SOLO Review of the Norwegian Encore Inaugural Transatlantic #SFB

[Victorious8]

After going back and forth on whether I was going to do this review or not I finally decided to because frankly I wanted to relive one of my favorite adventures to date. There often aren't a ton of reviews from solo's and even less from younger solo's. I hope to add something to the community and also entertain you a bit.

 

A little (or a lot) about myself - I am a young professional single woman in her early 30's. No children and I tend to identify more with those in their late 20's than 30's. I am extremely extroverted and have a huge case of FOMO (fear of missing out). I don't really take myself too seriously despite being pretty professionally accomplished and a leader in my community. I value having fun and connecting with others. I rarely tend to sit still for very long and I am always down for a good time. 

 

I developed a love for cruising thanks to my beloved Nana who took me and the rest of my crazy family on a 12 day Princess Med cruise back in 2010. To get a sense of who I am, I was the type of person who can go on a 12 day Princess cruise in their 20's and feel like I spent the entire time partying and having a blast. My Nana loved to travel and in the last ten years of her life I saw her travel all around the world every chance that she got. Unfortunately cancer took her rather unexpectedly and way too quickly for me in 2015. She was my absolute best friend and my parental figure and I can still hardly speak about her without tearing up. This was a professional photo of us taken on the Princess British Isles cruise we did in 2013, just about one year before she was diagnosed and the last vacation we took together. 

 

 

We had always planned on going on a bar trip (tradition to take a vacation after you sit for your bar exam), but it was actually when I brought up ideas that I had for us when she finally broke the news to me that she was terminally ill and wasn't comfortable booking something for that time. When she passed I decided to use some of what she left me to book a trip for myself. I looked around and saw that NCL had studios and booked a trip on the Escape. This was right around when @TheDougOut posted his epic live review from the Escape and it got me even more excited for my trip. 

 

My Escape trip was awesome but to be honest despite meeting a lot of amazing people I missed my family a bunch, especially my Nana. Since then I have done another solo NCL cruise on the Dawn, a cruise with childhood friends on the Epic, and a singles cruise on the Bliss. Unlike my four prior cruises with NCL I was looking for less of a party cruise and more for a time to relax, reflect, and reconnect with myself. 

 

I booked this cruise this past August when prices dropped and I was feeling like a vacation was a MUST. Buying a house and work stress had been making me feel quite overwhelmed. I had a friend from the Escape - who was on the Bliss TA and I really enjoyed following his trip. I had wanted to book Encore right away but the prices were originally crazy for solo's. So other than my friend Aled from the Escape I had never met anyone on this cruise. I was pretty connected to the roll calls and was sure I had annoyed most before I ever headed to the airport. 

 

Alright now that is all out of the way I will actually begin to talk about my trip! 

[Victorious8]

I live in Northern California and my travel agent was able to get me a fantastic deal on a flight from SFO to Heathrow (with a stop in Dublin). While layover aren't ideal for some I actually really enjoyed a few things about this layover. One, I was able to clear customs in Dublin which took all of 5 minutes and two I was able to freshen up in the bathroom in Dublin after a 10 hours flight before getting to my final destination. 

 

My roommate is an actual angel and drove me to SF which in the afternoon is almost five hours round trip with traffic. It was a breeze checking in and I was soon near my gate sipping on a cider and playing some Pokemon GO on my phone. 

 

I had a really interesting person sitting next to me on my flight. She had immigrated from Ireland to San Francisco in the late 1950's and had been a Midwife since the early 60's. This flight was her moving back to Ireland to I presume finish out her life in her homeland. 

 

 

I flew AerLingus The food was decent, I couldn't sleep very much but watched some nice TV shows and dozed off every few hours or so. I had a window seat but it was a plane where it isn't right up next to the window so I had trouble getting comfortable despite the massive blanket I took with me. 

 

 

I put some makeup on at the Dublin airport so I could get a decent selfie. It was Halloween and like many Americans I still wanted to celebrate so I wore my devil horns around the airport. 

 

 

The flight to Heathrow was really quick and I slept on my tray table for most of it. 

 

I purchased my ticket for the National Express bus ahead of time to take me straight to Southampton. I could have stayed the day in London but traveling alone it just didn't seem worth it. I had already been to London for a handful of days with my family before our British Isle cruise so I decided to just head straight to the port to begin relaxing. 

 

The National Express bus was easy enough to find at Heathrow although it was a bit further of a walk than I had expected. They have free wifi on the bus but you have to download an app before you can use it - which the driver didn't mention until after the airport wifi was not longer available. Wasn't a big issue and I enjoyed my own row and some music on my phone for the hour and forty five minute ride. 

 

There wasn't many taxi's at the bus depot in Southampton when I arrived around 8pm in the evening. Since my luggage was manageable I just decided to walk. Although the area is WAY safer than where I live in hindsight probably wasn't the best idea since I was carrying a decent amount of cash. I sort of guessed on the route based on what I had screenshot from the maps app on my phone earlier. The walk was actually nice and brisk and helped me to sort of wake up and stretch my legs after almost 24 hours of travel. 

Looking at the map now looks like I headed to the right accidentally on my walk and took the long way around Ikea.

[Victorious8]

I have no complaints at all about my travel to the U.K. it was my first time traveling abroad solo and it couldn't have gone better. I was able to check in immediately to my hotel, Holiday Inn Southampton, and had a great view of the port which I knew would be quite brilliant once the Encore showed up. 

 

The room was small but definitely nice for one person, I wouldn't have wanted to share the bed with anyone though, however I do have my own King sized bed at home.

 

Even though I had been told people in the UK don't really dress up as much as Americans for Halloween I still had to wear something. 

 

 

Aled, my friend from the Escape was also in town early so soon after I arrived I met up with him to go out for some drinks. It was SO great to see him and really helped ease a lot of my anxiety about traveling solo. Honestly he was great all week letting me bug the crap out of him. 

 

We wondered the streets a little before we found a place we wanted to grab a drink in. Southampton had surprisingly a lot of cute places to stop in and check out, plenty of pubs as well. Definitely enough to keep you busy for a few days pre or post cruise. 

 

We decided on a cider bar called The Stable. I decided to do a sampling board which had a lot more generous pours than I had expected. I was very happy about that:

 

 

 

 

After The Stable closed for the night we wondered a bit further and finally decided to duck into a bar that was selling pints for 3GBP. When we walked in we realized it was a silent disco and we almost left. I decided we should at least check out the beer - the silent disco ended up looking like a lot of fun so I decided to try it out and actually had a blast.

 

 

We even ran into two women who were also going to be on our sailing which was pretty cool. We ended up dancing for a few hours until the bar closed. Then it was time for some junk food before heading back to the hotel. I opted for a water while Al got a beer from the hotel bar. 

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by Victorious8
trying to get videos to work

[LaCal]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.  Thx 

[Victorious8]

I hope I can get videos to work as I do have some great ones from the trip! 

 

The next day I slept in and by the time I went down to the Holiday Inn lobby it was packed with fellow cruisers. I was definitely glad I had some in the night before so I could miss all of that madness.

 

I have to say it was a pretty odd experience meeting a bunch of people you could only vaguely recognize from the internet. Despite being an extreme extrovert there are some times where you will find me getting a little shy. This was definitely one of them, someone even mentioned how they didn't expect me to be so quiet on our first meeting. I also recognize that even though I can get real high energy at times, there is a time and a place - not normally the first meeting. 

 

I joined a group that was headed to do a little shopping and to find a beer. We ended up heading to the German bar and on the way ran into some German friends who happened to have delicious fresh pretzels they brought from Germany. Then it was lots of people catching up and me getting to know new people as somewhat of the outsider. The feeling didn't last long and I really enjoyed all of the company. 

 

At that point it was about time to head down to the first Roll Call event, a meet up at the Duke of Wellington for dinner and/or the bar crawl. I decided to not sign up for dinner so before the bar crawl I ran to the Pound shop to get a few things I had forgotten and ended up finding my favorite perfume (YSL, Mon Paris) at a bargain price at the pharmacy makeup shop (I forgot the name). 

 

At that point there started to be a lot of beer and not enough eating...

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we got to the Dancing Man or whatever the bar closest to where the ship was coming in at I was pretty toasted. I met tons of cool people from the roll call that night - sorry if I was a little off!

 

The ship ended up arriving into Southampton a lot sooner than was originally planned in order to try to beat out a storm. Instead of getting up early to see the ship come in a group of us left the pub and wandered out into the rain to watch. 

 

While we were watching the ship come in a nice stranger shared his umbrella with me - my new friends luckily thought a stranger wasn't the best person to share an umbrella with so I was removed from that situation. It was a running joke and mystery during the cruise on who this mystery umbrella guy was and if he was even on our sailing...

 

This night is what also gave me my most quoted line that was repeated throughout the trip - when the Encore was pulling in I was a bit overwhelmed with emotion and starting yelling to the ship "She's so 'f-ing' BEAUTIFUL" this can apparently be heard in @Single Cruiser's facebook live video 😄 

 

But I mean, look at her:

 

 

This was the next photo on my phone, so as you can tell it was about time for me to go to sleep...

 

I crashed about 9pm, I blame some of it on jet lag and some on the not eating much. I ended up waking up around 3am and then not being able to sleep again because I was too excited. I kept getting up to gaze out at the beautiful view from my window:

 

Tomorrow I do actually get on the ship! I will warn you though this review is a lot more about MY experience than giving you an inside look at all the venues. Many bloggers have already posted those and the picture quality and descriptions will be far better than mine. I am happy to try and answer some questions but I mostly just paid attention to the things I was interested in so I likely won't have all the answers - but go ahead and ask! 

 

[CazV]

I can't wait to read the rest of your story... I've seen enough ship photos and I know she's gorgeous, so reading about your solo experience is of genuine interest to me 🙂 

 

I'll be flying with Aer Lingus from Scotland to Miami next week. This'll be my third time flying to the US with them and going through US immigration in Dublin is a real bonus. I'm sailing on Encore solo on the 24th November sailing and have a bunch of new friends to meet on board. 🙂 

Edited November 13, 2019 by CazV

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

Thanks for taking time to do a review, truly appreciated.

[Victorious8]

3 hours ago, CazV said:

I can't wait to read the rest of your story... I've seen enough ship photos and I know she's gorgeous, so reading about your solo experience is of genuine interest to me 🙂 

 

I'll be flying with Aer Lingus from Scotland to Miami next week. This'll be my third time flying to the US with them and going through US immigration in Dublin is a real bonus. I'm sailing on Encore solo on the 24th November sailing and have a bunch of new friends to meet on board. 🙂 

Awesome! It’s definitely an experience cruising solo. It helps that I am extremely extroverted but I still get lonely. I’ve been lucky to have been able to convince some friends to cruise over the last few years! 
 

Last time I did a review I stopped in the middle - however this time I had purchased the social media package so I did a daily post to update my friends and family. Having those notes and pictures semi organized will help me stick with it! 
 

I’ve always said I love traveling solo this way because it just feels so much safer than other options. I always make it back to my bed! Case and point - the second night of the cruise I had a bit too much to drink and Irish goodbyed (disappeared) from the night club but woke up safe and sound in my room. 

[graphicguy]

Thanks for this.  Between you and Sue/Doug, I’m pretty jazzed to sail the Encore.

 

BTW...I love sailing solo, too.  Not adverse to traveling with a partner, though.

Edited November 13, 2019 by graphicguy

[Victorious8]

I could never go back to sleep that morning so I decided to just get up, shower, and head to breakfast when it opened in the morning. It was a buffet style breakfast and rather overpriced in my opinion but I wanted to force myself to eat. I sat near and window and watched the crazy sideways winds blow over some furniture on the patio.

 

I went back to my room to pack up and get my luggage ready. Aled was set on walking to the port but the weather had me a little nervous in general...

 

 

[Victorious8]

...still trying to figure out how to best upload videos... I really should learn how to use a macbook since I am on my second in 10 years and all. Not sure why what is in my iCloud and Photos are different, it's making this review a little more difficult. 

If anyone has advice on posting videos let me know cause I have some fun (and obnoxious ones) I would love to post. 

[bkrickles1]

17 minutes ago, Victorious8 said:

 

Last time I did a review I stopped in the middle - however this time I had purchased the social media package so I did a daily post to update my friends and family. Having those notes and pictures semi organized will help me stick with it! 
 

How was wifi on Encore?

We have the free 250 minutes for our January sailing and I'm considering upgrading for my 19 yo daughter.

We always make do with the free minutes, going on every day for a little bit to check emails and social media, but my daughter will be mostly alone with us and our aunt and uncle and would probably like the freedom of unlimited.

TIA for any info on this.

And thanks for the review!

[Oakman58]

I'm following along and love your report.  I can't wait to read more.

[Victorious8]

18 minutes ago, bkrickles1 said:

How was wifi on Encore?

We have the free 250 minutes for our January sailing and I'm considering upgrading for my 19 yo daughter.

We always make do with the free minutes, going on every day for a little bit to check emails and social media, but my daughter will be mostly alone with us and our aunt and uncle and would probably like the freedom of unlimited.

TIA for any info on this.

And thanks for the review!

 

It was okay for me. I would recommend it may be best for your family to just her the social media wifi plan and then you use your 250 minutes. If you go unlimited you'll have to deal with logging each other in and out I believe. The social media was perfect for me to keep in touch back home. What's App worked best for messaging. iMessage was hit or miss so I stuck to that. FB messenger was also decent. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by Victorious8
They messed up my post and added pictures to this one

[Victorious8]

So annoyed! i had a whole post typed up and somehow it got messed up. I need to be at work soon so I can't add to the trip much today but I am happy to answer questions as much as I can. 

[bssc]

Thanks for the review.  The Southhampton info was helpful.

[kelleyfarms]

Really looking forward to hearing more!!  You make your reviews feel like we are right in the middle of it!!

 

 

John

[Victorious8]

2 hours ago, bssc said:

Thanks for the review.  The Southhampton info was helpful.

Yeah it was definitely a neat place to explore. I did zero research except for looking for a spa. I ended up deciding not to do that though. 
 

I wouldn’t hesitate doing another night or two before a cruise leaving from there. 

[Laszlo]

Following, looking forward to your review!

[Gershep]

Thanks for your review, following!

[pcrum]

Enjoying this review!

[jimbri]

Great review.  Looking forward to the rest.

[Victorious8]

I forgot to mention that at breakfast it had dawned on me that this was the last port that I sailed out of with my Nana. We left here for that British Isles cruise. When I had breakfast I spent some time quietly reflecting on her, her sense of adventure, how proud she'd be of me, what things she might criticize me for (lol), and just altogether felt her presence. I think she may have even had joined with me on this adventure if she would have been alive. There were many times during this trip where even during the crazy times, I know she would have been there rooting me on. 

 

I ended up walking to the port with Al when the storm calmed down a bit. I am really glad I did because I would have felt a bit like an idiot since it was a less than 5 minute walk for us. I gave my bag to the porter and tipped him in USD which he didn't complain about - I forgot to get GBP before I left and I managed very easily in Southampton without any as an FYI.

 

The guy did his normal "make sure you have your passport" speech which always makes me double check even though I had double checked twice that morning. Al couldn't find his at first which had us both sweating for a minute. 

 

Before heading through security it dawned on me that this would be the last time I would be on solid ground for 9 days, and the last time I would see the boat from the shore. 

 

 

Then I needed a selfie (I probably should have had someone take a nice shot of me standing but I still feel weird asking a lot of the time - I need an Instagram boyfriend LOL)

 

Security was very quick, Al made me acknowledge a bit of my not so nice behavior the night before plus being a bit jet lagged/hungover I wasn't feeling my best. I started to get even more anxious when my check-in didn't go smoothly...

 

 

[Victorious8]

-_- another 30 minutes of a post that failed and I forgot to save -_-

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Victorious8
cruise critic hates me today

[Victorious8]

The first thing I thought when I walked up to the check in counter was, wow the girl assisting me is very young. The second thing I thought was, wow when did I become old enough to think of another adult as “very young”. She quickly seemed to have some issues with checking me in but I rudely assumed it must have been because of her inexperience. She then had a friend come over to help who I also thought “wow she’s young too” that girl couldn’t seem to help and before I knew it they both had walked away leaving me to wonder what the heck was going on.

 

My mind started to race thinking of how I somehow had messed up my reservation and would need to fly home. I was already pretty anxious and this wasn’t helping. For a minute I wondered if my less then classy moments on the Norwegian Bliss Halloween singles cruise had somehow gotten me banned from NCL for life. 

 

A few minutes later the original girl reappeared but this time with a man from the ship’s Guest Services. He had informed me that my original room 12573 was having issues and so they would be giving me a complimentary update to a balcony room! To say I was excited would be a gross understatement. I had joked with people before the cruise saying I was going to try and sweet talk someone into giving me a free upgrade. I had actually been a little nervous all morning about how I would feel on the impending rough seas in a little studio.

 

I was so excited I actually forgot to ask the guy what my new room number was or how my luggage would find its new home. I was so excited that Al almost tossed me overboard since I couldn’t stop jumping, skipping, and talking about it the whole time we walked up onto the ship. 

 

We boarded on deck 7 or 9, all I know is that it was one deck from the District Brewhouse where we popped in immediately for our first drink. I had the Dogfish Head SeaQuench, a delicious sour style. 

 

Soon we met some internet acquaintances who would very quickly become real life friends. They also helped me figure out how to login to my social media internet package – however I still needed to restart my phone to get it to fully start working. 

 

 

At this point Al was really over me talk about my balcony upgrade and I was more than ready to try and sneak up to see it, even though the rooms weren’t ready yet. So I climbed up the three flights of stairs to see my home for the next 9 nights, room 11122. 

 

 

It was a bit smaller than I had thought, this was because most of my time spent in a balcony on away+ ships was in a minisuite. Still it was amazing and I felt so lucky to have the room. This random upgrade really helped make my trip something extra special. That was about the last time I would see the couch for the rest of the trip. The late arrival of my bag and the rough seas made it so I never fully put my things away.

 

I will admit that I always thought all of the people on here who seemed upset about which part of the room their bed was on were a little crazy. However, now I think I will forever be partial to having the couch next to the balcony. I absolutely loved having all the natural sunlight and feeling so connected to the ocean every morning as I got ready, I felt almost like a mermaid. 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Victorious8
-_-