NCL Star 2/17/13 Review!

[misgnomer]

We just returned from the NCL Star. We cruised from New Orleans, 2/17/13 – 2/24/13. I've tried to organize my review and I hope you all enjoy it. Hopefully it can help some of you who are looking forward to cruising on the Star in the future!

 

About Us

There were 12 of us in 3 ocean-view picture windows on Deck 5, ages ranging from 3 to 70. My husband and I are in our 30s, as were my brother and his wife, and we have 5 girls between the 2 of us (ages 3, 4, 6, 6, and 11. Also with us were my brother (also in his 30s) and my Dad and my Uncle, his twin brother, who are 70. This was our 2nd cruise (Have cruised Hawaii with NCL), my Dad's 3rd cruise (He has cruised Alaska with RCL and Hawaii with NCL), and the first cruise for everyone else. My Dad treated us all on this wonderful cruise and we had a great family time aboard.

 

Cabins/Steward

Our ocean-view cabins were located mid-ship, starboard, on Deck 5. We were in cabins 5132, 5136 and 5152. I loved our cabin. I didn't feel cramped at all, even though there were 4 of us (2 adults, 2 children). There was one wall bunk-bed that lowered and one pop-up bed that was stored under the bed during the day. Our steward, Ryan, did a fantastic job of making the beds up in the evening and putting them away in the morning. He also made a few really cute towel animals—our daughters liked the penguin and the dog.

 

The bathroom was generously sized. I didn't ever feel cramped in the shower which was very nice. The shower faucet system was great—I liked how one handle turned the water on and one handle controlled the temperature. So the temperature was saved and I didn't have to figure it out each time.

 

I think going into it with appropriate expectations helped all of us to enjoy our surroundings. If you expect to enjoy yourself you will, despite anything that may go wrong. Two different nights they had to work on the water system, so we had to run the water in the faucet and shower in the morning for a few seconds before using it. That was the extent of issues, everything was so smooth.

 

The Ship

The Star is a beautiful ship. I never got tired of looking out the glass elevator as it passed the atrium. It's very grand. There were few signs of wear to the ship itself and I felt that it was very well maintained and kept basically spotless. My only complaint was that walking past the Casino was very smoky. It could easily be avoided once I figured out how to go up a deck to get to the Stardust Theater a different route. I only smelled the occasional waft of smoke as I was walking through the starboard side of the pool deck- didn't bother me at all.

 

Speaking of odors, on Thursday evening when we were traveling from Roatan to Cozumel there were really bad sewage smells in many of the public areas, including the buffet. Upon inquiring we were told that when the ship shifts back and forth it causes a problem with the water system which makes the smells noticeable, and that it would improve when the weather improves. It did improve by the next evening. I hate to think how bad it is on cruises where the weather is harsh all week. We had very calm waters the whole time—only that once were the waves taller than a meter.

 

Dining Experience/Food

 

Versailles

Our first meal aboard the ship was in the Versailles main dining room, and it became our favorite place for dinner. When we boarded around 12:30pm, we took our bags to our cabins and then came here. The dining room was basically empty and they were able to put us at the center table that holds 12. We were able to eat at this table almost every evening at 5pm except for a few occasions when it was booked for someone else. I loved how the dining room was so quiet at 5pm, and it was a perfect way to unwind and discuss the day's events.

 

We joked that we were the “training table” since there were a number of young children with us and they liked to order desserts that they invented. For the first meal, they ordered a banana split even though it wasn't on the menu and they brought them amazing, gigantic banana splits even though we asked them to make them small. Later on in the trip, our youngest (4) started ordering the brownie dish without the brownies, so it was just a few swirls of whipped cream with cherries on them. They never blinked an eye and always provided us with excellent service. On the last night my daughter and her cousin (age 6) asked for shrimp and our waiter brought them each shrimp cocktails (4 shrimp on the outside of a glass with cocktail sauce). They ate them all. I was glad to see them trying more adventurous items.

 

That brings me to the kid's menu. It had about 10 things on the list, meals like mac & cheese, peanut butter & jelly, fish & chips, pizza, chicken noodle soup, etc. They could order juice with it: orange, pineapple, apple, cranberry. The kids all enjoyed the meals but I felt that it was getting a bit repetitive by the end of the cruise. They never complained about being bored by it though—probably because they were looking forward to dessert so much.

 

Our meals were delicious. I loved about 50% of my meals, liked 30% of them, and didn't care for about 20%. The ones I didn't like were Tilapia and Mahi Mahi, so that could be attributed to my own personal taste and not how they were prepared. I didn't really care for Surf & Turf the first night (Sunday night). The Lobster wasn't very flavorful and the Steak was overcooked and burnt on the outside. I had Salmon on the last night and it was delicious. The vast majority of the starters (appetizers) were amazing. We often ordered 2 starters and occasionally ordered 2 entrees. It was a perfect opportunity to try dishes that I normally don't get to eat because we seldom eat out. The complimentary drinks were lemonade and iced tea. Both very yummy, although I had water most of the time. I'm not really much of a drinker but some of my table mates had wine and champagne and enjoyed it.

 

Buffet

We ate at the Buffet in the mornings. It was so convenient and had a wide selection of foods, even some that didn't seem to be breakfast foods—certainly something for everyone. I especially liked the Omelet Station, which was open from 6:45am and I'm not sure when it closed. The omelet chefs were amazing and I never got tired of the mid-air egg flip.

 

In the evenings, on the other side of the buffet, was the Crepe Station, which was open from I think 6:30-9pm. Really yummy crepes cooked before your eyes, with a variety of filling choices – apple, cherry, peaches, blueberry, etc, whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate if you choose. I'm pretty sure this one item was responsible for at least 3 of the pounds I gained!

 

We took some of the pre-packaged cereal boxes ashore with us. They were very handy to have for when the children got hungry and fussy.

 

Aqua

We only ate one night in the Aqua main dining room, just to try it out. It's a smaller venue than Versailles, and it's clear that it's meant to be extra dining for when Versailles is full. The ceiling is lower, it was dark, and I felt more closed in. You could say that it was more intimate, but I greatly preferred both the décor and the feel of Versailles. The menus seems to be basically the same, except for a few of the standard dishes (The left side of the menu remains the same all week) were different in Aqua. The one thing I did like about Aqua were the hundreds of little color changing lights imbedded in the ceiling that resembled a star-lit sky. Very pretty.

 

Blue Lagoon

We ate here once for a mid-afternoon lunch and once for breakfast. The mild wings I had were delicious, especially paired with the blue cheese sauce. I don't normally care for blue cheese but this was really good. The dessert I had, pound cake, was just so-so. Not something I would order a second time. Overall, this was not somewhere that we wanted to come back to unless we had a late night craving, and we didn't have any trouble sleeping so that was not the case. I will say that the omelet I had for breakfast here was really good, and they can put salmon in it whereas the buffet omelet station does not offer salmon.

 

Entertainment

Overall I thought the shows I saw were very good, with a few highlights and a few that I would not repeat.

 

The Welcome Aboard show, Sunday at 8:30pm, was not so good. We walked out after about 20 minutes. I was not impressed with the “Norwegian Singers and Dancers” and there was a lot of that. Also, Kyle the Cruise Director was in charge of the show and I think people either love Kyle or hate him. In our case, we loved to hate him. I'm not trying to be rude, it's just that he has a certain style about him, like a car salesman, and that's not the persona that we can really relate to. He was good at his job though, I suppose, although quite a bit too loud—no need to shout, Kyle! He did have a couple jokes throughout the cruise that were funny, but most of them were groaners. One I heard over the PA system while laying and reading on the quiet deck was: “And some very important information for the gentleman who lost his solid gold Rolex—The time is now 9:54.”

 

On Monday, Sea Day #1, we went to the 1:30pm showing of Magic with Craig Christian & Liz. It was a good show, with lots of typical Magician pomp, but also some genuinely neat tricks. I liked how he showed his first trick that he won an award for, at age 12. He took 2 decks of cards and did amazing things with his hands, making the cards seemingly disappear and then they would reappear in his hands. He is very talented.

 

In the evening, my husband went to the 7:30pm show of Band on the Run and he said it was a decent show. I decided to go to skip it and I wish I had at least gone to part of it to see if I liked it. Later that night we saw Dancing with the Stars which was entertaining. My brother and I watched Sean the Traveling Troubadour in the Red Lion Pub and really liked it. He has a certain style that fits perfectly the songs that he sings. He took many requests and there were only a few that he said he didn't do. I wish I would've seen him more than twice but I was always tired in the evening.

 

On Tuesday, after a hot and sunburned day in Costa Maya, we saw The Second City perform their scripted show in the Stardust. We really enjoyed this--they are really good at what they do.

 

On Wednesday, we saw Shark Bait, who are really talented jugglers—but that doesn't begin to cover all the cool things they do. It's a seriously high energy show. One of them ran really fast to the top balcony at least twice. They were both winded the whole show. It was really fun.

 

Later on Wednesday we took our girls to the Family Improv show by The Second City in the Spinnaker Lounge and had a really good time. I was struck again by how talented they are. I am not good at split second humor so I really admired them.

 

Thursday was Duo Acrobatique. Maria and Dmitri are incredibly talented. Some of their acts were a little too “sexed up” for my taste, and I felt that it actually detracted from how talented they are to make it into that sort of a show, but I still enjoyed it. Our children attended too and it kept their attention the whole time.

 

On Friday my husband went to part of “SHOUT! The Mod Musical” but left early, stating that it was as bad as the Welcome Aboard show. I went to bed early this night.

 

Saturday night was Elements, which had been touted as the best show on the cruise. We did not agree with this opinion. Although there were some good parts, we felt that the dancing segments in between the acts were too frequent and were quite frankly pretty boring. I preferred both of the main shows by magician and the acrobats to this one. At the end Kyle promised a finale but it was actually just some of the ship crew coming onto the stage. I definitely felt like they deserved the recognition, especially the stewards and the underling chefs and waitstaff, but we had already seen the officers 3 times prior to this in various shows and at the meet and greet so it was repetitive.

 

One observation about shows in general is that the sound is cranked up WAAAAY too loud. I don't know if they do this for the elderly or what, but it was quite painful to my eardrums. I was going to put tissue in my ears but I always forgot to bring some with me, so I'm not sure if that would've worked. There were many segments where the music or Kyle were so loud that I had to keep my ears plugged with my fingers.

 

Activities

There were a few fun activities that attended. My husband went to a free throw contest but lost to another guy. He did win the shuffleboard contest which I tease him about. He insists that there were others who entered as well. We took the children to a cupcake decorating activity. They wanted to make them artistic by using piping bags and so forth, but it was actually just a clump of frosting that you “smush” the cupcake into and then put decorations on top of it. Still fun, but it could've been more fun. We didn't take part in a lot of things, so I can't speak for all the activities but the ones we did were fun.

 

We did go to the Meet and Greet and Kyle the cruise director was there, introducing the ship officers, and the Captain came to say a few words as well. Our captain was pretty cool—he was Swedish and had a fun accent to listen to. I was pretty sure that during the Cruise Critic meeting that Kyle mentioned that we would be invited on Saturday morning to tour the bridge, but when we inquired on Saturday morning, we were told that no invitation had been made, and that it would cost $55.

 

Internet

My brother only used the internet for a few minutes. He worked all morning on the first Sea Day and then used a few minutes to send off his files. He was surprised at how fast it was. He said the files actually sent immediately but he couldn't believe it so he spent 2 more minutes just making sure they sent. He ended up spending about $7 which was well worth it for getting his work sent off. There's a $3 “setup fee” which is completely unnecessary since there is no action on their part needed to activate it.

 

Spa/Gym

We took a tour of the spa and found it very relaxing and beautiful. I wouldn't say that it would be worth buying the package unless you stay on board during port days or plan to be there a lot in the mornings or evenings. I imagine that it would be a lot quieter then the public pool areas though. The gym was nice, rows of different cardio machines and some weights in the middle. The first morning I did 40 minutes on an elliptical and then didn't return to the gym again all week. I suppose I just accepted that I would gain weight and might as well not work too hard on my vacation. I did enjoy walking around the various outside decks when the air was calm.

 

Cruising With Children/Splash Academy

The Splash Academy crew-members did a great job. The girls often wanted to go there, so unless there was a show that sounded fun to them, we checked them in there for the evening. They had fun activities. My eldest daughter especially loved using the circus toys and they even had a circus show toward the end of the cruise which both of my daughters had parts in. They also did a pirate parade where they painted faces and put on pirate bandanas and walked throughout the ship singing songs and yelling “arrr!” They eventually found the treasure on the pool deck and took it back to the play area where they opened it by using the magic word “please”. Inside was all sorts of booty like necklaces and tattoos and such.

 

Ports

 

Costa Maya

We spent the day in Mahajual, in front of “El Faro” restaurant on one of there shaded tables, just 25 feet from the water. The children played all day in the water. We were very glad we brought “floaties” and child sized life jackets. Even though the water was calm and most of them can swim, it gave us some peace of mind and made it a lot more fun for them too. The youngest girl spent all day happily playing in the sand and the older ones bobbed around in the water all day. Unfortunately, many of us got sunburns on this day that would haunt us for the whole cruise. Do not forget to reapply sunblock! We learned first hand how important this is.

 

We enjoyed the tacos, chips, salsa, guacamole and quesadillas from the restaurant. I also got a massage there under the shade trees. It was a very good massage, amazingly only $20 for an hour. The sand on my skin made it sort of an exfoliating massage, but it was so relaxing with the sounds of the ocean, and the bird chirps above me.

 

There were 5 of us that actually walked from the tourist village all the way to Mahajual. This is not a walk that the children would have done well with, so they took a taxi. It was about 2 miles I would say. About 1.5 miles to the lighthouse and another half mile down the boardwalk to where our group set up camp for the day. It was a pleasant morning, if a little humid, and the trail they have built in the street median is very pretty—shaded with trees, with benches and beautifully crafted arbors made out of trees. I would definitely walk again, even though it cut about 45 minutes from our beach time.

 

On the way back, most of the group took a taxi, but the same group of us decided to walk back as well. When we reached the lighthouse, we could see a dirt road the followed the coast north toward the ship, so we decided to go that way in hopes of finding a shortcut that didn't go so far out of the way. A taxi driver stopped and told us that the way was “cerrado” (closed) and warned us that it wouldn't go through, but I guess we are stubborn and curious so we decided to go that way anyway. It's true that it is closed-there are signs that say private property, and it looks like it belongs to a construction area where condos are being built, so we didn't go that way. Instead, we followed the beach up to the north. The beach is very rocky—huge boulders and rocks resembling coral, along with lots and lots of trash. It's sort of sad to see that they do not care for the entire area better, there is trash everywhere along all the streets. We saw upwards of 15 flip flops. This must be the stretch of beach where all the lost items from Mahajual float to. We jumped like mountain goats over about half a mile of this boulder beach and then came to a road that went inland through a short scrubby jungle. We continued north and came to a chain link fence and realized that it was the outskirts of the tourist village, perhaps for the companies that operate excursions for the ships. I asked a man working there if there was a way to pass through, and he jokingly counted us by fives and said “si, solo veinte-cinco” dollares” with a smile. We laughed with him and then he rolled back a section of the chain-link fence and let us through. We went through a second gate and were back at the edge of the tourist village.

 

Belize

In Belize we didn't do any of the typical tourist things. Since we have friends in Belize that we know through our church, we rented a van and drove to Cotton Tree (about 45 minutes inland toward Belmopan). We met up with them there and had a nice Bible Study and they served us a yummy lunch of chicken, rice and beans and potato salad. The girls had fun playing out in the yard, picking up the little chicks and running and playing with their children. They have a business making plantain chips so we got to see how those are made and they gave us each a bag to take with us. I must say they are so delicious and I ate more than my share. Their son also took us to Belmopan and gave us a tour of the city. We stopped at the market and bought nieve, (ice cream), and bought some more sunblock. We made it back to the tender in plenty of time and were back on the ship by about 4:45.

 

Roatan

Roatan was my favorite port for natural beauty and the snorkeling. We rented a passenger van and were glad that we could do our own thing on our own schedule. Driving through the jungle was amazing. It's not like Costa Maya that has pretty pathetic greenery. We're talking dark, lush jungles full of tall trees and vines. I loved it. We spent the day at Infinity Bay in the West Bay, at a shaded table, while we took turns snorkeling. We also ordered some food from the restaurant and it was mediocre, but we didn't have to pay a fee for sitting at the table all day, so we were glad to support them through the restaurant.

 

We were glad to have brought a few masks and snorkels—they definitely were worth it and got a lot of use between the 12 of us. The most fish were concentrated where a man on a kayak was sitting most of the day, since he was throwing bits of bread into the water. They weren't the most interesting or brilliant fish that were at the surface but it was fun to be swarmed by fish. Our 4 year old daughter had fun bobbing around in her floatie out here, trying to “catch” the fish. They were not scared away by her attempts, which shows just how brave they are. In this area there were also a lot of mountains of coral with many different kinds of fish. I saw so many striking and beautiful ones.

 

My husband and I decided to go farther out and to the left to see if we could find anything different. We didn't really see anything better than what we found straight out from the Infinity Bay resort, but it was good exercise to go so far without fins. Unfortunately I hadn't reapplied sunblock (yet again!) so I ended up with badly burned legs and back. This sunburn was so painful that when I woke up in the night I felt nauseous with pain and almost fainted. You just cannot mess around with that sun. And it will diminish your enjoyment aboard the ship. If there is one thing I would do differently it would be to wear a shirt while snorkeling and reapply sunblock.

 

We drove back up the road a ways and took a nice brief hike among the beautiful trees at Keyhole Cove. There is a big gated condo there but a lot of the land is undeveloped. It's sad to think that so much of the jungle will be developed.

 

Cozumel

We had another passenger van reserved for this day, from Aguilar Rentals. This van was a death trap, or at least badly-injured trap. They could never get away with renting a van in this condition in the states. It was beat up on the exterior, but the inside was just horrible. Rusty exposed springs in the seats, seat belts that didn't work at all, and a huge rusty, sharp spike coming off the driver's seat where the armrest used to be. My daughter got a serious gash in her leg from that one, and my husband got a bunch of arm scratches too.

 

We started by going south out of San Miguel and stopping at a gas station. They gave us the van with a quarter tank of gas and just told us to “fill it up before you leave town”. I was disgusted at this, because obviously they are hoping that we'll fill it up for them. Since it's only 30 miles around the island or something like that, there's no way that we'll use much of the tank. We put in 12 gallons and it was still way too much, even though we did quite a bit of driving. We turned it in with half a tank so they definitely made money on us. All in all, I would NOT recommend Aguilar Rentals!

 

We went to the old road and stopped at the first place, the Money Bar. It really wasn't a good place for children, but the snorkelers here did see some fish, although not as good as Roatan. In fact we didn't find any good beaches for children, the sandy ones we found had too steep of a drop-off. I also had a very bad experience here—I lost my camera. I took my daughter to the bathroom to help her and set it down to set her on the toilet, and forgot it when I left the bathroom. I remembered about 5 minutes later and ran back, but it was gone. I took this pretty hard because I really cherish my vacation photos. I don't have a very good memory so I rely on my photos to take me back there. I did everything I could to try to find it, including asking several people around tables if they had seen it, and asking the waiters and activity desk employees, but nobody could help me. I left my contact information in hopes of a change of luck, and we continued down the road. We stopped at Palancar Beach but we decided that since it wasn't a good place for the children to swim that we would not go there.

 

We really enjoyed driving along the coastal road on the east side of the island. It reminded us of our ocean in Oregon and Washington, only a much brighter blue color. We drove north until we reached the cross island intersection and stopped at a seaside restaurant called Mezcalitos. The food was really good and the setting was perfect. There were hammocks that the girls had fun laying in, and everything was under cover out of the sun, and there was the most wonderful breeze coming through.

 

Despite the many things that went wrong, it was nice to see some of the island. It was a relief to get back on the ship. We didn't even feel like shopping for souvenirs.

 

So all in all, it was a great cruise! Thanks for reading and hope your future cruises are wonderful. If anyone has any questions about the Star or about what I've written regarding ports, please feel free to ask. :)

[NLH Arizona]

Thanks for the great review.

[Sauer-kraut]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to write this. Sorry about the camera, a similar thing happened to me in Western Samoa, made me really sad because that is a place I will probably never visit again.

[valleyvillage]

What a sweet, kind review. Thank you for your generosity in writing it and sharing it with all of us. :D

[tip]

Thank you for the very complete review. We shall be sailing on the Star from LA through the Panama Canal to Miami for fourteen days this fall. Normally we can always go with the flow and do not allow minor inconveniences to disturb us. On the otherhand, the smell of sewage does concern me. It would certainly have a tendency to detract from some of the ambiance of a cruise. I certainly hope that the situation is addressed between now and our fall sailing.

[jdvmd]

What a comprehensive, wonderful review! Thanks!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[cheaperts]

The lost camera I can relate to, 1 hour into the same cruise 2 years ago we had a camera stolen on the pool deck, fortunately we always have 2, but it's a bummer. I always off load my pictures on to my laptop anytime we return to the stateroom just incase anything happens:cool:

[bonniemari]

Thanks for your nice review. Sorry about your camera. We will be leaving on the Star this Sunday and you've given me some ideas on what to see and do on the ship. I love watching magicians and the acrobats so I'll make sure not to miss those two things.

[gelo7]

Thanks, for a very comprehensive review.