mdchachi

On 2/27/2020 at 4:21 PM, GE0130 said:

 

By any chance did you (or anyone else reading this question) see the country band in "Q"?  Do you remember their name, or perhaps get a video?  Hubby, my extended family and I were on the inaugural sailing out of Miami and "Camille Rae and the Rae Bans" were the band.... they were PHENOMENAL!  Our whole party of 10 spent every night in Q listening to them, they were THAT good! 

 

On our sailing it was "Top Shelf Band" according to the Freestyle daily schedule. I tried to Google them but I couldn't find anything. There are several bands of that name but none that said anything about a cruise ship gig.
I didn't see them so I can't say how good they were.  They may have a different band in April anyway.

On 2/25/2020 at 1:43 PM, Cookie002 said:

 

Dont know if anyone read this whole review, but I hope it helps out any fellow cruisers.

 

 

I read it but I'm not sure I can trust it. There was no Feb 15 sailing.  I was actually on the Feb 16th sailing which sounds similar to the one you are claiming to be on. 😄

13 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

I said it.  I know we did first day on Bliss.  We may have had to ask our way in "to check it out" but it wasn't a problem getting in to see it.  And I'm pretty sure we went into another ship's Vibe because the door was open first day.  Or maybe that was Bliss... 

 

I wonder if I can head to Q, get the tickets (hopefully) and then go "check it out" and if we don't like it, just hand back the tickets and not pay.  That may have to be our approach.

if you’ve already seen one wouldn’t it be pretty much the same? A deck with a bunch of loungers and a bar and a hot tub.  

1 minute ago, toothy26 said:

Is it hard to find a lounger in the shade on the Encore?

Much easier. For some reason people haven’t gotten the memo about skin cancer and premature aging caused by the sun. 

15 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Does that mean you don't lay outside at all?  Or, you lay in shade, not sun?  If you lay in shade, how did that work out for you?

We laid in the shade. Had no issues finding loungers after lunch when we were looking. We ended up in the back starboard corner looking at the ocean through the glass. The waterfront on deck 8 was also a good place to hang out outside. Also used our balcony a little bit. 

I was also on this sailing. You should amend your title to say avoid at all costs if you mainly care about laying out in the sun all day and smoking cigars. Yes it’s true that pool & hot tub space is lacking. I got zero time in a hot tub which was a first for me. 

We avoid laying in the sun so the lack of loungers was not a big issue for us.  I wouldn’t get the vibe myself. I understand it’s just a sun deck. Not worth $200 for me. And I never try to reserve loungers for the kids. They never spend more than 10 minutes on a seat. 
 

By the way for anybody willing to walk to the back on deck 17 there’s a highly underutilized bar in American Diner. No need to stand in line at one of the pool bars when it’s open.  

We had a great trip overall. We experienced all the gimmicks, saw some excellent shows, had some good meals and good port experiences. I wouldn’t go out of my way to ride Encore again but I certainly would if the price was right. 

I got my sights on the Odyssey next. 

2 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

Wow...I am heading this weekend and this review has really got me thinking and worried about my trip. I am not a sun person but one of the people I am travelling with is. I am sad for her already if what you say is true.

If it’s only her she should have no trouble finding a spot in the sun. At least one of the chairs would be available and she can move to a lounger by keeping her eyes open. Also not every one wants to sit out on the deck all day. You can grab chairs when people get up to go to lunch or move on. 

Regarding Glow party, I noticed in pictures elsewhere people were waving around glow sticks or lights of some sort. Were they passing them out or selling them?  If the latter, wondering if I should buy some in advance.

Yes really appreciated as I'll be on the Encore in 8 days if all goes as planned.

I wonder if the 8% tax on the photos only applies on the last night or if you have to pay Florida tax no matter when you buy.

By the way, is it possible to pull the dining credit splitting trick in all the restaurants or only certain ones where it's easier to share the food?

Sad day for you.getting to last hours. Thanks again for all your posts. 
Dod you happen to know if they offer any WiFi packages onboard that’s different from what you can buy in advance?

 For example if I decide I want more than the 250 minutes I have, are there other options besides moving up to unlimited for $80? If not I may as well prepurchase now. 

6 hours ago, dreaming girl said:

On the second sea day we hit the galaxy pavilion. We did the $29 per person hour pass. We hadn’t planned on doing it at that time but decided to check  it out and found the place to be pretty empty. So we decided to give it a try. A lot of staff, but not much for explanations. We waited several times for assistance to get fitted for our VR experiences. We did the finger rollercoaster first and it was pretty lame. Next we did the race cars. It was a bumpy ride but fun. The vision seemed a bit off but I figured it was the VR stuff. When the ride was almost over I pushed the mask up and wow I could see!! About this time the watermelon I had for lunch was causing some serious indigestion. I did try to do the dinosaur Jeep ride but was becoming nauseated so I removed the VR googles and rode in the bouncy seat. For some reason the positioning was really weird. When I had the googles on it looked like I was beside and about to go under the Jeep wheel and when I looked behind me one of the passengers had no head. My son said the graphics were really bad. Reminded him of a 1995 video game. The guys did more VR games which they felt were on Par with a PS4 VR system. We had fun racing a couple more times but without the VR googles. Some of the staff raced too (without the googles). They said they never use the VR googles when they race. In hind sight I shouldn’t have gone after eating as I get nauseated with simulator rides. For the next two days I had issues with indigestion. Would we do it again? Probably not. But it was fun to try and a reasonable price. The one hour pass was just enough time to check it out.

Thanks for the VR ride reviews. Did you try the Radical SR3 also?  It is supposed to be cutting edge.

See:

1 hour ago, tx121 said:

Well tomorrow we will be in St Thomas! Stay tuned!

 

Did you know that your itinerary would be different than the normal one (which is St Thomas before Tortola) when you booked?  Did they say why they did that?  I assume you won't be going to Great Stirrup Cay?

5 hours ago, tx121 said:

 

I just realized there are more games at the Local Pub area. There are actually 8 more games there with the green light. So there are 20 games total.Here are some of the games at the Local.

 

Oh wow, thanks again.  If so I'm leaning on getting the arcade pass. $160 is a lot of money but there's six of us so I think we could get our money's worth. 

I just noticed in that sign I posted it said that the SR3 Radical VR experience is not included in the $8 rate. Do you happen to know how much that one is?

1 hour ago, minorad said:

Can you explain how the pricing for the Laser Tag and Race Track work?  We are taking the Encore to Bermuda with our 3 teens this summer.  I know you said there is an unlimited week long pass for $199.  Is there a day pass as well?

 

Thanks!!

1 hour ago, tx121 said:

 

There are a total of 12 games with green light. Most of them being simulator rides or shooting games. The other games that are not included are games where you win prizes

 

 

Thank you. !

If you get a chance could you give a rough count on the green tag machines in the arcade? And maybe a picture or two of the area. These are the ones that are covered by the $160 arcade pass. I’m just trying to figure out if it’s worth getting. 
 

Also if you happen to meet anybody who did the escape room I’m interested to hear their feedback. Early reports said there were some technical issues but I haven’t heard anything recently. 
 

Thank you!

On 2/3/2020 at 9:31 PM, HowardK said:

So it seems then one should try for vibe first and then do the go karts next? Are there approximate times the karts are open every day? 

The open times are written in the daily planners that he has been so kindly posting for us.

On 2/3/2020 at 12:33 PM, tx121 said:

You're welcome! There is no lobster served in the main Dining Rooms. If you want lobster, you will need to book a specialty restaurant that serves lobster.

Go karts are $9.95 for a single ride, $29.95 for a unlimited daily pass and $99.95 for unlimited pass good for the whole cruise. Laser tag and Galaxy Pavillion (Virtual Reality Games) also cost extra.

 Go karts are $15 per ride. I haven't been on Encore yet but I've seen a picture of the price board. Laser tag is $9.95.

I'm assuming they are talking about Breakaway / Breakaway Plus class.  I'm interested in Encore specifically but that ship isn't out yet.

On 2/24/2015 at 8:35 AM, Wendy&Grumpy said:

We've just booked 8138 for September!

 

Does anyone now if we can fit a lounger on our balcony?

How was it?  Did the lounger fit?  Was the room noisy?

On 12/28/2018 at 6:58 PM, TYinPalmSprings said:

FTTF is not for loyalty. It's a purchased prioritization. Some people obviously feel a need to feel special.

Or maybe they just don't like to wait.  Or maybe they feel the value is worth the cost.  I'll be sailing on Vista soon with basically zero status and no FTTF (I didn't know this was a thing but I wouldn't have purchased it anyway. Not because I begrudge people who do so but because I am cheap  ;-). 

I appreciate the heads up; I'll expect the worst and hopefully be pleasantly surprised when it's not as bad as expected.

23 hours ago, Jmedrew said:

 

For us it was Monday, our first Sea Day and then Cozumel on Thurs.  We had a Sun-Sun cruise.

Your Cozumel stop should have been on Friday.  Belize on Thursday.  Unless they switched things up.

2 hours ago, CM2J2R2S said:

 

We must going on the same day as you.  Mr. Sanchos is sold out.  We have been to PB a number of times and always enjoy it.  My worry this time is that the load is heavier and MrS sold out early - so PB will also be picking up more of those passengers.  For us, we are five people, we will need two cabs or a van there and back - so $60 in transportation alone - and possibly not getting in or possibly a very, very crowded scenario.  We have also done the cooking class with Josefina and don't want to that again.  Not sure what to do.

Probably main thing to do is not dally and get off the ship as soon as you can to get where you want to go.  If weather looks good, my current plan is either PB or El Cid.  Passion Island mentioned above also looks interesting and I'm still considering it.

As of December 2018 the non-AI day pass is $21.00 that includes $12 of credit for the restaurant when purchased at the hotel.

Thank you.  How about El Cid Ceiba Resort? Do they ever get to capacity? Do they sell passes in advance or is it first-come first-served?