Semi-live 48 day adventure: Prima, Getaway, Dawn, and beyond

[snorklinbarb]

Enjoyed meeting you two on Prima but boy, oh boy, what a panic with the passport and not knowing how it would get resolved!  Gives new meaning to "thinking on your feet".

 

Closest I ever came was getting most of the way to Pier 88 in NYC and said to Bob, "OMG, left my passport at home."  Fortunately only a quick turnaround and double fare and nothing like what you went through. No wonder you've been hot and sweating!

 

Good news is Dawn is small enough that after Prima and Getaway, you're winding down and it'll be hopefully stress free from here.

 

And good luck in the casino!  

You deserve it....phew!

 

 

 

[Travelicious]

Hi!  All is well, just too much fun to update today!  Will do so tomorrow.

[Mommapadraig]

2 minutes ago, Travelicious said:

Hi!  All is well, just too much fun to update today!  Will do so tomorrow.

That’s a wonderful update! See you tomorrow!

[Sand and Seas]

19 minutes ago, Travelicious said:

Hi!  All is well, just too much fun to update today!  Will do so tomorrow.

That's what we like to hear😎

[Arch2000]

How does the Dawn compare to the other NCL ships you’ve been on this trip?

 

I understand it recently underwent a drydock renovation, is it apparent what changes or upgrades have been made?

[FlatFooted Freda]

4 hours ago, Arch2000 said:

How does the Dawn compare to the other NCL ships you’ve been on this trip?

 

I understand it recently underwent a drydock renovation, is it apparent what changes or upgrades have been made?

Yes, please - I too would love to hear how the Dawn compares especially to the Getaway. We didn't love the layout of the Getaway. Surprised that any ship by/for Norwegian was not really built for bad weather. 

[Travelicious]

12 hours ago, Arch2000 said:

How does the Dawn compare to the other NCL ships you’ve been on this trip?

 

I understand it recently underwent a drydock renovation, is it apparent what changes or upgrades have been made?

The Dawn is my least favorite of the 3.  It has a confusing layout, old, outdated decor (mostly browns), and the worst food of the 3.   On Prima, the food was almost always very good.  The Getaway was not as good, and the Dawn is generally worse than that.

 

I’m not really sure what they did in dry dock.  It has been a number of years since I was last on the Dawn.  The staterooms do not appear to have been updated.  The wooden railings by the stairs were definitely not repaired.  The only thing I can see is that Moderno was moved to its own enclosed location, rather than being in the open on deck 7.  I recall looking over it while at O’Sheehan’s, which was then called Blue Lagoon, I believe.  Others might be able to give more information about this than me.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  If I had not just come off of two other ships, I would probably think the Dawn was just fine.  With the comparison being so close in time, the deficiencies seem more glaring.

[Travelicious]

Let’s see now, where was I?  Oh yeah, it looks like the debit to my refundable OBC has been restored.  And I don’t think I ever updated here about the missing OBC from my TA on the last cruise.  Two days after I emailed her, she responded that it “was not processed” and NCL said there was no way to “wire” the money to me.  She offered to send to my PayPal account, so that is what happened.  PayPal took 3%, which is the same as NCL would take if I did a cabin charge in the casino.

 

Pookie has been feeling better the last couple of days, but had a lot of drainage this morning.  Without the Zyrtec D, I’m sure she would be much worse now.  That stuff works wonders.  It also apparently makes good meth, so while it is available over the counter, it is actually behind the counter and I had to have my driver’s license scanned when I bought it.

 

Yesterday was Tilbury, and our only excursion with NCL.  It was just transportation to London via bus.  But first, everyone had to have a face to face with British customs.  It was a long, slow moving line.  When we finally made it, the customs officer seemed quite amused by my purple emergency passport, and seemed to actually laugh at the photo.  Can’t say I blame him.  It really is awful, but I didn’t have time to keep taking photos until I got one that looked decent.  I don’t think it was going to look decent no matter how many I took.

 

The meeting time for our tour was 9:15.  Traffic was horrible, and it was about noon when we arrived, with only 3.5 hours until we were due back on the bus.  People were grumbling already, and I was happy to get off the bus and away from them.

 

We decided to head straight toward Big Ben, which was about a 40 minute walk according to Apple Maps.  Pookie took most of the photos, as she has the newer phone with the better camera.  I’ll see if she will text a few of the better ones to include later, but right now she is napping.

 

After seeing Westminster and Big Ben and some other neat buildings, we fought our way through the crowds to begin heading back toward the place we were dropped off (British Museum).  We just wanted to get back a bit closer so we would make sure to get back on time.  We found a place to get some lunch, and decided to split a chicken schnitzel with garlic butter and fries.  I am so bad about remembering to take pictures before I start digging in, and it seems the same happened here.

 

We headed back to the British Museum with still about an hour to go, and found another place to have a lemoncello and cannoli.  Y’all, the cannoli was fantastic!  I’ve never really liked them that much, but maybe if I’d had one like this before I would be a fan.  Again, no photo before I gobbled it down, but here is the place, and you can see cannolis in the window.

 

 

The bus was parked down the block from where we were dropped off.  We got on about 15 minutes early, along with quite a few others.  There were a few people who did not arrive on time.  I think it was more about just not realizing the pick up location was a bit different than drop off.  But we were sitting behind this huge, belligerent fellow who decided it was his job to bellow out his displeasure and demand that we leave those people.  He also yelled that the guide, who was desperately trying to find everyone and was quite frazzled, should “do her job.”  I told Pookie it doesn’t matter where we sit because we are always going to be in the immediate vicinity of that person.

 

We left about 20 minutes late, but traffic was much lighter and the driver was running red lights and flying.  We tipped both the driver and the guide to try to make up for the rude passenger.

 

Back onboard, we got a drink and went to the Venetianfor dinner.  I was excited because it was the menu with Asian ribs as an appetizer.  I had this on the Getaway, and it was so tasty.  Pookie ordered 2 of these, remembering that mouth-watering goodness.  But, alas, it wasn’t the same.  It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t nearly as good.  The same sauce was not even used.  Again, the lack of consistency between ships is rather confounding.  
 

I also had the potato and cheese soup and a Caesar salad.  The soup was the highlight of the meal.  The salad was mostly iceberg lettuce.  Horrors!

 

Time for after dinner drinks, we took a seat at Gatsby’s Champagne Bar.  I had my usual side car, and Pookie decided to try a vodka martini - just plain, not those flavored ones.  I guess she liked it because she slugged 2 down before I finished my first drink.  I ordered a second and decided to spend a little time in the casino.  I left being up $45.  If I were smart, I wouldn’t go back.  
 

I came to the room, sat on the balcony for a bit, watching the sunset, then got in bed.  Pookie stayed out late.  I think she was at the Bimini Bar and Grill, which is outside, and the night air probably did not help her sinus condition.  
 

 

[Travelicious]

We are back in Amsterdam for the third and final time.  We only planned to have breakfast in town and pick up a few souvenirs for the folks back home.  After sleeping in, we left the ship around 11:00 and walked to town.  We found a restaurant and order what they call pancakes.  Mine was with banana and chocolate.  Pookie got one with bacon, cheese and pineapple.  Mine looked impressive, but Pookie’s tasted better.  I did eat my bananas, which was needed due to a severe calf cramp that woke me up Saturday night.  My calf was sore all of yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast, we just wondered around a bit, finding the red light district, which we did not see last time.  We picked up a few magnets and stopped in another restaurant for a drink.  This place had not only Irish coffee, but also Italian, Spanish, Russian, and French.  I ordered the French, but the poor girl said she had never made one and she couldn’t seem to find the Grand Marnier.  She was looking and looking, and I finally told her that the Irish coffee would be fine.  She seemed relieved, and soon delivered this:

 

 

Having seen all we really wanted, we walked back to the ship, and have been resting in the cabin.  Tonight is our Amex dinner at Le Bistro.  We’ll see how it compares to the other ships.  We are due to find a bright spot in the onboard food department.

 

Edited May 27 by Travelicious

[Travelicious]

I forgot to add that we also tried the bitterballin.  I knew it was supposed to have veal inside.  What I didn’t know was that it was gooey inside.  It didn’t taste bad, but it still grossed me out.  We both ate only one.

[schmoopie17]

Shocked to see that you didn't have a pub visit in London for a beer (or three). The last time we were in London we did 12 pubs in four days. Can hardly wait to get back there. (I'd say I can't wait...but I have to wait).

[Travelexpert35]

Have enjoyed following along with you. I have 5 friends on your cruise and they also did the London bus yesterday. I hope they made out okay. Today, they were going to Anne Franks house for the tour. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!!

[Travelicious]

8 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

Shocked to see that you didn't have a pub visit in London for a beer (or three). The last time we were in London we did 12 pubs in four days. Can hardly wait to get back there. (I'd say I can't wait...but I have to wait).

I guess the place we ate lunch was considered a pub.  Pookie had a couple of beers.  I had a G&T.  These strong beers have been aggravating my most unfortunate allergy.

[Mommapadraig]

2 hours ago, Travelicious said:

I forgot to add that we also tried the bitterballin.  I knew it was supposed to have veal inside.  What I didn’t know was that it was gooey inside.  It didn’t taste bad, but it still grossed me out.  We both ate only one.

I’m with you. I actually shuddered when I read gooey. The older I get the more textures matter.

[Travelicious]

8 hours ago, Mommapadraig said:

I’m with you. I actually shuddered when I read gooey. The older I get the more textures matter.

If it were chocolate goo or caramel goo, that would be fine.  Meat goo is an entirely different matter!

[Travelicious]

While resting the the room today, we kept hearing a very loud noise outside.  It was a helicopter on this little strip.  At first, I thought I thought it was doing tours.  It kept landing and taking off.  Just before we headed to dinner, I realized something was being filmed.  A guy with a brief case ran to the helicopter, another person fell to the ground, and the crew ran over to the person on the ground.  They did it over and over.  In the photo, they are packing it in for the day.

 

 

Dinner at Le Bistro was actually quite good.  The filet was better than the one on the Prima.  There, I finally had something good to say about the food on the Dawn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calling it an early night.  Tomorrow we have our last sea day before the sprint to the finish.  10 more days of vacation, and 2 travel days.

 

 

[brookie848]

4 hours ago, Travelicious said:

I forgot to add that we also tried the bitterballin.  I knew it was supposed to have veal inside.  What I didn’t know was that it was gooey inside.  It didn’t taste bad, but it still grossed me out.  We both ate only one.

We had bitterballin in Aruba and it was not something we'd order again.

[Sugar Magnolia]

1 hour ago, Travelicious said:

Dinner at Le Bistro was actually quite good.  The filet was better than the one on the Prima.  There, I finally had something good to say about the food on the Dawn.

 

Did the filet include the foie gras? 

At Le Bistro on the Escape, the filet no longer comes with the foie gras, yet the $10 supplement remains though I know that no supplement is charged if using the AmEx perk.

 

[Mommapadraig]

3 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

Did the filet include the foie gras? 

At Le Bistro on the Escape, the filet no longer comes with the foie gras, yet the $10 supplement remains though I know that no supplement is charged if using the AmEx perk.

 

I’ve always requested no Foie gras………….does this mean they don’t serve it at all anymore?

[Sugar Magnolia]

5 hours ago, Mommapadraig said:

I’ve always requested no Foie gras………….does this mean they don’t serve it at all anymore?

They no longer serve the foie gras with the filet at the Le Bistro on the Escape. I do not know whether NCL is implementing this change fleet wide so I was curious whether this change was made on the Dawn. 
 

[Travelicious]

18 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

Did the filet include the foie gras? 

At Le Bistro on the Escape, the filet no longer comes with the foie gras, yet the $10 supplement remains though I know that no supplement is charged if using the AmEx perk.

 

Yes, but neither of us wants it.

[Travelicious]

On our only sea day of this last cruise, we slept in and skipped breakfast, but ventured out for lunch in the Venetian.  The scallops were weird.  Not sure what it was, but not as good as usual.  The molten lava cake, though, had the most lava of any I’ve had so far on this trip.  Score another one for the Dawn!  The chicken flauta was also a bit better than on the Prima.

 

Going to spend the day in the room reading, and maybe napping.  Then back out for dinner at LaCucina.  I’m hoping the Dawn will also surpass the Getaway there too.

[schmoopie17]

17 hours ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

 

Did the filet include the foie gras? 

At Le Bistro on the Escape, the filet no longer comes with the foie gras, yet the $10 supplement remains though I know that no supplement is charged if using the AmEx perk.

 

So...they eliminate the nasty liver glop, but still charge an extra $10?? How can that be?

Must be for our convenience...or some such nonsense.

[KKB]

20 hours ago, Travelicious said:

If it were chocolate goo or caramel goo, that would be fine.  Meat goo is an entirely different matter!

I liken them to breaded stew.

Rather liked them, myself!

[Sugar Magnolia]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

So...they eliminate the nasty liver glop, but still charge an extra $10?? How can that be?

Must be for our convenience...or some such nonsense.

 

Yes for your convenience…sail and sustain…free to be you and me…