We just got back from taking the Norwegian (NCL) Star and going on the Mexican Riviera itinerary. Sailing date was November 24th. I am sure this is going to seem like a long review, but I have a lot to say about it. I will cut to the immediate chase however for those who do not want specifics. Usually the biggest question asked is would I take this cruise again. The answer is yes I would take the same itinerary and no I would not take the same ship. That doesn't mean it was a bad ship, or that I did not enjoy being on NCL's cruise line. But, if you want specifics, please keep reading.
Pre-cruise: We flew to Los Angeles the day before the cruise, and decided to stay in Long Beach for two reasons. It was fairly close to the Port of Los Angeles and we had neither been to Long Beach before. We stayed in the Coast Hotel of Long Beach. It was a very nice place with friendly staff. Our room, which was a "deluxe" room over looked the Bay of Long Beach and the surrounding area which has a lot of attractions, beautiful condo's and hotels, and also the Queen Mary. We did go to the Pacific Aquarium there in Long Beach,. It was difficult for me to enjoy it fully as it was the day after Thanksgiving and I had not thought about people bring kids by the car loads to the Aquarium since the kids were out of school for the holiday. If you can go when it is not crowded, I am sure it would be a worthwhile adventure. We did have a great lunch right across the street at a place called Bubba Gumps. I recommend it very highly. Great staff, nice prices and great food. We had dinner on Friday night and breakfast Saturday morning at the Coast Hotel and enjoyed both. One FYI here, we had flown into LAX and took a cab from LAX to the hotel in Long Beach. That was about $70.00 including tip and then a cab to the Port of LA Saturday was about $60.00, again including tip. If we had it to do over again, we would probably have just stayed in one of the nice hotels near the Port of LA. However I have no regrets about where we stayed.
Boarding the ship: We arrived at the port of LA around 9:30am and were met by a porter as soon as we got out of our taxi. Bags taken care of we went into the terminal to register. Now we have had a suite on every cruise we have been on. One Radisson, one Carnival, one Royal Caribbean and now two on NCL. We always book suites because we like the perks that you get with a suite. One of the most important to us is you get priority boarding. We like this perk because we get to usually get to our room, put our carry on stuff away and take a quick tour of the ship before it gets crowded. After you register and you are in a suite, the concierge (another perk having a suite) is supposed to introduce you to the butler assigned to your suite (another perk having a suite). The butler is supposed to then escort you on priority boarding and take you to your cabin as soon as the ship is cleared to receive passengers. Well, the lady who checked us in was very new, we were the second people she had ever checked in, and she did not know to show us to our concierge. I won't go into all the details, but we had to track down the concierge ourselves. She introduced us to three different guys telling us they were our butlers and in a moment they would be taking us onboard. One finally led us to the elevator to take us to the ship and then did not get on with us. We ended up onboard with no one to show us to our cabin. We tried to just go to the cabin ourselves, but they have the hallways blocked off until the "all's clear" is given for every one to go to their cabins, which on this day was going to be 2PM. We tried to advise the people in the hallway we were in a suite and should be allowed to go to our rooms, but they didn't know that and wouldn't let us pass. We were told by the people at the front desk that no one was allowed to go to their cabins until the "all's clear" is given, and even though we knew that was not true, we decided to just give up and have lunch at the buffet. We had read in many reviews of this ship that it was often the case that the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing, and I can assure you, that is true. Every time we brought that to someone's attention we were told "oh that person who gave you the wrong information is new". If that many people were new, the ship would not have been able to set sail, as no one would have known how to sail it. This is just one example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing. There were many examples I could give you, but just trust me on this one.