Beware of the blue dots and other tales from Star 6/10-6/17

[shepherdqueen]

Thanks for your review. I too find the one paragraph a bit hard to read, but thank you for taking the time to write it.

[medicalma'am]

They have been listening to us! This is great news. I am one that likes to lounge, shower off to get cool and back to my lounger! I will not even give them time to place a blue dot on my stuff.

 

THANKS NCL!!!

[Stickman81]

Thanks for taking time to review your experiences.

 

I hope you will be posting some pictures of your departure. I would love to see the shuttle and the Statue of Liberty!

[Esperanza7]

You might want to get a "spa pass" for your sailing. This entitles you to spa usage. The hot tubs, lap pool and quiet area IMO are the best kept secret onboard.

 

~La Princesa

 

Thanks - that sounds like it could be a good idea :) The Baltic cruise is pretty port intensive so don't think we will have too much time for spa etc. Also if it's cold enough to need a blanket on deck, you probably won't find me there!! :)

[smilz]

I will try to post pictures soon...not too good at it:eek:

 

Day 2 I started to stir early despite our plan to sleep in. I finally drifted back to sleep when at 7am I kept hearing this scraping noise over and over and over. I peeked out on the balcony and saw nothing but a beautiful sunny morning. Climbed back in bed and started drifting off and there it was again! srape scrape scrape What the heck was that noise?!? Now I was wide awake. Misery loves company so I woke up DH. The noise of course stopped. We dressed and went down to breakfast in Versailles. We had a delicious breakfast of eggs and bannana waffles (sorry...no food porn) I actually found the decafe coffee pretty good. I missed the trays of pasteries and doughnuts that the other lines bring around. You can order them from the menu though. Back up to the cabin to change into bathing suits and had to walk through a maze of housekeeping carts, dirty linen bags and stacks of dirty dishes. The hallways are narrow which made it worse. I don't ever remember having a hallway outside our cabin in such utter disarray:( The bag of trash was even propped against our cabin door. hmmm But at least it wasn't me doing the cleaning!:) Out onto the deck 12 where every chair around the pool was taken so we found chairs easily on deck 13 but boy was it breezy! Made napping pretty good though:D We did not participate in any ot the activities that morning but the usual line-up was available. Noon time approached and it was lunchtime! They had a bbq poolside of pork chops, sausages, corn on the cob and salads that looked pretty good but we opted to get in out of the sun and tried out the Market cafe buffet. Everything was fresh and tasty and DH was thrilled that they had not 1 but 2 different types of pretzel rolls!!!!Yum! We must have just beat the crowd because there was long lines when we left.

[NLH Arizona]

I'll be on the Star in January and am so excited that NCL is doing the blue dots. Hopefully, now we won't have to look around and see a sea of empty chairs with towels, shoes, books, etc. on them and not a person in sight for hours.

[smilz]

Still full from lunch, we went down to make reservations for dinner. There are illuminated boards on every deck as well as on the TV that used a grid system to report the status of availability in all the restaurants at all the time slots. Green meant reservations were easily available, yellow meant it was filling up, and red meant none were available at that time slot. The boards were updated frequently. We made reservations at 9pm for Cagney's Steakhouse. The afternoon flew by. We were able to find a chair again on deck because of the breezy conditions. 4:30 and it was martini tasting time at Gatsby's. It was $15 per person for 4 "small" martinis. Trust me... they were only a smidge smaller than the regular size. Be careful:D Everyone gets the same types. First we had a classic with 2 olives, then we had a cosmopolitan, then a green apple and then a simply heavenly chocolate one. They supplied little munchies as well. It was a good time and an opportunity to meet other passengers. We went to the 7:30 show of "Band on the Run" in the Stardust Theater which was very good. 9:00... Time to eat:D Cagney's was not crowded at all. It is up on deck 13 and was hard to find at first. They were very welcoming and we were seated right away. We both had the shrimp cocktail that was huge, the lobster bisque, 10oz filet mignon that was cooked perfectly with asparagus and Cagney fries which are skinny parnesian crusted fries. We were really stuffed but still had desert which was pretty forgetable (I don't remember what it was) We found the deserts ordinary and bland throughout the cruise.:( Off for our traditional walk around the deck. We walked all around the top deck and then went down to deck 7 to walk all the way around the outside deck. (Didn't help...still gained 7 pounds!:eek:) The winds had died down and it was sooo beautiful. Missed Dancing with the Stars at 10:30 and and forgot about the 70s party at 11:30.We made another donation in the casino then headed to bed vowing to sleep in the next morning.

[LynneL]

Enjoying your review! Please keep it going : ) Will be on the Star next month.

[Terrijm]

I have added the blue dot....haha!!! Love it!!!!

[PathfinderEss]

So far so good, can't wait for the rest of your report.

[sdmike]

I have added the blue dot....haha!!! Love it!!!!

 

hahaha. nice

[smilz]

Day 3

Sleeping soundly when suddenly ...scrape...scrape...scrape. The noise was back!!!! Checked my watch. 7am. Turned over and put the pillow over my head. Scrape...scrape... scrape... This time DH woke up as well. Checked all over the cabin and ...you guessed it...the noise stopped. The sun was streaming in under the curtain so we dressed to go down to breakfast in Versailles. We were halfway down the hallway and scrape...scrape...scrape. Our heads swug around to see our cabin stewart scooping ice out a big plastic bin into a bunch of ice buckts. He was parking the ice cart right outside our door and the noise was echoing right through the wall!! DH went back and asked him very nicely if he could kindly move the ice bin explaining that the noise had woken us up again. He grumbled (surprising) but did move it. After that encounter, he was no longer the jovial ambassitor for NCL. His services were adequate but nothing like what we have had in the past including on NCL.:( We did not lower his tip, but we did not leave extra like we have done in the past. Had another delicious breakfast at a window table and began to plan our day. Since it was getting warm, we changed into bathing suits and went up on deck. Sure enough, at 8:20am, all the pool deck chairs were taken but there were actually bodies in them. Walked towards the bow and found chairs and settled down. The hot tub on deck 13 is pretty large and we were able to get into it several times. There was a jazz brunch in Aqua that the passengers raved about. Since we had eaten we didn't go. Wanted to go to the Battle of the Pans at 1:00 which was a cookoff among the chief officers. Missed it. 70s music trivia sounded like fun. Missed it. Maybe we could get to the line dancing class at 3:30. Missed it. We had a blast doing our own thng and met alot of people. Had the drink of the day called "Rebellious Fish" which was a fruity vodka drink with blueberries and strawberries floating in it. Very refreshing on a hot day. It was served in a glass that looks like a fishbowl with a picture of a small group of fish and an inscription that says "Ah..so this is what they mean by sea legs" It was a little hard to hold when it was cold but soo worth it ! :D I was able to get the glass home in one piece and but Bermuda pink sand in it with the tiny shells I found. Looks cute!

[smilz]

Can't remember which day at sea was the Latitudes party but I know it was before we got to Bermuda. Since we are only bronze, we didn't expect much. It was held in Spinakers and was actually very nice. They were quite generous with the drinks and had some hor derves sp? as well as cheese. The captain was there for a short time. They had several drawings for prizes and we won a bottle of decent champagne! Yah!!! The party is not listed in the dailey. You will get an invitation inyour cabin. It was not as well attended as we have seen in the past but I believe it was around 2 in the afternoon on a gloriously sunny day. We actually needed a break from the sun!

 

Day 3 cont

Moderno at 6:00 ment a complimentary bottle of wine. We were excited to try it as we had never eaten in a Brazilin steakhouse before. The salad bar was fabulous an there was soup that smelled wonderfu. We turned over our cards from red to green and the parade of meat started. There were so many selections!! Each came out on these giant skewers that you were served from. The hostess was sooo attentive and very nice as were the many servers. The sides that were brought to the table we garlic mashed potatoes, rice, fried bananas, and black beans. We barely touched them because we kept eating the meats. I liked the garlic beef. fillet and beef ribs the best. There was a roast that looked like prime rib, pork ribs, roast pork, suasages, chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and seasoned boneless chicken thighs. We had papya cream for desert that was to die for. We did see several couples have all 3 deserts. We were stuffed!!!! Went to see "Shout! The Musical" which was terrific. It was the 5 female vocalists and they really did a great job. It was different from any other "production" show we have seen on a ship. Went to Spinakers for the Beatles Tribute by Kenny which we were disappointed in. Only so so. Most of it was from Sergeant Pepper. Also saw Deal or No Deal which was more interesting than Bingo but we didn't have any matches on our card that cost $20.:( Decided to skip the 50s and 60s Rock and Roll Party but did go up to Market Cafe for a snack and found hand dipped ice cream !!!:D Played for a short bit in the casino and broke even. (better than losing!) Walked around the ship on the outside deck on deck 7 and headed in, excited for our arrival to Bermuda in the morning. We were due to arrive at 8am.

[chrisc71]

Enjoying your review:)

[smilz]

Day 4 Bermuda Arrival

 

We set the alarm for 7 to give us enough time to get up on deck to take pictures of our arrival. I woke up around 6:30 and peaked out of the curtain and saw the Dockyard looming ahead of us. We dressed quickly and got out to watch from our balcony. The ship swung out and parked with the bow facing out to sea with the port side against land. There was a tug right beside us but never touched us. Celebrity Summit pulled in right behind us and it appeared like they had to have much more help to pull into the dock. We went down to Versailles again for breakfast because we expected the ship wouldn't be cleared for a while. While eating a delicious omlette and country potatoes that are just yummy, we saw people walking off the ship at around 7:50. There was also an ambulance with flashing lights that backed up right to the gangway but we never heard what happened. We did not rush to get off the ship because the early buses serve the school kids and they were still in session. Read your schedule carefully.

 

We got our things together and were at the ticket kios around 8:45 with no line as the ferry had left for Hamilton. We bought a 3 day transportation pass for $28 per person which entitles you to unlimited buses and ferries. It must be used on consecutive days so if you buy a 2 day pass on wednesday, you must use it wednesday and thursday. We waited for the #7 bus to Horseshoe Bay at the bus stop by the kios. A # 8 bus came and changed his number to 7 and off we went. The walk down the hill to the beach was fine and we were on the pink sand by 9:15:D A word about the pink sand...many people are disappointed that it isn't pinker. The wet sand shows more of the pink so look at the shore line. We started our day by going to the right to baby beach which is a very calm picturesque cove where you can easily see big blue parrot fish, striped sergeant majors and several diffent other types without snorkel equipment. They are used to people and a sprinkle of bead or cracker pieces will bring them to the surface to delight both young and old. We have been there may times but it was the first time at low tide.We swam over the deep opening into an area beyond the first cove to a labarynth of beautiful rock formations and caves. It was just gorgeous! There were tons of white longtail birds flying overhead in a cloudless sky and the water was crystal clear. It is cool at first but you get used to it.

 

We walked several miles to the left stopping for pictures and swimming. It was just wonderful. We were surprised how fast the beach got crowded but keep walking to the left. There's plenty of real estate for everyone! At 1:00 we changed our clothes and paid the van guy $2 per person to take us back to the top. I could have stayed there all day but we wanted to see how much snorkel park had changed and have dinner early so we could get to Harbor Night in Hamilton. Don't forget to look out the window and down when the bus drives over sommerset bridge, It is the smallest drawbrige in the world!

[shirleygr]

I am enjoying your review. Thanks for taking the time. We sail in 2 weeks!

[smilz]

Back at the ship, we ate up in Market Cafe. The salad stuff was fresh but I missed xtras like dried cranberries and sunflower seeds. The Dijion Vinegarette was fabulous. The cut up fruit is not near the salad stuff so you do have to do a search and find. DH loved the pasta bar and had bow ties with alfredo and bacon. To each their own! That is the beauty of the buffet. We had the hand dipped ice cream again but they do have soft serve as well. Grabbed our snorkel stuff and out we went. It is very easy to get off the Star and the walk through the customs building is short. There is a nice tourist info desk to the right of the exit door that has a nice map of the island and info on the museums,parks, and beaches. there is a person there to talk to for most of the day and are very eager to help. There is also a branch of the Carol Holding store that has pretty prints of the island, assorted gifts and has rum tasting as well:D There is an extensive line of jams that has Bermuda Gold rum in it and you can taste them as well:D The walk to snorkel park is short and flat. Just bear right on the sidewalk and you will find the stone arch entrance. You can't see the beach from the entrance. I have to admit that it's hard to ante up the $5 per person entrance fee after it being free for so long. The sand is not the nicest and definately not pink. We have enjoyed the snorkeling there in the past but much of the purple fan coral gone:( The wall has been taken down on the left and a small lagoon has been created where the coral was. We had every intention to swim around the back of the fort but the chop had picked up and we called it quits after about 45 min. We did see some large fish but the bottom is not pretty at all. The jet skis also come in where you are trying to snorkel. Despite how convenient it is, we will not be back at Snorkel Park.

 

We wanted to be on the 6:30 ferry to Hamilton so we took quick showers and went to Versailles for dinner. It was only 5:00 so we were able to walk right in. Versailles is very pretty but we had heard from other passengers that they were not happy with the food there. I did not see anything on the menu I really wanted so I chose the strip steak from the always available menu. I was very happy with it as it was prepared exactly how I wanted and was very tasty. Again, the deserts just didn't appeal to us so we skipped it. We got on the line for the ferry early enough to get on the top deck and we were off. The HAL Veedam was docked in Hamilton so when we arrived, everything was in full swing. There is lots of free things for children to particate in like the bounce houses and face painting. There are lots of street vendors with all sorts of stuff to buy. We stopped to get our favorite little hot donuts in a bag and walked down to the bandstand. We watched the Gombey dancers and the drummers. It really is neat. A local jazz band then played and the crowd was quite receptive. The stores along fron street and some on the side streets are open so we had fun picking up gifts and souveniers. We picked up little bottles of Bermuda Gold rum for my son in the liquor store. The last ferry returns to the Dockyard at 10. We took the 9:15 ferry and it was PACKED. About 50 people had to wait for the next one. We were able to get through security with the rum bottles without problem. People with large bottles were stopped.We missed the Second City show but went to the Bermuda Triangle Deck party. The dancers were performing when we got up there. It was a good time but we were exhausted so we headed in. We planned to go to St Georges on the first ferry (9:45).

[smilz]

Day 5 Our Anniversary

The day began with bright sunshine which continued all day. We had breakfast in Versailles again which was starting to get monotonous because the menu does not change. (love those country potatoes though!) We were disappointed that NCL does not offer a balcony champage breakfast like Celebrity does but our balcony was too small for a real table anyway. We got on line for the ferry to St George around 9 because almost everyone we spoke to the night before mentioned they were planning to go to St George. We wanted to take the first ferry at 9:45 and after seeing the ferry fill up in Hamilton, we did not want to wait the 1 1/2 hours for the next one. I have always wished the ferry would start earlier.:( There were just a few people on line at that time but there were hundreds by the time the ferry came. Everyone got a seat and we were able to sit up top for amazing photo ops. It takes 45 min to arrive at St G so if it is cool or raining you definately don't want to sit up there!

 

When we arrived, most passengers were walking around the town center and we headed up the hill past the unfinished church to Tobacco Bay for snokeling. We did not see any mini vans/buses like we've heard about and would have like to taken one. The hill is steep but doable. The lack of sidewalks is what unnerves me because the cars and scooters are quite close to you on a winding hill. There are signs to direct you and are easy to follow. Tobacco Bay was beautiful as usual. (No pink sand there but beautiful views) The water was warmer than the day before. The snorkeling was good not terrific but still enjoyable. We have our own equipment so not sure of the cost but there is snorkel stuff available for rental. I think I saw that you could rent a towel as well. If you are planning on walking around St G after you snorkel, that would be a great way to reduce the stuff you are carrying around! We were there for several hours and had a tasty lunch there. We skipped a frozen cocktail because we were walking to Achilles Bay to check out the snorkeling there.

 

We walked up to the blue house and turned left towards Fort St Catherines. A pretty walk and relatively flat until you get to the fort. As you approach the front of the fort, there is a restaurant/bar on the left. The stairs down to the beach are between the fort and the restaurant. There are chair and umbrella rentals there which we did not use. We put our towel down on the sand and in we went. The snorkeling there was good but not terrific. The sand was better than at Tobacco Bay and I did find a few pink and peach striped scallop shells.:D

 

We snorkeled for an hour and then decided to check out Fort St Catherine's beach since we were so close. We waked down the path and cut across the grass to the beach. The beach didn't appear as well kept but we did pick up a few shells there. The conditions were amazingly different from Achilles Bay and it was just on the other side of the fort. It was quite choppy so we did not snorkel. We swam for a little bit and had to make a decision. If we were going to make the earlier ferry, we had to hurry. We opted to take our time and enjoy St George. It started getty breezy so we packed up our stuff and headed back to Tobacco Bay to change and get a snack. It was actually much warmer at TB but we had enough of the water. We enjoyed ice cream on the patio, took more pictures and considered climbing the cliffs. I was tired so we walked back down to the historic section of ST G. (Up hill both ways lierally!)

 

The town was pretty deserted considering there was a cruise ship docked there. Quickly figured out that everything was closed except for a few of the shops and the ship was leaving. It was around 5:00. Made the best of it by walking around to take pictures. Checked out the liquor store and found a 4 pack of small Moscato wine for pretty cheap. Decided to take a chance. Finally out of gas we wandered over to the ferry line where a few people were waiting. 10 minutes later there were tons of people! The ferry was right on time and again we sat up top. I was alot cooler this time as it was 7:15 when we arrived back at the Dockyard. We stopped in the Carol Holding store and bought jams and a few small gifts. There was no body boardin the ship so we were able to get the washy washy guy to take our picture on the gangway. We were not stopped for our wine at the security check.

 

We missed the Duo Acrobatique shoe because we had a 9:00 dinner reservation but I heard it was very good. Also missed the Newlywed-not so newlywed game but it was aired on TV multiple times. Headed down to Le Bistro on the reservation girl's recommendation. We had a lovely table inside (there are tables outside in the common area like a sidewalk cafe) We had 2 appetizers... escargot (our favorite but not eveybodies) and mussles in white wine sauce. Both were superb. We had fillet minon again which was fabulous. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and just when we started talking about desert, about 8 waiters came out with a cake and sang "Let me call you sweetheart" It was really nice! After we split the cake (actually very good) they came with the desert menu and were crushed that we just couldn't fit in anything else:) They even wanted to box something up to take with us. I can really recommend Le Bistro for a special occassion. Nice ambiance and a very attentive staff. The food is delicious too but the menu is small. Went back outside to take night pictures of the ship and had someone take our picture under the moon gate. We skipped going to the Frog and Onion as we were going to stop in there the next day for rum tasting. Went to the casino to make another donation and headed in with memories of a perfect anniversary.

[smilz]

Day 6 Last day in Bermuda

We had planned on taking the ferry to Hamilton and then the #4 bus to Admiralty Park to snorkel and explore the caves. As soon as we woke up and realized it was still pretty dark in our cabin, we knew it may not happen. It was just raining ...it was teaming!! The wind was blowing the rain sideways and was howling. We watched the ferry from our balcony window going up and down on the waves and decided to stay close. Do they close the ferry for sea conditions?? After eating in the market Cafe (vey good omlets) we watched from the window as passengers ventured out. Yikes!!! We decided to make the best of things and donned our ponchos and with umbrella in hand, went to shop in the stores at the Dockyard. 2 seconds later... we had no umbrellas as the both were torn appart! Boy, this sure seamed like more than just a rain event!! The puddles were over our feet and we were shocked that people still headed out on scooters. First store...closed. Second store...closed. Finally found an open pharmacy with gifts etc and actually found an adorable necklace for my 3 yo grandaughter. Found out that the stores do not open until 10. Eventually got everywhere we wanted including the clocktower mall, glass bblowers, potery and craft market. The stores were not crowded (duh) and they did not seam to mind everyone dripping on the floor. There werecheap quality ponchos available to buy on the ship at the gangway which I thought was great. They charged $3. Alot of people were complaining about the price. We have been on many ships that they were not offered and you were soaked as you left the ship.

 

Had lunch in Versailles and the rain finally let up. Lots of people were getting off at that point to go out and about. We got the #7 bus to the first stop at the glass beach. I was shocked at how much it had changed. There used to be so much glass that you could hear it tinkling in the surf. There is alot of sand showing through now. Was still able to get some cobolt blue (tiny pieces) but mostly pastels. It felt more like a trash area that it has in the past. Loaded with 2 heavy bags, we walked up to the bus stop. No building there. Just an unmarked blue pole. Waited about 10 min and we were back to the dockyard in a jiffy.

 

Went back to the ship to drop off the glass and was stopped by security. "Is that sea glass?!" as it was x-rayed. "Yes it is." "Was it washed?!" (what????) "Only in the surf" (What was up with this? We've collected sea glass lots of times) "It needs to be washed!!" We hesitated. We weren't sure what she wanted us to do. Did she not want us to bring it aboard?"Go ahead. Make sure you wash it" Duh. Would be interesting to know if everyone is stopped for sea glass.

 

Back out to go to The Frog and Onion for Happy Hour. DH tasted the rums just in time . They switched over to beer just after that and we are not beer drinkers. Were able to get a table easily in the room that has the giant fireplace. Enjoyed a dark and stormy and a rum swizzle at happy hour prices $4.95.:D They have an extensive menu for appetizers and light meals but I just wasn't hungry:eek: We returned to the ship around 4:00 and boarded with a sad heart. Wanted to stay!!!!

 

Could not manage margarita tasting at 4:30 So we went up on deck to take pictures of our sailaway. Boy did the ocean look choppy!! Made dinner reservations for 9 at Cagney's to allow enough time to go to the Celebration Bash at 6:45 and the show at 7:30. Didn't know what to expect from the celebration party as that was not onoffered on the other NCL cruise we ahve taken. It was held in Spinakers lounge. There was champagne and balloons allover the floor. very festive. Everyone was asked up to the dance floor and we stood in a circle. there was about 30 couples. Some honeymooners, some birthdays, but mostly anniversaries. Everyone introduced themselves and said what they were celebrating. The CD did a really nice job. We had a toast and then returned to our seats for more champagne.:D Then there was a parade of chefs that brought out a sheetcake for us. They let everyone go up to take a picture before they cut it. It was really good! The party was short but that was ok because we went to the 7:30 show of Sharkbait. Very funny and talented. We saw them last year but they had changed thing enough to make the show very enjoyable for us. Off to dinner at Cagney's. Food was delicious again! No wine though as the alcohol was starting to add up. They have a cocktail there that looked great but did not try it. Can't remember what it is called but it is at the top of the menu and I don't recall it being on any of the other drink menus. Our server this time lacked the warm fuzzies but was efficient. We still left a tip. Did not go to the White Hot Party this time as I was running out of steam. It was too cool to sit on the balcony so we went to the casino. Actually won a little. Went up to the Market cafe and was surprise to find some of the goodies left over from the chocolate buffet that was held from 7:30-10:00. We have had bad experiences with the swarms of people in the past so we generally pass now. Stuffed and exhausted, we headed in. The ship was rocking a little but I have to say that Star handles the waves well. Seas were "rough" that night. Usually they list conditions as "moderate" so we expected rockin and rollin which never happened.:D

[thebiggerthebetter]

smilz, loved all of your reviews, I was on the cruise with you and we were on the same ferry to St. Georges!

 

I just booked the Star again for August 5th!

 

I just have one thing to say regarding the chair situation and the blue dots.

 

I have NEVER been on a cruise that had a shortage of chairs. This is totally unacceptable of NCL.

 

We found out that since the renovation last year, which was actually adding about 150 new rooms/suites, they never added chairs for the amount of people they were adding to these sailings.

 

I was infuriated when I couldn't find a chair after walking through the entire ship 3 times on the first sail day. My husband and I lay out for hours, and our chair time should not be limited. If we want to go get lunch we should not have our things confiscated due to the fact that NCL does not have the quota of chairs to take care of each and every passenger that has paid for a vacation.

 

I think the blue dots are ridiculous. NCL: This is not the answer. Order more chairs!!!!!!!!!!!! There is plenty of room on the boat for more to be added.

 

There is no excuse for NCL to not provide enough chairs for each and every passenger on board. Time should not be limited to people who pay thousands of dollars for a vacation as to how long they can use a beach chair.

 

I do agree that grabbing a chair and leaving for hours just to claim a chair is unfair, but, if there was enough chairs for each passenger, there would not be a problem.

[happythoughts]

Enjoying your review. Have a couple of questions, do you remember about what time the gombey dancers performed at harbour night? Also, what exactly was the Bermuda triangle party on the ship? Were the dancers at the party part of the star crew? I read that in the past on the gem, some local dancers came aboard for the party.

[smilz]

Day 7 Last sea day

Decided not to sleep in today as it was our last day. As luck would have it, the hallway was pretty quiet. It was sunny but quite breezy out. We sort of expected the storm to follow us so it was a nice surprise! Had breakfast in Versailles and changed to go up on deck. The starboard side of the deck was roped off as was the entire bow of the ship due to high winds. Again the sea was pretty choppy but the Star did not pitch and roll. So many ships are not using their stabalizers because it increases fuel consumption. Kudos to NCL:) We were able to get stadium setting chairs easily as many passengers came out and mad a hasty retreat. We even saw pool side chairs available regularly. DH went to the T shirt sale. Did not participate in daily activities around the ship because I wanted to relax and read. After my magazine was shredded in pieces and my toes were tuning blue, we headed in.

 

We did not go to the Murder Mystery luncheon at 12 which is pretty much our only regret. Heard it was good. We ate in the Market Cafe easily and was able to catch up on all the tidbits we had skipped during the week. The deserts were still blah.:( We walked back out on deck to see the hotdog eatting contest and the beer pouring contest. Tip: all contestants get to keep their pitchers or get an alternate brand at the bar and the hot dog eaters geta free drink at the bar! Didn't catch the life at sea Q&A in the atrium but have enjoyed it in the past.

 

Finally opened the champagne we won and enjoyed it on our balcony. We had bags of popcorn from the Red Lion Pub to go with it:D There was nachos and cheese and hot dogs available all day in RLP all day as well. We noticed on the TV that Tepanyaki had opened up at 6:30 so we made reservations for then. We finished packing and we off for our last night on the ship. The meal was very enjoyable again.:) They were having an any martini 2/$15 special in Star Bar so we went up there. The bar tenders were quite indifferent. There were only a few people in there. We did not stay long. Went to the 9:45 Elements show. If you only go to one show, be sure to catch that one. In one word...spectacular! There was a standing ovation before they were finished!! Afterwards, the crew came out for the traditional last night "thanks for sailing" gig. The captain did not come out because he was on the bridge. Again we expected rockin and rollin and again it was pretty calm.

 

There was an adult Second City show in Spinakers at 11:30 but we missed it because we were actually winning in the casino:D There were many more passengers out and about after midnight than we have seen in the past. We had a nightcap in Gatsy's to toast a very nice cruise and turned in.

 

Disembakation

On thursday night at 6, the luggage tags are put out by the passenger services desk. You can select whatever time you want for disembatkation, but the colors run out. We chose purple which was the earliest after walk offs and platinum/elite. We got up at 7:30, ate down in Versailles, returned to our cabin to empty the safe and pack a few last minute items in our carry ons and left the cabin at 9 ( the requested time for all passengers to vacate the cabins) We went down to deck 7 with no difficulty getting an elevator from deck 10. They called our color right on time at 9:15. We got our luggage easily and breezed through customs. We got to our car and was in NJ by 9:45:D

 

Overall impressions:

The deck chair problem could be easily rectified because there was plenty of room on deck for more chairs.

The pool is way way too small.

The seats in the theater should be repaired. What's up with that? Do you think we don't notice?

The ship is noisy and music can be heard from other venues.

For an older ship, she sails with much dignity and she gives a smooth ride.

The captain is a hoot!

The caliber of entertainment is impressive.

Love the popcorn!

Food is very subjective. We did not like the selection of deserts including some of the specialty restaurants.You can't ask for better destination than Bermuda

 

HAPPY SAILING!!

[sdmike]

There is plenty of room on the boat for more to be added.

 

There is no excuse for NCL to not provide enough chairs for each and every passenger on board. Time should not be limited to people who pay thousands of dollars for a vacation as to how long they can use a beach chair.

 

I do agree that grabbing a chair and leaving for hours just to claim a chair is unfair, but, if there was enough chairs for each passenger, there would not be a problem.

 

There is not enough open deck space to get anywhere NEAR a chair for everybody, nor do they need it. Lots of people stay out of the sun, use their balcony, or do other things. I'll give you, however, that finding a chair should never be impossible. They either have open space without enough chairs (as indicated) or they did a real poor job of ship design.

[Pickels]

Just returned from our 1st cruise on Star. It was our 4th with NCL and our 30th cruise. We are platinum on RCCL, platinum on Princess, have sailed 5 times on Carnival, 4 on Celebrity and once on HAL. We are Mr and Mrs middle class in our late 50s who discovered the supreme pleasure of cruising 12 years ago. We have never had a suite and only had a balcony twice. On this sailing we were in a mid-ship balcony on deck 10. We knew from our previous experiences on NCL that the pool would be miserably small for the number of passengers onboard but never expected the small number of deck chairs. It was the worst we have ever seen! True, on most ships,unless you are the early bird, you will not score a chair poolside but you usually can find something somewhere if you perservere. There was simply nowhere near enough chairs for the passengers. We saw at least 100 people laying on their towels on the deck. To deal with the shortage, the security officer would put a blue dot on the towel or chair with the time and come back to see if the chair was still unoccupied. He would then remove the items. We saw a woman come back from the pool dripping wet only to find someone else in her chair and her stuff including her towel gone. DH got up to use the restroom and 3 minutes later there was a blue dot on his towel! I never saw the security guy place it there because my eyes were closed. The guy behind me told me. Our second day at sea was beautiful and by 9am all the chairs were filled with people. It wasn't a case of towels holding the chairs. Many of the chairs are broken as well. There are 2 slides that the kids as well as some of the adults enjoyed but they take up alot of the deck space. The kiddie pools on the back of the ship appeared clean and quite cute and the parents had plenty of room to sun themselves. OK Now on to the positives. Embarkation was quite smooth. We arrived a little later than planned (around 11:45) and were astounded over the number of cars on the pier already. There were only about 6 spaces left. The people who arrived later had to park on the next pier down. The parking areal on pier 88 is shared with Disney Magic. We took all of our luggage down the elevater (huge) and were a little nervous when the people direcing us had big white Mickey hands on. We weren't quite sure if we were in the right spot, but we followed the signs to NCL on the right and the rest was a breeze! We were able to board right away so we headed to Versaille and had a relaxing lunch. That is one thing I truly like about NCL beause I hate the chaos st the buffet on embarkation day. The announcement came at 12:50 that the cabins were ready which was an unexpected surprise. We actually skipped desert because we we anxious to see our cabin.(Don't worry... we made up for it later!) We were relieved to see that Star is in good shape as several posts lead us to expect a tired aging ship. The hallways in the cabin areas are quite narrow which later proved to be problematic but they were clean, bright, and welcoming. We entered our cabin and peered out of the doorway and looked right at the space shuttle on the Intrepid! Turns out that the starboard (right) side was great. We sat on our balcony as we backed out and were able to see all the planes as well as the concord and the space shuttle easily. We then went up to deck 13 to take pictures of the skyline as we went down the Hudson and were able to get back to our balcony to have a front row seat to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Soon we were out at sea and everything opened. Our cruise had begun!:D

 

Do you have time to go have breakfast or lunch and come back to your lounge chair?n

[che5904]

OP thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts.

 

Order more chairs!!!!!!!!!!!! There is plenty of room on the boat for more to be added.

 

There is no excuse for NCL to not provide enough chairs for each and every passenger on board.

 

hmmm I"ve been on the Star and truthfully I'm not exactly sure where you seen "plenty of room" to put 2300+ loungers.

 

And yes I do believe NCL has an excuse....no space for "enough chairs for each and every passenger on board"