coriemarie

1 hour ago, marktwothousand said:

What is the source of this news? Please confirm. This is big news!

I saw it on a couple of the Facebook groups. 

Someone said they opened a smoking area on deck 16 of the Encore! 

Great Review. I thought about switching ships, but we stuck with Encore. Sailing April 26th and as excited as ever.

Can anyone confirm that the Escape still has the pool side smoking, and H20? I am considering rebooking my Encore cruise to go on the Escape.

I also saw damage reported. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4VKZqmIoEp/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Chandelier Video

4 hours ago, CazV said:

 

I think it's a major disappointment after the chandeliers on the other ships... hey ho, the rest of the ship is gorgeous. 🙂

Yeah, that chandelier is pretty ugly in comparison to all others, and smaller?

But I agree, the ship looks amazing.

smoking area, no chairs, room for like 12 people. great.

I don't understand how the cigar lounge is a beautiful place to sit and relax, with beautiful couches and decor, and the cigarette smokers can't even get a chair.

Found these of the Encore Smoking Area in the Everything ENCORE thread.

Tiny - no seating.

Why does the cigar lounge get huge comfy couches and chair, and we don't even get a place to sit?

Laser tag area photo posted. 

OH - that shows up if you hit AFTER August 2020!

I must have had some sort of glitch on the site???

Looking back at the deck plans screen shot on page 55 of this thread - we got back some deck space!

Do not quote me and I do not want to say anything wrong here but ...

Looking at the Encore deck plans, it looks like they modified them to take back some public deck space from vibe.

*fingers crossed*

check decks 19-20

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/encore/deck-plans/the-haven

6 hours ago, Victorious8 said:

 

It was pretty awful on the Bliss if I remember. No clue if the waterfront will be better or worse. My roommate on the Bliss is highly sensitive to smoke and the crowd that would form on Spice was pretty large and made it hard for us to enjoy the bar area (Halloween singles cruise so Spice was also an insane spot). If my memory serves me correctly the smoking section was also right next to the bathroom area which would have sucked for someone who was sensitive and also was just awkward since I felt like huge crowds were always loitering near the bathroom door. 

 

Edited to add I am sometimes a drunken smoker so I prefer it being more of a challenge, less of a chance I will get drunk and accidentally chain smoke because I am being social.

this 'crowd' is a result of them only supplying a single smoking area for a potential 600 guests who smoke.

The situation is crappy for smokers and non-smokers. I feel like there are many little unused areas on the ship that they could call small smoke areas so we could be more spread out.

Just now, TravelinFam said:

So happy to hear about the smoking section on the ship...a place to relax with our drinks and have a cigarette...

agreed.

non-smokers just look at smokers as a nuisance. I am also paying for my vacation and want to enjoy it, with a cigarette.

16 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

Okay, this news about allowing smoking on the Waterfront has me pretty upset. I was coping okay-ish with the diminished public deck space and how that meant that more of the sun worshipers might be encroaching on my quiet spaces, but now they smokers get my Waterfront? This might be the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

Over-dramatic here. There was smoking on the water front when I sailed the getaway. It was a 20 ft length area by one of the bars.

The waterfront stretches all the way around the ship. This is in no way the smokers 'getting YOUR waterfront'.

1 minute ago, TheDougOut said:

 

I suspect your NCL person added “Smoking room:“ accidentally, or misinterpreted the policy.  It is not in the policy I was sent, and what I provided is a copy and paste from that.  

That would be great, inside smoking room does not make sense for how many smokers may be on the ship.

Just waiting for first sailing.

8 minutes ago, TheDougOut said:

 

I assume you’re referring to the cigar bar, which is cigars only.

No, I am not. This is info I was given by NCL:

"Hi Corie, thanks for reaching out to us. There are two smoking areas onboard Norwegian Encore. 1 Cigar Lounge: Cigar Smoking, no cigarettes or Vaping allowed. 2. Smoking Room: Deck 8 portside, no restrictions"

1 hour ago, TheDougOut said:

Smoking Policy

 

Bliss, Joy and Encore have a designated smoking room within the Casino. On Encore, cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, cigars, pipe smoking and vapor smoking devices are permitted Deck 8 portside. Cigar Smoking only is allowed in the Cigar Lounge.

 

So Deck 8 portside - I'm guessing this will be around the Sugarcane on the Waterfront bar area?  Anything else and it'll conflict with Onda / Cagney's on the Waterfront. 

 

Just when I thought NCL was making progress with the smoking situation... they plop the smoking area in the middle of the Waterfront.  I guess the Spice elimination continues to cause unfavorable consequences.  

 

I hope so - I would love to have it right by the bar.

But I have heard the smoking area is indoors on deck 8.

4 minutes ago, MotownVoice said:

If all 600 are smoking at the same moment constantly they have a bigger problem than just a nicotine addiction.  Like, "planning" for example.

On my last cruise, which had 3 outdoor smoking areas, there was at least 15 people at each area during any given time of the day. I am not saying 600 people obviously, I am wondering if 15 - 30 people could even smoke in there at a time.

It will likely be tight no matter what.

14 hours ago, NewbieCruiser1231 said:

Just sent a message asking information on where to smoke on Norwegian Encore.  Norwegian replied that there will be 2 places …(1) Humidor (no cigarettes, no vaping); (2) Smoking room portside on Deck 8.  There will be 3 smokers in our group....one place indoors for the whole ship??????  

I suppose my main concern here would be - how big is the single 'smoking room'?

If an estimated 15% of the population smokes, and the capacity of the ship is 4000 people, that is around 600 possible smokers on the ship.

But that is just my observation.

At least it is off of the waterfront, likely near a bar, likely mid ship (if that info is true)

I just need a bar, close to the smoking, and have it be easy to access.

I was hoping there would be one on the pool deck since it looks as if the pool deck will turn into 'spice' at night.

19 minutes ago, kitty-sail said:

I apologize because this is off-topic, but doing a Caribbean cruise in a few months and looking for recommendations on places to buy cheap cigarettes.

On the ship - very cheap.

On 8/23/2019 at 5:51 PM, Amadawn1 said:

Thank you, my3sonsnj for creating and updating your spreadsheet.  I last cruised NCL in early 2018.  I was shocked to see the changes to the designated areas since then.  I had seen a review of the Bliss and it looked like a great ship....until I saw only one designated area.  We can't afford the Haven and are not really gamblers.  My husband would never agree to sail on this ship.

Surprisingly, my BF still wants to cruise the Encore, even though the trend says there will only be one smoking area. We will see how this goes ...

I was for sure he would want to switch ships!