Star Princess, not many comments on it.

[minniemom]

I AM Happy about all the positive posts I read!! I was just wondering about what happened to make the few negatives posts so bad.

Maybe it is like the glass half full, or half empty. I tend to be one that makes the lemonade out of lemons....

On all 4 cruises I have been on 2 Disney 2 Celebrity. I have always had good service, good food, and no complaints. This is just my first time on Star, and I kept reading so many positive reviews on so many other princess ships, I just wondered why not much is said about Star???

Thanks for the comments.....

[julzcl]

our family of seven will be on the star to alaska June 29. I also noticed that there were not many discussions about this ship. Glad to read so many good reviews! When will you be traveling?

Julzcl;)

[julzcl]

our family of seven will be traveling on the star to alaska on June 29. When are you going?

[minniemom]

I am so sorry for those of you with the bad times. Thanks for posting them.. It helps to know. We have been on 2 Disney cruises with 1000 kids. However, it never seemed bad. I think Alaska draws a different crowd.

Julzcl. We are going June 1 We can't wait.. YOu must have 2 rooms?

[mrkrpan]

Julzcl - we are on the Star on 6/29 also! Finally someone is on the ship - thought it was going to just be the 4 of us! Traveling with DH, DS (turns 12 on cruise) and DMIL (turns 70 on cruise) so we are excited. I've read many positive and negative reviews and tend to take it all in, but know that my experience will be unique...its good to be prepared, but not be discouraged by other experiences - it's all good.....I wonder what July 4th will be like at sea.....

[phtktz3]

Many things- service was the worst I've had in almost all categries. I believe they were burned out as it was the 8th month of the sailing & all had been aboard the whole time. Little things happened: room steward vaccumed EVERY morning at 7am. Kids overran the ship- I called purser because some were throwing ice down the stairway(thought it was dangerous)- they told me they cannot do anything to control kids. They were also overunning the show rooms with no supervision. Someone had actually smuggled a dog onboard & it was running around the spa area! Called the purser again(& I'm really NOT a complainer) told it was brought onboard by a very good customer & she had been reprimanded. Lines everywhere for everthing - not very organized. As we all know you can request anything on the menu for future meals. I had orderd cobb salad 3 days in a row. That night I preordered for lunch the next day. Was told that I did not need to preorder(odd), so when I went to lunch & requested it the maitre'd berated me, telling me that I have to make such request ahead. Told him I did. He asked who I did it with, but I didn't know his name. I was so embarassed I actually left crying. These are just some of the things I can remember at the top of my head.

Thanks for the reply. Did you go during a school break? I have been fortunate enough to have never sailed during a spring break or even in the summer time when kids are out of school. I was on one cruise RCI where the parents of 5 kids ages 3-13 stayed across the hall in their own cabin and had all 5 kids in the cabin next to mine. These kids were bouncing off the walls TV turned up as high as possible, running in the hallway, ect. I only had to call the Pursers desk one time and they sent someone to the parents cabin. After that the Pursers desk called me on two occasions to find out if the probelm was solved and it was. The kids were much quieter after their parents were talked to. I understand everyone has a right to a nice vacation but to leave 5 kids those ages alone all night is not a good idea!

[tequilatamm]

We went on the Star to Alaska on her first season, back in 2002 or 2003, whenever it was.

 

It was our first cruise and the ship was brand new, and the whole experience was excellent.

 

It's my opinion that the destination as well as extenuating circumstances have a lot to do with a person's positive or negative experience on a cruise, so it's hard to say how YOU will go on the cruise.

 

However, generally, the Star seems to hold her own and be a good, solid, grand class ship!

[gooch47]

All ships know how to annoy you at some time or other.

 

EXACTLY! That was what I was trying to get across in my "vague" post.

[victory2020]

Thanks for the reply. Did you go during a school break? I have been fortunate enough to have never sailed during a spring break or even in the summer time when kids are out of school. I was on one cruise RCI where the parents of 5 kids ages 3-13 stayed across the hall in their own cabin and had all 5 kids in the cabin next to mine. These kids were bouncing off the walls TV turned up as high as possible, running in the hallway, ect. I only had to call the Pursers desk one time and they sent someone to the parents cabin. After that the Pursers desk called me on two occasions to find out if the probelm was solved and it was. The kids were much quieter after their parents were talked to. I understand everyone has a right to a nice vacation but to leave 5 kids those ages alone all night is not a good idea!

This was mid October. I would't sail during summer, etc if you gave me free cruise! I think its possible ill-behaved kids because the price of the cruise went down to $399- maybe different demographics because of price. Can't believe your problem! At least RCI did something about it!

[Teeara]

We tried to make reservations for a table for 2 in Anytime Dining, and it wasn't allowed. But we saw plenty of people just walk in and go directly to a table for 2. It turned out it was an overflow from Traditional Dining and most of the tables for 2 were used for that. We were taken to a table for six several times (for just the two of us) when we passed many tables for four. It was just annoying.

 

I am surprised to hear you say that you had problems. We had absolutely no problem making dinner reservations for 2 every night in the Anytime Dining. Not sure which one you used, but we repeatedly went to the one on the lowest level (forget its name). We also went at 5:30. We also asked to be seated at the same table so we had the same wait staff each night. It worked out great and we had no problems whatsoever. A couple of times we had two other ladies we kept running into to join us for dinner and they had no problems accommodating us.

 

Theresa

[gooch47]

I think this problem may have been limited to this particular cruise (October, 2005) due to them using the Anytime Dining for the overflow from Traditional.

[lel5344]

Case in point: our last cruise was 11 day Hawaiian Islands on NCL's Pride of Aloha (on which we had previously sailed when it was Norwegian Sky).

 

The ship was inconsistent. Crew in the main dining rooms varied. Some extremely motivated, others were slow and somewhat disinterested. All were polite, however, even if they weren't particularly extroverted. Food seemed somewhat below previous standards (what happened to chilled soups?) (Food and service in the Royal Palm Bistro, however, was excellent, as always.)

 

 

Housekeeping was mediocre (on several occasions our stateroom was not cleaned appropriately). No improvemnt until I contacted the head of hosekeeping a second time. I ponted out a creaking staircase on 3 occasions and was promised that attention would be given to it. Didn't happen.

 

The Cruise Director, in our opinion, was less than stimulating.

 

None of the "problems" above happened (to us, at least) when we sailed the Sky to Alaska a couple of years earlier. nor had any of these "problems" ever happened (again to us, at least) on any of our previous NCL voyages.

 

Did any of this spoil our cruise? NOPE! This one was for the itinerary. We had read many reviews and our expectations of ship and crew were not particularly high. Indeed, we were more than pleased with the value of the cruise.

 

The point is hat we cruise to enjoy ourselves. If there are glitches, that's life. No cruise is perfect (although we have never cruised on a true luxury ship). We keep our expectaions reasonable; we do our best to ignore the rude pax (there are some on every ship, aren't there?); and when we find something aboard to be extremely enjoyable, we do our best to take advantage.

 

So, if there's criticism in this thread of Star Princess, that's OK. We'll look at the criticism and see how it might apply to our situation. And when there are positive comments, we'll see if they apply to us. But, in the long run, WE are the ones who decide if we're going to have a good time. So...be a critic, be a booster, be indifferent. It's all OK with us.

 

Note: everything above is our opinion and is not to be taken as gospel...lol

[victory2020]

I forgot- anytime dining seemed to be a bit of a problem on Star. Other ships we were able to make a reservation for the next night as we left from dinner. On the Star we were told we had to call reservation line at 1pm the next day. I called exactly at 1 (got busy signal a couple of times) & was told the time we wanted was full. How could that be unless other people were allowed to make reservations the night before?

[royalflush]

I'm interested in any information on Aft Cabins on the Star Princess. Thanks!

[pris993]

We are booked on the Star to Mexico in the fall. This will be our 17th Princess cruise, never been on the STar before and have been on the Grand, Golden to name a few. Sometimes one does get a cruise where the service is not up to par. We took two cruises on the Dawn within 6 months of each other a couple of years ago, first cruise was great, second was not. So it can happen. Regardless - we are looking forward to taking the Star. The crew made the Dawn both a + and -.

 

We usually read the reviews and go and make our own evaluation. That's part of the fun -- checking each ship out.

 

We cruise different lines as well. Just booked on Celebrity for 2009. And have a cruised booked on the Ruby for 2009.

 

I hope you have a great time on the Star.

[seattlec5]

[quote name='pshrynk']We're leaving Santiago (Valparaiso) on the Star in exactly 11 days, so I'll post when I get back.:D[/quote]


I just spent 12 days on the Star in South America and was happy with the ship. I have sailed on the Golden and Grand several times each and the Star is identical. And since my office overlooks the Port of Seattle, I will be seeing the Star every week through my office window. So, no you have nothing to fear, she is a nice ship and like the other first generation Grand Class ships is very well laid out. Have a good time on her in Alaska:)