NCL Encore Alaska + Panama Canal B2B: Four Weeks on Board LIVE

[plainsstormchaser]

A week from tomorrow we'll depart on a B2B aboard the Encore! There have been a lot of changes as the two years of planning and preparation have played out, but now we're ready to buckle in and let things happen as they may!

Itinerary:

Sun    10/16/2022    Embarkation    
Mon    10/17/2022    Outside Passage (Sailing)    
Tue    10/18/2022    Juneau
Wed    10/19/2022    Icy Strait Point
Thu    10/20/2020    Glacier Bay (Cruising)
Fri    10/21/2022    Ketchikan
Sat    10/22/2022    Victoria, BC
Sun    10/23/2022    Seattle
            
Sun    10/23/2022       Turnaround, Seattle 
Mon    10/24/2022    At Sea    
Tue    10/25/2022    San Francisco 
Wed    10/26/2022    At Sea    
Thu    10/27/2022    Los Angeles 
Fri    10/28/2022    At Sea    
Sat    10/29/2022    Cabo San Lucas, MX  
Sun    10/30/2022    Mazatlan, MX 
Mon    10/31/2022    Peurto Vallarta, MX
Tue    11/1/2022    At Sea    
Wed    11/2/2022    Acapulco, MX
Thu    11/3/2022    At Sea    
Fri    11/4/2022    Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
Sat    11/5/2022    At Sea    
Sun    11/6/2022    At Sea    
Mon    11/7/2022    Panama City (Fuerte Amadoe), Panama (overnight)
Tue    11/8/2022      Panama City
Wed    11/9/2022    Panama Canal (daytime transit)    
Thu    11/10/2022    Cartenega, Colombia
Fri    11/11/2022    At Sea    
Sat    11/12/2022    At Sea    
Sun    11/13/2022    Miami

 

We actually depart Thursday afternoon, our youngest daughter is driving us to Kansas City where we'll fly out to Seattle on Friday. At least, that's the hope. Alaska Air canceled the Saturday flight we'd originally scheduled and moved us to the evening flight Saturday. Now, this may only be our third cruise but I know better than to leave the airline only one way to get us to the ship on time if there was an issue with the Saturday evening flight. So we took advantage of the option to adjust the flight earlier by up to a day instead. Now with a 7am departure Friday, Alaska has 10 additional opportunities to get us to Seattle before the ship sails.

 

I plan to post daily or more often as time and Internet allow. I'll post the best stuff here, and will have added detail and many more photos on my sailing blog, https://2of8000.website for those who are interested in more depth rather than the highlights.

 

 

[Oceansaway17]

wow wish I was able to take that much time.

But I am leaving on Sun for NJ to take the Oasis of the Seas for a 7 day boring itinerary.  I am going for the ship.

 

Enjoy the Encore, I did the Bliss in 2018 through the PC and make sure you move around ship to get various views.  Do not just sit in the Observation lounge as some of the best photos are at the back of the ship after leaving a lock.

 

Enjoy Alaska as well.  I did that in late August of this year on the Quantum of the seas.  Shops in Juneau might have some great end of the season sales.

In Ketchikan near the lumberjack show, there is a great seafood place to eat called the Fish House.

Lines move and the food is great.  Fries have a mesquite taste as well.

 

 

[vacation44]

Have an wonderful sailing and looking forward to reading about it.

[plainsstormchaser]

17 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

wow wish I was able to take that much time.

But I am leaving on Sun for NJ to take the Oasis of the Seas for a 7 day boring itinerary.  I am going for the ship.

 

Enjoy the Encore, I did the Bliss in 2018 through the PC and make sure you move around ship to get various views.  Do not just sit in the Observation lounge as some of the best photos are at the back of the ship after leaving a lock.

 

Enjoy Alaska as well.  I did that in late August of this year on the Quantum of the seas.  Shops in Juneau might have some great end of the season sales.

In Ketchikan near the lumberjack show, there is a great seafood place to eat called the Fish House.

Lines move and the food is great.  Fries have a mesquite taste as well.

 

 

Oh, yes I remember the Fish House! Our Ketchikan excursion is food-oriented so I'll miss our this time....

[plainsstormchaser]

17 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

wow wish I was able to take that much time.

But I am leaving on Sun for NJ to take the Oasis of the Seas for a 7 day boring itinerary.  I am going for the ship.

 

Enjoy the Encore, I did the Bliss in 2018 through the PC and make sure you move around ship to get various views.  Do not just sit in the Observation lounge as some of the best photos are at the back of the ship after leaving a lock.

 

Enjoy Alaska as well.  I did that in late August of this year on the Quantum of the seas.  Shops in Juneau might have some great end of the season sales.

In Ketchikan near the lumberjack show, there is a great seafood place to eat called the Fish House.

Lines move and the food is great.  Fries have a mesquite taste as well.

 

 

We have a deck 8 balcony, so at least one set of lock photos will be from there. But definitely planning to move around and get a lot of photos. Renting an 18-400 lens for my DSLR, I found on our earlier Alaska cruises the 18-55 and 55-300 lenses that came with the camera left me changing glass too often and missing good things...the extra 100m will help get me visually closer to wildlife, waterfalls and the like as we sail past in Alaska, and will make for some good steeple, landscape and other shots throughout the trip.

[Travelling2Some]

Have a great cruise and thanks for reporting.  I have two questions for you:  (1) Is NCL offering any shore excursions for your time in Panama City (Fuerte Amador)?  and (2)  Was San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, on your original itinerary and later dropped?  We've got a Panama Canal cruise coming up and wondering what is up with these two ports since neither NCL nor private tour operators seem to be offering any tours in these two ports.  Thanks for any insight and enjoy!

[Samstress]

What an amazing adventure you're embarking upon.  Looking forward to following!

[Captain-John]

Wish they would explain why they dropped San Diego. But have a great time and look forward to reading about it.

[plainsstormchaser]

2 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

Have a great cruise and thanks for reporting.  I have two questions for you:  (1) Is NCL offering any shore excursions for your time in Panama City (Fuerte Amador)?  and (2)  Was San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, on your original itinerary and later dropped?  We've got a Panama Canal cruise coming up and wondering what is up with these two ports since neither NCL nor private tour operators seem to be offering any tours in these two ports.  Thanks for any insight and enjoy!

We have an NCL excursion in PC and a third-party one arranged by a CC member in our roll call. To see what NCL offers, look at Panama City without being logged in to your trip. Then call Shore Excursions and see which are actually available for your sailing. That's how we booked.

 

Nicaragua was dropped for safety reasons. If I remember right, US State Department said at the time that tourist have experienced random detentions by government agents.

[plainsstormchaser]

23 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

Wish they would explain why they dropped San Diego. But have a great time and look forward to reading about it.

Me too. Wonder if it's a military exercise or something. Cruise ships are stopping there the days before and after.

[Wink87]

4 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

Have a great cruise and thanks for reporting.  I have two questions for you:  (1) Is NCL offering any shore excursions for your time in Panama City (Fuerte Amador)?  and (2)  Was San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, on your original itinerary and later dropped?  We've got a Panama Canal cruise coming up and wondering what is up with these two ports since neither NCL nor private tour operators seem to be offering any tours in these two ports.  Thanks for any insight and enjoy!

I'm on the Joy Dec 4 to the PC and both Nicaragua and Costa Rica have been dropped.

[plainsstormchaser]

19 minutes ago, Wink87 said:

I'm on the Joy Dec 4 to the PC and both Nicaragua and Costa Rica have been dropped.

Costa Rica was also dropped for us.

[plainsstormchaser]

One of the advantages of having booked this trip so long ago (and that COVID had the world shut down when we did book it) is that we were able to pick a stateroom out of only four that exist on the entire ship. These rooms are at the forward end of deck 8, and due to the way the sides of the ship angle there have balconies that are about 75% the size of the room, instead of the balconies like are on  most cabins.

 

At the time, these rooms (category B6) were actually priced the same as typical balcony rooms. I believe they adjusted this category up in price around January 1, 2021.

 

Here's a photo off the balcony of the same room on the starboard side, Rm 8712:

Photo Credit: CruiseCritic user aswmammoth, https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1981007-ncl-cabin-information-compilation-no-cabin-questions-posted-here-please/?do=findComment&comment=62915296

 

I'll post a video walkthrough after we board. One small concern we have is that only room 8710 separates us from working spaces at the bow of the ship. There is the possibility we will hear the anchor raised and/or lowered. It's possible also that we'll hear docking procedure noises from underneath. Be that as it may, I think we made a great choice -- and will have great views of many things during our trip.

 

Not that I put a lot of stock in things like this, but I did think it kind of cool that my "fortune" at Panda Express today hints at a good trip :-) 

[Travelling2Some]

5 hours ago, plainsstormchaser said:

We have an NCL excursion in PC and a third-party one arranged by a CC member in our roll call. To see what NCL offers, look at Panama City without being logged in to your trip. Then call Shore Excursions and see which are actually available for your sailing. That's how we booked.

 

Nicaragua was dropped for safety reasons. If I remember right, US State Department said at the time that tourist have experienced random detentions by government agents.

Thanks so much for the tip on Panama City shore excursions.  I will do that.  I was expecting Nicaragua to be dropped and may not have been too keen on getting off the ship anyway for the reason you mentioned.  Very surprised that you and several others here have mentioned Costa Rica being dropped too.  That would be a real disappointment.  One of the hazards of cruising is missed ports though.  Thanks again and have a wonderful cruise.

[bonvoyagie]

In 2016 on the Gem we had to get special fuel for the transit, that happened overnight just outside Panama City. We waited our turn at the fuel barge along with lots of cargo ships. Apparently the canal requires special light fuel that pollutes less than bunker crude. We did not actually stop at the city so not sure if any tours are available. I did get some photos of the downtown skyscrapers as we entered the canal.

[plainsstormchaser]

15 minutes ago, bonvoyagie said:

In 2016 on the Gem we had to get special fuel for the transit, that happened overnight just outside Panama City. We waited our turn at the fuel barge along with lots of cargo ships. Apparently the canal requires special light fuel that pollutes less than bunker crude. We did not actually stop at the city so not sure if any tours are available. I did get some photos of the downtown skyscrapers as we entered the canal.

We actually have an overnight stop in Panama City. 7am Monday to 10pm Tuesday ashore.

[amygutman]

Thanks for giving me something exciting to look for next week! 

We are headed to the Panama Canal from Miami on the Pearl Dec 10th 2022, then your same itinerary on the Encore in September 2023. This will be a lovely preview of both locations and one of two ships for those trips.

We look forward to your review and terribly jealous of your amazing adventure!

Warmest, Amy

[plainsstormchaser]

 

Photo bag is nearly packed...just waiting for the rental 18-400mm lens to arrive via FedEx today. Since it has more to do with my history of being at best a hobbyist photographer and not so much about the trip, I'm just going to link my blog post in this tread and not litter the live blog with the extraneous stuff. For those not wanting to jump over to the site, I'll share a few of the photos from the post:

 

https://2of8000.website/takin-pictures/

 

Andover KS tornado, 29 April 2022

Ketchikan harbor, view from the seawall.

 

Screen shot from the blog post: (top) near Seward, 2019. (bottom) Hubbard Glacier, 2016.

 

Any other hobbyist or more-skilled photographers coming on the trip? Let's get together during, I'd like to learn from you!

[plainsstormchaser]

Is it just me, or is it a common experience that life accelerates substantially in the last few days before vacation? We’ve been busy in the past few weeks, really, but much of that is the typical stuff life throws at us. Things like helping one daughter buy a new vehicle after the engine quit on the old one; celebrating the other daughter’s 20th birthday; spending hours at the tag office getting the title work done on my new SUV (more hours anticipated today), and just the regular busy-ness of life.

 

 

Happy 20th birthday, Cristi!

 

When it comes to the trip the days have been filled with things like getting the last few things we need in from Amazon, confirming arrangements for the cats, stopping the mail and trash service, getting home watch set up with the police and detailed contact information distributed to those needing it, and yes a little bit of packing.

 

Our Fur Kids

Tippy, our 8-year old Tortoiseshell (tortie), and Charlie, our 11-year old Tabby, laying on my office floor last week.

 

On previous cruises we’ve been packed by a day before leaving…but we have had the fur kids to consider this time. A couple of weeks ago Roxan got the first suitcase out and started throwing stuff into it, and both cats started showing signs of stress…Charlie in particular. That day he started hiding for the first time in a while and became very clingy. He has moved around a lot in his life before coming to us last year, and I believe Roxan packing triggered some connection with the last time he moved — his former owner packed up for a several day stay with friends, and put him in the carrier and he never went back to that home, coming to live with us instead.

 

Tippy has been much more affectionate, too…she doesn’t want to be far form Mom at any time, and hangs around me much closer when Roxan is at work than she used to. We work with an animal communicator from time to time and both of the kids know vacation is coming up and they will be staying somewhere else for a month. It happens to be with the foster from whom we obtained Tippy last Christmas season. So we believe they are anticipating the trip, and Charlie seems to be more settled now since we talked about his trauma over the weekend.

 

Today consists of trying to get this tag issue worked out, finding out how much our car warranty company will pay toward replacing the transmission in my SUV, some work for both of us, and my last night training a fill-in for my audio work at church. Then the kitties go to “summer camp,” and we’ll come home and start packing in earnest. Hard to believe the great adventure starts in 32 hours!

[plainsstormchaser]

The kitties have arrived in Seattle! At least the luggage with their names on it has, along with Mom & Dad.

 

I got an okay shot of My. Rainier as we flew north of it on approach:

 

The flight was as one would wish...smooth, ahead of arrival time, and as typical for Alaska Airlines an overall good experience. Pushback at Kansas City, 7am CDT.

 

Wheels down Seattle, 8:35am PDT.

 

The minutiae of the flight was on the good side of "typical," breakfast in First Class was delish.

 

More photos of the US Rockies and Intermountain Region as seen from 34,000 feet in my blog post at https://2of8000.website/day-1-getting-to-seattle/

 

Next: A review of the find we made for lunch.

 

[plainsstormchaser]

 

We chose a restaurant about a mile north of our hotel (Hampton Inn International Drive, review after we depart tomorrow). The ambiance of Sharps Roadhouse is neighborhood bar and small restaurant.

 

Here's a glance at the menu: (just one side)

 

I chose the four cheese patty melt with a side of seasoned fries.

DW Roxan had Fried Creamer Potatoes

 

Other than a stronger spice in the potatoes than expected, both dishes were great! Portions, as you can see, are generous. The speed of the kitchen was amazing...I was surprised the entrees showed up so quickly. Moreso than the appetizer at many restaurants!

 

We had a primo server, Amy, who never let our glasses get empty, had a great attitude and was easy to understand, and was just the right balance between chattiness and getting in the way.

 

Location: near SEATAC on International Drive, about a mile north of Hampton Inn.

Price: higher than we're used to, but seemingly on the low side of normal based on other menus I perused online. $67.11 inclusive of tip, for above entrees, 2 glasses of tea, and a shared slice of carrot cake.

Service: 5/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

Meets expectations set by online  searches.

We'd definitely dine here again.

[plainsstormchaser]

We're meeting friends today and doing some Seattle sightseeing, also switching hotel to be close to Pier 66 in the morning! Photos to come...

 

Hampton Inn SeaTac (International Drive) review: this hotel is a great example of the Hampton ethos. Every staff member we have interacted with has been friendly to a fault. The shuttle van driver insisted we allow him to load and unload the suitcases...maybe he did it for his convenience or liability reasons, but the *way* he did it left us feeling valued as guests. We were able to drop baggage and go to lunch, then return for an early check-in.

 

The hotel is in a pleasant neighborhood but also minutes from the airport. Across the street is a lake and public park. I wanted to go over there, but we elected to just laze in bed almost every minute we were here.

 

Breakfast this morning was basic hotel free breakfast,  but  the food was tasty and hot or cold as appropriate.

 

Location: 5/5

Price: 5/5 - be aware of a $50 incidentals hold in addition to the room rate.

Noise/quiet: 5/5. Could hear airport noise, but only as part of the general background.

Facility: 4.5/5 - hot water takes forever to get to the shower and our bathroom sink didn't get hot water after a 5 minute wait.

Beds/Decor: 5/5. Typical Hampton, nothing worth comment above or below expectations. We like the consistency of the Hampton experience.

Overall: 5/5. Would definitely stay again.

Edited October 15, 2022 by plainsstormchaser

[Wink87]

18 hours ago, plainsstormchaser said:

 

We chose a restaurant about a mile north of our hotel (Hampton Inn International Drive, review after we depart tomorrow). The ambiance of Sharps Roadhouse is neighborhood bar and small restaurant.

 

Here's a glance at the menu: (just one side)

 

I chose the four cheese patty melt with a side of seasoned fries.

DW Roxan had Fried Creamer Potatoes

 

Other than a stronger spice in the potatoes than expected, both dishes were great! Portions, as you can see, are generous. The speed of the kitchen was amazing...I was surprised the entrees showed up so quickly. Moreso than the appetizer at many restaurants!

 

We had a primo server, Amy, who never let our glasses get empty, had a great attitude and was easy to understand, and was just the right balance between chattiness and getting in the way.

 

Location: near SEATAC on International Drive, about a mile north of Hampton Inn.

Price: higher than we're used to, but seemingly on the low side of normal based on other menus I perused online. $67.11 inclusive of tip, for above entrees, 2 glasses of tea, and a shared slice of carrot cake.

Service: 5/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

Meets expectations set by online  searches.

We'd definitely dine here again.

On our last two Alaska cruise we stayed at Coast Gateway which is in the same parking lot as Sharp's. We ate there both times. Delicious!

[j603]

Looking forward to reading your review. We are going on the Encore in January.

[brymcd]

One of the dearest cities we have been too and certainly in the States.

 

Found a bar coincidentally next to the horrible gum wall called alibi which had cracking happy hour prices and did not require it passports to drink in.

 

See you both tomorrow