MkeCruzn

We were on the Star in September 2023. We made it to all our ports (Isafjordur included) but the port call didn't show up on the Isafjordur port schedule, so our independent tour didn't want to commit until that had been resolved. Fortunately, we did get confirmation and were able to book the tour (with Arctic Shorex/Wild Westfjords at half the price of the NCL shore excursion). We heard that the issue with the Prima wasn't the dock construction, but something to do with the tenders on the ship. I am not sure if that's accurate or not, but we never really get a straight story from NCL. I hope you get there. Isafjordur is a nice place.

We had Northern Lights for 5 nights during our September cruise to Iceland and Norway on the Star. The cruise staff let people know early each evening what time the lights were expected to be visible, and announced via audio/TV when they were visible. One night it was 1:30 am, the rest were more like 10:30 pm. Tip: they announce the visibility at the earliest time you can see them, but if you can hang out another 20-30 minutes you just might be rewarded with a stronger display. At first, they look more like the Milky Way, just kind of gray/green on the black sky, so you might not realize you're seeing them. I also found that the iPhone pictures were better than the "live" view (more intense, etc.) and a "regular" camera didn't do quite as well. I also saw people with tripods who thought that the tripod was not going to move when the ship rocked 🙂

Iceland was amazing. If you can plan extra time there, it's well worth it!

I don't know if it's fixed or not. I would like to know if the Star is better for this cruise than one we took 6 months ago (with many examples of service not being up to prior standards). And yes, I would like to know to add it to planning future cruises. If you have more evidence that staffing has been improved, please share it.

Yep, I would like to see this too. We're trying to decide whether to do Antarctica on NCL or Celebrity, but Celebrity isn't going there in 2025, so we will have to wait if we want that. We took the Star for our recent Iceland/Norway cruise (September 2023), and they had some serious issues with staffing, long lines, service in the MDR, etc. There are a lot of reviews (including mine!) regarding this. I'm not sure I would look forward to another itinerary on the Star until they get this fixed. If you could keep an eye on this, it would help everyone! Thanks!

I think so 🙂

Hi Henry, thanks for the additional info. Personally, I am not hung up on watching TV shows from home when I am traveling (or many other times as well), but to each his own. I go on vacation to do different things. I suppose that it would kill some time if we were stuck at sea due to stormy weather, but still... It looks like a lot of stuff to lug along. My wife is annoyed sometimes with just the laptop/phone/iPad drawing my attention away.

The Beryl spec sheet says specifically that connecting your devices through a wi-fi network uses "repeater mode" which means the radio will need to alternate between communicating with the WAN and the LAN sides. Otherwise, the transmit signal will overwhelm the much fainter receive signal from the laptop/phone/etc. if they are on the same band (2.4 or 5 GHz). It may be possible to have WAN traffic on one band and the LAN on the other, but that is not guaranteed. Even so, your devices will all have to share the speed of the main link (in this case, 5.82 Mb/s down and 3.15 Mb/s up). You're fortunate to get 5 Mb/s in mid-afternoon.

I'm glad they played it. You had a better experience than we did.

Go Pack! (Though they have been inconsistent so far this season...) I have seen different priorities for showing NFL games on different ships. Even during the playoffs/Super Bowl, you could not count on seeing the games. However, "football" and rugby seemed to get higher priority, particularly if the world cup is going on.

A couple of observations, not getting into legal/moral issues. Apologies if this turns too geeky. 1. For the travel router to work, you need an Ethernet port, right? Using the wi-fi connection for both the WAN and LAN would cut the speed in half, just like a wi-fi repeater. If NCL cared about people bringing routers, they could disable the Ethernet ports in the cabins and force everyone onto the ship's wi-fi network. 2. My last unlimited wi-fi package allowed three different devices to connect through my account, though I could use only one at a time. I was able to authenticate my phone, laptop, and iPad without doing much other than logging in/out. When my wife wanted to use the wi-fi, I just had to remove a device so she could log in. When she was done, I just removed hers and added mine back in. Inconvenient? Maybe a bit. Limiting? Yes and no. I just had to discipline myself and use only one device at a time. 3. MAC spoofing probably would not work, since the system knew what OS version, device type, etc. was connecting. I suspect that the same MAC address with different details might appear as different devices, but I have no way of testing this. I did have to remove a "device" if I used a different browser on the laptop to log in, as it thought the computer was not the same.

It sounds like your "passenger" could have been someone working the gate areas and never planning to board your flight. It's a reasonable scenario - get to the airport way in advance, grab a few wallets while you're waiting, and then fly out later in the day. Or, they buy a refundable ticket so they can get into the secure area, work the departing passengers, then leave and get a refund on their ticket. Front pocket is not always as safe as you would think. I could tell you a long-ish story, but you get the idea. Watch out for groups of 2-3 people walking together, and maybe not having a lot of hand luggage. I've decided that I will take a duplicate driver's license on trips where I plan to rent a car. The rental car companies won't accept a copy, probably even one that came from the DMV in your state. Also, I suggest more than one ATM card with different account numbers if you plan to pull cash from your account while you're gone.

I hope that your experience is different from what I recall on our most recent cruise (Star, Iceland to England, September). I noticed that people had to check in any wine/spirits you brought on board and the sign said you'd get them back at the end of the cruise, not on-call during the cruise. Perhaps there was some issue with local laws in Iceland, or perhaps I am not recalling the situation correctly. I was surprised that it seemed to be different from prior cruises.

Looks like some of these are pictures of La Cucina. They don't have a great atmosphere on this ship. It looks to me like they tried to squeeze it in, but it has no ambience. It's just like another cafeteria. The food is decent, but I'd go to Cagney's or Le Bistro for a nicer experience.

Almost nobody orders less than a pint. The half pints are considered a "ladies' drink", from what I have heard.

I found that VPN software did not work on the basic package, but I didn't try much streaming or FaceTime.

Hey @mking8288, nice to see you here! Last month on the Star (Iceland to Southampton, 14 days) they offered various upgrades to unlimited or unlimited with streaming. The price kept dropping day by day from $199-ish for the non-streaming package and eventually (after about 5 days) the price dropped to $99 for basic and $199 for streaming. I bought one package and shared it with my wife quite easily, though we could only have one device at a time logged in. She kept watching and the price never went lower, so I think I maximized the number of days vs. the price. I did lose the remainder of my 300 minute free package, but hey, I guess free is free anyway. I might have spent the 300 minutes a bit faster if I had known the package price would drop. Another small point: on the last day, you lose the login page on the app, and it's replaced by the "Goodbye for now" screen. That means it's harder (or maybe impossible) to use your remaining free minutes. However, if you're logged in on the unlimited, your package expires at 10 am or 11 am on debarkation day, so you can still use the last bits of time until you connect to a shore-based provider. The ship wi-fi still had serious speed issues, and there were several times that things did not load very fast at all. I don't know if the streaming package is any better on the speed than the non-streaming package.

Iceland shorex with NCL are mostly crazy expensive, as you noted. We passed on almost all of these those and booked similar ones at 1/3 the price through Arctic Shorex and other companies, or just walked around the town and enjoyed a free day (in more than one way). I am willing to spend $150 per person for a full day, or close to it. We did some pre-cruise excursions in Reykjavik for that price, and our independent shorex came in at about that price too. I understand an expensive tour in a bus (after all, gas is $10/gallon or thereabouts), but a $550 kayak trip? Come on, NCL.The vacation is expensive enough without gouging pax on the shorex. They also don't tell you about interesting options like a $20 per person shuttle bus vs. the $150 shorex in Norway. Rumi is an excellent GM, in my opinion. I hope he enjoys his vacation. He deserves some time off.

Looks like Rumi is taking a break as GM. He's been on the Jewel since 2020.

Back after the cruise. Both excursions through Arctic Shorex were excellent. Great tour guides, smaller 19-pax Mercedes Sprinters, and one tour had only 11 people. The guides were knowledgeable and liked to talk, so we got a lot of good details. They took us to the spots you'd like to see. We had plenty of time and made it back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. If the cancellation policies are understood and acceptable, I would not hesitate to book a tour with them.

We walked around the town in the morning and had a walking tour of the town in the afternoon. It was booked through the ship, but we only had 6 people for the tour. It was nice to hear the stories, but we also wound up back at some of the spots we'd seen earlier in the day. We did not do the walk up to Aksla, but others probably did.

We tendered at Isafjordur. However, the port schedule did not list our stop until early August, so our independent port tour was a last-minute scramble. However, it was great and worth taking the chance. It was with Wild Westfjords/Arctic Shorex.

The ship's shuttle took people to the Arctic Cathedral and the cable car lower station. I don't know for sure if it went elsewhere, as we did not take it. I talked to some people who took it and they mentioned a few spots that it went. I would have been really happy if it stopped near the ferry dock as well. Our ship was docked at the cruise terminal that is not close to the center of town, maybe 2 to 2.5 km away. There's a ferry port that is at the center of town, but it's upstream of a bridge that appears to be too low to clear many cruise ships. Hope that's helpful!

Oh, and we had two dinners in Cagney’s. Both great!

La Cucina food was good, atmosphere was like a cafeteria. Very little to distinguish it. We should have gone elsewhere!