Just returned from NCL Star, Mexican Riviera

[M&MfromPA]

The Star is a great ship, very clean, great staff, great food.....BUT...

the entertainment on this ship was horrible!!

The main dance band (Spinakers every night) was called the Odysea Band.They were worse than any junior high garage band I ever heard. The vocals hurt your ears!!! Plus, they either didn't know, or forgot the lyrics to about half of the 10 songs that they played over and over and over again.

The lounge band, the Melodic Quartet, was slightly better, but not by much.

There was a female guitarist namde Jana, who sang the most depressing songs, made me want to jump overboard.

There was a guy that performed in the Carosel lounge, that sounded like Louie Armstrong, not bad, but I wouldn't want to hear Louie Armstrong every night.

Sorry to say, but Archie, the cruise director is weak. His assistant cruise director, Dimetri, was more visable and involved then Archie.

For unknown reasons, our itinerary was reversed after the first day on board, and it played havoc with excursions for the rest of the week. We never did find out why.

Disembarking was a nightmare. The halls were packed with people lugging their baggage trying to use Express Checkout. It bogged the whole process down to a crawl. We used the "Bags" program, which was the second group called to disembark. It took over an hour to get off the ship after we were called.

It is a shame that such a great ship has such a lousey criuse director.

 

M&M

NCL Dawn 2005

NCL Sun 2006

NCL Star 2007

[Urban trekker]

I too just got off the Star and here's the story on the itinerary change - the ship has four engines which each periodically need a tune-up which they try and schedule when they are going from port to port where they don't need full speed to stay on time but in this case the Chief Engineer noticed something not right and felt it couldn't wait until we arrive in Acapulco so the Captain agreed to the change - by going to Cabo first they were able to fix the problem earlier. I got this information from one of the Officers who happened to be in the Atrium shortly after the announcement was made. A couple traveling with me who had VIP status also heard the same message from the Captain at their special reception. The Captain also noted that the new NCL ships have 5 engines so this type of situation doesn't happen anymore.

 

As for the bands - what are you comparing them too - I had no problems with any of them.

 

Will agree with you about the CD but then the last time I was on the Star - Kieran B was the CD and you don't replace his type.

 

I actually enjoyed the changed itinerary - the extra sea day at the end was great after four straight hectic shore days.

 

I had no trouble using the Express disembarkation - remember they only process the people based on the number of customs officers on board. A slow moving line is not always the ships fault.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[rayz]

I was on this cruise with my wife. Overall it was sensational. Great ship, excellent variety of entertainment, very tasty food and the weather couldn't have been much better. The change in itinerary made for a better cruise as we started in the coolest place, ie. Cabo, and then it became a little warmer each day. Two sea days at the end were very relaxing and gave us a better chance to do ship activities. Ixtapa/Zhi was the overall port winner with a wonderful combination of a small clean Mexican town (Zhi) with some beautiful beaches and the resort area of Ixtapa which had luxurious resorts and a nice beach with bigger waves for the more adventurous. Final day in LA was quite warm and we rented a car for about 23 dollars and toured Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Brentwood, UCLA, and Malibu(very scenic). Much better than the ships tours but we always enjoy the do it yourself way when on a cruise. Left car at LAX and had dinner there before our red eye flight back home.

 

Try not to listen to people who are very critical on this site. There is just no way that you could not have had a great time on this ship.

[AnnieKiriazis]

"The Star is a great ship, very clean, great staff, great food.....BUT...

the entertainment on this ship was horrible!!

The main dance band (Spinakers every night) was called the Odysea Band.They were worse than any junior high garage band I ever heard. The vocals hurt your ears!!! Plus, they either didn't know, or forgot the lyrics to about half of the 10 songs that they played over and over and over again."

 

I don't know how you can say this band was horrible. That their vocals hurt your ears? And they forgot their lyrics? This band is awesome and they play all kinds of music from swing to disco, from rock to R&B, and easy listening. If they didn't know a song someone requested, they came back the next night after working on it that day. They included the audience in on their singing and that is when perhaps you thought they forgot their lyrics.

 

How could a baritone voice hurt your ears? That is not even possible. Did you even listen to them? Perhaps a soprano or alto could not be soothing to one's ear but a baritone? Of which one singer is a baritone. The band was hired for a private party for our group of over 600 gamblers on our cruise in December and not one person complained about them. In fact, I never heard anyone complain about them the whole cruise. We spent the entire cruise with them everynight instead of the disco. Their music was far better than the disco where they catered to the hip/hop crowd and it was full of young people. Don't get me wrong, I'm no old fart, I'm the same age as the Odysea Band. Whereas the band is no Rolling Stones or Kiss calibre type of band, it is a great band nonetheless. I think they had the just right balance of music for every age group to make them a well entertaining band.

 

I'm sorry to read that your experience on the Star was less than eventful. I only hope you enjoy your future cruises.

[GeorgetteCruz]

We were also on the 2/10 sailing. It was not a good match for us. We agree the cruise director wasn't all that great. We did enjoy the Odysea Band, but I can see what you're saying. My husband used to play in a garage band, so maybe that's why we liked them so much!! They are only on this week's sailing, then they are moving to another line, one of the members told us. We thought we'd jump overboard when we heard International Fox, who played pool-side.

 

Overall, we were not impressed with NCL. Many things were just not quite right. The staff themselves were great, but we won't be cruising with NCL again.

[M&MfromPA]

As I said, this is a great ship, but anyone who thinks the odysea band or the melodic quartet was anything better than poor, is sadly mistaken.

My wife and I have cruised the past two Februarys, once on the Dawn and once on the Sun. We LOVED the entertainment on both of those ships. One of the reasons we stayed loyal to NCL was that we enjoyed dancing at Spinnakers every night. On our past cruises, Spinnakers was standing room only, every night. The Spinnaker at the Star was never more then half full. Why???? Because the band was terrible!

The bass player for Odysea was an OK vocalist, the guiter player ( in the middle who sang Celebration 3 times a night) was horrid! The other guiter/keyboard player, was almost as bad.

If you like mediocre, music, you will love this ship!

[Cruise_More_Often]

Well, this just goes to show you that there is something for everyone! This was my husband's and my absolute favorite cruise. We, too, enjoyed the reversed itinerary, even though it caused us to miss an excursion we were really looking forward to.

 

We loved the Jean Ann Ryan production numbers (there was a new one debuted on this cruise called "Band on the Run"), Stan Sykes (in the Carousel Bar was fantastic), Jana Seales (in Gatsby's and in the Star Bar has the most gorgeous voice). There were plenty of venues for music other than in the Spinnaker.

 

I agree with the other posters about Archie. He laughs at himself far too often, and he's not that funny.

 

The hamburgers at the Grill by the pool and in Blue Lagoon are to die for!!! Our favorite meals were in Aqua and Endless Summer (if you get the chance, order Il Popo), and we enjoyed Soho, La Trattoria, Le Bistro and Cagney's also.

 

The weather was fantastic in every port. Zihuatanejo is the jewel of the cruise!

 

What a fabulous time we had.

[Don113]

I just returned from this trip. there were 43 people in my group. We had a blast and loved this cruise. But we all agreed, the entertainment was really bad.

We could not believe that they actually got paid! It was like watching American Idol rejects, we laughed at the bands ( International Fox, Melodic Quartet and Odysea) almost as much as we laughed at the women in the spandex stripper dresses (you had to be there).

 

One last thought...the band on the run show was great! If you like to watch men wearing black lace teddies prance around to "Macho Man" from the Village People!

[soniamarie]

I was on this cruise.....you made me laugh about the spandex lady. Every day she had at least 2 of these dresses in every color imaginable...shortest dresses I have ever seen! She loved the attention and took every opportunity to lift it up a little higher for all to see. What the heck was that???

 

My daughter who is 8 got a lecture from my husband about appropriate attire everytime we saw her...and we saw her at least twice a day for some reason. Hey, at least she wasn't wearing jeans! ( I am being sarcastic, of course)

[crazycath]

Spandex lady was a hospital administrator with a Masters degree and her "date" was a neurosurgeon..... hmmm wonder if that's true. Heard she was denied entrance into some of the restaurants due to her lack of clothing. She also flashed herself several times, and was on the tv at an event and the tape had to be edited due to her exposing herself to the camera.... also heard she had 35 pairs of shoes.

[wkgeez]

Geez, I miss you guys already, I felt like we were just getting started and the cruise was over. Not much more to add, but to say my dad compared me to Spandex lady one night and I thought he was complementing me...I hadn't seen the 70s party video!

[M&MfromPA]

we heard she was like 50 years old from Kansas. We also heard she was tossed from gatsbys. At Spinnakers she made it a point to show everyone that she was going cammando (ala Britney Spears & Paris Hilton)! But I did hear she really liked the music!

[hotspur]

Try not to listen to people who are very critical on this site. There is just no way that you could not have had a great time on this ship.

Bravo, rayz!

[bmolotsk]

Much has already been said pro/con about this cruise (wife and I had a GREAT TIME), but I'll add my .02 to some of the things already mentioned:

 

Itinerary change -- a bit of a shock to hear the change while sitting at the pool on sea day 1 (couple next to us saying, "so, what do you think about the itinerary change?" and our dumbfounded looks....), especially since we had specifically chosen the Star because of the 2 sea days up front. Anyway, all turned out ok, and it was in fact nice to have an extra sea day at the end of the cruise (when the weather wasn't best for sunbathing) to explore other parts of the ship, attend a lecture, see a magic show, and browse through the picture gallery. One the whole, it was one of those "move with the cheese" type of things....FWIW, according to the captain, by changing the itinerary we had MUCH better weather in Cabo and PV than we would have on the original plan...

 

Entertainment -- My wife and I are very forgiving about expectations for shipboard entertainment, understanding that these will be "B" level performers for the most part -- those who cannot get gigs in "first run" locations like New York, LA, or Vegas. "International Fox", however, was completely unlistenable, and actually compelled us to LEAVE the pool area one afternoon when they came on. Our balcony was much more tolerable than their over-amplified, over-echoed voices. Terrible. By the way, we don't think it was a coincidence that they weren't to be seen or heard from the last 2 days of the cruise......anyone else notice that?

 

Melodic quartet was more bearable than IF, but we avoided them mostly. Didn't care for it. I did notice while riding the glass elevator one evening that the lyrics for the songs they were singing were scrolling up one ofthe LCD screens on a laptop by the singer, karaoke-style. Neat.

 

Stan Sykes had a grating, bluesy voice that we just did not care for, but a lot of people seemed to enjoy. Same with the Odysea band - the few times we heard them, we thought they were fine.

 

The production shows were exactly what we'd expect from the available professional talent in this kind of setting. They were watchable, energetic young performers who always smiled and truly seemed to enjoy what they were doing. To rehearse and perform 3 different shows weekly in repertory is no small feat, and we told them so when we happened to be dining next to some of the cast members in Aqua the last night of the cruise. Great job by them! We thought the shows were better than on the Mariner of the Seas on RCI, actually.

 

Jana Seale, however (the one singing all the "depressing songs") is truly in a class by herself. She is a first-rate professional singer/songwriter who just happens to be on the Star. She has a top-quality voice, and her songbook ranges from the '40s all the way up to the '90s. Listening to her in the Star Bar each night was like a gift, her voice so pure and the songs such a perfect match to our sensibilities it was like she was serenading us personally each night. She even taught herself a song at my request as a gift to my wife for Valentine's day. Absolutely the best individual talent we've seen on a cruise ship.

 

The Spandex Lady -- we ended up becoming friendly with her (Judy) and her husband. They are farmers, from Kansas, and travel a lot. They're also bikers, which helps to explain Judy's carefree attitude and her wild dress. They were just having fun, but realized that they might need to choose a more "adult" atmosphere for their next vacation......NCL might have suggested that to them as well privately.

 

Lots more detail if anyone's interested....

 

B

[Chipster2]

Thanks for taking the time to post your reviews. It is always fun reading and learning from others that have been on the Star. Can’t wait to cruise her once again.

[crazycath]

OBC in our stateroom when we arrived, did anyone else get this and what was it for?

 

Cathy

[cmh]

Hi Cathy,

Our friends who were sailing with us got the $20 coupon, but we did not. The were on deck 4 and we were on deck 10. What deck were you on? Perhaps, that had something to do with the credit coupon.

Carolyn

[cmh]

OBC in our stateroom when we arrived, did anyone else get this and what was it for?

 

Cathy

 

Hi Cathy,

Our friends who were on deck 4 got the credit also, but we did not. We were on deck 10 and I was wondering it that had any bearing on it. What deck were you on?

Carolyn

[crazycath]

we were on deck 4 also??? wonder why we got them?

[mousey]

Hi, I'll be sailing on the Star 4/8 with the DH and DS. Did any of you do a shore excursion that you really loved? Got any advice re shore excursions in Mexican Riviera? Thanks for any reply!:D

[bgonyeau]

Just returned from the 2/18 sailing. International Fox was terrible. My husband complained about them the whole time. I actually like Odysea. They will not be on anymore sailings, as they are going to the caribean. There were not any great production shows like on other cruiselines which we missed. Shawn Farquar was funny and talented as a magician. The comedian was pathetic. Even the teenagers I was with thought he was lame. I left his show early and came back as everyone was leaving and everyone was commenting on how bad he was. I enjoyed the games and thought Archie was friendly and his staff was great. No complaints about him.

Found plenty to do. The band in the Atrium was great-cant remember their name. Take the advice of another passenger and book Endless Summer while they are playing.