I will move this to reviews as well, but I want to say a few key things as well. It took us twenty minutes from the time my sister dropped us off at the pier to walk into our room, our room was ready, I think we got on around 1:30 for a 4pm leave from the port of LA. We disembarked out late (light blue) and it took us 35 minutes to get through customs and back to my sister's car. So I guess whatever problem existed before on the pier are not there. I particularly loved the officer who welcomed us all back to the us, he was standing at the bottom of the escalator, little sunshine on a day when we just wanted to get back on the ship. When we embarked, as I said, we were in our room, ready in about 20 minutes, didn't want to waste a moment of time and went up to the 12th floor, where the fiesta was beginning. There was a band and a BBQ (the band was singing "All night long") and it was absolutely fun. The weather had been really warm in LA (we left on the 12th of Feb) so we were ready to roll.
I try not to write reviews in my head when we travel, but it happens, and also could preclude some of the fabulous times we have when we have not a clue where we are going or what we will encounter....that being said, here were my observations and experiences on the Star (I kissed her each morning)....
She is huge, the interior is very nice. Our room was on the 4th floor, a porthole window, which was just fine for us. We took a look at the suites on the 11th floor today, and they are very pretty, I would rather spend my money on the trip than the room, but hey, that's me. The room was small but certainly not unpleasant..nice shower, good shampoo, no conditioner, don't know about the soap because I brought my own. We didn't spend a bunch of time in the room, but the beds can be joined into a queen. Today we watched old movies on the TV before we disembarked, it is small but comfortable, and very clean. There is a mini bar that has a bunch of minis, bear and soda in it....they didn't check it everyday and we pretty much cleaned it out (except for the liqueurs) and the tab was around $84, so if you don't want to use it do what other people do and have them take the stuff out when you get there. Money wasn't a biggy for us on this trip, but you can easily cruise with NCL and pay close to your booking fees, (don't drink alcohol, gambel, go to spa, or anything where there is a charge) there is a $10 a day service fee, so for us it was $160. for the two of us. We read about it, it's all over their advertising etc etc. And any drink you order has a 15% gratuity fee added. They say it everywhere, in the meeting etc, etc, but still there was a girl who was absolutely not nice this morning because she didn't read the brochures...net.....letters you sign. You pay it, we didn't pay more than was added on our check....15% gratuity was kind of nice and relaxing, not to worry about it. (Service.....see tomorrow)
The ride was smooth, until the last couple of days when you could feel the water move, but HELLO you are on a ship, nothing dramatic.
The outdoor pool is about a two thirds of an Olympic size, you can still do laps, we were there in the middle of February and there were only a handful of kids on board, on the nice days the pool fills up fairly quickly, but you can still get laps in in the morning. I had a body scrub and facial, very nice and no more expensive than we pay here....check their specials. We loved wandering around the ship, there is always something going on.
The food.....We tend to get pretty excited about going on excursions or our own adventures, so basic food works fine when we are away from home. So we ate at the main cafe on 12 or pool side all of which was OK, ....the high point was the Indian curry they had yesterday, and a mean chili you can put in their taco set up. Outside of that, there is a good selection, just nothing that jumps out at you. We did eat at Soho and thought that was exceptional, and Versailles for breakfast, salmon and spinich Benedict, hot good coffee, yum.... so that is this update, for the evening.....there will be more installments, including a fairly hilarious act that Denny and his group did for us the day before we left......stay tuned.
We have had a blast. I will fill in on all the details when I get back home. We have enjoyed the freestyle eating and plan to cruise for the rest of our lives.