More Passengers, Less service

Norwegian Star Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 131

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Norwegian Star

7 Night Western Caribbean (Tampa Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 17, 2016

Ship: Norwegian Star

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

While I wasn't expecting a luxury voyage like Oceania, Celebrity or Seawind I also was not expecting to be as low as a Carnival! Somehow they have managed to add more and more passengers and their "free-style cruising" means poor service and less of it.

If you don't book a table in the 2 main dinning rooms BEFORE you sail, good luck getting a table when you want it without waiting on line. Sure they give a glass of champagne if you have to wait, but I'd rather have a table and not have to stand around or in line.

Since the advent of pre-paid gratuities, low level cruise line staff have an attitude of " I'm getting my money anyway, good or bad service". It is impossible to find a bar waiter anymore during lunch on the Lido or in the dinning rooms.

So my big complaint is that the room steward removed a shopping bag of jewelry and receipts from the room and I have yet to be bale to talk to anyone about it. I have tried calling the ship, the day we got home, untold number of calls to guest relations "we are experiencing high volume please call back later" and Twitter, email and FB. I have asked my cruise booking agent and she cant get through to them either. I purchased 2 sets of cuff links and a fairly expensive watch on board. The watch was on my wrist, but the box, guarantee paperwork and receipts along with the cuff links were removed by the steward. I hope it was not intentional but it does need to be brought to their attention.

What made this cruise tolerable was the 20+ couples from our community who were on board. That made it fun, but I have no plans to sail with NCL again.

next trip: 29 day voyage to Baltic on HAL next month.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Rarely saw the steward, except when he removed the stuff he shouldn't have taken on the last night.

Ports of call

Tampa, Florida

5 out of 5

Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

3 out of 5

Belize City, Belize

1 out of 5

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

1 out of 5

Cozumel, Mexico

3 out of 5
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3 Comments

marnewm2    8 years ago

Why wasn't the cuff links locked up in the cabin safe?

cruiserssandr    8 years ago

I find it extremely hard to believe your room steward would steal your cuff links. I assume you reported this immediately. What kind of response do security give you?

garythack    8 years ago

So you are accusing your room steward of possiby theft and have left the ship If it was me I would have demanded the head of security there and then to resolve it and would not have left until I at least spoke to him/her

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