A question for passengers now on the ENCORE

[marne-c]

Encore travelers:  Will you still be stopping as planned in Panama City, aka Fuerte Amador, on Sunday 12 November?  And/or will you be stopping on Saturday 11 November in Costa Rica on an additional or substitute port?

 

I'm just curious.  My wife and I will be on the Bliss, schedule to stop in Panama City on 28-29 November.  But events may have overtaken that stop for us (as they may have for you.)

 

--Marne

 

 

[IAcruising]

14 minutes ago, marne-c said:

Encore travelers:  Will you still be stopping as planned in Panama City, aka Fuerte Amador, on Sunday 12 November?  And/or will you be stopping on Saturday 11 November in Costa Rica on an additional or substitute port?

 

I'm just curious.  My wife and I will be on the Bliss, schedule to stop in Panama City on 28-29 November.  But events may have overtaken that stop for us (as they may have for you.)

 

--Marne

 

 

 

I'm a bit confused by your questions and/or comments. I assume both of the ships are repos from Alaska to Caribbean, right? I'm confused by the "events may have overtaken that stop for us (as they may have for you.)" 

 

What does that mean, exactly?

 

[Panhandle Couple]

According to cruise mapper, the Encore is in Costa Rica right now at the Puerto Caldera dock.

 

OP is referring to several things.

F4 hurricane hit Acapulco a few weeks ago.  Large damage to the city. Encore has skipped it.

Fuente Amador cruise terminal is "supposed" to be completed "by December".  Hard to determine what state it is currently in. This will impact if, how and when excursions are done. 

Ruby Princess didn't dock there as planned last week due to nationwide protests over government actions. (not related to anything going on in the rest of the world).  

Encore has also skipped Manzanillo MX earlier this week.

None of these changes has been released by NCL on their web site.

It will take a full day of sailing to get from Costa Rica to Panama City.  The overnight stay there may be in jeopardy due to the assigned slot for the canal passage. 

[marne-c]

1 hour ago, Panhandle Couple said:

According to cruise mapper, the Encore is in Costa Rica right now at the Puerto Caldera dock.

 

OP is referring to several things.

F4 hurricane hit Acapulco a few weeks ago.  Large damage to the city. Encore has skipped it.

Fuente Amador cruise terminal is "supposed" to be completed "by December".  Hard to determine what state it is currently in. This will impact if, how and when excursions are done. 

Ruby Princess didn't dock there as planned last week due to nationwide protests over government actions. (not related to anything going on in the rest of the world).  

Encore has also skipped Manzanillo MX earlier this week.

None of these changes has been released by NCL on their web site.

It will take a full day of sailing to get from Costa Rica to Panama City.  The overnight stay there may be in jeopardy due to the assigned slot for the canal passage. 

 

@Panhandle Couple  You're ON IT!  For the dates of 28-29 November, the issue largely is the Panama-specific protests over new(ly renewed) mining contract.

 

--Marne

[Panhandle Couple]

Bumping to hopefully get a few responses.

[julig22]

6 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Bumping to hopefully get a few responses.

You might try posting in the roll call, if you haven't already.  They'd get a notification, better chance of someone seeing your request.

[Panhandle Couple]

16 hours ago, julig22 said:

You might try posting in the roll call, if you haven't already.  They'd get a notification, better chance of someone seeing your request.

A very lightly used roll call.  Only 5 messages, none since August.

But I did post there.

[Jed12345]

According to my sister (who is on the Encore now), they cancelled many of the Panama City excursions but the captain said he feels he will allow crew members and passengers to go ashore but asked them all to be “vigilant” while walking around the city because of the civil unrest.

[Panhandle Couple]

10 minutes ago, Jed12345 said:

According to my sister (who is on the Encore now), they cancelled many of the Panama City excursions but the captain said he feels he will allow crew members and passengers to go ashore but asked them all to be “vigilant” while walking around the city because of the civil unrest.

Thank You.

[Essiesmom]

They are docked currently at Fuerte Amador.  Terminal/port still a mess.  You can see it on the bridgecam for Encore.  EM

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Essiesmom

[marne-c]

Thanks, @Essiesmom.  I saw the same location information on CruiseMapper and MarineTraffic, but in a much less visually interesting format.  (And agreed, the terminal infrastructure looks like it has a  l-o-n-g  way to go.)

 

It will interesting to hear how shore visits are being handled today by the ship.

 

--Marne

[cruiseny4life]

5 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

They are docked currently at Fuerte Amador.  Terminal/port still a mess.  You can see it on the bridgecam for Encore.  EM

 

Glad they got there! The terminal sure looks better than Nassau did for a long time. 

 

Thanks for posting the screenshot.

[Essiesmom]

There are so many questions about excursions and transportation from there over on the Panama Canal board under Ports of Call.  But noone ever comes back to report of how things went.  We really need feedback. 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/54-panama-canal/

EM

Edited November 13, 2023 by Essiesmom

[Ashlynkat]

I’m on the Encore and just got back from our Panama excursion (Two Oceans by Railroad) and while the port is a mess being under construction, there was absolutely no issue whatsoever with protests, traffic jams or any kind of unrest. The same with Costa Rica and Guatemala earlier this week. I did NCL excursions (San Jose Highlights and Guatemala Gastronomy w/ Antigua) and they all went off without a hitch. My wife and I felt very safe and enjoyed all the excursions immensely. 
 

Missing Acapulco was unfortunate but understandable. Hopefully the region will bounce back soon because tourism is such a vital industry for them. I was thrilled to trade an extra Mexican port (Manzanillo) for a new country on the itinerary Costa Rica.

 

Unfortunately our early canal crossing appointment tomorrow (4am) meant the over night had to be cancel and means an early rising to catch things that will still be dark for a couple hours. But, hey, you deal with the good & the bad. Overall, this has been a great trip so I can’t quibble about things outside NCL’s control. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Ashlynkat
Typo

[marne-c]

@Ashlynkat  MANY thanks for your detailed report!  This helps set my and my wife's minds at ease over our upcoming Panama Canal transit cruise on the Bliss.  We're due to overnight in Fuerte Amador 28-29 November, with the transit on the 30th.

 

MUCH appreciated!

 

--Marne 

[Essiesmom]

@Ashlynkatthere are pictures of your transit on this thread in the Panama Canal forum start with post #26

 

 

[FlGoodShips]

On 11/13/2023 at 5:53 PM, Ashlynkat said:

I’m on the Encore and just got back from our Panama excursion (Two Oceans by Railroad) and while the port is a mess being under construction, there was absolutely no issue whatsoever with protests, traffic jams or any kind of unrest. The same with Costa Rica and Guatemala earlier this week. I did NCL excursions (San Jose Highlights and Guatemala Gastronomy w/ Antigua) and they all went off without a hitch. My wife and I felt very safe and enjoyed all the excursions immensely. 
 

Missing Acapulco was unfortunate but understandable. Hopefully the region will bounce back soon because tourism is such a vital industry for them. I was thrilled to trade an extra Mexican port (Manzanillo) for a new country on the itinerary Costa Rica.

 

Unfortunately our early canal crossing appointment tomorrow (4am) meant the over night had to be cancel and means an early rising to catch things that will still be dark for a couple hours. But, hey, you deal with the good & the bad. Overall, this has been a great trip so I can’t quibble about things outside NCL’s control. 

Since you are on Encore..

Could you list the officers?

Thank you so much.

[IAcruising]

On 11/13/2023 at 4:53 PM, Ashlynkat said:

I’m on the Encore

 

We'll be doing the reverse repo in April. Do you know your current occupancy?  Age demographic? Number of rugrats? 😄  Just curious about what we should reasonably expect.

 

[Ashlynkat]

On 11/14/2023 at 10:24 PM, FlGoodShips said:

Since you are on Encore..

Could you list the officers?

Thank you so much.

Hopefully this works! Pics of the officers.

[Ashlynkat]

On 11/14/2023 at 11:11 PM, IAcruising said:

 

We'll be doing the reverse repo in April. Do you know your current occupancy?  Age demographic? Number of rugrats? 😄  Just curious about what we should reasonably expect.

 

We’re surprisingly pretty full for a 21 day cruise in Oct/Nov. Don’t know exact numbers but I’ve heard around 3600 passenger. 
 

Not many kids at all. Maybe two dozen at best. Demo definitely skews Gen X to Boomer. 

[cruiseny4life]

21 minutes ago, Ashlynkat said:

Hopefully this works! Pics of the officers.

NCL really needs to tell their captains they need to smile, rather than look like they've pi$$ed at the world. 

 

Thanks for posting, though - definitely appreciate the listing!