Norwegian Encore

Most Encore cabin threads come from people booking Alaska out of Seattle, so the location debate is about scenery and motion rather than sun. Aft-facing balconies come up repeatedly: a 2021 thread about deck 11 aft cabins drew only positive replies, the top one urging an evening outside on the southbound run after the northernmost port, while a 2025 reply warned that anyone prone to seasickness should skip the aft and take a lower midship cabin, naming deck 10 midship as a low deck with cabins above and below it. A 2026 reply framed it differently: placement mostly comes down to whether engine vibration is a bother, and if so, move midship or forward; the same poster liked deck 11. Several replies in the Alaska threads argued that placement matters less than first-timers assume, since the Inside Passage is mostly flat water and passengers roam the ship anyway. On noise, the only concrete guidance was not to pick a top cabin deck under the pool, plus a Bliss report (the posters treat the two ships as one layout) of a balcony with the waterslide structure rather than cabins overhead, which stayed quiet because the slide shuts early. Wall noise is a separate complaint: a well-upvoted 2023 review called the walls thin enough to follow neighbors' conversations, and a July 2023 guest on deck 14 could hear both neighbors and the cabin above, yet nothing from the corridor.

On categories, the recurring verdict is that the Club Balcony Suite is a balcony with a better bathroom, not a suite. Posters in 2023 and 2024 listed what the upcharge buys: a double sink and larger shower, a bag of laundry, canapés and dining reservations that open a day earlier. Couples who took it said it is worth doing only when the gap over a standard balcony is small; nobody argued for paying a large one. The extra floor area in the club category is mostly bathroom, and the third berth is the sofa, with pull-down bunks reserved for a fourth guest. The 'Family Balcony' label (category B4, or M4 in the club version) means the cabin sleeps up to four, and the wide size ranges on NCL's site come from accessible cabins at the top of each range rather than a bigger standard room. Upgrade bidding was reported to open roughly 90–120 days out; one 2023 inside-cabin booker whose bid never cleared paid about $1,500 to choose a specific balcony versus about $900 for a guarantee, and a 2022 reply said studio bookings are excluded from bidding altogether. Solo travelers also found that an inside can price below a studio on some sailings: one poster swapped a studio for an inside and got $400 back.