bluesea777

Hi! Glad you’re back on CC! Happy New Year to you and Dad. Glad to hear about your new job! It’s the Forest Lagoon, not Secret. Guess what? A little while after you completed this review we went ahead and booked the Star 11 days Tromsø to Reykjavik this coming June! A friend of ours has also booked and we all 3 will be driving in rental cars in each port of call (except Hammerfast (a break day) and Longyearbyen) - to save $$$$ in excursions! My DH and I have driven in both Norway & Iceland several times so we’re good to go! I’ve been re-reading this review and making notes! Very informative! We’re staying in Tromsø 3 nights pre-cruise and in Reykjavik & South Iceland 3 days post-cruise. Due to short time in Iceland we can only do one or the other of these two - Blue Lagoon or lava fields hike, so I asked our friend which he wants to go: Blue Lagoon or Forest Lagoon …. he chose the latter! It’s our friend’s first time to Norway & Iceland! He is going to love driving there.

Last dry dock was in Nov 2020, therefore she’s due for one in 2025. Every 5 years. Epic was launched in 2010.

Caution: If there are more than one NCL ships departing from same port/terminal (or 2 terminals next to one other), like New York MCT or Miami, it would be better to print your tags in colour since the ship has its own colour and would help the porters direct the bags to correct ship.

Not quite. Viva TA (Libson to Miami) in Nov 2023 was our 30th NCL cruise but first new prima class ship. Suffice to say we will not go on a prima class ship again. We will return to any of the older NCL ships but not on Prima or Viva. We still enjoyed the cruise but ..... prefer the other ships. We have been on all NCL ships except the Sky and Prima.

Okay, we’ve been on the Spirit twice post-drydock refurbishment … there are no power outlets beside (or behind) the beds in either balcony or oceanview rooms … so my simple 15ft extension cord comes in handy.

Yeppers, and we live in Bermuda!! The Caribbean ports that NCL cruise to are about 10 deg F hotter than Bermuda in the summer months. Also most of the USA are already warm/hot during the summer months too. That’s why cruising to the Caribbean is less appealing than to Bermuda & the Maritimes. Caribbean go 10 deg F lower during the winter months so that’s why the winter Caribbean cruising is more popular! 15-20 deg F lower than Bermuda (in winter) so that’s why we’d rather go to Caribbean in the winter time than in the summer. It was the Epic’s inaugural Caribbean in 2010 and that happened during the summer months.

Sept & Oct are prime months for "Fall season" cruises to NE England and Canada. Cruises from NYC/Boston go to Bermuda weekly from April to Nov but they take a few weeks break in late Sept/Oct to go to NE England & Canada. One year we went on a Caribbean cruise in late Aug/early Sept and it was so damn hot that we vowed never to do any Caribbean cruises during the summer months.

Bring a 15 ft simple extension cord. Most ships do not have power point beside bed and it’s on the other side of room at desk.

Dec 2-11 and 11-20, 2024 with overnight in Panama City (at end of 1st leg). Out of Miami, so only one short round trip flight for us, no long hauls this time! It's next on our bucket list, and we get to do the PC crossing twice! And different ports of call on each leg!

Great photos always, and welcome back to CC NCL board! I should mention that you have the above 2 restaurants switched around. The top msg #30 is Onda, and the bottom msg #32 is Food Republic. I agree about cruising in December and seeing all the beautiful Xmas decorations on board ... we just booked December 2024 B2B Panama Canal cruises on Gem!

Windows Main Dining Room (deck 6 aft) requires men to wear long pants, but the secondary MDR Taste (dec 6 mid) doesn't.

Nowadays they don’t announce that the cabins are ready until well after 2-3 pm.

Loving your review and fantastic photos! Last week we booked the Dec 2024 B2B Miami-Panama City-Miami on the Gem, and we can't wait. I understand we'll be going thru old locks, and won't expect a crocodile to hitch a ride with us, lol.

$3 tip for 5 bags .... sorry but $20 is far better. Hope all your bags did reach to your cabin intact. On several cruises we've received flyers about "missing" bags .... Another tip: do not go to your cabin to drop off your carry-on bags at all - when the main doors are closed, they are closed and out of bound. Sorry, but the room stewards are busy cleaning and the cabin doors are open. The Muster stations are listed on the Freestyle Daily.

Bring a simple 15 ft extension cord.

NCL does charter a train that departs from Seward at 6:something in the morning on disembarkation morning and the train goes from next to the ship to Anchorage airport only. Then the same train departs from Anchorage airport at 13:something on embarkation day and returns to Seward. These are the two trains that NCL charters on ships turnaround days. Regular Alaska Railroad trains leave from Anchorage downtown train depot at 6:40 am every morning for Seward, and leave from Seward every evening at 6:something pm to return to Anchorage. The latter offer two options: regular seating and GoldStar Dome service. We did the latter when we took the train down to Seward two days before our cruise in end of May 2023, and it was fantastic.

Tip: if you love Indian food, go to Tamara in Indulge for dinner, it’s quiet and their dinner menu is so different to the lunch one. Their naan breads are to die for!

If you read up you’ll see why … and as it turns out it’s important for the OP. Bottom line Encore doesn’t have aft Spice H2O … a Laser Tag is in its place. All other BA/BA+ ships have aft Spice H2O.

Breakaway & Getaway are Breakaway class ships - sisters. Built in 2013 & 2014. Escape, Joy, Bliss, Encore are Breakaway Plus class ships. Built in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019. All above 6 have waterfronts. Prima & Viva are new class ships - Prima class. Forget about these two ships, okay. If there is only 3 of you going, realize this that you'll need to pay double occupancy for the cabin for yourself. Also one of the two girls need to be at least 21 years to be holding the cabin for themselves. That's why I suggested Family Oceanview on deck 5.

Bliss is good. still has the aft Spice H2O. I'd rather go on Bliss (also Joy and Escape) than the Encore! I don't know if you realize that the Family Oceanview cabin (cat O5 on deck 5) is large enough for the 3 of you.

By the way, Joy has a Wine Cellar opposite La Cucina where you can sit at the bar and order wines by the glass. That bar has better selection of premium wines by glass ….

I say, Joy is better than Encore. Joy has aft Spice H2O but the Encore doesn’t!

The Nama sushi and Food Republic remained CLOSED at lunchtime on each of our no less than seven (7) sea days during our Viva TA crossing last month. There were only 4 lunchtime options on Viva and after a few days none of them started to appeal anymore. Sorry NCL, we would rather return to other ships than the Prima class ships. P.S. in addition to the above, the designers (that we have heard) had no cruising experience when the Prima class ships were built. For the trivia buffs I’m sad to say that the venues that the trivias are held are jokes! The biggest joke of them all is the Surfside Cafe being the one third of size of the next smallest Garden Cafe in the fleet.

Then, a 7 days one-way Jewel cruise from Vancouver to Seward end of May, with a couple post-cruise days in Seward (the 7.5 hours Kenai Fjords Glacier Park cruise excursion (Major Marine) is a must do!), then a train to Anchorage? 😁

@mjdangerous1992 welcome to CC! We were on the Viva for the maiden transatlantic crossing and can echo a few of your sentiments about the ship. It was our 30th NCL cruise but our first on a prima class ship, and suffice to say we will not set our foot on a prima class ship again. The Surfside Cafe on the prima class ships (Prima & Viva) has to be the worst buffet on entire NCL fleet. Viva is a very beautiful ship with lovely balcony rooms with super bathrooms, but she is missing a few things that are on other ships. Hopefully you will venture out to try the other NCL ships.