Our sailing on the Norwegian Encore marked the 12th Shinglebells Christmas Cruise (and our first Christmas Cruise following the 2020 pandemic cruising hiatus). It's been years since I've rated our cruises, but I think it may be interesting to bring back the rating system.

The rating system is based on ten components of a cruise vacation which I find important - itinerary, ship novelties, pools, activities, dining, bars and lounges, service, design and aesthetics, and stateroom.

I've found that Glad I Did/Wish I Did posts are fun because it's a great way to quickly share with others what worked, and what didn't. It's also been really helpful for us to refer back to over the years when preparing for our next cruise.

Glad we bid $15 per person for a Stateroom Upgrade (Balcony to Club Balcony)

Rachel and I originally bid only on the Haven suites because we were worried that bidding on a lower category stateroom would negatively impact our odds of getting a suite. As the cruise got closer, we kept a close eye on our cruise group on Facebook and realized that bids were being awarded, and we weren't going to get the Haven (from what we could tell, most Haven upgrades were awarded to parties of three or four guests in one stateroom). The minimum bid for the Club Balcony stateroom was discounted to $15 (originally $25) per person, and I'm glad we decided to put in last-minute minimum bids. With the Club Balcony, we were moved to a higher floor and our staterooms were actually closer together than the balcony cabins that we had originally booked. Also, the large bathroom in the Club Balcony was nice to have.

Glad I decorated Judy's stateroom for her birthday!

My original plan had been to decorate the door of my parents' stateroom. However, unlike other cruise lines, Norwegian actually has a rule against decorating stateroom doors (not sure if they'll actually hold you to it - I saw a few decorated doors on our cruise). I did not find any rules against decorating the stateroom interior. Originally I planned to create my own banners, but then I ran out of time and purchased garland and banners from Party City. I used heavy-duty magnet hooks to string the garland across the room. It was fun and festive. Since the ship wasn't that decorated for the holidays, it was fun to have this cheery little space that felt like a celebration.

On December 26th, we were back in Miami.

We decided to roll off our luggage, rather than setting our luggage out in the hallway the night before, so we were free to leave at anytime. We headed up to the Garden Cafe to grab breakfast before going downstairs to disembark.

 It was the seventh and final day of our cruise, and also Christmas morning!!

Judy requested that we have Christmas Brunch in the dining room. There are two dining rooms open for breakfast - Savor and Taste. They're located directly across from one another - Savor is port side, and Taste is starboard. They're basically the same. We had planned to dine at Savor, but we got a late start, and they were only seating at Taste, so we dined at Taste.

It was Christmas Eve. We were scheduled for a 10 AM arrival in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and docking in Taino Bay Port, a new cruise port in Puerto Plata (Carnival has nearby Amber Cove cruise port in Puerto Plata which opened in 2015). 

Construction on the new Taino Bay cruise port began in 2018 and was expected to be ready by Summer 2020. A million passengers were projected to visit Taino Bay during the 2020/21 season... but as you can probably guess, things did not go according to projections.

Taino Bay received its first cruise ship, the MSC Seashore, on December 15, 2021 - just a few weeks before our cruise. The second ship to arrive in Puerto Plata was actually the NCL Encore a week prior on December 17. 

On Day 5, we arrived in Tortola bright and early, docking at 6 AM! 6AM was also the time that we needed to disembark and meet up for our excursion.

This is the one excursion that we booked through NCL (to use our "free" excursion credit), Escape to Jost Van Dyke. Rachel picked it out. She has a good track record for choosing excursions.

Jost Van Dyke is actually the smallest of the four main British Virgin Islands. You can also travel to Jost Van Dyke from St. Thomas - maybe something to look into the next time we have a long day at St. Thomas.

It wasn't fun to wake up before dawn, but at least we got to watch the sunrise -

On Day 4, we would be docking in St. Thomas. We weren't scheduled to arrive in port until 11 AM, so I had plenty of time that morning to wander the ship and take photos.


It was early, so the pool deck was empty.... but also it was a port day. If you're not interested in getting off at a port, port days are a great opportunity to stay on the ship and enjoy the pool with less guests onboard.

Day 3 was a Sea Day, and we planned to spend our morning relaxing by the pool!

Rachel, Judy, and Stove were able to snag some chairs on the second row of the pool deck, and it just so happened that when Aaron and I came to join, two chairs beside them were open.

The pool deck was very entertaining. And as the morning progressed, DJ Fly beats started hitting hard.

Aaron had only been on Disney Cruises, so this was his first more traditional "pool deck" experience. They had a "Sexy Man Competition," and I think this was a great introduction to cruise game trashiness. There was a "no touching the judges," rule. A teenage boy started grinding on one of the judges and the activities director tries to stop it, then he clarifies, "It's okay, she's my mom."

We woke up bright and early on Day 2. It didn't help that we had to turn our clocks an hour forward the night before.

The Encore arrived at Great Stirrup Cay at 7AM, and we had planned to take advantage of our Cabana early tender, but I got a call from Judy that we'd be pushing our departure time to 8AM - fine by me!

Great Stirrup Cay is a tender port, meaning that rather than docking, the ship drops anchor in the bay and passengers go to shore via smaller tender boats. The last tender was scheduled for 1:30 PM - not much time on the island!

Ho, ho, ho! The Shinglebells are back!! Hello and welcome to my trip report for the Shinglebells' 12th Annual* Christmas Cruise aboard Norwegian Encore! (*annual excluding 2020, obviously)

In case you're new to my trip reports or just need a little refresher, meet the Shinglebells:

Me/Victoria - I'm 30 and live in Los Angeles. I'm an architect, and I love a good DIY (check out my new YouTube channel, designSHING, if home decor is your thing)! I've also been sticking a camera in everyone's face to document and meticulously share our family vacations for well over a decade.

Sister/Rachel - She's 28 and lives in Austin, Texas. She recently earned her Master of Finance from UT Austin and recently began a new job as an Associate at a global investment firm! Rachel is the planner for our cruise vacations. She reads cruise blogs, reviews, and Cruise Critic. She also wrote a trip report for her September cruise on Freedom of the Seas.

Mom/Sharon a.k.a. Judy is sexy and 60! Her birthday was in December, so this cruise doubled as a 60th birthday celebration. Judy is actually the most-cruised Shinglebell, so we charge our souvenirs to her card so we can get the best discounts.

Dad/Boyd a.k.a. Stove is 67 and living his best life with my mom in South Carolina. When he's not consulting, you can probably find him either on the golf course or on the lake. And if you ever see us out and about, he's most likely leading the pack.

Even more exciting - this year, we were joined by the Shingleboyfriends -

Aaron (my boyfriend) is also an architecture professional in Los Angeles. His first cruise was on the Disney Wonder in 2019, and his second cruise was on the Disney Wonder in 2021, so this was his first cruise on a line other than Disney and a ship other than the Wonder.

Landon (Rachel's boyfriend) spends his cruises working because he's a lawyer. His first cruise was also on the Disney Wonder. This was his first cruise other than Disney, his first 7-day cruise, as well as his first time getting off a cruise ship at a port of call - so many firsts!

Now let's move on to the story of how we chose this cruise...