Better then expected

We are big fans of NCL, especially their bigger ships so I was a little concerned how I would feel spending a week on a Star. I need not have worried as this ship can take on the big boys any day. The ship feels very modern and has lots of great bars and restaurants, I never once felt we didn't have lots of choice of where to go. The first night in Versaille was shocking, the food was good but the service was terrible, getting orders wrong etc. We decided to try Aqua the next night, this was much better and return twice more. We also ate at the Ginza, Moderno and O'Sheehans, all were good but service in O'Sheehans was pretty slow as it was there at breakfast.

The embarkation in Venice was pretty easy but be warned its a good walk to the dock from the people mover so if you struggle get a taxi from the bus station in Venice. Three of the five ports we visited we tendered (Kotor, Mykonos and Santorini), as another ship was anchored close to town in Kotor we had to drop anchor further away, this meant a 25 minute ride! Because it took around an hour to turn a tender around it took an age to get everyone off and there was lots of complaining. The other 2 ports were straight forward and we go off quickly even waiting for open tender. Unfortunately, this tender ticket game is getting ridiculous. Tickets were available from 8.30am to 9.30 am, I over heard a couple saying they got in line at 6am to ensure they got a good ticket! The Star really needs to upgrade its TV so you can book tenders through them like on the big ships, that will stop this crazy behaviour.

Our cabin was 5500, a lovely large cabin but very noisy when docking, I wouldn't chose this again. Luckily we didn't dock early in most our ports so we did get plentry of sleep but coming back into Venice we were woken at 5.45am by the thrusters.

All the ports were beautiful in their own way, sailing into Kotor through the Fjord was very special.

Needless to say I loved ship and hope to sail on her again some day.

Noisy at docking but very large and plenty of storage space.