This was my wife's and mine first cruise ever. I wanted to go on a cruise for a long time. My wife was not too crazy about cruising. Her idea of a cruise was a boat full of drunk people constantly falling overboard, while throwing up because of being intoxicated, seasick, and infected with norovirus at the same time. I don't know how, but I managed to talk her into taking a Mexican Riviera 7 day cruise. On the third day of the cruise she asked me when are we going on a next cruise. On the last day she did not want to leave the ship. We had an absolutely fantastic time on the Norwegian Star. Don't get me wrong, there were some less than enjoyable moments in our cruising experience, and I will mention them in this review, but overall it was one of the best vacation experiences I ever had. We had a great cruise director, wonderful staff throughout the ship, and some excellent performers at the shows.

EMBARKATION In one word, it was a mess. Took forever (~ 2 hours) to go through the lines and get on the ship. Apparently the CBP officials took their time while clearing the ship for disembarkation of the previous cruise. There was a line to get to the terminal building. Then there was a line in the terminal building to get the sea cards. Then we had to wait for our group number to be called. Then there was a huge line alongside of the ship to go through the gangway. We were about to enter the gangway when it malfunctioned, and the siren started blaring. Boarding was halted, and we had to listen to the siren for the next 15 minutes standing right next to it. Apparently workers could not fix the problem, so the siren kept going off as we were standing a few feet away from it. Finally NCL personnel just resumed boarding while the siren was still going off. We departed 3 hours late because the ship did not get refueled on time.

CABIN We had an inside cabin on the 9th deck forward. It was small, but not inadequately small. We brought 3 suitcases and were able to put all our clothes in the closet. Cabin was clean and nicely furnished. Bathroom felt spacious and sparkling clean. Although the Star is not a brand new ship, nothing in the cabin showed any signs of wear, which I find pretty amazing. Everything was functioning correctly, we did not have a single problem with our cabin. Our steward Leslie did a very good job. We always had new towels, fresh ice and new water bottles in the cabin. He emptied the mini-bar at our request. We had 4 towel animals throughout the cruise. Read more