Dawn FOOD experiences? AFRICA ports? Spice H2O?

[1JockeyGirl]

Interested in anyone’s recent experiences on NCL Dawn - esp food! Recently had a very subpar experience on NCL Star (sistership) for 2 cruises out of Southampton regarding food. Very poor quality and ran out of basic items such as bleu cheese dressing, yogurt, and even potatoes. Buffet was awful and MDR very overwhelmed (full ship).

Hoping Dawn provisioners are doing a better job? I ask specifically as we have two long b2b’s booked on Dawn and one on Sky going all around Africa (West Coast, South Africa, and on up to Doha - not all at same time). I would think provisioning for these cruises would truly be logistically very difficult, whereas one would think ships departing Southhampton would be easy-peasy.

 

Also curious about West Africa ports in particular. Heard about 8 guests “left behind” but don’t know what actually happened. We typically wander around or book tours independently although for this leg would consider NCL shore excursions as I have no idea local tourism infrastructure?

 

Anyone know if they plan to refit Dawn’s kids aft area into a Spice H2O? They did so on sistership Star and it looked lovely although our Northern (think Iceland) itinerary was too cold to really enjoy it.

We typically book inside rooms fwd near the Observation Lounge. I get up really early and sit up there with coffee to watch the sun rise. As Star/Dawn have no observation lounge I booked near O’Sheehans mid-ship. Would absolutely move aft for the warm weather itineraries if there was a Spice H2O!!!

 

Thanks in advance for any pearls of knowledge!!!

[Asawi]

I was on Dawn in South Africa in March this year. I have been on Star twice. They are very similar in many ways, including the food. I am not a foodie so I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to food and both of these ships serve enough to keep me in a good mood. I can however see how others might not be thrilled about the food. 

Star's Spice H2O is lovely. I missed that on Dawn! There is comfortable outdoor seating on pool deck though. On my cruise, however, chair/sofa hogs occupied most of that most of the time. But if you're up early I suppose there will be seating for you.

As for the 8 people left behind earlier this year, they were on an independent tour and the tour company messed up and arrived much too late to the ship.

Personally I'm not too keen on either Dawn or Star, but they both have attractive itineraries so I'll probably travel both of them again.

[Jbrase0424]

We just cruised on the Dawn in mid-June.  The food was average in my opinion.  The MDR menus lacked variety for dinner and the service was slower than I remember.  It seemed they lacked assistant waiters who often do the running for the food and help get drinks from the bar.  It seemed our waiter had to handle it all.  

The buffet was also average.  Our last NCL cruise was on the Encore so the Dawn buffet was much smaller with less variety.  The specialty restaurants were very good and would recommend doing that a couple of nights at least.  

[complawyer]

we were on the star this past april for a 17 day rio to lisbon. we've been on the star before, and on most of the ncl fleet, except the newer vessels. i can honestly say, the food (no matter where we ate) was just ok and best, and usually disappointing, although my wife loved the rib eye at cagneys

 

went to lunch at  the mdr one afternoon, ordered a monte cristo sandwich, grilled cheese, ham and turkey. Sounds good, huh, i asked them to hold the ham, as im not a great fan of ham. so when they brought the sandwich, all it was was a simple grilled cheese sandwich, no meat.

 

we also had dinner one night at mdr, and i ordered the new york strip steak (had it before and it wasnt bad) order it medium. got back a really thin piece of char-broiled shoe leather. frustrated, i didnt even bother to have them re-do it.

 

also, again in my opinion only, moderno has a top-notch salad bar, however the waiters dont seem to come around as often as in the past, and with not nearly as many meat choices as shown. again, these are my personal observations, and no designed to influence others , pro or con