Back from the 3/21/05 Star Mex/Riv

[sodell]

Where to begin?????? Long or short, detailed or humorous, personal or statistics only. What the heck…. Here goes. It’s my story & I’m sticking to it.

 

First thanks to past cruisers for your short &/or in depth reviews. Believe me, I read every last one of them. Not only on this board , but several others. Your thoughts, wisdom & humor is so much appreciated. I would like to “Pay it Forward”

 

We needed a spring break fix. 5 weeks before spring break I realized I was off by 4 weeks. Yikes!!!! It was the 3rd week of March; not the 3rd week of April. So after months of lurking on several roll call threads for the wrong week, I had to make the quick decision; do we want a land vacation (read between the lines cheap/inexpensive) or pay the higher rates for Easter week on a cruise. Between too much stress at work, watching the cruise prices like the stock market, NCL changing to booking direct, airfares going wacky & figuring which of my sons wanted to go, we (I) finally settled on the Mexican Riviera/Star. I made the reservations 32 day before sailing ( side note; our first cruise was 18 days before sailing, 2nd cruise 40 days, 3rd cruise 363 days only because I had a coupon to burn off; however, I changed it from Sun/Spirit/Sun, Pacific repo/Alaska/Pacific repo, & inside/OV/BD/BA … Decisions is not something that come easy). Anyway… DH, DS (15 y/o) & myself, snagged a BB Balcony for a gosh darn pretty good price. Airfare was slowly rising, but then LAX prices were not nearly out of wack as MIA of FLL.

 

 

We previously sailed on the Dawn (West Carib) for April Spring break 2003, a one nighter on the Oosterdam (SEA to VAN) & the Sun repo on our 25th Anniversary (VAN to LA) )last fall. The Star is sister ship to the Dawn. We are not excursion intensive people, but rather very laid back, prefer to sip beers & watch the world go by.

 

 

Soooo… 32 days from sailing I had to plop down 100% payment. The good thing is, look at all those extra MBNA/NCL points. Yippee… on my way to my next NCL credit. Side note.. Yes, if you are a serious NCL cruiser GET THE CREDIT CARD.

Now I only have 4 weeks to check the boards : Ports of Call, US & Mexican Riviera, Hotels, Know before you cruise, Roll Calls; before & after ours, & of course NCL. The logistics were driving me nuts. (Pre-last cruise… IT people at the office said I had the most internet time… ooooopppps….)

 

We left Chicago to LAX Sat, picked up a Hertz car stayed at the Comfort Inn Ingelwood/LAX. Don’t bother.. Spend the extra money or points for something else. We felt safe but it was just… Ick.. Can’t think of any other description that is appropriate. Sunday we had a rental car, drove to San Pedro, saw the Princess Diamond, spent an hour at Ports of Call, drove down to Newport Beach & had lunch at the Crab Cooker (Thanks SHayesShip, we would definitely return to this restaurant). Mid afternoon we were back on the road to the Hilton/Huntington Beach. After check in DH & DS went to Meadowlark Public Golf Course, hit a few balls & putted around. I checked the lay of the land; the paintball rally & CA cheerleading competitions were done, over with ,not a trace to be found & I really didn’t mind. A quick nap later we went to Chimayo restaurant at the pier. If you like the typical touristy drinks, menus, prices & atmosphere this place is for you. ( Note: the Hilton & Hyatt are 2/3 blocks form the pier). Rest of the evening was relaxing. BTW… the temps were much cooler than we thought it would be. It was definitely jacket time. We left 30 degree weather & appreciated anything but sub-artic, artic & pro artic, but didn‘t expect 50 degree weather. Anyway… it was unusual , but hey.. We’re on vacation. ;)

 

Monday AM : DH & DS called Meadowlark for tee times. BOOKED SOLID!!!!!! They ended up at a public 9 hole a few miles away & it was fine. ( I don’t recall the name, but feel free to ask & I’ll find out). If you plan to golf…MAKE ARRANGEMENTS PRIOR!!!! I met with associates at Ruby’s. It’s a “50’s/60’s” type diner at the end of the pier. Monday AM, not crowded at all & great breakfast (A little more than I would spend at home for breakfast.. http://www.rubys.com/food/breakfast.html) The walk there was great… many surfers out & it was enjoyable watching them.

 

Met back at the hotel for our ride to San Pedro. Since it was 12:30 we decided, I would drop the boys off at the pier, & return the car to Hertz in Long Beach , & meet them back at San Pedro. This took longer than expected ( Don’t tell them but I got lost & that was with “NeverLost”). I dropped them off about 1:15 & we boarded about 2 hours later. The outside lines moved slower than snails. Why does it always seem like we were at the end of the line no matter how much we moved forward. It must be Murphy’s Law. In any event, we finally in the building… another long…. Line. Thank goodness for the Latitudes line. We just zipped right in after that.

 

At Last! On board. We checked out our cabin & raced down to do the obligatory mustard drill.

Did the usual race thru the ship, & went to our Teen CC meeting. Of course the parents were more excited about the meeting than the kids, it was great meeting a few folks & waving hi during the week.

 

We had rsvp’s at SoHo. It was 50% off night. I really don’t recall what we ate.

 

 

I didn’t keep a diary, so I don’t recall everything…..(some would say it’s that senior moment kicking in), so excuse me if I’m rambling.

 

 

1st sea day… who knows.. Who cares….a lot of relaxing.

 

2nd sea day… who knows… Who cares…..a lot of relaxing.

 

Somewhere between embarking & ACA we had a CC meeting. Unfortunately I was 27 minutes late. By the time I arrived, most Star staff & CC Members had introduced themselves & I met only a few people. I also missed Andrea’s Garden Villa (…. Woe is me.. Andrea, if we ever meet again, please, please, please……). Hotel Director , Douglas Hernandez said we were the largest group to date.

 

ACA: DH & DS went golfing. Thanks to Roberto(Port Authority) they took a cab to the public course, played 9, had tacos, took a bus back to the ship & we had a family dinner by 7:00. I was adopted by JeepLady & family for the day ( Thanks you guys, I had a great time)….. We jumped in a cab & went to the Hyatt (???) for the afternoon.

 

After he beach, ACA is okay to walk around during daylight & within a few blocks from the pier. There’s plenty of stores both to the right & left of the marina. Fort San Diego is directly across from the pier, tho we did not go there..

BTW.. ACA was not 50% off specialty restaurant night the week we were there.

 

Zhiua ( Whatever… I can still see Andy making Red repeat it several times… “Shawshank Redemption“…). This is a nice lazy port, getting off a tender & strolling over to the beach.. We left DS & walked a few blocks off the beach. We were fine with leaving him there. Walked back to the ship… no big deal.

 

Puerto Vallarta: Didn’t have plans but thought about zip lining/canopy tours. Getting off the ship is sooo…. overwhelming. I definitely suggest making plans & not “winging it”. We ended up, walking to the street & fortunately hooked up with another couple that was taking a bus to the Malecon & told us where to get off. It was 12 pesos ( about $1.20 US for three of us). We spent several hours there including visiting ‘Cubs Café”. We took the bus back to “ Wal Mart” ( Look for the busses that have white hand written lettering ( I’m betting it’s liquid paper) on the passengers side windsheild for destinations). Wal Mart, as commercial as it is… has great souvenirs. Check out the Kauhlua (sp) & Tequila filled chocolate (3 for 89 pesos) for the folks in the office J

 

 

Cabo San Lucas: Two beaches… we decided on the beach that is a water taxi away. Our choices were, Lover’s Beach ( between the rock formations , & no facilities) or public beaches /hotels ( facilities). Guess which won. WHATEVER YOU DO….. NOT PRE PAY YOUR TAXI RIDE BACK. L (Yeah I know.. Why would I do that, especially coming from Chicago… but what was I to know. I would like to believe I was confused by the time change, & that’s why the taxi didn’t show up……In any event I’m only out 4 bucks). DH walked back to the marina. It’s about 45 minutes & it’s past the big mall… so if you’re into shopping that’s the way to go.

 

Last sea day… who knows.. Who cares….a lot of relaxing.

 

 

Entertainment/Activities: Since this is my 3rd NCL; I’m no sure if it’s the “been there done it feeling “or what… In any event….

 

My thoughts

1st cruise: I had to see every show. Didn’t matter what time, where, or who I was blowing off. Had to be there.

2nd cruise: let’s go to all of the unless it interfered with something else.

3rd cruise: who cared?

 

 

DH’s thoughts

1st cruise: who cared? Spend every second in an inside cabin reading a book.

2nd cruise: let’s go to all of the unless it interfered with something else.

3rd cruise: He had to see every show. Didn’t matter what time, where, or who he was blowing off. Had to be there.

 

I saw the first night’s stardust show, slept through most of it. Saw Liar’s club, slept thru most of it. I think I just couldn‘t get used to the time changes. CST to PST to MT to CST to PST and for crying out loud, stay on ship’s time…. back to CST, & of course this weekend is spring forward) .…..

 

DH spent a lot of time in Spinnaker’s & the pub.

70’s show/Gloria Gaynor… I didn’t see the show. DH was a judge. I was told it was grounds for divorce. This was played on TV. I ran into video man later that week, asked to see the full tape of infamous competition & he told me “The lady was two sheets to the wind & he had to erase parts of the tape as it was a “family” show“. It was DH’s 1st & last LD!!!!! Lucky for him he told me about it before other pax did…..

 

DS met several other teens. He spent most of his time in the basketball court & hanging around on deck 12. He was one of the 21 in the hot tub Sunday night. He was also one of the kids entertaining you folks in the elevator. I hope the kids were not annoying or obnoxious… they really were trying to lighten up the crowd.

 

Other notes: This week was the first dinner/murder mystery. I missed sign up. Didn’t hear any comments. Keiron, Lance & another fellow had the firstsing-along in the pub. It was so popular, they repeated a second evening. A lot of Beatles songs.

 

Restaurants: Again, maybe it was a “ did it done it….. Most were okay. Nothing notable, nothing terrible. Portions adequate. SoHo, was 50% off the first night & service was good. Not as good as Le Bistro or any 4 star land based restaurant. I still felt that “rushed” feeling”. Same with all the others. Nothing to complain about, yet nothing to rave about.

Chocoholic buffet as usual is a not to be missed event. Bring your camera. So many lovely things, so many tasty items. However, some tasted the same. Definitely, the cheesecake, & chocolate covered anything is excellent. They provide “to go” containers., or you may enjoy in the dining room.

 

 

Disembarkation: What a nightmare!!!!!

Other NCL cruises had freestyle disembarking. Day before, obtain luggage tags/colors according to when you want to get off. This time it was traditional. We had dark blue tags, 10th deck, maybe the 4th or 5th color. By 10:15, fellow CC’er (Thanks to Kelly & Imp) & us started off the ship. Made it LAX by 11:50. We had a 1:20 flight… so we were just barely comfortable. Whew… glad it wasn’t any earlier. If you have an earlier flight, ask for earlier colors. This time it looked like a free for all. Most of the 10th deck on our end emptied out at least a hour earlier.. Still don’t down what was going on. Doesn’t seem like any other cruise went this way.

 

I could ramble on & on, but you really don’t need it. I hope to scan the port pages. I think the port pages would be a good complement to previously provided dailies.

Overall, we had a great time, not as memorable as our first cruise. We will definitely do it again, but probably not for a year or two, or three.

 

Feel free to ask any questions.

[Water Logger]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write the review. I'm going in November on the same cruise so it's nice to see what to expect. How did you like the cabin?

 

Ally

[sodell]

We were in 10520. Balcony Forward.

This cabin sleeps 3. Queen bed w/pullout couch. Once the couch is opened, you actually have to walk on the bed to get to the balcony. There's a small table that interferes with the path from the door to the balcony. It drove me nuts, so I closed the couch & made the bed every AM.

This was port side, we had the sunrise to ACA & sunset on the return. We loved having breakfast some lunches & snacks out there.

 

Except for the limited room while the couch was pulled out... we lloved the cabin.

 

Enjoy your trip!!!!

 

btw... lot's of waves last evening. It's a good thing it was after dinner.

[hav2travel]

We will be on the Star in a couple of week's. In your post you stated that your cabin was Port side. Do you recall what ports you docked in and was the dock on the port side?

 

Thank you in advance

[JeepLadyLtd]

Good review Sue...I have to agree with most of the things you wrote...

We had a great time the ship was to capacity. There wasn't an empty cabin. We never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes for a table in any of the restaurants. I suggest the Anniversary Package a good value for $79.00. We ate in Le Bristro it was very good . We had lobster with our filet for $5.00 more pp. They give you 2 tails each and they were much better than in the Versaille dining , we had those on the formal captains dinner night. For $1.00 more we upgraded the sparkling wine. We got to the Le Bristro earlier than our 9:00 reservation like at 8:40 and they were able to seat us right away. We never felt rushed thru any of our dinners. We also ate in the Endless Summer food was OK not great. We ate in Aqua like 4 times and enjoyed the meals there it was very quite compared to the Versaille Restaurant and service was better.

We had a BA cabin it was just my husband and myself in there and we had plenty of room. Our 2 kids had an inside and I thought they were a little small. Accross the hall from us in the inside cabins were 3 or 4 to a cabin and they were packed in there like sardines....

At the pool there were the chair hogs....The 1st sea day it took me like an hour to find just 1 chair...So beware of the chairhogs...

We don't do excursion so I can't anwser any questions about them. In Acapulca as SODELL said we did the Hyatt and in the evening we saw the cliff divers.

Zia we just shopped right at the beach and in the town all within walking distance from tenders.

PV walked to the Krystal Hotel very nice. At all the beaches we went to in Mex. there were the BEACH VENDORS...They are pest and you just have to keep saying NO!!!!!

Cabo took water taxi to Mango Deck that place was great. 2/4/1 drinks were very GOOD. They lounges you use as long as u buy drinks and/or food. We took a taxi back to the tenders.

We only went to 1 show the magician he is very good. This was cruise #6 for us so we're not all that interested in most of the shows as you can see. See 1 show and you've seen them all.LOL

We really enjoyed this cruise and really loved freestyle dining.... We had 2 teens on this cruise and they had a great time.:D

Also if I can answer any questions feel free to ask.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sodell]

ACA: Port was along side the dock. We probably saw Roberto_Port Authority (Check out Mex Riv port of calls if you don't know who he is) as we pulled in. I fell asleep before we sailed away from ACA. I heard we left a few behind.

 

Zihua: was tendering, & we faced the marina.

 

PV: We tendered. There is a dock, I think Celebrity/Mercury was there. I'm not sure who or why a ship gets dock privileges

 

Cabo: also tendered. Another ship was also tendering.

 

The interesting thing.... prior to setting anchor the Captain turns (rotates???) the ship. We would look out of our cabin & a few minutes later have a different view. It was really cool. We couldn't feel the ship moving.

 

Marsha's right.. The anniversary package is really a great deal. We had it the first two times so we opted out of it this time. There's nothing like sipping champagne on the balcony, sailing away, no phone service & watching I Love Lucy reruns.

 

Our cabin steward (Roberto... but from the Phillipines, not ACA port authority lol...) let me see the other cabins. The forward penthouses & the Owners Suite. They are extra large & comfy with extra large balconies. The Owner suite was huge. Decor for both was animal print..... not my kind of thing.

 

 

Marsha, did you hear why disembark took so long? I heard pax didn't wait for their color & got off when they wanted to & that caused a huge back-up. Also, it looked like there was only 4 or 5 custom agents clearing.

[UVaWiseGuy]

Thanks for the reviews. We are on the Star in 10 days. Hav2Travel, if you are with us on the 4/14 sailing, our CC meeting will be in the Star Bar on 4/15 at 3 pm.

 

the Stanger

[JeepLadyLtd]

Sue, I heard it had something to do with customs..We didn't get called until 10:30 a whole hour late. We kept calling the desk and they kept saying "no we haven't called BLUE yet". :mad: We had no plane to catch so it didn't matter all that much to us. Just nerve racking...I think they need to get their act together. Took forever to get on and forever to get off.:mad:

The Celebrity Mercury was the ship following us around. You were right...

[seahorse]

Hi Gang,

 

I was the first one on the ship:D after the Villa people. You have to get to the ship around 11a and wait in line. After we got checked in, customs held the boarding for about an hr. No one knew where we were supposed to wait in line so there were people all over the place. Bud and I kept asking and got to be one of the first in line.

 

Leaving, we were with the VIP people and we had to wait for the people that were leaving with all of their luggage then wait for the tour people, then we were called, then we had to wait for immigration which took SOOOOOOOO long. Only two agents. I think that there were a lot of non-citizens on the ship had a lot to do with it also. All that said our flight was delayed 4 hrs. so it didn`t make a bit of difference WHEN we got off!!!

[JeepLadyLtd]

Ann,

By the time we left the ship at 10:30 there were I think 6 agents. They were in no big hurry if you know what I mean. First they had a line for people with passports so we jumped into that line. By the time we made it to the doors where the customs officiers were they just mixed us all together and said it didn't matter. The first lines on the right although were marked for passpoirts only. My thought was that the NCL personel just didn't care and did what they wanted. Waiting for the people with birth cert. and driver license peoplke took much longer than just scanning our passports...With scanning all the info just popped right up. With the others they had to put in all their info in by hand:rolleyes: . I am so glad we got passports. Much easier to travel with then a birth cert. or driver license.:)

Take care..

[seahorse]

What I failed to mention is that this rarely happens when you sail the Caribbean, no going through immigration. You do when you sail Canada they sometimes do the immigration thing on the ship when you are sailing.

 

Another reason I won`t sail the Mex. Riv. again. If illegals want to enter this country, all they have to do is walk through the holes in the border fences:eek:

 

BYW did you notice in the picture we have the same hair color?;)

[JeepLadyLtd]

Ann, you're right I just looked at the picture again and we have the same color.LOL Mine bleached out from the sun so I can't even tell you what color or number I used.:eek:

Your right about the Carribbean and immigration. No one can sneak through the fences. They just come over in boat loads...;)