Our Last Sea Days

This post will be brief as I don't want to bore you. It was our last 2 sea days and the activities were a variation of eat, swim and nap! I've included some photos mostly to remind ourselves of what we did!

In summary, the Encore is a beautiful ship. The activities available are fun and varied. It is important to note though, that the "special" activities such as the VR experiences, the speedway, laser tag, and escape room involves a charge. So if you have a family of 5 it does add up. We were fortunate enough to cruise in the Haven suites and had the option of retreating into our own private spaces. This made a big difference in terms of rest and relaxation. The Haven complex is the biggest and the best out of all the NCL Havens that we have experienced.

 Both Mal and I are suffering from "end of cruise" blues so I will sign off here while we make the most of our remaining time onboard! Lucky we have another cruise booked!!!

Ah....got to love the balcony on a calm day

Monopoly is a game. A game is taken very seriously by this family. Malcolm was not happy Lara won

Have I already mentioned that games were taken seriously? Meet the "Bamboozled" champions! A table top version of an escape room experience.  Yes we beat other tables of up to 6 adults. Go team Albany!

Our prize

The real Escape Room - Captain's Quest. We recorded the fastest time! The ship is only 2 months old...but we'll take it!

Onda, NCL's Italian. One of 2 good specialty dining exerience thus far

Los Lobos, the other specialty restaurant which we rate highly. Our guacamole being made in front of us

Cactus salad!

Sigh. I'm going to miss my eggs benedict when I have to go home :(

Tortola

Another day, another destination - our last one :( Today it was time for the British Virgin Islands! The ship docked at Tortola and we were met by Captain Rudy at 0800 sharp. We had chartered his boat and his services for the day. His boat was conveniently docked on the other side of the pier which was only a short walk away. 

We were a bit worried about a day on a boat as the thought of being out on the ocean on a stinking hot day with swell may have been very unpleasant. As it turned out, we needn't have worried - the day flew by. The weather was mostly warm with a cool breeze that was only occasionally disturbed by a burst of showers. The boat was nowhere near as big or flashy as others out on the water but it was comfortable and offered shade, drinks, snorkel gear and a toilet. Our longest hop was about 50 minutes.

First stop...Virgin Gorda Baths. The Baths are essentially an area of granite boulders on the beach which form natural tidal pools, tunnels, arches, and "caves" right on the water. We had to swim onto the island as it was a national park and so had to "travel" light. Our phones survived in 2 ziplock bags (we couldn't find our drybag!!!) so we do have some photos! Virgin Gorda is as pretty as the photos you see online. We were fortunate to "swim" in before the big excursion groups came and so we were able to explore the baths and Devil's Bay in relative peace. We decided to explore the island and got a thorough exfoliation treatment on our feet as we trudged on the sandy rock toward Stoney Bay. The quiet here was a big contrast to the masses we found upon our return to the Baths. We were not able to make our way past the line of people trying to get to the baths and had to get creative finding our way around the giant boulders. The children found our adventure highly exciting. Oma...not so. We had duck, squeeze, and swim our way around until we saw our boat fortunately moored not too far from where we were. We bravely swam out towards our boat, and moved on to the next island.

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One of the first to get off the ship!

Boarding Captain Rudy's boat

The rocking waves were apparently sleep inducing. An 0830am nap...

Swimming onto Virgin Gorda!

The beautiful Devil's Bay

Let's explore!

Opa unfortunately was worried about making the swim and so turned around and went back onboard

Stoney Bay. No one else here!

Caves

and pools. With our own resident mermaid, or wait, maybe it is our pet seal

You have to be relatively mobile to be able to explore

Norman Island was essentially a lunch stop... but a very pretty one. It gave us a chance to sit with Captain Rudy and ask him about the impact of Irma. He descrived it as the worst he had ever seen. The restaurant we were at was demolished, boats ended up on top of houses and apart from the immediate impact they also suffered from an almost complete loss of business as they tried to rebuild. We were quite amazed at how things have turned around so quickly. Apparently the government really stepped up to the plate. Given that so much of their income is from tourism this was a smart move not just a humane one. The food by the way was not cheap but it was tasty enough, and there was free wifi!

We returned to the boat for a short trip to the Norman Island Caves which can only by accessed by sea. The water was particularly warm here and teeming with all sorts of fish. The largest cave went about 50m in and became darker and darker the further we went. We went most of the way in, but were put off by our various phobias - needlefish, Thai cave dramas, the dark, the possibility of stone fish or sharp coral on the floor. None of the other snorklers ventured any further although some of their phobias may have been more to do with the relative dimensions. The swim back to the boat was against the current. Good thing Oma brought a noodle so that we could tow her back.

Our last stop was Peter Island. It was not as postcard perfect as the others, but the marine life was more abundant. We saw several turtles and sting rays. One turtle was particularly active and we spent a good ten minutes just following it around - from a reasonable distance.

Captain Rudy had us back to the ship exactly on time. We always give ourselves a bit of leeway, but it was nice not to have to stress. Thanks, Captain Rudy!

Lunch on Norman Island. Pirates Bight

More beautiful, crystal clear water. Norman Island

Willy T's floating restaurant. The attraction is to be able to jump off the platform

Norman Island sea caves

Peter Island

The last surprise. Mum and baby dolphin swimming next to our boat

Time for laser tag

Laser tag champions! We demolished the other team despite being one short in numbers

St Thomas

Good morning St Thomas!

The first time we were meant to visit the Virgin Islands 2 years ago on the NCL Escape, the caribbean were unfortunately hammered by Hurricane Irma. Thus we were excited to visit St Thomas on the US Virgin Island. Shore excursions were expensive and with several ships docked today including the massive Symphony of the Seas, the islands would be crowded as well. We thought we had a good day planned at the more obscure choice of Water Island but obviously our research fell short!

Our first surprise was that the cab was more expensive than expected as the charge was per passenger. $6 is fine as a single, but $US42 each way for a 15 minute shared minivan was a bit steep. The taxis are all government regulated too so there wasn't even any room to negotiate. Nonethless, we got to our destination of Crown Bay Marina safely where we had to board the Water Island ferry. The water island ferry is a small boat that could take around 20 people on a 15 minute trip from the mooring to Water Island. It runs on the hour and returns on the 15 past the hour. We arrived at around 0810, but because they had enough for an extra run we left the pier at around 0835 which kept us ahead of the masses on the cruise excursions.

Look who else is docking! The Disney Fantasy!

Our share cab

On the Water Island Ferry

Water Island!

Rachaels Rentals is about 100m from the ferry dock on Water Island. We hired 2 golf carts for $40 each for the day and drove off. There was also free transportation available from the ferry dock to Honeymoon Beach only or you could even walk, but it is quite steep. When we arrived at Honeymoon Beach, there were only a handful of people and none of them were in the water so we essentially had the place to ourselves. We were able to swim right up to a few sea turtles and watch as they chewed on the sea grass. Just as we were about ready to move on and explore the rest of the island we heard the bass beat in the distance. A cruise ship party boat was arriving packed with dancing, drinking revellers, as well as a whole kindergarten of toddlers and young children! We told the turtles to take cover and then jumped on our golf carts and took off. We later discovered that the party boat shore excursion was a 3-3.5 hour trip to Honeymoon beach and cost $95 per head! In comparision, the total cost for our group of 7 for the day was $220.

We missed our first stop and ended up on the outskirts of a gated community before backtracking to the top of a walk down to Limestone Bay. The beach was quite rocky, but the water was warm, beautifully clear and we were the only ones to enjoy it. This was quite a feat considering the number of cruise ships here today!

Our mode of transport for the day

Oma was a hoon today!

Honeymoon Beach before the hordes arrived

Beautifully clear water at a pleasant temperature

The party boat that disturbed the peace and quiet

On to Limestone Bay

The 100m walk through bush and the rocks preventing ships from dropping guests off meant we had the whole place to ourselves! 

The clouds opened up briefly as we tried to keep Oma racing up towards the fort. Where was this form on the go-kart track? The fort was still a work in progress when WW2 finished and has remained that way ever since. It offers a wonderful view over the island. Here we also encountered the island's famous red footed tortoises. It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning, but we had a big day planned for tomorrow so we decided to head back for a late lunch and swim on the ship. A quick thumbs up to "Choir of Man". We went in to the show with little expectation and was wowed. The singing was great and it was highly enjoyable. It you do happen to cruise with NCL and they are on, do make an effort to go watch them!

The WWII fort

Red footed tortoise

I made the mistake of asking for a red velvet cupcake. I received five...

Choir of Man. An excellent show!!

Fun in San Juan

Finally sailing into San Juan!

We were scheduled to arrive into San Juan in the afternoon but we had to sail around bad weather and so didn't arrive until late. This meant a pseudo sea day which was alright with us!

We tried out the buffet breakfast but the children decided that they preferred the Haven restaurant breakfast. We took the opportunity to swim in the Haven pool as the cover could be closed in inclement weather. We also discovered a new favourite food...the pistachio pound cake...dangerously found as a snack at the Haven observation lounge EVERY DAY!

After lunch, the energetic half of the family went to the gym, the not so energetic opted for a nap.
By the time we arrived at San Juan, Puerto Rico, our enthusiasm to wander around had waned. The only thing that kept us motivated was that we had to take a photo at the place that one of our favourite boardgame was named after! The good news was that we were not the last ship in port! Coming in at 5th was the celebrity Edge...

We weaved our way through all the cruise ship passengers. With the fading light, we were able to appreciate the old walled city with its colourful buildings and narrow cobble stone streets. With our photos snapped we headed back onboard for dinner.

The Haven pool, protected from the winds

No fighting for hot tubs!

Choice of lounges

Part of our daily snack in room snack delivery...

Time to relax. Observation lounge

Enjoying a bath post swim with a virgin pina colada in hand!

Back to the Haven restaurant. A very declicious seared scallops

In San Juan with at least 4 other ships!

Old San Juan is gorgeous with narrow cobble stone streets and colourful buildings

Exploring Old Town