Observation Lounge on Norwegian Encore likely to be downsized

April 22, 2024 Randy Young

The Observation Lounge on the Breakaway-plus class ships is one of the most impressive spaces for taking in beautiful panoramic vistas while sailing. It’s one of the reasons ships like the Encore and Bliss have been embraced for Alaskan Cruises. Now we see speculation that Norwegian might be downsizing this area on yet another one of its ships, the Norwegian Encore.

Norwegian’s website lists new cabins reminiscent of changes made to Norwegian Joy

The Norwegian Joy, the predecessor to the Encore, recently went through a dry dock where Norwegian converted the port side of the Observation Lounge to 24 additional cabins. (read more about the changes here)

norwegian joy observation lounge deck plans — The renovations to Norwegian Joy significantly shrank the Observation Lounge, now it looks like they’re doing the same to Encore.

An eagle-eyed reader alerted us that NCL.com is currently selling cabins in Deck 15 forward. The deck plans don’t show any cabins in this area, but guests can book a cabin here. For example, cabin 15108 is available for booking on a January sailing of the Encore. Looking at the Norwegian Joy, that cabin number is in the new section that replaced the part of the Observation Lounge.

Downsizing likely to occur during December dry dock

While no dry dock has officially been announced, looking at the schedule, we see that in early November, Encore is heading over to Europe. Once there, the ship has two weeks with no cruises scheduled. This is likely when the ship will undergo the renovations.

We still don’t know what other changes they may make. On the Joy, they removed the Galaxy Pavilion and Laser Tag arena, so there’s a chance they may do something similar here. We’ll update this story if we get a response from Norwegian Cruise Line.