Norwegian Star Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,583 reviews

Alaska beautiful, cruise ship, not so

Review for Alaska Cruise on Norwegian Star
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Kathleen
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: May 2008
Cabin: Mid-Ship Oceanview Porthole Window

Booked 9 months in advance and the anticipation building, I flew to Seattle, shuttled to the ship and climbed onboard. I met up with 6 other family members and we were so pumped up about our first Alaska adventure together. When I got to my oceanview stateroom, I must admit it was nicer than I had had on Royal Caribbean, because it was larger and had more storage. There were three of us in the stateroom. Our room had a porthole. The cruise book that NCL had sent me didn't show any rooms with portholes, it was represented that my room would have a rather large window. Once I returned home I went on NCL online and looked again at the types of rooms offered on NCL Star, there were no rooms shown or offered with portholes. I guess they just like to surprise you when you are onboard. The family member who booked all of the rooms for us talked to the "front desk" on Friday evening and again on Saturday. They blamed it on the travel agent and the travel agent blamed the cruise line, when all along the cruise line clearly shows there are no portholes offered. Now this may seem trivial, but when you are in Alaskan waters, the views are so spectacular and the marine life that it would be nice to be able to see these sites without climbing up on the ledge to "peek" out of a porthole.

Eventually on the 6th day of the cruise, the cruise line gave us a $25 credit to our onboard account. They only gave it to 2 of us, even though there were 3 of us in the room that paid for the room. Creative accounting in their favor.

It was quite a shock on our first evening onboard to find out 5 out of the 11 restaurants had cover charges. What? Freestyle cruising, have your choice of where to eat, but pay for the privilege if you want something other than buffet or standard dining room. In most cases the food in the restaurants was good, and in the restaurants with the cover charges, (we ate at 2 of them) the food was outstanding, the service was the same. Generally the wait staff in all the restaurants was exemplary and really did contribute to an excellent dining experience.

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Oceanview Porthole Window

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