NCL Star Repo. 5/1 - looong review

[kaiiak]

We just got back from the 3 night repositioning cruise from LA to Vancouver. As first time NCL customers, we were REALLY excited to try out freestyle cruising. Here's a review of our trip...

 

DAY ONE:

Got to the port @ 1:30 and were on the ship and in our room within an hour. Everything went very smoothly.

Buffet lunch: pretty decent for a cruise ship lunch buffet: caesar salad, chicken, ribs, pasta station, pizza, etc. We then went to the muster drill and were surprised how orderly it was - you had to line up in rows for the entire thing wearing your life vest. Previously when we cruised with Princess it was much more casual. After that we met some CC Members at the Bier Garten for a drink at sailaway. Drinks & company was great:)

Dinner - Cagneys: VERY disappointed!! 1st of all, we are not big drinkers, & when we didn't order wine the look of disgust was completely obvious on the waiter's face. Our waiter couldn't remember our side dishes and got it all mixed up. I ordered my filet medium well and it came out bloody rare. At that point I didn't want to send it back bcuz I had already been waiting for my correct side dishes to come out and felt bad for the guy. Overall, food was good, but not great. I also thought the extra $10 charge for surf & turf was kind of ridiculous.

DAY TWO - SEA DAY:

Breakfast in the buffet - Average at best.

Went to the casino for the poker tournament - my DH had a great time playing - I played slots for a while.

Lunch at Blue Lagoon - horrible service. When we ordered a milkshake and asked for water we were surprised that we had to get our own. Just felt that seemed very tacky. Food was OK. Fish & chips too greasy, but potato skins were great.

PING PONG TOURNAMENT - We wanted to play before the tourney for fun but there were NO BALLS! We asked several people who worked there & got the cold shoulder. My DH wanted to do the tournament at 2pm, no NCL rep. showed up till like 2:20, then only had 2 balls for 3 tables and a tournament. He was in such a hurry for the tourney, didn't let people even warm up, and acted like he did NOT want to be there. At one point, left the medals w/ some players, and let people finish the game themselves. Returned to room to find the laundry person gave us the wrong shirt. It took about 3 1/2 hours to finally get ours returned (we were happy at least they found it!!)

BINGO: very expensive!!! They use the computer things. I like old fashioned bingo myself.

ICE CREAM SERVICE: Standing in line & all of a sudden the girl working the counter just left w/out a word to anyone. Waited a good 10-15 minutes til another person showed up. Something about the girl left her shift early?? :confused: Again - AWFUL SERVICE!!!

GYM & SPA POOL AREA: Gym was fine - hard to walk on a treadmill when the ship is rocking though :o Spa pool - paid $15 for a day pass. It was quiet & relaxing there. Beautiful view off the aft of the ship.

Dinner at Aqua - BEST SERVICE & MEAL of the entire trip!! Very attentive and the Cooking Light meals were GREAT! More action in the casino - dealers were very nice - floor managers bought drinks for players several times - little buffet in casino was also a nice touch.

DAY THREE - ASTORIA, OREGON

Room service breakfast - quick service, cereal and croissants were good - but ran out of bagels. Late to Astoria - getting off the ship took a bit of time, but not too bad. The port is BEAUTIFUL - rented a car thru enterprise - great service - spent the day bike riding at Cannon Beach. Rented at Mike's Bike Shop - really friendly owner who gave us a map to a great scenic trail nearby.

Spa -couples massage - GREAT- got the sales pitch but just kindly said no - still feels awkward turning them down though. Also - don't know why you don't get to use that pool area for free when you book a $200 service. Seems kind of cheap to ask for more $ just to use it!!! Any other hotel/resort in the US and you get all spa facilities w/ a booked service!

Dinner - Ginza - food was EXCELLENT - service average.

Back to the casino!! Great time there all three days

DAY FOUR - DISEMBARKATION:

EXPRESS DISEMBARKATION - NOT!!! Something happened w/ the port of Canada. Seemed like NCL blamed the port, the port blamed NCL. Either way there were people crammed into the halls, elevators, and stairwells to Deck 7. Were supposed to get off at 9:45. Didn't get out of the port onto the street till 11:00. HORRIBLE!!! What a way to end a cruise! Went straight to the airport by taxi - missed our plane but got on the next direct flight out so all was OK.

 

Only a 3 night cruise - didn't really have time to see the shows offered or get involved in the cruise director's activities - although they seemed a little lacking. When I looked at the schedule there were not many things I wanted to try out. Seemed like on other cruises there were so many choices I could never do everything I wanted to do.

 

Overall, great time but not sure if we will do NCL again - service was very lacking.

[CruisinConch]

I too just got back from the 3 day repo on the Star, and had to register on this board to share after reading some of the post. I'd like to add my experiences since they were very similar to yours.

 

 

1. Embarkation. The Port of Los Angeles does a great job, no issues here either.

 

2. Ships appearance was fine, but there was definitely some smell up on the lido deck near the pool when we arrived.

 

3. (a) Food included: I found the buffet to be somewhat lacking and disappointing. La Tratorrie, the food was fine and the service was the only bright spot on the cruise, this was the first place we encountered anyone that actually made us feel welcome on the ship.

 

3. (b) Food Pay. Had Reservations for Cagneys also. Showed up a few less than 10 mins late (I mean, freestyle cruising right?) I'm sure we stood there another 15 minutes waiting for someone to seat us. I then received the worst service from the staff there. And never did see the matri'd once we were seated. The wait staff was hit and miss bringing some dishes out right away, and then leaving us to sit with uncleared appetizer plates for what seemed an eternity, for gods sake just clear the plates away. Ginza, was better and we ate there on the third and final night. Although my wife didn't like the lemon chicken and asked for another dish. Service was mediocre at best.

 

4. Service overall. How else can i put it. TERRIBLE. Plain and Simple.

 

As far as the general staff, I think this boat is suffering from some problem. I have no idea what was going on but, one day into our cruise and all I could say was "we weren't feeling any love". I NEVER felt that I had one pleasant interaction with the staff, except the one dinner at La Tratorrie.

 

Room steward was better after I complained the first day about not getting a turn down the night before. After I explained about my need to ice down my injured ankle, he kept the ice bucket full.

 

Butler was at best marginal, I had to call to get her to even come meet us the first night, and it was downhill from there. All the way to the last day when I hadn't received a customs form necessary for disembarkation, and was told "I could pick one up at the reception desk". Wasn't the whole point of having a butler to take care of these types of things? She brought our breakfast timely (one day a bit early), but other than that she really didn't seem to want to be bothered. The final day we were informed that we would only get Continental service and not a full breakfast. OK, so I ordered the full menu anyway and she just dropped off the tray with 2 muffins and juice and reminded me that Continental breakfast was the only thing available. I just went up to the buffet and brought back a full plate of hot food to go with our muffins and juice. I cleared the table, and left some cut cantaloupe and a whole uncut and peeled banana on the table with my coffee. When I got out of the shower she had taken that right off the table too!

The ONLY other thing I ever asked her for was water, and she finally did that on the last day without me asking, but I wasn't going to carry off this big bottle she left us with at the last moment.

 

5. Room was nice AE Penthouse Suite I thought I would give it a try for a smaller cruise to see what it was like. I'm not sure it would be worth it if i had payed for a 7+ day and got the same butler and service. Is NCL the only one that offers butler service?

 

6. Casino and other ships activities: Played a little in the casino. Played the expensive automatic BINGO system ONCE, if you didn't play the max, you might as well not play. The cruise director and his staff were very energetic and appeared to be interested in making the cruise fun.

 

 

7. Disembark: We had a nightmare situation but that was due to the port of Vancouver and three ships at once. Off the Star and on to the Golden Princess took over 4 hours, all standing in lines. ALL THREE SHIPS left the port over an hour late, and what a shame for the one night cruisers, ourselves included that had our afternoon cut short. I'm sure there will be other posts about that incident.

 

Would I sail NCL again? Maybe, but probably not. If anything I liked the ships and the rooms and i would try a short cruise on the Pearl or some other ship to see if the problem is with the Star. The best way I can sum this up is "We just weren't feeling the love".

 

One notes:

We got off the Star and on the Golden Princess for a one nighter back to Seattle. Best upgrade we could have had! When we walked on the Princess and were meet by several people during the embarkation all too friendly and helpful, we started "feeling the love again". Had dinner at a specialty restaurant on board and found the service to be impeccable.

[kaiiak]

I wholeheartedly agree that we were not feeling the love!!!

[cruisingfromMN]

WOW. What a difference from just a few weeks ago. Our service was tremendous, food was great (loved the new menu), and we dined in both Specialty and Main Venues. "Felt the love" everywhere we went.

 

I didn't care for the hard sell after my spa service and was disappointed that they wouldn't let me use the pool all day of the day of my appointment. They only would let me use it either immediately before or after my treatment.

 

By chance was your butler Carmen?

 

We had an incredible time and plan on going back again sometime in the future.

 

I just wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the repo cruises. Seems to me that I remember some complaints last year with this same itinerary.

 

Give any of the other newer NCL ships a try but for a longer cruise. My bet, is that it will be a lot different.

[heelfan94]

This is just a thought, but I wonder how people tip on shorter cruises. Maybe since it's a shorter stay the crew doesn't get as many cash tips and that's why it's a little different? Just a thought. I have no idea since I've never been on a short one like this. :)

[CruisinConch]

First off, yes my butler was Carmen. I used her name somewhere else in another post and decided not to here. Funny how you knew that! :D

 

Second, I read a post from someone off a 7 day Mexican Cruise on the Star from April. It had basically the same issues we have posted about here, so a longer cruise won't fix the Star.

 

I got off the Star and on the Princess for the one nighter back to Seattle. Can't begin to say what a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE. The crew there probably didn't get tipped much on the one nighter, but EVERYONE was pleasant and went out of their way to help. The contrast was amazing from one ship to the next.

 

I agree it is possible that the crew could be in a bad mood because they know the ship is not full and they will not get all the mandatory tip money. In this case they should try harder to make sure the ship gets booked full more often, and I would think they would be trying harder to give a good impression to some of the first time cruisers on NCL. Again, I probably won't ever book with them again. BTW, I tipped my room steward, but not the butler. She knows about this fourm too, so I'm sure she will read this.

 

And Finally, I just found out that the booking agent messed up too. He booked the room in my wife's name and not mine. I didn't see the big deal until reading here and finding out her Room Card was a different color indicating VIP. Why wouldn't both occupants get a gold/yellow card? We used my card everywhere we went. Not that I think ultimately it should have made a difference, and nothing leads me to believe it would have.

[cruisequeen10]

I understand that the NCL Star came in late into Vancouver and the Golden Princess came in at 10:00 a.m. That is approx 3 hours that they have to make up and then the passengers that are getting on, get ripped off. I was down there because my sister and BIL were going on the Golden and had to wait till 3 p.m. until all the passengers were off before they could board. I also heard that the reason the ships were late was because of the rough seas.

[CruisinConch]

None of the ships were late. They were all scheduled to arrive late. Yes it did cause a fiasco in proportions that you wouldn't believe. There is a thread in Princess about that fine day in Vancouver at Canada Place. :(

[I don't do coach!]

This was my post in another area regarding the same repositioning cruise of the Star... A true nightmare!!!

 

Just wondering how many others were caught up in the chaos at the Vancouver Cruise Terminal on May 4, 2007. I arrived on the NCL Star and waited in line from 10:35 AM until 1:15 PM for a Taxi. My flight back to the U.S. departed at 1:40 PM, so needless to say I missed it. I finally got to the airport a little after 2:00 PM. Luckily there were still 2 American Airlines agents still there, even though the counter was closed. There were no more flights out so I had to wait until the next morning for a flight at 7:00 AM, which meant arriving at the airport at 5:00 AM. The hotel cost me $114.00 CAD plus tax not mention meals etc., on top of that my car was sitting in the parking lot at the airport at home, $$$ that was adding up, my dog’s are still stuck in the kennel because they were closed were closed by the time I got home, ( I just got home this afternoon ) that place is expensive also. This has really turned into an expensive and frustrating situation. If you were also caught up in this, were you warned? Had you any idea that they were going to have 4 cruise ships arriving on the same morning? I know the city of Vancouver was aware because there was a television news crew there taping the story and I watched the interviews last night. It was very obvious that those interviewed felt the same way I do. They were in shock and could not believe that any company or city would allow 7000-8000 people offloaded at the same time and put so many in such a predicament. I'm sure the cruise lines had to be aware and it sure would have been nice if they had passed this bit of information along to their passengers. Although I am finally home and typing this it’s still not over, the expenses and frustrations are still rising.

[cruisequeen10]

There are quite a few times that Canada Place has 3 ships in at once. The ships usually are in just after 7:00 a.m. and have no problems. On Friday May 4/07, the Mercury was on time, but the 2 others were late. That causes trouble when you have passengers arriving to board and they have to wait until the ships are emptied and cleaned.

[kaiiak]

As far as I know the ship did not come in late. We were scheduled to disembark later than usual - 9:30 or 10:00 I think - can't remember exact time. Express disembarkation was supposed to start at 9:45am being the 1st ones off the ship. I feel sorry for the lady who had to stay overnight - at least we got another flight rather quickly! What a bummer!!!!

[CruisinConch]

The ships were not late, just scheduled late, which caused a horrific bottleneck in the terminal. Also there were many articles in the Vancouver papers warning residents about the lack of taxis for the morning. Even though I am frustrated I had to wait in the terminal, I am glad i took the one nighter back to Seattle. We got off there, did a city tour and caught our flights without a problem. There are also lots more flights from SEATAC to parts in the US. I still think the cruise lines share some of the responsibility for what happened there that day.

[4 cruisers]

Hi Christie!

 

I think Bruce and I enjoyed the Star more than others who have posted...but really thought the food was lacking unless you did the specialty restaurants...we went to Ginza for lunch (WOW!!! delicious and the service was amazing), Le Bistro seated by the piano was like a fantasy..though the chicken was dry everything else great!!! Soho's service was also wonderful but the menu didn't grab us. We were thinking that they put the best servers in the specialty restaurants but from what I've read, apparently NOT CAGNEY'S!!!!:(

 

Getting off and then back on the Golden was just simply awful though we met a wonderful group of sisters from Vancouver who made us laugh and helped the time pass. The group of Red Hat Ladies should be ashamed for cutting in line that the rest of us had already suffered 2 hours in. I will NEVER join that group!!!!!!!!!!! There were about 20 of them!!!

 

The Golden Princess was fine...we had to ask for ice in our cabin and it was never refilled. The food in the main dining room was awful (the prime rib couldn't be cut for all the fat and gristle) though the service was amazingly great! The Skywalker Bar was also amazing! Enjoyed the aft pool while the sun was still shining for a drink and a lounge to relieve the swollen tootsies from standing 4 hours! The buffet was also just awful. We thought a bit worse than the Star even!

 

I would have tried the Golden again, but my husband truly didn't like her. We are booked on the Star for Thanksgiving and will most likely cancel...can't imagine that ship handling any more people than she had on for the repo! I am glad to read about the butler problem.. We were booked in an AB suite and if the butler wasn't great, that would be the worst! I think our next trip will be back with Celebrity. It seems to fit us better.

 

Oh, Murder Mystery Dinner on the Star was the best!!!!!! The service that night was actually really good in the main dining room and the prime rib just delicious. We had the best group and just a lot of fun!

[Urban trekker]

Blame the City of Vancouver - there are something like 420 licensed taxis in Vancouver and 3500 people disembarking that needed transportation services - there hasn't been any significant increase in the taxi licenses in many years and surburban taxis aren't allowed to pick up in the city - with 2 ships arriving later than usual and the usual crowd wanting to get on early chaos was predicted in the papers and on the radio and chaos is what happened. The City has recently increased the number of taxis licenses by over a 100 but they wont be in service for a couple of months yet.

 

Delays of this type on repos are not uncommon - I have suffered through them myself.

 

Since this incident there hasn't been as many problems as the ships are arriving and departing at the usual time.

 

Hope this helps some

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[c-legs]

:) Good afternoon,

 

Another factor which VERY strongly influenced the delays that day: Canada Customs, in its wisdom, sent....4 , yes, FOUR agents only to process the debark...Thankfully, the arrivals were scattered,otherwise, over 6000+pax would have disembarked at approximately the same time !!!

You would think they would,...just..get it !! after so many years processing cruise ship traffic in Vancouver. On a normal multi-ship day, there is always a sufficient amount of custom agents, in full season...Why not start it on the right foot in the 1st place, I can't figure that out.

The end result of this was: Golden Princess, arriving after 10.00am ( as scheduled) didn't get its disembarking pax fully processed ,off the ship, until after 1.00pm....and US Custom & Border Protection agents will NOT process ANY embarking passengers until the ship(s) are 100% cleared and empty of arriving people; that is quite normal. ...and THEY had a full complement of 12 agents on duty by 1.00pm, to their credit.

By that time, you can only imagine how many embarking pax were jammed in line on either side of the passengers screening facilities, just waiting.....

Once the US guys got the word that GoldenPrincess was ''empty'', things got flowing real quick. Once past their stations, the checkin process at all three lines was swift. We were on NCL Star to Seattle that day. once pass the afore-mentionned wait, it was less than 10 minutes between clearing customs, checking in and being on board.

 

The taxis issue....??? I suspect, having not witnessed such an undesirable situation in previous seasons while working there, that some ''cherry picking'' on the part of the taxis operators does slow things down a bit....This scenario has recently made the news.... But normally, there's only room for so many vehicles down there...and the flow of incoming cabs is near constant......under normal circumstances.

 

Cheers

:rolleyes: