junieh

It was around 4pm. There was no entertainment on and there wasn't anything listed on the daily as 18+.

I can't remember exactly when I booked but it was pretty close to sailing date. I want to say less than 2 weeks but not entirely sure

Interesting... We didn't have any problems at Sugarcane or Maltings, just DB. Glad to hear it wasn't just us though :)

I was very surprised too but he insisted. I honestly wasn't convinced but I didn't want to waste any time taking this up with anyone else.

They don't have Kinky Boots anymore and Choir of Man is just on for a couple of nights so the entertainment is not the same as before.

Thank you. We love travelling and we intend to keep on doing so. Our 12 year old son has been to 25 countries so far and counting :) I guess our expectations for NCL were just too high and maybe land travel is more suited to us for now :)

No, I do get that, it's just that provided that you don't limit their cards / spending, they can get whatever they want (except alcohol of course) from the onboard bars, as well as spend as much as they want at the shops / arcade etc so it really doesn't make sense to restrict them at Starbucks. And FYI, my son was just buying an ice tea which he can get at any bar on board, so the restriction is not just for caffeinated drinks.

So that's why I couldn't book again? That sucks!

I completely agree

We'd never cruised pre-pandemic. The cruise I am comparing this one to (and what we based our expectations on) was exactly this time last year

We went to Choir of Man one evening as I'd managed to pre-book it and that was great. I checked but was never able to find availability later on while on board. The Beatles has no pre-booking so first come first seated and it was always really busy when we tried to go so didn't get to catch that

Exactly! We were very disappointed too...

We really liked MSC and thought food and service on board was far more superior to NCL. Not sure which ship you are looking at but Seascape is a great ship and we would prefer that over Encore, especially when you consider it is half the price...

We've just got off the Encore and I wanted to write a detailed review. This is going to be a long one so don't start reading if you haven't got a lot of free time! I hope this helps those who are considering booking NCL / Encore or have a cruise coming up. Before I start, I should explain that we are relatively new to cruising so my review may be somewhat amateur compared to some others... We are seasoned travelers but new to cruising. Our first ever cruise was on MSC Seascape this time last year, when she was almost brand new. We'd considered booking Encore back then too but with Seascape being half the price of Encore, we'd gone with Seascape. We'd never been on a cruise so we had nothing to compare it to and we'd never been to the Caribbean so as long as the trip had a decent port days vs sea days ratio, we were happy and so Seascape made great sense for our first trip and we ended up having an amazing cruise. This time, we were initially supposed to be travelling with some friends who wanted to go on Encore and we thought it would be fun for a group of kids travelling together so we booked it but they ended up not being able to make it so it was just us in the end - a family of 2 adults and a 12 year old boy... Embarkation: At check in, we were given a document which stated an itinerary change. No prior notice, no emails and no explanations from the check in clerk. In fact, I almost missed it among all the other paperwork, dailies etc that they gave us, but it stated that our itinerary was changed due to an annual festival that was due to take place at San Juan during our stop there so they swapped San Juan with St Thomas, so St Thomas went from being a full day stop to a very short day with an early start and 1:30pm all aboard time. We were very disappointed as we'd been to San Juan before but we were very much looking forward to spending the day at St Thomas and also annoyed that they waited until the last minute for this change. That festival is a famous, annual festival. Surely they didn't just realise this on embarkation day? I wish they'd given us more notice so those of us that made their own shore arrangements would have enough time to rearrange their plans while still on land and had access to proper internet. That aside, embarkation was great, very quick even though the line seemed to be very long and we boarded within minutes of arriving. Staterooms were not ready until around 3:30pm if I remember correctly. Lunch that day was a little chaotic which is to be expected. All of the main dining rooms and the Local had long waiting times and they opened the Diner and directed people there which is where we ended up eating and we were seated and served straight away. Stateroom: Our stateroom number was 13876 which was an auto assigned balcony cabin and we loved it. Compared to the Seascape, the room itself was smaller but the bathroom was larger but what we really loved about it was the location. We were just around the corner from the elevators that went directly to the areas that we used the most, such as the Galaxy Pavillion for our son and the casino for us! Unlike our previous cabin on Seascape which was a looooong walk away from the elevators, we could pop over to our room at any time without having to walk for miles. We asked for a coffee machine which we were given straight away but I have to say their coffee is awful so do bring your own coffee pods! I found storage to be very limited in the room compared to Seascape but we managed. Dining: With NCL's Freestyle Dining, we'd not made any bookings for dinner except for the two nights when we ate at speciality restaurants. The first night we went down to eat and all the main dining rooms were full and we were told there would be a minumum of 30 min wait. We ended up getting seated a lot sooner than that at the Manhattan Room, but this experience put us all off (especially my son who was very hungry and still jet lagged!) so I ended up pre-booking our tables for every dinner for the rest of the cruise which was very easy to do on the app. I do recommend doing this as for most evenings when we walked up to the counter people were being turned away or being told there would be a 30+ min wait while we were seated straight away. I have to admit I wasn't a fan of Freestyle Dining overall. On our previous cruise, I'd liked the convenience of knowing that I had a table for dinner at a set time every evening and I'd liked having the same server who we got to know and he got to know our eating habits and preferences. I also felt servers made more of an effort then, as they dealt with the same guests every night. Service in the dining rooms was very much hit and miss and also very rushed. One particular evening we had a terrible experience as our food was very very late and arrived cold and our server had also mixed up our order. When one of the managers came to ask how we were doing we told her and she was very apologetic. She said she'd make a note on the system so we would be given the best server the next night which was an odd thing to say as it just meant that they were admiting to having insufficient servers but would give us a better one next time as we'd had to put up with a bad one on that night. Sure enough, when we arrived for dinner the next night we scanned our card, the guy pointed to the screen showing the lady the note which we knew was there and then the guy who had never smiled at us once or was anything but impatient with us every night for the whole week forced a huge fake smile and said "have a fantastic meal"! We were given a great server that evening but apart from that, service at the main dining rooms was quite disappointing. I guess the moral of this story is, you need to complain to get good service on NCL. We felt the food quality and choices in the MDRs to be quite lacking, especially when compared to MSC. On Seascape, we had a lovely dinner every night but on Encore we didn't enjoy most dinners and on a couple of occassions we even had to go to have a late dinner / snack at Local later on. We tried two of the speciality restaurants; Q and Teppenyaki. Q was fine, there was live music, our server was very friendly and the food was fine. Portions are HUGE, especially if you go with the mixed BBQ platter so order accordingly. Our son didn't have a dining package which we were going to buy but decided not to at the last minute as I don't eat meat and so we thought he would have my main and I would order a few starters / sides as extra. In the end, the included food was so much that we couldn't even finish it and there was no need for a third dining package or even additional sides / starters for me. At Teppenyaki, we didn't really have a great experience. We arrived on time and were seated at an empty half of the table. Over half an hour passed before anyone came up to us. Finally, 33 minutes after our reservation time, the receptionist came back and said they were sorry but they had to move us as the other people on our table did not show up. She said she would organise another table and let us know. We said fine but can we at least get some drinks while we wait, so the waitress came to take our drinks order. Few minutes later the girl came back to say no need to move, the others have arrived but they actually waited to take the drinks orders of the others before bringing our drinks out all together. This hiccup aside, the restaurant itself was far too loud and busy, and their tables have two sides / halves and the space inside the cooking station is very very tight so when both the chefs get going, they sometimes sing and shout different things at the same time so it gets a bit too much. Our clothes also stank after sitting in the restaurant for a couple of hours so if you have a special plans for after a meal at Teppenyaki, you may want to get changed after the meal! The food was OK, nothing special (Teppenyaki at Seascape was far better). It is OK if you are using dining credits but certainly not worth the $70 cover charge if you haven't got a package. FYI, at both speciality dining restaurants they did ask if my son would like to eat from the kids menu free of charge but he enjoys adult food so we declined. We didn't try dinner at the buffet so can't comment on that but we had breakfast there most mornings and a couple of lunches and my main feedback regarding the buffet is that while it is huge, the actual selection is very limited and repetitive as all the stations are just duplicates of each other. Breakfast was exactly the same every single morning and so was the lunch on the few ocassions that we went there. On Seascape, you actually had a large number of different choices rather than it just being the same foods offered at each station which I appreciated, being a fussy eater. Bars & Drinks Package: There are many bars on Encore (more than on Seascape) but unfortunately they are mostly very small so at busy times you will have trouble getting a table. Our favourite was Maltings as my husband enjoys whiskey and cigars and we had a great server there so that was our go to bar but getting a table between 6 - 8pm was a challenge. The mojitos at Sugarcane were nice too. I didn't like the way NCL's drinks package is set up at all. Technically the standard package covers drinks up to the value of $15 but a lot of cheaper stuff including bottled water is not included. They do let you get two drinks at a time so you can actually order two double Gentleman Jacks at once but if you want a bottle of water instead, you have to pay. Go figure! At MSC, the cheapest drinks package was a lot more basic with cheaper spirits etc but at least it included everything up to $9 so it made sense. Also, NCL doesn't do a non-alcoholic drinks package as such, only a fountain soda package which is very limited. They don't have a package that covers virgin cocktails etc like MSC does. Our son doesn't drink sodas so we didn't get him a package but if the adults have a drinks package, the servers are happy with you ordering a drink for your son so don't bother getting a drinks package for kids unless you want them to be able to order drinks by themselves. There really is an age limit for Starbucks and minors are not allowed to purchase drinks there by themselves (not sure why). A parent needs to be there to allow the kid to get the drink but I was told that they can just add a note to the system so perhaps you can set this up if you need to. I didn't get to test this as it was towards the end of the cruise and we didn't get Starbucks after then. One final note on this subject; before our cruise, I researched online to try and find out if there were any venues on Encore that were 18+. I also posted on here asking about this and some of you kindly replied to say there weren't any adult only venues as such, only 18+ events which would be marked on the dailies. If anywhere was to have an age restriction, I would have expected it to be Maltings but they were happy with my son being there at all times. On the second sea day, we were bored and decided to explore the bars we'd not been to before so we went to District Brew House. We sat down, a waiter came and took our order and about 15 minutes later another waiter came and told us we had to leave as this is an over 18s only venue. I told him we'd already been served and ordered drinks and he said you can take your drinks with you but cannot stay. I said we wouldn't have ordered drinks there if we'd known we couldn't stay, so why weren't we told this before and he just said the other guy was new and didn't know. There were no signs anywhere that there is an age restriction at this bar and it wasn't marked on the dailies as 18+ so I really don't believe what that guy said was true but we left. If this really is an over 18 venue, NCL should do a better job of marking that as one. Entertainment: The main reason why we booked Encore was because we thought it would be a lot of fun. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The few organised events that they have usually take place during the port times in the day, aimed at those who stay on board. Other times, the entertainment is limited to live music, comedy shows or sales pitches that are disguised as events (for example, the 'how to have a flatter stomach' demonstration that we stumbled upon (ironically while having mojitos at Sugarcane!) ended with the spa guy marketing his detox pills. They had at least one paid game a day such as bingo, wheel of fortune or deal or no deal with cards priced at around $39 - $79. They had an art scavenger hunt every evening for the first 7 nights which we loved - that was the only thing we managed to do with my son and this got him really interested in art and we ended up going to a couple of auctions and even buying a couple of pieces. But I really wish there had been things that we could have done as a family, such as regular scavenger hunts, fun family events etc, all of which we'd had at Seascape. In the evenings, all you can do is drink in a bar or play in the casino for adults and kids club or arcade (or kids casino as my son likes to call it!) for the kids. We love to drink and gamble but honestly by the end of 10 nights, we'd had enough of both! So do bring your own entertainment such as cards, games etc and download some movies to your tablet as the ship's TV's movie channels keep repeating the same handful of movies. We got my son a pass for Galaxy Pavillion which he enjoyed but there were a few rides which were out of order for the whole / most of the trip. Galaxy Pavillion closes at 9pm so it is not an evening entertainment and opening times are quite limited. There were a few days when he didn't get to go at all but he did make good use of the pass the other days. Go karts were fun but not something that you would want to go on 5 times a day. Our cruise actually didn't have many kids on board so they removed the reservation requirement from go karts and it was just first one first served. It never got too busy there and we always got a go within minutes. This was actually a little annoying as the only reason why we embarked early on our first day was to get slots booked for go karts as soon as we got on the ship, as I read they got booked up very quickly. If I'd known there weren't going to be any bookings for that, we would have been happy to spend the day in Miami before getting on the ship at around 2pm. Internet & Calling Package: The internet on the ship is hit and miss and so is the calling and messaging package. We only had the limited internet package so in order to be able to contact each other while onboard, we got the calling package. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. You'd often need to restart your phone if you found that you couldn't make any calls. Messages did go through most of the time though. If you have any kids under 13, you need to wait until you are onboard and then give them permission from your own app so they can set up the app and use this service. Disembarkation: On our last sea day which was the day before last, we had very rough seas. By the time we woke up the next morning when we were supposed to stop at Great StirrupCay, everything looked much calmer but as feared, they cancelled Great Stirrup Cay so we had one more sea day before returning back to Miami. On the morning of disembarkation, we received our statement and I do urge everyone to check those charges carefully, especially if you have been on go karts or laser tag as there were many discrepancies. To ride the go karts or the laser tag, you need to be wearing closed shoes and no bags etc are allowed so on two occassions, only one of us went with our son while the other waited with our stuff but both times we had been charged for 3 people as they automatically charge for everyone in the cabin, even though they do actually take the names of those playing. For example, our latest go kart ride charge had my name and my son's name plus the third charge for a "nameless" rider as my husband didn't actually ride that time so we didn't give his name. There was also a $22.20 charge for minibar which we didn't use. Our minibar was empty when we arrived at our cabin and it was never filled, which was what we wanted anyway so no further action needed, right? (By the way this was exactly what had happened on Seascape without issues). Before disembarking, I went to Guest Services to have these charges fixed and they were happy to remove the additional go kart / laser tag charges but when I told the lady about the minibar, she was quite rude and we got into an arguement over this. She said "Have you reported that the minibar was empty when you got your cabin?" and I said "no because I didn't want it to be filled and I know you can request it to be emptied so why request to fill it?" to which she replied "so you wouldn't have to face charges like this"! What??! I thought not using anything from the minibar would be enough for that? She listed 3 things that we'd supposedly used; an aqua panna, a san pellegrino and something else that I cannot remember. So did our supposedly full minibar only have those 3 items? No. Then where are the rest and why are we only being charged for these 3? I told her I would not accept those charges and I would not leave until they were taken off. She made a call to someone and told them about our situation, saying "I know, right!!!" a couple of times as if we weren't still there and then told me we would have to wait. Half an hour later she came back to say she would bring me a new printout, but when she did finally bring it, the charges had only partially been taken off so we had to wait for another half an hour until it was properly fixed. We spent a lot of money on the ship, we had over $3000 in extras but I refuse to pay an extra $50 for things that I have not used. She did not smile once even when I first approached the counter, she was rude throughout and she did not once apologise even for the extra charges for go karts and laser tag. We felt happy to get off the ship which was sad as this was a cruise that we had been looking forward to so much. Overall, it wasn't a bad cruise because we liked the ports we visited but I am not sure if we will ever return to NCL as our experience was far from positive. This was not one of the cheaper cruises available yet all they care about is money. If anything, this cruise proved how good MSC Seascape was for us! I don't mean to put anyone off, just wanted to share our experience that's all.

We just got off the Encore and I was surprised to see that you guys kept this one going for so long :) Thank you to all that replied with helpful answers. We paid the DSC as I said we would and we only tipped those that we felt deserved it... which ended up not being that many. We had a favourite server who we tipped on a daily basis, we tipped our cabin stewart, we tipped our waiter in one of the speciality restaurants and we tipped the chef at Teppenyaki. We didn't tip the waitress at Teppenyaki as having waited over 30 minutes to be served drinks, we didn't feel they deserved it. We also never felt the urge to tip in the MDR as the service was mediocre at best. I will write a full review soon, I am just off to enjoy the second half of my holiday now :)