MITSUGIRLY's ENCORE pictorial and extensive REVIEW

[mitsugirly]

This port is HUGE! There's a lot of walking involved in just the port itself. I was questioning why I had decided not to take the 3 wheeled motorcycle to the port. Whew! 

 

 

 

 

We made it to the pool area. It was so nice! This is definitely a port you don't even need to leave outside of the gates to enjoy. You could just come here and enjoy a free day (unless you eat and drink there). 

 

 

 

We found the lazy river. It's located toward the back/end of the port area, so walking the furthest away from the entrance of this port will get you there. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

Here's where you will grab your tubes for the lazy river. They had plenty of them stacked and waiting on the cruisers.

 

 

The ship off in the distance. There are some great opportunities to get pictures of her sitting out there in all her beauty while you are at this port. 

 

 

The lazy river also had tunnels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few pictures I managed to get of the Encore while there:

 

 

 

We had finally made it to the end of the port and out we went...into a circle where the taxi's pull in to take you where you want to go. However, we knew that we needed to walk out of this area and go to the main street and turn left...according to our instructions sent to us from Marysol. (I'm not sure where they got this picture of the port because it's nothing like the port and doesn't even have both the pools or the lazy river in it. It appears that the port is small and it definitely is not). 

 

[mitsugirly]

18 minutes ago, fethiyeden said:

Just found your review & we’re already on day 3! Just binge read it all. Sorry you are still having trouble with your webpage.

Merry Christmas to you & all the family.

 

Hi and thanks for joining in. Glad you're here. Merry Christmas to you as well! 🎄

[ninjacat123]

I remember your great reviews and pics from the past but I didn't realize how much time had passed until I saw a pic of Sakari!  She looks so grown up and I love the mom/daughter repartee.  Looking forward to reading more!!

[mitsugirly]

49 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

I remember your great reviews and pics from the past but I didn't realize how much time had passed until I saw a pic of Sakari!  She looks so grown up and I love the mom/daughter repartee.  Looking forward to reading more!!

 

Hi and welcome to my review. We still continue to travel every 4 months, some by cruise ship and have incorporated Caribbean land vacations in between the cruising. Most of them can be found over on my blog/website. Glad to have you here! 🙂

 

[mitsugirly]

Here is a picture of the taxi pick up area the street.

 

 

Like every port, there were so many vendors asking if you needed a taxi or a tour but they were helpful in pointing me to Marysol once I told them I had booked with them. They ended up being on the other side of the street and easy to find. He was holding a sign.

 

 

The other side of the street was lined with semi's as we walked to our tour van. The sign guy stayed back and we followed another rep from Marysol. 

 

 

Wait, what is he taking us to? An open air bus??? WOO HOO! This is going to be fun! I love the open air buses. It makes it so much easier for me to get pictures and don't have to worry about any glare from the windows or picture color distortion. 

 

 

 

We got situated and I changed positions several times as I tried to figure out the best place to sit to get the best pictures along the way. Yep, I think the very back would be best. That way I can get pictures out the back and from the side. Now hopefully I would be on the "right" side as well. 

 

 

 

Are we going to be the only people on this tour? Nope, along came another family and we started to discuss where we were going. That's when the tour guide discovered we were on the wrong bus and tour!

 

He told us to grab our things and come with him...then put us on this thing...

 

 

 

Well darn!  However, we ARE the only people on this bus and it would remain that way.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

It wasn't long before we were off. I mean there wasn't anyone else we had to wait for so that made it easy. 

 

As we went along the road...such beautiful scenery. 

 

 

 

 

 

We would see a lot of cows and horses everywhere along the way on the hillsides. 

 

 

 

The tour guide had told us it was about a 45 minute ride to the falls. However, we were pulling in within 30 minutes so it wasn't a bad ride at all. 

 

 

Now I had read (and seen some pictures) of the horses they have along the trails in case someone needs medical attention, they are able to help them and/or take them back on the horse. I'm not sure if this was one of them or if this was just a horse for a horseback riding tour.

 

 

The entrance to the gear up and food area:

 

[Call8675309]

I have really missed your reviews. Following along as I’m assured of a great and honest assessment of your experience from your unique perspective.

[mitsugirly]

12 minutes ago, Call8675309 said:

I have really missed your reviews. Following along as I’m assured of a great and honest assessment of your experience from your unique perspective.

 

 

Thank you very much and glad you are here for the review. 🙂 

[mitsugirly]

Once we arrived, our tour guide told us to follow him to the building. We were there quite early and he said we would need to wait for about 30 minutes to an hour for other "groups" to arrive. Wait what? I'm wondering what other groups? We were the only one that booked with them and came alone and would later find out why.

 

 

We took this time to go to the bathroom and also gather everything we would need for the falls and then we put our bags in the lockers. They had lockers there behind a desk and the amount you paid for the locker depended on how big of a locker you needed. Of course we packed a lot (and should have just left it in the locked van but didn't want to walk back out there) and our amount was $4.00.

 

 

As we sat around waiting, we noticed there were a lot of people arriving now. Then we noticed people gearing up with their helmets and life jackets. Finally he told us that we needed to hurry to go get fitted for the tour and pointed at one of the groups already geared up. We went over and gathered our life jackets and helmets and the group was already starting to walk. Our tour guide with Marysol said he wouldn't be going with us and we would be going with another group. He said he had an injury months ago (in his neck) and he had not been released from the doctor yet to do any jumping.

 

So...off we went on the hike.

 

 

There were bridges, dirt trails, wooden trail and rocks. Every type of terrain you could think of along this hike. We were in for a .... treat?

 

 

We absolutely love hiking and nature and we walk in the various parks at home, but the terrain here would not be the same (of course...I mean after all, we are going up a mountain to the falls right?)

 

 

I had been reading various reviews that stated that all of the falls were not open due to less rainfall so I knew going into this that we would only be doing 12 falls instead of 27 or something along that nature. I was ok with that since I really didn't know what to expect from the waterfalls AND my broken down body these days.

 

 

 

We came to a large bridge that we would have to cross to get over to the other side. 

 

 

But everyone had stopped. What were they looking at?

 

 

 

Ohhhhhh, I see now.

 

 

There was a large herd of cows crossing under the bridge. They kept coming and coming and coming. There were so many of them. There must have been at least 30 cows that went under the bridge as we were crossing it. 

 

 

Up and over the bridge we went...

 

 

 

More cows coming...

 

 

 

Of course there was one waiting to greet us on the other side of the bridge too.

 

 

[ninjacat123]

Your hike reminds me of our hike in Belize to the River Cave tubing site.  Seemed like it went on forever and I blew out my water sock. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this excursion because we initially had it booked for this upcoming January cruise😃

[HBCcruiser]

On 12/23/2023 at 5:38 AM, mitsugirly said:

took a famous @sdmike picture of my feet as I sat there watching the sunrise come up. Notice how swollen my ankle still is...even after my third surgery this year. But hey, at least I can walk right again

Welcome back to CC! To this day I think of you whenever I am getting gas and want to step over the hose. Don’t do it! You taught me a lesson. Seriously, thanks  for that. I am glad you are healing but three surgeries just this year? Wow. 🙏Thanks for another great review. Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁 

[mitsugirly]

If anyone was wondering about the heat and sun, you are surrounded by trees and was always in the shade. Never once did we feel hot or overheated...well, except for all the walking involved but never because it was so hot and humid from the sun. Also, we didn't experience any bugs at all either.

 

 

We started the first of many steps to climb...

 

 

They kept going and going and going and going...whew!

 

 

We finally made it to the top and I was huffing and puffing. Although I've lost a bunch of weight and feel so much better at everything I do, I'm still not in shape despite all the walking that I do at home. I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest at this point. Those last couple of steps to make it to this resting area with seats were torturous. 

 

 

 

It never felt so good to sit down! Everyone was huffing and puffing and we all sounded like we had just ran a marathon. That made me feel a little better...I was not alone in this journey. The hubby kept asking if I was ok as I gave him the "are you not ok yourself" stare. Sakari, well she was perfectly fine. Kids! Humph!

 

As we started our journey again, more cows lined the fence along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

In some places, there was cacti lining the trail.

 

 

 

Sakari was in the lead ahead of us, but yet notice how far back "we" were in relation to the group. LOL  She wanted to be up there with them, but yet didn't want to leave us behind. How sweet of her right?

 

 

We climbed a lot of stairs that day and at one point everyone was completely worn out and we all stopped ON the stairs to rest. It was a LONG set of stairs leading up the mountain...like really long.

 

 

 

But when we finally made it up and we would come to a resting place again. Whew!

 

 

At this point I was pretty sure I was about to have a heart attack and hoped that my family remembered all the cpr I have taught them. If not, where's that medic horse at? I honestly didn't think I was going to catch my breath. My heart was pounding, my legs were throbbing and I'm pretty sure someone had lit them on fire at this point. Does anyone smell smoke?

 

 

They allowed us to sit there for awhile and told us the worse was over...THANK GOODNESS! No more climbing stairs. We had made it to the top. That made we very happy!

 

[mitsugirly]

9 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Your hike reminds me of our hike in Belize to the River Cave tubing site.  Seemed like it went on forever and I blew out my water sock. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this excursion because we initially had it booked for this upcoming January cruise😃

 

Oh no, this hike was a lot more to it than the cave tubing from what I can remember. I don't remember the walk for cave tubing being half this strenuous. Maybe because I was 10 & 12 years younger and more in shape than I am now. I'm not sure. 🤣 But we LOVED this excursion anyhow and although I do a lot of complaining about the hike up...it was all worth it and so much fun! Definitely do it!

 

 

7 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

Welcome back to CC! To this day I think of you whenever I am getting gas and want to step over the hose. Don’t do it! You taught me a lesson. Seriously, thanks  for that. I am glad you are healing but three surgeries just this year? Wow. 🙏Thanks for another great review. Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁 

 

Thanks! Definitely stay away from gas pump hoses! I've learned my lesson as well...about stepping over anything remotely related to a hose. LOL

 

No three surgeries total since the accident. I've had one surgery this year. 🙂 

 

Merry Christmas to you as well. 🎄

[mitsugirly]

I took this picture as we started the trail to the waterfalls. It said waterfall #7. Hmmm, ok. I guess we weren't doing 12 of them after all, which was a little disappointing. Maybe more of them had dried up as time went on. Safety first. 

 

 

We were told no more climbing but what I didn't realize is that we were now going to be going down stairs...which is difficult for me. I look like a duck waddling when I go down stairs since my ankle does not bend in that direction. I would just have to waddle and turn sideways as I always do...but this was going to be a slow process.

 

 

Several times I stopped to let others by because I didn't want to hold anyone up.

 

We were going down...WAY DOWN.

 

 

We could finally hear the water echoing off the rocks. The excitement was building as we made our way down...and truth be known, my anxiety was in high speed right now not knowing what to expect from our first jump. 

 

 

We had made it to the first platform and looking down, I was nervous. Lord have mercy on me! I just kept thinking...if I get hurt, this is the first port and I will be done the rest of the cruise and not get to do anything else in the other ports. Will i survive? 🤞

 

 

 

Now they do have steps for the "chickens" in the group. Peer pressure from the tour guides telling everyone that they were welcome to take the stairs down if they didn't want to jump, however...everyone was going to make fun of you and talk about it. Well, his little talk didn't do much good because there were quite a few people that chickened out on that first jump saying "we'll try the next one". (There was no slide here...only a jump. Either you do it or not). Those stairs looked a little harder for me to navigate...so I had made up my mind that I was jumping!

 

 

Ok, here we go...

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I made the excuse that I wanted to get video's of them both jumping from the platform from the top. They bought into it. We had the hubby go first. He had the GoPro attached to his chest and thought this would be best (and he could test out the waters before we did 😁) Then....he jumped! Bravo!

 

Next up was Sakari. You could tell she was super excited (and I even caught that excitement on video) and then she went. 

 

Next up was me. Yikes! Now I'm NOT scared of heights however...when you are standing up there looking down and knowing you are jumping into this "space" they tell you to that is surrounded by rocks, well... 

 

Ok, I got this. I'm just gonna go. I'm ready. Then, they had me stop. Several of the people that jumped before us and had swam over in the wrong direction. When it was my turn, they decided to tell me to wait and let them all swim by to get to the other side. I waited and waited and waited as they all went by just as slow as the cows that passed us earlier did. Now I have to sike myself up all over again. Thanks guys!

 

Ok, it was finally my turn and I....jumped. I didn't think twice about it. I just did it. WHEW WEE!!! I do have to say that it felt just like when you are dropping on a roller coaster. That feeling you get in your stomach. I felt like I was in slow motion and wondering when my feet would hit the water then boom! I had hit the water. The water was deep. There was no bottom and I felt like I went way down. I kept swimming up and up. Where is the surface? Oh there it is. Hehe! That was so much fun! Let's do it again!!! (No worries, we were definitely doing it again)

 

We would later discover that having the GoPro attached to the hubby's chest wasn't exactly the best idea. With the water being so deep, he would try to float on his back (since you couldn't stand) to have it above the water to get us jumping only sometimes that didn't work. It was under water on this first jump when I went. He did manage to get Sakari jumping though. 

 

Sakari was super excited with me after I jumped. 

 

 

Now we would swim down this channel. The water was a beautiful aqua color and the water was cold, which they had warned us about. I've always wanted to go to Xcaret in Mexico and I pictured it to be somewhat like this with the water flowing between the rocks. This was exciting and fun.

 

 

 

We swam to an area that we had to crawl up the rocks to get out. Then up and over and back down steps.

 

 

It was so pretty in here. I didn't want to get out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this meant she was enjoying herself!

 

 

[mitsugirly]

As we were walking in the channels, one of the tour guides said there was a huge spider up in a crack in the wall. I couldn't see it. It was too dark in there. He said "Let me take a picture for you" and took my camera, turned the flash on and took a picture. 

 

Does this look like a spider to you??

 

 

 

 

Nope? Me either. lol

 

We made our way into the channels of the water. I was taking extra precautions as I put my foot down each time. The hubby would hold my hand to help and I did fine. 

 

 

 

 

 

There were some small channels along the way as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Then we came to our first waterfall to slide down. It wasn't really big, but it prepared us for what was to come...and it also got us from the top area down to the next channel. 

 

We were told to sit down and keep our legs straight. You are supposed to cross your arms in front of you...otherwise you will get what they call a "Dominican Republic tattoo. 

 

 

This brought us to the next channel to swim down. Gosh it was so pretty in there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it to an area that you could finally walk in and walked along the stream. 

 

 

 

 

We had finally arrived at the next jump/slide:

 

 

 

[destar]

Enjoying your review, thank you for posting.

[Palmetto Pilot]

I'm really enjoying your review. We're on the Encore in a week for our anniversary and NYE. My last NCL cruise was the Norway and Norwegian Sea in the early 1990s.  

[mitsugirly]

We stood at the top looking down. Wow, that was really far down! Pictures and video's do not even begin to give a good idea of the drops at this place. You know the writing on your side view mirror? "Objects are closer than they appear" Well jumps and slides may appear smaller than they are in this case. LOL

 

Standing on the rocks looking over the edge...trying to devise a plan of action.

 

 

 

 

 

They informed us that we would be doing this twice. Wait what? You would jump AND slide. You could pick which you wanted to do first. 

 

 

 

We decided go big or go home and we were going with the jump. They said it was over 20 feet and man did it look like it was higher than that from above!

 

Sakari went first. She's so brave. I promise you, Sakari did not do a flip here even though it appears she is preparing for one mid air.

 

 

 

 

Then it was the hubby's turn.

 

 

Then I was last and what an adrenaline rush!

 

 

But once we got down below and everyone had went, they never mentioned going back up and doing the slide. So, we only got to do the jump. Darnit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We moved on to the next slide. It wasn't as big but it was still fun.

 

 

Then up next...the last waterfall of the day. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for all the water spots. I totally forgot to keep dunking my camera under water to clear it...or lick it. Yes, I said lick it. I learned that trick awhile back. You lick the screen and dunk it and it clears it. LOL

 

We looked all over and couldn't find Sakari. Then we spotted her standing up on a rock. She wanted to be the last to go. This would be our last fall and she wanted to go out with a bang I guess. 

 

 

 

 

 

She was still waiting for her turn just hanging out. 

 

 

 

 

Then last but not least...she got to go. Man that looks painful...but it's not in case anyone is wondering. That was one of my concerns when booking this excursion. Would going over and banging up against the rocks hurt and/or bruise you. Nope! It did not. Didn't feel a thing or get a bruise and I bruise easily. No worries. The do advise you to wear some shorts over top of a bathing suit though. Maybe you slide easier?

 

 

 

 

The guides started doing tricks on the last waterfall and one of them completely ran DOWN the waterfall itself and into the water. Another, that was standing on one of the rocks alongside the waterfall, ran down the rocks (that almost looked like steps) and dove into the water. Another did the same at the end and just jumped in. You could tell they've had some practice doing this.

 

[mitsugirly]

Now it was time to walk back. The walk back wasn't as bad and we were all cooled down from the water. We didn't have all those stairs to climb either...thank goodness. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Back to the bridge we go...

 

The cows were already gone by now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

24 minutes ago, destar said:

Enjoying your review, thank you for posting.

 

Thank you so much.

 

21 minutes ago, Palmetto Pilot said:

I'm really enjoying your review. We're on the Encore in a week for our anniversary and NYE. My last NCL cruise was the Norway and Norwegian Sea in the early 1990s.  

 

Thank you! Happy Anniversary and I hope you have a great time! Wow, it's been awhile for you hasn't it? I was on the Seaward as well in 1989 for my very first cruise!