Encore question after an 8-year absence from NCL

[Jose Zalfadilla]

Not a cruise novice but last cruised with NCL in 2015 on a Med cruise, before they began building their floating condos on barges with theme parks in upper decks. In fact, I’ve only sailed 4 other times with NCL, the first in 1974 when they had only 3 ships: La Niña, La Pinta, and the Santa María. Actually, I’m wrong, they were the Skyward, Sunward, and Southward. Now, however, I have 3 young grandkids who have wanted to sail on the Encore, after seeing various YouTube videos with friends who have been on it and raved about it to my grandkids. So, knowing full well what my wife and I are getting into, we decided to take the kids on the Encore during the 1^st week of April out of Miami, as a reward for having achieved and superseded their personal and academic goals this year. Yes, I’m aware of the number of kids who will join them in their misadventures during their Spring Break, so we decided to add their parents (daughter and son-in-law) on the cruise to keep track of them.

 

So, question: How is the Encore compared with other kid friendly NCL ships? I know I can always stay out of kid venues and hole up in a bar or remote adult section of the ship, but just wondered about the amount of kid traffic on such a large capacity ship, whether they will need reservations for many of the kid activities they’d want to join, etc. They are 13 & 11 y/o boys and a 9 y/o girl.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Jose Zalfadilla said:

Not a cruise novice but last cruised with NCL in 2015 on a Med cruise, before they began building their floating condos on barges with theme parks in upper decks. In fact, I’ve only sailed 4 other times with NCL, the first in 1974 when they had only 3 ships: La Niña, La Pinta, and the Santa María. Actually, I’m wrong, they were the Skyward, Sunward, and Southward. Now, however, I have 3 young grandkids who have wanted to sail on the Encore, after seeing various YouTube videos with friends who have been on it and raved about it to my grandkids. So, knowing full well what my wife and I are getting into, we decided to take the kids on the Encore during the 1^st week of April out of Miami, as a reward for having achieved and superseded their personal and academic goals this year. Yes, I’m aware of the number of kids who will join them in their misadventures during their Spring Break, so we decided to add their parents (daughter and son-in-law) on the cruise to keep track of them.

 

So, question: How is the Encore compared with other kid friendly NCL ships? I know I can always stay out of kid venues and hole up in a bar or remote adult section of the ship, but just wondered about the amount of kid traffic on such a large capacity ship, whether they will need reservations for many of the kid activities they’d want to join, etc. They are 13 & 11 y/o boys and a 9 y/o girl.

 

The Encore is probably one of the better NCL kid-friendly ships. 

 

Make sure to register the kids with the Splash Academy (11 and 9 yo) and the Entourage teen club for the 13 yo on embarkation day. And make sure that they go there on embarkation night to make friends. Then, you can have as much time as you want to yourself. 

 

The 13 yo will be unrestricted. The 11 yo can check themselves out of the club after being there for an hour (highly recommended since that is what the other kids will be doing. The 9 yo will need to be checked in/out by you. 

 

Post #43 and #44 from my live post below shows some of the activities on your itinerary. Access to the clubs are first-come-first-serve. You have obviously picked spring break for the kids, so you know that there will be a lot of kids and young adults (the worst) on the voyage with you (same on any ship that week). The rest of the thread below has information on the ship. 

 

Get the cruise started off with a bang. Have everyone's swimware in your handcarry when you embark and after a quick buffet lunch, have the kids run laps through the water slides. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jose Zalfadilla]

Excellent review and post, BirdTravels! Thank you!