Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Preface - we had traveled 8 times on NCL in a 10 year period during the 1990's.  Always enjoyed the ports, food, service and organization on the ship.   However, times have changed.

We did have a good time

Check in - we get to the ship (via taxi - shared a cab with another couple - ($25+ tip split by two couples from the airport - versus at least $25 per person for transfers through NCL)

Relative confusion - - very long line to enter the building

We're able to get to the front of the line since my husband requested a wheelchair to board the ship.  Check in was relatively smooth.

Then we get to wait another few minutes for a wheelchair to take us onto the ship

The young man pushing the wheelchair does his best, but once we get on the ship, he puts us in line at the front desk.  When we get to the actually desk, they ask what I need and I say 'I don't know - the young man pushed us here...'    On to our cabin.

The cabin was a typical cabin - DING - only one US electrical socket - passengers (smart ones like us) should bring a plug strip if they plan to plug in more than one item.  Since husband has his CPAP machine and I have my gadgets, we were prepared.  We also brought an extension cord which the cabin steward was kind enough to tape down to the rug.  We also asked for and were provided a 'sharps' container' for husband's insulin needles.

First night we went to O'Sheehan's Bar and Grill for their special roast beef dinner - - food AMAZING - service - the absolute worst.  We (and other passengers) were flagging down Managers to wait on people who sat for an hour with just a glass of water, no menu.  The people had (excuse the language) no balls and weren't making any fuss, but they probably sat for over an hour before even having their order taken.

We tried O'Sheehan's another night - service was a tiny bit better, but the food wasn't great, so we just ate a taste and went to the Market Café (buffet) for the rest of our dinner.

I know I'm old fashioned, but husband and I only play card games when we're on cruises.  I neglected to bring two decks (which we need for the game we play - I only brought one) so we went to find the 'game room'.  Well, one of the conference rooms next to the Library did have a few games (not nearly enough for the size of the ship, but I digress) but no playing cards.  Next, I went to the Casino, figuring they might have some - - I was looked at like I had three heads and told 'no, we don't sell any cards here'...  No, I wasn't looking to purchase cards...  Thirdly, I went to the front desk and a lovely young woman said, sure - we have cards and gave me what I needed.   Poor communication - - there could have been a sign in the 'game room' and/or the Casino could have referred me to the front desk.  But, no, I had to go all over the ship to get some cards.

We enjoyed the churrascaria one evening - - food was good, however, one of the items on the menu - a shrimp dish (even though all the foods are brought automatically (or so we thought from experience with this type of meal all over the world) wasn't brought around and when we finally asked about it, they stated we had to order it special - - nothing on the menu or from the waiter.  Did we still want to wait the extra 15 minutes for them to prepare it?  Yes, we did and it was delicious.   Was the meal worth another $40+ - - not so sure.

The Italian restaurant (La Cucina) was also very good and service was 98% good.  Had a great conversation with the Maitre d' which kind of made the evening.

We made the acquaintance of a few servers who called us by name when they saw us (in the Market Cafe, which we ate it more frequently since it was just easier). 

We did eat in Aqua once - okay but nothing to write home about.

Since we only got sodas a couple of times, it was interesting to learn that (1) if you had the soda package, they gave you a glass of ice with the soda poured into it, but (2) if you were paying for it, you were to get a can of soda and a glass of ice (which actually was like two glassfuls.  We got skunked once before I found this out, but made out fine since the night we went to Aqua, I had my card out to pay for our sodas and they didn't charge us.  I made the effort - they lose.

Some other passengers were telling us that even at over $60 per person per day for the alcohol package, some people were being told they could or couldn't order certain items and if the passenger challenged it with a manager were told that the negative information was incorrect.  How many people are they abusing?

Free gratuities was a perfect bonus for us to use...

Ports were fine since we'd done the spots before, so we just got off the ship and went through the shopping area for a while.  Just fine. 

The 'freestyle' dining meant that 99% of the time, passengers did not dress up at all - shorts and tee shirts in almost every venue.  Yes, we did get 'cleaned up' a couple of nights, but it was the whole feeling.  

Now, for the final nail in their coffin - - disembarkation - - we had 'yellow' bag stickers (because of our frequent cruiser status) which meant we could leave the ship relatively early.  Then, they indicated you could request wheelchair service and we jumped at the chance.   We were to leave the ship on Deck 7.  They had the wheelchair requests gather on Deck 6 and when the time came to leave, we were actually the first to leave the staging area.  Problem 1 - we had to wait for 3 elevators until we could fit on one to go the one level.  Finally get off the ship and then the ship's security didn't want us to leave because only the people who were self moving their luggage were supposed to be going (WRONG).  We finally convinced them that a supervisor type person had sent us off the ship and they let us through to the Port building (WHICH ONLY HAS ONE AVAILABLE ELEVATOR TO HANDLE (1) people carrying off their own luggage and (2) those in wheelchairs and scooters.   Four elevator loads later, we make it to the area to pick up luggage - no problem - and then to Customs - no problem - and then to the street to find a cab - tiny issue, but nothing to write about.

Communication about basic things seemed to be lacking - - They give you a daily list of activities, but it seemed like the basics were shared passenger to passenger.  Since we're so shy and quiet (yes, please chuckle here), we were able to help out some neophytes, but only because we made them feel like they weren't stupid for not knowing.

We have been on twelve cruises, three of which were NCL, so we have a basis to compare this to. The food was mediocre on the Star and we have been on much nicer ships. The crew was very professional and the entertainment was very good.  The ship had engine problems and we didn't leave port at 4pm  as we were told we would.  Instead we left at 3am. The passengers were not told what was going on and there was a lot of speculation resulting in some very angry passengers.  This was handled very poorly! There should have been an announcement made by the Captain keeping everyone informed.  It made for a very bad start to the cruise.

Checked in at Dover this took us 3hrs processing did not start until 1 instead of 12 and then problems with checking in passports and debit card  We then encountered bad weather so all time was spent inside ship we tried everything but choose was limited and could not be classed as quality entertainment, after stop at the Azores and improvement in weather we went on deck 12 to enjoy the sunshine and found that entertainment on deck was again limited, spoke to captain and said we were on holiday and did not need background music, Entertainment was to two half hour sets and 1 hour set which ended by 4 each afternoon we heard the same songs and in the same order over and over again  No entertainment staff on top deck for first 2 days then a few of entertainment team turned up and the games consisted to chucking a ping pong ball into a bucket, line dancing and chucking bags onto poles towards the end of the cruise we had male and female competition but all very third rate.  Then an announcement by captain: trouble with shop by passing Miami nothing mentioned about people on back to back cruise.  stood in line for 2 hours to be told problem with ship and we would have to take hand luggage and stay in hotel for night and then come back on board for the second part of our holiday.  After speaking with another passenger who said they had been told back to back passengers would be staying on ship queued for another 1 and half hours to be told no we would be leaving ship and we would receive further information in our cabins of times of getting of ship etc. nothing arrived Arrived tampa could not leave ship, that night at 2am in the morning went to reception once again to confirm what time we should leave ship as nothing had been sent to our cabin, to be told we would be staying on ship (people were still queuing at this time as well due to lack of information being given out).  Emigration took 3 hours we left ship and on return found we were 2 of approx 100 passengers on board. 

No entertainment staff cleaning everything they could clean, even in cafe staff on window ledge beside us as we ate and cleaning the empty chairs at our table only about 10 people including crew in cafe on deck 12, it was a ghost ship bars closed, no entertainment, no casino, food so limited it was a joke told a film on in theater so we went it was Helen Mirran and the film was unwatchable, no midnight buffet due to the known inspections which would be taking place on the Tampa port day, staff were saying it could be up to 3 days. wrote letters spoke to customers services staff w but received no answers apart from when we know you will know asked for something in writing nothing ever received, Left letters for staff, customer service manager and the cruise hotel director and also the captain, which i never received a reply to.  19th October a British couple who had been told with their 2 children they would be going to a hotel returned, they went to hotel as they and we had been instructed to and found they did not have a room they then had to wait for another room at a hotel near the airport for them to be found they were not brought back to the ship (why Not) 

Other passengers also went to hotel and found after 4 hours they were not on the list for a room they were then transported to hotel near airport to find they were not on that list either people give up and paid for own hotel rooms, some people were unable to get anything to eat due to amount of people in hotels queuing up to get food.  On the day of the 2000+ passengers coming on board we went out into tampa for the day when we tried to get back on board the boat in the afternoon we were not allowed into the building due to passengers inside the building reaching capacity numbers and ncl once again having problems processing passengers, we had to wait outside for an hour and half before we could get onto ship  That night i went to reception and demanded to speak to a manager i was let into office behind customer services and met a blank face and told sorry for the trouble you have had I will look into it and get back to you ( once again nothing ever received ) I did receive 6 strawberries in melted chocolate was this our compensation for such bad service from NCL, 36 hours in the port of tampa with nothing on board, it was a ghost ship apart from staff cleaning everything in groups.  Food choose on whole cruise was very limited and in all food outlets apart from service charge outlets uneatable due to being cold, floor 8 menu was the same for 19 days but the food was hot. Casino closed at sea one night due to audit and the bar was also closed at 1pm  Shows were repeated and at some shows people were walking out after a few minutes due to poor standard of entertainment  This was our 2nd cruise on NCL and the back to back our 3rd out of 9 cruises i have been on in the past two years this was the worse and before this our 1st ncl cruise was rated 2nd  bars were overrun on 2nd cruise and not enough waiting staff so queuing for over an hour sometimes to get a drink and towards the end of cruise could not order my husband a drink we had to produce ind cards and limited to 1 drink on each.  It was a joke in reception showing a video of people enjoying themselves and fireworks from ship have you ever been on board a ship for 2400 people and be 1 of less then 100 people  Other people had also been told they would have to leave ship but found out by going to reception that this was not the case no letters to staterooms Did ncl not care about the 100 who had done the 1st cruise and then were going on, the inspections took place with only the 100 as you had put all other passengers into hotels for the night before due leave date of ship why were they not kept on board, or was it because you wanted all crew to be cleaning ship for the inspections? cleaning in cabins next door and corridors took place into the hours of the early morning, I opened my cabin door and two men cleaning edge of carpet with toothbrushes  Ship was meant to leave tampa early evening then 10 at two oclock the following morning nets were still around ship we could see them in water from our balcony  It would have been something to receive an apology from NCL 6 strawberries does not cut it and i feel like i was treated with contempt as i was 1 of only 100 passengers in this position due to ship breaking down and inspections at tampa this is a holiday i look forward to each year and it was ruined by NCL who had a total lack of consideration for the 100 passengers who had booked back to back cruises  Entertainment on deck on the 2nd cruise was better and went on until 7pm ever night on deck 12 and not 4 as on the 1st cruise, food was no better and the late food in the cafe was the same everything cold as always and uneatable bar service was worse and the time to get a drink could be up to 90 mins.  All passengers on 1st cruise were giving a refund (days fare and tax) and 15% discount of next holiday for missing Miami, for being treated as non customers for 36 hours on board ship we got six strawberries and as my husband just reminded me 3 cookies I look forward to hearing from you and i hope you look at the service to customers on board the star as i expect it has given an impression of NCL you do not wish to have it passengers to come away with  You need more staff better food (and make it hot) more quality entertainment, you must also ensure that there is entertainment on board that goes on until the early hours people are on holiday and dont expect to have to go to bed early every night due to lack of entertainment.  Some of the staff you have are fantastic marsha casino zeron top deck and casino and the lady on floor 8 who left ship to return home to Peru to her 21 month baby after 8 months on board ship. Cabin boys were great but they know they will be left tips in cabins. To get service from a lot of staff you have to tip otherwise you could be ignored for long periods of time.  The cruise director did a great job with limited resources and would seem to be responsible for all public announcements, but a lot of the staff were rude and could not be bothered (nearly all staff could do with training in customers service). Did NCL price this cruise wrong then made the passengers suffer due to getting it wrong?  Getting of the ship was once again a nightmare meant to leave at 9 but gone 10 before we were called to join the line to get of the ship. We finally got off the boat so we could stand in line again for customs.  Our first cruise with NCL on the Epic we rated the 2nd best of the 7 cruises we have been on in the past 2 years, this cruise we rate the worse and would we go back again. Never Never Never  If it was not for the people we met I was one of the mad English ladies on deck 12 everyday and part of the British casino syndicate everynight and the food on floor eight, only place on ship which you could be guaranteed hot food, the menu was the same everyday of the 19 days on board except for the house special which got changed i think i would have jumped overboard  Well rant over but be warned great difference in ships on the NCL fleet in terms of food entertainment and service

I have complained and am waiting for response from NCL  

Great trip...excellent itinerary. This was a very busy trip with a different port most days. We arranged our own guides for each port, and the cost was much less than the ship's excursions.

The food could be better, and must of the personnel in restaurants do not speak English well and are not very polite.

We had a bad experience with one waiter in the restaurant one night he was in a very bad mood, really bad time.

Must of the waiters are not very polite, you have to fix this.

The rest is fine

Room service with towel floded MONKEY over hanging from top of reading table was amazing as we came back from our Shore Excursions.

Speciality dining curisines & beverages from various countries were just too good for us to experience.

 Everning were entertained via Stardust Theater that you will never get bored on board.

I feel that a cruise is an inexpenceive way to travel as you have your food, travel and hotel all in one. each morning your at a new location.

I just wish we could have have at least 12 hours in each location to explore.  Experienced traveler usually explore on their on and not with guides.  Short times such as Stockhome were on a few hours for a city that was huge and so much to experience. Really loved the countries we visited  My balcony was worth every dime.

Ports were great, lots to see.Only negative was too many kids on the cruise ( many unsupervised and running down halls at night). Also, it is very aggravating when the Cruise Line has rules to maximize passenger enjoyment, but never enforce. For instance, every show we attended had people coming in 30 to 45 minutes late that were constantly making us have to get up and down for them to be seated. This caused us to miss some parts of the shows. Highly recommend the ultimate dinner package as the non-premium eating venues were very loud.

This cruise had the best Captain we have experienced. He always gave interesting information about all the ports as well as other significant sights along the way. He obviously loved his job and was very personable.

I booked a 9 day cruise using Expedia paying for a guaranteed ocean view cabin. When we got to the cabin, big surprise!  We had in front of us a life boat and a bunch of pipes. At night we had a permanent light that prevented us from having a restful night time. When I complained they obviously blamed it on Expedia when they are the ones that assign the cabins. They sent us a bottle of wine worth about 10 dollars to calm us down. This should not happen to anybody paying lots of money to have a good vacation time. That type of cabins should be reserved for an upgrade to the ones that pay inside cabins. I know you are not in your cabin that much, but nevertheless you pay to get what you want and I wanted to see the archipelagos and the ocean  from my cabin once in a while. 

I called Expedia when we returned and they are working on contacting Norwegian to  make sure that this does not happen to any other customer. I could not argue with the people of Norwegian when we boarded because we were in Denmark and did not have internet service. My mistake was not to place the reservation paper work in the cloud or print them out to demonstrate them that it was not Expedia's mistake but rather they mistake. I am still waiting for them to call me back to place the complain in a more formal way. 

We had an excellent and memorable 23 days cruising with NCL Star under the command of Captain Mattias Anderson who devoted his personal time and knowledge to his guests. His staff was very friendly and went beyond the call of duty to make us feel at home. We are looking forward to our next cruise with NCL.

For our 50th wedding anniversary we have planed, for several years, to go on a cruise. Our choice was perfect this time, the people, the food the facilities, the activities all made our trip absolutely unforgettable. Our friend were so impressed with our experience that just bought tickets to go on the same trip in September

Thank you Norwegian and thank you United for inviting us on this trp. To bad it ended too soon

Elba

this is our 2d cruise in ncl. we really enjoy it good service, nice crew. juices durig meals with no flavor and lack of information about visas in russia everything else very good, eventually we will cruise again with ncl.      norberto colin ca. usa

The ship was very clean. The staff was very good and extremely helpful and very cheerful. all the guests were treated with a pleasant and happy face and always ready to help.

The Star was recently in dry dock for a short time. The  improvements made are great. The removal of the Moderno and Blue Lagoon from deck 8 and the replacement by the O'Sheehan's as the 24hour restaurant is great. Other minor improvements good too. We' traveled several NCL ships. The Star has the best crew of all the NCL ships we've been on. They all work together from the Capt, the hotel manager, the cruise director F&B director etc. All were available each day to talk with psgrs.

어느새 3년이나 지나버렸네요~~~~~ 우리의 첫 크루즈..... 처음에는 어리둥절하게 우리를 만들었고 점차 시간이 지나면서 익숙하게 즐길수 있었다. 늘 모든 아침을 함께한 12층 Market Café 뷔페와 아들들이 밤마다 야식을 즐긴 8층 O'Sheehan's 맛있는 스테이크를 즐길수 있었던 Aqua와 Versailles. 가끔씩 그립다.

Was my first cruise and I loved it! Proposed to my wife on that trip and the staff were Amazing especially the director! For my First cruise it was great!

This was first time cruising with the kids and first time with Norwegian. With it being Spring Break there were lots of college kids. Which were suprisingly very well behaved and very respectful, especially once they noticed little ones around. We sadly only had one port Cabo San Lucas which was an overnight. I guess it was good and bad. Good because, the ship was empty when we got back on the ship till the next morning. (College kids were having to much fun at the nightclubs which you could see and hear from the ship) And my kids took advantage of the pool and slides being empty. Now the bad part was that it was a 5 day cruise, I felt we should have had just one more stop.

My husband, our 21 year old, and 13 year old just returned from a NCL cruise to Baja.  The overall cruise was fine, however we ran into several 'hiccups' having to do with the ultimate beverage package, excursion, and dining pkg we booked through Oribtz.  Make sure Orbits provides you terms and conditions for these packages in writing.  Look for exclusions/black-out dates for the packages being accepted on the cruise boat before you purchase from .

For our 20th Wedding Anniversary, we chose to book a Family Suite for this two week cruise to give us extra room a well as all the great suite amenities. This was the best thing we could have done.  The room was lovely with floor to ceiling windows giving us a full wall of windows to view the sea.  The amenities included flowers, fruit and champagne when we got to the suite. There was an upscale coffee, Expresso /Cappuccino machine in our room that we used to a great extent. But the best part was the Butler that saw to our every need and whim.  Every day he brought us a snack around 3 pm that included club sandwiches, cookies, candy and fruit and cheese.  Being in a suite also came with an upscale breakfast and lunch restaurant with great food and personal service.  Having a suite also gives you special embarkation  as well as disembarkation and baggage priority.

For dinner we most often went to the larger of the two dinning rooms where we were seated right away and were served wonderful meals.  We had read reviews about the food being sub par but our food was great.  I have found that most of the people that complain about the food on a cruise eat at the buffet where food is produced in bulk but we did try the buffet and found the food there a cut above the other cruise lines we have been on. We did not see any reason to try a specialty restaurant.

Some of the things we did was buying some art, shopping for jewelry, cooking demos, dancing and sunbathing.  There is a never ending number of things to do.

The day spent going through the Panama Canal was very interesting and we had a great place to watch the action,  Our suite had a front facing window as well as side facing and we were able to sit in the easy chairs and watch the hooking up of the pull trains and the pull of the boat, the raising and lowering of the water in the locks while staying in the cool room and eating snacks that the butler brought.  During the trip across the lake connecting the locks, we went to the specialty restaurant for suite guests where we had lunch and watched the beautiful sights going by. 

We enjoyed the ports we stopped at since they were all new to us.  There were at least two that we want to go back to for longer visits.

We were very impressed with the service on the Star and loved the beauty of the ship.  The ship was returning to the west coast and then going into dry dock for a refurb where she will get new carpets and some other upgrades.  We would love to take another trip on the Star and will be looking at her other itineraries.

We loved the Panama Canal Cruise that left Miami on January 19 on the Norwegian Star.  This is the second time that we have cruised on NCL and must say that they have done a great job of revamping their menu selections and quality in the main dining rooms.  We expected to use the specialty restaurants 9 or 10 times during the 14 days, but the food was so good in Aqua and Versailles that we went there 10 of the 14 nights.  Congratulations NCL!  We noticed.

We are not giving 5 stars to this cruise for two reasons:  The ports of call were just so so as were the offered excursions.  Some updating and rethinking is needed here.  The second reason is that my wife and I were totally put off by the never-ending sales pitches on NCL.  No opportunity to inundate us with another sales pitch was missed.  It gets to be really old when the smallest task means that you have to duck another pitch.  Buying a can of Pringles in the gift shop...."have you signed up for our free emerald give away?"  Waiting for the evening show....."how's everyone doing?"  (yaaaahhhh!)  "Come on, you can be louder than that."   (YAAAHHHH!!)  "That's better.  Don't forget that we have our on board lottery tickets for sale."  At some point, NCL needs to take a break on this stuff. 

The ship was beautiful.  The maintenance of the ship was observed and incredible.  Staff was fantastic.  Food was fantastic.  We'll sail with NCL again, but we sure would like it more if they tone it down a little bit.