, Sweet Home Alabama, & The Proposal seemed to always be on.
The Wonder still doesn't have the on-demand Disney movies as far as I know but seemed to have a larger selection of movies playing. Though we didn't spend as much time in our stateroom watching TV on the Wonder as we did on the Bliss (more on that later).
One thing that did bother us was that they told us they were unable to open up the verandah doors between staterooms. Our party had 4 rooms in a row so we were excited to open them up but apparently they had been having some safety issues (we think with the doors not staying in the locked position and flying back and hitting people, but never got real confirmation on that). So that was annoying and I hope NCL can fix whatever the issue is.
One thing that the Bliss has that cannot be beat is the Observation Lounge on Deck 15-forward. It wraps all the way around the front of Deck 15 and offers incredible views, especially for an itinerary like Alaska. We spent a lot of time up there playing cards, eating snacks, grabbing drinks, etc.
Food: To be honest, I didn't have the best food on our Wonder cruise, though my fiance says it was some of the best DCL food he's had so far so take that for what it's worth. But everyone in our party (6 adults, 3 children) all agreed the Bliss' food was mediocre at best. The buffet was pretty good the first day but the quality drastically went down after that and was pretty much the same stuff every day. The Bliss had 4 complimentary dining options: The Manhattan Room, Taste, & Savor are your traditional cruise dining rooms, and The Local which is like a sports bar. We did dinner 3 times in Manhattan and lunch once at The Local, everything was just okay. The desserts across the board were pretty terrible. We did 3 of the specialty restaurants: Cagney's (steak house), Q (Texas BBQ), and Teppanyaki (Japanese hibachi); they were all good not great. Nothing came even close to Palo IMO. They have a lot of different specialty locations but other than the 4 complimentary ones everything else was an up charge.
We also hated the whole "Free-Style" cruising model. I get the concept of being able to eat where/when you want but you have to make reservations for everything (not just dining) so you're still locked into a specific time/location and if you have a group of 7 or more you are pretty much stuck eating at either 5pm or 9pm. We much prefer the Disney style of having a set dining time/rotation.
Service: Service on the Bliss was fine. Everyone was nice and did their job well but we left without making connections to any of the staff like we almost always do on Disney. Part of that is obviously because you don't see your dining room staff every night, but even our stateroom host was hardly around and on a couple days didn't make up our room until late in the afternoon. My fiance's 5-year old nephew has Celiac's disease so is entirely gluten-free and despite his mom calling NCL ahead of time it was still an issue with the dining room almost every night. Most servers initially reacted like they had never dealt with an allergy before. The managers would always come over and they truly went out of their way to accommodate his needs, but it was a little frustrating to deal with at almost every meal. I've heard on DCL in Cabanas they will go back and make you anything you see on the buffet in their allergy-friendly kitchen to avoid cross-contamination, but that was clearly not an option on NCL and it was impossible to make sure he didn't come into contact with any gluten while at the buffet.
Activities/Entertainment: I'm going to be honest, we were pretty bored most of the cruise which I can absolutely say as never been an issue for us on DCL. Again we're huge Disney fans so the activities they offer usually excite us, but most of the activities on NCL seemed to revolve around you giving them more money with things like Deal or No Deal or art auctions, etc. We did a few trivias that were fine and did have a blast doing "Escape The Big Top" an escape room type activity which was very well put together (and we even won!). We don't go to most of the comedian type stuff on DCL so we didn't do any of that so if you like that type of thing it may be great. We also didn't do any of the stage shows; we heard Havana was bad, we've both seen Jersey Boys, and Prohibition cost like $20-30 per person (I can't remember how much exactly) which we later found out was because you get 4-5 speciality cocktails but that wasn't mentioned when we were making reservations before the cruise. Which by the way, you also have to make reservations for all this stuff as well. I heard some people talking and they said you can wait stand by for most stuff and get in just fine though. We did the 2 slides a few times both which were fun, were not huge slides people so even on the Disney ships we don't do those often. Both the go-kart and the laser tag cost $10/person and by the time we looked mid-way through the week to book something everything was all gone so again we didn't get to do that. Seeing as we didn't do a lot of the offered activities I may not be the best to make this comparison but overall we missed the Disney activities! We were really just annoyed that you 1) had to reserve most of the activities and 2) most had some sort of up-charge.
Itinerary: Bliss went Seattle - Sea day - Ketchikan - Juneau - Skagway - sea day - Victoria - Seattle.
Wonder was Vancouver - sea day - Skagway - glacier day - Juneau - Ketchikan - sea day - Vancouver. On the Bliss we were only in Juneau until 1pm which left us no time to explore the town after our dog mushing excursion. We left so early to head towards a glacier but we weren't able to get to it due to icy waters (obviously not NCL's fault) but on Disney we had an entire day at the glacier where as even if we did get there on the Bliss it would have only been for about an hour or two. Reason for this is because since we left out of Seattle we had to make that last stop in Victoria to have a non-U.S. port. I can see the advantage of leaving out of Seattle (which by the way we fell in love with the city of Seattle during the 12ish hours we were there) but overall I'd prefer going out of Vancouver so you're not forced to make that Victoria stop. Speaking of which we docked in Victoria at 4pm and left at 9:30pm, apparently it's like a 10-minute cab to downtown Victoria so we didn't get off the boat here. I've heard that there is great whale watching and a beautiful Japanese botanical garden in Victoria worth checking out. In addition to the dog mushing in Juneau we also did a Duck Boat in Ketchikan, both were booked through NCL and were fun. On DCL we did kayaking at Mendenhall Lake in Juneau which was awesome, it was our only excursion that trip.
Overall: I feel like I've spent pretty much all of this post complaining about NCL which isn't fair to them. It was a great trip and we did all have a good time, but throughout the whole week we constantly found ourselves comparing everything to DCL. From the moment we stepped on board things just weren't the same. There wasn't that same 'magic' and excitement like being on a Disney ship. NCL and other lines definitely serve their purpose and I can understand why people would love those lines and hate DCL but we're just not those people. If you want to go to the same places for a cheaper price NCL offers a great product, just know that there is A LOT more nickel-and-diming then what's on DCL. If you want to relax by the pool or on your verandah, get a drink package, or spend time in a casino and/or comedy clubs, this is your kind of cruise. I say that genuinely, people vacation in very different ways so because we didn't love it doesn't mean you won't. If you really want to do an itinerary like Alaska that Disney is notoriously crazy expensive for, I 100% would recommend you trying out NCL.
One quick note on the drink package: We got it for free as one of their current promotions which was nice. We normally aren't big drinkers but it was nice to be able to go get a drink and not have to think about it. However, do know that you do still have to pay gratuities on the cost of the package even if you get it free, I think it was 18% of the actual cost, which you pay before sailing so you don't need to tip your bar tenders. One thing we weren't aware of is that while in port you do have to pay the taxes on any drink you get from the bar. Makes total sense but it took us a little while to figure out what the $1.34 charges were on our account after the first day.
Sorry for the super long post but I wanted to include everything I could think of. Please let me know if you have any specific questions!
