Bliss Cruise - Review from the High Seas!
The Bliss Cruise experience is exciting and all of us attendees get excited the moment we book this adventure and cannot wait until the date arrives! Your experience can vary depending on who you book with, so make sure you book with a reputable Agent…(Shameless plug) like Black Ring Swing. Sorry, may as well get our shameless plug out right at the beginning. Now onto our regularly scheduled article.
Bliss will charter either Royal Caribbean or Celebrity Cruise ships. You will know which line they are on for your sailing when you talk to your agent.
You will be notified several months in advance that the cruise line has opened up their packages including excursions, dining, drink packages etc. If there are any excursions you want, it is best to book them early just in case they book up, and the special restaurants if you want specific dates. As for the drink packages and the rest you can book anytime as they do not sell out. All of these are booked with the cruise ship company directly and not through Bliss. Some things to keep in mind on the drink packages. Unless you have a note from a doctor that says your partner cannot drink, they will charge every person in the cabin. For this cruise it was $100 a day (Before they added gratuity) so that would be $200 a day prior to gratuity for you and your cabin mate. On a 7 Day cruise that is $1400 plus gratuity. So figure out if you can or even want to drink that much. The drinks on the ship are actually pretty equal to typical bar prices, $7.99 for a beer, $10-$14 for a glass of wine, $35 and up for a bottle of wine and $10-$16 for a mixed drink. If you are not a serious drinker on vacation it may be better to just buy by the glass and not do the drink package. It sure was for us. The Cruise Line app was also great showing you real time spending to keep track of things. Also, don’t forget you can bring two bottles of wine and a case of water or soda onboard with you, which helps defer some spending as well. If you are a serious soda drinker and cannot live without it, then there are cheaper drink packages that are for sodas and specialty coffees. Otherwise, you are limited to water, iced tea, lemonade, regular and decaf coffee and at dinners there are expressos. For us that was fine, but will not be for everyone. By the way, we are somewhat coffee snobs and the coffee on Royal Caribbean was excellent.
Cruise ships wait for no one. You should always factor in flying in the day before the sailing and staying at a hotel. There are a lot of hotels in the Miami area near the cruise terminal to choose from. Some have events sponsored by various Lifestyle companies (Usually for a fee) and some do not.
We chose one of the The Airport Sheraton, the Topless Travel sponsored hotel, which hosts their Meet and Greet. First, we chose this because we felt it would be nice to be where the action was instead of staying somewhere else and traveling to the Meet and Greet. In hindsight, in our opinion, we chose poorly. The hotel was underwhelming. It was small, every square inch was packed with people, the bar was overcrowded, and the rooms were dated. In addition, the cost of the hotel for the Bliss night was much more than a typical same day of any other time. Also, the Meet and Greet is not free.
We think that there are much better hotels to choose, and it would not be a big deal to Lyft to the Meet and Greet if you wanted to go to it.
There are also other groups hosting smaller Meet and Greets at other hotels. These can sometimes be hard to find, but there are many chat groups that spur on from the Lifestyle sites and groups so that you can find out where they are. In addition, some travel agents can assist with this.
A lot of hotels will have free shuttles from the airport but will not have transportation to the cruise port. As a Topless Travel hotel, the Sheraton had a shuttle to take you to the cruise port. It does cost extra, and they only take cash. We found it cheaper to pull up our Lyft app and schedule a ride for the next day for just the two of us, which picked us up right from the hotel. The next day as we breezed past the long line of waiting people to cram into the overcrowded shuttle, we were happy with our decision.
The Meet and Greet at the Sheraton was very loud and not conducive to meeting and greeting at all. People seemed very excited about it, but we saw via chat messages that many people left early, and said it was too crowded and hot. You had to purchase drinks in advance, and it just seemed to not be a good way to Meet, Greet or even enjoy ourselves. We left and had an amazing night in Miami. Again, for us, we felt we chose the right thing to do. Besides there are a TON of Meet and Greets onboard the ship, so it was no loss to miss this one.
Our cruise was on Royal Caribbean. The Royal Caribbean App is mandatory and will have your sea pass on it which is required to check in. Your Physical Sea Pass cards will be stuck outside your door when your room is ready at 1pm. Your luggage may or may not be there at 1PM, but they will deliver your luggage by no later than 6PM. Unless you packed something you shouldn’t have and then it may be delayed as it is further inspected.
The Royal Caribbean Boarding process is amazing, which is a nice change from years past. You simply drop your bags off at the curb and proceed onto ship. Take some cash to tip the baggage handlers at the curb, who smile at you knowing what you are about to do all week. Although we were early for our boarding time, we were permitted to board when we arrived. We were also permitted to take a carryon bag with us when we boarded, which is handy if you have items you feel you will need to hang on to prior to getting your bags later in the afternoon. Or, if you choose to board early in the day, it may be a good idea to pack a swim suit, etc. so that you can go use the pool while waiting for your room. Rooms are promised at 1PM, which did happen. If you board at lunchtime, you can go have lunch at the ample buffet right away. Although everyone is eager to start connecting, we do recommend taking some time to explore and familiarize yourself with the ship. This will save you time later because the place is massive!
Bliss has a new and improved app and we would love to say it is awesome, but it still has a way to go. With that said it was a good app and helped immensely to keep track of the schedule of events. Knowing Bliss, we are sure they will take feedback and keep improving it. Even at the writing of this, they have already made improvements. Kudos to them on the app overall, we appreciated it. Except the night they changed the time of the balloon drop, and it did not update so we showed up a half hour late! Matthew complained that “I met a sexy Brazilian woman and she was pissed at me because I gave her the wrong time!!” LOL From the Bliss staff, we got a response of “Don’t trust the time,” We are not sure what to make of that because everyone else was great.
There are many Cabin option types that we will not go into in this article but are happy to answer them if you reach out, whether you book with us or not. One thing we will say is Royal Caribbean cruises usually have a Promenade (a “street” with shops and bars) and rooms that look out at them are available . This area can be very loud up to 3AM. So, if you are usually up to 3AM, then no biggie, but if you want to catch up one night on your beauty sleep then you most likely are not going to be able to do that!
You will get a dry-erase board for your door from one of the sponsors so you can say who you are and to keep it up to date as to where you will be. Also, people can reach out to you via messages on there. A lot of people bring a lot of magnets, pictures of themselves, even candy, lights etc. to decorate their doors ( The BRSers that were on our cruise, you know who you are ;) We loved your doors!!)
Right from the start, Bliss has a packed schedule, and so many opportunities to meet people, as well as multiple large playrooms, hot tubs, and play beds to have memorable Lifestyle experiences. The cruise has a LOT of free M&G’s, paid seminars, organized play opportunities, musical artists, photo ops, bars, specialty restaurants, and the option for group seating in the main dining room. Having said that, your likelihood for meeting and connecting with people vastly increases if you put yourself out there.
If you are interested in making connections, talk to everyone! Make use of the chats that happen prior to the cruise. Make use of any chats that happen via Telegram, WhatsApp, or the Bliss app, and your dry-erase board during the week. At the beginning of the week, people are a bit more reserved, and as the week progresses, people tend to stick with friends they have already met and played with. So, in addition to attending M&Gs even several days into the week, saying hello in the elevator, being open to sharing your dinner table, commenting on outfits and funny T-shirts are all ways to engage with others, and hopefully make a connection.
On the flip side, sometimes people have the wrong impression that being on the Bliss Cruise means you are in the midst of a house party 24/7. This is not the case at all. The wonderful thing about the Bliss Cruise is that you can have as much or as little LS as you want. If you like the people and the atmosphere, you can simply enjoy being there without engaging in any swinging activities. There are quiet decks to relax outside, a library, computer room, and comfortable seating in strategic places.
Our advice is to spring for the Internet package. It is not that expensive and is very fast and responsive when using it with your phone. It allows you to use Telegram, chat, etc. Just don’t tell your work or kids you have the internet package, lol.
There are so many people and there are so many places to be on the ship, that if you meet people and have a nice conversation, it is entirely possible that when you walk away, you will not see them again! We know it sounds crazy, but it really is true. We suggest that if you find yourself connecting with people, at the very least, exchange information. This can be simply exchanging room numbers, or as far as making a dinner date or even a playdate! Some people also make contact cards ahead of time to hand out.
The Bliss experience has changed over the past 10 years, a lot for the better, but one thing that did not is the pool. On our first trip, we could get up, go to the gym, have a morning booty call with our friends, have breakfast and then go to the pool and grab some chairs and lay out in the sun to get that amazing lobster burn when we were too stupid to realize we needed to pace ourselves. Well, times have definitely changed. Even though there are signs explicitly saying that saving deck chairs is not permitted, and articles left will be removed, you can see the same pool towels sunbathing for hours all alone. They remain, ever undisturbed keeping you from ever finding a place to call your own unless you go out at the pool at some unreasonable time. So, the Pool situation has definitely become a massive pain in the dick with no one from Royal Caribbean or Bliss doing anything to help out and enforce the posted policy. Given that the space on a Cruise Ship is much more restricted in size than a hotel resort may be this really is a pain point. #TowelChairSaversSuck!! On a vanilla cruise, it may be that less people are interested in being by the pool, but on a LS cruise it is one of the hot spots, with events, games, contests, etc. In addition, the hot tubs get very crowded as well.
When we cruised on Bliss10 years ago, there was a higher percentage of nudists and people that just liked the LS atmosphere but were not really in the LS. That number has decreased and about 70 percent of the attendees are now in the LS, and the rest know that it is an LS cruise but are not in the LS. We either didn’t meet any of the non-LS crowd or we inadvertently turned them, lol.
There is so much we could write about the Bliss adventure. If you want to know anything we have not covered here, or book a Bliss adventure with us, then never hesitate to hit that “Contact” button on our website and reach out. We will share any experiences and answer any questions for you.
In summary, Biss Cruises are amazing. They have been doing it for a long time, and we feel they have a great system that they keep improving. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity are great cruise lines, and their personnel are top notch. With all of their staff and all of the amazing Bliss staff, you are in really good hands. We highly recommend an LS adventure with Bliss.
If you want to book your cruise with us, we would be honored to be your agent. We offer the best rates, unmatched customer service and support, we provide money back in the form of a pre-paid Visa Card and some really cool personalized travel swag. Go to www.blackringswing.com/bliss or reach out to us via contact@blackringswing.com to book your adventure with us or to just ask some questions.
XOXO ~Gina and Matt