Norwegian Star Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We sailed on the Norwegian Star for a 7-day cruise from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. We normally sail on Royal Caribbean and this was our first cruise on NCL. We brought 4 first-time cruisers with us this time.
Embarkation was slow. There were several ad-hoc lines in the loading zones where porters (who were very loudly arguing with each other) took your bags, then you were on your own to find where to go check in. Since we were first-time NCL cruisers we weren’t in the Latitudes line, which seemed to be as chaotic as our line. Once at the counter the staff were slow and had computer problems, often grabbing another agent on their way to getting key cards for help. When our friends checked in the agent disappeared for about 5 minutes looking for their cards.
All of the food we had in the MDR (Aqua for dinner and Versailles for lunch) was good, and the desserts were generally excellent. Service time was inconsistent but when we arrived for dinner and 5:30 and said we wanted to see the 7:00 show, the waiter made sure we were out of there on time. One of our friends has a food allergy but by preordering his entree earlier in the day they were always able to take his allergy into account. (I had no idea you could do that!)
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Balcony
Our cabin was a standard balcony on deck 10, midship. We had no complaints about it--it was clean and comfortable. After being used to the RCL shower cubicles, it was nice to have a rectangular shower. We had noise from the screaming children across the hall but other than that there was little noise from above, below, or next door. In contrast to the RCL and Carnival cruises we’ve taken, the room steward never introduced himself and never wore his nametag so I never did learn his name, nor did he learn ours. I’m not a stuffy person who expects to be greeted by name but you really notice how impersonal service can be when you aren’t.