How did we like Norwegian Cruise Line's Encore Ship?

We've sailed with Norwegian Cruise Line before, and we have enjoyed those vacations. After going on more than a dozen different cruises, we have to say that we've never had a bad cruise. We enjoy the fancy food and the free entertainment, and who doesn't like it when someone cleans their room and makes their bed every day? We thought we'd include some pictures and talk about some of our experiences on our seven-day cruise to the Caribbean on the NCL Encore with our group of 16.

The day we launched out of Miami was a good time to explore the ship. We had warm weather and blue skies, and the swimming deck was full of passengers already working on their tans.

The Encore was launched in 2019, and it's one of the largest in the NCL fleet.

It can hold 3,958 passengers, and our spring break cruise was full. Sometimes it was difficult to find an open table at the buffet with that many people eating at the same time. But it had four different soft serve ice cream stations, and two more for hand-dipped ice cream. They got extra points for having fun toppings like gummi bears. So there was no waiting in line for the ice cream that Mark enjoyed several times each day.

We found that when you arrived early in the morning, you can snag a table by the window for breakfast. You also get some great views of the next port stop.

The Encore is a beautiful ship, and we enjoyed the two days at sea. Our group participated in many of the games. Among the nearly 4000 people on the ship, our group of 16 came out winners in several of the games. It was fun having people to play games with, and to cheer on to victory. We're proud to say that the oldest member of our group, Andy, was quite a celebrity when he won the dance contest on the first day of the cruise.

Denisa and Mark were on the team that won the "Majority Rules" game, and their prizes were insulated metal cups with the NCL logo. Nice!

Communicating with other members of our group was tough on this ship, so we'll remove points for that. A year ago, we could use the ship app for Mark and Denisa to text each other. That is so important when you're trying to find other people in your group on such a large ship. But NCL must have discovered that people wouldn't buy the expensive internet package if they could text each other easily for free. So they changed the app, and we could no longer text on the ship. That's a major inconvenience when trying to keep up with 16 people that range in age from 7 to 70. 

Our group usually met every evening for dinner, enjoying the three course meals together. While the regular dining room is included in the fare, eating at one of the many specialty restaurants has an extra cost. NCL has been running a special for more than a year, that includes one meal at a specialty restaurant with each ticket. The kicker is that you are charged a 20% tip on the expensive total of this "free meal." We hate it when free things cost money NCL! Our group ate at the Teppanyaki Restaurant for our special treat, where our meal was prepared on the Asian Grill in front of us.

We have to say that the entertainment on this ship was below par. A year ago we sailed on the NCL Gem, and we enjoyed a major production in the auditorium almost every evening. The Encore had only one major production, and reservations were required to get a seat. While it was good, we didn't appreciate some of the actions of the all-male cast. Call us prudes, but we were on spring break and had hoped for a more family-friendly show. The magician that performed two nights used number theory to impress the crowd. But we saw right through one of his tricks when he asked for input from the audience. He asked Mark for a number to be totaled together with three other numbers. A couple math whizzes can tell when his new total was less than Mark's number. 

We did enjoy the piano bar guy, and wished we had discovered him before the last night on the ship. We thought some of the best entertainment on the Encore was happening at the karaoke bar. Early evening was family time, and some of our group members were rocking the stage.

Like most ships, the "at sea" day will include a fruit carving demonstration. We haven't missed one of those yet.

The top deck of the ship includes a launch point for one of the longest, steepest tube rides we have ever seen. Throw in the fact that the tubes circle out over the ocean as they spiral out of the side of the ship, and it makes for a thrilling ride. Mark was in the brave group that rode the Ocean Loops tube more than once. The picture below is a blur of one of our group whooshing down the clear section of the water slide. Riders must weigh at least 120 pounds to ride the tube. One of our girls wanted to ride, but she was denied by the scales at the top of the tube. But after a week of eating three-course meals and meeting at the crepe station every evening for another dessert, she finally got up to 120 pounds and got to ride the Ocean Loops.

The children's program must have been good, because the 7-year-old in our group loved to go there. It might have something to do with the fact that he got to play unlimited amounts of video games--something that he doesn't get to do at home.

This is one of only a few ships that has a sizable race car track on board. The last evening was the time for the brave to strap on racing gear and take those cars for a spin over the Caribbean Sea.

Since it was dark outside and the cars were whizzing by at race car speeds, all the pictures were blurry. But everyone thought it was great fun to be driving on top of the ship while sailing through the ocean.

We have always booked inside cabins on our cruises. Our opinion is that we don't spend much time in our room, and they sell for a much cheaper price. This one was very basic, and the bed literally filled it up. But we love the ports and the activities and the food, and we only go to our room to sleep. But we found sleeping to be troublesome in our inside cabin this time. 

The first night we were awakened by the roar of water rushing by our headboard. We bolted out of bed, wondering what that loud sound could possibly be. Mark went out in the hall to talk to all the other passengers that must be awake, and wondering the same thing now. But there was no one in the hall. What?!? We tried to analyze the sound as we laid awake for a couple hours. It was the sound of water rushing through something like a three-foot pipe, then a pause and gurgle, and more water. We complained at the service desk, and got the feeling they knew about the problem. Part of our group was next door, and they heard nothing. The sound happened the second night, but not quite as long. The pipe was definitely in our wall, very close to our headboard. We counted steps to find the area directly one floor above. We found a door with warning signs. 

We think they were perhaps draining and refilling the pools through that pipe in the middle of the night?!? After more trips to the service desk, we were finally moved to our first-ever balcony state room. 

We were told that it was a full ship, but someone got off the ship in St. Thomas. So the last couple nights we slept peacefully, with balcony views. The hospitality staff apologized for our terrible sleep, and sent chocolate covered strawberries to our room. Nothing like that has ever happened to us before!

Besides the sound of rushing water keeping us awake, it was a great cruise. We were blessed to spend it with a fun group of 16 people, and we had a wonderful time! We appreciated the invitation and all the memories! We end it with a final sunset, showing off our balcony for the last time.

We're cruising to the Caribbean!

While we couldn't travel around the country in our RV, we were glad that we had an opportunity to cruise around the Caribbean. Our nephew and niece invited us on a spring break cruise, and we jumped at the chance to travel with them again. This is the same family of six that we traveled to Europe with last summer, so we knew they were fun travelers!

But we had a wonderful bonus this trip, because we got to enjoy eight other family members as well. A total of 16 cruised together, and it was great fun running into members of our group on the ship--and on land as well. We never did get a picture with all of us together, but just take our word that it was a good-looking group.

We sailed on the Norwegian Cruise Line's ship Encore. We stopped at four different ports on this seven day cruise, and these places will sound familiar from our NCL cruise from Miami last March. But it was fun to find new things to do at ports we have already visited.

For example: Our first stop was Puerta Plata in the Dominican Republic. 

We got to be tour guides as we showed part of the group some of the things we walked to last time. But the cable car to the top of the mountain was broken, so it wasn't an option this year. Another change was that classic cars were lining up on umbrella street.

We also led them to the Paseo de Lona Blanca--better known as the "pink alley."

The pink alley was less pink because it was in the middle of a repaint job.

We had a fun group, who were up for spelling out "CRUISE" in the mirrored building on the shores of Puerta Plata.

After heating up on a walk around town, we headed back to the water.

We were all a little sweaty after walking along the road closest to the shore, but we eventually could see our ship.

Then it was time to cool off at the water park right beside our cruise dock. We had walked right past this touristy collection of shops and restaurants on our trip last year. But that meant we didn't get to enjoy the lazy river that runs through it. Limited to only cruise passengers, this was a safe and fun place for a large group of family members to form a big chain of tubes. Did anyone else notice that Mark and Denisa were the only adults in this chain?

They also had a surf rider pool where cruisers can try their luck at hanging ten. While the lines were long in the middle of the day, we found they were quite short as we got closer to our ship departure time. If you didn't mind sprinting to the gang plank close to the deadline, you could have the surf rider all to yourself.

Our second port was St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This was home to the blue Caribbean Ocean and four other ships that were visiting this island on the same day.

So we quickly boarded a ferry for a trip over to Water Island.

No cars were allowed on this island, and that's because the few roads were in a terrible state of disrepair.

But we had these bumpy roads all to ourselves on our rented golf carts.

We drove those golf carts straight to the main beach on Water Island. Because all the cruise ship passengers were still over on St. Thomas, we had this beach almost to ourselves.

We spent time snorkeling from the main beach, where we were delighted to find a number of sea turtles. We didn't take an underwater camera, so we have no pictures. But it sure was fun finding sea turtles, and the sucker fish that like to hitch a ride on their oversized shells.

The kids were delighted to also find island snow cones. Let's be honest, the adults were delighted as well.

We drove the winding roads all the way to the top of the island. There we found the remains of a military fort, with its watch towers overlooking the Caribbean. We found the underground tunnels and climbed up and down the ladders to find the secret areas inside.

We stopped back on the beach to pick up the rest of our group that weren't interested in the fort adventure.

Then we had to catch the ferry back to St. Thomas in plenty of time to catch the Encore. Several members of our group captained the ferry boat to get us back in time.

Our next stop was Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands. When we visited Tortola last year, we took a ship excursion to another island. This year we wanted to get a ride to one of this island's beautiful beaches. While most of our group took a bus tour to a popular beach, Denisa and Mark opted to wing it on this stop. We hired a driver to take us to a beach that we had read about. We can recommend "Mr. Taxi" in Taxi 1404 in Tortola.

It's a beautiful drive across Tortola to get to the east end of the island.

While it's hard to see from the top of the hill, this is a favorite place for flamingoes to nest. The tiny pink dots in the water far below are the adult flamingoes. The babies actually hatch as downy white.

Part of our group was beaching on the west side of the island where the tourists usually go, and the pounding surf literally knocked them off their feet. They enjoyed playing in the heavy surf, but we had a completely different beach day. We had read that the snorkeling was better at Long Bay Beach, and our water was placid.

The main reason we wanted to go here was for the snorkeling. While it took a long time to swim out to the rocky reefs, we found some of the best marine life that we have ever experienced.  We saw big schools of colorful fish, and some healthy coral and purple sea fans. This little beach was remote and doesn't have the services and amenities of the other beach. But it also doesn't have the crowds.

Long Bay Beach was actually on an adjoining bit of land called Beef Island. But the bridge we crossed to get to this separate island was so small that we literally didn't notice it.

We were glad that our driver returned as promised, as it would have been tricky to get ourselves back to the ship dock so far away. Once back to Road Town, we enjoyed a little dancing to a very good musician close to the dock. It was a great finish to a good port day in Tortola.

Our last stop of the cruise was at the NCL private island in the Bahamas. Most of the large cruise companies own islands that only their customers can visit. The tiny island of Great Stirrup Cay doesn't have a dock, so we tendered there on smaller boats.

We walked the beaches, and again snorkeling was our favorite thing to do. It was quite a swim out to the reefs where the best fish were hanging out. We always take our old snorkeling gear that has made many trips. But we were especially glad we had it with us this trip, since we used it at so many port stop. NCL hosts a beach barbecue for the passengers, and we all ate lunch on the island. But after days in the sun and the sea, we returned to the boat early. We realized that we didn't take many pictures on this final port day, but we were blessed with good weather once again. As the moon rose over the Eastern Caribbean, we counted our blessings for a great cruise with great cruise-mates!

Our three favorite places to take a walk with the birds in the Rio Grande Valley

While staying in Mission, Texas, our home is just 4 miles from the Mexico border.  It's warm in the winter and birds literally flock to spend their winters here. Over the years, we have found our three favorite places to take a walk with the birds in the Rio Grande Valley. Warning: be prepared for way too many pictures of the birds we spotted this January.

Just three miles from Bentsen Grove Resort is Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park--also known as the World Birding Center. We enjoy going to the state park, and we know the areas where they feed the birds. So we always head to our favorite.

The brightly colored orioles hang out near the fresh oranges. In an area with an abundance of citrus trees, oranges are cheaper than bird seed.

 

This oriole was protecting his territory when a green jay approached.

Green jays are beautiful birds, and this is the only area we have ever found them.

The coloring on their face and wings is some of the most striking among the birds.

This day we also found a woodpecker, with his bright orange neck . . .

and red on his crown.

Rails always seem to look grumpy,

while kiskadees sound like a kitten in trouble.

It's a good time when you find a green jay, a red cardinal, and a yellow kiskadee in one tree.

In case you think that we only see birds in south Texas, we included a collared peccary that was nosing around for the bird seed tossed out of the feeders.

Another day we took a trip to our second favorite place to take a walk with the birds in the Rio Grande Valley--Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We like walking through the forest sections of this park with the Spanish moss draped from the branches.

Another cranky rail was hanging out in the forest here.

It was lunch time at the wildlife refuge!

Besides walking at the bottom of the trees, visitors can walk on the suspension bridge for tree-top views.

Once again, we were blessed with beautiful blue skies as we wandered through God's wonders.

The trees are home to the tiny tit mouse,

and more of the bright orange orioles. This one was just enjoying a tiny piece of citrus . . .

when the bees started arriving. We have the same problem when we juice oranges and grapefruit outside. The bees show up for their share of the orange juice as well.

You can almost see the disgusted look on his face, as more bees show up.

With all the lakes and rivers in this park, the water birds love to spend the winters here too.

It's fun to find the many types of ducks and water birds that winter in the Rio Grande Valley.

In case you should think that we only see birds in South Texas, we took a picture of the raccoon foraging at the edge of the water.

Yep, Santa Ana is one of the favorite places of these two love birds.

Our third favorite place to take a walk with the birds is in South Padre Island. Every time we make the 84-mile trip to the island, we take the board walk that starts near the convention center.

The trail leads all the way to the bay side of the island, but we often see just as many birds in the shallow water near the board walk.

It was especially fun to watch this green heron enjoy a surprisingly large fish in one big gulp.

Just in case you think we only see birds in South Texas, you should know that there was something else in the water with the birds.

We took several pictures of this alligator as he sidled through the shallow water close to the bay.

He seemed to be looking right at us.

We spotted a family of four turtles near the boardwalk.

Turtles always seem snobbish with their noses in the air.

We certainly wouldn't call ourselves birders, and we struggle to remember the names of even the most common birds. But we always enjoy a walk with the birds in three of our favorite places in the Rio Grande Valley.