Good Times on The Dawn: July 26th

[whenisthemidnightbuffet?]

My husband and I drove from New Jersey up to Boston early Friday morning to board the Dawn. We had not sailed on her since 2009 and were looking forward to being reunited. We had a great week, met a lot of great people, and enjoyed wonderful weather the whole week, with the exception of sailing in and out of Boston on rainy days, luckily it was only drizzling in both instances.

 

After just coming off of the Breakaway 2 weeks earlier, we really had the whole rhythm of cruising already embedded in our system and jumped right into our champagne, oh I mean fun.

 

This will not be an extensive review, just will touch on some of the highlights. If I can help with something specific, please feel free to ask.

 

Had a cabin on deck 10, it was an inside sideways cabin, same size as others but with the bed in the center it allowed for 2 separate sides one with the closet and desk area, the other with the bathroom and another smaller desk area where the TV set was above. The only negative was if you wanted to lie down and watch the TV it was uncomfortable because you had to keep your head all the way sideways. Did have a most excellent cabin steward, Myerine. She treated us like we were royalty, loved her. In fact, every morning gave her a big hug and told her she was wonderful. Kept our room clean and stocked and anticipated any of our needs. For instance, we had several bottle of champagne from various places throughout the week and don't know how she did it but she figured out what days and what time we wanted to put it on ice to chill, there would be a knock on the door and she'd say, "oh, I thought you may want to chill some champagne today, so I brought you ice and glasses". Things like that which we really appreciated.

 

We had a small, but friendly, meet and greet on the 1st sea day (thank you Tammi for arranging). The Captain and his Senior Officers attended. They were all very accommodating and friendly (this is NCL's signature plus for me the way their Senior staff and crew are geared toward customer satisfaction). We were all given their direct numbers to contact them if we needed anything or ran into any issues. Throughout the week they were out and about and whenever you'd see them they would say hello, usually using your name (this is a trick NCL employees are great at, remembering names) and stop and chat with you. Sarper was the Hotel Director and he was a super guy. Alexander the restaurant manager, another great guy. Really liked this Captain as well, he was very friendly and easy to talk with.

 

We had some wonderful meals on the ship, but these were mostly in the specialty restaurants which we dined in mostly.

 

We had dinner in the MDR the first night for Lobster Tail, which we enjoyed and later in the week we ate in the alternate MDR with some fellow cruise critic members, which we really enjoyed, this time more for their company than the actual food because I honestly can't remember what we ate, it wasn't bad, just not memorable to me.

 

We had dinner twice in Le Bistro because this is my favorite NCL restaurant. Both times we ate in the pseudo outdoor area which mimics a sidewalk cafe but looks out onto a lounge area with piano player and I loved the whole ambiance of this dining style. You can however choose to dine inside. We received excellent service and wonderful food.

 

We had dinner at Cagneys, again excellent service and we enjoyed our food selections. Dinner at Bamboo did not really excite us. Not for any specific reason, I guess just because we eat Chinese food often and it is not really a treat. We did Teppanyaki the last night and I do like this restaurant, a lot of food, chef show and community seating where you socialize with your dinner mates.

 

Breakfast and lunch we alternated between Cagney's (we were invited guests for the week), Blue Lagoon which we found to be quite relaxing and they serve a nice sit down breakfast until 11:30 and the buffet, which we thought was quite good. They had a very large selection of salads, foods hot and cold, and a specialty each day for lunch such as Mexican, Indian, etc. Very crowded sailing but never had an issue finding seating in the buffet.

 

Since the cruise spends two nights in Bermuda we took advantage of being able to leave the ship and hang out on land, the other 5 nights we enjoyed playing cards and slots in the casino so unfortunately we really didn't get to see any of the shows with the exception of Bollywood on the last night because I heard so many great reviews and I am a Bollywood fan. The show is a love story with singing and dancing (very talented) and really beautiful costumes and sets. I did have a problem with the sound system, it seemed too loud and muffled to me (I am only 50 and hearing is not a problem I've encountered.....yet) and was a little frustrating that I couldn't understand everything they were saying, but when all was said and done it really didn't matter, the story is simple enough to Get.

 

Went to the spa raffle embarkation day and was lucky enough to win a facial. It was $159 rejuvenation treatment and was quite wonderful, only caveat was I had to book it during a port day which was no problem as I did it at 8 AM. The spa was very nice as was the staff.

 

Went to all of the parties, we had 4; one for all Lattitude levels; here I won a bottle of champagne and lightning struck twice because I won a free Bingo card and Bingo TShirt. Went to bingo later in the week with my $39 card but no luck there. However, friends we met at CC M&G that we sat with for Bingo did win a Bingo. She got $130. Way to go Hope! Went to VIP party to meet Captain and Staff for cocktails and Hors D'oeuvres. Went to VIP Lattitudes party and a CAS VIP Party. All parties lasted about an hour and had open bar with waiters coming around with drinks and Hors D'oeuvres. They were very nicely done and of course the kiddies are welcomed.

 

As I said we spent a lot of time in the casino. Some days we won, most days we lost, but we had a lot of fun with the dealers and pit bosses and our fellow gamblers, here we were extremely lucky because we had a great group of regulars each night at the tables and lots and lots of laughs! I was not laughing (nor smiling) while playing slots, all the machines I played were duds.

 

As for our time on the island, what can I say, Bermuda is beautiful and I really enjoy visiting this island. Since we were just here 2 weeks earlier we decided to stay on the ship the very first day and just enjoy a quiet pool environment. On the 2nd day we hooked up with our new found cruise critic friends (a family of 3) and rented a private taxi tour of the island. Paid $55 per hour, not the usual $40 because there were 5 of us, and we covered every nook and cranny of Bermuda. This took about 6 hours, but it was evident to all of us that our guide knew pretty much Everything Bermuda, he was even able to name every flower and plant on the island (but who knows, he could have been making it up, though I doubt it). We even requested that he take us to a beach, believe it was LongBay, where we were able to hang out at for a while before heading back to the ship for dinner. Went to Snorkel Park Beach last day and one night went to the Mini Golf right near Snorkel. We had wanted to rent a Boston Whaler for 1/2 day but when we contacted the facility they were all booked up so this will be on our To Do List when we sail back again next June on the Breakaway. See, we really do love Bermuda and keep coming back.

 

It was hard on this sailing not to make comparisons with our Breakaway cruise, but totally not fair. They are 2 entirely different experiences and one is not necessarily better than the other. The Dawn gave us our traditional NCL cruise experience which we love and keeps us coming back to NCL. The Breakaway, though still working out it's kinks and successfully at that, really does raise the bar, especially with the entertainment venues it offers and the whole Waterfront concept. On BA we were compelled to do many of the shows because they were not your typical "variety" acts. Both ships had what we feel to be the best on the seas and that is their crew.

[www3traveler]

I am glad that you had a nice time. Captain Teo Grbic is a really nice gentleman. I met him when he was a Staff Captain on The Spirit. He was just promoted to Captain at the end of April.

[martyandjanice]

Great review! Thank you so much for posting it! We are booked for the first cruise out of Tampa in Nov. Not many people are posting stuff about the Dawn right now. Glad you enjoyed your trip!

[whenisthemidnightbuffet?]

Great review! Thank you so much for posting it! We are booked for the first cruise out of Tampa in Nov. Not many people are posting stuff about the Dawn right now. Glad you enjoyed your trip!

 

I know what you mean about Dawn postings. The month or two before we left I could hardly find any recent chatter about the ship. It seems that the boards have been saturated with Breakaway and Epic chatter. I get that, being they are a little more complicated with the necessity for pre-cruise reservations, etc. But what is puzzling to me is that it is summer season and I would imagine most of the fleet is sailing at or near capacity and not much discussion going on.