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

[uoftxchik]

I am wondering if you have photos of the MDR menus by chance? If so, I would love to see them.

 

I am also wondering if the Christmas decorations were left up until the end of your cruise? The reason I ask is that we board the Dawn on December 28th this year and are hoping they will still be up. We were on the Celebrity Summit a couple of years ago and they left the Christmas decorations up til January 2nd. I read a review from the Christmas 2015 cruise on the Dawn and the individual reported that the decorations were all gone on the morning of December 26th when they awoke. I am not sure what day you disembarked, so you may not be able to help me with this question. I may have to ask people on the current Dawn cruise after they disembark.

 

We were on the Dawn sailing starting on 12/23 and ending on 12/30. The Christmas decorations remained up the entire time and showed no signs of removal when we left.

[luddite]

We were on the Dawn sailing starting on 12/23 and ending on 12/30. The Christmas decorations remained up the entire time and showed no signs of removal when we left.

 

It could be that they do the 12 days of Christmas thing. Our stuff stays on through tomorrow night.

[PaulInPGH]

Ditto. You are an awesome reviewer. I may try to do the same for my cruise this weekend.

 

 

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Thank you. I find it to be a fun way to relive my vacation, and I really enjoy going back and rereading them a year or two after the cruise to remember how great it was.

[panamatiger]

The CD was Dan France, who was great. only .

 

Dan got his promotion to full CD in November while we were onboard.

[PaulInPGH]

Dan got his promotion to full CD in November while we were onboard.

 

The quality of the CD onboard has never really impacted our enjoyment of the cruise, but we did think Dan was the best we'd sailed with to date. Very energetic, funny, and a hell of an opera singer.

[PaulInPGH]

Day 6 (Cruise Day 5): A Private Tour of Roatan

 

Up early, this time by design, we breakfasted at Garden Café and were off the ship by 8:30.

 

If you visit the Roatan forums here on CC, you’ll see a number of threads recommending Victor Bodden tours, for a variety of activities. We mulled doing a pre-determined tour, but the price of doing an entirely private tour ($40 per person) was so reasonable, we decided to book our own driver for the day.

 

We met Victor himself right outside the port, and he brought us to meet our driver for the day, Angel. After a brief discussion of where we’d like to go, we were off.

[PaulInPGH]

The private tour was somewhat of a mixed bag. The positive: Angel drove us all around the island, showing us areas outside the main tourist spots. Our conversation was very interesting—giving us some insights on the lives of the people on the island that you rarely get in a group setting. We stopped at the highest point on the island for some cool pictures, and we met Angel’s sister, who sells souvenirs. I was able to buy my customary shot glass, and my wife purchased a necklace.

 

The negative: this tour was billed as you pick what you want to do and the driver will accommodate you. Having done some online research, we had a place in mind where we wanted to eat lunch, but Angel told us he’d never heard of the place. We asked him to bring us to a place with good seafood, so he brought us to a strange spot where people were zip lining, but which also had a restaurant. It seemed popular with the tour providers, as there were a lot of tour groups eating there when we arrived. The food was excellent—I had probably the best fried shrimp I’ve ever had, and my wife really enjoyed her stewed shrimp in coconut oil. But at the same time, we felt a bit as if we were being brought to the places where Angel had connections and wanted us to spend our money, rather than tailoring the tour to what we wanted, as was advertised.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Roatan.

[PaulInPGH]

 

My wife and I, at the top of the world.

[PaulInPGH]

 

The view from on high.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Once again, I ate my food too quickly to be photographed, but here's my wife's stewed shrimp.

[PaulInPGH]

One other weird note about lunch: I didn’t read anything online beforehand regarding what’s expected when a tour guide brings you to lunch. We weren’t sure if we were expected to buy Angel lunch, or whether he’d fend for himself. The other groups eating lunch near us seemed split; a few bought their guides lunch, and a number of guides just dropped their guests off and waited at the front of the restaurant. We’d planned on giving Angel a nice tip, which we thought would be appreciated more than one lunch, but he just kind of stood near us while we ate, as if he’d expected to have us buy his lunch. This was a bit uncomfortable, and I still don’t really know what’s most appropriate for that situation.

[PaulInPGH]

On the whole, we enjoyed our private Bodden tour and would do one again. Stopping at Victor’s Monkey Business was a lot of fun—everyone should have a monkey hang out on their shoulder at least once. But if I book another tour, I plan to be explicit about where I’d like to go at the outset (you can do this by email before you leave), rather than leave it up to the driver.

[PaulInPGH]

 

Me and my new best friend.

[PaulInPGH]

We were back to the ship by about 1:00, so we again took advantage of an emptier ship and enjoyed some time in the pool and hot tubs. As had become our custom, we enjoyed drinks at Bimini during sail away.

 

Our afternoon fun came in the form of general trivia down in Gatsby’s. I guess we won music trivia too many times, because it never happened again on this cruise. We teamed up with a friendly couple sitting at our table and had a good showing, but we came in just short of first.

[PaulInPGH]

We walked up to deck 7 to try to make a reservation for Bamboo later that evening. Even though Bamboo is a complimentary restaurant, reservations are still required since seating there is so limited. Unfortunately, they were fully booked that night, and for the rest of the cruise. So if you want to eat at Bamboo on your Dawn cruise, make your reservations early.

 

We decided to worry about dinner later, and we headed to the theater to catch the early performance by the Second City comedy group. This show was a mixture of sketch comedy and improv, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was, by far, the funniest performance we’ve seen at sea.

 

Dinner still unresolved, we trekked up to deck 12 to see if Los Lobos had any reservations available. Unfortunately, they had a couple large groups coming in and were unable to seat us.

[PaulInPGH]

Rather than dine at O’Sheehan’s for the 37th time, we decided to change things up and order room service instead. We typically enjoy ordering room service at least once per cruise, which used to be a little more fun when it came without the $7.95 fee. Still, we tried a few different dishes which—while nothing exceptional—were still enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed the steak with chimichurri.

 

Since we’d seen the early show, and since dinner was conveniently brought right to our cabin, we decided to just stay in and relax for the rest of the evening. We spent some time reading and just sitting on the balcony, enjoying the ocean, before hitting the sack.

 

Up next: a visit to my favorite place on earth.

[Ms Orchid]

Thank you for the lovely review. Your words paint a beautiful picture. We are sailing on the Dawn in 23 days and you have made my day since the temperature here today is a very cold -18C. Job very well done. DH and I are looking forward to your next instalment.

[easyboy]

Glad you mentioned the attitude of Vicor's driver Angel. We have planned before to get Victor for our port visit in March. Might as well email him first the places we want to see so we don't have to discuss it with the driver. What place did you want to go that Angel replied of not being familiar?

[PaulInPGH]

Glad you mentioned the attitude of Vicor's driver Angel. We have planned before to get Victor for our port visit in March. Might as well email him first the places we want to see so we don't have to discuss it with the driver. What place did you want to go that Angel replied of not being familiar?

 

We wanted to do Temporary Cal's, which I read about here and on TripAdvisor. They're supposed to have great seafood with very nice views. If you have specific destinations in mind, definitely put them in a request in advance.

[PaulInPGH]

Thank you for the lovely review. Your words paint a beautiful picture. We are sailing on the Dawn in 23 days and you have made my day since the temperature here today is a very cold -18C. Job very well done. DH and I are looking forward to your next instalment.

 

Thanks so much. I'm sure you'll have a great time on the Dawn, and in New Orleans.

[tbear046]

Thank you for the lovely review. Your words paint a beautiful picture. We are sailing on the Dawn in 23 days and you have made my day since the temperature here today is a very cold -18C. Job very well done. DH and I are looking forward to your next instalment.

You must me on the same sailing thst we are! Loving this review and getting so excited [emoji4]

 

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[Princess Fi]

Enjoying the review. We too have a private tour with Victor Bodden so appreciate the advice. There is meet and greet first day at sea if you check out the Jan 29 roll call. Getting excited. This is my sister's second cruise but my 14th. My husband and I are on the Celebrity Equinox in October. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences!

 

 

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[PaulInPGH]

Day 7 (Cruise Day 6): Paradise

 

Knowing we had a delicious day ahead, we grabbed a light breakfast at Garden Café as the ship pulled in to Cozumel. Wanting as much time in port as possible, we were off the ship only a few minutes after passengers were cleared to leave.

 

Of all the wonderful suggestions I’ve found here on CC, perhaps the best was to visit Nachi Cocom in Cozumel. We went to Nachi on our Serenade cruise back in 2014, and it was the highlight of our trip. So, we’d been looking forward to going back for quite some time.

 

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Nachi, it’s an all-inclusive resort, which only allows 100 people in per day to maintain a low-key atmosphere. Nachi sports a beautiful beach, a pool with swim-up bar, a hot tub, and fantastic food and drinks. At only $55 per person, it’s a great place to spend a relaxing beach day.

[PaulInPGH]

We grabbed a taxi and were sitting on the beach, under our own little thatched covering, by about 9:15. We ordered an early—even for us—round of drinks and started soaking up the beautiful surroundings.

 

We immediately jumped in the ocean, on what’s become our favorite beach in the Caribbean. Unlike the beach in Harvest Caye, the beach at Nachi Cocom is soft, calm, and free of rocks and shells.