Norwegian Star Review

Itinerary excellent but onboard experience pretty mediocre

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Star
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conniecowan
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Mar 2017
Cabin: Balcony

The itinerary was excellent. The order which certain ports was visited didn't make much sense - I hope that scheduling two 12-13 hour tour days back to back was because of the availibility of the ports and not sloppy planning.

The food was awful. I need a gluten free diet but they made only half hearted efforts at providing gluten free foods. Day after day the Market Cafe buffet didn't have any gluten free choices. The only dessert choice for me was some soupy soft serve ice cream (and jello is not a dessert). The food had a very high fat and carbohydrate content - way too much gravy, breading and sauce. The food and the service in the dining rooms was also pretty poor. I regularly had to find someone to fill the water glass and the wait between courses was a bit on the long side.

One aspect is still bothering me. The people who had independent tours in Israel on the first day (mostly Cruise Critic people), were made to wait until the NCL sponsored tours left first. There was a snag on the first day because immigration wanted to carefullly check all passports (fully forseeable by anyone except seemingly NCL because we were coming from several Arab countries before arriving in Israel). This caused a delay in starting the tours, most of which were fairly long and therefore returned well past dinner time. I objected to the policy and was told that Israel immigration required the NCL tours leave before the others. This makes no sense to me at all - why would Israel care who I was paying for my tour? I feel like we were being penalized for not taking and NCL tour.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Well laid out cabin. The best shower of any ship I have sailed on. The mattress was iormer than I care for. Overall quite nice and well maintained.

Port Reviews

Safaga

After a 12 hour day in Jordan, I couldn't manage another 12 hours day, so I stayed on the ship.

Dubai

I boarded the ship in Dubai so no tour was available.

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