Restaurants
Onboard Norwegian Encore are all the restaurants of previous ships: the buffet (Garden Café), a 24-hour restaurant (Local Bar&Grill), the main restaurants (Savor, Taste and Manhattan). Not to mention the specialty restaurants, paying: Ocean Blue, Onda by Scarpetta, Cagney’s Steakhouse, Food Republic, Teppanyaki, Los Lobos, American Diner, Le Bistro and Coco’s.
During this cruise, we did not go to one of the main restaurants (included), since we were in a suite, with the Restaurant assigned. As a loyal customer, you receive from NCL 2 free meals in certain specialty restaurants. We chose Le Bistro and Cagney’s.
Local (included, open 24 hours a day)
American Diner (à la carte)
Le Bistro (French restaurant)
Cagney’s Steak House (with a fee)
Food Republic (à la carte)
The Food Republic remains one of my favorite restaurants. The menu is inspired by Asian Fusion. You choose your dishes on a tablet, you swipe your keycard, and the order arrives at your table (and the bill goes directly to your account, of course).
Ocean Blue (with a fee)
Onda by Scarpetta (with a fee)
Q – Texas Smokehouse (with a fee)
Coco’s (with a fee)
Beverage packages
NCL offers its loyal customers a tasting of cocktails, with some information on mixology on board, one particularity of which is to try to be sustainable (use of surplus food for example).
Drink packages at NCL are terribly expensive. Their price has steadily increased in recent years. The company has tended to often offer the basic version of the plan but not without charging the associated service fees. By increasing the reference price of packages, NCL has mainly increased the price to pay for this “gift”. Smart, right?
Another feature of the basic package, although called Premium, it does not include water, coffee or fresh fruit juice. In order to be entitled to it, you will have to switch to the “Premium Plus” package, and pay the price difference and the service charges as well. So despite this starting gift, the cost goes up very quickly despite everything.
Another recent development imagined by NCL: to make these old “gifts” payable. Now called “Free@sea”, it costs $99 per passenger for a 7-day cruise. And you won’t be forgiven for paying the extra service charge, or having to upgrade the package to be able to access cardboard water bottles with the company logo, or to include coffees or fresh juices. A real luxury, for its price.
Note that Free@sea also includes internet access (surfing, without streaming), and some meals in specialty restaurants (number depending on the duration of the cruise). Again, for these meals, you will have to add a service charge. In fact, this option could be called Fee@sea!
Positive point with the Premium Plus version, including coffees: all Starbucks drinks on board are included.
Next pages: the itinerary, the conclusion…
Hi Jean Phillipe,
You are brave to travel on cruise lines other than Viking, though I get the appeal of different itineraries. I love reading about your experiences, thanks for sharing. Next time you are in Seattle you should give us a call.
Theresa and I are currently booked on 3 Viking cruises. Now I understand why you said you would likely be changing some of your future trips, as we changed one of the cruises we booked on board and will likely be changing the other as well. We are currently scheduled for Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica, 12/15/2024; Ancient Adriatic Treasures in October this year (this one we will likely change), and British Isles Explorer, 9/17/2025.
Hope we run into you on another cruise in the future.
Bon Voyage,
Kathy
Knowing other cruise lines is the best way to appreciate the best ones (and yes, it’s a risk to be disappointed with the bad ones !).
We do hope to share a new Viking adventure with both of you too.