Sydneyberlin

That's exactly how we felt. The main thing though is, whatever your taste, when we booked the cruise, they still had Kinky Boots as the main show and STILL also the Choir of Man. As the secondary show. And now they've just given the main show the boots, pardon the pun, without any replacement.

This is what we had originally booked before our upgrade came through and we had stayed in this category previously. Perfectly nice cabin and the little extra space in the bathroom makes a huge difference in our eyes. Ideal cabin type if the Haven is just a bit too much but you want to have as comfortable as possible a “normal cabin”.

Thanks a lot Amy for your considerate and kind words! We’re safely back home in Australia and are living off the memories of our trip. I like what you say about meeting other travelers and getting to share their stories and diverse backgrounds- it really made our trip. We’ve met a lot of really lovely people and enjoyed interacting with other guests of all walks of life. Especially in the intimate atmosphere of the Haven we found it was really easy to get into conversations with folks and getting “to know them” over the cause of the two weeks. Regardless of all the flaws and valid reasons to expect better (especially with regards to the Entertainment), I am sure you will enjoy your Alaska trip in September and I will keenly read any feedback you might have afterwards!

Totally agree on Onda- loved that restaurant! It seems to be a bit decisive amongst cruisers but I think it comes down to expectations- if you expect a more “traditional” take on Italian restaurants with Venice wall papers and faux Roman busts, then you’ll be disappointed. It’s a very modern and, as we thought, refreshing take on “Italian” cuisine and we absolutely loved both the atmosphere and, of course, the food!

And some MDR menus past day 7:

I had almost forgotten- here are some recent menus from our trip which might be of interest to anyone cruising soon. Bar menus:

Yes- we were on the Panama Canal positioning cruise just two weeks ago and the lack of decent entertainment was shocking. They axed Kinky Boots which we were really keen to watch and now sell the second tier Choir of Man as the main act. It’s okay to maybe watch once, but certainly nothing to write home about. Oh- and they got some Philipinos wearing ridiculous wigs enacting every grandparent’s favourite- the Beatles. Big fat yawn!

Oh yea, disembarkation was a total mess. Are the facilities always THAT bad in LA I wonder? It was basically a giant shed with fences inside. Chaotic, stressful, mad.

Oh this is just awful and unacceptable, I’m so sorry to hear you got treated like that!

We’re just back from a long 15 days cruise on the Norwegian Encore and thought to share some of our experiences and maybe dispel some myths along the way as there are many of those to be found on this forum. Before we start, it should go without saying but I better just say it upfront- these comments are solely based on our own experiences and sometimes on conversations with other guests and staff. You will find that we’re fairly opinionated and I believe that’s a good thing when writing a review as one can otherwise just peruse NCL’s marketing collateral. And of course, people and their opinions are very different, that’s the whole point. So please don’t flame me if you don’t agree or else if you must, then go ahead- we’re in “fresh of the cruise” mood so nothing can really hurt us at the moment 🙂 One specific remark I want to make as I know already some of our comments might come across as “ageist” and that’s really not how it is meant. We have lots of older friends and relatives whose company we very much enjoy and again, everyone is different. We’re a gay couple in our mid 40s and that’s the review you will get. Like it or not, it’s just how we experienced this cruise. So without further to do, we arrived from Sydney, Australia via Tokyo and then one single night in New York City (that one wasn’t our original plan but is courtesy of Japan Airlines who cancelled flights at the last minute and then were unwilling to accommodate us on a better alternative) and one night in South Beach Miami before boarding the cruise. Needless to say that we were jet lagged but glad we’re left some additional nights in between to not miss our cruise. So when reading about the usual whinges on here about missing a cruise after flying in from Nebraska on the day of cruise departure, an annoyed eye roll is the most polite reaction you’re going to get from us 😉 The first disappointment of the cruise welcomed us at the pier in Miami- one of the main reasons we had booked this specific cruise out of Miami (which is not exactly the easiest port to reach from Australia) was to try the flashy new NCL terminal. But meh- Norwegian in their wisdom had placed the Escape there and we ended up in a hardly used old Carnival terminal further down which was clearly not designed to handle a ship of this size. In general, with 8 ships in port all at the same time, the port was an absolute mess and traffic in and out a nightmare. Luckily again, we always plan loooots of time for safety so the over 1 hour Lyft ride from South Beach couldn’t really phase us. On arrival, there were some semi-official luggage handlers curb side who took our suitcases and I tipped them US-well, just to make sure they don’t “get lost”. Luckily, despite the rotten old terminal (with slightly faded Carnival signs and posters everywhere), there was a specific check in for Haven guests and we therefore avoided the nasty looking general check in area. Haven guests were in an area to the side where you could get tea and coffee, finger sandwiches and the likes so not too bad. Also turned out that we were right spot on time as waited not even half an hour until Bowen, our Haven concierge, introduced himself and escorted us to the ship. I have many times in my life boarded an airplane as the very first guest on board (usually these days due to flying in a Premium cabin and/or status or simply good elbows way back in my EasyJet days…) but this was the first time being the first guest onto a ship so I very much enjoyed this feeling. This is a good moment to quickly pause and just tell you what kind of room we had and how it came about: This cruise was booked three times altogether with the first two being cancelled due to the pandemic but always on the Encore and always crossing the Panama Canal. We were originally in a “Club Balcony suite” which must be the most misleading term for a stateroom ever as it’s explicitly NOT a suite coming with Haven access, and rather is just slightly bigger than a standard balcony. Why they don’t call it “Extra large Balcony stateroom” or something along these lines is honestly a riddle to me. But anyway, we’ve been in one of those before and it suited us just fine. But when the Upgrade Advantage email came and we thought of the three years we had been waiting for this and the long overall duration of the cruise, it was a no brainer for us to go in BIG. We weren’t really that keen for a two bedder family room as that just feels overkill to us but the Haven Penthouse stateroom we got in the end sounded just perfect so we put in the max possible bet. And voila, three weeks out we got our upgrade confirmed and we’re over the moon about it. I will in the following try to concentrate on the more general aspects of this ship and rather write a separate post in the dedicated Haven thread which had helped us so much with planning all this but please be aware that it’s still written from the perspective of a Haven guest no less and some of the worst aspects of this ship would (thankfully) not have affected us. Let’s now talk about specific aspects of this cruise and we will try our best to address some of the more contentious topics on this board- once again, flaming optional. First off, probably the biggest downer was the (lack of) entertainment if you can even call it that. When we had originally booked this cruise (and, hilariously, even after all this Covid stuff and up past the date of final payment), one major draw card for us was the Kinky Boots musical. We had missed it while it played in London while we had lived there temporarily and had heard only good things about it so we were really, really looking forward to it. As a gay couple, we also had very much enjoyed Priscilla on our last NCL cruise on the Epic which was great fun so we were hoping for something at least a bit similar and upbeat like that. But no, out of pure stinginess it seems, NCL pulled the plug just after we had paid in full and never offered an apology, let alone a decent replacement. Which gets us back to the overall lack of entertainment and atmosphere on this ship which turned out to be a total snore fest. We knew very well that the crowd on a longer positioning cruise like this would be older which we thought would fit us well as it means less kids. Unfortunately, the Haven specifically was still full with screaming toddlers and careless parents so we felt like getting the worst of both worlds as otherwise, the overall age was somewhere around retirement age or above. Don’t get us wrong- we met lots of lovely people way older than ourselves and had engaging conversations and all but the entertainment was appalling as a result. We already were never too keen to see a bunch of gay guys pretending they are heterosexuals screaming lame country rock songs in a fake British pub but making this “Choir of Man” show the “headline” act on this ship is just ridiculously poor. The one show that rattled this ship was the horrible Beatles knock off which basically featured the same smiling Pilipino crew members you encounter everywhere else in the ship, just wearing ridiculous wigs and screeching some songs from yesteryear. My parents are in their 80ies and I’ve been dreading “the phone call” about one of them for at least ten years now but, bless them, it never comes. However, the Beatles is something even my parents would roll their eyes at and wonder why the heck someone would drag this out of the cupboard. Well- it seems to work for this audience so they even streamed it to the pool deck or had them play the main theatre. If NCL thinks that no one notices, well, we do. This cruise line was known for offering amazing Broadway style production shows and generally some decent entertainment but it’s just not what’s happening right now which was a huge disappointment for us. And the rest? The piano singer was so bad that we mistook her for a Karaoke show twice while the real Karaoke show had such a “ripe” selection of contestants that we literally knew not a single song displayed. Parties out on the pool deck? Oh, Country Western, Line Dancing, 70ies party and, you guessed it, Beatles-coverband. The one half way enjoyable dance event on the entire 2 weeks long cruise was the Silent Disco which is done really smartly and feels more technologically advanced than on other cruise lines. Unfortunately, it is a strictly 45 minute affair and then they kick you out of the venue with lights on, taking even the last bit of atmosphere out of you (DJ Diaper is on two hours later only with, surely, the best of the 70ies and 80ies). We asked the crew members organising the silent Disco if it’s at least a different 45 minute roll on different evenings and they told us that they’re highly annoyed by it themselves as it is indeed the same music every single time. What a waste of an otherwise great system, such a shame. The location that the Silent Disco is in, “The Social”, is part of the problem we think- the ship lacks a proper nightclub and hence you always end up in this multifunction venue for a certain amount of time. We also ended up there in the social club to see two of the comedians, more out of desperation than real interest. We went to the 18+ version of both, hoping for something half way fun but no, it was very distinctly prude US 18+. The first one was truly awful, started with the F word a few times to mark this as an 18+ show but was otherwise boring as they can be. When he then made two desperate homophobe jokes, we left the theatre. The second one was a bit more funny but still nothing to write home about. We thoroughly missed Kinky Boots or any major production show and really, we missed any music from post 80ies (anywhere, really, apart from the 45 minutes of silent disco) or any party that deserves the name. Last time, pre-Covid, on the Epic there was a proper nightclub and we had some rather good events there and on the pool deck- an EDM party that was our favourite or 90ies, 2000s parties. Nothing here, everything was stuck in the 60ies or 70ies. And of course, each to their own but the beauty with a ship of this size is usually that there’s something for everyone. Again, I’m not trying to be ageist but to us, this entire ship felt like an end of life hospice most of the times- which was almost entirely NCL’s fault (not the guests’ fault!) with the stripped down and repetitive entertainment program. Now that our major gripe about the entertainment is out of the way, lets discuss some of the positives that I’ve seen heavily debated on here, mainly the food and beverage. While we ate mostly in the Haven which was truly devine albeit a bit too seafood-focused for our liking, we also dined at several specialty dining venues and the main dining room. We both agreed that in absence of the Haven, the latter was perfectly sufficient and this is where Norwegian still blows the likes of Royal Caribbean out of the water: at all times was the choice and quality of food absolutely delicious and service in the MDR was spot on though we had to slow down the ordering of each course as we don’t like to rush down our meal in 45 minutes. Like on our past cruises, this was not a problem once you’ve informed your waiter that you’d like to stretch out the meal. Likewise, if you wanted two starters or no starters but two entrees- no problem whatsoever. We also went to the buffet which also, for a buffet, offered a rather decent quality (and choice) of food. Of the specialty dining rooms, we went twice to Le Bistro which felt like a bit of a waste as the food up in the Haven is of very similar quality. We enjoyed the Fois Gras both times but were rather unhappy about the upcharge- $10 plus $2 service charge (is that for stuffing the metal tube down the ducks’ throats we wonder?) for a super tiny sliver of Fois Gras is just overkill. We also originally had Cagney’s booked but given the Haven does good enough steaks, we re-thought our choice. We generally found the food on this ship too sea-food focused and while my partner generally does not mind, even he had too much of it in the end. I can’t have seafood at all or get really sick so I suffered quite badly from the fishy smell everywhere. And while they even have an additional seafood place, Cagney’s for all places also concentrates on bloody seafood. What should be a meat lover’s paradise, has not a single proper meat Appetizer but instead plenty of seafood. The only starters you can have without fish or seafood are the dead boring salad or an onion soup, both being “available everyday” standard options in the MDR. And there are plenty of meat starters that are excellent but missing from any of the specialty or Haven restaurant menus: How about a duck or chicken liver Pâté? Ideally with Fois gras but even if not, nice enough if done well. Or a Champagne style Pork Pâté (I’m talking Champagne in this context as the region in France and not the drink which is also from there)? Beef carpaccio? Or even some Spanish style ham croquettes? Nothing, just prawns, lobster, scallops galore. Carpaccio was at least available at Onda which was our favourite dining venue, by far. We loved the more modern design and atmosphere and the food also was just to die for. A way better restaurant than the old La Cucina with its tacky fake Julius Caesar busts and the like. I should also mention that Mexican has replaced the churascaria that exists on some of the older ships (in the same space opposite Cagneys). Upon realising what a seafood fest Cagney s would be, we changed and tried this new Los Lobos instead. We liked the food as TexMex is not that common down in Australia but could imagine this being super boring to our US based friends as you can get this kind of food in every small to mid sized town. Nice decor but otherwise pretty stock standard and huge portions. Big letdown here was the atmosphere- you could give this such a nice party-like atmosphere with margaritas and tequila shots and general party vibes, bur like almost all of the ship, there is no atmosphere to look forward to here. And where the food is concerned- this is clearly a pocket friendly replacement for NCL as spiced mince is way cheaper than proper steak cuts needed for a Churasco. On the topic of ship atmosphere: this is difficult to write without being offensive, but I will try. This is my sixth cruise so far (a drop in the ocean compared to many cruisers!) and something I’ve come to enjoy is meeting so many staff members from different parts of the world. I’m not naïve, I’m aware that most staff are from some not so well off parts of the world. But it used to be a variety of staff from a variety of places. On this particular cruise, it was almost entirely Filipino staff with a sprinkling of Indonesian and Indian staff in between. Of course there are individual staff who are great at their job, and are a pleasure to talk to and we rewarded genuine effort with tips snd hero cards etc. But if I was to generalise, this lineup of staff tend to offer non-genuine smiles and insincere service, can follow a specific set of instructions but not much else, and in bad cases look for ways to avoid work or tend to get things wrong. Also, I don’t know how but they just manage to suck the FUN out of the atmosphere, whether at a bar or in a Mexican restaurant (see above). I firmly believe it takes a multicultural staff to provide an international experience on an international ocean cruise ship and that was really lacking on this ship. For us and as in the past, our favourite was the Premium Plus drinks package which is just an absolute bliss. Both Veuve and Pommery Rosé was available by the bottle for dinner and if you wanted a second one, no problem. The wine choice has changed- there’s now a list of wines by the glass which you all can have by the bottle as well but as others have noticed, despite over-inflated price tags on the menu, most of these wines are from the lower or middle shelves in your local liquor or super market. The whites and Rosés I tried were really awful and in the end we settled on the Duckhorn Merlot as the red of choice which was at least drinkable. But otherwise, where French champagne or spirits are concerned, it was the same great package as always, plus endless included Starbucks, Red Bull and fancy Italian water. Now- while still advertising “anything by the glass” as included in various places (app, website, even on some menus), this old rule has been watered down seemingly recently. So far, the only two drinks that are now suddenly asterisked as being “Connoisseur Selection” and therefore not included are the Louis XIII cognac and the Jonny Walker Blue label. While the former would probably be wasted on me anyway as I’m not a big cognac drinker and the latter I find overrated anyway, I was still offered the Jonny Blue several times without upcharge in the Haven bar. However, these newly introduced exclusions make me fear that this is not the end of the road and if they start tinkering with the French champagne as I’ve seen being discussed elsewhere already, or some of the other bigger high end spirits, then they start treading very thin ice. The Free at Sea package that most folks have included anyway covers more than some of the extra pay packages on other cruise lines. And the Plus upgrade costs a very pretty penny so people like us are VERY closely watching. For us, the French champagne including Veuve is the major reason to upgrade, for others it might be some of the spirits or the Starbucks. But downgrading this plus package any further would probably get many people to simple not upgrade anymore. I know that many non-heavy drinkers laugh about this but for us, this even goes a step further: Being able to upgrade to a package that includes unlimited good quality French champagne is one of the key reasons for us to go with Norwegian, alongside the entertainment (which was dismal on this cruise). We’ve tried RCL before- there you upgrade and still no proper Champagne in sight. Celebrity is similar (and otherwise a strong contender for us in terms of food, crowd and entertainment) they offer you one type of no name generic French Champagne, AFTER you upgrade. No Veuve or anything near it- it’s more the kind of stuff you get as a super special in bottle shops or supermarkets. Yes, it’s technically from the Champagne region and all but it’s their bottom of the barrel cheapest grapes munched into an ultra cheap Brut. Similarly, we are very strongly considering Viking at the moment given the guaranteed lack of children but they, also, make you upgrade but still explicitly exclude the French champagne. So NCL really got something going there for them so if they water it down further now, then that might really be it for us- not saying we will never cruise NCL again but it then is again just one of many to chose from. So where does this leave us for future cruises? I honestly don’t know. Going back to the bowels of the ship is unlikely once you’ve experienced the Haven. We got one NCL booking next year with two Future cruise credits left still from pre Covid times but I’m more and more inclined to not even use them anymore. Looking at prices, the Haven is always thousands more than let’s say the MSC yacht club which sounds like a very similar product. And given the entertainment was worse than meh on Norwegian anyway, we’re also really closely looking at Viking as their no children policy sounds very very attractive to us. Entertainment can’t get more sleep inducing that non stop Beetles cover band so that wouldn’t be an issue. We’ll just see how the Champagne situation on NCL develops and then make our decision.

It’s actually terminal E, D is some Carnival vessel and I believe it’s the Escape at terminal B. Port is overall a total mess. Very chaotic check in, staff mostly clueless and our terminal looks like a shed from the 60ies. But we’ve now found our Haven nook to the side, waiting for boarding.

Ha! We’re on that cruise tomorrow as well and like yourself, first time Haven cruisers 😁 Don’t worry about being selfish- it was EXACTLY the same thought first crossing my mind when reading that post. Saying that- thank you so much @BirdTravels for these posts over the last few days, totally made our last week of eagerly waiting for our cruise (and those two nasty long flights from Sydney to Tokyo and then Tokyo to NYC)! Off to Miami later today and struggling to contain the excitement (and the Jetlag!).

The link above also still states that Jonny Walker Blue is still included at the Haven bar while other reports indicate that there’s suddenly an up charge for that. I hate when offers get watered down like this AFTER you committed to a purchase. I’m annoyed enough that they pulled Kinky Boots on our upcoming Encore cruise and can live with a lesser whiskie offer but if they cause is issues with our beloved Veuve, then they will have one cranky passenger. Will do my best to report back, internet access en route permitting!

Creamier than marzipan- now you really got me curious! Will get the chance to try in less than a week from now and will certainly give them a go!

“Some sort of Almond paste”- wouldn’t that make it Marzipan, or is it different? Nothing at all against Marzipan, btw 😛