Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We had a wonderful time aboard the Norwegian Star! This was our 2nd time on this ship - the food is great, the rooms very comfortable, the entertainment is excellent. We especially liked have a Promenade Deck with lounging chairs.

I won't be sailing with Norwegian again. The employees on board with the exception of a few all acted like they had a guaranteed job and were not friendly at all. We had dinner in the Aqua dining room for the first two nights and I have no idea who our waiter/waitress was. No one ever introduced themselves and if I ordered anything to drink other than water it was an inconvenience to the server. Needless to say we just went to the buffet for the rest of the cruise. At least there I could get some lemonade. Carnival will be who we go back to and stick with. My kids hated this cruise and talked about Carnival the whole time.

Over all it was a great expy, lots to do or you can choose to just relax. Staff was wonderful, food was great, the. Only comment I would say is I enjoyed casual cruising but if you don't want to have kids running around then opt for a different type of cruise. If I had known the only way to enjoy a hot tub or swim without all the turmoil of the many kids, I would have bought the spa package for $139 to be able to swim or sit in a hot tub with a gang of kids.  There really should be an adult only pool and hot tub. Otherwise it was a great cruise. PS...I love kids so if I say there were alit if kids then trust me...there were alot.

Overall we had a great time and the ship was fun. There are some areas with room for improvement especially with some of the Staff level of friendliness and the Children's programs. See below for more details on my review.

I'm not sure where all the terrible reviews come from. We had an amazing vacation from the moment we set foot on the boat. Nothing but friendly, hard working staff. Wasn't very impressed with the Tampa port. Embarking was a bit messy. The staff seemed overwhelmed but were mostly friendly. However, disembarking was a whole other story. Not a good experience at all. But back to the boat!

We  had dinner in Versailles the first night and loved the food. The rest of the week we hit the buffet for breakfast and dinner. The selection was always pleasing. The seafood, particularly the shrimp and salmon selections were my favorite. The desserts in Versailles and the buffet were my least favorite. The irish pub had the best desserts and amazing burgers. Weren't impressed with the wings at all, I'd say just skip the wings at the pub.

This was our 8 year old twin boys first cruise and with it being 7 days, I decided to upgrade to a mini suite. It was worth EVERY penny! I decided to take a risk and go with the "guaranteed" rate. Luck paid off and we were assigned room 11130. It was the perfect location for us. It was midship, located under the buffet seating(by my estimate). It was quiet except for the occasional unsupervised kid running down the hall. The room was large, clean and that balcony, I can not recommend the balcony enough. We had plenty of room for the 4 of us. The beds were rather firm but comfortable to me. I suggest bringing a wall shoe organizer and using it to organize sun glasses, sun screen, room keys, hair ties, anything small that you might need to grab on your way out. The bathroom was large and well organized with a line to hang clothes to dry and shelves and hooks to hang towels. Bring a European outlet converter! While the boat does say the rooms have both, the boat was made in Europe. Therefore, there are 2-3 European outlets and one us outlet. 

While I had no trouble at all with the closet, I do agree with others that the design is poor. I'm 5'4 and small, so it was easy for me to use but I could definitely see where a taller person would struggle with it. The A/C ran cold, always had fresh towels and our room steward, Jobell was awesome! 

Our boys LOVED the kid pool and slides. But watch out, theres NO staff supervision. Parents seem to let their kids loose. This was the only complaint we had on the cruise.  

We booked all of our excursions before hand and did not use the boat. 

My girlfriends and I took our first cruise last week on NCL and it was an amaxing way to start our annual girls trip. The customer service was superb. Everyone was so friendly and helpful and even the passengers were friendly. It made us feel welcomed and that we formed another family at sea. It was well organized and always fun activities going on and great food. We missed the free wifi at first but afterwards realized the lack of it made us bond even more. I would recommend them to NY one wanting to travel via cruise. 

Trip itself was nice, when I arrived at my cabin I found a used bar of soap in the shower, bed sheets with yellow stains and items already missing from the mini bar. Which makes me believe my room wasn't thoroughly cleaned. One of my excursions was cancelled but they didn't notify me until im actually there waiting on the pier. Staff was nice and food was great

This was our first trip on Norwegian and a first cruise of this length. The ship itself is nice, apparently recently refurbished. Dining was a pleasant surprise with many choices and the cuisine was varied and delicious. It was nice to have the option to be less formally dressed given we were traveling with our children. My older children took advantage of some of the teen center activities but my youngest at 9 was not impressed with the activities for his age group. In all fairness, he has never been a fan of the kids activities. The ports of call were beautiful and safe with a nice variety of things to do. In particular, we took a tour to the Chacchoben ruins with a side trip to a local restaurant and a lagoon for swimming that was both fun and informative. (Native Choice Tours) The walk to the office to go on this tour was a bit adventurous, but the warmth of the guides more than made up for this. The entertainment on board was very good, including Yuri the strongman and the aerialist team from Russia. The final show, Paradis, which included both of these acts and the regular production crew was outstanding. The comedian Fred Beville and hypnotist TerranceB were both great too. Really no complaints besides the somewhat spotty service ( had 2 rooms with different stewards so could compare, and the fact that certain things showed up late in the cruise like the cushions on the deck chairs)

This is a picture of the metal under the mattress that caused me not to be able to sleep. I have explained below. 

The staff, food and entertainment were wonderful. My bed was horrible, had a worm out mattress with the metal bent on the frame coming up through the middle of the bed. My husband and I had to share a twin bed do to this problem. The staff said they fixed it but they just put another metal piece under it, however it didn't really help the problem. We spent two days trying to get the bed issue resolved. 

We didn't get off the ship in Belieze because there was a tender issue and by the time we could get off we only had about two hours before we'd have to be back on the ship. Waste of a stop, it wasn't fair we couldn't see Belieze. 

Prior to our cruise,  we had read a lot of reviews through Ship Mate.  Many, but not all, were very negative.  Therefore, we embarked on the cruise with mixed emotions.  We were extremely happy to find no credence in the negative comments. 

The food was great,dining experience was great l liked being able to eat in different places.Departing ship was a bit of a problem in Honduras and Belize,nothing to do on the ship while docked, drinks expensive and watered down some of staff rude.Had a problem with on board sail and sign card, had to take picture twice, found out when trying to depart ship at first port.

My wife got sick from eating an outdoor seafood dish on the second day. Went to medical center and they said they had to see her. I said send up a wheel chair, she hadn't been out of bed all day and missed the excursion that day. they sent up a wheel chair no blanket or cover or anything. we had to use bathroom towels to cover her, then they wheeled her threw a bar and a restaurant where people were starring at her and she felt humiliated. They told me "you have to request a blanket" --SHE HAD BEEN IN BED ALL DAY why should I have to request anything. The second time on day 4 when she wasn't getting better, the same trip but this time she was wheeled threw a PHOTO SET WITH PEOPLE DRESS TO THE HILL and my wife was in a nightgown with two bath towels over her.  What class you guys have!!!!!  There is more but I'm sending it to my Lawyer.  YOU'LL HEAR FROM HIM SOON. 

We loved all the port of calls. We were very disappointed in the ship's entertainment, wait staff, tender service, cleanliness, and overall friendliness. We had to tender at the first two port of calls and in the first day it took over two and a half hours just to get off the ship. Which severely decreased our time in Honduras which was our favorite port. The second day was slightly better. We paid a lot of money to loose so much time at two out of four ports.

0% absolutely WORST cruise I have ever taken...................  I will would never CRUZ with NORWEGIAN, ROOM'S ARE VERY SMALL, SMELLED LIKE  CIGARETTE SMOKE EVERYNIGHT IN THE STATEROOM,  NON OF THE EMPLOYEES NEW ANYTHING ,NOR NEW WHERE ANYTHING WAS, RUDE. AND I'M STILL WAITTING ON REFUND $506.76 OVER CHARGE MY BANK ACCOUNT.

It was not one of my better cruises. Room was very small for 3 adults. Could not use the balcony till room was cleaned(which was in afternoon). Travelled with my 88 year old mother and her 73 year old friend. They would have to climb over the made up couch to get to the balcony which they could not do. So the pleasure of sitting on the balcony and having your cup of coffee was out. Also they had a lot of problems with their tenders

We were very disappointed in the level of service on this cruise.  I heard that Norwegian was sold and that new owners cut the crew numbers.  Maybe this is why so many crew members  ranged from nice to neutral to unhappy to downright surly. We had the drinks package, which sometimes was useless as we could not get served.  Had to call almost every night for problems with our stateroom ( towels removed but not replaced, no toilet paper, etc). Dinner service in Aqua and Versailles was spotty--mostly okay.

Food was plentiful and varied--pretty good.  The market cafe food had great buffets for breakfast and lunch,  but  tables were too close together, so that you were always bumping into people or they were bumping into to you while going from your seat to the buffet.  I would have been happy to have dinner there, but the setting was depressing--school cafeteria-esque.  Also, the way they had service  set up in long cafeteria lines was annoying and didn't help the atmosphere. Setting and organization of the Windjammer on RCI is MUCH better. 

Worst thing--we were supposed to be in port at Roatan, Honduras, per our itinerary, but we had to be tendered.  We got onto Roatan 2 HOURS LATE--no explanation.  RCI was in the port.  Did they get there before us or ???

Overall, we had fun because we made it fun.  Did not book any Norwegian excursions but did our own instead.  Big savings. It will be a long time before I book on Norwegian again.

We very much enjoyed our cruise on the NCL Star.   We had a mini suite that worked well, the food was very good (a few exceptions), the staff was very friendly, the shows were good (but not excellent), the ship was a nice size, and the ports of call were all great.   We had an issue with very slow tender service in Roatan which took us 3 hours to get off the ship and over an hour wait inline to board a tender back.  Also, since must people had the Ultimate Beverage Package, NCL had very few, none by the pools, waiters  walking around pushing drinks, so we had to stand in line each time we wanted a drink (some lines were short, others long).   Embarkation and De-embarkation was smooth and fast.   I love the Port of Tampa.   I would recommend this cruise.

Overall a wonderful experience and I would not hesitate to sail on the Star again. Our balcony stateroom was small but comfortable and service was excellent. Food options were plentiful and always excellent. Staff were always friendly and helpful.

Con: not enough pool loungers and bar service was non-existent. Always long lines on deck and in bars. The tendering was a mess, we waited in lounge 3 hours to get off and were an 1 1/2 hour late for our beach reservations.  

First, we knew we were purchasing a very affordable cruise with free beverage package, we needed a specific week at a specific port, so that said, for the price it was a good cruise.

Our room smelt like smoke, we were below the casino, and since the cruise was full we could not be moved to a new room. Two ports were tendered, it took hours to get off the boat to get on shore, one port we couldn't get off the ship until 2pm we were sailing away at 6! Since everyone had free beverage package, so lines were very long to get drinks, waiters don't go out to serve you, you have to go find them. Only one pool was an issue during at sea days. Food was not very good, even in the pay restaurants. The shows were only ok. No kids clothing in gift shops. But overall for the price it was an ok cruise.

For the most part I enjoyed my cruise on the Star, the ports were very nice, the food was Great and there were a lot of things to do. The ship is very clean and up to date, the staff is very friendly, but it could use some more night life.  one big issue we had  was the poor bar service due to under staffing, most wait times for beverages was over 10 minutes in a long line across the pool deck or in the lounge areas. Also if your child is not 13 at the time the cruise starts they have to go in the children’s area, this is a foolish policy my child was 8 days away from 13 and her friends we traveled with on the cruise were all 13, but she could not go in the same area, you need to use a bit of common sense and empower your staff to make smart decisions.