Just back from the STAR 3/27 - 4/3

Mostly lovely weather on the trip and returned to stormy skies at home. I really want to write a review, but I know once I get back to work tomorrow I probably won't have the time:(.

I am willing to answer questions.

I will submit a few comments of my own, however.

I really, really missed the Spinikker in the front especially when we hit rough seas on the way home :mad::mad:. Worst part, for me, was not being able to hangout there and watch the waves. Luckily, we had an Aft suite and were able to enjoy the sun while everyone else was freezing:rolleyes:.

For the first time, I was unabe to find a deck chair on a ship, there were piles of broken loungers that seemed very odd for a ship just out of dry dock. Again very thankful for the aft balcony chairs:D.

Again, we had wonderful weather in the MR but once we started back at full speed (due to a sick crew member who needed to be medivacced out which is a whole story itself) the seas became very rough and windy and cold.

We enjoyed the food. Loved having Cagneys as a perk for breakfast and lunch:D. There were 703 kids on this cruise, so it was great to find a quiet place, other than our room to hang out.

Any questions, I'll try to answer.

As a first timer on Norwegian Star and only my second cruise, I thought I'd add my comments. Overall, a great time with my family. Weather was great, though it was windy last two days at sea, we could find an outdoor portion with lounge chairs protected by the wind.

Strongly recommend if you have teens to buy a Teen passport coupon book for $34.50 which gives them 20 coupons not only for sodas, but non-alcoholic drinks like virgin pina coladas and smoothies. Of course it being spring break my teenager son really enjoyed the teen center and making new friends.

The nightly entertainment was a mixed bag in my opinion, highlighted by the Second City and the magician Bob Truell. Mostly ate in the Versailles Room, nicely appointed, great service, got a table quickly and the food ranged from good to very good for the most part. Ate at the Asian Fusion for a cover restaurant - Ok chinese food, but I think I'm spoiled having lived in NYC and San Francisco. Surprised at only one public main pool that was very cold in the mornings. Have to pay $20 for day pass to gain access to another lap pool. The library is a joke - two worn bookcases with a few paperbacks squeezed into the internet cafe. Staff was as expected quite friendly and helpful. Blue Lagoon is a nice touch for a small cafe with service at no cover and recommend the NY cheese cake. The chocolate buffet late night affair was disappointing - long lines and despite lots of choices, I thought not very good. The Market Cafe buffet offered a wide variety of reasonable food selections for casual breakfast and lunch.

On land - be careful at Cabo snorkeling as waves can push you into choral near lover's beach; recommend in Mazatlan just take an open air taxi tour of the city for 3 hours for $25/person - great fun for first timers there and stopped whenever we liked at opera house, flea market, cathedral, and ended in golden zone; in PV strongly recommend you book online with PV tours for a Rio Cuale Canopy zip line tour - lowest price and fast and numerous zip lines.

Thanks to you both for your reviews!! Will be on the Star in three (hopefully short) weeks! Quick question- not sure if you know but thought I would ask. Is the Spa pass strictly for guests 18 and over? Thanks!! -Suzanne

Jane you mentioned you had an Aft Suite, was it an AE or an AD? If it was an AE which deck? We have an AE and have heard about noise from the new Spinnaker Lounge and have been waiting to hear from people who are coming back after being the the AE's.

Glad you both enjoyed your cruise we were on the Star last October to Mexico and loved it, we will be back on the Star this summer to go to Alaska.

Thanks to you both for your reviews!! Will be on the Star in three (hopefully short) weeks! Quick question- not sure if you know but thought I would ask. Is the Spa pass strictly for guests 18 and over? Thanks!! -Suzanne

The spa is for 18 and over. I bought the pass. There were times when the spa was very crowded probably because the weather was cold up above. The view was very, very nice and relaxing.

Jane you mentioned you had an Aft Suite, was it an AE or an AD? If it was an AE which deck? We have an AE and have heard about noise from the new Spinnaker Lounge and have been waiting to hear from people who are coming back after being the the AE's. .

We were in an AE 9732 with the wrap around deck. We never heard any noise from the lounge, but then there was a deck in between. Never heard anyone complaining about the noise myself.

Thank you. Did you enjoy the AE? Did you take any pictures you could post? We have 8670 deck eight with the wrap, but we are thinking of moving up to 9736 which is the only deck nine AE left. Who was your butler? I am so excited and just can't wait. :D

The library is a joke - two worn bookcases with a few paperbacks squeezed into the internet cafe.

For the benefit of newbies or anyone who hasn't been keeping up with the Star's renovations: this set-up is just temporary, while the real library is inaccessible during the Deck 12 renovations. I'm sure the current set-up may be unsatisfactory to anyone expecting a full-blown library, but it's probably better than having nothing available.

Thank you. Did you enjoy the AE? Did you take any pictures you could post? We have 8670 deck eight with the wrap, but we are thinking of moving up to 9736 which is the only deck nine AE left. Who was your butler? I am so excited and just can't wait. :D

We may have pictures, I think we took a few. I'll post them after I've had a chance to look for them. Henry was our butler, but we didn't see him a single time.

We liked the AE. We did notice one problem on the 9th deck that you probably wouldn't have on the 8th. They clean the windows of the spa in the middle of the night and we like to sleep with the deck doors open. The spray coming down would soak the balcony and the chairs, plus a little spray inside. We ended up shuting the door in the middle of the night to avoid it, but really missed being able to sleep with it open.

Mostly lovely weather on the trip and returned to stormy skies at home. I really want to write a review, but I know once I get back to work tomorrow I probably won't have the time.

 

I am willing to answer questions.

 

I will submit a few comments of my own, however.

 

I really, really missed the Spinikker in the front especially when we hit rough seas on the way home :mad::mad:. Worst part, for me, was not being able to hangout there and watch the waves. Luckily, we had an Aft suite and were able to enjoy the sun while everyone else was freezing:rolleyes:.

 

For the first time, I was unabe to find a deck chair on a ship, there were piles of broken loungers that seemed very odd for a ship just out of dry dock. Again very thankful for the aft balcony chairs:D.

 

Again, we had wonderful weather in the MR but once we started back at full speed (due to a sick crew member who needed to be medivacced out which is a whole story itself) the seas became very rough and windy and cold.

 

We enjoyed the food. Loved having Cagneys as a perk for breakfast and lunch:D. There were 703 kids on this cruise, so it was great to find a quiet place, other than our room to hang out.

 

Any questions, I'll try to answer.

As a first timer on Norwegian Star and only my second cruise, I thought I'd add my comments. Overall, a great time with my family. Weather was great, though it was windy last two days at sea, we could find an outdoor portion with lounge chairs protected by the wind.

 

Strongly recommend if you have teens to buy a Teen passport coupon book for $34.50 which gives them 20 coupons not only for sodas, but non-alcoholic drinks like virgin pina coladas and smoothies. Of course it being spring break my teenager son really enjoyed the teen center and making new friends.

 

The nightly entertainment was a mixed bag in my opinion, highlighted by the Second City and the magician Bob Truell. Mostly ate in the Versailles Room, nicely appointed, great service, got a table quickly and the food ranged from good to very good for the most part. Ate at the Asian Fusion for a cover restaurant - Ok chinese food, but I think I'm spoiled having lived in NYC and San Francisco. Surprised at only one public main pool that was very cold in the mornings. Have to pay $20 for day pass to gain access to another lap pool. The library is a joke - two worn bookcases with a few paperbacks squeezed into the internet cafe. Staff was as expected quite friendly and helpful. Blue Lagoon is a nice touch for a small cafe with service at no cover and recommend the NY cheese cake. The chocolate buffet late night affair was disappointing - long lines and despite lots of choices, I thought not very good. The Market Cafe buffet offered a wide variety of reasonable food selections for casual breakfast and lunch.

 

On land - be careful at Cabo snorkeling as waves can push you into choral near lover's beach; recommend in Mazatlan just take an open air taxi tour of the city for 3 hours for $25/person - great fun for first timers there and stopped whenever we liked at opera house, flea market, cathedral, and ended in golden zone; in PV strongly recommend you book online with PV tours for a Rio Cuale Canopy zip line tour - lowest price and fast and numerous zip lines.

Thank you both for taking the time to post your reviews and comments. I enjoyed reading them. Extinkt, I don't know if you know this, but just wanted to share with you that the library is a temporary location with the real location to be completed within the next few weeks.

Thank you. Did you enjoy the AE? Did you take any pictures you could post? We have 8670 deck eight with the wrap, but we are thinking of moving up to 9736 which is the only deck nine AE left. Who was your butler? I am so excited and just can't wait. :D

Rshon.. from what I am reading I think you should call NCL now and get moved to deck 9. I keep reading over and over again how those in the deck 8 afts are having issues with noise from the new Spinnaker location.

Does anyone know if the Oceanview cabins on Deck 8 further forward such as #8130-8138 & #8630-8638 are as badly affected by the noise from the Spinnaker Lounge ? :confused:

I'm guessing the #8 cabins at the back of the ship are probably directly above the stage on Deck 7 ?

We were on the Oosterdam and took this pic of the Star in Port

We were on the Oosterdam and took this pic of the Star in Port

We enjoyed meeting some people from the Oosterdam on some of our excursions. Met some of the "dam" girls in Mazitlan!

Nobody has mentioned the April Fool's Day jokes in the Daily. They were pretty funny. It said, "Happy Thanksgiving" and "Don't forget to move your clocks ahead 2 hours at 3:00 PM and then move them back two hours at 3:05"!

There were also some very interesting "activities" planned such as NCLU class on Texting your Mistress with Tiger Woods and How to Date your Boss on a Cruise.

A show offering was a Jetski exhibition. It was a hoot.:)

A lot more fun than going to work today:rolleyes:.

And no one has asked me if I would like a drink, what I would like for dinner, and I had to make my own bed this morning:mad:.

Hi there! We are possible converting from carnivl to try out the Star next December. On Carnival's "Spirit Class" ships, Legend & Miracle, we have njoyed aft-wrap suites. These have a bedroom, living room, bathroom with jacuzzi tub, walk in closet and changing room with desk and extra outlets. We had SEVEN windows plus the door in our room. These are suites and we get VIP boarding and deboarding.

So, we are very intersted in the aft-wrap penthouse suites on the Star. Really need to see some pics & recent reviews. Looks like only a door and maybe one window? I don't care about or need the butler service....but what are the perks of a suite on the Star?

Hi there! We are possible converting from carnivl to try out the Star next December. On Carnival's "Spirit Class" ships, Legend & Miracle, we have njoyed aft-wrap suites. These have a bedroom, living room, bathroom with jacuzzi tub, walk in closet and changing room with desk and extra outlets. We had SEVEN windows plus the door in our room. These are suites and we get VIP boarding and deboarding.

 

So, we are very intersted in the aft-wrap penthouse suites on the Star. Really need to see some pics & recent reviews. Looks like only a door and maybe one window? I don't care about or need the butler service....but what are the perks of a suite on the Star?

We'll be on the Star in May of '11. All I can say is from I've got from the boards. Don't stay in aft rooms on deck 8 (noise from lounge below). As for perks... http://www.nclsuitesandvillas.com/ . Cagney's!!!!! anyone else??:D

Happy New Years everyone:D:eek::eek::eek:

We have an aft suite with the wrap booked for April 30th so I will have some pictures after that. We have stayed in suite 9736 which is right next to one with a wrap and they are exactly the same inside only difference is the wrap balcony. I have pictures of 9736, these suites are just one room with a wonderful queen bed and small love seat and chair and a dining table and four chairs. They have sliding glass door and no windows. These are pictures of 9736 on the Star. I do have a couple more pictures if you are interested.

As for perks you get priority boarding, tendering, disembarkation, breakfast and lunch at Cagney's, Butler and Conciege. I'm sure there are others that I have forgotten.