Need some advice - just booked NCL Star Ireland cruise and having second thoughts

[GCS2000]

Booked the 10 day Ireland tour out of Southampton for May 2023.

I got sucked in by the itinerary, drink package, wifi and the BOGO air etc.

 

After spending the last 2 days reading, researching etc I am having second thoughts.

 

Lots of bad reviews about the ship, the service, the food and more.  And of course the BOGO air seems to be a nightmare.

 

The cruise came to $6900 for everything (no excursions of course).  We are not really drinkers (very rare) and the gratuities we are hit with for the bev package are high at $400 (218 x2) - highly unlikely we would get full advantage of this unfortunately.  Wifi is limited to 150 mins as well (which was misleading but no surprise there).  Excursion choices are VERY LIMITED which sucks since part of the deal was $50 off excursions each day.  I do have 3 of the AMEX NCL offers (maybe a 4th if I check with my brother-in-law so I save at least another $1050 netting out to $5850).  Not cheap of course.

 

With all the negativity I am reading I am actually very much considering cancelling.

 

FYI we are new to cruising only done 1 - RC to Alaska which was amazing in every way.  We have nothing substantial to complain about RCCL (bathroom sucked but that's about it)

 

Any comments you guys care to share are welcome.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by GCS2000

[Sailing12Away]

You'll be fine. I was on the Star in May and we had a great time. Ship is smaller, but sometimes that is nice. The crew was wonderful to us so no complaints there, and food is subjective but we had no issues there either.

We got lucky and had a band called Ice Bucket that played a lot of great rock & roll cover songs. We sang along with them every night they played. I don't think they're still on board, but there were other options too. 

 

Not sure what cabin type you're in at that price, but for a 10 day cruise it sounds decent to me. Airfare - again, you'll hear mixed reviews. But if you can't find anything cheaper on your own, with the international flights it can add up to a big cost savings. If you do find something better on your own before 60+ days out - call and cancel the NCL flights. You can't wait too long on that though because once they book you - you're stuck. The other option too - see if you can fly in 1 day early. Give yourself a day in London to explore and that will also save a little bit of money and take out the anxiety of flying in day of for an overseas trip. We've done the NCL air about 4x so far and have not yet had any issues at all with it.

Drinks - again, subjective to everyone's own preference. But if you can drink 2-3 drinks a day the charge for the gratuities works itself out in your favor. It adds up quick, mimosa for breakfast, beer at lunch, frozen drink near the pool, wine with dinner, cocktail before the shows.... Figure each drink on average is about $10. If you'd rather pay as you go, just cancel the drink package and you'll get that $400 back if you cancel before you sail. If you like to try new things and don't want to have to debate if it's 'worth it' to try that jalapeno mojito (it is, it's great) having the package lets you be adventurous and just enjoy your vacation.

[julig22]

It just depends on what you want out of your cruise.  Was on the Star (Iceland to London) in August.  It was port intensive so the ship was where I slept and ate. NCL air was as direct as possible when flying from my location from Oregon - Seattle to Reykjavik, London to LAX. Drink package is optional, just cancel if you don't drink.  Same with the dining package.

Staff rotates so every cruise is different. Food is subjective.

Excursions may be sold out, maybe more coming.

I cruise for the itinerary, so clean and functional are my priorities.  

[GCS2000]

Yes this cruise is port intensive as well we will basically only be on the boat at night to sleep or relax and eat breakfast and dinner.

 

Air concerns - it is a pretty big savings tbh (at least $1500+).  We would like to get the air info so we can see if the airline would let us upgrade to better seating since I know we will be in the cheapest worst seats but as I understand it that is hit or miss depending on airline and we won't know that info until 75 days from cruising date and it will be too late.

 

Drinks - yeah cancelling may make since just really surprised at how high the gratuities were especially on a "free" item.  On our last cruise I drank water and soda nothing else (mainly water) wife had mocktails, water, soda and that was all.  I guess its either eat the $400 gratuities and keep the package or pony up for the other beverage packages and their gratuities which my guess will be more than this.

 

Excursions - this is odd for sure.  They have 20 listed all but 3 are for the same port/day the 29th, the other 3 are all for the 25th.  There are none for any of the other port days.  This was never an issue on our RCCL cruise.  Granted I know we can book on our own outside of NCL as well but that $50 credit becomes pointless of course and we have to be sure that whatever tours we book will fit with our port timeframe. Just surprised by this 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by GCS2000

[GCS2000]

15 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

You'll be fine. I was on the Star in May and we had a great time. Ship is smaller, but sometimes that is nice. The crew was wonderful to us so no complaints there, and food is subjective but we had no issues there either.

We got lucky and had a band called Ice Bucket that played a lot of great rock & roll cover songs. We sang along with them every night they played. I don't think they're still on board, but there were other options too. 

 

Not sure what cabin type you're in at that price, but for a 10 day cruise it sounds decent to me. Airfare - again, you'll hear mixed reviews. But if you can't find anything cheaper on your own, with the international flights it can add up to a big cost savings. If you do find something better on your own before 60+ days out - call and cancel the NCL flights. You can't wait too long on that though because once they book you - you're stuck. The other option too - see if you can fly in 1 day early. Give yourself a day in London to explore and that will also save a little bit of money and take out the anxiety of flying in day of for an overseas trip. We've done the NCL air about 4x so far and have not yet had any issues at all with it.

Drinks - again, subjective to everyone's own preference. But if you can drink 2-3 drinks a day the charge for the gratuities works itself out in your favor. It adds up quick, mimosa for breakfast, beer at lunch, frozen drink near the pool, wine with dinner, cocktail before the shows.... Figure each drink on average is about $10. If you'd rather pay as you go, just cancel the drink package and you'll get that $400 back if you cancel before you sail. If you like to try new things and don't want to have to debate if it's 'worth it' to try that jalapeno mojito (it is, it's great) having the package lets you be adventurous and just enjoy your vacation.

We are in a Club Balcony Suite - category MB as the wife has to have a tub which just means more money for me to spend lol.

[complawyer]

if you have 2nd thoughts, you are within  the cancellation period with no penalties, so if you really dont want to go, call ncl and merely cancel.

 

we just got off the star last month, southampton to copenhagen, and it's not that bad. food was good, not great but good, atmosphere was fine,  if you go, chances are good you'll have an enjoyable adventure

[www3traveler]

NCL may not have finished getting contracts signed for the various shore excursion vendors.  More will be posted as your cruise gets closer.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[v3cruiser]

We sailed on the star pre shutdowns and really enjoyed the ship. It was a little lacking in food during day on the sea days but dining in evening had plenty of options. shows were good. Will be sailing on it again next year for iceland and greenland and looking forward to getting back on board. I know the circumstances are tough getting back to normal but im sure the staff will do thier best. I really enjoy the ncl drink package and its very convenient. 

 

sounds like you should cancel the drink package. 

Edited October 12, 2022 by v3cruiser

[Sailing12Away]

12 hours ago, GCS2000 said:

Yes this cruise is port intensive as well we will basically only be on the boat at night to sleep or relax and eat breakfast and dinner.

 

Air concerns - it is a pretty big savings tbh (at least $1500+).  We would like to get the air info so we can see if the airline would let us upgrade to better seating since I know we will be in the cheapest worst seats but as I understand it that is hit or miss depending on airline and we won't know that info until 75 days from cruising date and it will be too late.

 

Drinks - yeah cancelling may make since just really surprised at how high the gratuities were especially on a "free" item.  On our last cruise I drank water and soda nothing else (mainly water) wife had mocktails, water, soda and that was all.  I guess its either eat the $400 gratuities and keep the package or pony up for the other beverage packages and their gratuities which my guess will be more than this.

 

Excursions - this is odd for sure.  They have 20 listed all but 3 are for the same port/day the 29th, the other 3 are all for the 25th.  There are none for any of the other port days.  This was never an issue on our RCCL cruise.  Granted I know we can book on our own outside of NCL as well but that $50 credit becomes pointless of course and we have to be sure that whatever tours we book will fit with our port timeframe. Just surprised by this 

 

 

Once you have that record locator number, you can upgrade your seats (maybe not from coach to 1st, but at least to comfort plus) either on the airline's website or by calling them. Again, it all depends on the airline what options will be available, but they do use big name brands (AA is who we've always been assigned to).

 

They have a soda package for $10/day/pp. So if you don't want to pay $20 for (mostly) anything you want, then downgrade to the soda package for some savings. Or pay as you go. Still cheaper than what RCC charges as our one trip with them cost $59/day/pp.

 

For the excursions - you're still a LONG way away. My next trip is February and NCL just keeps changing our ports of call. So I have options for one port only, on a 15 day cruise. I'm not worried, more will open up - we're still many months away and I've only seen 'good' excursions book up and sell out in Alaska where space was limited for the glacier tours.

[www3traveler]

Go to the Roll Call Section of the Forum, scroll down to The Star and join the Roll Call for your cruise.  

Wonderful way to meet others on your cruise.

 

Enjoy

[amunhotep]

Excursions are generally limited this far out from your cruise.  More excursions should be available after the first of the year.  Our upcoming South America cruise was like that, some ports had no excursions listed until 3-4 months out.

[European_CruiseGirl]

On 10/12/2022 at 3:28 AM, www3traveler said:

NCL may not have finished getting contracts signed for the various shore excursion vendors.  More will be posted as your cruise gets closer.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

This. You are way too early with the shore excursions 😊 Cruise lines usually make contracts with tour operators for one season at a time and for Europe I’d expect that season to be approx late April/early May - October. It will take until January-February until they have signed the summer contracts with the tour operators for summer 2023 season. You’ll get a good overview of what type of excursions are most likely to be available if you check via the NCL public webpages (shore excursions). They are just currently working on the details of the contracts and once those are signed the shore excursions are downloaded to myncl for booking. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by European_CruiseGirl