NCL Encore Review

I’ll start off by saying, a bad day at sea is better then the best days at the office! So any feedback is truly first world problems. Let’s start with some cruise info though..

Departing: Miami

Ship: NCL Encore

Stateroom: Standard Balcony Deck 10 FWD

Destination: Roatan, Harvest Caye Belize and Cozumel

Boarding Process: The NCL process was super smooth, from the moment we were dropped at the terminal to getting on the ship was less then 20 minutes, this included traveling with a 13 month old. However getting to port was a dooozey. The Port of Miami needs serious work, we had 9 ships all departing within at 2 hour period of each other. And to say it was a traffic cluster and nightmare is an understatement. This isn’t NCL’s fault, and again, once to their place, smooth and efficient!

Cabins were ready by about 1:30PM on this sailing and all bags were delivered by 3:00PM. Was able to find seating on the pool deck, buffet and Brewhouse fairly easily!

Food Quality: I took my first sailing on NCL in 2007, it’s safe to say over the years the food quality has indeed gone down. It’s still pretty alright though and I still would argue has remained higher quality than land restaurants as we’ve seen quality go down everywhere it seems. Speciality dining in my opinion remains top notch though! Onda and Tempanyaki being my favorites!

Dinner Reservations: For sure a bummer that NCL has taken away reservations at Taste, Savor and the Main Dining Room. The move was to make it more “freestyle” but in my opinion it created less freedom to do what you want and constantly fight to get dinning instead. I hope at some point this is reversed.

Entertainment: Comedy on this ship was a bust. One comedian was HYSTERICAL, while I’m pretty sure a random passenger would have been funnier than the other one. The magician was a great time as well! Choir of Man is your typical broadway show so you’ll either love it, or hate it.

The ship had many good bands throughout, making it easy to find a place to lounge and listen!

Service: I have to say, this ship didn’t have horrible service, but for the top tier Norwegian service I’m used to, I found myself disappointed often. It was so hard to get drinks, anywhere, room stewards were missing frequently and everyone just seemed run down, maybe a ship culture thing, but a bummer for sure!

Hang out spaces: Since we brought our child, we missed out on some adult only spaces we otherwise would have explored. The observation lounge, even with the renovations, still always had space even on sea days. We also found ourselves often hanging out on Deck 8 at the waterfront. It offered nice seating outside without the pure insanity of the pool deck. The Pool deck was beyond overwhelming and even with staff focused on not letting people save space it still was always a mad house. The pools also have always seemed so small for the sheer size of these ships.

A good tip as a new parent I never considered, make sure to book a state room where the bed is near the entrance/exit door and not the sliding door if a balcony. In the middle of the night if you had to use the restroom you were forced to do an interpretive dance over the couch and pack and play to access the restroom! A good lesson learned for us!