Sailing on a new ship?

[Newfun4me]

Hi All,

 

We have only sailed on NCL once and absolutely loved it.  We were on the Jewel to Alaska in 2016 and ended up upgrading to the owners suite.  It was one of our favorite vacations ever.  We are booked on the new Encore ship in the Haven 2 bedroom suite at the end of May 2020.  I was just reading another post that said that staff might not be settled in on a newer ship and the person who wrote the post seemed to really not have a great experience at all (bad kids club, disorganized, cold food, etc.).  That has made me a bit nervous.  We are taking my niece on this trip (she will be 10 when we sail) and I am hopeful that by sailing on a newer ship with a lot to offer her, she will have a great time.  However, I'm second guessing myself now.  We are spending a lot for this and my expectations are pretty high because of our previous experience.  Am I overthinking it or should I potentially consider a different cruise?  Thank you so much for sharing your insight.  

[UrbanGirlie]

37 minutes ago, Newfun4me said:

Hi All,

 

We have only sailed on NCL once and absolutely loved it.  We were on the Jewel to Alaska in 2016 and ended up upgrading to the owners suite.  It was one of our favorite vacations ever.  We are booked on the new Encore ship in the Haven 2 bedroom suite at the end of May 2020.  I was just reading another post that said that staff might not be settled in on a newer ship and the person who wrote the post seemed to really not have a great experience at all (bad kids club, disorganized, cold food, etc.).  That has made me a bit nervous.  We are taking my niece on this trip (she will be 10 when we sail) and I am hopeful that by sailing on a newer ship with a lot to offer her, she will have a great time.  However, I'm second guessing myself now.  We are spending a lot for this and my expectations are pretty high because of our previous experience.  Am I overthinking it or should I potentially consider a different cruise?  Thank you so much for sharing your insight.  

I think you are overthinking it and it will be fine. Hey what could ‘possibly’ go wrong in the Haven? 🤪 If anything I would be confident that they should try harder being that it’s a new ship and first impressions are important.

Enjoy!

[mvanzandt]

We sailed on the Bliss last year at Halloween and I had the same concerns because I read the posts from some its earlier sailings.  Our cruise was about 5 months after its maiden voyage and we had no issues with any of the staff.  We did have an issue on embarkation day.  We chose the earliest embarkation time possible and were 2nd and 3rd in line to buy passes to The Vibe Beach Club.  The line never opened and a crew member came up and told everyone in the line that the Vibe was sold out to people that have booked back to back cruises.  Everyone in line was pretty irritated and then we ran into some ladies that we had met prior to embarking and they told us that they had bought Vibe passes at guest services.  We went to guest services that day and asked if we could buy passes there and we were told that they did not sell them at guest services, which was an outright lie.  Needless to say we got even angrier.  However, we did ask to be put on a wait list for the passes (a lot of people buy passes and never use them) and we were called and given a small discount on the passes on the second day of the cruise.  We weren't going to let this issue ruin our good time, but we felt justifiably lied to and that the process was somehow broken.

[Greenpea2]

When a new ship comes out there are always kinks. But in terms of personnel, I think many of the best of the best are brought on for key positions (experienced room stewards, butlers, concierges, restaurant managers, etc). On the other hand, probably the lower-end jobs are newer personnel and sometimes have to catch up on things. In any case, it will be a new and beautiful ship and I am sure you will have a blast. 

[www3traveler]

By the time you sail, The Encore will have six months of sailing behind Her

 

Alaska in May is a wonderful cruise.  Hopefully the mountains will be full of snow and the glaciers should be pristine.

 

Enjoy

[Two Wheels Only]

By the time that the OP sails, the crew will be "in rhythm" and things should be fine. They likely won't be "burnt out", either. 

 

Mechanically, Encore is the 4th BA Plus ship and Meyer Werft know what they are doing. MSC Seaside (for ex.) was the first of a new class and Fincantieri ......eh, not as precise. I don't expect any mechanical, electrical, plumbing type of problems with Encore. 

 

Adrien will probably still be the concierge and he's one of the best concierges that NCL has. He's my personal favorite but others such as Anoop are also very good.

 

I'd wager that the OP and the 10 year-old will have a fantastic cruise. 

[Newfun4me]

Great!  Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply.  We'll just hang tight and I'm sure we will have a great time.  

[tomk3212]

We were on the Gem back in 2007 on her 3rd or 4th cruise in Europe & while there were some issues we absolutely loved it!  The incomparable Klaus Lugmaier was the Hotel Manager on the Gem at that time and during the Q&A that all the ships officers attended during our Cruise Critic breakfast Meet & Greet he explained how NCL scours its fleet for its absolute "A Team" crew members that they then put aboard every new ship when it initially sails.  He said they expect glitches & issues and that's why they try to mix into the new crew members their absolute best crew members from the rest of the fleet.  Based on our experience on the Gem it certainly worked!  Hopefully NCL is still doing this.

[zqvol]

You want to avoid the first two or three sailings of a new ship. After that the kinks should be worked out.

[NCLGirl2013]

12 minutes ago, zqvol said:

You want to avoid the first two or three sailings of a new ship. After that the kinks should be worked out.

We are on the 5th sailing of this ship so I'd assume that'd be enough time too? 

[BirdTravels]

On 6/20/2019 at 3:58 PM, Newfun4me said:

We have only sailed on NCL once and absolutely loved it.  We were on the Jewel to Alaska in 2016 and ended up upgrading to the owners suite.  It was one of our favorite vacations ever.  We are booked on the new Encore ship in the Haven 2 bedroom suite at the end of May 2020.  I was just reading another post that said that staff might not be settled in on a newer ship and the person who wrote the post seemed to really not have a great experience at all (bad kids club, disorganized, cold food, etc.).  That has made me a bit nervous.  We are taking my niece on this trip (she will be 10 when we sail) and I am hopeful that by sailing on a newer ship with a lot to offer her, she will have a great time.  However, I'm second guessing myself now.  We are spending a lot for this and my expectations are pretty high because of our previous experience.  Am I overthinking it or should I potentially consider a different cruise?  Thank you so much for sharing your insight.  

By May 2020, some of the original crew will already be rotating off for new assignments. And new staff rotating on. We were on inaugural cruises of the Breakaway, Getaway, Escape, and Bliss and had no problems at all. Just because you read it on the internet, does not make it true. 

[zqvol]

2 hours ago, NCLGirl2013 said:

We are on the 5th sailing of this ship so I'd assume that'd be enough time too? 

I would think so.

[mugtech]

19 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 Just because you read it on the internet, does not make it true. 

A word to the wise is sufficient.

[Carnac767]

We sailed on Escape when she came out out of the shipyard in Hamburg, the first people to ever stay in our cabin.  It was a great experience.  Nothing like that new ship smell.

[dpepper64]

The crew is already training on the Encore.  The key people pick there crews so during the first couple of months you have the best of the best.  After that they start rotating new crews into the ship.  We talked with the Rogeliza Nanad when we where on the Bliss last Thanksgiving, she was the restaurant manager on the Bliss at that time and she was selected to go to the Encore to set things up.  For a number of reasons one being her being on the ship we are going back at Thanksgiving time on the Encore.  The biggest problem you may have during this cruise is that the service and food will  set a standard that may not be repeatable 4-6 months from then.  But the first cruise out of Miami should be great.

 

It was very interested in talking with other crew members a lot of them did not want to be on the Encore to start out because of all eyes on the service and food quality.  They would prefer to wait 6 months or so before getting on the ship