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

[mitsugirly]

Awesome review and pictures. Thank you for your time to share it.

 

Happy New Year

 

Thank you. Happy New Year to you too.

 

All I can say is WOW. Your review' date=' and pictures, are truly amazing. Do you ever sleep? It seems as if you are up all times of the day and night posting on CC. Thanks for all of the beautiful photos and information[/quote']

 

Nope, never sleep. LOL Well maybe a few hours here and there but once school starts up, I'll never sleep. :cool:

[mitsugirly]

We board Sunday. I feel like I already know the ship. :D

 

Trust me, I didn't even know the ship before I left. I called my husband my personal GPS. I could never figure out where we were or which way to turn. :p

 

 

I have to say, Kim is doing a stand-up job with her review as well. Kudos to both of you. :D

 

Why thank you :takes a bow: :D

[mitsugirly]

I did announce the slot pull during the M&G. About 12 people showed up, so I guess a few people did hear me at least. People did clear out fast though.

 

Maybe that was when I was taking info from a few roll call members about seeing if their charger would fit my camera. I'm not sure. I didn't hear the announcement. :o

 

Mitsugirly, really enjoying your review. The top 3 things I remember from our cruise on the Star were...

 

1. Never any people in that forward hot tub...and it aways looked so nice and inviting! I agree. I wish we would have had a chance to get in it and try it out. But I do have to admit, it was pretty windy up there in the front.

 

2. The Elements show was fabulous! COMPLETELY agree!!!

 

3. Our dang bed was as hard as a rock and the sheets seemed to be made from sandpaper (we were in a deck 9 midship balcony). They really need to do something about those uncomfortable beds!!!

 

Keep up the great review...and your daughter is adorable! Thanks so much.

 

~Michele:D

 

I'll keep trucking away...:D

[mitsugirly]

Awesome review and pictures. Thank you for your time to share it.

 

Happy New Year

 

Well hello there gambee's mom. Your son inspired me to write my review this way. You must be so proud of him. He did an excellent job on the Allure. :)

 

Hello hello' date=' mom pointed me to your review, I just started wondering around this area of the forum today. Since she has much more free time than me, she quickly noticed your review.

 

First of all I want to thank you for mentioning me in your thread, that is very nice of you. I enjoy every post you did on my review and I very much appreciated it.

 

Second of all I wanted to ask you what exactly you meant by "Kev", my mom and I are puzzled by it. I can honestly say that I am not sure what you mean by it.

 

I also wanted to know how my review changed the way you do reviews, did you mean by posting all the pictures in the thread or something else.

 

This is the only post I've read so far, but I promise to go full in tomorrow. I just had a very long day at work and I am ready to crash in bed.

 

I am not sure if you noticed, but my signature is now showing Breakaway ;), we are super excited about that trip. It will be review heaven for me :D. But more on that later, I don't plan on highjacking your thread.

 

I will see you around, can't wait to start reading your review tomorrow.[/quote']

 

GASP, it's the real Gambee! I'm honored that you showed up.

 

Your review changed the way I did this review in many ways. Before I pretty much gave thoughts about the ship, posted the limited 6 pictures and then gave a link the the rest of the pictures to view on my Smugmug account.

 

I would have 1 post for the hotel, 1 post for the ship, 1 post per port. I did this so that when someone is asking a question (say over on the Roatan port board), I would respond if it was something that I have done before or would suggest and I could link them to JUST the 1 post and pictures for that post. That way they wouldn't have to weed through tons and tons of pages and post.

 

However, I enjoyed the way you did your review, giving your thoughts and what you did daily and just the details alone inpired me. Putting all of the pictures in there was an added bonus (no need to go looking somewhere else and clicking on pictures to go to the next).

 

Now I have to apologize about the "Kev" thing. I did discover this several post back and gave my apologies for it. But, I got you mixed up with another poster that was posting a review. Then when he came on here, I noticed that the screen name was different and that's when I put 2 and 2 together and seen that I had made a mistake. So sorry Gambee! (and Kev).

 

Wow, the Breakaway. Lucky you! I was planning on booking the Breakaway....until I seen the outrageous prices. :eek: I will have to wait until the prices come down in a few years. (Although my daughter is trying to convince me that if we did the 12 hour drive there and saved on the airflight tickets, we could go and it would only cost us $60+ more each person). :D

[medicalma'am]

So, all the friendly back and forth posts are fun to read. Too bad about your M&G....all of them that I have attended have been fun afterwards exchanging gifts and visiting.

 

I am also from Ohio, near Toledo (tiny farming town). Dad worked for NASA so we ended up in Houston.

 

I had read your review on Maya Chan in my research, and your pics of it are the reason that I booked it for my family on our upcoming cruise. Anxious to see if you went there again.

 

I am off the weekend but will be going in to verify MARs (medication administration records.....about 300 pages worth! :eek: ) But I will get 'comp' time to use for more cruises and vacations! So I will be checking back for more of your stellar Star stories.

[mitsugirly]

So' date=' all the friendly back and forth posts are fun to read. Too bad about your M&G....all of them that I have attended have been fun afterwards exchanging gifts and visiting.

 

I am also from Ohio, near Toledo (tiny farming town). Dad worked for NASA so we ended up in Houston.

 

I had read your review on Maya Chan in my research, and your pics of it are the reason that I booked it for my family on our upcoming cruise. Anxious to see if you went there again.

 

I am off the weekend but will be going in to verify MARs (medication administration records.....about 300 pages worth! :eek: ) But I will get 'comp' time to use for more cruises and vacations! So I will be checking back for more of your stellar Star stories.[/size']

 

Hi there fellow Ohioan! Welcome to my review.

 

No, we did not go back to Maya Chan this time. We loved it there, but we were on the search for the nice crystal clear blue Caribbean water and booked at a new place (Almaplena). It proved to be a wise choice and we loved it there. There are good and bad in both places and I will point everything out in my upcoming port review (since Costa Maya comes first) :)

[mitsugirly]

When we arrived at the Spinnaker Lounge, the staff was collecting your ticket to get in and patrolling the area to make sure people like the cookie snatching guy at our meet & greet didn’t get by to take all the freebies.

 

When we entered, wow…IT WAS PACKED. I guess I should have figured it would be. I mean NCL does make you a latitude member after your first cruise. But I guess I just didn’t think it would be that packed.

 

 

I had no idea what to expect. I just came for the free booze! I had never gone to the party because it just sounded kinda cheezy. Standing around having a glass of wine with people you don’t know? Talking about maybe your next cruise? I don’t know. I had no idea what they do there. I just always thought it would be awkward.

 

We sat down on one of the couches toward the back and the staff came around with the premade drink selection. They had white wine, red wine, rum punch, and some type of banana thing I think. I played it safe and took the rum punch, the hubby took the yellow contraption and they were fabulous. (We are not wind drinkers and have never acquired the taste for it). There was a couple sitting beside us and I do have to mention “older”, well “much older”, like probably late 80’s older. She had white wine. She had white wine. She had white wine. Then when the waiter passed by, yep, you guessed it, she had white wine. She did not let anyone past her without grabbing another. I think she was drinking 3 per my one. My husband and I sat there with our mouths open and had to keep pushing our jaw up. Man that lady could put away the wine! They also came around serving snacks, cheese and some type of thing (that I did not like) that looked like a sponge on the bottom with shrimp and other toppings on them. Can someone tell me what these spongy, bland things are? I would later see them at the café being dipped in chocolate???

 

We spent the next 10 minutes scanning the entire room (it was pretty dark in there) thinking to ourselves “there is NO WAY we are going to find those 2 roll call people that might possibly have a charger for my camera in here”. My husband actually got up at one point and walked up and down each isle trying to spot them while I saved his seat. They finally found me instead. The charger was a no-go. You talk about disappointment settling in all over again. I looked toward my right where the older lady was sitting and now wished that I was in her position and just plastered so I wouldn’t feel the pain that was settling in now.

 

Then they thanked us for being members and had a drawing. If they called your room number, you won something. Do I remember what they won? Nope, sure don’t. I didn’t win, so I didn’t care.

 

 

Once the meeting was over, we made a mad dash for the doors and I headed…um, I don’t know where I was heading. I thought I was heading toward the room so that we could get our bathing suits on but the hubby quickly informed me I was going the wrong way.

 

Once we made it back to the room, the room steward had cleaned the room and moved our bed back to the middle??? I thought that was strange. So, I moved it back to where we wanted it against the wall so we had more room. What do you think I seen when I moved them back to the wall? Yep, the dust bunnies were still there. I did think it was strange that we had not met our room steward at all yet. No site of him and no stopping by for introductions like our previous cruises. This would be about the same the remainder of the cruise with the exception of once and it was only long enough for me to tell him to leave the beds where I put them (in a nice way of course and I gave him an explanation of why) and to tell him to remove the items that I had taken out of the fridge that had been sitting on the counter the last three days he was there (no I didn’t say the last three days, but just simply ask him to remove them out of the room). That was the first and last time we ever seen him. Every cruise I have been on with NCL, the room steward was around the first day, introducing themselves to us and we would see them every day and they would call us by name and ask if we needed anything. Not this one! I had also noticed that 2 of our towels had not been changed out and we only had 2 pool towels.

 

We changed in to our bathing suits and headed for the kiddie pool. I went out the door one way and the hubby went the other. Oops, I went the wrong way again. Reverse! Now, remember my “tour” of the ship? Well remember how you walk through the buffet in order to get to the kiddie pool? I thought it was odd to have to walk through there every time to get to the pool. It felt strange. Walking back through there all wet with our bathing suits on felt even worse. I did not like this layout.

 

Sakari had some fun in the pool trying each of the slides a few times…and well you know the rest of the story from the report a few pages back. Chlorine water, small slides, small pool, no room to sit. Yes, I plopped down on the pool deck and remained there until she decided she wanted to go to the big pool because I think this just wasn’t too fun for her and I know it sure wasn’t fun for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the big pool…in order for all the evil eyes to glare at me while I looked like a bad mom. Remember that story? We won’t get in to it again. I have recovered from it now and wish to never relive it again. It will be another 5 months from now when she will get back in another pool…I really hope she doesn’t forget to swim upon hitting salt water again. If she does I’m blaming it on daddy and he can look like the bad person this time around.

Edited December 29, 2012 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

Once we were done swimming we went back to the room to change and head to get a bite to eat. The munchkin wanted to go visit her friends and we dropped her off at the kids club. It was the Princess Day and I knew she would like that. The dailies showed that they would be having a Princess Parade later and every single cruise we have missed any of the parades they’ve had. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss them this time around. On our March Pearl cruise, we missed it, but my oldest daughter did manage to catch her little sister parading through the buffet area that night and got me a picture.

 

We headed to the gift shop and purchased me a tee shirt and cap combo and scoped out what stuffed animals they had to offer. Sakari always gets a stuffed animal from the shop each cruise and they still remain some of her favorites.

 

For those of you that have heard rumors about NCL closing their kids club every day from 12-2 and 5-7pm in order for the parents to actually take the time to feed their kids (yes, I still can’t get over this…who drops their kids off in the morning and don’t come back until 10:30pm to pick up your child(ren) and not feed them all day??? It’s sad that NCL has to adapt a policy like this in order to make sure that the kids aren’t being left there and not fed. However, people like US are not on that “feeding” schedule. We eat dinner LATE and always have because of my work hours. So, picking our daughter up at 5pm is not going to get her anything but a snack because I guarantee right before that, she had just had lunch, so it’s snack time for her if anything)…whew, anyhow…I believe that each ship must be adapting their own policy. The Star’s policy at the time we were there: they were only closed between 5-7pm on Monday and Saturday only. Not too bad. But still, it kind of takes the “freestyle” out of the cruise if they are closing at specific times because we may be planning a show or something at that time. It just makes planning a little more difficult.

 

We headed to the Casino, I didn’t do too badly, not as good as I usually do, but the hubby was doing good again. He must have rubbed a Genie in a bottle prior to coming or something because he has NEVER had any luck on slots…NEVER.

 

Once we had spent our slot play money we decided to head out and stroll around…we hear this really loud chanting and singing…Oops, we completely forgot once again that the kids were having their Princess parade around the ship. YIKES. I’m fumbling to get my camera out of my purse and hoping there is a little bit of life left in the battery to get a picture…it didn’t fail me. (I had been conserving the battery all day long knowing that once this second sister camera died, I was done).

 

 

 

 

 

After a few pictures, I looked at the hubby and told him, ok there is NO WAY I’m going this entire cruise without a camera. We are going to the photo shop on board and see if they have a battery charger…anything. I’m warning you ahead of time, if they don’t we are purchasing another camera! He did not question me at all. He knows how I am with my pictures and cameras. This was like the worse disaster ever-to be camera less.

 

When we got to the photo store…no battery chargers. No universal chargers…no chargers period. Grrrr. Ok, plan 2 and one that I didn’t want to resort to. I ask the employee where you would be able to buy a charger in port. I’m informed that the only place that I would probably have any luck would be Cozumel and unfortunately that was our last stop. Ok, plan 3…show me your cameras that are waterproof. We spent about an hour there testing cameras, getting information and I walked out with my new camera. An Olympus Tough something or other in BRIGHT PINK! Ha! It really sucked that I had a new camera that worked nothing like my old one and I had to try to learn all of this by tomorrow morning for the first port…Costa Maya. The employee suggested that I go around taking tons of pictures tonight to drain the battery all the way and give it a full nights charge. So, I did just that practicing. I am one of those people that will accept and adapt to change (I have to be while working at the hospital and all), but learning something new in a short period of time like this with no training is just unnerving to me.

 

We let our daughter pick out 2 items from the store. She wisely chose a dolphin that was rubber and she would be able to play with it in the water and she also picked out a “Willie” stuffed whale and carried him around everywhere she went for the rest of the cruise…even to the kids club.

 

 

 

 

Once my camera died, we all headed back to the room to start the charge and get ready for bed. Hmm, still no clean towels and 1 wash rag is missing. Wow, Santa brought Sakari more mints. He’s such a nice Santa. Santa also made another towel animal…but of course I didn’t have a camera with a charged battery. Three cameras’ that was useless. The hubby did manage to get a picture with his phone, but I don’t have it.

 

 

Tomorrow was our first port, arriving in Costa Maya at 10am. So, I set the not-so-loud-across-the-room phone to wake us up at 7:30am.

[lostone65]

I am OCD about alarm clocks. I always have 3 alarms set to wake me in the morning, my regular alarm clock with battery back up, my cell phone in case the electricity goes out and the battery back up fails and a wind up alarm in case the cell phone fails to go off when the electricity goes out and the battery back up fails. I am paranoid about being late. So that said I had a travel alarm for the cruise, my cell phone alarm (but I worried it wouldn't go off since the time kept messing up on the ship and the cabin phone that I didn't hear on the first morning because it was way to quiet. So this of course gave me heart palpitations with the thought of possibly oversleeping and missing our shore excursions. Upon close examination of thee cabin I noticed a volume button towards the bottom below thee keypad!! I turned it up as loud as it would go and let me tell you it was very loud! Anxiety level decreased substantially!

 

Sent from my HTC Rezound using Tapatalk 2

[riddle]

Kim,

 

I think we were on the Pearl with you last Feb (ended first part of March I believe). We are considering the Star for a quick decision cruise. I also have huge problems getting away for time reasons with my job but I just happened to notice the end of January looks like a possibility. We also live in Ohio (Cincinnati). Woke up to about 4 inches of snow this morning. My son & DIL and baby are in Columbus flying out SW to SF tomorrow. I hope they get out ok.

 

Anyway, feel like I know you (that is a huge compliment that your reviews are so friendly and conversational). I know you did not see the spa (they give tours on day one). We will definitely have to get a spa package if we go (DH loves it there). I am just wondering if we will be disappointed with the spa after going on the Epic in November and the Pearl before that - anyone???

 

Will we feel any disappointment between the Star and the Jewel ships and/or Epic. Leaving out of NOLA works for us as we drive and we can make it in one day. DH just retired so we have to watch the nickels much closer.

 

Thanks for anyone's input and great review/pictures. Made my Saturday morning!

[gambee]

 

 

 

You know just last week I was out with my bf taking pictures of the ships leaving port and I saw a big Orca whale flying :D, my bf had to google it for me. The plane looked pretty cool!

 

 

This Picture is just AWSOME!!!! Love it!!!!

 

 

 

 

This picture reminds me of the new ship hull design for NCL Getaway that Miami is getting in 2014. I wonder if it is the same artist? maybe not, they seem have different lines.

 

 

 

Now I also have to tell you, I’m a planner. No, you don’t get it, I’M A PLANNER!!!! I research and read for MONTHS on everything. I read reviews; I ask tons of questions, I have everything planned. I make spread sheets with EVERY single charge that we will spend to the tee. I ask anyone that has been to a certain place how much the cab ride was, how much were drinks, how much was food, I ask for menus…you name it. I make folders containing each port/place we will visit, an air flight folder, ship folder, food folder, taxi folder…you get the picture. In said folder I have printed maps, typed up hints/tips, spread sheet from above, any emails for proof needed, printed receipts and confirmation numbers, and an envelope that contains the exact amount we are to spend on each. I know I’m a little OCD but it has always worked for me and I’ve been doing this since I was 18 and doing land vacations every year. It helps plan the trip and budget it and it works for me. People ask all the time about how to set up a cash on board account and how it all works…well, this girl knows how and does it and up until now, I’ve walked away every time with THEM owing ME less than $10.00. Insert my praise here please.

 

 

 

You know I am having a hard time with Breakaway and the planning situation, I am almost as bag in planning as you're. But being a brand new ship, the information is not out there yet and it probably wont be out there until I board her in May. This will be one of those cruises that I will just have to dive into it and plan once on board. Whatever little info there is, I take and analyze it over and over again, lol.

 

 

Yeah we are definitely lucky about being able to go on this cruise, initially we had booked celebrity reflection, but after reading a lot we both decided it was not the cruise for us. So I started researching and I figured that we could stretch the budget a little and go on Breakaway. And maybe also enjoy NY for one day. The other option was Carnival Breeze, but I was not sure about that one.

 

By the way are using a tripod for the low light pictures? they came out very clear.

 

One more thing, after reading your review I noticed that I missed a lot of ceilings from the Allure, you definitely got a lot of them in this review. I already wrote a little note, to be more careful not to miss them next time. Thank you =)

 

 

I am truly enjoying your review, I am glad this new format is working for you. It takes a lot of work to do it, but it is a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Edited December 29, 2012 by gambee

[mitsugirly]

I am OCD about alarm clocks. I always have 3 alarms set to wake me in the morning, my regular alarm clock with battery back up, my cell phone in case the electricity goes out and the battery back up fails and a wind up alarm in case the cell phone fails to go off when the electricity goes out and the battery back up fails. I am paranoid about being late. So that said I had a travel alarm for the cruise, my cell phone alarm (but I worried it wouldn't go off since the time kept messing up on the ship and the cabin phone that I didn't hear on the first morning because it was way to quiet. So this of course gave me heart palpitations with the thought of possibly oversleeping and missing our shore excursions. Upon close examination of thee cabin I noticed a volume button towards the bottom below thee keypad!! I turned it up as loud as it would go and let me tell you it was very loud! Anxiety level decreased substantially!

 

Sent from my HTC Rezound using Tapatalk 2

 

Wow, you really are OCD about the alarm clocks. hehe I never looked at the phone close. The only thing I used it for was to set the alarm each night (and as I said earlier, I'm blind up close without my contacts in, and I was squinting to see the button to push to set it). I guess I should have looked for a volume button, but I'm lucky that I'm a pretty light sleeper and could here it, so it didn't bother me. I was just glad that it worked-our phone on the Spirit in our room didn't work at all).

 

Kim,

 

I think we were on the Pearl with you last Feb (ended first part of March I believe). We are considering the Star for a quick decision cruise. I also have huge problems getting away for time reasons with my job but I just happened to notice the end of January looks like a possibility. We also live in Ohio (Cincinnati). Woke up to about 4 inches of snow this morning. My son & DIL and baby are in Columbus flying out SW to SF tomorrow. I hope they get out ok.

 

Anyway, feel like I know you (that is a huge compliment that your reviews are so friendly and conversational). I know you did not see the spa (they give tours on day one). We will definitely have to get a spa package if we go (DH loves it there). I am just wondering if we will be disappointed with the spa after going on the Epic in November and the Pearl before that - anyone???

 

Will we feel any disappointment between the Star and the Jewel ships and/or Epic. Leaving out of NOLA works for us as we drive and we can make it in one day. DH just retired so we have to watch the nickels much closer.

 

Thanks for anyone's input and great review/pictures. Made my Saturday morning!

 

Hmmm, I'm not sure if we were on the same cruise in March on the Pearl or not. We went mid-March. (Looking at my calendar now for dates...it was the 16th). Where you are part of the meet & greet? If Kevin Sheehan was at the M&G, then we were on the same cruise. :D Yes, that was the highlight of my cruise...meeting THE Mr. Sheehan and getting to talk to him awhile and having my picture taken with him. :p

 

Hopefully someone can chime in and let you know about the spa and maybe even someone who has been on the Epic and Star and did the spa would be even better for comparison.

 

SNOW!:mad: I seriously hate snow and Ohio. I don't know why I continue to live here, but I can't wait to get out of this cold weather and snow someday. I have a fear of snow. I had a bad accident when I was 18 and totaled a car in snow, so I never drove in snow after that. When it snowed, I always had my husband take me back and forth to work. I have drove in the snow "maybe" 10-15 times since that accident that was 28 years ago. I am COMPLETELY freaked out about it. We were supposed to get 6-10 inches Wednesday (and did get a bunch, but I didn't go out and measure it...I was working on my review) and we got dumped on last night (was supposed to be 2.5") and we are supposed to get more today (another 1" is what the weather channel had said). I am in complete panic mode at the moment. (Remember the car issue I had prior to leaving for vacation? So I have a spare on my car and the rest of the tires are pretty much bald and like driving on slicks. My husband has a rear wheel drive car and I like to never even made it out of the driveway yesterday to go to work...but the streets were clean).

 

Ok, as for being disappointed in the Star compared to the Jewel class and Epic. (Taking a deep breath). The Epic is our favorite ship to date. You can't beat everything there is to do on her with the entertainment and everything. We just LOVE the Epic and how grand she is. She did have her faults...no grand atrium to walk in to. But, that was our ONLY complaint. We were going through the same thing when we booked the Spirit after her...going from a big ship to a small. We thought we would be so disappointed. We were not. The Spirit is our second favorite. Then we went on the Pearl...2 story atrium, pretty, but not anything like the Spirit or Epic. We deemed her our least favorite, wouldn't sail her again (just because we already have and want to try the other Jewel class ships). Now the Star, BEAUTIFUAL atrium..."BUT" there is a lot more to come in my review and she had her good and bad, but she is our least favorite ship and would not sail her again at all. I know that the Star is a favorite of a lot of people...and a lot have cruised her over and over again, but she was not ours for the "upkeep and maintenance" on her. It was almost like if we were sailing a non-NCL ship compared to all of our previous experiences with NCL. Just MY opinion. However, a cruise is a cruise and it is what you make of it and of course most of all...it IS vacation and it's hard to have a bad vacation right? :p

[david_sobe]

Wow, you really are OCD about the alarm clocks. hehe I never looked at the phone close. The only thing I used it for was to set the alarm each night (and as I said earlier, I'm blind up close without my contacts in, and I was squinting to see the button to push to set it). I guess I should have looked for a volume button, but I'm lucky that I'm a pretty light sleeper and could here it, so it didn't bother me. I was just glad that it worked-our phone on the Spirit in our room didn't work at all).

 

 

 

Hmmm, I'm not sure if we were on the same cruise in March on the Pearl or not. We went mid-March. (Looking at my calendar now for dates...it was the 16th). Where you are part of the meet & greet? If Kevin Sheehan was at the M&G, then we were on the same cruise. :D Yes, that was the highlight of my cruise...meeting THE Mr. Sheehan and getting to talk to him awhile and having my picture taken with him. :p

 

Hopefully someone can chime in and let you know about the spa and maybe even someone who has been on the Epic and Star and did the spa would be even better for comparison.

 

SNOW!:mad: I seriously hate snow and Ohio. I don't know why I continue to live here, but I can't wait to get out of this cold weather and snow someday. I have a fear of snow. I had a bad accident when I was 18 and totaled a car in snow, so I never drove in snow after that. When it snowed, I always had my husband take me back and forth to work. I have drove in the snow "maybe" 10-15 times since that accident that was 28 years ago. I am COMPLETELY freaked out about it. We were supposed to get 6-10 inches Wednesday (and did get a bunch, but I didn't go out and measure it...I was working on my review) and we got dumped on last night (was supposed to be 2.5") and we are supposed to get more today (another 1" is what the weather channel had said). I am in complete panic mode at the moment. (Remember the car issue I had prior to leaving for vacation? So I have a spare on my car and the rest of the tires are pretty much bald and like driving on slicks. My husband has a rear wheel drive car and I like to never even made it out of the driveway yesterday to go to work...but the streets were clean).

 

Ok, as for being disappointed in the Star compared to the Jewel class and Epic. (Taking a deep breath). The Epic is our favorite ship to date. You can't beat everything there is to do on her with the entertainment and everything. We just LOVE the Epic and how grand she is. She did have her faults...no grand atrium to walk in to. But, that was our ONLY complaint. We were going through the same thing when we booked the Spirit after her...going from a big ship to a small. We thought we would be so disappointed. We were not. The Spirit is our second favorite. Then we went on the Pearl...2 story atrium, pretty, but not anything like the Spirit or Epic. We deemed her our least favorite, wouldn't sail her again (just because we already have and want to try the other Jewel class ships). Now the Star, BEAUTIFUAL atrium..."BUT" there is a lot more to come in my review and she had her good and bad, but she is our least favorite ship and would not sail her again at all. I know that the Star is a favorite of a lot of people...and a lot have cruised her over and over again, but she was not ours for the "upkeep and maintenance" on her. It was almost like if we were sailing a non-NCL ship compared to all of our previous experiences with NCL. Just MY opinion. However, a cruise is a cruise and it is what you make of it and of course most of all...it IS vacation and it's hard to have a bad vacation right? :p

Ooooooo

The juicy parts are yet to come..........I cant wait ;)

The Jewel is almost identical to the Pearl minus the bowling and rock climbing. Other than that they are identical. Since you were not crazy about the Pearl, curious what you will think of the Jewel

Edited December 29, 2012 by david_sobe

[mitsugirly]

You know just last week I was out with my bf taking pictures of the ships leaving port and I saw a big Orca whale flying :D, my bf had to google it for me. The plane looked pretty cool!

 

I wanted to take more pictures inside of the artwork, it was really neat... the entire inside upper overhead cabinets. Each was different and everything was blue. I had heard about it before, but had never seen it or been on it. It was a treat.

 

This Picture is just AWSOME!!!! Love it!!!!

 

Isn't it weird how the dark clouds were just creeping under the bridge? It was kind of scary looking, but it ended up just being some rain and no major storm thank goodness.

 

This picture reminds me of the new ship hull design for NCL Getaway that Miami is getting in 2014. I wonder if it is the same artist? maybe not, they seem have different lines.

 

You know, you are right. It does resemble the Breakaway. :D I hadn't thought of that when we were on there, but for some reason kept starring at it like if I had seen it before. Now I know why.

 

 

You know I am having a hard time with Breakaway and the planning situation, I am almost as bag in planning as you're. But being a brand new ship, the information is not out there yet and it probably wont be out there until I board her in May. This will be one of those cruises that I will just have to dive into it and plan once on board. Whatever little info there is, I take and analyze it over and over again, lol.

 

Well at least you can plan everything that you will be doing in port. That's a plus. I'm not sure but it just seem like when they were building the Epic, there was just more info out there. It seems a little different now. We had an entire forum JUST for the Epic. I haven't checked, is there one for just the Breakaway now?

 

 

Yeah we are definitely lucky about being able to go on this cruise, initially we had booked celebrity reflection, but after reading a lot we both decided it was not the cruise for us. So I started researching and I figured that we could stretch the budget a little and go on Breakaway. And maybe also enjoy NY for one day. The other option was Carnival Breeze, but I was not sure about that one.

 

I know I keep threatening to book a Carnival ship since NCL isn't cruising the Caribbean in the summer months...but I have yet to bring myself to do it. I just love freestyle cruising and don't know how I would react to anything else. So, I always manage to find "something" on NCL instead during the winter months.

 

By the way are using a tripod for the low light pictures? they came out very clear.

 

No, no tripod. It's only a little point and shoot camera. I stopped taking my dslr on vacation with me after I discovered the great pictures I could get with the point and shoot I had bought. Especially since it was also good for swimming and snorkeling under water. However, this trip would prove to be challenging with the cameras...if you haven't got that far yet, I won't spoil it for you. :D

 

One more thing, after reading your review I noticed that I missed a lot of ceilings from the Allure, you definitely got a lot of them in this review. I already wrote a little note, to be more careful not to miss them next time. Thank you =)

 

I'm always looking at the ceilings for some reason. I wish I would have taken more of the ceilings themselves (the ones that were "different" than a normal ceiling). I have always taken pictures of the chandeliers for some reason, but when I saw the murals painted, I just had to snap a picture.

 

I am truly enjoying your review, I am glad this new format is working for you. It takes a lot of work to do it, but it is a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Yes, A LOT of work, but it is definitely fun. I just keep forgetting things and what order things happened. It's a lot of memory to store in my brain...everything that happened each day and in what order. Did you take a notebook or something along with you? Did you carry it around with you? How did you keep track of everything? :confused:

[NayRN]

:cool:

Wow, you really are OCD about the alarm clocks. hehe I never looked at the phone close. The only thing I used it for was to set the alarm each night (and as I said earlier, I'm blind up close without my contacts in, and I was squinting to see the button to push to set it). I guess I should have looked for a volume button, but I'm lucky that I'm a pretty light sleeper and could here it, so it didn't bother me. I was just glad that it worked-our phone on the Spirit in our room didn't work at all).

 

 

 

Hmmm, I'm not sure if we were on the same cruise in March on the Pearl or not. We went mid-March. (Looking at my calendar now for dates...it was the 16th). Where you are part of the meet & greet? If Kevin Sheehan was at the M&G, then we were on the same cruise. :D Yes, that was the highlight of my cruise...meeting THE Mr. Sheehan and getting to talk to him awhile and having my picture taken with him. :p

 

Hopefully someone can chime in and let you know about the spa and maybe even someone who has been on the Epic and Star and did the spa would be even better for comparison.

 

SNOW!:mad: I seriously hate snow and Ohio. I don't know why I continue to live here, but I can't wait to get out of this cold weather and snow someday. I have a fear of snow. I had a bad accident when I was 18 and totaled a car in snow, so I never drove in snow after that. When it snowed, I always had my husband take me back and forth to work. I have drove in the snow "maybe" 10-15 times since that accident that was 28 years ago. I am COMPLETELY freaked out about it. We were supposed to get 6-10 inches Wednesday (and did get a bunch, but I didn't go out and measure it...I was working on my review) and we got dumped on last night (was supposed to be 2.5") and we are supposed to get more today (another 1" is what the weather channel had said). I am in complete panic mode at the moment. (Remember the car issue I had prior to leaving for vacation? So I have a spare on my car and the rest of the tires are pretty much bald and like driving on slicks. My husband has a rear wheel drive car and I like to never even made it out of the driveway yesterday to go to work...but the streets were clean).

 

Ok, as for being disappointed in the Star compared to the Jewel class and Epic. (Taking a deep breath). The Epic is our favorite ship to date. You can't beat everything there is to do on her with the entertainment and everything. We just LOVE the Epic and how grand she is. She did have her faults...no grand atrium to walk in to. But, that was our ONLY complaint. We were going through the same thing when we booked the Spirit after her...going from a big ship to a small. We thought we would be so disappointed. We were not. The Spirit is our second favorite. Then we went on the Pearl...2 story atrium, pretty, but not anything like the Spirit or Epic. We deemed her our least favorite, wouldn't sail her again (just because we already have and want to try the other Jewel class ships). Now the Star, BEAUTIFUAL atrium..."BUT" there is a lot more to come in my review and she had her good and bad, but she is our least favorite ship and would not sail her again at all. I know that the Star is a favorite of a lot of people...and a lot have cruised her over and over again, but she was not ours for the "upkeep and maintenance" on her. It was almost like if we were sailing a non-NCL ship compared to all of our previous experiences with NCL. Just MY opinion. However, a cruise is a cruise and it is what you make of it and of course most of all...it IS vacation and it's hard to have a bad vacation right? :p

 

C'mon! I have nothing to do today and I'm waiting for more :rolleyes: We got the same snow that you did in Detroit and I'm not going out in this mess unless I REALLY have to!

My very first cruise was on the Star.....I didn't get out and about on her too much as this was a floating nursing conference and we were in classes for 8 hours on sea days. At the end of those days, we were so tired from learning that we had dinner and went to bed! I need to see everything that I missed!

Edited December 29, 2012 by NayRN

[mitsugirly]

Ooooooo

The juicy parts are yet to come..........I cant wait ;)

The Jewel is almost identical to the Pearl minus the bowling and rock climbing. Other than that they are identical. Since you were not crazy about the Pearl, curious what you will think of the Jewel

 

I thought the Pearl just didn't have the "wow" factor that the Spirit did (or even the Star for that matter). I just love the "wow" factor of the atrium. It makes the ship for me. We truly enjoyed the bowling alley...several times. It gives us something "extra" to do beside gambling. hehe :D

 

I'm saddened to hear the Jewel does not have a bowling alley. Darn. The Star didn't have one either and I was a little disappointed, but managed. hehe

 

It seems like every cruise we've done since the Epic has been the Western. I TRUELY want to get back to the Eastern side and especially back to St Maarten and St Thomas. We have considered several times changing our booking to a Southern cruise...maybe a 9 or 10 day cruise that goes there and heads further down to some ports we haven't done yet. It's a tad bit more money, so we'll have to see. (But would still like to sail all of the fleet given the chance...no matter the good or the bad). Any cruise is a good cruise and I stand firm with that. :p

[mitsugirly]

:cool:

 

C'mon! I have nothing to do today and I'm waiting for more :rolleyes: We got the same snow that you did in Detroit and I'm not going out in this mess unless I REALLY have to!

My very first cruise was on the Star.....I didn't get out and about on her too much as this was a floating nursing conference and we were in classes for 8 hours on sea days. At the end of those days, we were so tired from learning that we had dinner and went to bed! I need to see everything that I missed!

 

Another Nurse? Woo hoo. Geesh, how can I sign up for a floating Nursing conference once I graduate? I wanna do that!!!! :D

 

I have to work today...well I'm scheduled to work. I'm not even sure how I'm going to get there today with all of this snow. So I probably won't get much of the review done unless it's just the beginning of the day for Day "3"...which happens to be our Costa Maya day. That is going to be a long report (Costa Maya) since we went to an AI and I have tons of pictures. :D

[gambee]

Yes, A LOT of work, but it is definitely fun. I just keep forgetting things and what order things happened. It's a lot of memory to store in my brain...everything that happened each day and in what order. Did you take a notebook or something along with you? Did you carry it around with you? How did you keep track of everything? :confused:

 

I carried my iphone with me at all times, I took notes by days. If something happened that I thought was important I would a quick note. I also took notes of all times that I ate and what I thought about the food.

 

 

Quick question about the freestyle cruising, do they have formal nights? I remember on our short 3 day cruise they did not. And lobster night is always on the first night?

[riddle]

We have done the Pearl twice and it is our favorite ship thus far. Just weird how everyone's tastes are different. Guess that is what makes things interesting.

 

We did the Spirit last year out of NOLA and just felt let down that there was no spa package. That was our only complaint.

 

Can't say I loved the Epic. Just too many little things I missed - Latitudes party and CAS party, no promenade deck, just little things. Don't get me wrong it also had tons of things the other ships did not. I was not impressed with the casino layout since it spread out right in the middle of the ship. Was just too noisy. I did well on video poker there though.

 

I just wish we were closer to ports so we had more choices. Flying has gotten so expensive that DH prefers to drive (ugh!) but I really don't mind it all that much. Only problem is I have to get back to work after we return and he is retired. (He says he gets 52 weeks of vacation a year so we have to plan around my job - not funny!).

 

Anyway, keep warm and dry and think Caribbean!

[mitsugirly]

I carried my iphone with me at all times, I took notes by days. If something happened that I thought was important I would a quick note. I also took notes of all times that I ate and what I thought about the food.

 

 

Quick question about the freestyle cruising, do they have formal nights? I remember on our short 3 day cruise they did not. And lobster night is always on the first night?

 

They don't have "formal" nights as in you HAVE to dress up to say...eat or whatever. However, every night is a formal night for pictures and such. That's the glory about it, if you feel like dressing up and going out to dinner, you can. If you want your pictures taken dressed up in formal attire, you can...every night. If you just don't feel like dressing up that night, you don't have to. That's freestyle cruising. I have found that we usually only do the dress-up formal thing on the sea days because after an exhausting day in port, I just don't feel like getting prissed up to go eat. I just want my food and relax or watch a show...or win some money in the casino :D

 

Yes, lobster night is the FIRST night...as in the DAY you board. Not the first actual wake up on the cruise ship day. It's in the main dining room and listed as Surf & Turf.

 

We have done the Pearl twice and it is our favorite ship thus far. Just weird how everyone's tastes are different. Guess that is what makes things interesting.

 

We did the Spirit last year out of NOLA and just felt let down that there was no spa package. That was our only complaint.

 

Can't say I loved the Epic. Just too many little things I missed - Latitudes party and CAS party, no promenade deck, just little things. Don't get me wrong it also had tons of things the other ships did not. I was not impressed with the casino layout since it spread out right in the middle of the ship. Was just too noisy. I did well on video poker there though.

 

I just wish we were closer to ports so we had more choices. Flying has gotten so expensive that DH prefers to drive (ugh!) but I really don't mind it all that much. Only problem is I have to get back to work after we return and he is retired. (He says he gets 52 weeks of vacation a year so we have to plan around my job - not funny!).

 

Anyway, keep warm and dry and think Caribbean!

 

Yes, everyone's tastes are different and that's what I love about the world...diversity. I love to hear others experiences, but I don't always let it make my decision.

 

The things that you missed on the Epic were things that we did not do so I guess that didn't affect us. The casino I LOVE LOVE LOVED...because of the size, not the location and layout. So, the size outweighed the layout for us. We could get lost in that thing.

 

I know what you mean about being closer to ports. I HATE driving. We drove for our Pearl cruise (only because the daughter’s bf insisted...he's afraid of flying) and it was the longest drive ever even though we took 2 days to do it. I have found that the older I get, the less tolerance I have for driving a long distance. After a certain point, I start to feel shaky, dizzy, and weak in the knees and just not right. I'm not sure what it is but it usually takes me about a day to get over it after we arrive. Yes, it would save so much money to do it that way. My daughter is trying to talk us in to doing it on our next cruise and going on the Breakaway instead of the Dawn. I'm just not sure at this point.

 

Your husband is funny with the "vacation" time he gets. Someday you'll be able to say the same...he'll have to come up with another one then. :D

[NayRN]

Another Nurse? Woo hoo. Geesh, how can I sign up for a floating Nursing conference once I graduate? I wanna do that!!!! :D

 

I have to work today...well I'm scheduled to work. I'm not even sure how I'm going to get there today with all of this snow. So I probably won't get much of the review done unless it's just the beginning of the day for Day "3"...which happens to be our Costa Maya day. That is going to be a long report (Costa Maya) since we went to an AI and I have tons of pictures. :D

 

They are ALL over the place! I actually signed up for notices for At Sea learning for nurses! It's the best way to get your CEUs to maintain your license! Next time I get one, I post it here for you so you can start signing up!:D

[mitsugirly]

They are ALL over the place! I actually signed up for notices for At Sea learning for nurses! It's the best way to get your CEUs to maintain your license! Next time I get one, I post it here for you so you can start signing up!:D

 

Wow, I had no clue. This is just to any Nurse and not a "Nurse at Sea" or anything right? That is awesome and sounds nice. Keep me posted.

[mitsugirly]

Snow poured down on us last night AGAIN, and I have yet to dig my car out and have been doing that most of the day. I have not driven it since we returned and the battery is dead. So, I sit here while it's charging...and thought I would post one last time before I leave.

------------------------------------------------------

I woke up about 7 am to the sun gleaming in the windows (just the crack in the curtain, no we didn’t sleep with the curtains pulled) and I think from the excitement of being at our first port, my automatic alarm clock woke me up. I started getting ready for the day then went out on the deck below to see what was out there. Then back up to the room to wake up the family and get ready. I double-checked everything to make sure we had all that we needed since I had been such a screw-up for this vacation already, I didn’t want to disappoint again.

 

We headed up to the buffet for breakfast (which is usually what we do every day on every cruise with the exception of the Pearl where we went to Cagneys a few times for breakfast since we were VIP). We like the buffet since you can get in, eat, and get out quickly and watch us pull in to the port.

 

We pulled in to the port and I decided to not take any pictures since this was a new camera and I didn’t know how long the batteries lasted on this thing AND no back up batteries were coming along with me this trip. When I first purchased my other camera, I learn very quickly that back up batteries are a must and I had taken so many snorkeling pictures that my camera was dead by the time we headed to the next destination that trip (which was a very picturesque view of the island looking down at all the cruise ships in port in St Thomas)…dead battery, 2 pictures taken, then done for the rest of the day. Bummer.

 

We did have some time to kill since we were not arriving at this port until 10am. My husband wasn’t too happy with me that I had woken him up so early that day. So we sat on the deck with him glaring at me giving me that “You’re lucky I have tons of coffee in me right now after waking me up this early when I could be sleeping” look.

 

When they made the announcement that it was time to leave, we headed off the ship (it wasn’t too bad getting off at all) and walked our way down the VERY L-O-N-G pier. The Star decided to park all the way out at the farthest part and around the corner pier. I’m not sure why. There weren’t any other ships there. When we docked before on the Spirit, she was at the closest. The walk was LONG. We missed the little “tram” that takes you up to the land…boo hiss. It would have definitely been worth it today. They take tips and it’s pretty big. So if you dock far, catch that tram if you can. It will save your legs!

 

I decided “hey, this would be a great opportunity to stop and take a picture of the hubby and daughter with the Star in the background and had them “pose” several different times…in reality, I just wanted to stop walking and take a breath but I wasn’t admitting to that and used this as an excuse.

 

 

 

 

Once we made it to land, we quickly went through the pier (still more walking…whew) to get to the part that you go out of the tourist area.

 

I couldn't help myself and managed to take 2 pictures along the walk out of the pier. One is having a problem downloading, so I'll add it at the end of the Costa Maya review.

 

 

 

Now I remember this place from before. We were eaten alive by no-see-ums and mosquitos that time around. But no bites yet. I looked ahead and knew we were supposed to keep walking forward to find the taxi station. I had no idea where I was going because I had never been any further than right there outside of the pier and then I was picked up to go to Maya Chan. I’m not sure why this new place we were going (Almaplena) couldn’t pick us up at that spot. Maybe they have to pay a charge to be able to enter the port area? We had read that you walk to the Hard-Rock-Café building for the taxi’s, but the Hard-Rock was out of business, so we were doing this blindly. We had also been warned by the staff at Almaplena not to let any taxi’s drivers try to lure you in to their cab before we get to where we were supposed to be going because they did not have contracts with Almaplena and then we would be responsible for the fare. It’s kind of hard to know if you have the right cab or not then if you a) don’t know where you are going b) never been outside the port c) there are taxi’s everywhere and d) the Hard-Rock Café is gone now (with no signage) so it was hard to tell “where” we were actually supposed to go.

 

It was very pretty there along the walk. The locals there would ask you take you somewhere or to do a trip with them, but a simple “we already have reservations” shut them up and they never said another word.

 

We finally made it to where we were going and I kept thinking “man, this was more of a walk that what I had originally thought” and of course looking at the pre-printed map I had in hand, it didn’t look as far as it was.

 

We made it to a spot where we thought THIS “might” be it. We ask one of the locals standing there and our luck had it that he didn’t speak English. Yes, he was the taxi driver. There was a young boy there with him and he relayed the information to him on what we were saying. “Si” he said, he would take us there. However, in the back of my mind I kept wondering if THIS was the cab we were supposed to be taking or not. I pulled out my reservation papers and handed them to him…just hoping to get some type of confirmation that he was indeed planning on taking us there under this contract they had with the taxi drivers. “Si”.

 

(On our way back, I tried to snap a picture of the "taxi meeting" spot for reference as to where to go)

 

 

 

 

See the markings on the curb? Yello and black? That's where they will all be at. The rest of the curb before getting here are the other taxis.

 

We loaded in the taxi and away we went…and went fast. The taxi was equipped with seat belts, however they did not work (they would not stay locked in). We turned right coming out of the main road to the port, which for some reason I thought we went left. I had tried to look it up prior to going (remember that planning OCD I told you I had? Well, I will go to google earth, pull my yellow body down on to the street and “walk” the street looking around. I had thought that Maya Chan was to the left of the cruise port and Almaplena was just a little further down the road past it. I guess I was turned around or something.

 

We zoomed down the road…the ONLY ones on the road. All I could think about was what happens if you get a flat out here in the middle of nowhere? The taxi driver pulled out his radio and started talking to someone (who knows what about since he didn’t speak any English, but that reminded me that this would be what he would do if we had car problems and I was relieved). About then, I seen a truck pulled over on the road…with a flat tire…with no one around. Oops. I wondered what they would do since they probably didn’t have a radio to call for help.

 

Then we see the sign that said “Almaplena 3 minutes this way” and we turned. The 3 minutes turned in to a lot longer because this road was pot-hole hell. The driver must have taken some rally driving classes because he was weaving in and out of these holes like he knew exactly what he was doing….at the expense of scratching up his car. Avoid pot-hole=save tires but pull so far over in to the bushes along the side of the road=scratches up and down car. Hmmm The hubby quickly learn to keep his arm far inside the car. Their website says it is a 20 minutes ride from the port…guess what…I timed it…20 minutes!!! If they would fix the short road leading to the resort, I bet they could shave off a good 5 minutes of the ride. Now it is not a “bumpy-throw-you-around” ride at all. These weren’t really pot-holes as we know it. They were more like craters and you wondered what atomic bomb hit there type of holes. (Well maybe an exaggeration, but still). Remember I said our driver must have been a rally driver? He managed to miss the holes and did an excellent job at the expense of his paint job…but still it wasn’t bumpy at all.

 

Then there it was…Almaplena. From the outside it looked very nice. It was nicely decorated with greenery and flowers everywhere and the buildings looked nice too. We had a pretty good feeling about this choice at this point.

 

Information on Almaplena for those of you (and it’s probably MOST of you) that don’t know about it. They are a NEW beach resort. They just opened up in January or February of this year. They are a ECO resort and beach club. Since it is an Eco resort it is designed to be well…Eco friendly. The design of the buildings and rooms uses the shade of the sun and breeze of the sea, rain water collected for daily use, bottled water for drinking and cooking, and a wind turbine for electric energy.

 

There is a restaurant and bar facing the beachfront and has a raised terrace. This gave us a beautiful panoramic scene of the beautiful crystal blue water while we ate. It was extremely hot out that day (remember that walk that I thought was too long to the taxi station? Well that was also due to the heat along the way) but the breezes were nice and kept you at a comfortable temperature all day.

 

They have dressing rooms, straw umbrella (palapas), showers, and bathrooms. The owners also live there on the premises and they are Monica and Andrea. They had just had a baby 2 months ago (I think they said her name was Sophia). Monica had told me ahead of time that she would probably not be there that day to meet us with taking care of the baby. She has good contact with you from before booking, to booking, to answering questions, sending confirmation, giving updates and even right before the cruise with directions. Great service!

 

I believe they only have 8 rooms at this hotel, so it is very small and there is next to no one there. They only take 20 people a day (cruisers) so this limits the amount of people on the beach as well. VERY NICE! If you want to go somewhere quiet, not crowded and relaxing, you have found your place. If you want to stare at the crystal blue Caribbean ocean water with soft sand, you have found your place.

 

We were thrilled with our choice this time around if you haven’t figured that out by now.

 

You can find their web site by typing in their name almaplena beach resort dot com.

 

I didn't manage to get any pictures coming in...but on the way out I did the "swing around snap" picuter thing.

 

 

 

 

 

[JMHAM1]

Girl I totally feel your pain regarding the camera issues. We had camera nightmare issues on our first and so far only cruise in Europe!! Port intensive not to be missed photos....not sure what happened but the "door" that holds in the battery had a little piece that broke off and the battery would lose contact in there somehow and the thing would NOT take pictures at all. We were on a major budget and could not buy a new camera in Europe.

 

We ended up taking some pics with those throw away cameras (YUCK)! I will say that it was cc friends to the rescue. We booked our own excursions and the others took plenty of pics of us and emailed them to us. We were not able to get all the food pics or whatever that we would have wanted but we did end up with some great shots that has both DH and myself in them.

 

Now we always take a back up camera. After reading your story perhaps we should have a back up for the back up

eh?:p

[SMSACE6]

Mitsugirly, I am so loving your review!

 

Your photos are wonderful and make me want to go on the Star. Some of your photos, made me realize that my parents were on this ship back in 2004, out of Hawaii. The birds in the atrium reminded me first and then other photos. They had a wonderful cruise that time.

 

I see that you like Epic. Im booked on Epic next November and can hardly wait.

 

Thanks so much for your review of the Star, looks like a ship I would like to sail on.:)