What are the eight things you can do completely for free
on board Norwegian Encore.
I'm Gary Bembridge,
this is another of my tips for travellers.
Norwegian cruises and Encore,
offer you huge amounts of choice on their cruises,
but not everything is for free.
So I want to talk about eight incredible things
that you can do without paying any extra money
above your cruise fare starting with this one.
You can go and see Broadway production shows
of incredibly high quality.
On Norwegian Encore they have the multi award winning show
which won Tony's and also won awards
in the London West End, Kinky Boots.
It's a full 90 minute production
and it is really top top notch.
The other phenomenal production which you can see for free
is called "The choir of man"
I was very sceptical about the show,
went in, had a great time, incredible talent,
phenomenal voices, re imagining the songs that we all know,
lots of Contemporary songs, really beautiful story.
So those are all included within your fare,
they're completely and utterly free to go to
and I definitely strongly recommend
you go and see the big production shows.
The second thing is, there is a huge amount of live music
around the ship.
That again is all included within your fare.
The first of those, one of the most popular
is in the Cavern club.
This is recreating the Liverpool club
where the Beatles were founded
and there's a Beatles tribute band
that play in here twice a night,
and they cover all the greatest hits
from different phases during their career.
It's hugely popular and really good fun.
I'm not a big Beatles fan,
but had a great time in there with this band.
Dotted around the ship, there's lots of other live music
throughout the evening
and the ones to check out
are in the District Brewhouse,
they has a singer pianist, who does singalongs
in the Sugarcane Mojito bar,
they have Latin music, a bit of dancing,
and then you have a house band
entertaining in the different lounges around the ship
and in the main atrium.
The music is completely free.
If you want to have a drink while you watch it,
you pay for your drinks
but the live music completely free and included.
You can also then for free
go and have a great evening of comedy.
So in the Social Club,
they have a comedian on various times during the night
and in the late evening that becomes a nightclub
so you can laugh your head off
and then dance the night away until really late.
Again, if you want something to drink you pay for that,
but the actual entertainment, the DJ
and the comedy, completely free.
Access to pretty much all the facilities on board
is included, there are a couple of exceptions
but one of the things that is included
that is phenomenal are the water parks.
There's two water parks,
one which is for basically adults and people of all ages
and then there's the Kids Aqua park.
In the adults park you have two multi storey
high thrill rides.
The first of which is called the Aqua racer,
these are tandem slides
and then you have ocean loops
which extend right out over the side of the ship,
you whoosh over the side of the ship
and you go through a double loop down.
On the pool deck you have the Kids Aqua area
where there's lots of cascading water
and lots of fun for the kids.
Again, of course the use of the pools
is all included within the fare
but the waterpark 100% included.
The fifth thing that you can do for free
is go and watch the go-kart, the speedway.
If you want to take part in the go-kart,
you do have to pay for that
but you can go and watch the thrills
and perhaps the spills,
up on the two level go-kart race track.
The Encore Speedway, is larger than the ones
on the other ships of a similar size.
There's a great viewing area
right in the middle of the track
and it really is a huge amount of fun.
If you want to go on the go karts, you do pay,
it's at the time of recording $9.95 for one circuit.
You can also buy a day pass
or a entire cruise long pass which gives you unlimited rides.
So a day pass was $29.95 per person
and it was just under $200 for at full weekly pass.
If you're into laser tag, there is an open air course,
which is the lost city of Atlantis
and you do have to pay to take part in that.
Again, it's around about $9.95 per person for a game
and you can buy weekly and day passes to play laser tag.
There's no way that you can actually watch
that particular activity.
You can also head down to Galaxy Pavilion
and watch people on the simulator rise.
These are sort of multi-dimensional 4D rides,
and people are wearing the virtual reality goggles,
you can go watch people
take part in these various activities.
If you do want to go on any of the rides
that does include extra cost,
and you can certainly go down
and have a look at everyone making fools of themselves
at time on those particular rides.
Also, there is a Video Arcade which again is a pay-per-play.
This is a great space and are lots of things to do here.
But again, you can go watch people playing
but you can't take part without paying.
So the critical thing to do
in terms of all those activities,
which I would strongly recommend you do
is go and watch the Speedway on Encore
and the various races, it's really good fun.
The good news is, that for free,
in other words included within your fare,
you can eat for 24 hours of the day.
Now there's a couple of key dining options
that are included within your fare,
you have three main dining rooms,
which are called Taste, Savor and the Manhattan Room.
They all have the same menu.
So it really depends on which of the decor
or the venues you prefer, breakfast, lunch or dinner
and these are very beautiful rooms,
and you can go in there and have a full multi course meals.
The other restaurant which is included within your fare
is the Garden Cafe, which is the buffet restaurant.
I really liked this as a buffet restaurant,
they had all sorts of different stations.
So for example, at lunchtime, you could have a stir fries,
you could have pasta, there will be a pizza station
there will be a burger station
and again at breakfast, you'd have all sorts
of different types of stations,
they have lots of desserts
and you can have huge amounts of food up there
in the Garden Cafe and that it tends to be open
for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
You will also find that some parts of the day you can go up
and get free teas and coffees, juices
and various snacks.
All the speciality restaurants,
you do have to pay extra to go to
and there are a lot of them.
However, there is one of the speciality restaurants
that is included within your fare and that's The Local.
The Local has comfort food,
like hamburgers, hot dogs, fish and chips
and this is a great space to go and it's open 24 hours a day.
You can have comfort food, and again you pay if you have a drink,
so you do have to pay for your drinks
It's a great location
and you can look down on to the main atrium,
great meeting point
and that is all included within your fare,
everything else there are some charges.
So for example, on room service, you do pay a service fee,
which at the time of recording was $7.95 per order.
If you want to go to any of the speciality restaurants,
of which there are at least nine of them,
or you want to go to any of the other food
and beverage outlets like the Starbucks or the Bake Shop,
or the ice cream shop, you do pay to go to those.
So the free things are the main dining rooms,
the buffet and the Local.
The next one is great, particularly for parents
and multi generational families travelling together,
is you can leave the kids to play all day,
be looked after all day
and that's all included within the fare, so it's free.
They have three phenomenal kids' clubs
and these really are really big spaces
and they can cope with hundreds of kids in the peak season.
So for example, at the really peak time like Thanksgiving,
they could have almost 1,000 kids
being looked after by these various kids clubs.
So the key ones that that you need to know about
are first of all Guppies.
Now Guppies is a largely unsupervised space
for very young toddlers,
where parents can go and play with their toddlers
and there's all sorts of things to do there.
The next one,
which is one of the most important ones of all
and the most popular ones of all
and the biggest of all, is called the Splash Academy.
It's got nothing to do with water, it's just the name.
This is where kids from three up to 12
will be able to go and play
and they're divided into different age groups.
Then you have Entourage which is for teenagers.
So that's from 13 up till 17.
That's all included within the fare
and your kids can spend all day there.
The only thing you would pay for is in the main Kids' Club,
the Splash Academy, normally closes at lunchtime for an hour
and is closed in the evening for an hour.
But if you want your kids on port days to be supervised
and taken to meals,
you'll pay, at the time recording,
$6 for lunch, $6 for dinner.
So the great news is, as a parent,
you could go off on an all day excursion
and your kids would be supervised
and you'd literally paying $6
while the supervision out of mealtimes is
totally free and included within the fare.
After talking about the ability to eat 24 hours a day
and the huge amount of food options,
you'll be pleased to know that there's another thing
that you can do for free
and that's go to the very large fitness centre.
All the cardio equipment, all of the weights
are included with your fare, and free to use.
Once you start looking at classes, you will pay for classes,
but you can get a good workout, you can exercise
and burn off any of those extra calories
to then go back to your 24 hour eating.
Also on board there is a running track
around and near the pool deck as well.
So again, you your exercise is included within your fare.
Norwegian Cruise Lines and Norwegian Encore
really focus on Freestyle Cruising,
which is giving you lots and lots of choice.
Now a lot of the choice options
do have a price associated with them.
However, you can come on board Norwegian Encore
and do loads of things for free in terms of exercising,
entertainment, dining, all included within your fare
and without having to put your hand in your pocket
and pay for anything extra,
unless of course those things really appeal to you.
Have you found this helpful?
I have loads more videos
about Norwegian Cruise Lines and cruising
and I'd love it if you watch another one of those right now.