LIVE Comparison: NCL Star 12-21-18 VS Royal Princess 4-06-19

[HBCcruiser]

View of tiered deckchair area: 

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

Ship Condition and Decor: The new color scheme is quite nice. The ship was very clean and well kept. They decorated for Christmas, and had a gingerbread house theme throughout. 

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

One odd thing we saw - there seem to be these random hallways to nowhere. Perhaps they are load bearing walls for support? I have never noticed them on other ships. 

[HBCcruiser]

Smoking:  Smoking was permitted in the casino and on the Starboard side of the ship by the pool area and the Sky Bar. No smoking on the Port side or in cabins. Yes, you smelled it when on that side by those areas, but not any other areas that I could tell. 

[HBCcruiser]

Food: We thought the food was good to great. Much of it is just preference, but no complaints. We never ate in the buffet - Garden Cafe (I have a thing about everyone touching the serving spoons and have gotten Noro before). We did eat in the MD rooms Versailles for lunch and Aqua for dinner. Both were very good - no complaints about food service. We made all reservations ahead of time, which did help. The main dining room menus changed daily. The specialty dining menus did not change. All menus were available for viewing daily by the buffet entrance.  I have posted many of the menus throughout this thread. Let me know if you have questions. 

 

Breakfast buffet in Moderno:

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

Staff and Service: The staff was very attentive and seemed to put passengers first. Every staff member and officer we spoke to was very friendly and always asked if everything was ok and if we were having a great cruise. The captain was funny and socialized with passengers. We loved our room steward, Arvin, and our Butler, Max. Both saw that our needs were met in a timely manner. Monica, the concierge, was very friendly and helpful as well. It is important to share any concerns or issues with staff right away so that they can fix it. For instance, my DH noticed that the screws to the bathroom door were very loose. Within a hour they were fixed. Things like the lights and the film on the windows need to be fixed by specialists. We did mention it and staff were aware of the issues. Perhaps NCL will fix them during the next dry dock??

 

Entertainment:  Most of the talent was very good. The singers and dancers were top notch! We loved the comedian (who also portrayed Santa), Tim Kaminski. He loved to mix with the passengers during his off time and was very personable. The piano player and house band - Game of Tones - were both great. The guitarist  was ok and the acrobats good, but do not compare to the Cirque show on the Breakaway. We did not see the magician.BTW - We were not allowed to photograph the shows. The one show that was hard to follow plot-wise was Paradis. Although the dancing and singing was great, the plot was very strange. 

[HBCcruiser]

Excursions: We took excursions in PV and Cabo. My DDs wanted beaches and fun, so we did the horseback riding with snorkeling and kayaking in PV and the resort for a day in Cabo.

 

The PV excursion was fun, however, as stated earlier if you have any mobility or back issues do not do this one!  Although they promise HORSEback riding, I got to MULEback ride on a small mule - LOL!! This would normally not be an issue, however, I have long legs and the mule was short. My legs kept scraping the side of rocks so I had to lift them up out of the stirrups. Luckily I am an experienced rider so this was not really an issue. The views and scenery were amazing as were the food and drinks. I really love seeing authentic towns far away from the touristy cities. the beach area was very ice as well and good for swimming - all so pretty.

 

The boat ride was... interesting. It is a small open air pontoon like speed boat so there are no backs to the seats. Also, bring flip flops or water shoes, because to get in and out of the boat, you often have to get into the water. Towels are provided. 

[HBCcruiser]

Cabo Excursion - Exclusive Resort for a day. Ok so not really a DAY, more like 4 hours. All aboard was 1:30 so we were only there from 8:30 to 12:30. The excursion included a buffet and one drink for free. There were plenty of chairs at the pool, but the ones at the beach filled up by mid morning. The resort was called Casa Dorado and was about 8 minutes from the pier. The beach is nice for small children because there are no rough waves and it is rather shallow. The pool was cold. I did not see a baby pool but the pools are about 3-4 feet deep. 

 

Although it was very nice, and it checked the "Beach" box for the DDs, I do not think it was worth it. Staying onboard would have provided good food, drinks and pools as well. 

[HBCcruiser]

Things to do onboard - There were always activities going on from games to painting classes to trivia. Check the Dailies for those events. It is not a crazy party ship, but Bliss was always hopping for those who wanted to party late night. 

 

There are lots of hot tubs onboard. During our cruise mostly kids took them over. This is why we found H2O and the forward hot tub nice. They are away from kid areas and H20 is 18+ only. Staff did keep children out which was nice to see. Most hot tubs were warm-hot not hot and the pool was cold. I wish we could have controlled the heat in the hot tubs but it is probably a safety issue. 

[HBCcruiser]

Suite Experience - There is no Haven on the Star. That said, all other perks are included - priority embark- and debarkation, butler, concierge and specialty dining for breakfast and lunch. We also received goodies every afternoon and 2 bottles of sparking wine. There is no special seating for shows, but that was not needed, We always got great seats. 

[HBCcruiser]

Itinerary - In PV and Mazatlan we had lots of time ashore. Cabo was way too short 7 am - 1:30 pm all aboard. We had 2 sea days going and one coming back. The trip coming back to LA was rough - it always is. We had 50 mile per hour winds when factoring in ship speed and 15-18 foot waves. Yes, we were rocking! None of us got seasick, but plenty of passengers were. It was rough sleeping at night with the up and down crashing going on. I am glad it was only one sea day back. It will be interesting to see how the Royal Princess cruise is with 2 sea days on the return. 

[HBCcruiser]

INTERNET - TERRIBLE and I had the premium package. Enough said. See the pic below of the message I kept getting when trying to upload here. UGH!

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

Drink Package - UBP.  The drinks were dood. Some bars and bartenders made them better than others but that is always the case. My favorites were the Bahama Mama and the Rebellious Fish. I'll post the wine list here. 

[HBCcruiser]

Room service Menu: 

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

Final Thoughts:

 

We really enjoyed this cruise. What's not to love about any cruise? IMO the staff, food, drinks, fellow passengers and venues make or break a cruise. We met some fun people and partied with them nightly, hung out with our DDs and made some new memories. Good times! 

 

I have some videos I will be downloading to You Tube. Once complete I will post the links here. Feel free to ask any questions. Hope you got some good planning info if you are traveling on the Star. 

[HBCcruiser]

Video of our suite #12518.

 

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

Link to cruise video. It’s long...

 

 

 

[lidodeck03]

On 12/29/2018 at 10:35 PM, HBCcruiser said:

Things to do onboard - There were always activities going on from games to painting classes to trivia. Check the Dailies for those events. It is not a crazy party ship, but Bliss was always hopping for those who wanted to party late night. 

 

There are lots of hot tubs onboard. During our cruise mostly kids took them over. This is why we found H2O and the forward hot tub nice. They are away from kid areas and H20 is 18+ only. Staff did keep children out which was nice to see. Most hot tubs were warm-hot not hot and the pool was cold. I wish we could have controlled the heat in the hot tubs but it is probably a safety issue. 

 

[Stealthdog]

Looks like you had a great time!  Thanks for review!

 

We will be in a Family Suite on the Star in June out of Venice.  Have a question about the specialty restaurants - did you do all of them and how would you rank them (I saw Moderno, Cagney's, Teppanyaki, and I think Bistro?).  We will probably be in specialty dining every night with Platinum/UDP/Amex perks, and every ship seems to be a different experience with the restaurants.  Really interested in your experiences.  Thanks!

[HBCcruiser]

6 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

Looks like you had a great time!  Thanks for review!

 

We will be in a Family Suite on the Star in June out of Venice.  Have a question about the specialty restaurants - did you do all of them and how would you rank them (I saw Moderno, Cagney's, Teppanyaki, and I think Bistro?).  We will probably be in specialty dining every night with Platinum/UDP/Amex perks, and every ship seems to be a different experience with the restaurants.  Really interested in your experiences.  Thanks!

 

Yes, we went to all of the specialty restaurants. We loved the Bistro food the best, but the flickering lights gave my DH a headache. Hopefully they will fix them. Cagney’s was our second favorite- loved the filet! We also enjoyed La Cucina the Italian restaurant. Moderno’s salad bar was excellent and the food good, but it’s just not my thing. Teppanyaki was ok but not as good as on the BA. I think it’s more for the show than the food. IMO the food on the Star was good overall. We did not go to the buffet so I can’t rate the food there. Enjoy your cruise! The staff are wonderful and it’s a nice ship! 

[broncofan99]

Following 

[kaygey]

Hi I’m so happy cause we think to book this ship in april for 7 days to the cruise for Bahamas, Jamaica, Cozumel and Grand Caymans... I sail with NCL In 2015 and realy loved it. Thank you so much for all your commentes and pictures. We hope to book next monday. It’s a surprise from my husband but I need to speak before with my boss to negociate my vacations. 

 

Do do you Know if it has a place on the ship where some pianomens sing special demands? Every night on the NCL Gateway we go at the pub alter the shows. It was the must of my trip 🥰🤩😉

[HBCcruiser]

1 hour ago, kaygey said:

Hi I’m so happy cause we think to book this ship in april for 7 days to the cruise for Bahamas, Jamaica, Cozumel and Grand Caymans... I sail with NCL In 2015 and realy loved it. Thank you so much for all your commentes and pictures. We hope to book next monday. It’s a surprise from my husband but I need to speak before with my boss to negociate my vacations. 

 

Do do you Know if it has a place on the ship where some pianomens sing special demands? Every night on the NCL Gateway we go at the pub alter the shows. It was the must of my trip 🥰🤩😉

 

Yes! Gatsby’s has either a vocalist/piano player or guitarist nightly. Sort of like the pub. Bliss has live bands and a DJ. Nothing like dualing pianos or Howl at the Moon, though. It’s a much more laid back ship. We liked that. Fun, but not crazy. Enjoy your cruise! 

[HBCcruiser]

Two weeks to go until the second cruise/part of this thread is started - Royal Princess April 6 - 13, 2019. Can’t wait! I will probably start the LIVE thread in the Princess Forum, and post the link for those of you who’d like to follow it here.

 

 Interesting development; Princess has rolled out a new and improved WiFi system called MedallionNet. It is SO MUCH CHEAPER than NCL! It is reported to be ultra fast too! It’s only costing me $59.99 for the entire week for unlimited access! I will definitely be reporting back regarding this. Also, the Royal is supposed to have the Ocean Medallion up and running. This is a small quarter sized Medallion that allows you to embark faster, order drinks anywhere on the ship, open your cabin (hands free), find fellow passengers, and more. You use it through a variety of Apps. I downloaded all of them and am ready to see what it is all about. Info on it here: https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ocean-medallion/

[Gershep]

Planning on going on the Star next year. Enjoyed your review.