This was the first cruise for my wife, my 2 children (11 & 13), and myself. I have many family members that have cruised many times and I heard all the stories of what a great time they had, unfortunately my experience was a bit different.

First, the Star seemed like a nice ship at first, but after a couple of days, we started to realize that there really wasn't much for the kids to do. They did take part in a couple of kids club activities, but for the most part they spent their time at the pool. The pool is average at best with 2 water slides that open late and close early each day. My kids enjoyed their time, but it got boring after the 200th time down the same slide. The pool deck was occupied by the same group of people every day that wake up early and put towels on the chairs before daybreak to be sure the can sit, smoke and watch other peoples children run around the deck. A couple of creepy overly tan older gentlemen were always there drinking and smoking away. The outdoor seating areas were dominated by smokers. Almost every table had a smoke cloud around it all day. Really kind of sucked, since us non smokers had not choice but to smoke right along with them the entire time, at least if you wanted to be outside.

The food in the Buffet was decent, not a lot of variety, but overall it was good. We ate at Versailles, Aqua, Ginza, La Cucina, and Teppanyaki, all of which were good. Versailles is cool, but it is very slow. Aqua, the food was good, but din't care for the atmosphere. All the other eateries were good. Read more