With a new day comes a new Dawn ..... and the Suite life 6/1/12- 6/8/12

[jimswims]

NCL used to serve Beef Wellington in the main dining room once during a 7 day cruise. My daughter loves this. Do you know what night this is served on the Dawn Boston to Bermuda cruises?

[Zimomiller]

NCL used to serve Beef Wellington in the main dining room once during a 7 day cruise. My daughter loves this. Do you know what night this is served on the Dawn Boston to Bermuda cruises?

 

Unfortunately I do not know as we never dined in the MDRs. Sorry

Edited July 8, 2012 by Zimomiller

[jimswims]

Unfortunately I do not know as we never dined in the MDRs. Sorry

 

Thanks anyway. We usually do not either. That is the only night that we do and last year we missed it on the Gem. We made up for it with another Filet Mignon at Cagney's or LeBistro. I will have to ask the concierge when we arrive.

[helen haywood]

Please come back and tell us more about your cruise!

[marisa0324]

The review you posted has been very helpful! We are booked in the exact same room at the end of November and we are very excited!!! One question about the balcony...we are traveling with a baby and a 4-year old and I have noticed that the balconies in these rooms are uncovered. Did that bother you at all? Was it too sunny? Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

[nathand95]

Thanks, I keep trying to type in a Bahstun accent buht it is hard.

 

NCL allows guests 19-20 to buy and consume beer and wine on board if a parent has signed an authorization form. At age 18 you will still need to rely on Mom and Dad to supply your alcohol, unless you are sailing from an internationalPort where the drinking age is younger.

Thank you for your response! I didn't even think about different drinking ages depending on where you're sailing from. I'll be sailing from Spain and their drinking age is 18! :D:rolleyes::cool:

[San888]

With a rebel yell.....they cried more,more,more!

 

Will there be anymore:confused:

[Zimomiller]

The review you posted has been very helpful! We are booked in the exact same room at the end of November and we are very excited!!! One question about the balcony...we are traveling with a baby and a 4-year old and I have noticed that the balconies in these rooms are uncovered. Did that bother you at all? Was it too sunny? Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

 

We actually loved the uncovered balcony for a change. We have sailed in aft balcomny cabins many times the past few years and this was a nice change.

 

Our weather was poor on this cruise so we did not spend as much balcony time as usual. If you are a sun lover, and the weather cooperates, there is nothing better.

[Zimomiller]

The dog days of summer come early on the Dawn - 6/4/12

 

Monday morning arrived bright sunny and warm. It was just what we had been planning on for our beach day in Bermuda.

 

As usual, I was the first one up and I tried to be as noisy as possible as I showered, dressed, cleaned up, checked on what was going on out on the balcony etc. It was all for naught as no one was in the mood to join me for breakfast at Cagney's.

 

I took time out to see if I had any voicemails or messages and my iphone registered none. I thought that was odd but accepted it as a happy answer. Off to breakfast.

 

If you have never been to Cagney's for breakfast, it is always the same set up. You are escorted to a table for seating, given a menu and left to make your choices.

 

Then upon placing your order you can wander over to a buffet area that has a variety of fruits, cereals, bagel fixins, juices, pastries etc to keep yourself occupied with until your breakfast arrives. I was in a rut. I always grabbed some melon, a few pastries, lots of OJ and returned to await my omelette and bacon and milk.

 

Nice rut.

 

Today we ventured via taxi over to Horseshoe beach to spend the day. This was probably the prettiest beach that we saw on our island tour and it has been heavily reviewed and highly recommended here on CC.

 

The cab drops you off at the bottom of the hill right near the public restrooms/changing rooms. We rented some chairs and an umbrellas and then staggered our way down the beach to find a place to call home for the afternoon. We noticed there was a grill serving up food in between the rental shop and the restrooms.

 

It was very sunny, hardly any clouds, not overly hot, but still sweaty. At least there was a decent breeze most times that helped me keep my cool. The sand was very soft and pretty. I am color blind so I cannot tell you it was pink.

 

After planting our flag (ie umbrella) we all laid out for a while until boredom arrived and then the kids ran down the beach to explore while Mom and I vegged. It was a very busy day at the beach and we could tell all the cruise passengers by their towels. The NCL vs RCCL towels are very different.

 

Horseshoe beach is a fun place to explore as you can wander down and through the rock formations for quite some distance if you are so inclined. I eventually grabbed my camera and wandered down the beach for a about an hour or so taking pictures of all things sandy, wet and natural.

 

I actually happened on a couple that had found a rather secluded area of the beach in amongst the rocks and they were trying to tear one off before anyone noticed them. They were oblivious to all around them. Apparently they do not have any kids yet.

 

Eventually thirst got the better of me and I dragged my body back to the beach and headed to the shop to buy some pops and waters for the crew. Needless to say they were all consumed quickly.

 

This was the perfect beach day.The weather was great, the family appeared to like each other, and no one tried to kill me when I smoked my cigar on the beach.

 

I should have know something bad was gonna happen.

 

Eventually we grew tired and hungry in paradise and wandered back to return our rentals, give up our sand complexions and take a pit stop before we flagged a cab down and headed back to the Dawn.

 

Upon our return dockside we enjoyed the cruise staff welcome back party and then I sent the family up to the suite so I could stay on the dock and take our mandatory/traditional photo from the dock of our balcony. The family humors me.

 

After that I was quick to re board, shower and change for dinner. Then I headed to the bar for my nightly pre-dinner cocktails and cigars. I was apparently very dehydrated. At least my bar tab suggested that.

 

I staggered across the hall to meet the family at La Cucina for dinner. This is the Italian restaurant on the Dawn and we have really enjoyed our dining in the Italian restaurants on the Jewel, Jade, POA and Epic.

 

La Cucina was a big disappointment. The service was poor, overwhelmed, understaffed, too busy and then on top of all that the food was below average.

 

We left dinner and went our own ways. I headed back to the cabin where I found that my daughters Iphone had been left on. Being the good nosey father who likes to respond on my daughters behalf to her text messages received and freak out her friends, I took a look.

 

What I found was a message from our house sitter that was a bit unnerving.

 

Apparently she had been trying to get in touch with us since Saturday unsuccessfully. Her message basically said that one of our black labs, Lucy, was doing better and out of immediate danger.

 

My wife and daughter arrived shortly after that and immediately freaked out and called home to find out what had happened.

 

The house sitter had gone against our instructions and left out Lucy's medication on a counter instead of putting it in cupboard or on top of the fridge.

 

Any of you that have experience with Labs know where this is going. Labs are insatiable and curious, a very dangerous combination.

 

I have a novel ready to be written on our labs and their escapades. They eat EVERYTHING. They eat until they puke, and then they eat that too,

 

My short list of things ingested - Diamond stud earring, apple cobbler and the glass dish that shattered when it hit the floor, Nestles quick, BBQ sauce, a whole bar of soap, basically anything they can reach. (The most difficult one to clean up was when they pulled a whole 12 pack of Coke off the counter, cans fell out, they ran around with punctured cans in their mouth and then and the dragged the remaining 12 pak down the hall from the kitchen to the great room and up the stairs leaving a coke spray mural over everything they passed as high as 8 feet up the walls.)

 

The house sitter returned to our house after going to her home for dinner with her parents and found the shredded empty medicine bottle on the floor.

 

She packed up all 3 dogs and headed to emergency vet where they examined and tested all 3 dogs. They eventually determined Lucy had ingested all the meds, induced vomiting and then put her in the doggy ICU. She was in liver failure and kidney failure.

 

Naturally Mom being the Mom and dog lover freaked out and worried for the remainder of the cruise. I had to talk her out of flying home from Bermuda Monday night as well as Tuesday. She eventually got a hold of the emergency vet and was able to discuss the issues and courses of action but I do not think it gave her much comfort other than to know that Lucy appeared to have passed the worst and was now going home to rest.

 

Needless to say, the rest of Monday evening was shot. No one really wanted to do much other than hangin the suite and read or watch DVDS.

 

I being the trooper that I was, managed to find time for a few more drinks and a cigar or 2 before I crashed.

[searoses]

i hope your dear lucy has made a full recovery. i had a beautiful choc lab in my life...when visiting her family i left my boat bag by the door...returning home hours later i found an empty pound bag of hershey kisses...every single one plus foil wrapper was gone!! i quickly called them to see how she was...just another day for coco....not a moment's problem!! so much for choc being poisonous for dogs!!

[Zimomiller]

i hope your dear lucy has made a full recovery. i had a beautiful choc lab in my life...when visiting her family i left my boat bag by the door...returning home hours later i found an empty pound bag of hershey kisses...every single one plus foil wrapper was gone!! i quickly called them to see how she was...just another day for coco....not a moment's problem!! so much for choc being poisonous for dogs!!

 

Thanks, Lucy seems no worse for the wear.

 

About a week before we sailed we lost a bag of Hershey's chocolate kisses off the counter. Never did figure out which Lab ate them, although we did fine some shiny dog crap later that week in the yard.

[helen haywood]

Well, I enjoyed reading what you did post. I really enjoyed reading your account of your family's Hawaii cruise and I had hoped to enjoy this one as well. Take care!

[galliegirlie]

Do you have a picture of the suite at night with all the beds pulled out? I glanced through your photo album (very nice by the way), but I didn't see a pic of this. I'm really curious what the room looks like with all the beds together.

[Ugaaucruisers]

Labs do steal your heart!!! We spent our entire cruise in March checking on our 12year old lab. He had cancer and was beginning treatment... sorry this is off of the thread:)

[Zimomiller]

Life gets in the way of having fun on cruise critic and I have not been able to post the remainder of our cruise review or pictures.

 

Here are the links to the remainder of our pictures:

 

Monday at Horseshoe Beach 6/4/12 ==> http://travel.webshots.com/album/583181165FnhDih

 

Tuesday Leaving Bermuda 6/5/12 ==> http://travel.webshots.com/album/583180082lHLZLB?start=0

 

Wednesday 6/6/12 - Behind the scenes tour on the Dawn ==> http://travel.webshots.com/album/583175851FaHpOw

Edited July 28, 2012 by Zimomiller

[Zimomiller]

Do you have a picture of the suite at night with all the beds pulled out? I glanced through your photo album (very nice by the way), but I didn't see a pic of this. I'm really curious what the room looks like with all the beds together.

 

I took a quick look through my pics and I do not think I have any

[galliegirlie]

I took a quick look through my pics and I do not think I have any

 

Which bed did your kids think was more comfortable, the pull out couch or the bed that came out of the wall? When both were pulled out, did it basically form a solid wall of bed along the window/balcony access?

 

I'm considering this room for my mother, myself, my sister and my teenage cousin for a Bermuda cruise next summer.

[Zimomiller]

Which bed did your kids think was more comfortable, the pull out couch or the bed that came out of the wall? When both were pulled out, did it basically form a solid wall of bed along the window/balcony access?

 

I'm considering this room for my mother, myself, my sister and my teenage cousin for a Bermuda cruise next summer.

 

I asked my kids (19,19,21) and they all agreed that the one that pulls out of the wall was more comfortable.

 

When they were both set up as beds there was still plenty of room between the 2 beds for the chairs and access to the balcony. You will ove thsi suite.

[WaldosPepper]

Do you have a picture of the suite at night with all the beds pulled out? I glanced through your photo album (very nice by the way), but I didn't see a pic of this. I'm really curious what the room looks like with all the beds together.

 

Check out the photos in these two threads ~ they contain what you are looking for:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1621557&highlight=sj+suite+photos

 

and

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1583522&highlight=sj+suite+photos

 

Hope that helps. ;)

[galliegirlie]

Check out the photos in these two threads ~ they contain what you are looking for:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1621557&highlight=sj+suite+photos

 

and

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1583522&highlight=sj+suite+photos

 

Hope that helps. ;)

 

Thanks! I actually found that one thread last night. It was exactly what i was looking for. :)

[PhotogJon]

I'm bummed... the OP's photo link is dead...:(

[Zimomiller]

I'm bummed... the OP's photo link is dead...:(

 

Drop me an email and let me know what you are looking for in pictures. I am in the process of reloading tpo a new online site.

 

My email is in my signature below

[Zimomiller]

Here is a link to a new photo and video tour of our SD family suite 12520 on the Dawn.

 

http://s1324.beta.photobucket.com/user/zimomiller/library/Norwegian%20Epic%2010326%20Penthouse%20Suite?#/user/zimomiller/library/Norwegian%20Dawn%2012520%20SD%20Family%20Suite?&_suid=1362339478826000813064215199888

Edited March 3, 2013 by Zimomiller

[gelo7]

Nice review.

[RRinCharge]

Zimomiller - great review and photos! By chance, do you still have the photos referenced in your earlier post looking down on the SD balconies from the deck above?