Norwegian encore 1-26-20 thoughts/tips

[dreaming girl]

Departed the Encore on Super Bowl Sunday and wanted to post some observations that others may find helpful. We had a great time and found the staff and experience very pleasant. Prior to the trip I was a bit uneasy after reading the negative reviews. I read up and felt I knew what to expect going in.

 Just a bit of background . We were 3 adults, my son early 30’s in an inner cabin and my husband and I in a balcony cabin. We are not  “joiners” nor does my husband or I drink. We tend to keep to ourselves and like to relax in the sun with a good book or do some adult coloring. We really enjoy the thermal suites with spa pool and have had spa balcony cabins in the past. In the past 3 adults in a spa balcony worked out well but was a bit tight. The cost had been reasonable with the third person free and the access to the thermal spa for 3 versus a standard balcony and paying for thermal spa passes. This time the cost difference didn’t work in our favor nor having 3 adults in one room. The promos did not save us money. We did a guarantee balcony and inner cabin and were happy with our cabins they assigned on deck 11. We did bid on upgrades for spa cabins but did not get. Our son bid on balcony and spa balcony and received the rejection about 48 hrs prior to sale. We never received an email. 

We boarded a little leery . We were friendly and courteous to all we met and they were in turn. We processed to sign up for the comedy shows and go carts at the kiosks near the elevators on deck 8. We were able to get the Tim’s and days we wanted. There are wall kiosks around the corner from the elevators on most decks. I never saw spa passes available online prior to boarding and decided not to purchase the $279 per person pass once on board. I had read they the encore didn’t offer day passes. However on the 5th day the daily announced day passes were available for $59 while they lasted. I was going to but no one else in my party wanted to get one. So I didn’t. Yes the pool deck was CROWDED. I did not enjoy it. We had purchased vibe passes on a previous cruise for $59 and found it a waste of our money. Prior to this cruise I couldn’t image paying $159 for a pass (I think that’s the going price). However if I were in an inner cabin And enjoy the sun I would suggest adding that to your budget. I was fine with our balcony.  The observation deck was great for some quiet time and had great snacks. Deck 8 was also nice to get some outdoor quieter time. I felt sorry for the smokers as they had a little enclosed hot box on the 8 th outer deck that they could smoke in or when open the casino smokers area. However towards the end of the cruise they did block off an open area on the pool deck for the smokers. Apparently there was quite an uproar about the suffocating smokers box on 8. 
 Someone posted the gocarts were $9.95 they are $14.95 per ride . We did it 3 times and enjoyed it.  Adequate ant of time. We can be a bit competitive and found some cars were faster than others . Boosters didn’t seem to do much and we were able to floor the cart the whole time. Great Stirrup Cay is a tender port which u need to sign up for ahead of time. We were not aware but I noticed it on tv screen. We signed up early.at the desk because of 2 separate cabins and wanted to tender together. The daily mentioned it on the 3rd or 4 th day.  The front desk gave us a heads up that had been arriving 2 hours early and tenders started earlier. Many people were not ready. So those that were ready could get right on the early tenders. The reservations needed on return. Food was only available on Great Stirrup Cay from 1130 until 2. We heard some angry people over this. Lots of loungers available further down the beach. Some with umbrellas. However if you wanted the umbrella open it cost $21. The zip line was not open and vehicles were working over on the new extra pay beach area.

We ate at Q. It was ok. Wouldn’t do it again. We actually enjoyed the buffet more! We also ate at The Local and Manhattan Dining room. We found the food the best we’ve had on Norwegian and better than princess or carnival (except for Guy’s Burgers)!!

Hope this helps make someone’s trip a bit easier!

[david_sobe]

Thanks for posting

[Sand and Seas]

We were on this cruise too.  Ship is beautiful.  Loved Onda!  Observation lounce is lovely and has a great bar crew.

 

The crew was absolutely wonderful with one exception.  Why would a Cruise Next employee be rude and demeaning to a customer?  Couldn't believe what I was hearing.  They lost an opportunity to get that new cruiser back on NCL.  Of course I bought more certificates as I know that employee was not an example of other employees.  

 

Make sure you don't miss Choir of Man😊

[tx121]

12 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

We were on this cruise too.  Ship is beautiful.  Loved Onda!  Observation lounce is lovely and has a great bar crew.

 

The crew was absolutely wonderful with one exception.  Why would a Cruise Next employee be rude and demeaning to a customer?  Couldn't believe what I was hearing.  They lost an opportunity to get that new cruiser back on NCL.  Of course I bought more certificates as I know that employee was not an example of other employees.  

 

Make sure you don't miss Choir of Man😊

We will be going to Onda in 3 days. Please tell me what you ordered and recommend! We are going to see Choir of Man tonight. Heard nothing but great things about the show!👍 looking forward to it.

Edited February 3, 2020 by tx121

[McFins]

Thanks for posting!  Glad you enjoyed it.  I was starting to become a bit concerned about an upcoming trip on the Encore due to negative reviews so i'm happy to also hear some positive ones.   Did you feel a lot of movement/rocking?   I’ve seen that mentioned in some posts  without indicating weather being a factor so i'm wondering if it is always rocky. 

Thanks again for your post. 

[JohnBoy in NC]

24 minutes ago, McFins said:

Thanks for posting!  Glad you enjoyed it.  I was starting to become a bit concerned about an upcoming trip on the Encore due to negative reviews so i'm happy to also hear some positive ones.   Did you feel a lot of movement/rocking?   I’ve seen that mentioned in some posts  without indicating weather being a factor so i'm wondering if it is always rocky. 

Thanks again for your post. 

We had the smoother seas I have ever seen in my January/February cruises on this sailing. I didn’t notice the movement but heard several comments from people complaining about it while onboard. I was on Deck 8 near Food Republic. 

[McFins]

Thanks John!  

[bjtravelnews]

Thanks for posting.  Going on the Encore to Bermuda in June.

[dreaming girl]

We were midship and my son was aft. It did seem a bit rockier but not bad. There were a lot of white caps the final night but it was ok. My son didn’t fell it was terribly rocky in the back either.  That reminds me. My head was next to the closet and the rocking was such that the hangers hit the wall or each other. It was an annoying noise that bugged me. After the first night I put a towel over the end of the hangers so the metal ends wouldn’t bang in the back The last night I put the hangers on the closet floor as I had no clothes on them and they kept banging. So yes it did rock. The first 2 and last 2 days were worse than the middle days.

[Peachypooh]

7 minutes ago, dreaming girl said:

We were midship and my son was aft. It did seem a bit rockier but not bad. There were a lot of white caps the final night but it was ok. My son didn’t fell it was terribly rocky in the back either.  That reminds me. My head was next to the closet and the rocking was such that the hangers hit the wall or each other. It was an annoying noise that bugged me. After the first night I put a towel over the end of the hangers so the metal ends wouldn’t bang in the back The last night I put the hangers on the closet floor as I had no clothes on them and they kept banging. So yes it did rock. The first 2 and last 2 days were worse than the middle days.

We had the same issue with the hangers hitting together and we too put the hangers on the floor of the closet.

That seemed to eliminate the problem. However we did keep hearing another noise and it was the wine bottle opener

rocking side to side. We fixed that too and then it was quiet.

[dreaming girl]

I tried to post some responses but don’t see them. Sorry about all the misspells. I was in a hurry and didn’t proof read. Not used to typing on cell phone or posting. You do not need reservations for tender return. Looks like my post implied u did.

[s.schultz]

15 hours ago, tx121 said:

We will be going to Onda in 3 days. Please tell me what you ordered and recommend! We are going to see Choir of Man tonight. Heard nothing but great things about the show!👍 looking forward to it.

@tx121 hi tx121, i was on the January 19th sailing and absolutely loved Onda. I had the burrata appetizer, tuna crudo, lobster pasta (tagliatelle). We all split a pizza. everything was amazing. My mom ordered the veal chop entree and she couldnt stop talking about it the rest of the week. I hope this helps!

 

Also, the waiter in Onda was amazing. His name was LeAndrew. If you get him / request him, you'll be more than pleased. 🙂

[WAHMto5]

Thanks for the review!  We are looking forward to our upcoming Encore cruise!  

[CazV]

17 hours ago, dreaming girl said:

We had purchased vibe passes on a previous cruise for $59 and found it a waste of our money. Prior to this cruise I couldn’t image paying $159 for a pass (I think that’s the going price).

 

Just want to point out that Vibe passes are $209 per person for a 7 night cruise. 

[CazV]

14 hours ago, McFins said:

  Did you feel a lot of movement/rocking?   I’ve seen that mentioned in some posts  without indicating weather being a factor so i'm wondering if it is always rocky. 

 

I sailed on Encore in November for Thanksgiving. We had one day/night of rocking that was no worse than any other ship I've been on with similar weather and sea conditions. 

[Gershep]

Thanks for posting.

[tx121]

4 hours ago, s.schultz said:

@tx121 hi tx121, i was on the January 19th sailing and absolutely loved Onda. I had the burrata appetizer, tuna crudo, lobster pasta (tagliatelle). We all split a pizza. everything was amazing. My mom ordered the veal chop entree and she couldnt stop talking about it the rest of the week. I hope this helps!

 

Also, the waiter in Onda was amazing. His name was LeAndrew. If you get him / request him, you'll be more than pleased. 🙂

Thanks for the advice! Looking forward to it!

[Sand and Seas]

On 2/3/2020 at 6:49 PM, tx121 said:

We will be going to Onda in 3 days. Please tell me what you ordered and recommend! We are going to see Choir of Man tonight. Heard nothing but great things about the show!👍 looking forward to it.

I loved the Short Rib appetizer, Lobster Taglietelle(sp?) and the Butterscotch Bundino dessert.  I also liked the Lentil side-dish.  DH enjoyed the pizza starter with the stuffed crust, the Bologonese pasta and the chocolate dessert. 

We will be booking Onda again for our next Encore cruise😊

[dreaming girl]

On the second sea day we hit the galaxy pavilion. We did the $29 per person hour pass. We hadn’t planned on doing it at that time but decided to check  it out and found the place to be pretty empty. So we decided to give it a try. A lot of staff, but not much for explanations. We waited several times for assistance to get fitted for our VR experiences. We did the finger rollercoaster first and it was pretty lame. Next we did the race cars. It was a bumpy ride but fun. The vision seemed a bit off but I figured it was the VR stuff. When the ride was almost over I pushed the mask up and wow I could see!! About this time the watermelon I had for lunch was causing some serious indigestion. I did try to do the dinosaur Jeep ride but was becoming nauseated so I removed the VR googles and rode in the bouncy seat. For some reason the positioning was really weird. When I had the googles on it looked like I was beside and about to go under the Jeep wheel and when I looked behind me one of the passengers had no head. My son said the graphics were really bad. Reminded him of a 1995 video game. The guys did more VR games which they felt were on Par with a PS4 VR system. We had fun racing a couple more times but without the VR googles. Some of the staff raced too (without the googles). They said they never use the VR googles when they race. In hind sight I shouldn’t have gone after eating as I get nauseated with simulator rides. For the next two days I had issues with indigestion. Would we do it again? Probably not. But it was fun to try and a reasonable price. The one hour pass was just enough time to check it out.

[McFins]

Thanks folks for the updates on the movement/rocking. Really appreciate it!

 

[mdchachi]

6 hours ago, dreaming girl said:

On the second sea day we hit the galaxy pavilion. We did the $29 per person hour pass. We hadn’t planned on doing it at that time but decided to check  it out and found the place to be pretty empty. So we decided to give it a try. A lot of staff, but not much for explanations. We waited several times for assistance to get fitted for our VR experiences. We did the finger rollercoaster first and it was pretty lame. Next we did the race cars. It was a bumpy ride but fun. The vision seemed a bit off but I figured it was the VR stuff. When the ride was almost over I pushed the mask up and wow I could see!! About this time the watermelon I had for lunch was causing some serious indigestion. I did try to do the dinosaur Jeep ride but was becoming nauseated so I removed the VR googles and rode in the bouncy seat. For some reason the positioning was really weird. When I had the googles on it looked like I was beside and about to go under the Jeep wheel and when I looked behind me one of the passengers had no head. My son said the graphics were really bad. Reminded him of a 1995 video game. The guys did more VR games which they felt were on Par with a PS4 VR system. We had fun racing a couple more times but without the VR googles. Some of the staff raced too (without the googles). They said they never use the VR googles when they race. In hind sight I shouldn’t have gone after eating as I get nauseated with simulator rides. For the next two days I had issues with indigestion. Would we do it again? Probably not. But it was fun to try and a reasonable price. The one hour pass was just enough time to check it out.

Thanks for the VR ride reviews. Did you try the Radical SR3 also?  It is supposed to be cutting edge.

See:

 

[dreaming girl]

35 minutes ago, mdchachi said:

Thanks for the VR ride reviews. Did you try the Radical SR3 also?  It is supposed to be cutting edge.

See:

 

No we didn’t try it. Sorry I can’t speak for that one.