TR Dawn with the Spring Break kids

[siwst852]

Well I was waiting to see if anyone else would post. We originally booked 2 weeks earlier but they canceled that cruise and so we had to rebook 3/7-3/12.

 

I will think long and hard before booking again on NCL. Tons of kids and I think that the staff was way overworked (the food and service were bad and I hope this was the reason).

 

The trip started off good, boarding was easy and quick we were in 2 adjoining balcony rooms and perhaps that had something to do with it. I brought a bottle of wine with me and expected to pay the 15 corkage fee but couldn't find a place to pay it so.... I did luck out. When we boarded the ship was already full of young ones LOL. We did meet I think it was cool cruising at the bimini bar for a quick M&G.Our rooms were ready early but at a cost, they were not really clean.

 

I had lipstick/makeup spots on my bed covers and we found mens underwear under our bed UGH. We were 4 women and I think we would have noticed if one of us snuck in a man :). We only had 1 coffee package and they never restocked it. I just read we were suppose to get hand lotion and never got that either.

 

FOOD: Our breakfasts in the dining room were always cold. I will not eat cold eggs. The day before last we ate at the buffet and it was great . Made to order omelets fresh fruit, yogurt. I wanted to eat fish because my hubby is allergic so when I can order fish I do. The one time our table tried it, it was so fishy smelling and tasting UGH. The 2 specialty Bistro and Salsa we tried were good , I don't think you should have to pay extra to get decent food/service.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: Jose and Patti were very good I think we saw them 3 times. Second City was Fantastic. Bollywood was ok. didn't like the music but WOW the acrobatics were super.

 

BOOZE EVENTS: We did the martini tasting and it was great. We sat with a group of the spring breakers and they were very polite and funny and we kept giving them our leftovers :p good value and lots of fun. We tried to do the Sangria and Mojito and they were both canceled.

 

I have never had a balcony room and it was very nice we slept with the windows open and really enjoyed the ocean sounds, and we enjoyed coffee in the am on it.

 

I am sorry to be so negative but the trip itself was yucky good friends made it fun.

[sbt518]

Just curious, did you report the men's underwear under the bed and dirty linens?

And if so, what was done about it?

 

I've read a couple reviews this week about dirty cabins and I'm getting concerned.

[halos]

:( I'm sorry that your cruise wasn't as good as you would have wanted. I sailed on the Dawn this past November (for two weeks) and it was probably the best cruise I have taken so far.

When you found your cabin to be dirty...did you request that the cabin steward remedy that situation?? I hope so...

 

How were your port stops? Did you enjoy those?

[luddite]

If you booked a 5 day cruise at spring break time, you can be guaranteed a lot of kids.

Do the math.... Take half the rooms and double their capacity. Now there's a lot more people on board, all using facilities.

 

Icky bedding would cause me some problems.

 

I have never had an issue with cold breakfast nor bad food on a NCL ship.

I've also never cruised during spring break and that's not accidental.:)

In room coffee shouldn't have been an issue. It could be that since so few actually use it, that the steward didn't really pay attention to it.Room service coffee solves the problem best.

 

You apologized for a negative review. I saw mostly positive remarks in your note. It seems that most of your issues were with the high volume of crumb grabbers and tricycle motors. :eek: On a 5 day at spring break this is to be expected.

For a better NCL experience, sans the young'uns, try a 7 day when the little monsters are still in school.

[siwst852]

Just curious, did you report the men's underwear under the bed and dirty linens?

And if so, what was done about it?

 

I've read a couple reviews this week about dirty cabins and I'm getting concerned.

 

Yes we actually found the dirty underwear because my next door cabin mates had asked that the items be removed from the mini fridge and were told don't touch the stuff in the door just put the fridge stuff on top. When she opened the door a day later the shelf broke, dropping a red wine bottle and breaking/spilling it all over. We called the cabin steward and were told they were in port so got hold of a supervisor. She came to the room and we showed her the broken glass, red wine spilled on the clothes, shoes, bed linens and the underwear we found while trying to clean up the glass. She did offer to clean the pants, 2 tops, shoes but when they came back all but one of them had stains still on them and had to be thrown away. I forgot when I removed my stuff my fridge was full of HAIR UGH UGH. She made no comment when shown the underwear and did not change the linens.

[siwst852]

If you booked a 5 day cruise at spring break time, you can be guaranteed a lot of kids.

Do the math.... Take half the rooms and double their capacity. Now there's a lot more people on board, all using facilities.

 

Icky bedding would cause me some problems.

 

I have never had an issue with cold breakfast nor bad food on a NCL ship.

I've also never cruised during spring break and that's not accidental.:)

In room coffee shouldn't have been an issue. It could be that since so few actually use it, that the steward didn't really pay attention to it.Room service coffee solves the problem best.

 

You apologized for a negative review. I saw mostly positive remarks in your note. It seems that most of your issues were with the high volume of crumb grabbers and tricycle motors. :eek: On a 5 day at spring break this is to be expected.

For a better NCL experience, sans the young'uns, try a 7 day when the little monsters are still in school.

 

Luddite well perhaps we should have realize spring break but we were celebrating our friends 70th we kinda forget about college at that age LOL I feel that when we had to rebook because of NCL private charter, our NCL guy should have mentioned that was spring break.

 

The thing with the coffee was yes we did end up ordering room service but since they never, ever put coffee in either room why have a coffee pot?

[luddite]

Luddite well perhaps we should have realize spring break but we were celebrating our friends 70th we kinda forget about college at that age LOL I feel that when we had to rebook because of NCL private charter, our NCL guy should have mentioned that was spring break.

 

The thing with the coffee was yes we did end up ordering room service but since they never, ever put coffee in either room why have a coffee pot?

 

I understand that you weren't thinking of spring break. It's a priority for us to avoid it.

I don't have a real answer re the coffee pot. We put it under the bed. We like coffee too much to use those things. I do believe that I could've gotten some coffee for it, though.

 

I forgot about the underwear that you found. I agree, that's pretty icky.

[flashdog_1]

Spring break can be any time from the last week in February thru the last week in April, unfortunately. Usually longer cruises are not so affected as a 5 nighter. You just never know what the make up of passengers will be during that time period.

[newmexicoNita]

Well I was waiting to see if anyone else would post. We originally booked 2 weeks earlier but they canceled that cruise and so we had to rebook 3/7-3/12.

 

I will think long and hard before booking again on NCL. Tons of kids and I think that the staff was way overworked (the food and service were bad and I hope this was the reason).

 

The trip started off good, boarding was easy and quick we were in 2 adjoining balcony rooms and perhaps that had something to do with it. I brought a bottle of wine with me and expected to pay the 15 corkage fee but couldn't find a place to pay it so.... I did luck out. When we boarded the ship was already full of young ones LOL. We did meet I think it was cool cruising at the bimini bar for a quick M&G.Our rooms were ready early but at a cost, they were not really clean.

 

I had lipstick/makeup spots on my bed covers and we found mens underwear under our bed UGH. We were 4 women and I think we would have noticed if one of us snuck in a man :). We only had 1 coffee package and they never restocked it. I just read we were suppose to get hand lotion and never got that either.

 

FOOD: Our breakfasts in the dining room were always cold. I will not eat cold eggs. The day before last we ate at the buffet and it was great . Made to order omelets fresh fruit, yogurt. I wanted to eat fish because my hubby is allergic so when I can order fish I do. The one time our table tried it, it was so fishy smelling and tasting UGH. The 2 specialty Bistro and Salsa we tried were good , I don't think you should have to pay extra to get decent food/service.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: Jose and Patti were very good I think we saw them 3 times. Second City was Fantastic. Bollywood was ok. didn't like the music but WOW the acrobatics were super.

 

BOOZE EVENTS: We did the martini tasting and it was great. We sat with a group of the spring breakers and they were very polite and funny and we kept giving them our leftovers :p good value and lots of fun. We tried to do the Sangria and Mojito and they were both canceled.

 

I have never had a balcony room and it was very nice we slept with the windows open and really enjoyed the ocean sounds, and we enjoyed coffee in the am on it.

 

I am sorry to be so negative but the trip itself was yucky good friends made it fun.

 

Got a surprise for you, this isn't just NCL, the worst most spoiled awful kids we ever saw was on Celebrity cruise over Thanksgiving a few years ago. It may not have been all the kids, there was a large extended family with several cousins on the ship so it might have just been them. They ran around during show time, a couple of them fell asleep in the the lounge one night, they were all over the ship, etc. I could go on and on. We decided right then we would never cruise during holiday time again. From last week until the middle of April is the heaviest time for family travel on cruise ships or almost the heaviest, especially on the east coast. On the west coast it is closer to acutally Easter week.

 

I am sorry your cabin wasn't clean. I am sure when you brought these things to the attention of the cabin steward they were corrected..If not, did you talk to the housekeeping or hotel manager?

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

Luddite well perhaps we should have realize spring break but we were celebrating our friends 70th we kinda forget about college at that age LOL I feel that when we had to rebook because of NCL private charter, our NCL guy should have mentioned that was spring break.

 

The thing with the coffee was yes we did end up ordering room service but since they never, ever put coffee in either room why have a coffee pot?

 

No he shouldn't have, no one is going to mention something like that..Can you imagine how much it would cost the cruise lines to tell everyone from the 5th of March until about the last of April the ship will have a lot of families cruising..?? Would you expect a hotel to tell you this?

 

Nita

[lt30097]

I was on this cruise as well, with 4 other girlfriends. We were stunned by the amount of college spring-breakers. Guess I kinda realized there would be many, but geez, they really outnumbered us! All in all, we had a great time anyway.

You didn't happen to be the 4 ladies wearing the crystal-embroided t-shirts, are you?

[lt30097]

It wasn't alot of "families"... more like hundreds of 21 yrs olds on their own.

But regardless, I understand your point.

[luddite]

No he shouldn't have, no one is going to mention something like that..Can you imagine how much it would cost the cruise lines to tell everyone from the 5th of March until about the last of April the ship will have a lot of families cruising..?? Would you expect a hotel to tell you this?

 

Nita

 

There ya go. Without CC, we would not have known. We knew before our first cruise.

On our last cruise, we were out of NOLA at Mardis Gras. Kids in NOLA get that week off. LOTS of rugrats. I will say that it wasn't a problem.

[Down-Unders]

Got a surprise for you, this isn't just NCL, the worst most spoiled awful kids we ever saw was on Celebrity cruise over Thanksgiving a few years ago. It may not have been all the kids, there was a large extended family with several cousins on the ship so it might have just been them. They ran around during show time, a couple of them fell asleep in the the lounge one night, they were all over the ship, etc. I could go on and on. We decided right then we would never cruise during holiday time again. From last week until the middle of April is the heaviest time for family travel on cruise ships or almost the heaviest, especially on the east coast. On the west coast it is closer to acutally Easter week.

 

I am sorry your cabin wasn't clean. I am sure when you brought these things to the attention of the cabin steward they were corrected..If not, did you talk to the housekeeping or hotel manager?

 

Nita

 

 

 

 

 

I believe the OP is talking about the Norweigan Dawn, they have never mentioned Celebrity.

 

 

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

[sbt518]

I still can't get over the fact that there was someone else's leftover tighty whities in your cabin.

 

I would have pitched a FIT if that had been me. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

 

I'm impressed and surprised that you did not.

 

Yeah, we're going on the Gem next week, I'm sure there will be plenty of kids but I do know it isn't NY school spring break right now so maybe it won't be too bad.

[luddite]

I believe the OP is talking about the Norweigan Dawn, they have never mentioned Celebrity.

 

 

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

 

Well, don't believe everything.

[PhoenixCruiser]

This is happening on all lines. RCI had a five nighter where a college student somehow ended up at the bottom of a drained pool. He is now in a coma at a Miami hospital :(

 

###

[ShedQueen77]

On our last Carnival cruise, I found a pair of dirty socks next to the bed. Not as bad as skivvies, but it happened there too. I know that doesn't make it any better, but I would hate to see you discount NCL for future cruises because of it.

[catnanny]

We were also on this Dawn 5 day cruise with all the kids. Being two retired teachers, we never even thought about the spring breakers being on the ship. But there they were, in packs! Our spring breaks have always been at the end of March or at Easter time, never at the beginning of March. I know now. My first realization of all the kids was at embarkation and I went to the atrium to set up my ship's account with cash. There were about a dozen young girls there, mobbing the desk, all wondering why they weren't being permitted to drink on board. They were telling the crew that they had the "required 21-year old" with them who would be their guardian while on board, so if their "guardian" siad it was OK for them to have wine and beer, they should be allowed to have it. They were told that their parents would have to FAX permission to the ship and include copies of their parents IDs with pictures. All the dozen of girls were on their cells at the same time, trying to reach their parents to "get the party started." That was their only concern. These girls were probably 18 or 19 at most.

In Cozumel, the walk at the pier is quite long to get back onto the ship. My friend and I really enjoyed, but were saddened at the same time, by all the kids staggering back to the ship, barely making it on time. There were security people walking along with many, many groups of kids, as only a small rope separated them from the edge of the pier and the water on both sides. Some kids were being held up by others, who could hardly make it themselves.

We encountered one young man in the elevator, who was holding his head and standing quite uncomfortably. He had climbed up on a statue of the frog at Senor Frogs and had fallen off on his head. He had it checked by either the ship's doctor or someone in Cozumel. He was told he needed stitches in his head, but he didn't want to spend or didn't have the $200.00 it would cost, so he was just going to "live with it." We encouraged him to take care of it and never saw him again after that.

As for our experience, we found the kids to be OK most of the time. It was hard getting through their large groups some of the time, but they were also telling one another to move aside so my friend could get her scooter through. They often held the elevator door for us and let us go ahead of them. We have very often found just the opposite on cruises when it was mostly adults who would push ahead of us and not allow us to have room to get by or get on the elevator. All in all, we had decided that the kids didn't spoil our fun.

As for our experiences on the cruise, we had a great time. We were in a handicapped accessible balcony cabin. We made a couple requests of the stewards at the beginning of the cruise that were taken care of, such as emptying the fridge and removing the coffee pot. We had ice every day, the room and bathroom were cleaned, we had a couple of towel animals throughout the cruise, and things ran very smoothly.

We ate at Le Bistro and Impressions and the food and service couldn't have been better. We also had meals in both main restaurants and didn't have any problems. My one complaint about dining was in the Garden Cafe. With my friend on a scooter, only once did a crew member offer to help with getting her food along the buffet line. It slowed the line when I was trying to get two plates of food at the same time. It would have been much quicker for the people behind us if someone was helping her, rather than I getting both plates of food with her telling me what she would like. I'd have to set one plate down to serve the food on the other plate.

We enjoyed the shows. We saw Bollywood, the Second City shows, and the other shows in the Stardust. We also caught parts of the entertainers in the smaller lounges. We went to the Latitudes cocktail party and I won a bottle of sparkling wine in the drawing. I think I was the only one in Spinaker's who wasn't drinking alcohol at the time! We also had a surprise our first night in our cabin. The captain has sent us a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. He hand-signed a card that said it was compliments of him. I guess that set the tone for our good time.

My friend and I have done quite a lot of traveling together over the years. With her handicap, we know that we won't always be able to see or do everything that others get to do. But we appreciate what we can do. We also appreciate what others do for us, whether or not they are being paid to do it. We do expect service, but we know that the people work hard and don't expect to be treated like royalty. We expected to have a good time, no matter what we got to do, and we did. We will certainly sail with NCL again. This was our second NCL cruise. As for sailing during Spring Break? I'm not sure about that. We were originally to take this trip in November, but the Dawn had broken down 1000 miles from Miami and the cruise was cancelled. I hope everyone gets to have fun like we did.

[jjb415]

This is the second post today regarding cold buffet food and dirty cabins. These 2 problems are exactly what soured me on NCL last April aboard the Norwegian Jewel. Since then my experiences on Royal Caribbean have been perfect in most respects. I really do like a lot of aspects of NCL and hope that they improve service.

[mousey]

I'm sorry the original and some posters have had bad experiences on NCL. I'm sure it is the same with other cruise lines. Personally, I've sailed NCL three times in the past and am scheduled to sail with them again in April. Because of our DS we have sailed only at spring break when he is out of school. We have never, ever, had a problem with cleanliness or spring breakers on NCL. Didn't have a problem with them on Costa or Carnival either. We just don't have a problem cruising with young people, but then again we never refer to them as "rugrats" or "monsters":eek:, so we are not prejudiced against them to begin with.

[siwst852]

Let me just say it was not the kids themselves we did a martini tasting with about 8 of them and they were very polite and fun . I think it was just the sheer numbers of them and that they do tend to travel in packs. I did not call them any names in my TR.

 

The times we ate at the buffet the food was hot they also toasted bagels and the fruit we had was really great, I was bummed we discovered it so near the end. It was the sit down restaurants that had cold food.

 

As to the stewards we didn't complain except with the red wine spill and that was handled poorly by the supervisor. We just didn't tip extra at the end. We did tip when we used room service and that also was good coffee and prompt service. I think that the mandatory tipping could be part of the problem. They get the same tips if they work hard or not. I am one of those people who always leaves a tip for the maid so please don't start the flame throwers.

 

On a positive note I did lose weight LOL.

[mckenna]

Well I was waiting to see if anyone else would post. We originally booked 2 weeks earlier but they canceled that cruise and so we had to rebook 3/7-3/12.

 

I will think long and hard before booking again on NCL. Tons of kids and I think that the staff was way overworked (the food and service were bad and I hope this was the reason).

 

The trip started off good, boarding was easy and quick we were in 2 adjoining balcony rooms and perhaps that had something to do with it. I brought a bottle of wine with me and expected to pay the 15 corkage fee but couldn't find a place to pay it so.... I did luck out. When we boarded the ship was already full of young ones LOL. We did meet I think it was cool cruising at the bimini bar for a quick M&G.Our rooms were ready early but at a cost, they were not really clean.

 

I had lipstick/makeup spots on my bed covers and we found mens underwear under our bed UGH. We were 4 women and I think we would have noticed if one of us snuck in a man :). We only had 1 coffee package and they never restocked it. I just read we were suppose to get hand lotion and never got that either.

 

FOOD: Our breakfasts in the dining room were always cold. I will not eat cold eggs. The day before last we ate at the buffet and it was great . Made to order omelets fresh fruit, yogurt. I wanted to eat fish because my hubby is allergic so when I can order fish I do. The one time our table tried it, it was so fishy smelling and tasting UGH. The 2 specialty Bistro and Salsa we tried were good , I don't think you should have to pay extra to get decent food/service.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: Jose and Patti were very good I think we saw them 3 times. Second City was Fantastic. Bollywood was ok. didn't like the music but WOW the acrobatics were super.

 

BOOZE EVENTS: We did the martini tasting and it was great. We sat with a group of the spring breakers and they were very polite and funny and we kept giving them our leftovers :p good value and lots of fun. We tried to do the Sangria and Mojito and they were both canceled.

 

I have never had a balcony room and it was very nice we slept with the windows open and really enjoyed the ocean sounds, and we enjoyed coffee in the am on it.

 

I am sorry to be so negative but the trip itself was yucky good friends made it fun.

I know exactly what you went through. Please read my Post about the NCL Jewel. I would never cruise with NCL again. I hope that you next Cruise will be absolutely awesome!

[newmexicoNita]

I'm sorry the original and some posters have had bad experiences on NCL. I'm sure it is the same with other cruise lines. Personally, I've sailed NCL three times in the past and am scheduled to sail with them again in April. Because of our DS we have sailed only at spring break when he is out of school. We have never, ever, had a problem with cleanliness or spring breakers on NCL. Didn't have a problem with them on Costa or Carnival either. We just don't have a problem cruising with young people, but then again we never refer to them as "rugrats" or "monsters":eek:, so we are not prejudiced against them to begin with.

 

you do bring up a good point, I don't think all kids are brats, in fact I think most are probably pretty neat, we were all kids at one time. As I mentioned earlier, we wouldn't cruise during school break again cause we have choices, but the one time we did or actually twice it was Thanksgiving..I do believe most of the bratty kids were from the same family: to boot, this was "a more upscale" cruise line in some people's minds. That being said, I have heard over and over about kids and spring break as well as Christmas break. The other time we cruised during a break time was RCI, a short 4 dayer out of L.A. Except for the last day which was a sea day and the embarkation time we wouldn't have known the ship was over run with kids. For the most part they were all very well behaved. The other time we have had problems with kids and really not a problem to us, more to the kids, has been toddlers. They have no place to go and not much to do. But now we are totally off subject.

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

Let me just say it was not the kids themselves we did a martini tasting with about 8 of them and they were very polite and fun . I think it was just the sheer numbers of them and that they do tend to travel in packs. I did not call them any names in my TR.

 

The times we ate at the buffet the food was hot they also toasted bagels and the fruit we had was really great, I was bummed we discovered it so near the end. It was the sit down restaurants that had cold food.

 

As to the stewards we didn't complain except with the red wine spill and that was handled poorly by the supervisor. We just didn't tip extra at the end. We did tip when we used room service and that also was good coffee and prompt service. I think that the mandatory tipping could be part of the problem. They get the same tips if they work hard or not. I am one of those people who always leaves a tip for the maid so please don't start the flame throwers.

 

On a positive note I did lose weight LOL.

I think that is the problem, more than kids mis-behaving it is the number of them. This we have seen on cruises over holidays or near breaks. With a few exceptions it isn't them being brats particularly. I do think this was a wake up call for you, because you do have choices try to pick a more adult time next cruise.

 

Nita