Mexican Riviera on Norwegian Star

For Spring Break 2019, we sailed on a Mexican Riviera cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) on their Norwegian Star cruise ship.

Although this wasn't our first cruise, it was our first cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines. This post summarizes some of our experiences on this Norwegian Star cruise to the "Mexican Riviera."

We purchased this cruise and flights to Los Angeles (John Wayne Airport [Orange County/SNA]) as a Costco Travel package. The cruise departed from (and returned to) the Port of Los Angeles World Cruise Center. The World Cruise Center is closer to LAX than to John Wayne Airport, but Costco Travel automatically selected the John Wayne Airport and a major advantage of the Orange County airport is that it's far less busy and stressful than LAX. Norwegian Cruise Lines arranges (for a fee) transportation between LAX and the World Cruise Center, but does not provide arrangements for transportation between John Wayne Airport and the World Cruise Center. Because we departed and returned on Saturday mornings, the traffic between John Wayne Airport and the World Cruise Center was relatively light and it only took about 45 minutes each way. We arranged for private transportation for each direction. The World Cruise Center made for an interesting departure point because there is significant loading of cargo ships that takes place there and that was fascinating to watch.

Norwegian Cruise Lines hypes their "Freestyle Dining":

Enjoy a four-course meal and a great bottle of wine. Or grab a burger hot off the grill. Dress up. Dress down. Sit with your friends or make new ones. Dine inside or Oceanside along The Waterfront. Only Norwegian offers the freedom and flexibility of Freestyle Dining, which means no fixed dining times or pre-assigned seating. So follow your mood, not a schedule.

This "freestyle dining" approach turned out to be pretty desirable. We enjoyed having so many options for when to eat, where to eat, and how dressed up to be when eating. We tended to eat at the buffet-style Garden Cafe when time was of the essence or we were dressed most informally or just wanted a snack. We only ate in one of the main dining halls (Aqua) once and never ate in the other main dining hall (Versailles) because they tended to be busiest and have the longest waits at the most desirable eating times. Also, the meals in those main Norwegian Star dining halls are more formal and take more time (a positive for some and a negative for others). The meals in the Garden Cafe and in the Aqua and Versailles dining halls are generally included in the cost of the cruise.

There are a few smaller and more focused dining establishments on the Norwegian Star that are also generally covered in the cost of the cruise. These include Ginza's (Asian restaurant we tried), O'Sheehan's Bar & Grill (Irish pub), and Topsiders.

Our package included three specialty dining opportunities for each passenger and these were our favorite meals. These generally require reservations and they are longer meals than the buffet, but the time is enjoyable and the food and service are great. The three specialty restaurants we selected were Cagney's (steakhouse), Moderno Churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse), and Le Bistro (French) and we were happy with the service and food at all three (two of the three of these are featured in the blog post "3 Specialty Restaurants Not to Miss on Norwegian"). Other specialty dining options on Norwegian Star include La Cucina (Italian) and Teppanyaki (Japanese Hibachi). The food items can be purchased individually at these specialty restaurants, but purchase of the specialty dining package allows for choice of appetizer, entree, and dessert for the single price of the specialty package.

Another item included in our package was 250 free Wifi minutes. The 250 minutes are per cabin (not per passenger) and only one device can be logged onto the Wifi at a time. Because the cruise featured three days "at sea" without a port, we used the 250 minutes relatively early and purchased the unlimited Wifi plan (still for only one device at a time). The Wifi is not particularly quick, but does work for smaller data uses such as e-mail and simple web browsing.

We rented a mini-suite with balcony and the balcony definitely made the three "at sea" days easier. We also liked the location in toward the middle of the ship on the eleventh deck. The Garden Cafe was one deck above (Deck 12) and the mid-ship location made it easy to access several parts of the ship that we frequented.

Our particular seven-night cruise had three port stops: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. There were three full "at sea" days (my least favorite), but the three days in port were fantastic. I'll cover each of those three "Mexican Riviera" destinations in separate blog posts. We purchased the excursions for two of the destinations (Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan) from a Costco partner (Shore Excursions Group) and purchased the excursion for Cabo San Lucas directly from Norwegian Cruise Lines. I was happy that we purchased the Cabo San Lucas excursion directly from NCL because that gave us priority debarkation in Cabo San Lucas (where tethering is required because there is no place for ships as large as the Norwegian Star to directly dock).

One of the advantages of a cruise is the ability to easily experience multiple destinations without needing to check in and out of lodging and packing and unpacking. However, a related disadvantage is that the time in each destination is very limited and I almost always wish I had more time in each port than the cruise allows. This is especially true of sea cruises.

It appears that this was the final "Mexican Riviera" cruise for the Norwegian Star, at least for the near-term future. The Norwegian Star was sailing for 14 nights from Los Angeles to Miami after our cruise. The Norwegian Cruise Lines ships now associated with the Mexican Riviera cruises are the Norwegian Joy and the Norwegian Bliss.

Norwegian charges a mandatory fixed onboard service charge. These are currently $14.50 per person per day or $17.50 per person per day depending on the stateroom type, but these prices are rising slightly as of 1 April 2019. These can be prepaid or paid at the end of the cruise, but definitely should be considered when budgeting for the cruise because they are mandatory charges. Although the idea of a mandatory service charge bothers me a bit, I didn't mind having prepaid it once on the ship because all of the staff worked hard to make the cruise a comfortable and satisfying experience. In fact, the most impressive part of the Norwegian Star was its staff.

Des Moines

We attended the first found of the NCAA men's basketball tournament ("March Madness") in Des Moines, Iowa, this year. Although we enjoyed the games on that first day, it was also interesting to experience Des Moines for the first time and this post provides a quick summary of some of the highlights of Des Moines.

The thing that stood out most to me about Des Moines was that it's a great example of the advantages one can find in a small city and its airport was one manifestation of this. The Des Moines International Airport provided one of the least stressful experiences I've had at an airport. It is small, was not very crowded and had no long lines when we were there, and it was easy to hear announcements. The car rental and return was also easy and the cars were parked next to the airport and its can rental facilities. I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was to go through the security "lines" (the wait was about 2 minutes when we were departing). Getting out of the airport and getting back into it were both extremely easy and quick.

Other than when near the Wells Fargo Arena (Iowa Events Center) where the tournament was being held, it was surprisingly easy to get around Des Moines and surrounding areas. I was particularly pleasantly surprised by how open the interstates and freeways we used were and how easy it was even to get around downtown (although downtown does have several one-way streets like many cities' downtown sections have). The parking at the Wells Fargo Arena was not particularly plentiful, but there were plenty of options nearby in parking garages that were surprisingly low cost compared to the parking prices I'm used to in other cities (particularly for special events).

All of the locals we encountered at the restaurants, hotels, and attractions were friendly and seemed eager to make the visitors to the city feel welcome. For example, when we enjoyed a lunch at Big Al's BBQ, Big Al approached us and introduced himself and checked on us later during lunch as well. We enjoyed two of the Big Al BBQ specialties for lunch.

We spent some time in the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden (GDMBG).

Because it was a bit early in spring for outside plants, we spent most of our times indoors in the conservatory.

Although we spent most of our times indoors in the conservatory, we did take some time to see the small number of gardens available outside already and enjoyed looking at the Water Garden with partially frozen surface and birds as well as the view of downtown Des Moines (DSM) in the background.

We also enjoyed a dessert at the botanical garden's Trellis Café.

One of Des Moines's most impressive visuals is its waterfront setting on the Des Moines River.

We went to Des Moines to see the first round of the men's NCAA basketball tournament and really enjoyed that, but a nice unanticipated consequence of this visit was experiencing the many qualities of Des Moines, Iowa, and its friendly people.