The Beautiful Star of the Seas

Star of the Seas Review

I was lucky to get on the newest (at the time) ship of Royal Caribbean’s fleet. The Star of the Seas was the biggest and newest ship and we had to go on it. We don’t typically do 7-night cruises, as locals, we love enjoying a weekend getaway for a couple days, miss only four hours of work, and then come back on Monday and go straight to work. We have taken advantage of our location many times. While maintaining our PTO balance. A sailing on the Star came available so we had to take advantage. A seven night Caribbean out of Canaveral.

The check in—We got dropped off at 1:45, walked straight through security, right onto the boat by 1:55 in one of the best check in processes I have ever experienced. Especially after getting off the Disney Fantasy where it took us an hour to wait in line, drop off luggage, security, and check in. This Royal process was fantastic. DCL has been a consistent challenger for my favorite cruise line, I think they make a FANTASTIC product, but this process further cemented by favorite is Royal.

The room—We were lucky enough to get two rooms for this cruise. We started with an “Interior plus” not sure what we were plussing but this was a very small room. It was divided into two sections, the bed, and the closet/bathroom. We have gone on so many cruises and we almost always get an interior. This was the smallest one I have been in. It wasn’t too big of a deal as we are hardly ever in the room.

On the 4^th night, the walls began to close in on us. We are 3 night weekend cruisers. The 4^th night was a reminder that we were only halfway through this cruise.

On the 5^th night, the pipe burst in our room, and we got upgraded to an infinity balcony.

These rooms are debated about. It is a “balcony” that has a slide down mirror that can humidify the entire cabin in a second. The TV gets harder to see, the temperature increases drastically. The way I used it was a glorified ocean view window room. I never opened the window after the first time. This room was so much bigger than our first that it was unbelievable.

This room upgrade breathed a new life in us as we really enjoyed this room. Decent bathroom, lots of storage, and we could see the ocean. I still probably won’t pay the premium for the better room… A 7 night cruise might be different, by the 4^th day we were really tired of that room.

The Ports—Coco Cay, St. Kitts, and St. Thomas were the stops for the Star on our 7 night cruise. Our first stop was a not so great day at Coco Cay, lots of rain, wind, and some thunder. We sat out the rain under a tree in a hammock with towels over us. During the brief moments of sun, we were able to get some mozzarella sticks, sit by the beach, and hit the buffet a little. After the first rain storm and before the second rain storm, we were able to get front row seats on the beach. Something that doesn’t happen often on Coco Cay.

St. Thomas was another cloudy day on an island I have already been to. We debated whether to take a taxi into the city, but my fiancée had a headache so we just walked to the local drug store for some medicine for that. It was beautiful pulling away from this island. I love the beaches and the mountains that it has.

It was my first time in St. Kitts so I had to visit a little bit. We walked around the first little area, and once you pass the security checkpoint, you were fresh meat. I couldn’t believe how INSANE it was. Taxi Taxi Taxi, monkey photo ops, and I am used to the people selling but this was over the top on this day. Once back on the ship, we learned that we were the only cruise coming to port this week. They were a bit aggressive, everywhere you walked it was somebody holding a sign. We finally said yes to one, it was a similar excursion as the ship offered but for half the price. He gave us an arm band and gave us a meeting time. Once we had the arm band, about 80% of the remaining people would leave us alone. It was funny seeing the difference. We spent some time in a casino before our tour. We also got carpet bombed by a couple of birds. Got poop all over my hat which was thrown away immediately.

The tour was pretty cool, we saw St. Kitts and a beautiful overlook where the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic ocean meet. We saw an old sugar cane plantation, the schools, had some weed-infused moonshine mixed with rum punch…. I was feeling pretty good on the ride back. We didn’t go to the beach but the tour was great. Not overly long, not boring, and gave a good insight into the island of St.Kitts, they even showed us to the Marriot on the island, and I might have to go back there.

THE FOOD—The food was the best I’ve had on almost any ship. The included restaurants especially were far and away the best I’ve had in years. That night at Cagney’s Steakhouse on one of the Norwegian ships will always hold the crown for the best food on a cruise, followed by Virgin cruise line just for the amount of options. There were just so many offerings onboard this cruise as well.

We had crepes, BBQ, Greek food, and Thai food all in a small mall food court type of area. This closed at midnight and was always our go-to midnight snack. The crepes were good, the BBQ was alright, the Greek food was tasty, and the Thai food was okay.

Our welcome aboard Windjammer meal had hot lobster on offer. New York Strip Steaks, and lobster, as well as hot shrimp. We had about eight lobster tails between the two of us on that welcome aboard meal. We had two nights of lobster in the dining room as well, where our serving staff gave us extra lobster tails. Also, on the 6^th night of the cruise, we had lobster up at the buffet AGAIN. We loaded up on lobster tails for the next few years. We haven’t been on a cruise with included warm lobster tails in many years.

The pizza at Sorrento’s was good as always, ran into Marty Mcfly several times at the pizza place during the late nights.

The Surfside food, mostly for kids, was the worst food we had on the ship. The churros were hard, chicken nuggets were hard, the assorted desserts had no flavor.

The Café Promenade on this ship also didn’t have incredible food, it lacked options, but with how many different food venues there were, this didn’t matter.

Up on the top deck, next to the water slides, there is a grill with the usual cheeseburgers, hot dogs, tater tots, chicken tenders, and most of the basics. The burger was one of the best burgers on a cruise ship. Nearly beating out Guy’s Burger Joint for the best burger at sea. All of the food elevated the Star so much.

The service—Even though we did have some trouble in our room, they treated us very well with great customer recovery. Chocolate covered strawberries, stackable cruise discounts, laundry service, and an upgraded room. Fantastic recovery. Our room stewards were fantastic, in both rooms. We had to wait for our room to be made up, one time after dinner, but that is not a problem at all, we just came back 30 minutes later and he was finished. The dinner service was one of the best service teams we have ever gotten. Water was always refilled, we were able to get through our dinners within an hour some nights. We often were the only table in our serving team’s section so this was great.

Water slide—The biggest water park at sea…. Not an oversell because this combinations of slides were great during a port day. We got to hop right on, all of the slides that were open. One was closed but the rest were great. Once you walked to the back of the ship, it felt like you were at a waterpark with that many slides around you. With this water park included in your sailing, the Star is just once again packed in value.

Karaoke is such a popular activity on cruise ships, it is always a great night activity after the main show of the evening, to listen to some popular songs and sing along with. The largest ships continue to have the smallest karaoke venues. If you aren’t there 15 minutes early, you will not get a chair… We were only able to get a chair one night during the karaoke challenge which had a bunch of talented singers…. Picking the slowest music possible… The venue just needs to be as large as possible for karaoke.

The piano bar was another activity where you needed to be there before the activity started. We were able to grab a couple of chairs 5 minutes before showtime on the first night and it was very enjoyable. The piano player on our side of the room didn’t need any notes, sheet music, or anything. She was incredible.

Trivia was just completely useless to try on, if you weren’t there 15 minutes prior, there would be no chairs immediately.

The Price is Right was a popular gameshow that got hyped up every night of the cruise. It was cool to play along with the people on stage in hopes to be one of the winners to get called down for a BRAND NEW CARRR.

Some activities I missed but they have on offer: Ice skating, laser tag, flowrider, rockwall, family tube ride (closed), a water playground with a huge water bucket in the Surfside area for kids, so many different pools and hot tubs. This ship is absolutely massive.

No huge TV in the pool area. No pool side movies. ☹ This was a culture shock after getting off of a Disney cruise. All late-night activities were pool side movies with a plate of chicken tenders. To go from that every night to going to Royal where they don’t even have a pool side screen was wild. Pool side activities were lacking for sure. They had a nice band playing music from time to time on a side stage, away from all of the pool chairs, but I think the space was used well just for the amount of pool chairs they had on the pool deck. One of the largest problems on a cruise ship during a sea day is how busy the top deck can get. There are so many different areas, and different activities up on the deck that it is very easy to get a chair. The pool deck is in a ton of different places too, with different things to look at when you aren’t completely lying down. We spent time in the adult section at the end of the ship. By the flowrider at the end of the ship. Loungers in the pool, next to the pool swim up bar. There were just so many areas of this ship that it is unbelievable. The largest ship I have ever been on and it felt like it.

The audience participation entertainment was still great with various activities happening throughout the trip. The sexy man contest was in the aqua theater which was weird… Without water… The best part of this entertainment is the spontaneous entries that are just out on the pool deck, drunk and ready to look like a fool. It was just so sanitized doing it in the aqua theater.

No belly flop competition was unfortunate. There was no massive pool deck which was missing on this ship. No pool side movies, no pool side entertainment.

The Love and Marriage show is typically my favorite audience participation event on the cruises. It is a game show about how well three couples know their partner. Here is an example that cracked me up: “A bra size comes with a letter and a number, that is a helpful hint.” – Cruise Director             "4F" – Male contestant

The crazy quest was crazy as always. This is a very fun show where they have an adult scavenger hunt where some of the items get a little crazy. The difference between the Disney cruise “Go Fetch” and Royal Caribbean’s crazy quest is just night and day. The Disney ship had about 15 people in the audience while the Star had a full house. This is the flagship adult show, and it is always a good time.

Torque is the diving show on the Star. Utopia has been the standard for this show for me. I love Aqua80Too, high energy, 80’s music, plenty of dives, fun little story elements attached, a couple of extremely high dives where they actually pull your attention to the top during the big jumps. Torque does not do this unfortunately. Now, back to Torque being an excellent show. It had so many elements that were fun to see. It had a huge water element dropping from the ceiling from the skylight. Which was also the place the high dive took place from, even though the story didn’t pick your head up there to preface the jump. This would make a pillar of water throughout the show. There are robots… Random robotic arms that help a little with the different stage setups and during the last song, they wave a checkered flag. Every time they were involved, it made me laugh, because I didn’t understand the reason to have the robots when they had so many cast members in the show. It was an odd choice. Another completely random choice was to add a metal ball that motorcycles would do flips in. This was a high energy very fun act that was a bit scary to watch. This is similar to the random acts in the ice show that just sends a curveball to the audience. Overall, a great show. Get there on time, and be sure to get reservations. This venue feels smaller than any of the aqua theaters on any other ship. On Utopia, I could walk in 5 minutes late and get a seat on the front row because it was the splash zone. Not the case on the Star, every show we went to, or walked by, there were people standing and watching. They PACK this theater.

Sol is the ice show on the ship. I have seen a few ice shows on different Royal Caribbean ships and this one holds up as one of the best. The shows on the older ships just don’t hold up with the fun shows of the newer ships like the Utopia and the Star. This had great songs, great skaters fun costumes, and a portion of the show where they used the ice rink as a skate park! It was high energy and it was a perfect show for the Star of the Seas lineup. Get your reservations early. On a huge ship like this, this is a necessity. I need to really drill this home for how busy EVERY show was. Typically, I say no reservations are needed most of the time on Royal Caribbean but that couldn’t be further from the truth for Star.  

Magicians don’t really do too much for me. I enjoy it being a part of included entertainment and almost always show up. The magician on the Star was funny and worked the crowd very well. It was an enjoyable show.

The last night comedy show in the Royal theater is always the way we end the cruise for my family. This has been fun at times, and sometimes, not that great. Depending on the comedian, and if my GRANDMOTHER is in the audience close to tears because she wasn’t ready for the “filth” that came out of the comedian’s mouth. On this ship, there were three comedians and the second one was absolutely hilarious. I laughed the entirety of his set. The other two were a bit worse than him. It was a good show overall. Another huge reason why I love cruising so much, this show was included in the fare.

Back to the Future… The flagship broadway style show on the Star was fantastic. They also have a Back to the Future dedicated channel on your stateroom TV. Those options are so limited that we watched all of the Back to the Future movies multiple times. The show was great. I love the story of Back to the Future, it is arguably my favorite movie of all time, and they did a great job with it. The added songs were great as well. George Mcfly was the best character in the show, I loved it. The show was also PACKED, so packed that some lady sat on the steps right next to my legs… The last showing of the cruise was on the last sea day, and I was able to sit in the front row, without a reservation. It was so cool, I loved the show, easily my favorite of the Broadway style shows on Royal. Getting to watch this great show twice was a treat.

The Star of the Seas immediately surpasses the Utopia of the Seas as my favorite ship I have ever been on. They packed this ship FULL aft to bow, no wastes of space. The shows were great, it was the most lobster I have ever consumed, the rooms were great (infinite balcony is the way to go), the service was fantastic, there were so many activities, and even with a pipe bursting potentially waste waters in my room, this was still my favorite cruise. Book today.