Given the problems on the NCL Star would you book a cruise on her ?

[Tatka]

We're already booked out of Venice in May. Since we have a hotel for both the day before & the day after, we could just extend it for the full week and tour Italy (DW wants to see Florence if we have to do that). I also found 2 other cruises with the same dates, one on Costa & the other on MSC.

 

 

Since MSC has a loyalty-match program, I already submitted my info to them & my Latitude Gold translated to their Silver. MSC gives an automatic 5% discount to their loyalty members. You can apply for the match without even booking a cruise.

 

 

Thank you so much for information!

I wish you a worry free cruise, but should something happen MSC is a nice line. We tried it twice.

For this spring we already booked for another Caribbean cruise with NCL, but I will keep this in mind.

[ECCruise]

Being stranded on a ship at sea is better than a good day at work. Plus if they are going to continue to give full credit and 50% off future cruise, hell ya.

 

No it is not.

 

We were on the ship, you weren't.

The "full credit" is turning out to be a colossal joke. Deducting $1400 from what we paid to what they refunded. We went along with the flow, but only if we were made whole. We weren't. $\6000 in airfare/hotels to get there. This is not some 7 day jaunt out of Miami.

 

And just "being on a ship" has zero appeal to us. We had already spent over 100 days on cruise ships this year that actually went places. And, frankly, on better lines.

[BS Racing]

I was on the ship here is a snapshot I took.

BTW we stayed on until we made it to Auckland.

DSC02429 by Carl VanAlstyne, on Flickr

[Haole]

I was on the ship here is a snapshot I took.

 

 

Nice picture of a bad situation. We got off the Star before our cruise ended in Sydney.

 

BTW, we called NCL and found out that we had an "internal credit" which shows only on their accounting. Not going to get anything on paper to document a refund.

[The Traveling Man]

There are many other fish in the sea, and plenty of other cruise ships to choose. I might sail on the Star again, but it would be far, far down on my list.

[champagne lover]

Help, I have just read some of these posts, we are booked for 28th May and were really looking forward to it. Should we be worried now?

[The Traveling Man]

Help, I have just read some of these posts, we are booked for 28th May and were really looking forward to it. Should we be worried now?

 

We have taken four cruises on the Star, and we really like the look and feel of this ship. We recently were on the "cruise to nowhere" from Sydney to Auckland, however, when the ship was adrift in the Tasman Sea and spent almost a week in the Melbourne area while its Azipods were being repaired. It would be bad enough if that were the only time the Star has had propulsion problems, but we learned (after the fact) that they had similar problems in 2003 and 2004, twice in 2005, plus 2006 and twice in 2015 and twice again this past December and January. With so many other ships around, it just doesn't seem worth it to take a chance on yet another propulsion failure.

[DMH15]

Yes! I love sea days. As ling as essentials are offered onboard I am good.

 

 

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[BostonGal35]

we just booked the Star today for what will be our 3rd time. first two times, no issues. hoping for the 3rd time being ok.

 

that said, we are embarking in LA and disembarking in Miami. so its not like we are around the world. while going thru the panama canal will probably be once in a lifetime, the ports along the way certainly arent. so if something gets messed up, it is what it is. we also splurged on a suite, so if we need to avoid angry people and chaos, we can do so from the comforts of our splurge room. also, given the cost of this trip, we will buy insurance which we never do. that will protect us with any flight problems we may encounter.

 

we really wanted to go West to East... and these dates worked for us, since full transits are only done during repos. we have zero desire to do this on Bliss. given its size, it will probably go thru the newer locks. we want to see the older, original locks.

 

even if we have a blunder, and only get half of our money back from NCL, that's enough to fully pay for another cruise in a regular cabin, non-suite room.

[Ernstmfg]

We're booked on star June 18-25 hope they get everything fixed. We sailed on her last year for Baltic cruise and really enjoyed it.

 

 

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[herdingdogmom]

Help, I have just read some of these posts, we are booked for 28th May and were really looking forward to it. Should we be worried now?

You should be ok. The ship has been sailing smoothly since the repairs in Melbourne in Feb. Why NCL waited 2 months and until there was a "dead in the water" failure to make the necessary repairs - who knows.

 

Hopefully, NCL will increase the maintenance schedule on the Star's Azipod system since it has been such a problem. We will sail on other ships from here on out.

[chengkp75]

You should be ok. The ship has been sailing smoothly since the repairs in Melbourne in Feb. Why NCL waited 2 months and until there was a "dead in the water" failure to make the necessary repairs - who knows.

 

Hopefully, NCL will increase the maintenance schedule on the Star's Azipod system since it has been such a problem. We will sail on other ships from here on out.

 

And, again, I will say that unless you are privy to the Star's maintenance history records, and know what failed on each of the failures, what parts were required, what parts are stocked onboard, what parts the manufacturer feels are replacement parts and which are considered "capital" parts, and what the repairs completed were, there is no justification for saying that NCL "waited 2 months" to make repairs. I know and understand azipod propulsion systems, and I can't say, without access to the above data, or unless the AMSB report on the propulsion failure traces back and includes information on the previous failures, whether there was any possibility of a quicker repair or not, or even whether any of the failures were related. If evidence comes to light that NCL could have made repairs sooner, or that they in some way avoided making necessary repairs or maintenance, I will be the first to jump on them with both feet, but even given the Star's unusual series of azipod problems, I will not join in the hate fest by claiming they willfully "band aided" the problem, or that there is some corporate conspiracy at work (not saying all of this is directed at you).

[BostonGal35]

given the headaches of customer service and passengers, the embarrassment, monies refunded, bad PR, history of this problem, etc. i would be surprised if NCL allowed the azipods to fail again.

[Crusin6]

I was considering the Adriatic on the star but decided to do land based for several reasons

 

Not thrilled with dates and ports were the primary reasons but with all the recent mechanical issues I think my choice was best

 

 

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[All-ready2cruise]

given the headaches of customer service and passengers, the embarrassment, monies refunded, bad PR, history of this problem, etc. i would be surprised if NCL allowed the azipods to fail again.

 

We loved the Star when we sailed on it. We've done 31 days total, one 7 day and 1 B2B totaling 24 of 25 days.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by

be surprised if NCL allowed the azipods to fail again

becaue there's no way they "allowed" the azipods to fail previously. It happens, and it's like many things in life, there is no warning.

 

We were very lucky that when we sailed from the UK to Tampa in Oct. 2015 that the azipods didn't affect the speed of the Star, even though there was some type of problem with the azipod(s) even back then. We sailed through a tropical storm and I wondered then if that may have caused or at least worsened the problem but I know very little about engineering so I leave that to the professionals.

[Pope Francis]

given the headaches of customer service and passengers, the embarrassment, monies refunded, bad PR, history of this problem, etc. i would be surprised if NCL allowed the azipods to fail again.

I wholeheartedly agree!!! Edited March 22, 2017 by Pope Francis

[herdingdogmom]

I will not join in the hate fest by claiming they willfully "band aided" the problem, or that there is some corporate conspiracy at work (not saying all of this is directed at you).

 

Don't know about any corporate conspiracy, just a tight budget. We were on the adrift at sea cruise and were very surprised the last 2 failures were fixed in 2 days - particularly when the following 19 day cruise had already been revised using 1 azipod. Glad to see NCL finally coughed up the $ needed to get the parts and repairs done an that all has been fine since leaving Melbourne Feb. 14.

[chengkp75]

Don't know about any corporate conspiracy, just a tight budget. We were on the adrift at sea cruise and were very surprised the last 2 failures were fixed in 2 days - particularly when the following 19 day cruise had already been revised using 1 azipod. Glad to see NCL finally coughed up the $ needed to get the parts and repairs done an that all has been fine since leaving Melbourne Feb. 14.

 

I will still disagree with your calling this a problem caused by budgetary constraints. The failure between Singapore and Melbourne could have required a part that took a few weeks to get to the ship, or it could have needed a part to be manufactured like the part for the failure in December. The failure after Melbourne could have required a part that was readily available, or even available in Oz, so both were repaired in the same time frame, but who knows how long each repair took to complete. Parts for marine equipment is not always kept "in stock", even at the manufacturer. Heck, I've needed parts for pumps built in Sweden, and when our purchasing agent calls to order them, we find that the entire company has gone on holiday for two weeks (pretty common in Scandinavia) and only left a voice message and no emergency contact.

 

The following cruise had already been revised when the ship broke down, and then there was a couple of days of drifting/towing and then two days in Melbourne, so the part needed may have been coming and available 4-5 days after the cruise left Melbourne, which wouldn't have helped that cruise, but since the ship returned to Melbourne it could arrive and be installed.

[herdingdogmom]

The failure after Melbourne could have required a part that was readily available, or even available in Oz, so both were repaired in the same time frame, but who knows how long each repair took to complete.

The 27 hours scheduled in Melbourne was unfortunately not enough time to repair the 2nd failure. We were delayed leaving Melbourne on Feb. 9 waiting for 2 missing passengers. The Captain said it gave them more time to work on the azipod repair. My guess is that repair required the ship not be underway. So as you mentioned, the additional days in Melbourne allowed that repair to be completed.

 

I read somewhere that the part needed for the 3rd failure was flown in from Europe - so that probably was a more common issue.

 

I can't imagine the total costs for 3 consecutive azipod failures (refunds, towing, technicians, parts, etc). But, I'm sure NCL doesn't want to see anything like this happen again.

 

I won't be sailing on the Star for a 5th time. That ship has an extremely unlucky azipod system. Too many other ships on the seas to explore!