NCL Dawn Review, 9/21-28/08, Canada/New England

[bragstarr]

In general, we had a great time on our cruise on Dawn! This is the first time in my cruising experience I repeated cruising on a ship; it was our third time on NCL having taken the now sold off Crown two summers ago to Bermuda. We booked at the last minute (6 days before) because prices dropped so low on the sailing we couldn’t NOT go! We left our house on LI on a 10:24 train and were onboard at NOON! Really easy embarkation, as was disembarkation for us (we did self carry off luggage and were home well before noon, and missed the little scare of a pier fire that took place). Got my free glass of champagne and was in the mood to have a great time!

 

My general impression of the ship is that she looked better when we sailed her in 2005. I really noticed the attention to detail; nothing to me looked like it needed redoing or replacing in terms of décor. I had forgotten just how pretty she was. Our inside cabin, although small, was pretty and had plenty of storage space. I will note that my bed had obviously been not been upgraded to the Freestyle 2.0 beds; we were told at the Latitudes party that the transformation on Dawn to 2.0 was not yet complete. I stopped at the reception desk one night at 8PM and asked if I could get an egg crate to place over the mattress; 15 minutes later I was in my cabin and two people appeared with it, installed it and remade my bed. That did help my poor back somewhat and I appreciated the quick attention to the matter.

 

Food: When I sailed in 2005, Impressions and Salsa were free restaurants. That is no longer the case; each carries a $10 per person surcharge. Since we did this cruise last minute and “on the cheap,” we agreed we would only dine in the no-cost regular dining rooms, and it was fine. Food in both Venetian (which I prefer, if only for the grandeur of the room) and Aqua was good. Portions in general were small but more was always available. We availed ourselves of the shrimp cocktail on the always available menu quite often—they are baby shrimp but good. The buffet was good for the most part. At breakfast, as you are facing the buffet from the entryway closer to the center of the ship, go to the right side for the fresh omelet and waffle stations. At lunchtime, go to the left side, all the way in the back, for the soft serve ice cream machine. Kudos as always to the NCL Banana bread (a personal addiction) and to the Sprinkles ice cream bar open 12-5 daily on Deck 12 for the chocolate ice cream cones! As for the surcharge restaurants, Bamboo and Salsa often appeared empty. Blue Lagoon was always good for a quick meal and late snacks. We didn’t experience much in the way of lines at the main dining rooms but we usually planned our strategic exit from the shows to beat everyone out to the restaurants! Incidentally, I must remark that NCL’s pastries, breads, rolls, and muffins, along with their fresh fruit which was available everywhere, is the best at sea. Try the pretzel rolls if you see them at the buffet. One last comment, if anyone from NCL is reading: please, please replace the tongs at the buffet. It is difficult to pick anything up with them; it almost became a comedy act, with everything sliding out of your grip!

 

Cruise Critic: I joined this lovely group of people at the last minute and had great fun with them whenever we met up. The CC meeting was scheduled at 10:30 AM (ship time, which had changed to Atlantic Time Zone overnight) in the Star Bar on Deck 13 across from Cagney’s. Beverages and Pastries were laid out for us. One of our members made fabulous name tags. We had a Yankee gift trade at our meeting where everyone brought goodies from their state and that was a great ice breaker. Two of our members had the owner’s suite and we ended up there after the meeting for a tour and were treated to champagne! At the meeting, the Hotel Director, Cruise Director, Food and Beverage Director and other officers came and spoke to us. As a result of all of this we all gave our names and cabin numbers and were invited Thursday evening to dinner in Venetian; we were broken up in small groups with various officers. We were placed with two other couples and Alain Magnier, the Food and Beverage Director. He is from France and had some great stories to tell, along with some insight on how the food operation is run. We had a couple of comments and he listened to them and replied that some things in terms of Freestyle Dining were under reconsideration (like the shrimp in the shrimp cocktail should be larger!). We had a very enjoyable dinner and the wine poured freely, which was a nice touch. And boy, was the service attentive….

 

Another little Cruise Critic Story: I was sitting alone in the buffet the first morning, at sea, wearing my Cruise Critic t-shirt in anticipation of our scheduled CC meeting and all of a sudden I hear, “So you’re one of those Cruise Critic People?” Into my life came Lisa Snyder, one of the hostesses on the ship. She sat down with me and we had a long talk about sailing and Cruise Critic. We became friends; I saw her repeatedly throughout the week; she is lovely and genuine and just a great person in general. Kudos to NCL for having employees like her. Look for her if you sail and tell her Robin from Cruise Critic says hello.

 

Latitudes: There were over 800 Latitudes repeat sailors on this cruise; we were broken into two groups for parties. Got my ship’s pins delivered to the cabin. We went early Tuesday evening and were greeted warmly, had some nice canapés and free drinks (more champagne for me), and a raffle of gifts occurred which, of course, we did not win any. Oh well. They have also taken a room on Deck 12 and turned it into a Latitudes member room (not that anyone really looked to see if we were members) where coffee, tea and fabulous cookies, which absolutely ruined any expectation I had of watching my weight (along with the banana bread and chocolate ice cream) were always available. Nice quiet place to read, watch the world go by, or do puzzles--daily Sudoku, Crossword and Trivia were always available in the nearby library. The library is also another nice place to sit. Lots of books available to check out if you forgot to bring one .We actually watched the Presidential Debate in there rather than our inside cabin.

 

Entertainment: I was amazed to find out the same 3 shows were in Stardust Theatre as were 3 ½ years prior in 2005. That being said, I still think Band on the Run is the best of them. Since the music is from the 1970s we loved the music. The other two shows, South Beach Rave and Bollywood, are visually beautiful but did nothing for us; we left them both a bit early to beat the dinner crowd. I’m sure we would have been a bit more impressed if we had been seeing them for the first time. As for other entertainment, comedian Dave Heenan was on board. We’ve seen him before and he is very funny. Greg Gleason, a magician, did some excellent tricks but he just didn’t do it for me; I don’t know why. Jose and Patti, a duo who appear in various venues, are fabulous. They did a Neil Diamond show one night in the Spinnaker Lounge that was fabulous. Pianist Bernie Martini is also great. Second City Comedy was blah. We didn’t do Liars Club or Quest, so cannot comment on those.

 

Ports: We had been to 4 of these 5 places before; so we didn’t feel any rush to do anything much. The day at sea was overcast; we did some various activities and braved it into the hot tubs, which were always nicely heated, as was the pool water. In Halifax we walked into town and went to the Public Gardens which we had missed on our prior Canadian cruise. They were beautiful; then we wandered around on the wharf area and went back on the ship early to lie in the late September sun. In St. John, where we had never been, we also wandered around the city, went back on the ship to have lunch and then walked to Reversing Falls on the Bay of Fundy. What a sight! Those people who take boat excursions in the whirlpools are out of their mind. In Bar Harbor, ME, we did some shopping on their lovely main street and then took a free Island Explorer bus to Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park (go to the Village green to get those). We’d done a 4 night vacation in Acadia a few years earlier; I knew what I wanted—tea and popovers! One of my favorite foods in the world; bought strawberry jam to bring home, and that served as my “surcharge restaurant” experience! In Boston, it poured. More like a monsoon. We have dear friends who live in the Boston area and have done every tourist attraction there is. We took a T (their transit system) Silver Line Bus ($2 pp, free transfer to subway) right from the ship to the subway red line into Cambridge. We had decided to visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Wasn’t expecting that much ($8 pp with AAA discount) but boy, was I wrong! What a museum! We swam back to the ship after that…..Newport, RI was also overcast with intermittent rain. Since we’ve been there before and explored the fabulous mansions, we just walked around a bit, my husband went back on the ship and I did some shopping in the Brick Marketplace. Incidentally, Bar Harbor and Newport are tender rather than docking ports. Tending went smoothly and I have no complaints.

 

Other observations: Meclazine (Bonine) is available at both Reception and in the Medical offices for free. Free playing cards at Reception, although they are not NCL labeled. Usual sales, bought t-shirts, had chains by the inch, other various goodies, liquor etc. in the Galleria gift shops, tax and duty free. Visited the casino once or twice, they had a couple of parties there, and made a small contribution to the slot machines. I joined NCL’s “Casino at Sea” which provided a coupon book with some decent stuff in it.

 

Final comments: In whole, we had a fabulous time. However, I cannot stand the push for you to spend extra money. As I mentioned, previously free restaurants now carried a surcharge. They pushed their program of booking a future cruise with a $250 deposit and getting a $100 onboard credit relentlessly. I went to listen to one of their sales pitches and was just turned off (got free champagne, though). I’m not committed to sailing one cruise line; my next booked cruise is on RCI’s Oasis of the Seas in January 2010. Same if not worse for the art shows, although I scored more free champagne (are you sensing a pattern here?). Believe it or not, I actually purchased one drink all week, which was a Pina Colada—the itinerary does not lend itself to drinking, as far as I am concerned. Anyway, back to the art show—what a sleazy scam it seemed like to me. If you ask me, it gives you a bad impression of NCL (but those art shows are on all the cruise lines, they just seemed creepy). Finally, the thalassotherapy pool area, saunas, steam room, etc., which were free in 2005, now carried a $20 per day or $75 per week surcharge to use, which really disappointed me. I was glad I got to experience it in 2005! They have an NCL University, which offers various activities--unfortunately, most of the fun ones (basically instructional liquor classes) had a $15 surcharge also.

 

Did I have fun? Yes!;) Would I sail with NCL again? Most definitely!:D

 

 

Link to photos, also posted earlier today:

 

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=9kwb64f.clbbrwxf&Uy=-dcw1dl&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=142326319287_560651214307&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1

[mbisson]

Your review is as good as the photos!!!

 

Aren't you in cruise withdrawal yet? Good prices again out there and I do need a photographer. ;)

 

Am I correct that your dining room strategy was to go to the early show & direct to the dining room after? With all the complaints about lines I saw on your cruise I just want to be ready 'just in case'.

 

I might have to dig around a little and see if I can find the CC tee I got a couple years ago for the "review of the month"-but I've gotten 'thicker' since then so it may not fit

[goodml]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to post it.:)

[bragstarr]

First of all, of course, I forgot one thing I wanted to put in the review; knew I would do that. When you arrive onboard, all of the specialty restaurants have little sample spoons full of their goodies near the entry to the restaurant. I discovered this just by chance, but after I found them at Salsa, I also just "happened" to pass Bamboo and Cagneys....there I had shrimp cocktail and some sort of chocolate cake which was delicious but squirted some sort of raspberry filling all over my Norwegian Crown Bermuda shirt!

 

Such is life.....

 

In any event, yes, that was my dining strategy. I went to the early show, sat near the back near the deck 7 exit or mid room near the entry to deck 6, and as soon as the show was closing, we didn't wait until the CD made his announcements or anything. We just ran out the exit and hotfooted it to either Aqua or Venetian, and had no problem getting in. Sometimes we would look out the door 10 minutes later and see a crowd but honestly; it never seemed to get out of control like some people post on CC.

 

Another hint--the menus are exactly the same. Although I like Venetian better, if the sea is rocky (as it was sailing into rainy Boston; and since the barf bags were out I knew they expected something to be rocking), you're better off eating in Aqua. It's dead center of the ship rather than all the way aft, and believe me, you do feel the motion in Venetian, especially all the way to the rear. Try out the back of the gift shop, too, if you like to shake when the sea is rocky!

[pcreek]

Thanks so much for posting! I am getting more excited everyday! :D

 

One question, tho.. all these photos of the Dawn I have seen from the past couple of weeks, have dolphins painted on the side....what happened to Lady Liberty? :confused::confused:

Did I miss the fact that she was repainted? :(

[davejohn]

Liberty is on the Port side, dolphin on the Starboard side.

[pcreek]

Thanks!! :D

 

I feel better now. lol

[the_woodman]

Terrific photos. Thanks for sharing.

[lalapodip]

Your review was definitely as good as your photos! :D

 

Thanks also for your dining room strategy....we haven't attended shows for the most part on previous cruises, but we are intending to do so this time, and your tips will help. :)

 

Maybe someday a "last minute" cruise will be in our cards - wow, 6 days!

[Meggiewegs]

Thank you for the review! We're off on the Dawn on the 19th, though we're going to Bermuda.

 

I'm soooo disappointed to read that Salsa's is now charging. :( We were just on the Dawn in April and it was still free. Phooey.

[NJLVW]

What a wonderful review...The pictures tell a wonderful story. Can't wait til March. It's so nice to read the reviews and be visual with those that post pictures. Something I do not know how to do. Someday I will learn.

[bragstarr]

I am basically not so technically capable. However, I have a 21 year old son who's a senior in college majoring in IT, and he glories in showing his mother how to do things he considers simple. I have a Kodak camera. I just come home and plug it into the computer, download the pictures right into the Kodak Easy Share Software, and then into Kodak Gallery. It's really easy once you're shown. He's also showed me how to scan pictures. Actually some of this stuff is quite simple once you have someone show you how. However, my once state of the art digital camera is now almost 4 years old, is bulky, and has a tiny screen. I think I know what I want for Hanukkah......but the thing still takes fabulous pictures! All I know is with all the cameras on the market, my next one will still be a Kodak so I know what to do!