Welcome to the Crossroads! I’m sitting in the new studio and workspace, thinking about how pivotal 2025 was for me. Today is the last day before we wake to a new year and the opportunities it will bring. When I went to sleep on New Year’s Eve 2024, I never imagined how much would change for me in 2025. Now, when I sit back and think about this past year, I wouldn’t change anything (except starting the Crossroads sooner).
The Crossroads is my creative outlet for my love of Disney, cruising, and travel. All of these things, individually, are roads that intersect with me at the center. The only downside has been shelving my fiction writing. The fiction is an unfortunate casualty of beginning this journey. Once things settle down, I will pick back up again, so if you read my fiction, be prepared to enter the darkness in the future. Next year should see the release of one or two new novels, so get ready!
I started 2025 with the Brent’s Crossroads YouTube channel (check it out and subscribe here), TikTok, Instagram, Threads, and a Facebook page for the Crossroads. I became burned out with the social media accounts by October. I will return to them in 2026, but on a reduced posting schedule. I’ve added a Substack for this page, and I plan to phase this page out in 2026 to use the Substack exclusively. I went big on the Crossroads, but I admit to biting off more than I could chew to start this project. In 2026, I will scale things up more slowly and be better equipped to keep up with the accounts.
The most significant change in 2025 was leaving my job. I needed to save my sanity and take care of family things. Right now, those family responsibilities take up a significant amount of time and are a full-time job. 2026 is the year I balance out my life and the Crossroads. It will be a challenge, but one I look ahead to conquering.
My goals for 2026 are to keep the Crossroads moving ahead. I want to be monetized on YouTube by the end of 2026. I plan to release a new novel. I will smooth out articles here and on Our Darkest Fears (my horror-related site and YouTube channel). I intend to stick with a release schedule/strategy for the social media channels. I also want to take the trips that make this venture possible. Will there be merch? I hope so! Will I take the Patreon plunge? Maybe, because I do need to pay the bills among all my irons in the fire.
So, if you like Disney, Universal Studios, cruising, or travel in general, you have a home here at the Crossroads. I want you to come by anytime for news, travel tips, reviews, and other shenanigans- you are welcome here! Please share your experiences. If you have a different opinion or disagree with me, let’s discuss it! If you want to support any of my other Crossroads adventures, please do. It means a lot to me. Your support helps grow the Crossroads channel.
2025 was a wild ride, and I promise 2026 will kick it up a notch. Thanks for stopping by the Crossroads, and I hope everyone has a super 2026. Enjoy life, and be sure to take that trip you’ve put off!
Welcome to the Crossroads! This is the place for my takes, reviews, and general travel info. So, you’ve decided to go to California for that trip to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure you’ve wanted to take for years. Once the park tickets are booked and the airfare is ready to pay for, where will you stay? Will you pick a hotel on Disney property or a Disney Good Neighbor hotel? What is a Good Neighbor hotel? What Mickey Ears will you pack to wear? Are there other hotels? Why does planning a Disney trip need to be so nerve-racking? Why are churros mainly a West Coast thing?
Well, you’re in luck, because I can help you out with your quest to find lodging in Anaheim for your Disney visit. I won’t dive into the Mickey Ears or churros questions today, but I can help by sharing with you my thoughts and review of the King’s Inn Anaheim.
The best thing about the King’s Inn Anaheim is that it is a cheaper option than the Disney resorts or other hotels surrounding Disneyland. Since it is not part of the Good Neighbor hotels, you don’t get Magic Hours or any of the perks Disney offers for its resorts or the Good Neighbor hotels. However, the nightly rate and parking are much cheaper. If you value those few extra minutes in the park, then saving a few bucks may not be for you. I believe the Magic Hours are more valuable at Disney World than at Disneyland or Disney California Adventure. That is my opinion, but your personal mileage may vary. Parking at the hotel during your stay is also cheaper at only $15 a day.
The location is convenient for a trip to Disneyland. The King’s Inn is a 15-minute walk to the Disneyland gates. You can also catch a 45-minute to 1-hour Uber ride to Universal Studios Hollywood. Going to Knott’s Berry Farm? It’s an 8-mile or 15-minute ride. So, the King’s Inn is very well located for the price. The Anaheim Garden Walk is next door and features shopping and lots of restaurants. The King’s Inn doesn’t have a restaurant, but we ate at a hotel on the way to Disney. Between the other hotel restaurants and the Garden Walk, there is no shortage of locations to grab a bite to eat.
How are the hotel amenities? The rooms are roomy and clean. The rooms feature a large refrigerator but no microwave. A microwave is available in the laundry, but according to the website, you can rent one for $5 a day. The hotel also has a pool with a hot tub, a market to purchase food or sundries (self-service with self-pay checkout), and an outdoor observation area on the second floor where you can watch the Disneyland fireworks.
The rooms are a good place to rest and catch some sleep between park visits. The air conditioning in our room was spotty. We either got warm or froze, depending on whether it was kicking on or not. If I adjusted the temp so it wouldn’t kick on as often, it didn’t kick on, and if I turned it back down a few degrees to have it kick on, it would run colder than where it was set. I’m pretty sure I saw my breath a few times. The water pressure was decent, and the shower was roomy. The beds were comfortable, and I didn’t have issues sleeping on them.
Overall, I would stay at the King’s Inn again. The price is right, and I don’t mind the walk to Disneyland from the Inn. The King’s Inn is across the street from the Toy Story parking lot, so we tried taking the bus there instead of walking. Honestly, it ended up being about the same distance to walk from where they drop you off in the lot, but it takes two to three times longer because of stops and traffic. My tip here is just walk it. You can check out the vlog over on the Crossroads YouTube channel to see the Inn, the walk to Disney, and my room tour (https://youtu.be/PM0-sDB10rU).
Have you stayed at the King’s Inn Anaheim? If you have, what did you think about it? Drop your experiences in the comments below so we can talk about them.
Thanks for stopping by the Crossroads, and I’ll see you out in our travels,
Welcome to the Crossroads! Where did my travels take me this time? Hollywood, California, and Universal Studios! Last year, I had fun ranking the ten houses at Universal Studios Orlando for their Halloween Horror Nights. This year, I traveled to the West Coast to experience what Halloween Horror Nights is like, Hollywood-style. Where did I rank the houses? Let’s peel back the skin and dig into the gory fun of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood! I have a video of all the 2025 Hollywood houses on the YouTube channel, which you can check out here (if you dare!)
There are usually overlaps between Hollywood and Orlando with house themes, and this year was no different, with five houses haunting both coasts. This year’s big IP (intellectual property) houses in both parks were Terrifier, Fallout, WWE’s The Wyatt Sicks, Jason Universe, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. The only IP house not at both parks was the Poltergeist house in Hollywood. The other two houses in Hollywood were original creations: Scarecrow and Monstruos 3: Ghosts of Latin America. The Terror Tram (Hollywood exclusive experience) theme this year was Enter the Blumhouse, celebrating fifteen years of the film house of horror.
Where did they rank after I got scared silly touring the haunts? Let’s find out!
8. Five Nights at Freddy’s- This house wasn’t last the first time I explored the houses. One house had a better showing on my second time through and bumped this house to last. Most of the scares were the possessed animatronics, but they could be seen a mile away and didn’t produce any scares when you approached them. The scare actors tried, but with so many prop ‘scares’, they didn’t have much to work with. The house was boring and had the longest wait times of the night we went. I’d be upset if I had to wait the hours the wait reached in the regular queue.
7. Fallout- The Fallout house was originally my last place pick, until I went through a second time. This is one instance where a different scare actor team can change how I experience and feel about a house. I moved this to seventh, but it still held the last-place title for most of the night. It wasn’t scary, and it seemed like another uninspired house. The scare actors were fantastic (the issues with houses are not on them- it’s on the designers and writers- they always do a phenomenal job). My main problem is that this didn’t seem like a good IP for a haunt. The same issue is what I feel dragged down the Quiet Place house last year: good property, but not so much for a haunted house theme. The second time, the scare actors were in better positions and filling in gaps from my first trip. Better experience? Yes. Better house? No.
6. The Jason Universe- I love the Friday the 13th franchise. Jason is one of the core slashers I grew up with in the 80s, and I was stoked about this house. Get scared to death by a machete-wielding Jason in a house? Yeah, where do I sign up? Unfortunately, it didn’t translate well. The only scares were from Jason, so the house became repetitive quickly. I can only have so many Jasons lumber out of the shadows before it becomes comical. The set pieces were well done and depicted some of the best deaths at Camp Crystal Lake, but in the end, it didn’t do anything new with the hockey-masked killer. The house would’ve been better served if they had made it original instead of copying deaths from the film series: so much potential, but so much disappointment.
5. WWE Presents: The Wyatt Sicks- This was not a house I was looking forward to. I haven’t watched the WWE in decades, and I knew nothing about the Wyatt Sicks besides knowing about Bray Wyatt’s death. But, Brent, did you like the house? Honestly, I did. The setting and characters were creepy, and some great scare areas in the house got me pretty good. The setting was a cabin in a swamp-like area, so it being the house next to the Jason Universe house made them seem too much like each other, setting-wise: decent house, but horrible line management by the Universal staff (that is another tale for another time).
4. Poltergeist- This movie scared the hell out of me as a kid, and the house lived up to the warm, fuzzy childhood trauma. Yes, it is a direct adaptation of the film, but it isn’t a constant barrage of Jasons coming at you. This told the movie’s story and sent you on your way to contemplate if only the headstones were removed back home, but not the bodies. I was disappointed in some aspects of the house, however. I wanted the clown in the bedroom to do something when I walked by. Childhood trauma was that clown. On the second time through, a different clown prop slowly came out from under a bed, but it wouldn’t have scared a five-year-old. A clown was added to the closet ghost scene, but it was a scare actor who wasn’t always in place. The other thing I expected more from was the first room you entered with the television. Are they here or not? Overall, it kept the movie’s feel while delivering some good jump scares.
3. Scarecrow- We reached number three before hitting our first original house. Scarecrow was a nice callback to a previous house and featured music from guitar icon Slash. This house was a pleasant gory stroll through farms where the scarecrows decided to do something about their human farmers and their families. There was some amazing corn cob usage for kills, and the scarecrows did their job, being scary as hell. The music is tough to hear due to screaming, but the Slash soundtrack was tight when you could listen. Mostly, it was in the queue when you could hear the guitar soundtrack.
2. Terrifier- Art the Clown being the subject of a house at this year’s HHN was one of the worst-kept secrets in recent memory. Before the first house announcement, everyone was already speculating that Terrifier would be one of the houses. This house did what I wish the Jason Universe house had done—the Terrifier’s house mixed movie scenes with original scenes. The different scenes blended to create an experience worth the wait and the money. Who doesn’t like a clown? Art cuts his way through scare actors and props with expert precision, and the misting water throughout the house made everything feel bloody and gross. Orlando gave you a chance between wet and dry for the ending, but you had no choice in Hollywood. You got wet…
1. Monstruos 3: Ghosts of Latin America- I didn’t think an original house would win the night, and it almost didn’t. I kept a running ranking on my phone, which I updated after every house. I experienced Monstruos 2 last year in Orlando, and it was one of my top houses, so I eagerly anticipated this house. It didn’t disappoint. The house is divided into three Latin American ghosts and their stories. The set pieces were fantastic, the costumes bloody good, and the scares plentiful. I went through this house twice, and it was great both times. I waffled between Terrifier and this house for first, and after going through both twice, Monstruos came away with the scare victory.
I enjoyed the chance to visit Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood, and I hope to hit one or both next year. I’d love to see both versions and compare them. I hope you all have a spooky-good Halloween, and I’ll see you in the shadows!
Welcome back to the Crossroads! This has been a busy week for Carnival Cruise Lines news concerning the upcoming VIFP (Very Important Fun Person) rewards program changes. When initially released, the changes were met with some hostility. The vitriol became so bad that Brand Ambassador John Heald received death threats. I will not rehash the new program here, but if you want to catch up on the program changes, click over to this article from me and read up.
This brings us to this week in the Carnival VIFP program change saga. Carnival sent out an email to members highlighting changes to the changes in an attempt to appease the anger and betrayal many cruisers felt. Many thought Carnival was throwing their earned brand loyalty overboard, making it impossible to reach new benefit levels. Here is the email Carnival sent out (the bullet point comments are mine and do not reflect Carnival):
Dear Brent:
In June, we announced our plans to transition the existing Carnival® VIFP Club® loyalty program to a new program in June 2026 — Carnival Rewards™. Carnival Rewards was designed to model other successful and popular travel loyalty programs that more closely align activity and spending to rewards and status. While we explained our rationale for the change and provided a year’s notice to give everyone time to learn about how Carnival Rewards will operate, we also provided an extended period of time to maintain or achieve higher status levels before implementation.
Unfortunately, the announcement left some of our most loyal guests with the impression that their loyalty was being overlooked. We spent the summer listening closely to the feedback we received. As a result, we are pleased to share some modifications that address the concerns expressed:
• Diamond will also be losing benefits according to the Carnival Rewards website.
Diamond Status: As originally proposed, we were providing our Diamond guests with an additional six years of Diamond status once Carnival Rewards launches — through May 2032. Reflecting upon what it takes to achieve Diamond status, we are permanently extending Diamond level status to all guests who have earned it by May 31, 2026.
• This will impact the number of people chasing this level to be granted Gold status when the 10k points are put in a member’s account.
Platinum Status: In our original announcement, we advised that Platinum guests as of May 31, 2026, would enter the new program with Platinum status recognition through May 31, 2028. Given the number of existing Platinum members, we are unable to extend Platinum status permanently due to all of the operational challenges we’ve previously explained. However, we want to do more to recognize their loyalty. Accordingly, for all guests who are Platinum level as of May 31, 2026, along with extending Platinum status through May 31, 2028, 10,000 Status Qualifying Stars will also be deposited into Platinum guests’ new Carnival Rewards account when the program launches next year. That provides a minimum of Gold status in the subsequent June 2028 to May 2030 cycle and provides a boost towards maintaining Platinum status or earning Diamond status. Furthermore, we’re pleased to advise that this 10,000 Status Qualifying Stars deposit will be gifted at the start of each new two-year earning cycle, providing Gold status and a nice head start each period towards Platinum and Diamond status. This deposit is limited to existing Platinum VIFP guests as of May 31, 2026.
• I will be interested to see how this goes.
Guests Under Age 18: U.S. privacy laws restrict children under 18 from being enrolled in programs like Carnival Rewards, but we’re pleased to confirm that children will be able to enjoy the same status as their parent or adult that is designated as their responsible party on the booking for that sailing. Their cruise fare and spending will also contribute to the responsible party’s Carnival Rewards account. Furthermore, for our young cruisers who have achieved Diamond or Platinum status by May 31, 2026, their status will be kept on file and they’ll be invited to opt in to Carnival Rewards with their May 31, 2026, earned status once they turn 18. At that time, they will also be provided with the same Diamond permanent status or perpetual status boost offered to our Platinum guests as outlined above.
• I thought rewards were based on nights cruised and not number of cruises anyway.
Recognizing Your Milestones: We truly value your past cruising achievements and will continue to honor them with Carnival Rewards. All existing VIFP Milestone awards earned through May 2026 will be fully honored through May 2030, giving us the honor of celebrating those special achievements with you. In addition, we are so excited that Carnival Rewards will include an enhanced Carnival Rewards Milestones recognition program that will be based on days sailed (rather than number of cruises taken), and offering more benefits and rewards for each milestone achieved. More details will be shared in the upcoming months through email and our microsite on this recognition program.
• Go get that credit card!
For Our Australia and Canada Guests: We’re actively exploring options for our guests in Canada and Australia so we can offer residents of those countries enhanced earning and rewards opportunities similar to those provided to U.S. residents through the Carnival Rewards Mastercard®.
The passion and loyalty of our guests is something that motivates our team every day to deliver the best cruise experience at sea. We appreciate the support of our guests as we move forward with a new loyalty program that has been designed to create more rewards and recognition for our guests. Please look for updates via email and as posted to carnivalrewards.com, including more details later this year about the new credit card program. With the opening of Celebration Key™, our enhancements at RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay and Isla Tropicale, our expanded presence in Australia, exciting new itineraries and more new ships on order, there is much we look forward to, and many more reasons to sail Carnival.
Sincerely,
Christine Duffy President, Carnival Cruise Line
The new changes will benefit the Diamond-level members, who will be granted permanent status on June 1, 2026. The proposed changes didn’t sit well with everyone at the Platinum level and below. The amount needed to keep my Platinum level didn’t justify staying loyal to Carnival any longer. So Carnival thought they’d throw those close to either Diamond or Platinum a bone.
Today, Carnival sent out a second update in the form of a 2x points special.
I made a follow-up video on the YouTube channel, discussing this offer and what it does. It’s limited, but it will help those close to either Diamond or Platinum reach that next tier before the May 31, 2026, cut-off date. The response for bookings has been high enough that the Carnival site crashed. If you’re close to that next level, take advantage quickly before the sailings get booked. After making a mock booking, I found that many cheaper rooms have already been taken.
The thing that caught my eye about this deal was that all guests in the cabin will get the 2x points. This has been a topic of discussion and hand-wringing since the rewards program redux was announced, and the topic is about the booking guest getting the points, but not everyone else in the cabin. So, if a wife books a cabin for her and her husband, she would get the points, and he wouldn’t get anything. I’m not sure who in the Carnival chain thought that was a good idea, but here we are…
There are details about the offer and how it can help bump some guests to the next reward level before the new program takes effect. Does it change what cruises you’re looking at between now and next year? It changed my mind to look at more NCL or MSC cruises, so I will expand my knowledge and experience base with those cruise lines. Drop a comment below about how this news may change your cruising plans.
Thanks for stopping by the Crossroads, and I’ll see out in the world,
Welcome to the Crossroads! The last couple of videos about my Alaskan adventure aboard the NCL Bliss are in the can for the YouTube channel, and I’m beginning preparations for Dragon Con in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, a trip out west for Oogie Boogie Nights at Disneyland (as well as the 70th anniversary), and my first trip to Universal Studios Hollywood for Halloween Horror Nights. Now is the time for me to honestly review my first cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines, the Alaskan ports I visited, and Pier 66 in Seattle.
Let’s head out to the Crossroads, and talk about my latest adventure.
This was my first sailing on an NCL ship, and my first impressions were very positive. We booked this cruise using our casino points from online games, and the process was pretty smooth and easy. If you are interested in me delving deeper into the process and if it was worth it, drop a comment below and let me know. Because we booked through our points, we each had to book individually, which worked out because it allowed us to explore and compare an interior cabin versus a balcony cabin (balcony was fantastic for the beautiful views of the Alaskan mountains and glaciers). Our booking also had the “More at Sea” package added, so I will take a broader look at whether the package is worth the money later as well.
Pier 66 in Seattle is easy to reach from the airport by train. Purchasing an Orca Pass and navigating to the port from the airport is simple. The trip is a straight shot, and you don’t have to change lines. The stop is a few blocks from the pier, and it is an easy walk if you don’t have twenty suitcases. If you packed that much, you’ll want to Uber or take a cab to Pier 66. We arrived too late before the train shut down for the night, so we stayed at an airport hotel and took the train in the morning. This allowed us to explore the Pike Place Market a little. It did suck with our suitcases, but it was not impossible. The impossible thing was locating a restroom to use. If you take time to see Pike Place, the pier is only a five-minute walk from there.
My first view of the Bliss on the walk to Pier 66.
The pier is easy to navigate and to get through security. If you aren’t carrying on, you drop your luggage at an outside kiosk and proceed through the regular port security. The crowds didn’t seem large, and we cleared security quickly. I expected long lines at the port to check in since the sailing was at capacity, but it was never crowded, and we boarded easily.
My first impressions of the Bliss were positive. The atrium area was small, only a couple of floors high. The atrium’s second level is The Local Pub’s open center. The Bliss’s lack of a huge atrium four to six floors high was different, but it worked with the layout. Norwegian also had passengers complete their muster drill as soon as they boarded. This was a great way to ensure that all passengers completed it without having to track stragglers down.
The ship is excellent for the Alaskan itineraries due to the large observation lounge, mounted binoculars outside in multiple locations, and outdoor seating areas with great views. The drawback is the pools. There are plenty of hot tubs, but where some ships that do Alaskan itineraries have a retractable roof over the pool deck, the Bliss is wide open the entire time. If you want to swim, you’d better do it on embarkation day or the last day heading back to Seattle, because if not, it’s too cold to swim unless you hit the hot tubs.
Now, what did I think of the food? The food in the main dining room (MDR) was average. Some of it was very good, and some not so much. The breakfast and lunch menus in the MDR were better than most of the dinners. The free included restaurants like The Local and the American Diner were great. The Local is open 24 hours and has the best food on the ship between the MDR, buffet, and included restaurants. The only pay restaurant we dined at was Cagney’s Steakhouse. It was the best steakhouse I’d experienced on the four cruise lines I’ve sailed. You can dine at the pay restaurants with your More at Sea package. The number of times depends on which package you purchase. Ours only covered one meal, so we chose Cagney’s after hearing many positive reviews online. The Garden Cafe (buffet) was also excellent. It rotated dishes based on theme, had a hot dog/burger section, and served various Indian food daily. The buffet is my second favorite behind MSC. MSC’s buffet brought it at every meal.
Onboard entertainment was average. They did have a Broadway production of Jersey Boys for a couple of nights, but the other nights were your average singing oldies that older cruisers like. At least the entertainment wasn’t jugglers and magicians like on Royal Caribbean. I think I’d see the shows I’ve attended on Royal Caribbean ships at a retirement home. Carnival still has the best shows, in my opinion. Let me know in the comments what your favorite cruise line entertainment is. The Bliss also featured a Beatles tribute band, the best and most accurate-looking and sounding tribute band I’ve ever heard. I could close my eyes and believe I was listening to the Beatles in Liverpool.
The port stops were great, and I covered all of them in my video series on the YouTube channel (check them out here). My only real gripe is that the Bliss was always the odd ship out and had to dock the furthest away from the towns. The docking assignments left Bliss passengers with shuttle buses to get to and from the downtown areas of the port stops. The other ships sailed up to the front door and dropped off in the thick of the action. We lost time due to the travel requirements of being bused back and forth.
A quiet and reflective moment in Icy Straight Point.
To close, I would rank Norwegian Cruise Lines as my second-favorite cruise line. NCL is close to the top, but one other takes the top spot. I promise I’ll count them down for you soon. Where will the four rank? Tune in by subscribing to be notified when new content drops at the Crossroads! Thank you for stopping in, and I hope to see you out in the world!
Welcome to the Crossroads! I’m continuing my reviews and commentary about my dining experiences on my recent Alaskan cruise aboard the NCL Bliss. This was my first sailing on a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship, and one of my questions before boarding was how the food tasted. This is the fourth cruise line I’ve sailed on, and my experiences on other ships have been hit and miss. Some have been good, and others not so much.
How was the main dining room grub on the Bliss? Let’s dig in and find out! These are the menus for the nights we ate in the MDR. Since this was our first cruise with NCL, we also wanted to try other dining options on the ship. This article has four of the MDR menus and my food reviews.
The Bliss has three main dining rooms: the larger Manhattan Dining Room, Taste, and Savor. Taste and Savor are smaller and mirror each other, while the Manhattan is larger and more reminiscent of your typical MDR. The menus served for each dinner are identical, so one dining room doesn’t have something different for a meal. I was also surprised by the dining rooms not having any set dining times. Everything was open-time dining, and you didn’t check in on the app; you checked in at the dining room of your choice and waited to be seated. This was a far different experience for me. I take pride in my ability to get us checked in for a table for dinner on a cruise ship app.
Once you choose your dining location and arrive to check in, it’s time to decide what you want to eat. A couple of weeks in advance, most of the menus were available on the NCL app. I searched the app to check out the menus and had a good idea of what I wanted to sample beforehand. Remember, the MDR hours in all three dining rooms are 5:30 through 9:30. They are swamped at opening time, but we found that if you arrived at the Manhattan a few minutes before they opened, they would sometimes begin seating early.
Dinner Night 1
On the first night on board, we had shrimp cake and cream of cauliflower soup for our appetizers. The shrimp cake was average. It had the same flavor as a crab cake, and the coating was soggy and not crisp because of how long the items sit out when plated. The soup was creamy and flavorful. If you don’t like cauliflower, this isn’t the dish for you because it has a strong cauliflower flavor profile.
The main dish was a gamble. BBQ spare ribs are usually not a great-tasting option on cruise dining room menus. Like I did with the brisket later on the cruise, I gave it a try. The wife tried the sautéed shrimp scampi. The scampi was delicious. The shrimp were well done, and the noodles were cooked evenly. The sauce wasn’t too heavy. The best thing on my plate was the corn on the cob. The ribs were overcooked, but the sauce did have a nice, sweet, smoky flavor.
Dessert was honey creme brulee and warm chocolate lava cake. The crème brûlée tasted slightly different from a normal one, and the top was nice and crisp. Sometimes, the top is overdone or the custard runs, but this was done very well. The lava cake was average. The lava had already turned into a solid and was overcooked. The best part of it was the ice cream.
Dinner Night 4
We ate at Cagney’s on night 2 and the Garden Cafe on night 3, so on night 4, between leaving Juneau and arriving at the Dawes Glacier, we caught a fast dinner in the Manhattan room to watch the icebergs float by in the Endicott Arm. Because we wanted to get in and out quickly, we only ordered a few items and skipped dessert. Instead of doing a normal three-course meal, we ordered two items each and had them brought out at one time to speed up the dining process.
We ordered the Montreal Spice-Rubbed Brisket, chicken cordon bleu, Lemon-Pepper Shrimp, and Hawaiian pork belly. I wanted to try the cannoli, but time did not allow it. The cordon bleu was pretty bland. The coating was soggy, and it was pretty meh. The lemon-pepper shrimp was fantastic. The shrimp were well seasoned, and the pasta was done perfectly once again. The pork belly was good, and the sauce was almost too sweet. The issue was how much of the dish was a foot-thick fat piece. I’ve had pork belly at Cagney’s on the Bliss, and it was a good cut of meat with minimal fat. The fat on this dish was excessive. Now, the brisket. I wrestled with whether I would order the brisket, knowing my luck with the dish on past sailings.
And it was just as dry and tasteless as I feared it would be. Shame on me for being fooled again…
Dining Night 5
After a long day in Icy Straight Point, we again braved the MDR to see how the food fared. Since this is a new cruise line for us to travel with, we wanted to try the MDR for dinner as much as possible.
For the sake of getting on with it, this meal was so forgettable that I’m forgetting it and moving on.
Dining Night 6
Day six was a long day of walking around Ketchikan. The only excursion we did was the Great American Lumberjack Show. If you’re ever in Ketchikan, click here to check out this fun experience. I’ll cover and review the port stop on the site soon, so be sure to subscribe to be notified when new content drops. We also did a walking tour of the downtown area and Creek Street, and I was starved by the time dinner rolled around.
First up for our appetizers were the cheese ravioli and baked brie salad. The ravioli was pretty good. The sauce wasn’t too heavy, the ravioli tasted good, and it was done with a good cheese blend for the filling. I was surprised by the baked brie salad. The pastry was light and wasn’t soggy like some cruise pasty can be. The filling was flavorful and not what I expected for a ‘salad’. Overall, this was one of the best nights for the quality and taste of the appetizer portion of our meal.
Ah, the main course. This is the moment I tried to figure out if doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result made me insane or not. My wife ordered the lamb shank, and I gave the brisket another go. I wanted it to be good this time, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was delicious this time around. It was juicy and not dry with a perfect blend of seasoning and gravy. The fries were horrible, but getting good and not soggy fries in the cruise ship MDR is extremely difficult. The lamb shank was also cooked perfectly with a good taste and flavorful sauce. This was also one of the strongest dinners we ate, but with the brisket, your mileage may vary as to the quality.
Now, as good as the appetizers and mains were, the desserts missed the mark. We ordered the eclairs and Snickers pound cake. The picture made the cake look like garlic toast, and it might as well have been. The cake was plain and had nothing that could be called Snickers. There may have been one sliver of chocolate. The ice cream was your average basic vanilla, and the only stand-out portion of the dish was the strawberries. The eclairs tasted plain with nothing standing out in the flavor profile. It was bland all the way around.
Dining Night 7
It was our last night on the Bliss, and we caught dinner before our late evening port stop in Victoria, B.C.
It was a weird port day with our stop in Victoria occurring at night for only a few hours. So, this was our last chance to dine in the MDR before returning to Seattle the next day.
The appetizers were both good. We ordered the scallops and the blue cheese soup. The scallops were tiny, but the serving contained many of them. They were cooked well and weren’t rubbery. The blue cheese soup was nice. It wasn’t too thick, but it featured a very good blue cheese flavor and was served at a perfect temperature.
Our main dishes were the grilled lemon-pepper shrimp and the bratwurst. The shrimp was as good as we had tasted on the cruise before. The brats didn’t have much seasoning, but the sides were decent. I know cruise food isn’t seasoned much due to people having a variety of tastes when it comes to seasonings. Still, you need to have some flavor in brats. I was disappointed, as it was one of the dishes I was excited to try after reading the menus before the cruise.
And now, the most disappointing dish I ordered on the entire cruise was the Nutella crème brûlée. The flavor tasted like a regular crème brûlée, and the top was soft and not crispy. I was surprised by the softness since it tasted burnt. I don’t know if it was because it sat for a while or if I got a bad one, but I was so disappointed. I didn’t even finish it, which is an indictment about how it tasted.
That wraps up my thoughts and reviews for the nights we ate in the MDR. I like the anytime structure of NCL and their dining; with three dining rooms, you usually don’t have to wait long for a table. Our cruise was fully booked, so plenty of cruisers were hitting the dining rooms. Overall, I’d put the food service as excellent, but the food was average. If I had to rank the four cruise lines I’d sailed on, I’d have to think long and hard about it. There are things about each cruise line that they do well, and things they don’t. Another oddity about NCL is the lack of a formal or lobster night. I did miss my cruise lobster.
I hope you enjoyed this look at the NCL Bliss MDR menus and reviews. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you out at the Crossroads,
Welcome to the Crossroads! I’m continuing my reviews and commentary about my experiences on the NCL Bliss during our recent Alaskan cruise. This was my first Norwegian sailing, and The Local was one of the top dining locations on the ship. Located on the 7th floor, overlooking the atrium, this large pub and grill features a dining area, pub seating sections, and a bar. The best part of The Local is that it is open 24 hours. Hungry in the middle of the night? Do you need a sandwich before bed? If you answered yes, The Local is the right place for you.
The food is pretty good, too.
Because The Local is open 24 hours a day, the menu varies depending on when you go. They have a small breakfast menu in the morning, a full lunch and dinner menu served most of the day, and a limited menu for those late-night munchies.
The pretzel bites are fantastic!Enjoy some nachos!
The best items on the menu were the starters. The pretzel bites, nachos, and three flavors of hot wings topped the items we sampled. We ate at The Local enough to munch our way through most of the menu. Of the four cruise lines I’ve sailed on, The Local is one of the best restaurants included with your cruise fare on any ship. The focus on pub fare makes this a great place to eat and grab a beer or cocktail after you return to the ship after a long day at port or a snack in the middle of the night.
The wings were tasty!The grilled sausage sliders!
The main dishes were mostly sandwiches and burgers, keeping with the pub atmosphere. Some of the menu items are available at The American Diner, so you can eat them in several locations. The menu highlights include the Reuben, Coney Island Hot Dog, and the classic pub favorite fish and chips. We also tried the Wrangler burger, blue cheese burger, and tavern-battered fish sandwich. Each menu item was good, and I recommend trying everything on the menu. The only disappointing things were the fries and the enormous amount of bread on the hot dogs. I don’t eat a lot of buns with things, so I had to remove half of the bun to taste the actual hot dog and toppings through all the bread. The fries would’ve tasted better warm, but since the food appeared to be batched out of the kitchen, you could tell some of the plated fries sat out for a while once they hit the plate. Guy’s Burgers on Carnival still has the best fries, and those bad boys are hard to beat.
The desserts were the only weak point. We tried the carrot cake and the chocolate sundae. The carrot cake was super rich and too sweet for my tastes, especially for a piece of cake cut from a mass-produced sheet. The sundae mainly consisted of vanilla ice cream with a light touch of chocolate syrup at the very bottom of the dish. It wasn’t terrible, but it was nothing to write home about either.
Meh…
Double meh…
The breakfast is a skip. The menu is limited, and it wasn’t very good. I was so unimpressed, I didn’t get any pictures so we could hurry to the Garden Cafe to grab a bite before disembarking the ship for the day.
Overall, I highly recommend The Local. It is a great place to eat lunch or grab dinner if you aren’t crazy about the MDR menu for the evening. It does get crowded depending on what is happening in the atrium below. People will sit in the seats surrounding the atrium all day to watch the different shows and talks. The dine-in area is usually walk-up, but it gets busy when passengers are boarding the ship in port and the Garden Cafe is closed. Seating around the entire restaurant area is generally open and not full except for the main seating area. So, find a table and enjoy some great pub food and cold beverages. It’s included, so take advantage of the hours and the menu!
Thanks for stopping by the Crossroads, and I’ll see you out in the world,
Welcome to the Crossroads! This is the place for my experiences and reviews on the road, on cruises, or in or about Disney/Universal Studios. I’m eating at and reviewing another restaurant on the Norwegian Bliss, the American Diner. Located on deck 17, the American Diner is included with your cruise fare. It is only open for lunch, from 12 pm to 5 pm. The only thing that isn’t included is the milkshakes, which are $7 each. The milkshakes also do not count for the More At Sea beverage package. If you want a milkshake, you’re paying for it.
Now, what about the menu, and how was my meal? Let’s find out!
We chose to eat at the American Diner on embarkation day. Because most people head straight to the buffet on cruises, we hoped the American Diner wouldn’t be crowded. Luckily, we arrived right as it opened and didn’t have to wait. It never was crowded during our lunch, and there was ample seating. A portion of the menu is available at other restaurants on board, like at The Local, so we wanted to focus on items only served at the American Diner.
We ordered the smoked fish dip and the white bean chicken chili for our starters.
The chili was warm and very flavorful. It wasn’t too spicy or bland, hitting somewhere in the middle. The chili tasted good, and I enjoyed it as my starter. The smoked fish dip tasted delicious. The dip didn’t have an overpowering fish taste, and the smoke flavor showed through. If the fish had been overpowering, it would’ve drowned out the smoke. The chips served with it were stale, however. We joked that they were left over from the previous cruise and needed to get rid of them. Apparently, hungry folks boarding a ship is a good place to unload stale chips.
Now, for our main dishes, we decided to pick the pulled pork sliders and the homemade meatloaf. The meatloaf sounded like it could be good—or it could be bad, but I was willing to take the risk.
The sliders were average. They needed more sauce, and the slaw was bland. The Hawaiian rolls were good, and the fries were of the nice, thin, and crispy variety. Overall, the sliders were okay, but not something I’d beat the door down to order again. The meatloaf was surprisingly good. It was served with grilled corn and mashed potatoes. I wasn’t a big fan of the gravy, but it didn’t detract from the meatloaf’s flavor. I would’ve ordered it again if I had dined at the American Diner a few more times. The corn was good, and the potatoes were bland, but it was passable when you put the meatloaf gravy on it. I’d place the main dishes as above average.
When ordering dessert, we paid for the chocolate shake and added the chocolate mousse and bread pudding.
The shake was good, but I’m not sure it was $7 good (it was actually $9.17 after taxes and added gratuity). The other two desserts weren’t anything to write home about. The mousse was a basic chocolate mousse with a tiny dab of the strawberry coulis and a few graham cracker crumbs. The bread pudding was tasteless unless you covered your bite in the caramel whiskey sauce. The problem was that you ran out of the sauce after a few bites. Overall, I give the desserts a below-average rating.
How did the American Diner fare? I’d give it an average rating. It’s okay, but not a place I’d rush to eat again or go out of my way to dine at another time. I would still recommend it if you are on an NCL ship and have never tried it. Don’t take anyone else’s word about a restaurant until you try it yourself. I only give these opinions and reviews to pass on restaurant information and my experiences. Have you dined at the American Diner? If so, comment with your experiences below.
I hope you enjoyed this review, and I hope you take that trip you’ve been wanting to take!
Welcome to the Crossroads! I’m back from my Alaskan cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship, the Bliss. I will be doing a deep dive on my experiences aboard the ship and ports here and on the YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/@Brents_Crossroads). For all your ship and room tours, restaurant reviews, and port fun, be sure to sign up here for updates on when new content drops.
One aspect of my travels that I wanted to use this website for is to take deeper looks at things that won’t translate as well on the YouTube channel. I’ve also been settling into my chosen content creation path and figuring out how to best utilize the footage I take and pass on information you, wonderful readers, can use on your journeys. So, if you like travel, cruise, and theme park content, welcome!
Now for the show…
Cagney’s is an up-charge restaurant on the NCL Bliss. The price to eat at the establishment is $60 per person. You can eat there as part of your cruise package if you have purchased a More At Sea plan. For more about the plan, click over to the NCL website for details. We had one meal at a specialty restaurant with our package, and we’d heard Cagney’s was the place to experience. The steakhouse is so popular on the Bliss that they removed the specialty restaurant next to it to expand the steakhouse, doubling its size. Between the two sections of Cagney’s is the A-List Bar, and there is an outdoor seating area on the Waterfront spaces of the 8th floor.
How was the food, and what was on the menu? Let’s grab our forks and knives to dig into the details!
The service begins with bread, and it was nice, crusty bread with a soft, slightly warm center. The butter was rock hard, but this was an ongoing struggle on the entire cruise. I had to either wait until a warm dish was served to sit the butter pat under or hold my hand over it until it softened. Cold butter is hard as Hades to spread on bread if it isn’t piping hot.
Our appetizers were next. I ordered the lobster bisque and grilled thick-cut bacon while my wife ordered the jumbo shrimp trio.
The bisque was very flavorful and had plenty of lobster bits in it. My thick-cut bacon was one of the best things I ate on the entire cruise. The bacon was well-cooked with a crisp crust and tasted better on its own than with the steakhouse sauce included with the dish. The shrimp were jumbo, as advertised. There is not much one can do to mess up shrimp in a dish.
We both ordered the ribeye for our main dish. The steaks were seasoned better than on other cruise lines, but not as seasoned as I grill my steaks. I get that some people don’t like as much seasoning, but it was still better than the no-seasoning on the Royal Caribbean ships I’ve sailed on. The cut of meat was fine, but some of the strip steak I had in the main dining room was better. The side dishes we ordered were average at best. We chose the truffle mashed potatoes, parmesan-dusted truffle fries, sautéed mushrooms, and steamed broccoli. The standout of the sides was the mushrooms. They are a fantastic topping for the steaks and should be offered as such. The bearnaise sauce was bland, so we were thankful for the mushrooms to give the meat a pick-me-up.
And now we come to dessert. I was very excited about the desserts at Cagney’s. Once I read they had a raspberry crème brûlée, I couldn’t wait to dine there. The other dessert we tried was the “OMG” Caramel-Butterscotch Cheesecake. The raspberry creme brulee was fantastic; however, the cheesecake was only “OMG” okay.
Overall, the price is typical for a cruise ship steakhouse ($55-$60 range). The food was above average, with some hits and misses, but I felt I had a good meal. I would dine at Cagney’s again, but first, I must sail on more NCL ships and explore the other specialty restaurants. I recommend trying Cagney’s the next time you sail with NCL because it is on all the vessels in their fleet.
Thanks for meeting me here at the Crossroads! I hope to see you out and about in the world!
Time for some big cruise news in the travel world. Carnival Cruise Lines has announced a massive change to their VIFP Club that is making members feel like jumping ship. I picture Royal Caribbean and MSC hanging out around the corner like Spirit Halloween hanging around a newly closed retail location, waiting to pounce on dissatisfied members.
Carnival announced changes were coming to their loyalty reward program, but I don’t think anyone knew how big a shift they would make to the program. If you aren’t familiar with the Carnival VIFP (Very Important Fun Person) program, it was a tiered system that provided members with increased benefits as they progressed through the program. Each night counted toward your total. For example, if you had x number of nights on the ships, you would be at x level. With x level, you received certain rewards and perks. These perks included priority check-in, complimentary laundry, complimentary drinks, and priority access to the water shuttle at tender ports. Once you achieved a level, you were that level until you earned the next higher one.
But things are changing, and people aren’t happy. The Facebook groups have the torches and pitchforks out.
The loyalty system is being thrown overboard for a point-based system. Now, instead of earning your level based on nights cruising, you earn it by spending money for the points (cruise fare, spa treatments, excursions, and spending in the casino will earn you points, to name a few). For example, suppose you are a platinum-level VIFP member. In that case, you will need to earn 50,000 points within the two-year window to maintain your status. Using the calculator on their website, it says I would need to sail on 3-4 times a year during the two year window to maintain my status, and unless I go all out in the window, I’d never reach Diamond no matter how many sailings I go on. The next level will be unobtainable for most cruisers, and many feel they will lose two or three levels and be stuck at the first tier forever. The jump from platinum to diamond is another 50,000 points. Diamond level would require 100,000 points (stars) to achieve that status. The perks do not appear to be changing, but I don’t think people care…they are pissed.
The new program doesn’t begin until June 1, 2026. To view their new requirements for the rewards program, please visit https://carnivalrewards.com/. To say it has gone well with cruisers since the announcement would be a lie. Since the program change is still a year away, I wonder if things will change. I know we’ve been sailing on various other cruise lines more and more lately, and this isn’t making me want to continue supporting a company that has decided my years of loyalty are meaningless. One of the lines from the announcement email stated that they didn’t think all the elite-level guests on sailings made anyone feel special. Guess what? I don’t sail to feel special. I sail to experience new places or to relax in the ocean and soak up the sun. I sailed to build my brand loyalty, but I guess I should’ve jumped ship long ago, because our loyalty meant nothing to Carnival in the end. I don’t envy John Heald when he starts getting the heat on Facebook.
I will leave you with a link to the email Carnival sent out to announce their program changes. Click here if you feel the need to throw up a little in your mouth. They pretty much gaslight us into believing it’s our fault for advancing through the system that they need to change it. No, their policies since COVID-19 are mostly to blame, but that is an argument for another time.
Well, I need to get ready for the next trip, so thanks for stopping by the Crossroads!
Brent's Crossroads 