Review: Star Mex Riviera Feb 28-Mar 7 (meant it to be short...)

[j-9]

Just back from the Star, Mexican Riviera and wanted to provide a quick review and some thanks to all the people that provided info before we went. The info in advance helped us have a great time.

Embarkation: It was okay, but we were there too early (11:00) and had to wait for the ship to be ready. Next time I’ll shuttle over a bit later. I had a cold, so was not as on my toes as usual, so was challenged by things like figuring out where we were supposed to go. Ended up trying to take our luggage through security – duh. Then never got a boarding number, ended up in the right check-in line by chance only. Note to self – read the signs! Champagne on entering was a nice touch. It was a beautiful hot sunny day, so we chose to grab lunch at the buffet and sit outside. We spent the afternoon exploring the ship and did the spa tour. (The tour was really showing off the services rather than the spa, but I wanted to check out the spa before deciding whether we wanted to purchase a spa pass.)

Spa/Fitness center: We decided to buy the Spa couples pass ($140), and thoroughly enjoyed it. We used the spa every day, most days twice. It was often empty, never busy. There is a lap pool (that turned into a wave pool on the last sea day J), a hot tub and a bubble lounger not so hot tub in the main area, as well as lounge chairs looking out over the wake. Very nice and peaceful. The women’s change room area had a sauna and steam room while the men’s also had a cold plunge pool. Very cold my husband said. There were also quiet areas for each gender, which we didn’t use. Comfy chairs and tvs I think. I would definitely do this again.

The fitness center was great – lots of equipment and well used. My husband did the free aerobics every morning and rode the bike, I ran the outside track. The track is great very early in the morning, not so great later in the day, both because of the heat, and because of people not realizing it is a track. We timed our workouts to be finished as the spa opened at 8:00. The only spa treatment I used was to get my nail polish redone, and I was pleased with the service.

Excursions/outings: I was lazy and booked NCL excursions. I booked them in advance, and the first excursion ticket had a note on it that it was good for a free glass of champagne in Cagneys’ or Le Bistro. Since we were planning a Bistro night anyway, this was a nice treat. Not sure if it was only for advance bookings.

Cabos: we had selected the Lands End Boat tour. The tour started a bit later, at 1:00 I think, so we missed any tender frenzy that may have occurred. It was okay value for the money ($25). It was about an hour long and took us over close to the Arch. Beautiful scenery. After we got back we grabbed some lunch in a restaurant right by the dock (sorry don’t remember the name) and it was quite good. We had a beer and some shrimp and fish tacos. After that we walked the boardwalk around to the public beach, which is a long walk. There are lots of vendors on the boardwalk. We had a swim and then took a water taxi back. Water was refreshing, but not freezing. I was able to get in easily, and I am a cold water wimp! Cabos felt very touristy to me. There wasn’t really enough time to explore any authentic parts, if there are any.

 

Mazatlan: Did the Old Mazatlan walking tour. This was a highlight of our trip. Our guide was Sheila, and she has lived in Mazatlan for 25 years. The tour was about 4 hours long, with a couple of stops for beverages and bathrooms. It ended at the market, which was an adventure in itself. We then had the choice of going back to the ship or to the golden zone by cab.

We went back to the ship, grabbed our swim stuff and headed out to try to find Stone Island by ourselves. Dead Easy, thanks everyone that posted about this! Hang a left on the street outside the port, walk to the end of the road (10 minutes), go straight across the street and then continue up what looks like a gravel driveway to the water taxi stand. $2 or 20 pesos gets you a round trip ticket to the “Island”. It is a 5 minute boat ride, and then a quick walk over a little hill and down the beach. We went to Victors, which is the last restaurant in the long row of them. They all look a little bit scary by North America standards, and I did not check out the washrooms but the beer was good, and we shared an order of coconut shrimp which was delicious. Really delicious. This was the top food experience of the week. And cheap. The bill for 4 beers and the shrimp was 190 pesos or $19 USD. We paid in peso, so I think it was around $15. We swam here as well, and the beach and water were very nice. Lots of vendors, but very friendly, not aggressive and another table paid for the mariachi band to play, which was great. I liked Mazatlan. I enjoyed exploring the historic center and learning a bit of its history. I liked the tranquility of Stone Island. I feel I was able to experience a bit of the real Mexico at this port. Of the 3 ports, this was my favourite.

 

Puerto Vallerta: The only tour that interested us was the walking tour, but it began at 3:00 and I figured I would have already walked the entire length of the city by then so decided to go it alone. We grabbed a yellow cab to town outside the port (white cabs inside = $10, yellow cabs outside = $5). I asked to be taken to Rositas which is the start of the Malecon. We walked the boardwalk, looked at the statues, and admired the flying guys (spinning around way up in the sky), the guy balancing rocks, and the sand sculptures. We walked all day. PV is a very active city, with lots of traffic and people. We walked by the cathedral, and then up the stairs to the next level of town. It is beautiful up above. It was very quiet, no traffic. Explored for hours and then grabbed some lunch at Paradise Burgers, a restaurant overlooking the beach. Not great food, just okay. Clean bathrooms and free wireless though. It was overcast this day and very humid. I was hot so wanted to walk along the water. We ended up walking along the beach all the way back to the ship. That was a LONG walk, and I did it barefoot. We got to see the back sides of all the resorts though. Most of the beaches were very clean. I was impressed. Looked like there was lots of little jelly fish in the water as I saw quite a few washed up. We also saw whales right off the beach. We stopped at the market at the pier to have our last Pacifico beer before getting back on the ship. PV has some charm. The boardwalk area is quite nice, and the part of town up above the tourist area is beautiful. The touristy area is very busy, but still retains an authentic feeling.

 

Los Angeles: We had a 6:00 pm flight so booked the Beaches and Beverly Hills tour. This was a good way to spend the last day of our vacation, as I didn’t want to spend it sitting in the airport. At $55 each, I thought not too bad, as a shuttle alone would cost about $16. We got to see parts of LA that we hadn’t seen before, with stops at Rodeo drive, the Adamson house, in Malibu I think, and then a long stop at the Santa Monica pier where we had lunch. The tour guide was good, knowledgeable and humorous. We got to the airport at around 3:00.

 

Ship: In general I liked the Star. She is attractive, well cared for and maintained. I found it pretty easy to get my bearings and figure out my way around. I thought it odd that you had to walk through Endless Summer to go from Aft to Mid on the 8th floor and I missed not having an aft outside eating area, like there was on P of Aloha (Sky).

I loved the tiered pool deck seating, the sun area at the front and enjoyed the quiet zone. I loved the jogging track. I spent the majority of my time on board outside and was very satisfied with the service and amenities. I can see why people get irritated with the chair reserving, but this wasn’t an issue for me, as I am an early bird.

For inside, I found the main dining rooms a bit noisy and crowded feeling, with Aqua being the worse of the two. We tended to eat in Versailles after one meal at Aqua. We had a dinner at Le Bistro, with nice ambiance, except for the singing of “Let me call you sweetheart” over and over, poorly. Made me glad I didn’t order the romance package in the end J.

Restaurants/Food: I thought the food in the main dining rooms was quite good on this cruise. Usually we eat in the specialty restaurants quite a bit but this time had only one dinner at Le Bistro. Le Bistro was quite good, but not great. The lamb in the main dining room was of the same quality. Service in Bistro was good, but felt a bit rushed. Good cappuccino though and the fondue was good, as always. There was no problem getting a reservation.

There were a couple of nights that we had to wait for a table. One night the hostess said 20 minutes, so we went to the lounge for a drink and came back forty minutes later. She was not pleased with us and said we would have to go to the end of the line because we had missed our spot. We said okay, but I think she expected us to throw a hissy fit and was very defensive. We laughed it off (we’d been to the lounge you see), and she came around and put us in shortly thereafter. The next time the hostess said 20 minutes, we stuck around and we were seated in 5 minutes.

We found the service in the main dining rooms varied, from being okay to very good. We did not experience what we would consider bad service. A tip for those who like vegetables: you can order a side of vegetables with any dinner. You will get zucchini, asparagus, carrots, etc. I found desserts in general were disappointing; the cheesecake in Blue Lagoon is probably the only exception I experienced.

Breakfasts for us were mostly fruit and yogurt at the buffet, lunches mostly salads, again at the buffet. A couple of highlights at lunch were the paella by the pool on one of the sea days and the pasta station at the inside buffet. Quite good. In general we were very pleased with the overall value of the food on this cruise.

 

Lounges/Entertainment: We were very impressed with the quality of the live music on this cruise. Jana was great, we caught at least part of her act every day at Gatsbys. (Elizabeth, a server there is fantastic at making you feel welcome as well) Washington and his group played jazz at Gatsbys one afternoon and this was very enjoyable as well. Sean in the red lion was great, and the band by the pool was very good one night. We didn’t see many of the shows, but after seeing the last couple, we wished we had gone to more.

 

Weather was great, stateroom was great, clearing customs was civilized for Canadians, all in all a great vacation.

Hmmm, I meant this to be a short review. Oh well, let me know if you have any questions.

J9

[hello]

Thank you for your comments -- it sounds as though you had a wonderful cruise!

[halos]

Nice review, thanks!! :)

[k4btzs]

Thanks for the great review. We are heading out for the Star in just a few weeks and its nice to get some fresh new reviews to look at and keep us excited!!

[kidzrnseattle]

Thanks for the review. Port information was helpful. We sail Saturday!!

[apeller]

Thanks for the information. I love having a preview of what to expect.

[65viki]

We, too, were on the Star Feb 28-Mar 7. It was our very first cruise and we enjoyed EVERYthing so much. Hey, we were on vacation, if we had to wait 10 minutes or so for something, we sure didn't care!

 

We met some wonderful folks, it was just the two of us, but we often sat with others for dinner in the main dining room. NO complaints about the food or the service, and we loved the desserts in Versailles, esp. the souffles! The chilled fruit soups were great as well, we didn't want to miss even one.

 

The show the crew put on was so funny, we had never seen 'fountains' (if you've seen it, you know what I mean, if not, I would had to ruin it for you by explaining it). It was SO funny. Paul and his entertainment staff were great, friendly, funny, and hard working. You HAVE to hear Paul sing 'Old Man River' trust me!

 

So glad we were able to go, have no complaints, and would sail NCL again in a heartbeat (after all, we're now Bronze!)

 

Viki

[fieldmom35215]

thx so much for taking the time to post a review here. I absolutely LOVE reading these as they are helpful to those of us anxiously awaiting our turn. I can't wait to see the pool area, but I fear the chair hog situation might really get to me. I hate stuff like that.

[terrymtex01]

Thank you for taking the time to write and post your review. It was very nice reading. Glad you had a good time aboard the Star. She is our favorite of the NCL ships so far. 8-)

[tripeee]

Thanks for your review. I am looking at booking this cruise next year 3/20/2010.

[newbe dave]

We are on the Star for this cruise too. In fact, I was part of a party of 18 and we were the table with the Mariachi's at Victors. We had a great time there and really had the place to ourselves most of the afternoon. And the food at Victors was great. The shrimp were unbelievable.

 

I have only one small complaint and a suggestion for NCL. We made reservations for our group of 18 at the main dining rooms many of the nights. We were allowed to make the reservations when the dining rooms (Versailies and Aqua) opened at 5:30 (or 6PM one night at Aqua). In addition, there were several other groups of 10-20 people plus a group of 53 with reservations most nights.

 

Since these large groups all had reservations, we had 50-100 people waiting in line at 5:30 to get into both dining rooms. So "regular" people showing up at 5:30 for dinner encountered a mass of people with reservations. I could not count the number of people that tried to walk past the line saying "We have reservations". Duh, all of the people had reservations.

 

Anyway, this was not a huge problem but it just created a log jam at both rooms once they opened. I tried to get our reservation for 5:45 or 6:00 to spread out the number of people but they would not permit it. Anyway, enough of the negative because the cruise was fantastic.

 

My suggestion is to take one of the meeting rooms by Spinnaker and make it a recliner/napping room. By the end of the week, I was missing my comfy chair and would have paid for an hour long nap in a nice, comfy chair.

 

Otherwise, it was a great week. Great food, Great company, Great ship and Great fun.

[pfanny37]

Thanks for the review. We will be sailing on the Star for our first cruise this Saturday. What company did you use for your tour in Los Angles? Did they pick you up at the port and return you to LAX? Any information you can give me is greatly appreciated.

[j-9]

Thanks for the review. We will be sailing on the Star for our first cruise this Saturday. What company did you use for your tour in Los Angles? Did they pick you up at the port and return you to LAX? Any information you can give me is greatly appreciated.

We took the NCL excursion. Picked us up at the ship and dropped us at the airport. This tour was good for flights after 4:30. There is a shorter one as well.

Have fun! I wish I was going again... Oh well, maybe next year.

[vbecky]

Do you happen to remember if the rooms had there own climate control for cooling and heating? I know on the Carnival cruise there was a vent in the ceiling that you could manually turn on for cool air?

[j-9]

Do you happen to remember if the rooms had there own climate control for cooling and heating? I know on the Carnival cruise there was a vent in the ceiling that you could manually turn on for cool air?

Our room did have a thermostat on the wall. Looked digital with fancy lights. We never adjusted it, as the temperature was fine, but I'm sure we could have. We were in a G - obstructed view, deck 8

[Eeyoregon]

Our room did have a thermostat on the wall. Looked digital with fancy lights. We never adjusted it, as the temperature was fine, but I'm sure we could have. We were in a G - obstructed view, deck 8

 

Which cabin #?? We are in 8108 in 10 days and I'm dying to know if there is any view! Oh, do those windows open at all? I have seen pictures of some oceanview rooms where it looks like the window is a slider but I had never heard of a window that opened so I wonder if it's just an "image"??

 

Thanks!

 

Gina

[j-9]

We ended up in 8620 (gty). Our obstruction was minimal. I think it might depend on the type of lifeboat that is in front of your window. The boats that are used as tenders are much taller. If one of those is in front of your window you are not going to see much. Maybe find a photo and see if you can tell?

The window did not open. Watch out though, one morning we opened our curtains and there was a deckhand right outside checking out the lifeboat.

[harrodsfan]

We were in puerto Vallarta and saw your ship in port. Glad you had a good time. It was a hot day!!!