NCL Star 11/13/2011. My thoughts.

[judybee]

Just wondering if you recall the approximate inside dimensions of the room safe. I was trying to anticipate what I could stash in there while off the ship. Thanks.

[CTKath]

I was on this sailing too, Suite 12002, and here are some of my thoughts to compare with 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.

 

We never ate in the main dining rooms. For dinner we ate at Cagney's twice, La Cucina twice, Le Bistro once, Ginza one and Teppanyaki once.

 

Food

 

- 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? I enjoyed my meal here, but do agree that everything was salty. But then again, I felt every meal in every restaurant was over salted. Oh and it was garlic fried rice - Yum!!

 

- 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. This was nice enough. Only ate lunch here the first day and since we weren't impressed we never went back. Had breakfast here twice. Again, nice enough, but I don't need to spend a long time at breakfast.

 

- 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. We ate here twice. I enjoyed what we had the first night and decided we should check it out again. Mistake. I ate something that didn't agree with my stomach and it made every attempt to leave my body however it could! Not a pretty sight. I was fine the next day, so I know I didn't have a bug. This place was our least favorite of all. More like a pizzeria restaurant, not a lot of choice and we always eat Italian everywhere we go as it's our favorite. Just my opinion. We never ate in a main dining room.

 

- 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. We would grab breakfast here because we could be quick and not overeat. We had room service breakfast on the morning of Belize as we had an early shore excursion. They served us enough food for 4 people and we were just 2. Felt bad leaving so much food. :(

 

 

 

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. I kind of felt about Roatan, the way you felt about Belize. The difference between the extreme poverty and the expensive vacation homes was rough. They even had armed guards outside the grocery store. We had a tour with Tex of Victor Bodden tours. While he was very good, it was still tough to see.

 

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. I agree that Belize City is a dump. And as we drove to our shore excursion, all I saw was litter everywhere. And to think that tourism is their number one industry. We took the NCL excursion to Lamanai. Eh. The ruins were ok, but getting there and back was the pits! If anyone is interested in details, let me know.

 

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. We were supposed to go to Maya Chan, but because it was pouring at 9 am, we cancelled. Then it turned nice! We just hung around for a little while.

 

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. Not impressed with Cozumel. Hated having to go through their mall to get off of the ship and get to the road. My 2nd time too. We did not do an excursion and just shopped a little in the afternoon. With 7 ships and over 20,000 extra people, I just didn't want to do anything. Oh, I liked the silver jewelry better in Costa Maya than Cozumel. I was disappointed because I was saving my shopping til Cozumel and didn't like anything!

[shahidm]

Thank you for an excellent review. It is refreshing to see one from someone who had a great time, but can also point out some of the little irritants that are always there. Particularly interested in this review since my wife and I are booked in the same suite for a January cruise.

 

Shahid

[rjm11]

I'd love to hear more about Maya Key... could you leave whenever you wanted, or were assigned a departure time? How was the food? How was the beach? Did you snorkel?

[halos]

That was so different from what I usually read on here...I have to say, I loved it and am confused all at once.

If I didn't know you enjoyed the cruise, I would think you really hated it. :confused::eek::p:confused:

 

LOL..anyway, I am so happy that you had a good time :)

[rajones007]

That was so different from what I usually read on here...I have to say, I loved it and am confused all at once.

If I didn't know you enjoyed the cruise, I would think you really hated it. :confused::eek::p:confused:

 

LOL..anyway, I am so happy that you had a good time :)

My first post would be 6 pages long if I focused on the positives! :)

 

When life gives me lemons, I make lemonade. I try to smile and carry on. Nothing really frustrated me enough to wish I hadn't of gotten on board. It really was a fun cruise.

 

You know what's really strange. Since we returned home it seems like every night I dream of being on a cruise. It's odd for me to even remember my dreams, but every morning I wake up and say to my GF "geez, I dreamed about being on a cruise ship again." Odd.

 

I'd love to hear more about Maya Key... could you leave whenever you wanted, or were assigned a departure time? How was the food? How was the beach? Did you snorkel?

Maya Key was a blast. When we got off their boat they had a nice lady give us the rundown on how things worked, then everybody kind of went off on their own. We went to the replica Mayan ruins right away, just to look around. It was neat and very well done. We didn't stick around for the guided tour which was an hour or so later, so we walked thru the zoo part and then to the beach area.

 

The 'zoo' was pretty cool. Lots of interesting animals, including the monkey who got quite the kick out of proudly displaying his family jewels to us, and all the fun and comical things he could do with them. I know it sounds crude to anyone who wasn't there, but at the time it was hilarious. It was like he'd done it before, got a reaction from the crowd, did it some more, got an even bigger reaction, did it even more, got a huge reaction, and so on and so forth...so now he does it all the time just to see/hear the reaction he gets from his audience.

 

We could go back to the ship whenever we wanted. I believe the boat left every half hour. The last boat back to the ship was 3.30, I believe.

 

The beach was nice with a few servers hanging around to bring you whatever you wanted. The food was interesting, but nothing out of this world. I normally turn my nose up at seafood, but I kind of liked the fish stick thingees dipped in the tartar sauce. Everything else was edible. Good, not great, but not horrible.

 

I can't say much about the snorkeling because I don't swim, but my GF and the kids did it...and they LOVED IT. They were out there for a long time.

 

Needless to say, the next time we hit Roatan we're going to Maya Key. It's slow paced, mellow, clean, quiet, and relaxing. It's just my style.

[Cayoooga]

Great review :D We are sailing on the Star in a few weeks and in a 2 bedroom suite so we found it informative. Love your attitude ;)

[pam vessels]

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

Your kids will like it.....but honestly the buffet is really gross and we found the cabins to be really small. The worst part was the embarcation/disembarcation it was a mess. But if you have only carry on luggage you can walk off whenever you want. That worked for us. Be sure to get the soda cards for the kids....

[Cayoooga]

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."

 

You might want to give this port another try. There is much more fantastic tours to do. We have many great memories from there. The city tour and Altun Ha ruins was probably not your best choice for a tour:rolleyes: i.e .Snorkelling, Lamanai, Xunanuchich(sp?)cave tubing, etc

I also know how fortunate I am to have been born in CANADA ;)

[Stickman81]

Wonderful review. Thank you for taking the time to post your experiences.

 

Thanks also for the extra information on Maya Key.

We will be on the Star in a few weeks and this is the only excursion we have settled on.

[samfiremedic]

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've been screaming the same thing. That's hilarious.

 

We went on the October 30th cruise. Liked it a lot, thought the Pearl was nicer, but still enjoyed the Star. We stayed in one of the new Family Suites. Thought the room was the best part of the ship.

 

Thanks for the entertaining review. I agreed with about 95% of it, so you just saved me the time from writing it.

[mafig]

We're going to be in one of the new suites next month. Just wanted to ask if the windows are kept clean.

[rasta]

Curious to hear any feedback from you on Homewood Suites.

[RareBird]

Love your review! Honestly refreshing!

 

Btw, are you sure you had a printer? Is that a typo?

[rajones007]

We're going to be in one of the new suites next month. Just wanted to ask if the windows are kept clean.

Before we left Tampa there was a couple guys going back on forth on the (whatever those things are called) washing the windows. I think they did it again during the week, but I honestly don't know for certain.

 

Curious to hear any feedback from you on Homewood Suites.

Great room. Great rates.

 

The breakfast was a waste of time if you ask me. Nobody was managing it and it was a free-for-all. There was no coffee creamer left and the thing was still empty when we checked out 2 hours later.

 

Edible food, I'll give them that. But the breakfast was poorly managed.

 

Other than that the hotel was fantastic. I debated staying at the Embassy Suites or the Marriot right down by the cruise port. But when you consider the room at the Homewood Suites only cost me $149 for the night it was a good deal. We had a 2 bedroom suite. One bedroom had 2 queens and the other had a King. Both had TVs. The main room had it's own TV, a desk, a couch, and a chair. There was also a kitchette, with a refridgerator, a small 2 person dining table, a dishwasher, sink, and all sorts of pots and pans and utensils (not that we used it.)

 

Any other hotel we would have had to get 2 adjoining rooms. But not there. I'd book there again in a heartbeat.

 

Love your review! Honestly refreshing!

 

Btw, are you sure you had a printer? Is that a typo?

Heh. No, it was a vain attempt at being comical. It was the espresso maker, which to an IT consultant like myself looks like a big laser printer. So the entire week we were onboard it was referred to as "the printer".

[rajones007]

Bumping because of something I just remembered...

Why doesn't NCL have fountain pop/soda? With the exception of the Java Cafe, if you wanted a Pepsi you got a glass poured from a 2 litre bottle. And you all know how they get once they've been opened for a couple hours. I don't care how hard you screw the top back on, it's just not good. It's flat and has a thick extra-sugary taste to it.

Forget everything else I've said - THAT alone was my biggest complaint while onboard.

I love fountain pop. It has a freshness to it that I simply love. How on earth would a company the size of NCL not have ship-wide fountain pop is beyond my comprehension. Somebody needs to be fired.