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Norwegian Crruise Lines
Norwegian Star Cruise Review
7-Day Mexican Riveria

Dan Elseman
Age: 66
Occupation: Retired
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: September 30th. 2005

Boarding: We arrived around noon and were greeted with a pretty long ling waiting to get on the ship. While many people blamed NCL for the delay it was US Customs not NCL that held us up. With 2000 passengers waiting to get on there were only two agents checking us through. Once past we boarded quickly and NCL had at more than ten stations set up the check us in. They also served us a rum punch as we waited.

Stateroom: 11079. The room was very nice and clean and everything worked as it should. It was cleaned daily and we never had a problem obtaining ice or whatever else we wanted from the housekeepers.

Food: WE try and avoid the extra cost restaurants as we're found the food in the main dining rooms to be more than good enough. Like many who read these reviews I've read a number of stories about how the food was cold or only warm, etc. We were never disappointed and were always treated nicely. We did find ourselves eating in the Aqua restaurant rather than Versailles. The menu is the same but Aqua is smaller and to us was more intimate. The staff also seemed to be more attentive. We also ate at the Blue Lagoon cafe for a late night snack. The market cafe buffet was lacking in food quality and selection compared with the other NCL ships we've sailed. We really missed the waffle and omelet stations on the other ships....

Ports of call: I've already read one review here complaining about the ship being 7 hours late arriving into Acapulco. What the writer failed to mention was that the Captain had to avoid hurricane Otis and sailed more than 160 miles around it. Not NCLs fault for mother nature. Yes, this did cause us to miss a port. The choice was to stay longer in Acapulco or move on to a dusty small village up the coast with a bunch of luxury hotels nearby. We both thought the Captain made the right choice. We agree that we were late in arriving into Puerto Vallarta by an hour and it too was caused by Otis as the ship ran through heavy seas and wind as much at 50 miles an hour across the deck. This point was also overlooked in the other review. The sun gods did do there thing when we arrived in Cabo San Lucas. The sky was clear and very little humidity. It was a fun port to visit and enjoy the sites.

Overall: It was not the best cruise experience so far but this was due more to the weather and not the ship or it's crew. We love the freestyle system and wish all ships used it. Will we sell NCL again. Absolutely. Our next NCL cruise will be on the Wind next year.

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