New Star Sails Between Los Angeles and Mexico

A familiar ship with a new name and new company logo on its stack sailed into the Port of Los Angeles Nov. 2 to begin its first winter season of Mexican Riviera cruises.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s 829-passenger Westward, the former Royal Viking Star, will be based in Los Angeles through the departure of March 21, and will sail from Acapulco to Los Angeles for the last time on March 28.

We were aboard on Nov. 2 for a ship’s tour, a preview of the production show and for lunch with about 500 Southern California travel agents.

The Westward cruises between Los Angeles and Acapulco are now on alternate north- and south-bound seven-day itineraries, calling in Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa, and Puerto Vallarta.

Fares are $1,055 to $2,995 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from either Acapulco or Los Angeles.

There’s little besides the new name and logo to differentiate the Westward from the Royal Viking Star. The Westward is still an elegant ship with handsome and fairly spacious, well-furnished cabins, but some of the carpeting should be replaced in the next dry dock.

The Westward offers two meal sittings. And cutting down the number of passengers in the dining room from 740 to about 420 requires fewer waiters and wine stewards, and releases the midship dining room, which can be used for other purposes.

Plans call for creating a Rendezvous Lounge in place of the vacated dining room, with a raised stage, grand piano and small cocktail tables and chairs.

A similar lounge has already been introduced on Norwegian Cruise Line’s new Sunward (the former Royal Viking Sky), sailing year-round on three- and four-day cruises from Miami to the Bahamas and Key West.

The third of the original Royal Viking trio of ships, the Royal Viking Sea, enters service in December as Royal Cruise Line’s Royal Odyssey.

The ship is scheduled for various itineraries, sailing between Singapore and Hong Kong, Bombay and Mombasa, Sydney and Auckland, and Tahiti and Hawaii before arriving in Los Angeles for a first-time visit April 22.

The three former Royal Viking ships have been repositioned within the Kloster Cruise Limited family, since Kloster is parent company to the Norwegian Cruise, Royal Viking and Royal Cruise lines.

The Westward’s entertainment reflects Norwegian Cruise Line’s splashier, livelier style rather than Royal Viking Line’s more sedate one.

We saw a dynamic rendition of highlights from the ship’s current Broadway show production, “Grease.” Actually, we saw the performers from the waist up, singing and waving their arms. To see their feet requires a front-row seat because the low-ceilinged Stardust Lounge does not have raised audience sections. A number of posts around the room add to the sighting problems.

Although the casino was enlarged several years ago to include four blackjack tables, a stud-poker table, roulette wheel and craps table, we counted only 51 slot machines, seemingly a sparse number for 829 Norwegian Cruise Line passengers. However, in its weeklong January dry-dock, Royal Viking Line is expected to add additional slot-machine space.

More sunbathing loungers are set out on deck than we recall from the Royal Viking Star days when a lot of passengers sat in air-conditioned lounges or on the shaded promenade deck.

The library is well-stocked with many hardback copies of recent best sellers, including Kitty Kelley’s biography of Nancy Reagan, and a large card room can accommodate five tables of bridge players at a time. Both small rooms permit smoking.

A large fitness center, with saunas and a gym with a full collection of exercise machines and an aerobics room, was added not long ago to the upper-level sports deck. A golf driving cage, Ping-Pong tables and paddle tennis are all available, and the ship has two outdoor swimming pools on aft decks.

Norwegian’s popular “Dive-In” program can be booked for $40 each in Acapulco’s Isla de la Roqueta, Zihuatanejo’s Playa Las Gatas, Puerto Vallarta’s Los Arcos and Cabo San Lucas’ Los Arcos dive sites, and for $35 at Mazatlan’s Stone Island. These snorkeling adventures include instruction, rental of all equipment, transfers and marine-life tours in each site.

Shore excursions are priced from $18 for a glass-bottom boat ride in Cabo San Lucas to $52 for Chee Chee’s Getaway six-hour tour in Puerto Vallarta, which includes lunch and swimming. A $60 eight-hour tour visits La Paz and San Jose del Cabo from Cabo San Lucas by bus, with time for museum visits, lunch and shopping.

All cabins have two lower beds. An inside cabin on the two lowest decks is the lowest-priced at $1,055 per person, double occupancy, including the $100 travel allowance deduction on the sailings of Jan. 4 and 11 and April 4. The other sailings are $1,025, including the travel allowance deduction in midseason, and $1,095 in peak season.

Nine top-deck penthouse suites, each with separate living rooms and bedrooms and private balconys, are the most expensive accommodations at $2,395 per person, double occupancy, to $2,995, including the $100 travel allowance deduction.

A comfortable outside stateroom with two lower beds, two chairs, built-in deck/dresser, wall-mounted TV set and tile bath with tub and/or shower are from $1,505 per person, double occupancy, to $1,770 per person, double occupancy, depending on season and deck location.

For brochures and more information, contact a travel agent or Norwegian Cruise Line, Kloster Cruise Ltd., 2 Alhambra Plaza, Coral Gables, Fla. 33134, (800) 327-7030.