Review: First ever cruise, Star, Mexican Riviera, Deluxe Owners Suite, Toddler

[cadien]

Our Cagney's dinner. We mostly looked acceptable. As long as no one noticed the comfortable shoes I had to wear with my dress.

 

This will sound ridiculous but I had the fish. I didn't want a third overstuffed morning. That did allow me to rationalize the short rib appetizer, which was delicious. The fish was fine. The lobster-saffron-champagne broth tasted like none of the above of course, but everything was moist.

 

My sides were amazing, however. The green beans seemed roasted in butter. I really love green beans with that slightly seared chewy effect. And I'm still pining for more of the au gratin potatoes. They had savory custard layers in with the potatoes and cheese, like a thicker than usual bechamel. Luscious. Red meat along with those sides would have been too heavy and I wouldn't have enjoyed them as much. But everyone else was very happy with their filets.

 

The raspberry creme brulee didn't really work but I wasn't sure it would. However, MIL could only finish half her Oreo cheesecake and had them wrap up the other half for us. I had it the next morning with my coffee and it was amazing. I'm not usually all that fond of cheesecake, although I'm a sucker for anything Oreo. It had a really nice, solid texture and wasn't too sweet.

 

Miraculously, the kids club never called while we were in Cagney's.

Edited June 23, 2015 by cadien

[cadien]

 

 

 

[cadien]

 

 

 

[CoffeeGoddess]

I'm really enjoying your review. I'll be doing the same itinerary but on the Jewel in March.

[cadien]

 

After three straight port days, we have two sea days for our return trip. Finally a chance to try the pools, sit in the sun with a fruity drink, etc. So of course we wake up to rain. We had taken DS to the kids pool on either embarkation day or the day after, but that ended up being the only time any of us were in the water on board. Except for showers, which took way too long to get warm, btw. I hated wasting so much water. In the kids pool area, DH loved the opportunity to supervise DS from the hot tub.

 

They had a ping pong table tucked back there, which got a lot of use. The rest of the outdoor recreation, all midship, was the giant chess set, a little driving cage, shuffleboard, and a basketball court.

 

I don’t think the slides at the main pool would have worked for us. They seemed to be only large enough for children. I never saw adults or even teens on them, while we hung out with our ice cream cones most afternoons, and it didn’t appear they would fit. But with the configuration of the tiny sheer-sided pool they splash into, you wouldn’t want to send down a kid who couldn’t at least dog paddle either. There was also enough pushing and shoving to make you hesitate to send up a smaller child. There was often a staff member at the top though.

[cadien]

The second sea day was sunny on and off but never warm enough to bother with the pools. DH tried the adult-only hot tub up on 13 for a bit, which is also a smoking area, but it was too windy. We did finally find the promenade deck and that was lovely. Comfortable lounge chairs with a great view. No towels reserving them! And it just all looked so classically cruise ship. We'll remember that next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was nice that the doors on this deck indicated what was on the other side of each one. Up on 13, I ended up walking a lot further around than I needed to before going inside because the doors were all blank and tinted and I had no idea what I'd be barging into.

[cadien]

We had two lunches in O'Sheehan's. Pointless fries and dry cake there too but I was happy with my burger (beef brisket and short rib blend!) and especially my cabbage soup. It's weird that they have several cabbage dishes, and fish and chips, but no cole slaw. I forgot all about their ice cream and milkshake menu and neither waitress mentioned it, but maybe that's an evening only thing.

 

 

Not the usual menu choices and just paper rather than in a leather frame. No idea what this implies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

During one of our O’Sheehan’s lunches, we were perfectly positioned to watch the towel animal folding demonstration. I don’t know that I’d make time to watch down in the atrium but it was good mealtime entertainment.

[cadien]

At some point in the trip we also tried the grill on the pool deck. Probably a second lunch on a port day, since we didn't eat very much on either beach. It was definitely a day they just had the regular grill going instead of the big ones they roll out with chicken and rice and such. I was thrilled to discover bangers (two fit in a bun, end to end) with grilled onions and HP sauce. We also lined up for the hard ice cream in a cone pretty much every day. They had a lot of trouble with ketchup bottles disappearing from the tables around the pool deck. Maybe people taking them for future room service orders. It was still free then.

 

On the first sea day morning, after dropping off DS, DH and I went looking for somewhere peaceful to just hang out. That was more difficult than you'd think. Due to the wind, we gave up pretty quickly on the outdoors. The tiers of chairs rising above the pool were pretty sheltered but about a third were occupied and the rest had towels. Everywhere else on 12 and 13 was too windy and it wasn't until the next day that we found the promenade deck. There's the bar on 13 but those swiveling bucket chairs aren't all that comfortable, there wasn't a good view of the water, and we didn't want to start drinking already. Even when it's allowed, we're not comfortable taking up space in a bar or restaurant without ordering something. The atrium had no view, of course. Five O'Clock somewhere was empty but also uncomfortable. There was a Wii set up in the corner, with a bunch of 10-year olds (thereabouts) playing tennis. Nice use of the space while the bar is closed. We ended up in a window booth in O'Sheehan's, which was between meals. That was just right. Maybe we do need a balcony...

[cadien]

A couple port-related suite letters now that I've figured out photo editing. It's already too late to add them to the relevant posts, unfortunately.

 

 

[SuiteTraveler]

Very nice review!

 

I know this is your first cruise, so I wanted to let you know that no cruise ships I'm aware of have ice machines for the guests (NCL, RCCL, Princess, HAL, Celebrity, Carnival, Uniworld) Ice buckets are always filled by your cabin steward for all levels of cabins, usually twice a day.

[cadien]

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2015 by cadien

[cadien]

 

 

 

 

That's weird that this last one mentions the cover charges at sushi, teppanyaki, and Cagney's but not for Le Bistro and La Cucina.

Edited June 23, 2015 by cadien

[cadien]

The final full day was pretty busy. We joined MIL for breakfast in Cagney's. DH didn't care for the place and I was worried about DS's behavior, but it was important to her. Ironically, we had toddlers at tables on either side of us. They were loud but DS somehow was not. I really loved that I could get apricot jam for my English muffins in there. I think they had Nutella-filled mini croissants as well as the chocolate ones.

 

We'd received an invitation to a bridge tour that started at 10. Attendance was pretty low. Just three or four other suites. The captain wasn't there but it was very interesting. DS couldn't come because of circus rehearsal, but the children who were there got very bored and restless and he would have too.

 

[cadien]

 

 

 

Maintenance guys were working on a panel back there throughout the tour but they didn't mention why.

 

 

 

 

[cadien]

 

 

 

 

 

[cadien]

 

 

 

 

 

[cadien]

 

 

 

 

DH was thrilled to spot this thing on the ceiling because our cabin is right above it and he'd wondered about a hollow-sounding part of the floor. I've already forgotten their explanation.

 

[cadien]

They brought out a hat and invited everyone to pose with it. I chickened out.

 

DH:

 

 

 

MIL:

 

 

 

 

 

And our great concierge, Roel:

 

[cadien]

From there we went to the theater for the traditional kids club circus show at 11. We each sat in different parts of the theater to maximize photo ops. It was cute. DS was in the youngest group; they are just tigers instead of learning tricks. They came out on stage to growl once or twice and then jumped through a flaming hoop that was actually a hula hoop covered with yellow feathers. After each leap through the hoop, the kid would come to the microphone to growl. But then one got the idea to meow instead and many subsequent children copied that, including DS.

 

The older kids learned some impressive tricks -- plate spinning, scarf juggling, rope tricks, Chinese yo-yos, something called devil sticks. And then everyone gathered on stage at the end to shout a song at us. It was a very full stage.

 

Cruise Director Ben as ringmaster. I'm not comfortable posting photos with all the children. It's somehow not the same as someone random in the background.

 

[cadien]

Dinner the last two nights was in Aqua, once with DS and once without. Friday night was pretty disappointing across the board, food-wise. Greasy mixed grill, gummy sweet potato fries. Another dry cake. But Saturday night was much better. It was prime rib night but I wanted something light, especially since we were traveling the next day. (Flying always upsets my stomach, even though it doesn't make me at all nervous.) I ended up with just a bowl of the soup of the day for my entree and it was wonderful - Cuban three bean. Then when everyone else followed up their prime rib with chocolate (I think that was the fancy chocolate night), I had a nice refreshing mango-pineapple souffle.

 

The kids club does a big pajama party on the last night, which was why DS wasn’t with us at dinner. The schedule said to bring a pillow for pillow fights too but that was out of date. They said they learned the hard way on a previous cruise that it was a bad idea. So you had this steady stream of adults carrying pillows through the buffet, back to their cabins. That must have seemed strange to the diners.

 

 

Waiting in line for the pajama party, very impressed by another kid's Angry Birds skills:

[cadien]

After dinner we went to the photo place to order prints. I am so glad I went and looked around. I hadn't noticed ship photographers at the circus show but they had gotten three fantastic photos of DS. I also bought both of our formal dinner photos and the USB. Looking at the wall of everyone’s port photos, I really regretted not getting them for our group, however cheesy. Next time.

 

 

 

[cadien]

When we got everything ready to set out in the hall, we managed to avoid packing anything into our luggage that we'd actually need the next morning. I was very conscious of that risk thanks to Cruise Critic. I think we spent an hour figuring out tips, including DH's run to the casino ATM for more cash and down to the atrium for more envelopes. We ended up needing 8 envelopes thanks to there being 5 kids club attendants for DS's age group. Then the butler, steward, and concierge. We actually ended up giving the steward and the butler the same amount. I'm very aware of who does and does not benefit from the DSC. We were that impressed with the steward and that underwhelmed by the butler. We did not stiff him, however.

 

Breakfast on disembarkation day was room service. We had the suite door hanger but ended up mostly writing things in the margins, like cottage cheese with pineapple. Only things that had been spotted in the buffet. It all arrived and on time.

 

Disembarkation was very fast for several reasons. We were in a suite, FIL is in a wheelchair, and we used a porter. That combination moved us to the front of more than one line. There was a slight hiccup at customs when security caught up and started arguing. At first we thought they were saying we had to go to the back of the line (meanwhile the porter keeps going) but it turns out the issue was that the ship attendant had pushed the wheelchair all the way through the building and immigration law required that he turn it over to a port employee at the bottom of the gangplank. Which they were quite sure he knew, so he was in trouble. There was a little excitement out front while waiting for our van because it turned out that there was a rapper and an NFL hall of famer in our cruise's Garden Villa and people recognized them on the curb.

 

The van took us straight to LAX for a 1:00pm flight, which we made in plenty of time. A local restaurant chain has a outpost in LAX that was so tasty I got their cookbook. And have already used it successfully. Our second leg was delayed due to lightning on the runway so it was after midnight when we got home. Long day.

[cadien]

We ended up leaving the iPad's keyboard in the cabin. Black item facedown in a black desk drawer. And we'd already switched the iPad into the kid-friendly foam-padded travel cover for the flight home. Miraculously, the ship contacted us about two weeks later and FedEx'd it to us. We'd already bought a replacement so now we have a spare. Maybe the fact they went back into drydock right after our cruise instead of loading new people made it easier to go the extra mile.

[cadien]

Suite snacks:

 

 

I don't know why the canapes scare so many people. They were fine. And the bread was not stale.

 

 

 

I am not usually a tapenade person because I only like green olives, but all you can taste with that one is garlic. In a good way.

 

 

 

I guess there was one day they got to the sweets before I could send them back.

 

 

 

[cadien]

The famous carpet.

 

 

 

I love that they repeat that motif on their robes.