Norwegian Star Review
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My husband and I sailed on the NCL Star on June 20, 2009. We are both in our early 50's and had looked forward this trip for a very long time, (saving up a lot of reward points and airline miles along the way). And what a wonderful trip it was! Alaska is certainly a beautiful place to visit, and the NCL Star is a beautiful way to get there!
We flew Miami-St. Louis-Seattle on American Airlines - flew First Class by upgrading our economy seats with AAdvantage miles, well worth all those months of saving miles for the long flight! Arrived in Seattle on Friday night at 9:50 pm and stayed at the Radisson Hotel Gateway Seattle-Tacoma Airport - used ThankYou Network points to pay for the room - and found it to be quite nice. The hotel is only a long block from the airport. We saw some people actually walking down a small hill to get to the hotel, but since we had 3 large bags we chose to use the complementary shuttle, which picked us up within 5 minutes after we called them. The hotel was nice and clean, the 'sleep number bed' was very comfortable, and the restaurant served a very good breakfast buffet. I think this hotel was a much better value than the Holiday Inn SeaTac where we stayed on our return, but more on that later. Our shuttle driver told us about a Cruise Shuttle available for $12 pp, which we booked at the reception desk. We were picked up at 12:00 noon Saturday morning and were at the pier by 12:25 pm.
Check in at Pier 66 was a breeze. We dropped off our luggage on entering and went through a long but very fast line to the security check. Since we had a Mini-suite, we qualified for Priority Boarding, which meant we did not have any wait to check in - even though the regular line seemed to go very quick also. Upon boarding we were greeted by friendly waiters offering champagne or orange juice - I got one of each so I could make myself a mimosa - it was a great beginning to a wonderful cruise. We were told our cabin would be ready by 2:00 pm. We took a quick tour of the ship, had a burger by the pool and settled in at the front of the ship to watch the beautiful view of Seattle's waterfront. The go ahead to go to the cabin was given at about 2:00 pm, and our luggage was delivered to the cabin about 30 minutes later.
Cabin Review
Aft-Facing Penthouse with Large Balcony
Our cabin, a mini-suite on deck 11 forward, was spacious and very comfortable. The closet was a very nice size - thanks to a previous post I had read I found the light in the closet (red button in the back under the top shelf) - with lots of shelves and plenty of hangers (Yes, I over-packed and had too many clothes) There was a king sized bed, a sofa, a small table and two chairs. A wall unit housed the 13" TV, a coffee maker with supplies for regular and decaf coffee (that were replenished daily), and refrigerator/mini bar which was well stocked with beverages which were priced comparable to the bars. We had a full bath, including a regular sized bathtub which was a nice surprise! The toilet was separated by a sliding glass door which provided some privacy if two people wanted to use the facilities. The best part of the cabin was the shaded balcony with two lounge chairs. Our sliding glass windows provided magnificent views, even from the bed!