Review of 9-day Dawn 12-4-09 (long)

[flrealtorlady01]

Housekeeping will knock with a DND sign up not come in unannounced as you stated! If you left your DND sign up all the time that is why you did not have housekeeping and based on your previouse post "They go wherever we do. 10-day on Disney, transatlantic with NCL, a B2B Alaska with Princess, a drive to Alaska and back (and all over the state too), two trips to Disney (most recent unplanned), and of course this last cruise. I don't see us leaving them behind. Sometimes we'll bring someone else along to help watch them (as we did on the first NCL cruise and the Princess cruise). :" As stated before Disney is probably your best bet with young ones. I would like to know what 10 day Disney cruise you did also as I only know Disney to do 3 - 4 days (or longer with Disney resorts) as part of the package...Let me know on that one please I would like to try a 10 day Disney cruise definately. As far as Princess, do your research....Older crowd,,,,,usually not for young ones.....do you read CC reviews?

[circuitrider]

I guess now you know that the next time you cruise not to bother to complain to someone at the front desk... maybe next time you will do what most people do when things aren't settled the way they want, ask for a supervisor or the boss... which in the case of the Dawn, the boss is Hugo...

On your next cruise, do yourself a favor and go to the cruise critic get together... not only will you meet members of the crew but you will also meet fellow passengers...

 

Perhaps. What is the front desk's function then? Aren't they supposed to be the front line? What is a regular passenger to do if they don't know the exact process to lodge a complaint? Believe it or not, not everyone knows about Cruise Critic. Plus, I'm not sure what good it would have done to demand to speak with Hugo (I doubt he's someone you'd just run into, though I could be mistaken). Would the food suddenly become better? Service across the ship snappier the very next day? Maybe Blue Lagoon could have been forced to cook 24/7. I dunno.

 

I did go to one cruise critic meeting. A while ago on the Celebrity Zenith. Not a whole lot went on there, had some small finger foods, people who already knew each other mingled, had a picture taken, that was it. Plus, I'm not sure you'd want that ruined by a rambunctious 3yr old running around everywhere.

[flrealtorlady01]

Sounds to me you probably need to hire a NANNY for your cruises so you and your wife can actually enjoy one! (Or should I say your wife should enjoy one since she seemed to be doing all the running with the kids, while you were in line complaining) Cruises or ANY vacation is what YOU make of it not the issues you are complaining about! You sound like you really need a hubby & wife vaca alone (and not with kids or not creating another kid):o

[circuitrider]

Could you explain this please...how do you only use housekeeping twice? Did they not clean your room, change towels, make beds, etc on a daily basis?

 

Not flaming you or anything, just asking a question! :o

 

The room was finally completely ready the first night (they did have to come a couple times, but they were just doing things that should have already been done like having the floor and toilet clean, sheets on the bed, pack 'n play for the baby, two lower beds put together, etc.).

 

We don't have anyone clean our rooms, change towels, or even make our beds on a daily basis at home. No real need to have that just because we're on a ship. We tend to use towels a few times before washing, so with four towels and two adults, we can go several days (there were other smaller towels that we used for the kids).

 

First time we used housekeeping was after Samana. Floor had to be vacuumed, apparently my son brought a good bit of sand in his swimming trunks. I forget the other night it was used, maybe St. Lucia? I figured they did a bit more work those two times, so I gave them credit for the entire day (instead of half a day). I threw in an extra day for the heck of it, said nine divided by three is three, so gave them 1/3 of the full tip amount.

 

Whenever we do use housekeeping, we only use it at night. I learned that sometimes they get to go off the ship once they're done for the day, so I don't want them wasting time in the morning that could be used in port. So if you only want them to come once in the day and don't really care, might as well make it at night (especially if it's a port day). That and you get the cool towel animals at night (and sometimes chocolate, though we didn't see any).

 

Oh, I have a quick question. When you request the beds to be put together, do they generally just push the two beds together and call it a day? Or do they put a separate pad on top, a queen-size sheet, and queen-size comforter? I thought it was made up like an actual queen bed on the Dream (and has been on the other cruises), but not so this time. Made it kinda hard when one of the kids wanted to sleep with us (big crack in the middle that they'd get stuck in), though it was nice to have my own separate covers that my wife couldn't steal :)

[circuitrider]

Housekeeping will knock with a DND sign up not come in unannounced as you stated! If you left your DND sign up all the time that is why you did not have housekeeping and based on your previouse post "They go wherever we do. 10-day on Disney, transatlantic with NCL, a B2B Alaska with Princess, a drive to Alaska and back (and all over the state too), two trips to Disney (most recent unplanned), and of course this last cruise. I don't see us leaving them behind. Sometimes we'll bring someone else along to help watch them (as we did on the first NCL cruise and the Princess cruise). :" As stated before Disney is probably your best bet with young ones. I would like to know what 10 day Disney cruise you did also as I only know Disney to do 3 - 4 days (or longer with Disney resorts) as part of the package...Let me know on that one please I would like to try a 10 day Disney cruise definately. As far as Princess, do your research....Older crowd,,,,,usually not for young ones.....do you read CC reviews?

 

Right...our issue was that they did knock with the DND up...I had taken DND to mean just that, no disturbing (i.e., no knocking unless it was really urgent). I started putting out a separate sign when the kids were asleep, no one knocked on the door for the rest of the cruise (a few bumped into it, but no biggie).

 

True, Disney would be best, but so would a nice Mercedes in our driveway (sadly ours was totaled, though I guess the 85 diesel does technically count). I was able to go for a few days to Disney, then go on the 9-day Dawn, and still have money left over vs. going on a 7-day on Disney (might be true even for a 3-4 day, I'd have to check). After the next mandated NCL cruise, I think we'll try Royal Caribbean. From what I've seen and read it should be the next best thing to Disney for kids (and our son is about the age where you have to worry about things like that).

 

The Disney cruise we went on was a special Southern Caribbean one. If memory serves me right, they had a 10-day followed by an 11-day (only difference in itinerary was St. Kitts was added to the 11-day). Had a different show every night (so everyone who knows all the shows for the 7 day...we had more!). Don "Ducky" Williams was on our cruise, and my wife went to one of the "how to draw" seminars (I think she drew Mickey Mouse). Restaurants were great, probably as good as Cagney's. Palo was an alternative restaurant that was worth the extra charge (when you figure how good the main restaurants were, that's really saying something). But...we'd rather sail once a year than go on Disney every four years or so. With kids getting older (and more probably on the way), this may change.

[flrealtorlady01]

OK now I am starting to ? how many cruises you have been on? You now mention the Dream, which is the new Carnival ship, or was there another Dream I may be ignorant to? Normally when I book my cruises, I am not even asked about beds together it just happens by assumption because my hubby & I have 2 different last names so someone on the other end is assuming we want beds together. We also try to get quad cabins as DS likes an upper bunk which is fine with us cause it leaves the lower as a sofa all the time. Unfortunately, NCL could not accommodate us on this cruise as there are no balcony quads on the Dawn, only suites which we could not afford.

[flrealtorlady01]

Fellow CC's anyone know or remember a Disney ship doing a 10 or 11 day Southern Carribean? I don't and I have lived in Fl for 20+ years

[circuitrider]

OK now I am starting to ? how many cruises you have been on? You now mention the Dream, which is the new Carnival ship, or was there another Dream I may be ignorant to? Normally when I book my cruises, I am not even asked about beds together it just happens by assumption because my hubby & I have 2 different last names so someone on the other end is assuming we want beds together. We also try to get quad cabins as DS likes an upper bunk which is fine with us cause it leaves the lower as a sofa all the time. Unfortunately, NCL could not accommodate us on this cruise as there are no balcony quads on the Dawn, only suites which we could not afford.

 

Sorry. The Dream I refer to was the Norwegian Dream, which is no longer. Haven't been on the Carnival Dream.

[circuitrider]

Fellow CC's anyone know or remember a Disney ship doing a 10 or 11 day Southern Carribean? I don't and I have lived in Fl for 20+ years

 

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=894223

 

http://www.miramont.com/disneywonder/

[sunquest76]

Thanks for your detailed review. We will be on the Dawn in January with our 1 year old (we don't leave her home either - we're a family).

 

Do you remember which beach you went to in Samana? How did you find it? We're still up in the air for an activity in Samana, and would like a nice beach day. TIA.

[sottovoce]

The Venetian does have more than just steak. That was the only thing on the every day menu that really interested me. Sometimes there'd be something different on the daily menu that I'd try, but more often than not it wasn't that great either (I did really like the crab cakes, even better than the ones in Cagney's in my opinion; if I ever have the same option I'll order them for my entree).

I have to say I find myself shaking my head at this paragraph. The most recent Dawn menus posted here on Cruise Critic showed entrees like braised lamb shank on the everyday menu as well as New York strip steak, and items like braised short ribs, broiled lobster tail, rack of lamb, sea scallops, prime rib, and mahi mahi as daily specials. Are you really saying nothing on this list "really interested" you? If so, then what would interest you? I could be very happy for a week choosing my main courses just from that list.

[circuitrider]

Thanks for your detailed review. We will be on the Dawn in January with our 1 year old (we don't leave her home either - we're a family).

 

Do you remember which beach you went to in Samana? How did you find it? We're still up in the air for an activity in Samana, and would like a nice beach day. TIA.

 

I forget the name of the beach, I think all the cabs will try to take you to the same general area. Price was expensive, I'm not sure if they were wanting $50 per person or total, but either way it was too high (and most were asking for $75 just to go to the beach, NOT the waterfalls). We tried asking one of the motorcycle taxi people but someone else kinda butted in to give his price. We turned directly to the guy we were originally trying to ask and asked him "how much would it cost to go with YOU?" and he punched in 30 on his calculator. We asked if that would be round-trip (and made the universal sign for round-trip, pointing in the air and making a circle) and he said yes. We tried to give him $15 once he dropped us off and then the other $15 when he came back, but he wouldn't take it. Oddly enough, I later saw that he was charging two guys $20 each, and required $10 from each after dropping them off (well, his brother was the one doing the talking since he's the one who spoke english; he seemed to run the resort while his brother brought people there).

 

Not the best beach, there was some trash here and there, but it was fine for us. The beach itself was fine, water nice and warm, no jellyfish stinging us. Ship was visible off in the distance (we weren't physically that far from where the tender dropped us off, just had to travel a bit on some roads to get there). There were other families with kids too, all seemed to be having fun. One word of caution, there was a lady sunbathing topless. Didn't bother us, but it didn't seem to be a big issue. So, it's not a topless beach (at least I didn't notice anyone else, not that I was looking), but if someone does go topless no one asks them to cover up.

[circuitrider]

I have to say I find myself shaking my head at this paragraph. The most recent Dawn menus posted here on Cruise Critic showed entrees like braised lamb shank on the everyday menu as well as New York strip steak, and items like braised short ribs, broiled lobster tail, rack of lamb, sea scallops, prime rib, and mahi mahi as daily specials. Are you really saying nothing on this list "really interested" you? If so, then what would interest you? I could be very happy for a week choosing my main courses just from that list.

 

Don't eat lamb, duck, etc. Don't really eat lobster though I have eaten dishes that contain it. Wife tried the lobster, said it was dry and noticed it didn't come with any butter sauce (or whatever she called it). Not big on ribs, prime rib, didn't want the mahi mahi, and never had sea scallops (other than some fish and shrimp, I'm not much of a seafood person). When I go to a nice restaurant, I generally end up ordering some kind of steak. Sorry, but the steak in the Venetian just wasn't good at all, it'd be about the quality I'd expect from a buffet (such as Ryan's or Golden Corral, though I've had better at those places). The chicken breast was decent, even though I'm not that fond of it (generally my chicken is fried and in drumstick form). My wife was slightly more adventurous than I, and I did often try some of her food to see how it was, and I didn't care for it much either.

[sottovoce]

Don't eat lamb, duck, etc. Don't really eat lobster though I have eaten dishes that contain it. Wife tried the lobster, said it was dry and noticed it didn't come with any butter sauce (or whatever she called it). Not big on ribs, prime rib, didn't want the mahi mahi, and never had sea scallops (other than some fish and shrimp, I'm not much of a seafood person).

As I suspected. It would be helpful if someone who writes that he couldn't find anything that interested him on the menu went on to list all the things that he just won't eat. In my opinion, Dawn's menu doesn't appear to have been the problem here.

[circuitrider]

As I suspected. It would be helpful if someone who writes that he couldn't find anything that interested him on the menu went on to list all the things that he just won't eat. In my opinion, Dawn's menu doesn't appear to have been the problem here.

 

I could have easily eaten a good steak every single night. Unfortunately that was not available without paying to go to Cagney's. I shouldn't have to eat something I find disgusting because they can't buy a quality steak (every steak ordered in the Venetian was cooked adequately, it was just a low quality steak). My wife likes lobster, but didn't like what was served. She likes beef stroganoff, but again did not like what was served. So, we have one person who tried many different items and one who tried a few, and both were dissatisfied. I'm pretty sure that if I liked lamb, or scallops, or whatever...that I would have been just as disappointed with what was brought to me. Can't say for certain, as there were some good dishes. The crab cakes were probably the best. The chicken breast was pretty good. Burgers were so-so. Chocolate mousse was good, both at lunch and dinner (at lunch it had a lemon sauce, at dinner it was mixed with raspberry sauce I think?). The New York Cheesecake was good, I liked it with strawberry sauce the best though the blueberry version was ok too (my wife didn't like the blueberry one, and the last day they served mine with blueberries but strawberry sauce over it, wasn't a great combo to me). Fish 'n chips was ok, just not what I was used to. Buffalo wings in the Blue Lagoon were pretty good (though my wife didn't care for them).

 

Another problem with the food is a lot of it was just bland. Everything from the eggs (how can that even happen?) to the desserts was just missing a lot of the taste that should have been there. This is a common thing on cruise ships in general though, not just NCL. I can even stand a bland steak if it's cooked right (enough A1 can fix anything, it's the duct tape of meat). Only problem is once I cut off all the grisly parts of the steak, nothing was left.

[Planer's Edge]

[COLOR=Black]self edit

PE[/COLOR]

[Tideone]

Sounds to me like you are a pretty picky eater and if all you want to eat is steak every night, and you don't have your cabin cleaned but twice on a nine day cruise... why do you cruise... especially since you didn't take any of the shore excursions and only went to one beach...
You might be better off saving your money on a cruise and use it to buy a Mercedes.
As for the front desk being able to handle complaints - sometimes they can and sometimes they can't... and when they can't, this is when you ask for someone with more authority to listen to your problems...
On our Dawn cruises, we have seen Hugo several times a day walking around the ship... checking on this and checking on that...
I am making a copy of this thread to take to him Friday so he can know the problems you encountered.... while it won't do you any good now... it might help a future passenger...
As for the blue lagoon cooking 24 hours a day, I seem to recall a sign that said they were closed for one hour each day for cleaning purposes... maybe this is when you arrived...

[sottovoce]

[quote name='Tideone']
As for the blue lagoon cooking 24 hours a day, I seem to recall a sign that said they were closed for one hour each day for cleaning purposes... maybe this is when you arrived...[/quote]
And they may serve 23 hours a day, but, like nearly every other restaurant, they serve different meals at different hours. The breakfast menu is different from the lunch/dinner/rest-of-the-day menu. I'm beginning to sense a much-ado-about-nothing feeling with this thread, with the so-called menu issue being the leading indicator. It's going into my "disregard" pile.

[jmcdon7230]

[quote name='circuitrider']..... Told my wife to go ahead and go back to the front desk and reduce our daily tip to $4pp ($2pp for housekeeping, fair due to only used twice)......We adjust the tip to 1/3 the previous amount, and have the note removed about splitting 80/20 (so housekeeping still gets 1/3 of the normal tip despite us only having two turn-down services).....Gave Maitre'd envelope with additional tip ($55) to be shared amongst Venetian staff. He asked if there were specific people we wanted it to go to. Briefly explained that due to some problems we reduced our tip amount, but wanted to have this tip amount go direct to the Venetian staff (since we ate there most, and our infant could be quite messy). He said he'd take care of it.....[/quote]

Do you have any idea what your final tip total was for the nine days?

[circuitrider]

[quote name='Tideone']Sounds to me like you are a pretty picky eater and if all you want to eat is steak every night, and you don't have your cabin cleaned but twice on a nine day cruise... why do you cruise... especially since you didn't take any of the shore excursions and only went to one beach...
[/quote]

I'm not THAT picky. I can eat steak every night IF it's decent. The steak at Cagney's was very good, if the steak in the Venetian was half the quality I would have been satisfied. The beef tenderloin in Le Bistro was ok, though undercooked.

Anyways...I'd read on the forums that the food quality had improved a good deal just recently. Since it'd been two years since sailing with NCL (on the Norwegian Dream), and I knew the food on that ship was decent, I was not expecting it to be worse on the Dawn.

Does having the cabin made up twice a day really add that much to the cruising experience for others here? I mean, I had them come almost every day on a different cruise, and while the chocolates were a nice touch I really didn't get much out of it. Cabin might have been a bit neater, but we also wasted time trying to find the things that had been moved around. Heck, I couldn't find my cellphone for a couple days on this ship until I moved the beds around and saw it'd fallen off the bed next to the wall (happened when the beds were made by the room steward; no I'm not complaining about the steward, rather it's just one more reason I prefer they don't come all the time). It actually reduces our cruise experience to have them come that often.

As far as excursions...we didn't have a lot planned for the trip. Honestly our two main excursion days were to be Cozumel and Grand Cayman. With that part of the cruise canceled, we just made do the best we could.

[quote]
As for the front desk being able to handle complaints - sometimes they can and sometimes they can't... and when they can't, this is when you ask for someone with more authority to listen to your problems...
[/quote]

I think part of the problem is how do you know they're able to handle the complaint? Unless it's an issue such as your toilet not flushing, how do you know if it's been taken care of? I dunno, I just hate having to keep asking for someone higher up to make sure an issue is resolved; I should only have to tell someone at the front desk once, and rest assured that my complaint's been logged (and appropriate action taken).

[quote]
On our Dawn cruises, we have seen Hugo several times a day walking around the ship... checking on this and checking on that...
I am making a copy of this thread to take to him Friday so he can know the problems you encountered.... while it won't do you any good now... it might help a future passenger...
[/quote]

Hence the reason for me simply jotting down notes and posting about the issues afterward. I could have spent the entire cruise complaining over and over and it wouldn't have made enough of a difference to matter. I can spend time after vacation's over to let people know of our experience. Maybe someone with similar needs to us will choose another line or at least know what to expect. Maybe someone from NCL will read this and decide that a few easy changes will help (they don't even have to have Blue Lagoon open 24 hours, just post the actual hours you can order and that'd be good enough for me!).

[quote]
As for the blue lagoon cooking 24 hours a day, I seem to recall a sign that said they were closed for one hour each day for cleaning purposes... maybe this is when you arrived...[/quote]

Nope, they weren't cleaning at the time. The first time was at 6:40AM, when they were doing the early bird breakfast (just had some danishes and what-not out). It was too early for the breakfast menu, but again the other menu specifically stated 24/7. The second time was at 10:50AM, wife specifically asked someone in the kitchen area if they were open for lunch and was told yes. Food was being cooked in that area (looked like they were preparing a bunch of salads for the lunch rush). When I tried to get a menu we were told they were switching over from breakfast to lunch, and thus could not cook either. Once again, the menu labeled Comfort Food plainly states that you can order from it 24/7, not 24/7 minus breakfast hours or certain hours before and after breakfast. No, it said 24/7, period.

[circuitrider]

[quote name='jmcdon7230']Do you have any idea what your final tip total was for the nine days?[/quote]

Yes. The onboard tip amount left was $108. That's $54 for housekeeping, $54 for the dining staff. This is 1/3 of the recommended daily tip. I left another $55 for the Venetian staff. So in total housekeeping received 1/3 of the tip amount for doing 1/3 the work (which we only requested they come the two times). The dining staff received 2/3 of the recommended daily tip, with half of that going to the overall staff, and the other half going directly to the Venetian staff. I can't remember the exact tip amount left at the specialty restaurants, but I'd guess it was about $13, maybe a bit more; I'd have to check my final bill again to be sure.

[circuitrider]

[quote name='sottovoce']And they may serve 23 hours a day, but, like nearly every other restaurant, they serve different meals at different hours. The breakfast menu is different from the lunch/dinner/rest-of-the-day menu. I'm beginning to sense a much-ado-about-nothing feeling with this thread, with the so-called menu issue being the leading indicator. It's going into my "disregard" pile.[/quote]

Ok, it wasn't that they were advertised as being open 24/7. It was the fact that a specific menu was stated as being available 24/7. So I should be able to arrive at any time (3AM, noon, 11PM, whenever) and be able to order off this specific menu.

The problem is that the last two times we went there, we were unable to order off of ANY menu. At 6:40AM my wife was told she could not order off the breakfast menu nor the 24/7 menu. Again at 10:50AM we were told that we could not order off the breakfast menu nor the 24/7 menu. Now, it would have been a bit annoying to arrive at 10:50AM, expect to be able to order some wings off the 24/7 menu, and be told they only cook breakfast until 11AM, but that would have been fine! I'd simply order some food for my son, wait ten minutes, and order what I wanted. At 6:40 in the morning my wife actually preferred breakfast, but again if it's not available, she should be able to order something off the 24/7 menu.

So in essence, we have a restaurant that's open all the time, and has a specific 24/7 menu. It shouldn't be too much to ask that when we arrive, they are able to cook something, anything.

[pokeastickinmyeye]

Some of us are just lucky.

1. Easiest boarding that I have had in ten cruises with NCL.
2. Best set of cabin attendants. Put [B]20.00[/B] in their hand before asking them to clean out fridge and be sure we always had extra towels, ice, etc.
3. Got luggage in room within 30 minutes of getting in cabin. See bolded item above.
4. I did find wait staff in dining rooms to be less warm and fuzzy than some previous cruises, but it may have had something to do with the previous week's fun and games.
5. We also took advantage of the discounted up charge in Cagney's once and paid full charge also. Same with Le Bistro. Discounted price encouraged so many reservations that the kitchen was overwhelmed. I spoke with both managers, and they were quite aware, but had no control over the pricing options. They both agreed that more kitchen staff would have solved the problem.
6. I have found that the front desk is almost always easy to access around the dinner hour or early or late in the day. If you had VIP status as you indicated, the concierge was also available to you to solve the type of problems you had with front office and hotel staff.

Sorry you had the problems you had, but this is still a working man's middle of the road cruise line. I had friends on the RCL the same week that paid 50% more per cruise day, and had similar problems to what you had.

[circuitrider]

[quote name='pokeastickinmyeye']Some of us are just lucky.

1. Easiest boarding that I have had in ten cruises with NCL.
2. Best set of cabin attendants. Put [B]20.00[/B] in their hand before asking them to clean out fridge and be sure we always had extra towels, ice, etc.
3. Got luggage in room within 30 minutes of getting in cabin. See bolded item above.
4. I did find wait staff in dining rooms to be less warm and fuzzy than some previous cruises, but it may have had something to do with the previous week's fun and games.
5. We also took advantage of the discounted up charge in Cagney's once and paid full charge also. Same with Le Bistro. Discounted price encouraged so many reservations that the kitchen was overwhelmed. I spoke with both managers, and they were quite aware, but had no control over the pricing options. They both agreed that more kitchen staff would have solved the problem.
6. I have found that the front desk is almost always easy to access around the dinner hour or early or late in the day. If you had VIP status as you indicated, the concierge was also available to you to solve the type of problems you had with front office and hotel staff.

Sorry you had the problems you had, but this is still a working man's middle of the road cruise line. I had friends on the RCL the same week that paid 50% more per cruise day, and had similar problems to what you had.[/quote]

1. I know most people had no problems boarding. There were others waiting with us though, so it wasn't an isolated case.
2. I shouldn't have to hand the steward a 20 to have the items in the fridge permanently removed. The other things listed we didn't really need. It wasn't that big a deal though.
3. We did receive our luggage in a semi-timely manner. We've always had our luggage arrive well before the cut-off time (like 8 or so at night), I know some others hadn't received theirs by dinner time though (not a complaint!).
4. I know they were stressed out by all that, but they also had at least a few days without having to worry about irate passengers. At any rate, I don't have any real complaints about their attitudes (they can be warm and fuzzy or not, as long as they're not rude).
5. Other than the beef tenderloin being way undercooked (wife even mentioned it could have been butterflied after the first round was brought, but the second was still a bit undercooked and not butterflied), no real complaints about how the food was prepared in the specialty restaurants. I was still a bit underwhelmed by the quality of the food itself, except for the steak in Cagney's (must restate that it was a pretty darn good steak). The Venetian is where most small issues were at such as items missing from the dish, wrong dish being brought, told an item ordered wasn't available when rest was brought out (no chance to reorder), etc. Food was cooked fine (other than a small area of one steak, all were cooked well-done and generally not burned too bad), but the food quality itself just wasn't there.
6. I don't believe we had VIP status, but we did have an invite to the VIP party (still have it, plainly states "C Rider and family" except it had my real name of course. I'm still baffled by that one. Never met the concierge.

I know NCL isn't top of the line and I didn't expect as much. Really, if we didn't have the issues getting onboard that we did (and the cabin was made correctly, the two are related), and things were available when stated (24/7 menu in Blue Lagoon, pools open on time, etc.) then I'd basically post about subpar food quality on an otherwise fine cruise.

[jmcdon7230]

[quote name='circuitrider']... I can't remember the exact tip amount left at the specialty restaurants, but I'd guess it was about $13, maybe a bit more; I'd have to check my final bill again to be sure.[/quote]

I find your attention to detail fascinating. Are you an accountant?

The specialty restaurants have an automatic gratuity. Did you add the $13 to the automatic gratuity?

Also you might not be aware that that the waiters rotate in and out of the Venetian....some to Aqua and other locations. I'm not sure how it would be possible to contain that $55 solely to the Venetian staff who were on duty when you dined.