Dawn Review 10/25/13-11/1/13

[kollegekreed]

Hi all. Im writing this review of the Dawn and Bermuda each night on the cruise, so hopefully everything will remain fairly clear in my mind! BTW, it is long so settle in! While this is my seventh cruise, fifth on NCL, its my first time on the Dawn, and first time in Bermuda. I travelled with my parents and brother. I was VERY fortunate to ride the coattails of my father's free CAS cruise. I booked an inside for myself and they waived the single supplement, PLUS The infamous "free house drinks in the casino" card was waiting for me in my room.

 

We arrived at the Black Falcon Terminal to massive traffic around 10:45. We were fortunate to have a family member dropping us off, so we got inside fairly quickly. Security was a breeze as was checkin - 10 minutes after arrival, we were ready to board. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. The Dawn had arrived back late and the first people didn't board the ship until between 12:15 and 12:30. We were more than fortunate to be CAS cruisers and were put in Group 1, so we were onboard right after penthouses and special needs. We were, as usual, directed to the buffet, so...

 

We made a beeline for Venetian for lunch. I think this dining room is one of the nicest ones ive seen at sea. Lunch was OK - chicken soup and a very subpar club sandwich for me. Both parents had shrimp caesar salad as starters and they really enjoyed it.

 

Next up was finding our rooms. I stayed in 10595. More than adequate in space and storage. Sink had some stains (rust) and very top shelf above fridge had dust, but all in all no complaints. Beds were already pushed together which was a nice surprise. Also discovered there was a "bunk" on the wall, so this room could easily sleep three. Rest of the family was in 11638 mini suite. Again, nice and adequate, but besides a tub and a slightly larger balcony, it doesn't deserve to have the word suite anywhere in it. Extended balcony is far more apropos. We cleaned out the mini fridges in both rooms - we brought 24 Diet Coke, 30 water, and 48 Coke on board which saved lots of money.

 

Rest of the day was spent on normal embarkation procedures. Muster drill (cold!), spa tour/raffle, ship exploring. Dinner was in Aqua. Mom and I went with grilled chicken, dad and brother had surf and turf. The garlic polenta appetizer was on the menu and I LOVE it; food was adequate (cinnamon apple pie for dessert was delish) but service was slow, as has been discussed on these boards ad nauseum.

 

Lost some money in the casino and went to see the welcome aboard show. CD Paul had some good jokes. Jose and Patti performed a few songs. The highlight (understatement) of the show was comedian Tim Kaminski. Audience was roaring with laughter from start to finish. Visited the casino for a little while, but real tired after a long day so in the room by 11:30! One complimentary note - a dad with a three year old got some "to-go" at Blue Lagoon and clearly couldn't carry the toddler and the two dishes. The waiter carried the food to the guy's room. Its touches like that that make a difference.

 

Day 2 was a sea day. Slept in rather late. Lunch was in Garden Cafe. Spent the afternoon reading. Real chilly out in the Atlantic Ocean...tried reading on the deck, but ended up resorting to an alcove window bench by guest services.

 

The show was Band On The Run. It was OK....some sound issues, but upbeat and high energy and cast did a good job. Dinner was in La Cucina. I never understand why there are so many complaints about this restaurant...it was excellent as always. Some of the best bruschetta in the world, i think. Some casino play finished the night, and then sleep!

 

We arrived in Bermuda just before 11am on Day 3. I did lunch in Garden Cafe again and headed ashore around 2:30. I purchased the two day bus/ferry pass for $25 and then I did some quick walking around in the dockyard and didn't find anything overly impressive. I jumped on the number 7 bus and went over to Horseshoe Bay. Beautiful beach (tough hill to walk back up) but i didnt do any swimming...went in thigh deep and grabbed some pics. Took the bus back to town and jumped back on the ship.

 

Dinner tonight was Moderno. Ive been before and find the salad bar and sides are good. I'm not a meat fan by any means, but even the chicken was gross. That said, dad and brother loved it. Mom and i stuck to garlic mashed potatoes and fried sweet bananas.

 

After dinner was Tim Kaminski's second show. This guy is F-U-N-N-Y. Some of the best entertainment I've ever seen at sea. Not to be missed! At this point Dad went to watch Jose and Patti, and i exited the ship in search of nightlife. Finding absolutely none, I purchased the three day internet plan in the dockyard and checked up on the virtual world. Grabbed a snack at Blue Lagoon to go, and ended Day 3. One note that I was a little miffed about. At 1am I went to brush my teeth and found the water turned off. I also flushed the toilet and it didn't refill. I called guest services who pleasantly informed me that the water was turned off for maintenance, and would be turned back on in two hours. It would have been nice for a little heads up!!!!!!

 

Anyway, on Day 4 we were up early. Breakfast in Garden Cafe. Again, complimentary note: the Dawn has a coffee cart and the guy pouring coffee was so friendly and stopped to talk to almost every passenger. A seventy-something year old woman was getting coffee from the machine and he rushed over to her and told her to sit down, because "VIPs don't drink coffee from machines". Anyway, we were up early to try to catch the 1030 ferry to St George. Unfortunately, there is no 1030 to St George....so we hung around and grabbed the 1130. Once in St George, we headed to Tobacco Bay and Ft St Catherine. Dad and bro swam and snorkeled at Tobacco; I dipped my toes in and walked over to the fort. Both are nice areas, but there were literally less than 10 people on St Catherine's beach, while there were a couple hundred at (much smaller) Tobacco Bay. I would definitely file that away in my memory the next time i want a beach day away from the crowds.

 

After that i journeyed back to town on my own and grabbed a coffee and the number 8 bus to Hamilton, thinking i could go to the zoo. Beautiful scenery along this route. When I got into Hamilton I checked out the Washington Mall briefly and then figured out that I had to stay on the bus a little longer to get to the zoo. Oops. So i decided to grab a sub for lunch and catch the ferry back since it was a little too late to make the price of admission worth it, the ferry whizzed back to the dockyard at 4pm. I took a quick dip in the pool and hot tub, showered, and we decided on the Frog and Onion for dinner. None of us were overly impressed (parents had enjoyed it in the past), but no problem, it was Chocoholic Buffet night! Had some great chocolate dipped bananas.

 

Quiet night otherwise. I wasn't interested in the acrobatics show. Caught the end of the Sox game on board. Didn't mention that. It is World Series week, and this ship is from Boston. They are holding parties in Spinnakers and Pearly Kings each game night. I checked into spinnakers tonight and they even set up some game finger food. Stopped by Blue Lagoon for my late night chicken fingers. Portions are always weird here...last night, two chicken fingers. Today, four. The same nice waiter was back to delivering food "to go" again. This time he carried EIGHT plates back to a womans room. I passed him in the hall and told him he deserved a medal. Absolutely ridiculous passenger...

 

Day 5 was the last day in Bermuda and the weather wasn't so good. There was some pretty strong wind and scattered rain depending on the time of day. There isn't anything big to report - just got off the ship for a little while and used the wifi and did some window shopping. I snapped some photos during sail away, and bid farewell to Bermuda for now. I will say the island grew on me, and ill probably visit again sometime.

 

I did dinner in Bamboo. I was really looking to do the a la carte pricing but apparently confused myself and ended up with the $15 cover charge. I had lo mein, veggie fried rice, and sesame chicken. All were good. Also had creme brûlée for dessert (green tea, ginger, and something else).

 

The show was Pure Variety. Again, the cast was energetic and enjoyable, butt his show was dated. They promised "something for everyone" but 90% was 70s music. Would have liked to see a show that really had some current stuff this trip, but it wasn't meant to be. Spent quite a bit of time donating to the casino, and off to bed. By the way, the movies on this particular sailing were pretty good. Skyfall, Hunger Games, Great Gatsby, Big Miracle, Odd Life of Timothy Green, White House Down. and some other fairly recent releases. On both the first sea day and last sea day, there was zero satellite signal so these channels were about the only choice.

 

Day 6 (Wednesday, for those keeping track) started with lunch in Blue Lagoon. Im studying for a certification for human resources so i found some time to read after lunch. Tim Kaminski's final show was at 3. This is his standup show. While there was a lot more original stuff than usual, there were definitely s couple recycled NCL comedian jokes in there. (Is the toilet water regular or saltwater? I don't know, I've never tried, for two reasons: number one and number two). He was still absolutely hilarious. I did hear that several people walked out as there was a little more low brow stuff (poop jokes) than the first show.

 

Dinner was Aqua tonight. I had roast turkey which wasn't great, but the sides were good. Service was slightly faster tonight, though we did wait 15 minutes for a table. For those wondering, Dawn does offer complimentary champagne or soda if you have to wait. After dinner at 8:30 was Liar Liar which was one of the few things i had never seen on NCL. This was four panelists (CD, show dancer, second city cast member moonlighting as Adele, and comedian tim) who basically did a version of "To Tell The Truth" as a grammar lesson/comedy show, with words like fulfart, crapulence, etc. it was a good way to kill an hour, but I'm thinking its a 3pm thing, not a primetime stardust theater show.

 

More donations to the casino ensued, and we also watched the final game of the Red Sox/Cardinals series, in the atrium tonight. It was quite the happy place when we clinched the win. At the same time, there was a Halloween costume party on Spinnakers. A lot more people than i would have thought participated, and they appeared to have a good time. We got our hour of sleep that we lost on the way to Bermuda back tonight!

 

Day 7, our last sea day and last real day, began with lunch in the Venetian. Service was much faster as there were so many fewer people in the dining room, but it still wasn’t exactly speedy. Food came out hot and fresh which was nice. The farewell talent show was at 2PM. Most of it was dancing, and there was also some sand art. The absolute, hands down highlight was Fountains. Fountains was Tim Kaminski and 5 cruise director staff members in togas made of sheets (and Tim in a tutu/diaper) basically spitting water at eachother like fountains to Enya music. The crowd was literally rolling in the aisles! After this I headed to Bingo to see if my raffle tickets from Deal or No Deal could win a free cruise…but notsomuch. By the way, Bingo is just the biggest ripoff at sea. Earlier in the week they had one game, one coverall, and the prize was $341. I know they collected at least $2,000. Anyhoo…dinner was at Cagneys.

I’ve never gone to Cagney’s before because $30 for what I will eat on the menu is kind of a waste. Nonetheless, I went with the family. I had the wedge, the burger, garlic mashed, mac and cheese, and a couple desserts. It was all adequate….The raspberry crème brulee took the cake, though.

I rushed off to Bollywood after dinner. Let me fair to this show. It was artful, it was creative, and a lot of work went into designing it. That said, it was absolutely not a mainstream cruise show. The storyline was hard to follow, and except for Jai Ho and the finale song from Moulin Rouge, no recognizable music. I just really don’t know what the Dawn is thinking when it comes to the variety shows – I have fond memories of “Elements” and similar shows. They do make up for it with Jose and Patti and Tim Kaminski, but eesh….the full production shows were just missing something on this particular ship.

The last activity of the cruise was the Quest. I have of course seen it a few times now, but Tim was hosting this one so I figured I’d go as an observer. It was funny. Most of it. As an observer, I got offended at one point when he had the guys go up in bras and he kept 5 of them and forced the owners to go collect them. He made a couple pretty cruel fat jokes and then make them get their bras. Not cool. Otherwise, good fun as usual, especially when they ask for a sock with a hole in it and you see people gnawing their socks apart and not realizing their foot goes in somewhere…

Disembarkation the next morning was a breeze. Buffet was packed as per usual. The second they announced easy walkoff, I was hauling my bag down the stairs (bypassing dozens of fools who would wait an hour for an empty elevator…) and out the door. They announced easy walkoff at 8:45, and I was off at 9.

To summarize this whole cruise, it was average, and it was a nice vacation. I know the review is going to come off more negative than I originally intended, but I figure might as well be honest. I think I might be getting NCL’d out. This is the third one in 18 months and the activities, menus, and parties were just so identical, I found myself searching for new things to do and coming up short. I will probably try RCCL, but neverfear, I did purchase my cruise reward so I can try the Breakaway or Breakaway Plus in the next 4 years… J

[martyandjanice]

Thanks for your review! I am leaving on her in 13 days and haven't seen many reviews for her lately. I was beginning to think she was in dry dock!

[jdvmd]

Great comments!

[gra2172]

Im taking the Dawn in April. Im with you tho, Im growing concerned about sameness, especially with the shows. Ive seen Shout! 3 times, (Im a sadist I guess :p) and its worse each time. Im skipping that one and band on the run next time.

 

We love the comedians and magicians tho!

[Chesneygirl]

Thanks for your review.

We've done this same itinerary 2 years and a row and have really enjoyed it!

[meatball_nyc]

Thanks for all the Bermuda info! Sounds like you all had a really nice vacation!

 

 

~robin and brian

 

Carnival Legend 2008

Carnival Miracle 2010

Norwegian Breakaway 2014

[kollegekreed]

By the way, i forgot to mention. Tim Kaminski went home Friday when the boat docked. Not sure when he will return.

[SailBadtheSinner]

Thanks for the review, but

there is a small correction needed:

 

You wrote -

After that I journeyed back to town (St George) on my own and grabbed a coffee and the number 8 bus to Hamilton, thinking i could go to the zoo.

The route #8 bus serves Hamilton <> Dockyard. The routes #1, 3, 10, & 11 buses serve Hamilton <> St George; and if you took either the route #10 or 11 bus to Hamilton, you would have past the zoo (BAMZ) about 30 minutes after departing St George.

 

 

SBtS

[eiffeltower07]

By the way, i forgot to mention. Tim Kaminski went home Friday when the boat docked. Not sure when he will return.

 

Well I was really excited to read that Tim was on the ship, then I read this comment. :( I'll be on the Dawn next week. Tim was the comedian on our first cruise and we've yet to find anyone that comes close.

[eiffeltower07]

By the way, i forgot to mention. Tim Kaminski went home Friday when the boat docked. Not sure when he will return.

 

FYI Tim was still on the Dawn on the 11/15 sailing :)

[kcwingwalker]

Many thanks for sharing your fair and balanced review:)

[kollegekreed]

FYI Tim was still on the Dawn on the 11/15 sailing :)

 

Wow! He told us he was off to the airport with us...must have been a quick two weeks off in mexico then back home!

[Keith1010]

Just got a chance to read your review.

 

Thanks for sharing it.

 

Keith