Star Review March 27th -April 3rd

[kpms]

Will be cursing in May through the Baltics! What an awesome review! Don't get too many reviews about the Star

 

Will be in a Suite as well! I can't wait

 

Which cabin where you in?

[FraudBroad]

I am excited to hear about your stateroom :) We have 12508 leaving on Sunday! Just me and my littles will be heading out.. the 11 year old does not know, but as a very seasoned cruiser, he will figure it out when he sees the check in line too ;)

 

Will be cursing in May through the Baltics! What an awesome review! Don't get too many reviews about the Star

 

Will be in a Suite as well! I can't wait

 

Which cabin where you in?

 

We were in 12508! LOVE the room...the ONLY issue was that one of the floor to ceiling windows was fogged over a bit. I thought they'd fixed all of those when the Star was in dry dock last year. I guess they didn't seal the window very well. It really didn't bother us at all! The suite is huge and could easily fit 6. There is a queen size bed (we had it taken apart into two twins) a full size Murphy bed and a sleeper sofa. There are dividers that you can pull out from the walls (and curtains as well) so that you can literally divide the room into 4 separate areas. There'a also a coffee table in front of the sofa with two comfy chairs plus a round dinning table with four chairs. You have a Lavazza coffee maker in the room (the butler will show you the first day how to use it) that has pods for coffee, tea, espresso and hot chocolate. There's also a DVD player and a full menu of the movies available. Just ask the butler and he will bring them to you.

 

The bathroom is massive with a huge DEEP soaking tub, glass shower and two sinks. There are I think four drawers in the vanity so plenty of storage!!! The closet has two sides with ample room to hang things. There's also a large dresser/desk area in the room with more than enough drawers (although some are filled already with plates, napkins, coffee supplies, etc...) There are also two cubes with 2 drawers each and the night stands each have two drawers. Also, 2 large mirrors....AND....a scale in the bathroom. I really thought about having the butler take that away!!!

 

I hope that you have Efran as a butler, if so please tell him that Natalie, Cheryl, Molly & Jordan say hello. He was simply AMAZING!!!!

 

You will LOVE the suite!!! ENJOY!!!

[FraudBroad]

Cruise Day 5

Last night we set our clocks again one our and were once again on CST.

 

Today is one of my favorite ports….Roatan! This is my fourth time on this itinerary and we’ve always gone to Tropicante, a restaurant and bar right on the beach!

 

After breakfast in our suite my parents met all of us and at 9:00 we headed off the ship. It’s a long walk down the pier to the port entrance and they do have a shuttle. It was just leaving when we got off of the ship so we made our way down the pier to the entrance to the port. As we’d been here previously we knew how to get out of the port to get a taxi. Just a note, they will want you to take their shuttle downtown to the beach area and A – it’s more expensive than a cab ($3 per person) B – it takes a LOT longer. We made our way out of the port area (this is NOT a long walk AT ALL) and got two cabs to the beach ($2 per person each way). Within 6 minutes they were dropping us off at our stop and it was a quick walk to Tropicante. When you arrive at the beach there are a TON of people trying to get you to go to their restaurant/bar. We quickly found who we needed and THEY DIDN’T HAVE OUR RESERVATION!!! I was ready to die but they said they had plenty of room for us!!! Big sigh of relief! I’d reserved a table and palapa (I need the shade) along with two loungers. My BFF also wanted a lounger (rather than the table) and they quickly accommodated us. It was a super WINDY day that day in Roatan but that was the ONLY drawback!!! We would find out later in the day that the reservation was all MY fault! I'd told them we'd be there Friday the 1st, NOT on Thursday....oh well, it all worked out!

 

We sat and talked and drank and ate most of the day…at one point the girls wanted to go “shopping” so we walked down the malecon area while the girls looked at all of the tchotchkes until we came along a shop that did “fish” pedicures. Count them in! The girls AND my BFF all opted to try it out. Me, no way did I want fish munching on my feet! We negotiated with the lady and agreed to pay $15 per person for 20 minutes. The woman carefully cleaned each persons’ feet until they were ready to go into the water. As soon as those toes hit the water, the fish were ALL OVER THEM!!!!!

 

My oldest isn’t a fan of anything touching her feet so I was quite surprised when she said she was game to try. The video is pretty hysterical…the look on her face was priceless. The woman didn’t care how long they kept their feet in the water as long as she didn’t have other’s waiting. At the 20 minute mark my oldest was DONE….there was no way she was keeping her feet in the water any longer!!!

 

While the BFF and kids were letting the fish eat, my mother and I made our way down to a store call “Silver Reef.” It is the ONLY store along there that Steve, the owner of Tropicante, recommends for silver. He’s seen way too much fake stuff over the years. My mother and I had shopped there in December and were quite happy with our purchases so we wanted to go back. The funny thing was she ended up getting the SAME necklace and pendant that I bought in December! She has very good taste!!!

 

We made our way back to the pedicure place and they were all done. My youngest wanted her hair braided and we went off to find the lady that had braided her hair the 2 previous times. When we couldn’t find her I asked the owner of Silver Reef and he went off to find her, assuring us that he’d send her our way. Sure enough, he did, and within a half hour she was right there at Tropicante braiding my kiddo’s hair!

 

By 2:00 we’d all had enough sun and fun and food and drink and it was time to make our way back to the port. We still wanted to do a bit of shopping before we headed back on-board. BFF and kiddos were all able to find what they were looking for and we were back on-board by 3:15.

 

Tonight we almost forgot about the Gold/Platinum Latitudes party! We’d already blown off the regular Latitudes party earlier in the week and the only reason we made this one was because Roel, the concierge, ran into us on his way and asked if we were going! BFF and I headed down, the rest of our group missed out!

 

I spent the majority of the party speaking with Dallas, the CruiseNext representative on-board. We’d met him the night before at the trivia game. BFF and I were telling him about the issues we’d had with the spa and he said he was going to get it fixed. I was hoping he was right because at this point I was just OVER IT!!! I figured I was NEVER going to get resolution!

After the party we headed to Le Bistro, the French restaurant, to meet the rest of our group. Le Bistro is my oldest daughter’s favorite and she was really looking forward to some escargot. I, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to have their French onion soup! At this point I can’t remember what anyone had, just that we all enjoyed everything. They serve my favorite dessert on-board in Le Bistro, the Chocolate Napoleon. It is OUT OF THIS WORLD delicious!

 

After some casino time we all met up again in Spinnaker for “The Liar’s Club.” It’s where they have a word that you’d never hear (Crapulence, Fulfart…for example). Each member of the panel (this night it was the hypnotist, the Cruise Director and the comedian on board) gives their definition of the word and the audience votes for which they believe is correct. I’d heard all of the words on previous cruises but it was fun none the less!

 

The plan was to stay for thy late night hypnosis but we were just way too tired! Off to bed we went as tomorrow would be a big day in our last stop, Cozumel!

 

To be continued….

Edited April 13, 2016 by FraudBroad

[FraudBroad]

Cruise Day 6

 

When I woke up I couldn’t believe it was almost the end of the cruise…we had to make today a GREAT day so we could go out with a BANG!!!!

Prior to sailing we’d booked the “Cozumel Bar Hop.” Mom and I had done this in December and it was one of our favorite excursions we’d ever done. We just HAD to take everyone along for the ride!

 

We weren’t meeting the tour until 11:15 so BFF and I decided to get off early and go to the Harley Davidson shop in town to get some t-shirts for her hubby. We stopped at the Diamond’s International to ask the ship’s shopping consultant where the store was located. Of course, it was all of the way at the other pier.

 

We negotiated with a cab driver to take us there then bring us back to the Del Sol store on the other end of town, it was going to be $20. Off we went towards the Harley store and traffic was tight. When we made it down there lo and behold we found out that it didn’t open until 10:00!!! What the heck??? Every other store in town opens at 9:00 when ships are in port!!!

 

As we were driving back toward the Del Sol store we passed the Harley place where you can rent a bike for the day and BFF noticed they had t-shirts in the windows. We asked the cab driver to do a U turn and go back and he happily complied. BFF was able to find two dry fit t-shirts for $20. Big win for her! The driver happily drove us back down to Del Sol where we gave him a large tip and we were on our way!

 

They’d told me in the Del Sol store in Belize that in Cozumel they could exchange my sun glasses. If you’ve never owned a pair of Del Sol sun glasses before GO GET SOME! They are $50 each but are exchangeable for life! You scratch them, for $10 you get a new pair, lens falls out, $10 you get a new pair…even if you LOOSE them, for $10 you get a new pair! The pair that I’d brought with me was about to fall apart and I was hoping to exchange them for a new pair. No dice, I had to do it online…thanks a lot Del Sol in Belize for giving me the WRONG information!

 

As we were making our way back to the port area BFF found a beautiful necklace. We spent about 15 minutes negotiating and BFF decided she couldn’t afford it. On our way headed back we stopped at a Starbucks (needed that morning kick) and BFF had regrets so we headed BACK to the store. When she purchased the necklace she found out that she could get 8% back so we stopped at the place where she needed to fill out the paper work. She didn’t have her passport with her but the man said she could just email it to him. The whole process took about 15 minutes and BFF was going to get $15. It was worth the stop!

 

By 11:00 we were at Senor Frogs, the meeting place for the Bar Hop. Shortly after we arrived, Tom, the owner of the Bar Hop showed up and we spent some time speaking with him before the rest of the hoppers arrived. He was bummed that he’d forgotten that it was April Fool’s day but I had the PERFECT idea for him….more to come on that later!

 

Shortly thereafter the rest of my family and the remaining hoppers arrived and we all headed for the bus. Today, we had a full size coach bus that was super comfy and cool! Last time we’d been in a Mercedes mini-bus that was nice but not as spacious. We all took our seat and Tom started collecting the money (its $57 for the hop and you pay a $17 deposit for each person on-line when you make the reservation). Tom stopped in front of my kids and looked at them and said “what are YOU doing here? You’re too young…you can’t HOP!!! Who told you that it was okay?” He was going on and on and I was sitting there laughing!!! As the girls started to stand up to leave (and my mother was going to leave with them!) he yelled out “April Fools” to which my oldest looked at me and yelled “NOT FUNNY MOM!!!” It was the perfect start to the Hop!!!!!

 

The Hop take you across all of the way across the east side of the island. VERY different from what you see at the port. That part of the island has NO electricity and closes down at 6:00 each evening. The only people allowed to be on that side of the island after dark are the folks staying at the one resort over there. It’s a great experience to see a different side of Cozumel!

 

Our first stop was at my favorite place, Punta Morena. It’s a beautiful restaurant/bar with a gorgeous salt water pool and beach. You can choose to be either inside (open air but it’s fully covered) or outside at one of the tables with Palapas. The outside bar has actual swings around the bar and next to the beach they have hammocks. We all bellied up to the outside bar for our first drink. On the hop, you get a mixed drink in a shot glass at each back (included in the price). Anything above and beyond that that you eat or drink is extra. It’s important to note that since that side of the island has no electricity (this particular place runs on solar energy) everything is CASH only! Although, I did have a vendor that used their smart phone to let me buy a t-shirt :)

 

The BFF, Dad and kids headed to check out the surf and hammock while my mother and I grabbed a table under a palapa. We ordered the lobster quesadilla and some chips and salsa. And may I say, that quesadilla was some of the BEST food we had ALL day long! NOT TO BE MISSED!!!! The dad, kids and BFF all showed up as soon as the food arrived. I also had plenty of time to suck down a delicious pina colada!

 

After 50 minutes it was time to head down the road to the next place, Coconuts. Coconuts sites at the highest point of the island so it’s quite a climb up the rock steps to the bar. The bar itself is a sight to see. It’s a huge palapa and the inside is covered in t-shirts from all of the world, mostly the United States. The owners are also into animals so you’ll see parrots, cockatoo’s, cats, dogs and a crocodile named Wilma. They took Wilma in after hurricane Wilma, hence her name! Here we ordered blue Margaritas for BFF and I to share with the teens and two orders of nachos. The nachos here are super simple, chips, beans and meant, but I gotta tell you, they are TO DIE FOR!!! YUMMO!!!!

 

One important note, the tour guide was quick to tell us that the ratio of Mexican Margarita to US Margarita is THREE TO ONE…and she WASN’T JOKING!!!! I ended up ordering a can of sprite, the only way we could cut the Margarita to a place we felt safe drinking it. We did manage to finish both and it was obvious that the teens were feeling the effect!!!!

 

We spent time taking pictures and visiting the various animals before our 50 minutes was up and it was time to head to the next bar, Playa Bonita.

When you arrive at Playa Bonita they tell you NOT to try and take the stair inside the restaurant down to the beach…and they aren’t kidding. When those stairs were built there was actually beach at the bottom. Now there’s just water! The day we were hopping the surf was super rough. Our tour guide mentioned that she was super happy that no one had planned on swimming that day, there was no way she would have let them!

 

We had our shot then ordered some more quesadillas and more drinks. This time I stuck with water…I think I’d had my fill at that point and didn’t want to ruin the rest of my day! We had a great time eating and laughing before, you guessed it, our 50 minutes was up and it was time to head to our last stop, Rasta’s.

 

Rasta’s is family owned and they’re famous for their coconut shrimp. Of course that was the first thing we ordered after having our shot. The beach front here was beautiful so I went out to take some pictures of my dad with his two favorite granddaughters. Well, they are actually his ONLY grand kids so that automatically makes them his favorites!

 

The day was winding down and after 50 minutes it was time to say goodbye and head back to the ship. On the ride back they played a lot of fun music (Jeremiah was a bullfrog, Love Shack, YMCA) and we all sang along…except for the teenagers who both promptly feel asleep and slept all of the way back to the port. We dropped Hoppers off at the first two piers before we made it to our stop. We all got Cozumel Bar Hop t-shirts (mom and I got FOHO shirts and the rest of the group just got HO shirts). The first time you hop you’re just a “HO” (Hopper), the next time you’re a “FOHO” (Former Hopper). I did ask the question of what is the most times anyone has hopped. The answer was SIXTEEN. I’m making it my life’s mission to break that record!

 

We were back to the port by 4:00 and all headed back on-board to get cleaned up and watch sail away. We had dinner reservations that night at 7:00 and the Hotel Director for the ship, Manny, would be joining us at Cagney’s.

 

We met Manny at Cagney’s at 7:00. Sure enough neither of my kids were on time. Of course this would happen tonight of all nights. I wasn’t a bit surprised as I knew they were both wiped out from the day and I’m sure they’d both had too much to drink!!!! We ordered and eaten our appetizers then Manny had to excuse himself for a bit while he headed down so he could wave to people at the end of the show. While it used to be that they’d parade everyone out at the end of the show on the last night of the cruise, they’ve moved this tradition up one night. By the time Manny returned we’d just had our entrée’s delivered and we enjoyed a wonderful meal.

 

Manny was super nice and very interesting. He’s new to NCL only having been on the Star for several months. He was the Food and Beverage Director when we sailed on her in December but when the HD went on vacation he became interim Hotel Director. We talked a lot about the Star, changes at NCL, and cruising in general. We learned that his wife is also part of the industry and works for Royal. Manny is an avid hunter and loves to fish so he gladly shared his photos with us. I was just glad at this point that my youngest had left because she would NOT have been happy with some of the hunting pictures he shared!

 

After dinner and some casino time I met up with BFF and my oldest and we walked around the pool deck for a bit enjoying the “White Hot Party” and NCL staple. On the Getaway it’s now called the “glow party.” We were all really tired and didn’t stay long before it was time to head to bed.

 

To be continued….

[FraudBroad]

Day 7

I woke with a feeling of dread knowing that today was our last official vacation day and tomorrow they’d be throwing us off the ship. Well, not literally, but that’s what it does feel like.

 

As soon as I woke up I realized I’d screwed up! I’d known all day yesterday that we needed to set our clocks ahead an hour. I was so tired when we got back to the cabin the night before I’d forgotten to do it. In all honestly, I also didn’t see a reminder on my bed. It had been left there but when my BFF had come back from working out after dinner she’d moved it to the dresser and I didn’t see it, hence my clock didn’t get moved forward. I’d totally blown my parents off for breakfast and felt BAD!!!

 

I quickly got ready and met them in Gatsby’s for the final trivia game. We didn’t do too well but at least filled up another card for the BFF to exchange for tchotchkes! I guess there are still people in this world that enjoy getting plastic crap for gifts!

 

While the BFF headed to work out I headed to the casino. Today I was going to try my luck at roulette and boy was I glad I did. I made back all of the money I’d lost and was finally even for the cruise!!! My BFF stopped by and we entered the slot tournament. During my round I made it into the final but was kicked out during the next round. No worries, my mom was still on the leader board for the finals!

 

The finals were at noon and you guessed it, the luck mamma WON the tournament. She was now up $2000 for the cruise…not a bad amount to take home!

 

We all headed to Moderno for our final lunch on-board. I had the halibut, sweet mamma and BFF ordered Rubens (they brought them up from O’Sheehan’s for them) and the teens each had the burgers. Lunch was delicious and afterwards BFF and I headed back to the cabin to get our stuff packed up. This is certainly the WORST part of the cruise.

 

I have to mention when I checked my on-board statement I’d received credit for the Thermal Suite, but I was still being charged over $300 for that one massage from day one. That was NEVER fixed. I still feel that I should have only paid for 75 minutes. I did write to NCL when we returned but I’ve never heard back from them.

 

After finishing up packing BFF headed to the spa for her last treatment and I took a nap. Althought I’d wanted to do the in-suite dinning the last evening my dad didn’t enjoy it the first night so we opted for Ginza, the Asian restaurant on-board. With my dad, if the food isn’t scalding hot and burning his mouth he doesn’t like it. Oh well, we all have our “things” that’s just his!

Ginza is located on deck 7 right above Gatsby’s bar. Roel was there waiting for us and had reserved a table for us so we didn’t have to wait. Gosh, I’m really going to miss those suite perks!!!!

 

Dinner wasn’t very good. There was a singer downstairs in Gatsby’s so it was SO LOUD we couldn’t hear each other well enough to carry on a conversation. The food wasn’t very good. BFF and oldest teen ordered sushi and said it was “okay” but not great. We all decided we wouldn’t ever return there to eat.

 

BFF and oldest teen headed to work out and I went back to the casino for a bit. Met them both in the cabin later for final packing and putting our suitcases in the hallway before we went to the final show, a late night performance in Spinnaker by the on-board comedian. We were all happy we’d stayed up late for the show, as he was really terrific. It was late, we were all tired and it was time for bed.

 

To be continued….

[FraudBroad]

Final Day

 

BFF and I were up before 7 and all I wanted to do was cry. I simply didn’t know how I was going to survive without a butler. Actually, I didn’t know how my kids would survive without a butler and I sure didn’t want them to think I was going to fill that role!!!

 

Efran arrived at 8:00 with our breakfast and it was enough to feed a starving third world country. I didn’t ever matter what we ordered, Efran always brought double the amount. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, eggs Benedict, fruit and Belgium Waffles. It was unbelievable. We couldn’t even eat HALF of what he’d brought!!!

 

As our flight wasn’t until after 1:00 I’d asked Roel if we could get a tour of the huge Garden Villa, the nicest suite on the ship. He told me that the people staying there were leaving between 8:30 and 9:00 so he’d call our cabin once they were gone so we could get a tour. I’d seen the suite on my Panama Canal sailing in 2014 (we had a huge Cruise Critic Meet & Greet on that sailing and we’d done a cabin crawl) and I wanted my BFF and family to see what it was all about.

 

Roel called at 9:00 and Efran escorted us to the suite. To say that it’s amazing would be an understatement. There are TWO villas. Each with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a huge living area with a baby grand piano, a kitchen and private outdoor space. The outdoor space includes a table and chairs to seat 6, private hot tub and steam room and a sun deck that is covers the entire top of the suite. Everyone was in awe and my kiddos asked if we could sail in that next time. Not on my salary that’s for SURE!!!

 

It was 9:30 and they were making announcements that everyone needed to be off of the ship. We made our way down to the gangway and all hugged Efran goodbye and thanked him for the most amazing week ever. We made our way into the terminal, grabbed our bags and hailed a porter (if you have a porter you don’t have to stand in line) and within a few minutes were outside saying goodbye to my parents and hailing a cab to the airport. The cruise was officially over!

 

Our flight was delayed and the kids, believe it or not, we already hungry again so we sat in TGI Fridays inside the airport and shared a couple of appetizers before we took the tram to our gate. We landed back home in Chicago around 3:30 and were home by 5:30. Vacation was officially over and a pile of dirty laundry awaited!

 

To be continued….final thoughts…

[Meredithe]

I am even more excited about the stateroom now! We will be in it for 14 days, just me a two tweens... and if we are lucky enough to have Efran I have made a note to tell him hello from you :) I cannot wait to video the 11-year-olds reaction.

 

BTW- We did your itinerary in January on the Dawn out of New Orleans, it was amazing!

[FraudBroad]

Final Thoughts

 

There we great, good, not so good, and downright bad things about our trip but overall I’d give the entire experience a solid A. Had it not been for the terrible experience with the spa for sure we’d give it an A+. I will tell you, though, it really was one of our favorite cruises ever!

 

I’m going to start with the bad so that I can end of up a GREAT note.

 

Day one trying to get on the ship was a total joke and falls into the downright BAD category. When you sail in a suite check in should be seamless and you should be one of the first on the ship. That didn’t happen this time and was a very big disappointment. Even worse is to read on Cruise Critic that that’s the norm for the Port of Tampa. I put part of the blame on myself. I wanted to keep the secret and surprise everyone and I should have just been more vocal!

 

The spa…bad, terrible, awful and NEVER AGAIN. The Thermal Suite on the spa is a huge disappointment. It doesn’t come close to what they have on the larger ships and I wouldn’t waste my money. I’d been impressed with the spa on the Pearl last year when we were in Alaska, but I’d forgotten my swim suit and they didn’t sell them on the ship so I had to skip it.

 

The service, especially from the assistant manager, was horrendous. I have never in my life been spoken to like that by a crew member on any ship on any cruise line. It was SUCH a letdown. Live and learn, I won’t ever again be scheduling spa treatments on an NCL ship. I found their practices to be shady at best….if not “bait and switch” in some manner when I think back to the gift certificate that my BFF won that was totally useless.

Dinner in Ginza was another BAD….in fact, when I look back, it was pretty darn awful. I’d warn everyone to STAY AWAY!

 

The services at the guest services desk was not so good. On the very first day I waited in line over a half hour just to have them NOT be able to help. To top it off, I’d signed us all up for the ship tour for Platinum latitude members and guess what? We were NEVER invited and missed the tour. Next time I will be sure the call the concierge and ask him to take care of it.

 

Even though we won’t be in a suite, as a Platinum Latitudes member I do have access to the concierge and plan and taking advantage of that perk!

Not so good….some of the service at times could be spotty. We had very, very slow service the second night at Moderno, not at all what we are used to in a specialty restaurant. Drinks on the pool deck, depending on the number of folks on deck, could be a long wait. We became friends with one of the waiters on deck so whenever we were there he always made sure we were taken care of!

 

Everything else for the week falls into the really good and great categories! The suite was WONDERFUL and certainly a high light. For sure this cruise is one that my BFF and my kiddos will always remember. Sailing in a suite is certainly not the norm for us and I can’t say that it will ever happen again, I’m just glad we were given this opportunity to experience it!

 

All of the food in all of the specialty restaurants was wonderful, and with the exception of Moderno the service was amazing! We even managed to talk Dallas, the CruiseNext specialist, into sending us a free bottle of wine the night we ate in Le Bistro. It was for sure a nice touch!

 

Dinner with the Hotel Director was another nice touch (and another free bottle of wine). We enjoyed his company and enjoyed learning his perspective on the changes at NCL and within the cruise industry.

 

The Star herself, shown brightly the entire week. The changes and updates made during her dry dock last year were sorely needed. We loved the updating they did to the picture area and freshening up of the buffet. It’s too bad that they couldn’t just totally tear apart the buffet area and star fresh. It’s too crowded and doesn’t have a great flow. Everything around the ship was clean and fresh. The whole dry dock was long overdue and it was great to see her shine again!

 

This itinerary was another big plus for us. We just LOVE Costa Maya, Cozumel and Roatan…but we can’t stand Belize City. When we’d first booked this trip the new Harvest Cay was supposed to be open but it’s been delayed again until November. We will sail this exact itinerary in December and really do hope Harvest Cay is open. If not, I can’t say that we’d bother to get off of the ship in Belize City. We have our favorite things in each port and always have a great time!

 

Finally, the service we received from Roel and Efran was second to none. They both contributed greatly to us having the vacation of a life time and for sure they were our true VACATION HEROS!!! I called Roel almost daily to change restaurant reservations and without fail he was able to do it each and every single time. And Erfran was amazingly good to my kids. He was there to honor their every wish and whim. Just a really good guy who’s very good at his job.

 

A lot of talk on these boards about tipping. I will be brutally honest about what extra we tipped. Keep in mind I was tipping for TWO cabins. I tipped Efran $400 even though wish I could have given him $1000. I gave Roel $150. My parents tipped their butler $50 (they never had any special requests and never asked him to bring them anything). They tipped Roel $50 (again they themselves never asked him for anything). I also tipped our cabin steward $40. It’s important to note that the butlers and concierge don’t get a dime from the daily gratuity, the cabin steward does.

 

I will miss the Star when she heads to Australia and the Far East. She’s always been one of my favorite ships. Like I said, we will do the same itinerary on the Jade in December, and we’ve done the same on the Dawn in 2013…but it’s never going to live up to the amazing experience we had on the Star! Her crew is simply second to none!

 

Thanks for following along!

Edited April 13, 2016 by FraudBroad

[FraudBroad]

I am even more excited about the stateroom now! We will be in it for 14 days, just me a two tweens... and if we are lucky enough to have Efran I have made a note to tell him hello from you :) I cannot wait to video the 11-year-olds reaction.

 

BTW- We did your itinerary in January on the Dawn out of New Orleans, it was amazing!

 

I'm seething with envy right now and incredibly jealous! I know you will have the MOST amazing time! But for heaven's sake what ever you do STAY OUT OF THAT SPA!!!!

 

Have a great ship and thanks for telling Efran hello from all of us (if you see him that is)!!!!

 

Regards,

Natalie

[clairesmom]

Great review!! We had a great week as well. I wish we would have known you didn't have a hair dryer in your room that worked....we had THREE!!!!! :):)

[FraudBroad]

Great review!! We had a great week as well. I wish we would have known you didn't have a hair dryer in your room that worked....we had THREE!!!!! :):)

 

No wonder it took so long to get one!!! You had ALL of them :)

[Love my butler]

Cruise Day 5

Last night we set our clocks again one our and were once again on CST.

 

Today is one of my favorite ports….Roatan! This is my fourth time on this itinerary and we’ve always gone to Tropicante, a restaurant and bar right on the beach!

 

After breakfast in our suite my parents met all of us and at 9:00 we headed off the ship. It’s a long walk down the pier to the port entrance and they do have a shuttle. It was just leaving when we got off of the ship so we made our way down the pier to the entrance to the port. As we’d been here previously we knew how to get out of the port to get a taxi. Just a note, they will want you to take their shuttle downtown to the beach area and A – it’s more expensive than a cab ($3 per person) B – it takes a LOT longer. We made our way out of the port area (this is NOT a long walk AT ALL) and got two cabs to the beach ($2 per person each way). Within 6 minutes they were dropping us off at our stop and it was a quick walk to Tropicante. When you arrive at the beach there are a TON of people trying to get you to go to their restaurant/bar. We quickly found who we needed and THEY DIDN’T HAVE OUR RESERVATION!!! I was ready to die but they said they had plenty of room for us!!! Big sigh of relief! I’d reserved a table and palapa (I need the shade) along with two loungers. My BFF also wanted a lounger (rather than the table) and they quickly accommodated us. It was a super WINDY day that day in Roatan but that was the ONLY drawback!!! We would find out later in the day that the reservation was all MY fault! I'd told them we'd be there Friday the 1st, NOT on Thursday....oh well, it all worked out!

 

We sat and talked and drank and ate most of the day…at one point the girls wanted to go “shopping” so we walked down the malecon area while the girls looked at all of the tchotchkes until we came along a shop that did “fish” pedicures. Count them in! The girls AND my BFF all opted to try it out. Me, no way did I want fish munching on my feet! We negotiated with the lady and agreed to pay $15 per person for 20 minutes. The woman carefully cleaned each persons’ feet until they were ready to go into the water. As soon as those toes hit the water, the fish were ALL OVER THEM!!!!!

 

My oldest isn’t a fan of anything touching her feet so I was quite surprised when she said she was game to try. The video is pretty hysterical…the look on her face was priceless. The woman didn’t care how long they kept their feet in the water as long as she didn’t have other’s waiting. At the 20 minute mark my oldest was DONE….there was no way she was keeping her feet in the water any longer!!!

 

While the BFF and kids were letting the fish eat, my mother and I made our way down to a store call “Silver Reef.” It is the ONLY store along there that Steve, the owner of Tropicante, recommends for silver. He’s seen way too much fake stuff over the years. My mother and I had shopped there in December and were quite happy with our purchases so we wanted to go back. The funny thing was she ended up getting the SAME necklace and pendant that I bought in December! She has very good taste!!!

 

We made our way back to the pedicure place and they were all done. My youngest wanted her hair braided and we went off to find the lady that had braided her hair the 2 previous times. When we couldn’t find her I asked the owner of Silver Reef and he went off to find her, assuring us that he’d send her our way. Sure enough, he did, and within a half hour she was right there at Tropicante braiding my kiddo’s hair!

 

By 2:00 we’d all had enough sun and fun and food and drink and it was time to make our way back to the port. We still wanted to do a bit of shopping before we headed back on-board. BFF and kiddos were all able to find what they were looking for and we were back on-board by 3:15.

 

Tonight we almost forgot about the Gold/Platinum Latitudes party! We’d already blown off the regular Latitudes party earlier in the week and the only reason we made this one was because Roel, the concierge, ran into us on his way and asked if we were going! BFF and I headed down, the rest of our group missed out!

 

I spent the majority of the party speaking with Dallas, the CruiseNext representative on-board. We’d met him the night before at the trivia game. BFF and I were telling him about the issues we’d had with the spa and he said he was going to get it fixed. I was hoping he was right because at this point I was just OVER IT!!! I figured I was NEVER going to get resolution!

After the party we headed to Le Bistro, the French restaurant, to meet the rest of our group. Le Bistro is my oldest daughter’s favorite and she was really looking forward to some escargot. I, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to have their French onion soup! At this point I can’t remember what anyone had, just that we all enjoyed everything. They serve my favorite dessert on-board in Le Bistro, the Chocolate Napoleon. It is OUT OF THIS WORLD delicious!

 

After some casino time we all met up again in Spinnaker for “The Liar’s Club.” It’s where they have a word that you’d never hear (Crapulence, Fulfart…for example). Each member of the panel (this night it was the hypnotist, the Cruise Director and the comedian on board) gives their definition of the word and the audience votes for which they believe is correct. I’d heard all of the words on previous cruises but it was fun none the less!

 

The plan was to stay for thy late night hypnosis but we were just way too tired! Off to bed we went as tomorrow would be a big day in our last stop, Cozumel!

 

To be continued….

 

If you went to Tropicante you were in Costa Maya, not Roatan.