NCL Star 11/13/2011. My thoughts.

[rajones007]

I just got off the Star last Sunday in Tampa. We were on the 13 Nov 2011 to 20 Nov 2011 western Caribbean cruise.

 

Before I begin I'd like to say a few things so there is no misunderstanding between what I type and what I'm trying to say:

 

WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!! WE WOULD SAIL NCL AGAIN IN A HEARTBEAT!!!

 

I could make a bullet point list of a thousand things I loved about this cruise...but I won't. Because it would be too long and unreadable. So here are random thoughts I had during the cruise. I will add more as I remember things. Some are positive, but a lot are negative. Why? Because the negatives can be funny.

 

Please take what I say with a little humour. I always try to look on the bright side of life, and I laugh at my own misfortune all the time. I don't mean to be mean and/or rude and/or arrogant. I'm just passing along things that happened to me. If you find me mean/rude/arrogant, well, that's probably more your problem, not mine.

 

This is not a review in the traditional sense. It's just random thoughts about the people, places, and things I seen/did during the week.

 

Also, to be fair I should say that I've only been on one other cruise in recent memory. That was on the Crown Princess last January. I will compare the two lines in this thread at some point in the near future.

 

Let's begin:

 

Prelude

 

- We were in cabin 11560. The 2 bedroom family suite, deck 11, port side, the 2 bedroom that is closest to mid-ship.

 

- There was myself, a 45 year old male, my 45 year old common-law wife (but I still refer to as my girlfriend), and her two teenagers; a 15 year old girl and 13 year old boy. Even though I am not their biological father I will refer to them as son/daughter for the sake of simplicity.

 

- We flew down from Toronto the day prior to sailing and stayed at the Homewood Suites very close to the airport. I chose this hotel because of the decent rate for a 2 bedroom suite (2 queen + 1 king + 2 bathrooms + main room). I can talk about this hotel later if there is interest.

 

Embarkation

 

- We would have been further ahead just going with the peasants and boarding the normal way. The priority embarkation was a waste of time.

 

- We were walked to Cagneys for a painstakingly slow lunch. We were so anxious to get exploring that we had to ask our server to bring our bill (for the drinks, etc) twice..and she still took 20 minutes.

 

- We went to our cabin anyways, and we were there 30 seconds when they paged "the cabins are ready".

 

Cabin

 

-Very nice and spacious. A little dated with all the wood veneer, but I don't know if that was intentional or not. Still a very nice cabin.

 

-The kids bathroom had an occasional odd sewer smell to it all week. It would come and go. I mentioned it to our butler and the room steward, but nothing was really done about it.

 

- Our Butler was Made (say MAD and then add an "eh?" to the end...it's easy for us Canadians). He was awesome. We're really not very needy people, so we didn't use his services all that much. But when we did he was more than happy to help us out. He was run ragged by the other suite guests on our deck though, which really makes me wonder about the entitlement issues some people on this cruise had.

 

- Our room steward was Miko, or Mica, or Myko, or something like that. I'm sorry for not remembering. For most of the week I thought her name was Rina, but that ended up being the name of the lady who escorted us on the ship during embarkation. Nobody corrected me! That's my excuse. Yeah, I can be a clueless idiot at times. When I finally figured out I was calling her by the wrong name, it was too late. Rina was already burned into my memory banks. Anyways, Miko was awesome too. She got just as much of a tip as Made did.

 

- Why on earth does NCL put the TVs so low in the cabin? The main room TV is connected to the wall (it's not a flat screen TV, by the way) but it's only about a foot and a half off the ground. If the moved it up to chest level then there would be more room in the cabin. The TV in the bedroom is the same. We couldn't watch it while laying in bed because my girlfriends feet were in the way.

 

- the balcony is a decent size with two lounges on it. But, you cannot lay them down flat as there isn't enough room. (Unless you moved them parallel to the sliding door...but then you'd have to jump over one lounge to get out there.)

 

- The instructions for opening/locking the sliding balcony door is backwards. In reality UP is locked, DOWN is open.

 

- We had a large printer in our cabin. I never did try to print out anything, but it spewed out delicious espresso periodically which was a nice surprise. I've been trying to find a similar printer online, but I have not had any success yet.

 

- I would not recommend this cabin based purely on the level of noise from above. It wasn't horrible, just a little annoying at times. If you look at the deck plans, you will see an indoor pathway just above most of our cabin. This pathway on deck 12 goes from about the library to the pool entrance. Periodically a group of schoolchildren would be let loose in this area and stomp around for 10 or 15 minutes. This would happen every few hours, most noticably around 9pm and again at 11pm.

 

-Our neighbour had to be the loudest man I ever met. We had numerous nicknames for him. I met him a few times over the week, and he was friendly man. But he was LOUD. I have never heard a man YAWN as loudly as he does. And the entire port side of the ship knew when he walked out on his balcony due to his loud voice. Slamming doors. Banging on the walls. Talking extremely loudly. And LEAVING HIS GOL-DANGED BALCONY LIGHT ON ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT certainly added to the entertainment. All I could do was laugh...and I did. The most popular nickname we had for him was Foghorn Leghorn. He said he was from Miami, but he talked and acted like a stereotypical New Yorker. He was a really friendly guy though, so I hope if he's reading this he doesn't take offense. We just found you entertaining, that's all.

 

- We had to have somebody come and unlock one of the safes. It worked for a day and then it would just say SERV on the screen. The guy unlocked it for us, blamed us for not doing it right, and then left. We never had a problem with the bottom safe, so when the top safe said SERV again the next day (with nothing in it, thank goodness) we just said "screw it" and only used the bottom safe from then on.

 

Food

 

- We never did eat in Versailles, but we did Aqua twice. A little noisy but overall a pretty good experience. The food quality was fine. I can't rant and rave over it, but I also can't complain about it either. We're not fussy, but we do know a good meal from a bad meal.

 

- Lobster night in Aqua was the first night and only my GF ordered it. It came with a regular sized lobster tail shell, but the chunk of meat in it was about as big as my thumb. They came back a minute later and drowned it in butter. My Gf said it was tasty, but we both had to wonder what the heck happened to it.

 

- Teppanyaki (spelling??? The 12 person Japanese restaurant with the cooks standing right in front of you). This was cool and was a very good and filling meal. It was fun watching the cooks flipping their spatulas and knives all over the place and stabbing eggs in mid-air with their big forks. My son whispered to me "I think we're gonna die tonight". $100 for a family of 4 is a little steep if you ask me, considering all I had was some dried up snow peas with salt on them, a small bowl of salty rice, a small bowl of warm water soup, about a quarter cup of salty chicken, and about a dozen small bite sized pieces of salty steak. Did I mention that everything was swimming in salt?

 

- Cagneys. We had a great time here when we went for supper. It wasn't busy at all so we got extra attention from the staff. Would I call this a high-end steak house? For ambiance: Yes. For decor: Yes. For the steak: No. I don't mind spending 100+ bucks for my family at a steakhouse...if it's a high end steakhouse. The steaks were good, but not high end. Service, on the other hand, was top notch.

 

- The best kept secret was La Cucina, the Italian specialty restaurant. We had a great meal here. We only discovered it on the 2nd last night, and if we had discovered it sooner we would have returned. Everything was fantastic. Well worth the $10/pp fee. Matter of fact, if they charged $25/pp like Cagneys or Teppanyaki I would have gladly paid it.

 

- Endless Summer is the Tex-Mex specialty restaurant. I'm not a big lover of this style of food, but I really enjoyed this place. We were stuffed beyond belief, and all of us ended up telling our waitress to not bother bring the desserts we ordered. Again, this was well worth the $10/pp fee.

 

- The 24 hour restaurant, Blue Lagoon, was more than decent. My son and I would often drop in and have an order of wings. Don't let the menu fool you: the MILD wings are NOT MILD. They will burn your lips off. We only made that mistake once, and from then on we ordered them plain.

 

- The buffet was downright horrible. I never did eat a complete meal here. I called it "the Cattle Call" because that's exactly what it was. The obese masses would amass here and stab you if you dared reach for anything they had their eye on.

 

- The pool buffet wasn't very good either. All the hot dog buns were staler than an old fart. Why they can't keep them in a streamer is beyond me. They dry out very quick when out in the wind like that.

 

- Seriously...everything in the buffet tasted like my shoe. But it's not just the food I disliked. It was the atmosphere of the place.

 

Entertainment

 

- I don't need to be entertained to have a good time. I can make my own entertainment. My GF and kids went to couple shows without me, and I went to Band on the Run, the hypnotist, the magician, some other show I've already forgotten about, and Elements.

 

- Band on the Run was laughably bad. As soon as they broke into YMCA I went into hysterics. I had to leave.

 

- Elements was very nice.

 

- the magician was interesting, but due to an interest in the 'art' when I was younger I have a good idea of how things are done. Which spoils all magician acts for myself. I know, it's my own damn fault. This guy was pretty good though, I have to give him credit. He knows his craft.

 

The Ship

 

-The Star looks amazing. It's bright and flashy in places without being gaudy. It's fairly clean and in good shape.

 

-A couple of the forward elevators had a weird smell. It was kind of a mixture of salt water, brass (or brass cleaner), and urine.

 

-I spent the better part of the week lost, wandering around in utter confusion, but eventually I got my bearings and could find areas of interest with ease.

 

- I found the ship to be quite crowded, at least compared to the Crown Princess. There were no quiet spots. I liked the looks of the Red Lion pub, but it was always full of people. I never did see the Star Bar. It was the club of choice for the LGBT people (nothing wrong with that) every evening, so that's out. But during the day it seemed it was always closed for a private event. Oh well.

 

Ports of Call

 

Roatan

-We only took NCL excursions, and we went to Maya Key. It was great. I can discuss this is greater detail if there is interest. We went to Roatan on Princess, but this time were were docked at Coxen Hole. The port area is no different than Mahogany Bay, if you ask me.

 

Belize

-A dump. We took an NCL excursion of the city tour and Altun Ha ruins. The ruins were fine, but the city tour was a waste of time. Belize City is a ****hole. I realize not everyone is as well off as myself, and I'm lucky to have been born in a country like Canada...but that doesn't mean I have to see extreme poverty and filth to appreciate what I have. I'll never go back to Belize if I can help it.

 

Costa Maya

-We took this as a day off, hanging around the ship, and then walked into the tourist area just to have a look around. It was nice, but very crowded. I'd like to go back here, I suppose.

 

Cozumel

-I loved Cozumel (my 2nd time here). We did the Jeep and Snorkel tour and had a blast. I would recommend this tour to anyone.

 

The End

 

-To sum everything up: we had a great time, great food, great fun, and a great experience.

 

- I will post more in this thread as I remember things.

 

- If you need a greater explanation of something I have said/done, please ask. I will try my best to answer questions.

[mafig]

Thank you for your review.

Did you have b'fasts and lunches in Cagneys during your cruise? Or did the slow service the first day turn you off?

:)

[Kadir]

Thanks for the detailed review, we are onboard in less then 4 weeks and this just put me over the top for being ready to go.

 

How did the kids enjoy the ship? We have 2 15 year olds and 2 13 year olds going with us.

 

 

Tom

[goldmom]

Thanks for the review. We had the same cabin back in February and had the exact same issue with the safes. We ended up just using the one also. In addition, we also had the noisiest neighbors we've ever had on a cruise. We called them the Von Trapp Family. They constantly had to have had 8 to 15 people stuffed onto the balcony all day long. Must be something about that cabin!:eek:

[wafflesniffer]

I don't need to be entertained to have a good time. I can make my own entertainment.

 

I believe it. Your review certainly kept me entertained.

 

Excellent work.

[che5904]

That was an interesting review and you were right not the typical review.

 

Glad you had a great cruise.

[rajones007]

Thank you for your review.

 

Did you have b'fasts and lunches in Cagneys during your cruise? Or did the slow service the first day turn you off?

 

:)

We had one lunch there, on the last sea day. It was just an accident that we were all together, it was lunchtime, and we were all hungry, all at the same time.

 

The menu was identical to when we embarked. And we liked it both times. They weren't so slow the second time around.

 

We never really ate breakfast. Made, our butler, would bring me coffee and a couple plates of croissants/muffins/whatever for us every morning. We asked on the first morning and he did it every day without us having to ask again. I told him we enjoyed it but he wasn't to go out of his way just for us.

 

Once in a while we'd go by the pool buffet and pick up a couple things, but not enough to really say "we had a great breakfast!"

 

Thanks for the detailed review, we are onboard in less then 4 weeks and this just put me over the top for being ready to go.

 

How did the kids enjoy the ship? We have 2 15 year olds and 2 13 year olds going with us.

 

 

Tom

The kids loved it. When we embarked we thought we'd sign them up for the teen club and they could come and go as they pleased. But nobody was there.

 

Our 15 year old daughter is quite shy and reserved, so she spent a lot of time just sunning with her mother. She'd go off on her own periodically (like the chocolate buffet thingy they did) but not often. She liked going into the ports though. She found the culture differences to be interesting.

 

Our 13 year old son had the run of the ship. We trust him and after some initial hesitation he'd just go off on his own. He even went to some of the broadway shows on his own too. He knew his way around the ship better than any of us. He's an outgoing kid, so he found it easy to mingle and make friends. He was quite popular by the end of the cruise, especially with the seniors who found him to be a fun and happy kid to see around the ship all the time.

 

There were times, however, when we had to lay down the law. He was getting too pushy sometimes and forgetting common courtesy and basic manners. I put a stop to that real quick. In his defense, he's 13 and excited. He just needed a reminder periodically.

 

(no, I didn't hit him.)

 

Thanks for the review. We had the same cabin back in February and had the exact same issue with the safes. We ended up just using the one also. In addition, we also had the noisiest neighbors we've ever had on a cruise. We called them the Von Trapp Family. They constantly had to have had 8 to 15 people stuffed onto the balcony all day long. Must be something about that cabin!:eek:

 

I would love for MY daughter to come along next time and we'd get that connecting room too. My daughter is 17, so she and our 15 y.o. could share that room, our 13 year old son could have the small bedroom/bathroom all to himself, and then my GF and I could have the main bedroom. That would be a perfect setup.

 

I think the noise issue may be perhaps of the connecting door. Foghorn Leghorn would yawn by the door...every morning...every night. Why? I have no idea. I was one of the absurdly loud yawns. Like, he's faking it or something.

 

A few more things I thought of

 

- I want to murder the guy who thought that putting RAISINS in French Toast was a good idea. I've come to accept rasins in Butter Tarts and Oatmeal cookies, but I draw the line at French Toast.

 

- I quit smoking back in August, so I admit I like the smell of cigarette smoke. I also love the smell of a nice cigar. But not the cigar some guy was smoking on his balcony a few times during the week. It was some cheap cigar that seriously smelled like a skunk. It was nasty. Very very nasty.

 

- The casino reeked of smoke some nights, so bad that it even bothered me. Some people were wearing those white mask filter thingys while playing slots.

 

- I'd like to know what size of person they were thinking of when they designed the toilet stall in our cabin bathroom. I'm not an overly big man, but it's impossible to sit on the toilet and face straight forward. It's a very awkward position and is difficult to describe in person.

 

- The window over the bathtub that looks into the balcony is useless and should not be there. I'm all for women acting all sexy and seductive and all that jazz, but the placement of this window was a very poor idea. Even with the shade shut the neighbour in the next balcony can see into it quite easily.

[judybee]

I want to murder the guy who thought that putting RAISINS in French Toast was a good idea. I've come to accept rasins in Butter Tarts and Oatmeal cookies, but I draw the line at French Toast.

 

This really made me laugh as I feel the same way! Thanks for all of your comments. We leave on the Star next month. :)

[jle11677]

Thank you for such a fun to read review. I was wondering where to get the best free coffee in the morning. There seem to be conflicting posts, and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[rajones007]

First thing in the morning the butler Made brought decent coffee. I'm fairly fussy when it comes to coffee and I was happy with what he brought.

 

More thoughts:

 

-I never met our concierge Patrick. I called him once to make reservations for Terrapanyaki. Other than that there was no contact whatsoever. He sent me cookies every day though. I wanted to give him a small tip but I had no idea where to find him, so he lost out.

 

-I will never get off the ship in Belize again. But I'm glad I had the chance to see Altun Ha. Although small, they are wonderful Mayan Ruins. However, the souvenier vendors outside the area don't seem to be under any control. It's like these guys/girls just set up shop outside the entrance, they hound and harass the visitors, and the authourities of Belize just let it happen.

 

When our son bought a bottle of Coke they wanted $2. Expensive, but fair enough. After our son paid him, the vendor grabbed another single out of his hand and told him "this is my tip" and walked away. If I was there I would have grabbed it back, but I didn't hear about the incident until later.

 

Also, another vendor tried to sell our son a knife. And not just a small pocket knife, we're talking a pretty decent sized knife with probably a good 8 or 10 inch blade. My son made the mistake of telling the vendor how much cash he had, and of course the price immediately dropped to that exact figure.

 

Without getting into great detail, let's just say that luckily I was nearby. He practically had my son convinced he had to buy it because he held it. In the end I had to raise my voice (quite a bit) at the vendor to get him to listen to me. I had to yell at him "HE IS NOT BUYING A KNIFE...SIMPLE AS THAT...HE'S 13 YEARS OLD...NOW LEAVE HIM ALONE".

 

There was a moment of silence after I yelled that, and it was funny to see how many in our group took advantage of the situation to break free from the surrounding vendors.

 

The city tour we took as part of this excursion was a joke. The AC barely worked on the bus, and about half of the seats were broken. The back of the seat would not stay up, so you either had to partially lay down, or sit up and have a stiff back for the rest of the day.

 

We did not see anything worthy of mentioning. All we seen was slums, shacks, and poverty. It was almost like the guide deliberately did that to gain sympathy for a bigger tip. She kept saying she "grew up around this area and it was a really hard life". She then had us dropped off at some dive bar and gave us instructions on how to walk back to the ship. What???? It wasn't far, but it certainly wasn't the most comfortable feeling walking those couple blocks.

 

Belize = hell hole. Never again. And if I'm ever on a cruise that stops there I'm staying on the ship. Without a doubt.

[roger001]

"The kids bathroom had an occasional odd sewer smell to it all week. It would come and go. I mentioned it to our butler and the room steward, but nothing was really done about it."

 

This is an occasional issue with ship's plumbing systems. We had it once on the Spirit. I've since read that the drain traps, especially if there is one in the floor, can go dry which opens it to sewer odor. The solution recommended is to just pour water into the drains, refilling the traps.

[DCT61]

Couldnt agree with you more regarding the size of the toilet room in the master bathroom...AWKWARD. On our cruise, the "private function" the STAR BAR was closed for was a lounge for passengers sailing in suites. Dont know if this is the case anymore.

[chrispb]

Thank you for such a fun to read review. I was wondering where to get the best free coffee in the morning. There seem to be conflicting posts, and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

 

We didn't find any decent free coffee on the Star (same trip as OP). We bought iced cappucino from the Java Coffee Bar - very nice. I always take Kenco with me though, so didn't suffer caffeine withdrawal.

Oddly, we had decent coffee on the Jade and expected to find the same on the Star.

[Susie51]

Thank you for sharing your unique experiences.

[Karter]

Excellent review/summary.

 

Can you tell me which side of the ship the dock was on for the three ports that the ship docked at.

 

Thanks

[cherrypop]

On the Star do they sell coffee cards? On Princess you can buy a specialty coffee card for a fee and all your regular brewed coffee and tea are free. Also do you remember if any bars had a happy hour time for drinks? I see that on some of the ships they do.

 

Thanks Cherie

[slotaddict]

Thanks for the review...Tampa is about an hour from where we live...so I suppose we will be giving her a try...we are booked on the Dawn out of Tampa next year, so we may just squeeze in the Star....

 

Sometimes people CAN say negitive things and still have a great time on the ship.....

[JMHAM1]

Loved the quirky "review". I too feel that the "negative" things can be downright funny and often memorable. I can make a great story out of anything. It is all in the perspective.

 

We are going on the Star in January for the first time. Thanks for posting!

[rajones007]

Excellent review/summary.

 

Can you tell me which side of the ship the dock was on for the three ports that the ship docked at.

 

Thanks

Sorry, I missed your post before.

 

In Roatan we docked on the port side (my side), so we looked over the city/town.

 

In Belize we tendered, and the ship was pointed out towards the ocean. All the other ships there on that day (the NCL Spirit, and a couple Carnival ships) were on the other side, so we couldn't see them from our port side balcony. We were also furthest from the mainland as we had to pass all the other ships to get into town.

 

I absolutely hated the tender back and forth. On the way into shore the tender held about 250 passengers and we were packed in like sardines, hot, uncomfortable, and bounced around like we were in a wrestling ring. Nobody could see a thing as we were going so fast that the front of the tender was always raised waaaay out of the water. They told us it was a 15 minute ride, which was about right. However, the tender we took back to the ship was a bit smaller (it held maybe 100 passengers). It was a little more roomy as it wasn't as packed, but the ride took about 22 minutes in total as this tender didn't have the speed the first one had.

 

In Costa Maya we docked pointing directly away from the port (eastward). We were on the main "trunk" of the pier, not the "branch" sticking out to the side. The Carnival Dream was docked on the "Branch" and from our balcony we looked directly into the Dreams aft-end. (edit. Sorry, I initially had this one backwards. As you walked from Costa Maya back to the ship you looked at the aft-end of the Star.)

 

At Cozumel we were docked in Punta Lagorda (???..something like that.) It was right downtown. There were two other docks a few miles south of us that held some Carnival ships and at least one Royal Caribbean ship. Near our dock the NCL Spirit was tendering passengers in, which I found odd.

 

The Star docked on the inside, so we were looking directly at the NCL Pearl, who was on the other side of the branch.

 

I was told by our guide that only the Epic can dock on the main 'trunk' of this port. Why, I do not know.

 

He also told us the 3 NCL ships take turns on who docks and who tenders. This just happened to be the week that the Spirit tendered (luckily for us...I hate tendering.)

[Karter]

Thanks for the great reply on which side of the ship faces the dock. I prefer the side facing the port but I also understand NCL is not consistant in which side they dock on.

[GateGuardian]

Nice review, rajones007!

 

I'm flying out of Toronto in January for the same cruise.

 

Any on the coffee on board comparable to Timmies or Starbucks or even McD's?

 

On the day of disembarkment, did you have get up early for custom because you didn't carry a US passport?

 

Did you take a taxi from the hotel to the port? If so how much?

 

Thanks!

[che5904]

Any on the coffee on board comparable to Timmies or Starbucks or even McD's?

 

No, not even close. I bring my own Timmies and perk it in the coffee pot in our balcony cabin.

[goose30]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise even though you had many dislikes that you mentioned.

[fergusonvt]

No, not even close. I bring my own Timmies and perk it in the coffee pot in our balcony cabin.

 

 

I wish we had more Timmies here in the US. There is one across the lake from us in NY but none in VT. We drove out to South Dakota this past summer and took a route through Canada on the way and I had to make a few daily stops at Timmies along the way to get my fix.

[rajones007]

Nice review, rajones007!

 

I'm flying out of Toronto in January for the same cruise.

 

Any on the coffee on board comparable to Timmies or Starbucks or even McD's?

 

On the day of disembarkment, did you have get up early for custom because you didn't carry a US passport?

 

Did you take a taxi from the hotel to the port? If so how much?

 

Thanks!

Like I said, in my suite there was that printer/espresso maker. It made decent espresso...and the coffee Made brought me every morning was more than decent. I'm fairly fussy when it comes to coffee (I roast and grind my own here at home) and I was a little suprised at how nice the room service coffee was.

 

RE: Tim Hortons, Starbucks, or McDonalds. I personally don't drink much of any of those three, but I do prefer McDonalds over the other two. Which is closest to NCL? Tim Hortons has a very distinct taste, and Starbucks always tastes like the beans are burned. NCL is neither of those...So, I'd have to say McDonalds.

 

RE: Disembarkment: No, we didn't have to do the early morning US Customs thing. I was worried about that too.

 

-We took the Tampa Tour excursion. Our flight wasn't until 3.30pm, so we needed to kill some time (nice excursion, btw. I can expand on that later if someone asks). We were given BLACK luggage tags then told to meet in the Theatre at 8.30AM. We were led out of the theatre about 8.45, then after a couple short delays in the terminal because our luggage was NOT ready to be picked up, we were on the bus and gone in no time at all.

 

RE: Taxi: Yes, we took a taxi from the Homewood Suites (very close to the airport) to the Port of Tampa. It was $25, which apparently is the flat fee regulated by the city of Tampa.

 

More Random Thoughts

 

- I didn't really sleep very well on the cruise, which is the exact opposite from our Princess cruise in which I slept like a baby. I think it's because the Star is an older ship and creaks and cracks quite a bit. The wood panelling (or whatever it is) in our room drove both my GF and I crazy during the night.

 

- The internet was horribly slow. I was expecting it to be slow, but not THAT slow. It was extremely slow every time I tried, which was multiple times per day. On Princess the internet was slow but definitely usable. On the NCL Star the internet was so slow it was pretty much useless. Even checking my Gmail was frustrating.

 

- In the Port of Tampa, the Star docked on the starboard side both coming and going. So, being on the port side we got to see the industrial wasteland of Tampa both times. It would be nice if they flipped the ship around every time they come back to Tampa, that way the people on both sides have a chance to see Tampa and the port area. I know they can dock on the port side, I've seen it on the Tampa webcam like that a few times.