TR Dawn with the Spring Break kids

[luddite]

Well thanks for the different take on things. I kept wondering who OP is? Do you mean me? How did I get to be OP?

 

I guess , in hind sight, it was a dumb thing to say that they should have warned us about spring breakers . They wouldn't have any one on the ship but them if they did

 

I did fill out the lengthy questioner that NCL sent me. I guess no one really wanted to complain we all felt it might make the birthday girl uncomfortable. Best foot forward and all that. It was not til after the cruise and the 3 of us sat talking that we all realized , we were unhappy with the same things and all felt the same way.

 

 

:)

OP means 'original poster' as regards a thread.

I know LOT'S of people who will not cruise during spring break or summer.

Spring breakers can be rowdy drunken fools-that's a given. That isn't the only problem. If you put 3-4 into a cabin, instead of 2, you will have a BUNCH more pax on the ship. This puts a strain on everything from cabin stewards to cooks to waiters. I honestly think that most of your difficulties stemmed from the timing of your trip, added to the 5 day aspect. Shorter trips get more partygoing rowdys.

You thought that you posted a negative report. Not so. It sounds like you enjoyed a lot from your trip. I think that your experience with NCL would be improved with a longer trip at a better time. I think that what you experienced would likely have happened on most other lines.

OK, the underwear thing is a problem and there is really no excuse. Bleah!

[CanadianTwosome]

Well thanks for the different take on things. I kept wondering who OP is? Do you mean me? How did I get to be OP?

 

I guess , in hind sight, it was a dumb thing to say that they should have warned us about spring breakers . They wouldn't have any one on the ship but them if they did

 

I did fill out the lengthy questioner that NCL sent me. I guess no one really wanted to complain we all felt it might make the birthday girl uncomfortable. Best foot forward and all that. It was not til after the cruise and the 3 of us sat talking that we all realized , we were unhappy with the same things and all felt the same way.

 

You are the OP because OP means 'Original Poster', so whomever the person is who starts a particular thread is the OP for that thread. :)

 

As I noted earlier, I completely understand about not complaining while you were on board. I'm sure you had a lot of better things to do with your time. I'm definitely in agreement with those who suggested doing so now, though. You can write a letter to NCL describing the condition of your cabin and how your issues were (or weren't) handled. I've never needed to do so, but I'm sure someone on the boards can provide you with an address... anyone? :)

[luddite]

another newbeee, who knows it all... Thanks so very much for your critique. Why is it first time posters that have all the bad experiences? Could it be them? lol Barb:D

 

Well, that one posted a pretty typical 'by the book' harangue complaining about NCL. A couple of outright untruths raised some eyebrows and I assume it got rather contentious and got poofed. There was some fun reading for a bit, though.

[siwst852]

Well I guess it just proves you are never to old to learn something new, OP LMAO, If someone does have a specific department or address that would be great.

[bplazo]

At one time, I thought that there was a cruisline that limited the number of children onboard.

[zazou]

I'm so sorry about your experience because we were on the Dawn the previous week with both my kids and the cruise was great (the 9 days)! They were only 142 kids on board that week but the kids crew told us that they were going to have 1000 kids the next week (your week). :eek::eek::eek:

 

My only complaint was for the formal dining room, because yes sometimes, it was a bit cold. They were always lines and that dining room was very busy. On the other side, the second dining room was always taking us without waiting and were only 2/3 full. There, the food was warm. I guess that some people going on the same cruise as me would then have found the dining average at best when we, switching dining room, really like it.

 

My 2 cabins were well maintain by the staff.

[newmexicoNita]

Well thanks for the different take on things. I kept wondering who OP is? Do you mean me? How did I get to be OP?

 

I guess , in hind sight, it was a dumb thing to say that they should have warned us about spring breakers . They wouldn't have any one on the ship but them if they did

 

I did fill out the lengthy questioner that NCL sent me. I guess no one really wanted to complain we all felt it might make the birthday girl uncomfortable. Best foot forward and all that. It was not til after the cruise and the 3 of us sat talking that we all realized , we were unhappy with the same things and all felt the same way.

 

OP is original poster so yep, that is you. As for the four of you discussing your overall impressions, I think this happens often, each though, may be feeding off of the other. Things that bothered you may not be a problem til someone else chimes in. You were fair in your review, you may have been a little to hard about ever sailing the line again. I think back to a couple of cruises we have taken that were a little less than up to par in our view, if I sit on the review for a week or two and re-examine I usually realize there was as many positives as negatives and sometimes even more. One particular cruise I have to admit, I went on, being prepared not to like it. Sure enough we had some problems. I did a review when we got back, much more positive than yours but did point out the few conserns we had. This was a line that has really loyal fans, you would have thought I had said the line should sink, or I should drop off the side of the earth. Now, I look back and I wish I had waited a few days or weeks. The problems we incountered were not all that bad and I will gladly sail that line again.

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

At one time, I thought that there was a cruisline that limited the number of children onboard.

 

Princess limits the number under a certain age. In this case the OP has said it was college kids.

 

Nita

[lovestocruise123456789]

I did fill out the lengthy questioner that NCL sent me. I guess no one really wanted to complain we all felt it might make the birthday girl uncomfortable. Best foot forward and all that. It was not til after the cruise and the 3 of us sat talking that we all realized , we were unhappy with the same things and all felt the same way.

 

Are you saying that you filled out the lengthy questioner on the ship?

[hammlm]

Look out, another newbie here.

 

By way of background, I have poked around here at CC for a while, my wife has lurked since we took our first cruise. That was on the Dawn in 2003.

 

We were on last week too. We were surprised by the amount of "kids" / spring breakers. We've really only cruised in March and never saw this phenomenon before.

 

At times the spring breakers were annoying, at times amusing, other times they were polite and helpful and even sometimes were not even noticeable.

 

We've cruised NCL 4 times, and RCI once. We didn't let them spoil our great time, but to be sure, some people were very put off. We're in the 40-ish demographic and usually feel like we exist in the 5% tail of young people in the age distrubution on a cruise (although we do feel "older" every cruise"). The hotel director told us that there were 1200 kids on board. Wow. We also heard on Thursday that a number of passengers were so fed up with "the kids" that they got off in Cozumel and flew home!!

 

Lots of funny funny stories about watching these kids. Some of the Florida State kids and the University Florida kids had some super-annoying rivalry chants -- but for the most part, the spring breakers we encountered were well-mannered, polite, engaging and just wanted to have fun.

 

Great fun was had drinking a bottle of champagne on our aft balcony in cozumel watching the drunk parade. Another poster said they were dismayed --- we were just cracking up. My wife came up with a theory that proved perfectly accurate -- anyone wearing a sombrero on the return trip was going to be drunk enough to need assistance walking.

 

On the plus side, the restuarants were not crowded at all (we did not eat in the venetian or aqua on this 5-day). Our concierge, Ashuman, was hands-down the best we've had. He was all business, didn't waste too much time kissing ass, and handled all of our requests superbly. He sought us out every night at dinner and checked in on us. He pulled some stuff off for me that I thought impossible.

 

Entertainment was on-par with the other NCL trips we've been on, but Bollywood was a repeat for us, and the material that Second City used was at least 50% recycled. The food was better than we remembered except for Le Bistro which left both my wife and I for want. The service was "ok", but the food was almost "bland" there. I had the duck. Even the chocolate fondue for two which we usually love had a very artificial flavor. Cagney's was the best we've had and we ate there twice. Salsa was very good. Impressions was good, but not as good as the Italian place on the Jewel --- We remember when impressions was a "regular" dining room. Didn't seem special at all there, but the food was good.

 

Our room wasn't dirty, but was a little worn. We were in 8670. I think the Dawn could use a re-furb. The elevators were beat and it seemed that a lot of the fixtures and furnishings in the bars and lounges were used hard. The stewards did a good job for us and John the butler was attentive and fun (although we rarely use the butler). I'd have to agree about the coffee service. We did get it refilled, but it took a call. I can't get enough of the espresso!

 

A little "Secret" at least to us about the "end" aft cabins on deck 8. The balcony doors towards the sides of the ship open to reveal a very narrow, but awesome 30-foot deck that wraps around the side. I loved that.

 

The biggest question I have coming off the Dawn for the second time is WHY DID THEY TAKE THE BAR BILLIARDS TABLE OUT OF Pearly Kings Pub??!?!?!

 

In closing, we will not book another 5 day in March. Lesson Learned --- but that said, we had a great time, and are thinking about getting shirts made up that say "I survived spring break 2010".

 

How's that for a first post? Lite up the flame throwers.

[fin]

Well, that one posted a pretty typical 'by the book' harangue complaining about NCL. A couple of outright untruths raised some eyebrows and I assume it got rather contentious and got poofed. There was some fun reading for a bit, though.

 

Amen. One of my own 'favorite' contributions, lost.

 

I saved it though.

[luddite]

Amen. One of my own 'favorite' contributions, lost.

 

I saved it though.

 

You saved the whole thread? Any idea what sent it to poofdom?

Can you re-post the thread?

[luddite]

Look out, another newbie here.

 

By way of background, I have poked around here at CC for a while, my wife has lurked since we took our first cruise. That was on the Dawn in 2003.

 

We were on last week too. We were surprised by the amount of "kids" / spring breakers. We've really only cruised in March and never saw this phenomenon before.

 

At times the spring breakers were annoying, at times amusing, other times they were polite and helpful and even sometimes were not even noticeable.

 

We've cruised NCL 4 times, and RCI once. We didn't let them spoil our great time, but to be sure, some people were very put off. We're in the 40-ish demographic and usually feel like we exist in the 5% tail of young people in the age distrubution on a cruise (although we do feel "older" every cruise"). The hotel director told us that there were 1200 kids on board. Wow. We also heard on Thursday that a number of passengers were so fed up with "the kids" that they got off in Cozumel and flew home!!

 

Lots of funny funny stories about watching these kids. Some of the Florida State kids and the University Florida kids had some super-annoying rivalry chants -- but for the most part, the spring breakers we encountered were well-mannered, polite, engaging and just wanted to have fun.

 

Great fun was had drinking a bottle of champagne on our aft balcony in cozumel watching the drunk parade. Another poster said they were dismayed --- we were just cracking up. My wife came up with a theory that proved perfectly accurate -- anyone wearing a sombrero on the return trip was going to be drunk enough to need assistance walking.

 

On the plus side, the restuarants were not crowded at all (we did not eat in the venetian or aqua on this 5-day). Our concierge, Ashuman, was hands-down the best we've had. He was all business, didn't waste too much time kissing ass, and handled all of our requests superbly. He sought us out every night at dinner and checked in on us. He pulled some stuff off for me that I thought impossible.

 

Entertainment was on-par with the other NCL trips we've been on, but Bollywood was a repeat for us, and the material that Second City used was at least 50% recycled. The food was better than we remembered except for Le Bistro which left both my wife and I for want. The service was "ok", but the food was almost "bland" there. I had the duck. Even the chocolate fondue for two which we usually love had a very artificial flavor. Cagney's was the best we've had and we ate there twice. Salsa was very good. Impressions was good, but not as good as the Italian place on the Jewel --- We remember when impressions was a "regular" dining room. Didn't seem special at all there, but the food was good.

 

Our room wasn't dirty, but was a little worn. We were in 8670. I think the Dawn could use a re-furb. The elevators were beat and it seemed that a lot of the fixtures and furnishings in the bars and lounges were used hard. The stewards did a good job for us and John the butler was attentive and fun (although we rarely use the butler). I'd have to agree about the coffee service. We did get it refilled, but it took a call. I can't get enough of the espresso!

 

A little "Secret" at least to us about the "end" aft cabins on deck 8. The balcony doors towards the sides of the ship open to reveal a very narrow, but awesome 30-foot deck that wraps around the side. I loved that.

 

The biggest question I have coming off the Dawn for the second time is WHY DID THEY TAKE THE BAR BILLIARDS TABLE OUT OF Pearly Kings Pub??!?!?!

 

In closing, we will not book another 5 day in March. Lesson Learned --- but that said, we had a great time, and are thinking about getting shirts made up that say "I survived spring break 2010".

 

How's that for a first post? Lite up the flame throwers.

 

No flames here. Thanks for posting.:)

[Zeno]

How's that for a first post? Lite up the flame throwers.

 

No need for flame throwers - quite a reasonable review - especially when you were dealing with March break on a cruiseship!

 

Interesting how tastes vary though - our meal at Salsa's on the Dawn was probably our least liked of the cruise (we were on the Dawn in Jan). We liked Impressions (we had a great waiter and the meal was very good.)

 

Thx for the review

And post again!

[Don Haynes]

Cold eggs? Did you go to the omelet station in the buffet? Or where you in the dining room? In the dining room I would have had the eggs returned to the kitchen... I expect my eggs to be at least luke warm....

 

If things aren't right on a cruise, complain at that time. Don't wait until you're home to write a negative review on the world wide web.

[gums1224]

I was on that March 7th cruise. When she says "Kids" they were young adults. They overtook the hot-tubs (We made a joke about "How many people can you fit in a hot tub?.), pools and pool deck). People say that they went to the adult obny hot- tub but they were adults and took over that too. Thank goodness for the balcony. I thought the food in the main dining room was never hot. Warm yes but not hot. LeBistro and Impressions were great!

[Warmer Climes]

In closing, we will not book another 5 day in March. Lesson Learned --- but that said, we had a great time, and are thinking about getting shirts made up that say "I survived spring break 2010".

 

 

You are a very good reviewer and I can tell you I would probably not have been as tolerant of the spring breakers as you were! I hope you stop lurking now and chime in more.

[siwst852]

Look out, another newbie here.

 

By way of background, I have pothe age distrubution on a cruise (although we do feel "older" every cruise"). The hotel director told us that there were 1200 kids on board. Wow. We also heard on Thursday that a number of passengers were so fed up with "the kids" that they got off in Cozumel and flew home!!

 

Entertainment was on-par with the other NCL trips we've been on, but Bollywood was a repeat for us, and the material that Second City used was at least 50% recycled. The food was better than we remembered except for Le Bistro which left both my wife and I for want. The service was "ok", but the food was almost "bland" there. I had the duck. Even the chocolate fondue for two which we usually love had a very artificial flavor.

 

We saw two Second City's one was the adult improv and it was great. I thought I saw Duck on the Le Bistro menu but when we went it was gone, you got lucky. We debated on the fondue but we had the creme brulee was the best dessert on the trip .

[DocJohnB]

and we found a Penthouse magazine in a drawer one time at a Vegas hotel,,it was the first time we had seen one, loved some of the jokes, still remember them, 30 plus years later.

 

Nita

Penthouse has jokes? :D

[sparks1093]

Penthouse has jokes? :D

 

Allegedly.

[halos]

This is the second post today regarding cold buffet food and dirty cabins. These 2 problems are exactly what soured me on NCL last April aboard the Norwegian Jewel. Since then my experiences on Royal Caribbean have been perfect in most respects. I really do like a lot of aspects of NCL and hope that they improve service.

 

I hope, with all my heart that if you do have experiences like this on ANY line, that you write (via US postal Service NOT email) to the corporate offices of the cruise line and let them know of your experience on the ship.

 

The cruise liens can NOT fix an issue unless they are made aware of it.

If there are cabins stewards out there not cleaning the rooms properly, the people in charge need to be made aware. Filling out the 'lengthy questionnaire' isn't good enough.

[newmexicoNita]

Penthouse has jokes? :D

 

you mean they weren't jokes????

 

 

NIta

[bulgargirl]

Any time in the spring time could turn into a spring break cruise. NCL is so cheap comparatively that it is a really good deal for college kids looking for something else to do.

 

By the way -

 

 

My cabin has never been dirty on NCL.

 

I have had food that was somewhat less than stellar. I usually think their food suits me just fine and every once in awhile its truly amazing. Usually, its "good enough". When it's bad, it's pretty bad though.

[DocJohnB]

you mean they weren't jokes????

 

 

NIta

Ummmmm, not the ones I was perusing. ;)

[mousey]

Rick we did not have red wine in the fridge NCL stocks red wine in the fridge . Who would think that a little tiny bottle would make such a huge mess. I know better than to put mine on ice

 

And yes we were wild wild wild women :D . This started as a 5 day cruise to celebrate 2 of our friends turning 70. We started with 8 and ended with only 4 women, 3 singles so perhaps they did smuggle in a man or 2 LOL.

 

 

Rock on girls!:D:eek:;):)