azdmelani

Thanks @torfamm for posting the menus.  Contemplating a cruise in November and nice to know my favorite Princess menu items are still there (even if not every night)

23 hours ago, Jaclyn1945 said:

Do you think the time in Dubrovnik was shortened because of the time change in Europe on Sunday? I'm also on the Nov. 3 sailing, and keep wondering if our stop in Kotor will be impacted. 

Ours had to do with the number of ships docking in Venice.  We needed to leave earlier to be within our time window.  

1 hour ago, OzCanuck said:

interesting. They were tendering for almost an hour before they called group 1 because we were so early at Dubrovnik. We are platinum so didn’t worry about tickets.  Forgot about that ...

True but by the time my mom and I switched places in line to get ready for the day they had discontinued that express tender service. Being platinum was definitely helpful but we had VIPs waiting with us in our group as well.

16 hours ago, Jayneykul said:

We have returned from the Star today, it did not go to Kotor. Also the time in kephalonia and Dubrovnik was cut short! We had to be back on the ship by 1.30 in kephalonia and 12 in Dubrovnik which meant queuing for the shuttle bus at 11! No explanation given by NCL. I doubt we will book again with them as it is to big a risk to take that they just alter itineraries like this. For anyone going to Dubrovnik with them do yourselves a favour do not use the shuttle bus it is €15 pp it took 55 minutes waiting in line to get on 1 coming back. A taxi is €14 for up to 8 people fixed price. It is a disgrace . Guest services are not interested if you complain either!

We were on the week before you, and tendered into Santorini, Mykonos and Dubrovnik.   The tender process was a nightmare, and three  out of 5 port days I was up super early trying to get tender tickets.   The Dubrovnik day was especially frustrating, getting on line at 5 (!)AM and having the first person in line get 42 tender tickets totally obliterating group 1.  We almost missed our excursion because of this.   Not the only issue with NCL we encountered by far, but having to be on an additional schedule put a damper on our vacation.

Elite Princess cruiser just back from the Star.  My advice is to stick with Princess 🙂

On 10/22/2019 at 1:20 PM, Jaclyn1945 said:

Getting super excited for this trip coming up, but curious on feedback from those of you who have gone before this time of year on what type of attire is best to pack. Venice/Kotor seem to be a little chilly, high in the 50s/low 60s F, but Mykonos and Santorini seem to be in the high 60s/low 70s hopefully. I'm thinking we'll need a good mix of winter/fall clothing, but wanted to see if anyone had any tips. TIA!

Just back from this cruise and lucked out with the weather- in the 70s and sunny most days.  Bring a lot of layers and a light to medium jacket just incase.

8 hours ago, cheeseclan said:

We were recently on NCL Escape to Bermuda and had a fabulous time.  While the mini suite was smaller than on a Princess ship: the entertainment, food and staff were much better on the Escape.

We are just getting off the Caribbean Princess and were not happy with quite a lot on this sailing.  The one thing we were shocked about was that there were lobsters served in the buffet tonight.  They were great and unexpected!!!

 

We will try NCL again in the future and will be on another Princess Cruise too.  
 

One last thing:  the meet and greet on NCL was amazing.  They have a bar set up with food and drinks and 7 officers come to it as well.  Princess kept canceling our M&G on this cruise.  Pretty crappy!

Good to know.  We missed the M&G on our cruise due to another activity we wanted to enjoy.   Thanks for adding your feedback.

13 hours ago, need2cruisesoon said:

 

I was disappointed in every way, aspect, manner and form of cruising the Princess Grand a couple years back including leaky pipes in the aft bar area. Party at the SF Pier when she leaves next year.

 

But we did cruise Regal and was a better experience. We also cruised NCL Bliss last year and had a blast.

There are so many subjective factors for a cruise.  Regal Princess is one of my favorite ships and I'm glad you enjoyed!  My first Princess cruise was during the inaugural season on the Grand.  She is showing her age now.

13 hours ago, jasbo49 said:

 

That about sums it up for me. The only thing we liked was the entertainment. 

 

Jim

 We only made it to one show (Vegas) and while the performers were talented I thought it was kinda dated.

13 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

I totally understand.  We've tried NCL 4 times over the years, the last being Breakaway to Bermuda three years ago.  My DH and I said never again NCL.  We were disappointed in mostly everything.  Princess is in a completely different class in comparison.  Never been disappointed in our Princess cruises.

I'm impressed you made it 4 times!  Thanks for your feedback!

Hi fellow cruisers!  My mom and I are back from sailing the Norwegian Star.  We had to work around her vacation schedule for work, and sadly were a week too early for the Sky Princess.  Wanted to post a review in the hopes it helps someone making a decision between the two cruise lines.

The Star is an older ship (debuted in June 2000) and though was recently refurbished still showed her age.  The cruise was round trip from Venice with stops in Kotor Montenegro, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Argostoli in Greece and Dubrovnik in Croatia over one week.  Sadly due to recent events in Venice and the harbormaster we missed our stop in Kotor. Instead it was replaced with a "technical" two hour stop in Bar Montenegro, assuming to let staff embark/disembark.  We did not receive any credit for port taxes to our account (Princess has done this in the past).

Cabin:

We had an inside cabin and it was tight.  Princess handles the closet situation much better, with an open closet and shelves that allows for access without moving hanging items.  We missed the bathroom shelves for organization.   NCL gets points for the shower having a sliding door and not the dreaded clingy curtain.  Our steward was able to get us robes and extra hangers, which we also receive on Princess when requested.  No chocolates on the pillow each night.

The TVs were ancient with one, maybe two english movie channels.   Even the old Princess TV channels before the on demand system were a marked improvement.

Food:

This is a subjective category, so YMMV.  But food was so hit or miss (and mostly miss) on this ship.  We were offered one "free" item when booking and opted for the three free specialty restaurants.  I'm so glad because the main dining room food varied from average to inedible. The buffet was more spread out and clearly labeled than Princess but had the same food every day.  Most days there was no dining room open for lunch, just a pub like venue.  We tried it once, again fine.   Specialty restaurants were good (we tried Cagneys, agreed it was better than Crown Grill, Le Bistro and the Teppanyaki restaurant).  I'm glad our itinerary allowed for meals in port so we had a breaks to breakfast and lunch in the buffet.

While i appreciated that we can make reservations for our dinner before sailing, I didnt like scheduling my meals months in advance.  We spoke to others who were not informed they needed to book the specialty dining in advance and were only provided with 9-10PM options.

The buffet also closed by 10, with the pub open 24 hours and room service available (for a charge of 7.95).   No grab and go options like the international cafe.   Coffee for purchase was starbucks and similar to my sbux NYC prices.   No coffee card available, and even if you purchased the drink package was not included.

Ports:

This is really where NCL went downhill.  It was not the actual ports per se, but the way we arrived.  Time in ports was shorter than the normal Princess schedule, we knew this going into the cruise.   We knew we would tender in Santorini.  But we also had to tender in Mykonos and Dubrovnik (on previous cruises with Princess we docked in these ports).   That meant three mornings of waking up very early to wait in line for tender tickets as we had private excursions.  Do we really need to be in line for tender tickets at 7:30AM if we arent arriving in port until 2PM?  The last morning for Dubrovnik,  we were 4th in line, but the first person grabbed 42 (!) tickets which meant anyone behind them was put into Group 2.  They had issues with receiving tenders and despite being ready at 7 when we docked didnt make it ashore till 7:45 for an 8AM excursion.   The cruise line also shortened the (already short) time in Dubrovnik so we had to be back on board by 12 instead of 12:30.   

I am also used to the nice Port Guides Princess prepares and sticks in the Patter the night before a stop.  If you're sailing NCL, I would recommend downloading some offline maps because they do not provide any port guides in their daily information.  

I know this review sounds overly critical of NCL, but after 20 cruises on Princess I guess I have gotten used to a certain standard of cruising.  Maybe the newer NCL ships have better quality rooms with more storage space, better/additional food venues and more bang for your buck.  But if I can avoid it I would gladly never cruise NCL again.

Going on the Star in October because the itinerary matched my needed schedule but normally a Princess devotee.  

I would personally pick Princess, but given its a TA and you will be a captive audience on the ship for consecutive days, which has the options more suited to your needs food and entertainment wise.  

I havent been on NCL in a while (going on Star in October) but Regal Princess is one of my favorite ships in the Princess fleet (been on 20 Princess cruises).  Great food, service, layout.  Also the show Fiera is not to be missed.

We are on the Oct 13 sailing.  Interested to see if this impacts our sailing at all.

Verizon worked fine in ports and when the ship was docked.  make sure to turn to wifi only when sailing.

On 7/3/2019 at 12:48 PM, newmexicoNita said:

We booked all of our specialty dining reservations and go the times we wanted for our Oct 13th sailing a couple of days ago. 

I'm glad!

I've been able to book both specialty and main dining for my cruise now.

Good to know- first time on NCL in a while and sailing 10/13.  Was confused because our booking said check back on 6/15 and then I was unable to book.

2 hours ago, firstimer2009 said:

Check to see if your hotel is near an Aligaluna stop.  That water bus line leaves every 30 minutes directly from the airport so no need to take a bus to Piazalle Roma than a vaporetta.  This website has a guide to 200 hotels in Venice and how to get there from the airport or the Piazalle.  In general it's also a great guide to Venice.  We are staying at a hotel near St. Marks that is right off the San Zaccharia stop so will be using Aligaluna.

https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/

So helpful, thank you!

Following along as we are doing this cruise in October.  Thanks!

5 minutes ago, Mediterranean_Honeymooner said:

 

That sounds a lot like our tour! (I’ll get to the glacier part in the next post.) I just meant some of the other companies (I know Harv and Marv and a couple others I looked at) say they include Mendenhall Glacier viewing, but it’s really just a quick look from a distance (like you see in the picture).  We also did the waterfall trail!

Ahhh, I see!  Last time I was in Juneau i used Harv and Marv and I was disappointed that we didnt spend time at the Glaicer, but absolutely recommended.  Cant wait to see your pics.

Love reading your trip report!  We also went a few weeks ago and booked a tour through Alaska Shore Tours that allowed time at Mendenhall (with a walk to a waterfall) and a Whale Watch (we saw a whale feeding on the shore and a different mama and baby).  There are still ways to do both- though your whale watch was spectacular!

On 6/5/2019 at 5:45 AM, leck57 said:

 

Hi Bob - we are just down the road in Biggera!

We are doing a similar trip to post #7 in August except we are doing a land tour before the southbound trip on the Royal. Friends of ours recommended the land tours and also the southbound to Vancouver. We are also staying at the Captain Cook in Anchorage for a few days pre land tour and have been told that this is a great hotel.

As you will know, the airfares from here to the US/Canada are expensive and even the direct Air Canada flight from Bris to Vancouver rarely has price drops. Therefore I'd try and spend as much time as you can over there considering a major cost is flights. I found hotels in Vancouver are also pretty costly but that's life. 

You'll enjoy whatever you decide.

We just did this itinerary.  The Captain Cook was a fabulous hotel and recommend the stay there.  Check out Wild Scoops and getting a Baked Alaska cone.

Feel free to message me and I'm happy to share more recommendations.

Have done this before multiple times.  No issues, just be in one of the first groups off the ship.

56 minutes ago, Potstech said:

On any Princess ship they should be accepted through August.

I'm just off the Royal so I can speak to my experience with what I was told on that ship.