Dawn restaurants

[Imabelvr]

Hello, we have cabin 9732 booked for a spring cruise on the Dawn. We have had balcony rooms before, but not an aft penthouse - hoping we will be happy with it. My main question (btw, this forum is super - so much information can be found ... thank you!) is regarding the speciality restaurants on Dawn - I have heard there is a charge to dine - no charge for food choices. Is that true? If so, is there one or two particular restaurants you would recommend? Thanks in advance.

Martha

[Ms belp]

We will be going on the Dawn for first time on 11/25 so have been reading NCL website, etc to get idea of what to expect/plan for. Some restaurants have a cover charge AND extra charge for certain menu items.Some posters awhile back didn't realize that only to become very upset once they were seated. We plan on dining at the Venetian (main dining room) one night and at Le Bistro (which has a cover charge) another night. Both have good reviews. Best advice...do your homework before you go! Happy cruising!:)

[Ms belp]

P.S. Love your user name! "Then I saw her face...now I'm a believer. Not a trace, no doubt in my mind..." Hey, hey we're the...(boomers can fill in the rest).:D Davy Jones is still soooooo cute!

[NoPiratesPlease]

The Italian and Tex-Mex restaurants do not have a cover charge. The Asian / Hibachi grill, Le Bistro and Cagneys have cover charges.

 

The main dining rooms, the buffet, the Pool-side buffet and the Blue Lagoon do not have cover charges--and I believe you can get food in the Pub without charge, too.

[Cruising89143]

Also since you are booked in penthouse, you can order from any of the dining rooms for room service. This is a nice perk. The butler will deliver your food and set everything up for in cabin dining.

 

Italian Impressions and Salsa were my two favorite dining rooms on board. Everything that we ordered was very good. Did not care for Cagneys. Loved the dining rooms for lunch. Was not impressed at all with the buffet.

[Ms belp]

Check out the posting titled "Early Bird Deals". Some nice person posted the restaurants available and their associated prices. Very informative!

[NoPiratesPlease]

Also since you are booked in penthouse, you can order from any of the dining rooms for room service. This is a nice perk. The butler will deliver your food and set everything up for in cabin dining.

 

Italian Impressions and Salsa were my two favorite dining rooms on board. Everything that we ordered was very good. Did not care for Cagneys. Loved the dining rooms for lunch. Was not impressed at all with the buffet.

 

We've been on the Dawn 6 times....Impressions is the best to GO to eat at--service is the best and has been since it was a main-menu dining room. But avoid the salmon--it would be hard-pressed to serve as bait.

 

We like Cagneys very, very much, but the service this last time was abysmal--be ready for a LONG wait for food. We've rarely had anything at Cagneys that wasn't good. Go with the Lobster Bisque and avoid the New England Clam Chowder.

 

The buffet requires ingenuity--there's almost always vegetarian Indian food (curries, etc) and that's mostly what I eat there--because it's the best. Sometimes the carving table is good, but the frequently the help don't pay ANY attention to what you ask them for. Desserts are usually long on looks and taste like cardboard.

 

The Tex-Mex is usually very good, but you have to pick carefully. The tapas platter is fun.

[Cruising89143]

We've been on the Dawn 6 times....Impressions is the best to GO to eat at--service is the best and has been since it was a main-menu dining room. But avoid the salmon--it would be hard-pressed to serve as bait.

 

We like Cagneys very, very much, but the service this last time was abysmal--be ready for a LONG wait for food. We've rarely had anything at Cagneys that wasn't good. Go with the Lobster Bisque and avoid the New England Clam Chowder.

 

The buffet requires ingenuity--there's almost always vegetarian Indian food (curries, etc) and that's mostly what I eat there--because it's the best. Sometimes the carving table is good, but the frequently the help don't pay ANY attention to what you ask them for. Desserts are usually long on looks and taste like cardboard.

 

The Tex-Mex is usually very good, but you have to pick carefully. The tapas platter is fun.

 

Tried the buffet one time and that was enough for me. Walked through other days and it looked just as bad. The absolute worse of any cruise ship that I have sailed. Also for beverages you get a choice of water or some very bad instant iced tea. No fruit juice or lemonade.

[NoPiratesPlease]

Tried the buffet one time and that was enough for me. Walked through other days and it looked just as bad. The absolute worse of any cruise ship that I have sailed. Also for beverages you get a choice of water or some very bad instant iced tea. No fruit juice or lemonade.

 

We were on the Carnival Victory in June for 5 days--one look at THAT buffet and the Dawn's looks 5 ***** (hard as that is to believe)!

 

Keep it simple or Indian in the Dawn's buffet.

[Imabelvr]

Thank you very much for the information - I'll pass the information along to my DH and the friends we are going with. I'm fine with having a cover charge as long as there is good food, service and ambience!

Hadn't thought about dining in our cabin - acutally just started doing some homework on the penthouse perks. When we booked we didn't realize we'd have perks! Thought the aft cabin would be a big perk in itself! ;)

Any other tips and tidbits regarding penthouse "living" would be appreciated and until then, I'll go do some more homework!

Thanks again!!

Martha

[Toyz711]

just remember, if you eat in your suite and order from the specialities..all surcharges will apply.

[Plant]

We've been on the Dawn 6 times....Impressions is the best to GO to eat at--service is the best and has been since it was a main-menu dining room. But avoid the salmon--it would be hard-pressed to serve as bait.

 

We like Cagneys very, very much, but the service this last time was abysmal--be ready for a LONG wait for food. We've rarely had anything at Cagneys that wasn't good. Go with the Lobster Bisque and avoid the New England Clam Chowder.

 

The buffet requires ingenuity--there's almost always vegetarian Indian food (curries, etc) and that's mostly what I eat there--because it's the best. Sometimes the carving table is good, but the frequently the help don't pay ANY attention to what you ask them for. Desserts are usually long on looks and taste like cardboard.

 

The Tex-Mex is usually very good, but you have to pick carefully. The tapas platter is fun.

 

NPP, I saw on another post (can't find it now, of course!) that there's a NY Deli on the Dawn. Is that correct?

[CC Help Michell]

Thank you very much for the information - I'll pass the information along to my DH and the friends we are going with. I'm fine with having a cover charge as long as there is good food, service and ambience!

Hadn't thought about dining in our cabin - acutally just started doing some homework on the penthouse perks. When we booked we didn't realize we'd have perks! Thought the aft cabin would be a big perk in itself! ;)

Any other tips and tidbits regarding penthouse "living" would be appreciated and until then, I'll go do some more homework!

Thanks again!!

Martha

 

We're really looking forward to those perks too, Martha! We are sailing the Dawn in spring '09, and looked at "your" cabin but wound up booking one deck below you (same cabin class). I'm not sure we'll know what to do with a butler and a concierge, but I plan to have fun finding out! Not to mention the VIP embarkation, tendering, concierge-made dining reservations, butler delivery of room service from any restaurant menu, etc. Whee, I can't wait! :)

 

The one tidbit I would add on that, though, is that tipping for the butler/concierge is not part of the daily service charge on NCL, so we plan to budget to tip them according to the services we use (while leaving the basic tips in place as well -- I know we'll be dining at the buffet (thanks for the tip about the curry (which I love), though likely we'd go for breakfast), probably a main dining room, and so forth -- plus that money is also shared among the galley staff, public area housekeepers, etc. So for this cruise we're figuring that tips will be a larger "line item" than they normally are for us, which is fine -- a SUITE! <jump up and down>!) There are some posts here about what is an appropriate amount, depending on the requests you make. We want to leave our plans very open on that cruise (having taken a hyper-planned but once-in-a-lifetime cruise this past summer), so we'll take enough cash with us that if we decide to make a lot of use of their services, they will KNOW we appreciated their efforts.

[NoPiratesPlease]

NPP, I saw on another post (can't find it now, of course!) that there's a NY Deli on the Dawn. Is that correct?

 

It's one of the stations in the Garden Cafe--the buffet.

[Califgirl]

Tried the buffet one time and that was enough for me. Walked through other days and it looked just as bad. The absolute worse of any cruise ship that I have sailed. Also for beverages you get a choice of water or some very bad instant iced tea. No fruit juice or lemonade.

 

 

I agree - the Buffet was really bad- They did have some juices if you really looked (a small spigot betweeen the Milk and the ice tea). - The NY Deli was probably the best part of the buffet. hard to mess up a sandwich and some fruit for lunch.

 

My favorite restaruant on the Dawn was Le Bistro.

Here's a tip - if you go after 9pm you get 2 for 1 so we paid $15.00 for the two of us rather than $30.00 - And Cagney's $20.00 charge per person becomes a better deal at $20.00 for the 2 of you. -

 

I was less than impressed with Bamboo- the asian fusion restaraunt.

[cruzbug]

We sailed on the Dawn for 11 nights to Canada/New England cruise at the end of September. With regard to the buffet breakfast and lunch, we trued both once and optioned to eat in the dinning room for both breakfast and lunch. This was the first time to do this (after about 15 cruises) and really enjoyed not using the buffet and looking foe tables, etc.

For dinner, we only ate in the main dinning rooms 3 times. If you like Tex-Mex food the Salsa Restaurant (no charge) was excellant. WE ate there 3 times.

We usually eat late sitting so the half price deals after 9 PM at the surchare restaurant was great for us. We would take in the early show and then go dine. The only restaurants that were not half price after 9 Pm were the Sushi Bar and Teppanyaki (Japanese where they cook the meal in front of you). Highly recommend Teppanyaki.

Other than the main restaurants reservations were require. THis was no problem, just make your reservation the day before and then check menu in main restaurants the next day. If you think you want to eat in the main restaurant (lobster night) just cancel your reservation prior to 6 PM.

[MrLee]

NPP, I saw on another post (can't find it now, of course!) that there's a NY Deli on the Dawn. Is that correct?

 

Yes. It's aft, port side of the Garden Buffet.