Dawn Review 2/24-3/3/08 (lengthy)

[cmztravelers]

My husband, myself, and another couple (who happened to be first time cruisers), returned home Sunday after a wonderful cruise. This was our 6th cruise and our second with NCL.

 

First of all, we lucked out in being offered an upsell for this cruise approximately 4 weeks prior to sailing. We had booked the lowest level balcony room and were offered an aft penthouse suite on deck 10 for $500.00. I countered at $300.00 and the offer was accepted. What a bargain! More on the cabin later in my post.

 

We spent the night before the cruise at Homewood Suites near the Miami airport. Fantastic hotel with a great continental breakfast. The hotel is within walking distance of a number of fast food restaurants and a few regular restaurants, as well as Walgreens and CVS. Cab fare for the four of us to Port of Miami was $28.00 and took about 20 minutes.

 

The embarkation process was a breeze since we all had the added perk of VIP embarkation. We were escorted on by our concierge, Anca, and we were on the ship by 11:45 a.m. and headed straight to the buffet for lunch. I was hoping to hit the Venetian for lunch but it didn't open until 12:30 and we were all starving. The buffet was very good by buffet standards and the selection was better than I had expected.

 

We spent about an hour walking around the ship and we were in our cabins by 2:00. The couple that was traveling with us were in a balcony cabin on deck 8. We had ordered a Bon Voyage bottle of wine, and fruit for them (since this was their first cruise) and I was pleased to see that it was there when they checked out the cabin. Then it was off to our suite. Beautiful cabin and the larger balcony and bathroom were definitely a plus. The four of us could hang out in our cabin without it feeling crowded. One disadvantage of the aft cabin is that it is often in full sun and so it can get HOT if you spend too much time out there. But the advantages definitely outweigh that problem. We had fresh flowers, fresh fruit, and a bottle of champagne and a large bottle of water in the cabin. Nice touch. Our butler, Anoop, introduced himself right away and let us know that he was available at all hours should we need him for anything. Our cabin stewards were also very quick to introduce themselves. Suite passengers receive a tray of snacks every day at 5:00 and this was also a nice touch. Once we requested that Anoop have about a dozen cookies and some milk for us at 4:00 so that we would have it after returning from shore (we had gotten into the habit of having cookies and milk every afternoon). Sure enough, it was there when we got back to the cabin that day. Another nice perk of being in a suite is being able to order anything from room service. We used room service twice for breakfast and I ordered enough food and variety to feed the four of us. It was great and delivered promptly when requested.

 

Another perk of being a Suite passenger is that we were invited to the captain's cocktail party (free drinks and appetizers). The officers of the ship were all in attendance and were very good about mingling with everyone. It was fascinating to hear of their experiences with the ship and NCL in general.

 

Restaurants:

We ate at Impressions (Italian specialty restaurant - no copay) the first night on board. I had read on previous posts that most people felt it was nothing more than Olive Garden type food. We couldn't disagree more. We thought the food was very good and definitely better than Olive Garden.

Ate in the Venetian a lot! Had breakfast and lunch there a few times, and most dinners there. We were able to get in with no wait every night with the exception of lobster night in which we had to wait one hour. Yes, lobster is served in the main restaurant one night in contrast what you may have read in other posts. I was glad to see that since other cc posters insisted it was available only in the specialty, copay restraurants. And no, this had nothing to do with a Freestyle 2.0 upgrade. The staff said it has always had a lobster night in the main restaurant and always will. There was only one evening that the main restuarant's entree choices seemed to be lacking for all of us, with the exception of my husband who was thrilled to see beef stew on the menu.

We ate in Aqua one night and didn't really care for the environment. It is the other main restaurant but it is much smaller, has lower ceilings (making it quite noisy), and the decor didn't really appeal to us.

We ate at Salsa's one night. We tried to walk in but were told we had an hour and a half wait. So I used my Suite perk of priority seating and contacted Anca(concierge) to see if we could get in within the next 10 minutes and she made it happen. That was the only time I found it necessary to rely on her for a priority reservation. My husband and I were not that crazy about the food in Salsa but that can be attributed to the fact that we live in Arizona and have a fantastic selection of authentic Mexican restaurants so this just didn't really compare.

And finally we ate at Cagney's on our last night. We had no intention of paying for food but the couple we were traveling with wanted to treat us and they were hungry for steak. I must admit, the food at Cagney's is fabulous and well worth the $20.00 copay.

 

All in all we found the food to be very good and the service to be outstanding. I had seen many posts regarding substandard food and we never experienced this and I like to think that I have a pretty high expectation of meal quality. The buffet offered decent and slightly varied selections. We never ate at the buffet for dinner as we all preferred to sit down and be waited on for that meal.

 

Entertainment:

We went to most shows in the theater and found them all to be very good. One exception was Bart Rockett's magic show. The material was somewhat dated and his routine seemed to be forced, but for the most part it was entertaining. Dave, the comedian, is hilarious.

We went to Kareokee (sp?) one night and that was fun. Also enjoyed the country/western party on the pool deck one night.

We also took part in Quest. What a riot, though one member of our group found it too offensive and left the show. I won't say anymore about it so as not to ruin it for future participants and spectators.

Movie theater - we were disappointed that they weren't showing movies in the theater during the days that we were at sea. We did have movies on our TV in our cabin, though, but that's just not quite the same.

 

Ports:

Samana- we took part in the Samana Safari adventure and found it to be informative and picturesque. We got to sample many local fruits, sugar cane, and some sort of liquor concoction that was unlike anything we've ever tasted. Then it was off on a short hike to the waterfall, and finally ended the tour at the beach. Many people complain about the poverty and such that they see but you have to realize that it is there and see beyond it so that you can enjoy the area.

Tortola - we rented a car here and drove over to Cane Garden Bay with a stop at SkyWorld along the way. Beautiful views from there. The beach was very nice and we even popped into the rum distillery located at the end of the beach, bought a bottle of rum and some mango juice and made our own rum punch to enjoy on the beach. Snorkeling here was very good.

St. Thomas - We rented a jeep here. Wanted to rent scooters but the couple we were travelling with were uncomfortable with that. Drove to Megan's Bay Beach and spent most of the day there. Not as good snorkeling here but not bad, either. Then took the scenic route back to town by way of Red Hook. Spent a few hours shopping before boarding the ship.

Great Stirrup Cay - Lots of chairs available at no charge. Gets crowded since nearly the entire ship comes ashore here. The barbecue lunch that the ship crew put on was very good - hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken. The snorkeling here is fair and the water can be rough where the better snokeling is. My husband and the other guy with us both saw a stingray. My husband also saw a sea turtle, and there were a number of people that saw a manatee (we weren't so lucky).

 

To sum it all up, this was a fabulous cruise and I have no complaints. I had read the reviews about lackluster food, poor service, a run down ship, and we experienced none of this. The couple that went with us were just amazed at the entertainment options, food choices, ship condition, etc. In fact, we found that there were more than enough things to keep us busy, even on sea days, and we weren't able to do everything we would have liked to.

 

I think I've covered everything. I'll try to answer any questions that you may have. No 2.0 upgrades were in effect at the time of our sailing.

[ds521]

Thanks for the great review!! We'll be on the Dawn this Sunday, and we're getting excited about it since this is our first NCL cruise. We're Platinum with RCCL, and we've also sailed with Carnival and Princess. One question though - what night is lobster night on the Dawn? We don't want to miss that ;-)

[cmztravelers]

Lobster night was Tuesday night. We made a habit of looking at the menu posted outside the Venetian or Aqua (they are the same menu) every afternoon so we knew what we had to look forward to for dinner.

 

I did forget to mention in my review that the four of us all LOVED Freestyle cruising.

[WinnieinWA]

My husband, myself, and another couple (who happened to be first time cruisers), returned home Sunday after a wonderful cruise. This was our 6th cruise and our second with NCL.

 

All in all we found the food to be very good and the service to be outstanding. I had seen many posts regarding substandard food and we never experienced this and I like to think that I have a pretty high expectation of meal quality. I too found the food on the Dawn to be very, very good. The buffet offered decent and slightly varied selections.

 

 

I think I've covered everything. I'll try to answer any questions that you may have. No 2.0 upgrades were in effect at the time of our sailing.

 

Some of the 2.0 upgrades I noticed on the Dawn in Dec. were: coffee pot in mini suite, feather pillows, lobster 2 nights, down comfortor, new big fluffy towels, robes in cabin, several action stations at the buffet.

 

Now maybe those were always in place and I just didn't know about it.

 

Thanks for posting your review.

 

Winnie

[smeyer418]

Some of the 2.0 upgrades I noticed on the Dawn in Dec. were: coffee pot in mini suite, feather pillows, lobster 2 nights, down comfortor, new big fluffy towels, robes in cabin, several action stations at the buffet.

 

Now maybe those were always in place and I just didn't know about it.

 

Thanks for posting your review.

 

Winnie

lobster 2 nights and the action stations are new...everything else you got before. although the coffee pot instead of a kettle may be new.

[cmztravelers]

Again, another unreliable post that can be misleading. Perhaps you are referring to another ship because Lobster was NOT offered two nights in the main restaurants on the Dawn, and according to the wait staff, never has been. It may have been offered in one of the specialty co-pay restaurants on an additional night.

[racepoint]

What is an "action station?":rolleyes:

[NYHartChapp]

The Dawn is a great ship. Glad to hear you had a great cruise.

[cmztravelers]

An action station is where they prep the food on the spot in the buffet, such as waffles, made to order eggs, omelets, etc.

[sunrise&set]

Thanks for the great review! We sail on the Dawn on March 23rd and are very excited! Glad to hear you get sun on the aft balcony as we'll have our 13 month old with us and I was hoping to sun bathe while he napped! Yes, I know it's bad for you, but I love it!

[dmom]

thanks for the great review. I will be on the dawn March 9 for my every frist cruise. I love reading all the stuff and you review makes me really happy to hear all the good thing about it. thanks

[hammsz]

I see about 90%negative review about the food. So many choices theres got to be good food somewhere.

[btorlv]

We were on the same cruise and also had a great time.It only took us less then 15 min to board at 1150 am and less then 15 min to leave the ship at 8am with our bags. The buffett food is fair the rest of the food on the ship is pretty good. We liked salsa and impressions, very good for no cover charge. We were on the star last Oct. and the dawn is a little better imo.