A Caribbean Star! Norwegian Star Tampa-Western Caribbean 1/17-1/24

Hello Norwegian cruise critic fans, I am the Flying Cruiser of NJ and I am here with my thoughts and observations of yet another cruise adventure. My latest travel adventure took me on the Norwegian Star, on a Western Caribbean itinerary that traveled round trip from Tampa, Florida. This cruise departed on Sunday, January 17 and returned to Tampa on Sunday, January 24. This cruise featured a sea day, a stop in Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize, Costa Maya, Mexico, and Cozumel, Mexico with a sea day before getting back to home port. I had never been to Costa Maya, Belize or Roatan so I was excited to see a few new places. This was my third time on Norwegian, first time on the Star, and second time out of the port of Tampa in total. My previous two trips on Norwegian were on the Jewel, to Alaska last spring which was very good, and a disastrous weekend trip out of Miami on the Sky in December, and I chronicled both cruises in detail if you are interested in reading about them and seeing some pictures of both ships and places I visited.

Some quick background about me - I am in my mid-30s, single with no kids from suburban Philadelphia and am a Flying Cruiser, so travel is very easy for me and I can plan and go on a trip at the drop of a hat so to speak and I do take advantage of that freedom whenever I get a chance. I have cruised close to 20 times, with the vast majority of those being on Carnival, but I have also sailed Royal Caribbean and Princess and lately have felt like branching out some and trying different lines. I often cruise with my mother, who is retired and thus can vacation often as well, and it is great time that we get to spend together when we vacation. She has been on even more cruises than I have, and it is her favorite way to vacation. You can say she passed the cruising bug on to me about 10 years ago, lol. I have cruised from nine different ports on countless different ships to many different ports all across the North American continent, so I think I have seen and done quite a bit in that last 10 years. It has become my favorite way to vacation as well.

How did I pick this cruise itinerary and ship? I had a week of vacation to use in January of this year, and figured that I would use it to get out of the cold weather for a while in the middle of winter, as I usually go cruising in late spring, and early fall as those are the cheapest times and easiest times to travel wherever I want to. I decided to change it up this year, as last winter was brutally cold, and I wanted to spend as little time as possible in it, haha. I got a very good special interline discount on this particular sailing, and it took me a minute to decide between this sailing or one out of New Orleans, ultimately we settled on this cruise. Surprisingly, a lot of cruises were very expensive for it being January, so this one stood out. We booked an interior guarantee, as it cost much less than even an outside cabin, and thus it was time to plan and count down the days. I will talk all about the pre-cruise travel day, the cruise itself with pictures and observations, and the post-cruise experience we had after getting off the ship. I have a bit of a twisted sense of humor as well, so I will include some of that in with the approximately 150 pictures I got during the voyage. Each picture has a story as well, so I will talk about my experiences in depth, and will give my views on each port visited and each aspect of the ship itself that I got to experience.

So, with that out of the way, here we go with the review of my Norwegian Star vacation! Hope you enjoy following along with my journey.

DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY AND PRE-CRUISE

As you have probably noticed, this cruise left from Florida and I am from NJ and this is winter, so it is very critical that I travel down to the departure city a day or more in advance, to figure in weather and whatever other delays that may happen along the way. Whenever I am on a cruise longer than a few days or traveling from a port that doesn’t have like, hourly shuttle air service from home, I fly in the day before and get a hotel. I have heard too many horror stories from people who have missed cruises due to any number of things that happened because they chose to travel to the port the day of sailing. It isn’t worth it to chance it. So, I got a late afternoon flight from Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL) to Tampa International Airport (KTPA) and made sure that we would arrive the evening before and could just relax when we got there. We were delayed a little due to upline stuff from earlier in the day, but nothing crazy and were soon on our way for an uneventful, 2 and a half hour flight down the eastern seaboard and arrived on TPA Runway 19L shortly after sunset to a stormy Tampa. It is really neat to fly around sunset as the views are awesome. During the flight, I passed the time by watching the New England-Kansas City playoff game on my tablet using the plane’s free live TV and wifi. Neat. New England just didn’t have it this year. Injuries and a lack of a running game finally did them in it seems. I am pulling for Peyton Manning to go out on top in the big game tomorrow by the way, but I just don’t see it. Carolina is just too good but maybe we will all be surprised. Thoughts on this? Lol.

We got our bags and called the hotel shuttle for the LaQuinta Tampa Airport, which I got a decent deal on and knew from experience that it was a decent hotel in a decent location as I had stayed here a few years ago during a Phillies spring training trip. It is only a short 5-minute ride from the airport, and is located literally across the street from Tampa Runway 1R/19L on Spruce Street. Nice views from here if you are into that actually. We arrived to the hotel, checked in, dropped our stuff off and headed to a place nearby that the shuttle driver recommended to us that had a few restaurants and walked over there to check it out because we were hungry after a day of travel. We settled on the Longhorn Steakhouse and it was just OK. I had actually never been to a Longhorn before and I got a steak and a berry blast margarita, and everything was good but honestly, I am more of a fan of Texas Roadhouse than Longhorn. But it was a decent dinner and I had a little left over for a late night snack when I got hungry again.

We headed back over to the hotel, unfortunately it was too late to go in the pool when we got back but the room had a fridge and microwave so I was able to store my food and heat it up again whenever I wanted which was nice. The hotel also had free wifi, and I took advantage of it to read up on some last minute port information and some cruise critic reviews, and watched the end of the Arizona-Green Bay playoff game on the room TV. What a crazy ending. An instant classic. By the way, how did Carson Palmer make it that far? He is an absolutely terrible QB in any game that matters and tried to literally throw that game away how many times? They only won that game due to the fact that Green Bay was a little worse than them, lol. But neither team is around for the Superbowl so I guess it really doesn’t matter in the end.

I also watched a rerun of the previous week’s episode of Blue Bloods which was good and sat by and watched the weather people freak out about the severe weather in the area on this evening. We were being hit by a system with lots of thunderstorms and heavy rain, which actually spawned a few tornadoes in Siesta Key, which is just across the bay from Tampa. It was a pretty turbulent night, with the constant rumbles of thunder and it is something you don’t hear too much this time of year up north but I did finally get to bed sometime around 0300. Apparently this also messed with the ship’s arrival back to Tampa, as the rough seas and weather almost caused them to have to have a delayed arrival back to port but they ultimately made it so we would be able to board on time the next morning. By the way, I like to stay up late, so this will be a constant theme of the cruise - I stay up late and wake up late whenever possible.

Well, that just about sums up Day 1 of this cruise adventure. Hope you enjoy the pictures and commentary so far. The next day would be a very exciting one, as it was EMBARKATION DAY which is always fun. So, I will pick up again on that when I get the chance, and as always, Happy Cruising!

Cruising the Star in 22 days can't wait to read the rest of your adventures!:)

Tampa lady here, looking forward to your review. That storm that delayed the ships getting in and out of the bay was the topic of conversation at work the next day!

Cruising the Star in 22 days can't wait to read the rest of your adventures!:)

Nice! Hopefully I will be finished by then, these usually take me some time to do, lol. I'm just getting started on this and it will be quite exciting, so surely stay tuned. I hope this will give you a good idea of what to expect on your cruise as well.

Tampa lady here, looking forward to your review. That storm that delayed the ships getting in and out of the bay was the topic of conversation at work the next day!

Glad to hear you are excited for my review. I enjoy writing these and sharing my experiences with others, especially this time of year when it's cold and dreary outside. Thinking of warm paradise helps get me through winter. It was a nasty night, we watched the weather come in off the gulf on the radar and it was bad. No tornadoes where we were but down in manatee county they got slammed. I visited with a friend of mine after the cruise who had just moved to Sarasota last year and she said it was worse where they were. Lot of rain and wind damage. You don't expect that stuff in January, even in Florida. We heard about the ship's difficulty in getting back from the captain, Mattias Andersson during his welcome aboard greeting on the PA system. It does make sense considering how bad the conditions were. It was colder and windy but clear on embarkation day, 60 but chilly by Florida standards. That is a real tight squeeze, coming into the bay and getting to the port under good conditions, if the weather is bad and seas are high, good luck. I will talk more about that in the second part of the review though, promise. :) Weather did affect much of the trip and a lot of it was due to the tail end of the monster storm that smashed the whole east coast that week. Stay tuned as I'm just getting started with my review.

It's nice to see you back with a new review! I've read your Carnival reviews and your Sky one, too. I felt so bad for you. My Sky cruise was my first on NCL and it was nothing like yours (fortunately). :eek: I had my fingers crossed you'd enjoy your next cruise and come back with a positive review. Good start, so far. :)

Heather

Enjoying your report.

Keith

Looking forward to more reviews! I leave on the Star March 20th.

Looking forward to your review, I enjoy the very detailed reviews I've seen on these boards. We depart on the STAR 3/27/15 and are very excited :)

I'm looking forward to your review also. I will be on The March 20th sailing and I too have been on a variety of cruises from a variety of ports.

LOVED your Alaska review this summer and can't wait to hear what you have to say about the Star. We sailed her 12/13-12/20 and are back on board 3/27. The Star is a personal favorite of mine!

Can't wait to read more.

Great review so far!

Thanks for the review.

It's nice to see you back with a new review! I've read your Carnival reviews and your Sky one, too. I felt so bad for you. My Sky cruise was my first on NCL and it was nothing like yours (fortunately). :eek: I had my fingers crossed you'd enjoy your next cruise and come back with a positive review. Good start, so far. :)

Heather

Thanks for the kind words. I liked to think that each review I write is better than the one before it, and there are a lot of really good review writers on cruise critic so I have kind of picked up ideas on how to make a good one from them. The Sky cruise was just lousy and the handling of it from NCL was just terrible. The only thing that made it good was the UBP that my cruise friends had and the fact that we were on vacation together and enjoyed each other's company. This cruise was much better. It was not perfect and there were some things that I was disappointed in and I will get into that later but generally, this was a much better time. A good ship with a much better crew and nice port visits. I am going to get to the second part of the review with pictures at some point tonight as I just didn't have the time earlier in the last few days, I hope you continue to enjoy. A few of our excursions were quite unique and enjoyable and I will talk all about them. Have a good one!

Enjoying your report.

Keith

Thanks, good to hear. I am going to put up my experiences from embarkation day tonight, stay tuned!

Looking forward to more reviews! I leave on the Star March 20th.

Glad I can help with that, lol. Hopefully I will be done this by then, :D and I do hope you enjoy the rest of my review and your upcoming cruise. The Star is a nice ship with a pretty good crew, although the captain might be different when you cruise as Mattias Andersson said he would be going on vacation after our cruise was over. I do not know how long the vacations are for bridge crew, maybe someone knows?

Looking forward to your review, I enjoy the very detailed reviews I've seen on these boards. We depart on the STAR 3/27/15 and are very excited :)

I enjoy detailed photo reviews as well so I feel like it is worth my time to do my own so others can see what these ships and ports of call are really like, seen from the eyes of fellow cruisers. It is something to read about that stuff but to see it from the perspective of the regular average cruiser, gives it another dynamic angle and can really help prepare you for a cruise and help you plan things like activities and dining, etc. I am going to post part 2 of the review later tonight, so keep an eye out for that and thanks for following along with my adventures. Enjoy your upcoming cruise, March 27 will rapidly approach and I do hope you have a great time.

I'm looking forward to your review also. I will be on The March 20th sailing and I too have been on a variety of cruises from a variety of ports.

I am excited to post about my experiences on embarkation day, will hopefully get to it later tonight. The first day is always crazy busy but it is special and something that you look forward to after you book the vacation. I love cruising from many different ports. I found out a few years ago that sailing out of the same places, like Miami, to the same places got boring and predictable. Once in a while that is fine but I wanted to see more variety and that is why I have gone out of places like Long Beach, Boston, Puerto Rico and Galveston in just the last few years. If cruising out of NYC or Baltimore was not so much more expensive, I would probably do one of those itineraries again and come to think of it, I might just go for it at some point regardless of cost. I do like seeing a port of call in a country I have never been to though, that is exciting and gives you a new experience each time.

LOVED your Alaska review this summer and can't wait to hear what you have to say about the Star. We sailed her 12/13-12/20 and are back on board 3/27. The Star is a personal favorite of mine!

Thanks, happy to see you liked it. That was my second time on a cruise there and I feel that I took so much more of it in this time than the first time. Then again, I kind of knew what to expect more this time and am older, as I was still in my mid-20s when I went there before and maybe just appreciate stuff like that more these days. The Star is a pretty good ship, the crew for the most part was pretty good and the senior officers on this ship were excellent. I will get into all of that when I talk about each day of the sailing though, so be sure to check that out. I thought the food and itinerary was very good with this cruise as well, much better than what I experienced on the Sky just a few months ago. Plus, this ship had an O'Sheehan's and a Teppanyaki! :) Two of my favorite venues on a NCL ship.

Can't wait to read more.

Part 2 - embarkation day is coming right up, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading.

Great review so far!

Thanks, just getting started. I have Part 2, which is embarkation day coming right up!

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for reading along. Hopefully you will continue to enjoy the rest of it as well, and I have Part 2 coming up soon so be on the lookout for that.

Loving your review

We were getting off as you were getting on. The Captain did a fantastic job getting us safely back to port! The cruise was wonderful and we really enjoyed the Star - with her excellent crew- and also loved the new ports we went to.

Safe sailing

Good evening folks, I have returned with the next section of this Norwegian Star review. I thank everyone who has read the first part and those who have posted their comments about my intro to the review so far. So, no better time than the present to get on with the party. Nothing gets me happier to talk about Caribbean adventures than looking out and seeing snow falling on a cold February day, lol. Without further delay, let's get to the fun and excitement of embarkation day.

DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY

As I had mentioned, I was up late the previous evening due to the weather and just simply, the fact that I like to stay up late, so I slept until somewhere around 1000. My mom had gone to the hotel lobby to get the free continental breakfast, but when she came back she said there wasn't much to it. Just enough to get you through to lunchtime when you get access to that poolside buffet onboard the ship. I heated up the remnants of my dinner from the night before and happily finished that so I would be good for the rest of the morning.

I got cleaned up, made sure I re-packed everything in the suitcases I had taken out to use the night before, and my mom tagged our bags with the tags we pre-printed out at home before leaving. If you forget, you can always print your stuff out at the internet cafe in the lobby or just let the porters put hand-written tags on your bags when you check them in. We checked out at 1100, and called to make sure our shuttle was on-time and headed outside to the lobby to wait for him to arrive. Well, I went outside to do some "spotting" as why wouldn't you if you are staying so close to an airport with great views? LOL.

Very nice room and ADA-compliant bathroom and shower. Plenty of room. Very nice for what we paid. Good rate, service and location.

I went out front and took some pics of planes taking off to the north on Runway 1R this morning, as the storm front that came through the night before caused a windshift that cleared things out but made it very chilly and breezy. I would say the temps were in the low to mid 50s and it was very windy this morning. Anyway, I saw a Southwest 737 and a jetBlue A320 taxi into position and begin their takeoff rolls (could even smell the jet blast due to the strong winds, hehe) while I waited for our shuttle driver to arrive at the agreed-upon 1130.

I do have to mention that I do my reviews in 24-hour time, so no AM/PM, example is 1500=300 PM. It is how I prefer to do it, and it helps me with not confusing myself or others with times, haha. So, we had gotten a tip from cruise critic while doing our search for a shuttle that Barracuda Transportation was a good, reliable and affordable option to the Port of Tampa. You have to book online but it is only $15 a person each way plus tip and it worked just fine for us. We booked it round-trip and I think you have the option to pre-pay it which is nice. We found out from the front desk at the hotel that that particular LaQuinta also offers a cruise port shuttle for something like $10 but we were OK with our decision. Just knowledge for future cruisers who stay there.

Our driver picked us up a few minutes early to be exact, and we were on our way. It is usually a 15 minute ride or so but there was an accident on Interstate 275 into downtown, so he took us on a detour through some neighborhoods that took us a little longer but we did not mind. He was a good guy who I think might own the company, but either way we were the only passengers on the shuttle and we did have some good conversations with him about all kinds of stuff. Have to note that cruise traffic is up a lot out of Tampa in recent years, but I will get into the issues of why they won't ever see ships bigger than the Star a little later. He said he loves Wawa markets, as does pretty much everyone in Central Florida now that it is there, and we got a kick out of that being from the heart of Wawa country. (if you don't know about Wawa, google it. It is like a 7-11 but like a million times better, lol) We rode through downtown Tampa on the way to the port and it is a very nice downtown indeed.

Anyway, we arrived at the port around 1230 and although we selected 1300 as our check-in time during online check-in, we were allowed to enter the port building upon arrival and bag check-in. It was fairly crowded at this time but we were through quickly and were through security quickly as well. I guess the fact my mother needs a cane to walk long distances helped with that as the line they let us go around was pretty long, yeah. Unlike on Carnival, neither of us are Platinums on NCL although my mother is almost a Silver so no VIP line lol.

Anyway, we checked in quickly, got our sign and sail accounts set up, did our health questionnaires, got our cards and made our way to boarding. We got our embarkation pictures taken (did not buy them or any pics on this cruise for that matter) as is tradition for us, and were up and through the gangway by 1330. We were welcomed onboard by numerous staff, and were into the atrium by 1345. It is a very special moment when you walk through that doorway and you then know you are finally onboard and ready to enjoy your cruise. We took advantage of the shore excursions desk, guest services desk and specialty beverage packages desk being all in the same area in the atrium and booked an excursion for Belize, my mom bought the 6 water bottles package, and I got the unlimited soda package. We figured we might as well since we were there, we were not terribly hungry yet, and our cabin wasn't ready yet.

I have reached my 6 pics per post limit for this so I will continue my review of embarkation day in another post shortly. I will pick up with our visit to the lunch buffet. I hope you have enjoyed this day's review so far, and again, thank you for reading.