en Encore

JYarNYC,,

You bring up a very interesting point (your fear that a cruise would stop being special if you sailed too often). This has happened to a close friend of mine. She has taken countless cruises on Silversea and now just shrugs and says that they just aren't special anymore. This is one reason we are limiting ourselves to one cruise per year.

My husband and I were on the Encore from August 18 (Barcelona) to August 25 (Civitavecchia). I've enjoyed seeing posts on this thread from people who were either on the ship when we were, or after. Gary, aka Tarwood3, I especially liked reading your thoughts, especially as you compare your experiences with Silversea (which we've never been on, but we're interested in them.) I submitted a review of our time on the ship, but it is taking a while to get posted, so I thought I would continue the bonhomie here.

 

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Looking forward to seeing your review, we've posted ours too but it does take a few days. Happy you loved your cruise, we too, a few years ago, stepped off of the mainstream lines and found Silversea first, and then Seabourn, it's easy to forget what a revelation that was; many here have cruised Seabourn multiple times and tend to see, fairly I think, the changes, it's nice to be reminded of that first time you cruised them after another line and were blown away. I suspect if we went back to one of the lines we used to cruise back in the day, even in the best suite on the ship we'd not enjoy it.

Don't worry about the 'smaller and older' ships in the Seabourn fleet if the opportunity comes to sail on them. They are smaller mostly because they have a deck fewer passengers, most of the rest of the ship you'd find very familiar and about the same size. The new class does have a better Colonnade and a way better gym, that's kind of it. And they are older by 4-8 years and very well maintained. If you cruise on them you certainly won't feel it's a step down. Chances are you'll try 10 days and think that's perfect, then 14 and before long you'll be looking at the world cruises and wondering if you could be away from home that long.

We also cruise no more than once a year, however that's more to do with the strain on the credit card and the amount of time we can bear to be away from our cats; they do forgive us quite quickly, usually.

My husband and I are Tequila drinkers...we don't use mixers...,so the typical margarita tequilas do not work for straight up on the rocks. Does anyone have a list of the brands of tequila on the included list? Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Arlenesgirls....my hubby and I are also tequila drinkers. Now that you've sailed, can you tell me what tequila is on board? We are sailing Oct. 6.

Thank you!

hmm - been a week and my review's still not up. Someone mentioned they had to ping CruiseCritic but I haven't found a way to do that. It's not a stellar review but it's not that bad, does anyone know how to poke the crew here and get it vetted?

My review took over a week to appear.

I don't think my review has posted yet. Don't know why the delay. It was turned in about September 3. We were on Encore for about 20 days, leaving in Barcelona on August 18. Overall the cuise was great. We had a fine time. Not a lot to criticize. I've read some reviews of Encore that are so negative I'm surprised the ship continues to float. Don't understand where people come up with that stuff. I would generally agree with the poster on this thread. A fine ship, but there were obvious shortcomings on our cruise and I mentioned many of them. What's sad is that many of the shortcomings could be solved without spending much, if any, money. I've never been on a perfect cruise. I suppose that ideal can never happen. LittleRedJohn

I don't think my review has posted yet.

I found an address on the 'Contact Us' section and prodded them and two days later, as if by magic, the review appeared. I guess they have a lot of reviews and work through them slower than they arrive.

Edit: your review is up, I read it over the weekend so it must have posted a few days ago.