Dawn vs. Carnival Dream with older children

[vbcoachcj]

I will be going on my third NCL cruise this summer but have been on Epic, Breakaway, and soon Getaway. I have loved them all more than my Carnival cruises.

 

I have a friend that is considering the Dream vs. the Dawn. They are the same price but Dawn will have UDP included. She has not been on NCL before, only Carnival. She likes the ports on the Dawn better than Dream.

 

Knowing that I haven't been on this class of NCL ship, what are thoughts comparing the two with kids around ages 11 & 16? Since it will be spring break, do the number of kids increase? Can anyone helps compare food? It seems so subjective but couldn't find much info on Dawn for kids. Will the Splash Academy classes be the same as they are on the Breakaway Class?

[tomsuelaw]

I will be going on my third NCL cruise this summer but have been on Epic, Breakaway, and soon Getaway. I have loved them all more than my Carnival cruises.

 

I have a friend that is considering the Dream vs. the Dawn. They are the same price but Dawn will have UDP included. She has not been on NCL before, only Carnival. She likes the ports on the Dawn better than Dream.

 

Knowing that I haven't been on this class of NCL ship, what are thoughts comparing the two with kids around ages 11 & 16? Since it will be spring break, do the number of kids increase? Can anyone helps compare food? It seems so subjective but couldn't find much info on Dawn for kids. Will the Splash Academy classes be the same as they are on the Breakaway Class?

 

I have been on the Dream and it so far is my favorite ship out of all (liked it better then Epic). While I have never been on the Dawn, I have sailed the Pearl which I believe is similar in many ways. I think the Dream will have more amenities suited for this age group (i.e. Waterworks). We have found kids clubs to be comparable fleet wide and even similar btwn CCL and NCL.

 

With that said. We cruise for ports so that is an important factor to us.

 

We find MDR food between CCL and NCL to be comparable with a slight edge to CCL. I have never done UDP, but have done specialty dining at Cagney's and the Mexican place and loved Cagney's. Other then Cagney's, MDR food works great for me so I don't feel the need to upgrade. Assuming the UDP is included, that is certainly an extra perk to expand options.

 

Sorry, I am not much help cause both will be good I bet, but I personally would choose Dream with kids.

Edited February 10, 2015 by tomsuelaw

[dmart82]

I have done both with boys from 12-17 yrs old and the Dream has some much more for them to do. I like the size of the Dawn better but for the kids the Dream is the way to go. Also the Dream has 3 comedians on and then at your port they witch with 2 new ones. Enjoy your family time!

[Jaco5NC]

We have never sailed on the Dawn but I can say that my kids LOVED sailing on the Dream. They enjoyed the activities and waterworks kept them very busy, staff was wonderful too. We are trying the Getaway this time but it was a tough decision, kids wanted a repeat on the Dream. The UBP and different food options swayed us toward Getaway and NCL.

[BeachMartini]

Have sailed both. I am partial to the Dawn just because of our history together :) We live 10 minutes from the pier in Boston so that's a plus.

 

The only bad thing I can recall about the Dream were the crowds. We felt herded everywhere we went. We did enjoy the comedy club, but as adults, we actually like the entertainment on the Dawn better.

 

That was my only Carnival cruise - I did enjoy the food on CCL more than the MDR on any NCL ship. Hello, Chocolate Melting Cake. Really liked the water slides on the Dream too.

 

I don't think you can go wrong with either ship. If it were me in this situation, I'd give the edge to the preferred itinerary.

[vbcoachcj]

I personally liked breakaway more than dream. I felt like there was just so much more to do and I hardly noticed that our ship was packed full.

 

Is there bowling on the Dawn? They don't have o Sheehans either, right?

[sparkinator]

My family just cruised on the Dawn and it was great. I like the 4 port days, so the Dawn was a no brainer just for that. My twins are 11 and they had a blast as well. They don't really do the kids club thing, so no help there, but only being at sea 2 days, there's not much time spend on the ship anyway.

 

We went to Banana Bank horse lodge in Belize, Chankanaab park in Coz., Nohoch Caye beach in Costa Maya, and Turquoise Bay Lodge in Roatan. They enjoyed those more than anything the ship had to offer. Oh, and the shows were great. David Davinci is the magician/bird trainer, and he has a couple of extra shows with good interaction with audience. My kids really liked that as well.

 

The Dawn was a little bit of a let down from the Jewel from last year when we cruised though. We were invited on stage and participated in the Nick Prime Time Slime in the Stardust Theater and also my son and daughter participated in it when it was held by the pool. The Dawn doesn't have the Nickelodeon kids program and I can't say that they missed it this time (as busy as they were), but I know how much we enjoyed it on the last cruise.