Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We drove to Tampa a day early and stayed in Hyde Park. It was a great time, lots of fun bras (we are both in our late 20s) and cool atmosphere.

On boarding day, we parked at the 717Parking Lot on Nebraska Ave. I paid $4/day, and everything was fine. Free shuttle too and from the lot. 

Got to the cruise terminal around noon(well before the lines evidently as we were in the first group of 100 probably). Boarding was a breeze and we walked right onto the ship.

We packed a carry-on in case our bags didnt make it up in time for our 7pm dinner reservation.

First night we ate @ Moderno. Food was probably a 6.5/10. If you have ever eaten at Fogo de Chao or Texas De Brazil, Moderno doesn't match the quality (but it also isn't $50pp either). We went out and drank with the rest of the boat and just hung out the rest of the night.

Day two(At Seat): We woke up and basically just chilled out the whole day. I played in the Casino for like 8 hours straight (I was in there the entire cruise, I love gambling) while the gf went and tanned. Great time, and we didn't experience any service delays. We ate at Le Bistro - the tenderloin was AWESOME.

All these people who were whining about lines and drink service, IDK what they are talking about. We hung out at BierGarten a LOT as well as a few other bars  and NEVER had issue with super long lines or no deck service to the deck chair area. 

Day3(Rotan) We watched the island role in from BierGarten. Disembarked and took a cab to WestBay for the day. Had a GREAT time, snorkeled, paddle boarded, drank and ate, and overall had a great time.

Day4(Belize) This day started out rough. The Tendering proceess took a long time. We were tender group #20. Ended up getting off the boat around noon. Went to port, visited a few pharmacies(there are 4 in port, you can buy things like Vicodin or Codine), and then took a cab to the Belize sign for photos. Came back and hung out at the little bar next to terminal 4 - free WiFi.

Day5(Coasta Maya) We got into port and went and took the Myan Ruins tour that she found on Trip Advisor. It was BAD ASS. Big comfy bus with WiFi on it, its about a 45 minute drive, and the guided tour was knowledgeable and great. Wen't back to the boat and boarded, went drinking for a while and then took a nap. This was Christmas Eve so we  ate at Cagneys that night, the filet was AMAZING - do it do it!

Day6(Christmas Day) - We spent the entire day in Cozumel. We rented a scooter and went to San Francisco Beach (Paradise Beach) and hung out all day. We swam, ate, drank, and relaxed all day long. We then headed back to Senior Frogs to video chat all our families on their WiFi(they loved it).  Then we got back on board.

We ate in the MDR this evening and it was really good. They had a traditional Christmas dinner options available, and everything tasted great. 

Day7(At Sea) This was another sea day where we just milled around and enjoyed ourselves. Drank as much as we could, ate what we wanted, I gambled a LOT this day. The weather had dropped to the low 70s as we were back in the gulf and nearing port. They had to shut the casino down @ 10pm due to our early arrival. The boat had to get into port early in order to beat the fog. 

Over all I give the cruise a 7.5/10. Both of us have only sailed CCL before so NCL was fun to try something new, and it defiantly felt like a step up in quality.  I LOVE how NCL has the bathrooms setup where they are partitioned into 3 different spaces with doors, MUCH better than CCL. We did the UBP so we drank our faces off, and I also got us the 4UDP

Casino was great, I spent a LOT of time down there as I am a huge gambler.  All the specialty dining was great. Moderno fell short of expectations, but was still good. Everything else was VERY good. The ship was beautifully decorated up with Garland and trees everywhere. The gf loved the champagne bar and spent a good amount of time waiting for me to be ready down there.

The entertainment was also very good. Great variety, and good productions. 

I would defiantly take this cruise again. Not on the same itinerary( I don't like to revisit places), but I had a blast and the boat was quite nice.

Let’s start with the positive. The ship is beautiful and well maintained. The cabins are small but very nice with comfortable bedding. No problems boarding or disembarking. The itinerary was fabulous. The people of Roatan and Belize could not have been nicer and both places are beautiful. Costa Maya was nice and Cozumel is one of my favorite ports, it may have something to do with the $1.50 Dos Equis. For excursions my young adult children highly recommend SNUBA diving (cross between SCUBA and Snorkeling) and Swimming with the Dolphins. We had an incredible Cabin Steward and we also enjoyed the 24 hour pub O’Sheehan’s. Overall the food and entertainment were good.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing for the service. If you wanted to eat in the main dining rooms, particularly Versailles, there was a 20-30 minute wait unless you went before 6pm. Once you got in; the service moved very slowly taking around 30 minutes to get appetizers on multiple occasions. We ate in main dining rooms 5 nights and had a less than positive experience on 3 of them. I believe the wait, less than stellar service and slow food problems are created by the “Free Style” dining concept. I like having a fixed table at a fixed time with the same waiter. I believe this increases the efficiency of the kitchen and definitely gives your waiter an incentive to provide excellent service. The other issue was the almost nonexistence of bar waiters and wine stewards. Most drinkers appeared to have bought a prepaid (with 18% tip already included) beverage package which gives the waiters no incentive to serve drinks. On every cruise I have been on prior to this one a waiter would come by your chair on the deck every 5-10 minutes and offer a beverage. I would guess that 90% of the time I got a drink it required standing in line at a bar.

 Overall we had a great time, but I am definitely not a “Free Style” dining fan.

Once cruising, it was a good value.  However, the 90 minute wait outside just to get to the 60 minute inside wait (totaling 2 1/2 hours!!!) just unforgivable! Ugh!

Buffet was a zoo but main dining good.  Ginza restaurant was fun and good. Best parts were shore excursions and cabin service. We went to Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.Entertainment was good as well.

Would recommend buying water to bring on-board, $70 for a case seemed expensive, save the money and bring on-board.....

been on three cruises and this was worst boarding ever.

We have sailed on the Norwegian Star's sistership, the Sun, a couple of times and expected a similar experience, but we were wrong. Found the two ships equally "good" as far as entertainment and crew courteousness were concerned, but liked the food in the main dining room (Versailles) considerably better. No haute cuisine, but enjoyable. Also found the dining room service to be mostly very personable, unlike most times with open seating. Cabin (suite) was fine, but had a tad too much furniture in it and we would have preferred a shower rather than tub/shower combination.

It was an OK cruise.  I was surprised when they were painting pillars in the main area ... this should be done when not full of people.  

I would have appreciated if the cruise employees would have taken care of rude people.  For example, we were at the comic's show and at the very end people were coming in for the next event and talking loud and we couldn't hear the comic.  We asked them several times to be quiet but it didn't help.  Either the employees should quiet them or not allow them in until the show is over.

Bartenders need to ask "who is next" instead of assuming who is next.  Was overlooked many times.  

We did not get the money back we were promised from the company that booked us on the cruise.  Therefore, won't be booking with them again.

We can't fathom the negative reviews we've seen, ship was spotless, food was great, service was FANTASTIC. Endless stuff to do onboard & very cool destinations.

NCL's Star took us on a great vacation.  Our economy cabin was great, the service aboard wonderful.  The entertainment outstanding.  In  Roatan we very much enjoyed spending our day at Maya Key- in fact we wanted to stay there!  such a nice place to snorkel, tour the "Mayan Ruins", and visit their little zoo.  Lunch was included and was great.  Belize offered up cave tubing and ziplining, Costa Maya was a real gem- we went kayaking- and Cozumel had nice snorkelling. 

This was a great cruise- no problems- superior food and shows. The port of Roatan is a waste- not worth getting off ship - everything else was great. However drink prices on the ship arer a real rip off. beers end up with tip at 7 and mixed drinks are 10 drink in port. Also the price of silver is really up. negotiate hard. Finally this ship pushes Diamonds International- get kickbacks. They were sleazy and dishonest. Specifically they rate the quality of their stones and overrate them greatly. Buy elsewhere. 

Entertainment was great. Food was pretty good. Ports ok stops but Honduras & Believe were depressed areas. Cozumel & Costa Maya were nice but touristy.

We visited all the ports.  Roatan was nice but outside the port the people are very poor and the same with Belize City. We enjoyed the ruins on Costa Maya and had a great lunch with the Myan people through Native Choice. We also enjoyed touring Cozumel. The Norwegian Star crew the ship,food and entertainment was great. 

Our cruise started rather negatively, with a long wait to get aboard the ship. This was probably due to the number of passengers boarding, but neveretheless,  the wait seemed long. It ended the same way, with a long wait to exit the ship.

The Ships staff was courteous to the extreme, and the overall cleanliness of the vessel was outstanding. In order to assure a germ free environment, a staff member stood at the entrance to all of the restaurants and spritzed anti-bacterial spray on the hands of all who entered. To me, this was a definite asset due to some adverse publicity in the past about the passing of germs from one passenger to another.

The food offerings were many and bountiful. I can honestly say that all the food I ate during the trip were, without exception, excellent.

My wife and I toured the available Mayan ruins and the tour was informative, but was a long bus ride from the ship.

Our favorite tour was in Belize which consisted of a private Horse and Buggy ride with a very informative young native man. He imparted much knowledge about the living conditions of life in Belize for more than an hour at the low, low rate of fifteen dollars for each of us.

Kudos to the staff of the ship. This cruise will hold a featured place in our lifetime memories of good times.

Reserved a room with window, received a porthole, not good for closterphobics, would not change room, food ok, entertainment was good, disembark was a nightmare, Did Goeff Caye snorkel and beach excursion- find something else in Belize was not good, would probAbly not do Norwegian Star again.

It was an older ship, but very well kept. Entertainment was good, while the rope plays were excellent with amazing skill and style. The balcony cabin was nice and clean. Food was average and a bit boring. We had traditional dining most of the time, choice of seafood was limited while lobster tail and fillet mignonette was never offered. It would be nice to see local food on the menu as we visit different ports. On our own, we feel a bit unsafe walking into city, at port Belize.

Overall, it was a pleasant trip, with the help of good weather along the east Mexican coast.

Everything was great, besides one major complaint I have. The excursions were a rip off! Book through the locals. We paid way more than we wanted to on these excursions and feel that they were not worth the money. Especially the dolphin swim and ride. It was cool, but was way overpriced in my opinion.

The service of the crew on the ship was profound! We were spoiled by them. Loved it. The waiters, cleaners, and rest of crew brought a smile to my face every day. I feel like we could all learn a thing or two about their attitudes towards work.

I did not like the constant loud music by the pool. I was really wanting more quiet places to go on the deck to relax, read, or take a nap. Seemed like everywhere I went, it was loud with people being loud or with blaring music.

Was not impressed at all.  Embarkation took over 1 hour 20 minutes. Food was just ok.  Crew members we very good. Stains on pool towels and bed spread.  Service in the Irish Pub was poor. biggest complaint was no Adult pool.  The kiddie pool in the back was never crowded with kids the main pool was.  My thought is to make the kiddie pool into the adult pool area.  Also, jewelry store onboard misrepresented the amount of diamond weight on an item I purchased.  Did get to return it before we left the ship.

we loved our cruise.  The stateroom was very comfortable. The food was delicious.  One bad meal in the whole week.  The entertainment was very good three of the four nights we went.  We didn't go on any excursions because we had already been there.  Only criticism I have for the Star is that there is no place to sit comfortably and read.  The old ships used to have large lounges with chairs and sofas.  The day we were at sea and the weather was bad, there was no place to go and be comfortable except the bed in our cabin.  

Great staff, food and cleanliness.  Schedule interrupted for maintenance which caused tax to be charged for drinks (even on drink package) when in port, casino closed when in port and no compensation was made.  Roatan excursion arranged thru cruise line was not good and couldn't believe they would recommend it.

All things considered, we really enjoyed ourselves--how can you not spend a week on a ship in sunny and 80 degree weather and not have fun?  But having said that, there were a few issues---regarding itinerary, we chose this simply because it fit our time  and port of departure parameters. Other than that, we were okay with the ports of call. Cozumel we've been to before and at least it's a city with  interesting things to see and safe enough to walk between port and town. Plus, there are several beach clubs along the way where you can stop for a cold drink. As for the other 3 ports, you may as well decide on what excursion you're doing 'cause there ain't nothin' to do in the ports...Costa Maya is essentially a fake town. It is simply a cruise ship port. The people made a shopping district with pools and bars right off the port so you can walk off the ship and relax, but no beach here, just pools. Your alternative is the to take a $2 taxi to the Malecon area with all the beach clubs and sit on the beach. For $25US we drank beer and ate tacos on a relatively nice beach---but watch out for the people trying to sell you stuff. All.Day.Long. Roatan --well, the cruise ship screwed up our excursion reservation so we rented a car and drove around. Nothing to see or do unless you want to sit at a beach or scuba dive. Again, new port and can't walk to any town--take a taxi, rent a car...it wasn't really worth it. And Belize City--well, when to city police told us we shouldn't walk any where and we should take a taxi, we decided to turn around and catch the ferry to Caye Caulker ($25USpp) where we ended up at a great bar (Lazy Lizard) and restaurant (Fantasy Dining).  As for the ship--nicest people serving all the time. They seem short-handed since we frequently had to wait to be served, but ya got nowhere to go, so....it was good.  Enjoyed all the dining rooms, great menus, great food. The thing that really ticked us off was the change to the itinerary. We were supposed to leave at 4pm Sunday. Previous reviews dating back to October and before had this same situation: we were told they had to work on the propulsion system and we would have to stay in port while they worked on it. We didn't leave til 6 or 7 am on Monday. Those extra 14+ hours in port we were charged tax on all our drinks and the casino was closed. Great. We had a 16 hour view of a fuel depot. That was nice. Not. Then, on the way back, the same "propulsion" situation required us to get back early---we arrived back in port over 8 hours ahead of time---and then couldn't leave the ship, they closed the casino, there was no more entertainment ...and we were charged tax again on our drinks. The $50 or whatever ain't gonna kill us, but seeing as this has been happening for months, I fail to see why Norwegian hasn't just taken the ship out of service for a week and fixed the dang problem. Instead our 8 day, 7 night cruise , we lost a day in port in Tampa. With no compensation from NCL.  Stinks. Had fun, but plan for excursions and be prepared for sitting in port.

Overall had a good cruise.  Things that some reviewers complained about were non-existent.  I have been on over 40 cruises.  My saying is, there are no "bad" cruises, some are just better than others!"

Service: No problem. All went out of their way to be of service.

Food:  I've had better, but nothing really to complain about. A tough piece of meat or no lobster, hey, get over it.  Nothing is perfect.  It seems the more a person can't  really afford a cruise, the more they will find to bitch about!

Entertainment:  Ranked right up there with the best I have ever seen. The house band was great, the 16 dancers and singers, fantastic.  The comedian Bud Anderson, so original, so funny, so talented.  No wonder he has done 570+ shows on cruise lines.

Cabin: No problem and good service.

Yes, you wil notice cutbacks here and there. Like I miss the daily one page newspaper with happenings around the world.  Or only one daily Sea Program to share with all in your cabin. But these are things t help hold down the overall cabin rate you wil pay.  Drinks, yes high priced by my standards so what do I do?  Drink as little as possible on board, then have a "bang up'" time in port!

Could have used a bit more Trivia, one of the more popular past times on a cruise.  Seemed NCL was pushing to many "health seminars" all day.

Any cruise is a good cruise if you do your homework and pick out a cruise suited for you and at the right price.  I was very happy with my T.A. and "Entertainment". 

Our boat left port late due to maintenance. I purchased unlimitrd drink packages but was charged for drinks and had to spend hours standing in lines trying to get someone to straighten this out finally on the last day of the cruise they noticed they neglected to add it to my card but still refused to refud the charges if that wasnt enough our cards kept shutting off so we would go to pay for food or drinks only to be embarrassed which resulted in more waitin in lines to have them reprinted. Then on the last day our boat had to return to port a day early for more maintenance, but we couldn't disembark till the next day so we were held hostage paying 7% tax on everything because we were in U.S waters and the casino ead closed.