Just got off the Star this morning at around 10:00 am. What can I say??? This was our first cruise and..... The opinions expressed here are strictly my opinions and I stand by what I observed and witnessed :0) with that I will continue with my first review of my very first cruise. Background Information This was a celebration cruise planned at the last minute. My parents were celebrating their 39th wedding anniversary and my mom's retirement after 40 years as a school librarian, my husband arrived home safely after almost a year in Iraq and I finally graduated with my BA. My children were celebrating their birthdays. My daughter turned 9 and my son turned 12. Ship We chose the NCL Star because of the itinerary, price and the desire to try "Freestyle Cruising". I did a lot of research on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor. I had less than a month to book, research and learn all I could. I had never booked a cruise before but I was really happy with my choice. Saturday 6/28 The embarkation was as easy as pie. We arrived a little after 10:30 a.m. We were a party of 6 people. 4 adults and two children. We drove down to Seattle as we only live about 80 miles away in Bellingham, WA. My friend was meeting us at Pier 66 so she was going to take my Suburban for the week so we did not have to pay for parking. We arrived with a ton of luggage which was quickly taken by a Porter that led us to where we needed to show our cruise ticket and passports. We were not to see our luggage again until later on in the afternoon. We were directed to the elevators since my son is in a wheelchair and went through security rather quickly. Once we were upstairs we took our pictures for our room keys and gave them our Credit Card for room charges. They let us on a little after 12:00 pm saying that our rooms would be ready around 2:30. As soon as we embarked we took our pictures and made our way up the gangway. The Star took my breath away! As we entered we were directed to the buffet, since I have spent countless hours on CC I knew to go directly to Versailles which we did. I also knew to make reservations at Cagney's ASAP as I had a buy one dinner get one free at any specialty restaurant for the first night. Versailles was still closed so I decided to go ahead and sign the kids up for kids club and we made our way to the Spa after that to get the couples special. It was 140.00 for the spa for two for the week. Very well worth it in my opinion as we were there every day twice on our 2 sea days. By the time we did all of that Versailles was open and off to lunch we went. I made sure to order their chilled fruit soup which was excellent. I also had a sandwich and dessert. (The first of many) After that our rooms were ready and we headed to them. When we arrived they had a bottle of bubbly waiting for us. We had preordered the anniversary package. This was our first cruise so I had booked an inside cabin and it was the wheelchair accessible one on the 10th floor. I was impressed with the size of it. My son was able to maneuver in and out of the room with ease. We decided to explore the ship the kids went to kids club. Everyone seemed so friendly, I was in awe of the way the ship all came together it was time for our sail away and it was held by the pool. We had fantastic sunny weather. We were out until about 6:00 pm when we arrived to our stateroom our luggage was waiting outside. Unfortunately one piece was missing, mine. I called downstairs and they told me to wait until 8:00pm. The only problem I had with that is that we had reservations at Cagney's and I wanted to change. It was compounded by the fact that my DH had said that he did not remember putting my luggage in our truck. About 7:45 I went back down to reception and sure enough the luggage tag had fallen off and it was sitting in the back waiting to be claimed. I would have not been so worried if my husband had remembered that he HAD loaded up my luggage. Disaster averted, we went to Cagney's and the food was wonderful. DH had the prime rib which was smooth as butter and the rest of us had fillet mingon. The only drawback that I saw was that the service takes forever; it took us about 2.5 hours to get from appetizer to dessert. We did miss out on the shows that evening. On a brighter note my TA sent me the wrong coupon book and they were not going to honor my 2 for one. The Maitre D saw my frustration and sent someone to the front desk and exchanged my booklet for the correct one. We then went down to the Casino for awhile then went back to our staterooms to get ready for our next day. Sunday Sea Day we woke up and decided to try the buffet. It was not my cup of tea but it wasn't bad. I tend to prefer a sit down restaurant but if you are in a hurry it is worth it. I went down to the Spa hung out there for a while and watched the world sail on by. We had dinner at Endless Summer nights and saw a whale from the window. Did not like the Maitre d was a total jerk. The hostess had seated us at a window table then he came over and said that it was reserved for someone else. Nowhere on the table did it say reserved so I did argue with him that we wanted the table that was originally offered to us in the end he relented and let us have the table. He just kept giving us nasty looks all through dinner. That was ok; I had my window seat and got to see a whale. We had a great time. The kids also had a blast; they were at the pool most of the day and got a nice tan. I on the other hand got sunburn. Who goes to Alaska to sunburn? We also attended a presentation on who to buy from we were at the different ports. It was informative but not necessary. I did win a keychain that was thrown into the audience. Monday Ketchikan We booked our excursions from NCL big mistake. We could have gotten them cheaper on the outside, but being this was our first cruise we decided to play it safe. In Ketchikan my DH and I did the Zip lines. All I can say is incredible. We saw two blk bears down below us and many eagles. I am so ready to do it again. My parents and kids went on the totem pole tour along with the Lumber Jack show that they really enjoyed. The only drawback was it started with the Lumber Jack show which they had to walk to. My son is in a chair so they felt a little rushed trying to get to a place where they had never been. Dh and I decided to escort them there and ease their worries. After their tour and our tour we did get to tour the city. It is rather small we ended up buy some knick knacks here and there. Unfortunately most of them are made in China. We went back on the ship and ended up having lunch at Versailles dinner at Aqua. Did the spa and went down to see I think it was Man on the run show which was alot of fun to watch. I also think it was Monte Carlo night. We went down to the casino awhile got our picture taken had a couple of drinks and went on our way. Tues Juneau Ordered room service for breakfast, disembarked the ship at 7:00 am. This was our shortest port. Had a wonderful sunny day! We had nothing planned so we did the city tour along with the Mendenhall glacier tour. Paid 28.00 per person for both tours. Had a wonderful tour guide Tony who was half Tinglit and from the Raven family. He was really informative and we learned alot from him. Mendenhall Glacier is not to be missed. Breathtaking! We also saw bear scat. LOL(we knew because it had a little sign next to it) We got back to the ship and lunched again in Versailles. We were suppose to go to Sawyers Glacier but it was too icy we were diverted to Endicott Arm and then to Dawes Glacier. We had dinner again at Endless Summer Nights. Then we went to the Spinnaker lounge. I want to say that this night was the not so newlywed game. Wed Skagway We had a private tour with Dave from Dyea Dave. He picked us up at the pier and we started our journey to Cacross and Emerald Lake. It was a beautiful drive with Dave as our guide. He really knows his stuff and I was in awe listening to him tell us how it really is. He showed us the real Skagway. We made many stops along the way. We saw a young black bear eating dandelions and we took tons of pictures. We did get to see Emerald Lake along with the real town of Cacross not the "Disney land for tourists that they have built" no offense to anyone that goes there. We just wanted to see something different on our tour. He told us he would take us there if we wanted but we saw too many tour buses and we did want to get back to Skagway. We did get our passports stamped, stopped at a local diner and had the best fry bread ever. Then we headed back. Went back to Versailles for lunch and we had reservations for Le Bistro for dinner. I went to the spa before dinner and the kids swam. Le Bistro was excellent! Dh had the escargot and lobster. I had the medallions of beef which were very tender. We went to the show at the Stardust. Thurs Prince Rupert BC Rain Rain GO AWAY! Ok, I really went into this with an open mind. I figured that I had read a couple of bad reviews but how bad could it be? Well folks, it is! NCL has a monopoly here. No other cruise ship comes through here. I had wanted a local excursion no such luck. NCL has them all contracted to them. We did bite and did the Soaring with the eagle's tour. It lasted about an hour and a half. We did go out on a little boat and they threw out some fat and out of nowhere we were surrounded by Eagles. It was amazing! After the tour we walked the town and realized there was nothing! We went back to the ship, ate at Aqua then headed for the Stardust. We saw Cirque of the Pacific it was enjoyable! Went down to the Chocoholic Buffet! Wow! (Now I have heard people complain how long the lines are and such) It took us about 20 minutes in line to get in. This was held in Versailles. I heard a lady say she wished they would turn on the lights! Yes the lights were dim but for a reason. I guess she wanted to eat chocolate mush along a stream of water. There were many ice sculptures and chocolate sculptures all over the place. Once you were in they did not hurry you up to get out. You had a choice to either eat there or take it to your room or any other place you chose. Even if you don't like chocolate you should go at least to see. Friday Last day at sea Happy 4th of July! Woke up late, ate at Blue Lagoon. My mother and I headed for the disembarkation presentation with Ricky the Cruise Director. Went to the spa and to trivia more about that later. Basically just really enjoyed our last day aboard. We went to the anniversary reception for cake and champagne. There were 14 couples signed up and only 3 showed up. Oh well more cake and champagne for us! We went to Versailles for dinner. Went to see Murray's last show then headed for the Spinnaker for Bud Anderson. It was a great show but too many people. It should have had it in the Stardust. Never ceases to amaze me the rudeness of some people. People were sitting in the aisles and people would just go and stand in front of them. Sat we had a late disembarkation, woke up late had breakfast and headed on out we had reservations for the Radisson. My husband had an early flight to Hawaii the next day. We also bumped into several people at the hotel that were also on our cruise. It is a great hotel fantastic price. It is right across from the airport. They have a 24 hour shuttle and the kids enjoyed the indoor pool. Comments Over all I would give this cruise 4.5 overall it totally met our expectations. We did have 3 towel animals left for us. Not that it mattered but I have seen people post about them. I was disappointed with passengers that did not follow the rules. We went to many shows at the Stardust that said no minors in the first two rows and they were many minors in these two rows. Also annoying were kids that were just running loose all over the ship. Had seen several kids on the glass elevators pressing all the buttons just cursing up and down. I have my two pretty much on a leash. I did talk to a rep about this not so much as a complaint but as a comment. She said this cruise was pretty tame as they only had about 700 kids. I went to Movie trivia at the Cinema it was overrun by teenagers. They were screaming the adults. I got called a liar by one of them because they did not hear me say the answer first. The people in front of me left. I looked back and saw some of them making out. I felt like telling them to get a room. If you go on the Star make sure to play, "The quest" our team won second place. All I can say is that my husband is a good sport. Comments overheard on the ship People upset about the automatic tipping (Hello read the website) People upset about paying at the specialty restaurants and having to make reservations (again website and read your daily) We did talk to Lucia the cruise consultant onboard and she would not give up any more details on the F3's We did buy our cruise rewards certificate We are definitely ready to cruise again! A BIG HUG AND THANK YOU! To all!!! I used all the info I got from this site to make this the best cruise possible!