7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 3 – The Ship

This was my fourth time on a cruise vacation and my first time on Norwegian Cruise Line. My first cruise was a short 3-day cruise on Royal Caribbean to Ensenada. Second cruise was a repositioning cruise on Princess from Vancouver to Los Angeles. The last cruise before this was a 7-day Alaska cruise on Princess Island.


Norwegian Star had its maiden voyage on November 19th, 2001. Its port of registry is Nassau, Bahamas. The ship cost $400 million to build. It was refurbished in 2010. The ship has a passenger capacity of 2,348 (assuming double occupancy) with a team of 1100 crew working around the clock to serve the passengers. There are 1,176 cabins total and 70 percent of them have ocean view.


The Norwegian Star was the first NCL custom built ship for Freestyle Cruising. With the NCL Freestyle Cruising, casual is the key. NCL wants to make sure their passengers feel they are really on a vacation. They can wear whatever they want to dine at the restaurants. They do request that no shorts, swimsuits, tank tops or flip-flops after 5pm at the main dining restaurants. If you feel you want to dress up for dinner, go ahead. If you feel you just want to wear a T-shirt and jeans, you can too. If you are still wearing shorts and tanktops after 5pm, you can choose to dine at the Market Café Buffet.


I saw a broad spectrum of passengers on my cruise, young kids to retirees. The cruise fare was affordable for most. We has a full ship for our 7-day Mexican Riviera 2014 New Year Cruise. We paid $1760 total for two people in an inside room on our 7-day New Year cruise. If you cruise during the non-peak period, the fare is from $449 and up for the same cruise as ours.


For 2014, Norwegian Star will cruise to Mexican Riviera (round-trip Los Angeles), Panama Canal (Los Angeles to Miami or Miami to Los Angeles) for spring and fall. During summer 2014, Norwegian Star will cruise Transatlantic (from Miami), Baltic Capitals (round-trip from Copenhagen), Norway + Iceland + Faroe Islands (round-trip Copenhagen) and Transatlantic (from Copenhagen).

Click here to read more about the other posts on my cruise.

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 1 – Interior Cabin

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 2 – Food

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 3 – The Ship

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 4 – The Buffet

7-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise on Norwegian Star: Part 5 – The Grand Atrium