Background: This is the first cruise my wife and I have taken. We both are in our late 40s, this being our 1st cruise. We love to travel far or close and we think of ourselves as being pretty outgoing individuals who enjoy the finer things in life, but also enjoy simple things as well. We sailed on the NCL Star.
Embarkation: We were to depart on 12/16/05 at the San Pedro port in Los Angeles. The embarkation process on this cruise was nothing short of "chaos". From start to finish. There were some NCL officials who were going around telling people they must get a porter to take all of their bigger luggage before checking in. However, neither the NCL representatives nor the porters were very proactive in helping people getting their big luggage out of their hands. We had to flag a porter down, drag our luggage thru another line of people, and put in on his cart. Very unpleasant experience. The NCL representatives were not helpful at all. Already a bad start.
Looking forward to a very nice time as we had heard so much about cruisers. Our experience was a terrible one with Norwegian Star, for starters....our Itinerary was changed with out notice from Acapulco, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo(never been to Acapulco or Ixtapa),Vallarta and Cabos,we found this out on board,My wife and I are born in Mexico, been to Manzanillo and Mazatlan, Manzanillo is definitely not a tourist town, unless you go to Las Adas or Maeva 25 miles away, there is not much to see or do, Mazatlan is not our cup of tea did not care for it before or now. Norwegian officials claim to have informed all travel agencies about the changes,I know this not to be true, my younger brother works for the agency we booked from and never heard of such changes...not even supervisors or managers knew anything about it......to say the least It appears Norwegian Cruise Lines has done this before claiming problems with their ship. Room: It was a decent size room with relatively ample living space. There are the typical amenities: coffee machine, hair dryer, safe, small fridge, and a very small TV. There is a drawer with two shelves. Also, there is a decent sized closet with more shelf space inside.