Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This cruise was exceptional in many ways:  easy check-in, boarding and disembarking; friendly, professional, and attentive staff; exceptionally clean, orderly ship and staterooms; wide range of interesting activities and tours; variety of dining options with delicious menu choices.  Only a few suggestions may want to be considered:  provide greater detail what items (i.e. bags, water bottles, cameras) passengers are permitted to have prior to each tour; presentations providing an overview of history, customs, key sites, eating, and shopping highlights of each port-of-call (which should re-run on the ship's closed circuit TV) prior to docking; a separate line for passengers requiring special assistance on and off the ship; greater onboard shopping options (including selling reading or video material about each destination).  Regardless, of the 5 large ship cruises we have taken, this was the best!

Our cruise was on the Norwegian Star.   This ship needs to be updated or replaced. Also, this ship needs to train their staff better in providing information and most of all SERVICE.  The ship was casual, which I liked. But, management mistook people's desire for independence and casualness to "not wanting service".  I've been on many cruises and this was my least favorite.  Live and Learn.

   HOLA, MI EXPERIENCIA EN EL CRUCERO QUE TOME POR EL BALTICO CON NORWEGIAN, FUE BUENO A MEDIAS, YA QUE PASARON ALGUNOS INCONVENIENTES QUE NO ME DEJARON DEL TODO SASTISFECHO, ALGUNOS DE ESOS INCONVENIENTES, FUE QUE NO PARO EL BARCO EN ESTOCOLMO YA QUE SEGUN ESTO POR MAL TIEMPO NO DEJO EL PUERTO DE ESTOCOLMO QUE LLEGRA EL BARCO A SU PUERTO Y POR LO TANTO SE DESVIO HACIA COPENAGUE Y AHI ESTUVO 2 DIAS PUDIENDO SEGUN YO HABERLO COMPENSADO CON OTRO PUERTO A LO MEJOR OSLO Y NO UNO DE LOS MISMOS QUE YA TENIAMOS EN EL INTINERARIO, OTRO INCONVENIENTE, FUE QUE SE PUSIERO A REPARAR EL TOBOGAN DELA ALBERCA PRINCIPAL EN PLENO DIA COMPLETO QUE ESTABAMOS EN ALTAMAR SIN VISITAR PUERTOS POR LO TANTO ESTIVIMOS TODO EL DIA CON OLORES DE PINTURA MUY DESAGRADABLES AL MOMENTO DE USAR LA ALBERCA Y LOS JACUZZIS ESE DIA.

  EL CRUCERO QUE TOME ANTERIORMENTE, FUE CON CARNIVAL AL MEDITERRANEO EL CUAL FUE MAS BARATO QUE ESTE FUERON MAS NOCHES Y EL SERVICIO FUE SUPERIOR A ESTE, POR ESTE TIPO DE MOTIVOS QUE SUCEDIERON EN EL CRUCERO, NO QUEDE MUY SATISFECHO.

On the positive side, the cabin Stewards,  the front office staff and all the Star's crew were friendly  and helpful in all matters. The Versailles Dining Room meals and service excellent.

Can't comment on the specialty dining options ....refuse to pay the exorbitant per person prices quoted , which to me seemed equal to the cost of dining in a restaurant ashore. Why? when the ship  provides  the Specialty Dining areas with all the restaurant functions needed from $$ passengers paid for the overall  Cruise..

Nevertheless, our chief complaint is that there are no comfortable places to simply sit and read for pleasure i.e., no chairs or locations in which you may relax.... and/or snooze ! The ship is set up to force you to go to a café, a bar or  lounge where drinks are sold to find comfortable seating. The ship Library is a "postage stamp" with a very small selection of books as compared to all ships we have sailed on - most of which carried half the number of passengers as the Star.

Will not sail on an NCL ship again.

This was a good cruise with exciting stops.  One of the reasons you cruise is to have great food.  The food on this ship was pretty good, but I have had much better on every other cruise I have taken.

They had to cancel our stop in Stockholm which diminished our overall enjoyment.  The rooms were quite nice, the staff was all great, the evening entertainment was a mixed bag of pretty good and pretty average.

Get cruise do to customer service being outstanding! We bought the unlimited spa package that's limited to only 60 guests and it was out best purchase on the entire cruise. We were relaxed and well rested!

The weather was too cold to enjoy this vacation.

The service in the cruise was terrible.  NCL need better managers that train their staff.  No enough food choices during sea days.  Food was mediocre.

El crucero lo disfrutamos mucho.

Excursión en Londres, no tanto. El puerto de DOVER está muy lejos de Londres (2 horas ida y dos horas regreso) pasas 4 o más horas en un bus dependiendo del tránsito. Oséa, de 9 horas de paseo pasas más de la mitad en autobús.

OTRA: Mi recomendación es que cuando decidan tomar un crucero TRASATLANTICO traten de que sea en un barco que pase las 140.000 toneladas de peso bruto. El viaje será menos movido y más placentero.

While the cruise itself was very good, with excellent staff, great entertainment and good food, NCL totally dropped the ball on a London shore excursion.  Our London excursion coincided with VE day celebrations and news coverage of Britain's election results.  Obviously we could not get into London.  We saw the tower of London, and then spent six hours of a scheduled 7.5 hour tour on the bus.  NCL guest relations shrugged and the excursion operator refunded $30.  Really NCL?  Shame on you.

What makes the Norwegian Star great is its friendly helpful staff.  They not only ensure your vacation is non stressful, pleasant, peaceful, a no brainer, they treat you like family.  I have been on many other cruises and everything is taken care of but the difference is that the staff of the Star makes it seem as though they REALLY want to make you happy.  Always a smile.  Always Good Morning Mam or Sir.  They get to know your name and really take an interest in you as an individual. 

The cruise was a lot of fun for our family - three boys ranging from 7 to 15 years old.  Ports were great, ship was just the right size.  The ship seemed to be VERY quiet after dinner, which left the parents with little to do some nights, but it's better than some ships where you can't find ANYWHERE for five minutes of quiet, I guess.

The Norwegian Star Mexican Riviera trip is a fun trip for families.  On a tight budget, we chose to get an inside stateroom, and you need to feel comfortable being very cozy with your family for a full week.  That works well for us, but is a caution to others. The food was average, yet prolific. Our kids loved that they could eat 24-7! The staff was excellent.  Great personalities and lots of attention.  The boat was in a bit of disrepair.  As we were given the "go ahead to the staterooms" sign, there were still dirty dishes in the hallways and just in general noticed several broken chairs, doors, etc. etc. The itinerary was awesome.  It was so great to get to see three cities in Mexico in one week, without packing and schlepping.   We are microbrew fans, and there simply were not any to be found.  That was a bit of a bummer, and with family members dairy free, we might suggest to Norwegian that at least a few of their plentiful food options address that need.  I was a bit worried about so many "sea" days, but Norwegian did an outstanding job of entertaining (and very high quality) shows, activities for our family and many things to keep us fully entertained.  It was a good, solid family vacation.  Not too high end or luxurious, but certainly a good value and incredible memories. 

There was a nice selection of food.  Good variety of entertainment, they had a hypnotist, singers, dancers, and acrobats.  My bathroom had a sliding door instead of a shower curtain which prevented water from sliding out.

Having cruised on NCL many times before and having been extremely happy with their ships, I was honestly shocked by this cruise experience.  I had been on this Mexican Riviera NCL cruise 3 times before and love the itinerary, but I won't do this one again. It was a bad omen on boarding when the lines to check in got confused and we had to wait extra time for that, and then our key cards didn't work and we had to wait in line for customer service with a lot of other people whose key cards didn't work.  Our room steward would forget to give us ice so we had to get our own, but the most annoying thing was one night around 11 pm while we were relaxing in bed, he came to our door and insisted that he had to change out all our pillows!  He would not take no for an answer and we had to get up and exchange all our pillows - it was just weird and very intrusive. The closest elevators to our stateroom only worked half the time - they worked a little better after they were closed for repair half a day but there was always one that wouldn't stop at our floor!  NCL has specialty restaurants that they advertise continually in a daily newsletter and on computer screens around the ship - but unfortunately they were completely booked (except for Chinese and Sushi Bar) for the entire cruise so we were only taunted by their presence.  When I asked if there was any chance of getting in, I was told "No, the smart people booked reservations online before the cruise."  They had nice flat screen TVs in the rooms and they had 2 movie channels showing some good movies, but when we tried to watch one, it wasn't there - and when we asked about it, we were told "It tells you right at the top of the schedule that it is subject to change without notice."  Then there was the NCL Rewards Party we were invited to:  We showed up, something else was happening in the room, so we went to the Rewards director to ask about it.  We were told it had been rescheduled for the night before and everyone had been sent a notice.  When we said we never got a notice, we were told "Yes you did, look in your papers and I'm sure you'll find it there!"  And he turned away. Really? The list of problems we encountered was endless - from the NCL ship app that did not work, to the cancelled exercise classes (the 24 year old instructor "hurt his back" and had to take a few days off), to the insane waiting in line to get off the ship at Cabo (why didn't they just call one group at a time? - that is the purpose of having the different groups to begin with).  But the sad thing was that no one would apologize for any problem - no one seemed to care. Most of the crew seemed unhappy and most of the smiles where we saw them were totally forced.  The only really good memory I have on that ship was when the sushi chef came over to me when he saw that the server could not understand what I was asking for (Soft shell crab - not a roll, just by itself).  He smiled and said "Fried OK?" and immediately prepared me the most deliciously spiced fried crab ever!  He prepared excellent sushi, sashimi, and nigiri consistently - we ate there 3 nights. That's the way cruising is supposed to be - only you are supposed to find that service more places than just the sushi bar.

The balcony for us was worth the extra cost. We spent every morning reading the days events and planning our day and we finished each day by watching the sunset, before heading out for the evenings activities. Salsa/Salsa was fun. Kayaking amazing and Yelapa was a great excursion. - - Watch out for service fees. We tipped the staff through out the cruise to only learn later that they tack on $12.50 per day per person for the same purpose.

First off we purchased a family suite. My 16 and 17 year old were expected to sleep in the same bed. We complained so they seperated the main bed for the kids then my husband and I had to sleep on the couch hide-a-bed, totally uncomfortable, and we even had seperate blankets. The 2 blankets they gave us barely covered 1 person! I purchased the birthday package for my moms birthday it showed up 5 days early, complaining once again, they offered to give her chocolate covered strawberries on the correct date. Of course they still couldnt get it right it showed up the very next day! The cruise ship was constantly running out of supplies such as limes for corona and margarita mix.This is a Mexican Riveria cruise "HELLO" .I have cruise with Carnival 5 times before trying NCL I can honestly say I will never cruise NCL again

In this review I'm not going to talk about our experiences while in the ports, but rather keep it focused on the Norwegian Star experience.  The embarkation process was pretty easy and painless.  We arrived at the port in San Pedro (Los Angeles) at about 12:30pm and only had to wait in line for about 10-15 minutes before we got ourselves all checked in.  We had the cruise line take our large pieces of luggage for us (a total of three pieces) and they were in our cabin about an hour after check-in.  We set sail right on time at 4:00pm!

Overall our stateroom, room 9726 (aft, with a balcony), was clean and nicely appointed.  There were three of us in the stateroom, my husband and I, and our 8 year old daughter.  The two single beds were already pushed together, and each night our steward opened up the sofa and made up the bed for our daughter.  Prior to our cruise the Star was in dry-dock in Portland, OR for regular maintenance and they replaced the carpet in all of the staterooms and in all of the common areas, so this certainly added to the overall cleanliness of the ship.  Our stateroom steward(s) were outstanding.  The first time we ran into him, which was at the elevators, he introduced himself and knew all of our names (they take your photos at check-in so he must've had access to those through their computer system).  Each and every time we saw him he always greeted us by name, and if our daughter wasn't with us, then he would always ask where she was and how she was enjoying herself.  After the first full day our stateroom steward became familiar with our routines and very promptly had our stateroom made up and cleaned first thing in the morning, and always provided us with turn-down service while we were at dinner!  The staterooms have adequate storage for two people, but with three of us in the stateroom it was a little tight, but we made it work by storing our empty suitcases under the beds rather than in the closets.  It's been about 12 years since I've been on a cruise, and I found the bathrooms on the Norwegian Star to be quite spacious for cruise ship bathrooms.  There was a decent size vanity/sink area, with storage below and above for your various toiletries, etc.  The shower is to your right, which was a good size and was equipped with shampoo and body soap.  Norwegian uses dispensers in the shower (and one next to the sink) to cut down on all of those little plastic bottles -- certainly better for the environment.  The toilet is to the left of the sink, and again didn't feel cramped to us.  There are dividers for the toilet and shower, but they don't provide 100% privacy!  The air conditioning/heating unit worked extremely well, was easy to operate, and always quiet.  Most nights we slept with the balcony slider open about a foot so we could hear the ocean!

Overall I found the crew/staff to be pleasant, although it felt like a lot of the employees were either new to Norwegian and/or new to the Star because we didn't have a very good track record of them being able to answer some basic questions, or to go above and beyond to get the answer(s) for us.  The restaurant staff always seemed to be on their game, and we found that the restaurants were always well staffed so the service was always good to excellent.  Most of our evening dining we did in Aqua because they were more relaxed with the dress code for dinner (you could wear shorts!), whereas in Versailles you had to wear long pants and a proper shirt (no t-shirts allowed).  But for sit-down breakfast and lunch in Versailles you could definitely wear shorts and be more casual.  For breakfast we generally went to the Market Cafe on deck 12.  In the main restaurants we ran into some confusion when it came time to seating, but this was always rectified quickly by the host/hostess.  Again, I think this was due to new employees on board.  The food was good and the portions weren't overwhelming.  If you had a special request, especially at dinner, they seemed more than willing to accommodate you.  For example, our daughter ordered from their kid's menu which meant everything came with french fries, but we always asked for a side of steamed vegetables and there was never a problem.  I will say that overall we found the food to be salty (high sodium), which they likely do to make everything taste better and so you will consume more beverages -- luckily, we had the ultimate beverage package, which we put to good use!

I was disappointed with the majority of the bar staff.  I didn't find them to be friendly and/or courteous at all, with only a couple of exceptions.  There were several times when we had to wait 15-20 minutes just to order a drink, and that wasn't because there were a ton of people ahead of us, but because the bartender was just slow or preoccupied in doing something else.  This was evident at the Oasis Bar (at the main pool - deck 12), O'Sheenan's (deck 8), and in Spinnaker's Lounge (deck 7), which was primarily with the wait staff.  I never felt properly greeted, and no one seemed to crack a smile...the complete opposite of the restaurant staff!  The two exceptions were one bartender at the Bier Garten (deck 13 that overlooks the pool) who greeted us and asked how we were doing and made us excellent drinks, and also at Gatsby's (deck 6) where the wait staff was always very prompt and courteous, and the bartender always seemed to be on his game and made excellent cocktails as well.

The whole time we were sailing there was ongoing maintenance happening on the ship -- likely left over from when the ship was dry-docked.  This became an inconvenience because certain common traffic areas (deck 7) would be taped off, or limited access was provided, or you just heard constant hammering and drilling (this reminded me of being in the dentist office, which isn't my idea of a vacation!).  The "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere" bar/lounge (deck 7) was closed the entire trip and being worked on except for the final night when they finally opened it (I think this used to be the Sports Bar/Pub).  Again, there was a lot of noise going on in that general area, especially if you were walking on the promenade deck.

The three shows we saw in the Stardust Theatre were quite good.  It seemed the shows got better as the week went on.  We enjoyed some of the fun and entertaining game show type of events in the Spinnaker Lounger (Deal or No Deal, and the Newlywed, Not So Newlywed games).  We didn't go to any of the bingo games, but they always seemed well attended.  We also didn't go to the Casino, which on the couple of occasions that we found ourselves in that vicinity there was plenty of action going on and LOTS of cigarette smoke too!

We didn't dine in any of the specialty restaurants, but one night we were able to get into Ginza -- the Japanese/Chinese restaurant (deck 7) that is included in your fare with a few dishes that have an add-on price of $10 each, but otherwise there was no additional charge.  You can't make a reservation at Ginza, so either get there right after they open, or plan on dining after 7:30pm, if you don't want to wait 20-30 minutes for a table.

Because we had our 8 year old daughter with us we took full advantage of the Kid's Club, or as they call it, the Splash Academy (although they don't take your children to the kid's pool area at all....hmmmmm, odd they would call it "Splash" then!).  Anyway, the staff was always very pleasant and friendly, and they seem to have a lot of activities for the children to keep them occupied and to tire them out!

One area of the ship that we found disappointing was the Oasis Pool, which was mainly due to the decor.  They have it decorated in very bright orange and green, with lighted palm tree lights on deck 13, which only a few of these lights seemed to be in working order (this was one of the maintenance projects while we were sailing).  Compared to the rest of the ship, this area didn't seem like it belonged -- I felt we were on an entirely different substandard cruise.  I guess the best word to describe the Oasis Pool is "tacky!"  Also, the slides they have, which we didn't try, aren't sloped enough so it didn't look like most people, from kids to adults, were able to slide all the way down without pushing themselves along.  I'm just not sure how that is supposed to be fun!

Our first port, Cabo San Lucas, the ship had to tender so we had to take tender boats back and forth to the ship.  If you were going into port that day then you had to get a "tender ticket" on deck 9.  This wasn't very well publicized, so we saw a lot of people confused about the tender process.  Our tender # was 9, out of 22, and we didn't get to leave the ship until almost 1:00pm!  We were leaving the port at 6:00pm that day. There seemed to be a lot of confusion with the crew on the tender process, or they didn't have enough tender boats operating, or both.  If you had an excursion booked then you are automatically on one of the earlier tender boats, so no worries there.

The disembarkation process in LA couldn't have been easier.  We got back to LA a little early, and if you are willing to take all of your own luggage (which we did) then you can be the first to disembark at about 7:30am, or anytime at your convenience.  We were one of the first people off of the ship at 7:30am, and were in our car in the port parking lot by 8:00am!  It couldn't have been easier!

All in all the cruise was enjoyable and relaxing for us, but I wish the overall service from the crew was better and more consistent, and that there wasn't any maintenance going on while on board!!!

Happy Cruising! Thomas

Too many kids, too loud & constant brain dead music. Needed ear plugs to sleep. Food good, service spotty. Out of cranberry juice 2 days from end of cruise...

Manilla Trio excellent group.  Not enough places for people to get away from kids,music...Two lifeboats/ tenders had engine trouble on first trip to Cabo..Good thing we weren't 500 miles at sea in  emergency......2 elevators shut down when people trying to disembark was stupid.

Enjoyed our cruise to Cabo, but not really a fan of "freestyle dining". We'd never tried it before, and decided that we missed the opportunity to get to know other couples. When you arrive for dinner, if you're just a couple, you'll be seated at a table for two unless you have other couples you're dining with. Also not a big fan of the menus in the 2 main dining rooms. We ate at Aqua one night and Versailles one night. The rest of the time we ate in the buffet, which we loved - it had something every night that my husband (who has a limited diet) could eat.

The entertainment was great - really enjoyed the shows every night.

We went on the Up Close Whale Watching excursion and it was fantasic! We saw mama & baby whales playing (the babies gave us quite the show) and we stayed just far enough away to be respectful but not so far that we couldn't see.

We also went on the El Arco and glass blowing excursion. If you're not really interested in glass blowing, you can skip this, and if you do one trip out on the water, they all stop by El Arco. They did have a great boat with a snack bar, though. I preferred the whale watching, and they got closer to El Arco and the seals, and had a marine biologist on board. 

The entertainment was exceptional and the staff was, for the most part, attentive and friendly; however, the food quality was poor - including specialty dining, meat was overcooked and cold. Main dining room service was slow for all aspects and food quality was poor, desert options tasted awful, hot items were cold, cold items were melted, all items tasted old/expired. Bar staff often had a poor attitude. Buffet staff was cleaning up/taking away food prior to all customers going through the line as well as prior to the scheduled closing time followed by a bad attitude when asked to leave it for upcoming customers. I know this is not the standard for NCL as I was impressed by overall experience when I took my last cruise, although this was many years ago now, perhaps quality has changed. My main concern and disappointment was with food quality and service staff.