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

[thebiggerthebetter]

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"

 

 

 

HMMMMMM,

 

I just got off of the star less than 2 weeks ago. After speaking with several members of the crew, it was brought to our attention that since the Star was doing Alaska previous to Bermuda, there hadn't been a need for more chairs in the past. And, I will repeat again, they recently renovated deck 12 adding many more cabins, but not chairs to account for the extra passengers.

 

If you walked around the boat you would have seen all the wasted space, in fact the crew members stated that they needed to order more chairs and there was room for hundreds more.

 

People were so upset that the crew started bringing chairs from balconies, and crew areas, and there was still much more space to fit hundreds of additional chairs.

[david_sobe]

Sometimes it is a shortage of chairs that creates problems. On the Jewel people were just laying on their towels on the deck. But the top deck above the basketball courts there were about 14 broken chairs that were stackeed on top of eachother. No one was working on them and it looked like they were there for awhile. I remember thinking how quick and easy the chairs would be to fix. Not a good sign when your customers are laying on the floor.

[che5904]

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"

 

 

 

HMMMMMM,

 

I just got off of the star less than 2 weeks ago. After speaking with several members of the crew, it was brought to our attention that since the Star was doing Alaska previous to Bermuda, there hadn't been a need for more chairs in the past. And, I will repeat again, they recently renovated deck 12 adding many more cabins, but not chairs to account for the extra passengers.

 

If you walked around the boat you would have seen all the wasted space, in fact the crew members stated that they needed to order more chairs and there was room for hundreds more.

 

People were so upset that the crew started bringing chairs from balconies, and crew areas, and there was still much more space to fit hundreds of additional chairs.

 

I didn't say your sail wasn't lacking in chairs and perhaps there was a shortage on your sail because some were removed or whatever. I said I did not see space for 2300++ chairs, which would be one for each passenger as you stated you thought should happen. That is what I was posting about. Every usable deck space had loungers and or chairs with tables when I was on her, even the promenade deck. And there certainly wasn't room to add more than a couple of dozen if you wanted to be attached to the chair next to you.

 

 

And yes I was on the star after those cabins were added and the loungers were very much needed on our sail, since we were doing the mexican riviera.

[smilz]

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

 

Well, my husband got up to use the restroom and was only out of his chair for about 3 minutes when the security guy stickered his chair. The dailey says your things will be removed after 45 minutes. There was a girl who was in the pool for about 1/2 hour and came back to her chair dripping wet and no towel or personal items and someone else in her chair. Boy was she steamed! I probably would have been too.

 

As I said, NCL really fails in the pool department. Even the newer ships. The chair situation compounds the displeasure of many. If you can't get into the pool (many times it was shoulder to shoulder-just not my thing) and you can't sit in a chair and you are not the golf or basketball type, that pretty much rules out the "open sea" experience. The balcony we had was too small to accomodate a lounge chair.

But... to be fair, NCL does an excellent job keeping the deck clean and picking up after all the slobs that leave stacks of dirty dishes and food leftovers all over the place. My pet peeve are people that remove the lemon wedge or fruit skewer from their drink and just drop it down on the deck. What's up with that?

[smilz]

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.

The gomey dancers were performing in front of the stage at 7:10. I believe they may have "marched" down there from the birdcage. We did not attend the Bermuda Triangle party but the gombey dancers were supposed to be there. It was held on thursday night at 9:15 up by the pool.

[DeeT]

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.

 

I am in complete agreement with you on this. In fact today I cut and pasted several recent reviews with comments about lack of chairs and emailed them someone at NCL (was an email address someone previously had shared) and also wrote a letter and attached those same reviews to Kevin Sheehan, CEO. We are cruising in 4 weeks on the Star and I am hoping (though not expecting) someone addresses this issue.

 

The response I received from my email was very inadequate:

 

"Regarding your concern about the lounging chairs:

We have not received past information from guests on this matter. However, all guests are advised via

our Freestyle Daily Bulletin that lounge chairs cannot be reserved or held for more than 30 minutes.

Kindly check our Freestyle daily upon embarkation.

I hope this information is useful to you."

I replied that this response was very unuseful to me and didn't address the LACK of chairs that is apparent. The rep wrote back again that she would forward my email to the ship.

We will see if any response is received from Corporate.

[SunSandSkySea]

Thank you for sharing! Happy Anniversary.

[NYGoose82]

Great Review!!

Thank you for all of the information that you provided. :)

Hopefully NCL rectifies this chair situation because laying on the floor...i think not!

[shelly11]

Great review! I didn't try to take my rebellious fish glass home but will try next time! The Sky is also older and small, while the deck chairs fill up by the pool there were plenty on the deck overlooking the pool. We'd swim and then go up there away from the crowd to take in some sunshine.

[AttilaTheFun]

Thanks for writing the review! Congrats on the anniversary - what a fun way to spend it. We loved Le Bistro as well.

 

I'm glad to hear about the Blue Dot enforcement, but fear that it's probably something ship-specific. I completely disagree with "thebiggerthebetter" because

1) The rules are the rules - if someone is in the pool for 45 minutes without using their chair, NCl states that you can't leave it unoccupied for 30+ minutes.

2) Just because your husband got up to use the bathroom and got "blue dotted" doesn't mean he LOST his chair. I can't imagine why it's so offensive to get a blue dot on your chair.

3) It's called common courtesy to give up your chair when you'll be away for extended periods - including when you go for a meal (if it takes more than 30 minutes). There are others who want to use a chair and it's just selfish to think that you shouldn't have to follow the rules.

 

If they can fit additional chairs and replace the broken ones, they should definitely be doing that though, no excuses.

[Evangaline]

I, like almost everyone else, dislikes true chair hogs who take turns getting up at 6am to reserve a row of loungers in case anyone in their party might decide to use them (and similar scenarios). But if the blue dot is really going to work it has be implemented smartly so they are getting the actual chair hogs, not a cruiser who spent a little too much time in the pool or did not wolf down their lunch quickly enough. Don't put a dot on someone's chair the second they get up to go to the washroom. That is crude. And 30 minutes before you are ousted, just to outdo Carnival's 40 mins, is just silly.

 

I don't think the idea is to ruin everyone's lunch because you have to gulp it down or make people afraid to stand in line at the waterslides for fear they will lose their lounger. The idea is to stop the inconsiderate cruiser who leaves a lounger reserved for hours on end for no good reason.

 

I think extending this to 1 hour before your belongings are removed will deter the main offenders. If you go after cruisers who are actually trying to spend the day lounging in the sun, but just did not make it back in 30 minutes, there are going to be complaints, as in really serious complaints and the program will be abandoned and everyone will be back to square one.

[chrisc71]

I, like almost everyone else, dislikes true chair hogs who take turns getting up at 6am to reserve a row of loungers in case anyone in their party might decide to use them (and similar scenarios). But if the blue dot is really going to work it has be implemented smartly so they are getting the actual chair hogs, not a cruiser who spent a little too much time in the pool or did not wolf down their lunch quickly enough. Don't put a dot on someone's chair the second they get up to go to the washroom. That is crude. And 30 minutes before you are ousted, just to outdo Carnival's 40 mins, is just silly.

 

I don't think the idea is to ruin everyone's lunch because you have to gulp it down or make people afraid to stand in line at the waterslides for fear they will lose their lounger. The idea is to stop the inconsiderate cruiser who leaves a lounger reserved for hours on end for no good reason.

 

I think extending this to 1 hour before your belongings are removed will deter the main offenders. If you go after cruisers who are actually trying to spend the day lounging in the sun, but just did not make it back in 30 minutes, there are going to be complaints, as in really serious complaints and the program will be abandoned and everyone will be back to square one.

 

I partly agree. I feel that it should be a short time in the morning when most hogs come out. Pretty obvious how many chairs should be in use at 7 AM.

[punkincc]

Leave your chair unattended for 1 hour? Seriously. I am honestly surprised that anyone would think this is OK. I would never go to the dining room to eat and leave my stuff even if I thought it would only take me 20 minutes when there are people roaming the decks looking for chairs. It is just common courtesy. Not talking about a dip in the pool or hot tub or a run for drinks or sandwiches. Do some people break for bingo also? And why get into a tizzy if someone blue dots you in error if you go to pee. Unless you're going to be in there for 30-45 minutes you just undot yourself when you return. The blue dot police have no idea where you are and should't have to. For those who want to sun themselves all day, you can still do that. But if you take an extended break past 30 minutes, you may have to do it from more than one deck chair location.

[Evangaline]

Leave your chair unattended for 1 hour? Seriously. I am honestly surprised that anyone would think this is OK. I would never go to the dining room to eat and leave my stuff even if I thought it would only take me 20 minutes when there are people roaming the decks looking for chairs. It is just common courtesy. Not talking about a dip in the pool or hot tub or a run for drinks or sandwiches. Do some people break for bingo also? And why get into a tizzy if someone blue dots you in error if you go to pee. Unless you're going to be in there for 30-45 minutes you just undot yourself when you return. The blue dot police have no idea where you are and should't have to. For those who want to sun themselves all day, you can still do that. But if you take an extended break past 30 minutes, you may have to do it from more than one deck chair location.

 

Your right! I have never ever seen anyone stay in a hot tub or stay in a pool for longer than 30 minutes. How outrageous that someone would ever think to do such a thing. But if they do decide to do the Blue Dot Gestapo on a permanent basis, then I think they should put big clocks up beside the hot tubs, waterslides and pools in case people lose track of time and have their belonging confiscated. You know people how people are when they are on vacation.

[che5904]

then I think they should put big clocks up beside the hot tubs, waterslides and pools in case people lose track of time and have their belonging confiscated. .

 

They already have huge clocks on the pool deck of the Dawn and the Star, not sure about other ships as those are the only ones I've been on.

[mianmike]

But if they do decide to do the Blue Dot Gestapo on a permanent basis, then I think they should put big clocks up beside the hot tubs, waterslides and pools in case people lose track of time and have their belonging confiscated.

 

"Blue Dot Gestapo" :confused:

 

I'm thinking something like the Blue Dot Angels

[NLH Arizona]

I'd be very happy if they implemented the blue dots company wide. It would be nice to be able to get a chair from time to time.

 

If someone has to stay in the restroom for 30 minutes, I'd have to say maybe they have a problem and should see their doctor. Also, why should someone not be able to get a chair because someone wants to have lunch. If you want to keep your chair and have lunch, then get something from the buffett (it won't take 30 minutes) and eat at your chair, otherwise give it up so someone else can get some sun.

 

It totally surprises me how inconsiderate some people are. People think they are the only ones entitled to a chair and will do and say anything to keep that prized chair away from other cruisers....pretty sad!

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review, thanks for posting it.

[punkincc]

Your right! I have never ever seen anyone stay in a hot tub or stay in a pool for longer than 30 minutes. How outrageous that someone would ever think to do such a thing. But if they do decide to do the Blue Dot Gestapo on a permanent basis, then I think they should put big clocks up beside the hot tubs, waterslides and pools in case people lose track of time and have their belonging confiscated. You know people how people are when they are on vacation.

 

Maybe someone should start a Hot Tub Hog suggestion string;). Not sure where the blue dots would go. But honestly, I have seen the same people in the hot tubs for hours at a time. I think I have used a hot tub twice on all the cruises I have taken due to this problem, so it's just not the chairs.

[Evangaline]

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 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.:D

 

Wow. When NCL needs to resort to blue dots to avoid hoarding, it is a good sign that they are not providing enough chairs for the number of passengers. Pretty sad. I know the pools are too small for the number of passengers. On the Oasis people were just standing in them shoulder to shoulder. It all sounds so hectic. Almost makes one want to go back to land vacations. Well Almost:)

[phantomII]

So happy that I might add a blue dot to my signature :)

I just added it to my signature!

[Finkksta]

Leave your chair unattended for 1 hour? Seriously. I am honestly surprised that anyone would think this is OK. I would never go to the dining room to eat and leave my stuff even if I thought it would only take me 20 minutes when there are people roaming the decks looking for chairs. It is just common courtesy. Not talking about a dip in the pool or hot tub or a run for drinks or sandwiches. Do some people break for bingo also? And why get into a tizzy if someone blue dots you in error if you go to pee. Unless you're going to be in there for 30-45 minutes you just undot yourself when you return. The blue dot police have no idea where you are and should't have to. For those who want to sun themselves all day, you can still do that. But if you take an extended break past 30 minutes, you may have to do it from more than one deck chair location.

 

Agree. If your going lunch, give up the seat! If your just going pee, then you'll be right back. No big deal