Review May 31 Norwegian Star to Alaska - Long

[RowenaCruiser]

Saturday – Embarkation Day

 

My husband and I, both 27, arrived at SeaTac at 11:30 am, quickly got our luggage, grabbed a taxi and arrived at the Port by 12:30 pm. We were on the ship by 1 pm with mimosas in hand. It was a very smooth process.

We stopped by the reservation desk at the atrium on deck 7 and made reservations for Cagney’s for that night. I tried to make a reservation at that time for Monday as well and they would not do it until I mentioned that I was in a balcony room and should be allowed to make reservations 48 hours in advance.

We were feeling hungry by then and went to Versailles for lunch. I’ve got to say that the chilled soups were great, as I’ve seen mentioned on the boards, and I ordered them every time they were available.

The rooms were ready after our lunch and we then dropped off our carry-on bags in our balcony room. We stayed in Balcony room 9698, which was a BB. This was our first cruise ever and I don’t think we’d ever want to stay in anything less than a balcony now.

I would recommend that you take note of what perks should be available to you and ask for them from your room steward or from the reception desk as soon as possible if they’re not in your room. We did not have a fruit basket request card or robes in our room. We left post it notes on the mirror asking for them, but did not get either until Monday when we talked to someone at the reception desk about it. We also found out you can request an iron and ironing board for a few hours from the reception desk. You have to be there in your room when they deliver it to your room.

We opted to go to the Spa Demo and ended up getting the couples VIP package to have access to the private lap pool, hydrotherapy pool, hot tub, & sauna. We went every day for at least an hour and it was definitely worth the $140. On Sea Days the spa was open until 8pm and Port Days until 10pm.

The muster drill was at 3:30pm and was fairly quick.

The rest of our luggage was waiting outside of our room after we got back from the muster drill. Thanks to the board for recommending bringing an alarm clock and extension cord.

We went to the Spa Raffle but didn’t win anything. They raffled off a lot of nice items so I’d recommend stopping by if interested in any of the treatments.

Dinner at Cagney’s was fine. It had great service. My husband loved his steak. I found during the week that the steaks in all the restaurants were usually cooked more than I’m used to, so instead of asking for Medium, I’d ask for Medium Rare and was usually happy with that.

The welcome show was fun. Jeff Harms, the comedian was the highlight for me.

 

Sunday – Sea Day

 

We tried breakfast in Versailles. I had been looking forward to the Eggs Benedict and was a little disappointed. Service otherwise was great and my husband enjoyed his breakfast.

Sign ups for the Murder Mystery Dinner were in the Library in the morning. I got to the Library at 10:15 am and got the last two spots on the sign up sheet out of 100. So sign up early if you’re interested in participating. The actual dinner was on Monday.

My husband had signed up for the Texas Hold’em tournament at 10:30am with a $60 buy-in. He had a great time but didn’t quite make it to round 2. They had about 30 people participating.

We went to the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. It was really nice to put some faces to names I had seen on the boards. The Cruise Director Ricky and Head of Housekeeping stopped by to welcome us aboard.

We had lunch in the Market Café. We had no trouble finding seating for 2, but I can see how it might be more difficult for larger groups. It seemed like seating on the port side of the ship was usually more available than on the starboard side.

We then went to the Champagne Art Auction. My husband and I both enjoyed that.

It was lobster night in the Main Dining Rooms. We went down to Versailles at 6:00pm and there was a huge crowd. We got on the waiting list and was quoted a 30 minute wait. We waited apparently 36 minutes before being seated according to the hostess. I think this was solely due to it being lobster night, so I would recommend either lining up to get in for the first seating at 5:30pm or waiting until 7:30 or 8pm. All other nights we never had much of a wait. We also noticed that the dress code of “no jeans” in Versailles was not enforced during the whole week. I never saw anyone turned away.

We went to see the comedian Jeff Harms that night in Spinnaker and he was very entertaining. I’m not sure if he was on the ship for just this week or will be staying longer but I recommend checking him out if he appears on your cruise.

 

Monday – Ketchikan

 

It was a cloudy day and rain was predicted for the afternoon.

We had breakfast in Versailles again as our Zip Line Excursion meeting time wasn’t until 9:10 am. Service was again great and we had a little bit of time to walk around a couple of shops in Ketchikan while we waited for our bus.

We had booked our Zip Line excursion through the ship with South East Exposure. My husband and I had so much fun. There were 4 other people along and we were able to do all of the zips and challenge elements. They also had a rock wall which a few people chose to climb after we were all done zipping. A bus arrived at noon to pick us up along with the group of kayakers. There wasn’t enough room, so we had to wait for another bus to come out and pick us up. The driver offered to drop us off in town but we didn’t have any time to explore the downtown area, before the last bus from downtown to the ship left.

We went to the first half of the Art Seminar and learned a little bit about types of art. The presentation was very entertaining as you could tell Ansofie, the Art Director, was passionate about art.

It was then time for the Murder Mystery Dinner. We met in the cinema where they split us into groups of 8 and we each picked a character. They had reserved tables for all the groups in Aqua and in Versailles. Our group went to Aqua and we had so much fun. I highly recommend doing the Murder Mystery Dinner if you get a chance.

We caught the 9:00pm show of Murray the Magician. The show was pretty good and the audience participation pieces were funny.

We also spent quite a bit of time between and after events in the card room, playing cards or backgammon. The view from there was great.

Tuesday – Juneau & Dawes Glacier

We had booked the Mendenhall Glacier & Wildlife Quest (Whalewatching) through NCL with Allen Marine Tours.

When we arrived at Mendenhall at 8 am, we saw our first and only bear of the whole trip. It was fantastic. He was rummaging around for greens right below the overlook building near the bus circle. We spent about 20 minutes watching him and taking pictures. A ranger came down to make sure people kept their distance from the bear. We then walked to the photo point about ¼ mile down and took some more pictures of the glacier. We had been given wristbands to enter the visitor’s center so we went in and looked around a little bit.

We got back to the bus at 8:50am, the designated time, and nearly everyone was there. There were 2 people who were missing, and the driver waited for 10 minutes, but ended up leaving them behind, as we would all miss our trip if we waited any longer. We found out later they had asked for another bus to come get them but they had none available, so they were just given a trip back to the ship. Not sure if they were refunded at all. Just make sure to get back in time or your bus might leave without you!

The catamaran was very roomy. With about 120 people on board, almost everyone had a window seat on the upper deck/lower deck and binoculars were provided for everyone as well. Also, there was plenty of room to move around if something appeared on either side of the ship. They served coffee, hot chocolate, strudel snacks, and smoked salmon on crackers during the excursion. After half an hour we came across our first whale and it was a wonderful experience. We spent half an hour watching him as he stayed nearby and the last time, the whale came up about 30 yards away from the ship. We also saw eagles and Sea Lions on the trip as well. All in all, well worth the expense, and a definite highlight of the trip

We had a quick lunch at the Market Café. The “action stations” from what I could see was a Caesar Salad tossing station and a Pasta Tossing station.

The Captain announced that we would be heading to Dawes Glacier instead of Sawyer because there was still too much ice.

We went to the “Lightning Fast” Art Auction and bought our first piece of art that afternoon.

We were starting to cruise towards Dawes Glacier and watched the scenery go by from our balcony.

We had made reservations for Teppanyaki that night at 6:30pm only to realize that we wouldn’t get to the glacier until about 7pm so we rescheduled for Wednesday. I would recommend if you make any reservations for Glacier Day, not to schedule anything until after 8pm. Watching the icebergs and looking at the glacier was wonderful.

That night, they had Prime Rib in the main dining rooms. We had dinner at Versailles that night and the Prime Rib tasted great and service was again great.

 

Wednesday – Skagway

 

We had breakfast in the Market Café this day and the rest of the week. There were 4 different sections that were open and each section had the same items but people were often lined up at only 2 of them, so we just went to 1 of the sections that had no line.

We had booked the 8:30 am White Pass Summit Bus & Rail Excursion with Chilkoot Charters. The first leg for this time slot is the bus, and the second leg was the train. I think there was some confusion that morning as we weren’t picked up until 8:40 and then there was some swapping of people with other Chilkoot busses before we were on our way. We sat on the right side of the bus on the way up and the views were beautiful. I was a little disappointed with the bus leg as we only made one stop, just above Skagway, the whole way up. I had read so much about all the extra stops that the Chilkoot busses make compared to other tours. The driver seemed to be in a hurry to get to the depot in Fraser to meet the train and we kept bypassing the many scenic stops that we saw other busses, including other Chilkoot busses, stopping at. The trip down on the Rail, sat on the right side of the train, was spectacular and definitely not to be missed. I am still glad we booked through Chilkoot though as NCL did not offer a similar bus/rail combo.

When we got back to Skagway, we stopped by the Alaska T-Shirt Company store and bought some souvenirs for friends and co-workers. They had items for practically every price point, including several items such as a stuffed moose or husky, bracelets, or deck of cards for $1 each. We walked around town for a little bit and took the city shuttle back to the ship for $1.50 per person. It was definitely worth it to take the shuttle as it was an extremely windy and cold day and the Star is docked a bit away from the town.

We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon in the Spa and had dinner at Teppanyaki. We were actually seated with a group we met from the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet and had a great time. Dinner and service was excellent.

 

Thursday – Prince Rupert

 

We had a pedicure for me and a seaweed wrap and massage for my husband at 8am. Throughout the week the Spa offers different discount packages so keep a lookout for these in the dailies and at the information tables. You are also able to “bid” on treatments by writing on a card how much you would be willing to pay, must be more than 50% of cost, and then they’ll let you know if they’re willing to give it to you for that price. They also have discounts of up to 30% off during off-peak times or 10% off full priced Spa services otherwise.

We had not scheduled any excursions for Prince Rupert so we just walked around town for a little while. We went to get our Passport stamped at the Visitor’s Center. We stopped by the Cow Bay Gift Shop where my husband found a gift for his mother. There really didn’t seem much to do here, so we headed back to the ship after wandering around the gardens and fields for a while.

We had dinner at Endless Summer and sat on the starboard side of the restaurant. The view was spectacular with the sun still fairly high in the sky and on its way down. We ordered fajitas and were somewhat disappointed as it just doesn’t compare well against fajitas from Chile’s for example. The vegetables were pretty scarce but that could have been because it was towards the end of the cruise.

We caught the 8:00pm show for “Cirque Pacific” with the Chinese acrobats. I recommend getting to the theater at least 15-20 minutes early to get good seats as this was one of the more popular shows. The acrobats were great.

 

Friday – Sea Day

 

We slept in, as did many other people I think on this day.

We opted to do the Express Walk Off instead of choosing a color slot as we had a friend who would be waiting for us.

We attended the Grand Finale Art Auction and watched “Destino”. We bought some more art. I think we enjoyed attending the art presentations and auctions a great deal and we’ve both become big art fans.

For dinner, they had Escargot in the main dining rooms as an appetizer and we saw many people ask for two orders for each person. I’ve never had escargot before myself and looking back now, I think I should have just tried it.

The weather was great so we tried playing shuffle board on the starboard side, Deck 7. Neither of us had ever played before and we failed miserably but it was a lot of fun.

We caught the closing comedy show by Jeff Harms and he was again, very funny. It was a full room.

 

Saturday – Disembark

 

We had our final breakfast in the Market Café and headed down to deck 7 with our luggage at 7:55am. They had already started allowing people off the ship, and the whole process was very smooth. We were off the ship and out all of the doors to the curb by 8:30am.

Summary

In all, we had a great cruise to Alaska and we would definitely do it again. We love freestyle dining, particularly because it’s usually just the 2 of us on our trips and we like to keep to ourselves. Next time, we’ll likely look for an itinerary with more port time so that there’s time to do an excursion and time to spend just walking around on our own in each port. We both wished we had a little more time in Ketchikan and a lot more time in Juneau.

[more cruises]

Great review:) We were on the Star on May 17th. Loved every minute of it - especially the spa.

 

Was this your first cruise? Are you hooked? we're looking for our next cruise - maybe the Caribbean in Jan. I think NCL's freestyle dining has spoiled us for the other cruise lines - after eating whenever I wanted there's no way I could ever adjust to assigned dining.

[mypleasure]

Thanks for posting your review.

 

I found it very informative and useful as I am leaving the UK for Seattle in 10 days time! Bang up-to-date info is priceless at this stage.

 

We are in a BB on deck 9 also, a little further forward than your cabin I think. Is this a good location for getting around the ship from?

 

regards

 

mog

[Teacherph]

Thanks for your review. We sail on July 12 to Alaska--our first time. Plan to print this out so hubby can read (when he gets back from his Canadian fishing trip). He isn't so internet savy so he hasn't read near what I have on this site. Have to get him informed! Thanks for all the details. Great job!:D

[terrymtex01]

We were just on this same cruise as you and have to agree it was a fantastic cruise. One thing I wanted to correct you on was the excursions offered for Skagway. NCL does offer a combo bus and train tour, but we do not recommend taking it. The bus they had us on had extremely small seats and when it did stop at places of interest it was barely enough time to take a picture and then rush back to the bus.

 

What we recommend for this stop is to take the train up and then back down, or rent a car (aprox 100.00 plus cost of gas) and skip the train. My choice would be to take the train both up and down. It was an amazing ride, beautiful views you will not get from any other venue.

[Susie51]

Thank you for your informative review. The details you supplied are very helpful.

[Cmorganz]

Your review was great. We leave this next weekend on the Star. Thanks for the info.

[RowenaCruiser]

golden egg - Yes it was our first cruise and we are definitely hooked :)

 

mog - Deck 9 was great for getting around since it goes all the way from the front to the back of the ship. The trick is to first walk to the set of elevators closest to where you want to be and then take the elevator up or down. Another thing to note is that Aqua and Versailles are both on deck 6. For Versailles, take the aft elevators. The main entry is between deck 6 and deck 7. The deck 6 entry is handicap accessible but the entry from deck 7 is often more convenient. For Aqua, take the mid-ship elevators, the entrance is right in the middle of the elevators so can feel quite cramped at 5:30pm when it opens for dinner.

For all the shows in Spinnaker and the Stardust Theater we would take the forward elevators.

Also, being on deck 9, there's easy access to the Internet Cafe if you choose to use it. I hope you have a great time.

 

Teacherph - Alaska is wonderful. I'm glad the review was helpful to you. I saved all the dailies so I hope to get those scanned in and post a link some time on Monday.

 

Terry - Thanks for the correction. For some reason I was thinking NCL didn't offer that. The Chilkoot bus had very comfortable seats and if someone else were to choose the bus & rail combo, I would recommend asking the driver at the beginning about how many stops he would make on the bus leg. I agree the rail leg was spectacular coming down. My husband ran out of space on his memory card there were so many beautiful waterfalls and valleys.

[MarilynTX]

Thanks for the review. I can't wait.

Is there a charge for the mystery theater?

[RowenaCruiser]

There's no charge for the murder mystery dinner. Sign ups start at 9am on the first sea day (Sunday) in the library and the dinner is held the day after. It really was a big highlight of the cruise. Everyone in my group was in character as soon as we sat down to our table. When we finished, about the time dessert came out, we stayed a long while to chat over coffee with the other couples.

[MarilynTX]

Rowena, How many people were on your Chilkoot tour?

[cavcmy]

RowenaCruiser - loved your review! Did I miss the dailies link?

 

Carley

[carontori]

Enjoyed your review. The Star is our favourite ship. I also bought my first piece of art this year on the Star. The Art seminars are a great way learn a bit about what you are buying and I look forward to them on my next cruise. Can you tell me who the Art Director was?

[alaskafan2]

Sounds like the food and dining experience for you went well. Curious about your Market Cafe comment that there were four buffet areas, but only 2 had lines. Were the other 2 areas not obvious to people?