This is our 4th cruise, 3rd on the NCL Star. All 3 NCL Cruises have been to the Mexican Riviera. The fact that we loved this itinerary so much, we asked my husband's Brother and Sister-in-Law to go along. They were not disappointed, they too love the Star. We both had balcony cabins on the 11th deck. Since our rooms were side by side we were able to have our balconies open between the two rooms.
We arrived in San Pedro the night before the cruise. The Sunrise Best Western Hotel offers a fee shuttle to the port on the day of the cruise. We left the hotel at 10:30 AM and were on the ship before noon. Our cabins weren't ready so we explored the ship. In all three of our cruises we have found that the embarking process was very easy. The restaurants were open for lunch so we had a snack while we waited. As we found in the past, all the employees are always ready to help.
Before we even boarded the ship, we knew that at least once we would eat in the Teppanyaki room. This is a charge restaurant, but worth every bit of the $20 charge. The rest of the cruise we ate in the no charge restaurants. All of our meals were very good and the service was great. We are early diners so we never had to wait in line. Every morning we had breakfast in the Versailles. Two mornings our guests decided to sleep in and go to the buffet. They were pleased with their food there, too. At night we ate at the Versailles or Aqua. One night we went to the Endless Summer where we had great Mexican food.