Review NCL Dawn 11/17 Tampa

[bakerintn]

We are a couple in late 60's, travelling with other friends. This was our 3rd cruise on NCL.

 

Embarkation started later and was slower than what we had expected. NCL staff was not good at letting people know what was happening. The announcement system in the terminal could not be understood due to the crowd noise and low volume. Once moving, things went fast and we were on board about one hour after arriving at the terminal. We ate lunch as a group in the Venetian main dinning room and all enjoyed it.

 

The following days we ate breakfast in the Blue Lagoon or Garden Cafe. Blue lagoon service was slow on sea days at 7:30am, but fine at other times. We ate dinner the first night in the Venetian (surf and turf) which was much better than expected. The steak was very good, but small and the lobster was cold water lobster tail (with more offered from a tray during the meal). The melted butter was more like corn oil with butter flavoring added. We ate other dinners in the Venetian and Aqua, and in both places it took about 1.5-2 hours, which we had planned for. They were very accommodating in taking reservations for 10-12 people when needed during the week. Food was good to excellent in the main dinning rooms, but portion sizes are small and some recipes seem unusual (beets in beef stroganoff?). I did not notice that the sauces were way over-salted as we had experienced before. We did not have complaints about the waiter service in any restaurant except Blue Lagoon on sea days. Food in the Garden Cafe was good, but they never had the full buffet set up...only three of the four lines were ever active. This buffet layout does not have obvious "action stations", so the crowd stands in line to go through the whole thing. Many times a coffee machine or drink machine was empty. The food seemed to be about the same every day. They did have lemonade, ice tea and flavored waters in the buffet machines after breakfast hours.

 

We had a Cruise Critic "Meet and Greet" on the first sea day and all the key officers in the Hotel Directors staff attended.

 

Our cabin was a "sideways" inside cabin which really was no more room than a regular inside...not sure we would do that style again. We did have some crew voice noise at night from the adjacent crew work space.

 

We used the adult soda package and did not have any problems being served. We brought our own wine and that program worked well. On this sailing, they did have the VivaVino wine package available. Bar service seemed much less invasive than we had seen in the past...sometimes it was even hard to get a drink when we wanted one. We tried the martini tasting, and that was a great value.

 

The pool deck was very popular, but the band was way too loud. Passengers should be able to carry on a conversation while seated on this deck. And the entertainment staff everywhere only seem to know how to shout in to a microphone...this makes their voice less clear and when combined with their accent, does not help. The sound in the Stardust Theater was way too loud, and the music was too loud compared to the singers/speakers, so their words were very hard to make out. I measured the decibel level in several venues and it was often over 85 and over 93 in the Stardust...that level is damaging to ones hearing. That being said, the entertainment was good, although Bollywood was some kind of weird, disjointed production. Karaoke was lousy for the most part (the participants), and was often overtaken by the Second City cast. However, the comedian (Tim Kaminski) was really good. Really good.

 

Our cabin had some wear and tear showing (small carpet stains, shower door fell off the track, carpeted base board torn), but was otherwise clean and well managed by our cabin steward. Great towel animals all but the first night. We were charged for two bottles of vodka from our minibar (partial bottles were left by the former occupant and not caught by our steward in his rushed boarding day inventory). That took three requests and two days to get credited.

 

The port stops were as expected. We enjoyed a small-group catarmaran snorkel on Roatan, a private cave tubing in Belize, a beach front bar in Costa Maya and a palapa bar in downtown Cozumel (and of course, some shopping with $1 beers.). The tendering in Belize was a breeze with no long lines and nice fast tenders.

 

Disembarkation was a nightmare. Probably only 20% NCL's fault (80% US immigration), but we stood in line for 2.5 hours before we were on the terminal curb. The staff was not helpful in this long process....very few announcements...conflicting information....no beverage service...not allowed back in for a bathroom break...no apologies from any officer.

 

Some of the problems could be because this was the first 7-day cruise from Tampa this year for the Dawn and the Hotel Director and Captain were fairly new on this ship. Once again, NCL has dropped their level of what they provide, but it can still be a good bargain. Nothing about the NCL cruise turned us off much, but very little excited us. We might consider another line next time.

[Laszlo]

I've got to agree with 95% of what you said. I'll be doing a review tonight. i must say we did not have any issues boarding the first day. Cabin was ready by one. I don't know who designed the terminal but they need a PA system in the place. The PA last Sunday was crew members shouting :roll eyes:

 

Did you happen to catch the dive team working on the ship in Cozumel? Group of 6-8 guys all day. Another crew was working on the hull again as we were getting off on Sunday. I wonder what happened? It was not the pods or the bow thrusters, port side about 1/3 back from the bow

Edited November 25, 2013 by Laszlo

[vetteracer55]

I've got to agree with 95% of what you said. I'll be doing a review tonight. i must say we did not have any issues boarding the first day. Cabin was ready by one. I don't know who designed the terminal but they need a PA system in the place. The PA last Sunday was crew members shouting :roll eyes:

 

Did you happen to catch the dive team working on the ship in Cozumel? Group of 6-8 guys all day. Another crew was working on the hull again as we were getting off on Sunday. I wonder what happened? It was not the pods or the bow thrusters, port side about 1/3 back from the bow

 

 

we board this Sunday... curious about the underwater work. does anyone have any further info?

[FB]

Thanks for the review. We are also sailing this Sunday and I'm hoping it was just general maintenance.

 

Can you also tell me if you were in Roatan from 9-5 ship time or 9-5 local time?

 

Thanks

[Laszlo]

Thanks for the review. We are also sailing this Sunday and I'm hoping it was just general maintenance.

 

Can you also tell me if you were in Roatan from 9-5 ship time or 9-5 local time?

 

Thanks

 

Ships time - local time, not sure……. but the clocks went back one hour Monday night of the cruise and forward again on Friday night

[time2cruise1]

Thanks for the review. We are also sailing this Sunday and I'm hoping it was just general maintenance.

 

Can you also tell me if you were in Roatan from 9-5 ship time or 9-5 local time?

 

Thanks

 

Ship time is local time. :)

[dna529]

I agree also with most of your review. I plan to write a quick review tonight. Luckily, we were off the ship early and did not encounter problems. We could tell that things were backing up though with only three agents.

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

[FB]

Ship time is local time. :)

 

Thanks for the confirmation.