Norwegian Star Review - Better late than never

[Cruisebug in Canada]

The Norwegian Star was our eighth cruise (4th with NCL) – and all in all, the best value yet… This was back in prime February whale watching time - I wrote it but forgot to post :p ... Here it is

 

Pre-cruise

 

After reading the boards, we decided we would stay close to the San Pedro port, so we booked rooms with the Vagabond Inn there. The rooms were clean and functional – got the same price booking directly on their website as any internet hotel intermediary – so it served its purpose. We rented one-way from Enterprise at LAX to the location right across the street from the port (you can actually see it across the parking lot as you enter or exit the ship). For those who come in a day early, the car rental is a convenience, but Enterprise does make their money by charging fairly hefty drop-off charges. We’ve also used this process in Houston – and Enterprise seems to be filling a niche for cruise ports.

 

Embarkation

 

As it was a 4:00 sail-away, we planned on getting on fairly early – and arrived at the port about 11:00 a.m.. There were still the remnants of last weeks’ cruise departing – so it was a bit crowded, even at this early hour. We couldn’t see any Latitudes line – but being Canadian, we did benefit from the non-US line-up (which had about 3 people in it in contrast to the hundred or so in the US lines…). Being an alien in the US sometimes has its perks – helps to sooth the beating we take in exchanging Canadian dollars for US money J

 

All tolled, we took about 60 minutes from curbside to on-board – not the fastest we’ve seen, but not too bad. Once aboard, we were a bit surprised to see all the main ship doors closed to the cabin areas – they told us that the cabins would not be available until 2:00, and they were true to their word. So we went for lunch at the Buffet – on the starboard side (which has a total of 3 separate, but identical buffet areas). Very busy – and also possessing one of the biggest negatives on the Star – namely a very strong odor that lingered throughout the cruise. The smell (which was hardly noticeable on the port side (single) buffet) was a cross between melting plastic and formaldehyde. Quite nasty, really. Our cruisemates asked crew about the smell later that day and they were told (whether true or not) that the smell comes from the incinerators further down in the ship. I would hope this wasn’t true – as with any such smell would come some toxic gases and carbon monoxide too – plus the smell was there, in varying degrees, for the whole cruise. Where I work, a smell like that would shut us down until government environment inspectors cleared it. If this is ongoing, it really needs some attention…

 

After lunch, we did a stroll around the ship – no surprises as we had cruised on the Jewel through the Mediterranean last year and although the Jewel had some refinements, it is obvious they are sister vessels. Ship, overall, is in excellent condition – I cannot think of any area that we saw that wasn’t in good condition or better.

 

The ship departed from a chilly Los Angeles area on time – and we were off…

 

Cabin

We had a standard inside on the 9th deck. Over time, we’ve alternated between balcony, outside and inside – and, of course, the inside is always the best value. Particularly on the 9th or 10th floors, you are only three flights of stairs from the ship’s largest balcony (around the pool deck). The inside rooms on this NCL class are fairly standard – good for two people, but 3 or 4 would be pushing it. The best cabin feature is the shower, which is a mid-size rectangular one, with full glass doors.

 

Our cabin steward team was Julito and Alicia - who were unobtrusive, polite and efficient. Curiously, there was no tent-card in the cabin, so while we said hello to them several times a day, we weren’t sure of their names until we received their hand-written note on the final evening (a nice touch). Towel animal fans – we received 5 over the 8 night cruise – a platypus, a stingray (first time for those ones J), a mouse, an elephant, and a dog (which I always think looks like an aardvark). Good technique !

 

The ship venues

 

First, the positives. The main dining room, Versailles, is very nice – with excellent service provided by our Romanian waitress (Loredana). In fact, even with free-style in effect, we requested her as our waitress several times and she entertained us with a great sense of humor and menu suggestions – very much a credit to her department! We dined at the Aqua (the second dining room) twice – and the food service was good, but more business-like than personable. Other restaurants we used included La Trattoria and Endless Summer (the alternative restaurants that need reservations, but have no cover charge) – which had good service, but again, not much of a personal touch.

 

The biggest disappointment, though, was Le Bistro. After raving about Le Bistro to our cruisemates, we were met with a changed menu (and not at all to the better) and relatively terrible service. The Star dumped the pre-6:00 p.m. discount, so you are looking at $15 per person for setting foot in there. Once seated, we received very poor service (in fact, the worst on the ship) – the staff there could not manage to place even cold appetizers in front of each of the six of us at our table within 5 minutes of serving the first. But losing the so-called “signature” menu items (Caesar salad, filet mignon, and the chocolate fondue for dessert) was a horrible decision. My wife and I opted for the chateau briand for two (which includes a Caesar salad and somewhat of the previous filet) – but they charge another $10 each for that… Now, I am not cheap – but $50 for this meal and service was not worth it. For the first time, the wait staff was nowhere to be found with fresh ground pepper (so you have to do the maraca shake of the table pepper shaker with its one tiny hole). But the poor timing of the meals was the worst aspect. We learned, during the cruise, that this week was a major crew turnaround (with lots leaving for holidays, and many new replacements coming onboard) – but in the NCL’s signature restaurant, there is no excuse for service that is greatly exceeded in the buffet. Le Bistro gets a failing grade on the Star!

 

One great place had to be the Blue Lagoon (the Star’s 24 hour diner-style café). The girls working there were quick, friendly, and the food there was hot and tasty (if only basic in nature). Again, very nice stop for a lunch or a late night snack. Finally, the poolside buffet made great omelets in the morning and good burgers for lunch – standard fare, but well done. We never tried the Ginza or the other asian-style specialty restaurants – one of the couples traveling with us tried the sushi but reported that it was nothing to write home (or a review) about. We would have tried Cagney’s (as we did on the Jewel last summer), but I saw yet another charge (on top of the $20 cover-charge) there for particular menu items (and after the lousy Le Bistro experience), we decided against it. I do not begrudge NCL the concept of additional charges – the specialty restaurants, when they are on top of their game, are well worth it. But the charges on top of that, for certain menu items, are ill-conceived. Simply, they should go.

 

As for the reservations, someone at NCL was listening – maybe even to the comments on Cruisecritic boards… On the Star, you now cannot go to Guest Services and book your entire week as soon as you get onboard (like I tried to do J). This gives wily veterans (and board readers) the ability to lock up the specialty restaurants so newbies are shut out. Instead, they have instituted a 24 hour window for reservations. This process is far from smooth (e.g. one evening, quite late, we stopped by the desk to reserve a table for the next evening – and were told we could not book until 8:00 a.m. the next morning). When we phoned down at precisely that time, we were told that the restaurant was booked solid from 5:00 to 9:00. So it appears some NCL staff have the literal concept of 24 hours in advance firmly in mind, while others seem to think 24 hours starts at 8:00. Methinks they need a department meeting. My compromise suggestion would be to give each cabin 4 tokens (whether real or virtual) at the start of each cruise to use for 4 meals throughout the week – kind of like tender tickets. If they don’t use them (as many cruisers don’t), there would be some room for reservations (or we could just sell them on the black market) – but this would allow guests to sample 4 or more meals in the free-style realm. From my experience on ships, a fair and reasonable compromise wouldn’t work anyway as there are always cruisers with the butt-in-line, me first attitude that seem to be accommodated rather than chastised by well-meaning (but ultimately, self-defeating) NCL crew members. Oh well…

 

Activities

 

Entertainment on the Star was a mixed bag. For instance, the Jean Ryan group on this cruise was amazingly talented – and they very much shone during their first performance - Music of the Night. I have never seen better voices, dancing and production onboard a ship. But the second two productions they were involved with suffered from a poor choice of material. The Fame show (or something very much like it) is a staple on every cruise – but I can never understand why. The dancing and songs are unfamiliar to, I would venture, most of the audience. One of the friends who came with us has three teenage daughters involved in drama and dance, so she was impressed with this show – but I gotta believe that for most – a nice presentation (like I’ve also seen from cruise productions) of 70’s and 80’s rock (or even rock musicals) would be more entertaining. But the worst of the trio was the Cirque Pacific evening. With all too brief interludes of an extremely talented group of acrobats, the Jean Ryan groups’ talent was again wasted with dance and singing (?) routines that were strongly reminiscent of the Tiki Room at Disneyland. There, now I can look forward to slams from fellow cruise critics… I’m not for the lowest common denominator (after all, there is a limit to how many times you want to hear karaoke “Friends in Low Places”), but a ship is not off-Broadway either – and these very talented singers and dancers should be able to use their talents to entertain everyone – not just dancer-mom’s and Broadway fans…

 

The guests for evening entertainment were generally good – particularly the magician – who has a very solid show that is professional and entertaining. The cruise also offered a hypnotist show – which was quite similar in entertainment value. The first night’s offerings, thankfully, were not harbingers of what was to come - the ship’s variety show which seems to be just slapped together with each lounge performer popping in for one song (maybe because this is an eight night cruise and an extra night is an oddity).

 

The Ports

 

 

After two days at sea, we arrived on time at Acapulco (the only port where we docked L) – did some shopping, walked the beach, went to the Paradise Club for the evening for drinks and people watching. Hint – if you can get through the throng of taxi drivers in the port area, you can actually get a reasonable deal with a driver out on the street or beyond. The drivers were asking $30 for a ride to the resort area club, but just a few more steps (and patience) will net you an $8 taxi. Bargain hard – but fairly, these guys need to fill their stomachs and gas tanks, too! Nonetheless, the $22 dollars you save, right there, will pretty much buy your drinks in town for the evening. Our taxi driver, Martin, managed to return (right to the minute) to bring us back to the Star when we were ready to go… Didn’t go to the cliff divers – and, for some reason, the shopping in Acapulco seemed quite pricey by Mexico standards. Rumor has it that they double the prices in the area when ships are in port – I believe it…

 

Next was Zihantenjo – a nice fishing village that has discovered the lure of tourista dineros. Good shopping there – and we found a bar (Zorro’s) with $1 cervezas – where it turned out that the owners were from our home town (Medicine Hat, Alberta). One of our cruisemates even worked with her nephew. I don’t know if anyone blurted out the “small world” comment – but it is getting smaller every day… Pelicans appear to rule the bay – the grey gliders are everywhere. We didn’t get down to the neighboring Ixtapa – but the ambiance of Zi is quite nice.

 

Puerto Vallarta – as this was our first cruise to any of these places, it was amazing how much PV reminded us of Cancun. Modern and geared to tourists, PV seems almost interchangeable with Cancun or Cozumel. My wife had visited there years ago – and claims that the hills and jungles nearby are quite striking, but port calls have limited time, so we just shopped and relaxed. Clean and safe, PV would be worth a week long holiday.

 

Cabo San Lucas – likely our favorite port on this cruise and the reason can be summed up with one word – whales. We tendered in and chose one of the local tour vendors who lined up on the dock (but, to their credit, were not aggressive) for a 2 hour tour. We wound up with Claudio as our “captain” with a total of 6 passengers for $30 each. At first, we saw the puffs from their blowholes and their arched backs from a distance, but Claudio knew his stuff and managed to fairly closely predict where the mother/calf whales would surface. As a result, we may have been only 30 yards away from the mom-baby when they came up. But on the way back, he maneuvered us to the same distance from a whale who was breeching the surface – there are few things more spectacular than a humpback shooting up through the water 5 car lengths away from your little 20 foot boat – then splashing down into the sea. Spectacular – and, mission accomplished – for that is why we went Pacific instead of Caribbean J

 

Disembarkation

 

We had a discussion – and the Star’s disembarkation rates along the worst we’ve seen. First, there was apparently a log-jam at the San Pedro port (there were two Princess ships in ahead of us) so the Star was slowed to arrive about 30 to 45 minutes late. Then, there was a fair degree of chaos in the early departures (i.e. Express free-style disembarkation) – because NCL fell short in shepherding express departures in any kind of order. As requested over the PA, we waited in our stateroom until the ship was cleared. Then we went down to the 7th level to join the queue (already at least ½ the ship long…). All during the first ½ hour wait, though, the cruise director staff was making announcements that guests doing the express departure should go to the 7th level via the midship elevators. Dozens did so, then cut into the line right there, rather than going to the end of the line (where we had gone some 45 minutes earlier to get just to that point). One good thing about this itinerary was the 7:00 arrival into the L.A. area (which, coupled with express debarkation, makes the possibility of Disneyland or another local attraction possible). As it was, we left the curb at the port at 10:30. All it would have taken was a cruise director staff member directing the mid-ship arrivals to the end of the line – there was no shortage of them at non-necessary points of the 200 yard long express line. If this was the first such voyage for the Star, I could see it – but if this happens every week, they have some work to do…

 

Final comments…

 

For the normal discounted price for an inside cabin – the Star has to be the very best deal in the cruising world. Coupled with cheap flights to LA for most of western North America, this is a no-brainer. The only thing missing is the warm Caribbean water (we did miss our usual snorkeling expedition), but in balance, the Star really shines for this cruise.

[newmexicoNita]

The Norwegian Star was our eighth cruise (4th with NCL) – and all in all, the best value yet… This was back in prime February whale watching time - I wrote it but forgot to post :p ... Here it is

 

Pre-cruise

 

After reading the boards, we decided we would stay close to the San Pedro port, so we booked rooms with the Vagabond Inn there. The rooms were clean and functional – got the same price booking directly on their website as any internet hotel intermediary – so it served its purpose. We rented one-way from Enterprise at LAX to the location right across the street from the port (you can actually see it across the parking lot as you enter or exit the ship). For those who come in a day early, the car rental is a convenience, but Enterprise does make their money by charging fairly hefty drop-off charges. We’ve also used this process in Houston – and Enterprise seems to be filling a niche for cruise ports.

 

Embarkation

 

As it was a 4:00 sail-away, we planned on getting on fairly early – and arrived at the port about 11:00 a.m.. There were still the remnants of last weeks’ cruise departing – so it was a bit crowded, even at this early hour. We couldn’t see any Latitudes line – but being Canadian, we did benefit from the non-US line-up (which had about 3 people in it in contrast to the hundred or so in the US lines…). Being an alien in the US sometimes has its perks – helps to sooth the beating we take in exchanging Canadian dollars for US money J

 

All tolled, we took about 60 minutes from curbside to on-board – not the fastest we’ve seen, but not too bad. Once aboard, we were a bit surprised to see all the main ship doors closed to the cabin areas – they told us that the cabins would not be available until 2:00, and they were true to their word. So we went for lunch at the Buffet – on the starboard side (which has a total of 3 separate, but identical buffet areas). Very busy – and also possessing one of the biggest negatives on the Star – namely a very strong odor that lingered throughout the cruise. The smell (which was hardly noticeable on the port side (single) buffet) was a cross between melting plastic and formaldehyde. Quite nasty, really. Our cruisemates asked crew about the smell later that day and they were told (whether true or not) that the smell comes from the incinerators further down in the ship. I would hope this wasn’t true – as with any such smell would come some toxic gases and carbon monoxide too – plus the smell was there, in varying degrees, for the whole cruise. Where I work, a smell like that would shut us down until government environment inspectors cleared it. If this is ongoing, it really needs some attention…

 

After lunch, we did a stroll around the ship – no surprises as we had cruised on the Jewel through the Mediterranean last year and although the Jewel had some refinements, it is obvious they are sister vessels. Ship, overall, is in excellent condition – I cannot think of any area that we saw that wasn’t in good condition or better.

 

The ship departed from a chilly Los Angeles area on time – and we were off…

 

Cabin

We had a standard inside on the 9th deck. Over time, we’ve alternated between balcony, outside and inside – and, of course, the inside is always the best value. Particularly on the 9th or 10th floors, you are only three flights of stairs from the ship’s largest balcony (around the pool deck). The inside rooms on this NCL class are fairly standard – good for two people, but 3 or 4 would be pushing it. The best cabin feature is the shower, which is a mid-size rectangular one, with full glass doors.

 

Our cabin steward team was Julito and Alicia - who were unobtrusive, polite and efficient. Curiously, there was no tent-card in the cabin, so while we said hello to them several times a day, we weren’t sure of their names until we received their hand-written note on the final evening (a nice touch). Towel animal fans – we received 5 over the 8 night cruise – a platypus, a stingray (first time for those ones J), a mouse, an elephant, and a dog (which I always think looks like an aardvark). Good technique !

 

The ship venues

 

First, the positives. The main dining room, Versailles, is very nice – with excellent service provided by our Romanian waitress (Loredana). In fact, even with free-style in effect, we requested her as our waitress several times and she entertained us with a great sense of humor and menu suggestions – very much a credit to her department! We dined at the Aqua (the second dining room) twice – and the food service was good, but more business-like than personable. Other restaurants we used included La Trattoria and Endless Summer (the alternative restaurants that need reservations, but have no cover charge) – which had good service, but again, not much of a personal touch.

 

The biggest disappointment, though, was Le Bistro. After raving about Le Bistro to our cruisemates, we were met with a changed menu (and not at all to the better) and relatively terrible service. The Star dumped the pre-6:00 p.m. discount, so you are looking at $15 per person for setting foot in there. Once seated, we received very poor service (in fact, the worst on the ship) – the staff there could not manage to place even cold appetizers in front of each of the six of us at our table within 5 minutes of serving the first. But losing the so-called “signature” menu items (Caesar salad, filet mignon, and the chocolate fondue for dessert) was a horrible decision. My wife and I opted for the chateau briand for two (which includes a Caesar salad and somewhat of the previous filet) – but they charge another $10 each for that… Now, I am not cheap – but $50 for this meal and service was not worth it. For the first time, the wait staff was nowhere to be found with fresh ground pepper (so you have to do the maraca shake of the table pepper shaker with its one tiny hole). But the poor timing of the meals was the worst aspect. We learned, during the cruise, that this week was a major crew turnaround (with lots leaving for holidays, and many new replacements coming onboard) – but in the NCL’s signature restaurant, there is no excuse for service that is greatly exceeded in the buffet. Le Bistro gets a failing grade on the Star!

 

One great place had to be the Blue Lagoon (the Star’s 24 hour diner-style café). The girls working there were quick, friendly, and the food there was hot and tasty (if only basic in nature). Again, very nice stop for a lunch or a late night snack. Finally, the poolside buffet made great omelets in the morning and good burgers for lunch – standard fare, but well done. We never tried the Ginza or the other asian-style specialty restaurants – one of the couples traveling with us tried the sushi but reported that it was nothing to write home (or a review) about. We would have tried Cagney’s (as we did on the Jewel last summer), but I saw yet another charge (on top of the $20 cover-charge) there for particular menu items (and after the lousy Le Bistro experience), we decided against it. I do not begrudge NCL the concept of additional charges – the specialty restaurants, when they are on top of their game, are well worth it. But the charges on top of that, for certain menu items, are ill-conceived. Simply, they should go.

 

As for the reservations, someone at NCL was listening – maybe even to the comments on Cruisecritic boards… On the Star, you now cannot go to Guest Services and book your entire week as soon as you get onboard (like I tried to do J). This gives wily veterans (and board readers) the ability to lock up the specialty restaurants so newbies are shut out. Instead, they have instituted a 24 hour window for reservations. This process is far from smooth (e.g. one evening, quite late, we stopped by the desk to reserve a table for the next evening – and were told we could not book until 8:00 a.m. the next morning). When we phoned down at precisely that time, we were told that the restaurant was booked solid from 5:00 to 9:00. So it appears some NCL staff have the literal concept of 24 hours in advance firmly in mind, while others seem to think 24 hours starts at 8:00. Methinks they need a department meeting. My compromise suggestion would be to give each cabin 4 tokens (whether real or virtual) at the start of each cruise to use for 4 meals throughout the week – kind of like tender tickets. If they don’t use them (as many cruisers don’t), there would be some room for reservations (or we could just sell them on the black market) – but this would allow guests to sample 4 or more meals in the free-style realm. From my experience on ships, a fair and reasonable compromise wouldn’t work anyway as there are always cruisers with the butt-in-line, me first attitude that seem to be accommodated rather than chastised by well-meaning (but ultimately, self-defeating) NCL crew members. Oh well…

 

Activities

 

Entertainment on the Star was a mixed bag. For instance, the Jean Ryan group on this cruise was amazingly talented – and they very much shone during their first performance - Music of the Night. I have never seen better voices, dancing and production onboard a ship. But the second two productions they were involved with suffered from a poor choice of material. The Fame show (or something very much like it) is a staple on every cruise – but I can never understand why. The dancing and songs are unfamiliar to, I would venture, most of the audience. One of the friends who came with us has three teenage daughters involved in drama and dance, so she was impressed with this show – but I gotta believe that for most – a nice presentation (like I’ve also seen from cruise productions) of 70’s and 80’s rock (or even rock musicals) would be more entertaining. But the worst of the trio was the Cirque Pacific evening. With all too brief interludes of an extremely talented group of acrobats, the Jean Ryan groups’ talent was again wasted with dance and singing (?) routines that were strongly reminiscent of the Tiki Room at Disneyland. There, now I can look forward to slams from fellow cruise critics… I’m not for the lowest common denominator (after all, there is a limit to how many times you want to hear karaoke “Friends in Low Places”), but a ship is not off-Broadway either – and these very talented singers and dancers should be able to use their talents to entertain everyone – not just dancer-mom’s and Broadway fans…

 

The guests for evening entertainment were generally good – particularly the magician – who has a very solid show that is professional and entertaining. The cruise also offered a hypnotist show – which was quite similar in entertainment value. The first night’s offerings, thankfully, were not harbingers of what was to come - the ship’s variety show which seems to be just slapped together with each lounge performer popping in for one song (maybe because this is an eight night cruise and an extra night is an oddity).

 

The Ports

 

 

After two days at sea, we arrived on time at Acapulco (the only port where we docked L) – did some shopping, walked the beach, went to the Paradise Club for the evening for drinks and people watching. Hint – if you can get through the throng of taxi drivers in the port area, you can actually get a reasonable deal with a driver out on the street or beyond. The drivers were asking $30 for a ride to the resort area club, but just a few more steps (and patience) will net you an $8 taxi. Bargain hard – but fairly, these guys need to fill their stomachs and gas tanks, too! Nonetheless, the $22 dollars you save, right there, will pretty much buy your drinks in town for the evening. Our taxi driver, Martin, managed to return (right to the minute) to bring us back to the Star when we were ready to go… Didn’t go to the cliff divers – and, for some reason, the shopping in Acapulco seemed quite pricey by Mexico standards. Rumor has it that they double the prices in the area when ships are in port – I believe it…

 

Next was Zihantenjo – a nice fishing village that has discovered the lure of tourista dineros. Good shopping there – and we found a bar (Zorro’s) with $1 cervezas – where it turned out that the owners were from our home town (Medicine Hat, Alberta). One of our cruisemates even worked with her nephew. I don’t know if anyone blurted out the “small world” comment – but it is getting smaller every day… Pelicans appear to rule the bay – the grey gliders are everywhere. We didn’t get down to the neighboring Ixtapa – but the ambiance of Zi is quite nice.

 

Puerto Vallarta – as this was our first cruise to any of these places, it was amazing how much PV reminded us of Cancun. Modern and geared to tourists, PV seems almost interchangeable with Cancun or Cozumel. My wife had visited there years ago – and claims that the hills and jungles nearby are quite striking, but port calls have limited time, so we just shopped and relaxed. Clean and safe, PV would be worth a week long holiday.

 

Cabo San Lucas – likely our favorite port on this cruise and the reason can be summed up with one word – whales. We tendered in and chose one of the local tour vendors who lined up on the dock (but, to their credit, were not aggressive) for a 2 hour tour. We wound up with Claudio as our “captain” with a total of 6 passengers for $30 each. At first, we saw the puffs from their blowholes and their arched backs from a distance, but Claudio knew his stuff and managed to fairly closely predict where the mother/calf whales would surface. As a result, we may have been only 30 yards away from the mom-baby when they came up. But on the way back, he maneuvered us to the same distance from a whale who was breeching the surface – there are few things more spectacular than a humpback shooting up through the water 5 car lengths away from your little 20 foot boat – then splashing down into the sea. Spectacular – and, mission accomplished – for that is why we went Pacific instead of Caribbean J

 

Disembarkation

 

We had a discussion – and the Star’s disembarkation rates along the worst we’ve seen. First, there was apparently a log-jam at the San Pedro port (there were two Princess ships in ahead of us) so the Star was slowed to arrive about 30 to 45 minutes late. Then, there was a fair degree of chaos in the early departures (i.e. Express free-style disembarkation) – because NCL fell short in shepherding express departures in any kind of order. As requested over the PA, we waited in our stateroom until the ship was cleared. Then we went down to the 7th level to join the queue (already at least ½ the ship long…). All during the first ½ hour wait, though, the cruise director staff was making announcements that guests doing the express departure should go to the 7th level via the midship elevators. Dozens did so, then cut into the line right there, rather than going to the end of the line (where we had gone some 45 minutes earlier to get just to that point). One good thing about this itinerary was the 7:00 arrival into the L.A. area (which, coupled with express debarkation, makes the possibility of Disneyland or another local attraction possible). As it was, we left the curb at the port at 10:30. All it would have taken was a cruise director staff member directing the mid-ship arrivals to the end of the line – there was no shortage of them at non-necessary points of the 200 yard long express line. If this was the first such voyage for the Star, I could see it – but if this happens every week, they have some work to do…

 

Final comments…

 

For the normal discounted price for an inside cabin – the Star has to be the very best deal in the cruising world. Coupled with cheap flights to LA for most of western North America, this is a no-brainer. The only thing missing is the warm Caribbean water (we did miss our usual snorkeling expedition), but in balance, the Star really shines for this cruise.

thanks for a very well balanced review. We will be on the Star in 10 days. I have clients that just returned and loved Le Bistro, but after looking at the menu they sent me, I am a little disappointed. I did notice Frog legs as an appitizer I think. I know one of the restaurants offers them. You know what, now that I think about it, I think it was Cagney's they really liked.

 

We intend on snorkeling in Ixtapa, knowing it won't be like the Caribbean, but will still be fun. No Whate watching for us, too early in the season.

 

Again, thanks so much for your review.

 

Nita