Even though we caught COVID on the ship, all in all we had a blast on this cruise. The NCL Encore is a huge beautiful ship with a race track, water slide (we did not do either) and huge VR room. The food was spectacular! The entertainment top notch. The VIBE was a sanctuary, private bar, excellent personal service and 2 hot tubs that were rarely used. A sailing thru the Panama Canal has always been a bucket list trip as my Dad worked on it with the Army Corps of Engineers. We booked the Encore next summer for an Alaska cruise and are looking forward to it!
Embarkation
4 out of 5
The clerk who checked us in did not even look at our negative COVID test paperwork
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Loved the Main dining rooms, unfortunately all 3 had the same menus, it would be nice to have variety. Only went to the buffet for a breakfast. The Bacon was delishious!
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Loved the VIBE - but not the $250+ per person charge. Trivia was fun, the painting classes were also fun. Beginning Bridge class was not for true beginners - more of an intermediate class.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Kinky Boots, Choir of Man were SPECTACULAR!! Some of the comedians were funny, some not so much. The magician was really good. Back in the Day band was terrific, got everyone dancing and singing at the top of lungs!
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
For the most part, all were fantastic and attentive. We came down with COVID during this cruise as did MANY others. People were walking around sick, coughing and sneezing everywhere. My husband tested positive with our home tests, but went to the Ships Dr. and he said he just had a common head cold. When we disembarked we went to CVS where we tested positive. Definitely not a fan of the medical department. I was abandoned in Antigua Guatemala when I got lost and was 10 minutes late for the 3:00 meeting for the bus. It was a fiasco and the Shore Excursion Manager was a real jerk about it.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The only complaint about the design is all the activities in the Atrium. It was difficult to talk to Customer Service, or Shore excursions or the internet help desk or Latitudes to book future cruises (all in the atrium) because of the noise from the atrium.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We initially had Room 11822 with the couch near the balcony. With the curve in the desk/furniture I had to literally climb over the king sized bed to get the couch and balcony. After several attempts to get a different room we were told that there were no other rooms to be had. What??? The ship was approx. 60% capacity. Finally, we were given the room right next door at 11820. This room had the bed next to the balcony and much more room to walk around. Our room Steward, Marc, did not help us move, even when I asked. That was frustrating - but he did do a great job in maintaining our new room during the rest of the cruise.
Ship tip
The Observation Room is amazing. Great little buffet, great bar and spectacular views all around!
We took the NCL tour train ride along the canal. Since we did the full transit the day before the train was redundant and really went thru woods and did not see much of the canal.
We the NCL tour to visit the Sloth Sanctuary and it was so cool to see all the animals they have rescued and helped heal to release back to their natural habitat.
Did the NCL Antigua on Your Own trip, got lost and was abandoned there. I was really frightened, not knowing the language and all alone. However, beside being abandoned by the NCL tour guide, the city was super cool and I loved that I stumbled upon a free museum and the ancient walled city was surrounded by volcanos.
Wow, it was really disorganized, a real cluster. Had to wait in line to go to the back of the ship to the Manhattan Room to go thru Customs. Then we had to walk outside to the front of the ship only to have to go to another floor and wait on another line to get off mid ship. Then we had to take a shuttle to a tent where our luggage was. Then more lines to wait for rental car pick up. It took hours!
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