MY VACATION ON THE NORWEGIAN BLISS

My husband and I just came back from the most wonderful 7-day Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Bliss!

Here is how much we paid/what our package included, all the places we went, and what we packed!

How much we paid/what our package included!

Our trip was originally $3563.08

When we booked the cruise was running something called “CRUISEFIRST.” Meaning when you paid the $250 deposit the cruise line matched that amount! So, technically our deposit was $500 bring our price down to $3063.08. We were given another $200 off since our group booked 5 cabins! So, we had 10 months to pay $2863.08. We were able to make payments as we pleased and the full amount needed to be paid by October 18th.

What did it include?

• This price included flight
• 2 x unlimited beverage package
• 1 x excursion credit
• 1 x $100 cruise credit (free money to use anywhere on the boat including the Starbucks, bowling alley, and arcade!)
• 2 x 150 free internet minutes
• 2 x 2 night specialty dining package (we went to the Cagney’s Steakhouse and Teppanyaki Hibachi Grill, both were a $60 overhead charge but we paid $0!)

Depending on when you book, the cruise will throw in really cool incentives to get you locked in and for us, it worked!

Other all inclusive dining options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

• The Garden Cafe, the ships buffet
• Savor, restaurant
• Taste, restaurant
• The Local Pub, bar style pub
• The American Diner, LUNCH ONLY restaurant
• The observation lounge, snacks

What did we do on the boat?

• Spent time on the Lido deck, a place where the pools, Garden Cafe (buffet), ping pong tables, hot tubs, musical entertainment, water slides, lounge chairs etc. were! There was so much to do!
• Spent time in the Atrium where contests, movie nights, hibachi demonstrations, karaoke, morning trivia, and SO MUCH MORE!

Here is where we went!

• Day 1: Ship departs Miami, FL
• Day 2: Day at Sea
• Day 3: Costa Maya, Mexico
• Day 4: Harvest Caye, Belize
• Day 5: Roatoan Bay Islands, Honduras
• Day 6: Cozumel, Mexico
• Day 7: Day at Sea
• Day 8: Ship arrives in Miami, FL

What we packed!

This is probably my favorite part! My husband and I each needed

• 7 date night outfits for each night
• 4 comfortable outfits to explore each port
• Jammies
• Bathing suits
• shoes
• airport outfits
• toiletries
• accessories (for me lol)
• beach bag
• card games
• lots of sunscreen

Although this seems like a lot, we kept things very minimal! You can easily overpack for cruises but there are somethings to keep in mind. There are 7 dinners but 9 times out of 10 you will eat at the buffet at least twice due to being too exhausted to sit down at the fancy restaurants. This happened to us! I doubled up on a couple dresses because of this! Save your nicer outfits for when you go out and keep a couple casual outfits to wear at the buffet since it really isn’t a fashion show. This will eliminate overpacking nice outfits for the evening activities. Only take what you need!

There may even be times when you decide to order room service instead of going out, so factor in those times as well. You can just eat in your jammies!

We wore the same airport outfit to and from vacation. There was no need to pack an additional outfit to go back home in! For me, shoes were hard to pack because I love having variety. So, to help myself not go crazy, I packed a nude, black, and silver pair of shoes. That’s it. Same with my husband, we packed 2 pairs of shoes for him. Neutral colored shoes to match whatever outfits we put together. My husband and I wore tennis shoes to the airport that way we’d have a comfortable closed toed option as well.

**Packing tips: wear the bulky clothes to the airport to save room in your suitcase AND roll up your clothes DON’T fold them, you save so much room in your suitcase!**

For my husband, we packed a combination of 6 pairs of shorts and pants with 10 t-shirts. He was able to rotate his clothes each day without having to double up too much! I also threw in 3 long sleeve button ups that he could wear over his t-shirts to make outfits looks a bit more dressed up for dinner.

Based off our itinerary we knew we would swim quite a bit so Joshua packed 2 pairs of trunks and I packed 4 bathing suits. I realized that next time I could probably go down to just 2 suits since we didn’t swim as much as we thought.

Jammies are the easiest. Pack the lightest ones you got! I grabbed 3 night gowns that rolled up nicely and didn’t take up much room in our suitcase.

Don’t overdue it with the toiletries. I have to tell myself this when I go to the store! I don’t know why but vacation makes me want to bring things that I don’t even use back at home. Target has all these amazing cute and fun sized toiletries BUT you don’t need all of it! Stick with what you KNOW you will use! Here are the things we brought…

• toothpaste/toothbrushes/mouthwash/floss
• 2 in 1 face/body wash
• facial soap for me
• facial lotion/oil
• minimal make-up
• melatonin gummies to help with sleep/daily vitamins for us both

Target had the perfect earrings that I wore for each dinner! I also brought my pandora bracelet that my husband started for me. Far as make-up I wore very little but it was such a surprise for my husband since I hadn’t worn make-up since the wedding, he LOVED it! Such a small amount, but it was sweet and made me look ready for a glass of wine and a nice dinner!

My husband and I were able to fit all of our things in 3 small carry-ons! 2 for clothes and shoes and 1 for toiletries and blankets for the movie nights outside on the lido deck! We flew Southwest! It was our first time but it was a great experience. The flights were smooth and the staff/crew were so warm and caring. All of our bags were able to be checked in for FREE! We were so happy that we didn’t have to roll around 3 suitcases in the airport.

Check out more pictures here!!