Great start...terrible end.

The food in the main dining rooms was usually very good, but the quality did diminish near the end of the trip. The buffet had some very good items, and a lot of just so-so food. The desserts in the dining room were consistently good, but I did not enjoy any of the desserts from the buffet.

There is only one pool, and we didn't use it. But there were quite a few hot tubs, and we used them on every at-sea day. We also used the fitness center on every at-sea day. We use elliptical trainers, and the Star had five of them, but... three were very unusual machines, employing a different rhythm between the arms and the legs, which was not enjoyable and actually made it difficult for us to workout. The other two were fine, but often in use. It would be great it the Star could get a few more normal elliptical trainers.

Sorry - we didn't attend many of the theater type events. We did enjoy the music in the atrium, and some of the music by the pool. We would have enjoyed hearing more music from the ports of call - spanish or portuguese music would have been great. We attended as many of the lectures about the cruise and ports as possible. The young woman who spoke about bull fighting certainly knew that field very well, and she was entertaining. However, on the other lectures, it was clear that she was only learned her material for the sake of this cruise. Want to hire me? I'd be happy to lecture on the history, culture, natural history, food and music of all of the port on the western US, and many on the eastern shoreboard. I am sure that even my 24 year old daughter could have been a better presenter on many of the subjects on this transAtlantic cruise.

no children with us

Our stateroom attendant, the dining servers, the wonderful hand cleaning folks at the buffet were all great. Everyone was friendly and attentive.

Everything was clean and well maintained, but of course, the ship isn't brand new. Not a problem for us - we're already booked to sail on the Star again.

For a porthole cabin, this was great. There was a few small drawbacks: 1 - I would have preferred not to have a stateroom with a connecting door to another room - not that there was any security concern - it just detracted from the appearance of the room, and it let in a bit of noise. 2- It would have been helpful to have more shelf space above the sink. 3 - I would have preferred not to have the drop down twin bed in the room - obviously we didn't need it, and both of us actually managed to knock our heads on it.

After such a nice cruise, the disembarkation was a true disaster. As I am sure you know, many folks stood in line for over two hours just to get out of the port. I'll list my complaints, and some suggestions: first, it was completely unfair, and a true disservice to everyone on the Star for Norwegian to have the Epic in the same ports on the same days. This was a problem everywhere, but most importantly on the disembarkation. We were pushed to Tarragona only because the Epic was given our booth in Barcelona. Still, Norwegian knew about that months and months in advance, and failed to address the situation sufficiently. When we first heard, we had to call to ask what arrangements there would be for transportation to Barcelona. We were told there would be none at all. Weeks later, again only because we made the effort to ask, we were told there would be an excursion ending at the airport. But by the time we heard of it, it was fully booked. Okay, we made our own arrangements. I believe we were treated like second class citizens, while all of the Cruise line's attention was given to the Epic. Second problem: since we were going to be on our own, we decided to "self disembark." We got through the pastport desk and off the ship, only to find an overwhelming crowd of folks in a long, long line. We thought we could just walk off and into town. (By the way, we had asked for information about this multiple times before and during the cruise.) We were first told we should walk as it was too far. We're strong, so not discouraged, but then we were told that we were not allowed to walk into town. The only way out was to be on the ships very limited number of excursions (one, only one - full from an early early date), or to take a cab. The endless line was for cabs. We stood there watching folks grow hungry, weary, in need of the restroom, and eventually - angry. Only after one man in the line live streamed to social media film of the line and the growing riot, did anything happen. At that point, the police arrived (this is a vacation??), and eventually buses to take us into town. I know that at least some of the folks on our bus had already missed their pre-paid train into Barcelona. We missed the chance to take the hop on hop off train. Oh, and by the way, although some of the waiting occurred in a tented corridor, for the last half hour we were in the sun (not good for the skin) and the wind (really really cold!), and of course, none of us had expected or dressed for that. We eventually learned that there were portapots outside the tent - yuck! port a pots on a cruise? - even so, it would have been nice to know sooner. And of course everyone was by this time lugging their luggage around. Members of parties traveling together could leave one in charge of the bags while the other(s) use the port a pots, or asked for information, but what about the poor folks who were traveling alone? There is absolutely no room for suitcases in a port a pot, and they would have lost their place in the line. And while all of this was going on, there was not a single Norwegian employee in sight. So, it had been a nice cruise, some little difficulties, but pleasant enough that we bought vouchers for our next trip, and booked cabins on two more Norwegian cruises - but that was before the disembarkation disaster. Can you make any promises that Norwegian will give more attention to those future cruises? At this point, I am not at all sure I want to risk a similar situation. We never had problems like this on any of the other cruises we have been on. Really, focusing on the Epic at our expense was, in my view, a breach of contract with everyone on board the Star.