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Item: Norwegian Star
Rating: 3
Author: KathyC9

Norwegian Star Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

KathyC9

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Reviews: 0

Helpful Votes: 43

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Western Caribbean (Tampa Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 08, 2012

Ship: Norwegian Star

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 12 years ago

Review summary

This is the second cruise I've taken on the NCL Star. The first one was in May of 2011. The main dining room was very disappointing on this trip. The meals were poorly cooked, bland and very limited choices. The pastry chef on this ship should be fired for lack of inspiration. But the staff is very friendly and very helpful. We had problems our first night and they went out of their way to help us get moved to a different stateroom. Some of the public areas are tired and worn looking, especially the Stardust Theater. Avoid sitting in the first few rows of seats. The chairs need repair as they 'throw' you forward when you sit in them. The Marketplace buffet dining was very good on this trip and the entertainment while getting the washy-washy spray was kind of fun.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Quality and choice of food in the main dining room was very disappointing. There were several specialty restaurants but we didn't choose to use them. The buffet was pretty decent and served our needs well enough. Having dining available pretty much 24/7 was nice.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

The best show was "Elements" , an acrobatic show like Cirque D'solei (spelling not sure of) The staff musicals were amateur. The comedians in the early shows were pretty good but I didn't care for the "adult" humor later at night. Activities during the days at sea were limited in interest. Casino and bingo seem to be big draws but I don't do either. I have learned not to expect the ship to entertain me every day so I took books and my computer and was very content.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

With the exception of the room steward in our first room, I found everyone on the ship's staff to be extremely helpful and very pleasant.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Needs a face lift in some of the areas. We were in a balcony room with 3 people. Very crowded and very limited closet space. This was not unexpected but it still made for very close quarters. The cleanliness was good even in the public restrooms.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

lack of closet space and storage space for luggage was the biggest drawback. Take a power strip and extension cord if you want to plug in your computer and use it anywhere but at the very tiny desk. I slept on the sofa bed and had a decent night sleep every night. The balcony was nice but unfortunately NCL allows smoking on the balconies. We were next to some very heavy smokers and we had to keep the door shut just to be able to breathe. The ship did find us a different stateroom the first night that was much much better so we were able to afford the balcony and kept the door open all night just to listen to the ocean.

Pros: Super friendly staff everywhere on the ship; the ports of call were great

Cons: the main dining room meals were very disappointing on this cruise

Recommends Norwegian Star? Yes!

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