Ncl dawn review feb 11-20

[wendyparmer]

My husband and I were on the Dawn for our 28th anniversary, my birthday, and valentines cruise. We are 46 and 47 years old and this was our 28th cruise – 4th with NCL. We had a great time regardless of the itinerary changes, engine problems, and

Small fire breakout. Although we were disappointed that we missed ST. Kitts since

We have never been there before. We had also never been to Samana, but were told

We didn’t miss anything there.

 

Embarkation:

Very easy. We had priority embarkation since we were in a suite so we were in the first group on the ship.

 

Ports:

Tortola – our first time here and we went on the Sage Mnt. Hiking excursion through

The ship. Then they took us to Cane Garden Bay. We really enjoyed this excursion and this island.

 

Antigua – had been here before so we just went to Valley Church Beach. It was beautiful but a little more crowded than we expected.. More and more people are hearing about this beach so now it is where the taxi drivers recommend so it was crowded. We rented jet skis and rode around several beaches that did not look crowded at all but I do not know what the beach names were. We love this island! We have never seen water as pretty.

 

St. Maarten – been here before too so just shopped and ate at a waterfront restaurant.

 

St. Thomas – been here several times so I took a taxi to the Marriott Beach while my

Husband did the golf excursion through the ship. (he was supposed to do the one in St. Kitts but it was replaced with this island and the excursion was $80.00 more here – very disappointing that it was much higher but he said Mahogany Run Golf Club was beautiful) Then we ate at a waterfront restaurant for lunch and took in the scenery of the yachts in port. There were many.

 

Cabin:

This was our first suite on NCL and it was a penthouse suite. We had the Cagney’s breakfast and lunch perks. It was wonderful, but we would have liked to see the menu change at least every third day. It was the same all 9 days for lunch and breakfast. We were invited to a VIP cocktail party and got to meet the whole staff. That is where my husband met the golf pro and he is from Georgia (as well as us). We got afternoon snacks delivered everyday to our room. The first day, it was Huge Chocolate covered

Strawberries. But the rest of the days, they were forgettable. It would be hard to go back to a lesser cabin category after this one. We were treated like Royalty.

 

Food:

We ate in all of the specialty restaurants except the Teppanyaki. They were all great.

We ate in the main dining rooms 4 nights but they just do not seem to have enough variety for us. Our favorites are always the Asian/Sushi and Italian.

 

 

Entertainment:

The comedian and magician were both great. We are not too fond of Broadway or production dance shows so we missed most of them.

 

Disembarkation:

We did the walk off with our luggage plan so we were off and in a taxi by 7:30am.

I hope I remembered all of the important things to tell but feel free to email me with questions a pwsll@yahoo.com

[versuco]

Thanks for posting this review. We will be sailing on the Dawn next month and are very happy to read something positive about the ship for a change:)!

[KevinsCruising]

Glad you had a great time even with the bumps your cruise had. You are a seasoned cruiser and know how to have a good time even when things dont go as planned.

 

I have a special place in my heart for the Dawn. She is a great ship with a great crew. ;)

[musicgal]

Nice review, Wendy-

[jla418]

Nice review! Finally somebody else that was on the same cruise I was on and enjoyed the trip! We had a great time as well.

[terrymtex01]

OP.. I think it speaks volumes as to the kind of person you are to still enjoy your cruise with so many challenges you all faced. You are definitely someone I would enjoy meeting some day on a cruise. Glad you had a good time. Thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

[kkelle17]

Great review. Sounds like you had a really wonderful time.

 

Do you happen to remember the cost of renting the jet skis in Antigua. We are considering it for our upcoming cruise on the dawn. Thanks.

[jaja]

OP.. I think it speaks volumes as to the kind of person you are to still enjoy your cruise with so many challenges you all faced. You are definitely someone I would enjoy meeting some day on a cruise. Glad you had a good time. Thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

 

 

Terry..I agree.....;)

[wendyparmer]

The cost of the jet ski rental was only $45.00. I haven't seen one on any other island that was this inexpensive. Even in Cozumel, they are $70.00.

[tlm]

We were on this cruise as well and also in a penthouse and felt quite pampered and spoiled.

 

Even with all of the problems, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In fact we signed up for the Cruise Rewards program and are now looking to book again for next year.

 

Thanks for your review.

 

Toni