Just a quick report on our 7 day Hawaii cruise on the Norwegian Star. Our first time on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship and it will not be our last! Ship was beautiful.

As on Princess ships dining is open which we love. Food was very good. We especially enjoyed the Italian restaurant. After sailing on Princess in 2002 and now Norwegian will never again sail on a ship that does not have open dining.

I had arranged prior to departure to have our balcony cabin decorated upon our arrival for my wife's birthday including a cake and so it was. A nice surprise for her.

Entertainment was good and varied. Even went one night to the movie theater to see a movie.

Only disappointment was the fact we sailed for two days and over a 1000 miles to Fanning Island and went we got there the current was too strong and the surf too high for tenders to operate. So we turned around and sailed right back to Hawaii. The plus was that we arrived at Maui at 8 a.m. instead of 1 p.m. giving us more time on this favorite island of ours.

The only "special" restaurant that did not charge an additional fee was La Trattoria, the Italian restaurant. Le Bistro (French), the Japanese restaurant and Endless Summer (Island/Asian cusine) all charged a small fee--if memory serves me $10 a person. Reservations were available the day before. The Janpanese restaurant never looked busy to me. The others, especially Endless Summer, were busy most nights.

We still had to go through customs and immigrations when we got to Maui even though the captain said they did their best to convince the powers that be that it was not really necessary since the only person who got off the ship was the ship's physician.


Any questions? Just let me know.