Great Ship, but horrendous tendering at ports

Item: Norwegian Star
Rating: 4
Author: swintero12

Norwegian Star Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

swintero12

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 47

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Greek Isles (Venice Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 22, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Star

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 9093

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Avoid Norwegian since you will be stressed out every port of call with tender. And it seems our ship did that a lot compared to some other ships which were able to use dock. Maybe Norwegian got a savings for not using dock?

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Very good

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Fitness center very nice.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Great illusionist show.

Children's Programs

No kids with me.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Very clean

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Excellent service by the cleaning staff. Very hard working, friendly and courteous.

Ship tip

Avoid this cruise since the ship had to tender at 4 of 6 ports, and they used their life boats as the tenders sometimes. Had to wait hours at Montenegro to get off ship. Long wait to get back in. Very unorganized and stressful. Basically wasted my day.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Venice, Italy

4 out of 5

Kotor, Montenegro

1 out of 5

Ship gave me no time to explore because lines were so long to get off and in. They should be refunding me 1/7 of my cruise cost!

Thumbs Up 0

Corfu, Greece

4 out of 5

Great because no tender.

Thumbs Up 0

Santorini, Greece

3 out of 5

Long lines to get off ship even with tender ticket.

Thumbs Up 0

Mykonos, Greece

4 out of 5

Argostoli, Kefalonia, Greece

5 out of 5

Dubrovnik, Croatia

2 out of 5

Long lines to get on and off ship. Very stressful.

Thumbs Up 1

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

Chaos. They told us we had to check all our luggage the night before. But the next morning they gave all people who ignored this priority to get off first on deck 7. It was chaos for to get off in timely manner.

5 Comments

GDS55 5 years ago

On our cruise next year on Norwegian our reservation has which ports are tender ports. They were most likely on yours as well.

Thumbs Up 0

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lol1964 5 years ago

He is 100% correct The system used to get on/off tenders is a joke and spoiled an excellent cruise Been on lots of cruises and used tenders and this was a shambles each time

Thumbs Up 0

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willwork4cruz 5 years ago

I don't know how it is chosen which ship has to tender when there are too many ships to all dock. I have been on a Princess ship when we tendered but NCL docked. Also may I suggest you attend the debarkation and port briefings? You would find the answers to your questions and everything wouldn't look disorganized.

Thumbs Up 1

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dsorel 5 years ago

I was on that same ship to Kortor, Montenegro in 2018 and everything went very well. No problem at all with the tenders or the way NCL handled that. Off course, like on all cruise lines where tenders are needed, I let the crowd get off first and then I go ashore.

Thumbs Up 0

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CruzeFan 5 years ago

I’m not sure how many cruises you have taken, but many of the complaints you have are common to most cruise lines, not just Norwegian. Some of the ports you mentioned are tender only for all cruise lines. As far as luggage, you always have the option to take your own luggage off at the end of the cruise and have priority departure ahead of others

Thumbs Up 2

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Other reviews of this sailing

Would not cruise Norwegian again