Norwegian Encore - Panama Canal Repositioning

Twenty-two nights break into three unequal acts. Two sea days open the run to Cartagena, the canal transit comes on day five with the Pacific-side anchorage at Fuerte Amador the morning after, and from Costa Rica to Los Angeles the pattern is strict alternation: Puntarenas, sea, Puerto Quetzal, sea, Acapulco, sea, then Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas back to back before another sea day into San Pedro. The final week is domestic, with San Francisco as a two-day call (the ship stays overnight), Victoria on the last night and disembarkation in Seattle. Nine of the 22 nights are sea days. Encore is a neo-Panamax hull, so the transit uses the 2016 locks rather than the original chambers described in the port note; a 2025 thread comparing sister ship Bliss with Star Princess on this crossing noted both use the new locks, and a 2022 thread on the old-versus-new question found the line rarely promises which. The sailing is also sold in segments: a 2023 poster boarded the reverse-direction run in Los Angeles while others in their group had joined in Seattle and San Francisco, and a 2025 poster did Miami to San Francisco as a 17-day. Encore makes the crossing northbound in spring for its Seattle Alaska season and southbound in autumn, and Norwegian Joy runs it in the other direction.

Who is aboard is the first thing posters notice. A 28-year-old on the April 2023 sailing estimated 70 percent of passengers were over 60 with one child seen all trip, and the replies explained why without apology: the longer the cruise the older the crowd, and a three-week April sailing excludes anyone tied to a school calendar or a two-week vacation allowance. Working through it is the other theme. A 2025 poster on the 17-day segment ran a remote tech job from the ship on sea days using the onboard Starlink package and said a personal Starlink Mini carried aboard as backup was not worth bringing. The cost complaints are magnified by length: a 2024 poster on the Miami-to-Seattle sailing tallied roughly $840 in prepaid gratuities per balcony cabin over the three weeks, room-service fees on every order and no self-service laundry, and was told firmly by the most-upvoted reply that all of it was public before booking and that the open-bar add-on remains the best deal in cruising. Route threads add the transit craft: get low and aft, because from deck 16 a 2018 poster saw nothing of the operation until moving to the stern, while a lower deck with windows watches the walls slide past close up. Panama has interrupted plans twice in the archive: protests in 2018 sent one group back to the ship under police escort, and a Panama City native warned an October 2023 poster of protests under way.

Several ships sell this crossing in the catalog and the differences are direction, length and money. Norwegian Joy runs Seattle to Miami over 21 nights at a noticeably lower fare, so sailing south is the saving; Norwegian Bliss does Los Angeles to Miami in 16 nights, keeping the canal and Central America but dropping San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest; Cunard's Queen Elizabeth covers Miami to Seattle in 20 nights at the same fare tier. Against Encore's own weeks, these 22 nights list only a few hundred dollars above the ship's seven-night Alaska loop. A 2025 thread picking between a Bliss crossing and Star Princess went to Norwegian for more port days and the Golden Gate finish, and faulted the Princess itinerary for too many sea days. Victoria deserves a note: on Encore's Seattle Alaska loops that call runs about 8pm to midnight, which a 2023 thread chewed over at length (pubs, restaurants and pedicabs open, museums closed), so check this sailing's hours before planning anything ashore there. It suits people with three free weeks who want the canal, the Mexican Riviera and the West Coast in one trip, remote workers who can trade sea days for laptop days, and anyone whose big-ship Alaska season can begin the week this one ends. It is a poor fit for families in term time and for travellers who want the canal without the commitment, for whom Norwegian Jade's eleven-night Tampa-to-Panama City run is the short, cheap answer.