Embarkation -- While I was dealing with the van driver the porters had already unloaded our luggage and started to take it away. I had to quickly rescue the carry on bags from them. We got in line at 11:15. The doors opened around 11:30. The line moved quickly into the building. As we were walking in we were handed Bahamas immigration forms and a health form. I don't know why they can't send the immigration forms in the pre-cruise documents like they used to do. It is difficult to fill out a form as you are carrying bags and walking through the line. We had to fill out 5 since each person needed one. I noticed most people were filling them out incorrectly as they were putting down the flight that got them to FLL as the means of Arrival in the Bahamas. It probably took 10-15 minutes to work through the line and security until we reached the check in counter. It took longer than normal for us to check in because of a custody issue with my step daughter. We had the proper court document required however the older gentleman insisted on reading the rather lengthy document word for word. I kept pointing out to him the he needed to look at page 3, paragraph 1 but he didn't pay attention. After reading the entire document he was totally confused. I took the document and showed him page 3, paragraph 1 and he said oh that's fine then.

One thing I learned checking in is that everyone in your party has the ability to charge to your account no matter how you fill out the paperwork. You have to go to the pursers desk to have it changed. I had a quick talk with my kids about the ramifications if they miss used this privilege and we didn't have any problems.

Ship -- We arrived in our cabins at 12:15. I was staying with my two girls in D235. My wife and step daughter were next door in D231. We dropped our stuff off and went exploring. The Star is in excellent shape to say the least. Except for a few subtle differences it looked the same as every other Grand class to me. The waiters were out in full force selling the coke stickers. We purchased them right away but it did get annoying being asked 500 times the rest of the day to buy a sticker. Nothing at the lunch buffet really appealed to us. We asked if the dining room was open were told yes so we went down there. The doors were closed but a waiter was standing at the door. We asked him if they were open for lunch. He didn't speak very good English but he said no we open at 1:30 for lunch and directed us to the buffet. We pointed out it was 1:20 so we'd wait then he said they were full and again directed us to the buffet??? I tried in vain to figure if there were really serving lunch or not but his only answer was go to deck 14....Oh well we went and got some pizza. Read more