Disappointing

Norwegian Star Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 41

Overall rating:

4.4 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Star

10 Night Northern Europe: Dublin Belfast Cork & Galway (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 23, 2023

Ship: Norwegian Star

Cabin number: 8036

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

My compliments to the Captain and crew for avoiding a hurricane. This meant we missed 3 ports of call. Norwegian refunded our missed excursion costs and port costs as they had to. In exchange they offered a measly $50 non refundable on board credit per person and a 10% discount on a future cruise. One guest I spoke with said he doesn't get out of bed for 10%. Another cruiser said he had missed a port on an Iceland cruise and got 50% off a future cruise. Public relations wise this led many people I spoke with, even loyal Norwegian cruisers to say they will be considering other cruise lines for their future cruises. Although no one can do anything about the weather, it was like corporate did not care about trying to do any damage control for public relations. We only ended up with one tender port in Dublin and it was a disaster trying to get back on the ship, Excursions left late and arrived back around the same time. There were about 1000 people trying to get on tenders to return to the ship. we were in line about 1 hour. It was like no one in operations spoke with the excursion people. Very disappointing experience as the tender blamed the passengers for waiting to come late at the same time. The only problem with that brilliant idea was the people in line were coming back from excursions. Very Poor Job!

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5
Trivia, Bingo, other games

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Entertainment onboard was excellent

Children's Programs

No kids

Service and Staff

4 out of 5
Service overall was very good

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5
Cabin was clean and well maintained. TP was low quality.

Ship tip

If anything derogatory happens do not expect any consideration by Norwegian.

Ports of call

Southampton (London), England Did not visit port

Embarkation and cruise departure port

Cobh (Cork), Ireland

5 out of 5
Went to Blarney Castle and toured by bus. Also visited the town of Kinsale.

DINGLE, IRELAND Did not visit port

Weather and waves

Foynes, Ireland Did not visit port

Galway, Ireland Did not visit port

Killybegs, Ireland

5 out of 5
We walked around the town on our own, We did an excursion by bus seeing the countryside and visited a tavern that is owned by the family of Enya with a small show.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

5 out of 5
Walking tour and a visit to the Titanic Museum

Dun Laoghaire (Dublin), Ireland

5 out of 5
Went to Powerscourt Castle and an on your own walking around downtown Dublin

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Very smooth
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8 Comments

Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing

javawoody    1 year ago

Thanks for the review

cruising2004    1 year ago

Sorry you were disappointed with your cruise. Hope your sailing will be more enjoyable. Thanks for sharing.

karlgrgurich    1 year ago

Aunt Pinkie said it perfectly!!

JimOhio    1 year ago

Sorry you had to deal with a bad experience with the weather. I love reviews with the phrase "Although no one can do anything about the weather" followed by expectations of reimbursement by the cruise line when they have zero obligation to do so. There's a reason cruises are cheaper during hurricane season.

CruisingScouser    1 year ago

Your lucky to get that, P&O UK don't offer or refund anything, not even miss port fee's,don't even get a glass of complimentary wine with you meal, all you get is a letter for your insurance

Dumfy75    1 year ago

It’s disappointing to miss ports but I don’t think they actually have to give you any compensation at all so I would take anything you get as a bonus. If you have separate travel insurance this usually includes missed ports. The ship may have had to leave the same time even though it arrived late because they can get a hefty fine for not leaving on schedule. Sorry the weather affected your cruise so much, glad you still managed to have a good time.

AuntPinkie    1 year ago

Nice itinerary, even with only the ports you were able to visit. Part of the responsibility is with the passengers. You knowingly booked during hurricane season with the possibility of missing ports . If you read the cruise contract, the cruise lines owe you nothing. If people complain, I can imagine that the cruise lines will start eliminating any additional refund (above the port fees and taxes). Sorry you were disappointed.

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