Our 1st cruise on The Dawn-Just back-had the time of our lives!!

[carlielyn]

We have virtually no complaints about our 11 day cruise. Everyone onboard from the room stewards to the wait staff always had smiles and were always very helpful and pleasant.

The food overall was very good. LeBistro was excellent!! You don't go hungry that's for sure. The buckets/helmets of beer were great. We usually always had 1 in hand. We got fantastic towel animals every other night or so. I don't want o ruin the surpises by telling you what they were but some were truly amazing!!

Many of the shows were as good as I would imagine Vegas shows to be. Loved SCTV--I will have to look up the other names to remeber but all were excellent or very good!! Don't miss Fountains on the last night.

We liked the behind the scenes shows they aired and the repeats of shows and other goings on in ths ship. They were very informative.

We had an aft balcony stateroom--9238 and were very pleased with the space and decor. The shower was great!!

There were only 2 negatives which were:

 

A charge of $14.09 from the Beach Bar in Great Stirrup Key. We didn't purchase anything in GSK. The mistake itself would have been no problem--mistakes happen. What was a problem was the grief we received getting the charge taken off. We stood at the front desk for 15 minutes while they looked for a receipt with a signature that they couldn't find. Then they said to check back the next day that it should be taken care of. It wan't. They said to check back yet again later. We did and by the 3rd time it was taken care of. I told the person at the front desk that I wasn't happy that I spent thousands of dollars on this cruise and I didn't appreciate all the grief over a $14.09 charge.

 

The 2nd thing was a shore excursion in Cozumel. It was for bottom reef fishing. When we got off the ship we were met by someone who said the excursion already left!! He said we were to come back and do a later one.

We weren't too happy with that excursion. It didn't live up to it's promises at all. There were barely any fish caught at all and the snack advertised turned out to be a big bag of potato chips that everyone was supposed to share and that everyone stuck their hands in. Yuck!! We wrote about these 2 things on our cdomment cards along with all the good stuff. Which liek I said most of it was excellent!!

 

Let me know if anyone has any questions. You all helped my husband & I very much in the past year or so preparing for our 1st cruise. Thank you very much for that!!

[whatawonderfulworld]

Good to hear you had such a nice time. We loved the Dawn too...sailing out of NY is just terrific.

 

How was the weather? Were the seas calm?

 

Mistakes can happen on those bills, but it was taken care of to your satisfaction. I agree it would have been much nicer if it was taken care of the first time you brought it to their attention.

 

I do have a question though. Our cruise was only 7 days and we didn't get a the bill for our OB charges until the night before we arrived home. How did you find out about the incorrect charge? Did they give you a bill midcruise?

 

Welcome home!

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

[fin]

Two years ago, my Dawn cruise did not stop at GSK. Where else did you stop?

[Leafpeeper]

Congratulations on your cruise. We tend to avoid booking excursions unless there is a place we want to go and need to be back for an early departure. DH and I have learned to book excursions when we get to the port because sometimes we change our minds and can't get a refund from the ship if we want to cancel. Most times we just grab a cab to a beach.

[denims]

.

 

I do have a question though. Our cruise was only 7 days and we didn't get a the bill for our OB charges until the night before we arrived home. How did you find out about the incorrect charge? Did they give you a bill midcruise?

 

Welcome home!

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

 

You can go to the main desk, as many times as you want, and ask for an up to date total for your cabin.

[whatawonderfulworld]

You can go to the main desk, as many times as you want, and ask for an up to date total for your cabin.

 

Thanks for responding. Our next cruise is a bit longer, 15 days. It never crossed my mind to check the bill midcruise. But now we will. Thanks for the info.

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

[carlielyn]

Hi WAWW and all!!

 

Sorry it took me so long to reply. We had an itemized statement delivered to our room Tuesday. It was fairly early in the day because we had time that same day to ask about the charges as well as all day Wednesday. We were home on Thursday. I hope they keep doing that for everyone. It was nice to have an opportunity to go over everything and see where we were at as far as spending went.

 

The sea was calm for every day except 1 when it was a bit rocky. I took ginger capsules every day and wore sea bands so I didn't feel too bad that 1 day. We were blessed with wonderful weather.

 

We only did the 1 shore excursion thru NCL. The other one were all outside guides that I found out about on the ports of call bulletin boards on here. We enjoyed them all!! From this point on we will probably stick with the outside tours or do the ports on our own like we did in the Cayman Islands. We rented a car and went to Rum Point. The most beautiful place we've ever seen!!!

 

We stopped and had excursions in most of the following places:

Great Stirrup Cay

Cozumel, Mexico

Belize City, Belize

Roatan, Honduras

Georgetown, Cayman Islands

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

 

I will be posting soon about our excursion experiences on the ports of call board. Let me know if anyone has any questions:)