Short But Sweet Star Review !!

[Lizzybell]

Hi-DM & I did the Star Repo cruise from Vancouver to LA on 9/25-5 nites. We had an inside cabin, which was small-just enough storage & we pack fairly lite. Bathroom was decent-but lacking shelf/storage space for stuff-wish we would have bought an over door shoe holder @ $1 store. Shower was bigger than expected w/glass slider doors-nice. was able to stash suitcases under bed which helped. Had sm fridge, coffee cups & hot water for inst coffee, tea

etc(some in room & also avail at buffet to take bk) I thought the beds to be comfortable and liked the duvets.

 

The ship is maintained beautifully, never saw anything dirty-hand sant. everywhere & signs. I found the layout to be easy to navigate, other than the usual finding the Varsailles Rest at the aft hard to get to etc(have found this on other liners), but overall easy to remember & get around.

 

We tried all the comp restaurants-liked all except Endless Summer-liked the ambiance/room but the food doesnt mesh. The rest was developed when Star was cruising Hawaii & now its doing Alaska & Mex Rivera they went for mexican food-makes sense & the hawaiian decor is still present and could work. But the food is just plain weird-strange combos, cert not mexican or even close other than the guacamole & other app. & 1 shrimp dish was ok, moms food was terrible-she is the least fussy eater and that dinner was the only one she didnt eat. for dessert they offered strawberry pecan pie?? i am no food critic nor am i that picky-but ODD!!!-they need to rework the food cause the venue is really cool. Maybe good for guac/chips & margarit/beer-wouldnt waste time again there on dinner imo. I dont like buffets but found the Stars Market Cafe to be surprisingly good, espically breakfast(though no omlette stations-was told broke to many codes-ele cords etc), really good selection and all tasted good, they even served english bangers one morning:) loved the Vegetarian Indian lunch buffet served every day on one side of the buffet, really tasty, decent selection(5 hot items) -ate there 3 times. Also really enjoyed the fish & chips at Blue Lagoon- only comes w/1 piece of fish, so order accordingly-no ambiance-just a long snack bar w/fried food & appitizers etc, you can always take the food onto the deck area by pool or into the buffet if its crowded. The food at Varsaille & Aqua was hit and miss, best dishes-Beef Wellington & tiger prawns, all desserts good-only served creme brule 1 nite, so if you love it, order it when you see it as it might not appear again. Coffee:)-actually good in buffet & room srv, hit/miss in restaurants. All portions are on the small side, so if you really like something & want a "normal" portion, order 2! Overall food-good.

 

We really enjoyed all the entertainment, the only complaint that alot of the shows were only 45 min-1hr. Magician Shawn Faquir(sp) was amazing!!, loved the Chinese Acrobats(Cirque Pacific or something?), just not long enough. We saw 2 broadway style shows which were really good. The comedian on our cruise was not a big hit, i felt sorry for him. The selection of movies in the theater was horrible, all 5 were bombs! Good in cabin movie

selection. We liked the Newelywed/no so game as well as a few other trivia contests in the Red Lion Pub-which is way to small of a venue to hold them in, imo-it discouraged alot of people from playing as there isnt much seating & get crowded, but fun if you got a seat/table. We also enjoyed CD Kierron Buffrey(sp-sorry), funny w/a very quick wit.

 

We found all the staff to be very nice and friendly. No complaints at all in this dept. Things I really liked @ NCL Star in comparrison to Princess:

I like that booze wasnt pushed at you all the time on the Star. On my last Princess cruise, dinner became almost a sales pitch to buy this or that and I dont drink, so it became really irratating on nightly basis(4-5 times during every dinner). On the Star I declined a drink and that was it, no sales pitch, no trying to convince me I wanted a beverage. If you do drink it still becomes irratating be to almost harrassed thru out a nice dinner. The same is said for the photographers, not nearly as pushy/aggrisive as Princess so thanks NCL.

I also felt the entire staff to have a better attitutude-most acted they truly liked/enjoyed their job on the Star & it shows thru. This was true from cabin stewarts,wait staff and pretty much all the staff we encountered. The same cannot be said for my experience on Princess Sapphire-way too many eastern

European woman w/major attitude problems and issues on Sapphire. So it was really nice to encounter happy employees on the Star :)

 

So while our cruise was way too short, it was sweet! we enjoyed ourselves & had lots of fun. We are tent planning a family reunion cruise on her for the Mexican Rivera, but this time-I gotta have a balcony-missed that way too much-we used ours on Sappahire so much it was like another room, so will spring for one next time. Great ship and staff & cant wait to go again. Liz

PS please excuse spelling errors, i am lost without spell ck.