After getting my fill of the opulence of the Garden Villa, our next stops were the Deluxe Owner's Suite and the Owner's Suite with Double Balcony. Friends from my roll call sailed a Norwegian ship with the Double Balcony and when I say they raved, I mean it. There's no going wrong with either of these suites, that's for sure.
Rounding out the upper-end categories of staterooms would be the Family Penthouse with lg. balcony, the Penthouse with balcony and the Family Suite. Now, don't quote me, because I'm not completely 100% positive, but in my mind the Family Penthouse is a similar stateroom to the Epic's two-bedroom suite. Both have separate sleeping areas with literal walls between sleeping areas. I say this only to point out that in the lower category family accommodations there is a curtain divider.
::The curtain divider was the setup on our Hawaiian cruise. (Again, NOT on Norwegian.) So in this case, I AM speaking from experience, this is perfectly comfortable as well as more affordable.::
All of the accommodations I have discussed up until this point all offer butler and concierge. Now I won't discuss the whole "use the butler v. don't use the butler" here and now, and frankly I'm not sure I will later. There are people on either side who are passionate in their views. (And if you're a follower, you already know my feelings on the matter.) The fact remains that the upper category staterooms offer it. Use them, don't use them, your call.
With our time constraints I didn't get to look at the Mini Suite with Balcony, but the Mini Suite is an odd little concept. Yes, it's a suite, of sorts. But in the case of the Star, apparently the Mini Suite also has use of the concierge but not the butler. (I liken this in my head to Epic having Haven suites and non-Haven suites. How close a comparison remains to be seen.)
After that, we had to get to our lunch. I apologize for missing my chance to see the other staterooms up close and personal. Nonetheless, now that I look at the paper, it seems I really only missed 3 categories, Balcony Stateroom, Oceanview Stateroom and Family Inside. (We also sailed Family Inside, again not Norwegian, but nonetheless found it comfortable for a family of four, two of whom were younger children at the time.)
While we did check out Splash Academy, got a peek at Cagney's, the library, the Bier Garten, and the Aqua dining room; we missed way, way more than that. Atop the list of places I really wanted to check out but missed was the Entourage Teen Club, the Spa & Salon, Casino and the Stardust Theater.
I also discovered that the pictures of the ship and staterooms you see online really don't do justice to the actuality. Listen, I'm low-key in my décor tastes, and when I was shopping around, I confess I really thought the pictures depicted a more gaudy sensibility in decorating. Wild carpets and loud patterns on the bedspreads really do photograph more harshly than more subdued tones and patterns. However, when I saw these rooms from the perspective of a human living in the environment, I saw my concerns of being kept awake by the loudness of my physical surroundings melt away.
The truth of the matter Is that I didn't visit one stateroom where it wasn't well appointed and clearly well thought-out.
My takeaway from this Let's Do Lunch was that I finally got to board a
Norwegian ship and got an up-close and personal taste of the Norwegian
experience.
I LIKE IT!!