Dawn 2/20 CC members: Post your reviews and comments here:

[dongordon]

We just returned from the Dawn cruise and here is my review and comments:

 

Scoring: 1(Poor)........10 (Great)

 

Embarkation: 3 (Don't worry...It gets better!)

We arrived at 2:00 PM and did not board until 3:30 PM. Here I thought I would walk right on the ship going so late.

Many arrived at 12 Noon and did not board until 2:30 PM

 

The ship: 9

One of the nicest ships I have ever been on.....beautiful and clean.

 

Cabin: 5

I was very disappointed in the cabin in comparison to other ships I have been on. We had a Mini-suite and for three people it was crowded and storage space scarce. The bathroom was nice with a tub shower and separate toilet area, but I would have rather had less bathroom and more cabin space. I am used to small bathrooms on ships.

 

Food: 9.5

I thought the food was excellent and I have been on two Celebrity ships that get high ratings for their food. The Freestyle dining is great and the different restaurants a fantastic concept. If putting on weight during this cruise is a score indicator...then it would be a 10+!

 

Entertanment: 9.5

Great shows, especially the the two production shows.

Colin is about the best Cruise Director I have ever seen dating back to the 1970's on Sitmar with a CD named Janet. He is so personable and funny (silly at times, but loved by all...that what makes his demeanor so enjoyable). The 900 kid on board seemed to idolize him.

 

Ports: 5

I certainly prefer the southern carribbean ports and the excursion (Universal Studios) in Port Canaverale was cut to 4 hours instead of 5 hours.

Nassau...been there and done that so many times! Freeport - a bomb!

Miami - OK

 

Service: 9.5

Everyone was very friendly and the service was excellent...very impressive since they all share in the gratuities.

 

SPA:7

Very nice, but each lecture/treatment is followed by a "sell" of expensive products. I never experienced this "sell" tactics on other ships I have cruised.

 

Disembarkation: 9.5

The best I have ever seen. Had a liesurely breakfast (they serve up until 10:30 AM in the buffet and 9:00 AM in the Venetian. You can relax in your cabin until your color is called to leave the ship. Pick up is a disaster with so many people getting picked up, I don't know how that could be changed...it is simply a logistical problem.

 

Disappointments:

Not enough dancing lounges before dinner as in other ships. Basically, two piano players and a guitar band and singer.

 

Children's program:

My daughter is 12 years old and it is required that up to 12 years, the parents must sign them in and out.

Other ships, with the parents permission, the child could sign themselves in and out. My daughter is very responsible and this was a huge inconvenience and thus, she would not participate. I believe NCL should look at this policy more carefully in the future. I understand the "security" point, but for us it placed a damper on some of the cruise expectations for my daughter. However, she enjoyed "hanging" with us and that was fine.

 

Overall rating: 9

Great ship and crew....rebooked for an August Cruise!!

 

Questions?

 

Don

[ontheopenseas]

dongordon-I'm glad you had such a good experience, I enjoyed your rating system. Since your daughter did not participate in the kid's program, did she take part in any of the "adult activities" (i.e. craft classes, dance classes, ship tour, etc.). I'm sure my 12 yr. old dd,and possibly my 14 yr. old ds, will be interested in some of the programs on board and was wondering if other "younger passengers" participated. It sounds like we'll be pretty cramped in the mini suite. Oh well, if that's the worse problem we have, it seems we'll have an awesome vacation! Thanks!

[dongordon]

Ontheopenseas:

 

My daughter enjoyed the cooking lectures, chocolate buffet, game shows, evening shows and hanging out with Mom and Dad.

She took the video camera and produced and directed a tour of the ship and then interviewed us at the end of our cruise concering our evaluation of the cruise.

 

She and we had a blast!

 

You and your family will have a great time and by the third day, you will be used to the cabin and its shortcomings ( we referred to it as "The RV"!).

 

Don

[Hve2cruise]

Don.......When in August are you going? We will be going on the 8/21 sailing. We also have a mini suite and hope it is not too cramped. Thanks for the review. Can't wait to go!

[loemme22]

Thank you so much for the great review. We are leaving in a few weeks and loved hearing about your experience.

 

Can you tell me which restaurants you enjoyed the most? I was also wondering about the excursion to Universal. We are traveling with two young children and I am wondering if it is worth taking the Sea World Excursion.

 

Thank you!

[morepepper0405]

i am going on the august 21 2005

[dongordon]

Hve2cruise:

We will be on the cruise after yours..August 28th (we missed each other by one week!

 

Iomme22:

Impressions was our favorite main restaurant for dinner and we loved eating breakfast in the Venetian.

We had dinner in Bamboo, Le Bistro and Cagney's.

Bamboo's Teppanyaki was the most fun

Le Bistro had the best service and a chocolate fondue that was unbelievable.

Cagney's served up a perfect steak and my wife loved the lobster!

All three restaurants were great.

I also had the special $5 sushi lunch one day. The sushi comes on a conveyor system and you pick and choose whatever you wish to eat. They made up a platter of spice tuna for me that was the best sushi I have ever tasted.

The only disappointing dinner was the lobster tails in the main dining rooms. They were very small...the smallest I have ever seen served on a ship. My 12 year old daughter who is not a big eater had 4 of them.

Other than that, the food was great.

 

We went to Universal and I think that it is better for older children. I went to Seaworld years ago and it was very good. I'm sure they would enjoy that or Disney.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Don

[loemme22]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. It's a big help!

 

Can you tell me how long the bus ride was to Universal? The theme park excursions seem expensive and involve a lot of travel for one day, so I was wondering if it's worth it.

[npmadsen]

DAWN 2/20-2/27 Sailing

We had a really nice cruise critic group on our cruise, it was nice to see people in the hallways and at mealtimes.

We had a very relaxing cruise; there are many positives but some areas that could use improvement. But some of the areas are really related to leaving in the winter from NYC. I really like being warm and on deck , 1 and ½ days going and coming for a total of 3 days in the cold was not to my preference.

I have to say the staff was very accommodating and friendly.

The cruise director Colin was incredible. He was extremely entertaining and made one feel if he was talking to just them. He alone would make me want to sail again.

Hubby and I splurged and did the couples massage, neither one of us ever underwent a spa massage. The staff was very professional.

The celebrity cook-off was great in addition to many of the game show games.

 

Several things that could be improved to make a more enjoyable cruise to me are:

Embarkation was horrible, absolutely no communication. Once we entered the pier we had to find someone to tell us where to go, then we were in a holding pen, not once early on did anyone communicate what the hold up was, I think all would have accepted sorry but we are having difficulty with whatever the problem was and we will keep you abreast of the problem. Having information makes things very benign and manageable.

 

Once again communication, delay in the first port. We had family anticipating our arrival at 9am; the ship did not arrive till about 12noon. Hubby kept reading the bridge reports and he felt we would not be in on time, but the report kept saying 9am. We were not told till near 9am that we were delayed almost 3hrs. Many passengers had scheduled excursions to the Orlando theme parks and had their time cut short by 2hrs. We only stayed one extra hour in port. I feel they should have been offered an opportunity to cancel the excursion at that time. We were lucky had planned our own to KSC. The only problem our parents had to wait for our arrival.

 

Also only when we were docking in Miami they told us we would not be going to the NCL private Island, due to the hurricane damage. The Island was not ready, esp will all the kids on board. This was very poor, I am sure they knew this well in advance of us ever leaving the port of NYC.

We then spent the day in Nassau and then went to Freeport. Freeport was not a wonderful port, but will give credit they found a replacement port. I do think the passengers should have been made aware of this at the time of embarkation.

 

I really enjoyed many of the activities, however sometimes two were done at the exact same times ie. Chocoholic buffet and the Martini clinic. This made a tough choice; I think especially in the winter month’s maybe they should offer some a couple of times. The game shows and cook off were great. But again maybe a couple more indoor activities in the cold weather could have been offered, maybe a hot dog or pie eating contest. I really missed the calypso music on deck at these times.

 

All and all we had a really nice time, but communication really could have been timelier. I would consider sailing NCL again but not in the winter months, I like the warmth leaving and coming.

 

Eileen

[bragstarr]

Starting with our CC group and meeting--a 10! Was great fun meeting everyone after corresponding for months. And will always treasure my Julie McCoy White Cruise Director Cap....

 

Food--Most food on board was good, had some truly great dishes (duck, lamb shanks, chocolate souffle are three that come to mind). Agree with Don that you needed a microscope to find the lobster. Of the three main restaurants, I found Venetian to have the spottiest service, most traditional looking of a cruise ship restaurant. Aqua, with the all female waitstaff, was decent during busy dinner hours. Ate there later on one night and the service was great. My favorite by far was Impressions. It's the smallest and the service was great both times I dined there. Just a nice, intimate restaurant. Had dinner at Teppanyaki, which both hubby and 18 year old son enjoyed, we found the seafood there to be better than the steak. Also met with 3 other CC families at Salsa for dinner where we had a great time and were extremely well taken care of by the staff there. A real fun place to hang out and a great atmosphere. The buffet was varied and pretty good, and don't overlook the food at Blue Lagoon, the 24/7 "fast food" restaurant. Some of the best won ton soup and fried rice I've eaten! I thought the Chocoholic Buffet looked a lot better than it tasted, a disappointment for a chocolate lover like me. I was, however, impressed by the availability of ice cream--often--at lunch, dinner, buffets, by the pool, both soft vanilla and all flavors of hard ice cream with syrups and goodies to put on top.

 

Incidentally, if you have a child, invest in the Teen Passport book--20 coupons for smoothies, juices, etc. for $34.50. Well worth it, and my husband and I drank many of the virgin pina coladas! My son also made good use of his soda card, which was cheerily accepted in all dining rooms and bars.

 

Eileen pretty much covers my feeling on communication problems, and I do agree with her about losing "fun in the sun" days, although having the port so nearby beats having to fly! Missing the private island really stank, and Freeport was a useless port. There is definitely a difference in Freestyle cruising versus traditional. I'd only cruised on Royal Caribbean previously. Things were a lot more laid back, we liked being able to pick and choose where and when we could eat (especially my husband), did not miss having to dress for formal night AT ALL, but missed that experience of bonding with tablemates, waiter, etc. Somehow, I just found a certain spark missing on this ship, although she is a beautiful vessel and we were treated well by every staff member we encountered.

 

We were in an inside cabin. We managed for three of us; would have managed better if my husband had stopped snoring. Would have been impossible for four. My son was very happy to find ESPN, CNN and TNT on the TV. The bathroom is a fairly decent size and although there is very little drawer space, there are a lot of shelves in the closet and many little nooks and crannies to shove things all over the place, and if you get desperate, there's always the refrigerator....

 

We also made good use of the Cinema on board and saw some good movies, although I cannot understand why the last day, when we were at sea, they didn't show anything until 6PM. The one movie I really wanted to see, too!

 

Visited the casino briefly. Not much of a gambler. Made a small donation to the slots and left. My son played slots for the first time (he turned 18 in December) and with his first roll of quarters hit a $150 win, turned around and walked out with it safely in his pocket. He was happy for the rest of the week! Big wait for the Texas Hold 'Em table...

 

I'll add more and answer questions as they come, as will Don and Eileen, and more of our merry band of travelers, as soon as they find this!

 

Robin

[sftballmom]

I guess I’ll be next!

 

 

We were a party of 7. 3 kids & grandparents. 1st time cruisers and we had a great time. The ship is very clean and well taken care of. Every staff member said “hello” in the hallway, dining room, etc. I appreciated this. The ship is well-maintained – they were varnishing the outside railing one day, and it seems that they take pride in the cleanliness of the ship. We even saw an officer bend down in the lobby area to pick up the tiniest piece of paper! The sanitization each time you ate, and the crew/cruiser ratio is wonderful. I think NCL is rated the best in this category. We started looking at other cruise lines to see what their ratio was and we were surprised how much lower it is.

 

 

Collin & Mike were one of the highlights of the trip. My kids still imitate Collin with his Captain’s imitation: “Collin come up to the bridge”. I agree with Robin – I was also looking for a movie in the Cinema to watch coming home to NY.

 

The food was wonderful and interesting. We ate in the Venetian for breakfast almost every morning and for 2 dinners. We loved Aqua (ate there 2 times) and Impressions (1 time). We also paid the extra cover for Cagny’s which was well worth it! We tried to get into Salsa but it was booked for a party of 7. Just a note: we were able to make a reservation for Aqua for 7 people even though it was a main dining room – however, they would only make reservations for 6 p.m. and after 8 p.m. The main dining time 7 – 8 they wouldn’t. Impressions said there would be a 40 min wait (at 7:30 p.m.) for a table of 7, but it was only about 20 min. We were not crazy about the food for the Caribbean night. Just a little too funky for me.

 

We also ate at the Blue Lagoon and as Robin said - the fried rice and wonton soup were great. Service during busy hours was terrible though – go when it is quiet.

 

 

2 times we had the fish & chips at the pub – delicious. When we were leaving Freeport (not a great port – stayed on the ship), it began to rain and Collin announced that for 1 hour there would be an open bar. Nice touch.

 

If there was an additional inside area to put the ping pong tables and maybe pool table for the 9-12 yr olds. My 2 daughters – ages 9 & 12 played basketball until the boys ran them out, and we played a lot of ping pong until the wind blew the balls overboard. They didn’t want to go to the kids crew and it was too cold to go in the pool sometimes, so there wasn’t much to do during the cold days.

 

 

We enjoyed the piano bar everynight. Bruce was nice to listen to, although he said he had only 9 more days and was going home to Vancouver. He had been there 3 months. He made friends with my 4 yr old son who loved to sit there and listen to the music.

 

 

However, we loved going out of NY – the cost of 5 people flying vs. 2-3 cold days was worth the cold days. I am disappointed that they are not doing the 7 day cruises next year. With a teacher’s schedule, the 10 day cruise schedules do not fit into any of the vacations. I was so ready to book for next year, and really liked NCL. I guess we'll have to try another cruise line or fly----yuck!

 

Questions?

 

Lori

[mabinbklyn]

The review below is a copy of something I did for another cc group that sailed on a RCI cruise last year. None of us had sailed on NCL so it was done from that perspective.

 

bottom line: We had a good time, and I would travel on NCL again if the situation was right. having said that, I think Royal Caribbean does things better in a number of categories. And I can't really comment on any other cruise line, because most of my experience has been RCI. Some details:

 

Getting on/off: We were delayed getting on, huge crowds in the terminal when we got there, apparently a freight elevator broke and it took them a long time to get luggage off. But we took it in stride. Getting off was pretty much the same as RCI, took about 2 hours after docking. Only difference is we didn't dock until almost 10 so didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn for breakfast.

 

Food: Freestyle dining (you're not assigned a table or time) has a lot of pluses and a few minuses. There are 10 different restaurants, some of which charge, and some of which require reservations. The more popular restaurants can be hard to get a reservation in. Overall, I thought the standard RCI food was a touch better than the standard NCL food, especially the buffets. The specialty restaurants were pretty good. Cherisse, they serve a chocolate fondue in one of the restaurants that is worth the price of the cruise in my opinion. What was hard was if you had a reservation (you could make them a day a head of time and had to for the popular restaurants) and then it conflicted with a show.

 

Activities: Ok this was weird. There were times when I felt there was nothing to do, and I have never before felt that way on a cruise. Maybe I've just done it too many times? And all the entertainment ended at midnight, except for the DJ in the disco (not my style) and gambling (which you could do all night. literally. until the ship docked the next morning). Now I'm not that much of a late night person, but still, it's vacation...

 

Teens: Bec felt this was a dud. Of course, she didn't go to any of the activities, so not sure that's a fair judgement.

 

Entertainment: Again, RCI was better. The production shows were fair, in my opinion, but it's not my thing anyway. Second City did improv, which was great. Other show entertainers were ok. Two of the three piano players were excellent, but again, nothing past midnight. Cruise Director was very funny but never saw him other than shows. One nice touch: the next to last night they did a "crew party" where members of the crew (from busboys to room stewards to repair crew) could mingle with the passengers. It was fun to talk to some of the people who do the real work!

 

Ship: Excellent condition, very clean, room was small, smaller than the comparable size on the Brilliance, but fine. Service was good. Decor --very colorful, sometimes I thought it was funky, sometimes a little tacky.

 

Ok what have I missed? Any questions? Oh, they did have a cc party for our group, and some of us got together for dinner at one of the restaurants. They facilitated the reservations for us, brought special appetizers and a special dessert. I thought it was nice touch.

 

I think it's interesting to note what some of us liked, others didn't. different strokes for different folks, and all that!~

[npmadsen]

Hi

Mary

I have to agree regarding the food and the entertainment.

We thought RCCL did a much better buffet. I agree with pluses and minuses to freestyle. I liked the variety and thought that fondue was to die for. But I missed the same wait staff. I also had trouble scheduling my meals and getting to the shows. Missed a couple of shows.

I found the quality of the preformances better on RCCL. I also felt bored a lot, I am not sure that is not related not being able to do things on deck on the sea days due to the temperature outside.

I also liked the lay out of the RCCL ships better.

Now I did enjoy my cruise, but I think I am more of a traditional cruiser.

Eileen

[awatt]

I have been reading your comments with interest. We will be on the Dawn for the 2nd time this August, and looking forward to it very much.

 

I'm wondering if any of you could help me out? Our waiter waitress were so memorable,and we are wondering if they are still on the DAwn. Do any of you recall Prince from Dominica or Nadia from Romania? Thanks in advance.

[mabinbklyn]

Sorry, I don't remember either of those. But I dined in a different restaurant each night, so I was skipping around.

[bragstarr]

I'm moving this up one time--somehow I think it may have gotten lost in the jumble of posts--but we have lots of good Dawn info on this thread!

[RichNY]

We are glad to see you had a good time, and LI was really represented....:) ...one of the the things we enjoyed the most was the freestyle way of doing things. We did have a group and a quick call to the concierge or any of the crew that we met at the CC party, got us whatever times we wanted for dining...

 

We cant wait to go back in October...the 10 & 11 day cruises are better....you get to eat at ALL the restaurants a few times......LOL...I'm still trying the loose tha weight..:mad:

[npmadsen]

We are home a week tomorrow, how I wish I was back on the high seas.

We should try and plan to all meet sometime in the near future.

 

I am so happy I am planning a cruise with hubby in sept and a great deal next presidents day with the family. The rates are great for the group cruise but it is a flight to fort lauderdale, but I will be in the sun , and it is an 8 day cruise on a new ship

 

Eileen

[bragstarr]

They ended up staying overnight in Nassau. No Freeport, no Great Stirrup Cay. They left Nassau at noon Friday to head back to NY. Gee, what a great surprise.

 

Eileen, if you can figure out a way to get together (adults only!) I would love it. I'd love to have dinner on City Island....I haven't been there since Bruce and I were first married! Or anyplace else....email me offline if you want.

 

Robin

[npmadsen]

We enjoy going to JP's Restaurant right on the water, it is right next to Carl's boat.

I think lunch is the best great value.

We could plan something, but come a couple of weeks from now we would need to do dinner as Carl starts sailing on the 19th.

Let me know anyone interested and what days are good and I can call the owner and make reservations, would be fun

Eileen

[dongordon]

Robin and Eileen:

 

Count me in for lunch at City Island......it is right in my neighborhood (da Bronx!).

 

It would be great to meet again and compare notes and discuss our future cruise plans.

 

Don

[npmadsen]

Anyone interested email me with what dates are good and I will organize this. I owe it to Julie, she did so much during the cruise.

My email is my screen name @optonline.net

I think it would be great

We did my Father's 90th and had a great time there

Eileen

[npmadsen]

Anyone interested, would really like to meet up with all of you

Let me know

Eileen