star repositioning 25th april 2009 full garden villa review

[SeattleMother]

US: We are a family of six: 2 Thirty-somethings, 1 teenage girl, and 3 preteen boys. DH and I have gone on a one day cruise on NCL, and a one day cruise on Holland America. Other than that, we have always cruised on Carnival. Other times that we cruised with the kids, we had two inside cabins for the family. We got a cheap upsell to the Garden Villa for this cruise, and are now spoiled for all future cruises.

 

EMBARKATION: We had originally planned to do a last few hours at Disneyland that morning, but instead decided on a leisurely breakfast. It was an uneventful drive from our Anaheim motel, and then we dropped off our bags with a helpful porter. After security and the norovirus questionnaire, a discrete entrance to the VIP line was not to be. I had to be rather direct to the lady ushering people to the check in desk. “Stop, we’re in the Garden Villa so I don’t think we need that number. We’ll follow this sign, alright?” Oh, okay.

 

After that, embarkation was smooth as ice: Check in, meet the concierge, drinks and snacks while waiting for clearance to board, Butler (not ours) escorted us to the villa, and let the photo taking commence.

 

CONCIERGE/BUTLER/CABIN STEWARD: The concierge, Belkys, was perfect for us. She was unobtrusive, but came to check on us every day. Tap, tap, tap and wait to see if we poked our head out of one of the bedroom doors or out of the living room; that was Belkys.

 

Sound of the villa door opening, and a “hellooooo;” that was our butler, Dilip. He was good. He got us mostly everything we asked for, (soda, juice, pina colada mix, limes, lemons, blender, skim milk, yogurt, DVDs, etc.) and brought dinner to the villa two or three times. I swear there had to be a hidden microphone in the living room. I mentioned that I just needed a little snack, and it was not two minutes later when *poof* Dilip was bringing in a plate of canapés. DH said that he needed a little something sweet when *poof* there was Dilip with a plate of chocolate truffles. One of the boys whined, “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do.” when *poof* Dilip was there with two of the DVDs they had requested earlier. I’m sure that there isn’t actually a microphone, but it sure was eerie.

 

We got six bottles of liquor included with the villa, and Dilip let me substitute triple sec even though it wasn’t on the list. I can’t make my lemon drops without some type of orange liquor. If you’re into math, take note that it was a seven day cruise with two people of drinking age and six bottles of liquor... We tried our best, but only made a dent.

 

Our cabin steward, Cecilio, was fabulous. Poor guy, it was no use trying to figure out our schedule. Let’s just say that the “freestyle cruising” concept was designed for our family. I don’t think we went to dinner the same time twice. When are we planning on going to dinner tonight? Umm, when we get hungry. When we did manage to put on long pants and pull ourselves out of the villa, he would be waiting for us. He played a game of “which elevator will come first” with the kids, and asked where we were headed. I’m serious here that I think he then called down to whichever restaurant we indicated to tell them we were coming. Our table always seemed to be waiting for us as soon as we got down, once even though there seemed to be other people waiting. Towel animals abounded. One was a monkey hanging from the tree in the living room.

 

We got to talking to him one day, and as it turns out, he was the cabin steward for our minisuite on the one day cruise we took last September. Small world!

 

FOOD/DRINKS: The Garden Café: The buffet was really crowded with several large groups of very rude and overbearing people with a limited sense of personal space. Many in these groups seemed to feel that standing really close, pushing others out of the way, and jumping in front of others was entirely appropriate. A language barrier with those in these groups prevented me from being able to explain things such as: “Excuse me, you are still stepping on my foot.” or “Please don’t pick up the buffet tongs from the floor and put them back into that dish of food.”

 

It was just two floors up to the villa from the buffet, so we would take our food up. There was only one time we were there that it would have been possible to find a seat there. We love love love Indian food, so we actually went several times even if it was just a little snack of chana masala. YUM! One morning, I had three plates of food to take up to the kids and asked one of the waiters there to help me carry it. She didn’t understand where we were going. “Are you eating out on deck? It’s so cold and windy!” We got to the villa and it was, “Wow!”

 

Cagney’s: We went several times for breakfast and lunch. It was lovely, and no problem with taking an order of pancakes to go for the sleepy-heads in the family. We ate dinner once, compliments of our concierge. This was our favorite dinner. We should have come back more often. The food and service were excellent. One of the boys only liked it after he found out he could order a plain cheeseburger even though it wasn’t on the menu. It was only one floor down from the villa, so it was terribly convenient.

 

Aqua: We ate here rather than Versailles as one in our group dressed up only so far a jeans and a collared shirt. The food was good to very good. Service was well done, although, I’m pretty sure we got some priority service that we may not have gotten had we been in a different cabin category. I love the starry ceiling. DH thought it was a big loud dining room (which it was) and preferred Cagney’s.

 

The problem with Aqua is that the entrance is right in the middle of the elevator banks. This is the only bank of elevators with access to the villa. So, unless we wanted to walk up seven flights of stairs (sometimes we did), we were stuck with these ones. The area in and around these elevators were often crowded with large groups of very rude and overbearing people with a limited sense of personal space. Many in these groups seemed to feel that standing really close, pushing others out of the way, and jumping in front of others was entirely appropriate. A language barrier with those in these groups prevented me from being able to explain things such as: “That sound means that there are too many people in the elevator now, some of you in the front will have to get off.” or “Wait, my child is in that elevator out of which you just pushed me.”

 

Ginza: My teenager ordered dinner from this restaurant one night and thought the food was delicious. She ate it in her room and let the boys eat their pizza in the living room.

 

Blue Lagoon: The boys loved it. They loved the food. DH hated it. He didn’t like the food, and hated the layout of how it’s in a busy corridor and the puff seats. I just took the boys myself when Blue Lagoon was on the docket after the first time. I do have to say that we never any problems with crowding here. There were always seats available when we went.

 

Le Bistro: We went once. It was good, but not our favorite. I think they were afraid that we didn’t like the food, but we were just not overly hungry at that time, and the portions were too large. The food was good, and the service was excellent.

 

Room Service: It was delivered by our butler. It was mostly good, but once the sandwiches were less than fresh.

 

Biergarten: Biergarten was open from “10:00am to whenever” each day. On the cold windy days, “whenever” was about 11:00am. By the time we were ready to head over, they were closing up. We did make it over there once for a couple of drinks when the weather allowed them to be open a bit later.

 

The canapés and sweets delivered daily by our butler were good. One of my two regrets on the cruise was that the afternoon we got a plate of cheeses and bread I was not hungry enough to eat it. The rest of the family is not that into cheese. I have only ever met one cheese that I didn’t like, and there were some beautiful cheeses on that plate.

 

ENTERTAINMENT/ACTIVITES: My other regret of the cruise was that the martini tasting was held on the day that the seas were rough. Since the timing was when I hadn’t eaten anything and was just a touch nauseous, we opted to skip it. I was really looking forward to it too.

 

The Stardust Theater: It was really nice having the VIP section in the balcony. We arrived for shows about 5 minutes before the start time, and sat right down. We went to the welcome show, the magician, the Second City’s scripted show, the crew show, and the final show which included the Jean Ann Ryan group and the Chinese Acrobats. They were all good to great.

 

The Spinnaker Lounge: We went to both unscripted shows of the Second City group. The drink service was good here. The shows were great. We wanted to see the Chinese Acrobat show, but there was only one showing. There was bingo or something we weren’t interested in sitting through before the show, and we figured it would be crowded, so we called the concierge to ask if there was perhaps a VIP section here. The answer was no, but that every seat was a good one, and if we came about 20 minutes early, she would help us find a seat if necessary. She called us back before the show to tell us that the lounge was completely full. She said that considering the mix of passengers on board, the Chinese Acrobats were turning out to be quite popular, and that many people were actually being quite rude and pushing looking for seats.

 

Pool: My youngest loved it even in the cold weather. He said the water was warm. He thought the water on the slides was too cold though, so didn’t try that. He went under water the first time before he remembered that it was salt water. Then he came to get his goggles before he went back in. One day, we watched from the villa while a parent had one child take the gate off the bottom of the slide, mimicking how to unlatch it, and encouraging him carry it off the slide while her other child went up to open up the top part of the slide before someone on the crew came to stop them. They spent several minutes yelling at the crew member who was trying to keep them safe. Not long after that, a different crew member noticed they had glass dishes in the hot tub, and boy did they seem to go off on him when he confronted them.

 

Hot tubs: They seemed to be well used, but not overly crowded. We used the private hot tub in the garden area quite a bit though. It didn’t get as hot as some might like, but I thought it was fine. The boys liked to “swim” in it. It was just big enough for the three of them to splash around. They kept the pool towels stocked in the sauna room at the back of the garden.

 

Fitness Center: I highlighted yoga every time it was on the schedule, but never actually made it there. I guess it was zen enough in the villa.

 

Cinema: My teenager watched a movie there. It was during something else we had planned, so we didn’t join her.

 

Card Room: It was well used whenever we went by. It looked like they were having fun.

 

The Library: My teenager checked it out, loved the quiet space to read, and checked out a few books.

 

Teen Club: My teenager attempted to go to one event; nobody else showed up, so she gave up on the teens and went to the adult events. To be fair, I think there were only about 20 teens on the ship total.

 

Planet Kids: My boys signed up, but never ended up going. If we had been in a smaller cabin they probably would have gone some.

 

Trivia: My teenager went as often as she could, and loved it. She came back with stories every time and said how much better it was than Carnival.

 

MEET AND GREET: I was taking photos from the private sundeck, when I realized that it was time for the meet and greet. Then in our haste, we went aft instead of forward when we got to the right deck. We missed the officers, but met several nice people and set up the cabin crawl for the next day. I was the pain in the butt who insisted that the cabin crawl start with the inside and end with the garden villa. I underestimated the number of people, and should have had two plates of cookies instead of one and another bottle of champagne. I really enjoyed seeing the different cabin categories. And everyone was super nice. I feel really bad that a couple of them got separated on the way to the garden villa. We met up with them the next day, or the day after, and took them up to see it then.

 

EXCURSIONS: Oh my goodness, what beautiful weather we had in port. I had packed snow pants, winter jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, the whole bit. I was out in Juneau in a T-shirt, and Ketchikan in a sweatshirt!

 

Juneau: We went up the Mt Roberts Tram on the first tram, and came back down on the third one. Beautiful views! The price for booking with NCL was within 50 cents of buying a ticket there, so we let NCL have their cut and booked with them.

 

We booked a private whale watching tour with “Harv and Marv.” It was fabulous! Marv’s brother picked us up after we got off the tram and drove us to Auke Bay and pointed everything out along the way, including the governor’s mansion (go Sarah!). We went out on the boat with Marv and saw bald eagles, harbor porpoises, sea lions, whales, glaciers, and a lighthouse. The weather was amazing. He said it was one of the top ten days in his six years of doing tours. He is also a professional photographer, so he was always moving the boat to get good backgrounds and lighting for my photos, and he gave me a few tips with my camera. On the ride back, we stopped at Mendenhall Glacier for about 10 minutes. We could have stayed longer if we had wanted to, but the kids were getting hungry. We pretty much walked right on the ship, but as soon as we got up, the lines started to form. We had lunch in the garden area of the villa as we watched the lines snake back and forth through the parking lot.

 

Ketchikan: We booked a private tour to the Misty Fjords through Ketchikan Outdoors. We had Belkys escort us off the ship around the lines when it was clear to get off because it was going to long tour. We went up the gangway, met out captain, and went down the next gangway to his boat. Our captain was Madison. He was great. It was his brand new boat that he’d only had for a couple of months, and he was pretty proud of it. It was a little bit cramped inside, but still fine. We got to see a whale on the way there, and he circled around so I could get some good photos. He was looking for bears at each of the creeks the whole way there, but didn’t see any. It was a bit choppy for a while, but clear once we got there. Boy, the Misty Fjords were beautiful! It was another beautiful day for weather. We had sandwiches and snacks on the tour. It was just a touch long for some of the kids, but still fabulous.

 

CABIN: Garden Villa: I don’t even know where to begin. I think that’s got to be a whole different post. Let’s just say that after our one motel room with two beds and a pullout at Disneyland, this was NICE!

 

I will share a couple of tidbits:

 

Okay, one morning I got up around 5am, and went up to the sundeck to take photos of the sun coming up. I left my keycard in the bedroom, so when I was done, I couldn’t go take a shower. Nobody would wake up, so I wondered whether I should call the front desk or pad on down in my pajamas. I decided to call since I didn’t want to be locked off the floor in pajamas. The front desk receptionist said Oh, you’re in the villa. Oh, we don’t have access to the villa. Oh, it’s too early to call the butler. Yeah, that was my train of thought too. He didn’t know what to do and said it had never happened to him before. He could call the villa, but that would wake everyone up. Oh! Good idea! Let’s do that! That should wake up my husband so that he could let me in to take a shower. If I had been thinking straight, I could have called since the portable phone has a different number from the living room, but I was not quite awake. So he called and I think he was a little afraid of doing it, because he let it ring twice then hung up. It was enough to wake up DH though, and I go in for my shower and saved the public the spectacle of my PJ’s.

 

One afternoon, I went out the back of the garden to the sports court to take photos. Mind you, nobody was in sight when I came out the door. By the time I had had crossed the sports court, a guy was opening the door to go in. “Excuse me sir. That’s not okay! Please get out of my statesroom.” He did at least look embarrassed about getting caught. Later, DH was coming back down from the sundeck when he saw a guy climbing over the back wall. It took him a minute to figure out that it wasn’t actually someone climbing over the wall, but an employee replacing the bulb in a light on the sports court.

 

DEBARKATION (or why it’s a bad idea to take too many pairs of shoes): After messing up on where to leave our luggage. (Call me an ignoramus, but Cecilio fixed it for us) And, after making sure the kids were ready for breakfast. And after making sure everything was out of their bedrooms so that Cecilio could start prepping them for my good Cruise Critic friend AdoptAtty whose family was in the villa for the next cruise. (It was a surprise for her family that they were in the Garden Villa, and she sent me a “Happy birthday! Surprise” banner that Belkys was going to hang up before they arrived.)

 

Anyway, after all that: Where are my shoes. Living room? Bedroom? Closet? Bathroom? Seriously! WHERE ARE MY SHOES?? “Those brown ones that you haven’t worn all cruise? You had so many pairs to pack that I thought you missed those ones and packed them in my bag.” (Okay, now call him an ignoramus!) So, I went down to breakfast in his 4 sizes too big shoes, and he’s damn lucky that he found one of the boys had thrown their flip flops in the electronics bag!

 

We sat and read in the garden and watched TV until Belkys escorted us off around 10 o’clock. We got to skip much of the customs line but did have about 10-15 minute wait at the end. Someone met us on the other side and called our limo. The limo took us to my in-laws motel where we loaded the luggage into the Suburban and drove back to Seattle. It was only about 30-45 minutes to cross the border.

[fieldmom35215]

I loved your review. You talked about things only a mother would truly be interested in and I LOVE the fact that you covered areas (Biergarten) I hadn't heard a lot about in previous posts. Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Thanks for letting me know that food can be taken from Cagney's to the cabin. I am so glad you enjoyed the GV. A tad expensive for my blood, but I'm hoping for a cheap upsell. How excellent of you to help AdoptAtty out. I've read many of her posts and knew that she had planned to surprise her crew. I wonder how everything went for her? I hope her family enjoyed it as much as yours did. Thanks for the info on Harv and Marv. Sorry you missed the marintini tasting. I'm so looking forward to that. I've heard a lot about choppy waters on the inside passage. I've never been sea sick and don't want to start now. Was the movement VERY noticeable? dumb question, I know, but I'm just wondering how much I can bear. I see you had the same problem with the other passengers that another poster had on this sailing. Thanks for your tactful wording and I'm sorry that you and your kids had to experience that. did you happen to come across the ice cream bar and do you have dailies you could upload and share? again THANKS from one mom to another for a very informative posts. Glad to get the kids' perspective

[SeattleMother]

I loved your review. You talked about things only a mother would truly be interested in and I LOVE the fact that you covered areas (Biergarten) I hadn't heard a lot about in previous posts. Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Thanks for letting me know that food can be taken from Cagney's to the cabin. I am so glad you enjoyed the GV. A tad expensive for my blood, but I'm hoping for a cheap upsell. How excellent of you to help AdoptAtty out. I've read many of her posts and knew that she had planned to surprise her crew. I wonder how everything went for her? I hope her family enjoyed it as much as yours did. Thanks for the info on Harv and Marv. Sorry you missed the marintini tasting. I'm so looking forward to that. I've heard a lot about choppy waters on the inside passage. I've never been sea sick and don't want to start now. Was the movement VERY noticeable? dumb question, I know, but I'm just wondering how much I can bear. I see you had the same problem with the other passengers that another poster had on this sailing. Thanks for your tactful wording and I'm sorry that you and your kids had to experience that. did you happen to come across the ice cream bar and do you have dailies you could upload and share? again THANKS from one mom to another for a very informative posts. Glad to get the kids' perspective

 

I can't wait to hear how it went for AdoptAtty. I was crossing the border thinking that they must be in the villa by then. Eating lunch at Bellingham wondering what they were eating at Cagney's.

 

The inside passage was pretty clear on the way back, but we were out at sea on the way up from LA. The first sea day, we could really feel the movement in the villa because it was side to side. When we came down for the cabin crawl, it wasn't nearly as noticable. The next cople days it was rocking forward and back. We could see that it was rocking, but didn't feel it because we were in the middle of the ship front to back.

 

We went by the ice cream a couple of times, but not when we were hungry. Others were enjoying it and commenting that it was great that it was free.

 

I'll try to get dailys and such uploaded, but it may be a few days.

 

:)Rachel

[newmexicoNita]

great review...

 

Nita

[Levanah]

Since we are leaving from our home city Seattle on the Star in just a few weeks, I was eager to read your review - fabulous! We are in a balcony rather than a villa and have no kidlets, but I loved the details you reported. Your review was well written, balanced and you demonstrated perfectly how the poor behavior of people can be described and highlighted in a detailed fashion without focusing on ethnicity.

 

We were on the Spirit to Alaska about 4 years ago and weren't bothered at all by seasickness. I am wondering how it will be for us being so far aft this time around (last balcony cabin aft).

 

Thanks again, I've never seen this much descriptive detail about a villa stay - very tempting!

[brunolvr]

Great review, SeattleMother. It sounds like you enjoyed your stay in the Garden Villa. It sure was nice of you to have all your fellow Cruise Critics up to see that fantastic suite!

 

Did your cruise make it into Tracy Arm Fjord and did you see the Sawyer Glaciers? Do you know who the Captain was on the Star? how about the Cruise Director?

[SeattleMother]

Great review, SeattleMother. It sounds like you enjoyed your stay in the Garden Villa. It sure was nice of you to have all your fellow Cruise Critics up to see that fantastic suite!

 

Did your cruise make it into Tracy Arm Fjord and did you see the Sawyer Glaciers? Do you know who the Captain was on the Star? how about the Cruise Director?

 

Thanks, It was pretty funny. Initially there were only a few people interested in a cabin crawl, but the list started growing when we got the upsell to the GV. Then, someone got our old suite, and someone got their old suite, etc. We had a good mix of cabins in the end.

 

Our cruise was not scheduled for either Tracy Arm or Sawyer Glacier, but we did have a longer port time in Juneau than typical for the Star.

 

The Captain was Gunnar Hammerin, and the CD was Paul Baya.

 

Hope that helps.:)

 

Rachel

[faithsdave]

SeattleMother, thanks for the great review. I cant wait for my turn on the Star.

[brunolvr]

Thanks, It was pretty funny. Initially there were only a few people interested in a cabin crawl, but the list started growing when we got the upsell to the GV. Then, someone got our old suite, and someone got their old suite, etc. We had a good mix of cabins in the end.

 

Our cruise was not scheduled for either Tracy Arm or Sawyer Glacier, but we did have a longer port time in Juneau than typical for the Star.

 

The Captain was Gunnar Hammerin, and the CD was Paul Baya.

 

Hope that helps.:)

 

Rachel

 

Thanks for all the info, Rachel! We're looking forward to our first AB Suite, but an upsell to a GV would be unbelievable!:)

[msescada]

SeattleMother,

 

Thanks for the laughs! Having locked myself out of the bedrooms of the villa before, also in pj's, I sympathized with your predicament! Now, at least one family member's card is ALWAYS on the bar just to make sure that we have access to the bedrooms.

 

We've had exactly the same view of the restaurants as you. thanks for the hint about the cheeseburger at Cagneys. When we're there in August that might come in handy.

 

And the part about, no, no number, we're in the GV...and the part about the elevators (try cruising roundtrip out of southampton sometime) all could have been written by me. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does/thinks those things!

 

Also, just fyi, the bridge can adjust the temp in the whirlpool. Just ask the concierge to have it done (she/he can call the bridge, the butler can't, that's why you ask the concierge to do it).

 

So glad you and the family had a great time. Thanks for the review. Hope you get to enjoy the villa again someday.

[mooline]

Awesome review, Rachel!! Thank you SO much! I too, cannot wait to hear from AdoptAtty; she and I have compared a lot of notes as we've been planning our trips. For the past week, I've been driving my poor husband crazy with my renditions of where she is & what she might be doing. :) I sure hope that the surprise was fabulous!

[NoPiratesPlease]

Great to read about our fav ship and cabin! Belkys is the backup to Simone and I'm glad she did well--Simone was trained by Ruth and has her 2nds do the job the way she does. We had Belkys on a 2-night CTN on the Dream in an OS a year ago and she never answered the phone--always had to leave a message--but she did get back to us.

 

I, personally, have always detested Blue Lagoon on every ship. I think NCL would do better to have Burger King or Wendy's run it--faster, far faster and better food.

 

We'll be back on the Star in Alaska again in August--can't wait! Me, MsEscada and the rest of the crew (except the cats and the dog).

[NancyJewel92]

Rachel - Your detailed, informative, funny, review was a delight to read. Thanks for taking the time to compose and post it. Now I really want to try a GV!!! :D

[sunshine 229]

First, let me thank you for a wonderful review full of useful information.

 

Second, let me commend you for the wonderfully tactful way in which you descibed a situation mentioned by another poster on a previous thread:

The Garden Café: The buffet was really crowded with several large groups of very rude and overbearing people with a limited sense of personal space. Many in these groups seemed to feel that standing really close, pushing others out of the way, and jumping in front of others was entirely appropriate. A language barrier with those in these groups prevented me from being able to explain things such as: “Excuse me, you are still stepping on my foot.” or “Please don’t pick up the buffet tongs from the floor and put them back into that dish of food.”

 

I think you gave the reader a very clear picture of what went on, but by avoiding the use of the most obvious visible feature to describe the groups in question, you also saved yourself from being jumped by the political correctness police. Kudos to you!

[deepnite10]

i enjoyed your review very much..

 

very informative, even hand d and good

choice of words..:D

 

and

[deepnite10]

i enjoyed your review very much..

 

very informative, even hand d and good

choice of words..:D

 

and we

[deepnite10]

i enjoyed your review very much..

 

very informative, even hand d and good

choice of words..:D

 

and we ll be joining many of you on the 16th

on the Star..HAPPY SAILING FOLKS..