Norwegian Star - 3/20/2010 Review

[GrumpaTom]

OK what did he do? this is good stuff...and seriously, what did he do?

 

What he did was basically just being a teenage boy. He was just being a little loud while running down the hallway. This was his first cruise and I expected a certain behavior from him that he was not following, so I dressed him down reminding him that other people on the ship did not appreciate the noise or people running in the hallways.

 

in your original post you mentioned about border patrol, do you mean customs?

 

I view the Customs and Border Patrol people as two separate entities, while in reality they are parts of the same department. Usually there is a Border Patrol agent who examines your passport or citizenship documents, in all of the cruises we have taken this is the first time we did not have a Border Patrol official examine our documents. The other part of the Customs people are the ones that collect your customs declarations as you are walking out of the warehouse, they were there but non-obtrusive like usual.

 

did you see a dartboard in the red lion?

 

Someone else would have to answer this, I did not notice.

 

Did they have any photo specials?

 

There will most likely be a coupon for some discount at the photo shop included in your welcome aboard paperwork but otherwise, not that we noticed. We don't pay for the ship photos so did not look into any specials.

 

I've been researching the Star for a possible Alaska cruise and am very confused about whether there have been recent restaurant changes that may make some information I found elsewhere obsolete. Are the only restaurants for which there are now no additional charges the two main dining rooms, the Market Cafe and Blue Lagoon? Do La Trattoria and Endless Summer now charge? Do all these restaurants still exist or have there been changes?

 

This is correct. These are the restaurants on the Star and their surcharges...

 

Versailles (None)

Aqua (None)

Market Cafe (None)

Blue Lagoon (None)

Topsiders Grill (None)

Endless Summer ($10)

La Cucina ($10)

Ginza ($15)

Le Bistro ($20)

Tappenyaki ($25)

Cagney's ($25)

 

I suspect that La Cucina and La Trattoria might be similar restuarants as I did not see La Trattoria onboard. La Cucina replaced the SoHo Restaurant.

 

Could I have little more information about Market Cafe- it sounds almost more cafeteria like than a buffet in some descriptions -and how much distraction is the kids dining area there?

 

The Market Cafe is usually serve yourself Buffet. I know that when there is a health concern they do switch it over to more of a Cafeteria setup.

 

This Kids area is in one corner on the end of the restuarant closest to the pool area.

 

Also wanted to clarify if no wine at all can be brought aboard, even just for in cabin use. I saw a reference to some wine allowed with a corkage fee- does that apply to in cabin consumption too? I did see that alcohol bought at ports is confiscated and stored- but I was wondering about one bottle per passenger at the embarkation port only ?

 

I believe that once you pay the corkage fee you can take the bottles of wine back to your cabin with you. After that fee is paid I suspect they do not care where you consume it.

[danimalct]

Thanks for the review pokrtom, I'll take all this into consideration when I sail on 4/25 (only 3 more weeks!).

 

I just have one simple comment on cheerleaders that is discussed elsewhere on this board. I found Tom's review to be fair and discussed good and bad. I just got a negative vibe from biggreen's posts like he was mad at tom for an honest review, nitpicking at his posting, as if tom doesn't have the right to say that something wasn't right. Just my 2 cents.

[goingsailing]

{What he did was basically just being a teenage boy. He was just being a little loud while running down the hallway. This was his first cruise and I expected a certain behavior from him that he was not following, so I dressed him down reminding him that other people on the ship did not appreciate the noise or people running in the hallways.}

 

This is very much appreciated! I wish more parents (or even any adult) would do this more often to the rowdy kids on board that make a cruise not so enjoyable. I have been on a couple cruises that had children of different ages running and screaming up and down the hallways and stairs that needed parental guidance. Thank you for doing that on your cruise!

 

Also, thank you for posting your review of the Star, I enjoyed it with interest since I will be on it at the end of the month. Plus, the sushi is something we plan on trying since we LOVE sushi!

[alwayssingin]

Thanks for the great, unbiased, review! We look forward to sailing on the Star in October. Hopefully all the renovations with be finished by then! I understand her layout was like the Dawn, which we sailed in December. Although we enjoyed that layout, we always look forward to checking out a different ship, so the changes will be nice.

[big green]

Thanks for the review pokrtom, I'll take all this into consideration when I sail on 4/25 (only 3 more weeks!).

 

I just have one simple comment on cheerleaders that is discussed elsewhere on this board. I found Tom's review to be fair and discussed good and bad. I just got a negative vibe from biggreen's posts like he was mad at tom for an honest review, nitpicking at his posting, as if tom doesn't have the right to say that something wasn't right. Just my 2 cents.[/QUOTje

 

The overall review was fairly good however to take a shot at the sushi when the op did not dine at the Ginza---is in my mind not a fair review at all. I do not believe that is cheer leading. Read Tom's review again and notice he did not dine at the Ginza at all so how could he make a generalized fact the sushi was bad from having a couple samples somewhere else besides the sushi bar. That is like reading a review about a restaurants food in the newspaper by someone who has not eaten at the restaurant. I am not mad at Tom ( your words not mine) I was just pointing out that I thought is review of the sushi was flawed.

 

BG

 

BG

[califgary]

So after spring 2011, NCL will no longer have any ship for the Mexican Riviera?? If thats true, we are lucky enough to be sailing on the Star's last MR cruise and staying on board for repo to Alaska in May of 2011.

But no ships at all to be deployed for Mexican Riviera after that? That is very disappointing if true.

[EbonyPurls]

Embarkation: Went very smooth, we did arrive early and since we were booked in a Suite we had a separate check-in area, however it did look like things were organized for people checking into other decks of the ship. This is the first cruise we took where we did not have to go through a check with Border Patrol, which was unusual and we expected it at Debarkation and did not have it then either, so we are hoping this indicates a change in how closed-loop cruises are processed.

 

Public Areas: The ship herself was in nice shape, however it was obvious that they were still in the process of reconditioning the ship from Dry-Dock, we saw lots of blue tape where work was still being done and deck 12 forward (The old Spinnaker Lounge) was still blocked for access which did create some confusion if you wanted to go to deck 12 and were in a cabin in the forward section of the ship as you had to go to mid-ship to access deck 12 or go to deck 13 then walk back down to 12. The change to the Spinnaker Lounge was a large topic of discussion for a lot of cruisers. The new Spinnaker Lounge is starting to look more permanent but is still having some issues, like a burst pipe on the final Sea Day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYvtF7z8EPM). The new Lounge itself does look good, but could use some additional work making it more comfortable. The Carousel Lounge and Martini Bar are permanently gone. The new Gift Shops look good and the move of the Blue Lagoon to share the space of the Endless Summer restaurant worked well. We did see several spots where ceiling panels were not properly secured because additional work was continuing and in some cases it did appear that there could have been a safety hazard.

 

Meet & Greet: I organized the CC M&G for this trip and unfortunately we did not have as many people attend as we had hoped, however I do feel it was a good M&G. We had the officer visit the M&G and they did tell us that when the refurbishing is complete the Library will return to deck 13 where it had been. The other common rooms up there may not be returning and there will not be a bridge viewing area, although there are plans to do more tours of the bridge.

 

Spa: While we did not use any of the major Spa services, we did pay for access to the Spa pool, hot tubs, and lounges. We felt the $75 per person was a fair charge for access to this area and gave us a nice quiet area to relax for a Spring Break cruise.

 

Dining: The food in the Main Dining Room was great, we were not disappointed in any of the meals we had there and recommend that other cruisers utilize it. We were sorely disappointed in the specialty restaurants with the exception of Cagney’s and Tappenyaki. With all the Specialty Restaurants charging an additional surcharge (with the exception of Blue Lagoon) to eat in them we expected the food and the service to be exceptional, sadly it was not. We ate in Endless Summer for the first night of the cruise and found the meat served to be tough and lukewarm. The “free” margarita’s were about half the size of the normal drinks and had minimal alcohol in them. The meals at Cagney’s (Both Breakfast & Lunch perks) and dinner were terrific. Because of the disappointing meal at Endless Summer we bypassed dinner at the other Specialty Restaurants but decided to do the “Best of All” meal at Ginza on the last sea day. Since this represented the “Best” of the other Specialty Restaurants it is a bad representative for them. Most of the food was served buffet style and was not the “Best” in this manner. The sushi left something to be desired and if we based our Sushi experience on this and what we saw when we passed Ginza in the evenings we would have been disappointed, as a $15 surcharge for the sushi is overpriced for what they were serving. We are able to feed 3 people at a local Sushi restaurant at home for $20 with a better selection then we saw at Ginza. Tappenyaki was terrific and how could it not be with a chef at the grill in front of you freshly preparing the meal. Sadly, if asked about the specialty restaurants on the Star we would recommend only Cagney’s and Tappenyaki, telling people to save their money on the rest of them.

 

Butler & Stewardess: The butler and Stewardess we had for the cruise were wonderful. They didn’t disturb us and took care of the few things we needed with speed and efficiency. The stateroom itself was nice but we will not book a forward facing balcony again as we could not use our balcony comfortably for part of the cruise because of the wind from the ships movement we also had to secure the bulkhead whenever we were not using the balcony because the wind created a high pitched whistle through the door.

 

Ports: Three ports of call, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. We did not schedule any excursions with the ship but booked them all online beforehand. In Cabo we booked with Joann and Sandra (http://cabosanlucastours.net) for the Lovers Beach Tour. The glass Bottom Boat we took to the beach looked like it needed some serious repair, the glass panels were leaking and the engine kept dying and had to be primed by the operator from a plastic container of fuel next to the engine. Unfortunately it looked like a lot of the boats being used in the harbor were in similar states but we did not personally inspect them. In Mazatlan we had scheduled a tour with one of Mazatlan Franks (http://www.mazatlan-frank.com) partners, we definitely got our money’s worth and had an enjoyable tour of Mazatlan with stops for exploring, shopping, lunch and views. In Puerto Vallarta we again used one of Mazatlan Franks (http://www.mazatlan-frank.com/PVINDEX.html) partners. While we did not get the driver originally indicated, the driver we did get, “Chilli”, gave us a wonderful tour with stops in locations other tourists were not visiting and background narration that was entertaining. Some of the spots we visited the van barely made it through the roads because of how tight the spots were but he navigated them like a pro. We highly recommend Mazatlan Frank and his partners for visits to Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.

 

Entertainment: We attended the Second City performances and they were terrific, the Cirque Pacific performance started similar, if not the same as the Cirque Pacific performance from a cruise a few years ago on the Star, so we left right after it started as we didn’t fully enjoy it the first time we had seen it. There were different performers playing throughout the ship and they were enjoyable.

 

Teenage Activities: The activities on the ship for our teenage son and his friend kept them busy throughout the cruise. It was hard to get them to even join us for dinner. The only problem we had experienced with the activities is sometimes the activity had the kids roaming the ship, which was fine, but some of the kids tended to get a little rowdy while doing them, which could have disturbed other passengers.

 

Disembarkation: Fast and easy, since there had not been a Border Crossing official on Embarkation we expected to have a line for them here and did not have one, found our bags and walked right out of the warehouse.

 

Overall we did enjoy the cruise and the Star and will miss her when she moves to her new home in Tampa but we do feel the loss of the Original Spinnaker Lounge does affect her usability as a ship for touring Alaska. Hopefully NCL will see fit to place another ship in Los Angeles for Mexican Riviera Cruises after 2011, currently they have no plans to continue the MR cruises.

 

How was the weather during your cruise? Maybe I missed it, but what excursions did you do in PV?

[MagicnSkye]

Thank you! Very helpful!

[GrumpaTom]

Could you give a rundown of the various music performers around the ship and some of the solo acts at night? I know things change often but just trying to get an idea of what the Star offers. Also if you have the names of the 3 JAR shows' date=' could you post them? I've always rather liked the JAR company but see you don't so usually do try to catch their shows.[/quote']While we did stop to listen to some of the entertainment in the various venues, we did not pay attention to who they were. However I did keep all of the Freestyle papers, so I will scan then and post a link. Hopefully your answer will be there.

 

Sorry for the delay in getting the FreeStyle Dailys scanned. Just been dealing with life. Here are the links...

 

http://www.katskruises.com/images/NCLStar/starfs-sun.pdf

http://www.katskruises.com/images/NCLStar/starfs-mon.pdf

http://www.katskruises.com/images/NCLStar/starfs-tue.pdf

http://www.katskruises.com/images/NCLStar/starfs-wed.pdf

http://www.katskruises.com/images/NCLStar/starfs-thu.pdf

http://www.katskruises.com/images/NCLStar/starfs-fri.pdf

 

I also scanned the map they gave us on the first day...

 

http://www.katskruises.com/images/NCLStar/starmap.pdf

 

The overall review was fairly good however to take a shot at the sushi when the op did not dine at the Ginza---is in my mind not a fair review at all. I do not believe that is cheer leading. Read Tom's review again and notice he did not dine at the Ginza at all so how could he make a generalized fact the sushi was bad from having a couple samples somewhere else besides the sushi bar. That is like reading a review about a restaurants food in the newspaper by someone who has not eaten at the restaurant. I am not mad at Tom ( your words not mine) I was just pointing out that I thought is review of the sushi was flawed.

 

I disagree, and I am sure we can agree to disagree. Like I said in my review, if we were to base the Sushi on what was served at the "Best of All" lunch, it was not the best. That was the point. I apologize that I chose to use the Sushi as an example and it rubbed you the wrong way. But this particular meal was billed as "Best of All" and the point I was trying to make was that the food was not the "Best of All". As I stated in a later post, the potato lazagna was dry. Other dishes were equally poor. At the time I wrote the review I had picked the Sushi because it was what stood out the most to me because that was something I had really contemplated trying on the ship.

 

So after spring 2011, NCL will no longer have any ship for the Mexican Riviera?? If thats true, we are lucky enough to be sailing on the Star's last MR cruise and staying on board for repo to Alaska in May of 2011.

But no ships at all to be deployed for Mexican Riviera after that? That is very disappointing if true.

 

Sadly, this is true. I am not sure where I read it in these forums but when I looked for Mexican Riviera Cruises on the NCL website they don't show any after April 2011.

 

How was the weather during your cruise? Maybe I missed it, but what excursions did you do in PV?

 

The weather was good for the whole trip although the seas were a little rocky on the last two sea days and there was a bit of wind. In Puerto Vallarta we did a tour with one of Mazatlan Franks partners that took us along a lot of back roads and to places where we did not see many, if any, other tourists.

[tjaker11]

Thanks for the great, unbiased, review! We look forward to sailing on the Star in October. Hopefully all the renovations with be finished by then! I understand her layout was like the Dawn, which we sailed in December. Although we enjoyed that layout, we always look forward to checking out a different ship, so the changes will be nice.

 

 

hi alwayssingin, i believe we sailed with you on the Dawn 2009, we headed up the meet and greet. We just booked the Star 10/25, when are you sailing?

Tim