Norwegian Star Review
Norwegian Star was great. Loved Norway, Svalbard, and Iceland.
Rating by category
Additional details
I wanted to respond to all the negative reviews of this ship based on the May cruise where the ship didn't serve alcohol the first three days of a cruise around the U.K. I quizzed the bartenders and this did happen because of issues between Norwegian and the UK alcohol/tax authorities. But the reviews saying the food and service on this ship were bad are all lies. My wife and I were on the Star for 11 days and the food was very good. The Garden Cafe got very busy during breakfast, but I think this was because the food was good and nobody wanted to wait for food in a main dining hall. We ate at the Versaille main dining hall most dinners and the food was excellent. My wife had the breaded and fried flounder with dill sauce four times.
The staff was very friendly and helpful like every time I've cruised Norwegian. The drinks were good and had plenty of alcohol in them. I never had to wait more than a minute or two for a drink at any of the bars.
The ship was clean. We liked the shows in the evening.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Balcony
We had a balcony cabin on the tenth deck in the middle of the ship. The cabin was very comfortable. The bed was nice. The shower was great. This cruise had three days at sea so we spent a good amount of time in the cabin on these sea days and were very comfortable. We saw lots of whales from our room.
Port Reviews
Akureyri
Loved Akureyri. We booked a tour with Arman with Imagine Iceland and it was fantastic. Arman is a native Icelander. He took us on a six hour tour that hit all the local spots of interest. He was very friendly and informative.
Alta
In Alta everyone goes to Knordcapp or North Cape. It's about a twenty minute drive from Alta. North Cape is famous because it's the northern most point in Europe and lots of famous people went there. It's a big plateau that looks out over the ocean. The scenery on the way to North Cape was better than the cape. Very green with lots of reindeer. Alta had some nice shops and a pretty harbor. You can see the whole little town in a couple of hours.
Hammerfest
It was cold and windy the day we were in Hammerfest. It's a 20 minute walk from the pier to the town center. There is a walk up the steep mountain overlooking Hammerfest that afforded nice views of the town and harbor. Hammerfest has the Royal Polar Arctic explorer club museum. It's very small but interesting. There is not much else to see and do in the town. You can see it all in about an hour.