Won’t do Norwegian again

Item: Norwegian Encore
Rating: 3.6
Author: ELPIRATALOCO

Norwegian Encore Cruise Review

ELPIRATALOCO

Contributor Level: Third Mate

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 3

Helpful Votes: 59

Overall rating:

3.6 out of 5

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 29, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Encore

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 13188

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

Nice new ship but not enough deck space. Pool deck is small and crowded. Go-kart track and laser tag, as well as Haven sun deck and vibe beach club take up most of the space. Go karts and laser tag can not be booked prior to cruise. They have to be booked once you get on the ship and sell out fast- we could not get a time slot by the end of embarkation day. Food was excellent and there were plenty of good drinks to be had. District Brew house had something like 20 beers on tap and more in bottles (included in the beverage package). Los Lobos and Cagney’s were excellent. Service was worse than average, new ship with new rules so many people at guest services had no idea what they were doing. Shows were average. Kids club is small and uninspiring (thank god for iPhones). Internet hardly worked. At the end of the cruise, my overall sentiment is that I just got nickeled and dimed, baited and switched, and I’m going to stick to RCCL from now on.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Children's Programs

2 out of 5

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Ship tip

Not work the hype for families with smaller children

Thumbs up

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico

3 out of 5

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

3 out of 5

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

3 out of 5

5 Comments

Gwbigdog 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

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ELPIRATALOCO 4 years ago

There was a lot of pool chair saving going on, and it was not enforced at all, I saw a guest complaining to an officer on the pool deck that he had been walking around for over an hour trying to find a place to sit, and he saw multiple chairs with towels on the that were not being used, and the office told him to just keep looking. By 10 AM, all pool and sun deck chairs are taken. We had to pull some chairs from the shady part of the deck near the go kart track and put them between the garbage cans and the bathroom, not the most inspiring place to sunbathe. I would suggest that if you want to sit in the sun on a sea day, get there early. The same thing applies to the choice seats in the observation lounge. It was very frustrating.

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Ddancers 4 years ago

Hear a lot of negative concerning pool space on the Encore. Will be sailing her this year. Hope they at least try to stop people from saving chairs that aren't being used. Pool areas tend to be a problem area for many ships. Yet I have been a good number of ships that did an excellent job insuring that chairs weren't saved in the early morning to be used much later in the day. On these ship never had a problem finding a chair. Thank you for mentioning it; being informed helps to soften the disappointment a little and might encourage action taken.

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cruisereckoning 4 years ago

Sorry it wasn’t what you were expecting. We like RCCL also even though we do cruise some others. Depends on where we want to go and ports we want. Have never been on Norwegian.

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bobduck1993 4 years ago

Sorry you didn't enjoy as much as you liked but it is good that you know that , Royal Caribbean is to your liking!

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Other reviews of this sailing

A new year's cruise

Brand New Ship - Best Cruise Experince

NCL Encore was nothing great. The ship was too big and could not accommodate the amount of people. The specialty restaurants were too crowded to book on day 1. We precooked and everything was skewed up. Hubby wanted to do go carts and nothing available