Dawn Review:3/10-3/17

[TryingCruising]

Before our cruise I absolutely loved reading everything I could about the ship. I'm trying to pay it forward by sharing our experiences on the Dawn last week. This is my first review, but I will try to give synopsis of our days and share some pictures.

 

Overall, we had a fabulous time and it was just the getaway we needed. I'm going to break up the posts by days that follow the itinerary.

[AlliG]

We leave on the Dawn this Sunday. I look forward to reading your review for some last minute tips. :)

[TryingCruising]

My husband and I took this cruise together. We are both in our early 30s. This was our third cruise and second with Norwegian. We flew from Boston to Tampa late Saturday afternoon. It was an easy flight. We were very happy that we (and our luggage) had arrived to a warmer climate! The Hyatt Place hotel shuttle picked us up at the airport. We checked into the hotel and immediately headed out for dinner. The hotel provided a shuttle to the International Plaza where we ate at "The Pub." While excited to kick off vacation, I was also extremely exhausted. A stressful work week and late nights of packing had clearly drained me. We crashed after our late dinner so that we could get some much needed rest.

 

Day 1: Boarding the Dawn!

We woke up early at our hotel and went down to the complimentary breakfast. I'd highly recommend the Hyatt Place. The rooms were clean and comfy, and the free breakfast was the perfect start to our day. We had booked a shuttle spot to the port at check-in. For $25 the hotel would transport a party of up to 4 the 10-15 minute ride to the pier. We decided to take the 10:30 shuttle. As we arrived at the port, a porter came right to our shuttle to take our bags. I hadn't attached the paper tags on the luggage yet, and he had a stapler on hand to help us. We headed up the escalator, through a short security line, filled out a health questionnaire, and went right up to the counter to check-in. We waited in the seating area for about 20 minutes before they called our group 5. We boarded the ship quickly and entered the atrium. I thought it was beautiful! We eagerly began checking out the rest of the ship. I forgot to check the time, but I think we were onboard around 11:30. We explored awhile before heading to the Venetian for lunch. We enjoyed our lunches: chicken milanese for me and a burger for my husband. While we were eating it was announced that staterooms were ready. I was surprised to check my watch and realize it was only 12:35. This was the first indication that the service on this ship would be fabulous! After eating we headed to deck 9 to check out our room.

 

Here are some photos I took when we were first onboard before it was very crowded. Hope this works...

 

Our first look at the Dawn

 

Atrium

 

Oasis Pool

 

Tiny pool behind stage

 

Topsiders Bar

[TryingCruising]

Oasis pool from the other side

 

Pool area taken from the deck above

 

Spinnaker entrance

 

Inside the Spinnaker lounge

 

Venetian entrance

 

Inside the Venetian

[boaterette]

Very nice start. Looking forward to more.

[TryingCruising]

Our Cabin: 9080

 

Our balcony

 

I love stepping on the ship for the first time and then discovering our stateroom/home for a week. We had a balcony for our last cruise and I'm not sure we could go back! After dropping off our carry on luggage in the room, we were off to the pool deck to enjoy some sun. We purchased our first cruise beverage at the Bimini bar and enjoyed a blue moon beer in a lounge chair. (We were excited about this because Blue Moon was advertised on our last cruise aboard the Jade, but it was never actually available!) The pool deck filled in a bit as the afternoon went on. Soon it was about 3:30 and time for the muster drill. We lined up by the lifeboats on deck 7. It didn't take too long. I also amused myself watching the people still strolling aboard at 3:30. They didn't seem bothered at all. I told DH that if we were running that late, I'd look panic stricken and be making him sprint onboard!

 

We returned to our balcony to watch sail away. We were on the starboard side and saw a lot of housing, a small airport, and many boats that came out to watch us. This was also the first time I heard the many spring breakers on our deck. They didn't really bother us, but they sure did make us feel a bit old! We headed to the front of deck 13 at about 6:00 because I wanted to watch us sail under the bridge. There were lounge chairs out to wait on. We watched a Holland America ship go under the bridge in front of us:

 

Then it was our turn! It was neat to watch the Dawn clear the bridge and then look back to see it seem somewhat impossible.

 

After the bridge, we returned to our stateroom to freshen up for dinner. We ate in the Venetian. There was about a 25 minute wait. We grabbed our pager and headed to Pearly King's Pub for a drink while we waited. Not long after our drinks were served, we were paged. They surely seemed to buzz many parties at once! We then waited in line about 10 minutes before we were up at the hostess stand to be seated. We enjoyed our dinner with a bottle of wine that we took back to our stateroom. I was very happy we could do this so that we could enjoy it on our balcony. After dinner we enjoyed a stroll on the promenade. The ship was rocking and rolling a bit at this point. It seemed to make us feel a bit more tired! We crashed somewhat early for us. The ship woke me up a bit that night with lots of creaking and rolling of some items. The seas were more than I've felt on a cruise before. Nothing bad, but definitely surprised me a bit. We also surprised ourselves by enjoying early mornings and earlier nights on this cruise. We usually enjoy staying up later on vacation but neither one of us was as in to it this time. I guess just another sign that we're getting older!

[j603]

Great pictures!!!

[Julienatul]

Thanks so much for your review and pictures. We are sailing on Sunday!! Woohoo!!

[Andoria]

Enjoying your review. Thank you for taking the time to post one.

[vetteracer55]

subscribed. thanks for taking the time to write this :cool:

[jdvmd]

Thanks for sharing your comments and photos!

[alny5810]

Thanking for sharing with us. We are going to be on the Dawn in Dec for the Christmas cruise , first time on NCL. Looking forward to rest of your review.

[TryingCruising]

I was hoping to add more tonight, but time got away from me. Thanks for following along! I am planning to update more tomorrow (or later today here on the East coast).

[Love2CruiseMore]

Hi TryingCruising! I just finished making notes so that I can post a review too! It's fun to see other people's experience from the same cruise! You got some great pics! Thanks for sharing :)

[TryingCruising]

I woke up early after rocking and rolling a bit throughout the night. (I'm slightly dramatic about these things!) This is definitely the most motion I've felt on a ship. I think it was a combination of a more forward located stateroom, bit smaller ship than we've been on before, and an older one too. I was glad I had my Bonine with me because I ended up taking it this night as more of a caution than anything.

 

I let the husband sleep a bit and then we headed up to the Garden Cafe just after 8am. This was definitely the busiest breakfast morning of the cruise. We always enjoyed breakfast at the buffet. It allowed my husband his eggs, bacon, and homefries, while I could eat my basic bagel and fruit. There was no peanut butter to be found the first couple days, but it appeared midweek. That made me very happy since that's how I like to get protein at breakfast. We ate out at a table on the pool deck and then set out for lounge chairs. It was approaching 9:00 at this point so it was a bit crowded already. Well, most chairs were taken but not too many people. It was very windy and slightly chilly. We found a spot on the upper deck by the pool closer to the running track end. I really wanted to stay in the pool area so I could hear the live music coming later. We were getting blown away for the first hour we sat and read. Soon the sun appeared and the wind died down a bit. Most people had moved the chairs away from this windy corner so we lucked out with having more room. 

Here's where we spent our sea day:

 

We ate lunch at our loungers after picking up burgers and fries at the Bimini Grill. I loved their turkey burgers! You had to wait for them to make it, but it came fresh from the fridge I noticed (not freezer) and then it was cooked for you. I cannot remember the name of the man who was on the grill the whole time but he was very friendly to us and serious about his job. We ate about 3 lunches at the grill throughout the week and by the last day he had my turkey burger coming out as I was in line. The french fries were so good, dangerously addictive! After eating something, we were ready to enjoy a bucket of beer. The deck servers were circling all morning eager to sell. I never found them to be too pushy. Here's our lovely bucket of blue moons:

 

I enjoyed a quick dip in the pool. It was chilly at first but felt nice after. That was until I stepped out into the wind again! After drying off a bit on the lounger, we returned to our room to relax a bit on the balcony and get ready for our 7:15 reservation at Teppanyaki. We went to the restaurant and were asked to sit and wait for about 15 minutes. We were then brought to the table. I was looking forward to this dinner since I love Japanese steakhouses at home. We were disappointed though. The chef was clearly a bit nervous and kept dropping his spatula. Not sure if he was new or what the deal was there. The biggest complaint from me is that the food was so salty! This is coming from a girl that loves to add salt to things. One lady at our table requested that certain things be left off her dish. The chef would smile and then put them on anyway. I'm not sure if he couldn't hear her over the fan. We were glad to try this experience but I don't think we would do it again. It wasn't worth the upcharge to us and took awhile between courses. I did love the fresh fruit sashimi dessert though. I didn't take many photos at Teppanyaki except this place setting one:

 

The boat was rocking a bit again and made me very sleepy after dinner. We walked around a bit and then called it a night. I loved having a balcony to read on right before bed. It was the perfect quiet endings to our days.

[TryingCruising]

We had no plans today. It was the only port where we didn't do an excursion. We went back and forth about planning to go to a beach or splurge on the dolphin excursion, but ultimately we agreed it would be just a lazy day. We like to balance our vacations between doing activities and doing nothing! (This is also why we missed our sea day meet and greet. The husband and I agreed that this vacation was mainly to spend time together. While we happily met some lovely people at times, we wanted to focus on us. So we spent the sea day just vegging into vacation mode!)

 

We set the clock back one hour the past two nights. This resulted in me getting up quite early and being sleepy earlier too! I was up right before 6 to discover our toilet not flushing. The hubs heard me up and about, so he woke and we were wandered the ship early. This was a great time to walk the promenade and see the ship almost empty. We took our time at breakfast and headed back to the room to watch us dock in Roatan. I also called guest services about the toilet at this time. I won't keep mentioning this annoyance anymore, but it happened to us about 5 times this cruise. Occasionally in the evening, and mostly first thing in the morning our toilet wouldn't flush. I would call guest services, they'd say we'll report it, and then it would usually fix within two hours. I didn't expect anything, but it would have been nice to have someone say "I'm sorry this is happening again," instead of oh I see this is the third time you've called...

 

As we stepped out on the balcony to view us pulling into port, we instantly felt the humidity. According to the Captain's log on the ship's television, the humidity was 100%. We were greeted warmly in Roatan by these people playing the drums, singing, and dancing:

 

We soon headed off the ship and explored the port of Roatan. This port at Coxen Hole was small. There were many shops and booths to book excursions. I wasn't feeling too well this day. I usually love to get out of the port and actually see an island, but today was stayed within the gate. There was a small tiki bar setup right off the dock by the water. We enjoyed a Hondoras beer and chatting a bit with the bartender. He was quite busy mixing up strong drinks for the spring breakers! Here's the beer we tried and liked:

 

We went back onboard and enjoyed lunch in the Blue Lagoon. We had some wings, soup, and split a panini. I thought the wings and soup were delicious, while the panini was ok. Then it was off to the pool deck for some lounging and reading. It started to shower later in the afternoon. I headed to the gym hoping that a run would help me feel a bit better. It helped for a bit but I think I was just too rundown from the weeks prior to the trip. Luckily I started to feel much better the following day!

 

We had dinner in La Cucina this night. I really didn't like it. It might've been affected by how I was feeling too, but everything just didn't seem quite worth it. Our server was clearly a bit stressed and slow. I felt bad for him though because the table next to us seemed to be complaining about everything from silverware to food. As a server myself, I realize how time consuming and draining that can be! Our appetizers were alright, I had friend calamari. My entree was the pork marsala with gnocchi. The gnocchi were like little rocks! Since I wasn't feeling too hungry anyway, I didn't bother sending it back. The husband enjoyed his meal a bit more but said he had liked what he ate in the Venetian better. So for us, it seems that the pay restaurants aren't worth it...at least the two we tried.

 

It was another early night. I finally slept really well and woke up refreshed for Belize!

[GeneD]

What deck 9 balcony did you have? We will be in a forward balcony on that deck and was wondering about the motion. Never mind I just saw the number under one of the pictures. We will be quite a bit further up in 9538 so I'm hoping for calm seas!

[TryingCruising]

What deck 9 balcony did you have? We will be in a forward balcony on that deck and was wondering about the motion. Never mind I just saw the number under one of the pictures. We will be quite a bit further up in 9538 so I'm hoping for calm seas!

 

We booked a midship but on all our tags and such it was listed as forward. I know we weren't too far up. The motion wasn't bad but noticeable. It was weirder to me because you could hear all the creaking. It might also be that our last cruise was on the Mediterranean. The sea was like glass! I'd bring something just incase. The Bonine works really well for me. I just take one chewable if needed. I ended up taking it two nights to be safe.

[cruiser1955a]

We booked a midship but on all our tags and such it was listed as forward. I know we weren't too far.

 

The "Forward" on your luggage tag is just there for the crew to know which elevator to use. Only certain elevators are used for bringing the luggage up.

 

Great review so far !

[Twelvevman]

What deck 9 balcony did you have? We will be in a forward balcony on that deck and was wondering about the motion. Never mind I just saw the number under one of the pictures. We will be quite a bit further up in 9538 so I'm hoping for calm seas!

 

I was in room 9022 and we did not notice any more motion than any other cabins we have been in.

[canehdn]

for posting your review. I'm thoroughly enjoying reading it and your photographs are great. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us ....

 

Cdn in KS

[lynninsc]

Enjoying your review. We were also on this sailing and had a great time. It was our first time trying NCL and we loved freestyle.

[Pa Cruiser43]

We will be midship, 9662. I've never really noticed any motion on our other cruises when we were midship. This time we are taking our son and his wife (9666). First cruise for them so I hope it's not too rough. Our first cruise we brought Bonine and took it the first day to be safe. It made us sleepy, although drinking and partying in New Orleans the night before could have made us ready to turn in early!

[KCinBAMA]

Great review. Thank you for posting.

[LizzieTrowbridge]

Thanks for the review so far. My husband and I will be on the Dawn this summer. It will be our first time on NCL so I am eager to hear all about NCL and the Dawn.