Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was wonderful cruise and itinerary! We LOVE Norwegian’s “freestyle” cruising. So much freedom, no limitations. NCL is definitely our favorite cruise line by far! Can’t wait to choose another great itinerary!

After reading reviews of NCL Star i was a bit nervous. No idea what others problems are but the Star was amazing from embarkation to disembarking. If I had any complaints at all, and they would be very very small complaints is the wait staff was unsure on drinks and keeping water full, but this was extremely minor and with it being a very new crew we didn't find it to be of any inconvenience. The staff was very fun to talk to and we had a lot of good laughs with them. The entertainment on board was so so, but as this is mostly an older crowd and I have no previous references to NCL as it's my first time, I have no real complaints here. Would loved to have had at least one comedy show. The only real complaint we have is their air to sea program is not good at all. We asked to fly in 2 days early, they booked our hotel and then booked the flight for the day of. Took 3 weeks for them to say their was nothing they could do to fix it. We had to refund the 500 and pay 1500 for flights on our own. They at least gave us 2 cabin categories upgrade. In all, this was a fantastic cruise and don't mind using NCL again.

Best itinerary to see the best of the Baltics. Star was just the right size. Never felt crowded.

Wonder 12 days on a great itinerary and a great ship

I wished we could have continued another 12 days! We enjoyed the port and like the excursions. Highly recommend!

We choose this cruise because of the opportunity to visit Greenland for the first time and return to Iceland which we had seen on an NCL cruise 5 years ago but not on the Star but on the Gem. We were concerned that the ship was much smaller and older then the ships we typically travel but because of the ports we decided to book it. By the time of our cruise we were aware the last scheduled cruise to Greenland had been cancelled on embarkation day an went to Norway instead, so we were prepared for that route change fortunately our cruise ports did not change on embarkation day and continued as scheduled. However after realizing wind and weather conditions the captain cancelled the tender port in Grundaforjadur and Paamiuut (?). One in Iceland and One in Greenland. We received no compensation, no refund of port changes or any additional credits because of the change. Just excursion refunds. The STAR : since its refub in 2018 and lack of sailings the ship was in excellent condition from bow to stern. To me it appeared to be a brand new ship, exceptionally clean, maintained, decorated in todays typical boutique fashion. Nothing appeared DATED and Abused. Other than size it was excellent. The only drawback was with the conversion of the Spinnaker lounge to guest cabins it did reduce the common seating with views. I did miss that. Since we had several sea days with cold, windy fog there wasnt a lot of time outdoors and the ship began to feel tight but we managed to stay active and busy. I also enjoyed this ship had a wrap around promenade deck that offered great views and walking around the entire ship. Something you cant find on most newer ships. Customer Service shout out x Mid way through the cruise the ship bars had stated they were out of Pepsi Max which is the only "non sugar" soft drink beverage onboard which I thought was odd. With drink package you can only get soda in a cup from fountain and NOT CANS. According to staff they were out of it all except in MDR but that is closed and not accessible. As I had the drink package. I asked the beverage manager if bottled water would be substituted since I cant drink regular soda." he said NO. When I explained I was disappointed that we had over half the cruise and no DIET soda he said he would try to fix it. Immediately he called several bars and located 2 cans and bought to me and my spouse on the Spice deck. He apologized and said he located additional cans and had it delivered to my room. I was fairly impressed with the service. Later when back in cabin (four cans on bed with note) i had a knock at the door and bar staff had brought me 6 additional cans with apologize notes from the bar manager. This was exceptional and exceeding my expectation of just getting one drink for the afternoon. These drinks lasted us the entire cruise. Really exceeded my expectations. Also I had misplaced my dining vouchers on the second day. I went to the cruise next desk and explained by problem. they asked me to look again and return. Odd but I did and came back and the cruise next guy issued me a second set. Which was very nice. However i did recommend they do this electronically as paper coupons seemed fairly obsolete and easy to lose in the chaos of a vacation and he agreed as well Spice Bar Raj, was an excellent bartender. Made drinks accurately, suggested drinks, engaged with customers and introduced people to each other. Nice and pleasant and carried conversations with everyone. This is a small area with only 10 seats at bar. he would bring in chairs and created a real nice pub atmosphere. By the end of the cruise if you didnt get to his bar by 5 it was packed. Great time was had nightly here. Main Dining Room We had the best service in Aqua. 2 (dinner) x food service was efficient, fast, friendly. We ate in Verasaille 2x (lunch, dinner) and each time the service was slow, exceptionally long, rushed and chaotic. On our dinner visit our server and assistants were so rushed he was literally throwing items on the table, drink orders unfilled, slamming dishes in the bus cart behind us, serving wrong dishes, forgot main entree order and had to wait for it to return, apologizing to all guests saying he was so busy and short staffed. we only stayed because we had a table at the aft dining windows and it was nice view. But eventually we left without dessert, as did others, as wait was too long. Food was good overall. Specialty Dining Moderno x2 - nice atmosphere, not overly crowded. Meat was excellent, service was excellent. If you felt like you needed additional meats or another go around a quick mention to a server was all that was needed. Great view from restaurant. La Cucina - Same as above. no issues during our meal and we almost going to dine here twice but didnt have the opportunity. Nice interior setting. Good service. Le Bistro - Dined here as we have several times and menu keeps getting smaller and less choices with dining package. Our server was nice and efficient but It was by NO means fine dining service it was delivered in the same manner as the MDR and other Specialty restaurants. My food was Okay and as I write this I don't even remember what I ate. All very forgettable. Had I paid the 200+ price for ala carte I would have jumped overboard. Also no dress code enforcement. Cagney's Same as Le Bistro- diminishing returns. Had the porterhouse and it was cooked well and seasoned appropriately. The sides were okay but nothing beyond steakhouse items. Service wasn't exceptional. My main issue was that I was having another 200 dollar meal next to a toddler in a high chair screaming periodically during dinner. During the dinner the family gave the child bread to play with and the entire floor was covered in bread, food and crumbs. I sat looking at this mess the entire meal. No staff attempted to sweep up the mess. It was like eating at the golden corral. Very sad and embarrassing for NCL. Had I not had a voucher I would have complained. Ginza - it's american chinese food. Closely packed restaurant. Sufficient service. Buffet Good variety and choices in the usual stations on a daily bases. Not too many repeat items besides breakfast. I was always able to find something of novelty, delicious and never leave hungry. Main issues for most people was self serve ice cream was frequently out of order Lol. Shows they ran from the poor (juggler and magic act) to the good (paradise). Enough to keep you busy on a nightly basis. Casino I normally play but this casino but it was DEAD daily and nightly, small, older machines and had no excitement. I dropped some money the first night and lost all. Had no desire to return after that. This was unusual for me as well.

Loved the itinerary, but very busy (no at sea days to relax). Hard to travel so far and not see everything you possibly can! Such beautiful ports.

Loved everything! A once in a lifetime itinerary!

DO NOT BOOK WITH NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES (NCL) Our family booked a Mediterranean Cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) and we were excited to be departing the port of Venice on April 13, 2022, ONLY IT DID NOT ACTUALLY DEPART FROM VENICE, ITALY. Without providing any communication or notification to us, NCL changed the departure port from Venice, Italy to Trieste, Italy some 163 kilometers away. Upon arrival at departure port in Venice we learned of the change of the departure port and scrambled to book a taxi for 300 Euros to travel between Venice and Trieste. A discussion with an NCL representative over the phone as we were racing across the Italian countryside was that if we missed the departure time the ship would sail without us. We made the departure time with 25 minutes to spare. We later learned that there were several other families that ran into the same difficulty and the ship’s departure was ultimately delayed by over two hours. We raised the issue for reimbursement of the taxi ride on the ship and we were assured that this issue would be dealt with post-cruise. We were concerned about handling this post-cruise as once off the ship, we felt that this would be a battle with NCL but I did not want to be “that guy” so we took NCL at their word that this issue would be amicably resolved post-cruise which of course it has not been. Post-cruise we were asked to complete an NCL form as this was the only way that NCL would consider the reimbursement. When we indicated that we had difficulty completing the form the NCL representative said that “no other guests ever had difficulty completing the form”. After essentially being told, in a not so subtle way, that I was an idiot, I asked if I could handle it the old fashioned way and simply be allowed to tell the NCL representative what the issue was however the NCL representative refused and shortly thereafter the call was mysteriously disconnected. Thereafter we contacted another NCL representative who through a direct quote out of his email to me referencing the NCL form he stated, “Unfortunately I am encountering a similar problem and I was unable to submit the case for you.” After having contact with 7 different representatives with NCL I finally was able to submit the form. Within one week I received a response back from NCL, which frankly was the only aspect of this experience where NCL exceeded my expectations. However, the response was a form letter with minimal changes to reflect my specific concerns and rejecting our reimbursement claim. It stated in part and again directly out NCL’s letter: “No other portion of our scheduled itineraries were impacted by this change.” This is akin to stating that every other meal was fine except the meal that caused food poisoning. Further directly quoting from NCL’s letter it stated: “Under the terms and conditions of our Passenger Ticket Contract, Norwegian Cruise Line in its sole discretion may cancel, postpone or delay any port of call without prior notification.” Frankly this would make sense and would be understandable if you were scheduled to dock in a port and inclement weather prevented the docking for safety reasons. This situation is not analogous, as NCL had ample warning of the situation (my understanding over 2 months) with the change in the departure port and informed some of its guests but not other guests as became readily apparent in discussing our circumstances with other guests. What makes it even more egregious on the part of NCL is that we received several emails after we booked our cruise from NCL offering upgrades and other options but no mention that a fundamental term of the cruise itinerary changed. I can’t imagine booking a flight with any airline in the world whereby if I were scheduled to fly out of one city that the airline would not contact me to indicate that the departure city had changed to one 163 kilometers away. Heck, airlines will inform you if a departure time is changed by 10 minutes. Any rational, reasonable individual would anticipate that if the departure port was changed that they would be forewarned. It would be interesting to see the reaction of an NCL representative who arrived at an airport in New York for a flight only be told that the flight had been rescheduled to fly out of Boston without notification to you and if you want to make that flight you have two hours to get to Boston. NCL references their Passage Ticket Contract for me to review its terms and conditions. When attempting to access it online it states: “Looks like this page took a permanent vacation.” It is only recently that they have now fixed this error. Further I find it ironic that NCL referred me to their website for their terms and conditions (which at the time were unavailable) but the same website does not even list Trieste as a departure port and still has Venice as a departure port even though NCL is no longer able to sail out of Venice. Even after alerting NCL of this, the website page has changed but the error remains. I suspect that NCL will now revise that portion of their website. Lastly, NCL states in its letter: “Regrettably, we are unable to honor your request for compensation or refund, as it would be inconsistent for us to make an exception when other guests were not offered compensation.” I find it absurd that NCL would argue that since they have treated other guests unreasonably that they would handle my situation in the same unreasonable manner under the guise to remain consistent. If consistency is NCL’s guiding principle, this is easily solvable, reimburse all guests their out-of-pocket expenses incurred as a result of not notifying some guests of the change to the departure port. I have reiterated my request of NCL for reimbursement in a similar fashion to this post. Regrettably, but unfortunately not unexpectedly, I have yet to hear back from NCL. If this in itself is not enough to reconsider and “Not book with Norwegian Cruise Lines” then I also offer the following: I find it remarkable that after two years of dealing with COVID which has had a debilitating effect on the cruise industry that NCL would handle this matter in this way. It was apparent to us very early on that NCL’s handling of COVID is not in line with the COVID policies that they purport to uphold and are required to abide with under the EU Healthy Gateways Policy. On April 7, 2022, six days prior to departure of our cruise we were informed that the EU Healthy Gateway policy had changed as of April 1, 2022. The policy now stated that: “In addition to above, EU Healthy Gateways currently defines individuals as 'Fully Vaccinated' against COVID-19 if they carry proof of vaccination with at least 14 days and no more than 270 days passed since the last dose of the primary vaccination series or if they have received a third or booster dose. To clarify, guests that have received a booster dose can travel regardless of the amount of time that has passed since their booster dose. Guests who cannot meet the EU Healthy Gateways definition of 'Fully Vaccinated' should not travel to the ship as they will be unable to board.” This was no difficulty for my wife and I as we were triple vaccinated but my 15-year-old son last vaccination had been approximately 285 days earlier and prior to departure for Europe he was not yet eligible to receive a booster shot. After some discussion with NCL they made an exception for my son to travel if he received a booster shot prior to departure on April 13, 2022. This of course was also outside of the minimum 14 days that he needed to have his booster shot as he ended up only being boosted 3 days prior to departure, which NCL was well aware of. Again directly out of an email sent to me by an NCL representative on April 8, 2022 he states: “Further to our discussion, I would like to confirm to you that as long as a guest have received a booster dose, they can travel on NCL vessels regardless of the amount of time that has passed since their booster dose. And in other words in your son’s case, as long as he can get his booster shot before embarking on 13th April, 2022, he is fulfilling our vaccination requirements for sailing in Europe.” As a result, it became readily apparent that NCL was willing to breach the EU Healthy Gateways policy that they were required to adhere to. This is an illustration that NCL’s commitment to protect their guests from a COVID outbreak is moreso about optics and does not reflect what happens in practice. Please consider this real-life story when assessing whether to book with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). If you are concerned with customer service, I would suggest that you should not book with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). If you are concerned with adherence to government mandated COVID policies, I would suggest that you should not book with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). I would be interested to hear of any other customer service issues that guests have encountered with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL).

Wonderful cruise of South America! This was my first experience cruising South America.

A good starter for a look at some of the South American countries . Relaxing way to go. Shame about the pandemic though. Put a damper on things

Great cruise till the end when our back to back was cancelled. The least Norwegian could have done would have been to give us a free ride to the airport in Santiago but the charged us $65 a person for that. Luckedly we were able to book American Airlines back to Kansas City for that day but we paid a high price for it and had to pay from Orlando too for a flight we wont take as we cant get a refund.

Wonderful experience. Bucket list success. Highlights were the glaciers, Iguazu falls excursion out of Buenos Aires. Had a great cruise.

This cruise was great, amazing food, great entertainment. Didn't like the freestyle thing.

The cruise, room and cleaning of the room was perfect. But the food and the service in the restaurant was not. They have two or three waiters that are good, sharp and very attentive but the majority of the staff they don’t care. Really love traveling this is my 12 cruise is the first time I feel the employee was there and don’t care for doing a good job.

It was nice. Went by quick. Colder than I e or Ted. Sea days spent inside because of high winds, seas, or coldness

Make sure the excursions are as they describe them.

We have cruised with Princess, RC, Carnival, and Celebrity. This was our first cruise with NCL. We were very impressed with this cruise line. This cruise was from Dec 21, 2019 in San Antonio to Jan 4, 2020 in Buenos Aires. Embarking The embarking and debarking process are very slow. You make line after line. The terminals are in cargo piers and have to take a shuttle bus from the terminal to the ship. Cabin. The balcony cabin layout is well designed. Even though there is slightly less room space, the partitioned bathroom area has the best layout seen. The closet layout is well organized and allow to store the suitcases inside. It does not have the cumbersome coffee table that is seldom used, allowing more space in the cabin. It offers one electrical outlet each for US/EU/UK. If you want to use all three, please bring one adapter for each outlet. The bed lamps have USB charging outlets next to the switch, and there are other USB connectors next to the AC outlets. The cabin is very comfortable for a couple. The soundproofing could be better. You can hear the adjoining cabins if they speak loudly or turn their TV volumes loud. Be mindful when using the TV or talking aloud. WiFi is slow. For laundry service in this cruise, there were three days when they offer to wash everything that can fit in the bag for $19.99. The Cabin Steward kept the cabin clean and they sanitized the door and hallway handles. If you want to get the best view from your balcony, please choose the side of the ship that will face inland, depending on the route. Dining Food at the Buffet was well stocked and organized. Food did not stand for long and they were restocking as needed. The staff was always cleaning and checking the tables at the buffet. Be advised that in this particular itinerary, especially on sea days, many passengers choose to use the buffet as lounge, going for breakfast, staying over for Wi-Fi, reading, playing cards, and go on for lunch and dinner. This makes difficult finding a place to eat at the buffet. O ’Sheehan’s gets packed during the day, many guests lounge there after dining, you may want to go early for lunch. Soft Serve Ice Cream at the buffet may be better. It melts too fast! Service at the Main Dining Room was quick and good. Best times for the MDR are before 7:00 PM. The Oriental Restaurant fills up very fast and has a 45min-1 hour wait time. If you want to dine right away, be there at 5:30 PM sharp. After that, you make the waiting list. If you do not want to make lines for dinner, the Buffet prepared themed dinners nightly with very good menu choices. Itinerary This itinerary has a comfortable pace. It allows you to rest a day before the next port. Due to the ongoing engine trouble, the ship was traveling first at 19 knots, then at 13. Our cruise shortened some port times to leave early and arrive late. The glacier scenic cruising was outstanding. The best glacier views are in the north side. Strong winds and high waves made us miss circling Cape Horn. Engine trouble delayed leaving the Falkland Islands nine hours late. The call at Puerto Madryn was canceled and it became another sea day. We only got the port fees reimbursed. Tendering is a pain. If you are not in a ship tour, or are Priority Tender, you have to run to the Bliss Lounge to get a ticket for an early tender wait in your cabin for your tender number to be called. Then walk a downstairs line to the tender. In some ports, the tender trip takes 30 minutes. Holiday Events The Christmas worship service was very good. Crewmembers organized, performed, directed, and also attended alongside the guests. One crewmember led the songs and also preached the Word as good as an ordained minister. There were Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve celebrations in various ship venues. For safety reasons, they did not shoot fireworks. When we arrived, the ship was fully decorated for the holidays and everything was removed before we disembarked. There were special menus for both Christmas and New Year holidays. Theater The shows at the theater were very good. You have to get in early to get a good seat. Even though there is a no-seat-saving policy, many guests disregarded it and saved seats for their parties. Shore Tours The San Antonio Port is two hours away from Santiago. The best way to get to and from San Antonio is to take a tour that takes you to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso in the way there. We mostly used shore tours advertised with Trip Advisor. They were better priced, have smaller groups and offered more personalized service than the ship-sponsored tours. They stick to the ship’s schedule and ensure you’re back on time. The only two ship-sponsored tours we took were at Port Chacabuco and the Iguazu Falls tour upon debarking. Climate Even though is summertime in South America, please plan for layering. Santiago, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires have summer weather. Ushaia, Punta Arenas, and The Falklands have winter weather. The other ports have Fall to Winter weather. Many guests were buying coats and sweaters on ship to bear the cold temperatures outside. Final Our experience with this NCL cruise was outstanding. We loved the “Freestyle Cruising” when you can wear anything anywhere, saving valuable suitcase space. We noticed passengers from all over the world, and from all age groups. Overall service by everyone was outstanding. We will certainly consider NCL as a future cruise option.

This was not a typical cruise. There were more sea days than most cruises, and even in summer the weather was cold most of the time. But it was a fabulous experience, with incredible scenery and animal views. Great way to see a remote part of the world. Ship was older but well maintained, with plenty of activities and excellent entertainment.

Do not sail on the Norwegian Star until they fix the engine (azipod) issues. You will miss ports or spend a shorter time in ports then they say. You will then get extra sea days instead. This ship has had problems since it was put into service and they did not fix the problem when it was in renovations in 2018. Food had progressively gotten worse on Norwegian since they went to the "Freestyle Dining" system. Basically what they have done is made the food at the complimentary restaurants and buffet very poor hoping you will pay the expensive prices at there specialty restaurants. I will not be sailing on Norwegian again after this experience.