Mitsugirlys STAR end of the world/pre-Christmas cruise detailed review & pictorial

[weltek]

I hope you have a terrific day. I have seen other people come on here recently and post "the water is crystal clear and blue at Maya Chan", however not one of them has came back and proved it with an actual picture and that has always been my concern. Every picture I have ever seen both before my cruise there and after have been the same as what we experienced. Please come back with pictures if you can and let us know how things worked out for you. Mark & David are awesome folks and you will love them. ;)

 

I'm there in a few weeks, so thanks for the reminder to post photos of the water. I did some extensive searching for time of year visited + water conditions to get a feel for what it might be like and it was difficult to get a handle on.

[mitsugirly]

Yes, you did meet me briefly at the Meet & Greet. I was sitting with Joyce and Ken who were on my previous cruise.

 

I was glad to video the Gangham style dance as I had seen them perform this a few weeks earlier on Youtube and wanted to experience for myself.

 

Tony

 

Oh ok. Hi Tony. We were constantly running in to Joyce and Ken every where we went. She was one of the people who offered to let us use their battery charger if it worked (and it didn't :(), but we had excursions with them and it was nice to see a familiar face all the time. Do you know what their screen name is on our roll call? Not many have came back and posted their thoughts on the cruise I have noticed (on our roll call).

 

Yea, I know what gangham video you are talking about. hehe I watched it a couple of times prior to leaving and was hoping to catch that myself.

 

 

There are no slides at the main pool, just a hot tub on the four corners. I did not really pay much attention to the children's pool area but it is a dinosaur theme (T-Rex) and does have 2 slides.

 

You will love the Dawn, she is a beautiful ship and not so big that you cannot find your way around. We spent a lot of time at the Bimini Bar above the pool where they serve fresh hot fries and huge burgers throughout the afternoon. You can walk off the ship at King's wharf to a small beach area that is perfect for the little swimmer!

 

You might need to retract that statement...I spent this entire cruise completley turned around and never figuring it out. LOL My husband laughed at me every day. He was my personal GPS every where we went. :p

 

I sthe Bimini Bar like the Bier Garten on the Star? (Since you said above the pool).

[JMHAM1]

I hear what you are saying about the sea grass but it was hands down our favorite place in all of the Caribbean any time/any where. When we went in Jan there was lots of sea grass as they just had some storms blow through.

 

If someone will give me specific instructions on how to attach more than thumbnail photos here then you could see in my pics that there is quite a bit floating out there in the water near the beach. Once you got past that, it was perfect in the water. I don't like the way it feels swishing around my legs and feet if you are trying to swim but it did not bother the kayaks one bit! You can also see the "brown" water mitsugirly is talking about. It is a combo of the sea grass on the bottom and the overcast sky on the day we were there.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Good morning, I hope you have a nice set for us today :)

 

Happy New Years :D

 

I was up until 4am last night (yep, after working a full day and not getting home until midnight) and I posted what I had for the night. The rest of the night I worked on downloading pictures and trying to pick from the hundreds of photos for that day. I will definitely get as much done as I possibly can today. It is my day off (since I have to work the holiday-tomorrow). I do know my house looks like a tornado/snow storm hit it since Christmas and will be working on getting everything back to "normal" after the holidays...and then the rest of the day I will be free to post away. :D

 

I'm really enjoying your review! thanks for doing it!

 

We're doing this same itinerary on the Jewel in December (yeah, almost a year from now :rolleyes:)

 

The web site for Almaplena shows that the Beach Break includes an "all you can eat buffet", but it seems like you were able to order food instead of a buffet. Is that an option or have they changed what they offer and haven't updated the web site?

 

You must be on the Jewel either the week before us or after since I believe the Jewel rotates ports every other week. We are on the Jewel next December too (as you can see in my countdown) and we will be doing the Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Cozumel I believe.

 

If like to do other exciting things other than a beach at these ports (Roatan, Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya), I have other reports for different things to do. Last time we went zip lining, cave tubing...etc. I can show you the reviews if you are interested. ;)

 

Hmm, I have never really paid attention to what the web site said (about the all you can eat buffet). There was definitely not a buffet there and it was pretty much a "made to order" thing. It now has me wondering if they use to do that as well. We had an "Almaplena thread" going on over on the port boards you could proably chime in over there and see if anyone experienced the buffet and if they have ever done that.

[mitsugirly]

I'm there in a few weeks, so thanks for the reminder to post photos of the water. I did some extensive searching for time of year visited + water conditions to get a feel for what it might be like and it was difficult to get a handle on.

 

No problem. Takes lots of pictures. I'm interested myself in finding out what it's like this time of year as well.

 

I hear what you are saying about the sea grass but it was hands down our favorite place in all of the Caribbean any time/any where. When we went in Jan there was lots of sea grass as they just had some storms blow through.

 

If someone will give me specific instructions on how to attach more than thumbnail photos here then you could see in my pics that there is quite a bit floating out there in the water near the beach. Once you got past that, it was perfect in the water. I don't like the way it feels swishing around my legs and feet if you are trying to swim but it did not bother the kayaks one bit! You can also see the "brown" water mitsugirly is talking about. It is a combo of the sea grass on the bottom and the overcast sky on the day we were there.

 

I know that TONS of people have said the same thing (that it was their favorite place on the cruise). I have to say that it was my favorite "service" place on the cruise, but it's just not the place you go for what most people picture in your mind when you say Caribbean. (I'm just talking about the "looks").

 

You are right about the combo of sea grass in the water that makes the water appear brown. I believe I read that they get this sea grass because they are located next to a mangrove. So, the sea grass isn't anything they will ever be able to eliminate or change, therefore probably always having the brownish colored water. Now don't get me wrong, it's not like the water was brown and you couldn't see to the bottom. It was definitely clear enough to see when you are swimming/snorkeling. Our group actually took a small tour around the area and you could see. But with sea grass, all we managed to see was a star fish, baby sting ray, and a few fish. It was a highlight for us since all the time, those were 2 things that we had not encountered while snorkeling on any cruise yet. :D But I can't understand how anyone can come back and say the water was the crystal clear BLUE water that the Caribbean water has. I had just never seen one picture posted like that and don't know how there ever will be with the sea grass there.

 

How you post a picture on here...you have to upload the picture to a host (like I'm using Smugmug for this report). You can also use Photobucket or Flickr or any of the free sites instead. Once you download your picture on there, you grab the html link for posting in the forum and you hit the "picture" button above and a pop-up box comes up and you paste in the url from the picture and it shows up. :)

[meltingmoments]

 

I hope you are all still with me and are enjoying the review.:D

 

Oh I am SO still with you on this journey! It is cold and VERY rainy here in Britain so your pictures are cheering me up no end! :)

A very Happy New Year to you and many more happy cruises! :)

[thescot123]

Oh ok. Hi Tony. We were constantly running in to Joyce and Ken every where we went. She was one of the people who offered to let us use their battery charger if it worked (and it didn't :(), but we had excursions with them and it was nice to see a familiar face all the time. Do you know what their screen name is on our roll call? Not many have came back and posted their thoughts on the cruise I have noticed (on our roll call).

 

Yea, I know what gangham video you are talking about. hehe I watched it a couple of times prior to leaving and was hoping to catch that myself.

 

 

 

You might need to retract that statement...I spent this entire cruise completley turned around and never figuring it out. LOL My husband laughed at me every day. He was my personal GPS every where we went. :p

 

I sthe Bimini Bar like the Bier Garten on the Star? (Since you said above the pool).

 

Ken and Joyces screename is Jmacway

 

Tony

[mitsugirly]

Oh I am SO still with you on this journey! It is cold and VERY rainy here in Britain so your pictures are cheering me up no end! :)

A very Happy New Year to you and many more happy cruises! :)

 

 

Same to you. Have a wonderful 2013 and many more happy cruises!

 

Ken and Joyces screename is Jmacway

 

Tony

 

Thanks. I meant to ask the coordinator on the Star how many people actually showed up to the M&G. I know there was a lot, but usually the amount of people that sign up, there are several that don't show. I wish I would have ask now.

[mitsugirly]

The same driver that had dropped us off picked us up (No hablo Ingles vs No hablo espanol = another boring non-speaking trip back to the port).

 

 

 

They built this port for the cruise ships and I have to say it’s pretty there and plenty to do. The road leading up to the port is very nice. I was trying to snap some pictures as our driver weaved in and out of other vehicles and taxis like if we were in a race to get to the port before everyone else. Our driver did drop us off inside the port turn around area. I’m not sure why they are allowed to drop us off there but not pick us up there??? We just had to show our ship cards to the “guard” at the entrance. Maybe certain drivers are not allowed past the guard without a cruiser? But then how do the others get in there to take cruisers somewhere?

 

 

 

 

I tried snapping some pictures as we were driving (it wasn’t an easy thing to do so they’re not the best).

 

 

Pulling on to the main road that takes you to the port:

 

 

 

 

Going down the road headed to the port:

 

 

 

Everything is brightly colored in Mexico for sure:

 

 

So we get out of the cab and NOW I UNDERSTAND…I know why this particular taxi driver was weaving in and out of the traffic and passing taxis like he was racing…anyone notice his number (for all of you race fans out there)? Yep, that explains it. This is a picture of the turnaround area for pick up/drop off of cruisers.

 

 

 

When you walk back in to the port, it’s like a “grand entrance” welcoming you back. Could this be Costa Mayas “Grand Atrium”? hehe All it’s missing is the stairs and water fountains. Oh wait…those are inside. No worries.

 

 

 

When they built this port for the cruisers, they took out their easel and splashed every bright color they could on each building. I love the colors everywhere. It’s so bright and cheery. However, for those taking pictures, it does create a color cast on everything around it. Depending on what building you may be by, you could end up with a yellow, blue, orange, red, or pink face. I prefer rainbow, but they didn’t have that building.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I know there are always people on here asking if there was a place to go in port to hang out for the day instead of leaving the port area. Of course there is. It wouldn’t be my decision because just getting off the ship and visiting the “tourist” area is not experiencing the place you are at. However, there are some that just go for the cruise or ship instead of “where” they are actually going. I won’t judge you, it’s your choice. So, I thought I would take some pictures of “their” swimming facilities there and beach area.

 

 

 

 

If you want to just hang out by the pool, it’s a rather large pool and has the swim up bar stools in the water that is at the bar. There are water fountains in the pool and steps to hang out on as well. There is a ledge all around the pool if you would just like to sit on the edge and put your feet in.

 

They have a man-made beach area around the pool with lounge chairs and hard fake type sand that they sit on. It is kind of made so that it is in the middle of all the surrounding shops, but yet kind of divided from it by a “curb” all the way around the chairs area. That way you don’t really have people shopping just walking through the area that you are lounging and swimming in.

 

 

 

 

My daughter, being the fish, whale, or shark that she is (she pretends to by some type of animal every day so you just never know) decided she had not had enough water and swimming for the day and immediately headed to the pool. She did not get to swim in it last time we were in port, so we decided to let her hang out there a little bit before heading back down the long pier to the ship. That was my opportunity to go off exploring the port a bit more and getting some pictures that I had not been able to obtain on our last visit. I put on my shades in order to not be color blinded and off I went.

 

 

 

[gambee]

Quick question, are u doing any post editing on those pics?

[Ron_L]

You must be on the Jewel either the week before us or after since I believe the Jewel rotates ports every other week. We are on the Jewel next December too (as you can see in my countdown) and we will be doing the Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Cozumel I believe.

 

If like to do other exciting things other than a beach at these ports (Roatan, Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya), I have other reports for different things to do. Last time we went zip lining, cave tubing...etc. I can show you the reviews if you are interested. ;)

 

Hmm, I have never really paid attention to what the web site said (about the all you can eat buffet). There was definitely not a buffet there and it was pretty much a "made to order" thing. It now has me wondering if they use to do that as well. We had an "Almaplena thread" going on over on the port boards you could proably chime in over there and see if anyone experienced the buffet and if they have ever done that.

 

Thanks... I'll check out the POC forum for Costa Maya. We've been to Roatan, Belize and Coz so i have good idea for those ports, but Costa Maya is new. So far it's between Almaplena, Maya Chan, Tropicante or 100% Agave. I have plenty of time to decide :D

 

We'll be on the Jewel for the Dec 8th sailing.

[mitsugirly]

Making my way around the area just taking random pictures because that's what I do...especially with a new camera trying to figure it all out.

 

 

 

 

Remember that picture that I couldn't get to upload back when we first arrived at the port? Well, it finally decided it was an acceptable picture and there was no intended harm in the making of this picture. I promise.

 

Here is a map of the port (and the walk outside the port to the taxi cabs). You can see the different area in which you can exit the port.

 

 

Of course I'm sure everyone has seen this picture floating around here, but in case you didn't...here it is, an arial view of the port. No I can not take credit for this picture. I have not been up in an airplane in Costa Maya.

 

[mitsugirly]

Of course the port has the normal souvenir shops for trinkets, tee shirt shops offering wonderful reduced prices “come in take a look”, obviously the WONDERFUL jewelry stores that are cruise ship stamped approved places that they really push you to buy when in port because it’s listed in every daily. They have a Senior Frogs and another bar that you can get food at as well. I did notice they had a building that said dolphin swims. I did notice this on our previous cruise but never paid attention. I just figured it was a building you could book the swims and then they took you there. I was wrong.

 

 

 

I wondered off around the pool and out toward the ocean area that faces the ship. I had always wanted to see that “beach” area with the palapas to see what it was like. I had read before that it wasn’t really a “beach” that you could swim at or get in to the water. That is a definite correct statement. Nothing but a rocky area there and a small man-made like beach with chairs under the palapas. I knew this would be a good opportunity to get a picture of the ship at the port. BUT, I did discover THIS is where the dolphin swim was. I had no idea. The area was VERY small and just was not appealing at all. I felt sorry for the dolphins if this is the only area they have to live in. How sad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to bring my daughter back so that she could see the dolphins. She had done the dolphin swim last year in Cozumel and loved it. We watched the dolphins interact for a while with the trainers and there were about 3 swimmers in there with them swimming.

[mitsugirly]

There is a neat bright yellow tall building in the port, if you have enough left in you after a full day in Costa Maya, you should walk up in to it and climb the stairs to the top. There is a wonderful view of the port and you can get a picture of the ship when up there too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

To the back side of it, you can find an aerial view of….nothing on the other side of the port. Just all greenery and totally not built up.

 

 

 

 

Caution: those of you they easily get dizzy may experience side-effects which may or may not be limited to: getting dizzy, feeling like you are on a spiral rollercoaster, the urge to not take another step, hallucinations that you are spiraling down a staircase and that the bright yellow sun is blinding you. Proceed with caution.

 

 

 

 

Yep, there were a lot more, but I didn’t want to scar you for life.

 

All the fountains and areas around the port are beautiful as well, but I didn’t take any pictures of them since we did that last time around. If you want to see those, you’ll have to head over to my Spirit review.

 

 

 

I figured we had a full fun day and it was time for that dreaded walk back to the ship. No I take that back, an exciting long brisk skip back to the ship because I was having a burst of energy at the moment after feeling like Rocky once I had climbed to the top of the building on the spiral staircase. (Totally rolling my eyes right now and even my eyes were tired at that point).

 

 

Remember that tram I was telling you about in the beginning and how you should catch it if you can for your ride in to port because it will save your legs from a lot of walking? Well, this is that tram and as you notice it's coming TOWARD us, not away...which means once again we missed it and would continue to have to walk the rest of the way. No, I'm not complaining...I still have that burst of energy I mentioned earlier.

 

 

 

The hubby stopped to take the cheezy "holding the ship in your hand" photo for me (I was just having another one of those "I need an excuse to stop before I drop moments).

 

 

 

 

 

The Star sitting in port, still all by her lonesome so far away for where she COULD HAVE PARKED!!! She thought it was funny and was grinning at me when I finally made it to the end of the pier and at her side. She knew she had worn me out that day, but felt it necessary to make me get my exercise because she knows me oh so well with the food on the ship. I'm pretty sure it was her goal to have me gain 10 pounds, but was going easy on me and only made me gain 7 pounds because she had me walking everywhere instead.

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2012 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

The beauitful Norwegian Star:

 

 

 

We got back on board and went to our room to shower and change then back out on the deck for some “going away” pictures.

 

 

Did I really walk that far? Twice?

 

 

 

Oh here comes that tram that we never managed to catch:

 

 

 

The sun was setting. I don't know why but the skies seem to have a powdery blue, pink, orange in the afternoons this cruise. I had never noticed that before when we cruised. It was different. Is it due to the time of year? It was really pretty.

 

[mitsugirly]

When we returned the beautiful Norwegian Star had a new Christmas surprise for us. They had sat up a gingerbread village while we were away. (I seen them carrying part of it in the morning down the hallway and knew something was up). I checked it out for a long time. All of the little details were just so cute. It was a busy Santa village for sure and so much to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jdvmd]

When we returned the beautiful Norwegian Star had a new Christmas surprise for us. They had sat up a gingerbread village while we were away. (I seen them carrying part of it in the morning down the hallway and knew something was up). I checked it out for a long time. All of the little details were just so cute. It was a busy Santa village for sure and so much to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an awesome gingerbread village!

[mitsugirly]

We ate at the buffet. Today was a good day and they had tons of different types of sandwiches and cold-cuts, which was all that I was interested in after a long hot day in the sun.

 

 

 

Sakari is always the first to finish eating and some how we managed to sit in the "adult" area this time and wasn't forced to eat with our knees pressed against the munchkin table. She climbed up in to the window to look out and pretend her hands were now a dolphin swimming in the water. (Since the people at Almaplena had mentioned they seen dolphins that day...it was on her mind the rest of the day).

 

 

 

For desert, I had pound cake and some type of “strawberry” something or other and let me tell you it was HEAVEN. It was so good I went back and repeated this plate again.

 

 

 

 

There is something about NCL’s “cream” that I just love. I have yet to find it in any of the stores and I swear it’s not just plain whipped cream. They must add a pound of sugar to each tablespoon of cream. It’s addicting and I’m pretty sure this is where I find my extra souvenir pounds that I bring home with me each cruise. They use it for their crapes, they have it as a topping for the waffles or pancakes in the morning and now in the deserts too? I feel a sickness coming on from eating too much of this stuff during the cruise.

 

 

 

 

After our bellies were full we headed up to the Bier Garten to hang out for a while waiting for the sunset to get a few pictures. My daughter entertained me with a few pictures. She has a personality like mommy and daddy and in a split second she can change things up. Never a dull moment.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I always take a lot of pictures of the sunset each cruise but I’m kind of to the point where a sunset in the Caribbean is a sunset. Been there, done that and they all start to look the same. I took a few this cruise, but not as much as I usually do.

 

 

 

We took the munchkin to the kids club after she had begged and begged to go visit her friends and she had fun doing Nickelodeon Activities without Dora & Spongebob because they were busy on the Epic instead. (I wish they had the characters on all the NCL ships).

 

Daddy and I headed to the casino of course. I wanted to make sure that NCL was able to get their money’s worth out of me this cruise. My husband had other plans and like the last day, he did well. I think after the last 3 cruises, he has been a little upset at me for being the one to win all the time and he finally put his foot down and decided he was the winner on this cruise. (Shhh, don’t tell him, I secretly let him be the winner this time. I mean a man can only take so much right?)

 

Now let’s discuss the bathrooms at the Casino. Hmmm…of course I can only vouch for the women’s restroom. Well, I could almost vouch for the men’s; my husband stopped me once or twice from entering the men’s restroom. I tell ya my GPS just was NOT working this entire cruise. One of the stall was constantly getting stopped up. I’m not sure if something about the Casino brought out an explosion in someone there every night of the week, but it was always stopped up or over flowing..then eventually out of order only for the same thing to happen the following night. The a/c or something must have been leaking in there because there were puddles on the floor (not beside a toilet or the sink) that would gather every day. There was a stall that didn’t have a lock on it AT ALL. Like we are talking no lock and just a peep hole. If you were the lucky one to have to use that stall, you better have a fast reaction to grabbing the door when others tried to open it. Thank goodness all my years of motherhood paid off for me and I have a pretty fast reaction. There was another stall that the door was kind of broken or at least off the hinge at the bottom and the door shut crooked and looked as if it was going to fall off. I find this all not up to par with any of the NCL’s I have been on. Not at all up to par. What was going on?

 

Drinks at the bar (for us soda card people)…never had any problems getting a drink when ask. I pretty much had my husband trained by the first few days. I would hand him the soda cards and he would go get them. They knew him in a short period of time and knew exactly what he was there to get and got it without him even telling them after a few days. As always, it was poured from a 2 liter and was always loaded with ice and tasted watered down. You want good fountain pop that’s not watered down? Head to the Red Lion or buffet. That’s where you will find it. There was only 1 other place that had the fountain soda and I never did hear where he said it was nor did I find it.

 

Ok, time to pick up our daughter and grab dinner at 10:30 and then back to the room to pack for our port day in Belize tomorrow. Away I went…the wrong direction again. Don’t worry, my GPS told me to “please turn around and head the other direction when it is safe to do so”.

 

Muchkin came back with her face painted. She claimed she was a giraffe tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

It's too bad she ate most of her face paint off with her meal.

 

We went to the Blue Lagoon and I ordered the Fish and Chips. It was pretty good. I topped it off with my favorite…cheesecake made my way…plain cheesecake (no strawberry topping frou-frou or icky chocolate) and top that baby with some cream!!! Cream all over. Actually just give me a plate full of cream and throw a piece of cheesecake as a topping on it and I’ll be fine.

 

Remember that mixed personality Sakari has? She went from this:

 

to asleep in about 5 minutes and had to be carried by daddy back to the room.

 

This night Santa had left Sakari chocolate mints on mommy and daddys pillows again and he made her an elephant. It had my Santa hat on. I guess he was feeling festive that day. She woke up long enough to eat her mints, scream with excitement about the towel animal, get her face washed off and she was out!

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I was packing and looking through all of my paperwork for the next port day (you know the OCD stuff I have in folders) and I looked down on our desk full of collected papers that I keep for use with my scrapbook after the cruise and what do I find? The tickets for the “Silver” latitude party that we missed today!!! GASP…oh no. We missed a meeting with more free drinks? How could this have happened? Darn. I could have been a winner this time around. The group had to be smaller than the last. Kicking myself now but what can you do? I’ll have to catch it next time around to see what is different about it compared to the Bronze.

 

For those of you that were following the Star when she had her little accident in Bermuda and hit another ship due to high winds several months ago…if you are wondering…nope, they did not fix her fender bender. I checked.

 

 

 

 

Back at the room, I think this was the day I ran in to the room steward finally and told him about leaving the beds the way we had them and he had left them that way and guess what? I did notice the big dust bunnies on the floor had been captured and taken away to dust bunny heaven. That was a positive thing. However, still the same old wet towels from day one. I had finally had enough and took out my handy-dandy notebook (no wait that’s from Blue’s Clues)…I took out the card that the staff had given us the day before at the meet & greet and called to let them know our towels had not been changed since the first day and I was getting a little tired of using wet towels. They said they would send someone up with fresh towels. Now I’m a water freak, just like my daughter. But I like to take showers 2-3 times a day. I always take one when I wake up so that I can wake the body up and get moving and wet my hair so that I can fix it for the day. I take a hot shower in the evening so that I can relax my body and go to sleep easier. Then while on the ship of course you are talking more showers after swimming or being at the beach. I had some wet towels!!! Plus I need 2 towels, one to dry off with and one to put my hair up in when I get out. Two gentlemen dressed up like they were important arrived at the door about 20 minutes later with fresh towels. I ask if they wanted the old ones and then grabbed a couple that I had hung up on the outside of the door to attempt to dry them. One of the guys immediately said that I needed to throw them on the floor in order to get fresh towels. I told them they had been on the floor once, but I ended up having to hang them up because I needed dry towels to use since I didn’t get any fresh ones. He just kept telling me that I needed to make sure that I threw everything on the floor to get new ones in the future. It was kind of strange because he was telling me this all in a very argumentative way. Hmmm, I’m from a time that you don’t argue with a customer. Explaining is one thing, but this guy got argumentative and defensive. It was just weird and I had never been spoken to this way by any NCL employee. So after that…all towels, hand rags, washrags ended up on the floor! Guess what happens after I do that? My extra 4th towel went away never to return again and 2 of my washrags went away never to return again. Hmmm…were they punishing me? I also noticed funny little things that I could not do anything but chuckle at; my husbands clothes, no matter where they were at, would always been folded and put somewhere...either on the bed, the chair or the table. Mine...never touched. Still wadded up where I took them off at even if they were beside the hubbys. LOL

 

Like I’ve said, I’m not really the complaining type, so I left it at that and never said another word. I chalked this up to having the absolute worse steward service I’ve ever had on any cruise. More bad service to come…

 

I just noticed I posted the wrong towel animal for the night...like I said it was an elephant...not the turkey/peacock picture that I posted. That was the following night...lol

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Since I’m on that “negative” side right now, I’ll go ahead and mention a few other negatives during the cruise. Those of you that are Star lovers, hide your eyes and just skip this part. I know there are tons of people who just LOVE the Star and have sailed on her several times and have additional sailings booked on her, but this is my opinion and what I experienced and I can only compare THIS ship to the others in the fleet I have sailed. So here goes…

 

Back to the restrooms. If you decide you have to potty when you are up at the pool deck area, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT go in to the ladies restroom and hit the first stall you come to. I disappeared for a while and panicked when I went in here one night and couldn’t get out. I was the only one in here and no matter what I did; turning the handle, moving the lock back and forth, nothing worked. What was I going to do? I did the only thing I could do…I kicked the door until it broke open. Whew…you talk about scared and wondering how long it would be before someone entered this restroom to save me. Now, later in the cruise, during the day, it was crowded and I bypassed this known “can’t get out” stall and another person was in there and…yep, locked in and couldn’t get out. Obviously another passenger in there had the same thing happen to her before. You hear the faint cries of someone saying “Can someone help me? I’m locked in and can’t get out. Someone please help me”. Another passenger told them “kick the door”. She did…nothing. She kept kicking and kicking and finally the door opened. What I had discovered was that the door handle opens and turns ONLY from the outside and not the inside. When you turned the inside handle the handle moved but not the “guts” to the door therefore not opening.

Other restrooms I witnessed locks missing in them too. These were public restrooms located in hallways on the main floors on the main decks (like 6, 7 & 8). I have never seen such despair on one of NCL’s ships before. This was really taken me and the hubby off guard.

The food I felt was really not up to par compared to our other cruises. I’m not sure why. There was a lot of “runniness” going on this cruise. I had them make me the alfredo sauce in the buffet one night and it was VERY runny/thin/watered down and just not like I’ve had on the other ships. The ranch salad dressing…very runny/thin/watered down as well. The food they had at the buffet was a hit or miss depending on what time you got there I believe. Some things were tasty, others were pretty bland. Not the normal for any of my other NCL cruises either.

Let’s talk about the cups the soda was now served in. All of my previous cruises, you were served in the hard plastic cups, which would vary in size depending on the bar tender or if you ask for a bigger/taller cup. This time…there was nothing but really thin, cheap throw away clear plastic cups. They were VERY small in size and of course they always load it completely full with ice and then give you a shot of soda in it. Guess what? They saw my face and husbands face about three times more this cruise than any normal cruise because 3 sips and it was gone. In my opinion…very wasteful if they are attempting to save money by using throw away cups now versus having to wash cups. It just seemed so cheap. Anyone know if this has went fleet wide? Or just this ship?

The soda cups that are provided by NCL when you have the soda program where changed a little bit (for the good). They use to have lids you had to peel off the top, which sometimes was hard to do. They have now switched them to a screw on type lid. That was a positive move and it was easier to open. Good job NCL. The shape of the cup did not change since our Pearl cruise in March, but there was a different design. (Previous cruises had different designs and types of cups).

 

Remember the picture I showed of Gatsby’s lounge in the upper level where Ginza is located? Did you look at the buckets all over the floor with the caution tape at the steps? Hmmm, wonder why there was a leak there? It showed up later in the cruise. More a/c leaking or something else? I never heard.

The carpet…throughout the Star. It seemed like every time I turned around, there was either carpet coming up in an area causing a “hump” that I would trip on (or the hubby tripped once too) or a spot in the carpet where it felt like you “sank” down a little in a spot like the floor was weak? We noticed a lot of carpet issues like this all around the ship. Once again, not up to par with the other NCL ships that I’ve sailed. I thought I had read not too long ago someone posting that they read that the Star was for sale. I’m not sure if that is correct but every time we noticed something that just didn’t seem right, my husband said…”it has to be that they are just not keeping the maintenance up on this ship because they plan on getting rid of it”. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s just not the standard for NCL…or at least what I have noticed on any of the others. I was kind of saddened by this.

 

There were small little things here and there like lights burned out, but I understand things can’t be perfect all the time, especially when a light burns out or something. That’s not exactly a “safety” issue that would harm a cruiser. The carpet and the bathrooms…sorry that’s unacceptable.

 

Ok, enough of the few "ship" negatives that I wanted to mention for now. On to more “stuff”…(and yes there are more negatives...I will get to them later.) :rolleyes:

 

 

[kwbound]

Since I’m on that “negative” side right now, I’ll go ahead and mention a few other negatives during the cruise. Those of you that are Star lovers, hide your eyes and just skip this part. I know there are tons of people who just LOVE the Star and have sailed on her several times and have additional sailings booked on her, but this is my opinion and what I experienced and I can only compare THIS ship to the others in the fleet I have sailed. So here goes…

 

Back to the restrooms. If you decide you have to potty when you are up at the pool deck area, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT go in to the ladies restroom and hit the first stall you come to. I disappeared for a while and panicked when I went in here one night and couldn’t get out. I was the only one in here and no matter what I did; turning the handle, moving the lock back and forth, nothing worked. What was I going to do? I did the only thing I could do…I kicked the door until it broke open. Whew…you talk about scared and wondering how long it would be before someone entered this restroom to save me. Now, later in the cruise, during the day, it was crowded and I bypassed this known “can’t get out” stall and another person was in there and…yep, locked in and couldn’t get out. Obviously another passenger in there had the same thing happen to her before. You hear the faint cries of someone saying “Can someone help me? I’m locked in and can’t get out. Someone please help me”. Another passenger told them “kick the door”. She did…nothing. She kept kicking and kicking and finally the door opened. What I had discovered was that the door handle opens and turns ONLY from the outside and not the inside. When you turned the inside handle the handle moved but not the “guts” to the door therefore not opening.

Other restrooms I witnessed locks missing in them too. These were public restrooms located in hallways on the main floors on the main decks (like 6, 7 & 8). I have never seen such despair on one of NCL’s ships before. This was really taken me and the hubby off guard.

The food I felt was really not up to par compared to our other cruises. I’m not sure why. There was a lot of “runniness” going on this cruise. I had them make me the alfredo sauce in the buffet one night and it was VERY runny/thin/watered down and just not like I’ve had on the other ships. The ranch salad dressing…very runny/thin/watered down as well. The food they had at the buffet was a hit or miss depending on what time you got there I believe. Some things were tasty, others were pretty bland. Not the normal for any of my other NCL cruises either.

Let’s talk about the cups the soda was now served in. All of my previous cruises, you were served in the hard plastic cups, which would vary in size depending on the bar tender or if you ask for a bigger/taller cup. This time…there was nothing but really thin, cheap throw away clear plastic cups. They were VERY small in size and of course they always load it completely full with ice and then give you a shot of soda in it. Guess what? They saw my face and husbands face about three times more this cruise than any normal cruise because 3 sips and it was gone. In my opinion…very wasteful if they are attempting to save money by using throw away cups now versus having to wash cups. It just seemed so cheap. Anyone know if this has went fleet wide? Or just this ship?

The soda cups that are provided by NCL when you have the soda program where changed a little bit (for the good). They use to have lids you had to peel off the top, which sometimes was hard to do. They have now switched them to a screw on type lid. That was a positive move and it was easier to open. Good job NCL. The shape of the cup did not change since our Pearl cruise in March, but there was a different design. (Previous cruises had different designs and types of cups).

 

Remember the picture I showed of Gatsby’s lounge in the upper level where Ginza is located? Did you look at the buckets all over the floor with the caution tape at the steps? Hmmm, wonder why there was a leak there? It showed up later in the cruise. More a/c leaking or something else? I never heard.

The carpet…throughout the Star. It seemed like every time I turned around, there was either carpet coming up in an area causing a “hump” that I would trip on (or the hubby tripped once too) or a spot in the carpet where it felt like you “sank” down a little in a spot like the floor was weak? We noticed a lot of carpet issues like this all around the ship. Once again, not up to par with the other NCL ships that I’ve sailed. I thought I had read not too long ago someone posting that they read that the Star was for sale. I’m not sure if that is correct but every time we noticed something that just didn’t seem right, my husband said…”it has to be that they are just not keeping the maintenance up on this ship because they plan on getting rid of it”. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s just not the standard for NCL…or at least what I have noticed on any of the others. I was kind of saddened by this.

 

There were small little things here and there like lights burned out, but I understand things can’t be perfect all the time, especially when a light burns out or something. That’s not exactly a “safety” issue that would harm a cruiser. The carpet and the bathrooms…sorry that’s unacceptable.

 

Ok, enough of the few "ship" negatives that I wanted to mention for now. On to more “stuff”…(and yes there are more negatives...I will get to them later.) :rolleyes:

 

 

 

Gosh, I hate to hear all of this, but I appreciate your honest review. We found many similar housekeeping/service (or lack there of) issues on the Pride of America in 2010. (Including 2 roaches in our cabin :eek:) I'll take the dustbunnies over bugs! We were hoping those problems were due to her American crew and that the problems weren't fleet wide. We are still planning on sailing her in February. The Star is the only ship of any line sailing from New Orleans or Galveston that has a 4-stop itinerary. All of the other ships omit Costa Maya and I really want to visit that port.

 

I'm loving your review and can't wait to hear about Belize. We are having a difficult time deciding what to do there.

[mitsugirly]

Day 4; Belize City, Belize. 8am-5:30pm

 

I have to admit, I’m not one of those that normally book an NCL excursion. After all, I’m a member on Cruise Critic where there is a wealth of information of places to go and things to do on your own for half the cost and a longer period of time to get your money’s worth.

 

Last time we were in Belize, we did the cavetubing with .bz and LOVED it. It was the greatest, informative tour ever. The food was good, the experience was a once in a lifetime for most, and just something you would never experience anywhere else (holding tarantulas, eating termites to name a few). But, things have changed since we went last September and they now have a height restriction on their tours (which means our now 4 year old can no longer do the tour again until she is “taller”…even though she is a “big girl” according to her).

 

So, after A LOT of research, we decided since this was a tender island, it just made sense to book an NCL excursion that took us DIRECTLY off of the ship and to where we were going. This meant that we would be one of the first to get off the ship, not have to wait in a line to tender to the main port then another tender to where we were going if by boat like this tour, and we would have our own tender with just the people that were going on the excursion.

 

We booked Bannister Island. A lot of people have said they enjoyed this place and how beautiful it was. Yes, I read all of the complaints about wearing your water shoes to the island because the sand was not the powdery soft stuff but instead it was the crushed up shells and would hurt your feet. This does not bother me; we wear our water shoes to each port we go to every time no matter what. No biggie. I figured it was worth a shot. I like to do different things...unless it's just one of those places I ABSOLUTELY adore and have to go again next time in port (so far, my "have to repeat places" have only been Maho Beach in St Marteen, Sapphire Beach in St Thomas & Chankanaab in Cozumel).

 

I viewed pictures of people sitting on the benches under the papalas IN the water…it seems to be “the” thing to take your picture there. I viewed the pictures of the really neat fan-like palm tree where everyone has to have their picture taken too. One of the biggest things that lured me to this island was everyone reporting that they managed to see starfish there. Also, others had reported it was possible to see a manatee or some dolphins at certain times. Who could pass this up? I had to try it!

 

We started our day (after eating breakfast) up by the Bier Garten to watch as we settled in to our “spot” in the ocean in Belize. I could see an island way off in the distance. Could this be Bannister Island? I ask one of the employees and he said, “Yes, that is Bannister Island”.

 

 

 

The Dawn had followed us in and I managed to get a couple of pictures of her. She circled around us and parked. We could see a Carnival ship that parked off in a distance. I guess they didn’t want to socialize with the NCL fleet over here. I meant to look on our t.v once we got back to the room that day to see if the bridge cam would show us looking at the Dawn (thinking people viewing the webcam on the boards would be able to see a ship in front of us) but I forgot.

 

 

 

 

 

I was excited to see her and have Sakari meet her since this is the "sister" of the Star and what we are going on next year. I explained this "sister" part to Sakari like her and her big sissy are sisters. So she called it the sister from here on out.

 

We headed for our meeting in the Stardust Lounge. We were told to be there by 8am and then they would take us down to the tender to board. People, when you are told to be there by 8, BE THERE BY 8! Everyone else is. Come on, it’s not that hard. If I can do it lugging a 4 year old around, you can do it when you are half my age and you’re just a couple (2 people). Geesh. I have never seen so many “late” young couples in all my life to ALL of the excursions they had going on. The 7:45am groups were held until 8:30 when he finally announced “Ok, everyone here is my witness…I waited an extra half hour on these people, we are leaving”. 8:30…REALLY? Then minutes later couples come WALKING in saying they are there for the 7:45 group. Really? NCL was doing a wonderful job on their walkie-talkies telling the group that already left that people are coming still and having one of their employees running them down the hallways to “try” to catch up to the group before it left. Some made it, some didn’t. I hate to admit it, but I don’t feel sorry for those that didn’t make it. It’s your fault. You held up everyone else that should have already been on their way to their excursion but waited around for you an extra 45+ minutes. Ridiculous.

 

So now it was our turn…yep, you guessed it. We waited around until 8:45am for a tour that was supposed to start at 8am. Ugh! This is only a 4 hour trip, which includes transportation to and from the ship! Do you really think I want to cut in to my vacation beach time that much? Especially for something THAT expensive? I was ready to take names and _______...well you get the idea. Once they gathered us up and we headed down to get on the tender can you all guess what happened? There were actually people running and pushing their way through our 8:45 line to try to make their 7:45am tour. HA! I don’t think so. You were left!

 

Once we got on to the tender they told us that instead of leaving at 12 noon (when our 4 hour excursion was over), they would allow us to stay until 12:30. Ok, so that made up for SOME of the time. I still think it’s crappy that you only get 4 hours on most of the beach excursions. Why do you have to leave at noon when the ship is there until 5:30pm and all aboard isn’t until 4:30??? There should be an option at least. We were told it was a 30 minute ride to Bannister and we headed off…in a different direction than the island I had taken pictures of earlier when an employee confirmed that was indeed Bannister Island. (Rolling my eyes now) They said they would be picking us up at the same place they dropped us off at and they would take us directly back to the ship. If we wanted to go in to port, we could then catch a tender from the ship.