I chose to cruise solo on the Star because I was going to be at a conference in Orlando and a 10/16 start was good. I wanted to go to Belise. I had cruised Star before. So, I arrived in Tampa the night before and arranged with my hotel to take the shuttle ($5) to the port. I got down for pickup early - good thing cause it was crowded. No room in current shuttle, but caught the next 30 later. As another mentioned, it was easy to drop off the Carnival people and mayhem to drop off NCL. I almost asked to get out and walk the rest of the way. I had all carryon. (Now 12:20)

Ok, so carryon is not meant to have to walk up a dead escalator. When I got to the top it was disorganizaed, but I figured out where to stand as we looped the entire length of the upstairs already. As another mentioned, someone fainted. I figured out later the reason this really stopped the line is because the person who helped was the one managing the disabled people. Once she got back to the front of the line we had a long period of only disableds going through. Finally moving again, Several wraps around before the screening machines (2 of them for all - 2 is 2 few).

Into the main area ... totally disorganized. They had rows of chairs, but you were in a line that looped through them. You could not sit down. At one point I saw an area for Latitudes members. Someone held my place while I went to ask if I could use the Latitudes (This was my 5th official NCL, although I know I have more with some groups). No, I could not. (I found out later that many with only 2 prior cruises got to use Latitudes. So, 3:40 when I got to front of line. 3 and 1/2 hours to board the ship.... and the line behind me was still long. Read more