limeyalchemist

For anyone visiting GSC in near future, Silver Cove is amazing and well worth the cost of a villa.  We did an ocean villa, no.11 and cost around $100 more than premier cabana, and we all agreed was well worth it.  Not crowded, plenty to do, great restaurant food and very attentive crew.

Silver Cove, Great Stirrup Cay - Jan 2022

Hope that you find the video informative.  We had a great time.

The Norwegian Star was being used as the COVID ship for infected crew when we were out of Miami mid-January 2022.  The ship pulled up alongside the Getway outside Miami and the Encore at GSC and offloaded any infected crew by lifeboat to the Star and loaded cleared crew to come back to the Encore.

Passengers saw them doing the transfer wearing hazmat suits.

On 1/26/2022 at 8:53 PM, cruiserbear55 said:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong- As far as I know , NCL has temporarily , due to covid, discontinued meet and greets, dinners with officers, and latitude get- togethers. Social distancing protocols.

When we were on Encore this month, the cocktail party and other perks were cancelled due to COVID.  The best perks are the free laundry and the specialty dining which worked as normal.

On 1/19/2022 at 3:16 PM, classy_cruiser said:

Encore made it to GSC last week!

We made it successfully to GSC on January 14th and here’s the video of Silver Cove….beautiful, highly recommend.

Silver Cove, Great Stirrup Cay - Jan 2022
https://youtu.be/hzAG_g5X7rU

We just got back from the Encore in mid-January and we had around 1,300 passengers and 1,700 crew. Around 33% capacity.

Was very, very not crowded and very enjoyable.

We just visited Silver Cove on January 14th 2022.  Here is a video that I just completed and uploaded to YouTube showing it.

We rented an Ocean villa, no.110 and loved it.  As you can see, it wasn’t crowded, food was great and the water in both the lagoon and ocean villa beach were pristine.  This was our 6th visit to GSC (out of 6 attempted visits) but first to Silver Cove.

Highly recommend it.

Silver Cove, Great Stirrup Cay - Jan 2022
https://youtu.be/hzAG_g5X7rU

9 hours ago, mpk218 said:

Great Pics...   I just noticed you captured a perfect shot of my group waiting for covid results . Mind if I borrow that shot ?  that entire row starting from far left and my wife in the blue jacket ,far right ..

Thanks

Be my guest.  Lol. 

Posted last week’s Freestyle Dailies as PDFs from Encore Jan 9-16 2022

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jdsYoj5ZFi9lEAEiaP5QS-TzavQ4m8bJ

4 hours ago, Dirtdevil71 said:

Or returning new crew members that are complete with their 5 day quarantine, positive thoughts, 7 days till we board, can’t wait.  You’ve given us hope!! 

Good point.  All the Captain announced, very discretely, is that they were “transferring provisions and crew from one ship to the other” so could well be recovered crew.

4 hours ago, JMT2568 said:

Thank you so much for all your posts a lot of good information.

 

How did you Ocean Villa at GSC?  We are thinking about possible getting a cabana.

 

Also, it seemed like they only have the seashell for sun coverage if you're on the beach, is that correct, or do they have umbrella too?

On the main beach I did not see completely, but from a distance, it appeared that they only had clamshells which have a cost to rent for the day.  Other than that, they had free lounge chairs but no shade.

We’ve previously rented both the small cabanas and the premier cabanas, which is why we splurged this time on the villa….only nominal higher cost but far worth the additional amount.  The other cabanas are very nice and have bar staff and food available.  We’ve used these at least 3 other times and always enjoyed them.  Good value.

1 hour ago, JMT2568 said:

Thank you so much for all your posts a lot of good information.

 

How did you Ocean Villa at GSC?  We are thinking about possible getting a cabana.

 

Also, it seemed like they only have the seashell for sun coverage if you're on the beach, is that correct, or do they have umbrella too?

Yes. We absolutely loved the Silver Cove villa. We had an Ocean Villa which is close to the buffet and has a private beach area. Short walk to the lagoon also. 
 

Here’s photos:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jdsYoj5ZFi9lEAEiaP5QS-TzavQ4m8bJ
 

Snacks delivered, bar service and float mats. Espresso machine too. Beautiful bathrooms which make it nice to go back to the ship clean and not salty. 
 

We swam in both the lagoon and on our beach. 

Signing off, just left the ship at 8:40am. Happy to answer any questions. 
 

Will be posting Freestyle Dailies later today. 

Last night, the Norwegian Star pulled alongside the Encore at GSC. Later we found out that sick crew were being transferred to the Star where they are being isolated. Slight delay leaving GSC. 

Fabulous day on GSC in an Ocean Villa. Staff so attentive. Buffet very good and drink service good but not as frequent as we’d have liked. 
 

All in all a great way to end our vacation. 

Arrived at GSC. Weather picture perfect. Uploaded some sun rise shots. Three RC ships alongside Coco Cay. Much less crowded on GSC. 

Here were the main evenings shows each night:

day 1 Joshua Jordan

day 2 Patty Dees Diva Extravaganza

day 3  Beatles Invasion

day 4 Levity entertainment group

day 5 Broadway in Concert

day 6 Beatles Invasion

18 hours ago, Bakedzd81 said:

Limey! Please keep the updates coming... this is great. More pics please (can you also send snaps of the daily program printouts?)!

Also, are the "Beatles" playing the Cavern Club? 

Thanks! 

Will post freestyle dailies when I get back on decent internet. Scanned all of them as PDFs and will post Sunday. 

Posted several Taino Bay photos in my folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jdsYoj5ZFi9lEAEiaP5QS-TzavQ4m8bJ

12 hours ago, classy_cruiser said:

How was puerto plata? Keeping my fingers crossed you make it to GSC. Did you get a chance to try the thermal spa? 

We are not using the thermal spa.  Looking forward to getting to GSC.  Don’t want to jinx ourselves, but this will be visit 8 out of 8 if we make it tomorrow.  Rented an ocean villa which looks amazing.  Our only splurge on this trip other than the cruise itself.

Puerto Plata was surprisingly fun, relaxing pool day.  We chose to stay in the Taino Bay port area, which just opened in mid-December.  It’s totally free, shops, and a very large and beautiful pool area with three bars surrounding it.  Cocktails and beers are around $7-8 each which is quite reasonable and that’s all that they ask, to buy some drinks, which many people did.

Many, many very comfortable loungers surround the pool and they have loungers in the actual water itself.  Will try to post some photos.

We were very happy to have an inexpensive but fun day at the pool.  We did not eat anything, headed back to the ship around 3pm and ate there.  Highly recommend the post pool area if you’re just looking to relax.  Only 200-300 people there and did not feel crowded.

2 hours ago, CarolinaMamma said:

Would love to hear what your favorite night time entertainment options have been. We love the big shows and Howl at the Moon, which doesn’t exist on Encore. Sailing Jann16th if it doesn’t get cancelled and if we don’t get Covid. 

Our kids have enjoyed the new magician/comic Joshua Jordan. He’s funny and tricks are okay. Not great. Good standup though. 
 

not many shows since headlines are all cancelled. 

On 1/12/2022 at 10:45 AM, Quincella said:

Is the ship offering shore excursions at these new ports?  I almost always arrange things to do on my own, but with everything being so last minute I may have to actually rely on them a bit this upcoming cruise.

Yes. Each port has shore excursions available. Some are limited in number or have very early departure times. 

On the Encore right now and they had the Sunday night game on the big screen our first night onboard. 

Few photos. Sorry if they upload upside down. Brief rain showers and low 80s. 

2 hours ago, Quincella said:

Is the ship offering shore excursions at these new ports?  I almost always arrange things to do on my own, but with everything being so last minute I may have to actually rely on them a bit this upcoming cruise.

Yes. They are. They had 3-4 excursions available. We chose to stay within the port shopping area for two hours. 
 

beach day for $75 per adult was approximate option.