We were on the Encore 3/5/23 for our first cruise after retirement. We plan to do regular cruising. This cruise had great things and very bad issues. First we had 2 of our 3 shore excursions cancelled just days before departure. We looked into booking others but could not find any of interest. Embarkation was very smooth, no issues. The ship looked very clean and the crew very friendly. We were able to get into our stateroom by 2:00pm and found our luggage right away. We never did meet our cabin Stuart. This was vary different from past NCL cruises. They do not have the afternoon turndown or the fun of finding the towel animals in your stateroom. That was not just fun for kids but also us AARP type. So less service and higher forced tips. I don't mind the higher tips if we also didn't lose service at the same time. The entertainment, what they had, was good. Only one large show. The food was the high point for us. It seemed to have declined a little but still vary good with restaurant staff being the best. Disembarkation was a big mess. We had to be out of our room by 8:30am. They had us in the stairwell and walking a large loop on deck 6 before we got off the ship. It took over 2.5hrs to get on a bus for the airport. Our flight wasn't scheduled to depart until 7:'30 pm. Then it was delayed and in Atlanta we were the last 2 to get on our final flight. We got to our home at 2:00am Monday. On the way home we started to feel like we were getting colds. That just got worst and on Tuesday my wife tested positive for Covid. I tested negative by I had a worst cough and lung pain. We were part of a Facebook group for the cruise of about 244 people. After the cruise a few different people, of the 224, stated that they or someone in their group tested positive. When cruise lines show the number of covid cases on a cruise none to the after cruise cases are recorded. We did a lot of hand washing on the ship trying to avoid getting sick but it didn't help us. We need to find a cruise line that we can depend on. Retirement should be used for fun and travel.
What Happened to NCL
- Thread starter JohnRied
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