kevg1889

Nice one Kev. Great report, we are sailing on the Star Jan 5th looking forward to it. Hope your Mom is getting better.

You'll have a great time - I really enjoyed the more relaxed feel about NCL

Hiya, thanks for such a detailed review - we sail on sept 24th !! Is the ship air conditioned ?? Would the dining area etc be a little cool at night ?? I'm a cold creature !!!

 

 

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The temperature in the Versailles was always perfect & it was exceptionally hot outside so I wouldn't worry about being cold

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Kev....Thanks SO much for the info on ZipTransfers. It was just what we were looking for. :) Since the ship docked at 8a, what time did you have them pick you up?

 

How far in advance did you book them?

We booked the transfer the day before we sailed - we didn't fancy carrying our luggage around so it was a last minute decision & a very good one! We chose a 9-15 disembarkation & booked the transfer for 9-45 he was waiting for us when we got through the baggage hall it couldn't have gone any smoother

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The company we used were called ZIPtransfers - they will pick you up & drop you off wherever you need at very reasonable rates - they did our transfers from Verona airport to the hotel in Peschiera and then from our hotel (which was right next to the railway station in Mestre) to the port - then they picked us back up from the port & took us back to Mestre before returning to deliver us to the airport that evening. It was an excellent service& I know my brother has used them on several holidays. I believe they are based in Spain but don't let that put you off. When the mini bus was 5 minutes late picking us up, they phoned us to let us know - brilliant service

Thanks for the report Kev, we fly out to Venice on Friday to board the Star on Sunday. Glad you had such a good time and sorry to hear about your mother.

Enjoy every minute and please say hello to Melvyn in the Bier Garten for us - he will look after you if you introduce yourself - tell him Big Kev & Big Rob are eternally grateful for his wonderful service

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Thank you, kevg, for your wonderful reports! I will be cruising on the Star inOctober, to a few of the same ports so the info is much appreciated. Nice to know that the ship has some fun bars to enjoy. I hope you've recovered from the shiner!

It's fading quickly like the tan!! Glad you enjoyed the report

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So, we had to vacate our rooms before 8-30am, so they could be prepared for the next lucky so and so’s that would be replacing us later that day. We headed up to the buffet for breakfast, which was very busy, as we expected, but we managed to find seats & enjoy our last meal on board, before it was time for our pre-booked 9-15am disembarkation. The whole process was very well organised,and possibly the easiest one we had experienced. We soon found our luggage in the baggage hall, and met our transfer minibus, that was taking us back to Mestre. As I mentioned earlier, we had arranged to leave our bags for the day at the wonderfully helpful Tritone Hotel, where we stayed for the night prior to our cruise. We were to be picked up from here later that evening for our transfer to the airport, so it all fell wonderfully in to place, without having to lug ourcases around etc.

We purchased our vaparetto passes from the hotel & made the short hop into Venice. We had decided to take a look at Lido, whichis across the lagoon from St Marks. Itwas really sad passing by the ship that we had just left, but we were soon in Lido, and made our way to the beach, where we had a lovely couple of hours taking in our last sunshine, and having a swim in the sea. From here, we made our way back for one last look at St Marks square, before crossing the lovely Rialto bridge, and walkingthrough the back streets, with the compulsory beer stop, before reaching the bus station for our hop back to Mestre. Here we had a lovely meal, which was much cheaper than eating in Venice itself, before heading back to the hotel for a quick wash & change, then we picked up our bags ready to set off to the airport.

So it was all over, we headed back to rainy England, having had a wonderful time, taking in some amazing& beautiful sights, and having fully abused the delightful food & drink aboard the lovely NCL Star. I could not think of a better itinerary & the staff on board the Star could not have done any more to make our cruise any better. Sure, there were a couple of niggles, but they were mainly personal preferences, and certainly nothing that spoilt our experience. I enjoyed the fully relaxed atmosphere that NCL offers, and would not hesitate to book with them again.

I hope my report is helpful to everyone (with the possible exception of the obligatory moaner!!) & if anyone has any queries, please do not hesitate to ask, I’m more than happy totalk about our great holiday.

We returned to the ship onthe local bus, ready for a drink & a spot of lunch, having left early without having breakfast. I think this was the one day that we were disappointed with the buffet, but there was always the back up of the wonderful pasta dishes, that were freshly cooked for you toyour own requirements.

Back up on deck, we had the very amusing Mr lovely legs competition that my niece Carly helped to judge. This was really good fun, just before the sail away, but again, I wish there had been more of a sail away party, as this was our last one.

We witnessed another stunning sunset, before we had a thoroughly enjoyable last meal, then taking in the tap show in the theatre,which was again a very enjoyable show.

Our last night was spent in the Spinnaker as usual, for the very amusing “adults only” game show. We laughed our way through changing clothes& having to produce unusual items etc, and I managed to take a kick in the head while performing the “Worm” on the dance floor, which left me with ashiner for several days, but we really enjoyed the night, and won a bottle ofchampagne for finishing 3rd.

It was time to say goodbye to the many friends we had made on this wonderful cruise, before we headed for our last sleep in our lovely comfortable beds. We had already left our luggage outside our cabins for collection, and just had our last minute packing to do from what we had worn that night, into our hand luggage.

Our final full day was in Dubrovnik, which was the biggest surprise to me, as I totally fell in love with the place. My DW was really looking forward to seeing the scenery from Game of Thrones and she wasn’t disappointed. We did this trip alone, as the rest of our team didn’t fancy getting up early. We were off the ship for just after 7am, and on my brothers advice, we caught the local bus, which ran from just outside the port, right into the old town. This was much cheaper than the 15 euro’s each for the official NCL transfer bus. On arrival in the old town, we had it virtually to ourselves, as we entered the old town through the Pile City Gate, the main city entrance.

The gates are overlooked by the two forts: Minčeta from the north and Bokar from the south. Minčeta Fort is considered one of the most beautiful fortifying objects in the world. It is one of the recognizable Dubrovnik symbols offering a magnificent view of the entire city.

We walked through the Stradum with its marble streets, and On its other end, Stradun finishes in a lovely square surroundedby some of the most important historical sights.

You will see the City Cathedral, the Churchof St. Blaise, the Sponza Palace (the city archive), the Rector’s Palace, thebell towers and the Orlando’s Column. All those beautiful monuments are thefinest examples of the late medieval and early renaissance architecture.

Eventually, we saw people walking around the City walls, and decided we had to take in the views from up there, so after a quick coffee stop, we purchased our tickets & started the climb up to the amazing views on offer from the top of the city walls. It was now getting very hot, and some of theclimbs were quite hard going, but it was worth every penny & every second. It took us just over an hour to do the full circle & the views were breathtaking.

Once we got back to the bottom, the crowds were really growing, as moreships had arrived in port, so we were really lucky that we had been able totake it all in in relative peace & quiet. I would love to return to Dubrovnik one day, and spend a little moretime taking in this beautiful country.

So we had a sea day next, and I was very surprised when I went up to the pool area at 7-40am to find many of the sun beds already had towels on them. We needed six together, and found the last six available. I did hear of a few problems with people leaving beds with towels on for several hours, but I didn’t witness it myself. It was another gorgeous sunny day, and we ate and drank plenty, as usual, though the clothes were really starting to tighten by now.

There was a cook off on deck between two teams of staff to see who made the best risotto in huge pans. Once it was over everyone had the chance to sample the risotto, which was very tasty. There then followed an ice carving display, which produced an excellent eagle, carved in less than 15 minutes.

The day was totally relaxing & enjoyable. The show that evening in the theatre was one of the best Ive ever seen. It finished with the presentation of the staff, which is always quite emotional, and everyone left the theatre singing & in a really happy mood. This really summed up the cruise to me,everyone was so happy & relaxed, there was nothing “starchy” about it at all.

Our next port of call was Mykanos. Once again, we fell very lucky, as we were the only ship that was able to dock that day due to strong winds. This meant that we had to wonderful place almost to ourselves, especially early on. The town is absolutely stunning, with it’s pure white buildings throughout, and even the pavement cracks are painted white.

This is another place that I would really love to visit again. We just wandered through the streets taking it all in, and then stopped in a wonderful bar right on the water’s edge, so my DW could have her Shirley Valentine moment.

Once again we were back on board early afternoon, for another session of sunbathing & cocktail drinking. Some of the more popular cocktails were previously made up in large containers on the bars,which speeded up the serving process, and they were all reasonably strong. We tried many different combinations,including all the frozen ones like Pina Colada, Mango Meltdown, Mudslide and Miami Vice, and they were all well made and strong.

The show in the theatre that night featured a magician & his future wife, who was a contortionist, and the positions she got into made your eyes water! It was an enjoyable show, after a slow start

We continued our walk through the rest of Santorini, with its lovely bars and restaurants, until we reached the lovely church at thebottom right of the town. At this point,we split off from Robert & Dawne, as Dawne was tiring after her recent hip operation, so we continued down to a lower level of bars & shops beforeheading back to the chairlift station.

Unfortunately, we were met by an horrendous queue for the lift, stretching right through the streets. We realised we would struggle to make it back in time for our ship, so we decided to take the alternative donkey ride back down the hill. This was the worst decision I have ever made!! I have been on a few of the best white knuckle rides in the world, but I have never been as scared as I was on the donkey as you can see from my face!! My DW however was very sympathetic!!

I endured the worst 15 minutes of my life before pleading with the attendant to let me off. The donkey was sliding around on the steps and trying to kick my wifes donkey behind me, and had me virtually hanging over the cliff every time we went around a corner. I was so relieved to get off and walk the rest of the way down. My eyes were so sore, as the dried donkey droppings were flying around, and when my wife eventually got off to join me at the donkey station she asked if I had been crying – she doesn’t know how close I was!!

It was a relief to get back to the tender boat, and to be given ice cold towels and drinks by the NCLteam. Once back on board we headed straight to the Bier Garten for a stiff drink, only for Melvyn & the team to take the Mickey out of my experience. It had all been part of a fabulous day & an experience I would never forget. We quickly changed, and went back up on deck to enjoy the beautiful sunset, and see Santorini all lit up.

We had decided to eat in the buffet that night, as it was curry night, and it was very, very nice. The show that night was a 70’s style show called Band on the Run which we thoroughly enjoyed and had a good sing along to. This was followed by Latin dancing in Spinnaker which was good fun. We took photo's in the atrium before heading back to our room to see our latest towel creation!

Here are a few more pictures from the beautiful Santorini

Once on shore, the queue for the lift was not too long, and we were soon making our ascent, though my brother did it with his eyes tightly shut – he hates chair lifts!!

The spectacular views from the mountain top were breath taking, and the whole place was a dream come true. We went off to the left first, taking in the narrow streets filled with beautiful white shops and little churches – it is truly stunning.

We eventually reached a little bar, hanging right over the cliff, andenjoyed a nice cold beer while fully taking in the exceptional beauty of theplace.

Thank you for coming back and continuing. I hope you were not too banged up after your fall. Looking forward to more.

Sorry it's taking longer than I wanted as my mum is seriously ill in hospital - I hope to get more on later - as for the fall I had a huge graze on my arm and one on my leg but at least it got a laugh, not least from my family when I got back to them revealing all my wounds & then being told we didn't even need the tickets - ouch!!

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The approach to the bay at Santorini was lovely, and we managed to dock quite a bit closer than the other ships, which was quite a relief, as the wind had got up, making the sea a little choppy for tendering in.

We sat having a drink in the Bier Garten, enjoying the banter with Melvyn and his team, as we waited for our tender number to be called, at which point we headed down to deck 4 to disembark

– then disaster!! I had left the tender tickets up on the top deck!! I flew through the ship to fetch them, and as I ran along the top deck I slipped & went full legth in a dive that Klinsman would have been proud of!! I was battered & bruised, but took a bow for all the passengers that were holding back their laughter, before running back at top speed – only to find that they didn’t even need our tickets when we got there!! The tender process took a little longer than anticipated due to the wind meaning they could only use one exit point, and the ride across was quite exciting as the waves buffeted our tender and the spray certainly kept us cool.

I am really enjoying your report! I said earlier we were thinking about this itinerary, Now there is no thinking - we are definitely doing it!

 

 

 

Your pictures are great and I am enjoying all of the detail. Thank you and I am looking forward to more.

I couldn't think of a better itinerary to be honest all of the ports were amazing & different in their own way - Dubrovnik was possibly the one that surprised me most it is stunning & my wife & I will definitely be looking to pay a longer visit there in the future

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@kevg 1889. Enjoying your report, pity your team lost ! WAWAW !!

The pain of defeat was eased by looking at the teams below us - and the cocktails:cool:

We had hoped to try one of the speciality restaurants, but the ones we really fancied were fully booked, so we were quite happy to stick with the Versaille, and yet again we were not disappointed.

All our girls took in the show in the theatre, which was an aerial / acrobatic act called Marrambolla, and they all enjoyed it, while my brother & I tried to keep in touch with our football team back home who were playing that night. Fortunately our cabins had Sky Sports News,which was a real bonus for us football fanatics. We all met up in the Spinnaker & also did the 5 o’clock somewhere bar, which featured Karaoke but like many venues this closed at midnight, though the Spinnaker stayed open with a disco long beyond midnight. The one thing the ship possibly lacks is an alternative showbar, as other than the Spinnaker, therewasn’t really anywhere with alternative entertainment – sure a few bars had pianists or singers, but it could have done with another showbar with comedians, or tribute acts on – again that’s my opinion & certainly doesn’t mean that we didn’t enjoy our nights. I can’t remember whether we had another late night visit to O’Sheehans or not,but I was quite excited about our next port of call, Santorini.

Onceagain we were not due in to Santorini until 2pm, so we were up early, perchedon our sun beds as close to the wonderful Bier Garten as we could get. I had chance to wander around the top deck to see some of the facilities on offer

We were due to tender into Santorini, so had to collect tickets at 9am.Now this was a total shambles, and very disappointing, we began queuing at around 8-45am as we wanted a quite early tender.The line was already quite big when we got to Ginza, where the tickets were being issued, and it very quickly stretched right around the ship.There was only one person issuing tickets,and it was taking an eternity. After around an hour in the line, the cruise director appeared and an American guy lodged a complaint about the speed of the process, and to be fair she took control of the situation, and she, along with another senior person began quickly issuing tickets, so the line began to move much quicker.Surely they must have experience of doing this, and there was no reason why tickets couldn’t have been issued quicker from the start?? We eventually got our tickets for tender number 10, and were relieved to get back into the sun.

We decided to eat in the Versaille again, but managed to go straight through at around 7-15pm without any queueing. Once again it was a lovely meal with great service & the Rose wine (white Zinfandel) was very quaffable!! We headed straight from our meal to the theatre to take in the Vegas show, which was excellent. From here we headed straight to the Spinnaker, where our lovely waitress Jovana again looked after us very well as we danced the night away with the 70’s theme. The animation team did their best every night in the Spinnaker, but other than in here we didn’t see too much of them. We finished the night off in O’Sheehans with beautiful chicken wings & nachos before retiring.

Our next port of call was Corfu, where we docked at around 10am. We were not in any great rush to get off, so had a leisurely breakfast before disembarking. Once off the ship, we caught the local shuttle bus through to the old town which was very reasonable & saved a long walk. We had a good walk around the old town, but it was so incredibly hot, that we had had enough within 2 or 3 hours & typically old Greek town with narrow streets and lots of shops.

The view up near the castle looking out tosea was very nice, and it was certainly worth a visit.

I know that some passengers headed for the beaches, but we are not really beach people, we prefer a pool to cool off, and as you may have gathered, we enjoy having a nice cocktail in the sun! We set sail again at 4pm, but as Ive mentioned, there was no sail away party or anything.

We had pre-booked meals between the Versaille & the Aqua MDR’s at 8-30pm each night, but as we didn’t get out of the restaurant until after 10pm, we decided this was too late, so would change to an earlier time for the rest of the cruise. The restaurant, the food and the service was everything we wanted it to be and we really enjoyed it, but we were so full and it was quite late, so it was hard to get back into drinking & enjoying the rest of the entertainment. We went into the Spinnaker bar and enjoyed a few dances though, before heading off to bed at around 1am.

Our cruise Itinery had changed from when we originally booked it, which we described as a “Brucie Bonus” though this was to be a poor choice of words as we heard of Bruce Forsyths death during our cruise, and this was one of his catch phrases. But the “Brucie” was evident on day two, which was originally a sea day, but would now see us visit Kotor (Montenegro). We were not due to dock until 2pm so were up early for breakfast & to get prime position sunbeds. After a morning of wonderful sunshine & cocktails, we entered the amazing scenery on the approach to Kotor.

To say this was spectacular would be an understatement. It was absolutely beautiful and lasted around 2 hours. It was amazing to sit eating lunch in the buffet, surrounded by such stunning scenery. I have not yet visited the fjords, but I am told this is very similar, so I will look forward to visiting them in the future, as this was nothing short of amazing.

We docked right in the port, which was lucky as other ships were docked at sea & tendering in. To be honest, the town itself was very quaint and worth a look around, but unless you made the climb up the hill to the old monastery & beyond (far too energetic for me!!) you could easily do it in a couple of hours, so we were soon back on board taking in the sun and increasing our blood alcohol levels!

To be honest, I do not have many complaints about NCL Star, but the one thing that really disappointed me was the sail away parties. The first one out of Venice was OK, if a little too brief, but after that there wasn’t another sail away party as such,at any of the ports.

The band that just played jazz on most afternoons also got a little annoying, when we really wanted to be listening to up-beat party /holiday type music as we lazed around the pool. This is just my opinion, but I think this could be improved. Indeed, the best entertainment we had around the pool was when the pool attendant called Irene got up & belted out a few numbers. She was really good and got everyone in party mood! The animation team in general were a little disappointing and not as “visible” as others that we had experienced but Cruise Director Lorena was very good. They tried hard but just lacked that real quality. The sail away itself was every bit as spectacular as I had been told it would be, passing by the grand canal & getting a great view of all the sights we had visited in Venice.

We had a late dinner reservation on the first night in the Versaille MDR, so we had time to laze in the sun before unpacking & getting ready for our meal. We had booked an inside cabin, the first time we have had one after having balconies on all our previous cruises. We had thought that we would be spending so little time in the cabin due to there being a group of us & the hot weather, that we could save the extra money to have the few days in Lake Garda. This proved to be a good choice,as we literally slept & changed in the room and very little else. We were on deck 9 room 9063, which was in an excellent spot, close to the lift straight up to the pool area. These lifts were much less busy than the ones in mid ships, and we never had to wait more than a couple of minutes. The room was as we expected really, smallish but not too tight to get around, and the shower cubicle was quite spacious, so overall we were well pleased. Our room attendantwas called Denzil & he did a great job, answering all our needs and producing us a different towel animal each night.

Having just returned from a wonderful holiday on board the NCL Star, I thought I would share my thoughts with everyone. There were six of us in our party, my DW, my brother Rob & his wife Dawne, and my niece Carly & her girlfriend Natalie. We decided to have 3 nights in Lake Garda, and a night in Venice, prior to our cruise leaving Venice on Sunday 9th August. The trip got off to a great start, with a fully relaxed 3 hours in the Escape lounge at Manchester Airport before our flight with Monarch into Verona.. Plenty to eat & drink,in the lounge, which would set the tone for the next 10 days!! We stayed at a lovely little hotel, the BelSito in Peschiera, which was a great base for touring the beautiful lake Garda. The hotel had a lovely pool, which we would have liked to use more, but we had busy days visiting the local beauty spots all around the lake.

Our plan was to travel right up to the top end of the lake & work our way down using the ferry service, but the threatened thunder storms encouraged us to stay a little more local, so we visited Sirmione on our first full day, and then Bardolino& Garda the next day. This was a truly wonderful few days, and a great way to start our big adventure. All the places we visited were very picturesque, and we also had some great food and a few small drinks to wash it down!!

So on the Saturday morning, we moved on to Venice. We took the train, with the station was very handily placed close to our hotel into Mestre, on the outskirts of Venice. We had booked the Hotel Tritone, mainly for the ease of pulling our ample luggage around, and this proved to be a great choice. The hotel was right outside the railway station, so we dropped our bags off, and bought our Vaporetto / bus passes for 20 Euro’s each, then caught the bus right outside the hotel for the10 minute journey into Venice. My niece & Natalie had not been to Venice before, so it was a real eye opener for them. We took in the grand canal & St Marks square & walked through the many back alleys, before taking the Vaporetto for a trip to the beautiful Burano.

We all loved this place, with its array of coloured houses. As we travelled back towards the Rialto bridge, we passed a cruise ship making its way out of Venice, which really got our adrenalin pumping, knowing that we would be doing that ourselves in just a few short hours. After a few drinks, people watching & taking in the scenery, we headed back to our hotel for a few hours rest.

We had booked a transfer from the hotel to the ship, and we had arranged with the hotel to let us drop our bags back off there on our return,as we had another full day to come in Venice, but I’ll cover that later. Our transfer worked perfectly, dropping us right next to the bag drop area at around 10-45am, and the embarkation process was so quick that we were enjoying the first of our many, many cocktails before11-15am!!

We set up base on the sun beds in front of the Bier Garten, and were greeted by the wonderful bar manager Melvyn, who promised to look after us during our stay, and he was true to his word. We were able to take in the Jacuzzi and enjoy the pool in comfort before the majority of passengers arrived, and we enjoyed a lovely lunch in the buffet.

I think the announcement was made at around 2pm that our cabins were ready, butwe were quite happy taking in the sun and sampling every variety of cocktailknown to man!! Unfortunately we had totake a break at around 5pm for the compulsory safety briefing, which is alwaysa bit of a pain, but to be fair this one wasn’t as bad as others we had had,because we didn’t need to take our life jackets. Once it was over, we were back to our sunbeds ready for the Sail away.

To be continued

You can eat on deck all around the pool either from the buffet or from the cooking area actually outside, where they did great burgers etc. I didnt go to the casino, but I know an American friend that we met won $30 on a penny machine. The shows were really good, I'll go into more detail in my report, but there was a contortionist that was on with the magician that really made you think you'd drunk too much!! The broadway style shows were excellent quality.

The smoking areas were on deck 12 on the port side to the side of the pool and also on the port side of the Bier Gartan. You could also smoke on deck 7 port side outside the 5 o'clock somewhere bar and at various other points down the promenade deck. I believe smoking was allowed in the casino too