cruiservictor

What do people think about refunds of port charges?  We were only in Bermuda one day, so I was wondering if they would credit back some of the port charges. 

They announced 10 names, then 3. Those 3 showed up at about 3:50. A man was first. He seemed to be enjoying the catcalls. He was recording the whole thing on his phone. Then the 2 women came up behind him and were dropped off from cab. Looks like they had been at the beach. We were underway at about 4:10. The horns you heard blowing were the 4PM ferry departing. I don’t think we blew our horn. By the way, our phone rang at about 3:40. They were looking for my wife, who has been back onboard for hours. But something must have gone wrong when she did the facial recognition coming back onboard. 

9:15AM here. No sign of a pilot boat and we are heading southeast, away from the east end of Bermuda. Just waiting for an announcement from the Captain. 

Norwegian Breakaway, weeks of 10/17 and 10/24/2021. 
 

Captain - Andreas Karlstrom

Staff Captain - Piero Massa

Chief Engineer - Jerker Aakerman

GM - Errol Bailey

Assistant GM - Bir Singh Rana

Food & Beverage Dir - Mihaela Mocan

Executive Chef - Lloyd Anthony Johnson 

Restaurant Manager - Hernan Gonzalez

Beverage Manager - Adela Toskic

Executive Housekeeper - Carmencita Reid (first week), Olden Forbes(second week)

Cruise Director - Alvin Oliva

Guest Service Manager - Gina Yunzal

Cruise Next Manager - Taarun Shorey
Haven Concierge - Monica Fotache

2 hours ago, Shellbelle28 said:

Not for the 10/24/2021 sailing as far as I know. NCL told me it is Meyer Hanno. 

It’s actually Hanno Meyer. We had him on the Bliss in February of last year, just before everything shut down. He is very good, and very tall. 

1 hour ago, FlGoodShips said:

Anyone have a current list of crew/officers on the Encore??

Thank you.

We were on the 9/11 and 9/18 Encore voyages, so some of these may have changed since then.

Captain - Martin Holmqvist

Staff Captain - Simone Croci

Chief Engineer - Rino Belan (first week), Marijan Pleslic (second week)

General Manager - Marc Spijkerboer

Asst GM - Jocel Guzman

F&B Director - Charles Fernandes

Asst F&B Dir - Lale Becu

Cruise Director - Yanique Smith (first week), Silas Cook (second week)

Executive Housekeeper - Ferdinand Fandialan

Restaurant Manager - Elena Cornea

Executive Chef - Praveen Mathias

Beverage Manager - Kiran Aguiar

Guest Service Manager - Rashida Ramos

Haven Concierge - Adrian Bica

23 minutes ago, Lancaster99 said:

Who is the Cruise Director currently on the Breakaway?

Alvin Oliva.

We generally get the Haven letter with the luggage tags about a month before sailing. So I wouldn’t be concerned if I hadn’t gotten the mailing for a November 20 sailing yet. Give it a few more weeks. And we booked with a TA. The letter and tags used to be mailed to the TA, but for the last several cruises, they have been sent directly to us. 

2 hours ago, cruiservictor said:

We are back today at Adventure Landing instead of Wilderness Landing, so no gondolas again.  Not sure why, except the Guest Services Manager said they got a last minute call from the tour operators to dock here.  As recently as the "Encore Today" TV show this morning (recorded last night), Silas was saying we would be at Wilderness Landing and that everyone could take a short walk or the gondolas to where the tours depart from.  Will try to get more details.

As per Silas, the port authorities decided that with the high winds, it was not safe to run the gondolas.  So, we diverted to Adventure Landing.

We are back today at Adventure Landing instead of Wilderness Landing, so no gondolas again.  Not sure why, except the Guest Services Manager said they got a last minute call from the tour operators to dock here.  As recently as the "Encore Today" TV show this morning (recorded last night), Silas was saying we would be at Wilderness Landing and that everyone could take a short walk or the gondolas to where the tours depart from.  Will try to get more details.

Kinky Boots was back last week and Choir of Man is back this week.  The schedule, at least for this week, is Kinky Boots Monday at 7 and 10 and Tuesday at 7, and Choir of Man Thursday at 7:30 and Friday at 7:30 and 10.

4 hours ago, Kimbahh said:

Yippee!!!  That is exciting news. 

Are the Gondolas running again in ISP?

How rough are the seas heading out to AK on your last cruise?

Are you freezing cold or is it bearable?

Thanks Victor.    

Won't know about the gondolas until Monday afternoon.  Our scheduled arrival time is 3:30PM Alaska time, 7:30PM Eastern time.

There were very strong winds and rough seas from when we left Ward Cove late Thursday basically until our arrival in Seattle this morning.  We did not complete docking today until almost 8:30AM.  So far, so good tonight.  But we are still in the strait, having just dropped off the pilot at Port Angeles.

It was in the low to mid 50s for all of our ports last week.  The worst weather was at Ward Cove, with steady rain being blown sideways by strong winds.

Starting second week back to back today. Kinky Boots was back last cruise, and Choir of Man is back this week.  So is Silas Cook as Cruise Director. Met him this morning. He actually remembered my wife and me from a cruise on the Breakaway in 2015. I was amazed. 

Really enjoying your pictures and reports. My wife and I embark when you disembark. If possible, would you let me know who the Captain, the General Manager and the Cruise Director are?  Thank you very much and we look forward to the rest of your reports. Have a great week. 

The following was posted a few hours ago on the roll call for the first Breakaway cruise on Sept 26. Are you aware of any of this?

Update on my current cruise on the NCL Encore…apparently we had one passenger test positive for Covid during the cruise.  That entire family was taken off the ship.  However the bridge crew are now in code red meaning they are in lockdown and wearing N95 masks and can’t meet with any other passengers or crew.  However, hadn’t really impacted anything else.  As far as I know it is just to ensure the critical crew are not exposed!

Looks like another late arrival. I believe the planned arrival time was 1PM local. It’s now approaching 1:45 and there is still a ways to go. Did they say anything about arriving late?  Was it due to bad weather?

Great pictures (once I turned them around - ☺️).  Brings back memories of the Bliss Haven lounge.  Thanks for the officers' pictures, too.  Just a reminder that if you happen to see Deepak again, I would appreciate it if you would ask if he will still be on for the 9/11 and 9/18 cruises next month.  Thanks.

10 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I'm just curious.  Why would it matter to you who the GM is?

Hi - we sailed with Deepak as the GM 4 times on the Escape in 2018.  He remembered us each time and took great care of us, as did his team.  It is always nice to see familiar faces on NCL cruises, and somehow they remember us from prior cruises, which is amazing considering they deal with thousands of people a week.  We always try to be nice, which probably helps.  Anyway, we hope he is still on next month.  Deepak is on the far right in this picture. 

Thank you very much for doing this. I hope you have a wonderful time. The General Manager is Deepak Punia from India, a wonderful gentleman. We sailed with him 4 times on the Escape out of NY. Would you see if you can find out if he will be on the Sept 11 and Sept 18 sailings on the Encore?  We will, and we hope to be able to sail with him again. Thank you. 

I see you are just pulling away from Ward Cove. May you have calm seas on your way back to Seattle. If you see GM Deepak before you disembark, would you ask him if he will still be onboard for the 9/11 and 9/18 sailings?  Nancy and I had several wonderful cruises with him on the Escape out of NY a few years ago, and it would be great to see him again. Thanks. 

Wishing you a wonderful cruise.  I know a lot of people will ask you to find out one thing or another for them, so here is mine.  The GM is Deepak Punia and we sailed with him 4 times on the Escape out of NY in 2018.  We will be on the September 11th and 18th cruises next month.  Would you ask him if he will still be onboard then?  Thank you.

1 hour ago, ama123 said:

 

I am hoping so but the date the system is telling me reservations will be available for our upcoming cruise is 120 days, not 130, even though we are booked in a haven suite. 

The screen always says come back on what would be 120 days, even if you are in the Haven.  They open up, however, at 130 days for Haven guests.  Last Wednesday morning I booked dinner reservations for our 10/17 Breakaway Haven cruise, and tomorrow night I will book them for the following week, even though the screen says to come back on 6/26. 

22 hours ago, CaptainWoody said:

Yes.  The system sometimes doesn't work consistently.  I would call them tomorrow.

So I did call yesterday (Wed June 9).  The first rep transferred me to the Concierge Desk.  Spoke to Connie.  She could see the problem I was referring to.  She sent a report of the problem to the appropriate dept.  She also took down my specific request and said if it does not get resolved, she would send it to the ship and the concierge there would take care of it (when there is one onboard).  

Now, just after midnight on Thurs 6/10, I just happened to check again and Cagney's is now available and I made my reservation.  Not sure if it was fixed due to my call.  We are actually doing back to back cruises, so the dinners for 10/24 open next Wednesday morning.  I will see if Cagney's is available to book then.

I just made dinner reservations early this morning (Wed 6/9) for our 10/17 Breakaway Haven cruise at 130 days out.  Interestingly, I was able to reserve for Le Bistro, La Cucina and Teppanyaki, but Cagney's still says "too early to book".  I don't think I've ever run into that before.  Has anyone?

We've done several back to backs, all in NYC.  My recollection is that for our first 1 or 2, they were booked as 1 14-day cruise, so we did get a financial break.  Since then, they have all been separate cruises.  

We stayed in the same cabin each time.  The ones on the Breakaway, we had to meet in the Bliss Lounge and were escorted off the ship, and waited in a special area in the terminal building.  When the "zero count" was achieved (meaning all passengers were off the ship), we were the first ones back on, even before the new Haven guests.

The process changed for the B2Bs we did on the Escape.  For those, we met a CBP officer in Modernos at 7AM (would have liked it to be a little later) and were, in effect, cleared off the ship.  At least administratively.  We were allowed to stay onboard, and it was really fun listening to all the color codes being called, and then "last and final" call around 10 or 10:30.  Shortly after that, embarkation for the next cruise began, but for a little while, the ship was ours.