There were so many aspects of this cruise, that I could have written page after page after page and probably still not covered it all. Aside from just the wonder of the ship and all it had to offer there was the new concept of "Freestyle Cruising". So I thought I would offer a somewhat encapsulated version of things to act as a supplement to my day to day review.
Sadly at this writing, the Norwegian Star only has a few more cruises in Hawaii left to sail. She is being taken out of the Hawaiian Islands and will begin sailing as an Alaskan cruise ship in September 2004. However, cruises are not over for NCL in the Hawaiian Islands, they will have two brand new cruise ships, the Pride of Aloha that begins her inter-island cruises in July of 2004 and the Pride of America, that will sail sometime later on in 2004.
They will both be "Freestyle Cruises" and promise to be more grand in their appointments than their predecessor's. I just have to figure out how I can get my "Better Half" on one of these new ships. He had a great time on the Star but he still is more of a "Terra Firma" kinda guy!
And once again, we offer these as simply our opinions, good or bad, no one should take them as what their experience should have been or will be in the future.
Freestyle Cruising: In our opinions, is the best thing to come along in a long time. You finally have the freedom to eat when and where you want with a variety of restaurants, and not have to sit at the same table night after night. Now I know alot of people out there still enjoy the traditional type of cruises, where you do sit at the same table, in the same dining room, with the same people each night of their cruise, and if this is what works for you I say "Great !!" Still if you are willing to try this new style, I think you really will love the freedom it affords you.
With as many as eight different restaurants, one more diverse than the next, you will have a hard time deciding which one you want to dine at next. You may also dine as early as 5:30 P.M. if you wish to see a show or as late 10:00 P.M. if that is your choice. It is all up to you. That was what appealed to us. We found the variety it offered was really great and we will always recommend it to anyone.
And for those of you that enjoy the "Formal Night" ...that still exists on the Freestyle Cruises. Just as on a traditional cruise, at one of the specialty restaurants on a designated night, they have a "Formal Night". In general the evening dress code is more dressy than in the daytime in as much as their are no shorts, jeans or beach wear allowed. So there is definitely a more formal feel to the ship in the evening anyway.
Another nice thing about Freestyle is that they automatically apply a per person fee to your cabin to take care of the staff and crew. No more fooling with the little envelopes at the end. Of course if someone goes that little extra bit, something extra is always nice.
Subsequently, should we cruise again, we would lQQk for a ship that offers this type of cruise experience as we really enjoyed the freedom and diversity.
The Staff and Crew: As I mentioned before, the only "problem" we found with the crew or staff was in most cases, English was a second language. That is not to say that they did not try to help and understand you. Every staff and crew member that we encountered was friendly, helpful, and professional. So this is not really a criticism as mush as it is a heads up. Not knowing how any cruise line could avoid this type of this, I offer no solutions. Just something to be aware of ahead of time. Another thing I have always heard from others, was a sign of a good cabin attendant was that you never saw them and yet you always felt taken care of. And while I understand the concept, it was the exact opposite on our cruise. We did indeed feel taken care of but we saw our cabin attendants all the time. They were always in the companion way either cleaning or bringing someone something but yet they always had a warm greeting for you. So I leave this up to the reader as to their specific opinion on this.
Cleanliness Of The Ship: All I can say is that there was never a time I did not see one of the staff cleaning or vacuuming or scrubbing something. The ship was immaculate. I remember coming back to our cabin at one point during the day and our two cabin attendants along with 4 others, were walking in a crouched down position and with feather dusters, dusting the top of the baseboards. It was certainly something you had to see to appreciate but I was so impressed that they would go to such lengths to keep this grand ship clean. And our two cabin attendants still greeted me warmly while in this rather uncomfortable position. Amazing!
Age Of Passengers: While we were waiting to go on our cruise we read all sorts of reviews, and I was under the impression that the age of the passengers was going to be somewhere between 50 and 60. While there is nothing wrong with those age groups, as I will be there soon enough, nothing could have been farther from the truth. There were people of all age groups, all backgrounds and all cultures. I thought it was a great mix of young and old, all with happy hearts and ready for a good time.
On And Off The Ship: Or as you may prefer to call it, Embarkation and Disembarkation! Very efficient! The security level of the ship, which is very high, keeps you moving and the crew on the ground is pleasant and equally efficient.
We planned it so we would fly into Honolulu from the West Coast and land around 11:00 A.M. After getting luggage and a cab to the pier, we arrived around 1:00 P.M. which was ideal. After getting in line we were on board within 30 minutes. Of course we cannot speak to what a passenger arriving later might have encountered but our experience was fast and efficient.
Internet Cafe: Yes! You can even check your email while sailing the seven seas, well at least the Pacific Ocean. Do I recommend it? Absolutely NOT! Rest...Relax and Disconnect!! I travel with a laptop too but for two reasons I decided to not use it while on board or not to use their Internet Cafe. Mostly because of the price. IT IS VERY PRICEY!!!! And since our laptop is NOT used for business, the excessive price was just not worth it.
The ship gives you an email address, you will find it on your cruise ticket, so if you choose to use your laptop with their software or use the Internet Cafe, you can check that account while still being able to access the major Internet Service Providers. I will not quote prices here as it really would serve no one .... my point ??? If you are on a cruise ship, the chances are your job can live without you. Take advantage of that, reconnect with yourself and enjoy. Your email, including all the spam will be there when you get back!!!
Cabins: We had a wonderfully spacious Ocean Front Mini Suite with a balcony. I know most people are not that lucky or they feel they do not spend much time in their cabins so why spend the extra money. I totally understand that thinking and I think you have to decide what you can afford and what is important to you. We were able to have these cabins and it only enhanced our cruise. So naturally I cannot tell you alot about the other cabins. I have seen pictures and read about the square footage and having some experience in that arena I can say, they are, by at least the numbers, a nice size cabin. We were able to see the inside cabins across from us, and they lQQked to be very spacious and a good value. So as I have said, and I will always say, you must do what is right for you, whatever the reason.
Pool: I have been on 3 cruises, and I have not ever seen a BIG pool on a cruise ship. I can only assume that it is a tough thing to do as you will always need more room for seating than swimming. So I found the pool to be adequate size along with great lounge chairs, nice size heavy towels and plenty of area to catch those warm Hawaiian rays. There were also four BIG hot tubs that cornered the pool that were a great way to sit relax and chat with some fellow passengers. What we did find to be great fun were the two slides. They were very tall and very long so we enjoyed them alot even when we found it hard to keep our bathing suit bottoms on.
Shore Excursions: If you have never been to the Hawaiian Islands, each island offers many different things to do, each very different from the next. So please do not ever believe "if you have seen one island you have seen them all". That is simply NOT true. However with that being said, in our opinion, the cruise does not give you enough time in each port to always afford you ample time to really experience a number of Hawaii's attractions in each port.
So you will have to choose very carefully depending on time factors as well as what you want to see the most of all the excursions you are offered. And they do offer you quite a few on each island. Since we have completed 20 plus trips to Hawaii, we chose only one excursion and found that to be quite time consuming and did not allow us much time for anything else on that island.
I will say this however, NCL does its very best to offer you great excursions and it is up to you if you want to enjoy one, more or none at all. It is our understanding that the next two ships to cruise the Hawaiian Islands will allow for more time in each port. We just mention this as something to think about not as a criticism.
Activities And Leisure: You can do it all or do nothing. Your day is only dictated by you and how busy or how un-busy you wish to be. Except for our one friend who attended a Sports Trivia Challenge, and I believe he won! GO KM !! we all chose to investigate the fine art of "Leisure". Seriously, NCL had so many activities set up that if you wanted something do to and you could not find anything, you simply were not lQQking hard enough.
Hawaiian Cruise and Culture: I have struggled with this part of the review as I believe the reader will certainly find this to be more of "My Truth" than a general observation, something I have tried to maintain while writing this. I will therefore leave it to the reader to hopefully understand and be able to judge for themselves.
I found myself telling people that we were "Taking a Hawaiian Cruise" for the many months after we actually booked it. So perhaps in my mind I expected the ship to be more Hawaiian in appearance and culture rather than a cruise ship that would be simply sailing around the Hawaiian Islands. I am a student of the Hawaiian culture. It fascinates me. And I was expecting the ship to be more reflective of the Hawaiian people and their culture. It was not. Except to have a picture of King David Kalakaua and one of the Hawaiian standards near a bank of elevators, this ship could have been crossing the Panama Canal and you would have not know the difference. Altho the crew greeted you with Aloha, which we all noted was rather odd to hear, it did not add a bit of Hawaiian culture to the day.
This lack of Hawaiian culture on board was a little disappointing to me and my "Better Half". When you visit Hawaii, the Hawaiian culture surrounds you, it embraces you, it is found every where and every place you go. It is as alive in those islands as any tree you would see and we found its absence to be strange and sad.
In our opinions, it would have helped to enhance the cruise for everyone. Especially if this was a first trip to the islands and someone was not going to be extending their trip, they would be missing out on a wonderful culture and we felt that was a mistake on NCL's part. Nevertheless this did not stop us from enjoying the ship and the cruise. We mention this simply because this is a "truth" about the cruise for us and if anyone else out there that may be reading this, it may be a "truth" for them. We can only hope that the two new ships that soon will be sailing around the Hawaiian Islands will offer more Hawaiian culture as a way to help you learn about the Hawaiian people as well as give you a special lQQk at a wonderful culture.
In Closing: Would I change anything about the cruise ? No ! Did I enjoy myself ?? Immensely !! Would I recommend it ?? Absolutely !! Nuff Said !!
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