Norwegian Star Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,583 reviews

Great Itinerary, but Families with Babies Beware

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on Norwegian Star
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MDavisRNBSN
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Aug 2016
Cabin: Balcony
Traveled with children

We are a family of 5 with 3 young children ages 1 1/2 yrs, 4 yrs, and 7 yrs. Our niece, who is 18 yrs, came along with us on this trip to the Baltics on 9 Aug 2016. We are frequent cruisers with children and have been on 3 cruises with the children and 2 on our own. This was our first experience on Norwegian, but have also cruised on RCCL and Disney. The draw to this cruise was the itinerary. We really wanted to go to the Baltics!

Booking was a breeze. The staff answered all of our questions and was very accommodating. In particular I kept them on the line for nearly 30 minutes with just questions about how they accommodate children and families, which was of utmost importance to me. The staff "seemed" knowledgeable about the ship and I felt comfortable with their answers, until we arrived and found that it wasn't as they described. Payment was easy and the cruise planning website was very easy to navigate, but I found it difficult to find answers to questions. Most cruise lines have a FAQ page and Norwegian does, but it is very hard to find via their website. Once you find it, it is easy to find the answers to most common questions.

We took the kids straight to the kids club to check in on day 1. For children 3-10 this club is great. There are no computers - my son was initially peeved to hear this, but got over it quickly. The staff at the kids club were very friendly and professional. There were a wide variety of activities and the staff played group games with the children throughout the day, as per the activity schedule. It is not visible from the drop off area and parents aren't allowed inside, but the children said there was an indoor soft play with a slide in the back room and they were happy with it. They staff taught the children circus tricks thought the cruise and on the last day they held a circus show in the theatre showcasing the talents of all the children. A very nice touch and the children loved it!

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BB

We had 2 connecting rooms with an enclosed balcony on Deck 8. The rooms are decent size with refrigerator mini bar. Bathrooms were a decent size as well and the sink/shower was larger than most cruise lines I've experienced. There is no basin in the bottom for tub baths (Disney has this -- lifesaver with kids) but not too difficult to sit the baby on the floor and use the detachable shower head to bath. The toilet was incredibly stinky - a bit like a port-a-loo - even with frequent flushing. I have never experienced that on a cruise line before, but the staff said this was normal. Along the lines of cleanliness, when we entered the room the shower still had some left over hairs from a previous person. I had the staff re-clean both bathrooms until they were at a standard I could live with. Beds were comfortable. We used the pull out sofa, which is 3/4 size of a bed, so good for a toddler or small child but not recommended for an adult. Worked well for us. Decent closet space. A ridiculous amount of furniture in the room! Each room had a double bed, table, 2 chairs, a sofa table, sofa, and a bedside table. We had to move most of the furniture to the balcony in order to put up the travel cot. Travel cot was good quality and large size and baby slept comfortably.

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