We recently returned from our Baltic Sea cruise with NCL on the Norwegian Star. The cruise was better than expected based on reading all of the mixed reviews. We booked a balcony cabin on the 8th floor (8552) and were very please with both the location and size of the room. We had ample space for clothes, although i would've like more drawers, and enough room for all 3 of us (husband, 4 yr old son and myself). Yes, we went on a Baltic Sea cruise with our 4 year old; he travels very well :) The ship is laid out terribly and was so confusing to get to one location to the next; that was the biggest drawback to the Star, but otherwise was renovated nicely and very clean.
The buffet was a buffet and what you would expect from food meant to serve a lot of people in a little amount of time; it was average. I was disappointed there weren't a lot of choices. Celebrity by far does the best job with a buffet. The food was good, but not memorable. The restaurants were excellent for the most part. Versailles and Aqua were the main dining rooms and were very good, no complaints, but the staff/ service was average. That's the drawback with freestyle dining is that you don't have the same table and seating time so you don't get to know your server, so there is little personal attention. The positive to freestyle is that we were not limited by a dining time which I actually enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would; we also did not experience a wait ever.
In addition to the main dining rooms, we ate at O'Sheehan's and loved the prime rib on the 1st night, excellent! We tried Ginza and I hated it; the service was terrible and the food was average at best. I definitely recommend buying the 3 night specialty dining package before you leave; it was a great bargain. We made reservations at La Cucina, Teppanyaki, and Cagneys' before we left as they book up fast or so they tell you. La Cucina was ok, we should've ordered the lobster pasta, and ordered steak instead, bad choice. The steak was good but not memorable and the lobster pasta certainly looked memorable. Again, the service was ok but not great; they seemed annoyed and overworked. Also, the restaurant was not full at 6:00pm for our reservation but showed that it was online. Teppanyaki definitely needs an advance reservation as they only serve 12 at a time. The food was excellent; order the seafood mix of shrimp, lobster and scallops. Service was much better. Cagney's was our last night and we ended up having a full steak for my husband and a whole lobster for myself, all included in our package. Service was excellent. All in all the speciality restaurants were worth the cost and service was much better than the dining rooms.