ENCORE Cruise 1/12-1/19 Thoughts

[seadog78]

First time cruising with NCL. After hearing many good thing things about the line, we decided to go for the Haven experience aboard the ENCORE. We’ve cruised a number of other lines and had great to indifferent experiences. 
 

Embarkation was a snap as a Haven passenger. Upon arrival at the Miami terminal, our luggage was taken and we were escorted to a small lounge (coffee, water, cookies, fruit, etc). We were there less than ten minutes before being escorted quickly to our cabin. As we’d beaten our bags to the cabin, we headed to the Haven restaurant for lunch. Simply outstanding. BLUF: All meals in the Haven were great, with tremendous service. We’d have all breakfasts there, a few lunches, and dinners when we weren’t at the specialty restaurants.

 

Specialty restaurants: Onda. Great restaurant, staff had issues with ship motion (more on this later) The food is modern Italian so if you’re looking for baked ziti and lasagna, this is not your place. DD had a yellowtail credo an braised octopus appetizer. The pastas were quite good and my seared tuna entree fantastic. As there was much wine flowing, there was a ton of stemware being walked around and some of it hit the deck.

 

LeBistro. Best of the best. Food is outstanding and the service alone is worth the visit. Highlights: Coq au vin. Filet (best steak on the ship), mushroom soup.

 

Ocean Blue. Meh. Nothing remarkable here. What’s telling is when a seafood restaurant cannot execute a passable clam chowder. You could go into your local supermarket and buy a can of the store brand chowder and it likely will be better than Ocean Blue’s.

 

More to follow on ship motion, shows, the Haven....

 

 

[david_sobe]

Looking forward to your review

 

Who is the Encore concierge?
Do they still give embarkation day lunch at the American Diner?  Any word on 50% off Food Republic the first night?

Did the concierge book all of your activities?  Did you book anything in the Virtual Reality zone?

Did the port of Miami have a Haven entrance outside the terminal?  (Never saw this but heard it now exists)

What did you get at Onda?

 

On Encore next month and cant wait for your review.

Edited January 20, 2020 by david_sobe

[Doxie Red]

We are going to be on the Encore next week and am concerned about the rocking of the ship. My son who is an adult,  gets bad motion sickness. How bad is it? I’ve seen many people comment on it. Thank you for any info you can provide.

[seadog78]

1 hour ago, david_sobe said:

Looking forward to your review

 

Who is the Encore concierge?
Do they still give embarkation day lunch at the American Diner?  Any word on 50% off Food Republic the first night?

Did the concierge book all of your activities?  Did you book anything in the Virtual Reality zone?

Did the port of Miami have a Haven entrance outside the terminal?  (Never saw this but heard it now exists)

What did you get at Onda?

 

On Encore next month and cant wait for your review.

YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A GREAT TIME!
 

Our Haven concierge was Adrian. As with all Haven staff, they saw you once and were able to greet you by name thereafter. Just an incredible staff.

 

Dont know about the American Diner lunch  or Food Republic half off first day; we went to lunch and dinner that day at the Haven Restaurant. We did have lunch twice at Food Republic. We found they did some things really, really well and others just ok. Example, most of every item was really good but the sushi rolls were a bit of let down for several reasons. The rice wasn’t quite right (sushi snobs know what I mean), crab stick not real crab used and amount of fish was sparse.

 

We booked everything (shore excursions, dining, shows) prior to embarking so our concierge wasn’t involved in scheduling things for us. DD was going to do some VR but changed her mind, opting to get some more tanning and gambling in. Adrian, though, was very helpful in answering any of our questions and quickly and painlessly resolving a SDP issue we encountered.

 

Outside the NCLMiami terminal., there isn’t a separate entrance but a Haven desk. You show your Haven ticket(s), you are personally escorted through customs and into the small lounge mentioned earlier. Time from Haven desk to Haven lounge: 2 minutes. 

 

Onda is a must. The bread service you’ve likely read about, several Italian breads and a few Stromboli slices. The spreads are an excellent EVOO, mascarpone butter, and a tomato-eggplant tapenade they should bottle and market. DD had the yellowtail crude and braised octopus as her appetizers and the tagliatelle as an entree. She was pleased.  Bear in mind, DD, is has the best palate in the family; if she likes it, it is good. DW started with the short rib app, tagliatelle, and the branzino entree. The branzino was probably her favorite entree among the specialty restaurants. I had the burrata  (caprese salad), spaghetti, and the tuna. As I noted, the tuna was outstanding.

 

 

[Peachypooh]

1 hour ago, Doxie Red said:

We are going to be on the Encore next week and am concerned about the rocking of the ship. My son who is an adult,  gets bad motion sickness. How bad is it? I’ve seen many people comment on it. Thank you for any info you can provide.

Which deck are you on? We were on the 17th deck but the lower ones seemed much better.

[david_sobe]

Adrian is the best.  Hope he is still on board in late February.  

I did see a video of the bread in Onda and it looked incredible.

[seadog78]

1 hour ago, Doxie Red said:

We are going to be on the Encore next week and am concerned about the rocking of the ship. My son who is an adult,  gets bad motion sickness. How bad is it? I’ve seen many people comment on it. Thank you for any info you can provide.

Surprisingly, rocking on ENCORE was relatively minor. The ship motion I referred to was surging. Surging is the bow to stern motion caused, in large part, by the prevailing seas and winds. Miami to PR, we experienced  Beaufort Scale 6 conditions which a ship such as ENCORE should have handled with ease.

 

Surging, BTW, is largely preventable. One prevents surging by changing course and/or speed. I understand NCL is on a schedule but there’s little question they’re shortening the lifespan of this ship.

 

We were on deck 12 fwd. We’d often hear what sounded as if we had hit something ,followed immediately by the surging motion. On the second night, I did note the Master did slow down to mitigate the slamming effect.

 

We noted the first day our balcony door didn’t seal; you could hear the same noise as driving down the highway and lowering a side window a bit.  The mechs worked on it 2 hours before using a duct tape fix for the night. They fixed it the next day. This is a symptom of excess shock and vibe.  We also noted the Haven observation lounge had a shattered pane of glass (safety glass). My professional opinion is the ship was carrying shock and vibe engineers to observe and take accelerometer readings.

[seadog78]

1 hour ago, Doxie Red said:

We are going to be on the Encore next week and am concerned about the rocking of the ship. My son who is an adult,  gets bad motion sickness. How bad is it? I’ve seen many people comment on it. Thank you for any info you can provide.

I should note travel between the islands and home had very little motion.

 

[seadog78]

Do not miss the ENCORE’s shows.  If you do, your life will be poorer for it.

 

Both shows have impressive production values and live bands.  Choir of Men features familiar songs and an impressively talented ensemble cast. Show up early and have a beer with the cast on stage. The band is on stage and in the background but those guys work. Buy the CD.

 

Kinky Boots. As they say, fabulous.  Big voices, amazing dancing. Great story. What’s not to like?

[seadog78]

Our cabin attendant was a genie. Everything made up, cleaned, turned down, restocked and we rarely saw him. He was like magic.

 

TBH, our butler was a bit of a disappointment. We rarely used him and we’re not demanding people with special requests. But on the three occasions we did call him, for room service (sandwich and a dessert), his timeliness wasn’t satisfactory. YMMV, but others probably could use a butler more than some.

[Sand and Seas]

We will be on Encore in another few days so thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. 

Do you happen to know who is the Executive Host or Hosts in the casino?  (I'll be spending some time there😊).

 

Really looking forward to Onda now.  Maybe we will try and book a 2nd night there after hearing more about that food!

[seadog78]

24 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

We will be on Encore in another few days so thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. 

Do you happen to know who is the Executive Host or Hosts in the casino?  (I'll be spending some time there😊).

 

Really looking forward to Onda now.  Maybe we will try and book a 2nd night there after hearing more about that food!

Though DW and DD like the casino, I’ve not a clue who the casino host is. 
 

I can’t say you’ll go wrong going twice to Onda. We didn’t have the pizzas, but we saw a few float past and they looked good-really good. DW also rated its dessert (butterscotch budino) tied with the Haven’s Triple chocolate cake as best on the cruise.

 

We didn’t go to the Q but many people said they enjoyed it, even southerners.  Los Lobos is something I’ll try next time, though DW and DD will probably make me go solo.

 

 

 

 

 

[Sand and Seas]

We loved Los Lobos on the Dawn and Bliss so already have our reservation for that one.   Hope you get a chance to try it on a future cruise.   

 

Definitely putting Onda's Butterscotch Budino dessert on my list!  Thanks again😊

[js]

21 hours ago, david_sobe said:

Adrian is the best.  Hope he is still on board in late February.  

I did see a video of the bread in Onda and it looked incredible.

 

I am SO hoping he is on in August but it's so far away.  He has been our favorite concierge.

[seadog78]

Shore excursions.

 

San Juan: We did the Historic San Juan and food tasting tour. I hate to say it but San Juan isn’t quite ready for prime time. Bear in mind, we arrived in San Juan at ~5PM, right about sundown. Disembarkation, thanks to the Haven, a snap.

 

The tour size was about 20 people and is led by a San Juan local. By the time the tour started, it was getting dark. Old town San Juan is an old city with brick (bricks shipped from Liverpool!) and cobblestone streets.  Street lighting varies from block to block and some buildings were under generator power. Passing rain showers, plus sketchy lights made our trek a bit sporty.

 

We arrived at a local old town restaurant (must have been good as there was a waiting line) named ‘Vaca Brava.’ Our menu was an appetizer of fritters. The entree was a diner participation dish of chicken mufungo. Each of us were given a mortar and pestle to which chucks of plantain were added. We were instructed to mash the plantation with some added garlic butter. Once we had a mash, we added marinated chicken and a bit of the marinade. Voila, mufungo! Tasty stuff. Of course, there were mojitos.

 

Back to the streets. I felt a bit sorry for the guide as she tried to point out landmarks and sites that were barely visible in the darkness. We hiked to San Juan’s fabled fortress wall but due to a complete lack of lighting, you couldn’t see much of anything or take a photo.  The tour is billed as a 1.5 mile walk but it’s probably closer to 2.5 miles.

 

BLUF: This is a tour better taken during daylight hours.

[seadog78]

St. Thomas, USVI: We booked a catamaran snorkeling trip to Bucks Island. I’d been to Buck’sIsland previously and it’s a tremendous venue for snorkeling. As we mustered on the dock, the tour coordinators told us it was too rough at Buck’s Island and water visibility was bad. We were offered refunds or the choice of an alternate site, Honeymoon Beach. We opted to go the excursion.

 

The catamaran trip was fun and the crew great. Unfortunately, Honeymoon Beach was pretty so-so snorkeling. We did see a number of turtles and a few fish. Visibility wasn’t ideal.

 

The trip back was enjoyed by all. And why not? Unlimited rum punch, pumping music, sun and a fun crew may have had something to do with it.

 

A nice touch by NCL for passengers returning to the ship: alongside, they have stations with citrus-infused ice water, beach towel collection, and cold wet face towels with a refreshing eucalyptus scent.