We just returned from a terrific cruise on the Encore. We have taken many cruises on NCL but really felt that the Encore has raised the bar. It certainly helped that capacity on board was reduced to 2200 passengers with no young children. The passenger to crew ration was close to 1:1 which made for outstanding service. There were never any lines at the buffet or crowding anywhere. There was construction going on in Taste, one of the main restaurants, but it did not impact us at all. We went into this cruise knowing that late September is not the ideal time for a cruise to Alaska and expected lots of rain and chilly weather. The temperature was in the low 50’s and we did get some rain but it did not affect us very much
Three days before our cruise we went for Covid tests – just to be on the safe side. NCL does not require pre-testing but suggests that you do it.
After a beautiful day in Seattle the day before and perfect weather for sailaway we took an Uber from our hotel to the port. We had a 9:30am arrival time but heard that Covid testing began around 8:30am. Since our bodies were still on Eastern time we were up early and anxious to get going. When we got to the dock there was an early drop off location for our bags and we were sent upstairs to wait for our tests. I had preregistered and had my barcode printout ready. They opened the testing at 8:30am and we were first in line. Befote our numbers even appeared on the large screen I received a text message that we should proceed to the check out area. I don’t think we were there more than 15 minutes. We received our wrist bands and proceeded to do our ship checkin and receive our room cards. We still had to wait until 11am to board he ship. As soon as we got onboard we took care of our specialty restaurant reservations and show reservations. They gave us a list of all the entertainment and we checked off the days and times we wanted. I appreciated seeing all the entertainment options in one place.
We had a standard Balcony cabin - deck 10 midship. Cabin 10246. It was very quiet.
The sail day through Glacier Bay was the highlight of the cruise
Not much to do here. The Gondolas were not running and it was raining. A few shops to visit.
Ketchikan had limited shops open. NCL had shuttle busses from the pier into town.
Juneau was much more active. Most shops were open. It was easy to walk around. Although the ship docked several miles away from town, shuttle busses were provided by NCL. It took about 12-15 minutes and left us off at the downtown dock. They ran frequently.