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

[ute_fan]

We've never had one of the stern cabins. One of these days we'll have to try it.

 

My friend from the Jewel is Hoop Troop, if that name rings a bell. In fact, I took pictures of various spots on the Star that I'm going to email him so he can do a "scavenger" hunt and try to find them when he's onboard.

[rsohn65820]

We've never had one of the stern cabins. One of these days we'll have to try it.

 

My friend from the Jewel is Hoop Troop, if that name rings a bell. In fact, I took pictures of various spots on the Star that I'm going to email him so he can do a "scavenger" hunt and try to find them when he's onboard.

 

Yes Hoop Troop is a part of our roll call. The scavenger hunt sounds like a lot of fun. We have quite a large group of CCer's on our roll call. We are up to about 60 people who say they will be attending the meet and greet. Should be a really great cruise.

[ute_fan]

Tell him "hi" for me. He and I both love sports, so we spent some time chatting on our Jewel roll call a couple of years ago, and then we ate lunch with him one day and got to know each other a bit.

 

Ask him to share the scavenger hunt pictures with you -- or drop me and email and I'll send them to you (if I ever get them uploaded from my camera).

[rsohn65820]

I will tell him hi for you, or you could pop into our roll call and tell him yourself. I will shoot you an email about the scavenger hunt photos as they sound like a lot of fun. Thank you.

[Poconolady]

It's interesting how different two people's opinions can be of the same cruise. In comparison to our last cruise on the Dawn, where we were very dissastified with the service, we thought the service was very good on this cruise. As far as food goes, I contemplated a C+, but there were enough items that we enjoyed to bring it up a bit.

 

Out of curiosity, what service issues did you have on the cruise? We found the hostess at the dining room on the Dawn last year to be quite rude, and it's amazing how one thing like that can taint your whole view of the cruise.

 

The maps wouldn't have mattered to us one way or the other, as we had a GPS with us, and I don't think I've ever used one from the freestyle daily anyway. We aren't into shopping, so the maps that mark every "cruise approved" shopping places don't do much for me.

The service issues were mainly with the Versaille dining rom staff and our servers at Cagneys. The dining room crew always seemed to be a little "out of sync". Several times we were rushed to place our dinner order,(including the dessert , which really annoys me ) then we sat and waited and waited and waited for the food to be brought to the table. We like to dine at a leisurly pace, but one night we were trying to get to the 9PM show, and it took 20 minutes between removing the salads and getting our entre (I know because I was checking my watch). The breakfast service in the dining room was somewhat rushed and we found the crew joking around with each other instead of attending to the needs of the diners. At Cagneys no one came to take a bar order so we ordered cocktails along with our dinner order. Again we seemed to wait an extended time, and our shrimp cocktail and salad arrived before the bar order finally showed up, they didn't even apologize for the delay.

We prefer a table for two, which was always accomidated in the diing room, so that was fine, but several times the hostess was a little snippy when we said that we would rather not share a table.

OUr cabin service was excellent, absolutely no compaints there.

As for the maps,I never use their shopping tips either, but I am a visual,paper in hand kind of person, and I wanted to "see" our port on the map so that I could plan our walking routes. Victoria was no problem since we had been there before, Astoria tourist people were at the port so that was ok also, but San Francisco was where I wanted the map ahead of time. We have been to San Fran on numerous occasions, but have never arrived in the Embarcadero area. I wanted to look at a map to determine our best route to avoid backtracking, etc. We ended up walking to the Hyatt and getting a map from the concierge there, as well as directions to where we could get a transportation day pass, etc. It all worked out well in the end, but a little onboard help would have been appreciated. We spent the day hopping cable cars, street cars etc and walking out feet off-had a great time.

[ute_fan]

The service issues were mainly with the Versaille dining rom staff and our servers at Cagneys. The dining room crew always seemed to be a little "out of sync". Several times we were rushed to place our dinner order,(including the dessert , which really annoys me ) then we sat and waited and waited and waited for the food to be brought to the table. We like to dine at a leisurly pace, but one night we were trying to get to the 9PM show, and it took 20 minutes between removing the salads and getting our entre (I know because I was checking my watch). The breakfast service in the dining room was somewhat rushed and we found the crew joking around with each other instead of attending to the needs of the diners. At Cagneys no one came to take a bar order so we ordered cocktails along with our dinner order. Again we seemed to wait an extended time, and our shrimp cocktail and salad arrived before the bar order finally showed up, they didn't even apologize for the delay.

We prefer a table for two, which was always accomidated in the diing room, so that was fine, but several times the hostess was a little snippy when we said that we would rather not share a table.

OUr cabin service was excellent, absolutely no compaints there.

As for the maps,I never use their shopping tips either, but I am a visual,paper in hand kind of person, and I wanted to "see" our port on the map so that I could plan our walking routes. Victoria was no problem since we had been there before, Astoria tourist people were at the port so that was ok also, but San Francisco was where I wanted the map ahead of time. We have been to San Fran on numerous occasions, but have never arrived in the Embarcadero area. I wanted to look at a map to determine our best route to avoid backtracking, etc. We ended up walking to the Hyatt and getting a map from the concierge there, as well as directions to where we could get a transportation day pass, etc. It all worked out well in the end, but a little onboard help would have been appreciated. We spent the day hopping cable cars, street cars etc and walking out feet off-had a great time.

 

I'll agree that dinner was running a bit slow in Versailles, but I chalked it up to the fact that we were almost always dining with 6 of us, and everyone ordered lots of courses :o. NCL's policy now seems to be to ask for your dessert order when you place your dinner order -- we had the same thing on the Dawn last year. We didn't have any delays at breakfast, and actually found it almost as quick as fighting the crowds in the buffet.

 

I do know, however, what you mean about snippy hostesses. That was our main problem on the Dawn last year. We have normally found one waiter that we really enjoy, and we'll ask to be seated in their area. We didn't bother this time around (didn't find that special waiter, and figured it might not work with 6), but on the Dawn, the hostess was quite rude in saying that they didn't accept requests for waiters. Combined with the fact that we ALWAYS had a wait on the Dawn -- and we tried eating at different times each night -- and it can make for an unsatisfactory experience.

 

Did you get an invitation to do a post-cruise survey? If you mentioned it, I forgot -- but if you did, I hope you included the suggestion about maps even on a repositioning cruise. You're right that it wouldn't be that hard for them to print one off and have it available.

[ashleycrew]

Our experiance with the Dining rooms/Service was as follows:

 

Night 1: Verasilles, table of 10 seated with strangers. Service was OK, not real attentative took about 1.5 hrs.

Night 2. Buffet- Typical Buffet experiance, I actually thought the selection was decent.

Night 3. Murder Mystery Dinner- In private section of Aquas. Good Sevice took about an hour with a table of 8.

Night 4. Aquas- Serice rocked. We got immediately seated at a table for 2 and had the whole meal done in under 30 minutes.

Night 5. Aquas- Service was excellent. Table of 4 with 2 strangers took about an hour.

Night 6. Endless Summer- Very Good service took about an hour (FYI the il Popo rocks).

 

I think the Vesailles may just be set up to be a longer dinner.

[Poconolady]

I'll agree that dinner was running a bit slow in Versailles, but I chalked it up to the fact that we were almost always dining with 6 of us, and everyone ordered lots of courses :o. NCL's policy now seems to be to ask for your dessert order when you place your dinner order -- we had the same thing on the Dawn last year. We didn't have any delays at breakfast, and actually found it almost as quick as fighting the crowds in the buffet.

 

I do know, however, what you mean about snippy hostesses. That was our main problem on the Dawn last year. We have normally found one waiter that we really enjoy, and we'll ask to be seated in their area. We didn't bother this time around (didn't find that special waiter, and figured it might not work with 6), but on the Dawn, the hostess was quite rude in saying that they didn't accept requests for waiters. Combined with the fact that we ALWAYS had a wait on the Dawn -- and we tried eating at different times each night -- and it can make for an unsatisfactory experience.

 

Did you get an invitation to do a post-cruise survey? If you mentioned it, I forgot -- but if you did, I hope you included the suggestion about maps even on a repositioning cruise. You're right that it wouldn't be that hard for them to print one off and have it available.

Yes, I filled out the post cruise survey last night, I mentioned the map issue there and several comments about the service, menus etc. I don't know that anyone ever reads the things, but maybe someone will take notice. I know the repositioning cruises are very different than regular scheduled service cruises, but I do feel that the cruise line could try a little harder to not make those passenger feel a little more welcome.

I spoke with the Versailles dining room asst mgr one evening (after all--he asked how everything was!! and he said that next month the ship would be switching to the one menu system like the Dawn. That will probably mean that upcoming passengers will have to suffer thru a transition period until the staff is familiar with the new setup.

[darleen1421]

Thank you for all of the good information. My friend and I are on the Star Nov 7-14. It is my first time on Norwegian. She is on the Jade right now. She has sailed on Norwegian several times. She won't eat in the specialty restaurants, but I may if the food in the MDR is not good. We are both vegetarians but I eat seafood. Your comments answered several of the questions I have had.

[HoopTroop]

I just finished reading all of your reviews on the Star, I am even more excited to go on here now!

 

What a crazy experience you had with the limo driver, I am glad no one was injured!

 

I sure hope we get to see some dolphins, I did once in Miami, that was awesome! I am waiting for the day we see whales without an excursion.

 

We had a similar experience on the Dawn, one of my least favorite ships, so I was a bit nervous about the Star. We met wonderful people on the Dawn, like you, but the ship was not run as well as all the other ships we were on.

 

Thank you for the great review!!!

 

HoopTroop

[ute_fan]

I just finished reading all of your reviews on the Star, I am even more excited to go on here now!

 

What a crazy experience you had with the limo driver, I am glad no one was injured!

 

I sure hope we get to see some dolphins, I did once in Miami, that was awesome! I am waiting for the day we see whales without an excursion.

 

We had a similar experience on the Dawn, one of my least favorite ships, so I was a bit nervous about the Star. We met wonderful people on the Dawn, like you, but the ship was not run as well as all the other ships we were on.

 

Thank you for the great review!!!

 

HoopTroop

 

Thanks!

 

Keep your eyes open for whales from the ship. It may still be too early in the year for them to have made it all the way to Mexico, but you might get lucky and see them migrating along your way. Also, the dolphins were that last night, once we hit warmer waters, so I'd keep your eyes open for those too.

 

The limo experience was definitely one we won't forget, but it could have been MUCH worse.

 

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who had some issues with the Dawn. There are so many long-time posters who claim it as their favorite ship that I really wondered what I was missing. The Star is a very similar layout, so you'll feel right at home, but our experience with the service was sure better on the Star.

[Suzila]

Very interesting review...we were a party of 6, also on the repositioning cruise from Vancouver down to L.A.

 

We were in a mini-suite on deck 11, and loved it! The bed for us was very comfy, bathrooms were nice, with the glass doors, plenty of storage room for suitcases, etc. Yes, the tv only had two channels, but we don't spend a lot of time in the cabin...we caught 'The Proposal' one night, but other than that didn't watch tv. We did go to see Angels and Demons, and I fell asleep in the theatre...too boring for me. Our cabin stewards were both very friendly and available if we needed them.

 

I would like to see NCL have more onboard activities...we participated in the ping pong tournaments each day, but they do need more to do on 'at sea' days.

 

We had a different experience than you while dining. We ate in the specialty restaurants every night except one...we ate in Aqua...and we would all skip that next time around. The waiter we had in Aqua was a bit rude, and just not quite up to par. The specialty restaurants were superb, the food, wonderful, and we also commented in our survey about how good they were, naming each one. We did eat in Versailles one day for lunch, arriving about 10 minutes before it closed, and the service, plus the food was excellent. Maybe they were intent on getting us out of there quickly? LOL!

 

As far as maps go, we spent two days ahead of the cruise in Vancouver, and I was armed with all sorts of maps...same for Victoria, Astoria and San Fran, although we knew where we were in SF and Victoria. Had never been to Astoria and we met up with some Oregon family...they had maps, and we got to see quite a bit on our own.

 

So, as usual, I loved NCL, and we're looking into our next one. I'd do this exact same repositioning cruise again. Coming down the coast is always calm, going up is rocky. (friends did a repo from L.A. to Vancouver in May on Princess and said it was excruciating) Not for me.

[lambs2]

Thanks for the interesting review of your Star repositioning cruise. Glad to hear you had such a nice time on her!! We will be on her second Panama Canal transit - Miami to LA starting Dec. 6. Can't wait! We have a BA on deck 10 - only our second balcony cabin ever - so we are excited! Your review is like a pep talk for cruise-aholics! :D

[Suzila]

Meant to mention something else about the repo on the Star.

 

Two of our friends were on their first cruise and mentioned that they had just watched the ice carving at the pool. We didn't see it announce in the daily newsletter, so we missed it. I'm glad our friends saw it, but we would have watched too if we had known about it.

 

Someone on here mentioned that there wasn't an ice carving...but apparently, there was.

[DMH15]

I took my first fruit and vegetable carving class in the '90's. Studied in culinary school and have taught occasional classes ever since. People really seem interested and love learning about it.

 

On my first cruise in 1986 there were lots of fruit and vegatable carvings on the buffet as well as a demo. Since then, every cruise there have been fewer and fewer. Recently on my NCL Sun 14 day SA cruise there were none.

 

A few years ago on the Jewel I sat in on the demo and it was not very good at all.

 

Can anyone comment if on other lines it is still popular?

[lambs2]

In answer to the previous poster's question about food carvings on other cruiselines:
We just took a 5 day cruise on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas in the western Caribbean. They had a fellow who did both an ice carving demo and there were several featured at the one midnight buffet we had on that 5 day cruise, plus he did all the fruit and vegetable carvings. There were also a number of these on the midnight buffet display. I also saw some of his 'handiwork' displayed around the Garden Buffet when we went there after boarding for lunch and other days - but we mostly did not go to the buffet. He held a session on fruit and vegetable carving one morning, but I had a conflict and missed it. :( I heard later it was very interesting and he was super talented with these skills!