Reviews
![Excellent Ship great staff]()
A beautiful ship with plenty of top class entertainment and activities if you want them .
Good choices are first class and the itinerary on t hi s cruise was just what I wanted
Lengthy queues as everyone turned up at same time so why was there a requirement to choose an embarkation time.
Had to keep carry on luggage with us as staterooms not ready until after 3pm.
Alcoholic drinks not served in Southampton nor Belfast due to "UK law". Not available until 9pm after leaving Southampton & midnight after leaving Belfast. No compensation nor refund offered by Guest Services on board - just given a case ref number to quote when emailing head office. Only one advisory notice seen in Southampton and a tannoy announcement made night before arrival in Belfast. No one could explain this "law" so believe it to be that NCL didn't want to pay the tax even though we get charged port taxes & fees. Subsequent communication with Miami Head Office has resulted in a refund of a proportion of the "Free at Sea" cost.
Stateroom well equipped with different plug sockets, USB ports and a clever DND sign outside. Spacious bathroom with good size shower with door rather than curtain.
Open dining allows you to turn up when you like but, unless you ask to be seated in a specific server's area, you don't get to form a relationship with the crew. Evening food of an adequate standard but sadly lacking in much of the way of vegetables. Breakfast in the main dining room not very good - items often cold (poached eggs on a couple of occasions for example), bagel too hard to cut/bite and a lack of advertised choices.
Tannoy announcements regarding tender tickets very intrusive & too early in the morning.
Lack of entertainment variety : three brought-on acts did two nights each in the theatre but the cast shows were of a good standard. Shame one was curtailed early due to technical difficulties and thought it could have been rescheduled for the last afternoon at sea day as nothing else was going on in the theatre.
Security seemingly unwilling to deal with a "rowdy" guest who had clearly had too much to drink. Bar staff continued to serve even though he was stumbling around, annoying other guests who were trying to enjoy the musicians and shouting loudly during their performance.
Guests without transfers / excursions on last day were only given choice of two disembarkation times which again led to queues snaking half the length of the ship and then back & forward four times on the outside walkways. Same as on embarkation - too many people given the same time and un-necessary queueing which unfortunately resulted in one guest collapsing in the heat.
Related reviews
Reviews
![The scenery made up for the shortfalls of the actual cruise experience]()
It was largely what we were expecting - re: accommodation and entertainment. We thought the food offerings were not very good. As it was an Alaskan cruise we were expecting at least a salmon and crab evening. I thought the buffet would be a bit like the Las Vegas offerings but standard was pedestrian. However, food cooked well and presented nicely. Enjoyed being able to eat in three speciality restaurants and our favourite was the French restaurant - that we really liked. Staff on board all brilliant.
Entertainment very loud so we avoided the shows after the first night. Evening music in the main bar was excellent when it was a guy called Randon, otherwise not so good.
Port side tours were good. Organisation and communication excellent - never felt left to find out important information for ourselves - daily newspaper listing all activities. Very impressed with that.
We would probably not choose an American cruise company again. We are definitely European and our cultures seem so different!
Reviews
![Great Getaway on Norwegian Getaway]()
Fantastic round trip cruise from New York up to Halifax. The entertainment was good and the cruise co-ordinator made sure everyone was having a great time. We missed the Beatles bar that Epic had and there wasn't quite the same amount of choices when it came to watching tribute bands/entertainment, but Staff were really friendly and accommodating and did their best to make our trip an enjoyable one. The stops were really interesting and we saw plenty of wildlife - would definitely go back to Boston as a separate trip too as we simply didn't have enough time to see everything. Gave us a taste of that side of America and Canada and we would definitely recommend the cruise and the location. Just booked our 4th cruise with Norwegian around the Med and back on Epic so looking to compare our last few trips and see what has changed.
Reviews
![Less than impressive, NCL could do much better]()
British Isles, France, Netherlands and Belgium 11-night cruise
Having had more than 35 cruises across several cruise lines (including Holland-America, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, P&O, Marella and others), this for me was one of the worst.
The quality of main dining-room meals at dinner was poor with a sluggish service to match (often two-and-a-half hours for a three-course serving). So the service was so poor that towards the end of the cruise, I gave up and decided to eat in the buffet!
Very many of the on-board activities seemed aimed at extracting as much money as possible from guests.
And the entertainment was hit-and-miss. A good British magician/illusionist but a less-than-funny comedian.
Edinburgh and Dublin were good destinations, but both involved time-consuming tenders as well as transport from harbour to city centre. Docking at Belfast, too, was a bus or taxi ride from the city centre, or even the Titanic Exhibition (which was one of the highlights of the cruise for me).
Reviews
![Cruise from port of Jacksonville]()
Had another fantastic cruise with Norwegian, great staff, entertainment, brilliant food, with a disappointment in the Bahamas. So as typical Norwegian, staff and food fantastic, the shows are brilliant, however our 1 island stop was a disaster with everything on the Island closed for Good Friday. Everyone was boarding taxis to the town centre and getting there to find everything closed, so felt a bit of a rip off with none of the drivers saying so. Went to Norwegian's private island for the first time also which was amazing definitely would return there. All in all it was a great cruise with a great company in Norwegian.
Reviews
![A mixed experience]()
The cruise was from Auckland to Sydney with ports in NZ and Tasmania en route. The ship itself was smaller size and older but very nicely refurbished. Weather was mainly fine en route except for 2 very rough days in the Tasman sea. I am a single traveller and the Norwegian website would not allow me to book the 3 speciality restaurants as encouraged pre embarkation. The package of Freedom at Sea was dining time and table size as required daily so there were no pre booked tables for singles. The meetings for the 35 or so sole travellers were at 5 pm every day which didn’t really suit me. Similarly the fitness classes tended to be very early morning too. The two main restaurants were fine in terms of food quality but the menu was rather repetitive. The speciality restaurants offered variety of choice. I avoided the buffet as even though staff were encouraging passengers to sanitise their hands, many just walked past and ignored them. I have been on larger ships where buffet items were served rather than hundreds of people using the utensils. The staff were invariably pleasant and helpful with the exception of some excursion staff who yelled instructions at people patronisingly and made the waiting experience needlessly stressful. My main concern was the lack of any dress code at all save that men must wear long trousers in the French restaurant.In the lounges and at dinner, many passengers had not even changed from daytime casuals and shorts ,caps and t shirts were considered acceptable. I guess this was just the wrong cruise line for me as I had made an erroneous assumption that it would be like Olsen. The vast majority of passengers were American and Canadian who perhaps prefer a more informal atmosphere. The entertainment on this American owned liner was very poor indeed to my mind though seemingly enjoyed by others. Two poorly choreographed and screechy song and dance shows plus Mr Penguin, a magician and an unfunny comedian. The lounge entertainment was dire too with the exception of Leon , an excellent young entertainer. So I chose this cruise for the itinerary but the anything goes atmosphere on board just didn’t suit me. Norwegian have some great cruise routes but the onboard experience was disappointing and I would be very hesitant to travel with NCL again.
Norwegian Star
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