cuterlmt

We had to cancel due to a family emergency. So if you're looking for a wonderful aft balcony cabin, 12310, it's open, or will be soon. We were so looking forward to this trip. 

So the issue isn't boarding a cruise - we are sailing NCL, so they test at the port. The issue is being allowed to get out of the airport - so will a Binax Now COVID 19 proctored test work? if we can't get a test at home before we leave?

Thank you very much Aviator of the Seas. I looked at the Puerto Rico travel safe page a lot last night and had researched it, and thought we'd be fine.

Do you know if the 48 hours is 48 hours? Or two days? We fly to PR on Saturday and get there at 530pm. Do we need to test after 530pm on Thursday? That may be impossible. And we may have to test Friday early morning and hope for results before we get to PR. 

Any thoughts about the timing?

Thank you again.

is this really true? We sail in two and a half weeks, are fully vaccinated, and had no plans to test before the cruise. Will they test us at the airport? We arrive the night before the cruise. 

Love the Encore! We had our first experience on it in August in Alaska. So beautiful.

If you get a chance to go to the casino (or spend any time in there), try to find Dragan. He is a magician and hilarious card dealer. Tell him his "parents" said hello.

We did it just before the pandemic, in February 2020. It was fun. There were about 8 of us on the boat, and each one of us got a turn sitting in the fishing chair, bolted to the floor of the boat. There were several lines. We didn't catch anything - except for a Tree limb. They provided alcoholic beverages. Two people got very sea sick (from the beginning). But it was a nice little trip. We did see some pilot whales, and enjoyed a fun boat ride.

no, I restart earning Sapphire 4/1/2022. I get to keep my Sapphire until then. Considering it used to expire after a year, I'm pretty pleased with that.

We cruised in August, and still had my level that I received on my last cruise that was right before the pandemic shut down sailing, so it's whatever your level was at that time. I'm thrilled because I was at Sapphire back in March 2020 and was still Sapphire in August 2021, and will still be Sapphire until 3/31/2022!

How do you check it on the machine? I didn't know you could do that.

Looking forward to our January Epic cruise!!

Thanks for all your comments - I don't think we're going to be able to make it work - mostly because of airline schedules. I had already booked our air from home to PR. But we'll have a blast (as usual) and enjoy our 7 days on the NCL Epic! 

the comp cruise my husband got is very limited - no San Juan, otherwise that would be

easy. It's from Miami, Orlando, LA, and somewhere else I can't remember. The only ones that will work are 5 dayers from Miami or Orlando, and not a long flight from there to San Juan.... Love that you all are such avid cruisers  like me.....

We've had a cruise scheduled for 1/9 out of San Juan since cancellations began. Hubby got an offer (his first one!) for a cruise in January, February or March next year and I found two possibilities, 1/3 from Miami or Orlando, returning 1/8. Since they are still testing at the port, and I shouldn't have any travel declaration or extra paperwork to do from the first cruise, will it be doable? Return to Miami/Orlando and fly to San Juan? I looked at flights and it looks like I can find a flight late enough to do it, although I'd have to change my flights to San Juan and add a middle flight.

Any thoughts on my craziness? I would schedule it later but work will be slow during this time, beginning of the new year and will be picking up when we return from San Juan.

Anyone tried to do this? 

on our last cruise we did an airport transfer and we were thrilled how easy it was. We were sailing from Seattle, so SeaTac airport. But the information was to look for someone in a yellow or orange vest (I don't remember the color) and an NCL sign, at the baggage claim and check in and they would direct you where to go. I saw the reps at all the baggage claims areas. It was a very easy process and it made our transfer easy. We wanted to use the transfer because of the COVID testing, not having sailed from Seattle before, and coming in the day of the cruise. They dropped us right in front of the testing site, had someone board the bus and tell us where to go and how it worked and where the pier was (across the street). It was very easy. Good luck!

We're sailing from Barcelona in April, so I'll try to remember to post here when we return.

This is such a great trip. We plan to do it again on our cruise in January. The train rocks a bit, and you get free drinks, which was fun. Really enjoyable ride through their gorgeous place.

I've done a fair amount of research but have some questions that I can't find good solid answers to.

We are sailing on the Epic in January from San Juan. We are fully vaccinated (including a booster as of this weekend) and know we have to do the travel paperwork, which is fine.

We are thinking about staying at the Airport Hotel - so here are the questions:

1) Can we walk from the luggage area to the hotel? Or will we have to cross streets/take our lives into our own hands with crazy airport drivers?

2) Is it easy to get a shuttle or taxi to the port the next day for our cruise?

3) It looks like they have restaurants in the hotel. Are they open?

We really have no interest in touring San Juan as we're flying into San Juan late afternoon the day before our cruise, and just want to relax. I'll be coming off several months of being overworked and need a rest. We were on one of the last cruises out of San Juan before COVID hit and have toured a bit.

Any thoughts? 

Thank you!!!!

You will love the Encore and Alaska. I think she's my favorite ship, and our favorite place in the whole world. We went in September. Enjoy every moment. Stay warm. Love your masks!

I was never able to book dining reservations online for our Encore cruise. I've never had good luck with that with NCL pre-cruise. But we have always had pretty good luck booking on embarkation day - I can't remember where we went to book on our last cruise, but we booked right after we had lunch. Also, during the cruise, we were able to easily book and change bookings at the reservation desk which is in the atrium. Have a wonderful cruise!

2 hours ago, zerooveride said:

I can't imagine that being the case, imagine being on this ship, out of Miami in 90 degree weather! It would be unbearable! 

 

Your the first person I know of that ate there! lol . . . Everytime we walked by I don't think I ever saw anyone in there.

 

The american diner is only open during the day and is really kind of outside. Hubby loved the burger, and I had the lobster rolls which were delicious! We are landlocked, no where near fresh fish, so I may not know a good lobster roll. But it was really good! Cute atmosphere as well. I wanted to try something different for lunch. 

We were on this sailing too. We loved our trip and our cabin - we were upgraded to a balcony two days before sailing. With regard to the temperature in the room - I think they turn off the AC when you are asleep or not active. We like to sleep with it a bit cooler and would notice that we would wake up uncomfortably hot. While we were awake and moving around, the room was comfortably cool. 

I will agree with you about the family reunion folks - they were incredibly rude. When we were getting our COVID test pre-boarding at the Marriot, the family group  was pushing through the lines and trying to get ahead of everyone, only to be sent back to a different area - from what I gathered, at least some of them had not pre-registered for the COVID test. 

There were several times my husband and I were on the elevator and then got crowded into the elevator with these folks and ended up stepping off the elevator. Given that it was a maskless cruise, I really didn't want so many people in my space. We avoided the elevators by the Manhattan room as it seemed to be a gathering place for them.

When we were in the casino playing cards, a dozen or so of the group would gather behind us talking very loudly and standing very closely. It was a bit disconcerting and very distracting. At one point, my husband asked them to back away and they did. 

As far as the latitude points - I would keep trying - we received ours without problems.

We did not hear about the COVID issues until we got home, but I'm hopeful all the passengers and crew were ok. 

We had great food, and wonderful crew - everyone we met was so friendly and outgoing and made our trip very special. We had great meals at the specialty dining venues, including Cagneys. I would be very disappointed if a Tomahawk steak was not cooked properly! I'm sure it's something you looked forward to! It was nice to have lobster back on the menus  and I enjoyed my lobster tails twice. They were small, but quite tasty to me. I was pleasantly surprised at Ocean Blue and the American Diner, two venues we had never tried before since this was our first time on this class of ship.

We only went to the buffet once for lunch - and although it was huge, I didn't see much in the way of selections - I was surprised at how few Indian dishes there were compared to our other NCL sailings. And it was such a big space that I had a  lot of trouble finding my husband. One of the staff had to help me track him down. Thankfully he is unique looking enough that she spotted him right away.  lol. I much prefer the MDR or one of the specialty dining venues. 

We were also disappointed in the lack of the 360 degrees at Dawes. We actually went to dinner at that time thinking we would get a good view but missed out because of the medical transport. The lack of communication about COVID was surprising - I had hoped we would learn of issues while onboard instead of after the cruise. 

Since this was just their 3rd cruise out of the gate since their pandemic break, I thought they did a pretty great job getting back into the swing of things - hopefully the experience gets better and better for folks.

Happy sailing everyone!

I know I've gotten FCC for the insurance as well - it did take more time than the original  FCC. 

We sailed 8/21/2021. Our email from Eurofins was in our junk mail. So make sure to check that. Once we got the emails, it was very easy to sign up. You can sign up at the testing site - by the time we sailed, there were two separate lines - one for those who had previously signed up and that one went fast. The other kind of slugged along - but there was a huge group of folks who appeared to be from outside the US and there was a lot confusion, and it probably took a long time to get them taken care of.

When we went on 8/21, they did not look at our boarding time, but we took the NCL transfer from the airport, and signed up for the earliest time I thought we would get there, and the testing was in full swing when we got there. I would also recommend doing the NCL transfer if you're flying in. We normally find our own way with a cab or whatever, but because i was worried about figuring out where to go for testing and had never been to the Seattle port, we opted for the NCL transfer. The driver put all our luggage (which we tagged at the airport with our cruise ship luggage tags) and took it to the port for us. the driver talked to us about the testing and dropped us off in front of the two testing sites. And when we got to the drop off, a person from NCL got on the bus and explained the process to us. So even though I read through lots of posts about the testing, this reassured me about what to do. We ended up testing at the Marriot, which was fine, and quick. But very crowded, even though they had two testing centers - I believe the other one that day was at the convention center. The testing itself, once we checked in, was less than 10 minutes from test to result. And we were on our way to check-in for the ship.

Good luck and have a wonderful trip!!! We loved the Encore and hope to sail her again.

My minimum bid was accepted from an inside to a balcony cabin on the Encore 8/21/2021 sailing to Alaska. I did not find out until just 2 days before my cruise. It was an awesome upgrade. While I have bid before, I have never received a cabin. We get our cruises through CAS so I wasn't sure if we would ever get one since we pay so little for our cruises. 

We went on the Sun in 2017 for a back to back from Vancouver to Seward and back. It was our first cruise in years and first cruise to Alaska and it was just fantastic. Personally I like the smaller ships, but am on the Encore in less than a week for another Alaskan adventure. If you do sail the Sun, and have an inside cabin, I would suggest 10132. It is the LARGEST inside I have ever seen, larger than some balcony cabins without the balcony. It is an sideways inside cabin with a huge couch and extra storage space.

As mentioned above, any cruise to Alaska is pretty darn grand!!!

Thank you for such a wonderful thread. We are sailing on the 21st!! Such a special time.

We're sailing in a couple of weeks so I'll try to confirm this with my own experience, and hopefully report back when we return.