Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

very dissappointed with the lack of information related to the change of itinerary. Wished they had let me known in advance. I was quite upset and did not have as much fun as I had expected due to this. Also, since the weather was so bad, we had two days inside the boat so we lost 2 days of fun. Not sure I want to do this again. Hope information is better and we had the opportunity of postponing the trip. Since we were already in Venice it did not make too much sense the change the plans

We were disappointed that our Greek Cruise was really not a Greek Cruise and the 2 main reasons for going--Mykonos and Santorini--were cancelled. We felt like there was a lack of transparency as to the reason for the cancellation on NCL's part. We were supposed to hit 5 ports and more than half were cancelled--Kotor; Myknos; and Santorini. But we made the most of what we did do and the staff was wonderful at every level. Our cabin was really lovely. I would say being up front and clear about what is going on would be helpful.

While we tried to make the best out of every change the ship made, I still won't go on another Norwegian Cruise. We had no idea about port changes until the day of. Had we known we would have cancelled. The prior cruise had an engine fire at sea, they didnt fix the issue before our cruise. Instead they changed our ports and cancelled another along the way. Don't charge me for your inability to provide what I had originally paid for. Terrible company. Pick a better cruise line like Disney. My overall rating for this cruise is a 3.9....they don't even deserve that high of a rating.

Lost 3 ports and gained Split, Croatia, which was fabulous. Got a 200 dollar credit. Very satisfied.

As a silver customer of Norwegian, I was extremely disappointed. I switched from being a Royal Caribbean user. Norwegian Cruise Line rerouted the Star vessel at the last minute due to pre-existing “mechanical issues”. After spending over $2000 on airfare and hotels to go on a Greek Isle cruise, the cruise only stopped at two minor Greek Islands and substituted one port for a location with no real tourist value. To compensate for not stopping at two destinations, the cruise line issued on-board credit, a discount to a future cruise and refunded the port taxes. This was unacceptable. The cruise line forced its passengers at sea for two days and the only compensation was to spend additional dollars with the cruise line. The changed itinerary could have been communicated during the check in process rather than via a paper notice placed in the cabin. The ambiguous term “mechanical issues” created panic among passengers, excessive long lines formed at Guest Services and none of the crew were able to clearly explain the discount being offered on a future cruise. It was next to impossible to reschedule tours that had been booked with outside agencies with such short notice. The itinerary was once again changed at the last minute on November 6 and communication was poor. Three of the cabins in my group experienced issues with their toilets, either not flushing or flushing by themselves at random. Maintenance was called several times. All five cabins were awaken each morning starting around 04:00 by banging noises and crew slamming doors. Dinner experienced at the Ginza room turned into a dangerous stampede when the restaurant opened. This forced my party to be separated. Half of my party never received their drinks. When this was questioned, we told they were busy. To which we had to go to the bar ourselves to get drinks. The food there was tasteless. My friends and I are loyal to NCL Cruise Line, we all have Cruise Next certificates on our accounts. This is not the level of service we have come to expect. Each of us filed a claim with Guest Services. The trip was a total disappointment. At least 50% off of a future cruise or two should be offered.

disappointed that we only received a 100 credit for missing the Croatia port - would have expected a more significant credit as a refund or credit toward another cruise.

Overall a good cruise except due to the ship's technical issue, we missed Dubrovnik (1 of 5 ports). $100 compensation is not fair and equitable.

There was a fire in the engine room, but we weren’t told about it. It only said a mechanical issue. Didn’t stop at Dubrovnik which was why we took this cruise. Very disappointed. We only got $100/ person refund. We don’t care about $100. We wanted to visit Dubrovnik. We found Out about the fire after disembarkation, on the cruise news.

We just returned from a week on the Norwegian Star on the itinerary that left out of Venice and stopped at Kotor, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Argostoli and Dubrovnik. I choose this itinerary specifically because of the no sea days and the many different ports we were going to visit. A few days before the cruise we did receive an email that we were no longer going to visit Kotor due to the Venice port master only authorizing ships to leave Venice at a certain time. I completely understand this issue however I was frustrated that we weren’t at “least” warned of this ahead of them. Further research into this issue shows that this ship has been canceling Kotor for months and Venice has been having problems. Again, all good information that would have been nice as a disclaimer. The day of embarking I though was incredibly easy. We stayed in the AC hotel Venezia which was access the street from the people mover train . I’m not a huge fan of taking public transportation but this was so easy and literally the first stop is labeled cruise terminal. We were through check in and bag drop off and in our room all within 30 minutes . Having been to multiple Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruises this was my first time on a Norwegian and I was very impressed with the stateroom. More specifically the bathroom. We had an ocean view room but nothing fancy but the bathroom had tons of room as far as cruise ships go! Also, I had a full vanity and as a woman this was amazing although a bit more light wouldn’t have hurt. Now this is a smaller ship and we knew that going in so there wasn’t a whole ton of stuff to do. In terms of the actual boat, we found the following “Pro’s” which were; the very first night performance of the aeriest love duo group, the magician performance, dinner at moderno was excellent and we love gambling so the casino was great for us. We also loved the couples game shows that they did in bliss. Staff was super friendly and nice and great service in most places. I did have several cons however. I typically love buffets, it’s actaully one of my favorite parts about cruising however I thought that the buffet on this ship was pretty bad. Not every day and every meal, but overall It’s like they were “trying” to hard. Also, in general I didn’t find the food as satisfactory as RC was and that was disappointing for me. The sushi as well which I was so excited about was horrible as well as the service. What’s the point of having a rolling belt with no sushi on it? The majority of the shows were not for me either but I guess that’s just a matter of taste. I was also really frustrated that there were several errors on the daily sheet that basically alluded to the fact that things were free like wine tasting but when you get there, they aren’t. I had read on a previous review that NCL has a lot of upcharges and boy they weren’t kidding. You will pay extra for literally everything! It got really annoying and frustrating after a while. Also, Literally half of the activities every day had some type of fee. Also It felt like there was a lot of bait and switch activities. Like for instance come guess the weight of this statue and then be downstairs at a certain time but wait we need to go through an hour long art auction to see if you won first! Annoying In reference to ports, the biggest concerns my research showed was tendering to the dock. Also, as you may have read the port times are VERY short. I empathize very because some of the stops were almost Laughable in time. Since every port is different I’ll describe them each. Corfu: we were docked directly here and we ended up doing the 4x4 tour through the ship which surprisingly was the best tour of the whole shop! You need to be able to drive a manual comfortably to do this and It was a great way to see the whole island in the short amount of time! Santorini: this was the port I read nightmares about so i came prepared. I didn’t want to waste a second as this was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. We were tendered this day and knowing that , i had my husband wake up early to get a tender ticket. You don’t have to have one but if you want to get off the ship at a decent hour after docking, you need one. The tendering took about 45 min even though we were group 3, then the cable car to the top which you have to do took another hour. So by the time we got off and met our private tour, it was 2 hours after we began the process of trying to get off the ship. Same situation with going back down, took another hour. This isn’t really NCL’s fault, not much they can do. There are just SO many cruise ships docking and only a couple cable cars. BE prepared. There is no way around the wait. You’ll be lucky if your at the top in less than 1.5 hours. Mykonos: Another tender port but this was different and was incredibly quick. We were off in about 15 minutes. I think due to the late night in Santorini departure and the early Morning here the only people that would have been up early are the people with excursions. Here we had a private snorkeling tour. Argostoli: we were docked here. Easy off in less than 5 minutes. Not a whole ton to do here in port and a short time. Cabs are easily accessible. We did take a cab and visit a small winery called Gentilini which was amazing! Highly Recommend although they are now closed for the season. Dubrovnik: this port frustrated me because they kept changing the times. We arrived at 6:30am and back on board time was noon! What are you supposed to do at a port stop when it’s pitch Black?? Literally Nothing, i would have loved to spend more time here but this felt like ten minutes and with no possibility of booking a tour we liked (we are not game of thrones fans) we just walked around and went wine and beer tasting. The majority of port stops were amazing especially Santorini. The biggest complaint I heard the entire time was how short the port stops were and I don’t disagree. In my opinion they could have cancelled one entirely in an effort to make the other ones longer. We also arrived about an hour early to most Ports. Back on board is 30 minutes before departure. It just got frustrating after awhile having to constantly wake up at 6am, it’s vacation and sometimes we want to sleep in and not wake up at 6am to walk around for an hour. Crowd wise, it’s definitely a different vibe than RC. It felt like Majority were over 50 however I did see some people in the middle age bracket. Virtually no kids (that I saw) as it’s October and kids are mainly in school. The atrium area is very small which is what’s to be expected on a small ship but what bothered me the most was the horrific playing from the band that plays all day and all night. Omg It was horrible and we literally held our ears everytime we had to walk past. Overall we had a great trip however I struggled with a 3 or 4 star rating on this. I think overall I would give It 3.5. There are a lot of things that NCL could control that could make this cruise an easy 5 and of course some things they can’t.

This cruise is still worth a look because of the ability to stop through multiple Greek islands that could be expensive to travel to. It's nice to have almost daily excursion stops. Otherwise, the cruise experience itself is fairly average and not as engaging as some of the entertainment on other routes. The dining is also just OK since it's freestyle based.

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?

Overall give the cruise an average rating. Lost water for a couple of hours and couldn't use bathrooms. Never had this happen before and they offered no explanation.

Staff was not properly trained on the ultimate beverage package. Bar staff needs to understand how to acknowledge guests and do their job. Overall, the staff acted like they couldn't care less about their guests

Would like someone to review the issue w/ our carpet in room.

We had a wonderful time and saw many different islands.

Overall, a wonderful experience and great family trip!

I usually take Disney Cruises and I guess I've become a snob. I would never take a Norwegian Cruise again.

Very weak cruise overall. The outside performers they brought on were good (Karl Loxley and "White Magic") but the onboard singers and dancers were like watching a weak high school production. The food was the worst I've ever had on a cruise and the stateroom attendant was not helpful. The worst was having to wait in line for 30 minutes each night to get a table for dinner. This freestyle dining option is terrible.

Cruise was nice. The ship is a bit smaller than we have been on, and if you are counting on your entertainment being the ship then you might be disappointed. This cruise is about the ports, and we enjoyed all of them!!! We used the excursions, and they were great. We had a great time!

We cruised with NCL in 2018 on the Spirit and had a stellar experience. This year on the Star, we were a little disappointed for a few reasons. The ship was recently refurbished and we appreciated it - it was like brand new in many aspects. We really appreciated the updated staterooms (particularly the USB ports next to each side of the bed and the real hairdryer!). However, the layout of the ship is not intuitive and just didn't feel like a home in some ways. First, each stairway/elevator should be a vertical path to access ALL floors, but this was not the case on the Star and it was confusing. Second, NCL could put signs at each elevator/stairway to show which side is Port or Starboard, since the colored doors aren't visible on each floor. Third, there is NOT ENOUGH seating for the buffet and it was a huge problem. Too many 4-tops mean wasted seats. NCL needs more 2-tops, more seating in general, and it was disappointing there was no outdoor seating for the buffet (unless you wanted to walk all the way to Spice H2O). Finally, we were very disappointed there is no forward viewing lounge inside. As for the crew - the stateroom stewards and bar/restaurant staff were great on the Star, but the Shore Excursion staff were not knowledgeable about the details of their tours. In particular, one of the ShoreEx managers was rude and condescending to us, to other guests, and to fellow crew members. In addition, we interacted with numerous people on the Guest Services desk and on EVERY occasion, they either did not know the answer to simple questions, or they gave us incorrect information. or they gave us conflicting information. It was VERY frustrating and makes NCL look incompetent and unprofessional. Finally, the Upgrade Advantage program is VERY frustrating. NCL absolutely must be more clear and transparent about how the program and process works. We got conflicting information every time we called or emailed NCL, and their website doesn't provide enough clarity. It caused A LOT of frustration and angst beginning at 3 months before our cruise, up to 48 hours before our cruise, which was NOT enjoyable. If we could've gotten more accurate information about the process from their website or call center, it would've been better. I'm sure many people complained to NCL that the embarkation process at Tarragona was an absolute disaster. I'm VERY upset we had to rearrange our plans AND PAY for the cost to travel from Barcelona down to Tarragona, only to deal with the mess of an embarkation day. I'm not sure what the solution is, but it would be nice if there was a better process to tender, other than having to wait in a line for 3 hours to get tender tickets (guests started queueing at 7am for 10am ticket distribution for Santorini). That's not a relaxing vacation. The WiFi on the ship was also a disaster. We paid $350 for the unlimited package and it only worked about half the time, and when it did work, it was horribly slow. I get it that we're at sea, but NCL shouldn't ask their guests to pay that much for a sub-par product. Fortunately, the Internet Manager realized the issue and gave us a small credit to our account, which we were happy with. Overall, we still enjoyed our cruise and we do plan to cruise with NCL again next year. This was an absolutely fabulous itinerary, visiting so many amazing ports.