NCL Star Alaska Cruise - Ship Tour & Inside Passage Cruising

GetAway Travel Service

Our Travels

	In September, 2005 We attended a trade seminar on the NCL Star. The Star sailed round-trip from Seattle through Alaska's Inside Passage. Port stops included Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. It also spent the most of one morning and early afternoon cruising in Glacier Bay National Park. September is the very end of the Alaska cruise season. In fact, there was only one more week of sailing in the season after the week we went. The weather for our cruise was fantastic! We were very fortunate in that the sun came out every day. When talking with the ship staff, we found out the week before ours, it rained every day, all week long. Luck us - and lucky you - as we have some great pictures to share with you. We loved the cruise, we loved the scenery and we cannot wait to go back.
The NCL Star
Here's a view of the NCL Star parked in the Port of Seattle. This picture is taken from the Marriott, which is literally just across the street. Let's go on board and take a tour!
The NCL Star atrium ranges several floors, from the Guest Relations and Java Cafe on the lowest to the Internet Cafe on the highest. The atrium is not an overtly grand area as on some cruise ships. The deck directly above the guest relations is the Endless Summer restaurant. This ship was built for NCL's signature Freestyle Cruising. There are 2 main dining rooms and several other themed eating establishments for a total of 10 restaurants and eateries - lots of choices - which does take some planning on your part.
The Java Cafe is also located in the atrium. It can be a busy place in the morning, so be prepared to wait a few minutes for your double skinny latte.
The pool deck is nice and expansive on the Star. This shot is from the day we were leaving Seattle and a BBQ was being served outside. This was the last time we saw this many people on the pool deck for the entire cruise. Occasionally during the cruise you'll see people in the whirl pools, but for the most part it is too cold. A covered pool deck would be the optimum for an Alaskan cruise - which some newer ships do have - just not this one.
We loved the Red Lion Pub. It was a great relaxing hang out place and according to Paul has the best drink values on the ship for draft beer. We came to this area to play trivia games. It is right around the corner from the Blue Lagoon, so you can go pick up a couple of orders of fish and chips and take them to the Red Lion to eat in more of a pub atmosphere.
The Blue Lagoon is a small eating area with made to order menu. We liked most of the offerings we tried here: fish & chips, wings and shepherds pie. For a quick warm snack, the Blue Lagoon perfectly suits the need.
The Versailles dining room seats 375 on a first come first served basis. It is beautifully decorated and there is no cover charge. We had good meals here for both dinner and an occassional breakfast. This being a freestyle ship, there are not reserved tables. We did find that we missed having the same servers every night where you would develop a relationship during the week.
This is the Aqua dining room. Much more of a contemporary style than Versailles. The menu was exactly the same as Versailles, so we did not eat here as there were many other places that we needed to try in order to tell you about them.
Cagney's Steakhouse is a main stay on many NCL ships. Being from the midwest we were not in the mood for steak during our trip - we focused on seafood as much as possible. Talking to others, Cagney's is the place to go however and has a great reputation. On our next NCL cruise we will definitely try it. Cagney's takes reservations and costs $20 per person.
You will find yourself going past this lounge area many times during your cruise. The entrance to Soho (Pacific Rim cuisine), Ginza (Japanese) and Le Bistro (French) are all in this area. At night live music can always be heard and during the day the area was used for cooking demonstrations. The wine bar choices were OK (despite being cheeseheads, we are picky about our wine) and this is a great location for an evening cocktail and to visit with the new friends you've made on board.
The "governator" is the first portait that greats you on the way into Soho. The whole dining area is decorated with pop art done in a Warhol style.
We dined at Soho once during our cruise. Paul found the menu exciting and some of the best appetizers of all the dining rooms. Sue is not as fond of some of the more exotic fare, but did order a lobster. The menu said that you would pick it from the tank - but even after discussing the option with our waitress, the lobster appeared all cooked before we ever did any picking. That was slightly disappointing, but it still tasted good.
We are not big Sushi eaters, and I must say neither were many of the other folks on this particular cruise. The sushi bar is located in Ginza and every time we saw it, plenty of seats were open.
We ate in Ginza twice, once in the main dining area where we found the menu slightly confusing and also in the Teppanyaki room. We loved the Teppanyaki option. It's a great place for couples to eat and meet new people and watch the show that your chef will put on.
Le Bistro is also a main stay on NCL ships. It serves french cuisine over many courses. We had seen a cooling demonstration on the "firestar" and thought we'd have that for dinner during our one night here. The food was good and so were the desserts - we'd pick something other than the firestar next time as it was more of a gimmick than anything else.
We stopped in the Carousel Bar only one time to take this picture. But it is clear if you cannot stay on the horse, it is time to stop drinking.
We found the NCL shows to be about average. The one thing that sets this theater apart from all the other cruise ship theaters we've been in is the odd angle the seats have. The seat back angle is a little far back and a person with normal posture could not comfortably sit. We found you could not sit through and entire show without lower back pain. This of course limited the number of shows we went to.

It's a casino - most all the ships have one. This one however sometimes had fresh popped popcorn!
Cruising the Inside Passage




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