Amazing experience on NCL

Norwegian Encore Cruise Review

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 18
Helpful Votes: 245

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Encore

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 06, 2022

Ship: Norwegian Encore

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9856

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

This was our first NCL cruise and we enjoyed it we will sail encore again

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Our first experience with NCL and with COVID we weren’t sure how it would go. We parked at the pier then directly into the pre cruise COVID test 15 minutes later we had our results and went into the terminal. From arrival at the parking garage around 9:30 am to testing to check in took about 40 minutes then we sat in the cruise terminal they started boarding at 11 and I had a cocktail in my hand on the pool deck by 11:15!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5
Most of the food on the ship was fantastic. The staff went over and above to make this a great trip

Waves Pool Bar

5 out of 5

This was our spot Michael, Lily and Paul kept the party rolling at the pool!

Teppanyaki

2 out of 5

Food was ok but this was the only time we felt the service was lacking all week. The wait staff was slow to bring drinks and refill waters. It was also very loud which is to be somewhat expected however we seemed to have gotten the quiet chef as I could not hear anything he was saying to us at all and he didn’t put on much of a show. We did enjoy watching the other chef from across the way. That’s just luck of the draw. I also thought it strange that the left the tails on the shrimp and didn’t slice them, they were quite large (def two bite) especially as we were eating with chopsticks and had no knives on the table. Same with the veges left too large to be bite size.

Savor Restaurant - Main Dining Room

5 out of 5

We had breakfast here twice and dinner once food was great and service fantastic. I will say that I preferred the ambiance here to the Manhattan dining room. The smaller size made it a bit more intimate of a dinning experience.

Maltings Whiskey Bar

5 out of 5

This was a favorite spot for evening cocktails. The beautiful seating area was great for people watching. I highly suggest the woodford old fashion and the blackberry smash Hubby enjoyed two different whiskey tasting experiences and the cigar lounge area

Food Republic

5 out of 5

We stopped in here for some before dinner appetizers the last day. Next time we will try this for lunch as well. Tiger roll and pork belly skewers were excellent. Also loved the cucumber cooler cocktail. They also have cold and hot sake

Coco’s

5 out of 5

Great late night dessert option.

The Manhattan Room - Main Dining Room

4 out of 5

Food and service were fantastic but it’s a large dining room and can at times be very noisy. It was perfect for seating our entire group of 9 for dinner

The Local Bar

4 out of 5

Fantastic Sandwiches and bar bites

The Humidor Cigar Lounge

5 out of 5

Nice to have an area to enjoy a cigar so many ships have removed their cigar lounges so we were super excited to discover this. They also had a nice selections of cigars to purchase for reasonable prices

Garden Cafe

5 out of 5

Great for a quick breakfast I especially liked that they had 6 different omelet stations so the wait for an omelet was never long! It also helps that the boat was less then half capacity but I have been on ships that only had two omelet stations so it was great to see so many. Lots of food options. Lunch here was also good

The Cellars Wine Bar

5 out of 5

The girls and I enjoyed a wine and chocolate tasting here as well as a champagne blind tasting. The sommelier was very knowledgeable and I actually learned a lot

Los Lobos

3 out of 5

This was not a favorite, service was amazing but it’s just average Mexican food. The guacamole was great and the margaritas. Next time we will just do guacamole and margaritas especially since it’s ala carte pricing

Cagney's Steakhouse

5 out of 5

This was perfection in every way.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful. All of the staff was welcoming.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
We had a balcony cabin. Beautifully decorated and it was immaculate. The bed was comfortable and the balcony was a good size. Now for size there was barely enough room to walk past the bed to get to the sofa not even enough space to wheel a suitcase through. Closet was a good size with shelves. Bathroom was small and the shower was VERY small, I’m not large and it was tight for me. Another thing was not much counter space or anywhere around the vanity to store makeup etc fine for a short cruise but on a longer one you need more storage.

Ports of call

Great Stirrup Cay (Cruise Line Private Island), Bahamas

5 out of 5
This was the best part of our trip we splurged on a silver Lagoon villa I highly recommend doing this at least once. It made for a fun relaxing day.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5
We took a cab to the beach for lunch and then followed by the sunset champagne sailing shore excursion. We booked through NCL and it was a wonderful experience
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