Review of the Star repositioning cruise -- grades and final comments

[ute_fan]

We really enjoyed our cruise, and our first-time cruiser friends liked it well enough to consider another one, so the trip was a success. My Mom was a teacher though, and a strict one at that, so I don't give "A" grades easily.

Food: B-
While we certainly didn't lack for things to eat on the ship, and our scales show it, there has been a decline in the food quality & choices since we started cruising almost 5 years ago. On our first cruise, I can remember looking at the menu and having a very hard time deciding what I wanted each night. These days, I can almost always find something that sounds good -- with about a once-a-cruise fall back to the always available menu. Salad choices on this cruise were strange. Very few green salads -- other than the always available caesar salad. Most of the desserts were just OK -- except for the wonderful creme brulee' with chocolate on the bottom layer that is one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. The chilled soups were as good as I remembered (and anyone who has read my posts knows that I LOVE my chilled soups), and we particularly enjoyed the banana mango, the apricot and peach, and the black cherry soups. If NCL eliminates these, as it appears from the trial menus on the Dawn, it will make it much easier for me to try a different cruise line.

Not only were the food choices not as exciting as before (and part of this may be due to the fact that we've cruised on NCL 7 times now since January, 2004), but some of the food wasn't particularly good. Twice other members of our party ordered the always available steak. Once it was so fatty that they could hardly eat it, and the other time it was quite overcooked. Mine was very satisfactory, but I'd much rather have it served with a baked potato than french fries. At our first lunch on embarkation day, one of our friends ordered a pasta dish that she just sort of picked at. When we asked her about it, she said the pasta tasted like undercooked rice. We convinced her to have them bring her a different entree, but weren't impressed that her first meal was not satisfactory.

CABIN: A-

I'm still not convinced that "once a balcony, always a balcony", but we were happy that we had one this trip. We had our last $500 certificate from the old NCL Mastercard program to use, and it seemed a shame not to spend any more than that for our cabin. So, we splurged for a balcony. The bed was wonderfully comfortable! I informed my DH the first night that he might not get me out of it for the rest of the cruise... I love the NCL bathrooms on the newer ships that eliminate those horrible, sticky, shower curtains. There were a few small maintenance items in our cabin that keep me from giving it an "A" -- like some rust on the balcony and sticky drawers by the closet.

SERVICE: B+

Many times on our cruises, we've found a waiter that we really enjoy, and we'll ask to be seated in their area when possible. We didn't bother this time. Partly because no one really stood out, and partly because we figured it would be harder with a party of 6. The food service was perfectly adequate -- but not spectacular. There was a HUGE improvement over our last trip on the Dawn, however, as we never had to wait more than 5 minutes to be seated in the main dining rooms.

Our cabin stewards kept our room clean, and we had towel animals 4 of the 6 nights. They didn't, however, bother to greet us by name, and never introduced themselves. If they had, we probably would have left them an extra tip. Since they didn't, and the automatic service charge has been raised to $12 per day, we didn't bother.

ENTERTAINMENT: B

The production shows were fine. We really loved Music of the Night, thought Cirque Pacific was fine (and enjoyed the Chinese Acrobats who also performed in that show), and I could have done without Band on the Run again -- but my DH and our friends enjoyed it.

We enjoyed listening to the musical groups that were scattered around the ship. My DS made the comment that she thought she preferred Princess' classical string music, but I can take that or leave it -- and it puts my DH to sleep.

The main thing that stops me from giving an "A" for entertainment is the schedule on the sea days. We used to love the old game shows on the ships -- "Who Wants to be a Bazillionaire" and "Jeopardy" come to mind. We didn't ever participate, but we did enjoy watching. Those are nowhere to be found. We used to like the ice sculpture and fruit carving demonstrations -- again, didn't see those listed anywhere on the schedule. There was a towel animal folding demonstration one afternoon -- complete with a CD for you to purchase for $9 and take home so that you can make your own towel animals for your family and friends.

Much of the entertainment on sea days now seems to be centered around events that they can charge for. Wine tasting and mojito tasting ($15), bingo (way too expensive for my tastes), the art auctions -- even the previously mentioned towel animal demonstration. Very little offered that was of any interest to any of our party. Luckily, I can amuse myself with games on my Iphone, reading, and just relaxing.

Now that I've complained, I will give the cruise director, Ray Carr, a "thumbs up". While I don't appreciate his schedule of activities, it's similar enough to our last cruise that I'm sure he's providing what the corporate NCL office instructs him to. We enjoyed his sense of humor, and he managed to be funny without being annoying. I particularly liked the banter that he and one of the other officers (Rosita?) had going on at our meet & greet about the various lines he's worked on. He's definitely among my favorite cruise directors -- and probably second only to Colin Kerr from the Sun many years ago.

OVERALL: B+

After our last cruise on the Dawn, we came home quite dissatisfied with the shipboard experience. We had LONG lines at dinner every night, service issues, and had talked about switching to another cruise line. This time, we didn't experience those issues.

I still don't like the emphasis that is placed on spending more money onboard. I'd rather pay a bit more upfront, and have better food in the main dining rooms, than feel like they've "cheapened" the options to encourage you to spend more money in the specialty dining rooms. We definitely got tired of the constant pushing of drinks by the bar staff -- they seemed much more obstrusive on this cruise than they have done previously.

On the other hand, for the price we paid for this cruise, we received a good value for our $$$. I'm sure all 6 of us are the kind that NCL hates to see board the ship: we don't eat in the surcharge restaurants, we don't drink alcohol, and we don't gamble. I think our onboard tab was only about $75 more than the automatic gratuities. We did buy an internet package, a couple of things from the shops, and a couple of sodas at dinner.

NCL did a lot to redeem the line in our eyes. We feel at home on the ships, and they'll probably continue to be the first line I consider when booking future cruises -- but I'm sure we'll eventually branch out a bit if we find a great deal or itinerary on another line.

Edited to add one more comment: If you're considering a repositioning cruise, do NOT think you can get away with booking a one-day NCL cruise to go from Seattle to Vancouver. We were talking with a couple in the taxi line at San Pedro who had tried that -- and were escorted off the Star's one-night sailing, 10 minutes before the ship sailed. It cost them $500 in bus and hotel fares to get to from Seattle to Vancouver to board the repositioning cruise. There were several other posts I saw regarding this. Most of them NCL managed to notify prior to their actually boarding, but they were left scrambling to try and figure out how to get from Seattle to Vancouver. The law (Jones act, passenger services act, whatever it's called) may seem like a silly rule to us cruisers, but the ship will NOT let you get away with it once they discover that you're on both sailings. The couple we talked to was upset with NCL for not notifying them sooner -- but more upset with their TA for not realizing that the combination of sailings wouldn't be permitted.

[terrymtex01]

UTE.. Loved your review. Glad you had such a good time on the Star.. She is our favorite ship so far. I am hoping they have the towel animal demo and cd on the Dawn next month. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

[Ann262]

Nice review. Not too long but enough info.

Thanks!

[ute_fan]

Originally Posted by Ann262

Nice review. Not too long but enough info.

Thanks!

Thanks! Combined with the other 4 threads I started, it's way too long...
Once I got started writing, I didn't seem to be able to stop.

[ashleycrew]

Ute... great review. I was on the same cruise. I agree with about everything you have written. The one thing that I think they seriously need to upgrade is the TV options in the room. It was 2 channels of the same movies, CNN, TNT, Cartoon Channel and about 7 channels advertising NCL. I do like the lines that have expanded options as well as the ability to check your bill on the TV. They also advertised the specialty restaurancts menu but did not put the menu for the main dining rooms on the TV so to check out what was dinner you would have to actually go down to check it out. Wasnt a huge deal but I do like relaxing in the room some and watching TV but that was not real possible on the Star. Perhaps that will be updated at the next drydock.

[ute_fan]

Originally Posted by ashleycrew

Ute... great review. I was on the same cruise. I agree with about everything you have written. The one thing that I think they seriously need to upgrade is the TV options in the room. It was 2 channels of the same movies, CNN, TNT, Cartoon Channel and about 7 channels advertising NCL. I do like the lines that have expanded options as well as the ability to check your bill on the TV. They also advertised the specialty restaurancts menu but did not put the menu for the main dining rooms on the TV so to check out what was dinner you would have to actually go down to check it out. Wasnt a huge deal but I do like relaxing in the room some and watching TV but that was not real possible on the Star. Perhaps that will be updated at the next drydock.

The TV choices (and TV's themselves) both could use updates. Since we were traveling with friends and family this cruise, we didn't care, but when we're by ourselves, we do spend more time in the room watching TV -- and the choices are always limited.

One thing the Star and Dawn have that the newer NCL ships don't is a small movie theater. We watched Angels and Demons one afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Great review! Remember we were on the Dawn one year ago today!

[trojangirl90066]

Originally Posted by ute_fan

Thanks! Combined with the other 4 threads I started, it's way too long...
Once I got started writing, I didn't seem to be able to stop.

Since I am going on the Star in a little over a week I was happy to read your review. I read all the threads and really enjoyed them. Such good information, definitely not too long.

[ute_fan]

Originally Posted by ohioNCLcruiser

Great review! Remember we were on the Dawn one year ago today!

We ended up sailing almost exactly a year apart on both sides of the US. Seemed a bit strange when I was booking this one. How's life been treating you on the ship in Hawaii?

[ute_fan]

Originally Posted by trojangirl90066

Since I am going on the Star in a little over a week I was happy to read your review. I read all the threads and really enjoyed them. Such good information, definitely not too long.

Thanks! I do it for myself as much as anything else. With my rapidly advancing age , I find that I'm starting to forget details, and rather than just writing in my journal, I figure that someone else may get some use out of my ramblings.

[RTLS]

An excellent review Susan and very much in agreement with our thoughts. One difference, though, is that our bed was not at all comfortable and we hated the top sheet that didn't quite fit the bed and invariably ended up wrapped around DH's neck!

Thanks for the CD we received at the M&G, we'll play it often.And thanks for organising the M&G.

By the way, we were one of those to randomly recieve an after trip survey from NCL so I had an opportunity to rant a bit about our LA tour which was awful.

[ute_fan]

Originally Posted by RTLS

An excellent review Susan and very much in agreement with our thoughts. One difference, though, is that our bed was not at all comfortable and we hated the top sheet that didn't quite fit the bed and invariably ended up wrapped around DH's neck!

Thanks for the CD we received at the M&G, we'll play it often.And thanks for organising the M&G.

By the way, we were one of those to randomly recieve an after trip survey from NCL so I had an opportunity to rant a bit about our LA tour which was awful.

We enjoyed meeting you guys. It was wonderful to stand by you at the Vancouver sail-away and hear the stories about the bridge that we were sailing under.

I'm glad you enjoyed the CD. I did the same thing when we sailed from NYC last year -- except it was the one with all their patriotic songs, which seemed appropriate as we sailed past the Statue of Liberty.

Your comment about the bed is interesting. I thought ours on the Dawn last year was way too hard-- but this one was very comfortable. I even peeked under the sheets to see if we had one of those egg-crate toppers on it, but we didn't. I wonder why the difference on the same ship?

We also received the after trip survey. I took the opportunity to rant (again) about my dissatisfaction with the possibility of their eliminating the chilled soups....

[RTLS]

Originally Posted by ute_fan

We enjoyed meeting you guys. It was wonderful to stand by you at the Vancouver sail-away and hear the stories about the bridge that we were sailing under.

I'm glad you enjoyed the CD. I did the same thing when we sailed from NYC last year -- except it was the one with all their patriotic songs, which seemed appropriate as we sailed past the Statue of Liberty.

Your comment about the bed is interesting. I thought ours on the Dawn last year was way too hard-- but this one was very comfortable. I even peeked under the sheets to see if we had one of those egg-crate toppers on it, but we didn't. I wonder why the difference on the same ship?

We also received the after trip survey. I took the opportunity to rant (again) about my dissatisfaction with the possibility of their eliminating the chilled soups....

I think you were in a balcony on Deck 10 and we were Balcony Deck 9 and we had one of those egg crate toppers! Perhaps Deck 10 has been upgraded and not Deck 9 as yet.

Glad you all enjoyed British Columbia. Come back again!

[STARFISH*4]

THANKS for the review...i ENJOYED it muchly!!
look forward to sailing the STAR in a little over 2 months

[ashleycrew]

Originally Posted by RTLS

I think you were in a balcony on Deck 10 and we were Balcony Deck 9 and we had one of those egg crate toppers! Perhaps Deck 10 has been upgraded and not Deck 9 as yet.

Glad you all enjoyed British Columbia. Come back again!

We were in a Balcony on Deck 9 then switched to a balcony on deck 10 (long story...) and the beds where exactly the same so that could not be the case.

[WinnieinWA]

Thank you so much for a really great review. I was especially delighted to hear they still have the cold soups...I love those too! I'm excited to be on her in just under 2 weeks.

[SailorJack]

That was a good review! I missed your others, so I will have to look for them. I am assuming the weather, ports, etc. were discussed in the posts I missed?

[RTLS]

Originally Posted by ashleycrew

We were in a Balcony on Deck 9 then switched to a balcony on deck 10 (long story...) and the beds where exactly the same so that could not be the case.

So was your bed comfortable or not and did it have a topper?Actually I'd be really interested to know your story regarding the switch if it's not personal or something you'd rather not share.

[MT_DreamChaser]

I'm glad we weren't the only ones who had an issue with the LA tour. I too explained, in detail, to NCL on the survey what I didn't like about it. That was the first time we've booked any type of excursion with NCL and hopefully they aren't all that bad or we won't be booking any more.

[ute_fan]

Originally Posted by SailorJack

That was a good review! I missed your others, so I will have to look for them. I am assuming the weather, ports, etc. were discussed in the posts I missed?

Yes, more details about weather and ports in the previous 4....

As I was writing them, I kept wishing I had your gift for story telling!