We chose this cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary and to cruise again after serious health problems/recovery from during 2016 and 2017. We enjoyed a similar cruise in 2010 aboard the Pearl so we thought let's try it again. We changed to this cruise from another one during June, 2018 and got a couple of notifications from Ncl regarding later boarding times( due to low tides and getting under Lion's Gate bridge) by January, 2019. However on our roll call group, people were still being told normal boarding times. 30 days prior to the cruise Ncl sends a letter stating 7pm check-in/boarding for passengers.

We arrived in Vancouver on the 28th of September to sightsee so it was like a port day for us. We had late checkout at the Pan Pacific hotel and watched 3 other ships leave before the Bliss could dock. The "fun" was only beginning little did we know! We went down to get n the line and OMG it was unbelievably long and snaked around outside the building and down along side the pier. It was now after 7pm and getting dark and colder. We stood in line for over 2&1/2 hours til we finally got to Hall C and we heard someone ask about priority boarding. We were platinum level plus in the Haven area so we mentioned that to a gentleman, who motioned us to a different line to check-in, and from that point we were about 15 minutes until we were escorted to the Haven area. We got seated in the Haven restaurant about 10 pm and had 30 minutes to order and eat our food! We then had to go to the 11 pm muster drill. I think there were passengers still boarding the ship just prior to the muster drill.

We got a letter saying we were skipping Seattle the next day and going to Victoria instead and staying there for 1 &1/2 days. We did get some OBC but that didn't begin to make up things. The casino, several bars and shops were also closed during all this time and what do you do with 4,000 unhappy passengers? And there were lot's of them. Read more