Nov 19

Nov 19 A Visit To Great Stirrup Cay

A Private Island Oasis

November 19, 2019 - This morning, Norwegian Encore is anchored offshore from Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas.

Every day should start with a good cup of coffee. And, our last day aboard Norwegian Encore started well with breakfast at Taste, one of the three main dining rooms. Our waitress greeted us with an extensive breakfast menu.

Rickee ordered a starter of grapefruit and orange. We both ordered Mimosas, which were excellent.

Encore Review

For breakfast, Rickee ordered the Eggs Benedict and I ordered two poached eggs with a side of bacon and sausage. On both orders, the eggs were perfectly cooked. However, service was very slow. The food was just not coming out of the galley in a timely manner. It took us an hour-and-a-half to eat breakfast, and the dining room was not full. I am confident that as the ship and crew mature, these issues will be resolved by the time the ship begins normal operations.

After breakfast, we waited until all of the pre-booked tender rides to the island had been called and open tendering began. Large double-decker island tenders are used to shuttle guests from the ship to the island. The tender ride only takes about 10 minutes.

When we arrive at Great Stirrup Cay (as we have done several times before) we are greeted by beautiful beaches, lot of loungers, some local shopping stalls and plenty of warm Bahamas sunshine. As part of our media tour, we were invited to view the villas now on offer to NCL guests.

The villas are available in one and two-bedroom configurations and look like small, luxury hotel rooms. The villas have a refrigerator, dining table, air conditioning, full bathroom with walk-in shower and bedroom with queen-sized bed. The expansive front porch is covered and has loungers and chairs, all with a beautiful view of the beach. And, the beach is within easy walking distance from the villas. Pricing for the villas start at $349 per day.

A Moet & Chandon cabana nearby offers a wide variety of champagne and other cocktails (not included).

*beaches are never far away on great stirrup cay*

Once back onboard Norwegian Encore, we decide to enjoy a late lunch at American Diner, one of the alternate (not included) dining venues. American Diner is on Deck 17 aft and offers a real 1950’s diner feel.

The menu features typical diner fare: fried chicken, seafood, burgers and sandwiches along with a variety of side dishes. I ordered the cheeseburger ($11) and Rickee ordered the French Dip ($10).

My cheeseburger was cooked perfectly to order (medium) and the fries were hot. The burger was good, but I would like to know if it is that much better than the free burger I could get at The Local (Deck 7). There was not enough time on this trip to do a comparison. Rickee’s French Dip, however, fell short of expectations. It was a roast beef sandwich, but with a chopped beef instead of sliced. It also had a very high bread-to-meat ratio.

One thing we did notice is that the milkshakes offered here looked every bit as good as those served in CoCo’s, and they are $4 instead of $12! So, if you want a milkshake, go to American Diner.

Tonight, we were invited to Kinky Boots, one of Norwegian Encore’s two major production shows. We arrived at Encore Theater early and got good seats on the fifth row, center section. Honestly, there are no bad seats in the theater. The seats are comfortable, and there are drink holders. However, the drink holders are too small to hold a wine or champagne glass, so glasses had to be put on the floor under the seats. I am surprised this design flaw made it off the drawing board.

We do not have any photos or video of the show out of respect for the copyright laws. However, the show was very well produced and choreographed. I counted more than 24 members of the cast, so this is a big production for a cruise ship. The show ended with the cast being given a standing ovation.

After the show, we found our way to Onda by Scarpetta for our 9:30pm dinner reservation. Onda is an Italian-themed specialty restaurant with an a la carte menu. The menu offers a variety of interesting Italian specialties, including pizza. Our waitress greeted us with a basket of delicious fresh breads. I ordered a Beef Short Rib with Farro Risotto starter while Rickee chose the Yellowtail Crudo.

The short rib starter was excellent, and would have been a very good main course. Rickee’s Yellowtail Crudo was good, but lacked flavor. For our main course, I ordered the Veal Chop Milanese-Style ($39), a pounded and breaded veal chop served with a salad. Rickee ordered the Spaghetti with Tomato and Basil.

My veal chop was huge, and quite good. However, Rickee’s spaghetti was overcooked and lacked flavor. Regardless of the food quality, the restaurant was so noisy that it was impossible to enjoy a meal here. Neither of us can recall ever being in a restaurant with crowd noise that loud. That alone would keep us from dining here again. There is outdoor seating available, so if weather permits, that might be the best choice. The restaurant was only half full of guests, and still very noisy. Apparently, it is just poor acoustics. It was so uncomfortable we did not even stay for dessert.

Well, that pretty much concludes our three days aboard Norwegian Encore. Tomorrow we will disembark and fly back to Dallas. Watch for our cruise vlogs and final review of Norwegian Encore.

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