Escaping Seattle during the dreary months between Halloween and spring break is a must for general well being. Vitamin D supplements are just not enough, no matter how much one loves the gloom or how much effort is put into hygge. This winter started exceptionally poorly with warmer temperatures turning high precipitation into rain, washing away the snow melt and good chunk of the roads to the popular winter recreation spots. We needed to go somewhere, but “where?” and “who plans it?”

Sunrise over the Bliss

Adding to the complications this year is we now have a fully fledged teen. The irony of older children is that the more capable they are in doing things, the less they seem like they actually want to do it and the harder it is to make them. “You are coming with us, no questions asked!” doesn’t fly anymore. We needed something that required minimal planning, allowed everyone to have some level of autonomy, and went somewhere warm and sunny. Despite our long term objections to the idea, it really did sound like a big boat cruise would be the answer.

Said teen in front of the main gingerbread house display. The cruise wasn't Christmas in your face. There were plenty of nice touches and highlights throughout.

Philosophically, it doesn’t fit the kind of traveller that we think we are. We want to feel a little more connected to the place we are in and do some of the actions of locals. Walk the streets, eat at local establishments, that kind of thing. But let’s be real. We are relatively well off American tourists that don’t speak the local language. Also as relatively well off American tourists, we can give ourselves the leeway to be lazy and gluttonous on occasion. Maybe spending a week with 4,000 random people with a bunch of free food will be fun?

We did make it to the main dining rooms a few times. On NCL all the dining rooms serve the same food so it really depends on the vibe you want. We liked The Taste since it was down low and close to the water.

After some research, we decided on a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Norwegian Bliss, departing Los Angeles and stopping in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas over the Christmas holiday. We liked the amount of teen oriented activities, like the arcades, go-karts, and the teen oriented space. Most people had positive things to say about the food, along with the entertainment options for the entire family. We decided that we weren’t going to do the Haven, Norwegian’s upscale exclusive section, since that felt counter to the big boat experience. We did get the Thermal Suite pass for Sonali and I, along with the unlimited drink package.

You can't drink all day unless you start in the morning! The vibe on sea days made use of the fact that you can get what you want, whenever you want.

We had a really good time, but speaking for myself, I’m not sure we’d go for the exact experience again.

One of the draws of Norwegian was the price point and the teen experiences. We thought Mira would have a better chance of having a good time on her own on a ship filled with kids rather than something targeted towards older retirees. That didn’t end up being the case. Since it was a holiday week, a lot of families came in with their pre-built crew of cousins and siblings. The teen events were mostly teens sitting around on their phones. Mira did go to some of the teen club activities, made a few acquaintances, but spent a lot of time in her room with breaks to go to the buffet for ice cream. She said she had a good time, but it was a low-key week.

The Bliss theater is where all the big shows are. We're getting our seats for ICONS, the typical fun nostalgia pop you'd expect on a cruise.

We had some highlights. We made some cruise friends at the bar and hung out with them on-and-off for the next few days. In general, it felt like we met a lot of people from places like South Lake Union, Tacoma, and Kent while in the steam room, while meeting people from everywhere else at the bars. Their production of Jersey Boys was a nice change of pace from the typical cruise entertainment. They had a special show for Christmas Eve that was pretty fun. The one excursion we did was a very touristy tour to the waters off Deer Island, were we drank cervezas on a big floaty while avoiding jellyfish. Our favorite thing ended up being playing “The Crew: Mission Deep Sea” in the observation lounge with a cocktail. One of the comics was really funny. The Indian food section of the buffet was normally exceptional.

Enjoying a beer on the way out of Puerto Vallerta.

There were some low-lights too. Not being experienced cruisers, we ended up with a cabin on the top floor, right under the pool deck so it was always pretty loud. This is a mistake we will not make on any potential future cruises. The teen club was a bit of a disappointment, especially relative to hopes. We ended up not doing an excursion in Cabo as it was far too early in the morning (6:45am!) for a relaxing vacation. LAX is a terrible airport that we will do our best to avoid in the future.

Port in Puerto Vallerta. We didn't get off the boat here and chose to enjoy the quieter ship, since we spent a good week here a year ago.

Our overall impression was that it was a good vacation, but not great. The food was good, but all of it had that upscale cafeteria slightly below ideal temperature profile to it. The unlimited drink package came in use, though that was also driven by the cocktails being half pours. Well except the French 75’s, which were deadly. The entertainment was good, but nothing as memorable as Captain Jack Sparrow appearing over the pool deck TV and zip-lining down from our one experience on the Disney Cruise Line.

Cruising towards Bird Island in Mazatlan, in the mandatory life jackets part of the ride.

Posing in front of Deer Island in Mazatlan. There are jellyfish in that water behind us.

The number of people did not feel overwhelming and we saw some of the same people over and over again. This was good, in the case of our cruise friends. But there were some where you were like “how did we end up with this character again?”

Our “favorite” of the latter was the older gentleman who was busy admonishing a crew member directing traffic to the disembarkation point. “You want us to, WALK, down, the, stairs?! How will that work. Come on USE your brain.” Which is ironic since using your brain would tell you that stairs have a higher throughput than elevators and more people using stairs means more space on elevators for those patrons that can’t. He seemed to being complaining about something like this every time we encountered him, so one of our cruise games was to report his sightings and complaints.

In our debrief waiting for the flight home we came to the conclusion that we paid for good and got good. We had a good time, but maybe we would have had a better time in a more upscale line with better food, which also might attract the demographic with only-children. If we’re going to spend the majority of our time in our room or at the bar with a view, prioritize that. Sure it costs more, but as a consumer, you have to put your money where your mouth is. More often than not, you get charged more because things cost more.

Steaming into Mazatlan. This had the most interesting arrival look.

The famous rocks of Cabo. The PWN has changed us, it was too hot to leave the boat.

In the end, our primary goals were complete. Books were read, games were played, and we got a lot of sun. We ended up more open to the idea of cruising and letting ourselves have an easy vacation. Really, just having some time to be in the same place and slow down is enough.

Sunset on our final day at sea.