Star review - 3/25/12 sailing

[dpg9300]

We arranged to park our car at Memorial Park and Fly. The cost was about half of parking at the port, and was a very good deal. The shuttle took us directly to the port and picked us up within 5 minutes of debarkation. No complaints.

Embarkation: We booked through CAS, which provided a separate check-in line. We were on the ship within 15-20 minutes of arriving at the port. I’ve only cruised once before, so I don’t have much to compare to, but this process seemed to go quickly and smoothly.

Service: Excellent. Nearly every crew member we encountered had a smile and a cheerful greeting for us. This really is as important as everyone here says. It sets the tone for the trip, for sure.

Shows: Good. This is not Broadway, but we got our money’s worth. Some were unintentionally hilarious, but I enjoyed myself, so no complaints. At the end of the final show, the crew (arm in arm and very sincerely) sang “We Are the World.” Some members of the audience were very moved by this. I thought it was the funniest thing I’d seen all week. If you can appreciate the humor (or the sentiment) of something like that, you can enjoy their shows. We didn’t watch Shout, Angels, or the magic show.

Casino: We enjoyed this entirely too much. I won about $2,000 playing slots. I didn’t leave with it, though. :rolleyes:

Food: Good. Not gourmet, and not always suited to our specific tastes, but always fresh and of good quality. We never went hungry, and when something didn’t suit us, we switched gears and found something that did. We ate breakfast every day in the buffet and enjoyed it. We ate lunch either in a port or in the buffet. We dined mostly at Aqua in the evenings. The atmosphere was pleasant, the dress was quite casual, the food was good (but bland for our tastes), the service was outstanding. We arrived around 5:30-6p each evening and never waited for a seat. We did try the sushi bar, which had good food for a very reasonable price. Unfortunately, this was our only experience with service that was not stellar. The hostess was distracted by something and had to be told (we could see this happening) to come attend to us. We waited for 5-10 minutes, which isn’t a big deal, but there was no crowd and no one ahead of us, so waiting was rather pointless and a little frustrating. Anyway, that was the worst of it, so a pretty great week restaurant-wise.

 

When asked at the Meet & Greet about Moderno, the Hotel Director stated emphatically that it's coming in June.

Also, I want to correct something that I’ve read over and over here. There is lemonade available in the buffet for lunch and dinner. Maybe it’s a recent change, and it may sound insignificant, but the question gets asked with some frequency.

Ports: Roatan – we reserved with Victor Bodden for the Fun & Sun tour. It was very inexpensive and worth the money. The beach was small, but beautiful. We lunched at Bananarama - nothing special, but no complaints, either.

Belize – We took the Olde Belize River/Altun Ha Ruins tour arranged through NCL. I prefer to arrange through the cruise line when we’re tendering. The tender just adds another level of “not in my control,” so I prefer to pay a little more and have peace of mind. This was a long, but very enjoyable and educational day. Lunch was included and was typical fare – chicken, rice and beans, salad, soda. We enjoyed this day.

Costa Maya – We didn’t pre-plan anything for this day. We should have. We shopped for a few minutes, ate lunch at Carlos & Charlie’s, then returned to the ship. There is one tiny “Swim with Dolphins” attraction and a pool, but this is not really a port made for walking – you need to arrange transportation to get to anything interesting, IMO. This can be done at the port and prices were all over the place, so be prepared to bargain.

Cozumel – Personally, we enjoyed this much more than the first Mexican stop. We shopped, walked, shopped some more, ate at a great little café (spent half the $ for twice the food of C & C’s), then returned to enjoy a quiet afternoon on the ship.

Debarkation: We did the self-debarkation. No worries and within 15 minutes, we were on our way to our car at the off-site lot. The worst part of this trip (which is to say that this was a WONDERFUL trip) was trying to enjoy breakfast in the buffet on the final morning. We decided to grab some food for our daughter (8-years-old), then find her a place to sit, as we knew we’d never find three seats, and figured we could wait longer to eat than she could. As we looked for seats in an obviously over-crowded area, we saw many people like ourselves. We also saw people with their luggage in the seats near them, people lounging with a newspaper and no food, and one woman with her feet on the chair next to her. Really?? She wasn’t holding the seat for anyone. She was, apparently, just raised by barnyard animals.

My only complaints: A few selfish and boorish people and one distracted hostess, and that could happen anywhere, right? So, kudos to NCL for a wonderful week. We definitely plan to cruise with them again.

:)

[fergusonvt]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise on the Star as much as we did.

[DeeT]

Thank you for your review. Looking forward to our first NCL cruise in July.

[mpk218]

Thank you for that review . Now I dont have to write one becuase we had the same expierence.

Great cruise , great staff , decent food , perfect weather .. And the best suite ( The OS ) :D

[JOANN226]

Thank you for your wonderful review, I am booked for June on the Star, I have been on three previous NCL cruises and I have never had a complaint. I feel that the crew are all friendly and very helpful. The worst part of the cruise is having to leave the ship, it is nice being spoiled for a week.

[dpg9300]

I forgot one of the most important aspects of our trip - Planet Kids! Our 8-year-old LOVED it! We cruised Carnival 3 years ago, and she was rather unimpressed with their program. With NCL, she didn't want to leave. She spent at least 2-3 hours each evening in the club. I felt that the employees got to know everyone very quickly and were very personable and warm. I was quite comfortable leaving her in their care.

 

Parents know that if the kids don't have a great week, Mom and Dad can't have a great week. We were very grateful for Mister, Jinx, Toe Jam, and Harmonica :)

[KevinsCruising]

Great review....sorry to hear about Moderno as we are cruising in a few weeks, April 29th. We cannot wait to experience the Star !!! My 8 yr old also loves going to the kids club and she cannot wait to see "toe jam!" :D

[Crany]

Do you remember the name of the cafe? We will be in Cozumel later in the year.

 

Thanks

 

Cozumel – Personally, we enjoyed this much more than the first Mexican stop. We shopped, walked, shopped some more, ate at a great little café (spent half the $ for twice the food of C & C’s),

[valleyvillage]

Welcome to CC and it's so great that you got hooked right up with a Meet and Greet. They can really make a great cruise even better. You have a wonderful attitude, thanks for the fun review!

[dpg9300]

Do you remember the name of the cafe? We will be in Cozumel later in the year.

 

Thanks

 

 

I don't know how much this will help, but here's what I remember: when we left the port complex (going up and then back down some stairs - basically follow like cattle, and you'll see what I mean :) ), we turned left. We had walked for 2-3 blocks and a man offered a menu for us to look at. The prices were not in USD, which was a bit eye-catching ($80 for tacos!). He led us up a wooden staircase to the cafe/bar/nightclub. There was a board outside the shop downstairs advertising that it was one of the cruise line-partnered shops. We could still see the cruise ships from where we were, but we'd definitely walked a bit.

 

I wish I could remember the name, because it was a fun little place! The server brought another table's drinks stacked on his head - very dramatic! Our daughter loved it, and they were very friendly. I hope you can find it.

[russianmom]

I forgot one of the most important aspects of our trip - Planet Kids! Our 8-year-old LOVED it! We cruised Carnival 3 years ago, and she was rather unimpressed with their program. With NCL, she didn't want to leave. She spent at least 2-3 hours each evening in the club. I felt that the employees got to know everyone very quickly and were very personable and warm. I was quite comfortable leaving her in their care.

 

Parents know that if the kids don't have a great week, Mom and Dad can't have a great week. We were very grateful for Mister, Jinx, Toe Jam, and Harmonica :)

 

Agree 100%, my son can't get enough of the Kid's Club on NCL. He was very disappointed at the one on CCL.

[Demonyte]

Costa Maya – We didn’t pre-plan anything for this day. We should have. We shopped for a few minutes, ate lunch at Carlos & Charlie’s, then returned to the ship. There is one tiny “Swim with Dolphins” attraction and a pool, but this is not really a port made for walking – you need to arrange transportation to get to anything interesting, IMO. This can be done at the port and prices were all over the place, so be prepared to bargain.

 

Sounds like you did not take a taxi to the nearby beach/shopping area (the actual town) just couple of minutes away from the (IMO horrible ;)) port shopping center with the pool and the few shops just outside the port complex, right?

 

The taxi ride is very cheap and fast and by the beach there are a lot of restaurants, bars and overall nice beach, too bad if you missed that. Regular taxis are available after a short walk outside of the port gates, the different transportation options available inside the port area are way overpriced because of the fees they pay to get inside there to be able to sell their services first.

 

We were in Costa Maya a year ago, went to the beach and got loungers with shades with no charge as we ordered drinks and snacks from the restaurant that operated on that part of the beach, I think it was a really nice and relaxing beach day.

[Partyatsea]

So happy to hear they had lemonade. This is long overdue. We so hope this is fleetwide. I hate the iced tea and always wished they could have both sweetened and unsweetened. Lemonade will be a nice addition.:):)

 

Thank you for the nice review!

[PathfinderEss]

Sounds like you had a pretty good cruise. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

[titanguru]

I am working on my review on our sailing and hope to post this weekend with picture. I can tell you this was our best cruise ever and we had a great time. The largest M&G I ever attended and everyone seemed to have wonderful time.

 

BTW. I asked during our M&G about the Moderno and we were told it will be June. Later in the week, I was contacted by one of the Officers and was told that they got the word that the Moderno will be completed by April 27.

[dpg9300]

I am working on my review on our sailing and hope to post this weekend with picture. I can tell you this was our best cruise ever and we had a great time. The largest M&G I ever attended and everyone seemed to have wonderful time.

 

BTW. I asked during our M&G about the Moderno and we were told it will be June. Later in the week, I was contacted by one of the Officers and was told that they got the word that the Moderno will be completed by April 27.

 

I'm sure that will make some people here very happy!

 

Thank you so much for organizing our M & G!

[dpg9300]

Sounds like you did not take a taxi to the nearby beach/shopping area (the actual town) just couple of minutes away from the (IMO horrible ;)) port shopping center with the pool and the few shops just outside the port complex, right?

 

The taxi ride is very cheap and fast and by the beach there are a lot of restaurants, bars and overall nice beach, too bad if you missed that. Regular taxis are available after a short walk outside of the port gates, the different transportation options available inside the port area are way overpriced because of the fees they pay to get inside there to be able to sell their services first.

 

We were in Costa Maya a year ago, went to the beach and got loungers with shades with no charge as we ordered drinks and snacks from the restaurant that operated on that part of the beach, I think it was a really nice and relaxing beach day.

 

We did walk outside of the complex, but it was like a ghost town! Most of the buildings looked abandoned. We saw only a couple of taxis, and wouldn't have known what to do with them if we'd hired one. We'll keep this info in mind for next time - thanks!