NCL Star - 3/5 - 3/13 Review! LONG!

[cliffd64]

Hi all; Just back from our great cruise! Here's our review!

 

Introduction: This was our eight cruise, and seventh with NCL. The itinerary from Los Angeles (San Pedro) was as follows:

 

Day 1 - Departing San Pedro at 4:00 PM

Day 2 - Day At Sea

Day 3 - Day At Sea

Day 4 - Acapulco

Day 5 - Zihuatanejo

Day 6 - Puerto Vallarta

Day 7 - Cabo San Lucas

Day 8 - Day At Sea

Day 9 - Arrival at san Pedro

 

Getting to the ship: The Norwegian Star sails from San Pedro for this itinerary. Coming from the East Coast, we flew into LAX the night before, and stayed at the airport Radisson. Prior to leaving, we inquired directly from NCL about obtaining a trasnfer to the pier from the airport... and we were told, and it does state on their website as well, that we could purchase a transfer to the pier directly from the people at LAX when we arrived. We checked out of the hotel at about 10 AM and headed back to LAX to get a transfer to the pier. The NCL staff at the pier had no clue or experience selling transfers directly, and so after a few minutes it became apparent that we would be waiting until everyone else had already left before we would ever get on one of their buses. We decided to take a cab. The taxi stand people told me it should cost about 45 dollars (20 miles or so) to get to the San Pedro pier, so we gladly took one. As luck would have it, we got the only cab driver in the area who had no clue where the harbor was. After a few phone calls to his superiors, we finally made our way to the pier. It cost us 67 dollars due to his meanderings. The way back only cost of 43 dollars... go figure.

 

Getting ON the ship: The embarkation process is a little different in San Pedro, especially now with the advent of E-Docs. If you have E-Documents, basically you are e-mailed your cruise documents. This is nice, but doesn't include luggage tags. At the pier, we were required to hold onto our luggage until we got near a table where someone could give us tags according to our cabin location (forward or aft) on the ship. From there, after handing yourluggage to the stevadores, you go through port security, and are handed a group number and asked to wait (seated) in a room. Our group number was called immediately upon entering the room, so we never had a chance to sit. Once called, we proceeded up the gang plank and onto the ship, where we then were checked in by people stationed around the atrium with laptops. Once checked in, we were given our card keys and sent to our room. Total time from exiting cab to gettting on ship: Less than an hour.

 

The cabins: We had booked a guaranteed inside cabin, and when we checked in we had a cabin on deck 8, cabin 8137. This cabin was very convenient to the upper part of the atrium area and the Endless Summer restaurant. The cabins on the Norwegian Star seemed a bit larger than typical, and there was plenty of closet and drawer space. Tons of hangers in the closet as well. The shower and bathroom are adequately sized. Water temperature and pressure was fine. A hairdryer is provided. No irons are allowed (but if you have one, bring a travel iron). Upon arrival, we were greeted BY NAME by our cabin steward (nice touch) Mario, who introduced himself and his partner for the trip. Mario was very efficient and consderate during the entire trip. We complimented him well on the comment card.

 

The Ship: The ship is simply gorgeous, very clean and fantastic decor. Deck 4 was the lowest deck, and was the entrance and exit point for tenders and shore piers. Decks 5 contained only staterooms. Deck 6 contained part of the Stardust Lounge, where most of the shows are held, and various cafe's and restaurants such as: The Venetian restuarant, Le Bistro, The SoHo, Aqua, Havana Club (cigars), Gatsby's, and the Star Club Casino. Deck 7 contained the atrium area (entrance when in Miami and New York), the Java Cafe, the Blue Lagoon restaurant, Red Lion Pub, the huge Galleria shopping area, Stardust Lounge, Dazzles, Tepanaki, Bamboo, Sake bar, and the photo gallery. Deck 8 was mostly devoted to staterooms, but contained the Endless Summer restuarant and bar as well. Deck 9 had mostly staterooms, but also the internet cafe. Deck 10 is devoted to staterooms. Deck 11 also contained the gorgeous El Dorado spa, including an indoor pool. Deck 12 contains the Spinnaker Lounge, all the conference rooms, card rooms, library, cinema, pool deck, and kid's pool deck, and the Market Cafe and La Trattoria specialty restaurant. Deck 13 is the Sun deck/jogging track with the Teen Center and the Bier Garten bar and Star Bar, and Cagney's Steakhouse. Deck 14 was your Sports deck with the top of the Bier Garten Bar and Grill, and the Garden Villas area.

 

The Restaurants: The Norwegian Star has two main restaurants for the nightly menu, with each of them offering slight variations of the same theme, so you really have to check all of them to determine your best fit if you want to eat in the main restaurants: Venetian in the aft of the ship, and Aqua more midship. For quick fare, you can eat also at the Blue Lagoon, which serves quick burgers, fish and chips, and other appetizer type foods, as well as great fried rice and cantonese noodles. There are also several specialty restaurants that range in additional price from FREE to $20.00 including: Ginza (oriental sushi and teppanaki) for $10.00 all you can eat sushi and oriental barbeque, Endless Summer (free) tex-mex, Le Bistro ($15.00) mediterranean French style cuisine, La Trattoria (free) Italian style, SoHo ($15.00) and Cagney's Steakhouse ($20.00). The Market Cafe was where the buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner were held. The Java Cafe had a la carte dessert items available as well. Occasionally, there are outdoor barbeque buffets on the pool deck weather permitting...

 

The following is a breakdown of the various restaurants:

 

Market Cafe: This is the buffet restaurant of the Norwegian Star. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is very large, with several lines from each direction, so there is never really any waiting. Staff is there to assist you in finding the shortest entry point so that you don't get bogged down. Food was fine for breakfast, with typical breakfast buffet food, including omelet stations (yum!) and belgian waffle stations. Seating was fine, and seemed plentiful the times we were there. We didn't really have too many lunch items there, and generally we didnt do buffets for dinner, so it would be unfair to comment on those.

 

The Venetian Restaurant : This is one of the main restaurants, located aft. The Venetian offers the same menu as the other main room, but with slight variations. For example, on one evening Venetian offered filet mignon while Aqua offered grilled tenderloin. Service is excellent from both hostesses and waitstaff. Dinner menus are pretty typical of NCL, and seemed to be well thought out. The Venetian is larger than the other rooms, and has traditional high celings and a big panaoramic view off the stern of the ship. Service was excellent all through the week.

 

Aqua: Located midship, this is the other main dining area. Lower ceilings here create a more intimate setting, and basically the same menu as the Venetian, but with it's own twists. Service is excellent from both hostesses and waitstaff. Because the menu was slightly different than the Venetian, if you weren't partaking of a specialty restaurant, you really need to check both menus which are posted in hallways near each restaurant in order to make your preferred choice. Service was excellent all throughout the week.

 

Le Bistro (Deck 6 midship): Le Bistro is the french alternative restaurant that serves mediterranean style cuisine. The restaurant is a wonderful experience and offers a complete menu in a beautiful setting. The $15.00 cover charge is well worth it. We had a wonderful dinner here. The chocolate fondue dessert is to die for, and there are other great choices as well. We make sure we have one night at Le Bistro on every Norwegian ship. Make reservations early by visiting the atrium area. They tend to fill up later in the week, so if you don't want to dine late... get your request in quickly. They also have seating in the wine cellar if they are booked up, so ask about that. The service is so very excellent and can even be fun if you let them entertain you.

 

Endless Summer: Excellent service and a fun tex-mex menu here make for an excellent meal, especially with the FREE cover charge. The maitre-d here was excellent and all the service was excellent. The portions were incredible, so we couldn't eat all our entrees that night (have to save room for dinner of course!)

 

Ginza: Sushi and teppanaki grill... They have a happy hour 50% off the cover charge ($15.00 usually) each day from 5:30 to about 6:30 I think. We aren't really into sushi, and have oriental food alot at home, so we didn't attend this restaurant. It was never really crowded. If you are into Sushi, then for $10 you can't really go wrong.

 

Cagney's: Steakhouse, with an $20.00 cover charge. We couldn't justify the charge when there was so much other beef entrees around the ship to go and spend that amount in Cagney's, so we skipped it. I hadn't heard of too many going there, but I didn't hear any complaints either. All that I spoke to enjoyed it immensely.

 

La Trattoria: Located next to the Garden Cafe, this restaurant features Italian food. While we have dined in this type of specialty restaurant abouard other NCL cruises, we just didn't find a reason to go this time. The food is good, but you need to be in the mood for Italian.

 

Midnight Buffets: The Norwegian Star offered only one midnight buffet on this cruise. The signature “chocoholic” chocolate buffet where everything is made from chocolate was held at 2:30 PM rather than at midnite. Cakes, pies, fruit dipped in chocolate, moose, cheesecake, fudge, you name it and if it was made with chocolate they offered it. I only managed to make it partially through the line before my plate was overflowing. One nice touch is that they will offer to transfer your chocolate to a "to go' plate so you may take it back to your cabin. Interestingly, there was an early picture time scheduled... so many people took pictures before it was devoured. The contents were fabulous however, and very delicious. Here's a tip.. read your freestyle daily and get in line about 15 - 20 minutes early.

 

General notes on dining: Service was VERY fast and efficient on this cruise. we ate as a table of two every night, but we never required more than 45 minutes to an hour for the ENTIRE meal. We never waited to be seated except for ONE night, and that was for only 15 minutes.

 

Entertainment: Entertainment on the ship is scattered throughout. Of course, there is a casino. Every night there is a sail-away party on the pool deck when leaving a port (if we leave at night). The band there was actually a regaae band, and was pretty good.There was live top-40 style music in the Spinnaker Lounge, although the musicians were not quite as talented as the poolside band. In some of the bars, there was a piano player who also sang. The main shows were adequate and were located in the Stardust lounge. They ranged from magician acts, to little broadway ensemble shows, to singers. Karaoke was also offered from time to time in the Dazzles Lounge every night. The "Star Seeker" show was fantastic. 15 acts from among the guests auditioned, the top 10 were picked, and performed on the last night. The winner was..... ME! I won for singing with the band!!!

 

The cruise director, Kieron Buffery is simply the BEST. He is always fantastic! He remembered us from the Dawn, and made us feel like VIP's all week long!

 

Nadina Muntaneau, from Romania, on tghe cruise director staff is also excellent! DJ Arnel is also great, and we had met him while on the Dream in November.

 

Ports and Shore excursions:

 

Acapulco: Acapulco is much as expected... a big city, with alot of people hustling to earn your money! I learned some new Spanish while there... apparently to an Acapulco taxi driver, "NO thank you" means "ASK ME AGAIN IN 20 SECONDS". We had arranged to be met by Fernando (a dive shop owner) at 1:30 PM at the pier (we docked in Acapulco... tenders everywhere else.) The diving was very very good, and even our divemaster was impressed with the visibility for this time of year. We stayed in Acapulco until after midnite, and the city lights were nice to photograph from the ship :)

 

Xihuatanejo: This is a pretty little fishing village in a protected bay, with beautiful pristine beaches on all sides. We had booked the ship's diving tour here since offship was the same price. No cattle boat here, only six were allowed to go, and a few people were turned away since they waited too long to book the tour. The diving was again really good, but the water was a little colder here than in Acapulco. We saw tons and tons of all sorts of different rays. The dive staff took us to their shop on Las Gatas beach across the bay, and we enjoyed an after-diving cerveza and tequila ! Great trip overall !

 

Puerto Vallarta: PV is a little bigger than Xihuatanejo but still very very pretty. We again took a ship's dive excursion, however this time we were on a cattle boat with a ton of snorkelers. The diving was disappointing here as visibility was horrible and water cold. Our dive master ( a young lady from Holland) was horrible. At one point, I had to lead our group of four (several others had opted out of the second dive because of the cold water) because our dive master abandoned us underwater. We found her a few minutes later, but that was not professional of her to become seperated from us. Fortunately none of us panicked.

 

cabo San Lucas: Cabo is also spectacularly beautiful above and under the water. We anchored right across from all the beautiful scenery of the Land's End area. Using our VIP tender passes (courtesy of Kieron) we were on the first tender, and headed across the marina (long walk by the way) to the dive shop we had pre-booked a tour with. We went diving out amongst the rocks and archways of Land's End. We saw sea lions, sharks, rays and even a bird diving down to 50 feet with us :) we had a fantastic couple of dives (4 of us including the dive master) and still had plenty of time to explore Cabo!

 

Freestyle Cruising: We were both veterans to the concept of Freestyle Cruising. Basically, what this allows you to do is to have the freedom of choosing who, and when, and where you want to eat every night. Basically, we chose what time we wanted to go to dinner and showed up when we felt like it. Except for the specialty restaurants, reservations are not required. You can sit with as few or as many people you like to. I would recommend that if you have a party larger than 8, make arrangements with the maitre'd of whichever main dining room you wish to be in ahead of time, as it may be hard for them to set up the proper table for you. The tipping is also automatically added in to your final bill. At a rate of $10.00 per day per person, we found this to be a bargain. It had no appreciable impact on level of service that we could decipher.

 

Summary: This was probably one of the best trips we have had in quite a while, and the Star is really a fantastic ship. Everything is gorgeous throughout the ship and you never get the feeling that there are over 2000 people on board at any point. I would gladly cruise on the Star again, even on this itinerary. All of the staff are pleasant and work hard to make people enjoy themselves. I would recommend the Star to anyone! Kieron is defintely the model for a perfect cruise director! The people I met were also wonderful... everyone seemed to be having a great time! Consider this cruise for your next NCL cruise, you can't go wrong!

[karfest]

Cliff,

Thanks for taking the time to post such an informative review- I'm glad you had a great time. We leave in just under two weeks and I can't wait...your review is making me hungry:D

[ikajus]

Thank you so much for the review. It was very helpful. I'll be sailing on 4/22 and you've helped to raise the excitement level!

[Splatitudes]

Glad you had a great time on the Star! She's a great ship, and it sounds like you really got the most out of your cruise. Great review!

[sodell]

Cliff... Thanks for the review... Glad you had a great time.

It's really exciting reading about other adventures esp, when we're next...woo hoo.

[angelsx4]

Cliff,

GREAT REVIEW!!! Thank you, that was awesome.

 

Have a question for you, okay, two...

 

1. Did they do a Murder Mystery on there? I read they did on the Dawn, was wondering if they did on the Star too.

 

2. You said you won the Star Seekers, now....that means you're going on another cruise? Have you ever won before? How many? Sounds like you're very talented.

 

THANKS!!!!

Jenne

[zimmerjulie]

Cliffd64,

 

I had to do a double take when I read your cabin number. That was the very cabin that we had last June!

 

Glad you had such a great cruise. We enjoyed Kieron as CD, as well. I knew we were in for a good week, show-wise, when Kieron, upon introducting the first act, DIDN'T say something like, "Folks, give it up for our singer so-and-so." (Clapping). "Oh, you can do better than that. I said, GIVE IT UP FOR so-and-so". Maybe it's a silly pet peeve, but I just HATE that:D .

[UVaWiseGuy]

Thank you for taking the time to do such a complete review. We sail in 30 days on the Star and have never been on Norwegian. It is good to hear so many good things.

 

the stanger

[TheDivineMsM]

On the Star, one of the main restruants is called Versallies...not Venetian.

[cliffd64]

Cliff,

GREAT REVIEW!!! Thank you, that was awesome.

 

Have a question for you, okay, two...

 

1. Did they do a Murder Mystery on there? I read they did on the Dawn, was wondering if they did on the Star too.

 

2. You said you won the Star Seekers, now....that means you're going on another cruise? Have you ever won before? How many? Sounds like you're very talented.

 

THANKS!!!!

Jenne

 

There wasn't a "murder mystery" as far as I can tell, although one morning they did do a "15 minute mystery"... but I did not attend that.

 

I will find out in 60 days or so whether there is a "free cruise" in my future... it's not a guaranteed thing. It's up to the bigwigs in Miami :) I haven't won before... Do they even let people win more than once???

[cliffd64]

On the Star, one of the main restruants is called Versallies...not Venetian.

Yep.. your right.. I keep getting that confused from my time on the Dawn since they are so similar :)

[cliffd64]

Yep.. your right.. I keep getting that confused from my time on the Dawn since they are so similar :)

 

 

Oh and one more I found... The lou nge dazzles is actually called "Carousel" lounge ... complete with merry-go-round horse bar stools :) I believe it was once called "Karaoke Circus" :)

 

I think I am now getting over the jet-lag :)

[Marika]

Cliff, Along with everyone else, THANKS for your review! We're on the Star at the end of April, can't wait. One question; did you hear any feedback from the kayak excursion in Cabo? We've booked NCL's. Thanks.

[cliffd64]

Cliff, Along with everyone else, THANKS for your review! We're on the Star at the end of April, can't wait. One question; did you hear any feedback from the kayak excursion in Cabo? We've booked NCL's. Thanks.

 

While we were diving in the Land's End area, we did see the kayakers paddling about.. they seemed to be having fun... It's beautiful scenery out there, and I am sure people enjoyed it :)

[Elwinnie]

Your review was the best of all I have read. We depart Nov.1,2005 & can't wait now that I have read your review. However, we are assigned Cabin #8018 which is in the front of the ship & I see from the chart the "Stardust theater is right under us. Also, your cabin not only is in the back of the ship it looks like you had an extra large room being the last cabin on the end corner. Did anyone complain about being up front or noise problems from below? I wonder how we can change our assignment. We do have a balcony. Hope to hear from you. Please email me cause I don't always understand how to find the replies on the tread. Elwinnie.

ronnalla@charter.net

Hi all; Just back from our great cruise! Here's our review!

 

Introduction: This was our eight cruise, and seventh with NCL. The itinerary from Los Angeles (San Pedro) was as follows:

 

Day 1 - Departing San Pedro at 4:00 PM

Day 2 - Day At Sea

Day 3 - Day At Sea

Day 4 - Acapulco

Day 5 - Zihuatanejo

Day 6 - Puerto Vallarta

Day 7 - Cabo San Lucas

Day 8 - Day At Sea

Day 9 - Arrival at san Pedro

 

Getting to the ship: The Norwegian Star sails from San Pedro for this itinerary. Coming from the East Coast, we flew into LAX the night before, and stayed at the airport Radisson. Prior to leaving, we inquired directly from NCL about obtaining a trasnfer to the pier from the airport... and we were told, and it does state on their website as well, that we could purchase a transfer to the pier directly from the people at LAX when we arrived. We checked out of the hotel at about 10 AM and headed back to LAX to get a transfer to the pier. The NCL staff at the pier had no clue or experience selling transfers directly, and so after a few minutes it became apparent that we would be waiting until everyone else had already left before we would ever get on one of their buses. We decided to take a cab. The taxi stand people told me it should cost about 45 dollars (20 miles or so) to get to the San Pedro pier, so we gladly took one. As luck would have it, we got the only cab driver in the area who had no clue where the harbor was. After a few phone calls to his superiors, we finally made our way to the pier. It cost us 67 dollars due to his meanderings. The way back only cost of 43 dollars... go figure.

 

Getting ON the ship: The embarkation process is a little different in San Pedro, especially now with the advent of E-Docs. If you have E-Documents, basically you are e-mailed your cruise documents. This is nice, but doesn't include luggage tags. At the pier, we were required to hold onto our luggage until we got near a table where someone could give us tags according to our cabin location (forward or aft) on the ship. From there, after handing yourluggage to the stevadores, you go through port security, and are handed a group number and asked to wait (seated) in a room. Our group number was called immediately upon entering the room, so we never had a chance to sit. Once called, we proceeded up the gang plank and onto the ship, where we then were checked in by people stationed around the atrium with laptops. Once checked in, we were given our card keys and sent to our room. Total time from exiting cab to gettting on ship: Less than an hour.

 

The cabins: We had booked a guaranteed inside cabin, and when we checked in we had a cabin on deck 8, cabin 8137. This cabin was very convenient to the upper part of the atrium area and the Endless Summer restaurant. The cabins on the Norwegian Star seemed a bit larger than typical, and there was plenty of closet and drawer space. Tons of hangers in the closet as well. The shower and bathroom are adequately sized. Water temperature and pressure was fine. A hairdryer is provided. No irons are allowed (but if you have one, bring a travel iron). Upon arrival, we were greeted BY NAME by our cabin steward (nice touch) Mario, who introduced himself and his partner for the trip. Mario was very efficient and consderate during the entire trip. We complimented him well on the comment card.

 

The Ship: The ship is simply gorgeous, very clean and fantastic decor. Deck 4 was the lowest deck, and was the entrance and exit point for tenders and shore piers. Decks 5 contained only staterooms. Deck 6 contained part of the Stardust Lounge, where most of the shows are held, and various cafe's and restaurants such as: The Venetian restuarant, Le Bistro, The SoHo, Aqua, Havana Club (cigars), Gatsby's, and the Star Club Casino. Deck 7 contained the atrium area (entrance when in Miami and New York), the Java Cafe, the Blue Lagoon restaurant, Red Lion Pub, the huge Galleria shopping area, Stardust Lounge, Dazzles, Tepanaki, Bamboo, Sake bar, and the photo gallery. Deck 8 was mostly devoted to staterooms, but contained the Endless Summer restuarant and bar as well. Deck 9 had mostly staterooms, but also the internet cafe. Deck 10 is devoted to staterooms. Deck 11 also contained the gorgeous El Dorado spa, including an indoor pool. Deck 12 contains the Spinnaker Lounge, all the conference rooms, card rooms, library, cinema, pool deck, and kid's pool deck, and the Market Cafe and La Trattoria specialty restaurant. Deck 13 is the Sun deck/jogging track with the Teen Center and the Bier Garten bar and Star Bar, and Cagney's Steakhouse. Deck 14 was your Sports deck with the top of the Bier Garten Bar and Grill, and the Garden Villas area.

 

The Restaurants: The Norwegian Star has two main restaurants for the nightly menu, with each of them offering slight variations of the same theme, so you really have to check all of them to determine your best fit if you want to eat in the main restaurants: Venetian in the aft of the ship, and Aqua more midship. For quick fare, you can eat also at the Blue Lagoon, which serves quick burgers, fish and chips, and other appetizer type foods, as well as great fried rice and cantonese noodles. There are also several specialty restaurants that range in additional price from FREE to $20.00 including: Ginza (oriental sushi and teppanaki) for $10.00 all you can eat sushi and oriental barbeque, Endless Summer (free) tex-mex, Le Bistro ($15.00) mediterranean French style cuisine, La Trattoria (free) Italian style, SoHo ($15.00) and Cagney's Steakhouse ($20.00). The Market Cafe was where the buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner were held. The Java Cafe had a la carte dessert items available as well. Occasionally, there are outdoor barbeque buffets on the pool deck weather permitting...

 

The following is a breakdown of the various restaurants:

 

Market Cafe: This is the buffet restaurant of the Norwegian Star. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is very large, with several lines from each direction, so there is never really any waiting. Staff is there to assist you in finding the shortest entry point so that you don't get bogged down. Food was fine for breakfast, with typical breakfast buffet food, including omelet stations (yum!) and belgian waffle stations. Seating was fine, and seemed plentiful the times we were there. We didn't really have too many lunch items there, and generally we didnt do buffets for dinner, so it would be unfair to comment on those.

 

The Venetian Restaurant : This is one of the main restaurants, located aft. The Venetian offers the same menu as the other main room, but with slight variations. For example, on one evening Venetian offered filet mignon while Aqua offered grilled tenderloin. Service is excellent from both hostesses and waitstaff. Dinner menus are pretty typical of NCL, and seemed to be well thought out. The Venetian is larger than the other rooms, and has traditional high celings and a big panaoramic view off the stern of the ship. Service was excellent all through the week.

 

Aqua: Located midship, this is the other main dining area. Lower ceilings here create a more intimate setting, and basically the same menu as the Venetian, but with it's own twists. Service is excellent from both hostesses and waitstaff. Because the menu was slightly different than the Venetian, if you weren't partaking of a specialty restaurant, you really need to check both menus which are posted in hallways near each restaurant in order to make your preferred choice. Service was excellent all throughout the week.

 

Le Bistro (Deck 6 midship): Le Bistro is the french alternative restaurant that serves mediterranean style cuisine. The restaurant is a wonderful experience and offers a complete menu in a beautiful setting. The $15.00 cover charge is well worth it. We had a wonderful dinner here. The chocolate fondue dessert is to die for, and there are other great choices as well. We make sure we have one night at Le Bistro on every Norwegian ship. Make reservations early by visiting the atrium area. They tend to fill up later in the week, so if you don't want to dine late... get your request in quickly. They also have seating in the wine cellar if they are booked up, so ask about that. The service is so very excellent and can even be fun if you let them entertain you.

 

Endless Summer: Excellent service and a fun tex-mex menu here make for an excellent meal, especially with the FREE cover charge. The maitre-d here was excellent and all the service was excellent. The portions were incredible, so we couldn't eat all our entrees that night (have to save room for dinner of course!)

 

Ginza: Sushi and teppanaki grill... They have a happy hour 50% off the cover charge ($15.00 usually) each day from 5:30 to about 6:30 I think. We aren't really into sushi, and have oriental food alot at home, so we didn't attend this restaurant. It was never really crowded. If you are into Sushi, then for $10 you can't really go wrong.

 

Cagney's: Steakhouse, with an $20.00 cover charge. We couldn't justify the charge when there was so much other beef entrees around the ship to go and spend that amount in Cagney's, so we skipped it. I hadn't heard of too many going there, but I didn't hear any complaints either. All that I spoke to enjoyed it immensely.

 

La Trattoria: Located next to the Garden Cafe, this restaurant features Italian food. While we have dined in this type of specialty restaurant abouard other NCL cruises, we just didn't find a reason to go this time. The food is good, but you need to be in the mood for Italian.

 

Midnight Buffets: The Norwegian Star offered only one midnight buffet on this cruise. The signature “chocoholic” chocolate buffet where everything is made from chocolate was held at 2:30 PM rather than at midnite. Cakes, pies, fruit dipped in chocolate, moose, cheesecake, fudge, you name it and if it was made with chocolate they offered it. I only managed to make it partially through the line before my plate was overflowing. One nice touch is that they will offer to transfer your chocolate to a "to go' plate so you may take it back to your cabin. Interestingly, there was an early picture time scheduled... so many people took pictures before it was devoured. The contents were fabulous however, and very delicious. Here's a tip.. read your freestyle daily and get in line about 15 - 20 minutes early.

 

General notes on dining: Service was VERY fast and efficient on this cruise. we ate as a table of two every night, but we never required more than 45 minutes to an hour for the ENTIRE meal. We never waited to be seated except for ONE night, and that was for only 15 minutes.

 

Entertainment: Entertainment on the ship is scattered throughout. Of course, there is a casino. Every night there is a sail-away party on the pool deck when leaving a port (if we leave at night). The band there was actually a regaae band, and was pretty good.There was live top-40 style music in the Spinnaker Lounge, although the musicians were not quite as talented as the poolside band. In some of the bars, there was a piano player who also sang. The main shows were adequate and were located in the Stardust lounge. They ranged from magician acts, to little broadway ensemble shows, to singers. Karaoke was also offered from time to time in the Dazzles Lounge every night. The "Star Seeker" show was fantastic. 15 acts from among the guests auditioned, the top 10 were picked, and performed on the last night. The winner was..... ME! I won for singing with the band!!!

 

The cruise director, Kieron Buffery is simply the BEST. He is always fantastic! He remembered us from the Dawn, and made us feel like VIP's all week long!

 

Nadina Muntaneau, from Romania, on tghe cruise director staff is also excellent! DJ Arnel is also great, and we had met him while on the Dream in November.

 

Ports and Shore excursions:

 

Acapulco: Acapulco is much as expected... a big city, with alot of people hustling to earn your money! I learned some new Spanish while there... apparently to an Acapulco taxi driver, "NO thank you" means "ASK ME AGAIN IN 20 SECONDS". We had arranged to be met by Fernando (a dive shop owner) at 1:30 PM at the pier (we docked in Acapulco... tenders everywhere else.) The diving was very very good, and even our divemaster was impressed with the visibility for this time of year. We stayed in Acapulco until after midnite, and the city lights were nice to photograph from the ship :)

 

Xihuatanejo: This is a pretty little fishing village in a protected bay, with beautiful pristine beaches on all sides. We had booked the ship's diving tour here since offship was the same price. No cattle boat here, only six were allowed to go, and a few people were turned away since they waited too long to book the tour. The diving was again really good, but the water was a little colder here than in Acapulco. We saw tons and tons of all sorts of different rays. The dive staff took us to their shop on Las Gatas beach across the bay, and we enjoyed an after-diving cerveza and tequila ! Great trip overall !

 

Puerto Vallarta: PV is a little bigger than Xihuatanejo but still very very pretty. We again took a ship's dive excursion, however this time we were on a cattle boat with a ton of snorkelers. The diving was disappointing here as visibility was horrible and water cold. Our dive master ( a young lady from Holland) was horrible. At one point, I had to lead our group of four (several others had opted out of the second dive because of the cold water) because our dive master abandoned us underwater. We found her a few minutes later, but that was not professional of her to become seperated from us. Fortunately none of us panicked.

 

cabo San Lucas: Cabo is also spectacularly beautiful above and under the water. We anchored right across from all the beautiful scenery of the Land's End area. Using our VIP tender passes (courtesy of Kieron) we were on the first tender, and headed across the marina (long walk by the way) to the dive shop we had pre-booked a tour with. We went diving out amongst the rocks and archways of Land's End. We saw sea lions, sharks, rays and even a bird diving down to 50 feet with us :) we had a fantastic couple of dives (4 of us including the dive master) and still had plenty of time to explore Cabo!

 

Freestyle Cruising: We were both veterans to the concept of Freestyle Cruising. Basically, what this allows you to do is to have the freedom of choosing who, and when, and where you want to eat every night. Basically, we chose what time we wanted to go to dinner and showed up when we felt like it. Except for the specialty restaurants, reservations are not required. You can sit with as few or as many people you like to. I would recommend that if you have a party larger than 8, make arrangements with the maitre'd of whichever main dining room you wish to be in ahead of time, as it may be hard for them to set up the proper table for you. The tipping is also automatically added in to your final bill. At a rate of $10.00 per day per person, we found this to be a bargain. It had no appreciable impact on level of service that we could decipher.

 

Summary: This was probably one of the best trips we have had in quite a while, and the Star is really a fantastic ship. Everything is gorgeous throughout the ship and you never get the feeling that there are over 2000 people on board at any point. I would gladly cruise on the Star again, even on this itinerary. All of the staff are pleasant and work hard to make people enjoy themselves. I would recommend the Star to anyone! Kieron is defintely the model for a perfect cruise director! The people I met were also wonderful... everyone seemed to be having a great time! Consider this cruise for your next NCL cruise, you can't go wrong!

[JokerJack]

Cliff,

Thank you for the extensive review. I've heard nothing but the best about the Star on this forum, and am excited about cruising on the Star!!

[ferrycruiser]

I saw photos of the star, and I think that front-cabins on deck 8 offer closed balkonies - different to those on deck 9/10 midship with glas-balustrade. Does anybody know about the difference of the balkonies (bigger/smaler/else)?

Thanks!

Ahoy,