Norwegian Star Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We just returned from the Mexican Riveria cruise. We were very disappointed. We have cruised with other cruise lines as well as NCL in the past. The stateroom needed a good scrub. The theaters and entertainment venues were too small to accomodate even 1/4 of the guests, forcing you to find other more costly entertainments, or go back to the cabin to watch TV, this we could do at home. There were only about 4 of the many restaurants that you could use without a cover charge and the menus were limited and the food was uninspired. The buffet was also disappointing, watered down juices and almost the same menu every day. The only thing I was impressed with was the staff from Park West Gallery, they did a great job with the seminars and art auctions.

Ship was nice, but "freestyle dining" must translate into "dressing sloppy", which was fairly shocking. Specialty coffee was not good, and I felt nickled and dimed to death. Ship personnel kept hocking cheap jewelry at bad prices both on the ship and at the destinations.

The ship was well maintained and clean. Most of the crew were bright and cheerful. Service levels seem to have fallen from previous NCL cruises. Tips were changed to a fixed service fee. Don't mind the tips, but do object to not being able to allocate amounts. Would have liked to up the ratio of the Stewarts and two servers at rhe expense of the rest of the crew.

Having cruised for many years, we decided to try NCL, this will be our first and last cruise with this company. The food was terrible, service was awful ( actually think this was a training ship as staff had no training), ship was dirty.......and we all got sick. What more can we say. I suppose I can say the mini suite was a nice size and the pillows were great, and the kids enjoyed the club. I would highly recommend Princess Cruises to everyone, they are wonderful

From arrival to departure there was a stress free atmosphere. We did what we wanted to when we wanted to. We ate where and when we wanted. Dressed for dinner or ate in the buffet casual it was our call no one elses. This was as advertised, we ate at the specialty restaurant once and the meal was extra special for the cost. The alacarte restaurants Aqua and Versailles were available every night without reservation and provided a varied choice of menus. The staff on board were friendly and attentive. We greeted them with a smile and they returned the same in kind. Patrons were irresponsible in the adult pool, with supervision of children and staff had no control not wishing to upset anyone. The pool closed twice for cleaning of bodily fluids. The pirate excursion in PV was exceptional.

For the first time cruiser this will be fine. If you sailed with other cruise lines, you will be disappointed.

We sailed on the Star and we had a great time. We had an inside cabin and it was roomy with a lot of storage, and the bathroom was very nice and the shower was big, which was a real surprise. The only thing I didn't care for was the charge for soda. Our bill was high at the end of the cruise. The cabin stewards were so nice, friendly and took very good care of us. We went to Alaska and the trip was wonderful. We lucked out and the weather was also very nice. Overall, the trip was fun and we would definitely cruise NCL again. I also think the Bingo was expensive, but it was fun anyway.

Alaskan ports of call were great. They should have left out Prince Rupert altogether - total waste. Skagway was my fav. Scenary was great - especially seeing whales swim next to the ship. Went through one icy region that felt very Titanic like. Freaky but cool at the same time. Ship was beautiful but not much to do in the way of activities - no solarium pool so swimming was out unless you wanted to pay $20 pp/day to use the (very small) pool in the spa. Bingo was so expensive it would put you into debt. Trivia was always at a bad time and movie theater was nice but not showing first-run movies. The movies they played had been out for at least a year or more. The food was terrible!!! I actually lost weight on this cruise!

The ship was not as nice as I thought it would be.The views on the ship were the most coolest thing in the world.The staff was very nice but the maid did not do very good with cleaning the room it was very nasty when we got to or room. The voyage if you would was very nice and it was very long but there are alot of things to do on the ship and I hope you are not scare of elevators because there are alot of them and you will need them alot.

I took my elderly parents on this cruise. They loved it! Walking the ship was hard for them but it was good exercise. The cabin steward is your best friend! He was great! The views were fantastic! We didn't get to the glacier because of the fog.. that was disappointing but understandable. Freestyle wasn't bad at all. Short lines, not any longer than if you were waiting outside for a specific time for the dining room to open. Staff was friendly and eager to help. I'll definitely cruise Norweigen again!

I thought the ship was fine. Having not cruised before, i did not know what to expect. I also was turned off by all the selling of fairly crummy mechandise and the constant reminders to buy stuff from the ships' store. I also thought that if one is going to Alaska, there ought to be more Alaska stuff to buy, for those of us who did not go to Alaska to go ashore and shop.

The ship itself was great. It was in very good overall condition. We had a mini-suite (Class AF) which exceeded our expectations. The balcony was a good choice for this cruise.

This was our first our first cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines. This ship was fantastic, and we loved the freestyle cruising concept. The restraunts were easy to get into, and we went to Cagney's Steak House and were impressed with the atmosphere, service, and quality of the food. The crew were extremely friendly and courteous. The prices were a bit high but not too excessive - i.e mixed drinks in the $6-8 range. Buffet was full of choices and the food was of above average quality for buffet food. Shows were great, singers in the lounges were fun and talented. No luck in the casino, but that's not new to me. Mendenhall Glacier & Salmon Bake excursion in Juneau was tremendous. Duck tour in Ketchikan is definately worth the money. Skagway was the highlight of the cruise - the White Pass railway trip is a must - the scenery in beyond description. The ship's visit to the Daws glacier was unbelievable - the captain really did a great job getting the ship close to the glacier for photos and observation. Overall a great ship and great cruise.

Overall very good, except for -crowded long line to get into meals at main dinner hall -had to wait in rain in long line to get back on ship at port. No rain cover provided. -If you use their web site, your privacy is compromised by sales reps who call you shortly after you sign in. What happened to being able to surf the web in private? -On two occasions, one or more exit doors to movie theater were locked when people were in the theater.

Two specific aspects of the Star stood out in disapointment, one was the continued solicitation of more things to take your money and the most irritationg was the sign in the lobby making Wheelchairs available for a Rental Charge ! How pathetic ! Regretfully I will not choose Norweigan again.

The cruise line cares about its passengers until you book and pay. The cruise line promised onboard credit, not received. We did not have a room to fit the number of passengers - beds. We were locked out of our room over 20 times. Could not get into restaurants unless you pay. Some restaurants advertised as free, had cover on board.

Alaska is beautiful However, We traveled to Alaska on the Norwegian Star and were very disappointed in every aspect of the ship. The staterooms are smaller than any other cruise that I have been on, and the bed was the worst bed I have ever been forced to sleep on, and I was in the Navy. None of my traveling party got a full night's sleep for the entire 7 night cruise. But, the stateroom was kept very clean by the staff. The "Freestyle" dining is just an excuse to charge you for meals that every other cruise line includes in the ticket price. The reservations were a joke, I were never able to get a reservation at "Endless Summer" I even offered to make the reservation for 48 hours from the exact time that I was standing at the reservations desk, but was denied this opportunity. The food at Aqua and Versailles was good, but nothing extraordinary. The Market Cafe had typical sub-par food as expected from a feeding trough. The Blue Lagoon was nice, but the seats are very uncomfortable, comparable to sitting on a 5 gallon bucket and it has a major hallway running through it. I am not a fan of eating for an audience. I refused to pay for another meal from this horrible ship and we paid money to good restaurants at the ports, which were the best meals we had and some were cheaper than the ship. We did the Lumber Jack show in Ketchikan, and it was great entertainment, I would highly recommend this to anyone. In Juneau and Skagway we rented a car and took driving tours that my wife found on the internet. The sights were unbelievable, I highly recommend this to anyone and it was cheaper that most excursions. This also gave us time to get away from the ship and regain our sanity. There was some free time during which Ricky, the cruise director, and Q, his assistant tried to sell BINGO, art, jewelry, shore excursions, and anything else that they could milk more money out of you for. I felt like I was in Tijuana. We paid a lot of money for this cruise, and they want to bleed you for more. We even tried to kill time by reading in the library, only to hear the announcements drone on and on for minutes at a time. They keep talking but say nothing, only sales pitches. I am sure that they would charge you extra to look at the beautiful sites, if they could figure out how to do it. The captain also announced the last few days that there had been a large number of illnesses reported on the ship, and asked us to pay special attention to hand washing. This eliminated self service at Market Cafe, which made the lines even longer, so that a server can put items on your plate from the other side of the glass and act surly towards you when you ask for more than one piece of bacon. The Captain called it H or G or some other letter, you kind of block it out after 500 or so announcements. No sleep, questionable food, and endless sales pitches are what you get on this cruise line. I just wanted to warn other unsuspecting travelers, who are expecting a relaxing get away that it will be hard to find here. I will not sail with Norwegian again.

This cruise line is definitely for someone who has never cruised before and will think it's great. Freestyle cruising attracted an abundance of a different type of people. The only thing Freestyle means is that you can dress anyway you want and eat any time. The VERY casual attire of people mixing in with formal wear seemed out of place. The people become loud in the dining rooms because dress ditates decorum - like eating dinner at a McDonalds or Denny's. AND THE FOOD WAS TERRIBLE. Poor presentation, little variety, cold many times, terrible queing, and overly salted and not that appealing. I guess I am just spoiled from the other cruise lines I sailed. Food is the primary thing I compare. Staffing courtesy was robotic - little enthusiam and no personalities. AND surveys are not offered - only to a select few via email!!!!! However you can write NCL later if you like. Exursions were pricy but some are difinitely worth the money.

We felt like we were held hostage on this pile of yuck. The staff was rude and they simply didn't care. Funny because the guy from NCL that helped us book it couldn't have been nicer. Once they get you, you are stuck. Don't do it, but if you do, remember that you were warned. We much preferred Princess, they just treated us like royalty. We booked with a "family experience" in mind. I had 3 kids at the time with my 4th on the way. I, pregnant, didn't drink at all and my husband didn't drink much. We purchased 4 of the soda cards (at close to $200) and it was like pulling teeth to get them filled. We originally chose NCL because their child program would watch a 2 year old and I think they had to be 3 or 4 on Princess or we would have just gone on the Sapphire Princess again. Their toddler room had 2 attendants that I would definitely question qualifications of (that is if NCL even requires them to be qualified).

I am torn between blasting the customer service and food but when my 9 year old disappeared at 10:30PM at night for 45 minutes I called from the top deck's emergency phone and told them she was missing. By the time I got to the 7th deck there was a team of plain clothes security asking me what happened with a print out of her picture taken when we boarded! We found her and she was safe, but I really appreciated the fast action. CONS: I had a suite. On the first night at 12:45AM we came back to the room and the carpet was wet outside the bathroom. There were traces of water in the toilet room, the sink area and the bathtub. I called maintenance as the carpet was real wet. He accused me of over flowing the bathroom...We were out dancing! Come 4AM..I hear a whose and get up and water is leaking out of the lights in the bathroom ceiling! I call the reception and they say "Why didn't you report this?" I said I did. They say "Well what would you like us to do SIR" I am a woman!! I said "Send someone to fix it" ONE hour later and now it's a waterfall streaming out the bathroom down the hall. Maintenance comes in and screams "WHY didn't you call earlier" I SAID I did! We were evacuated to another suite. I asked for a credit or some compensation. They offered to help move my things to the other suite. THAT is already their job! FINALLY I received a $50 credit (NOT worth one nights sleep wasted) Also, the food was terrible. We were on a Pacific Coast 3 night cruise and I was told that the passenger's are not taken care of like a 7 or longer day cruise. On the 3rd night it smelled of raw sewage too. My 9 year old hated that!! So, I guess the thing is to take longer cruises.