Norwegian Star Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,583 reviews

Lots of improvement since last time; a great cruise!

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star
User Avatar
mearsfansinboise
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

Rating by category

Cabin
Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Service

Additional details

Sail Date: Mar 2015
Cabin: Family Suite
Traveled with children

ABOUT US: we are in our early 40s, DS is 12, DD is 10. This was our 5th cruise – and our 2nd with NCL. We were able to get a good deal/promo last year and brought my mother along as a gift for her 65th birthday, and also my best friend from college who is also in her mid 40s. We booked the family suite which sleeps 6 and had planned on having it be 2/2/2 in the beds but it ended up being 3/2/1 which was just fine as the main bed is large, king size, I believe – and it fit myself, my husband, and my son comfortably. I know some folks think these accommodations are tight for 6 people, but for us it worked just fine. We coordinated bathing to have 3 in the a.m. and 3 in the p.m. We were out of the suite more than we were in it, so there weren’t really any issues with the amount of people we had in the suite.

GETTING THERE: we drove down from Idaho in pieces. We left after work one night and did a 2-hour drive to Twin Falls, Idaho and spent the night there. The next day we did 7.5 hours down to Las Vegas. And the next morning we drove 4 hours down to the Los Angeles area and stayed overnight in Buena Park. We stayed at all La Quinta hotels – free breakfast, free wi-fi, cheap, and we get points to earn free hotel rooms.

EMBARKATION/DAY 1: we arrived at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro at 10am, met our friend who had driven in from the valley in California, got everything unloaded, trucked it over to the island where the porters can come out to, he loaded it all up on one cart, we tipped him and he took our stuff. 10:30ish there was no line outside the terminal, we passed security, and went inside. The staff there told us where to go, we told them we were in a suite, they asked to see our papers showing this, and then gave us the have you been sick paperwork or whatever that’s called and had us sit and fill that out and then escorted us to another, much shorter line (than the others) where we waited for like 5 minutes. We took our pictures, got all registered and were then escorted to the priority lounge.

Cabin Review

Family Suite

Cabin SJ

Lots of room for 6 people. You can easily fit 2 people in each bed.

Having a tub and a shower is great when you have kids - you can have one kid in one and one kid in the other, and away you go.

This was our first time sailing in a suite and we absolutely loved "the suite life."

From the main review -

We finished lunch and went to check out our suite #12528. We never received the pre-boarding suite e-mail (where you can choose pillow type, and make any special requests), so I e-mailed NCL just a few days prior to sailing asking for certain snacks in the room when we boarded and in the afternoons. I had read here on Cruise Critic that gummy worms and m&ms for the kids were an option. There was nothing in the room except for a complimentary bottle of champagne and one of water. We were pretty early on-board, I think. We left the room and went out to swim, dance, and eat some more. We went back to the room after the sailaway and there were flowers and fruit on the table. We met our room steward Dani), and then later our butler, Efren. I asked Efren about the e-mail that I had sent and he didn’t seem to know about it. I requested the treats for the children and he told me only if it was available but that he would bring afternoon snacks each day. We never did receive the gummy worms or m&ms, but we did receive cookies, finger sandwiches, fruit, and canapés every day.

BUTLER/CONCIERGE: Efren was our butler and with the exception of not getting gummy worms & m&ms (not a big deal, just a minor disappointment for the kids as I had told them about it) he was fantastic. My mother had stomach issues (hers, not cruise/cruise food related) and one night she was in the room alone and not feeling well and asked Efren where she could get some Pepto Bismol. He told her the shop was already closed, but he brought her some bananas, some club soda, and some Tums which was very nice of him to do. My son would often call Efren and say “Hi Efren, can I have some food?” – LOL – and Efren would bring whatever it was we were requesting off the room service menu. My son would also order movies and Efren would bring those as well. Dani our room steward would ask when we’d like to have the room turned down at night and he took care of that and did a towel animal for the kids. We’d need extra towels on occasion and they took care of that as well. Dani noticed something wrong with one of the curtains and he had someone in there working on it straightaway. Roel always made sure we had the good balcony seats at the shows, took care of dining reservations for us, and also assisted with the priority tendering.

1 Helpful Vote
previous reviewnext review

Find a Norwegian Star Cruise from $639

Any Month

Get special cruise deals, expert advice, insider tips and more.By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

© 1995—2024, The Independent Traveler, Inc.