The Encore is a very nice ship, the entertainment is excellent, and the onboard food and service is good (but not as good as past NCL cruises). If you'd like to have clean hands before you eat at a specialty restaurant, be sure to carry your own hand sanitizer.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Compared to disembarking, embarking was good. The new NCL terminal in much better than the old terminal, but the chaos outside the terminal is just as bad (if not worse)
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
NCL has always had great food & service; however, we did note a reduction in the quality of some of the food choices at specialty restaurants.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The pool is jam packed on sea days. NCL continues to block out public areas to increase revenue (i.e. Beach Club), this class of ship replaced Spice H20 area for a go kart track (rarely used), and virtual game area (rarely used).
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Choir of Man & Beatles Invasion were excellent.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Most of the time, service was fantastic; however, NCL's cutbacks appear to be affecting service at bars and restaurants.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ship's layout and design is 5 stars, but I'd give cleanliness 2 stars because there are no hand sanitizing stations at the specialty restaurants =:0 I thought I might not have seen them, so I asked the hostess and she offered a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. The lack of available hand sanitizing stations was noted throughout the ship. We've sailed NCL for 10+ years and hand sanitizing was always encouraged... but not on this cruise. The ship does have areas near the Garden Buffet where one can wash their hands with soap & water, but I saw very few people using them.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Nice cabin. I liked the new chairs they have on the balcony -- they are comfortable and can be reclined.
Ship tip
Eat at any of the 4 specialty restaurants along the waterfront (deck 8).
NCL tenders to GSC. If the waves are too high, or it's too windy, etc. NCL will not allow tenders to go to GSC. This is what happened on our cruise -- they just parked us & we didn't get to visit GSC. This is too bad because NCL has done a great job improving GSC over the years. Maybe they can invest in a dock to GSC rather than roll the dice with the weather?
Disembarkation was chaos. NCL (or the Miami Port Authority) need to do a better job getting people out of the terminal building after they have cleared customs. People standing around with their luggage that have no idea where they need to go and the porters have their luggage carts lined up along the street which were blocking people from getting to their cars, pickup areas, etc.
Thanks for the thoughtful review of the Encore which happens to be our favorite NCL ship. I do agree that the virtual arcade and go kart areas are a waste of valuable space. I’d love to see a really great mini golf; no matter how small or lame there are always players
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