Dawn April 6th sailing - Thoughts and Ramblings

[beau4]

Our sailing of the Dawn on the 6th was the culmination of a year in the planning having booked on board last year. As background information, I (12+ cruises) sailed with my sister-in-law (third annual cruise) - having introduced her to the wonders of cruise ship travel it wasn't more than a day when she asked "Can we go again next year?". Oh yeah! We originally booked an aft BA - same cabin as last year and , me being the obsessive planner and fare watcher that I am, was lucky enough to snag an upsell to an AE after some nail biting hours of trying to contact her for the OK. Now we were more than psyched. I arranged for a bar set up and purchased a magic bullet blender to have frosty conconctions at our whim on the balcony, laid out way too many clothes that were culled and exchanged numerous times and arranged for transportation to the pier, corresponded with many wonderful people on the roll call boards and arranged with NCL for the Meet and Greet.

 

April 6th - finally the big day arrived. I was up at 4AM watching the Krooz Cam (NCL web cam was not working) for a glimpse of MY ship arriving. At aound 8:00 it slid into the harbor in all it's glory and I "talked" to the on board passengers telling them to "get off" so I could get on. (Sorry guys -- can you tell I was anxious?) My SIL was due to arrive at 8:30 with our car at 9:00. At 8:45 she called to tell me she was held up in traffic and not to worry, she would be there in about 20 minutes, to watch for the car and tell him she was on her way. At 9:00 with no car or SIL insight I started to panick, sat down to think out the options (OK, I wait for her to arrive and we drive ourselves) and began to feel better. Ten minutes later the car pulls up (he was waiting next door). I got my luggage loaded, my SIL arrives and loads up and off we go. Why I worry, I don't know but I am an obsessive planner and some changes send me into a tizzy. We hug and I pull out my list of possible dinner reservation nights and she OKs them all. (I love traveling with her - I plan and she goes along). We settle back and begin catching up on family things and talk of the upcoming ports and all the fun we'll have. About 30 minutes from the pier we are smack dab into heavy traffic and inching slowly forward. Our hour and a quarter drive becomes more like 2 hours but we arrive at the pier jand inch forward to a place we can unload. A porter is nearby, whisks our luggage away and we go up the elevator to the boarding area looking for the VIP section. After finding a representative, she directs us to pre check-in (a nice touch from last year), we check in, are told the concierge would bring our sail and sign cards,- and make our way back to the upstairs area where we meet the first of our CC group and begin chatting. (Our CC group decided to wear leis to the pier so we could identify each other). Coffee, tea, juices and pastries were provided along with sandwiches brought out later about 5 minutes before boarding. It's only noon and we planned on eating on board anyway. A representative gather all the suite passenders and we are off - through security, up the ramp and on board to get our cards scanned as having arrived. Uh oh - no cards. We can't board.

 

I guess this is going to be long. Sorry to leave you all hanging but more to come later!

[sweetpea-2]

:) keep us up to date, but sounds like you started off great .....

[jeannep]

Susan,

 

Love your commentary. Keep it coming PLEASE!!!!!!!!

 

Jeanne

[beau4]

OK, we're standing off to the side in the atrium by the lovely java cafe, not officially boarded when we are told we still need our sign and sail cards. I explained the concierge was to have them for us and we are told "The concierge is on the pier" we will have to go find him. Not a good start. But we're on vacation and calmly explain we have no way of knowing what the concierge even looks like much less swimming upstream through the new passengers attempting to board to get back to the check in area. I guess we were taken pity on and one of the representives decides to phone the concierge for us. In less than two minutes Claudio was there, apologizing profusely and handing us our cards. Yeah! We back up into the line (much to the chagrin of those entering) get our cards swiped and - my SILs did not work. A re-take of her picture did the trick and we're officially on. (So much for early priority boarding).

 

We make our way to the aft elevator via the Blue Lagoon, up one flight, turn starboard aft and voila - AE suite 8170! At first glance it was exactly like all the pictures I had seen on the boards earlier. Upon entering there is a chest high mirror and two shelves on the right and then the closet/wall which can be accessed by either side. Lots and lots of hangers with a top shelf housing the life jackets. Just past this is the bar area, two glass enclosed shelves with stemware, a shelf with coffee pot, a tray with tongs, wine opener, etc. and the fridge underneath.Our bar set up was already there - just as ordered. I had brought my e-mail confirmation just in case there was a problem. Past this on the left is a desk with drawers and cubbies ( a large TV suspends over this desk) and a table and four chairs. To the right is the large bed, small love seat and another chair and small glass table with a beautiful flower arrangement. Looking back towards the entry but on the opposite side of the closet is the the second entry to the two door closet (two doors on either side). Just opposite the closet is two sets of shelves and drwers each housing its own safe. Straight ahead is a vanity table with make up mirror, drawers and a place to plug in my blender - Woo Hoo!. To the left is the bathroom with sliding doors housing the toilet on one side and tub/shower combo on the other. We have bath salts, and L'Occitane shampoo/soaps, cotton balls and q-tips and two very comfy robes. A very nice set up with more than enough storage for our things.

The balcony, which runs the width of the cabin, is not deep - which I knew - but had two very comfy padded teak loungers set toe to toe, with a small table. There was ample room to walk around but if you're looking for a big balcony for a party, this may not be for you.

 

We took a peak at all the welcome letters, put them aside to read later, and set off to the Venetian for lunch - a third year tradition for us. When we arrived the place was pretty empty - I think most people head for the buffet - and we were quickly seated by the side window. We had a great leisurely lunch (fahitas) and then back to the cabin to start settling in. One nice thing about being on the Dawn multiple times (4X for me, 3X for my SIL) is we don't feel the need to run around and explore everything - we know where we want to go, what to do and can do it at a leisurely pace.

 

We sat at the table (chocolate covered strawberries had been delivered which we planned to enjoy later on the balcony) and a welcome bottle of champagne. One of the notes was from the concierge regarding dinner reservations and I promptly pulled out my obsessive compusive list and copied it on the form. The next letter was from the casino (I had booked with the casino - casino rate). It was a wecome on board and contained new Casino at Sea cards for both of us. OK! Can't wait to try them out! The final letter was a confirmation for the meet and greet asking to confirm later that day. By the time we finished reading all the mail and picked up the first of the Freestyle Dailys, our luggage was being delivered and we were introduced to our room steward Carlos. We loved him from the start, asked for two of the dailies each day (no problem) and a roll away bed (I love my sister-in-law but we're not THAT close) - no problem.

 

We started to unpack and got about half way through when it was time for the lifeboat drill. Put on the vests and walk down one flight, to the starboard side approximately mid-ship where we join our (hope it won't come to this) lifeboat companions. NCL has one of the most painless drills I have experienced and it was over in a flash. Back to the cabin to finish unpacking.We run into Carlos in the hallway who said he had a BIG surpise for us - the rollawy was in place and all set up! In the midst of our unpacking we find one of the safes not functioning - a quick call and it is taken care of promptly.Should have remembered you cannot continue to push buttons until you have a clear screen. Once you mess this up all you will get is a service message (Srv) and you will need to get someone to reprogram the safe for you.

 

OK, settled in - having opened every cubby, drawer and oohing and ahhing over every surface, we are intoduced to our butler Huda - another gem. We learn he has just four suites to attend to in addition to the two Grand Villas which have BOTH been booked by one family. WOW - now there's a family party! Since Huda was in charge of the GV we knew we must be getting a winner - and we did - he was great. We gave him our resteraunt reservations and off he went. Out to the balcony for sailaway and to pop that champagne that was chilling. Past the New York skyline, glide past the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (where I wave hello to my old neighborhood in Brooklyn). At this point on every cruise I have been on leaving from New York, I feel I am officially ON VACATION!

 

More to come -

[scdreamer]

Wow - thanks for the wonderfully detailed report. I love reading it - it's almost like being on a vacation myself!

 

Soon enough ... (April 26 - short repo SF to Vancouver):)

 

Hope you will continue to post often!

[beau4]

OK - we're out in the open sea - what to do, what to do? We read the Freestyle Daily and SIL decides she would like to sign up for the singles dinner scheduled for Saturday.( She has been a widow for awhile and is starting to look towards meeting people again and seeing what's out there.) Sign up is 6-7 in the library so we decide to wander around for awhile, head up to the buffet to see what's cookin and then over to the library. We felt there would not be time for a sit down meal if we wanted to make the sign up and we didn't feel like eating later. The lobby was humming with lots of people at the Shore Excursion desk as well as signing up for speciality restaurants. There was some changes with the Galleria and the smaller shop by the atrium - last time the small shop had lladro and other nick knacks, this time it was all perfume. The galleria is laid out pretty much the same with good buys on liquor and cigarettes and overpriced clothing (IMHO). They had a "spot the fake emerald" - choice of 1 out of 3 which we entered but never heard who won - guess that means it wasn't us. We window shopped the jewelry, bought some sunglasses since we both left our at home, confirmed the Meet and Greet for tomorrow and headed up to the buffet.

For anyone wondering, they did have trays. Choices were OK with a great salad bar and carved roast beef. The rest of the dishes were heavy on starches which we noticed throughout the cruise - potatoes, pasta, rice. We saw a definite decline in the choices during this cruise. In addition, deserts were at the buffet station and not at a separate station like last year. Choices were very limited to small pieces of cake (the sugar free was just 2 choices - mostly tasteless) and some mousse. We also never saw a separate made to order pasta station as in the past. Chalked it up to the decline in overall food quality - not that we went hungry at all.

It was about 6:45 so we decided to wander over to the library and check out the singles sign up. There was one young woman signing up and - she was the first. My SIL was assured more people would be signing up tomorrow so she added her name to the list and chatted with the girl for awhile.

At this point we made our way down to the casino so I could make my first of many donations - got to love the Dawn Casino. Many slot choices with more added during our sailing including a bank of four penny machines. There were many new machines this year in the 5 cent variety to keep my interest throughout the 10 days. For anyone interested, these included Risque Business, Hoot Loot, Phone Tag, Wild Taxi, Men in Black, Price Check, Used Cars, Money Storm, Uncle Sam,a new Monoploly from last year and several others. Money Storm turned out to be one of my favorites with a great bonus game. Never had much luck on the penney machines as they seemed to suck up my $$ faster than the nickels.

A few months before sailing I had gotten a post card from the casino with a promotion to enter for a free cruise (didn't win) but also to get an extra 15 points if you signed up for one of the listed sailings. Since we had already booked another sailing I sent a thank you e-mail saying I would have been tempted with the offer but was already booked for the 6th. I was surprised with a reply and a credit for the 15 points anyway which would be added to my account. My OCD behavior told to me to print out the e-mail and take it with me - good thing because they had no record of it. Once produced I had no trouble getting the credits posted to my card.

After playing for awhile, we decided to call it a night and go back and enjoy our strawberries and some wine on the balcony. The beds had been turned down and looked very inviting so we didn't linger long - besides, it was pretty chilly out but the seas were calm and there was a full moon. We toasted our good fortune that we were able to take such a great trip, looked for the room service menu for breakfast (uh oh, there was none - guess our butler wasn't quite so perfect after all - we decided to just call it in in the AM) and turned in with the sounds of the sea coming from the open balcony door.