Norwegian Dawn Review:7-14 Feb 2009 Cruise

[acruisingcouple]

Just got off the Norwegian Dawn a day ago thus thought I would post my review :)

I travelled along with my wife and 8 yr old daughter and 6 yr old son, with this being our 3rd cruise and first with Norwegian

 

EMBARKATION

Very smooth as we arrived at the port by 10:45. We were hearded through a few checkpoints and waited in a sitting area for approx 15 minutes before we were allowed to board the ship. We were aboard by

11:30am and proceeded to the Garden Cafe for a nice buffet lunch.

 

CABIN

We had a cabin on the 8th deck with a picture window near the aft.

The room itself was "comfy" with tons of storage space. The bathroom and shower area were also surprisingly roomy.

As Norwegian allows smoking in the cabins, the smell of smoke was quite evident. Our attendant arranged to have the carpets cleaned along with changing the drapes. This helped somewhat, although the odour was noticeable for the entire cruise.

 

RESTAURANTS

We ate breakfast in the Venetian each morning as it was quiet and prefered the sit down service experience as opposed to the buffet.

The service was very good.

We ate lunch in the Garden Cafe and the food was adequate.

For dinners, we ate most often in the Venetian and the service and food was amazing for the first few nights. We noticed that for the last 2 nights, the service dropped off quite significantly. No one would come around to take drink orders and the service was slow. The nice steaks I was having all week became tough as nails the last 2 nights. Maybe more people chose to eat in the Venetian the last two eveinings? Not sure.

We ate at Cagneys for 1 of our meals and the food was very good. The Jumbo Shrimp appetizer was amazing!

 

ENTERTAINMENT

We made a point of attending the shows each evening.

We particularily enjoyed the magician (funny!) and Second City although at one point at least 20 or so of the older people in the crowd got up and left in the middle of the Second City show. Guess they did not like that type of comedy.

Bollywood was good, but found it a little long and some of the scenes

were repetative in my opinion. But they were a very talented bunch.

 

CASINO AND BINGO

Absolutely NO LUCK at the casino although that is to be expected.

We got suckered into the Bingo (I blame that BINGO BOY LOL)and paid the $89 and came away empty handed. The bingo was a BIG waste of money but was fun nonetheless. The strips of pull tab tickets were also fun to play. There was a $2000 and $500 winner of the pull tabs on our cruise.WATCH THAT BINGO BOY!!!

 

 

PORTS

Samana- Having very little info to go on, this port was an unknown but we came away satisfied. We simply got off the ship by tender, turned LEFT and walked along the roadway by various vendors. After about a 15 mins walk, there is a small shopping "area" acorss the street which we checked out. We stayed in Samana for about 2 hrs before heading back to the ship. A pretty rough tender ride back to the ship as the weather was very unsettled on the Monday.

St.Thomas- Absolutely beautiful. We took an island tour that included a two hrs beach stop. Unfortunately it rained quite hard during the beach portion but the weather got a little better for the shopping portion.

Tortola- We also did a tour in Tortola and had a great time checking out the island (very mountainous) along with the shops near the cruise pier.

Great Stirrup Cay--GREAT weather and an excellent day at the beach. We got on the 1st Tender and were lucky enough to get great seats on the beach. The water is beautiful and I also took a walk to the Great Stirrup Cay Airport and Lighthouse. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

 

DEBARKATION

We took the last debarkation time available (10:00) and the process from getting off at the gangway to the taxi took no more than 10 minutes.

The one complaint I have is the total chaos in flagging a taxi at the pier. There is no real lineup and it is almost "every person for themselves" to flag an available taxi. Why cant they create a better and more efficient system (ie a lineup)? Just a thought.

 

Overall, we came away from our cruise VERY satisfied. The staff is very friendly and the food was overall very good.We would rate it a 8 out of 10.

If anyone has any additional questions please feel free to let me know.

This board has been an invaluable source of information for us over the years :)

Thanks!

[Happy2Crews]

We were on the Dawn the week prior to your cruise. Having enjoyed it so much I just had to check out the web cam through out the week as a way to re-live the wonderful vacation....just couldn't let it go.

When we got off the ship about 9:30ish we had no problem getting a taxi as they had a line going and someone at the front flagging the next cab or larger cabs forward. For us it was very smooth and organized.

We too loved Cangney's and also thought the shrimp cocktail was awesome.

Welcome back to the real world. This time last week my chair at the computer was still rolling....:p

[14ersco]

acruisingcouple, We are going on the Dawn in about a month was wondering if your children attended the Kids Club; and if so what did you think about it? Thanks

[Leigh-Anne V]

Thanks for the review! My husband, 9 year old daughter and myself are on her in a few weeks. Like you, it's our 3rd cruise first with Norwegian!

 

I was also wondering if your kids went to Kids Club? My daughter is looking forward to this.

 

Also ... we've heard stories about Samana ... did you feel safe there? Any other info on it? We were going to stay onboard but hubby is in love with Dominican coffee so he wants to go and get some!

 

thanks

Leigh-Anne

[jwillum]

Also ... we've heard stories about Samana ... did you feel safe there? Any other info on it? We were going to stay onboard but hubby is in love with Dominican coffee so he wants to go and get some!

 

thanks

Leigh-Anne

I was also on the Dawn 2/7-2/14. Can't tell you anything about the kids club as my kids are teenagers (they did have a good time) but I never once felt unsafe in Samana. We took the Caves and Mangroves tour (non-beach) through NCL since I didn't know what to expect there and we really enjoyed it. It's an open air boat and it rained but they handed out rain gear and rum and coke so no one really cared. The tour boat took us back to the ship so we ate lunch and then hopped a tender to shore. We walked around, handed out some candy to the kids trying to sell us shells and enjoyed ourselves. There was an area with vendors set up under tents selling souvenirs and we ducked under one of them while it rained. The vendor was very polite and didn't mind at all that there were several people in there with him just keeping from getting wet. Once the rain let up, we walked down to the shopping area mentioned by the OP. I bought a shirt while looking around and then we headed back to the ship.

 

There were people trying to sell things along the road, especially cigars, but they were no more pushy than what I expected. I read horror stories about the port but never felt threatened in any way. I am sure it is like anyplace else in the world and there are places where you should not go. Stick to the tourist areas right by the pier and you will be fine. Go wandering down back alleys looking for the "real" Dominican Republic and you may get in trouble, just like you would in New York, L.A., ...

[acruisingcouple]

We took FULL ADVANTAGE of the kids club. The hours were very reasonable, from I believe 9:00 in the morning and free until 1030pm at night.

The only exception was on port days, were the kids club would charge if

you chose to keep them in the club while the ship was in port.

We chose to take the kids along with us on all the port stops.

The club itself took the kids to dinner on one of the nights , so on the other nights we simply took the kids to the Garden Cafe for a dinner around 5pm (or ordered them room service), dropped them off at the kids club at 6pm, went to dinner alone and then caught the early show thus we picked them up at around 9pm each night. It was FABULOUS.

They also brought the kids to 2 of the evening shows and sat all together in a reserved area of the Theatre.

They had many activities for the kids including hunting for treasure and many theme nights (pajama party etc).

They also gave the kids a free t shirt, and a present (board game).

The kids club crew was very friendly, and had 2 canadians, 3 americans and an australian working there.

[acruisingcouple]

We did not have an organized tour for Samana and contemplated at one point not getting off the ship.

However, there was more to see than I expected as my expectations were not that high after sifting through some reviews on Samana before our cruise.

We did indeed feel safe walking around the main roadway area, and never felt threatened. However it is advisable to walk close to other tourists off the ship when walking around so you are not pestered quite as much. I did not mind however as it was all part of the "experience".

Beyond the main roadway, up in the hills, it looked a whole lot worse and we would not have ventured into that area alone.

Off the pier, turn LEFT and there are vendors lined along the road area for about a 10-15 minutes walk. After about a 15 mins walk, there is a small shopping mall area just accross the road and you know you are there when you see a small casino attached to it.

Closer to the BACK of the shopping "mall", near the stage area, there are washrooms and they were surprisingly clean.

[sinclaj]

Thanks Acruisingcouple. We're also going on the Dawn in a few weeks and I'm so eager for any information about it.

 

Thanks for your information. Glad you had such a great time.

We've booked an excursion through the ship for Samana because we weren't sure of how secure we'd feel on our own. Glad to hear that you were just fine on your own.

Judy

[flashdog_1]

Our roll call pre-arranged an excursion in Samana that I'd read about here on Cruise Critic. For $26 per person (for 10 people), we were met by taxi vans that held 10 people, were taken to Las Galeras on the north coast, put into boats for a quick ride to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world according to a Conde Nast survey and spent the day there. I had a massage for $25, DH had many El Presidente beers. We could have had lunch since there were two restaurants there cooking over a pit (lobster, chicken, fish). This was arranged thru Casa Dorado owned by an American former school principal, Catherine DeLaura. Went very smoothly and I'd recommend it highly. On the way back we stopped at both a farmacia and a supermercado for the coffee/rum/vanilla etc. We arranged to get enough tender tickets for our whole cab/boat group and were on the first tender. Got back with an hour to spare, the way Catherine arranges it. Casadoradodr.com

[14ersco]

Thanks acruisingcouple for the review of the kid's club. We were on NCL America, but were not sure about the international ships. Sounds like our DS will be having a great time while we have quiet evenings. :cool:

[Nickymjw1]

Thanks Flashdog1 for the info on Samana. I hate it when people stay on the ship because they think there is nothing to see or they are scared. I have been to Samana twice and loved it. We did the Casa Dorada beach escape last year and the beach is just beautiful and the people are so friendly.

The first year we did a tour of Samana by bus through NCL and once again met many wonderful nice people. Afterwards we walked down the main strip and at lunch at Cafe de France. Unfortunately I have been told it was sold and now is closed.

 

I haved found another american living in Samana that is going to take us on a tour this year and take us to another beach as well. He also owns a restaurant in Samana so we are going to stop there as well to eat real dominican food. (check out the Samana boards for info)

 

I can't wait!

 

Please, please plan a tour. Don't stay on the ship or just wander close to the port! The beauty of DR is in the countryside and beaches!

 

Nicky