Norwegian Star Review
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Greetings to all! We're home, and I wanted to submit my review of our cruise to the Mexican Riveria. My husband booked our cruise directly through NCL. Good customer service with their lines (even with hurricanes roaring through MIA).
We departed out of Atlanta at 8:15a, and arrived early into LAX at 9:45a. We caught a cab....and cab prices ARE NOT what NCL says they will be. Cab ride ONE way to pier was $60 (NCL states "about $30"). Cab companies do not charge extra for extra passengers, it's the same rate for one person, or four people in the cab. Arrived at the pier around 10:20a, and there were still a lot of people from the previous cruise milling around. I found a porter, he took our bags immediately, and then the hunt began as to where the line was, where we were to stand to check in, etc. I got different stories from each person I talked to. We finally figured out we were to stand in line to the right of the pier, where the white covered area was. One NCL rep was standing there, having to yell loudly to explain to people about forms needed to be completed prior to standing in line, etc. Many people standing in line had NO clue that they were to check their luggage with a porter. As we entered into the building, we were given a white piece of paper with a number on it (luckily, as were were in a "Penthouse" suite, we were given #1). This piece of paper was about 2 inches square, with a blue number. We were then ushered into a large waiting room.
Once all the agents were ready to go, it didn't seem to matter what number you had, it was mass migration to stand in line. One line was for Latitudes members. We showed our #1 card to an agent, and we were ushered into our own private line ... which was nice. Took about five minutes max, and we were told to proceed to the ship. We then wandered around, trying to see where to go (signage wasn't that visible) and our picture was taken on the way (darn, we usually get the pictures on the gangway!), and we were the 3rd/4th person to board the ship. Right on the gangway was a place to sanitize your hands (great idea, compared to last year getting those little throw away packets the entire cruise).