Our last couple days on the ship were comprised of rough seas - 28 ft waves - and hurricane force winds - in excess of 75 mph. Ship was rocking and rolling up high. Bridge slowed our progress for safety purposes and we were a couple hours late getting into Seattle. Lots of folks were not eating much and looked a bit green, but even on Deck 15, we were just fine. Great job navigating us through the storms! And we've now got a great sea story to add to our repertoire ...
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Having to do the pre-board COVID testing was quick and easy. Embarkation was very well organized. Just wish NCL would have been able to offer seating in designated areas for various levels of Latitude Rewards while waiting in pre-board areas. They only offered that for Haven guests.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Naturally, the Specialty Restaurants - Le Bistro, Cagney's, and Q Texas Smokehouse were THE best - loved the new menu choices! - sorry to see Le Bistro has done away with the chocolate fondue for dessert though. Manhattan was right up there with the specialty restaurants as far as quality of service and menu choices. We enjoyed every dining experience onboard. The Garden Cafe offerings for breakfast were always perfection - in particular, the omelet station, so patient and willing to snag me some bacon for my omelets. Lunch offerings of salad combinations were just right for light lunches.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Too cold for pool enjoyment, but the thermal spa was wonderful! The various rooms like sauna, steam room, salt room, snow room (yes, it was max cold!), mixed in with the warm bubbly water of the thermal spas provided the perfect blend for relaxation and soothing sore muscles after working out in their state-of-the-art fitness center.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The band in Q, Tchad & NorthSound Band, was amazing! They were very patient with many of the slightly overzealous guests... The overall quality of the musicians aboard was above the levels we were beginning to see dropping in quality on some of our pre-COVID cruises, so that we see as a very positive step. The Choir of Man was beyond excellent! Great show! Kinky Boots, while extremely well done, was not a show I would ordinarily seek out off the ship, when there are so many other Broadway type productions better suited for families and adults.
Children's Programs
no kids
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Everyone provided high quality customer-centric services, except one gent from Guest Services (who epic-failed trying to convince us that he was a math wiz and should just take his word for what we were being charged when we are both accountants by trade and know that we were not given our $50 shore excursion credit on one of our shore excursions, since we were both charged the exact amount which only equated to our Latitude Rewards 15% off, but whatever, we finally had to give up trying to reason with him or miss our dinner reservations).
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The Encore is a beautiful ship and, due to COVID, was essentially brand new in terms of time in use.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Loved the Bathroom with its double sinks and the amazing shower with jets! Size was adequate for two people, but due to the cold weather clothing and gear, not quite enough storage space... Our cabin steward was phenomenal and kept up with our quirky schedule. Cabin had sufficient outlets to keep electronics charged up all week. Tip - invest in a cruiseline-approved outlet extender and you'll have no trouble keeping a laptop, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, cameras, 2 sets of AirPods charged up the entire cruise.
Ship tip
Pay close attention to your Freestyle Daily or you'll likely miss activities you are interested in attending! Take a highlighter and go through them each evening before retiring to highlight options.
We did the Best of Seattle (Ending at the Airport). Going up into the Space Needle was fun, but not much time to enjoy, due to schedule changes. The Market Place was also fun, but again, not much time to enjoy.
We did the Back Country Jeep Adventure with Dave and Jess and aside from the folks 3 jeeps ahead of us who made a wrong turn, ignoring our guides telling us over and over to keep the jeep in front of you in sight so you don't make wrong turns, the scenery was beautiful.
We did the Mendenhall Glacier Exploration and Mt Robert's Tram. Again, amazing vistas! Walking around town, hit up the Red Dog Saloon. Great ambiance! Great burger! Great Duck Fart! (don't ask, just go experience...) Only negative was that while waiting in line for the shuttle bus, there were 4 extremely rude and aggressive protesters telling us what horrible people we were and demanding we get off the cruise ship and bring the cruise industry to its knees. Tired of being the silent majority, my response to them was to respond in kind, asking them who paid for them to fly to Juneau to accost passengers who are bringing lots of tourist dollars into Alaska and contributing to the economy instead of sucking the life out of it like they were obviously doing. They did not want to talk about that... That was the antithesis of a peaceful protest, but none of them would even know what that meant, so it's wasted on them...
We did the Wilderness Exploration and Crab Feast excursion. Serious YUM! During the boat ride, we were able to catch videos of at least 4 orcas playing and splashing and breaching just off our port side. Fantastic meal of Dungeness Crab and beware of the stairs - lots of them - going down was okay, but coming up after that big meal???
Quite the cruise adventure! I understand your frustration about the protesters, great job with your response, but as you said, a waste of time since your response didn't fit their narrative. Glad you had a fantastic time.
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