Yet another long 6/15 Dawn review and fishing report (1st NCL cruise)

[michigan tim]

Trip started a bit rough… all other cruises (RCL-2, CCL-1, Costa-2) we departed a day early, but grabbed this one late, going on the cheap and only to NYC (vs FL or SJU), thought an 8:30 a.m. flight from DTW to LGA would not be an issue. Went to print my boarding passes Saturday night and discovered our flight had been cancelled. It was ok though, because AA had rescheduled me for a flight Monday evening. …wait, that won’t work! Was on the phone for 3 hours with them (during which I was googling the drive from mid-MI to NYC). Finally, they put me on a 9:00 NW and said I had to go to the AA terminal first which was about 1.5 miles from the NW terminal. I had a couple of comped passes for the Michigan Flyer (a bus shuttle), but thought it better to get their a bit earlier and have some flexibility…. So got to bed after 2 and up at 4:00 for the 1.5hr drive and anticipation of more headaches and delays. DW had the driving chore. Upon arrival I stood at the AA counter for about 45min because NW would not answer their phone (found out the reason for the cancellation was a severe storm in NYC Sat. night grounded the flights to DTW, thus no plane and no crew). Finally squared away, went to NW terminal to print boarding passes and then took car to off-site parking facility.

Got to the cruise terminal about 12:15 (raining), and on the ship by about 1:30 (I think there were some delays starting boarding). Had a nice lunch in the Venetian (thanks CCers), then went to room (8505/inside) to drop bags (there was a bottle of bubbly from the anniversary pkg, but no bucket/ice/glasses) and continue exploring. Ready to sail away… but delayed due to “waiting for supplies”… oh well, I’m on my home for the next week, lots of extra time padded into the Bermuda run, so who cares when it leaves… Eventually underway and we join many on the bow top decks to salute Miss Liberty in the darkening skies as we pass by. We didn’t quite have this Free Style thing down yet, so after getting turned down at Salsa we went to the buffet and had a very nice dinner. Went to the Welcome Aboard show which was good, made my nightly donations to the one armed bandits and off to bed… long day but who cares, I’m on vacation!

The daily stuff has been well covered on other reviews… so I’ll just hit the highlights:

Bermuda: First day took the water taxi to Hamilton and browsed around while it showered a bit… asked if it rained often here was told by locals it hardly ever rains, but noted rain gear, ponchos and umbrellas prominently displayed in every retail establishment….hmmm. Had a great sandwich at a deli located a couple doors down from the Lobster Pot. Then we took a bus toward St. George, but got off at the Swizzle Inn and walked down to Crystal Cave (maybe 200 yds). Took the Crystal Cave tour, it was very nice++. Walked back to the Swizzle Inn to sample their namesake cocktail….tasty! Back on a bus to St. George where upon arrival we walked around town a bit and then to Tobacco Bay which was as mentioned in another post is a bit trashed out looking and the bar/restaurant was closed (we were told the owner recently died). Walked a short distance to the next beach which was Catherine Bay (beach?)… Anyway this one had a bar/restaurant and was very nice. Looked at watch… looked at bus schedule and headed back to St George, last water taxi had left so we took a bus back to Hamilton and another back to the ship.

Second day I got up about 6:30, grabbed some French toast from the buffet… With a new portable spinning rod and a couple of small tackle boxes in my backpack I went down to the pier to fish. I headed out to a spot beyond the ship that jutted out a bit on the opposite side of the ship (inside the breakwall). Put on a small hook and a ball of squishy french toast and had the little dudes I typically see when snorkeling coming around the hook… stealing the bait… again and again… guess I could have used a smaller hook. Eventually I hooked a squirrel fish, a French grunt and a Bermuda bream… then thought I’d toss some hardware to see if I could catch something more substantial. I put on a small orange & gold spoon (KO Wobler) and caught a skinny snake looking fish about 8” long…. I hooked it real good through both lips and tossed it out as bait. I was reeling it in slowly over the rocks (it is very rocky and drops right off) when I got a hit! I let it freespool for a bit then set the hook. SNAP! The rod busted right above the handle and I watched the rod part follow the line down into the depths. I put down the handle/reel and proceeded to pull in the line hand over hand… yep, still a fish on there… then he went into the rocks. I gave some slack and he started pulling again, but again went into the rocks. I eventually got him in and hoisted a big (I think?) grouper up on the pier. It was a beautifully marked fish that I believe was either a black or goliath grouper. It was about 26” long and very thick. I would guess the weight at 6-8 lb. Good thing I spooled up w/ 20# test or I never would have been able to hoist it up. What was left of the rod came in with the fish and I was able to shove this piece into the handle piece and continue fishing, but knowing a big fish would be trouble… 9:00 went back to rouse DW.

We went to Horseshoe beach which was beautiful… I’ve never seen such fine sand. 2 Portuguese Man ‘o Wars washed up while we were there and a life guard said someone had been stung earlier. Walked down the beach as far as we could which involved scaling several rock outcroppings. We were told that during low tide you could walk to the next beach, which I forget the name of, but due to high tide we headed back to the main area. Tried to do some snorkeling, but the surf was pretty high which churned up the fine sand, thus visibility was real bad. Did some body surfing and headed back to the ship for lunch and on to Snorkel Beach (near the ship), to try some snorkeling there. Snorkel Beach has potential, but the view is a bit ratty. The snorkeling was not bad though. There is a reef close to shore with lots of structure and fish including many of those big blue parrot fish.

The third day we explored the area around the ship; we fished a bit, shopped a bit, got the hand crafted brew sampler at the Frog & Onion.

A day and a half of beautiful weather at sea and we arrive in NYC… I got up early and headed up top where I was able to see Miss Liberty in much better light and observe the docking process. I’d never been to NYC before even though I have a sister and brother in law who have been there 25 years… they met us at our hotel (Time Square Renaissance/Marriott ) about 11:00… We got the whirlwind Manhattan tour; subway downtown for some very sobering time at ground zero… then to Chinatown where we had an amazing lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant (a literal hole in the wall). Back to midtown, and the hotel to freshen up for dinner then a subway uptown to their place on 72nd and on to a great Cuban/Latin restaurant uptown (walking distance from their apartment).

Conclusion:

Very nice ship, I missed having a balcony, but was happy just to be cruising again so soon (we went on RCL Adventure of the Sea in April).

The crew was almost without exception very personable. We met a great waiter and waitress in the casino. It was real hard the first night deciding which one to give our business to… then we found out they were a couple! Paul from the Philippians and Timea from Hungary! Among the warmest folks we’ve met on a ship.

We had great food and not so great food. There were 2 times I felt bait and switched; First was the time I ordered pumpkin ginger bisque w/ Maryland lump crab, I was very disappointed to find no the lump crab but fake krab. Second time was when the slicing station at the buffet had “Prime Rib”, which turned out to be a boneless round of some sort… not that I mind round, but I really mind that they try to pass it off as something superior in both these cases.

It was nice having the 24hour diner… pretty good wings, the burgers and dogs looked good. the fish and chips was a bit off as the fish (cod?) had lots of nasty dark parts (easily trimmed) and the batter was quite heavy and greasey.

We had a sensational meal in Le Bistro, we both opted for the cold seafood plate (large shrimp, large mussels, lobster tail and oysters on the half). Ate at Salsa twice and had great meals… once had that Popie thing that is served on the metal torture rack thing. The last night in the Venitian I had a pecan encrusted snapper served on endoulie gumbo... it was superb! DW had English cut beef loin that was also exceptional!

I think we hit the main show each night and found it to be very solid entertainment with the production shows being among the best we’ve had at sea. From a music perspective this ship is the best I’ve encountered. The show band tackled some music that on other ships would have been canned… although they did often play w/ tracks. That husband/wife team was excellent (although we generally only heard them when passing by). The Asian Mariachi band that played nightly at Salsa was excellent… they had an amazing lead guitarist who had this guitarist salivating… Hank Williams to the Ventures to the Eagles to some good ole rock & roll… man it was all good… and he played it all on a classical guitar ala Willie Nelson…sans the gaping hole.

As for Freestyle, I’m fine with it or without it. Price and itinerary will determine my future cruises. Everything being equal I’d go with RCL as I think their product is a bit more my style... less glitzy/flashy/loud, but NCL is typically priced lower and if the Dawn is typical of their product line I have no problems booking them again and again.