Norwegian Star Review
Enjoyable cruise, but a little disappointed with NCL.
Rating by category
Additional details
Myself and 2 of my college friends booked this cruise to go on a nice relaxing time together. One of us had never been on a cruise before and the other 2 had been on a few. I have personally only been on NCL while a friend has also been on Carnival. We were flying in from Boston so we stayed at a nearby hotel in Tampa for the evening before the cruise. When we got to the dock and got out of our Uber we were greeted by a ton of porters who all wanted to help take our luggage (because they all want the $).
Once upstairs inside, we waited in line for about 20 minutes to check in. The man who greeted us and checked us in was very nice but had to send us along our way with one big piece of bad news that our cruise schedule had changed due to maintenance which set us off on the wrong foot. We inquired more and he told us that they were diving under the ship and so we may have had to stay until 4AM Monday instead of leaving at 4 PM Sunday. He also told us that they had the same notice from the previous week but they left on time (I think he was lying to us). After we realized that we were not actually missing any stops (just doing them in a different order) we felt it was going to be fine.
We proceeded to get on board and started our vacation. We were pleased with the greeting that we were given. When we got to our room we were pretty impressed with everything except for a few minor things that needed to be fixed. We called and put a request in and all were done within a few hours. Overall from here on out we were pretty impressed and very happy to be on board. We ended up leaving at 5 AM Monday and when we were at sea we felt that we were at top speed all the time because of the delay. It was not too rough but we felt that if we were not rushing, it would have been nicer.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Mini-Suite with Balcony
Our cabin was a good size and we felt that for the 3 of us it was fine. I don't think that 4 people would have been as comfortable as we were but it was fine for us. We loved the balcony for sure.
Port Reviews
Roatan
This was EXCELLENT by far! The company was very polite, respectful and we trusted them beyond belief. We were greeted pleasantly, taken by private bus tour to the spot and then when got there the excursion was awesome!
Costa Maya
Costa Maya felt very "touristy" to us. There was not a lot to do when you got into the port. There were a LOT of shops but they all have the same things in them. The only other attraction was a swim up pool bar and a small public beach. Not very exciting for us.
Cozumel
The tequila tasting was a lot of fun and I would recommend it to anyone. The company was organized and we were with one tour guide all day who took good care of us.
Tampa
We had to wait for about 20 minutes in line which was not a problem but when we did check in is when we learned of the "change" in the itinerary and this was not a fun way to start the trip!