Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We sailed on the Star this spring transatlantic from Miami to Barcelona. The journey was excellent in everyway. The captain was outstanding, food service and entertainment great and the cruise it self was a lot of fun. Thanks Norwegian! We will be sailing with you again on the Jewel in November 2019 in the Hawaiian and Polynesian islands. 😎

Good weather, great onboard activites and entertainment, not enough time in ports (why were we leaving by 2pm?), constant gangway problems. Rude passengers

If you want to feel like cattle being herded with a cattle prod this is your cruise

Human error caused ship’s steering to transfer from bridge to engine room. Causing pool water to overflow into library causing electrical short with smoke and shorted elevators in that area. Disappointed with disembarkation in tender ports. It was not a smooth transaction. Bottle necked at stairways as they were calling group numbers before tour customers disembarked. Horrible. When complained I was told that the ship only had 6 employees to handle 2000 plus people doing tours

14-day Panama Canal cruise from Los Angeles to Miami (April 2018/ 2 adults + 2 kids): 👍🏻👍🏻 Itinerary - it was simply a perfect medley between exciting places, beach getaways and sea days. Except for Cartagena we enjoyed all stops, some were much better than expected. 👍🏻👍🏻 Cabin (Mini Suite) - Size (overall space, beds, bath, balcony) exceeded our expectations, and it was still in very good condition. The bed (German size, so almost king-size) was extremely comfy, haven’t slept so well in years. 👍🏻👍🏻 Dinner serving team - although NCL runs the freestyle concept, meaning you don‘t have a firm seating time (and same table every day), we requested the same server and assistant every following day after our first evening as the two were exceptionally courteous and welcoming. They even told the receptionist that they are serving us when we could not be seated in their area, which happened a couple of times. 👍🏻 Food in the main as well as the special restaurants was generally very good. 👍🏻 Excursion guide in Nicaragua - this guy was a living encyclopedia. He gave us such a volume of in-depth information about this country - I can say I have never learned so much about a country in such a short timeframe before. 👍🏻 Shows - great variety. Our favorite was magician and illusionist Michael White. 👍🏻👎🏻 Rest of restaurant staff (breakfast, lunch) - hit or miss. Admittedly the fact that our dinner serving duo stood out by a mile contributed a little bit to this impression. 👍🏻👎🏻 Tender process - very chaotic and insufficient capacity in Cabo San Lucas & San Juan del Sur, but it went much smoother in Grand Cayman. 👎🏻 Disembarkation - took forever, but to be fair it seems that this wasn’t NCL‘s fault. US immigration was clearly understaffed (5 officers for 2500 passengers 🙄). 👎🏻 Cartagena - what a disappointment, can‘t blame NCL for this one though! I really wanted to see the old town, but it was impossible to enjoy it as it was extremely crowded and street hawkers were all over you the whole time, so annoying. Many other passengers felt the same. 👎🏻👎🏻 Checkin - a complete mess. The staff made several conflicting announcements and was extremely slow. They were clearly overstrained. 👎🏻👎🏻 The buffet restaurant aka Market Cafe - quality and variety of food was miserable (no matter at which time of the day), „logistics“ were a nightmare the way it was set up, and the area had the appeal of a school cafeteria. NCL, you gotta step up your game here if you want to be at the same level as your main competitors (Royal Carib. etc.). Again, the few negatives put aside - none of them would hold me back to book with NCL again - overall it was an amazing cruise and worth every $$$ spent. Not many vacations have been as relaxing as this one, 2 weeks felt like a month.

Do another Ship. The Star is riddled with issues. We had a long "listing" event that scared even the staff that thought we were tipping over! The pool emptied out all over the deck flooding the 12 floor, and spilling water falls down to the 11th level. Things slid off the tables everywhere. The Capt. claimed it was human error, but I've rtead that the Star's stabilizers are defective and always needing repairs.

Panama Canal the highlight. Most ports were difficult to get off ship. A very scary listing event while at sea. Great onboard activites, entertainment, service. Ship is old and worn. Lack of public space. Cabin was terrible

Star not the Star of NCL. Apr. 8bthru Apr 22 LA to Miami via the Panama Canal. We have cruised 15 times on NCL and this was the worst cruise we have ever been on. Firstly I need to compliment Helen Gomulo and Luis Romero the customer service managers in their handling of the medical emergency we had on board with our cruise friends, their compassion, professional attitude and rental handling of the situation was exemplary. Alex our bar server was excellent! The steward and wait staff where very good. The capt. kept everyone well informed. Now the bad. The hotel manager was MIA. Areas understaffed, cruise excursions staff unpleasant and unprepared for the ports. In Acapulco we where sent off the ship to wait 45 min. on the dock in the sun and heat until the busses could get to the dock. At every tender port there was mass confusion and bottlenecks in the stairways with no staff from either the excursion desk or cruise director to assist and inform passengers and when responding where nasty. Trying to include 4 stops with 5 hr port calls is silly. Panama Canal transit was informative and well done and really why we went on this cruise. Cruise director and staff did not keep passengers informed except for anything that they where selling. They are more like a sales staff than a cruise staff relying on the daily to get the message out. Debarkiing in Miami was the biggest disaster getting off the ship only to stand in a non moving line for over an hour to collect our luggage then no signage or reps to ask. As a platinum latitudes member we had priorty luggage tags which ended up being stored out of sight in a closed off area after 20 min. Finally found someone who knew where it was and guess who our friendly bar server was the man as he was helping wheelchair people off the ship. Too bad for NCL that this is his last contract. All and all this cruise just did not live up to what we expect from NCL and maybe we will reconsider the next 3 cruises we have booked already

Loved the ports the ship was the worst and the food wasn't very good.

Overall, we loved our cruise. We had a suite so it came with benefits I would have hated to not have like being able to eat in the specialty restaurants at breakfast and lunch. The specialty restaurants were excellent! O'Sheehan's was really good too. Excellent bartenders! And our Beverage Package was absolutely worth it!

Other than the horrific experience of embarking due to negligence by an employee, and a steward that didn't care to clean, my trip was fun. The weather got cold on the last few days, but I can't blame the cruise line or that. The food was good, the entertainment was great.

Overall we enjoyed the itinerary and felt safe the whole time in the ports. The ship definitely needs refurbished. From the layout to the terrible uncomfortable broken seats in the Stardust Lounge. The lack of honoring reservations at the Aqua because of crowds at the entrance. The bad layout of th cabin, table in the hallway and closet facing the bed and tight fit between the bed and closet.

Cruising is always a delightful experience. The Norwegian Star was clean and comfortable. Food was delicious and well-presented, and we especially enjoyed the specialty dining at Cagney's and Le Bistro. There was plenty of the usual cruise activities onboard to keep us busy if we wanted. Our cocktail hours were a highlight because of the truly talented jazz band that played in various bars. The rest of the entertainment was standard cruise ship fare, which isn't bad but we lovingly referred to as "cheesy". The downside was the overall service. With the exception of a few shining stars, the staff overall seemed overworked and not happy, especially the dining staff and bar staff. Service was adequate, but it was "all business" and missing the "spark" and enthusiasm we have experienced on previous cruises that make the experience so special and fun. Not sure if the Freestyle dining (no regular table and wait staff) and daily service charge in lieu of tipping has changed the face of cruising on Norwegian, and so staff has less incentive to go above and beyond? We would have loved to have tipped for exceptional service (and we did when it occurred) but it was not happening as much as on previous cruises.

Really enjoyed our cruise , first time for us on Norwegian , Cabo San Lucas was my favourite stop , we did the whale watching excursion was amazing , Good food in the market cafe always something I liked and I'm quite fussy , the only one we weren't to fussed on was Versailles very slow service and average food ! Entertainment in the theatre was great really enjoyed the shows Cabin was kept clean , tidy and we loved the towel animals every evening very well done Visited the mandara spa a few times all the girls were welcoming and friendly and I can highly recommend Jemma if u fancy a massage We will definitely be doing more cruises with Norwegian soon

Had a wonderful time. I will definitely be going back to Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta in the future.

A few issues but not enough to call it a total bust. Its been 6 years since this family has gotten away. After 7 deaths of family and friends in a two year span and the wife having a double mastectomy and getting through cancer....all but a sinking ship was a better experience for us. [which was actually a concern when one of the ships stacks blew out a burst of black smoke and then the announcement by an apologetic captain that the ship had to change course to be fixed].

Overall we enjoyed ourselves. Parts of this cruise were superb. There were a few problems with the ship, and we felt the ship was a little tired. As this was our first ever cruise, we did not know what to expect. The experience did not put us off cruising but we are not rushing to book another cruise either.

We did not enjoy this cruise based on numerous problems, bad room, food mediocre, service okay in dining room. We have been on 20 cruises and this rates at the bottom.

ALL people were friendly, helpful, warm, welcoming etc from staff, to restaurant to tour guides, locals, etc. Great experience. Will do it again!!

Great first cruise adeventure and so happy......we booked another cruise.