NORWEGIAN STAR INSIDE PASSENGE ALASKAN CRUISE

JUNE 7th TO 14th 2009

(From Seattle to Seattle)

By Roy Westley

This was my first trip to Alaska and I was excited to be able to experience the Norwegian Star with it many amenities and interesting itinerary.

This is described as a Sawyer Glacier cruise because it visits the Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm as opposed to Glacier Bay.

Departures are from Seattle on Saturdays in the afternoon and the ports of call which I will describe in more detail below are Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Prince Rupert BC, Canada.

I was originally planning on flying out to Seattle the afternoon before the cruise and staying at the Fairfield Inn at Seattle Airport prior to the cruise, but due to problems with the Northwest flights, I had to leave early on the morning of the 7th. This worked out well as we were then able to board the ship in plenty of time on that morning.

Representatives of NCL were available at the airport to guide us over to the fleet of buses, which would take us to the pier. Our luggage was loaded on to the bus and we traveled the approximately 15 miles to the pier 66. Even though we were early at the cruise terminal it was crowded and we had to fill in some forms at the port, (including on board account credit card information), even though we had pre registered for the cruise with immigration information as required.

The process went relatively smoothly even though the area seemed rather chaotic. Security was not as particular as at the airport not requiring everyone to remove electronic devices from carry on luggage for example.

Once through we could see our staterooms but not use them as they were still being cleaned. Therefore, along with the other early embarkers we went to the Market Café for a buffet style lunch.

The market Café, (Deck 12), is the main onboard eating area for most guests who like to take care of lunch without having to wait for long; it resembles a food court type area with a variety of hot and cold dishes deserts and so on. As with other cruise lines water, milk, tea and coffee are complimentary but any soft drinks or liquor is at an additional cost and can be charged to the onboard account. This café does have a special kid’s area also with smaller seats, which allow younger travelers to enjoy the onboard kid’s meals. After lunch, we were able to get into our staterooms and then explore the ship before lifeboat drill just prior to sailing at 4pm.

The Norwegian Star has twelve public/passenger decks, which start with the lowest passenger deck number 4 and end with the upper sun deck.

Here may be a good opportunity to talk about the accommodations on board the ship. The inside cabins like the one we were in could accommodate a third/fourth person in the upper berth(s).

Décor was bright with TV, mini bar, (which we used as a fridge), bathroom with shower and the cabin is 145 square feet in total size. Even though there is no picture window, each stateroom does have a channel on the TV, which is linked to the web cam, which shows a view from the bridge of the outside.

The ocean view cabins have a picture window in most cases but some only have portholes when they are located on the lower decks. This type of cabin has similar amenities to the inside but is 160 square feet in total size.

The balcony cabins are bigger being 205 square feet and of course have their own private balcony. This is a nice feature but not absolutely necessary on an Alaskan cruise! I say this because viewing of the glaciers and wildlife is sometimes easier from the public decks.

The Norwegian Star also has mini suites and garden villas. Most of the suites are located on deck 11 with others to be found either aft or forward on decks 8, 9 and 10. They also have a balcony and a separate lounge area. Mini Suites are 322 square feet in total size.

The garden villas, which are incredibly large, are located on deck 14. They have a private garden and floor to ceiling windows, which allow viewing to the front of the ship. They also have a private hot tub and courtyard. They have three bedrooms and even a butler to serve guests needs, and there is even a flat screen TV with DVD/CD player and a library of movies and music. Now that would be the room I really would have liked to stay in.

Our stateroom which was an inside cabin had been upgraded from a category N guarantee to a category J on deck 8 and was cabin number 8667 which was located in the stern of the ship but conveniently located two levels above the Versailles restaurant which was our main dinning area for breakfast and any other special evening meals. However, here I should mention that Norwegian does offer the freestyle dinning program which does not restrict clients to a specific area, however as I had requested gluten free meals they had told me to speak with the maitre‘d at the Versailles so that this could be coordinated.

I must say that I was very impressed with the waiter staff in the Versailles as they were even able to provide me with gluten free bread, (when cruising some nine years earlier on the Carnival Destiny I had taken my own bread with me and I had taken some this time but after a couple of breakfasts I spoke with a very experienced waiter who knew that they had special foods onboard the ship.

There are some 12 places to eat onboard plus room service but not all of the eateries are open at the same time.

As mentioned above the main restaurant which was nearest to our cabin was the “Versailles” with its French palace theme. This is also the main formal dining room on the ship. The other main dinning room is the “Aqua”.

I have shown below the restaurants, which have a cover charge with the amount after their name. If nothing is shown then no charge applies. Reservations are not necessary but are recommended at the cover charge restaurants.

The Market Café, the buffet style restaurant located on deck 12, is where we ate most frequently. Brittaney found a pasta with an incredible sauce, which she had to eat everyday there. For myself with my gluten free food restrictions I was able to find plenty of vegetables fruits and meats, which were good for me to digest.

We frequently walked thru the edge of the Endless Summer restaurant on deck 8 as it was near our cabin. We did not eat there but it had fabulous views from large windows and never seemed very busy so would be a great place to eat.

The Blue Lagoon on deck 7 has a fifties diner theme and is open around the clock, (except from 4am to 5am), if you want a burger and shake of all kinds of things.

On deck 12 near the stern is the Ice Cream Bar, but it was only open until 5 pm daily.

Here is a listing of the specialty restaurants with their cover charges, Teriyaki, deck 7, ($25), Cagney’s Steakhouse for the beefeaters on deck 13, ($20), La Trattoria for Italian cuisine on deck 12, ($10). If you like Asia or sushi then why not try Ginza on deck 7, ($15), or Le Bistro for French specialties on deck 6, ($15). Then for Pacific Rim and Californian style go to Soho on deck 6, ($15).

In addition, of course there is always room service if you want a quiet night in or just want to relax in your cabin.

There is a grill up by the pool on deck 12, but it was only open a few times on this cruise due to the weather.On day two of the cruise the formal dinning evening took place, (June 8th), and we decided to participate even though it is optional. We dined like royalty at the Versailles restaurant after getting our photographs taken near the Grand Atrium. These and other snapshots can be purchase at the photo gallery on deck 7.

I did spend some time exploring the ship when Brittaney was checking out all the TV channels. I took several photos of the artwork, which was found on all the stairway walls. There are also mirrors on the sidewalls, which allows for an interesting continuous picture as the paintings or sculptures are reflected over and over again.

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There are plenty of places onboard to relax and have a drink and for the soda addicts, NCL does offer a soda fountain refill option which is $6.25 per day for adults or $4 per day for kids and they can be refilled at most bars throughout the ship, (room service is not included though). There are also daily alcoholic specials and the “Helmet of beer” is another popular saving option for lovers of the “amber nectar” as one of our Australian MC’s would probably have said.

There is an English style pub called the Red Lion, which has dark paneled walls and the English pub signs pictures on the walls darts and all. A Bier garden is located on deck 14 above the pool and outdoor hot tubs but I did not see it open very much, again probably due to the weather.

There are also many cocktail lounges and martini style bars throughout the ship.

Like many ships, it does have a casino and bingo was offered on several days with an accumulative prize. They use a special power machine which can be charged to the onboard account and this allows guests to play multiple cards at he same time without having to mark off paper cards. According to the MC, these machines are the most frequent winners but we did not win.

The main night club/theatre is the Stardust and this is where the welcome aboard and other Las Vegas style shows took place. The cruise director Ricky was very entertaining. There is also a cinema on the ship and as with other cruises; they had ports of call informational presentations.

There were numerous forms of entertainment on board the cruise including piano bars, disco and live bands/dance troupes, and could we forget Karaoke, (probably yes!).

For the sports enthusiast that is the ones who wish to participate rather than just sit around and watch, there is a golf driving range, basketball court and a sports court. Then why not jump into the hot tub or pool and a fitness center has all the latest equipment and guests can relax in the spa, (for a fee). Brittaney and I had to play the giant chess game as well after shuffleboard.

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Although there were not many children or teenagers onboard these Alaska cruises, (average clients are aged higher than on a Caribbean cruise), the cruise line did offer a family freestyle fun environment as they called it. There are various age appropriate groupings but my daughter Brittaney decided that she did not wish to participate, which I suppose is what freestyle is all about.

However just for informational purposes, children between 2-17 can participate in these programs. Parents have to sign them up and are given a beeper when children are in the clubs and parents must stay onboard even when ships are in port, as the beepers do not work ashore.

Brittaney would have been in the “Tween’s Crew” for ages 10-12.

Children have various activities to choose throughout the day such as but not limited to using facilities at Planet Kids, beach ball games, kid’s crew dinner, pizza making, drama games, t-shirt coloring, and a full schedule of other things to choose from each day of the cruise.

Late night between 1030 pm and 130 am times are offered for an additional fee.

Brittaney did join other people in her age group for the playing of games on the Nintendo Wii systems, which was offered at certain times in the Pearl Martini Lounge.

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Of course, for the shoppers there are the Galleria Shops on deck 7 and many photographs to purchase from the formal evening, trips ashore and other events. These are displayed for us in the photo gallery and various packages are offered.

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The ship also has a library, which has items to check out, or use there and then there is the internet café for a fee. Also in certain locations on the NCL Star, it is possible to get wifi access.

There is also a small chapel on board.

In other words, there are many things to keep guests occupied or not depending what they choose to do.

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My main reason for choosing this destination was my long time desire to see Alaska. So the following is an account of our experiences when going ashore. NCL offers many shore excursions and my only disappointment was not taking a whale-watching trip in Juneau as I learned later that people who had taken a trip here had a fantastic time.

June 9th 2008, Ketchikan

This was our first port of call and we were anxious to get off the ship and start on our shore excursion. We had prebooked a boat excursion to the Misty Fjords National Monument, which is a pristine area of waterfalls and forest and wildlife. I was able to take lots of photographs and video on this trip. The most famous sight on the trip was the New Eddystone Rock, which is to the east of the Brehm canal, which is the inlet into the park. Rudyerd Bay is more sheltered and this is where we were able to stop and look at the cascading waterfalls and look at the floatplanes landing and taking off. On the way back to Ketchikan, a Native American talked about the Tlingit crafts and offered items for sale.

When we arrived back, in Ketchikan we looked around the port, which is very small and looks like a northern Wisconsin lake town! Strangely enough, we did not have any rain considering this is one of the wettest cities in the whole of southeast Alaska. Nevertheless, we did not complain and enjoyed the sunshine.

June 10th, Juneau

Here the cruise ships dock a little way away from the downtown so we needed to take a free shuttle bus. Then we took the tramway to the top of Mount Roberts, the “driver” told us about an incident some 30 years ago when there was an avalanche which destroyed a large part of the city. When we reach the top of the tramway, we were able to walk around and visit the theatre, which had an information show on the Native American culture. Walking was limited as due to “break up” most of the trails were closed. However, it still was interesting to see all this snow in June and one of the most amazing things I think was all the lichen growing on the trees a sign of the rainforest environment.

After coming back down to Juneau, we walked around the town before returning to the ship for the sailing at 1 pm. Juneau is the capital and largest city in this part of Alaska and has many interesting stores, including the “House of Russia” which has the Russian dolls in many forms; we purchased one of cats, which start with a large cat then smaller and smaller until it ended up with a mouse. There are several different types here with various price ranges to fit every budget. Also in Juneau as with many ports up here are several jewelry stores so shoppers can have lots of fun. A must is also a visit to the Alaska Shirt Company for great deals.

We had been given a discount coupon book when we boarded the ship, which had numerous specials in it for every port of call, an incentive to shop. NCL offered a coupon to collect charms for a charm bracelet also which my daughter Brittaney collected.

When we left Juneau, we headed for the glaciers, but due to the continuing break up and dangerous situation in Tracy Arm we headed for Endicott Arm instead. Here our voyage ended at Dawes Glacier, not Sawyer Glacier. On the way into the inlet, we passed several icebergs with seals on them taking a free ride. As we approached the glacier, we saw more icebergs and the captain changed course to avoid them. The strange thing I noticed as we came closer to the Dawes Glacier was how quiet it had become and once we were as close as we could safely get the engines of the Star were all we could hear. Only when the glacier calved was this eerie silence broken.

After about one hour by the glacier, we traveled back down the inlet and headed up the coast to our next port of call.

June 11th Skagway

This was the day of our big shore excursion we left the ship before 8 am after breakfast and boarded a bus for the first part of the tour. We did not have time to look around Skagway but the bus driver gave a us a brief tour before we headed onto the South Klondike Highway to the top of the White Pass, which is some 3292 feet above sea level.

We passed waterfalls and even saw a mother bear with her cubs heading into the woods. Once we had reached the highest point everything looked like a lunar landscape with stunted pines trees which are sheered off by the ice in winter, ( and this stops them from getting very tall), to the permanently frozen ground. This is a truly desolate place. After going thru customs at Fraser, we were into the Yukon Territory. As we continued on the landscape became greener with crystal clear lakes and green pine trees. Most of the lakes do not have fish in them up here because they would not survive the winters. Eventually we arrived at Caribou Crossing, AKA Car cross, and had a lunch break before visiting the Museum and saw some incredibly preserved creatures including an Ice Age Wooly Mammoth.

Here we also saw some huskies at the Dog Musher’s Village and had time to look for souvenirs.

We had time to stop and get our passports stamped and we thought we had time to get ice cream but our bus driver left without us. So after some frantic negotiated with another driver we were able to get back to Fraser to catch the train. Our original driver was there and had our tickets. The White Pass and Yukon Railroad trains twist their way down the pass and this is something everyone should experience. I took a lot of video and again the contrasts are something to be believed from the frozen landscape of the upper region to the hairpin bends further down. We actually were running a bit late and the ship was held for us because we were on a scheduled NCL shore excursion.

Unfortunately, once we had got off the train we had to take the bus straight back to the ship and did not have anytime to explore the town.

That evening we ate at the Market café again and had a relaxing evening after our adventurous day!

June 12th, Day at sea before Prince Rupert

This was the rainiest day we had in fact it was too rough to be on deck most of the time so no activities up by the pool. We spent time just relaxing and exploring the ship again found some more artwork on the stairways, which I had not found before.

When we arrived in Prince Rupert, it was raining so we headed to the museum. (We had not scheduled any shore excursions here, probably just as well as many were cancelled due to the bad weather).

The Museum of Northern British Columbia is full of interesting Native American artifacts and some amazing totem poles. As the rain seems to keep on coming down we headed back to the ship, stopping to have Brittaney’s picture taken with two Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman on the way.

Brittaney stayed onboard to play the Wii games in the lounge and I went back ashore to get photos. Even though it was raining, I was able to get great pictures of the sunken gardens and the many totem Poles around town. I also went into a supermarket to see what prices were like and I can tell you they were very high. I was able to get some cream cheese to put on the rice cakes, which I had brought along, and it was around three Canadian Dollars a packet, or about twice what we would pay a Wal Mart. It also seemed that fruit cereal and all other things were expensive mainly because everything has to be shipped in either by rail or boat.

I also picked up a local free paper, which showed how expensive housing is in this area.

When back onboard I found Brittaney and we decided to have room service this evening for a change.

Then we woke ourselves up for the “Chocoholic” event at 11 pm at the Versailles Restaurant. We walked down the stairs to this restaurant as we normally did for breakfast but we were told to join the line, which went back around half of the ship past the lobby area and back by staterooms to the restaurant. It was quite a sight as my photos and video shows!

June 13th, Last day onboard ship

As the onboard paper states today is another day to “whatever”, we decided to play the final bingo game again but we did not win, then we spent some time looking around the ship and relaxing before packing.

I also took video and photos of the final sunset onboard.

I can definitely recommend a cruise on the NCL Star as I feel that because of the slightly smaller size of this ship it does not overwhelm guests as some ships do.

June 14th Disembark and Seattle Shore excursion

This could be otherwise called the longest day as it was. Disembarkation was very smooth and as we had booked a post cruise tour, we waited in the Stardust Theatre to be called for our time to leave. Immigration officials were on board as we left directing us to claim our luggage and then we went through customs and boarded the bus for our city tour of Seattle.

This tour took us past downtown sights such as the Cow Chip Cookies factory and Starbucks headquarters and by the houses of the rich and famous. We also saw a fish ladder, which was very interesting before taking in a view of Puget Sound and the Space Needle before stopping to shop at Pike Place Market. We also looked at the university then headed for the airport.

We now had to wait for 12 hours before our night flight back to Wisconsin.

Time went by very slowly but this allowed us to reflect on our wonderful Alaska inside passage cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Line Star. This is a FAM trip, which I will remember for many years to come, and I appreciate the opportunity to have been able to experience this great ship and fantastic destination.