Inaugural crossing, good and the bad?

[RMS Olympic]

i am considering the inaugural crossing on the Encore. I would appreciate others thought, comments, pros and cons from those that did the crossing on the Breakaway, Getaway, Escape and finally the Bliss. I realize sailing month and route differ but how was it overall. I know all the bugs might not be worked out....but would you recommend a inaugural crossing?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

[www3traveler]

i am considering the inaugural crossing on the Encore. I would appreciate others thought, comments, pros and cons from those that did the crossing on the Breakaway, Getaway, Escape and finally the Bliss. I realize sailing month and route differ but how was it overall. I know all the bugs might not be worked out....but would you recommend a inaugural crossing?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

I did the Transatlantic Crossing on The Getaway from Southampton to New York City in January 2014. Very cold all the way but I had a wonderful cruise. I am booked to do The Encore next November and can hardly wait. At this this time we are going to Miami. After the first couple of days, the weather should get warmer and you can do all the outdoor activities.

 

This one is going to be a blast.

 

Come join the party.

[cocod08]

I would suggest reading some of the live reviews from the Bliss TA. They were really good and seemed pretty unbiased but enthusiastic. I’m booked on the Encore TA and the the Bliss reviews have me really looking forward to it.

 

 

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[Fifi1910]

We just did the Bliss inaugural.

Whilst it was a great cruise there was nothing to make it any different from a regular cruise.

From what I have seen online all the pizazz was saved for the pre and post cruise for travel professionals.

Sailing into NYC at 1am was amazing, only slightly hampered by the crew jet washing the decks down at the same time.

As I said it was an amazing cruise but then we’ve never had one that wasn’t.

 

 

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[KeithJenner]

I did the Breakaway and Escape. They are really worth doing.

 

Both of the ones I did had no port days at all, so were a bit different from the Bliss.

 

I enjoy sea days on a normal cruise, so all that time at sea is really good. You really can relax.

 

There is only one way of finding out for sure whether you will enjoy it.

 

 

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[RMS Olympic]

All good responses, thank you. I think I will call my NCl cruise consultant tomorrow and book the crossing. I’m actually booked on Encore in Feb 2020, but I made that booking based on Virgin Voyages startup in summer 2020. Now it appears Virgin Voyages will start sailing Feb or March 2020...so a Encore needs to be rescheduled. I have sailed way too many cruises, but never a crossing so this will different for me. Traveling solo so I sure hope the ship is very social. By the way do NCl inaugural crossings normally sail less than full to aid in the breakin for the crew? I think I read somewhere the Bliss was not full on her crossing. Thanks again for the responses.

Now to count the days till the Bliss first Alaska sailing on a June 2,,,,,,,oh so ready

[LrgPizza]

We did the Escape crossing, which was the same time of year Encore will be. It was 10 nights and no port stops. Don’t worry about being a solo, or the level of social interaction. That cruise by far was more social than any I’d ever experienced. It seemed everyone knew everyone by the end, since we were all stuck together for so long. It was about 1/3 Germans, 1/3 Brits, and 1/3 Americans. (My husband says 1/2 were Germans. Who knows. It didn’t matter to us.)

 

The weather was only nice the last 3 days. Prior to that it was very cold. We’d run to the hot tubs on deck, but otherwise people stayed indoors. We are still considering the Encore Transatlantic if we can make it work.

[Baseball fan]

I was on the Escape TA solo. It was fun and I met a lot of nice people. A lot of the celebratory things were after we arrived in Florida. The weather was cool, raining and damp for at least half the time. I think we had about 3 nice days before arriving Florida.

 

 

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[RMS Olympic]

Thanks everybody! I booked the inaugural crossing......very excited. Now to join the roll call.

Tom