Review of 9/21 Dawn (LONG)

[jess98ac]

Review of Dawn Princess 9/21 sailing –

 

A little background. This was my 4th cruise, DH’s 3rd…all on Carnival for both of us. This was our honeymoon cruise so we booked based on dates and itinerary, we weren’t ship conscious at all. Due to the time of year and recent hurricane seasons, we were NOT taking our chances in the Caribbean!!

 

We spent 2 nights in San Francisco before the cruise and one night after, all at the Sheraton at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was perfect for first timers. If we go back, we’ll try another part of the city. If we stay in the Wharf again, we might try a different hotel. The Sheraton was nice, but not cheap! WE mentioned it was our honeymoon and got a free bottle of champagne so that was nice. We explored a LOT in those few days in SF and even did one day tour to the Muir Woods and Sonoma…well worth it.

 

Embarkation – Since we had a late checkout at the hotel, we decided to walk around SF a bit more and get to the pier after 2. We got there at 2:10 or so and the line was LONG. However, we were on the ship and in our room by 3-3:15 and had all of our luggage by about 4. It was great. We booked a mini suite, and I’m really glad that we did. For me, 10 days is too long to go without a bathtub, and it was our honeymoon, so why not!! Our last cruise on Carnival was 3 years ago and we got upgraded SEVERAL times until we were in a Cat. 12 (their highest) so we were spoiled, but we weren’t disappointed with this room. There wasn’t as much storage as I would have expected (the drawers were tiny), but other than that it was great. We had a little entrance area with a desk, a couch (I think it was a bed), a chair, a coffee table, the fridge/bar area and a TV in the little living room with sliders out to the balcony. Then we had a queen sized bed, another desk/vanity, a TV, the safe and a little nightstand in the bedroom with another slider out to the balcony. The bathroom was very nice. From the bedroom there was a door into the part of the bathroom with the tub and shower. The tub was a really good size and the jets were nice. The shower was all glass and pretty big. The part of the bathroom with the toilet and sink was off of that in its own room which you could also get to through a door from the entrance way. All in all a very nice room.

 

Catalina – This was the Dawn’s first time in the port and it showed. I hope it gets better in future sailings. By 3PM our tender hadn’t even been called yet and we had to be back on the ship by 5:30. We turned in our tickets and sat by the pool instead since we have a trip to LA planned for next year anyway…we’ll get there then. The captain DID apologize a little later in the week for the problems…I hope it gets better for future sailings. My advice is this – If you REALLY want to see Catalina, book an excursion. They’ll get you off the ship faster.

 

Puerto Vallarta – We did the Jungle Canopy Tour. It was AWESOME. If you’re the adventurous type, I HIGHLY recommend it. We happened to be in a group of all younger couples (mid 20’s t0 mid 30’s), but I saw older and younger people once we were there. It’s not for the faint of heart and if you have any problems walking a lot uphill, I’d skip it. After you do the zip lines you have to walk back up to where you started…I was pretty winded by the time we got there!! It was an hour ride out and back, so when we got back we went to the ship and changed and then shopped and ate lunch right at the pier.

 

Mazatlan – We didn’t book an excursion here, but when we got off the ship there was a tour company offering a van tour for up to 8 people at $25 each. We hopped on with a group that was ready to go. It was a good tour. We got to see the downtown area that’s not really touristy. We stopped at a beautiful lookout area and an old cathedral. We then headed into the “Gold Zone” for some shopping. It was really really HOT and had rained for most of the morning so no one was really into it. After that the driver took us to lunch at a local restaurant right on the beach. The food was good. After that it was back to the ship! There were lots of shops right on the pier so we did a little more shopping there, but it had started to POUR again so we didn’t stay long.

 

Cabo San Lucas – We didn’t originally have a tour booked here, but since it was a tender port, we didn’t want a repeat of Catalina so we booked one. For those of you who don’t want to, it didn’t look like there were problems getting off the ship here. We did the boat tour and scenic drive. It was a 45 minute boat ride out to Los Arcos and around the Sea of Cortez, and then a 15 minute van ride out to this beautiful restaurant. Once there, we got a free drink and could stay up to an hour as they had vans running back into town and the pier the whole time. We got our drink, went all the way up to the top deck and enjoyed the views and then left. We were there about 20 minutes. We asked the driver to drop us off in town and he had no problem doing that. Once there, we went to lunch at Cabo Wabo…the prices weren’t too bad and the burrito I had was AWESOME. I also had a Waborita…pretty smooth considering how much alcohol is in one of those things! We then walked around a bit and walked back to the pier. It was about a 10 minute walk. I think a taxi would cost almost $10 so we were glad we walked. We hopped in a water taxi and went over to Medano Beach for a couple hours. We went in the water (warm but STRONG current) and had a couple drinks on the sand at Billigan’s. It was very nice except the beach vendors are EVERYWHERE. They don’t pester you, but it was a constant “No thanks” the whole time.

 

San Diego – We have friends not too far from here so as a wedding gift they bought us zoo tickets. We got off the ship at 9, hopped in a cab, and 15 minutes and $15 later we were at the zoo. It was great. It was not crowded at all, and we were able to see everything we really wanted to see and do some shopping by 1:30. We could have stayed a LOT longer but it was REALLY hot so we went back to the ship. There were lots of cabs waiting there so we no problems getting back to the ship. When we got back, we were hot and tired so we just hung out on the ship. We’ll head back out there to visit friends soon and hopefully see more of the city.

 

Sea Days – We did a lot of nothing! The bar service by the pool was great. We never had a problem getting 2 chairs together by the pool even around 10AM. There was some entertainment that seemed pretty good, we didn’t pay a whole lot of attention. Actually, we didn’t go to any shows at all except for one comedian who was good.

 

Dawn service – Overall it was great. We had traditional second seating for dinner and loved it. We anticipated only going to the dining room 6-7 nights since it was a 10 day cruise, but ended up going 9!! We had a great table and wonderful waiters, Sebastian and Florin, both from Romania. They were just wonderful! They even sang “Happy Honeymoon” to us the first night and gave us a little chocolate cake and card from the captain on our first night! The one night we didn’t go there, we went to the Sterling Steakhouse, more on that later. The bar staff was great. We met a waiter in the Patisserie before dinner on the first night and never made it back there until the 9th and he remembered us. Also, we met El when we ordered our first drinks before sailaway, and we sought him out after that…he was awesome! The casino staff was also great…we spent a lot of time (and $$) there!! Dealer Carrie Ann was one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met! The staff in the Horizon Buffet was also very good. They came around with a beverage cart for refills very often and there was never a dirty table in sight…also were very friendly. I was disappointed with our cabin steward. He DID put “just married” balloons outside our door….but that was it. We didn’t see ANY of the perks for mini suite passengers. We had to ask 3 times for our free glasses of champagne. We had to ask twice for robes. We had to ask EVERYDAY for pool towels. If we brought drinks back to our room, he only took the empty glasses if they were on the shelf right next to the door. When we saw him, he was very nice, just not what I expected. We ordered room service a few times. It was always fast and very good. There was one time that we didn’t have any cash (except a $20) so we tipped on the slip and the person actually ASKED if we had any cash. I was pretty turned off by that. At that point, even if we had, we wouldn’t have given it to him. The cruise director was Billy London. He was very nice and always around. We saw him a lot. We talked to him for a few minutes the night of the champagne waterfall (VERY COOL) and he was very personable.

 

Princess vs. Carnival – I think there were things I liked better on each line. We’ve been on 2 of Carnival’s bigger ships (Triumph and Pride), so we expected the Dawn to be smaller, and it was. I really liked it, though. We met some great people and were able to see them a lot without really trying! As I said before, we had a Cat 12 on Carnival the last time, so it’s hard to compare the rooms. I liked the bathroom and the double access to the balcony better on the Dawn, but the size of the room and the storage on the Pride was better. I liked the fridge on the Dawn, we had to have our mini bar emptied on the Pride and nothing stayed cold. The food was pretty comparable. The Horizon was a little better than the buffet on Carnival, but the selection wasn’t as big. The same goes for the dining room…everything was had was excellent, but the selection didn’t wow me. The Sterling Steakhouse was NOT worth it. I know that the Dawn is trying to fit in with the newer ships by having it, but it wasn’t worth it. The food was good, but we had steaks that were just as good in the dining room. The service wasn’t as good as the regular dining room. I would say save your money! La Scala pizzeria was EXCELLENT. We at lunch there twice and it was awesome.

 

Disembarkation was smooth. We were off the ship before 10AM and we were the 10th group or so. I would have to say that everyone was probably off by 11. We walked over to the Sheraton once we were off the ship...not a bad walk even with luggage. If we had known that, we would have saved ourselves the $10 and walked TO the ship, too!

 

I think that’s it. Would I sail Princess again? Yes. Would I sail the Dawn again? If the itinerary were right, than I would. We tend to book more by itinerary than ship or company, but I would like to try a Royal Caribbean next!!

Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll post a link to pics in another post.

[bdjam]

I know that the Dawn is trying to fit in with the newer ships by having it, but it wasn’t worth it.

Congratulations on a successful trip. Just a little side note, the Sterling Steakhouse was actually inaugurated on Sun and Dawn Princess – at that time they’d set up the area around the grill overlooking the pool for the service.

[crishsapig]

Thanks so much for the review! We are doing our first Princess cruise Nov 10 on the Dawn. It's been almost a year and we are SO ready for this one! ~Chris

[sweetbusdriver]

Hi Jess,Enjoyed your review,my DH and i will cruise the DAWN on Nov.20thTurkey Day cruise, the same itinerary,our first cruise ever.im researching(obesessing)lol ,over everything.sounds like we're in for a good time,thanks again,CANDY

[yancycruiser]

Thanks Jess for the great posts and positive review. We are also on the November 10 Dawn cruise. Glad you had a great cruise and appreciate you taking time to elaborate on each port.