cmph

I thought that was weird, too. I tried to get more info/details on teen-related restrictions from one of the reps via chat last year. I mostly got snark in response, and the advice to ask crew once onboard.

I just made such a noise that I startled my husband, who said "what's wrong?" The answer was nothing's wrong... I was just looking at a photo of a field of penguins, and omg don't you want to go see a field of penguins? He thinks I'm obsessed with this trip now lol.

I can absolutely envision that! And - I was just telling my husband about that exact photo of the penguins, as it happens. I told him "I HAVE to see the penguins flying through the water like this!"

Wow, this is now on my list of cruises to go on! We cruise for the destinations at this point in our lives, and I have to say that this itinerary wasn't on my radar until I read through your thread and saw all of the gorgeous photos of the scenery and wildlife. Thank you so much for sharing!

We are very sensitive to smoke but truly didn't notice any issues coming from the casino this summer. And that was a Baltic cruise, so it had a decent number of European and Asian guests who have a higher rate of smoking than we are used to. I did, however, find the smell from the cigar bar to be a little annoying when I walked past. Same deck. The casino is kind of tucked away, while the cigar bar is just out there for you to have to (literally) walk around. Not a deal breaker, but it was more obvious to me than anything coming out of the casino.

You don't mention how old your kids are. We sailed on the Dawn on a Baltic this summer, with our 2 teens (14 and 18 at the time). I thought the ship itself was fine - nothing exciting, but perfectly fine. My kids thought the arcade was super lame and didn't find the live shipboard entertainment to their tastes, but it was a port-intensive cruise... and teenagers sleep a lot anyway! We thought the kids pool area looked like something we would have gotten a lot of use out of, years ago, and it was nicely separated from the other pool area. I thought our cabins (oceanview, connecting) were pretty decent, overall. It had great storage, IMO, and we were on a 10-nighter with a pre-stay in Stockholm, so we had a fair amount of stuff. The shower was better than expected. The toilet space was a little ridiculous. They put this see-through door between the toilet and the sink, which really just got in the way, and left no privacy. It was a pointless door, but we had 2 connecting rooms so it wasn't a big deal, just a bit laughable. We had a great room attendant, no complaints there, and we didn't have any issues with a single service per day. We weren't huge fans of the MDR food, in general, and were surprised just how many issues they had with food supply restocking in Europe. We liked O'Sheehans, parts of the buffet (for the two of us that don't have food restrictions), and 2/3 of our specialty meals. The restaurant service was ok for the most part, if politely indifferent, generally. Outliers went both ways. I should add here that our prior family cruises have been on Disney, and our general impression (teens included) was that service was noticeably less personable; I'm not a total Disney cruise snob (been on Royal, Carnival, HAL, Princess sans kids), and I'm sure others have had not-so-great service on Disney too. But this was definitely the first cruise I've ever been on where I told a waiter that something was wrong with my entree, and he just took it away without trying to fix it even after I explained what was wrong with it - he literally just took it away uneaten and came back with dessert menus lol. (I ordered a seafood hot pot with lemongrass broth, and it was missing the broth.) We all chuckled, and my daughter and I decided that was a good reason to order 2 desserts apiece! There is always more food to be found on a cruise, right? The Dawn goes to really interesting places and has unique itineraries, which is more important to us now. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to avoid sailing on her again, but I also wouldn't pick her for a non-interesting itinerary like the Caribbean.

We elected not to go to Berlin. My husband didn't think we'd be able to do it justice in one day, with all the travel time to get there. I was fine with that, b/c it was the 2nd to last stop on a port-intensive 10 night itinerary (no sea days at all), and I figured our teens would be very disinterested in such an early rise and long day. (Accurate!!) We did the Schwerin Castle excursion that runs for 6 hours and loved that. We did a mix of NCL excursions, where it made sense, and OYO this trip, and this was definitely a good tour. Our guide was born and raised in East Germany, so the bus ride was full of fascinating stories of her life and the area. The castle and grounds were gorgeous, and we had time in the town of Schwerin to eat/shop a bit. Our tour was back at 3pm, so we had time to spend a few hours in Warnemunde too. It was really a very cute little beach town! and literally just walk right off the ship and you're there. We ate at a waterside restaurant, browsed in some shops, and went to the strange strawberry place the ship docks next to. Some German strawberry company has little stands all over, and they had this larger store/cafe right there, almost like a Cracker Barrel (but with strawberry alcoholic drinks - I got a beer with strawberry syrup). We did not go to the beach itself, which I slightly regret, in retrospect.

I won't even begin to attempt to wade into what's allowed/not allowed by German/EU/etc. laws. However, I do think there is something weird with the way NCL handles German ports. We had 2 different German ports in a row on the Dawn this summer, and we had to have passports with us when we got off the ship at one port but not the other. It made no sense to me. We weren't overnight in either of them. So maybe there is more to the story with the German ports.

NCL puts dock/tender info into the confirmation email with your cruise details. The confirmation email will have a pdf attachment with the itinerary, and there is a "dock/tender" column for each port. (That's not to say that a change is impossible, of course, before someone else chimes in to make a note of that.) I overlooked this until someone else pointed it out on the NCL forum. So even if you don't have the info before booking, you will have it in advance of the cruise. We did an NCL Baltic with a mostly-different itinerary this past summer and hit all of our ports as scheduled, no changes, no tenders. Warnemunde was the only one port we visited that is also on this itinerary; that dock was literally right there by the town and train station. I don't think there is any way a ship could tender there, tbh. Cute little town! We thought the Dawn was fine. We didn't think the food was great, but it wasn't across the board bad, and the entertainment options weren't really our speed, but for a port-intensive Baltic - it was a good floating hotel. There was plenty of storage in the staterooms, everything in the rooms was in pretty good shape, comfy beds IMO, shower was a decent size for an older ship. I wouldn't choose it for an itinerary with a lot of days at sea, for my family anyway (2 teens and 2 adults). The kids pool area was cute, so I actually think families with younger kids might be pretty happy on a quieter ship with that amenity. Not sure what aspects of the ship matter most to you, but happy to provide more details if you have specific questions.

I'm laughing at the confusion about bacon and shrimp but not at all surprised! But yes, this part that I quoted here - exactly!! It really makes you question what the heck is going on, very nerve-wracking. It was irritating when they seemed so put off that anyone would ask for something off-menu or altered, but it was down right weird when they got confused and/or changed things up without warning. There is a steak on the standing menu, labeled gf, that my son pre-ordered two different nights. He liked it just fine the first time, but also - there just weren't many options to choose from, and for a 10nt cruise, repeats were basically unavoidable for them. Anyway, when he got it the 2nd time, maybe 4 or 5 nights after the 1st time - it was missing the sauce. He hadn't gotten sick from the sauce, and it was on the menu as gf with that sauce, but did someone else think the sauce wasn't gf? Did someone accidentally gluten the sauce that night? who knows. In the end, neither of them got sick, but it was such an annoying experience, as a parent and spouse. I am sure my husband thought it was even more annoying than me, since he was experiencing it both personally and as a parent. Ironically, my son says he didn't think the food quality was as unimpressive as the rest of us thought. It's a good thing he isn't picky! But he also ate the entire large stash of protein bars we brought for the two of them, on top of eating in ports at safe places I found, b/c there are only so many O'Sheehans burgers on a gf bagel that a teenager can eat LOL.

I'm really sorry to hear that you didn't have great luck on the Dawn. We chatted back and forth in a previous thread after my family went on the Dawn in June/July (with similar supply issues, etc.). So odd that it's just the Dawn, but I guess that's why our issues seemed so at odds with everything else we read up on. We *did* ask for (some) things, and it was still so difficult to get them! I wonder if we also liked the same maitre'd? (I believe his name was Ernesto.) If it hadn't been for him, the entire experience would have been far more frustrating, as he did what he could with the limited tools at his disposal. At least for my husband and son - eating meat helped, b/c all the marked items seemed to be meat-based entrees. Being a vegetarian must have made it much harder.

We were on the June 22nd 10nt Baltic on the Dawn, and yes, they did! They had one Indian dish plus chapatis at breakfast. It wasn't the same dish everyday but always tasty (and always vegetarian). It was by the congee, and they were only on ONE side of the buffet. I didn't find it the first couple of days, as a result. (Certainly possible that it'll move, but it was the buffet line on the right side as you enter.) I don't recall eating lunch in the buffet ever. We didn't have any sea days so we were always in port, and we ate in the MDR on embarkation day. Can't help there. For dinner, they definitely had at least a couple of Indian dishes plus rice and accompaniments every night. The daal is really good. I found the Indian food in the buffet to be much better than the MDR dinners. There were other Asian things near it, too.

My husband says "that looks like a flat, wet souffle" and wants to know why there are coconut flakes lol. We had this on the Dawn a few weeks ago, and it was fine and also definitely did not have coconut flakes or that weird blob. However, they did have some struggles in the creme brulee department, as the raspberry version two of us had in Cagney's were basically mousse. Super weird. Glad you finally got a good, protein-included entree. They must have googled vegetarian protein sources ha!

Lurker here, coming out of hiding. 🙂 First off, I love your reports! I have always wanted to go to Iceland, and every time I come on CC and read your latest updates, I get more and more interested. Gorgeous photos, and thank you for sharing with all of us! I had to comment b/c of the food. We were on the Dawn a few weeks ago (10nt Baltic), and while I don't think our food was quite as bad as yours, we also did not think it was good. (We did have some highlights - crepes, Indian on the buffet, Le Bistro, Moderno, but found the MDRs largely disappointing.) One of the issues was that they struggled to adapt to supply problems. I wondered if this was ship specific but now wonder if it's an NCL issue. For meat/fish/poultry, when they ran out, they subbed menu items that made sense (ex: ran out of chicken breasts, subbed a chicken thigh dish). For other things, though, they might employ odd conservation measures (cutting bananas for the buffet, which then got brown fast so no one ate them) or try to force in an alternative ingredient without warning. I'm thinking of your beet green salad here! For us, it was arugula. OMG they used that everywhere for the first few days of our cruise; it became comedic. It was subbed in for regular greens in salads, it garnished entrees, it was the green on the basic meat/cheese sandwiches on the buffet. I like arugula just fine, but it's a distinct flavor and doesn't belong in everything! Anyway, my pescatarian daughter really struggled, especially once eggs began to be conserved. I am sure some meat/potatoes people on our cruise didn't notice a thing. I hope that things get better!

I'm afraid I cannot help with this specific port, but you may luck out and find that NCL offers a free shuttle. This happened for the port we visited in June marketed as Kotka in Finland (but really Hamina). Public transport (taxis, buses, etc.) did not go into the secured port area, and passengers were not allowed to leave the ship unless they had an excursion or were boarding the NCL shuttle (literally right next to the ship). Of course the NCL excursions had booked up in advance, and what were they going to do with all the people left out? I think NCL kind of had no option but to provide the shuttle for free! It's definitely a bit frustrating that they do not provide info about shuttles in advance. I have read here on CC about shuttles (that NCL charges for) in the European ports, but it never seems like people know in advance if they will be offered. Crossing fingers for you. 🙂