Just back from th Star 12/18-25

[judybee]

We were on this cruise as well and I thought the food in general was mediocre; in fact I thought that the food at the buffet was generally better than the food in the restaurants. I hate the buffet atmosphere but we did end up eating there a few times and especially liked the Indian cuisine. I agree that the desserts were not memorable. We rarely had much of a wait to get into either MDR at 6:30ish except on Christmas Eve after the show. We gave up and ate dinner at the buffet, which was disappointing. It would be nice if you could make reservations (they claim you can reserve for 5:30 or 8:00 but you still have to wait in line so what's the point?).

 

We had a mini-suite, which was nice and in general I found the staff to be friendly and helpful. I thought the lighting in the room could have been better. I needed a reading light to read in bed. It was also a bit clumsy getting into the closet.

 

We loved the America's Cup 12 metre yacht excursion in Cozumel and would recommend it to anyone interested in sailing. In Roatan we grabbed a cab and went to the West End/West Bay for a tour and lunch. This cost $70 for the four of us and was a better deal for us than the excursions. In Belize we took the city tour/air boat trip which was ok.

 

I was disappointed in some of the Christmas decorations; the tree was nice and the gingerbread houses were great but the cheap cardboard reindeer taped up here and there were a disappointment.

 

I'm not sure if I would sail on NCL again. Maybe from the point of view of maintaining your weight it is a good idea to sail on a ship without great food!

 

Anyway, just my $0.02 worth. It was still great to get away for a week.

[wafflesniffer]

 

The Bad:

 

Belize excursion cancelled

18-21 ft seas

Cruise staff members not showing up for activities

 

 

When did you have high seas, and what and why was your Belize excursion cancelled (or did I miss it)?

 

What activities did cruise staff miss? I was on the 12/11 sailing, and I really enjoyed the talent and humor of the cruise director's staff.

[wrestlemom]

We will be on the Star in June, can you please tell me what suite you were in. We will be in 12512 and just curious if you have any pictures of the new suites.

[gelo7]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[Babiblues75]

Conceirge was Leah. She did not speak or make eye contact with us until Saturday lunch outside Cagney's. Never knew our names. Had to proactively call to find out about things like early admitance to the chocolate buffet. I had the sense that she eyeballed us at check-in and determined from our address and casual dress that we are not big tippers (which would be wrong) and made absolutely no effort. She did give us a good laugh though--on the form letter about priority disembarkment, she signed it "With stylish regards".

 

I agree about Leah. We were on the same cruise with you and had just about the same problems with her. She only introduced herself when we were boarding them we ran into her maybe 2x on the cruise but it was a fast hello/goodbye. Really didn't help us out in anway

[mafig]

Did you have breakfast in Cagneys? If you didn't, maybe that's why you didn't see Leah? (I'm just guessing here.)

 

This will be only our second suite on NCL. On our first we saw the Conceirge every morning at breakfast and then again he would knock on our door every evening to see if we needed anything. I guess Leah didn't do any of this? How disappointing! :(

[mafig]

I have more questions about Leah:

 

Did you get priority tender boarding in Belize?

 

Also, if you don't mind my asking, did you tip her. I know with that kind of service (or lack) DH would be putting very little in her envelope....and that's very unlike him.

[time2cruise1]

I agree about Leah. We were on the same cruise with you and had just about the same problems with her. She only introduced herself when we were boarding them we ran into her maybe 2x on the cruise but it was a fast hello/goodbye. Really didn't help us out in anway

 

I hope she is just a short term fill in since Patrick took vacation a month early. He was to be onboard until 1/29/12. Last email I had from him this month Monica Fotache was supposed to be his replacement.

[snorkelmom19]

The excursion was cancelled due to poor visibility--it was the snorkel/beach break. I totally understood why it was cancelled. We took the tender in to do a little shopping when it became open tendering. Waves kept hitting the tender boat and it made getting on and off the boat difficult.

 

The high seas were the night before Roatan. The weather was overall really nice during the day though very windy on deck the last sea day.

 

Missing staff. My kids like to play the trivia games with me because they like to collect the little prizes at the end of the week. Really enjoyed the games with Julius, Brian and Christine--they were always on time and came prepared and there was a lot of banter back and forth with the audience. There were two games where Montse was a good 20 minutes late and unprepared.The only reason she showed was because the bartender called. Another time an officer called. It kind of became a running joke where the trivia teams would guess when Monste would show. My kids both won T-shirts, key chains and a green bag at the end of the week.

 

I did have a good time on this cruise--there was just a different vibe from any other ship I have been on. Don't know if the crew was missing their families, or the full capacity ship or what was going on, but it was different from my other 2 NCL cruises.

 

I was not in the new suites on deck twelve. I had a SC two bedroom on deck 11 mid-forward port side. Room was great. There was a large extended family staying in the mini-suite that connected to us, and the soundproofing was better than I had expected. Heard more hallway noise than noise through the wall.

 

Babiblues--sorry to hear you had the same issues with Leah.

[snorkelmom19]

I did receive a letter about getting priority tender tickets, but I had a ship excursion, so I didn't go and get them. We were all dressed and ready for snorkeling with all our gear in the Stardust, when the excursion was cancelled. We decided to just hang out in the pool which we had to ourselves and do a little shopping later, since we had visited the Lamani ruins in June. It was my understanding that people were pretty upset with the tendering situation--and there was a free rum punch party to make up for it the last sea day. Open tendering didn't start till around 11am.

 

Yes, I did tip Leah. My husband insisted. Didn't want her to think we had stiffed her. But it was about 20% of what I had budgeted to tip her, which was fair for the measley services she provided.

[my_crib_too]

I'm sorry that you had such a poor quality cruise experience. Sounds like NCL is not for you or your family.

[snorkelmom19]

My family and I really enjoyed our other NCL cruises, and I had a good time on this one. We cruise more for the activities at the ports than the cruiseline though. I really liked the suite, and Maxi the butler was great, but the other suite perks were not up to expectations. I like the freestyle aspect and the casualness of NCL---would be open to suggestions of other lines I might like, but I'm not sure any such animal exists.

[snorkelmom19]

I received a check in the mail today for my refundable/nonrefundable credit issue with the finance dept. I would suggest to anyone who books and has a lot of OBC and then has the possibility of a cancelled shore excursion (esp in Europe where they are yabo $$$) use their non-refundable OBC for tips and purchases before the cancelled excursion shows up on your account. so you don't have the same hassle I did.

 

Hopefully the IT folks at NCL will do the easy fix needed to use the non-refundable OBC credit before the refundable or just credit back the credit card that was used to purchase the excursion in advance.

 

I kept a detailed account on my printouts with names and times and "who told me what and when" and I believe that helped get the "check in the mail". If I can answer any other questions, just ask.