Day 1 – Boarding & Departure
And we’re off! We boarded the “Bliss”, a Norwegian Cruise Lines Ship, mid-afternoon on the 4th of July. Boarding was chaotic – there was a mix of cheerful, helpful people, but security and check-in were chaotic at best! At one point we were directed to an empty check-in desk that no one ever came back to, and the line attendant got upset when we pointed that out.
We eventually boarded the ship and headed to our room. We walked in, were quickly told our room was not yet ready, and walked back out. With some time on our hands, we decided to explore the ship. We’re located in the middle of the ship, near the forward elevator bay. We relocated to the top deck, and got a (way too detailed/involved) tour of the spa. Shortly thereafter, an announcement was made that all rooms were ready so we headed back.
We arrived at the room and began to figure out the unpacking situation. Despite being quite narrow, there’s a lot of cleverly hidden storage throughout the cabin, a large bathroom, a king bed and a pair of bunk beds for the girls. We also have a balcony with a couple chairs. We unpacked and got comfortably situated for the week ahead.
We had dinner reservations for the first night at “Food Republic”, described as Latin-Asian fusion. We learned the ropes of how these restaurants work – each place has you order an individually sized appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. Food Republic let Meg and I each order four things from the menu. Sage/Vivi each ordered from the kids menu (which we learned – same menu/food at each restaurant). Standout items were a couple types of sushi I’d ordered, and Meg’s Pad Thai. Chicken skewers were OK, and the rest was not great. The service experience was particularly rough – it took several attempts to order drinks, which eventually came after our food. We agreed we would not be back. After dinner we headed back to the room and turned in early.
Day 2 – “Day at Sea”
While there were no stops on the second day, we found plenty to do! Meg and I hit the gym first thing in the morning. It was quite busy, but we were each able to find an open treadmill looking out over the ocean. At first it’s a bit trippy running in place while also looking at the ocean from a moving ship, but we quickly adapted. After a couple miles I relocated to the rowing machine while Meg kept running. All of the weight lighting areas were packed.
We headed back to the room, cleaned up, and decided to head over to the theater to play bingo. There was a huge line that moved quickly. I noticed along the way they had a Deadpool pinball machine! I’ll be back for that one. When getting to the Bingo registration, it was $59/person (!!) with us each playing six cards per game. The hosts made it fun and created a cool vibe. There were three games overall, with one winner (or tie to split winnings) each. There were cash prizes, which ended up being ~$300, ~$500, and $800. Given there were easily 100+ people playing multiple cards and only one winner, the cost/reward odds were not favorable. We had fun, but not something I’d do twice!
After Bingo, we headed to “The Local”, one of the included restaurants for lunch. We had seats at a bar overlooking a stage on the floor below. There were dance classes for the first part of the meal, followed by a “Name that Celebrity” game where random audience members were called on stage to ask the audience yes/no questions to try and identify a name on the screen behind them. After lunch, we had fun playing a round of mini-bowling just outside the restaurant.
After bowling we dropped the girls off to hang out at the room while we headed to the spa. Meg had a massage appointment, and I decided to go with her to see if the barber had any hair cut appointments available. I managed to get in for a “hair/beard trim”. Lesson learned: this ended up being some sort of expanded facial service that after tip was $200 – yikes! It also came with a full hard press upsell on all of the face products they used throughout. Meg experienced the same with her massage – lots of product upsell. Would turn out to be a theme across other parts of the cruise as well.
After the spa, we cleaned up and decided to go check out the Observation Deck. This is a large area on the 15th floor located on the front of the ship, overlooking the ocean. It has a large central bar, and opens up to the Garden Cafe on the floor above. We managed to get a couple chase loungers and hung out for a bit before dinner. Dinner on the second night was another included restaurant called “Savor”. Service again was a bit inconsistent but food was better than the night before. Sage really liked her three-cheese ziti. The bread was also good – I think we had three (or four?) baskets! After dinner we headed back and the girls started a movie. Given limited options on TV, they’ve had Barbie, Minecraft and Spider Man on repeat.
Day 3 – Meg’s Birthday, Sitka, Fortress of the Bear
Happy birthday Meg! We started off back at the gym again. Meg got in her long run, while I did a shorter run + rowing machine. We didn’t get into port until later in the morning. Given the spa has discounts on port days, we got Meg set up for (another) birthday massage.
Once finished, we decided to get off the ship, which was docked in Sitka, Alaska. Yes – the city where “The Proposal” with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock takes place. Once off the ship, there was several gift shops and a bus station taking trips to downtown. We saw someone with a sign for “Fortress of the Bear”, our pre-booked excursion. She said it would be difficult to get there without arranged transportation, but our best bet would be to catch a bus downtown and try to talk to someone there. We got in the line and took the ~20 minute bus ride downtown.
Downtown Sitka was cool. Meg found a Wells Fargo to get a picture with, and I also found a pinball/classic arcade! We went to the transportation spot and couldn’t find anyone with a bus to Fortress of the Bear, but ended up calling a cab to pick us up. Timing worked in our favor as one of the drivers was a few minutes away. He turned out to be very nice – very laid back and good at handling stressed travelers.
Upon arrival at Fortress of the Bear, we got in a line and had a ~20 minute wait to get in. It turned out to be a small conservatory for bear cubs that lost their parents. Due to Alaskan laws, they were not able to be re-released into the wild, so it became a sort of bear-sanctuary for them long term. They continue to work towards preparing the bears for re-release back into the wild, should the laws ever change. After fortress of the bear, we ended up with a (different) very friendly cab driver, who offered to take us to a few spots for photos prior to returning to the ship.
Dinner this day was booked for Cagney’s Steakhouse, albeit not until 9pm. We dropped by to try and secure an earlier spot, but were only able to move it up to 8pm. With some extra time on our hands, we decided to go see one of the shows onboard. This one was a musical, with an Irish-pub based stage covering a lot of “sing-along” tracks. We ducked out a few minutes early to make it to dinner on time.
The day wrapped up at Cagney’s Steakhouse, which was turned out to be great (minus an overbearing photographer). The steaks were delicious, as were the mashed potatoes. After we were finished eating, the wait staff brought cake and sang a very loud, aggressive happy birthday! After dinner the late dinner, we headed back to bed.
Up next – whale watching in Juneau, exploring Icy Strait Point and Lumberjacks in Ketchikan!
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