Just went on the NCL Star to Mexican Riveria from LA. An excellent limo service for getting to pier from LAX is Go Sedan
They picked us up right on time, and even were at the pier early which was great because we got off the ship early.
The Mexican Riveria is a nice cruise, and cheaper to fly to LA for those in the west than going to the Caribbean. The Mexican people we met were extremely friendly, and eager to recoup tourist dollars after bad publicity about Mexico.
NCL's Star is a nice ship, not too large or too small, and the best part was three excellent production Broadway-style shows. Other entertainment included The Second City improv group (unfortunately we've been on over 8 NCL cruises and are tired of them, but if you haven't seen them they are good), two magic shows, a crew show, an acrobatic/aerialist show, and the usual smaller entertainment shows of guitarist/singer, musician trio, duo singer, and the like, as well as standard NCL game shows with audience members such as Not so Newleywed Game, Karakoke, etc. Unfortunately for us, since we don't hang around the pool and have been on many cruises, the cruise seemed boring, with not enough to do especially on sea days, but fortunately I brought my iPad filled with movies. Tv channels on board are extremely skimpy, but they do have two movie channels with some fairly recent movies such as Gravity (ask at info desk for the movie schedule).
Food on board NCL continues to have more and more limited menu choices (decent food but boring after a couple off cruises). I'm unsure quite why, perhaps because I'd gambled way too much on a couple of cruises last year and now have Golden gambler status, but we had access to lunch and breakfast at Cagneys (usually reserved for suites), which gave us some better choices. (And some other neat VIP extras). Service in the main free dining rooms seemed a bit better on the Star than on some NCL ships. We ate in the $30 extra Cagney dinner which was excellent with excellent service. The $20 Le Bistro also had excellent food, but bad service for our night and tables seemed crowded together (all over not as nice for dining as the free main restaurants).
We went to a nearby beach bar in Cabo San Lucas. In Matzatlan we had super bargain Stone Island tour with unlimited booze, small lunch, and choice of two activities -- booked online in advance http://www.mazatlantours.org/stone-island-tour.htm for $34. Activities included snorkeling with equipment, banana boat ride, horseback riding, etc. Also hour boat ride with scenic views of islands, and we saw dolphins twice (including exciting big pod that we circled and they rode our waves). The people were super friendly and good service in general. Only drawback is that for me with bad knees I barely made it onto and off of strange trolley drawn by a tractor that takes you from boat (catamaran) to island. So this trip is not for physically handicapped.
In Puerto Vallarta we took ship's tour to Las Calentas (formerly owned by director John Houston), for about $99. This place is beautiful, but very steep paths again make it not suitable for physically handicapped. Price included excellent big big buffet lunch, unlimited drinks including some on the boat ride, some cooking demos, snorkeling, beach, catamaran ride to and from, animal area (birds and monkey), rustic paths for walking, entErtainment by boat crew, etc. Only drawback was on our visit jellyfish were everywhere by beach, precluding swimming. However they took snorkelers to another area by boat and provided wet suits for colder water. Excellent service by entire staff and crew. They don't provide a lot of info when you arrive though on exactly when lunch is or cooking demos, or even when departure is, so ask.
Both the two tours are really good for families.
Gambling on board had the usual bad pay tables and tight machines. Do not waste any money on Deal No Deal or Instant Win cards which have incredibly small payouts.
I have some definite dislikes about NCL cruises, but if you are going on your first or second cruise, you will enjoy it, and for those that do like NCL, you'll find this a pleasant voyage with good service and good entertainment.
One super good thing about the NCL Star for me -- the temperature onboard was set correctly at room temperature, so I did not freeze as I had on the Breakaway, Pearl, and Jewel last year.
I may write more about NCL in a future post. Some things that would have improved the voyage for me include more tv channels, cheaper or free internet (some day we will see it), more choices of ice cream (the little things mean a lot, and u can get bored with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry pretty quickly), more food variety in the free restaurants, fewer announcements (Either this ship had more than usual or our room was closer to them, and our meals kept being interrupted), more variety of things to do for those of us who have sailed on NCL before, and better scheduling of entertainment so you don't have to go back and forth every hour from the bow to stern and back for the next show).
