Ahmet Erkun

With check-out from the Southampton Holiday Inn set for 11:00a, I had chosen the 10:30-11:00a slot for embarking Encore.

Ubering over to the Horizon Terminal — a short 5 minute ride from the hotel — we joined Deniz and got in line for the check-in formalities.

The first line was for the security check-point … long but moving along at a steady pace. What came as a surprise was that we were asked to remove laptops from carry-on bags. We had to take off jackets, watches, and belts as well … and anyone with clunky boots had to remove their footwear, too. Don’t remember ever having to do this at a cruise port before.

The next line wasn’t a line at all … we were directed to the check-in counter immediately and had our cabin keycards in hand within a minute or two. It was nice not having to repeat everything we had already completed online. Then came the waiting. With the ship coming from dry dock there were no disembarking passengers, so this was a surprise. Finally, about 30 minutes later, our group was called and we made our way aboard.

Muster drills since the COVID-19 pandemic have changed. Seldom is there an in-person drill anymore. Instead, we are sent a link to watch the safety video before embarking the ship. Once aboard, passengers head to the muster station indicated on their keycards to check-in. This ensures that everyone knows where their muster station is in the unlikely event of an emergency. So, to our respective muster stations we went once we were scanned aboard. (By the way, a more extensive video is on the in-cabin TV, which must be watched before one can switch to any other channel)

With the ship arriving empty from dry dock our expectation was that the cabins would be ready for us immediately upon embarkation. This wasn’t the case … still not sure why. So, we went to have lunch instead. In addition to the buffet at the Garden Café, several dining venues were open to accommodate the 3,000+ passengers sailing on this cruise (well below the ship’s 3,998 max at double occupancy). We opted to go to Taste, one of the smaller complimentary dining rooms on the ship … good food and good service.

By the time our lunch was over, the cabins were ready, so we split up to go to our cabins … us on deck 10 aft; Deniz on deck 10 forward. Not all of our luggage was delivered yet, so we decided to go off on an exploratory wander around the ship instead. By the time we returned to the cabin an hour later, all of our bags were waiting for us. It didn’t take long for us to find a place for everything we wanted to unpack … thanks in part to having once again used our Biaggi zipcubes.

Having settled into our cabin, we were free to enjoy Encore’s departure from Southampton as the sun set over the horizon. The sailaway from this port is not a very exciting one. We watched from our balcony anyway as Encore maneuvered its bow toward the English Channel and the city lights slowly came on.

We went to the Manhattan Room — the main dining room — for dinner … another good meal. The show tonight headlined Chris Burke in “Legends of Soul.” Mui and Deniz went to check it out, but neither found it entertaining enough to stay the entire 45 minutes. Oh well.

Tonight we have an unexpected time change … losing an hour as we head east to Spain. This will be the only time we have to set our clocks forward on this trip. The good news is that tomorrow is a day at sea, so we can sleep in.Read more