Star to Alaska 7/03/05

[papadon58]

The seven of us (wife and I, four grand children and daughter) booked two outside cabins on the Star for the 7//03/05 sailing to Alaska. My comments on the trip are as follows

 

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• We thought that we would be very cramped in the two cabins (eighth deck outside), especially the one my wife and I shared with our 11 year old twin grand daughters. We were surprised to find we had plenty of room for luggage and ample room to store our suitcases. The only time we felt a bit cramped in the cabin was when the middle trundle bed was down. But after we figured out how to stow it under the other bed every thing was fine. The cabin bathroom is nicely configured with sliding glass doors that separate the shower, the sink and the potty (or in navy lingo the head.)
  
• As regards to the quality of the food, we found the main dinning room (Versailles) and the Agua food to be okay but nothing spectacular. The Market Café buffet had a nice variety of food but it was a typical buffet. The Blue Lagoon fish and chips were okay buy a bit oily I thought. Given there were seven of us we limited our eating in the specialty restaurants to the two that were free, the Endless Summer (Tex-Mex) and the La Trattoria (Italian.). We found both of them to be very good. I would advise getting reservations for these two very early in the cruise because they fill up fast. I especially enjoyed the barbecue ribs at the Endless Summer.
  
• With regard to the entertainment the cruise had a wide variety in the main show theater (Stardust Lounge) but we had a problem with the volume of the background band music. My wife had to plug her ears and even though I am half deaf (at least in my wife’s opinion) I thought the back ground band music was very loud. One night they had Jane L. Powell singing (blues, etc.) and the band completely drowned out her voice even though she has a powerful voice. (We had heard her before on a Canada/New England cruise and really enjoyed her.) The same was true for the Jean Ryan Co. production of Music in the Night (Phantom of the Opera, etc.) Again the background band music tended to drown out the singers. (No we were not sitting down front but well back in the theater.)
  
• The embarkation process went very smooth, as well as, the debarkation.
  
• A couple of grips I had were that even though we had registered on line as Latitudes members we had to stand in line and go through the process again on ship. NCL should link the ships computers to their home base computers. We also had a problem because they had gotten pictures and birthdates screwed up on our room key cards which required a number of trips to the purser’s desk.
  
• The itinerary was so, so. The Glacier Bay portion of the trip, in my opinion, does not stack up to the Hubbard or Tracy Arms or Misty Fjords but our kids enjoyed it. (My wife and I have been to Alaska too many times I guess.
  
• The chocolate buffet was very nice and to see the eyes ;)of our 11 year olds was about worth the price of the trip. One thing they should do is let people in a bit early to take pictures like other cruise lines do.
  

Papadon

[dgund]

Thanks for the review. We will be on the Star in July 2006.

[vacationfool]

can you answer a few questions? we are going on this same cruise in Sept. How is breakfast? what resturants serve it daily? what type of binoclars do you recoomend? Thanks so much--loved your reviews!

[Darthtater]

I was on the same cruise, and I would like to add a few comments:

 

1. I have never had a smoother embarkation experience. We arrived there at 11:30 and walked right through everything. It was no problem at all.

2. The BBQ on deck when you leave Seattle is great-don't miss the ribs.

3. Ok, here's a small thing. There is a light in the closet! I dog-cussed that closet because it was so dark for 5 days until my brother found it in his closet and gave me the heads up. It's obscured by the clothing rod, but it's there.

4. I thought the food was great-I agree about the fish and chips, but I never had anything that was just inedible.

5. Make sure you go to the pub for the trivia contest- lots of fun and it's a nice place to hang out.

6. Glacier Bay was my favorite day. We saw about 20 seal lions on a rock, a bear, and a seal floating by on an ice berg.Very cool. The glacier dutifully calved and made cracky noises for us. It was great!

7. My 10 and 12 years old boys loved it, and I was sworried that the slower pace of things on this type of cruise would bother them, but it didn't.

8. Don't miss the hot tub and relaxation pols in the spa-and you have to see the amazing views from there. They have wonderful lounge chairs in front of these huge windows at the back of the ship. It's fantastic!

9. The only complaint I have is that there are too many surcharge restaurants. There should be one or two, but we had what, four or five? That's too many.

 

We had a fabulous time!:)