Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Looking back on all the ports, Berlin and St. Petersburg were the only cities  bombed during WWII so it was really amazing to see Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen how they blended historic buildings with sky scrapers. 

The ship (Norwegian Star) was great; the service was amazing; the food not so good!  We were in a mini-suite on Deck 11; it had plenty of room and the outside deck (2 chairs+small table) was great.  The on-board activities were plentiful and the nightly entertainment shows were top-notch.  The staff from our cabin steward to the wait staff to the admin folks were great; friendly, personable, customer-focused.  The food in the two main restaurants (Versailles, Aqua) and the buffet/cafeteria (Market Cafe) were pretty bad!  We would put them on a par with airplane/hospital/school institutional type food.  We ate at 3 of the specialty (extra $'s!) restaurants; Cagney Steakhouse (great!); La Cucina Italian (very good); Ginza Chinese (just a notch about main free restuarants; not very good).  The destinations on this cruise were great; we enjoyed every single stop!

cruise was to short we loved every hour and every port ncl  was the best our cabin4501 was very  noise filled even in port we talked to the staff and they moved us to cabin9675 very nice and quiet the whole trip was wonderfull

Our family just spent 9 nights in the Baltic on the Norwegian Star on the 14 th floor in one of their 2 Villa's.  To say that we were treated like Royalty would still not do justice to the amazing cruise.  The 3 bedroom, 3 bath Villa with 2 (yes, that is correct) massive patio's totally almost 6,000 square feet (no I am not exaggerating!), a Grand Piano, private Jacuzzi is still underestimating the impact of walking into  your living room with gigantic floor to ceiling windows overlooking the pool area of the ship.  Our bathrooms, bedrooms, walk in closets all were large, luxurious and very hard to leave on our last day.  If anyone wants to experience how royalty travels, I recommend booking one of only 2 Villa's as soon as possible!  The experience will far exceed your wildest expectations!!

This was our first time on NCL, after 7 previous cruises on 6 other lines (we're not very loyal cruisers, are we?). The service on the Star was fine, but what really irked me was the mandatory $12/day/person gratuity charge. Where was the incentive for the service people, they'd get their gratuity no matter what?! I wish NCL would just build in that gratuity in the price, or better yet, pay their employees what they're worth to begin with. I was also a bit irked with the constant efforts to squeeze more money out of us - the obnoxious photo-taking (only $20 a picture!), the spa treatments, the shops, the specialty restaurants, etc.etc. I took note of a poster down on the 4th deck from which we always left the boat for shore. I don't think this poster was supposed to be seen by us passengers: it was a list of the 4 "tenets" of NCL and number one was, in essence, generate revenue; number 2 is the guests (passengers). Our comfort and experience rates below them making more money! OK, I get it, that's what they are all about, but please, don't make it so in-our-face with that poster!!

The food was fine, although we avoided the Market Place (buffet) for dinner; breakfast was chaotic enough with lots of people jostling, etc. I thought the food for breakfast was just fine, lots of fresh fruit including a favorite of mine, watermelon. I always had fruit and pastries/bread, so I can't comment on any of the other foods they offered, but they seemed to look fine. The coffee isn't very good but if you add milk and sugar it suffices. The coffee cups are pretty small, compared to what I'm used to so I had to make multiple trips to refill. We ate dinner at either the Versailles (nice, calm, quiet, but they ask for a slightly more "nice" dress style, which you can ignore, of course) or the Aqua rooms (same food, same good service, more casual dress expectations, but much louder room). We never ate at any of the specialty restaurants on principle - didn't want to give NCL more of our money just to eat when we could eat for "free" in the other places. The food was fine, not exceptional but good to eat, prepared nicely, served politely.

We didn't buy any of NCL's shore excursions with the exception of booking the Hop On Hop Off bus in Helsinki and Stockholm, so we'd be sure that bus would take us directly from and back to the ship. In Warnemunde (Germany) we had the most delightful day touring the area with Friends of Dave tours. He's an ex-pat, has lived there 15 years, very personable, fun, knowledgeable. The bus only holds 19 tourists and we didn't quite fill the bus so the group was a great size. Note: he doesn't always offer tours for every day a ship is in port. In St. Petersburg we had another very delightful tour with SPb Tours (they also do tours of some of the other port cities). Our guide was Tatiana and she showed us, however briefly due to the enormity of this town and our limited 2 days there, not only her city and it's treasures but also that Russians are people just like us. In the other ports, with "Top 10" guides in hand,  we winged it on our own and had a fine time. Here's another annoyance with NCL - the information about each port was scant on the daily sheets they put in our cabins. It would have been nice to have a map, local info etc. given to us each day as we've received on other cruise lines.

Overall, we did have a good trip, but may not choose NCL in the future.

This is a great cruise to discover the Scandinavian countries and an easy way to see St. Petersburg Russia. We have cruised a number of times and found this particular Norwegian ship and crew merely adequate. The food quality and availability was sub par and many of the crew seemed less than motivated. The itinerary seemed appropriate. The biggest question would be whether it is worth the effort and cost to go into Berlin, as it requires an almost 3 hour bus ride (probably less by train) each way and adds additional cost. We went with a Berlin tour operator not associated with the cruise line which cost far less than the NCL tour excursions and broke into much smaller groups in Berlin, making it easier to move about. We found Berlin was probably worth the effort as it has changed considerably since I was last there and offers many interesting sights. However, if you are on a tighter budget, you may want to forgo this excursion as other cities offer many of the same experiences.

I compare my Princess cruise (P)  experience (5) with NCL(2)

I likes the food better on the menu at P classic menu includes shrimp coctails and last night baked alaska

not seen at NCL.Also movies at the lage pool about 10 hrs/day.

The gym facilities are nicer on P.

For the most most other things are about equal which means very good.

The entertaintainment on NCL is a little better/

Itinanery was great. Buffet was terrible - no variety at all, there were no fruits, watermelon was half rotten. You had to fight for a table. Tables weren't clean. Utensils weren't readily available, had to run and look for them. To get food you had to wait in long lines.

There were 12 of us. To get into a restaurant for dinner, we had to wait in line. When we asked if we can reserve the table for 12, we were told that it's not possble. towards the end of the voyage, we were told that it was possible to reserve table for 12. looks like management either absent or does not care. Last year we went to Medetarenian on Holland America and there is no comparison at all

This was our forth such cuises and definitely the best.  Aside from friendliness of the staff and cleanliness of the room and the ship overall, officials were very helpfull in following up with our lost luggages which did not arrive from the airline.  Food selection was excellent and we particularly liked the open seating and not being assigned to a particular dinning room, table, and group of people.

We really enjoyed this wonderful trip on the Norwegian Star. Everything was great, starting from room, facilities, spa, dining and service. Definitely recommend this cruise.

This cruise was both good and bad.

The positives are the port itinerary it was absolutely phenomenal. So much to see but yet so little time. It was as if we were walking through history.

The evening entertainment shows were exceptional every night of the cruise. Be sure to catch Ian, the cruise director's magic show, he is a very accomplished magician.

The negatives. The lifeboat drill is a farce we never did know where our lifeboat would be in case of emergency. It was nothing like my previous five cruises.

In the Versailles  dining room at several times we had stained napkins, not very appealing. In our cabin our bathmat had a hole in about half of the cruise, again that did not leave a good impression.

In the café even though it was posted do not refill glasses or personal water bottles psgrs did it all the time it was a very unsanitary situation.

As for their shore excursions I only went on one invited personally booked most of my own. It was probably a good thing that I only did one. The tour operator gave us incorrect information about a shuttle bus and consequently we were stranded in town and had no ride back to the ship. A Cunard cruise ship representative was able to assist us to find a bus back to the ship. NCL refunded the cost of our bus ticket, but made no compensation for the 90 minutes we waited for a non-existent shuttle. I think they got off cheap since if we would have missed the ship they would have had to pay for transportation to our next port.

With the ships itinerary sunset arrives very late in the evening. April went out on deck to watch the sunset and afterwards many come indoors to look for something to eat ice cream or pizza or something. There is no food available at that time unless you go to the small Blue Lagoon restaurant. Again I don't feel this is very good planning.

Overall, this cruise is relaxing just like all the cruise I took before.  However, the food is not as great as others NCL I took before.  Service are OK, and crew member are friendly... at least, my teenage daughter had great time to chat with them.

Here is the horrible start begin... I studied before the trip and find the instruction from NCL website about travelling from airport to ship.  Apparently, the info is incorrect.  So, after 24 hours flight, we took the metro and s-tran... then got off the station which is not where the ship is.  We walked with luggages and find many people give many answers... but none point us to the ship.  We walked 1.5 hours, not 15 min, finally reach the port with near death experience.  What can I say... we made... but this is the unforgetable event in our vacation... FYI, when you get off the train, take bus 26, which will take you to the terminal... that saves 1.5 hours wondering in still-working ports.

We made a mistake of buying the cruise from Cruises Only. We bought the excursions from the site provided not realizing that this site has nothing to do with Norwegian. We ended up with getting poor quality excursions in every city.

St. Petersburg: on both days we lost time sitting in traffic for hours. That caused such delays that we were rushed through Hermitage museum. Both meals were awful. The bus was very small and packed to the last seat.

Helsinki and Stockholm: the instructions for the buss and boat hop on and off were incorrect. The staff didn't recognize our tickets. We waited for 1.5 hrs on the bus regardless of the instrutions on the tickets.

We will never use Cruises Only in  the future.

The food was better than on other cruise ships i have sailed. The service was good but not as good as on some other ships.  Getting on and off was a dream.  Port calls were very interesting.  The only problem was the cold weather, sideways sleet is not my idea of June 20. I would recomend it.

As noted above we really appreciated St Pete.  One needs at least two days to appreciate The Hermitage, Peterhoff Palace, Church of the Spilled Blood and St Peter and Paul's Church..  Didn't have time to include the Palace of Catherine. Taking the hydrofoil from Peterhoff back to St Pete was a thrill.Traffic in the city was terrible.  Best take a tour with someone else driving.

We would question the time required to get to/from the port to see Berlin.  It was at least a  two hour train trip each way.  Unless one had a specific desire to see Berlin I think time would be better spent seeing another day in Stockholm.or Helsinki.

Copenhagen was very nice and for those entertaining  taking this cruise I would suggest spending a complete day there prior to or upon returning.  We stayed at a Raddison  right accross the street from Tivoli Gardens. The Gardens are  quite nice and worth the time .Taking the Hop Off/On Buss and Boat tour was another plus.

The ship was o k.  Service in the dinning rooms( excluding the buffet) was good but not terrific. Food itself  was o k but not great . The specialty resturants were good especially La Cuchina. Some areas  on the ship such as metal on the veranda needed attention as rust was evident.

We enjoyed our two previous two cruises on Holland America better.The ships and food were better. The cruise out of Venice to Greece,Turkey and Dalmatia were was our best, especially seeing Istanbul and Ephesus.

The tours were expensive but worth it.  I would especially recommend St. Petersburg and Berlin.  The palaces in St Petersburg were spectacular.  Seeing the Berlin wall and check point Charlie were interesting.  The tours we took of Stockholm and Helsinky were nice but nothing fabulous.  I did enjoy the town of Tallin.  We had unseasonably cold weather but it was sitll beautiful.

This was an exceptional experience which I truly loved and constantly think of.  The crew were friendly and professional.  The sanitation was constant and I never worried about being sick.  I felt safe personally, as well as with my property.

 The food was good, though at times pretty bland.  Eating at the Speciality Restaurants was great.

I've traveled on one other cruise which had exceptional food, though that got tiring as well.

I, very much, liked the organization of the cruise when letting people off the boat.  In the past, I've 

experienced people crowding into each other to get off.

I have a tendency to get sea sick and did not experience that on this trip.

When I schedule another cruise, I would definitely choose Norwegian Cruise Line.

Thank You!!

So many wonderful things to see and do on this itinerary!  Our stateroom stewardess was wonderful.  The food and service in the dinning rooms was not as good as previous cruises.  The two shore excursions we booked through the cruise line were very good.  We found a lot of value for the price!

Regular dining menu brand new - big improvment in food variety and taste.

Buffet food was also good with variety and good taste.

Great entertainment - better than any cruise line I had experience. I had 8 cruises with Princess, 1 cruise with RCI, 1 one Carnaval, This was my 2nd NCL cruise.

Room was spotless with supply of ice and nice surprises of great towel art.

Everything exceed my expectation!

Great ports!  Ship is older, but well-maintained and clean.  Crew was friendly and helpful.  Shows were good with a wide variety of entertainment.  Dining rooms did a super job of seating and serving 15 of us every night, typically without a reservation at around 2030.  Did eat one night in La Cuchina (Italian) as a group, very good.  Entertainment in the bar areas was excellent, fun and easy listening. 

Difficult to find and get to the new cruise terminal in Copenhagen... taxi driver was lost within the port area, but we eventually followed another taxi and found the new entrance to the terminal. 

Check in and load aboard went very smoothly with little time waiting in line. 

Luggage was in the room after we had lunch at the buffet... very efficient! 

Underway was on time and provided some great views departing Copenhagen. 

Bought train tickets in Wannermunde for a ride to Rostock.  Returned and wandered around the port city of Wannermunde, had dinner on a canal and enjoyed the evening. 

Tallin was very easy to walk to the old city from the pier and spend time wandering around and shopping in the old city shops. 

Shore excursions in St. Petersburg required if you are US citizen or you can get your own visa with a letter of sponorship, but costly and takes time to process.  Norwegian sponsored shore excursions were well worth doing. 

Helsinki was easy to buy buy hop-on-hop-off bus passes at the pier and a boat tour at the center market of the city/port. 

Stockholm was overwhelmed with cruise ships the day we visited, 7 in port.  The Vasa museum tour was a must as a shore excursion since as an individual the line to buy a ticket was a kilometer long!  Even in the group the Vasa was still worth seeing for the one hour alloted... more time would have been better. Also, visited an ice bar for the experience and enjoyed vodka in an ice glass dressed in cold-weather gear in the bar. Having signed up for the shore excursion probably allowed us to bypass some lines and maximize our time in port in Stockholm. 

All the ports were very beautiful, with incredible scenery on arrivals and departures.  Sunrises were very early and sunsets were very late allowing for great views. 

Very good bargains onboard the ship... save your money in Russia, spend it on the ship at the Russian Bazzar on the last at-sea day.  You'll get better quality and a better price for the same merchandise the tour stops were offering. 

All in all, the cruise met expectations and the Baltic capitals are definitely worth visiting.