vacation44

If anyone is interested, here are the Freestyle Dailies from our Encore last week. Couple of thoughts on OUR experience: 1. As usual, we had a great time and did enjoy ourselves. This time around it was just my husband and myself (upper 50's) and we stayed in a club balcony suite which had an extended balcony. 2. This time around, the once-a-day cabin upkeep did not affect us. Our cabin was cleaned every morning on the early side which would great for us. Upon meeting our Cabin Steward, we requested four towels daily so we always had clean towels. 3. We did miss the absence of an additional Broadway style show other than the new game shows in the main theatre. We have no interest in the game shows. 4. In general, you had to get to the comedy shows in the Social a good half an hour before show time to get a seat. We miss the old way of making reservations. One night we got there around 45 minutes early and had trouble finding two seats together. This kept us from going back and seeing another show. 5. Los Lobos--wow! For the first time, we tried Los Lobos and both agreed it is now our favorite NCL restaurant (not counting The Haven). We even went back the following night! That night we had dinner reservations at Cagneys and we were placed at one of the tables outside the restaurant near the very loud bar. We asked to be moved to another table inside the resaturant and were told it would be an hour and a half wait. I nicely said that we did not make our reservations at 125 days out to be sitting outside the restaurant as an overflow. The Manager did try to talk us into waiting the hour and a half or to come back another night. We thanked her and walked ourselves over the Los Lobos, which is across from Cagneys, and got seated 15 minutes later. Again, another delicious meal. We were told that we were the fourth party that night to come back again without reservations. It seems to be really catching on. The only drawback on us walking out of Cagneys was I missed the seven-layer cake. 6. For Embarkation, as Platinum, we boarded right after the paid upgrade to priority boarding which boarded after passengers needing assistance and Sapphire, Diamond and Ambassador. While we still boarded on the very early side and got everything accomplished upon boarding that we needed to do, I did not think it was right that paid priority boarding went ahead of platinum boarding which we earned after spending many, many, many thousands of dollars to achieve. But that is my opinion. 7. While the Vibe on the Encore is not my favorite, for us, it was worth every penny (59,900 of them). The service was, as usual, top notch. Lounge chairs could always be found in both the sun and the shade. 8. We loved both the Boss Underwater Excursion in St. Thomas and Escape to Jost Van Dyke excursion in Tortola. Both were the highlights of our trip. We also did the Discover Puerto Plata tour which was unusual for us as we always are geared to water-based excursions. My husband was happy as he was able to purchase rum and cigars while I was able to purchase chocolate. Note there was a good amount of walking on this tour which did take a lot of people by surprise. On Great Stirrup Cay, we rented a Villa at Silver Cove. 9. The buffet. I have seen a lot of comments lately about the quality and amount of food choices going down lately at the buffet. We agree. This was our fifth cruise since the restart (and third within 11 months) and have noticed a big difference this past year. 10. CruiseNext Certificates--we purchased them and were able to apply them to our three cabins on our June 2025 Encore cruise which we booked in March 2023. So far, so good that they have not been kicked back yet. We do still love the NCL product, but I think we both love it a little less now. We are up again this June on the Joy with our young adult children, their significant others and extended family and are both still looking forward to it; however, I think we are going to cancel our February 2025 Viva cruise and go with our Plan B which we formulated while we were waiting for NCL to release the Viva Vibe passes. Any questions, please ask and I will try to answer. Day 1.pdf Day 2.pdf Day 3.pdf Day 4.pdf Day 5.pdf Day 6.pdf Day 7.pdf

We would of preferred to receive the plate of various chocolate instead of the platinum strawberries last week!

Interesting. I do not think this was available last week on the Encore, but we would not have ordered anything from that menu. The one time we were allowed to order food in the Vibe, it was free and it was differently the Haven snack menu. I definitely can understand why NCL did not move forward with this option as NCL moved to make all of the Vibes bigger which means more orders. Now that I am thinking about it further, I believe when we were on the Escape last, it was right after the price increase to $199. Maybe they threw in the option of the Haven snack menu to make the increased price more appealing. Whatever the case, still a huge Vibe fan with or without the snack menu!

The snack menu was sandwiches, burgers and salads. We definitely would of ordered lunch from it if it was still an option. I am fully confident that only Haven guests can order food from the Haven snack menu and have it delivered by their butler. As I said above, we encountered it once in 2019 and never since. How old is the professor cruise entry?

Very good suggestion.

No, there is not a charge for the fruit and cookies. When we were in the Escape Vibe back in May 2019, we were allowed to order free of charge off of the Haven snack menu. This was the only time I have experienced this so I am not sure if they were testing it out. The next time were we in the Vibe, I inquired about it and was told no and that it was not a thing. All I know is that it was a thing on that May 2019 cruise because we had lunch off the Haven snack menu twice in the Vibe.

There were no brownies last week on the Encore.

You are very welcome. However, I did not get the chance to order room service to test out your seven layer cake theory last week. Please let us know if you decide to order it and if it is the same cake as Cagneys. We are up again in June so I am still interested.

On the Encore last week, it was not open for dinner.

And these are reasons I am fully confident you will love it. They also have coffee and pastries early in the morning in addition to the fruit and cookies in the afternoon.

I would check every morning for them to open up the Vibe pass selling. More than likely, since the ship is still under construction, they have not started selling the passes yet.

Absolutely agree!

Yes, for my family it definitely would be worth it.

Funny story about your above comment.........I never met the bartender the first few days of the cruise as I had no need to go to the bar. When I was leaving the Vibe one late afternoon during the mid way point of our cruise, I stopped by the bar for a refresher. I put my pink Yeti down on the bar and the bartender sees my cup and comes right over and said "Gloria, rum and coke with a lime and where is Joe's black cup for his double Bacardi 8 on the rocks".

The lounge chairs mostly. I found them difficult to use and the arm rests were always in my way. It also seemed more crowded to us and while service was still very good, it was not as outstanding as we have previously experienced. They could have used another person working in the Vibe. I definitely do agree that with both sides, it was very easy to find shade when we wanted so that was a plus. We did not go to the top deck. We do have Vibe passes on the Encore for next year so as I said before, even though it is our least favorite, it will definitely not stop us from partaking in the future!

On the Encore last week, they switched those fake creamers to rectangular packets that said half and half. They were a pain to open.

In order........Escape, Getaway (when it was starboard side only), Joy and then Encore. We prefer the smaller Vibes than the new expanded ones. And the lounge chairs in the Encore Vibe were not the usual padded ones in all of the other Vibes we have been in. However, a non-padded lounge chair in the Vibe is better than no access to the Vibe!

For us, it is definitely worth it and we will not cruise without it. We just got off the Encore this past Sunday and used it every day accept one day because we got back to the ship too late. Now, I will say that of all the Vibes we used, the Encore was my least favorite.

Wait for it............

Yes, there will be coupons in your cabin for your two free specialty dinners for two. Make reservations beforehand if you can. If you are interested in the free behind the scenes tour, you need to go to the cruisenext desk as soon as possible upon boarding as there is limited space. This free tour is not the same tour as the paid verson as the paid version is longer. You are also entitled to a wine tasting event that you would also have to sign up for at the cruisenext desk.

I can report that there were still coffee and pastries at the Waterfront at 6:00 a.m.last week on the Encore!

We also received the four varieties last week on the Encore and they had three varieties in the Vibe. I was not able to find cookies anywhere else.

Also agree with @UKstages. My family was on the Epic last March in a Haven category while some extended family were in regular cabins. The young adults went to O'Sheehans late one night and my niece approached the check in stand and was told "here is a pager and the wait would be an hour for a party of six". My daughter then took out her Haven card and requested a table for six and was told "right this way". My niece gave the pager back as she walked in immediately.

Have a great time and please report back!

Just got off the Encore yesterday and we received everything mentioned above with our club balcony suite. How long ago was your cruise?