Encore Puerto Plata Port

[coondogg97]

We are sailing on the Encore 3/5 - 3/12 and was wondering if anyone had an idea what port the ship stops at in Puerto Plata. I looked at the Amber Cove schedule and it's not there. Also does anyone know who the concierge or bartender is in the Haven currently?

 

Thanks

[Ruminant]

We are on the same cruise!  It's our very first.

This site says the Encore will be at Amber Cove on March 7.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/puerto-plata-amber-cove-port-1936?tab=schedule&month=2023-03#schedule

Edited February 21, 2023 by Ruminant

[coondogg97]

12 minutes ago, Ruminant said:

We are on the same cruise!  It's our very first.

This site says the Encore will be at Amber Cove on March 7.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/puerto-plata-amber-cove-port-1936?tab=schedule&month=2023-03#schedule

Hello neighbor! The Encore is a nice ship to start with. Is it your first cruise or your first with NCL? We were on the Bliss a few years ago and the two ships are almost identical. That's why I chose the Encore, the Bliss is a great ship. 

 

That's odd because the calendar for Amber Cove has the Carnival Celebration & NCL Getaway listed.

https://www.ambercove.com/Port-Schedule.aspx

[coondogg97]

Ok, this is odd. Cruisemapper has both the Getaway and the Encore in Amber Cove that day along with the Carnival Celebration. I thought the port only held two ships?

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Carnival-Celebration-2106

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Norwegian-Encore-1518

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Norwegian-Getaway-793

[shof515]

24 minutes ago, coondogg97 said:

Ok, this is odd. Cruisemapper has both the Getaway and the Encore in Amber Cove that day along with the Carnival Celebration. I thought the port only held two ships?

cruisemapper and other third part port schedule website have a hard time differentiating between Amber Cove and Taino bay

 

generally the rule of thumb is that since Amber Cove was built by Carnival Corporation that is where the Carnival ship go on and sometimes other ships too depending on berth availability when carnival is not using it. Norwegian been using it a alot when Taino bay was unable to be used

 

Its been reported on this forum that Norwegian is now porting at Taino bay again with the breakaway plus class ships

 

most likely the Encore will be docking at the Taino Bay 

 

 

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Ruminant said:

We are on the same cruise!  It's our very first.

This site says the Encore will be at Amber Cove on March 7.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/puerto-plata-amber-cove-port-1936?tab=schedule&month=2023-03#schedule

 

28 minutes ago, coondogg97 said:

Ok, this is odd. Cruisemapper has both the Getaway and the Encore in Amber Cove that day along with the Carnival Celebration. I thought the port only held two ships?

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Carnival-Celebration-2106

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Norwegian-Encore-1518

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Norwegian-Getaway-793

 

Amber Cove only handles two ships.  Cruisemapper does not show any information for Taino Bay, it lumps all ships calling at Puerto Plata into Amber Cove.  It's not reliable for the port of Puerto Plata (except to the extent that Carnival-brand ships will be at Amber Cove). 

[coondogg97]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up.I found a schedule for Taino Bay, but it doesn't look like it's been updated for a while. I am looking at doing one of the Monkey Lands, but if we are in Amber Cove it's over 2 hours away and I don't want to go that far. 

[Ruminant]

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

most likely the Encore will be docking at the Taino Bay 

Thank you. Good to know.

[AwesomO]

I believe Encore was in Taino Bay today, but can't confirm. Gem and Escape were there yesterday. For what it's worth, in our NCL app while on board, Amber Cove was listed as the stop on our itinerary, but we did indeed dock in Taino Bay. 

[SubSmithy]

The end of January beginning of February we docked at Taino Bay.  All the excursions seemed to be long distance so we hired a local cab, $60 for three people to see the some local sights.  At every stop like the cathedral, there were people who charged  to show you around. $5 seemed sufficient.  One stop was a local chocolate maker.  They called it a factory but it was tiny.  The gift shop sold more Mamajuana than chocolate. (hint, taste the chocolate before you buy it.)  The shopping area near the ship is pretty good.  Prices are more reasonable than other ports.  The pool area there looked very inviting I wish I had brought my bathing suit off of the ship.

 

I don't remember the name of the concierge.  I never did get an email ahead of the cruise.  But he was amazing.  New reservations, changing reservations, account issues, getting us on and off the ship, he and his team were just super efficient and accommodating.  

 

As for the bartender, his name was Kai and his underling was Maria.  Kai came off as snooty and arrogant and catered to a very loud and inebriated family group that was regularly dropping $50's.  After the first few days the Haven bar was not the hub that I have known it to be.  We found the bar at the forward observation lounge with a piano player late in the evening was a pretty magic place to hang out.  Also a shout out to the whiskey bar for their Old Fashions and Whiskey Sours.

 

I heard from someone who was on the Encore, the following week and they said that Maria was the primary bartender and they never met Kai.  So good for Maria!  She is is friendly and competent and fun to be around.  

[mking8288]

17 minutes ago, AwesomO said:

I believe Encore was in Taino Bay today, but can't confirm ... 

Quick look at Marinetraffic's data on Encore's AIS tracking data today, she did appeared to sailed into Taino Bay (and, not Amber Cove) and left there, currently reported underway & enroute to St. Thomas.

 

Perhaps, work at the Bay has completed and mega ships cleared to use the city/downtown pier.  

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

Perhaps, work at the Bay has completed and mega ships cleared to use the city/downtown pier.  

 

IIRC, it's been reported here that mega ships from other cruise lines have been docking at Taino Bay all along, just not NCL's big ships.  But maybe something more needed to be done to satisfy NCL/their insurance companies. 

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

IIRC, it's been reported here that mega ships from other cruise lines have been docking at Taino Bay all along, just not NCL's big ships.  But maybe something more needed to be done to satisfy NCL/their insurance companies. 

Huh? NCL's big ships have been docking at Taino Bay for the past month. And the OP can assume that the Encore will dock there on their cruise (that's what we are assuming for our Encore cruise). 

[Turtles06]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Huh? NCL's big ships have been docking at Taino Bay for the past month. And the OP can assume that the Encore will dock there on their cruise (that's what we are assuming for our Encore cruise). 

I know that and did not say otherwise. 

[palpieha]

Encore docked at Taino Bay yesterday, it will continue to dock there unless weather or some other reason changes things.

[coondogg97]

13 hours ago, SubSmithy said:

The end of January beginning of February we docked at Taino Bay.  All the excursions seemed to be long distance so we hired a local cab, $60 for three people to see the some local sights.  At every stop like the cathedral, there were people who charged  to show you around. $5 seemed sufficient.  One stop was a local chocolate maker.  They called it a factory but it was tiny.  The gift shop sold more Mamajuana than chocolate. (hint, taste the chocolate before you buy it.)  The shopping area near the ship is pretty good.  Prices are more reasonable than other ports.  The pool area there looked very inviting I wish I had brought my bathing suit off of the ship.

 

I don't remember the name of the concierge.  I never did get an email ahead of the cruise.  But he was amazing.  New reservations, changing reservations, account issues, getting us on and off the ship, he and his team were just super efficient and accommodating.  

 

As for the bartender, his name was Kai and his underling was Maria.  Kai came off as snooty and arrogant and catered to a very loud and inebriated family group that was regularly dropping $50's.  After the first few days the Haven bar was not the hub that I have known it to be.  We found the bar at the forward observation lounge with a piano player late in the evening was a pretty magic place to hang out.  Also a shout out to the whiskey bar for their Old Fashions and Whiskey Sours.

 

I heard from someone who was on the Encore, the following week and they said that Maria was the primary bartender and they never met Kai.  So good for Maria!  She is is friendly and competent and fun to be around.  

 

Wow, thanks for an extremely informative post. I believe the concierge is John Dsouza. We've never had any experience with him, but I've read good things. I'm disappointed to hear about the vibe at the Haven bar, but I am looking forward to meeting Maria. Our Haven bartender on our last cruise was Branko Janezic who was fantastic. I was hoping to meet him again. 

 

And thank you everyone else for sharing your experience and research. I will also assume that we will be in Taino Bay. Which is good because I believe Monkeyland is closer to that location. If not we will probably just do the taxi tour. 

[Turtles06]

I'll just add that we were in Taino Bay last week aboard the Gem.  There is a secure area of shops and lovely-looking pools built within the cruise terminal complex (sort of like a private island, only on the mainland), so that guests, if they want, never need step out into the "real" Puerto Plata.   

 

The pools did look great; we didn't take advantage of them as we'd booked a private city tour with Marysol Tours.  We visited the central plaza, the Cathedral, a rum distillery, a little amber museum (which was more about trying to sell us their wares), and, my favorite, Fortaleza San Felipe, the small fort built by the Spanish to guard the coast.

 

There's not all that much to  see.  Some folks did an excursion to the waterfall, I think others went to a beach.

[coondogg97]

On 2/21/2023 at 9:03 PM, SubSmithy said:

The end of January beginning of February we docked at Taino Bay.  All the excursions seemed to be long distance so we hired a local cab, $60 for three people to see the some local sights.  At every stop like the cathedral, there were people who charged  to show you around. $5 seemed sufficient.  One stop was a local chocolate maker.  They called it a factory but it was tiny.  The gift shop sold more Mamajuana than chocolate. (hint, taste the chocolate before you buy it.)  The shopping area near the ship is pretty good.  Prices are more reasonable than other ports.  The pool area there looked very inviting I wish I had brought my bathing suit off of the ship.

 

I don't remember the name of the concierge.  I never did get an email ahead of the cruise.  But he was amazing.  New reservations, changing reservations, account issues, getting us on and off the ship, he and his team were just super efficient and accommodating.  

 

As for the bartender, his name was Kai and his underling was Maria.  Kai came off as snooty and arrogant and catered to a very loud and inebriated family group that was regularly dropping $50's.  After the first few days the Haven bar was not the hub that I have known it to be.  We found the bar at the forward observation lounge with a piano player late in the evening was a pretty magic place to hang out.  Also a shout out to the whiskey bar for their Old Fashions and Whiskey Sours.

 

I heard from someone who was on the Encore, the following week and they said that Maria was the primary bartender and they never met Kai.  So good for Maria!  She is is friendly and competent and fun to be around.  

 

Again, thanks for the information, I just got back and agree (to a point). I don't think Kai gave any special attention to anyone. I think he is a very technical bartender, but doesn't have the people skills to be a lead bartender in The Haven (yet). There is a lot more to a Haven bartender than knowing mixology and tossing an ice cube into the air and catching it in a glass. He was kind, but not so personal. He is also 25 years old and has only been in The Haven for a short time. Give him a few years and I think he will find his niche and be a solid Haven bartender all around. 

 

I also agree about Maria being talented enough to take the lead. She is more well rounded for the position right now. I don't think she was head bartender, but I did see her behind the bar more often than I saw Kai. There were also two Haven servers, Michael and Jude who I saw helping behind the bar a lot. They were great guys too. 

 

On our first sea day someone ordered a martini and asked how they could get it in the "fancy martini glass". Kai said something along the lines of "If I serve a martini in that glass this early in a cruise everyone would want that glass." There were only a few of the chiller glasses on the bar so maybe it was an inventory issue? Although I didn't see one martini served in those glasses all week.