We chose this cruise as we are about 1/2 way between NOLA and LA. Last year we did a 9 day out of NOLA and had a great time. This year we tried the West Coast. The Star is a great ship. I am sure there will be plenty of negative reviews about this sailing. It was 100% booked. As a result there were times where there was a line or a crowd. It wasn't a big deal. Although some will make it out as though it was horrible.
Embarkation: We took an Uber from our hotel in Long Beach. It was $13 and we had a stay and park package with the hotel. 7 days parking included with a 1 night stay at the Courtyard Marriott Downtown (great area, would have enjoyed a longer stay). We arrived an hour before we were allowed to enter the building. We as well as about 100 people stood outside the door, but there were benches that sat about 30 people right there, as well as ledges farther down to perch on. The weather was chilly, but nice, and the porters took our luggage as soon as we got out of the Uber, so we only had to deal with our carryon. They opened the doors at 0930 for us to check in and go through security. It was a quick and smooth process. All four of us had our cruise/room cards in about 10 minutes. Based on our arrival time, we were in Group 1. We waited in the waiting area until around 1130 when boarding started. NCL provided orange juice and water for those waiting. The NCL Staff were a very organized and a well trained group of people. Once boarding started at 1130, they scanned our cards and looked at our passports and we were headed to the ship.
With such an early boarding time, the rooms aren't available until after 1330. Once on board, we immediately went to O'Sheehan's for lunch. We were seated quickly and ordered wings and nachos. The food was great. As my wife and I had the Ultimate Beverage Package (UBP), we also had drinks. The kids had the soda package, so they had Pepsi (Pepsi, diet, orange, lemon lime, and ginger ale are the soda offerings). I had a Lagunita's Little Sumpin' (best beer on the ship). Then we explored the ship. It took a while for all the luggage to be delivered to all the cabins (duh! the ship is 100% full). Not a big deal. We signed 1 child up for Splash Academy (11 years old) and swung by Entourage! for the 15 year old to check it out.
Once our rooms were ready we went down to deck 10 to move in. Cabins 10557 and 10559. Both are inside, side by side cabins. Easily large enough for 2 people. They had my son and I in one cabin and my wife and daughter in the second for our reservation. The first cabin had the beds separated and the second had them pushed together. They knew the children were going in one cabin and we were staying in the cabin next door. We had an extra key card made to get into the room (quick process at guest services, we also asked for a hole to be punched in our room cards so we could put them on our lanyards we brought from home, lanyards are available for $7.95 at Tradewinds....they were happy to help!). Because we are part of the Latitudes Program, we had a bottle of sparkling wine in each room. We packed them both away to take home. DUC De Valmer "Brut". I think this is the same stuff they use to make Mimosas with. This opinion is based on my tasting it now as I write this review. It is a white wine with good carbonation and a slightly bitter taste (not a regular wine drinker or professional wine taster).
Onboard: The ship is clean and nice and the staff are mostly pleasant to interact with. There is the occasional staff member who seemed inconvenienced by our presence. This is understandable with a 100% full ship and the fact of "All people aren't chipper, all the time". None of the staff were ever rude to anyone in my family. People left empty dishes wherever they finished their food or drink, and the staff had them cleared away in less than 5 minutes. The waiters and waitresses always were courteous and friendly, some of the best staff on board. NCL has stopped using plastic straws, and the cardboard ones would start dissolving shortly after being used....this was annoying, and we pretty much stopped using straws after day one, but admirable as they are concerned with saving the environment. It was slightly bothersome that there weren't many garbage receptacles, but the staff didn't seem upset when we would leave papers with our dirty dishes. It would also have been nice to have more signage pointing out the restrooms. Occasionally we just went back to our room to use the bathroom instead of wandering around trying to locate one. We were not the only people who had trouble finding them.
Dining: Our first dinner ended up being at O'Sheehan's. There were several warnings we ignored on our NCL webpage about making reservations for everything. They knew the cruise was 100% booked. This is a hint: Make your reservations ahead of your cruise or expect a possible wait. Once on board, it became first come, first served if you were in a party of less than 10 people for the main dining rooms (Aqua and Versailles). Even the complimentary dining rooms were booked by many guests before the cruise. As we chose not to stand in line for Aqua, we ended up at O'Sheehan's. Aqua usually had a line outside from 1700-1730 when it opened. The line disappears almost immediately, as they seat everyone very quickly (we didn't discover this until night 2). After the line is seated, they give out pagers and invite diners to wait in Gatsby's Bar around the corner. If your pager hasn't gone off in the time they give you as an estimate, you can go back to the desk and they will work to get you seated ASAP. O'Sheehans offered a great meal. They had a different from the main dining rooms special each night. My daughter and I love steak. Peppered Steak was the special one night. We both asked for rare, and it was amazing. We also had the New York Strip Steak in Aqua, rare, and it was almost as good. On another night O'Sheehans offered prime rib. It was also really good. The shrimp and ribs were great too. None of the meals we had were a disappointment. My wife celebrated a birthday in December, and when we booked the cruise, the reservation specialist noticed and made sure we got a birthday cake. When we embarked, there was a card in our room congratulating her, and if we gave the Maitre 'D the card when we arrived at Aqua, cake (and singing of Happy Birthday) would arrive with dessert. The cake was delicious, but my wife's favorites at Aqua were the After 8 Mint Chocolate Mousse, and the Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry jelly.
Topsider's (pool side), offers grilled items (burgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, etc), sometimes has pulled pork or other toppings on the burgers. I threw cheese on a burger with pulled pork and bbq sauce. It was sooooo good.
Garden Cafe Buffet: We mostly ate there for breakfast. Here is the low down. Go to the place with the berries and the granola and drop some in a bowl. Next, go to where the pancakes are, and add some strawberries and whipped cream = magical. Also, there are several omelet stations. Usually 1 with no wait. No buffet breakfast is complete without bacon and the chocolate croissants. Whatever you do, don't miss out on the chocolate croissants! One night I really wanted Sherbert at 2130. Topsiders shuts down at 1700, and that includes the hand scooped ice cream (soft serve is always available in the Garden Cafe). I asked at O'Sheehans, and they said Topsiders was the only place to get it outside of the Main Dining rooms. I asked a cook at the Garden Cafe if he had sherbet, and even though he was busy shutting down the Cafe for the night, he went out of his way to get me a dish of lemon sherbert. It took about 10 minutes to arrive, but it was piled high, and delivered by a waitress who not only had a huge smile, but told my wife it was her pleasure to spoil me on my vacation......again, amazing waiters and waitresses!!!!
If you go to O'Sheehan's for breakfast, get the omelet as the scrambled eggs may be slimy (my daughter's description). The omelet at O'Sheehan's was great, there were more "add ins" there than at the Garden Cafe. You could choose Swiss or cheddar cheese. They will deliver a pastry basket or you can ask for the pastries you want. The chocolate croissant is the one you want. Although, my wife had a chocolate chip muffin she raves about. Never tried it, so I don't know.
Entertainment: We are fans of Trivia (not good at it, just enjoy it) and of the other Director's Staff led games. We played the ring toss, goofy golf, and anything else they had to offer. This includes several "game shows". As a result, we won a lot of NCL branded stuff. The stuff includes pens (my wife is a "pen snob", and the NCL pens are her favorites), t-shirts, water bottles, luggage handle, and decks of cards.
We also enjoyed the evening show performances by the magician, acrobats, and comedian. The acrobats were incredibly talented. The best part of the comedian's show was his interaction with the American Sign Language interpreter. He had us laughing for the entire 45 minute show, and they actually had to ask him to finish because he would have kept cracking jokes for a whole lot longer. The dancers were great during the Sail Away party by the pool. The singers were great in the preview show. We did not go to Vegas or the other shows the NCL dancer/singers did. Some guest said the Vegas show should be rated 13+ as a result of the outfits. I can't say, as we didn't see the show. Although, Vegas is always 13+ from my experience in Vegas. Paradis was a brand new show, and in the Freestyle Daily (activity descriptions, left on your bed every night at turn down), it recommended that young children not attend.
The cruise director staff was great. Especially Zoren from the Philippines. He was incredibly pleasant to interact with at all the activities he led. No matter where our family ran into him on the ship, he always went out of his way to talk to us, or wave from across the room. The other cruise director's staff were great as well. They were under some pressure as they were introducing two new game shows. During the week the Director's Staff was learning how to run The Great Pyramid Game and one other one. My wife and I were in the "tryout" to be contestants for The Great Pyramid Game show. We didn't make it into the final round. Some guy said donkey for a farm animal. I thought he said doggy and I had already said dog. I was laughing (like you are so done guy), time ran out and I got eliminated. We could have won it all! By all, I mean an NCL t-shirt and other branded stuff. Oh well! No big deal, it was still a ton of fun! We got to enjoy the rest of the show. Also, during the Perfect Couple show on New Year's Eve, a couple got engaged. The guy had contacted the staff in advance. He worked with the Assistant Cruise Director to arrange the whole thing.....she made it so he was able to propose at the end of the show. It was a great event.
My son's favorite activity was Nintendo Wii free play in the 5 O'clock Somewhere Bar. He played bowling, Tennis, and Baseball with others from the cruise.
Our trip included New Year's Eve. NCL went all out for the night! There was a balloon drop in the Main Atrium, silver and white balloons everywhere, and they gave out hats at the Main Dining Rooms, as well as noise makers at 2300. Free Champagne was flowing as well, and music in every area of the ship. It was a party beyond all parties! The Main Atrium got extremely crowded as everyone wanted to be there for the balloon drop, but that was sort of the fun of the night! My family hung out on the edge of the crowd until right before the countdown, then ran up to O'Sheehans to look down on the balloons as they fell. Being up there made it so much easier to go back to our room just after midnight. There was a time change that night, so they actually celebrated the Countdown twice, but we skipped the second one.
Bars: At certain times the bars were packed. Some of the bars only had one bartender during peak times. The ship is 100% full, with many customers having the UBP. As a result, delays are to be expected. The longest I waited to get a drink was under 10 minutes. People were fairly patient with the lines. My only complaint is O'Sheehan's (the Irish Pub) running out of Guinness. I asked the bartender if the whole ship was out on Wednesday? He said to go to one of the main dining rooms. Aqua gave me a Guinness with my dinner and an open one to go. The one to go was for a special drink. O'Sheehan's could not make an Irish Car Bomb (horrible name), as they did not have shot glasses. I took the open Guinness to Bliss Lounge. The bartender poured me a shot with Jameson and Bailey's Irish Cream and gave me a clean glass to pour in the Guinness. It tasted great. It took two bars and a flight of stairs to enjoy, but was worth it. My wife drinks her coffee black, the coffee was a bit strong for her, so she enjoyed taking a cup of coffee to the bar and getting a shot of Kahlua. With the UBP, it was a lovely addition. Her only complaint is that on day 2 she went to Topsiders Bar next to the pool first thing in the morning and asked for a Frozen Grasshopper (her favorite drink, pretty much the only drink she ordered on previous NCL cruises), the bartender made it (no one else was at the bar), and was cheerful while making it. Later that afternoon, around 1400, she went back to Topsiders and again asked for a Frozen Grasshopper (about 10 people at the bar then), and was told that they don't make Grasshoppers. She never asked for one at any other bar because she felt embarrassed. Her favorite drink became the Pineapple Champ that was available at Bliss Lounge.
Ports: All of the ports were great. My wife and I got off in Puerto Vallarta and walked down the main street near the ship. It was a nice town. We never felt unsafe, and prices were reasonable. Mazatlan was the only place my daughter and I did an excursion. My wife stayed on the ship with our son in Mazatlan because he enjoyed being in Splash Academy and she didn't want to walk around the town by herself. In Cabo San Lucas, there was a tender to get to the town. My kids decided to stay on the ship again, and my wife and I decided to wait for Open Tender to leave the ship (making it possible to do Trivia before we left!). The tender tickets were available for pickup from 6-7:30, and 13 tender ticket numbers were called before Open Tender was available. We were on the tender by 10:15, because the crew was extremely efficient. On board for Cabo was 1330, which felt a little short, but it was understandable because of the distance we had to travel to get back to LA.
Our Excursion: I would rate the entire tour as a whole, a 2/5. The Zip lining by itself, 4/5. My daughter and I took a bus to the Huana Coa Canopy Adventure. Don't be fooled by the YouTube video, where they show Tequila tasting after the zip line. During the hour long bus ride we were told by Bernardo that we were going to taste Tequila and then go Zip Lining. As a safety officer, I do not approve of drinking prior to extreme sports. After a minimal introduction of himself and the driver, Bernardo sat down and ignored us. It would have been great to hear about Mazatlan, the tour, or any other information. We arrived at the distillery and received a pathetic tour of the Tequila making process (watch YouTube to see what the tour should be like). The guide barely spoke English, and another tourist who is fluent in Spanish even had trouble figuring out what the guide was saying. We sampled 2 tequila shots, with the option to purchase more (possibly $3/shot, it wasn't really clear). Afterwards, we hung out for 2 and 1/2 hours in an empty dirty lot to get back on the bus and go Zip Line. There was no entertainment, not enough chairs for everyone to sit, about 8 of us were left standing. The vendors were still setting up their overpriced wares while we sat around. It was pretty much all the same items you could get from the stores near the ship. Dany was one of the Zip Line guides, and he was great! He took the time to teach us about what we would be doing, he talked to us about everything, what the area is like, he asked us about ourselves....he was a real tour guide. I can say this as I lost control on the last Zip Line. He caught me and was very concerned. I had slammed into the final platform at full speed. Minor abrasion on my ankle, I was fine. Then we had a bit of tasteless, bland quesadillas and climbed back on the bus. It takes about 1 hour to get to the Zip line place. No commentary at all, either way. At the Zip Line location Bernardo (Bernie) was asked several times "what is going on?". He would just say "We are waiting on the group ahead of us." and then he would walk away. Zip lining is fun. Hanging out for no reason was a drag. I wanted to do the zip line tour in Puerto Vallarta, but that tour was booked completely over 3 weeks out from the trip (WARNING! Book early!!!!), and I heard from people later how awesome their Zip line trip was. I wouldn't waste my money on the Mazatlan Zip Line Tour.
Heads up: There are two time changes going to Puerto Vallarta, and so there are two coming back. The room steward was good about putting a reminder on our bed at turn down, and the Freestyle Daily always had a couple of reminders included too. It was a bit tough on the family on the way there, but on the way back it was great! Naps and 1230 bedtimes helped a lot!
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