Caribbean Cruise With Many Ups and Downs

Norwegian Encore Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 28

Overall rating:

2.7 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Encore

11 Night Southern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 23, 2022

Ship: Norwegian Encore

Cabin number: 13256

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

The cruise was very fun, and there were a lot of memories made. However, a lot of what we experienced was not great. The ports were overall very nice, except for Puerto Plata, which was in the Dominican Republic and the beaches there were very much so a let down compared to the other ports. The food is not available on the boat after 10 PM, except at one restaurant where the food is honestly a three out of 10. You get so bored of that food by the second night, and there is no way to get a midnight snack at any sort of buffet or snack station. It took forever to get a drink at the bars because they favored certain people and some only had one or two bartenders that only really catered to people from the haven or platinum members. They also refused to play any college football games, especially during the playoffs, because they said “they were not able to because they were not given the rights to do so”. That is definitely not true because any bar even the bars that we’re off the ports were playing college football games and if they do not have the rights, they should be working very hard to get those rights. The Internet is terrible and was our last resort to watch the game, however it was so slow that we barely could watch it still. You have to PAY for internet. The lines for the Internet were miles long and they would cut people off even if you had been waiting there for two hours. There is one lady that works for two hour increments and she is working all by herself to help over 4000 passengers . This was ridiculous because it is the holiday season when we were on the boat and we were unable to call anybody to wish them a merry Christmas or happy holidays at all. If we wanted to call them, we would’ve had to pay five dollars a minute to call which is just a ridiculous number. They did a very good job saying merry Christmas and we did feel like we were in the holiday spirit except ( they could use honestly a little bit more decoration). they had a lot of holiday activities which was very nice but I wish there were more holiday themed foods maybe more holiday cookie buffets or deliveries to your room the night of Christmas because it is a Christmas cruise. The Christmas meal was also not great however, the New Year’s meal was pretty good. The Manhattan room was where we ate most meals because the speciality restaurants were full very fast when we got onto the ship. The restaurants were very limited as well and should be open for reservations 24 hours in advance so that people could book them and all have a fair shot. Everything is separate on this biat because if you want to have your own space where you can sit and tan by the pool, you have to pay an extra charge if you want it to be quieter and not dirty and gross. You cannot even enter the spa area unless you get a treatment or else you have to pay $600 a person. They try and rope you into all of this within the first few hours of the cruise, which they should do a better job of because there was no availability by the time we wanted certain things. They only had 40 spaces for the private pool deck or if you were in the haven then you would have a more private pool deck. Otherwise, there would only be two pools that you could go in and they are not even the size of a hotel pool. They are smaller than a hotel pool and there are thousands of people trying to get in them at a time . It is a germ fest. Overall, this boat was too large, and they did not have enough staff to fulfill all of the passengers needs, especially at the time of the holidays. I understand it is there a holiday too though and I did feel bad for many of the waiters that were not “higher up” that we’re working, which seemed like 24/7. If you want to get Starbucks and you are a Starbucks drinker, you might as well invest in the premium beverage package because otherwise you will be paying seven dollars minimum for a drink that you might normally get for 4.95. also, our room steward was not nice. Our room was never cleaned the way it has been on other cruise lines or even on previous cruises. when we walked in, there were children’s toys on the floor still so he did not go over the room very well. It is very hard to complain about some thing like that because we were going to have this exact room steward for 11 days. I wish that there was somebody like a boss that was watching over them that would check in on us and ask if we were doing OK with the room steward because you cannot really complain when they have access to your stuff at any point of time. We did not get any towel animals like we usually do on other cruise lines and he never took any of the glasses from our room away. He barely filled the soaps and actually they were so watered down that we could not use the shampoo, the last two nights of the cruise. We also had to beg for ice and you might as well bring a case of water on the boat because otherwise, it is very difficult to get. I would again like to reiterate how bad the Internet was. it was a constant battle for so many people. The lines were insane. The way that they do it is by minutes, so you have to shut off your minutes into different spots in order to save them for another day. However, they were drain on purpose. I think that is why they make you do it in two separate spots, and many people were struggling with it because they woke up and had no Wi-Fi anymore the next day. It is a way for them to make even more money when they obviously have the ability to give us all free Wi-Fi if they wanted to. I can only imagine more elderly passengers, struggling with this so much more because they don’t understand many times how to use certain things on their phones.

Embarkation

4 out of 5
We didn’t wait that long in line only because we had priority access but that’s the only thing that priority access is good for!! Don’t get it if you don’t mind waiting 20 mins. Waste of $!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5
Enjoyed the people at the Manhattan room. All food was spectacular. Amelia Arnaldo was the best server there is! However, it took SO long to get one drink at a bar. Just not enough bar staff.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5
Pools were a joke and we never even saw the rock climbing. It was WAY overcrowded and not clean. Need more staff to keep things clean and to enforce the no saving seats. If you weren’t out by 8 AM, you’re not getting a seat.

Entertainment

3 out of 5
The two shows were great! The comedy performers were terrible and the country band was sad. We love country music and it was unfortunate.

Service and Staff

2 out of 5
All the waiters were great! Our room steward was terrible and our room was dirty from the beginning to end. He didn’t even show up one night to pull the bed out for our daughter! Really disappointing. The guest services were not helpful either. They don’t have college football games on their boat and refused to play them. Internet issues were ABSURD!! Should be free.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
Not enough pools. A lot of ship was gatekeeped for the Haven or extra charges like the spa or the other pool deck. Everything is extra.

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
Hated the cabin. Was not what we talked about with our rep. We were told that it was spacious and had extra room for a third person. We were also told the deck was bigger and wasn’t in the back of the boat. It was supposed to be in the middle! I guess this is more of the representatives fault but truly disappointing to walk into something totally smaller unexpectedly than we were told. We tried to call our rep Alicia Upegui and she hasn’t called back for days now! Interesting.

Ship tip

Internet is horrible. Be prepared to wait in hours long lines because there is only one internet representative for the entire ship that carries thousands of guests.

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

2 out of 5
Crazy that you can’t get out after you get off the boat. People are coming in and leaving on the same road. Traffic was INSANE. Took about an hour to get out.

Oranjestad, Aruba

4 out of 5

Willemstad, Curacao

5 out of 5

Kralendijk, Bonaire

4 out of 5

Castries, St. Lucia

2 out of 5
they couldn’t handle how big our ship was.

St. John's, Antigua

2 out of 5
did not feel safe here at all. beach was great but some of the people that lived there kept bothering us and two of the men there even put hands on my daughter on separate occasions. she was beyond scared.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

1 out of 5
Hated this stop! Worst one ever. Don’t trust the people there. Take a excursion through the boat. Beaches were horrible compared to the other ones.

Disembarkation

2 out of 5
Terribly run and need better methods. Too many people in one place. Breakfast should be extended past 9 am. They immediately closed and took all the plates away at exactly 9.
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4 Comments

WhippetMum    1 year ago

Thanks for your feedback

natelorip    1 year ago

Sorry your cruise wasn't all that you wanted it to be. We sailed the Encore in August to Alaska and experienced none of this. Drinks were quick and everything was clean.

RetiredRay    1 year ago

Wonder if this a first cruise? Really should have had a travel agent to walk them through stuff, not the phone booking company.

Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Oops sorry 😞 thanks

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