Almost Live … this time a polar track: NCL Star, Reykjavik to NYC 27 Jul-8Aug 2024

[ColdCruise]

Here it is … hopefully a GREAT itinerary in which NCL,safely sails the Star into all the ports per our booked itinerary. Well my fingers are crossed 🤞🫰, my packing list made and the actual packing sorting commences this weekend!

 

[mking8288]

Happy Fourth of July to you.  Thank you for doing this.  First to "tag" this almost-live report coming up in about 3 weeks, assumed you will fly to Reykjavik early ... plans while you are there ?  Best wishes & do keep your eyes/ears open to local weather alerts & forecast.   This is a nice continuation of Seas2mountains live report on the Prima that's coming to an end.  

 

Be advised that signage aren't mostly bilingual/multi-lingual ... Google Live Translate or equivalent came in handy for us during our short overnight port stay in early May.  Beautiful scenery and natural beauty.  Happy planning & following ...  

[bluesea777]

@ColdCruise it's the STAR not Sky. You can ask the mods to correct the ship name in the title.

 

 

[complawyer]

were you able to see the northern lights at any time during your cruise.

[complawyer]

ignore the question, sorry, i didnt see the dates of your cruise

[Nilbog]

Following this one, as we're getting on in NYC when you get off and doing your cruise backwards!

[ColdCruise]

On 7/4/2024 at 3:39 PM, bluesea777 said:

@ColdCruise it's the STAR not Sky. You can ask the mods to correct the ship name in the title.

 

 

👍 Thanks for letting me know @bluesea777 … at least I got the right map! I’d have preferred a ship’s photo from Reykjavik but if I waited, chances are someone else would post a photo of themselves and it would become my headline photo (happened on my Viva TA trip report - dang it!)

 

Sky, Star, Sun … I get those 3 confused all the time. Heaven help me if I’m on one and there’s another one docked next to us in a port ….might try to get on the wrong one 😝 

 

I’ll follow up with the mods to fix that! 

Edited July 6 by ColdCruise

[ColdCruise]

On 7/4/2024 at 3:55 PM, complawyer said:

were you able to see the northern lights at any time during your cruise.

 

On 7/4/2024 at 3:55 PM, complawyer said:

ignore the question, sorry, i didnt see the dates of your cruise

@complawyer I’ll gladly ignore the question because it makes me cry …. 3 trips to Iceland to specifically see the northern light during the appropriate months … all a wash out … or a cloud-out or a rain-out! Alas, it wasn’t to be.

 

Someday my aurora will happen…. But not this trip 😜 

[Host Kat]

Ta daaaa! Edits made.

[ColdCruise]

On 7/4/2024 at 3:14 PM, mking8288 said:

Happy Fourth of July to you.  Thank you for doing this.  First to "tag" this almost-live report coming up in about 3 weeks, assumed you will fly to Reykjavik early ... plans while you are there ?  Best wishes & do keep your eyes/ears open to local weather alerts & forecast.   This is a nice continuation of Seas2mountains live report on the Prima that's coming to an end.  

 

Be advised that signage aren't mostly bilingual/multi-lingual ... Google Live Translate or equivalent came in handy for us during our short overnight port stay in early May.  Beautiful scenery and natural beauty.  Happy planning & following ...  

 

Hi @mking8288

Good to “see” you again and thanks for “tagging”.

 

I’ll definitely check out @Seas2mountains trip report from Prima - I love that class of ships!

 

Yes, we’re definitely flying in early, more on that in an upcoming post.
 

I try to write longer posts in a separate app cuz I’ve had too many long ones blown away by either time outs or me accidentally navigating to another tab . Happened while I started an earlier response a few minutes ago … I am apparently unable to retain that hard-earned lesson 🤷‍♀️

 

Stay tuned!

[ColdCruise]

30 minutes ago, Host Kat said:

Ta daaaa! Edits made.

Props to @Host Kat 👍

She speedily made the requested edit within minutes of sending my edit request via the Report option found in the ellipses next to the post number.  
 

PSA here

if only my change requests at work were so promptly resolved ….

 

[ColdCruise]

Back to regular programming…

 

This cruise will kick us over from Platinum to Sapphire.

 

It appears that our cruise is sold out … or 99.9% there. It’s no longer on the NCL site, despite being 3 weeks away. 

Although we have upgrade bid options for all the suites in our offer, I called our PCC this morning to see if there were actually any suites available to upgrade to for money. Occasionally people reported in the forum that they were able to pay for an upgrade for less than the minimum bid. That was luckily our experience on our Viva TA last November.

 

Alas, that is not my lucky time. The only remaining suites are Club Balconies for an additional $1,000 per person (there were 2). Just not worth it for us for the extra space since the amenities package doesn’t really give you more value (IMO). I think minimum bid was $250. We may decide to bid on something just in case there’s a last minute cancellation or no-show, but the odds are extremely long.
 

Perfectly happy with our starboard balcony location for this mostly westerly and southerly cruise, so I hope for some beautiful sail-by scenery if the captain stays close enough to shore.

 

Here are NCL’s itinerary details:

 

An even mix between tendering and docking. I hope our Platinum status gets us on the tenders early enough for our shorex plans.

 

We only booked 1 excursion with NCL, the rest just cost too much - almost all were in mid-to-high $200 pp. We've rented cars in several ports, were traveling with friends and the car rentals are about the cost of 1 NCL shorex. Plus I am NOT a fan of sharing a bus with 50 people for long hours and we’ve been to several ports before.

 

[catbro]

I am considering booking the star for fall 2025 with itinerary of azores, canaries, morrocco, spain, portugal. I love the itinerary but very much on the fence because of the age and seeming lack of amenites on this ship. Have only been on Jewel and Breakaway class ships previously. I'd love to hear your opinion on the ship. My biggest concern is the lack of great outdoors and spinnaker lounge. Enjoy your cruise.

[Seas2mountains]

Looking forward to following along. We loved the Prima cruise from Southampton to Reykjavik that ended on Thursday. This is the next itinerary we are interested in booking for either June 2025 or 2026. 

[ColdCruise]

On 7/5/2024 at 5:01 PM, Nilbog said:

Following this one, as we're getting on in NYC when you get off and doing your cruise backwards!

Hi @Nilbog I hope I leave some useful information for you, then. Please don’t hesitate to hop on and ask questions.

We’ll be glad to pass the baton in NYC!

[ColdCruise]

7 hours ago, catbro said:

I am considering booking the star for fall 2025 with itinerary of azores, canaries, morrocco, spain, portugal. I love the itinerary but very much on the fence because of the age and seeming lack of amenites on this ship. Have only been on Jewel and Breakaway class ships previously. I'd love to hear your opinion on the ship. My biggest concern is the lack of great outdoors and spinnaker lounge. Enjoy your cruise.

 I probably share some of your concerns @catbro, but we were on Sky (about same age, without nit-picking) in March and although it was showing its age in some spots and was a huge change from our previous November cruise on Viva, we got along well enough for a port intensive cruise.

 

This is another (IMO) port-intensive cruise with only 3 sea days, so I don’t think the lack of the latest amenities will be too much bother. Although the loss of a great observation lounge like a Spinnaker might be missed, it just depends on how close the captain will sail along the various coastlines.

 

My biggest concern is based on the trouble Star had making her itineraries this past winter in South America & Antarctica. And the current run off Greenland isn’t instilling confidence. However if she can pull off this itinerary as scheduled it will be a fantastic cruise (weather permitting)!
 

We did a 21-day round trip from the UK to Faroes, Iceland and Greenland a few years back 9-28 July on another line and it was fantastic (if a little long) - great weather most of the way, only missed 1 port due to, reportedly, sea ice and the ship found a good substitute. Hoping our luck continues!

 

Edited July 7 by ColdCruise

[ColdCruise]

2 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

Looking forward to following along. We loved the Prima cruise from Southampton to Reykjavik that ended on Thursday. This is the next itinerary we are interested in booking for either June 2025 or 2026. 

Hi @Seas2mountains

I must have been scrolling through your recent opus and posting while you were here.

 

Prima/Viva are lovely ships and you were blessed with great weather for you fantastic cruise.

 

it sounds like the new veterans programs keep getting better, we haven’t had the neat spoon apps yet, they looked fun 🫡

[julie3fan]

I'm looking forward to the pre-cruise buildup, as I'll be on this cruise as well!  You might want to mention this thread on our roll call, as I'm sure a lot of the others will be interested in following along as well.

[Seas2mountains]

On 7/6/2024 at 9:39 PM, ColdCruise said:

Hi @Seas2mountains

I must have been scrolling through your recent opus and posting while you were here.

 

Prima/Viva are lovely ships and you were blessed with great weather for you fantastic cruise.

 

it sounds like the new veterans programs keep getting better, we haven’t had the neat spoon apps yet, they looked fun 🫡

Yes, we definitely were blessed with wonderful weather!

We have found that each ship leadership team and cruise director conduct these military veteran receptions so differently. They each try to do their own thing. Some have been really well done and all are appreciated.

 

Looking forward to following your Live review!

[ColdCruise]

On 7/7/2024 at 5:23 PM, julie3fan said:

I'm looking forward to the pre-cruise buildup, as I'll be on this cruise as well!  You might want to mention this thread on our roll call, as I'm sure a lot of the others will be interested in following along as well.

 I don’t know about fellow shipmates wanting to hear my take on the cruise … they’ll be living it large themselves. But I’m flattered @julie3fan - hope to meet you on the 27th!

[ColdCruise]

Thank you @LauraS - I hope it’s at least a bit informative if not entertaining to at least a few readers 😛 

[x2tpd]

Thank you … following to see what you think.  Were getting on when you all get done 😀

[ColdCruise]

Ten days till we fly to KEF.

 

We booked our flight with PLAY Airline. They are a relatively new airline based in Iceland. This is our first time flying with them - I can't wait to see their operations. Flight is just over 5 hours so if it sucks, it’s only 5 hours … but I hope to get a few hours of shut-eye.

 

We didn’t book this cruise and, therefore, our flights until Memorial Day, so barely 60 days in advance. I was worried flights would be exorbitant but our one way flights were just $614 (307pp) for 2 tix with extra leg room seating, including 20kg checked bag, carry-on & personal item. Other airlines were charging double or more. 

I’ll be sure to post a debrief on PLAY once we are in Iceland.

 

I hope they work out well because they have some very good promotions to Europe. 

Their flights are organized pretty much like IcelandAir (and my much missed WOW) -  everything transits their hub at KEF, with the option for an Iceland stop-over. A lot of their European flights may fly in/out of secondary airports and in the winter they have a lot of warmer-climate destinations. 🤞 and at least they are competition for IcelandAir.

[rritter25]

I just returned from the same itinerary on Saturday, July 13th. I'm not sure if you are aware, but our itinerary was changed at the last minute. They removed the 2 ports on Greenland and substituted Nuuk instead due to too much ice in the ports. They also removed one port in Iceland so we ended up with an extra at sea day. We did see icebergs, and there was heavy fog and high winds. I would recommending bringing warm layers, gloves, hat, and either hiking boots or shoes. Most dressed very casually on the ship except those I saw getting special family portraits done. Let me know if anyone has questions and I'll be happy to reply back. Enjoy your trip!

[BRC6C]

Thanks for starting this @ColdCruise! We are on this sailing as well and also flying Play. I just bought a new rain jacket/windbreaker and and working on figuring out the correct layers to stay warm and dry.

Edited July 15 by BRC6C