We were on the 4/15 sailing of the Norwegian Star to the Mexican Riviera. This is our 7th cruise - 5th on NCL - 2nd on the Star. We cruised on the Star for our first cruise in Hawaii, and were glad to see that She is still beautiful and well kept!

We arrived in LA a day early, and stayed at the Doubletree Inn (nice hotel)near the airport. We rented a car (Dollar had the best rates), and drove through some of the beach communities and up into the Hollywood Hills. This was an enjoyable ride, but it made me remember why I left the area years ago -too crowded! On Sunday, we returned the car to LAX, and took Prime Time Shuttle to the pier in San Pedro. Despite seeing many complaints about Prime time on these reviews, in our case they were right on time (even early), got us there with no muss, no fuss, and were very accommodating.

We embarked around 12 Noon. Cabins were not yet ready, so we made our way to Versailles for lunch. Many folks don't know that the main dining room is open for lunch on sailing day, and choose the buffet or on-deck barbeque, but we prefer relaxing until our cabin is ready. After lunch, we made our way to our cabin, a balcony in the forward section of this ship. If we have a reasonable choice (price wise)in the future, we'll opt for an aft or mid-ship cabin. No big problem here, just that on this ship, all of the restaurants, activities are at the rear of the ship, and it is somewhat noisier outside on the balcony than in the aft cabins. At least that is our experience. Read more