We love Norwegian Encore's spa more than any other ships we've been on. Overall the cruise was ok, but service was very slow. Many of the staff did not speak English well and didn't always understand our questions. The ship was too crowed and we will never cruise again for Christmas, this is why there were probably to many kids too. We've been cruising for New Year's Eve for many years and last year this ship was at 1/2 capacity because of Covid. Last year service was excellent, we were treated like royalty....this year was a big disappointment.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
long wait
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
I was very disappointed with Cagney's. This was one of our specialty dining perks so we all went there for New Year's Eve dinner. I ordered a rib eye steak cooked medium, but it was so undercooked I sent it back. When they brought it back to me, it was still too rare for me. I could not eat it. Very disappointing and the staff knew this but offered no other solutions.
We went to Savor and Taste a few times for lunch and breakfast, but never returned after one breakfast since that took over 1 hour for the 2 of us to get our eggs.
The buffet was a zoo, overcrowded and very hard to find a table.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Norwegian Encore has the best spa. The ship was packed to capacity and there were about 1000 kids on board but we could always find a quiet "kidless" place to relax in the spa.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
We saw Kinky Boots last performance on Norwegian and they cast poured their hearts into it. We saw this play on Broadway and last year on the Encore but this final show packed a punch.
The singer in the Observation Lounge was not good, we were there for the New Year's Eve celebration and this singer was 10 seconds off on the new year countdown. We all knew because we used our cell phones to see the actual time. Very disappointing.
Children's Programs
we have no kids
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Most of the staff was new to the ship, did not understand English, did not know the ships layout. First day I asked a waiter in Taste where guest services was and he was very hesitant and gave wrong answer. So I asked the hostess and she told me to go to Q, avoid the long lines at guest services. She was so right, we were the only ones in there. Why didn't other cruisers know about this instead of standing on line for hours??? We did tell people to go to Q and they did.
Our problem was that our cards did not have our drink package on it and when we had lunch, we were charged for drinks. So we had to go to guest services to straighten this out
It took until the next morning and we were issued new cards. A glitch on Norwegians part because our friends had the same problem and they booked their cruise through a different tour company.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
it was ok. The soap dispensers in the ladies' rooms didn't always work properly.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
The cabin was smaller than ones we've had in the past and our steward Elan was excellent and kept our room neat and clean.
Ship tip
inquire about how many kids are on the ship and also ask if staff has been turned over because we had too many newbies who didn't know enough about Encore.
We did a catamaran snorkel wreck trip and it was too crowded. There were too many excursion boats and one of them was moored right over the wreck. I was afraid I was going to get kicked in the face by another snorkeler so it was not enjoyable
I love Antiguas beaches and this excursion was good except for the thatched hut we used was too low, had nails protruding and we had to be careful not to cut our heads, plus we had to pay $10 for this!!!
We took a cab to downtown, had some food and drinks then walked back to the ship. Nothing special...didnt book an excursion because we've been here before and the so far beaches and snorkeling have been too packed!!
They stopped my boyfriend as we were having our faces scanned. Turns out I had purchased Star Bucks coffee that morning and now the bill needed to be paid. Norwegian had our credit card on file, they could've just billed it and send an updated bill to our email instead of delaying our disembarkation.
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