Day 5: Roatan Honduras 8am-5pm

Hmmm, where to start. I’ll start with the usual. Get up, get ready, get moving to breakfast. We watched the Star pull in to port and we were the only one there. I’m not even sure if another ship can dock there? I don’t think so.

The water there is always so beautiful and you can see right through it when you are pulling up. I noticed they had a HUGE Christmas tree in port and I also knew I wanted a picture of it before the day was over when we returned.

We booked Maya Key with NCL for this day after reading several remarkable post and pictures from these great informative people here on CC and I just knew that my daughter would love this place (because of all of the animals). I just had no clue HOW MUCH “WE” would love it as well. This place is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! We don’t find a whole lot of places that we visit that make us say “we will come back here” (only 2 places to be exact that we have said this about), but this is one of them…so make that 3 now.

I have to say that, once again, we never book with the ship BUT this island can ONLY be made available with the cruise line! I guess you use to be able to do the tour on your own, but they stopped doing that and you now HAVE to book with the cruise ship in order to go there. So, that’s the reason we did it.

We were to meet at the dock at 8:15am. We cleared customs quickly and as soon as you get off the ship is where they were meeting at. We were one of the first to get there (of course…I’m prompt). I think we waited around for a good ½ hour or so for everyone to finally get in line that had booked the excursion. They put arm bands on us and we all piled in the boat that was going to take us there. The boat was full, but we didn’t find it uncomfortable full if you know what I mean. The boat is right there at the dock, so no walking a long distance or anything. It’s right beside the Star.

The welcome committee was there dancing for us when we got off the ship.

We circled around the Star and BOOM, we are at the island. They said it was a 3 minute ride and I think I blinked maybe twice and we were there. That made it super nice.

To read my full review of our day at Maya Key, click the following tab:

After returning from Maya Key....

On the boat to head to the port we go with smiles on our faces I continued to snap pictures along the LONG 3 minute, blink twice boat ride.

Look, she's smiling at us! Happy to see us return??

We (well my husband) decided that he wanted to look around the port (for what, I still don’t know because we’ve been to this port before and there really isn’t anything there that we would want. It’s pretty small). I remembered that I wanted to take a picture of the Christmas tree before we boarded the ship.

The tree was so huge I couldn't even fit it all in the picture. Now that's my kind of tree!

We wrapped things up and called it a day in Roatan and headed back to the ship to get showered, dressed and to grab a “snack”. I’m pretty sure I walked and snorkeled off a good 5 pounds this day, so I needed to keep up my 7 pound gain status and eat some more!

We hung out for a while watching the ship pull out of the port, then dropped Sakari off to play with her friends around 7pm.

We did manage to stop by the NCL consultant desk and purchase a future cruise certificate. One can’t go wrong with those. Buy the certificate for basically $150 and you get a cert for $250, saving $100. Now I know that’s not how they explain it, but those are the facts. So NCL terms: “You will see a charge on your OBC for $250 and then you will see a credit for $100 on your OBC”…um it’s the same as saying “You pay $150 for a certificate that is worth $250. ;) Got it, will use it…BUT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE’S MORE!! I don’t know if this is something new they started with NCL or if this was also JUST on the Star, but if you applied $100 to the casino, they gave you an extra free $25. Um yes please. I had planned on spending $100 in there anyhow…why not get an extra $25 to spend. WOO HOO! Nice added touch NCL. I was loving it. The only “catch” for US, was we did our on board as a cash account, so instead of them charging the $100 to our room card, we had to give them $100 cash (directly to the casino) along with the coupon from NCL for the “special $125 to do the deal. Most would just go there and hand them their room key card and they would just take the $100 from it. No biggie for us.

Now, I had wondered the entire cruise…where is the magician show? Where is the comedian? Well, in todays daily I noticed that there was going to be a comedian tonight and I didn’t want to miss it. I also knew that it was going to be a busy night because tonight was also the White Hot Party….but what’s this? In the daily there was something called the “White Night” in the Atrium with the staff. I had never heard of that before or seen it. Is this something that only the Star does? Or is this something that NCL just adopted? I had no clue but I do know that I wanted to find out what it was.

Then we hit the Stardust theater for the 7:30pm show with David Naster. This guy was HILARIOUS. He’s more than just a comedian though. He has done documentaries, written books (he has one about the Healthcare workers which I would love to read), among other things.

Here is a little about him: 

He grew up in smart-alec family teaching him how to survive with humor. David went to college to study Psychology. He decided he would rather make fun of people than help them. That’s when Naster began making people laugh for a living, having no idea how laughter would help people in ways never imagined.

31 years later - Naster’s ability to make audiences laugh is compared to Robin Williams and Red Skelton. When Bob Costas needed to replace Billy Crystal for his annual charity event - he hired David Naster. Naster is an expert of the benefits of humor and laughter. His philosophy; You Just have To Laugh is endorsed by such people as Larry King, Dr Bernie Siegel and founder of Southwest Airlines Herb Kelleher.

David’s first two books, “You Just Have To Laugh through Tough Times” and “When Work Gets TOUGH – You Just Have To Laugh” were voted “Best Humor” award of 2007 and 2008, by the Association of Applied Therapeutic Humor. An international organization made up of doctors, nurses and health-care professionals.

David’s latest book, “Is there Laugh after Death” is a sincere and groundbreaking approach of offering humor in grief. The stories are hysterical and help heal a grieving soul.

Nobody does what Naster does. Nobody! He’s an author, keynote speaker and philosopher. Naster is a rare blend of quality entertainment and true inspiration. He is funny without cursing. He motivates without preaching. David’s philosophy is: “Making people laugh is wonderful. Teaching them how to find the humor in tough times and laugh is why I’m here.”

NCL picked a winner with this comedian for sure.

We completely enjoyed his show (and we have a lot of humor in our lives…that’s how we cope with a lot of the stress and things we go through in life especially now) and my husband really looked up to this guy. He just had to meet him and shake his hand.

After the show, he was outside the Stardust selling his books and the Master Blaster (if you go to the show, you will learn what this is) and my husband ask for a picture with him. He was happy to do it!

Sakari and her friends were having a “Pirate Parade” tonight around the ship. We managed to catch them along the way all chanting and marching around the ship. She loves the activities at the kids club…always something fun and exciting to do.

The children had “partners” for every event they did and this was always her “partner”. We joked with her about holding this little boys hand and told her “Isn’t it time you brought him home to meet your parents if you are holding hands already?” She said "I have to hold his hand mom, he's my partner." I guess she didn't find it amusing.

We then decided to head to the Atrium to see what this White Night party was and everything was all decorated in white of course and people standing down below while the staff lined the upper half and the stairs. They were singing and dancing. They had Bernado, which was one of the chefs on the ship and he sang his little heart out! He really got the crowd pumped up and going and you could tell he loved what he was doing. They had another singer that was the Sanitation Manager on the ship and he was really good to.

Everyone getting "Foot loose"!

We stayed for a while and then headed to our room to change for the White Hot party. We LOVE the white hot party and we couldn’t wait! They were having it in the Spinnaker Lounge. I know we had a complete blast on the Epic in the Bliss Ultra Lounge inside…the best white hot party I have ever been to. On the Pearl this year, they had it out on the pool deck and although we had a blast, it was different because you didn’t “glow” with the black lights because they were only located under the roof of where the band and white hot staff was at. So, I just knew this would be great and hopefully as great as the Epic was.

We changed and headed for the White Hot party….party on dude!

White hot party time…

When we arrived the party was starting and people were dancing. The party had not “officially” started yet because the “White Hot Dancers” were not out there with their angel wings on.

Finally they arrived...

Now…my next complaint…When the White Hot dancers came out, (this is not the complaint part), they took over the stage and did a choreographed routine. They were great and did an awesome job. Once that was over…most of them disappeared. There were a few that remained and got the crowd back up and dancing and they were only there for maybe 1 hour and then they were gone….gone….never to be seen again gone. Um…ok. I just want an experience like I had on the Epic. The dancers stayed with us all night. They kept the crowd pumped up and going strong. They went around and put the angel wings on the passengers and shared turns. They pulled us up on the stage to dance with them. They pulled people out of the crowd to dance. They knew how to party. They knew how to get everyone going. This, this was a little pathetic. What was going on? Where did they all go? I see a few staff members that were there for a little while dancing some line dances but it wasn’t the same. Now I know these people have multiple jobs on the ship and maybe some of them had to get to their “other” jobs…but geesh have some staff out there getting the crowd going….and stay the entire time. That’s what makes it fun!

The lights were pretty cool they had going in there:

My husband, being the dork that he likes to be wanted a picture with the lights on him for a "facebook" profile pic...do you know how hard it was to get the camera to fire IN THE DARK, WITHOUT THE FLASH, AT THE PERFECT MOMENT THAT THE LIGHTS HIT HIS FACE BECAUSE THEY WERE MOVING??? It wasn't happening the way he wanted. This was the best that I could do.

We danced and had a great time. There was a lot of line dancing going on…and of course I only knew the normal dances from years gone by; the macarena, the Cha Cha slide, YMCA, electric slide, cupid shuffle and so on. Now there were all the new fads out like Gangham style, wobble, Dougie and a few others that I knew the music, but didn’t realize there was an actual dance to go along with it. LOL We both tried to watch, then other times we tried fit in. Sometimes it worked out well, other times I was stepping all over the hubby. (Maybe because I was doing the wrong thing, maybe because neither one of us decided we knew our right from our left that night) LOL But it was still fun.

I worked up a sweat and headed outside for some air…and I haven’t mentioned this yet, but our cruise director…PEDRO…is the absolutely BEST CRUISE DIRECTOR EVER! He was everywhere and so nice and talkative. I was running in to him everywhere we went and he always stopped at talked. He reminded me of Silas on the Epic (who we swore was cloned because you would see him going one direction on the ship and then 5 minutes later he was going that direction again…how did he make it back without us seeing? It was non-stop running). Pedro was no different. But, this night was different. We spent quite some time outside talking. I learned about the different ships he had been on, what he did and didn’t like. We talked about his work and family. He said he had become best friends with Silas via email and they talked daily even though he had never met him, but filled in for him before. He was such an outgoing guy and definitely in on every function the ship had going on.

Now, back to the White Hot party. Things seem to be dying down a little and not as many people were dancing. Here comes the next “You pissed us off a little” portion of the night. My husband went up to the D.J. (a lady this night…didn’t catch her name but boy was she rude and a snob!) and ask her to play some 50 cent music. She was ignoring him at first and then when she finally answered she was kind of talking to him in the rude manor where you talk to someone but yet you are not directly looking at them. Her reply was “well, I’ll play what I got and I don’t know if I have anything with that. I have to play what people will get up and dance to.” I mean it was said in a very nasty way. My husband said “well, I guarantee if you play it, people will get up and dance” and walked away. About 4 or 5 songs later…no one was dancing and I said “I think it’s time to leave” and on came 50 cent. Guess what???? Everyone got up and started dancing! The dance floor was crowded! So, since we had requested the song, we had to stay and dance. Hmmm, glad you were able to dust off that LP record once again and play it Ms Snob DJ. After that song was over, we decided to go ahead and leave. Of course on the way out my husband stops by the both and says “See, I told ya people would get up and dance if you played it”…she completely snobbed him and turned her head. REALLY? Wow. She was beyond rude. I have to say, this was the very first time I had encountered ANYONE on the NCL staff being rude. EVER!

On the way out the door, I stopped by the table that had the melting angel something or other ice sculptures. It was hard to tell what they were and there were only 2 of them.

We headed back to the kids club to pick up Sakari. We knew that she had had a very busy day and she was probably sleeping by now. The kids club lets you keep the children there for $6 and hour past 10:30pm and we had signed up for this night due to the White Hot party. We picked her up at 12:30am and expected to pay the $12 rate. For some reason they only charged us $6 instead and told us that she had fallen asleep at midnight so they weren’t going to charge the full amount. So…wouldn’t that be like $9 instead? I wasn’t complaining and just worried about my husband’s back trying to carry her back to the room while she was asleep. You know that walk seems much longer on the way back that it does on the way there!

Tonight Santa had once again left Sakari 2 mints and a Bull Dog for a towel animal. It had the cutest little curly button tail. She woke up long enough to see it and laughed at the glasses he had on.

Then we were off to bed after packing for tomorrow.I had thought about ordering breakfast in the room, but in the interiors and regular exterior rooms they sure don't offer much. Only cold things like cereal, muffin and stuff I would never want for breakfast. I like a hot meal. I guess I'll have to wait until some day when I can get a mini-suite or something to order an actual "breakfast" to my room.

I really hate when they have the White Hot party on a night before you have to get up early the next morning to go in to port. I really wish NCL would take this in to consideration for the cruisers. Who wants to stay out late dancing and partying when you have to be up early for a port day the following day. This might account for the reason why so many people seem to leave these parties around midnight instead of staying and dancing the night away. It just doesn’t make any sense why they do this. When we were on the Epic and went to the White Hot party, it was a sea day the next day and we were out until around 3am that night. It was the best night ever. I think they need to have the White Hot party on a night that there is a sea day the following day. That would make so much more sense.

Oh, I almost forgot...at the White NIGHT party in the Atrium, they were passing out free drinks and snacks. I'm not sure what type of drinks they were but they were good. They were served in the tall wine glasses and it was white and I think it was some type of coconut something or other.

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So here comes some very long notes. No pictures, just thoughts.

It’s going to be another long day for my Cozumel report so I thought since it’s still early here (9pm) I would stop and take a moment to write a few more “thoughts” and experiences while on the Star. As stated before, these were MY experiences on things that I saw, heard, or felt. They may not be the same for other cruisers previously on the Star, on the Star at the same time as me, or cruisers that go after me. They are just my opinions and observations.

I found myself walking (with the aide of my personal GPS…the hubby, because I was always getting lost and turned around) in areas that felt just “weird” with the flow.

The one I think I had already mentioned was the Blue Lagoon. Having to walk through the ship from one end to the other we always walked through the middle of Blue Lagoon to keep going (because our room was on the same floor) and it was just really awkward to walk in to an area that people were sitting down eating, restaurant style, with signs saying to stop to be seated before entering. Everyone always looked at you weird.

Another weird area was coming from the kiddie pool on one side (which we always ended up on that side for some reason and never realized it until we had walked in) that you open the door and you are walking in to the gym with everyone working out. I would make a mad dash through the gym and out the doors. I felt like I was out of place. It was just weird to have a door there to walk in from outside there.

The ship was kept clean, just like they do all of the NCL ships. The carpet was “raked” (vacuumed) every morning and looked crispy clean. They always had the decks washed down and everyone was running around picking up the plates and cups as soon as you put them down (even if you wasn’t done). This is the case with every NCL ship I have been on. They are constantly cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. They don’t leave any messes lying around and will even be cleaning around you as you eat. If your glass is empty or there is a plate that looks like you are done with it, they are quickly removing it from your table.

I also noticed one day after returning from Cozumel, they had varnished the handrails on the front upper portion of the decks (by the hot tub). This is normal for NCL and they make sure they keep things tidy. I have yet to be on any of their ships were they didn’t varnish some hand rail somewhere on the ship.

Just like every other cruise, we had a towel animal EVERY night except the last. I know others have said they may get a few each week, but we have always received one every night. This could be that we have a little one with us and they know it, but yet we received one every night on the Epic and we didn’t have Sakari with us that cruise. So…who knows. Maybe it depends on the room steward.

The staff on the Star was friendly, just like every NCL ship that I have been on. This was no exception. There was an instance on the second day that we had went to the Buffet for breakfast and one of the lady's seen me with 2 plates (one for me and one for Sakari) and she ran and got a tray to help us out. It was really nice…at first, but then it became a little pushy. I was grateful for the help with the tray, but then she wanted to hold our dishes while we put food on them. I told her it was ok, I had them (I am more than use to doing this with our daughter going out to eat at buffets at home and on several cruises…it’s just something parents learn to do…juggle more than one thing at a time). Then she kept asking us did we want this or that and trying to put the food on our plates. At that point, I was getting a little agitated. I felt like I couldn’t even look at any of the food without her wanting to put some on it thinking I was interested in it. I finally gave up and said that was all we wanted and headed to the table. My husband was at the table already and I thanked her for helping and went to go get some juice…there she was wanting to get it for us. LOL Now I know that she was just trying to be helpful, but it just came across as just a tad bit annoying and pushy after a while.

I always enjoy the food at the Blue Lagoon. This was no exception. But, I do have to comment on a few things. The cheese cake tasted a little funny to me the first time I tried it. It had a little “foamy” consistency which was strange. I don’t know if maybe it was left out and starting to get warm or what. I just know I didn’t like it much. The following times I tried it, it was back to the “norm” for NCL and good. The wings were awesome, the wonton soup was good, the salad-great, the fries=the best along with the cheeseburger=the best! The fish and chips was good. But…the artichoke dip was very runny the night I had it and tasted very bland. Not the same that I had on other cruises. Now comes the chocolate milk…something that took me 2 days to figure out. My daughter had ordered chocolate milk to drink with her meal and did not gulp it down like she usually does. I had no clue why. We ended up taking it back to the room that night. The next morning we woke up to a familiar “smell”. I had no clue what it was and it vanished later that day. The next time she ordered the chocolate milk again but didn’t really drink it. I smelled that “smell” again. I took her chocolate milk and that was the “smell” that we had in our cabin the night before. So here’s the smell…all of you that have been or are parents will know this smell when I tell you. You know how you have given your baby/toddler a bottle/cup of milk and they don’t drink it all and hide it only for you to find it about a week later and it’s all nasty? Yea, that’s the smell. It’s one that you will NEVER forget. That’s what the smell was coming from her chocolate milk. No wonder she wouldn’t drink it. I think it was spoiled. Later in the cruise she had chocolate milk from Versailles and it smelled normal and she drank that right down.

I had asked prior to the cruise if they ever have a Santa on board for the kids and to have their pictures taken with. I was told that they only have one if you are on the ship during Christmas day. Well, not really. On Saturday (our sea day) there was not only a Santa running around the entire ship taking pictures, there was a Grinch too. Of course I had to have my picture taken with the Grinch!!! So that was neat. My husband didn’t know until we seen the pictures later that night…the Grinch put the bunny ears behind my husband’s head in his picture…LOL

If you are interested in picture prices: The embarkation pictures are $19.95 and they did a sloppy job at their photoshop. They take your picture and put a picture of the ship behind you. Well, they had half of the water/ship still showing in our clothes and it just looked terrible. They had several of them to choose from. We chose the best one out of all 4 of them. But it still wasn’t the greatest. Their regular pictures are $9.95 each but if you buy 5 of them, they give you a 20% discount. This is a better discount that what I get for being a Silver latitude member (which is only 15%). So I took the deal and purchased 5 pictures.

There were 2 nights that I tried to go outside and noticed that the smoking side was roped off and said it was closed due to “high winds” but yet the non-smoking side was not closed and you were able to walk around to the other side. Weird!

Day 6 was the night of the chocolate buffet. Now if you all remember, I don’t like chocolate, so I don’t go there to eat. However, I usually go just to take pictures. But, this time I did not. We were on our way to the kids club to drop off Sakari and couldn’t find a way to get over there because you had to walk through the buffet area to that end of the ship. Even though the area was closed, they let us in to walk through. They were just setting up and then I totally forgot about it and didn’t go back (because we had shows we wanted to see that night instead).

Something else I noticed they had this cruise that I had never seen on the other ships was that they had one of the chocolate fountains over by the crapes station. You could get the weird looking sponge things they would put on the bottom of the snacks they gave you at the party's or you could get marshmallows and they would dip them in chocolate. People seem to love this. I of course didn’t try it since I don’t like chocolate.

Games in the Casino: If you are a slot fan, you have to try the Dragon Bonus games. There are 4 of them that are lined up together. There are 2 different kinds. You CAN NOT miss these games. They are the loudest and the BRIGHTEST games ever!!! They are penny machines and 1 of them will cost you .50 a spin and the other kind will cost you .40 a spin. I played both and preferred the .40 games. I put $20 in one and would play about 1 ½ -2 hours on it. It kept me going that long. The bonus rounds were fun and I did win a few times some decent money, but then sunk it back in to it later. They were just so much fun. A lot of people thought they were fun…there was always someone on them or waiting to get on them. They had the normal games as most ships; Penguins, Banana King, Goldfish, but no one seem to be hogging these machine like they normally do on the other cruises I’ve been on. Maybe it was because no one was winning this time around…including me. I didn’t play them much and ended up back at my favorite game: Cave King.

One last complaint and then I think I’m done with todays portion of my review. This would be the second time I encountered a rude person on the ship and I do mean rude. Me and another lady was at one end of the ship and trying to get back to the other side. We were on deck 6 by Versailles. We laughed at how we were kind of lost and I noted how I didn’t have my personal GPS with me (hubby). She headed down the steps to see if she could cross over. I was looking for the picture of the ship map to see how to get over. When I didn’t find it, I headed down the steps. Right in front of me heading down the steps was an employee (the kind that dress in a darker colored uniform/suit) and he was on the phone talking to someone. When he made it to the platform and turned to go on down, they lady that went down before me was getting ready to come back up (obviously she had went the wrong way) and he stops and scolds her while pointing his finger backwards and up the steps and said “NO! You get back up here now!” She replied “I’m lost and was turning around to come back up”. He said “You are not allowed down here. Turn around and get back up here now!” Um wow, very rude. I have never heard someone (an employee) talk to anyone that way before. It was just uncalled for. He could have politely told her that she was in the wrong area and told her which way to go. I mean she did tell him she was lost and she was coming back up the steps. I’m still in shock at the way he treated her. NCL employees have been the most outgoing, caring, talkative, nice people I have ever come across.