melodyesch

Will HAL wait for you if you’re on an independent excursion? How do they have any idea when/if you’ll return?

Great review! When going to a new port, I usually look for your reviews because of how thorough you are!

We’ve carried our luggage on before when we packed really light and got on the ship a bit later. That’s not to avoid tipping a porter, but to just be able to walk on and straight to our cabin and unpack.The cabins used to be ready about 1:00, but the last two we were on, it was closer to 3 or 3:30. So now we’ll drop them, even if we’ve packed light.

We did this recently in New Orleans. I rented a room for the day at a nice hotel through dayuse dot com because our flight didn’t leave until 9pm. It was very reasonable. i have also used the Luggage Forward in Seattle and it worked out great. I’d definitely do it again.

Thank you, @BirdTravels!!,

Hi. If you’re on the Breakaway and wouldn’t mind, would you see what single malt scotches they have in the shop and the prices? Or take a picture? We’ll be on in a couple of weeks and my husband would love to know. Thanks!

I’m so sorry this happened! I do feel there should be an automatic pop up or something to tell you about the passport requirement, especially if they let you book and check in with a BC. I’m a very experienced cruiser, but honestly, I thought closed loop meant leaving from the US and returning to the US. We have passports and have always left from and returned to the same city so I guess I never gave it any thought. So sorry!

I didn’t take any pics, but the bed was by the balcony and the headboard was forward.

I did a review of my Alaska Encore trip just a few weeks ago. I don’t how how to link to it, but you should be able to find it in Search or by clicking on my username. I love NCL and it’s my line of choice, but I would not choose it again for Alaska. Mostly because of the Ward Cove thing, but also for the short times in other ports. But Ward Cove was terrible. You had to wait for a shuttle to town. But that shuttle lets you off at the farthest berth. So then you either have to walk 20 minutes to places like Creek Street or get in a line for ANOTHER shuttle. If you’re there all day it’s one thing, we were only there from 7-12. I think the last shuttle back was at 11:30. We really didn’t have time to do anything. Meanwhile, Princess and Holland were parked right in town. I would really take a long look at the port times and compare with Princess and Holland.

I go to bed relatively early and didn’t hear a sound. I always take ear plugs just in case, but never had to use them.

I have no advice about a TA, but would definitely recommend going to the travel forums at both Rick Steves and Fodors. People there have done it all and you’ll get tons of help.

I just rented from Turo a couple of weeks ago and it could not have been easier. Immaculate newish SUV parked right at the port with a lockbox attached to the window. I would definitely do it again.

I just used it a few weeks ago in Seattle. I was a bit nervous about it, but it worked out great. I’d do it again.

In Juneau, we rented a large SUV from the ride share site, Turo. It’s like AirBnB, but for cars. We picked up a newer, super clean SUV with 3rd row seating right at the port and drove ourselves out to Mendenhall glacier and then around the area making several stops. Couldn’t have had a better day. At Skagway, we walked around the town in the morning and then did the NCL excursion, Sled Dogs and Gold Panning. I had done this same excursion with my niece about 10 years prior and she wanted to go again. It was a first for the rest of our group. You get to learn about the Iditarod and meet some of the sled dogs, then you get to hold the puppies. After that, you do the cheesy gold panning, but everyone in our group really enjoyed it.

There wasn’t one, but I’ve read that you can ask for one. I didn’t go to Choir of Man this time so I’m not quite sure. When we saw it before I want to say maybe a little over hour? Not too long and didn’t feel too short either. Aunt and Uncle went this trip and loved it.

I am pretty sure I did see them at every port except Victoria. Have a great time!

If that’s true then I must be confusing Jersey Boys with COM, since our last cruise was in December on the Bliss. So we’d have seen COM on a cruise prior. The takeaway I had intended was the one show instead of two.

Oh, one more thing. I am by no means a coffee snob, but I found the coffee on the ship completely undrinkable. We were on the Bliss in December and don’t remember the coffee being bad, but this was terrible. It’s also how I discovered that in the Local, they will bring you a pot of hot chocolate with about 3 cups in there. So that was my breakfast drink of choice.

I thought I’d give just a relatively short review of our recent trip on the Encore to Alaska, May 28th – June 4th. This is mainly going to be about the ship and our experiences. This was my 9th cruise on NCL. I’ve also been on Princess, RCL, and Carnival. My shipmate for this trip was my husband’s cousin, and it was her first cruise. This cruise was for my niece’s high school graduation, so my sister-in-law, niece, and my husband’s aunt and uncle were also along. Embarkation – We stayed overnight in Seattle at the Marriott right across from the pier. We walked over at about 11:30 and got in the line for Latitudes to check in. The lady was friendly, but clearly made a mistake when checking me in. She had checked Jamie (cousin) in first and when she got to me, she told me there was an issue because the name on my reservation didn’t match my passport. I told that wasn’t possible since I have had the same name on my reservation and passport for all of my NCL cruises. She then says my name is Jamie. So, she had scanned Jamie’s passport and then didn’t something incorrectly and tried to check her in again. It actually took a bit of time to correct, but we weren’t in a hurry and finally it was straightened out. By the time we got our key cards, everyone was boarding so we just kept walking and walking until we were on board the ship. Since we had eaten a large breakfast, we just went to the Boardwalk to sit and wait for the cabins to be ready. I could have sworn in the past that they were usually ready by 1:00 pm, but it was closer to 3:00 by the time we were able to get in. We stayed in standard balcony 9778, which is on the starboard side, directly above the Food Republic. One thing that I didn’t realize until then is that the balcony was about twice as deep as a normal balcony. I was very happy about that! Meals – During the week, we ate 3 dinners at specialties (Cagney’s, Tappenyaki, and Los Lobos) and the remainder in the dining rooms. All of the dinners were really good, some a bit slower than others. If I had one complaint, it would be the last night in the Manhattan Room. The food was still good, but the service was extremely slow, and it was REALLY loud in there. But the head waiter came over to apologize, saying that they were super crowded with people getting an early dinner before heading off the ship in Victoria (8pm – 12pm). That made complete sense so really nothing to be done about it. I don’t normally do the Tappenyaki on the ship, having one just down the road from my house. Prior trips on NCL haven’t been that great. But my niece was also on this trip and chose this as her high school graduation celebration meal. And I must say, the show was the best I’ve seen in quite some time in a Tappenyaki and the food was excellent. Lunches we ate either in the buffet, the Local or a light lunch in the Observation lounge. I really do like the Indian food in the buffet, but understand from others that it’s really Americanized Indian food. But that’s OK for me. Everything else was good and no complaints on lunch. The one breakfast we had in Taste was so incredibly slow and the orders completely wrong that we just decided to do the buffet or the Local for breakfast. It’s not fair for me to give it a judgement since we only gave it the one try. But again, all of the food was good. The portions are noticeably smaller for dinner than has been before Covid, but that was A-OK with me. They are now reasonable portions where we all left comfortably full and not completely stuffed. Only one pasta dish was kind of a miss for one of us, but the others were really good. The ship didn’t seem as crowded as I knew it was, which is amazing because the weather was too cold to use any of the outdoor areas. But we didn’t go to any shows or really do anything beyond find comfortable places to sit and read and play games. The Choir of Man was booked solid on the first day, but two of our party joined the waiting line and were able to get in with no reservations. I had seen it before so didn’t care about missing it. I was surprised there was no other big show, though. Our last cruise in December we had Choir of Man AND Six. For the day in Glacier Bay, I arrived at 5:00 am to claim a spot for in the Observation Lounge to watch the scenery. The front of the ship was already jam packed and it was clear that a lot of people slept there. One person had pushed two of the comfy chairs together and had her pillow and comforter from her stateroom. I admired her commitment. There were a lot of people saving seats, but I was OK with that, as long as there was a butt in the seats. I didn’t see where anyone just threw their belongings on chairs and then left for hours. We had 6 people in our party, so I arranged a few chairs around one of the sofas and by that time three of the others had arrived, with the two stragglers coming in a little bit later. We spent the morning cruising to the glacier, listening to the park ranger giving his commentary. When we finally reached the glacier and the ship started its slow turn, we all adjourned to our respective balconies to finish the day. It was really nice in the sunshine, and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Ketchikan – I will mention Ketchikan because I’ve been there before on NCL, but this time was crazy. We were only in port from 7am -12pm and we had to deal with that Ward Cove mess. All of the other ships were downtown Ketchikan with the action front and center while our ship was stuck out in the boonies. There was a huge line to get onto the shuttle into town. But the shuttle only let you off at the pier the farthest away from town. Then you either had to walk 20 minutes to the downtown area or get ANOTHER shuttle to take you. And the last shuttle back was at 11:30am. So, there was hardly any time to DO anything. For this reason alone, when we go back to Alaska, we’ll pay close attention to the amount of time in the different ports and will probably go with someone else rather than NCL docking at Ward Cove. I hadn’t paid any attention this time since we had invited ourselves along on the trip my SIL had booked for she and my niece for graduation. The only thing I truly got irritated about happened on the last night in Victoria. Jamie and I had booked the shore excursion in Victoria where a bus was to take you to Tim Horton’s for coffee and then drive you around Victoria to look at the night scenery for about an hour. The time on our tour tickets to meet on the dock at 8:00 pm. But we weren’t scheduled to actually DOCK until 8:00 pm. Then, an announcement came over saying that were were not actually going to dock until 8:15pm and to NOT line up before the announcement was made. We were sitting in Starbucks and there actually was no announcement, but we saw the line of people who HAD lined up starting to move so we joined it. By the time we got off the ship it was about 8:25 and the tour buses were lined up outside. Except ours wasn’t there. When I asked the NCL tour person, she said the bus had already left, but she could put us on the 9:45pm tour. Not having packed a thing and knowing I needed to get my luggage out, plus seeing NOTHING to do in the terminal, we said no, we’d just get a refund. The NCL person got REALLY snotty and said we wouldn’t get a refund because the time on our tickets were for 8:00 and the bus left at 8:15 and we were LATE. I asked how the bus could have possibly left at 8:15 when we weren’t docked by then and when the announcements said NOT to line up to get off the ship. We got off as soon as was reasonably possible while following the instructions. I was really ticked off at her attitude and she went to discuss with a supervisor, who came back and said yes, we would get a refund. As it turned out, we had a nice time walking around Victoria and DID get our refund, so all was well. Debarkation – I had sent my luggage ahead using the program that sends your luggage ahead to the airport, so it was nice to not have to deal with that. But the instructions said that you needed to get off with the Port Next group when it was called. Not sure if they needed us to do anything in regard to our luggage, that’s when we got into the line to get off and it was a complete crush. They had us snaking from the forward elevators, all the way back to the back of the ship, through the casino, back to the Local, through the Theater and then out to finally get off the ship. Since my husband and I always try to be one of the last ones off to avoid this, it was a new experience. It is not an experience I will repeat again. But I guess getting 4000 people off the ship at once is just a logistical nightmare. The line did appear to be organized, but all of the slow standing was exhausting. All in all, it was a great trip. Our room steward was great and almost all of the crew that we encountered were extremely friendly. There were a couple who were less than friendly, but that wasn’t normal. I did hear SEVERAL people complaining about this or that. One complaint was about the lack of specialty dining reservations. As platinum, I make my reservations in advance and there were several newbies who said they didn’t know until they got on the ship that they had to make reservations, given that NCL is supposed to be “freestyle” and weren’t able to visit the specialty restaurants or to get a refund for the gratuities paid for the package. That did seem like a valid complaint. So that’s it for our Encore cruise. We had been on her before and would definitely go again, just probably not to Alaska.

Is the Starbucks package like the beverage package, where both people in a cabin have to have it? I am thinking about it, but know my cousin roommate would not. Thanks!

Thanks. I have 21 on the brain because tomorrow is 21 days out. I did make them at 125 days!!

Wow! Thanks for that @BirdTravels. I’ve never seen Q or Los Lobos sold out! Thankfully, I did make all our reservations at 21 days out, but am just hoping to switch the Tappenyaki to a more desirable day. With 6 people, it seems like a long shot, but at least I have a date already secured!

Thanks for the responses. This is just what I needed to know.

I am going the end of the month to AK on the Encore with some family and have a couple of questions. I am platinum and everyone else is on their first NCL cruise. 1. I understand they’ve brought back the ship’s tour, which you get for free if you’re platinum. Do you get to bring a guest? If so, I’ll sign up and take the newbie cousin I’m rooming with. 2. Where do you actually go when you board the ship for specialty dining reservations? I’ve always booked ahead but we’d like to try to get all 6 of us into the Tappenyaki so I’ll make a beeline when I board to see if that’s possible. Everything pre-boarding is full. Thanks! Melody

My DH and I really liked it on Encore. If it was noisy I don’t remember or I’ve just forgotten it. I don’t remember specifically what we had, but we both thought it was really good. As far as Cagney’s goes, we had crossed them off on our previous cruise but decided to give it another try since we both wanted steak. We were both incredibly surprised because the food was excellent. So much that we went back a few days later. Hopefully we didn’t just hit them on a good week.