Ken the cruiser

Great advice and pictures! I know this is an old thread, but it’s right on target with the information we’re looking for regarding aft-facing cabins on the Encore. I have just one question. Is the bathroom, to include the walk-in shower, as small as it looks?

For those familiar with Encore aft-facing balcony cabins, are there some on certain decks that have a deeper balcony than on other decks? From this photo, it appears that might be the case, but I just wanted to make sure before we actually book one.

From what I understand on NCL, you can drink until you drop as there is no limit! 😂

First, it's just a survey. But for us once we made Elite, we stopped purchasing the Plus package. Doing the math, given that we're over 70 and really don't drink all that much alcohol or use any of the other "extra" Plus options, paying the equivalent of $60 per day for both of us for the beverage package seemed a little steep (i.e., $25 per day for the internet at the Elite rate, $34 per day for gratuities, with the remaining $61 per day for the beverage package). Now, if they added some excursion OBC to offset that $60 per day for the beverage package, then it might make economic sense for us to purchase the Plus package again, as we do go on quite a few excursions.

We now have 2 "real" future cruises booked with Celebrity again, along with 12 others we have with other lines through early 2026! 🕺💃 For over a year, we have had two "placeholder" bookings with $100 refundable deposits we got on an Eclipse cruise last spring. We were finally able to use them to book two interesting itineraries in late 2025 AND most importantly with the cheaper NRD cruise fares! If we had not secured these two placeholders onboard last year, I doubt we would have ever gone on another Celebrity cruise, as we like to book them usually at least 18+ months out and paying that 20% surcharge for one with a refundable deposit was just way too painful.

You can when you book a HAL cruise with the HIA option I posted at post #27.

That sounds correct, if there is an individual charge for the beverage. For example, I’m sure regular coffee is free and doesn’t count towards the total. But some specialty coffees might have an associated charge and count towards the daily limit of 15.

OTOH we always book cruise line excursions at most every port. So an excursion OBC perk would definitely interest us, especially since we stopped booking the Plus package once we made Elite.

Just for reference the HAL Have It All Early Booking Bonus, which is around $65 pp/day, offers the following perks. For my $$$ these perks are worth more than what is provided with Princess Plus for $60 pp/day. It’s interesting Princess is surveying folks about a similar Excursion OBC option.

We've previously cruised to Alaska with Celebrity, HAL, and Disney. One thing those cruises all had in common was that we saw a bunch of wildlife from the ship as we cruised along. Here's a link regarding which whales you might see, depending on the time of year you are there. Best Time To See Whales In Alaska (whale-watching-alaska.com)

It will be interesting to see if they actually move forward with including the Excursion OBC option, as that might get us to reconsider booking our cruises with Plus again. Since we recently made Elite and really don't drink that much alcohol to make it cost-effective, we've decided to pass on booking cruises with it. However, if they start to include Excursion OBC like NCL does with their FAS Plus package, we may have to reconsider our decision.

Us too. This is going to be an awesome cruise, especially with all the wildlife waiting to be seen up there! 😁

Yea, not much needed to entice us cruiseaholics to book another cruise! They got us with their "double' Military OBC perk and longer itineraries to cool places! 🤣

I just checked all 8 of our bookings while logged on, and nothing. Oh well. But then we just got back mid-February from cruising on the Sapphire.

Were you logged in when you did the mock bookings? Update: I just checked all 8 of our bookings while logged on, and nothing. But then we just got back mid-February from cruising on the Sapphire.

You have me curious. Where is this OBC promo listed on the website, or does it magically appear somewhere when I log onto the Personalizer? We currently have 8 cruises booked with PCL and it would be nice to see if any of them qualify?

Check this thread out, especially post #6. It sounds like June/July might be a good estimate for when.

Have a great cruise along with your pre-cruise time visiting Sydney! The only thing I don't envy you about this cruise is the 15-hour flight you're about to embark on! 😂

When we were on the second leg of our Antarctica/SA cruise going from Buenos Aires to San Antonio in February, we were the only couple in the back section of the Sapphire's Reserve dining room until folks started to trickle in around 6 pm, just as we were leaving. When we asked our server about that, he said folks from Chile, of which there were quite a few onboard, are used to eating after 9 pm back home. Unfortunately for some of the DR servers that meant folks started showing up around 8:30 pm and usually hung around until around 10 pm. Funny thing, that wasn't the case on the first leg of the cruise from San Antonio to Buenos Aires that included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula. That was also the case, but not as drastic, when we cruised around the Med for 21 days on the Regal back in July 2022. BTW another thing we like about eating in the Reserve is that the tables are placed farther apart, so we can eat in peace rather than having to consciously ignore someone sitting right next to us, as is the case when we've eaten in the MDR or Blu for that matter. But some folks like that, which is cool. We just don't.

We purposely book a Reserve Collection mini-suite or higher category when we cruise with Princess, which as of late is quite often. We just enjoy showing up to the dining room for breakfast, lunch (on sea days) and dinner, being escorted to our same table (since we don't need to sit near a window), attended to by the same wonderful servers, and of course enjoying their tasty meals, which are always served hot has they receive priority service (from our understanding) when fetching our selections back in the kitchen. As far as comparing the Reserve dining room with Celebrity's Blu, which we also frequent regularly when we cruise with them, the Reserve wins hands down, along with the fact the Reserve is open for lunch on sea days whereas Blu is not. But I will also note, we are usually there for dinner when they open at 5 pm. If you like to eat later, say around 7 pm, it might be a little more crowded depending on the part of the world you are cruising in.

So if I might ask, what did you for entertainment during the evening hours after dinner on the Eurodam?

If I might ask as we are booked on the Eurodam next year. What exactly did you do for entertainment in the evenings?

We’re in our early 70s and are 4* Mariners, Elite+ on Celebrity, Elite on Princess, and Platinum on NCL. We haven’t cruised with HAL since 2019 when we did an Australia circumnavigation cruise on the Maasdam. We have had a great time on all of our cruises and are looking forward to cruising with HAL again in Apr 2025 on the Eurodam. It will be interesting to see how much has changed and/or stayed the same since then. I even read here on CC singers and dancers might be coming back!

We were on the Island for 25 days back in Jan 2020 on an Easter Island cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Santiago. Needless to say we had an awesome time! But then we enjoy sea days! 😁