DaisyGoldberg

On the first day when you board you can visit the spa and see what different things are offered that you might be interested in. They will have little tables set up for different treatments and be able to explain/demonstrate a little.

At the same time you can fill out an entry for a drawing held later that day (or the next?) Anyway, if it doesn't conflict with something else you need to do, go. I think when we went they were giving away 8 treatments and only about 15 people showed up. Since you have to be present to win, if you're a couple and each enter, not bad odds. You can't make substitutions with the staff, but if there's some other winner who's willing to trade, they're happy to let you. My mom won some service for a man, and traded with a guy who had won a facial.

Ordinarily I don't want to waste vacation time on stuff like that, but in our case it only took a half hour, the odds were very good, and since you're planning on spending money at the spa, you might as well try to get something for nothing.

I found the Murphy bed very comfortable (enough so that even though our initial plan was to swap the "good bed" halfway through, I didn't feel the need to).

I've heard the sofa bed is less comfortable. However, it was very nice to sprawl on (as a sofa) and look out the window during the daytime! A very small child could probably use it as a very comfy bed without having the steward make it up as a regular bed.

One perk of being in the Murphy bed is the view at dawn!

There are some elevators 3/4 of the way towards the back that don't go to all the floors. Especially in the first few days people would get on elevators there and get confused because they couldn't press the button for their floor, then have to get off. Since elevator doors close quickly, sometimes parties would get separated as one person hopped off and the other didn't in time. So keep in mind that you can't necessarily "get there from here" in that particular section of the ship near the dining rooms. If you split up on the elevator, just have an agreement that the person who got out will wait there until you return. Or that you will continue separately and meet up at your destination.

To follow that (slightly) negative comment, let me balance it by saying that I was impressed with the Dawn's elevators overall -- in my back to back I never saw one out of order. My prior two cruises ALWAYS had one elevator out for the entire week. (Princess and Pride of America). I had come to expect it when cruising. So kudos to Dawn's engineering staff because they kept all of them running smoothly. And housekeeping for keeping them polished and all that glass clean.

One thing I tried at Cagney's lunch that I'd like to try again was the turkey burger -- it was Thai flavored with grilled pineapple and a tasty pepper relish. I have never in my life bothered with a turkey burger but the flavors sounded so good I took the chance and really enjoyed it.

The fettucine, on the other hand, was just glop. On the way back to the room I stopped at the buffet and got something to eat ;)

(I know I could have asked for something else, but it wasn't the waiter's fault, and I didn't want to prolong the meal for everybody else.)

I would start looking now -- those aft penthouses can be scooped up fast -- there aren't that many of them.

It would not surprise me that a late season Bermuda cruise out would have an older crowd. Kids are back in school, after all.

I also didn't know what I'd do with a butler, and the answer turned out to be "not much." However, other perks were invaluable, like priority disembarkation, priority passport control (we got to sit in a lounge and watch the line get longer and longer, then when the agents were ready, were escorted through an empty restaurant to go through a line just for us. I presume after we were done they opened that line to the rest of the passengers, but I would say it easily saved us an hour standing in line.) I assume on a Bermuda itinerary you'd get off the ship at the end and handle immigration that way, but for an itinerary that has a US stop before final disembarkation, the suite experience is excellent!

Getting escorted to a priority tender could be super useful to maximize your time in port in Bermuda, especially if you privately book excursions.

The "private" balcony is off to one side and of debatable value if there are plenty of seats available on the main floor, which has better visibility. However, if you arrive late to a show, the main floor is packed, and attendance in the "private" balcony is sparse, you can usually stake out a pretty good seat for yourself.

The extra space, coffee maker in the room, floor to ceiling windows (SJ suite) and Cagneys were also great.

I highly recommend it, but you will be spoiled :)

Do you go to cruise or to watch TV?

I go to cruise. But when I'm in my room getting ready for the day (or the evening), I like to have the tv on. When the tv's on, I prefer watching something I enjoy to something I don't.

I must say, however, cruise ships have come a loooooong way from when they only showed one movie over and over and the ship channel!

You won't regret it. Balconies are nice, but the visibility you will get from your "wall of windows" will put the visibility you'd get in a balcony room to shame.

Sure it's nice to step out and get fresh air when you want to. But it's also nice to lounge on your bed or the sofa and get a panoramic view without having to step outside to see it.

Plus the perks, of course!

I saw some kids shows -- maybe Favorites plays them early in the morning?

The other weird thing is that there would be huge gaps. No commercials, which is nice, but if a sitcom only took 20 mins to air, there might be a 40 min wait for the next show to begin. And the movies and tv episodes repeat. I think we saw the same Mike and Molly episode 3 times one week.

There were a lot of home improvement shows.

Yes, - I forgot -- bathsalts and q tips (I think) in containers on shelving next to sink.

Yes, one of the butler treats one day was sandwiches cut up into squares -- pb+j and tuna, I think, arranged in a circle with potato chips in the center. Warning -- don't try to save chips for later. Even though we weren't aware of humidity, and it was a cool weather cruise, with no balcony in the room to let the ocean air in directly, by the time we got back from dinner the chips were pretty soft. (But tasty if you eat them when delivered!)

We were on a back to back, so maybe they don't break out the pb+j on a 7 day ;)

We got cookies a couple of times -- ridiculous number of cookies - like 10 or 12 for the two of us. That should serve both your cabins!

Presumably he'll be working from the cabin and not the internet cafe onboard? Because it's open to the atrium below and quite loud if he's trying to concentrate. Entertaining if just doing personal email, but I'd find it disruptive if trying to work. Especially if Jose and Patti are playing and people take all the computer chairs away from the computers to watch the show. (The internet cafe manager does his best, but damn those people are rabid fans)

Ours always knocked. Once we must have had the welcome sign on but the door locked and he called the room to see if we wanted the afternoon snack delivered.

I was in an SJ on the Dawn at the end of Sept/beginning of Oct and we got Elemis shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, a loofah, and a shower cap. May also have been shower gel - don't recall. I don't use it.

I wasn't crazy about the elemis -- I mean, it smelled nice and no doubt was better than the stuff in the prefilled canisters, but it didn't do much for my hair. So after a couple of days I switched to my own (nothing fancy -- probably Suave or head and shoulders!)

For the poster who has a balcony next to the suite, as others have pointed out, the people in the balcony won't get suite perks like Cagneys, priority boarding, etc.

On the other hand, there's nothing to keep you from sharing your afternoon treats with them. Generally speaking we always got 6-10 individual hors d'oevres each day, so you could invite them over for a glass of your sparkling wine, give them your grapes or hand them your plate of pb and jelly sandwich squares or chocolate strawberries if you wanted to be generous.

On the Dawn last month they were set up in the pool area after boarding -- right next to the guy selling the refillable mugs. They make out a slip, you sign it, and they deliver later that day.

They're fairly large bottles (they'll have them on display). Larger than I'd want to be carrying around the ship, so if you're somebody who always wants one in your hand, you might prefer bringing them from home.

The ship's water is fine and I always drank it in restaurants and the buffet. But in the room I liked being able to pour myself a nice tall glass of water (I always bring a large glass from home)

If he's having steak, the sides are separate (different serving dishes and everything). The sauces are listed separately - I didn't order any so I'm not sure how they arrive if you order a sauce. In some restaurants they come separately so you can pour them.

I presume most of the sides themselves are prepared in some giant cauldron before being dispensed into individual serving cups.

The potato definitely comes alone in its own dish. My mother eats hers without toppings, so though the waiter listed many, I'm not sure whether they would have added them to the top or brought them separately. I can't imagine it would be too terrible a request to have the baked potato and ask for the sour cream or butter on the side to add himself.

Not sure how the burger is served, but I imagine that also would not be difficult for them to just put it on the bun and serve plain with sauce or ketchup on the side if he desires. I had the sliders and they didn't need anything.

You could say you scored priority boarding for a small fee, and let him be excited that he gets to skip a line (or angry that you "blew" $50 or whatever you claim it cost).

But you can't really control what they say to you upon check-in, and if I recall correctly, we were fussed over as "our very special guests" from the moment we entered the VIP section (which in Boston is really just folding chairs behind a rope!)

But if you say you got a good deal on priority boarding so you can briefly see how the other half live, or something like that, and you take the point position in dealing with the concierge/person manning the area, you might be able to get a word of warning to them to keep the secret for you. Perhaps he'll be so dazed by the swift movement you make through the crowd he'll be congratulating you on scoring that great VIP boarding pass and not paying attention to stuff around him.

Our time in the VIP section to being whisked away to our room was about 20 seconds, so it could happen. But I wouldn't bother trying to pre-arrange the secret with NCL -- too many personnel and too much boarding chaos to pull that off.

I also wouldn't do it -- why spend the tail end of your vacation stressing over whether you may not get on a flight that day at all?

The airport is not far. However, getting off the ship and standing in the taxi line could easily eat an hour of your time, depending on the crowd you're with, other events in town calling upon lots of taxis at the same time, etc.

If you planned to walk off at the first possible opportunity with your own bags and had a car service waiting... maybe. But even that I personally wouldn't risk. Not when there are options like the water taxi or even a cruise ship tour to fill the time for you.

I'm generally a good tipper and I went by the $10/day for the butler, 5/day for the concierge (per person). We also added $5/day for the room steward based on the fact that we leave $5/day in a regular hotel for that service, which doesn't include turndown, and which the housekeeper does not need to share with coworkers (maybe in some places they do.) So we felt the steward, who was excellent, deserved more (from us personally) than whatever share he would get from the overall ship pot divided with everybody else.

We didn't end up using the butler very much at all -- he brought us extra club soda for the room (and didn't charge us for it), and he delivered the snacks daily, as well as a pizza once. I'm sure he would have done whatever we asked, but we didn't really take too much advantage of the extra services.

We used the concierge (Virginia) even less, overall, but I was impressed with her professionalism, and the fact that she was visible, available, and always, always on the job. Considering it was her final two weeks before vacation, she could have spaced out a bit, but she didn't, not even that last morning. While we didn't use her more than a couple of times for reservations, it felt good having a "connection" with somebody that I was confident could deal with any possible thing that could crop up on board, instead of having to negotiate the ship hierarchy ourselves. I think that's the real value of a concierge - that you feel you're in good hands.

Ate there three times on our trip and enjoyed it. Had the NY strip twice and the filet once. I have no idea how to differentiate prime/select/etc but they were definitely closer to Capitol Grille steaks than the Longhorn or Outback or whatever somebody previously compared them to.

For sides I had the greenbeans twice (different each time!) and the onion rings (seemed to be breaded with panko crumbs and kind of weird.

Loved the baked potato soup and had it all three times, sad to say (so I didn't feel up to trying the baked potato side, which I normally would have with steak). My mother got it, though, as well as the broccoli and liked both.

We also tried the Waygu sliders, which were really tasty -- had we gone back a fourth time I probably would have gotten the burger entree.

I just got off the Dawn on a 14 day -- the scale didn't show up til day 10. I was kind of happy it wasn't there and hadn't asked about it, but suddenly it appeared towards the end.

Hope it wasn't an editorial comment from the butler!

Going to be sailing in my first suite this fall -- we booked last summer, and will have two weeks in the SJ suite on the Dawn for less than a thousand more than we spent on the POA last year for one week in a balcony. If you count $450 in onboard credit and leaving from our local port so no airfare (especially compared to Hawaii) - it's a lot cheaper vacation. The pain was spread out by paying through the year. Now it's all paid for except the excursions, so I'll take care of them over the next two months and step on board without expectation of spending much at all.

Need to buckle down and do some house stuff for the next few years, so cruising may be put on hold, but I hope to try the Tampa to Boston reposition in a suite for my return. Of course that's assuming I LIKE the suite life ;)

The lei making classes were fun, and so were the hula classes. Doesn't matter that you have two left feet - it's fun!

I truly didn't see any of the "attitude" people report about POA employees. But then I don't enjoy the over the top fawning that some cruise staff do to ingratiate themselves. Efficient, cheerful -- great qualities in service positions. Beyond that I get uncomfortable.

I thought the POA staff hit just the right note.

Can't wait to try them all -- love my memory foam mattress topper but haven't tried a pillow, plus the one that stays cool sounds wonderful. I will definitely buy one if I like it!

You will see in the Freestyle Daily that NCL does not permit door decorating. Like any other rules that does not stop many from just doing it anyway.

I wish people would be more considerate of the other passengers. A magnet on the door or item placed in the "mailbox" thing to help identify your cabin is one thing. Decorating the door like a parade float can be really annoying to people who prefer to let the cruise line determine the decor of the public spaces.

I never have a clue as to why anyone cares who the cruise director is.

Pretty much my thought when I see these threads chasing particular staff members around the world in hopes that they'll see them again. I certainly notice when there's a bad one, but I wouldn't notice or care if you swapped a good one for another good one mid-cruise.