Live from the Star - 11 day med cruise

[robins11]

6 hours ago, Ladyshopper23 said:

I'm really enjoying your posts, thank you. We're getting on the Star in a couple of weeks, first time on her and only our 2nd ever NCL cruise (1st one was on Getaway back on 2017).

I've got a couple of questions if you have time to check them out and get back to me? No worries at all if you can't, obviously I'll find out in a couple of weeks anyway. I just liked to be prepared! They're along the same theme, as we're strictly gluten-free, so it's to do with that (neither of us were gluten-free last time we sailed, so it's a big change).

Do the menus in the main dining room have allergen markers on them at all for gluten?

In the buffet, are dishes marked up with any allergen markers? Or any markers of any kind, such as vegetarian etc?

If you do get chance to have a look and report back that would be great, but as I said, no problem at all if you can't.

The final question is were is the slightly hot hot tub located please?!

Hi  Just on the subject of Gluten free options. We were on Star from Southampton October 16th-26th this year. My wife has a Gluten free diet. We had advised NCL in advance as requested when booking so at least her particular diet needs were recognised in advance.  Just from her experience onboard if this helps, there were no allergen markers at all in the buffet with the occasional one marked vegetarian or dairy free. She needed to ask a senior chef each time to highlight what dishes might be available. With the main dining rooms some dishes on the menu were marked Gluten free. However she was advised to speak to a chef/senior server after each meal and choose a selection for the following day. In this way the choices were greater as then some dishes could be specially prepared in advance. Desserts were always very limited which was disappointing. This also applied to some of the speciality restaurants where again the advice was to seek assistance in advance. Interesting in O'Sheehans  although again allergen markings were very limited, the staff there were so helpful and could advise on selections for the various menus throughout the day including breakfast. Overall most of the staff were very helpful, and my wife enjoyed a decent selection of options, with the odd delay in service. However the lack of allergen indication in the buffet was poor and across the ship Gluten free dessert options were very limited. 

Hope that helps

 

John

[Analog187]

19 hours ago, Ladyshopper23 said:

Do the menus in the main dining room have allergen markers on them at all for gluten?

In the buffet, are dishes marked up with any allergen markers? Or any markers of any kind, such as vegetarian etc?

 

Dining room mentions gluten free items, items that contain nuts and items that contain alcohol.  Nothing like that in the buffet from what I saw.

[Analog187]

Day 5 continued

 

Had the chicken at dinner again as there was nothing else I wanted.  It was good again but I think with a few tweaks it could be really good.  

 

We went to the White Magic show.  This was one of the best shows I've seen on a ship.  Sure, some of his illusions were classic ones that we've all seen before but he's a master of sleight of hand and that's some of his best stuff.  His show also features his wife that is an amazing contortionist so that's a nice twist on the typical magic shows.  The other nice thing is that he's on this ship a lot so if you go on the Star, you might see him.  He'll have another show later on in the cruise.

 

We then went to the Majority Rules game show.   I've done this before but this one was amazing.  The cruise director Victor is one of the best out there.  He's just so funny and he will do almost anything.  I was laughing so hard.    

[Ladyshopper23]

13 hours ago, robins11 said:

Hi  Just on the subject of Gluten free options. We were on Star from Southampton October 16th-26th this year. My wife has a Gluten free diet. We had advised NCL in advance as requested when booking so at least her particular diet needs were recognised in advance.  Just from her experience onboard if this helps, there were no allergen markers at all in the buffet with the occasional one marked vegetarian or dairy free. She needed to ask a senior chef each time to highlight what dishes might be available. With the main dining rooms some dishes on the menu were marked Gluten free. However she was advised to speak to a chef/senior server after each meal and choose a selection for the following day. In this way the choices were greater as then some dishes could be specially prepared in advance. Desserts were always very limited which was disappointing. This also applied to some of the speciality restaurants where again the advice was to seek assistance in advance. Interesting in O'Sheehans  although again allergen markings were very limited, the staff there were so helpful and could advise on selections for the various menus throughout the day including breakfast. Overall most of the staff were very helpful, and my wife enjoyed a decent selection of options, with the odd delay in service. However the lack of allergen indication in the buffet was poor and across the ship Gluten free dessert options were very limited. 

Hope that helps

 

John

Hi John.

 

This is massively helpful, thank you. I have let NCL know of our dietary requirements. I'm also vegetarian as well as having to be gluten-free, so I guess I'm one of those super awkward people! Am well used to having to order meals the night before, hopefully NCL will be as accommodating as other cruise lines in being able to make something for me that suits my requirements if there is nothing on the menu that does.

Did you wife find that they were helpful in the buffet in terms of getting food fresh from the kitchen to avoid cross contamination? Are things like gluten-free bread readily available?

Am well used to gluten-free desserts being terrible (and in general not vegetarian friendly either, as they tend to use gelatine). I've already got a stash of goodies ready to take on board with us, and we've also hired a car for our port stop in Lanzarote so can go to the supermarket if necessary to stock up on some sweet treats!

I don't suppose you happen to know if there is any gluten-free lager on board like bottled Daura Damm do you? I can't find any information at all about this.

Thank you again for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.

One other thing - I don't know if you've ever sailed with them, but P&O are amazing for gluten free. It's so easy, everything marked up, loads of choices, decent desserts (they make a lot of their cakes gluten free as standard, plus have a range of pre-packaged cakes you can pick up), and you can even get gluten-free biscuits in your cabin if you ask your cabin host. We've recently got back from a week on Iona and the GF eating experience was amazing. Just thought I'd mention it!

Anyway, sorry to derail the original post, so will leave it there. Thanks again.

[Ladyshopper23]

1 hour ago, Analog187 said:

 

Dining room mentions gluten free items, items that contain nuts and items that contain alcohol.  Nothing like that in the buffet from what I saw.

 

Thanks very much for your reply, really appreciate you taking the time on your holiday to report back.

[Analog187]

Day 6 - Corfu

 

We took the hop on, hop off bus although the reviews are very mixed.  The cruise terminal is a 5 minute walk but you can take a free bus to be driven right to the terminal.  In the terminal is the bus company along with a rental company.  It was about 38 euros for both of us.  Corfu is a pretty small area so I would suggest you get off at the monastery, stop 3 (which we went to before stop 2).  We didn't bother to go to the thing at stop 2 but I would go there after the monastery.  Then get off at the fort/old town.  Walk around from one side of town to the other zig zagging around the streets.  Then get picked up at Spilia Square and take that back to the ship.  It was nice but I think a half a day is good enough here unless you are doing an excursion here.  I wouldn't want to spend a week here.

 

We're relaxing now and we don't plant to go to the show tonight as we've already seen it and it wasn't for us.  What the World Needs Now - the music of Burt Bacharach.  We might watch the violin trio in the atrium as they've sounded great this entire cruise.  

[robins11]

10 hours ago, Ladyshopper23 said:

Hi John.

 

This is massively helpful, thank you. I have let NCL know of our dietary requirements. I'm also vegetarian as well as having to be gluten-free, so I guess I'm one of those super awkward people! Am well used to having to order meals the night before, hopefully NCL will be as accommodating as other cruise lines in being able to make something for me that suits my requirements if there is nothing on the menu that does.

Did you wife find that they were helpful in the buffet in terms of getting food fresh from the kitchen to avoid cross contamination? Are things like gluten-free bread readily available?

Am well used to gluten-free desserts being terrible (and in general not vegetarian friendly either, as they tend to use gelatine). I've already got a stash of goodies ready to take on board with us, and we've also hired a car for our port stop in Lanzarote so can go to the supermarket if necessary to stock up on some sweet treats!

I don't suppose you happen to know if there is any gluten-free lager on board like bottled Daura Damm do you? I can't find any information at all about this.

Thank you again for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.

One other thing - I don't know if you've ever sailed with them, but P&O are amazing for gluten free. It's so easy, everything marked up, loads of choices, decent desserts (they make a lot of their cakes gluten free as standard, plus have a range of pre-packaged cakes you can pick up), and you can even get gluten-free biscuits in your cabin if you ask your cabin host. We've recently got back from a week on Iona and the GF eating experience was amazing. Just thought I'd mention it!

Anyway, sorry to derail the original post, so will leave it there. Thanks again.

Hey no problem at all. The buffet unfortunately did not really provide the level of choice or service that the main dining room, speciality restaurants, etc offered, as regards Gluten free options. Bread was available at the buffet on request but sometimes the wait was up to 10 minutes. Since there was no food labelling my wife asked the chefs if such and such would be suitable. They needed to go away and check in most cases, and again there was a time delay, before a yes or no response. As regards desserts the answer was more often than not, no !! They did have an Indian food night in the buffet one evening and after checking, many of the items offered were suitable for her. Alleluia !

As i mentioned choices are available around the ship in the restaurants but strongly advise to select and order the night before. 

My wife couldn't get a suitable Gluten free beer onboard so stuck with cider. 

Most staff were very helpful and were not taking risks. However there is room for improvement regarding choice and labelling especially in the buffet.

Thank you for the tip regarding P&O, will do some research. Enjoy your cruise in a few weeks.

 

Also many thanks Analog187 for your posts and hope you are having a great time.

[TheCruisingBrewers]

following... thank you for posting!

[Analog187]

Day 6 continued 

 

We had dinner at Aqua, the smaller dining room.  The seats are very uncomfortable and service was once again very slow.  We're not going there again.  I had the sliced sirloin which tasted like leather.  We bailed and went to the buffet.  After that, we were too wiped to do much else besides hang out in the hot tub for an hour.

 

Day 7 - Olympia

 

The ship docksin Katokolon and from there it was only a 10 minute walk to the train. This train was only running once a day, leaving at 8:40 and then leaving Olympia at 1:10. That left about 3 hours which was the perfect amount of time. It was 5 euro a person each way, cash only.

The archeological site is only 6 euro a person and it also gives you access to 2 museums. They are still excavating parts of the site which was really cool to watch.  This was much cheaper than taking a ship tour and we probably got to see more. The Olympics were held here for over 1100 years so it was really cool to think about all the different people that competed there as well as all the people that watched the games.

 

The train was very crowded as we stopped somewhere to pick up over a hundred teenagers that were on a field trip.  I would not have wanted to be there on a tour as they didn't get to go everywhere and the groups were very large.  We got to see everything and we saved a ton of money as the total cost was 32 euros.  

 

There are some shops and restaurants in this little town where the ship is.  My wife bought a scarf for 15 euros.  Cokes are pretty cheap in both towns, about 1 euro for a can.  A lot of stuff here seems cheap.  

 

Our feet feel like they are going to fall off.  This cruise is awesome but it's certainly a gauntlet.  Gotta fit some naps in.  Tonight's show is an acrobat show so I'm looking forward to that.  Not sure if I'm going to be able to make the Latitudes party since its at 6:30.  

[Analog187]

Day 7 Continued

 

We went to the Latitudes party which was even more of a sales pitch than I've seen before.  10 minutes of piano and free drinks followed by 10 minutes of cruise next sales pitch followed by no more free drinks but 10 minutes of piano before trivia started in the lounge.  They brought around drinks that we already made but a lot of people don't realize that you don't have to accept these drinks.  You could order anything you like.  You just have to drink quick or double fist.   They also passed around cheese.  Since a lot of people have the drink package, this is kind of lame.  We didn't so it worked out for us.

 

Had the "grilled" mahi mahi tonight for dinner.  Once again NCL doesn't follow their menu or doesn't word things the right way as there is a big difference between grilled and blackened but for us this is a good thing as we prefer blackened and it certainly was.  Easily one of the better meals I've had on NCL.  Really surprised.  I had the whipped potatoes which were from another entree and they were really good as well.  Took a bit to get them because the waiter could not understand me for some reason.

 

Went to the acrobat show, Mallombra or something like that.  I don't have time to look it up.  They were great.  Really nice show for a cruise ship.  They should change the name because it's hard to say and remember.  Seems like they perform on a lot of ships.  They picked out this one guy to be on stage that probably doesn't know much English and it was really, really funny.   

[glentally]

On 11/5/2022 at 9:01 AM, Analog187 said:

We flew in the day before so we had some extra time if there was a flight delay.   We stayed right by the Roma Termini station.  That allowed us to quickly get to and from the airport.  We got to check out the Roman Baths near the station and get some food.  Otherwise, we slept and relaxed. 

 

We got to the meeting point at the airport at 9:40 (was told to get there at 10).  It was easy to find. Waited about 45 minutes.   It was a bit of a walk to the bus.  We waited in line to show our Vax cards  

I thought unvaxinated are allowed on ships?  Did you HAVE TO show your your card for entry?

[Analog187]

3 hours ago, glentally said:

I thought unvaxinated are allowed on ships?  Did you HAVE TO show your your card for entry?

NCL doesn't require it but some countries do.  

[Analog187]

Day 8 - Santorini

 

What an amazing site to wake up and see the town of Fira high on the cliffs.  We had the Village and Winery tour.  I only booked the tour to avoid any problems with getting back.  Only us and the Jade in port and the Jade came in late so it probably wouldn't have been a problem but no big deal.  Instead of taking the cable car up, we went the other way where the bus was waiting for us.  The guide Agatha was good.  We first stopped at the winery.  Not really my thing.  Wine was meh but I'm a wine snob so maybe you can't really go by me.  They also had goat cheese, tomatoes, olives and this bread stick thing to munch on.  Bathrooms here are free so I advise you to stop because there are no more free bathrooms after this.  1 euro unless you are buying something at a cafe like we did.  You can try 3 different wines, red, white and a dessert wine.  My wife really liked the dessert wine, I thought the red was OK.  Some decent pics there.

 

Then we rode to Oia Village.  This is the famous spot where everyone takes pictures.  It was fun and the pictures are amazing but you feel like cattle.  Tons of people all fighting to get by in these narrow streets.  We stopped and got some pastries as we didn't really have time to eat since we were so busy taking pics.

 

We then took the bus to Fira which is the town with the cable car.  I didn't see any donkeys but I assume they were there somewhere.  A few people walked down which is crazy.  We took pics and shopped as there are a ton of shops there, much more than Oia.  The line for the cable car looked really long but it was just 10 to 15 minutes.  Once we got down, there was a big line for the tender and for some reason they were not loading anyone.  Took almost a half hour to get on a boat.  We're going to Cagney's tonight for dinner.  

[glentally]

24 minutes ago, Analog187 said:

NCL doesn't require it but some countries do.  

Thanks but if I read it correctly you were just getting on the ship for embarkation.  I assume they will tell you each port whether the unvaxinnated can get off?

[Analog187]

9 minutes ago, glentally said:

Thanks but if I read it correctly you were just getting on the ship for embarkation.  I assume they will tell you each port whether the unvaxinnated can get off?

My understanding is that they won't let you on the ship in the first place.  If you have other questions, I would suggest starting a new thread to ask questions on this or call NCL.  

[Analog187]

Day 8 continued

 

Cagney's would good, probably a little better than other times.  The show was Grunway Tom again.  He is just amazing.  So funny.  I could watch him everyday.  They are doing two things today and the next day where they will have the NCL cast doing something in Bliss at 8 and 10 while the headliner is in Stardust.  Really cool of them to do that.  We didn't bother going to the show in Bliss because it's not our thing.  We then did the Art Scavenger hunt and went to sleep early after that since we had to wake up at 6am the next day which was really 5 am with the time change.  

[Analog187]

Day 9 - Kusadasi

 

Got up real early for our tour.  We went with the one that went into the terrace house at Ephesus and I'm glad we did.  Those are really cool.  We ended at the Turkish rug place where we bought a rug.  I talked him down a ton so hopefully I got a good deal.  Who knows.  Lunch was mobbed since everyone was eating at the same time.  Very hard to find a table.  We are now leaving for Istanbul.  

[Analog187]

Day 9 continued

 

After lunch we went to the White Magic Workshop/Show in the Bliss.  This was really cool because it wasn't that crowded so we got to be up close.  It was part show, part magic lesson part commerical for a DVD he was selling but it was still a lot of fun.  We learned a few tricks and he did some really cool close up magic.  It was a lot of fun.  Grunway Tom came to watch and I went over to him at the end of the show to tell him how funny he was.  Nice guy.

 

We needed a nap after that and I think a lot of people did too.  We didn't bother with a sit down dinner since there was nothing we liked so we just went to the buffet.  It was meh as always.  The dancers had another show at 7 and it was also really good.  We went back to our cabin after that.  Just as we were about to go to sleep the captain came on to tell us that we would not be going to Istanbul due to the bombing there.  I happened to see this on the news so I kinda figured this would happen.  Instead we were going to Izmir.  We used a few internet minutes to try to get a few ideas as to what to do while there but I think everyone else had the same idea as the internet wasn't really working.  So we decided to just figure it out in the morning.  

[Analog187]

Day 10 - Izmir

 

For having to figure everything out on the fly, we did pretty good.  We took a cab to Angora which was really cool.  Not the largest ruins in the world but at $2.50 a person, it was really cheap.  Cab was 10 euro but it looks like using Uber to get in the same cab would have been cheaper.  We figured that out on the way back which was only 4 euro.  Oh well, no big deal.  We then walked through the bazaar which wasn't that exciting really.  The one in Istanbul is probably much better.  It's an interesting experience and I would recommend checking it out at least for a few minutes.  We then checked out the clocktower and mosque and decided our feet just can't take much more.  Took the taxi back and there's a road which a bunch of restaurants.  We had turkish tea at one place.  Less than $2 for two teas.  Really good.  Bought a few magnets and then got this amazing chocolate drinks and desserts.  Pics on my FB page.  It really was incredible and I probably gained a few pounds.  Got back on the ship and went to the hot tub for a half hour.  Felt really good.  Pool area was crowded as I think a lot of people were afraid to get off the ship.  We didn't see a ton of people out and about and we overheard a few people at breakfast saying that they were scared to go ashore.  

[Analog187]

Day 10 - Continued

 

We went to Moderno for dinner.  Good as always although I liked the sirloin better than anything else which is unusual.  The servers either all came around at the same time or no one came for a while.  Some stuff came out several times while we had to ask for other items to be brought out.  Not sure what was up with that.

 

The show tonight was Paradis which was a french themed show.  As I've said before, not really into production shows but this one way really good.  It drew the biggest audience so people seem to really like these shows.  I thought they did a great job with the costumes and the variety.  Some stuff didn't really fit in but it was still really good.  It had two aerialist sets including the aerialists from the other show.  That was really cool.   There was this really seductive type dance that was amazing.  A few things were a little goofy.  

 

We then went to the Weakest Link show.  We watched it for about 15 minutes and it wasn't that exciting and the people got some very easy answers wrong which was odd.  We thought we'd be much better off relaxing in the room.  

[Analog187]

Day 11 - Volos

 

This port was the biggest mystery since it seems like only a few cruises stop there and the ones that do mostly go for Meteora.  Since we didn't dock until noon, Meteora wasn't an option.  On top of that, an error in NCL's computer prevented us from even seeing tours in Volos let alone booking them ahead of the cruise.  When we got on, they had one tour available but they said another would be available a few days later.  So we came back a few days later and booked the Villages of Mount Pelion.  

 

Originally we were supposed to see three mountain villages but due to the fog, they had to switch things around. They took us up the mountain to see one village where we had Greek mountain tea. It was really good. It's so remote that the owner of the restaurant didn't even have a phone.

We then went a few minutes down the mountain to the next village. A lot of Greek celebrities have houses there apparently. There were a few shops but the highlight was a Greek church from 1714. It was pretty incredible and I hope that comes across in the pictures. I took quite a few.

We then went down to the bottom of the mountain to see another village which becomes a popular resort area in the summer. The sun was setting so we got some great pictures.

On the way back to the ship we stopped at an olive press where we got to drink fresh pressed extra virgin olive oil. It was incredible so we bought a big bottle for just 6 euros. This was a nice surprise which took the place of the village we had to skip. I doubt anything in that other village would have been better than this.

Big change of pace from our other tours but it was great to really get away from the crowds and check out some local culture. Friendly dogs and cats are everywhere so I included one of our new friends.

 

We didn't get back until 6.   This presented quite an issue as we had to eat dinner, pick of my wife's trivia prizes and get our passports back before the 8pm magic show.  Pretty much impossible to do so we went to the buffet instead and then we had to split the two other tasks.  The passport line was 45 minutes long.  That really sucked but I don't know if there is a way to do this any better.  Dinner at the buffet wasn't bad, the prime rib was fatty (which is typical) but otherwise really good.

 

The second White Magic show was great but a lot of people clearly didn't make it there.  The theater was only half full.

 

At almost 11pm as we were about to go to sleep we heard yelling in the hallway.  It sounded like someone was going to get assaulted so I went out there to help.  Turns out that security was already there.  This young guy was really, really drunk.  He was arguing with an Australian guy apparently who wound up just going to his room.  Despite this, the drunk guy just kept yelling.  It was funny at first but after 10 plus minutes of this, it was started to get stupid.  The security guy really didn't handle this the right way and a lot of other people came out of their rooms to see what was going on.  This one lady that was a little closer came out and tried to lecture the guy.  Security just let her get right in the guy's face.  Not a smart move if he tried to assault her.  They just sat there with a dumb look.  Fast forward another 10 minutes and this is now a 20 plus minute scene.  I had gone back in the room but realized that sleeping wasn't going to be an option while this went on.  I went back out and told the security guy that he wasn't handling the situation the right way and that this is very unprofessional to let this carry on.  Apparently he agreed because that got him to escort the guy out of the hall way but not before the drunk guy dropped to his knees and bowed to the security guy.  It was really odd.  Luckily they got him up and away from there.  I'm sure everyone in that area was happy about that.  Really amazed how bad they handled that.

[Analog187]

Day 12 - Disembarkation 

 

Nothing too exciting today.  Went to breakfast and headed out before our tags were called as we saw a chance to get out between huge crowds.  Had to wait until 8:45 to get on the bus.  Bus ride is less than an hour to the airport.  It was a pretty easy process.  

[Analog187]

Conclusion

 

This was an amazing cruise mostly because of the itinerary and the entertainment.  The food left a lot to be desired but I'm used to that with NCL by now.  The bed on this ship was horrible.  My back feels really messed up and it was very difficult to get a good nights sleep.  On top of that, the cabin got very, very warm at night.  I am convinced that they shut off the AC from 11 to 7 each night because during the day the cabin does get cold.   We were just on the Sun 2 months ago and while the ships are close in size and age, I prefer the Sun for some reason.  Can't really put my finger on it but I just wasn't a huge fan of this ship.  I did like the size of it though.

 

The Stardust theater needs to be worked on.  A lot of the seats are broken.  The ones that aren't are very uncomfortable.  If you are going on this ship, I highly suggest the balcony seats all the way in the front on the right hand side.  Comfortable and a good view.  

 

I'm sure I'll cruise with NCL again but it certainly won't be my first choice or probably even the second.