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.
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.
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