Seven Days on the Dawn and Christmas in New Orleans: A Review

[JillL]

Following... :)

[rcstrot]

Following - we're on the Dawn on Feb 5th!

 

Thanks for posting!

 

 

Robert

[Barb Nahoumi]

I am confident that if you choose the Dawn you will have a great time.

 

The Dawn is a very nice ship. We cruise on her between Boston and Bermuda.

[mints]

I'm a native New Orleanian doing a Mardi Gras sailing on the Dawn. Looking forward to seeing your review of the cruise.

 

Feel free to ask any questions about stuff to do around town if you're here for a few days.

 

As far as Drago's yeah the one downtown is pretty bad compared to the Metairie one.

 

A bit of advice I'd give to anyone that's going to be here for a day or more before or after the sailing, take the Ferry over to Algiers Point, it's a really picturesque part of town that most people don't experience since it's on the other side of the river, there's some pretty neat bars within walking distance from the Ferry so you don't have to venture too far from the comfort zone near the port.

[PaulInPGH]

I'm a native New Orleanian doing a Mardi Gras sailing on the Dawn. Looking forward to seeing your review of the cruise.

 

Feel free to ask any questions about stuff to do around town if you're here for a few days.

 

As far as Drago's yeah the one downtown is pretty bad compared to the Metairie one.

 

A bit of advice I'd give to anyone that's going to be here for a day or more before or after the sailing, take the Ferry over to Algiers Point, it's a really picturesque part of town that most people don't experience since it's on the other side of the river, there's some pretty neat bars within walking distance from the Ferry so you don't have to venture too far from the comfort zone near the port.

 

This sounds pretty cool; I'll have to add it to my list for my next trip!

[cincicruisers]

Following your review. Great start.

[tbear046]

Following! We sail 1/29!😁

 

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[Hollr]

Following!

 

We're set to spend 2 days in New Orleans before our cruise departs the end of March. It's been since 98 that I last visited NOLA. I'm excited to see the city again!

[Starflyr3]

following too! We're on a Spring Break cruise from NOLA in March on Dawn.

[kissmeyoufool]

Following as well going on a cruise Feb 12 can't wait

 

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[PaulInPGH]

Day 2 (Cruise Day 1): Steak on the Ocean

 

I will always remember this trip as the vacation where I got up stupidly early nearly every morning. For someone who enjoys his sleep, especially while on vacation, this is very odd behavior. The morning we were set to get on the ship, I was up at 6:00, skulking around our hotel room, trying not to wake my sleeping wife.

 

She eventually awoke, and we attempted to grab a quick bite before heading to the port. Unfortunately, the breakfast offerings at the Hilton tended to fall in the pre-made sandwich or unappetizing packaged food department, so we decided to hit the streets in hopes of finding something tastier. This turned out to be a tough task, as we didn’t want to do a full sit down restaurant, opting to save both time and belly room for our time on the ship.

 

We eventually wandered by a McDonald’s, which I feel bad admitting, as we were in basically food nirvana in New Orleans—but it checked the box of being quick. I know, we should have walked to Café du Monde for beignets, but in my defense, that would have been a bit of a walk from the Hilton. No worries though, we consumed enough beignets upon our return to New Orleans to feed a small army.

 

My wife ate a surprisingly good chicken biscuit at the McDonalds, and we continue to joke—when we remember all the great food we had on vacation—we should remember the excellent chicken biscuits at the New Orleans McDonald’s.

[PaulInPGH]

Authentic southern breakfast now consumed, we went back to our hotel to grab our luggage and walk over to the port. I booked the room at the Hilton specifically because, as I read here on CC, walking to the port was supposed to be easy from this hotel. Unfortunately, I neglected to read about exactly how to accomplish this, thinking that the folks at the hotel would be happy to tell me how to get there. Well, I was wrong.

 

The people at the Hilton were, in a word, terrible. When we asked, both at the check in desk and at the concierge, no one would tell us how to walk over to the port. Instead, they said things like “you don’t want to do that,” “you have all that luggage,” “it’s a SUPER long walk with no sidewalks and you’ll have to go through multiple fences,” and “just get a cab.” This was surprising, and annoying.

 

Not wanting to mess around, we opted to just get in a cab, but I resented the Hilton people pushing us in that direction, especially after we paid $8 per person for a ride that was literally three minutes long, and that looked to be easily walkable! The people at the Hilton obviously have some incentive going with the cab drivers to funnel business to them. Needless to say, we don’t intend on staying with them again, but if you do, be sure to find some directions on walking to the port yourself, and don’t rely on getting any help from the Hilton staff.

[luddite]

I've now cruised out of New Orleans (twice), Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale, and New Orleans is by far my favorite. As long as there are ships there, I will cruise on whatever's available because I love New Orleans so much.

 

NOLA is the best.

[PaulInPGH]

Luckily, that was the only problem we had that morning. Embarkation was the easiest we’ve ever had. We arrived to the port around 11:00, and after about 15-20 minutes to get through the security line, we were able to walk straight to the check in counter with no wait. What’s more, after checking in, we were able to proceed directly on to the ship with no wait at all. We were on the ship and exploring by 11:30.

 

We entered on deck 7 and took a brief seat near the atrium bar so my wife could send some texts to family and friends letting them know we were leaving. For myself, I prefer to just ghost, so I gleefully turned my phone to airplane mode and enjoyed listening to the gentleman playing piano as my wife composed her final missives.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Piano in the atrium.

[luddite]

Day 2 (Cruise Day 1):

 

 

. I know, we should have walked to Café du Monde for beignets, but in my defense, that would have been a bit of a walk from the Hilton. No worries though, we consumed enough beignets upon our return to New Orleans to feed a small army.

 

 

There is a café DuMonde outlet in the Riverfront Mall thingy adjacent to the ship terminal. It's at the farthest end from the ships. It's a hike but having a beer in hand makes it easy to get there. A beer at 9:00 AM in NOLA isn't unheard-of.

 

In the Quarter you can find several places called ..... Café Beignet- one is on Royal ...... and you can save a ninety minute wait.

[PaulInPGH]

Since we’d feasted on chicken biscuits not too long ago, we decided to skip the buffet and instead went off to explore the ship. We walked through decks 6 through 8, checking out many of the spots where we’d be hanging out over the next week.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Stardust Theater.

[PaulInPGH]

 

The Dawn, feeling festive.

[boaterette]

I am really enjoying your review.

[Cruzinnana47]

We sailed on the Dawn out of NOLA this past April--pre-refurb. Agree that sailing out of this city is just the best...;)

 

Following...anxiously awaiting more...:)

[PaulInPGH]

I am really enjoying your review.

 

Thank you. I am really enjoying writing it. It allows me to relive my vacation.

[PaulInPGH]

We eventually made it up to the pool deck on deck 12, and we decided to grab our first drink of the cruise. We made our way up to Bimini Grill, which is on deck 13 and which sports a cool view of the pool deck and, when at sea, a nice bird’s eye view of the ocean. You have to walk up what feels like a hundred steps to get up there, but the exercise helps work off all the calories you consume.

 

We took a seat and grabbed drinks—a Mango Meltdown for my wife, and a strawberry daiquiri for me. I like scotch and beer as much as the next guy, but something about being on a cruise turns me in to a fruity-drink addict, and my number one choice in that family of drinks is the daiquiri. We felt very content—listening to the band play down by the pool, sipping our drinks under a breezy blue sky.

[PaulInPGH]

 

View from Bimini.

[PaulInPGH]

They announced that staterooms were ready at about 1:30, so we immediately headed down to check out our room. I was particularly excited because this would be our first cruise in a balcony cabin.

 

We’d initially booked an interior midship on deck 8, but following advice I read here on CC, I called the NCL upsell department a few times before our cruise, hoping to score an upgrade to a balcony cabin. I was not overly hopeful that I’d be able to upgrade, as there were no available balcony cabins for several weeks prior to the cruise. However, something must have opened up, because when I called three days prior to the cruise, I was able to upgrade to a midship balcony on deck 9 for an additional $150 per person. I was very excited, as that price for a balcony cabin was about half of what balconies were going for over the last few months. So even if the website isn’t showing any cabins available, it can never hurt to give a call and see what happens.

 

We were in cabin 9602, which was midship on the port side. When we got to the cabin, however, neither of our keys would open the door. We went up to guest services, where there was quite the line, but they were able to fix the issue very quickly once we made it up to the desk.