Norwegian Coastal Voyage, MS Finnmarken

The Norweigen Star is your "Cruise of Last Resort". From the moment of arrival till departure you will spend your entire cruise waiting in lines. They call it Freestyle dining. This means no pre assigned seating and you wait more than an hour for every meal standing in the halls. They do not take reservations. You wait to tender to shore, you wait for a chair by the pool, you wait to get a seat at the shows, you wait to get tickets to get to tender to shore, you wait to get on the ship, you wait to get off the ship, you wait to complain. Of course I met a few nice people waiting in all those lines but it was not how I wanted to spend my holiday.

Thanksgiving was a disaster. A couple of dried out paper thin slices of turkey. A turkey TV dinner would have been better. I heard several people saying. What was that? We are going home to have our own Thanksgiving and just pretend that never happened.

The buffet is really gross. College dorm food is better. It never changes but people who can't stand the lines eat there.

Many of the advertised features are gross exagerations. They say they have a teen program with a teen disco. This means they have a room with a small boom box sitting in the corner. This is not the dance floor room with lights and a DJ you find on other ships.

Their entertainment is really third rate. Something to do when you get tired of waiting in other lines.

Too little time available for ports. They seem to want to make sure you have lots of time on board so you can buy those $10 dollar drinks. This is the only thing you do not have to wait for.

Again, a miserable trip. If I had not cruised before, I probably would not cruise again. Thank goodness I have been on other cruise lines before to realize that cruises really can be quite nice. Norweigen is clueless. They just don't seem to care about their customers.