Norwegian Star Review

NCL Star Transatlantic April 2013 New Orleans to Copenhagen

Review for Transatlantic Cruise on Norwegian Star
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Borntobewild
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s

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Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Service
Cabin

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Sail Date: Apr 2013
Cabin: Family Suite

This was our second cruise on NCL and went from New Orleans to Copenhagen, Denmark leaving on April 21, 2013 for a 16-day transatlantic cruise. We decided to upgrade to a Family Suite about 1-½ weeks prior to departure, which was well worth the extra $484.00 above the mini suite we had booked. Within this review I will address, service, cabin and ship cleanliness, dining, entertainment, educational enrichment, cruise activities while at sea, and Butler service,

SERVICE:

Wait Staff: Since this is free style cruising you will probably not have the same waiter or waitress during meals. That is a drawback since they are not as friendly and at times just flat forget to bring you what you ordered. We learned very quickly on our first NCL cruise to obtain standing reservations in the main dining room so you can develop a rapport with the wait staff. Once rapport has been established the wait staff takes extra time to learn your expectations and wants and then meets or exceeds your expectations. For example we had standing reservations in the Versailles Main Dining Room every night at 7:00 pm. For non-suite passenger's reservations can only be obtained before 6:00 pm or after 8:00 pm. The waitress learned very quickly that my wife does not like real strong ice tea and always had it watered down to her liking and brought an extra glass of ice so she could keep it fully stocked with ice. She also learned our favorite foods and would have extra placed on the plate so that we did not have to order seconds. I thought that was a really nice touch. Our table was ready every night and we experienced tremendous service since we developed a relationship with the waitress and her assistant. On the other extreme when we ate in one of the specialty restaurants or the Blue Lagoon the wait staff did not know us from Adam and didn't really seem to care. In fact in the Blue Lagoon, which we ate at 2 times, I found the service was very slow, and my order was not taken correctly either time. I received foods that I did not order, and foods that I did order I never received. Refilling our drinks in the Blue Lagoon was about non-existent and my desert I ordered never appeared nor did we ever see the waitress again after delivering our lunch.

Cabin Review

Family Suite

Cabin SJ

Cabin 12520 is a Family suite and is located on the Port side of the ship, 6 rooms down from the Library and right at the forward elevator bank. It was very convenient when using the elevators as the forward elevators are not as busy and you can obtain one fairly quickly. The cabin is very large compared to a balcony or mini suite; it is probably larger then most hotel rooms. As you enter on the right is a hallway into the bathroom, which contains his and her closets. There was plenty of closet space and storage for everything my wife brought. The bathroom has a good sized glass enclosed (with glass door) shower that is big enough if you drop something and bend over to pick it up your buttocks does not hang out of the shower. There are two sinks so you can both get ready at the same time, and a deep bath tub for a good soaking. There are plenty of drawers in the bathroom to store more then what we brought with us, and used some of them for dirty clothing. We were not real happy with the hot water in the sinks, shower or bathtub. It seemed to come out at a trickle and took a long time to fill up the tub. I joked with my wife when she wanted to take a bath (every night) that she should start the tub hot water before we went to dinner so it was full when she finished the shows at night so she could take a bath. It wasn't really that slow, but did take a long time. The room its self has a long counter top along the wall opposite from the bed with many drawers and the fridge. Plenty of space for us to store things. The larger mirror hanging on the wall along the counter can be lighted and was excellent for my wife when applying makeup. There is a large flat screen TV on the same wall and is positioned very well in the room so you can see it from the sofa, cushioned chairs, bed, or the round table. The sofa folds out to a bed, and there is also a Murphy bed that comes down from the wall. The round table has 4 chairs, but we found if you are going to dine in your room there is really only enough room for the two of you to eat comfortably. The cushioned chairs were comfortable and are moveable so you can place them around the room as needed. There is a heavy wood coffee table in front of the sofa. I did not like the color of the fabric on the sofa, as it was gold with some kind of leaf pattern. It looked dated, but was clean. The bed was very comfortable and we had a foam mattress on top of the regular spring matters. The foam mattress was nice, but we found in the middle of the night we became very warm and credited the foam with retaining heat. There is a wall between the sofa and the bed that you can fold out and partition off the sofa from the bed. There are also curtains in the wall that you can pull shut so you have like a private cocoon for the Queen size bed. There is another curtain system that you can pull around that will go around the Murphy bed if you pull it down. The best feature is the plate glass windows that overlook the sea. I really enjoyed sitting on the sofa reading a book and watching the sea go by on sea days. The only draw back to the large plate glass windows is when the sea is rough. They creak like crazy and making it difficult at times to read. At night when they creaked I had to just put them out of my mind and concentrate on the rocking of the ship created by the rough seas. That put me to sleep and kept me asleep all night long rocking up and down, back and forth. Overall I really enjoyed the room and its size. I don't think I will be able to go back to a mini suite or balcony room after experiencing the size and comfort of a suite.

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