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Lynne Lascheid

Age: 44
Occupation: Nurse
Number of Cruises: 8
Cruise Line: NCL
Ship: Norwegian Star
Month: August 17th, 2003
Itinerary: Hawaii/Fanning Island

It’s easier to visit these websites before your cruise than after, but I’m making a point of entering my review in an effort to counteract some of the negativism I had read.

Six of us, ages 8-78, sailed on the Norwegian Star on 8/17/03 and we had a great time. Of course it wasn’t perfect, but it exceeded our expectations in some areas and we’d all be happy to be back on the ship right now.

It’s true, you do not spend a lot of time on the islands. We knew that; we’d read the itinerary; so why do people complain after they get there? If you want endless days on a beach, don’t book a cruise. We wanted to get a taste of each of the islands and that’s exactly what we got to do. We enjoy days as sea-that is when we relax the most, so the time spent going to and from Fanning Island was OK with us. Some passengers complained-they should have waited until next year when the new US-flagged ship can stay in Hawaiian waters.

About Fanning Island-it is hot, it is poor, it is interesting, and the water around it is the most incredible shades of blue and green. It is something all of us middle-class Americans should see. Those of us who rented a bike and got away from the crowd by the dock enjoyed the island more, and I highly recommend doing that. We also ate back on the ship rather than tackle the scene on the island, e.g. the $3 Haagan Dazz ice cream bars melted off the sticks as soon as we opened them and fell all over, mostly on the grass. This is the island they show in the beginning credits of Gilligan’s Island, and there is a small shipwreck near the dock to remind you of The Minnow. To see how these people live, and then go back to the Chocoholic Buffet on the ship, puts your life in perspective.

I had read about the color-coded stairwells but forgot until the cruise director mentioned them. The fore stairs are blue, the mid-ship red and the aft green. The doors on the port side are one color and the starboard another. This was very helpful to us when we got turned around.

We had 3 mini-suites on the 11th deck. The cabins, and the entire shop’s décor, exceeded our expectations. I’d read about garish Asian color-schemes and didn’t find it to be so. We thought our cabin was lovely with lots of medium-toned, warm wood, enough storage space, refrigerator for keeping the flower leis fresh, and the best bathroom we’ve ever had on a ship (this was our 8th cruise.) The main atrium was grand without being gaudy, the Starlight Theater looks magnificent and the Versailles dining room was the loveliest main dining room I’ve seen.

Freestyle dining worked for us. Our oldest member would have preferred traditional dining as he has had before. But most of us, with varied tastes in food styles and traveling with an 8 year-old, preferred the variety of different restaurants. We would decide, say on Monday evening, where we wanted to dine on Wednesday. Then one of us would book it Tuesday morning-they take reservations one day in advance. Since we wanted to eat early, around 6, we always got a reasonable reservation and never had to wait in the main dining rooms that don’t take reservations.

The Versailles main dining room looks incredible but when we ate there the second night, the floor rumbled under our feet with engine vibration, and the crowd din made conversation at a large table in the center area impossible. We didn’t return. We loved Endless Summer-especially the appetizers. Le Bistro was worth the cover charge and we went back there for our last night together. SoHo’s service was not worth the cover charge. Aqua was fine for a mainline dining room and much better noise-wise than Versailles. Ginza looked neat but we never made it there for dinner, only the all-you-can-eat sushi lunch, which got too crowded.

We have been on a number of other cruise lines, and NCL previously. Our last cruise was on Princess. We did not expect the food, especially the buffet, to live up to Princess. We were right about that. Princess had stations with different types of food instead of the cafeteria-style lines we’ve had on Holland America and found on the Star. Lunch on the Star included things like chicken and meatloaf instead of the sushi and mountain of cocktail shrimp that impressed us on Princess. But, our son loved the pizza every day, I loved the pineapple and fresh melon constantly being cut mid-dining room, and the international items were interesting. By sitting near the vegetarian line (nearest the Sprinkles ice cream booth and the fruit cutter) we always got a table near the windows right away and faced almost no lines. Don’t just join the line at the top of the mid-ship stairs. There are usually four lines, and by going to the middle of the dining room you can save a lot of time.

By dining early we were usually able to catch both shows-the main show in the theater and the secondary show in the lounge upstairs. The entertainment was good, I’d say comparable to Holland America and Princess. The dance production shows were good. The Chinese acrobats are incredible and worth the 10pm show after the day in Maui-unfortunately the dance acts with them don’t do the show justice. The magician did an upclose show in the cinema one morning and taught a few simple tricks. The place was packed and our 8 year-old loved it.

Bingo is expensive-just to warn you. Since there is no casino, bingo is big. I shouldn’t complain, we won $275 one day and only played twice, but some ships let you play for as little as $10-not usually a choice here. The final jackpot was over $8,000 but we didn’t play. They also have something like instant lottery cards, but most people just lost more money on those too.

The daily program lists the time for viewing the Bridge through skylights behind the red curtain in the lounge. Ships used to give Bridge tours. With security being what it is, those are history, but this is a neat compromise and the explanatory displays are very helpful.

We didn’t use the Children’s Program because our son had enough family around and didn’t care about it. However, we did check it out the first day-the staff and facilities seemed at least as good as some we used when he was younger. He enjoyed the game room, shuffleboard on the promenade deck and the hot tubs. None of us cared for the saltwater pools, and the big yellow slides look cool but are too slow to be fun-we all got stuck and had to push ourselves down.

The shopping galleria was a disappointment. It’s one big room, mostly with jewelry and perfumes. There was very little selection of NCL logo shirts, souvenirs etc. Previously we’ve bought clothing with the name of the ship, the itinerary etc. There was nothing like that that caught our eye.

The shore excursions were what made this trip for us. One of us absolutely had to see red-hot lava-he got to. Someone wanted to learn to scuba-they got to. We saw the volcanoes on the Big Island, we did the luau on Maui (and still got in some shopping in Lahaina first). But the highlight was the helicopter flight over Kauai. Yes, it is expensive, but it is worth it. The scenery is absolutely incredible, and there’s no other way to see it. Flying over the cliffs of the NaPali coast is something you’ll remember the rest of your life. Then we spent the afternoon in Kauai on a beach near the dock-I actually dozed on the warm sand in the shade of a palm tree while the family played in the surf. What more could you want.

Disembarkation was the best ever-they really do let you stay in your room until you leave. And, unlike every other ship we’ve been on, you can order continental breakfast in your room the morning you leave. All this made having to get off the ship a little easier.

We spent a night before the cruise and a night after on Waikiki. That rounded out the islands for us. It’s a total tourist scene, but we were glad to have seen it, played in the sand, done Pearl Harbor, etc. Now when we go back to Hawaii, we feel like we’ve done Honolulu and know where we’d want to go back to of the other islands, because we got to try them for a day.

If you want a sampling of the Hawaiian islands and you enjoy cruising itself, you should enjoy this. It’s not a luxury cruise-NCL isn’t a luxury line. But it’s a fine vacation, great for families with varied interests, the crew by and large tried very hard to please, and the scenery is gorgeous. Go, keep an island attitude, and relax. Aloha.

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