Nice cruise, but NCL cut short the port stops

Item: Norwegian Encore
Rating: 4.2
Author: rich01mac

Norwegian Encore Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

rich01mac

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 3

Helpful Votes: 50

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5

Verified Review

10 Night Caribbean: Dominican Republic & Antigua (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 14, 2024

Ship: Norwegian Encore

Cabin number: 14758

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 3 months ago

Review summary

Relatively disappointed in this cruise. When we booked, many of the port stops were 10-12 hours long. However, sometime before we boarding, NCL saw fit to reduce the time in port considerable. In addition, NCL decided to reorder our port stops to avoid the last day of the San Sebastian festival in San Juan, PR. While this was probably a good move as we have been told San Juan is crazy during the festival, the change forced our St. Thomas stop to be changed to a very early arrival and departure (0600-1400). I do not understand why they did not plan the itinerary this way from the beginning. The San Sebastian festival is scheduled well in advance. NCL should have done a better job scheduling their port stops to avoid last minute replans. In general, I feel NCL did a bait and switch where they enticed us to book with 12 hour port stops, then reduced the port stops when it was too late to cancel the cruise.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Embarkation was OK. However, when calling priority boarding, NCL did not differentiate between different levels of priority. So it was a mad and chaotic rush which would have been avoided had they been a bit more organized.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Cagney's, Onda, Los Lobos, and Food Republic were very good as far as specialty restaurants go. Was not disappointed at the main dining rooms. Buffet was meh.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Have had better entertainment on other NCL ships but was adequate. My biggest gripe is not being able to reserve entry for the smaller venues (Cavern Club, The Social) to see the comedians and the Beatles cover band. So if you weren't there an hour before start time, it was SRO. I see no reason why entry cannot be reserved for these venues.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

The staff and service were outstanding as usual.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Everything appeared well maintained and clean

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Pretty much a standard balcony stateroom.

Ship tip

Don't trust the itineraries. They will change them after you book, usually to your detriment. Still a good cruise, but the value for your money is not as good as you think.

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