NCL Newbies Cruise the Dawn to Bermuda 10/20-27

Hello Cruise Critic! This will be a review of our cruise to Bermuda on the Dawn and I hope someone finds it helpful. I didn’t find a ton of reviews on this cruise when I was searching so I hope I can provide some useful information for those planning to cruise next year.

“We” is myself (48) and my husband (42) from Dallas,Texas. This was my 4th cruise and my husband’s 6th and our first on NCL. We are (so far) not loyal to any line, and we hope to try them all eventually. Strangely enough, this was the first cruise hubby and I went on by ourselves. On two, we traveled with a friend and our last cruise in June to Alaska was with my in-laws. So that was a first also.

Lots of people asked us why we came all the way from Dallas to go on a cruise to Bermuda from Boston. I won a $1500 travel voucher at my company party last year and we decided to put it towards a cruise out of Boston so we could combine the cruise with a visit to see my brother-in-law who lives there.

Originally we were looking at the New England cruises since we wanted to go in October and I was worried about hurricanes. But the dates weren’t working with BIL’s schedule and that was when I found the cruise to Bermuda. Since I would rather go to the beach anyway,that sounded good to me.

In all honesty, we didn’t have huge expectations for this trip. We knew the ship was older and smaller, we knew the weather was somewhat of a gamble. We were basically using the ship as a way to get to Bermuda and back and then planning to enjoy Boston if by some miracle it wasn’t freezing or raining. We figured if the weather was bad, hey at least we had an almost free trip and it was still better than being at work.

But boy did we get lucky! The weather in both Bermuda and Boston was incredible and I don’t know if it was NCL or the fact that this was our first cruise alone together but we had an absolute blast! We did a ton of stuff we had never done before, met people, and generally had a fabulous time!

I will post a day by day trip report but thought I would start first with thoughts on the various general categories in case this is all someone wants to read. I do have the Dailies but I’m not going to post them so if you have questions, just ask. A reviewer from earlier this year posted them and I had used them to plan dinners, etc. and found them to be pretty much the same with just a few exceptions.

The Ship

I had read mostly good things about the Dawn. This is the size of ship that hubby and I are used to—we don’t have plans to cruise on a “big” ship until 2019. The layout did take a bit of getting used to. We had to learn what decks you could go all the way through on and how to get to certain places. I also think the layout makes the ship feel slightly crowded in some places. But that being said, we really liked it and found it easy to navigate once we learned a few tricks. The one place that was consistently a zoo was the pool deck. Since the weather was cooler, hubby and I got spa passes and just used the hot tubs there instead of the pool deck and that for us is a good choice. The pool deck just wasn’t my thing. But if you like a hopping atmosphere 24/7 you’ll love it, we just preferred something more relaxing.

Also for some reason deck 6 in front of Aqua was always packed with people. Also elevators were hard to come by at peak times.

The Cabin

We originally chose an inside cabin. I don’t know why we did this except for the fact that we didn’t figure we would use a balcony much. I regretted it almost immediately and hubby said we could get the spa passes to make me feel better. Still, I told hubby we needed to bid on a balcony if we got the opportunity.

I’m not sure when we got the email but it was later than the normal 80 days out—more like 65 I think. We bid $150/pp on the balcony and got it 9 days before the cruise. Yippee!

We ended up in a mid-ship balcony on deck 9 near the elevators which we LOVED. The location could not have been better. Hubby and I take the stairs almost everywhere and being just a few floors up or down from wherever we were going was perfect.

The balcony was small but covered. I don’t know if all NCL balconies arecovered—it was something I didn’t think to research. But it was great because it meant we could use it a bit more. And like we figured, we didn’t use it all that much. However, we came to the conclusion that we will always get one in the future because Ilove having fresh air in the morning especially if I’ve been drinking and wheny ou do want to use the balcony, it’s really nice to have. So yeah, you don’t always use it, but I still like having it is the bottom line. And in this case, it was a great deal.

I loved the shower in this room—it is my favorite cruise ship shower that I’ve had outside of when we stayed in a suite. It’s an actual shower with a door, not a tube so that was good. The bed was comfortable and although I had read about thin walls and hearing our neighbors, we didn’t hear them, although I could sometimes when I was using the bathroom.

We had a couple of kind of gross things happen involving housekeeping that I won’t detail but let’s just say that that was a slight issue. Also we never saw our steward or really talked to him, he was always busy. But we didn’t really need him so it wasn’t a huge deal.

The only real negative is that the room was totally noisy at night. The seas were a little rough and our entire sleep was filled with a cacophony of thumping, creaking, cracking, bumping—I have no idea what was going on but I couldn’t wait to get to Bermuda so I could finally sleep. Usually I love sleeping on a cruise ship but not in this room. I had to use earplugs the last two nights tohave any hope of sleeping at all.

The only other negative was that BOTH of our neighbors smoked on their balconies. If we had been using it more, I would have tried to report it but I just didn’t bother.

The Drinks

We got the UDP with our promo and a 24-pack of water. We don’t drink enough to buy a drink package but we’ve had it included 2 cruises now and it is really nice to have so it will be hard to go back to not having it. Most of the drinks were pretty good I thought and most are well under $15. Hubby got a few classic cocktails like Old Fashioned and Manhattan and most were made well. There were a few times we paid the difference as we don’t mind paying a few dollars for something we really want. It was annoying though when I wanted something that was below $15 yet not included—that didn’t really make sense to me. If it only costs $2.95 or $8 then why can’t I just have it? But whatever. Drink service was ok, sometimes there were lines but usually it wasn’t a huge wait except at of course the pool bar.

The Food

Overall we liked the food on NCL a lot. We don’t usually do the buffet except for cereal at breakfast but the one time hubby had a hot breakfast there it was pretty good. Also the buffet was slightly less frenetic than most and we could always find a clean table. Service was always good too. With the other choices, we just didn't have to eat there very much.

We ate at the MDR Venetian several times, service was great, we never had to wait, and we enjoyed everything we had there. I would say this was my favorite MDR experience on any cruise. We always walked right in with no wait.

We did not have the SDP but we ate at 3 restaurants anyway. We made reservations at Cagney’s and Los Lobos and walked in to Le Bistro.

Cagney’s was great, steaks were delicious.

Los Lobos was my least favorite but still good. The tableside guac, appetizers and margaritas were yummy, mains were just OK. Also it was really busy and the servers seemed harried.

Le Bistro I would give 3 stars as to what I got. It would have been nice to have dishes explained more beforehand. When my shrimp dish came it was in a cream sauce when I thought it would have been lemon butter. But it’s my fault for not asking. Also my salad was different than what I expected. So my experience was ust ok.

Hubby’s escargot and bouillabaisse however was outstanding and worthy of a 5-star restaurant. Our waiter was great and we sat and talked with him for a long time. The restaurant is very pretty also.

We ate at O’Sheehans for lunch and breakfast several times and it was good too. Hubby loved the wings! We also ate at Bamboo and it was ok but if you don’t get there right at 5:30 when they open, you won’t get in. We were also not able to walk in to La Cucina, it was a 30-minute wait at 8:00. We didn’t bother to eat at Teppanyaki because we eat hibachi a lot here at home and have seen the show many times.

The Service

Service in general was fine. It was adequate overall with a few standouts. I am used to more attentive service, more conversation, etc. and sometimes we did get that but overall it was more no-nonsense. Not rude, just take your order, here is your food, are you ok, then goodbye. I kind of got the feeling no one was really looking for tips so they just did what was required and that was it. Which is certainly ok, it’s just not what I’m used to. Some people may actually prefer that.

The Entertainment

The cruise director was Richard Matic. I have never even paid attention to the cruise director until this cruise. Richard was amazing. We loved him. He and his cruise staff kept the party going night after night and looked like they loved every minute. I was amazed how they could do it time after time and look like it was the first time ever.

The production cast was also the best I have seen on a cruise. These were obviously talented dancers with training and the choreography was also the most difficult I had seen on acruise.

We saw several shows which was new for us. I might be able to drag hubby to half of one on each cruise. But we enjoyed these. We saw the Welcome Aboard Show (really fun), Band on the Run (ok, not my favorite), Elements (amazing), and Soul Duo (also amazing). We had wanted to see the magician but missed it. We don’t normally care for comedians so we didn’t go but we heard good things about the one on our cruise. If we didn’t see a show, we normally sat in a lounge and heard live music. There was music in almost every venue which we enjoyed.

The Dailies were very informative. I don’t know if most people read the whole thing but there were some great tips and stuff in there. There was a ton to do—I felt like we did alot and there was still some things we didn’t get to.

The Excursions

We did two excursions through NCL and enjoyed them both. One was a sunset swizzle catamaran cruise that we did the first night in Bermuda. It was fun and the guide was informative. The swizzles weren’t the greatest but it’s always fun to be out on the water and we saw a great sunset.

The second was Hidden Gems which we really wanted to do but since we did it the last day and it’s a 7-hour tour, we felt better about booking it through the ship which turned out to be a good idea. We enjoyed this tour and I’ll go into more etail about it later.

Once I learn how to upload pictures I’ll continue. Any questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you, I'm looking forward to your posts as I've never been to Bermuda.

Have a great time.

:DFollowing I'm doing my first NCL cruise on the Dawn on 12/28/2017, the first part of the review was super informative.

Thanks

I'm enjoying reading your review and reliving my cruise through you. Steve and I really enjoyed meeting you and Ben and could tell you were enjoying your time. I'll wait for the ending while I get used to being back to work. Loved his fluff shirt and wonder if he'll be the first one in Texas to know what a fluffernutter is. Time to taste one

I'm enjoying reading your review and reliving my cruise through you. Steve and I really enjoyed meeting you and Ben and could tell you were enjoying your time. I'll wait for the ending while I get used to being back to work. Loved his fluff shirt and wonder if he'll be the first one in Texas to know what a fluffernutter is. Time to taste one

Aww thank you! We enjoyed it too. And Ben wore the shirt on Friday in Boston and it was a hit! :)

Test pic.

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Ok, this looks like it's working so on we go! I don't know how to make the Flickr thing go away but oh well.

We arrived in Boston on the Thursday before the cruise. We didn't do a ton so I won't go into details. We stayed at the Aloft at the Seaport using points gifted to me from my boss. We got a room with a view of the harbor and could see the ship Friday when we woke up.

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We went to a pizza place, walked to a park for sunset, had a drink at Legal Harborside and then went back to the hotel for the night.

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On Friday morning, we took our time getting to the port which is something we don't normally do. Normally hubby wants to get to the port by 10:30 but I had read we wouldn't board to until around noon. But this was a mistake on my part as we heard the call for all aboard around 11:40--while we were still in line. Planning fail.

Embarkation was easy peasy and we were on board by 12:15. Our rooms weren't ready until 1:30. And we had two carry ons so I was glad when the announcement was made. We explored the ship and had a bite at O'Sheehan's until we could go to our room.

We saw the pool deck, gym and toured the spa and got our passes. I know the passes get asked about a lot. We got ours at the 90 day mark before the cruise. The thermal spa on the Dawn has coed heated loungers, 2 hot tubs, a lap pool, and then separate relaxation rooms, locker rooms, saunas, steam rooms, and showers. Hubby said his locker room had a hot tub but I could never find it on my side. Also the steam room on my side was so hot--it was like scalding, face-melting hot. It was kind of disappointing since I love to go back and forth between the steam room and sauna.

The thermal spa does get busy and yeah the loungers can be hard to get but we felt like we got our fair share and if there were no loungers, we would just sit in the hot tub or go to the relaxation lounge. We used the passes every day and felt like we got our money's worth.

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We had a drink at the pool bar and lunch at O'Sheehan's and then went to the room and looked around and unpacked what we could until muster drill.

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After muster, we went to look for a spot for sailaway and to get a drink--this was the one time everything was packed and getting a drink was really hard. I think I got a Painkiller. It was delicious.

Sailaway was supposed to be 4:00 but it was closer to 5:00 when we finally left.

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After sailaway, we came back to the room to find our luggage waiting so we unpacked and got settled for the week. We watched sunset on the balcony before dinner at Cagney's.

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We both got the filet but were too full for dessert. Everything was really good.

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After dinner, we saw the Welcome Aboard show which we had never been to on a cruise before. I really liked it and will make a point not to miss it on future cruises.

We then went to Gatsby's Champagne Bar for a drink. That name is a misleading as I was expecting to find a very champagne-laden menu which it is not. But the most disappointing thing is that it is next to both the cigar lounge and the casino. And as non-smokers, this made it impossible to enjoy. This was really terrible planning on NCL's part. I was slightly heartbroken. Luckily, we were able to come back most nights and it was fine but for whatever reason we could not sit there this time.

So we went to O'Sheehan's for a drink and since it looks over the atrium, we sat there and enjoyed music by Jose and Patti until it was time to call it night. We set our clocks one hour ahead before bed.

Saturday morning after breakfast of cereal and granola at the buffet, we went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet at Le Bistro. It was here we met the famous Richard who was kind enough to take our picture.

Here we are:

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I think we had like 40 or 50 people at our meet and greet. The organizers did a great job and all the officers were there and introduced themselves which was really cool. We met the hotel director Alain who said that next year, the Dawn will do 6 New England cruises instead of 4 -- which I guess means there won't be as many to Bermuda. He also said that they do not know what the future of the Dawn is past 2018.

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We did a gift exchange and some of us did a slot pull after the meet and greet which was a blast. The whole thing was really fun and we met a lot of nice people that we talked to during the cruise. Thank you again to our organizers!

After the M&G, we went to lunch at O'Sheehan's and spent the afternoon in the thermal suite and then took a nap. Real exciting stuff, I know!

This was "Norwegian Night Out" so hubby and I dressed up a little. Hubby really wanted to try Bamboo so we got there right at 5:30 when they opened. I thought it was ok--he really wanted to go back again but it was always packed and while it was ok, I thought there were better choices.

Another reason we ate early was so that we wouldn't miss sunset.

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After dinner, we saw Band on the Run which was a 70's inspired production show. It was ok, not great but worth watching especially since I love 70's music. After that, we decided to try Gatsby's again. It was packed so we sat at the bar and I had a delicious chocolate martini.

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Luckily the smoke didn't bother us and we stayed for rounds 2 and 3 listening to the piano player Ariel. I switched to a drink called a French Raspberry.

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We saw a couple that we had sat next to at Cagney's and they joined us for drinks and we met up with them several times during the cruise. They were a really fun couple from Toronto and we enjoyed hanging out with them and hearing about their lives in Canada.

Tomorrow we would wake up in Bermuda!

So here is a rundown of how we spent our days in Bermuda.

Sunday: Toured Dockyard, drink at Frog & Onion, lunch at Anchor restaurant, walked around Snorkel Beach Park and took pictures, and then our sunset sail at 5:30. I had really wanted to take the bus to Gibbs Lighthouse but we ran out of time.

Monday: Took $7 shuttle to Horseshoe Bay, had drinks and lunch and then walked to Warwick Long Bay and back. I had planned for us to clean up and then take the ferry to Hamilton to have dinner at the Hamilton Princess. But once again the time got away from us so we just had dinner at the MDR on the ship.

Tuesday: Hidden Gems tour through NCL. I had planned to buy souvenirs before all aboard but -- you guessed it -- ran out of time!

Overall I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. After Sunday, it got windy and many boat tours were cancelled. That was also the best sunset we had. Monday was a perfect beach day and the tour on the last day alot of fun also as well as a way to have a full day without worrying about getting back to the ship. But we did not see much of the east end of the island or any of those beaches so I would definitely like to go back at least once to do some of the things that we missed. Also now that I have seen the island, I think I would feel more comfortable getting around on our own, taking the bus and ferry, etc.

Greatly enjoying your narrative and photos.

I will continue to follow.

Keith

On Sunday we got up and went to O'Sheehan's for breakfast. I got a veggie omelet which was pretty good and hubby got the country platter.

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After breakfast we went to the thermal suite and then got changed for our day in Bermuda. We were due to dock at 1:00 but by 11:45 we were out on the deck to watch the ship come in and were off the ship by 1:30.

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We spend the day in the Dockyard seeing everything there was to see. We got a yummy rum swizzle at Frog & Onion and a fish sandwich "Bermy style" at the Anchor restaurant and it was delicious. We saw one of the cast from the production shows there and he was really nice and chatted with us. We saw the glass factory and got samples at the rum cake factory (sooo yummy!) We shopped for souvenirs at the Clocktower Mall and had a pina colada at Bone Fish. We still had some time so we walked into Snorkel Beach Park for a few pictures.

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Then it was out on the water for our sunset sail. A lovely New Zealand woman took our picture. She was the sister of a security officer on the Dawn who was also on our sail.

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Back on the ship, we changed for dinner and went to see what restaurant we could get in to. La Cucina had a wait so hubby put on a collared shirt and we had dinner at Le Bistro. We went to the casino and played some video poker and then met up with our Canadian friends and ended up at Bliss for awhile before calling it a night.

We are really enjoying your review and all the great pictures. We hope to do this cruise from Bermuda next summer. Thanks for sharing:cool:

We are really enjoying your review and all the great pictures. We hope to do this cruise from Bermuda next summer. Thanks for sharing:cool:

We don't have a summer vacation planned yet and I am thinking of doing it again too! It was really fun. :)

On Monday we got off the ship to make our way to Zone 5 to catch the mini bus. A taxi driver asked my husband if we needed help and he asked where Zone 5 was so we could catch the shuttle, but he flagged down a driver passing by and said he would take us. The bus was about the size of the shuttles but there were only 3 other people in the bus. The driver was really nice and pointed out sites along the way. At the end, he didn't even really ask for his fare, but we of course paid him anyway.

He dropped us off at Horseshoe and we found a spot to stake our claim on the beach. As soon as we got there, I could see they were not renting umbrellas due to the wind that had picked up some since Sunday. So since we would not have an umbrella and were going to make the walk to Warwick anyway, we didn't rent chairs but just put our towels down on the beach.

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I know people ask alot about the costs of rentals and food so I took pictures of the signs I could find.

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Just FYI, a small swizzle is really small. This was $7.

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After lunch, we made our walk to Warwick Long Bay. As we walked away from the bar area, the crowds thin out.

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Along the walk, we came across beautiful coves and overlooks. It was hard not to want to stop at every one.

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