GETTING THERE

Cathy Winston boards the debut sailing of Norwegian Cruise Lines’ newest ship, to discover how it’s tempting travellers from land to sea

NORWEGIAN Bliss is cruising through Alaska during summer 2018, and the Caribbean during winter 2018 and 2019.

A sevenday Alaska Highlights fly & cruise departing Seattle on August 4 costs from £3,248 per person. A sevenday Eastern Caribbean fly & cruise departing Miami on January 26 costs from £1,585 per person. Based on two sharing. Book at ncl. co.uk

Kosher meals must be ordered no later than 30 days before sailing, with breakfast, lunch and dinner options available.

“What land-based resort can offer you this choice of activities, of dining, of entertainment?” says Nick Wilkinson, vice president and managing director UK & Ireland. “I feel we’re bridging the gap to entice people from a land-based all-inclusive into our resort-style ships. Families who have never thought of cruising suddenly realise there’s a full-blown race track on there. Suddenly it changes their perspective of what a cruise offers, there is something for every age. A cruise ship is now a real resort.”

With 48 hours on board, as part of the ship’s inaugural sailing from the shipyard where she was built in Germany back to Southampton, I put that theory to the test on the cruise line’s largest ship, including getting behind the wheel at the famous race track, the longest at sea.

Fresh from a safety briefing and buckled in to an electric car — a go