Rare Peachypooh Posted December 24, 2019 #1 Share Posted December 24, 2019 This review will be done in stages as I am trying to get it done in between holiday preparations. It will also just be text as I didn't take that many pictures and there are loads of Encore photos out there that I feel are very accurate. We flew into MIA two days before and stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay as we usually do.If you reserve one of the rooms with a Bay view you can see the ships which is very exciting. The full day we were in Miami we took the trolley (free) to the Bayside Marketplace. It was bustling with holiday shoppers /cruise passengers and we had an excellent lunch at the Bavarian house. On the way home we missed our stop so we got to do the whole Biscayne trolley route for free until we got dropped off. It was loaded with local people going about their business and it gave us a little bit of an idea of what living in Miami is like. The morning of embarkation we saw the Encore pull into port very early around 4 a.m. She is pretty with all her lights sparkling. At 9:45 we hailed a cab from the hotel and got to the cruise port by 10:00 a.m. As we were early there really were no lines for either the Haven passengers which we were or other passengers. It was all very organized. They started boarding by 11:00 a.m. One immediate difference we noted is that once boarded we were left on our own to figure out where to go. There was no escort to the Haven or even directions given to anyone so we quickly had to find a map and make our way ourselves. They let us drop our bags in our cabin even though the room wasn't ready and we headed to the American Diner for lunch. We ordered the blue plate special with the lobster rolls as an appetizer. The lobster rolls were really outstanding and the blue plate special was 2 giant slabs of what looked like prime rib, mashed potatoes and green beans. Excellent as well. This was complimentary for Haven passengers. After lunch we wandered around until our cabin was ready.One thing we immediately noticed was the new ship smell. Everything was pristine and shiny. I had never been on a brand new ship before so it was a treat to see everything so beautiful and new. All week long I pointed out to my husband "Look, new napkins" or" Look new silverware" or "Look no stains on anything anywhere". LOL this impressed me more than it should have. To be continued 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 24, 2019 Author #2 Share Posted December 24, 2019 Once they told us we could go to our cabins we headed up to deck 17. We had a 2 bed/2 bath unit. It was very nicely done. One thing that you should be aware of if you book this cabin is that the master bathroom has large windows overlooking the ocean and the shades are not opaque. If you are using the bathroom and someone is on the balcony they can see you. Also if you are in port and docked next to a building or another ship you are clearly visible so we kept the lights off in the bathroom during those times. They really need opaque shades for those units. Our cabin was right next to the Horizon lounge which made it super handy to get the continental breakfast, afternoon snacks and coffee tea and juice. At low speeds and in port our cabin was nice and smooth but at higher speeds the room vibrated especially the bed. It wasn't wave action it was some sort of issue that needs to be addressed as it made for a couple of sleepless nights. Other passengers on other decks noticed it too. Passenger demographics a lot of the time influence the tone of the cruise. As far as I could tell the cruise was mainly family groups from many different states and even countries. It was nice to see families having a good time together and it made for a nice atmosphere. Lots of different languages spoken.There were quite a few children staying in the Haven so the pool was always full of kids which is fine. However they also used the Horizon lounge to play hide and seek, wrestle each other and jump over couches. Not only was this disruptive it was dangerous due to the glass coffee tables. It was only the last day that they were told by the crew not to run. Even so it wasn't constant so we did spend quite a bit of time in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_sobe Posted December 24, 2019 #3 Share Posted December 24, 2019 (edited) Were you by chance in 17100? Its the suite right next to the Horizon Lounge. If so, does that silver door open right from the hall for access to the lounge? I don't know if its an emergency exit or not. I am in 17100 in Feb so I am curious. Its always sad when parents don't control their kids. If one got hurt, they would be blaming NCL for the glass tables. Edited December 24, 2019 by david_sobe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 24, 2019 Author #4 Share Posted December 24, 2019 3 hours ago, david_sobe said: Were you by chance in 17100? Its the suite right next to the Horizon Lounge. If so, does that silver door open right from the hall for access to the lounge? I don't know if its an emergency exit or not. I am in 17100 in Feb so I am curious. Its always sad when parents don't control their kids. If one got hurt, they would be blaming NCL for the glass tables. We were in 17700 starboard. 17100 is the same location port. As you exited the cabin there was a door straight ahead that opened into the hallway that ledato the right (about 10 feet) into the lounge.I am assuming it is the same in for 17100. To the right as we exited our door was a unisex bathroom for people I am assuming that have Haven cabins but are not in the Haven to use. It really didn't get much use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 25, 2019 Author #5 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Muster drill was announced at 3 pm to start at 3:30. Our muster station was the Local. This was the only time I met a rude crew member. It said right on our door that our muster station was C7 and when we went down to muster I asked a crew member where C7 was because I could only see signs up to C6. He said there is no C7 so I checked my sign and sail card and it said C5. He then smirked and said I told you so. There was no reason for this as I was polite and had just asked a question and had been given wrong information in my cabin. Anyway my cabin steward and butler were delightful as were everyone else we met so perhaps he was just having a bad day. On embarkation night we had dinner at Q. We live in BBQ country and I can say I was impressed with the food. Service was fast and the crew friendly. After that we walked around a bit to get our bearings. My heart sank a little as I didn't think I could figure out such a big ship and was just plain confused. Never fear by the second day things were clearer and I easily found my way around by the end of the first sea day. The first sea day (Monday) was our meet and greet. It was at the District brew house and NCl really rolled out the red carpet. Every one was given free flights of beer and they passed hot and cold appetizers that were excellent. The organizer did a great job and we were given the cards with the officers extensions which I never had reason to use. The Captain's reception was held at 7:00 in the Horizon lounge with cocktails and again excellent appetizers. At 7:30 we saw our first show Choir of Man. The singing and dancing were very professional and the actors/singers were enthusiastically cheered. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 25, 2019 Author #6 Share Posted December 25, 2019 We saw three shows and all three were excellent. Choir of Man, the Beatles tribute (not in the Cavern club but in the theatre) and lastly Prohibition. Choir of Man - had no plot but was loosely based on a group of men singing in their pub. Excellent voices and one man tap danced in a very entertaining way .Resevations needed. Free Beatles Tribute Yesterday- was 45 minutes long and held in the theatre .No reservations needed. Free. The entertainers had amazing voices and I am pretty sure were wearing wigs and stayed in character clowning around. If you are even a mild Beatles fan see it. Excellent. Prohibition- reservations needed and there was a fee. This was held in the comedy venue. Even after the standbys were let in there were still seats available. In the one hour they performed they served 5 cocktails! My husband chose the alcoholic ones but only took a sip. I chose the non-alcoholic ones but still only took a sip. A little off color humor but great fun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 25, 2019 Author #7 Share Posted December 25, 2019 We stopped at three ports. Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Tortola Puerto Rico- This is an evening stop and we had planned to walk to Triana's restaurant and watch a flamenco show. No sooner had we stepped off the ship we were deluged with rain. We were wearing raincoats but even an umbrella wouldn't have saved us. We were soaked. So we went to CVS which is a short walk and bought some souveniers and went back to the ship. We were truly disappointed but you can't count on Mother Nature to cooperate. St. Thomas- We took the tramway to Paradise point which afforded us spectacular views from the top. We ate lunch in their restaurant (shrimp and lobster roll) which was tasty and then took the tramway back down. We then went to the Pirate Museum. It was much better than the typical tourist trap. There was a gift shop which had some interesting finds but the star was the museum portion. You got to stand in a booth and feel what it is like to be in hurricane force winds, saw some shipwreck artifacts but the best part was seeing the private collection of a man who works there. He had things he has salvaged over the course of 20 years displayed in a case and gave a one hour talk about each item. It was really interesting and truly appreciated that he does this. Tortola-We took a cab to the Botanical Gardens which is aprox 1 1/2 miles from the cruise port. It was very hot that day. It took aprox. 45 minutes to go through the gardens which really took a hit during the hurricanes but is coming back nicely. We took quite a few beautiful flower pictures. It was $3 each to get in. That's when the fun started. We had arranged for a taxi to come back to get us but he never showed up. My rule of never being dropped off unless in a pinch you can walk back paid off. And that's what we did. We walked back to town and then had lunch at Pusser's Pub. By then we really needed to cool down. I had fish and chips and my husband had a grilled chicken sandwich. Both were good. They are famous for their rum so my husband got a #2 painkiller in a mug and true to form I ordered a diet coke. Then a short walk back to the ship. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sand and Seas Posted December 26, 2019 #8 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Very much enjoying your review! It's been years since we have been to Puerto Rico, but one of our best memories was getting drenched by rain and popping into an awesome little museum to wait it out☔ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 26, 2019 Author #9 Share Posted December 26, 2019 12 hours ago, Sand and Seas said: Very much enjoying your review! It's been years since we have been to Puerto Rico, but one of our best memories was getting drenched by rain and popping into an awesome little museum to wait it out☔ Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 26, 2019 Author #10 Share Posted December 26, 2019 The Observation lounge-This was one of our favorite spots on the ship. Not too many people sleeping but lots of family groups playing cards, etc. We usually headed there at 3 p.m. for Happy Hour. We were able each time to get a spot at the bar. Lovely was our bartender and she was cheerful, efficient and remembered what we liked to drink. The best bartender we have ever had. I do not drink but she kept me well stocked with ginger ale, diet Pepsi or a non-alcoholic mudslide. My husband usually ordered a painkiller or negroni. One thing I noticed is that people really liked to socialize in this area of the ship and both the one time we sat at a table and the other times we sat at the bar we were able to chat with some very interesting people which made our cruise much more enjoyable. Between 3 pm and 5 pm the Observation lounge really got crowded as that was the time the buffet changed over from lunch to dinner and in the Observation lounge you could get a light meal like a sandwich, fruit, or other munchies. Pool area- We only sat at the pool one sea day but were able to get a table starboard side in the shade. My husband did go in the pool but he didn't spend too much time there as I think he said it was cold. We also attended an ice carving demonstration on the pool deck and were able to get close enough to really see what was going on. They let you bring food from the buffet out to the pool and we did take advantage of that.My chair faced towards the stern and seeing the pool slides and raceway, etc. one deck up made for a feeling I was sitting in a cavern. Not a clean line of sight to the ocean unless I looked sideways out of the window. The buffet- There was a very large assortment of food at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Even though there were quite a few seats we made it a point of getting there just as it opened (5 p.m. for dinner) as the sheer number of people just for me was unpleasant. Everyone was polite but if you don't like crowds time your visits carefully. Tables were cleaned immediately to accomodate as many people as possible quickly. Things I tried and liked were the carving station (pork roast) the pasta station had already made items (penne and spaghetti you could put either a creamy parmesan sauce on or tomato based sauce) You could also wait and have something custom made for you. In the morning there was an omlet station but also premade omlets, hash browns, bacon, sausages etc. The pastries were just OK. The only pastry I found l liked were the almond ones in the Horizon lounge. As usual even though the food was plentiful, varied and delicious, the desserts just left something to be desired. That's OK it cut down on calories! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbri Posted December 26, 2019 #11 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Thank you for your review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 26, 2019 Author #12 Share Posted December 26, 2019 27 minutes ago, jimbri said: Thank you for your review! You're welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 26, 2019 Author #13 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Laundry Service- We sent out some laundry the morning of our first sea day (Monday) and it was returned to us by 6 p.m. Tuesday. On the other Norwegian ships we have sailed, everything came back folded in a basket and we had trouble once with white items coming back gray. Not on the Encore! Everything was hung on nice plastic hangers and the white items were sparkling clean. There was a bag special mid-week but since we get two bags of free laundry we just went ahead and sent out the items that we wore pre-trip in Miami. We were impressed. Cagneys-Other than Q which I mentioned earlier (that we loved) we also ate at Cagney's. Frankly I can't remember what we ordered but I remember it was delicious. The layout of the restaurant is much better than the Jewell class ships (in my opinion) as they put the tables for 2 and 4 together near the window and the tables for larger groups (read between the lines rowdy kids LOL) in another area. It was a peaceful meal. The Local-This area is one deck up from the atrium and if something is going on in the atrium the noise is deafening. However there is one section tucked away in an alcove where we asked to sit that cut the sound by 50%. We ordered the grilled cheese sandwich with tomato. Wow!! The bread was toasted to perfection, they used two types of cheeses with tomato in between and you had a choice of chips or french fries. The service was very, very prompt. Haven restaurant- Even though we could have eaten here for all three meals for the 7 days we only ate there twice, both times for dinner. I can't explain why but there were so many other choices we didn't want to miss. I had the lamb chops one of the nights and they were done exactly as ordered. It took one hour each time. The menu is limited but what they offer is good quality. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floot Posted December 26, 2019 #14 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Enjoying your review! We were also on the Encore at the same time as you. We enjoyed the Observation Lounge quite a bit, as well, especially my teenage daughter. Great place for an afternoon snack or light breakfast in the early morning (the best time, IMO). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Peachypooh Posted December 27, 2019 Author #15 Share Posted December 27, 2019 Internet- We were pleasantly surprised at how fast the internet connection was. We had the 250 minute perk plus an extra 30 min each for being platinum. We checked our email daily, printed boarding passes the last day plus posted on facebook. We still had 200 minutes left at the end of the cruise! Water- In the past for some reason my ankles would swell when cruising NCL. The last cruise I drank exclusively bottled water and I was fine. This time I said the heck with it and switched back to using the hot water from the Horizon lounge for tea. No ankle swelling problems. We did order 6 of the 1 liter bottles which showed up as 12 1/2 liter bottles that along with our platinum water bottles was way too much. We had to leave about 6 behind. I imagine if we had gone to the beach at any of the stops it would have been useful but the shipboard water was totally fine. Casino- We played the slot machines one day. Didn't do too well and just had $34 of vouchers to cash in. We decided to use the self redeem machine and it only spit out $29 LOL Oh well we didn't follow up with the cashier because how could we prove what we put in? Next time the cashier for us. Haven sun deck- Aside from a first day walk through we did not use it at all. It was too windy and rocky most days. I did see a few couples up there but we decided too windy for us. It seemed like a nice area. Main dining rooms- We did not eat in any of them. Kinky Boots- Cancelled due to rough seas the night we were to see it. We had seen it in the Broadway touring production so weren't too disappointed. We enjoyed it when we saw it on land. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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