The Seabourn Encore

A Quick Look Around

Our first look at the Encore

General

 Our last several cruises have been on Windstar and Celebrity.  The recent Celebrity cruises were on a 100 passenger ship (the Flora) in the Galapagos (not your typical Celebrity ship) and on the Celebrity Beyond, a 3200 passenger ship.  But on the Beyond, we opted for a “suite” that gave us access to the “Retreat” facilities, including access to the Luminae restaurant and some priority for access to other restaurants and facilities.  This trip on the Encore was most comparable to that on the Beyond, so I’ll be comparing them quite a bit here.

Statistics

To get it out of the way, the Encore would be considered a mid-sized ship.  It is 690 feet long, 92 feet wide, and has a passenger capacity of 604 people.  (On our cruise, the first week we had about 570 people, and on the second week a few less.)  While most of the cruise was smooth, we did have some definite “movement” of the ship a couple of times, especially one night when we had to go through a storm, the movement was enough to disrupt sleep a little.   If we had been on the Beyond, I suspect we would not have felt any movement but we would have been bounced around some on the Windstar ships. 

In the Bodrum, Turkey harbor

To accommodate those 604 passengers, the Encore has a crew of about 420, or about 1.4 passengers per crew member.  The crew were almost all cheerful and helpful, but, with a few exceptions, I did not sense as friendly and welcoming an attitude as in the Retreat areas on the Beyond or on the Windstar ships.

One somewhat interesting design feature of the Encore is that almost all of the passengers cabins were in the forward section of the ship, while almost all the public areas (restaurants, lounges, entertainment areas) were in the aft section.  Dividing these areas in the middle of the ship was the pool deck and associated facilities.

The pool deck was a gathering place on deck 9.

This layout worked very well for us because, largely by accident, our cabin was on deck 9 just a little forward of the pool area, so it was very convenient to many parts of the ship.   Most of the ports we called at required the use of tenders (lifeboats) to get to/from the shore and the tender boarding facilities worked reasonably well.

Our cabin

We had what would be considered as a mid-range suite: about the same size as all the standard suites, but in a slightly preferred deck and position.  It was quoted as 277 sq ft (the same size as our cabin on the Beyond) and had a small (about 4 ft x 10 ft) balcony.  Compared to our Beyond cabin, this one was slightly narrower and longer.

Our cabin (before we moved in)

It had a surprisingly large closet and the bathroom had both a shower and a full sized tub.  Unfortunately, having both a shower and a tub caused the bathroom to feel rather crowded.  It was definitely a “one person at a time” bathroom.  Our cabin had the normal supply of electrical outlets (both US type 110V outlets and European 220V outlets) as well as a decent flat-screen TV, which we basically never watched.

Food/Dining

There were, of course, multiple places to get food and drink.  The main dining room, “The Restaurant” (deck 4), was open for dinner and was considered the primary “fine dining” facility.  Seating was totally open: you could come any time during the open hours.  The evening dress code was usually “Elegant Casual” with one “formal” night (jackets for men) each week. 

“The Restaurant” before dinner.

Each night the menu included about 5 or 6 daily specials, and another 5 or 6 “standards”.  We usually choose from the specials when dining in the Restaurant, but even these seemed “toned down”, like the chef was afraid of upsetting someone with a spicy dish.  They just did not have a unique or significant flavor.  The other thing that bothered me was that there were practically no local dishes: nothing representative of the area we were cruising through.  Greece and Turkey both have some very interesting foods, but they were nowhere to be found on the ship.  In the middle of the Aegean Sea, the only fish they seemed to have was Dover Sole.  I like Dover Sole, but it is certainly not a local catch.  We were in the Greek Islands for two weeks and I only saw Baklava on the menu twice.  The Restaurant was supposed to be open for breakfast and lunch, but it wasn’t always open and, when it was open for breakfast, it opened too late for us because we were heading out on an excursion.

The Colonnade (deck 9) is the general purpose, has everything, restaurant and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It is a combination of buffet and table service:  you can help yourself at the multiple food tables, or order from a menu.  The service here seemed a bit more friendly and “down to earth” than in the Restaurant and we ended up eating dinner here quite a bit the last few days.

Cold foods: luncheon meats, cereals, salad, and salad making materials.

               The hot food line at breakfast.                                                                                           The fresh fruit table

On a couple of evenings, the Colonnade hosted special dinners that required reservations, such as a BBQ Ribs dinner the next to last night.  The assistant sommelier here (Xhemi) was much more helpful than the sommeliers in the Restaurant who only wanted to talk to you if you were purchasing one of the “optional” wines, the vast majority of which were well over $100 per bottle.

The Grill By Thomas Keller (deck 8) had a menu that was developed by Thomas Keller, a US chef known for his restaurants in California, including The French Laundry.  This required reservations and most people could only get one reservation per week.  The menu did not change so we had the same choices both weeks we went there.  The service and food were a slight notch above the Restaurant, but even here, the staff seemed to think more highly of their food and service than we did.  They were very proud of several dishes they prepared table-side, such as their Caesar Salad and NY Strip steak for two.  The salad was good, but we like our Caesar salads better: they did not include Worcestershire sauce in their Caesar!

The Patio Grill (Deck 9, by the pool deck) was open at lunch and offered salads, sandwiches, burgers, pizza and the like.  It was good for a quick lunch or an early afternoon snack.  It was on the open deck, so the cool, windy and sometimes wet weather tended to discourage us from eating there, but the salads were decent, the burger was good, and the pizza was forgettable.

There is a Sushi restaurtant (Deck 8) that is open for lunch and dinner, but we never found an appropriate occasion to visit.

If all else fails, there is a Coffee Shop (Deck 7) that is part of an area called the “Seabourn Square”.  The coffee shop featured barista made coffees and snack items like pastries and petite sandwiches.

Lounges

The Observation Lounge (Deck 11) was probably our favorite place to sit back and relax with a drink and watch the world go by, literally.  It is at the front of the ship, and wrap-around windows offered an excellent view of where you were headed or what you were passing by.

The Observation Lounge: we usually found seats by the windows.

Sometimes we would come here before dinner for a early glass of wine and some of the excellent snacks they put out, but our favorite time to visit was after dinner for a glass of cognac before the evening’s entertainment started.  Before dinner, John would play the piano and sing, sometimes joined by Josie.

John at the piano                                                              Josie at her microphone

The Grill by Thomas Keller had its own fairly small but comfortable lounge.  You didn’t need to be eating at the Grill to visit the lounge, and we did so a couple of times.  It was relatively low-key and quiet, except for Deborah, a piano player and vocalist who would play and sing in the evenings.

The Club (Deck 5) was not really a lounge, but one of the entertainment facilities where you could, of course, get the appropriate liquid refreshment.

Likewise, The Grand Salon (Deck 6) was the largest entertainment facility onboard and offered complete bar service.

There were several other small bars around the ship, such as on the pool deck, but they generally had limited service or facilities and no associated entertainment.

Entertainment

In addition to the low-key entertainment in the lounges, mentioned above, there was quite a bit of other evening entertainment. 

“The Club” is a somewhat small venue with a band platform and dance floor.  This room was used for things like the daily “port talks” and for smaller shows.  It was also the primary “dance floor” and had some kind of dance almost every night, with the “Encore Band” generally providing the music.  The Band was a 4 and sometimes 5 person band, which did a good job providing music for many shipboard activities as well as multiple entertainment shows. 

The Club

The Grand Salon was the primary and largest entertainment venue where the larger shows and guest entertainers were produced.  There were several guest performers, such as Ben Mills (a surprisingly good performer who you probably never heard of), a concert pianist (playing largely contemporary music), a couple of cello players (strange, but it worked) and other such shows.  On several nights, the band, the four Encore vocalists, and the two dancers put on shows such as this one.

There were multiple other “events” such as champagne and foie gras and other “social” events around the pool deck.

Excursions

The Encoure provided a choice of multiple off-ship excursions at most ports, at an appropriate cost, of course.  We signed up for most or our excursions, both through Seabourn and independent tours, prior to the trip.  There were some last-minute changes but they were generally handled reasonably well.  We could sign up for tours reasonably easy, but sometimes the instructions for where to meet or where/how to get off the ship were inaccurate.  I’ll be discussing each excursion in the day-by-day section of this report.  

Other

There is a exercise room/gym as part of the rather elaborate spa on the ship.  Susan went there once but a person from the spa came over and tried to get her to sign up for an “evaluation” program which she was not interested in.  When he would not give up, Susan just left and neither of us returned.

One thing we missed was any kind of printed daily activities/schedule such we have had on every other cruise.  The only way to get the schedules and such was to use their smart phone app and try to navigate its screens to find out what you want to know.  It would take several minutes to find the information that you could have found on a printed page in 15 seconds.  Finally, on the last day, a printed folded card, “The Herald”, was handed out.  We would have MUCH preferred to have this available throughout the entire cruise. 

End of Chapter 0:  The Encore

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