Star November 12-24 Lisbon review

[joern]

Just returned from an absolutely lovely cruise on Norwegian Star, so thought that I would share my thoughts about it:

 

I was a bit concerned because of the bad reviews here, but maybe only the ones who have negative things to say will take the time to write. i don't know, but anyway here are mine:

 

First of all. The food. Many bad things have been written, therefore my concerns. We ate at Garden cafe, O'Sheahans, MDR, Moderna, Tepanyaki and Ginza.

Garden Cafe:

Better than expected. Off course it's a buffet, but could always find something that I would like to eat and it tasted ok. Not much place there but we could always find a table. Only thing I missed from the bigger ships was the singing washy washy.

O'Sheahans: Only had the Wrangler burger and it's lovely. Service and food was in top

MDR: We had only delicious food there. We could almost every time find something that we wanted and most of it was really delicious. Only thai dishes were not authentic enough, but being married to a thai, I'm probably used to better 😉 Service was ok and the waiters took the time to chat with us, so felt comfortable all the time.

Moderna: Have tried before and it was just as expected. Go for the lamb, it was some of the best lamb I have ever had

Tepanyaki: Also tried before and it was ok. Show and food was ok but the room a bit too small

Ginza: Food was good but too much noise from the Gatsby bar downstairs

 

The ports:

 

Won't go into that because everyone has different opinions about what to expect from a port. We missed the ports in Morroco, but considering the situation in the Middle east I believe that's a good decission NCL took, and having been to Casablanca before I can only say that we didn't miss anything. I was sad that Madeira was cancelled but hard to blame NCL when the pilots were on a strike.

 

Then overall:

 

The good:

Being on a small ship makes it much easier to get to know the staff and meet new friends among the other guests. All the staff we met were really kind, always smiling and ready to help. We never had to wait to be served and talked to some of them who confirmed to us that on the small ships they actually are not as busy as on the big ships. Everyone seemed happy with their jobs and when we asked them directly they confirmed that. Many of the bartenders remembered my name and what I prefered to drink and one of them even offered me a drink even though they closed the bar. Our stateroom attendant Lasmi was without any doubt the best one we have had on our now 8 cruises.

Cabin (we had an oceanview) was ok. Could sometimes miss a balcony, but as we were there only to sleep it was ok for us.

 

Not so good:

Only thing I miss from the bigger ships is the entertainment. Although the Magic White show was probably the best show I have seen on a cruise I found most of the other shows quite boring, but then again, I hate shows with too much dancing. I missed the dueling Pianos, the Liverpool bar and the stand up shows

 

Wil we cruise NCL again: Definately yes. It's still our favorite cruise line, but honestly our next one is with Virgin to try something different

[tashaaa]

Thank you for your review. 
We will be on NCL Star cruise in may 2024. When I booked I hasitated because of the bad reviews on NCL Star, but than the itinerary was good so we book it.

It’s nice to read that some have also good experiances 🙂 

 

[ggTexasGal]

3 hours ago, joern said:

Just returned from an absolutely lovely cruise on Norwegian Star, so thought that I would share my thoughts about it:

 

I was a bit concerned because of the bad reviews here, but maybe only the ones who have negative things to say will take the time to write. i don't know, but anyway here are mine:

 

First of all. The food. Many bad things have been written, therefore my concerns. We ate at Garden cafe, O'Sheahans, MDR, Moderna, Tepanyaki and Ginza.

Garden Cafe:

Better than expected. Off course it's a buffet, but could always find something that I would like to eat and it tasted ok. Not much place there but we could always find a table. Only thing I missed from the bigger ships was the singing washy washy.

O'Sheahans: Only had the Wrangler burger and it's lovely. Service and food was in top

MDR: We had only delicious food there. We could almost every time find something that we wanted and most of it was really delicious. Only thai dishes were not authentic enough, but being married to a thai, I'm probably used to better 😉 Service was ok and the waiters took the time to chat with us, so felt comfortable all the time.

Moderna: Have tried before and it was just as expected. Go for the lamb, it was some of the best lamb I have ever had

Tepanyaki: Also tried before and it was ok. Show and food was ok but the room a bit too small

Ginza: Food was good but too much noise from the Gatsby bar downstairs

 

The ports:

 

Won't go into that because everyone has different opinions about what to expect from a port. We missed the ports in Morroco, but considering the situation in the Middle east I believe that's a good decission NCL took, and having been to Casablanca before I can only say that we didn't miss anything. I was sad that Madeira was cancelled but hard to blame NCL when the pilots were on a strike.

 

Then overall:

 

The good:

Being on a small ship makes it much easier to get to know the staff and meet new friends among the other guests. All the staff we met were really kind, always smiling and ready to help. We never had to wait to be served and talked to some of them who confirmed to us that on the small ships they actually are not as busy as on the big ships. Everyone seemed happy with their jobs and when we asked them directly they confirmed that. Many of the bartenders remembered my name and what I prefered to drink and one of them even offered me a drink even though they closed the bar. Our stateroom attendant Lasmi was without any doubt the best one we have had on our now 8 cruises.

Cabin (we had an oceanview) was ok. Could sometimes miss a balcony, but as we were there only to sleep it was ok for us.

 

Not so good:

Only thing I miss from the bigger ships is the entertainment. Although the Magic White show was probably the best show I have seen on a cruise I found most of the other shows quite boring, but then again, I hate shows with too much dancing. I missed the dueling Pianos, the Liverpool bar and the stand up shows

 

Wil we cruise NCL again: Definately yes. It's still our favorite cruise line, but honestly our next one is with Virgin to try something different

Thank you for taking the time to write your review!

We had great cruises both times we were on the Star, so I enjoyed reading your impressions.

It has been a lot of years since we did both of those.

[sjpo]

Thanks for your review. I am booked on the Star for the Christmas cruise so it is also nice to read the positive points about the ship and service

[Tak8]

Thanks for the review.  I'll be on Star in May.  Good to hear positives.