Norwegian Star Review
Avoid 8 Aft rooms if you like to sleep!
Rating by category
Additional details
We are Platinum Level Latitudes members and are big NCL fans. It is "our" cruise line -- our first choice when planning cruises. Unfortunately, if our most recent cruise on the NCL Star had been our first NCL cruise, we would never book them again.
When booking our cruise 14 months in advance (when there was large pool of rooms to choose from) our NCL Personal Cruise Consultant suggested 8 Aft as a "great location". She didn't mention that the room she booked us into is directly over the Spinnaker Lounge's stage and subject to LOUD late night music. When I say LOUD I mean as in we could hear the words to every song, everything that the MC said, and even the winning raffle ticket numbers! My husband is hearing impaired and could hear everything clearly after removing his hearing aides.
We had sailed the Star twice before and the Spinnaker was in the forward part of the ship. Because we'd sailed on the Star we thought we knew the ship and thus neglected (our mistake) to look at the deck map when booking. Aft has always been a good choice for us. Important lesson: ALWAYS look at the deck maps before booking; you never know when a ship may have been reconfigured since your last sailing. Many people on 8 Aft endured many sleepless nights on this cruise. We were offered a "sleeping room" where we could sleep at night, but keep our cabin, but if I wanted to carry my toiletries back and forth I'd book a KOA campsite! Moving to a new room was not an option because they would be occupied during future legs of our back-to-back trip. The Star staff is well aware of the problem, but has adopted a defeated, "we can't do anything and you should have not booked that room" attitude.
Cabin Review
Inside
When booking our cruise 14 months in advance (when there was large pool of rooms to choose from) our NCL Personal Cruise Consultant suggested 8 Aft as a "great location". She didn't mention that the room she booked us into is directly over the Spinnaker Lounge's stage and subject to LOUD late night music. When I say LOUD I mean as in we could hear the words to every song, everything that the MC said, and even the winning raffle ticket numbers! My husband is hearing impaired and could hear everything clearly after removing his hearing aides. We had sailed the Star twice before and the Spinnaker was in the forward part of the ship. Because we'd sailed on the Star we thought we knew the ship and thus neglected (our mistake) to look at the deck map when booking. Aft has always been a good choice for us. Important lesson: ALWAYS look at the deck maps before booking; you never know when a ship may have been reconfigured since your last sailing. Many people on 8 Aft endured many sleepless nights on this cruise. We were offered a "sleeping room" where we could sleep at night, but keep our cabin, but if I wanted to carry my toiletries back and forth I'd book a KOA campsite! Moving to a new room was not an option because they would be occupied during future legs of our back-to-back trip. The Star staff is well aware of the problem, but has adopted a defeated, "we can't do anything and you should have not booked that room" attitude. If you like to party at night, 8 Aft is a good location, but if you are an early-to-bed kind of person, avoid 8 Aft on the Star. Also know that 8 Mid is subject to noise from the Atrium -- music in the evening and Blue Lagoon noise in the early AM.