Dawn Photo Review Dec 16-23

[Aquahound]

Now, I'd like to bring the review portion of this thread to a close by offering my final thoughts....that should come as no surprise.

 

I've referred to my signature a couple times in this thread. I've done that because I don't like directly saying how many cruises on which I've sailed because it sounds like bragging. I only say this as a point of reference and to what I am comparing my Dawn cruise.

 

All in all, comparitively, I was not satisfied with my Dawn cruise. There are a couple things that are a big deal to me on cruises for which Dawn failed. First, I do spend time in my room and the whole reason I book balconies is for the time spent relaxing. Dawn failed in this area with the maintanance, cleanliness, service and design. One thing I didn't even mention earlier was the balcony railings falling apart. Screws were hanging out and there was a lot of corrosion.

 

The second thing that is a big deal to me is service. Any cruise line can take me to the Caribbean. Other than amenities, what sets them apart is onboard service. Dawn also failed here. The MDR needs a lesson in consistency and the supervisors' failure to respond to complaints, like to a filthy balcony and non-locking slider are inexcusable.

 

Did I still have a good time? Of course I did. I loved the port calls and I did mention several good points throughout this review. For example, Le Bistro was excellent and I loved the service and music in Gatsbys. However, knowing what else is out there wrt cruise ships, the Dawn and sister(s) will not be considered again by me.

 

Thank you for your time. :)

[tink218]

Thank you for your unbiased review. My husband and I are sailing on the Dawn in February. It will be our first NCL cruise, have only been on RCCL, and we are looking forward to it. The pictures were very helpful. Thank you again for taking the time to give your opinion.

[kh6275]

Thank you for taking the time to write a very detailed review with photos. I'm sailing on the Dawn on the 20th in a 2 bedroom family suite and will also write a very detailed review. I'm hoping for a better experience ;-)

[Julienatul]

I'm not exactly sure why this thread to this point would add to you being nervous.

Yes apparently, this poster had a bad room steward, bad employees can be found anywhere. Report them and save anyone else from having to deal with it.

 

As for the rest of the review, up until this post

The OP didn't like the artwork on the walls of the promenade deck, felt the buffet was an odd design, thought a few things in their mini-suite were poorly positioned, wasn't a fan of one block of balconies, felt the layout of the pool was a little odd and thought the palm tree lights around the pool were cheesy.

 

None of which IMO would probably impact on the enjoyment of your vacation.

 

You are interpreting my post wrong. I posted this early in the thread before any negative review. What I meant was lately there have been alot of negative reviews towards the Dawn as far as service and food were concerned and I was hoping this one would be different which clearly it is. I didn't say it would ruin my vacation. Any day on a cruise is better than home. AS you can see I sail a lot and I am very easy going. It takes alot to ruin my cruise! You are right though, none of what is mentioned would make a difference to me but I appreciate the OP sharing his opinion.

[Julienatul]

We actually like the Blue Lagoon especially for take out. Like you said the room service menu is lacking but you can get hot food to go from Blue Lagoon anytime and bring to your room. I've also heard that have a pretty decent breakfast.

 

We hated the set time dining and shared table from the past and we were very excited when it changed to freestyle. If I go to a restaurant and there's a wait-rarely-i leave and go somewhere else as there's plenty of choices. But to each his own, its really just peoples opinions and not everyone agrees. We just happen to love the freestyle concept.

 

Thanks for your review and pictures, it helped me get my cruise fix :-)

 

Thanks for this info. I was not aware you could get hot food to go from Blue Lagoon!

[Aquahound]

I was not aware you could get hot food to go from Blue Lagoon!

 

Neither was I! :mad:

 

Then again, I guess it really didn't matter. For me, I wanted a hot breakfast in my room. If I was ok with going and getting it, I would have just gone to the buffet.

[bostongal965]

Thanks for the review and the great pictures! In a lot of ways, your experience mirrored my recent cruise on the Dawn - I could've written some parts! We also had some minor issues with housekeeping, silver latitude rewards, and service in dining rooms. I hope they tighten up on some of that - I'm seeing similar threads on a lot of reviews. I also disliked the Spinnaker - we only went to one event there, and left because we couldn't see what was going on.

 

That being said, we had a wonderful time overall - we were on a cruise, lol. :D We had exceptionally good service in Le Bistro and the Pearly Kings Pub, and good service in Aqua and Venetian most of the time. I happen to like the paintings around the promenade deck and the palm tree lights on the pool deck, though - they are some of my favorite things about the Dawn!

[Aquahound]

Thanks for the review and the great pictures! In a lot of ways, your experience mirrored my recent cruise on the Dawn - I could've written some parts! We also had some minor issues with housekeeping, silver latitude rewards, and service in dining rooms. I hope they tighten up on some of that - I'm seeing similar threads on a lot of reviews. I also disliked the Spinnaker - we only went to one event there, and left because we couldn't see what was going on.

 

You're welcome! :)

 

Funny what you say about how you could've written some of this. I just read the member reviews on Dawn and the most recent review is almost word for word with mine, especially about room and balcony cleanliness.

 

Hey, reference the artwork, one good thing I can say is, it is unique to NCL. At least they are doing something different. ;)

[kikki21]

Honest review and great pics! Loved the bit about the Captain's Q&A session, that made me lol! :)

[Lmb3653]

I just took a look at my edocs they indicate we are docking in Cozumel. For those of you that tendered did your edocs indicate you would anchor in Cozumel?

[hammsz]

best sorta negative review ive ever read on CC.

[mitsugirly]

We were on the Star while you were on the Dawn. First of all, thanks for taking some pictures of us in port. I took some of you guys too.

 

I really do appreciate your honest report. Everyone's opnions and what matters to them is THEIR opinion and everyone does not have the same experience.

 

As I said, I was on the Star at the same time and it's funny because I'm reading your review and I turned to my husband and said "I think he might have copied parts of my review"

 

While we didn't have a balcony, we had simliar experiences with the room steward. We also felt the awkwardness of the flow in some of the places on the ship (walking through the buffet to get to the back and we thought it was weird walking through the Blue Lagoon to get from one side to the other as well. Also walking from the back of the ship we always managed to walk in the door too late to discover that we were walking in to the gym). yikes.

 

We did find wear and tear on the Star that we had never experienced before on any of the NCL ships. Of course, like you, I'm open and honest about my thoughts and what I seen (broken bathroom stalls, missing locks, getting locked IN the stall, toilets not working/overflowing, a/c leaking, humps in the carpet and so on) while others on the same cruise did not see any of it...and of course others before me didn't either.

 

We thought the Star had a beautiful Atrium (and that's something that I have always loved since I started crusing in the 80's) and that was one of the main reasons I booked her. That "Wow" factor when you enter a ship.

 

Our next cruise is supposed to be the Dawn going to Bermuda. I have really been debating if I should switch my cruise to a different date with a different ship, or suck it up and go on the new Breakaway.

 

While no cruise is a bad cruise to us and we make the most of it no matter which ship we are on...it sounds like we would be reliving our last cruise. LOL (Which I can live with I guess if I know ahead of time what to expect, but it's just sad because we have felt that up until now, the NCL fleet has been exceptional with cleanliness, friendliness, upkeep and so on).

 

I just thought since you posted some pictures of our ship when we were on the ship, I would share some of your ship while you were on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh also, I just thought of something...our Captain kind of mimics your Captain when we did the bridge tour too. Except we didn't ask the questions, he just volunteered the answers. Do you think there's a "class" the Captains go to for their comedy? :D

[mitsugirly]

Whoops, forgot one: :p

 

[Aquahound]

I just took a look at my edocs they indicate we are docking in Cozumel. For those of you that tendered did your edocs indicate you would anchor in Cozumel?

 

Ours indicated docking also.

 

best sorta negative review ive ever read on CC.

 

Thank you!

[Aquahound]

Whoops, forgot one: :p

 

 

Thank you very much for these pictures. If you zoom in to the deck 11 balconies, just below the stack, you'll probably see me taking a picture of you! :D

 

Also, thank you very much for your thoughts. It sounds like we had similar experiences on these sister ships. But you hit the nail on the head when you said people on the same cruise had completely different experiences, probably just by having a slight difference in schedule/booking. Fact is, little things can go wrong on any vacation and on mine, had we just had a good room attendant or we just had better servers in the MDR, it might have made a world of difference. I still wouldn't have liked the ship, but this review would have been more on the positive side. With that in mind, enjoy your Dawn cruise! :)

[SissasMomE]

Good recap so far, but you left one out. Poor MDR service. That's a big one, at least, to me it is.

 

Is there more than one main dining room? Also, do you know if the AFT cabins also have that gap between the rails?

[Highboy90]

Thank you for the well composed review Paul. :)

 

We sailed on the Jewel last spring and overall, the ship was in great condition. I did find dining in the MDR (both) hit or miss which was probably my biggest complaint. Our cabin was nice and clean. I paid decent money for an AFT balcony and would have been upset if similar issues such as yours were found.

 

I've been on 1 cruise so NCL will always be special to me and would not hesitate to sail with them again but wouldn't think twice about using another liner in the future.

 

This is why honest, well written and documented reviews such as yours are so valuable to folks like myself and others. Thanks!

[Aquahound]

Is there more than one main dining room? Also, do you know if the AFT cabins also have that gap between the rails?

 

The 2 main dining rooms were the Venetian and Aqua. Venetian was the larger of the 2 and had a bit nicer dress code, although not enforced.

 

Thank you for the well composed review Paul. :)

 

We sailed on the Jewel last spring and overall, the ship was in great condition. I did find dining in the MDR (both) hit or miss which was probably my biggest complaint. Our cabin was nice and clean. I paid decent money for an AFT balcony and would have been upset if similar issues such as yours were found.

 

I've been on 1 cruise so NCL will always be special to me and would not hesitate to sail with them again but wouldn't think twice about using another liner in the future.

 

This is why honest, well written and documented reviews such as yours are so valuable to folks like myself and others. Thanks!

 

You're very welcome. Thank you or your thoughts. :)

[SyberCat]

Thanks for the review and great pics. We are considering the Dawn for a cruise in November and this was helpful!

 

Cat

[Loucat]

We sailed on Dawn for New Years and I am happy to say I did not share the experiences described by Aquahound.

We did read reviews in December that concerned us. I came off the ship knowing we will be back!

We has excellent service in the Venetian, one of the best filets ever in Cagneys, a super cabin attendant who kept our stateroom so clean, interesting variety of food in the Cafe for lunch (loved the Indian food), good entertainment and overall a great cruise.

Ports were interesting although we have been to all except Roatan 6+ times. We did a private excursion in Roatan, short shopping trip in Belize which is not a dump to many divers and has some of the best snorkeling and others including us, incredible day in Costa Maya at an all inclusive. We do recognize that this port was obliterated by Hurricane Dean so the port of old will not return unfortunately, but they are building themselves back; short trip in Cozumel (24,ooo passengers that day) and we tendered.

All in all, each cruise is in the eye of the passenger. We also have many cruise experiences and can be as picky as anyone; I liked Dawn and hope others keep an open mind.

[kwbound]

We actually like the Blue Lagoon especially for take out. Like you said the room service menu is lacking but you can get hot food to go from Blue Lagoon anytime and bring to your room. I've also heard that have a pretty decent breakfast.

 

We hated the set time dining and shared table from the past and we were very excited when it changed to freestyle. If I go to a restaurant and there's a wait-rarely-i leave and go somewhere else as there's plenty of choices. But to each his own, its really just peoples opinions and not everyone agrees. We just happen to love the freestyle concept.

 

Thanks for your review and pictures, it helped me get my cruise fix :-)

 

Can you call Blue Lagoon and place you order so that it is ready when you go pick it up? Or do you have to go there, place your order and then wait for it?

[jdvmd]

Eating at the Blue Lagoon is not a quick process so I doubt you can call ahead as I didn't see a phone near the hostess stand. Not sure why so many people love it. Hated having to wait and then my breakfast arrives cold. It was nothing different or better than what was on the buffet. Actually like the buffet better. We nearly missed our excursion because my toast and scrambled (powdered eggs) hadn't arrived. Service is eh eh. If you eat there at lunch, be prepared for a long wait for drinks also - husband ordered a beer to go with his fish and chips and he was nearly done with the food by the time the beer came.

[kwbound]

Eating at the Blue Lagoon is not a quick process so I doubt you can call ahead as I didn't see a phone near the hostess stand. Not sure why so many people love it. Hated having to wait and then my breakfast arrives cold. It was nothing different or better than what was on the buffet. Actually like the buffet better. We nearly missed our excursion because my toast and scrambled (powdered eggs) hadn't arrived. Service is eh eh. If you eat there at lunch, be prepared for a long wait for drinks also - husband ordered a beer to go with his fish and chips and he was nearly done with the food by the time the beer came.

 

Thanks for your reply. If we go to lunch there maybe will grab a drink from a bar and bring it in with us.

[kwbound]

Aquahound - Thanks for a great, honest review. It is apparent that you are a laid back guy. We love the Keys and would love to retire there. I keep buying lottery tickets in hopes of rushing that day!:rolleyes: