Quick review of Dawn Garden Villa

[FLcruisergrl]

We just returned from an amazing cruise on the Dawn in the Horizon Garden Villa. I don’t see a lot of reviews of the GV here on CC, so I thought I’d do a brief recap. 
 

Ports:

The cruise left out of Tampa and visited Cozumel, Roatan, Harvest Caye, and Costa Maya. The weather was beautiful and the only day I found it to be “hot” was in Harvest Caye.

 

Embarkation:

Embarkation was a cluster. I’m usually pretty easygoing, but I started to get a little frustrated. The ship was late coming in and the previous cruise didn’t disembark until around 10am. As a result, everyone on our cruise was being turned away and told to come back in 2 hours. It was unseasonably cold (30s) and people were left to wander around in the cold with their luggage. Luckily, we chose to disregard the instructions and were able to drop our luggage and wait in the terminal when we arrived at 10:45. However, after waiting in the seating area we were directed to, we noticed folks getting onto the escalator and discovered that the port agent who directed us to sit had forgotten to come get us. No worries, as she allowed those of us who had been waiting to get back into the line and not go to the end. Unfortunately, the “little General” at the base of the escalator didn’t want us to go through, as we had a child under 18. Rather than just look at our paperwork, she made us go to a completely different room, where all they did was look at paperwork that had already been looked at previously. 🙄. After raising a little stink for the runaround, we were allowed to get on the escalator and proceed upstairs.

 

At the top of the escalator, it became apparent that NCL was not prepared to board passengers at this terminal.  They weren’t set up at a counter and there was no separate Suites check in.  It went fast, though, and I really felt for the agent checking us in-she was going to have a long day! She then directed us across the room to the Suites waiting area. On the way, we were stopped and asked if we had our keycards. I replied no and they tried to send us back to check-in. I refused and told the person that we were told to go to the area ahead. Another agent overheard and told the first agent that we were to go to the Suites area. We get to the suites area and go through the same thing all over again. But that time, the person who overheard was the incredibly amazing concierge, Alex. Alex made everything better, got us inside the room, gave us our keycards, and within a few minutes we were on the ship!
 

Garden Villa (14000):

 

The first word that comes to mind with this villa is “obscene”. Obscenely luxurious, obscenely huge, just totally obscene! 3 suite-sized bedrooms with full baths, living/dining room, kitchenette with microwave, piano, 2 level courtyard/sundeck with jacuzzi, steamroom, and multiple seating areas! 
 

Staff:

 

As mentioned above, our concierge was Alex. He took care of everything for us and his personalized service, finding us at dinner each evening, was really, really nice. He will be ranked up there as one of my favorite concierges!  Our butler was Jon, one of the nicest, sweetest people I have met. He never wanted us to lift a finger and was always on top of every request. Our steward was Jaime, who was also incredibly accommodating and made sure the villa was always clean and tidy.

 

Ports:

 

Cozumel was the same, as always. We went to Passion Island, which is still great, but will go somewhere else next time. Roatan was definitely the highlight. We’ve been most places in the Caribbean, but this was our first trip to Roatan. I totally recommend the Turquoise Bay overwater bungalow. Expensive, but so worth it! Harvest Caye was super hot and crowded, as the Breakaway was with us. Costa Maya was great- we really liked the port area. We did the Wellness Retreat, which was a nice change from beach activities.

 

Food:

 

Cagney’s was very, very good, as was La Cucina. I was disappointed in Le Bistro. I keep hearing how everyone loves it, but we’ve had 2 not so great meals, so we probably won’t try it again. The suites breakfast and lunch was very good and I loved the mushroom flatbread. 
 

Disembarkation:

 

Despite my pleas to our crew to hide us somewhere so that we could stay on another week, we were cruelly kicked off this morning! However, I do think we were the last passengers off! It couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Jon escorted us from the villa and took us down to meet Alex. Then, the two of them escorted us to the place where you “ding” to get off, and handed us over to the port agent Brian. Brian took us through the terminal to get our luggage. After that, he led us to the looong customs line. After about 1 minute in line, this angel of an NCL employee was like “No, Brian, no. Get them out of line. They don’t wait in line!” We then exited the line and walked to the very front, right through customs, and out to the limo driver. We rode in a Mercedes “party bus” type limo to the hotel where we parked. A smooth ending to an incredible cruise!

[FLcruisergrl]

Oh, and I encountered something interesting with the dining package. For the first time, we had a server explain it correctly. She told us to order as many apps, soups, salads, and desserts as we wanted. We were just limited to one entree. She even put my daughter’s sides on my meal, because my daughter didn’t have the package. This is so different from our past experiences!

Edited March 20, 2022 by FLcruisergrl

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

Sorry to hear about your embarkation woes, but happy to hear about your suite!  We are in the same one in August and SO looking forward to it!  Question for you, is there a galley for this GV, or just a min-fridge and microwave?  We were on the Dawn in a GV and one had a galley and the other one did not.  We really enjoyed having the galley kitchen available!

[GeezerCouple]

Memories!

 

On DH's first cruise several years ago, we were in the DOS on Dawn.  We LOVED that "view like the Captain has" and have tried to get something like that whenever possible.

 

So we had seating in the theatre for the suites, and a few times, a couple in one of the Garden Villas sat next to us.  We got to chatting, and they asked if we'd like a tour.  "Sure!!" 😄

 

So we took a nice tour.  Yup, it was HUGE.  And the area where the hot tub is, down a small staircase outside... that had a small statue and other features, and something about it made us think a bit of Italy.  I don't know if it's still like that or if it looked like that to others.  Maybe we were just gobsmacked by all of it!?

 

I don't know if it's be redecorated, but we thought the "color scheme", etc., was a bit garish.  But others may really like that, and no decorator ever asked for our opinion obviously.

 

We'd love to have a Garden Villa when we sail with our kids/grands in two years, but the cost is just too much, even compared with Haven suites (different ship; Dawn has no Haven). We also weren't crazy about the view over the pool.  Yes, it's a "forward view", but one doesn't have the same view as the Captain.

 

I doubt we'll have a chance to upgrade at a reasonable price, and we are very happy with the Haven.  But the *space* in the Garden Villas...! Wow.

 

Did you ever figure out why having someone under 18 kept you off the escalator at first?

 

Glad you had such a nice time!

 

GC

 

[egurbi]

I was in this suite 10 years ago. Nothing has ever come close.  Back then, the sun deck for the suite could have hosted a party for 400. I understand that they subsequently took some of that space away. But still a remarkable experience.  Any interlopers try to get in from the emergency exit that leads down to the sports courts? We chuckled dealing with those folks.

[FLcruisergrl]

10 minutes ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

Sorry to hear about your embarkation woes, but happy to hear about your suite!  We are in the same one in August and SO looking forward to it!  Question for you, is there a galley for this GV, or just a min-fridge and microwave?  We were on the Dawn in a GV and one had a galley and the other one did not.  We really enjoyed having the galley kitchen available!

14000 has the galley-all stainless, with multiple fridges, the microwave, and sink. Loved it!

[FLcruisergrl]

8 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Memories!

 

On DH's first cruise several years ago, we were in the DOS on Dawn.  We LOVED that "view like the Captain has" and have tried to get something like that whenever possible.

 

So we had seating in the theatre for the suites, and a few times, a couple in one of the Garden Villas sat next to us.  We got to chatting, and they asked if we'd like a tour.  "Sure!!" 😄

 

So we took a nice tour.  Yup, it was HUGE.  And the area where the hot tub is, down a small staircase outside... that had a small statue and other features, and something about it made us think a bit of Italy.  I don't know if it's still like that or if it looked like that to others.  Maybe we were just gobsmacked by all of it!?

 

I don't know if it's be redecorated, but we thought the "color scheme", etc., was a bit garish.  But others may really like that, and no decorator ever asked for our opinion obviously.

 

We'd love to have a Garden Villa when we sail with our kids/grands in two years, but the cost is just too much, even compared with Haven suites (different ship; Dawn has no Haven). We also weren't crazy about the view over the pool.  Yes, it's a "forward view", but one doesn't have the same view as the Captain.

 

I doubt we'll have a chance to upgrade at a reasonable price, and we are very happy with the Haven.  But the *space* in the Garden Villas...! Wow.

 

Did you ever figure out why having someone under 18 kept you off the escalator at first?

 

Glad you had such a nice time!

 

GC

 

It’s luckily been redecorated and is fairly tasteful! The view in the living room isn’t scenic, but the ability to people watch from the air conditioned comfort and privacy of our living room was pretty great! With regards to the separate room for kids, they were checking and double checking vaccination and test results. My daughter is 17 and her paperwork was checked and highlighted by the agents at the door, but the agent at the escalator wasn’t having it.

[FLcruisergrl]

12 minutes ago, egurbi said:

I was in this suite 10 years ago. Nothing has ever come close.  Back then, the sun deck for the suite could have hosted a party for 400. I understand that they subsequently took some of that space away. But still a remarkable experience.  Any interlopers try to get in from the emergency exit that leads down to the sports courts? We chuckled dealing with those folks.

Nope, no interlopers! Our butler warned us multiple times that if we opened that door, we had to make sure we locked it back, or we’d have uninvited guests!

 

The sundeck is half of the width of the ship. I’m not sure what they took away, but I think it could accommodate around 100 comfortably.

Edited March 21, 2022 by FLcruisergrl