New to ncl-need info

[Maureenie Beanie]

Hi all, not new to cruising but to NCL. We are on the Star from NY 7/22. Where is parking, how much? Is there a place on the ship to get coffee at 4am somewhere on board? How does dining work? I am not a newbie to cruising but so use to Celebrity & RCCL and how they work. We just booked today and need help. Thanks for all. Maureen

 

H E L P. I know there is much info out there.

[twinlges]

I'm new too! A friend booked a cruise for us in November. Never been on Norwegian, wondering the differences between here and Royal. Also--what do I need to be prepared. I'm an overplanner! :eek:

 

Thanks, Katie

[CTCruiser001]

Hi all, not new to cruising but to NCL. We are on the Star from NY 7/22. Where is parking, how much? Is there a place on the ship to get coffee at 4am somewhere on board? How does dining work? I am not a newbie to cruising but so use to Celebrity & RCCL and how they work. We just booked today and need help. Thanks for all. Maureen

 

You can park at the pier in NYC, however it is very pricey at $35 dollars a night. Your 7 day cruise to Bermuda will set you back $245.

 

There is a Java Cafe on the ship, however I'm not sure of their hours of operation. If you are in a Balcony Cabin or above, you'll have a little coffee maker in the room with what I call the "crap coffee that works in a pinch". If you don't want to do that, there is always room service (complimentary) but I believe there is a charge during the very late night-early morning hours. Not certain of the charge ($5 I think??). Plus I wouldn't think room service coffee to be very good either, although I'm a bit of a coffee snob.

 

The freestyle dining is similar to real life...Go where ever you want to eat, and there are many choices for you aboard the Norwegian Star both complimentary and some with a surcharge.

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[deladypilot]

The java cafe will have large coffee urns from early morning til late at night. You can also go to the buffet area and they have coffee.

 

The coffee pot in the room is a 4 cup pot. If you drink more, just ask your room steward for extra, it is never a problem.

 

We take our travel coffee mugs with us on the cruise, then we can fill up and walk around. They provide those small cups.

[bakerintn]

The Star has the Blue Lagoon (almost 24/7) restaurant. They have coffee. The actual hours for the Blue Lagoon will be shown in your daily newsletter, the Freestyle Daily. They close for about one hour a day...not sure if 4am is covered as "open" on your cruise.

 

here is a link to the full listing of dinning options on each NCL ship, in case you have not seen it yet.

 

http://www2.ncl.com/sites/default/files/Dining_Flyer_062211.pdf

[Maureenie Beanie]

Thanks for some of the answer, please keep the info coming in.

[RuthlessBoss]

I went on Sun (the ship). That being said, I was completely overwhelmed upon boarding between it being a ship new to me and my first eating experience. The buffet area was chaos. What we didn't know, and obviously others didn't was there were other areas serving different types of food also, and it turned out, those areas never filled up at one time.So look at the deck plans.

[emcelh]

I went on Sun (the ship). That being said, I was completely overwhelmed upon boarding between it being a ship new to me and my first eating experience. The buffet area was chaos. What we didn't know, and obviously others didn't was there were other areas serving different types of food also, and it turned out, those areas never filled up at one time.So look at the deck plans.

 

Keep in mind, there will be one of the MDR's open on embarkation day. They usually direct you to the buffet but the MDR is not crowded and much more relaxing.

[RuthlessBoss]

Keep in mind, there will be one of the MDR's open on embarkation day. They usually direct you to the buffet but the MDR is not crowded and much more relaxing.

Keep that in mind. Our cruise may have been more chaotic due to it being a 3 nighter "fill in" cruise till their 7 nighters started. The price was sooo cheap, so likely had a great number of first timers on it. Even staff seemed overwhelmed. They had just come back from a European summer, there seemed to be staff training going on.