Teen's Review of the NCL STAR

[iceprincess0407]

Hey all, I've decided to write a review of my recent cruise on the NCL Star for anyone who's interested on reading about cruising from the perspective of a teen.

 

Background: My name is Brenna and I am currently a junior in Canada. This was my third cruise (two on NCL and one on DCL). My family includes my DM, DD and DS (14)

 

 

We enjoy traveling and try to take a family vacation once a year. This was actually a last minute decision to cruise (we booked a week before). DD and myself had travelled to China in November so a spring break holiday was basically out. But we had a free cruise certificate to use from one of our vacation clubs so we booked a last minute cruise on the NCL Star with stops at Rotan, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel. We've done all of these poets before so planning was a bit easier. As a planner the week I had was a stressful one. It didn't help that it was the week before spring break so all my teachers were having tests. Anyway after an extremely busy week we were ready to go.

 

Saturday March 26

 

We live in small town Saskatchewan so our drive to the airport is four hours. We decided to fly out of Minot ND because that's where flights were the cheapest. We had a five AM out of Minot with a layover in Minneapolis. The new airport in Minot just opened and it is way nicer than the old one! Dad got slightly lost trying to find the airport, but we made our flight so life was good. The flight from Minot to Minneapolis was delayed by about 15 minutes because of de-icing. Because of this, our hour layover was much shorter. We were those people running through the Minneapolis airport.

 

After boarding, the flight from Minneapolis to Tampa was delayed because of problems in Jacksonville. I don't remember much about that flight as I slept the entire way. After landing in Tampa we made our way to rental car place and then to our hotel. My ds's best friend moved to Tampa in the summer so we went to visit the family for the afternoon. We stayed at the La Quinta. It was right by the airport and not far from the cruise terminal. All of us went to bed early because we were all tired.

 

Feel free to ask any questions!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[fshagan]

Feel free to ask any questions!

 

Thanks for starting your review! Of course, now you have to keep writing because we're all hooked.

 

I'm interested if the smaller ship activities for you and especially your 14 year old DS were enjoyable, or if you all hung out as a family and enjoyed the cruise that way.

[Yorkvillain]

Thanks for doing this Brenna. Did you like this cruise as much as your other two cruises?

[Clarea]

Thanks for writing this review, looking forward for more.:)

[Lialovestotravel]

We are on our way to cruise on the star on Sunday and would love to hear what you thought as a teen. My daughter dare a bit younger, 13 and 10, but I hope they enjoy the activities. Thank you!

[tpnebraska]

I hope you have a great cruise. We did this one in January and it was awesome!

[Keith1010]

Look forward to the rest of your review.

 

Keith

[spidybabe]

Took that Cruise in Jan and had a great time, one of our best cruises.

[Moobaby214]

Thank you for writing the review, definitely staying tuned for more!

[iceprincess0407]

Thanks for starting your review! Of course, now you have to keep writing because we're all hooked.

 

I'm interested if the smaller ship activities for you and especially your 14 year old DS were enjoyable, or if you all hung out as a family and enjoyed the cruise that way.

 

I am definitely planning on finishing this review! My DS and I are actually very close. We hung out with a group of friends we met at the teen club. We also both enjoy swimming and tanning so as long as there is a pool deck we'll be happy. I actually enjoy cruising on smaller ships because crowds are smaller. Hope that helper!

[iceprincess0407]

We are on our way to cruise on the star on Sunday and would love to hear what you thought as a teen. My daughter dare a bit younger, 13 and 10, but I hope they enjoy the activities. Thank you!

 

I definitely suggest going to the club on the first night as the majority of groups are formed during that night. Activities included dance parties, sea day brunches, a pool party and much more.

 

Have a great cruise!

[AKR2011]

I really enjoyed your last review! Thanks for doing another one. I look forward to reading! :)

[rxlowry]

We were on the same cruise as you and my daughter spent lots of time in Entourage as well. Looking forward to reading!

[iceprincess0407]

Sunday March 27

 

Cruise day! Even though this cruise had zero build up time I was still super excited. We booked a shuttle to the port for 11. Since we booked so late the only port arrival time was 2-2:30. I knew that open boarding would start around 12 so arriving at the port around 11 would allow to take advantage of opening boarding and get on the ship sooner. We booked a balcony guarantee (BX). Because balconies on the Star only hold three people we had to book two rooms. DD and I were given 9136 while DM and DS were in 9138. We decided to switch rooms once on the ship. I was very relieved to have staterooms right next to each other, I assumed that we would be on two different decks! We ate breakfast at the hotel and then watched reality TV to kill the time before the shuttle picked us up. In the shuttle there were two other families with us so there wasn't enough seats. We ended fitting our whole family on three seats, without seat belts. Thankfully the drive to port was only 20 minutes. Check in took about an hour. And we were onboard by 12:45.

 

 

 

 

First order of business was to eat, we headed up to the Market Cafe for a bite to eat. After my parents registered myself and DS for Entourage, our counsellor Dulce told us there was around 150 teens on the ship. After signing up for the teen club we headed down to guest services to switch our rooms. Physically, you cannot switch rooms but you can get an extra key.

 

Sail-away was low key as we watched it from our balcony, my DS's friends watched us from land and we were able to see them!

 

We ate at O'Sheehan's because it was prime rib night. Being Canadian we ordered poutine to start. I also had a brownie for dessert.

 

DS and I killed time to the teen club opened at 8. There were a lot of teens. I met a group of people, but we didn't stay friends. The first night activities included a dance party (with music I did not know!) a battle of the sexes (this wasn't finished) and a selfie challenge that I got lost during. I went to bed around 1 as the under 17 curfew was one, I know most of the teens stayed out later.

[iceprincess0407]

Monday March 28

 

Since it was a sea day I slept in until 9. This trip was over our spring break but it was also a break between my winter and spring figure skating season, so I went for a run to keep my cardio up. The jogging track wasn't fully opened so I just jogged around the perimeter of deck 13. After my family went to market cafe for breakfast. After breakfast DS and I went to the already over crowded pool deck to kill time before the teen brunch at 11. We did eventually manage to find two pool chairs beside each other. It was extremely windy but we relaxed for about 30 minutes before we went to brunch. Not making friends the first night was a new experience for me, I was worried. But I decided to got back and try to find a group of friends to join.

 

 

At brunch I ended up sitting with a group who became my friends for the rest of the cruise. Lesson learned, if you don't make friends the first night, try again.

 

After the brunch there was a dodgeball game on the sports deck. I stayed for about 30 minutes. I went back to stateroom to get out of the sun and to get some water. After dodgeball DS and I went to get a snack before heading to Entourage for board games. I love playing games so I was more than happy to spend an hour playing Apples to Apples. After the board games we all moved to the library and hung out until we had to leave for dinner. Tonight was formal night so I headed back to our stateroom to get ready.

 

I planned to wear a strapless dress only to discover that I got brunt when playing dodge ball! Thankfully my hair covered the burns. We had a 5:30 reservation for Versailles. I had a French onion soup to start with clam liguini as my main, for my dessert I went classy with a banana split.

 

The show that night was Band on the Run, I would highly recommend making time to see it. It was all 70s and 80s music and the dancing was amazing. Even through I didn't know 90% of the music I still enjoyed the show.

 

Afterthe show I met up with my friend on the pool deck and we hung out in the hot tub until 10. After we went to the teen dance party to awkwardly stand around because we didn't know the music. I went back to my room around 12 to get ready for our day in Rotan.

[iceprincess0407]

It was our first port day! We had been to Rotan on our last cruise and loved it. The landscape is hilly and gorgeous. It was so green. Last time we went to Little French Key, and since there was only a week to plan this trip we decided to go back. DD loves scuba diving and he wanted us to try it. So we booked the 'Discover Scuba diving' package. This package was great because, in theory, we would get to try scuba diving and still have time to relax on the beach.

 

Since the ship didn't dock until 11 I had time to sleep in. I woke up around 8 and then went for a run before breakfast, the jogging track still wasn't open! The boat has been rocking the previous day so I was feeling a bit sea sick. I brought fresh-squeezed glass of orange juice because I wasn't feeling well. The ship docked and cleared customs by 10:45 and we disembarked by 11. Due to port rules the drivers for Little French Key can't come inside the contained area. So you have to go outside the gates to find Dave or Larry. Dave was easy to find and he sent us with a driver and we were on our way.

 

DM was not participating in the scuba diving course so she headed off to the island to read a book. DD stayed with us to help us fill out paper work, he left but was coming on the actual dive. There was roughly thirty minutes of pre lesson before we were allowed on the water. I was extremely nervous, I've snorkeled a lot but never dove. In the water we learnt basic skills like what to do if your mask gets too tight. At this point my fearless DS got scared. This is my sister who zip lines, goes after her jumps at skating without fear and takes the window seat on planes because heights terrify me. She didn't like the feeling of breathing out of a tank. She bailed on me and tanned in the boat for the remainder of the dive. We drove by the island and picked up dad and then went to our dive site. Scuba diving was really cool. We had roughly 30 under the water. But it took forever, the entire course was supposed to be about three hours it was closer to five. We eventually made it back to the island and we only had 45 minutes. DM who didn't expect us to be that long was in a slightly panicked state. We ate lunch and then took pictures on the beach before it was time to go. The free wifi was great!

 

After our limited time on the beach we headed back to port for some shopping. For supper we ate at the buffet because we were in port until 7. It was Italian night and the food was good.

 

That night there was a teen's only pool party. My friends and I met up early to hit the pool before everyone else arrived. After an hour of hot tubbing all the teens arrived and it was busy! To get out of the full hot tub I started a volleyball game with a friend. Within ten minutes all of the teens had joined in on our game. The game then turned into a 'who can push who' into the pool. There was a couple of competitions after the volleyball game. After the pool party there was a teen movie night but I didn't go because of our early port day the next morning.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[ssaito1]

Keep up the great review! :) It's great following you on your journey that you had.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Edited April 25, 2016 by ssaito1