Dawn Garden Villa cruise review from a Carnival point of view.

[bguppies]

You were aware you could enjoy breakfast and lunch in Cagney's everyday? They have a great menu and will get you anything that is not listed on the menu. Can't imagine fighting my way thru the buffet everyday when Cagney's is available. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

Absolutely was aware.

 

That was the thing.

 

We did try Cagney's for breakfast one day. (I think it was our surprise 2nd sea day)

But we had to wait until they opened, later than the buffet. (as I already stated, I am a super early riser and DW works early hours and gets up by 7-ish.)

So timewise, the buffet hours worked better for us.

 

Found the food we had at Cagney's to be the same quality as the buffet, except waiting for it to be prepared and brought. (other than cold scrambled eggs one morning at the buffet. Had the buffet been bad, we would have tried Cagney's more.)

 

Whereas, we only once had trouble with seating in the buffet any day we went down there, thus never having to wait for our food.

Never had to "fight my way" in the buffet, so I think that made it a better option for us all week. (had it been an issue, we definitely would have waited the extra hour or so for Cagney's, but it wasn't)

 

Personally I think we just got lucky with our cruise being filled with late sleepers and our times at the buffet, breakfast and lunch, worked out where our schedule was off 95% of the other passengers.

 

Plus I think my early week disappointments at Cagney's and LaCucina for dinner, turned me off from the specialties for anything later in the week. (more on that coming)

 

Bill

Edited April 20, 2014 by bguppies

[garycarla]

...So overall the buffet experience on NCL was very, very, very good.

 

Some folks never set foot in the buffet and detest it.

 

Others make do.

 

And some love it. We often prefer it over a sit down meal for some of the same reasons the poster mentions. No wait is a big one. Again, to each their own thing.

 

Cagneys does offer an outstanding breakfast. But, if you are among those that get up early and they are not open, then it does not work for you. Or, if you prefer to just get your food and eat vs. sitting down, waiting for menu,waiting to order, waiting for your food,etc.... then Cagneys is not a great option.

 

When we are in a non-suite, we might do one MDRsit down breakfast. Just too much hassle.

 

AND - thanks to OP for this review. We will be doing a suite on Dawn soon. Have done suites a few times before, but not alway$$.

Edited April 20, 2014 by garycarla

[Johnsmomkathy]

Great review, waiting for more

[bguppies]

Back to our regularly scheduled review...

 

After breakfast we headed out to explore the ship a bit more.

 

Wound up at the Pearly Kings Pub for morning trivia.

 

Very nice venue for the trivia games and I wound up getting addicted to the Wii Bowling hooked up to 1 of the 3 big TVs in the bar.

 

Now about here was where DW and I began our education on the NCL Dawn's scheduling of events.

I would say, "Trivia is scheduled for 10AM".

DW would add "ish" every time. (made for a nice personal joke the entire cruise)

 

Every event we tried to attend from the Freestyle Daily's would either begin late or early.

I don't think any event all week started on time.

 

The one time Trivia was about to start on time (Wed or Thur) the activity director realized he had forgotten the questions and had to run and get them.

Why ruin a perfect streak..:D

 

Showed up for a free throw contest one day, a couple of minutes early.

They were already on the 2nd round of shots, because the activity director decided to start 10 minutes early?!?!?! :confused:

 

The entertainment staff on Dawn were good. (the new guy, I forget his name right now, was the best)

One guy named Romeo was very popular and I think would be a GREAT Karaoke host, but he was a horrible trivia host and we had him a couple of times for trivia.

 

Have to say I never saw the CD Dan Dan the entire cruise.

 

Now here, I think in general, the majority of the entertainment staffs we have encountered on Carnival were better than the Dawn's.

But not a big enough difference to make a difference between the two lines.

 

Back to the day.

After 10AM trivia we had to get back to the GV for the 3 couples to have a vow renewal in the Garden Villa and some snacks etc.. after.

(had to miss our meet and greet for this, but the Anniversaries came first over everything on this cruise)

 

Was a nice family moment and well supported by Caesar....

 

After the ceremony everybody had some snacks and then went their separate ways for the afternoon.

 

DW and I went and tried lunch at Cagney's.

Both our meals were good.

My steak was good.

The service was good.

 

At about noon, the ship suddenly slowed down, almost to a stop. It was actually jarring.

(remember I said we were flying in the morning)

A few minutes later, the Captain made an announcement that due to a crewmember on the Pearl being shot and killed during an attempted robbery in Roatan, that we would be skipping Roatan Tuesday and have another Day at Sea.

So it seemed like the Captain literally got the call from NCL and slammed on the brakes. (the navigation channel showed us already off the coast of Costa Maya)

We were barely moving the next day and a half, as we now had 42 or so hours to go maybe 100-150 miles. :rolleyes:

A bit later we got a flyer delivered to the cabin explaining incident and the revised itinerary.

 

Now I was upset, as I felt this was a complete NCL overreaction.

(already been flamed on the threads on this incident, but that is MY personal opinion of the decision. PLEASE do not begin a debate on this side topic in this thread. Been done to death in the topical thread about this decision. I get it. I am an insenstive jerk to many. Again, just my opinion.)

IMO, NCL was just trying to hurt the Roatan economy in response to an isolated incident.

Yet a week later NCL was right back in Roatan.

So NCL really just disappointed those of us unlucky enough to be sailing NCL to Roatan THAT week, to make their point.

 

Now the less experienced travelers in our group were happy to skip Roatan after reading the flyer, so the decision seemed to appeal to many cruisers throughout the ship. (from discussions overheard the next few days, it seemed to be a pretty even split amongst the passengers, whether it was a good or bad decision)

 

But again, did not ruin the cruise at all.

Just my perfect snorkel day at West bay beach.:(

Perspective.

 

To me, if NCL was going to skip Roatan, they should have given us an extra day in Belize, rather than another sea day. (especially since you do not have to book dock space, just anchor and arrange the tenders)

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon stopping in to various events and venues, exploring the ship until dinnertime.

Edited April 20, 2014 by bguppies

[bguppies]

Now I will clarify that at this point, I might mix up the days on some of the dining venues.

 

Have learned a very valuable lesson for future reviews.

 

Write down the venues each day before going to sleep.

They tend to blur together when you try to recall, even while still on the ship.

Becomes Mon-Wed and Thur-Sat, just early week and late week.

 

I know the Cagney's and LaCucina dinners were Monday and Tuesday and our Aqua dining room was Friday.

 

After Belize on Wednesday and DW getting badly sunburned, I brought a lot of buffet back to the cabin for her, since we had a table for four, with a great view in our cabin.

 

So I apoligize in advance, if a dining mention might make no sense at some point.

 

Lesson learned to document meal venues.:D

 

Also wished I would have documented the exact meals I ordered or got, but live and learn for the future.

Edited April 20, 2014 by bguppies

[TrumpyNor]

One comment I would like to make is about the muster drill. We were on the Breakaway in March and were seated in the theatre so we never had to stand and Scooter the asst cruise director was cheerful and funny and made the time pass quickly. So I don't think what happened to u was an NCL ritual. With that said enjoying your review and looking forward to the rest.

 

I believe that it is only on the smaller of the NCL ships (Sun, Spirit and Star) NCL have their muster drill outside - probably for a reason (all though I have no idea why)... The rest of the ships in the fleet (at least the Jewel class ships and larger) have their muster drill in different venues inside where people are asked to sit down.

[BabsinTX]

Enjoying your review. Thank you! Hope you don't get flamed once you start comparing, as others did to my recent Princess/NCL review.

 

Your review was perfect for me, since I'll be trying Princess next year. Thanks for sharing it.

[bguppies]

I believe that it is only on the smaller of the NCL ships (Sun, Spirit and Star) NCL have their muster drill outside - probably for a reason (all though I have no idea why)... The rest of the ships in the fleet (at least the Jewel class ships and larger) have their muster drill in different venues inside where people are asked to sit down.

 

The thing I found odd about the Muster Drill, coming from an inside cabin backround.

 

As an inside cabin person, you expect to be the ones getting stuck outside for muster drill.

Never bothered us before.

Hit or miss on Carnival over the years.

 

I was just astonished, after learning the rest of our group in suites on deck 12, did their muster drill in the lounge, that NCL would not have the people in the Garden Villa, who paid more than anyone else on the ship for that cruise, seated in a lounge for their muster drill.

It is two cabins, with 14 people max, isolated on deck 14 by themselves.

You could send them ANYWHERE on the ship for a muster drill.

Seemed extremely strange.

 

The muster drill being outside would not have even bothered me, other than being a minor inconvience, except the fact that NCL apparently makes no provisions for the elderly and impaired. (or those 3-4 crewmembers at our muster station were just poorly trained)

THAT bothered me.

 

Carnival is definitely ahead of NCL in taking care of those passengers.

Making sure they all get to do the muster drill in a lounge and NOT have to head outside and stand at all.

 

I just find it hard to believe with the Dawn being so small, that between the main theater, Spinnaker lounge, two main dining rooms and other seating areas througout the ship, that there are not enough places to seat all of the passengers for the drill.

Edited April 20, 2014 by bguppies

[bguppies]

Now I will stop at this point to express what we experienced with the condition of the Dawn and get it out of the way.

 

In my 12 Carnival cruises, the only 3 that were on their newer ships were the Glory, Freedom and Dream.

The other 9 were on the Legend and the rest on the Fantasy class. (oldest ships)

DW and I prefer the older, smaller ships for their better layouts and less crowding.

 

So we are extremely used to some wear and tear on carpets, seats, etc.. an occasional broken elevator or equipment.

No cruise line can keep their ships sparkling like new, with the instant turnaround each week.

 

Now I found the general condition of carpets, chairs, etc... to be very, very good for a ship of Dawn's age.

When I was out for my early AM walks or walking during the day, the crew was constantly cleaning, polishing, etc..

 

First I will start with the elevators.

1) Not enough on the Dawn to begin with.

(similar to Carnival's Fantasy Class ships, but it NEVER seemed quite so bad on 8 our cruises on those ships)

 

At any time from about 8AM until about 8-9PM, no matter which way you were heading, up or down, you frequently had to wait for multiple elevators to come, as most were already packed when the door opened.(did not seem to matter, front, mid ship or aft elevators)

Which after a few rides led everyone onboard to realize, just jump on the first elevator with any space, up or down, if you ever wanted to get where you were going.

Which in turn led to even worse elevator situations, with half the people intentionally riding the wrong way, taking up valuable space. (but I truly could not blame anyone for doing it.)

 

Now I'm sure at this point, some cheerleaders will just say "why didn't you just take the stairs?"

 

For one, DW had torn her achilles a couple of years ago and has since never been able to do a flight of stairs, up or down, for more than one floor, without aggravating it.

Both of my Parents, in their mid to late 70's have knee, hip and back problems, which prevent my Mom from going up ANY stairs and only able to go down a flight, VERY slowly.

My one Aunt and Uncle on deck 12 also have mobility issues in their 60's and cannot just walk up and down multiple flights of stairs.

 

Secondly, most of the things we were leaving the GV on the 14 deck for, were on deck 6 and 7.

Nobody should be expected to walk down 7-8 decks, let alone walk up 7-8 decks.

 

2) Besides there not being enough elevators to begin with, there was constantly an elevator broken down.

 

Now to understand the two Garden Villas, the entire deck 14, mid ship.

To access your cabin, you have the 4 mid ship elevators and one stairwell up from Cagney's on deck 13.

That is it.

Period.

To get the elevators to go to 14 you need to slide your room card, in a card reader slot, above the floor buttons on the mid ship elevators.

To use the stairs from Cagney's up, you need your room card.

 

Back to the elevators.

There are 4 mid ship elevators.

The 2nd from the left, the room card reader did not work upon boarding and never worked the entire cruise.

So that elevator was worthless to get back to the GV all week.

 

Sometime between my early morning walk on Monday and DW and I heading down for breakfast Monday, the far left elevator broke and did not get fixed until Wednesday morning sometime.

So for the first two sea days on the ship (one planned, one surprise) we had only two functioning elevators to get to the GV.

I honestly felt worse for Caesar trying to bring carts with meals, snacks, etc. up and down with only 2 elevators functioning for those two days.

 

Then when they finally got the mid ship elevator fixed, one of the 4 aft elevators broke Wednesday and was still out of service when we debarked.

 

To future GV guests.

A hint with the card readers on the mid ship elevators.

When you enter an elevator with nobody on it (it was rare, but occasionally happened), just punch ANY up button, THEN slide your room card and THEN punch deck 14.

Because if you try to slide your card and punch 14, invariably someone will call the elevator down, BEFORE you can complete the slide and punch and you have to ride down to wherever, then back up.

Happened to me twice,(on Sun-Mon) where I thought my card was bad or I was sliding it wrong, before I realized, it was just people calling the elevator, before I could perform the card slide and then punch the deck 14 button.

Doesn't seem that long, but that extra couple of seconds lost the elevator every time.

 

Have to say that the PITA, that catching the mid ship elevators was, put a slight damper on the otherwise pampered experience that the Garden Villa was.

 

Moving on to various equipment throughout the dining venues.

 

These did not impact or barely impacted my cruise experience, but the sheer volume of the broken signs on ice dispensers, drink dispensers, coffeemakers, etc. became comical by the 2nd day of the cruise.

Not just in the buffet, but Blue Lagoon, etc...

 

Just seemed to speak to a systematic repair problem, along with the broken elevators, etc.

 

Cleanliness seemed to be very good, but mechanical upkeep seemed to be lacking.

(hopefully engineering crew was just shorthanded our cruise)

[swedish weave]

I want to clear up a couple of misconceptions I have read on this thread.

 

The Dawn has twelve elevators. That should be sufficient for a ship that carries approx 2400 guests. I hope the operating problems were reported to the officers.

 

All of my recent cruises on the Star have had the muster drills inside with seating. Star is a sister ship to the Dawn.

 

The crew in the Blue Lagoon does take an hour or so during the night for deep cleaning and service may not be available for that period.

 

As additional information to those reading this review. At every meet and greet I have attended, the officers ask all in attendance to PLEASE let them know of ANYTHING they can do to make your cruise as good as possible. If you do this, they will respond quickly and positively.

[kcwingwalker]

The crew in the Blue Lagoon does take an hour or so during the night for deep cleaning and service may not be available for that period.

 

The Blue Lagoon also does a switch over from breakfast to their regular menu about 11:00 am and is closed for about 30 minutes. On the Jewel I arrived at 11:15 am and was told there would be no service for 15 minutes. At my request I was given a table along with some iced tea and enjoyed my book until the switch over was done. My order for fish and chips was promptly taken at 11:30 am and served with a few minutes. Lunch was great and I did NOT pass on the offer for a brownie sundae:)

[New2cruise1483]

Thanks for the detailed review! We sailed on theDawn in January and loved her! I love getting to read your experience of the garden villa as that is on what I call " my cruise bucket list " :D

[TrumpyNor]

Another poster said muster drills were held outside on the Star -- That is not true. I didn't say anything about the Dawn muster drills in my post.

 

It was me - sorry. I have never been on the Star myself, so must have misunderstood something somebody else wrote regarding the muster drill there, and just assumed this was the case for all the smaller NCL ships. But I WAS on the Sun and the Spirit in 2013 and 2014, and on both ships the majority of the passengers (if not all?) had their assembly station/meeting point outside on the lifeboat deck. I didn't mention the Dawn either..... Sorry about the confusion.

[bguppies]

I'll take a break here to discuss the differences between Carnival and NCL with the in cabin TV and free movie offerings.

 

Since DW and I spent a little more time in the GV than planned, with her getting badly sunburned while we were anchored in Belize.

 

Years ago on Carnival, they offered all 4 major TV networks, on all of their fleet, from a Denver Colorado feed.

 

So all network TV was available, you just had to figure out eastern time versus mountain time, if you really wanted to see a favorite show or sporting event.

 

A few years ago Carnival switched and still offered the network feeds, but started just grabbing various feeds. (Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Miami, Buffalo?!?!?)

You also got TNTLA (latin), a couple of cartoon networks, a couple of news channels and a couple of music channels.

Plus the usual ship channels. Info, Navigation, reruns of the various shows, etc.

There were 2 channels of commercial free adult movies and 1 channelof commercial free children's movies.

 

Now back when the Denver networks were still on, the adult movie channels were showing movies either just out on DVD or about to come out on DVD in a week or two.

 

Our last few Carnival cruises, the adult movie channels were just showing movies that had come out in the past 3-4 years.

Nothing new or intresting.

 

Now on Carnival, the 3 movie channels would begin showing one movie at like 6AM and play the same movie repeatedly all day, until 6AM the next morning, when it would switch.

 

Now on to NCL...

 

Channel 1 - Info

Channel 2 - Navigation

Channel 3 - Restaurant Info

Channel 4 - Safety

Channel 5 - Shopping

Channel 6 - Destinations

Channel 7 - Bow Camera

Channel 8 - Activities (I think this was the channel rerunning shows)

 

Channel 9 - Favorites - this was an intresting substitute for network channels, as it carried reruns of an odd assortment of cable and network shows. Alot of Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, the Middle, Fringe, alot of various Food Network shows, some Travel Channel and alot of House Hunters International.

 

Channel 10 - Fox News (which I guess if you like it, is better than generic CNN Intl on Carnival)

Channel 11 - ESPN Intl which Carnival had, but only in the bars, not in your cabin.

Channel 12 - MSNBC

Channel 13 - CNBC

Channel 14 - BBC World News

 

Channel 15 - New Release Movies - This channel showed all movies that had just been released on DVD, in a rotation, all week.

Not one all day, but a constant rotation all week.

 

For example, the first day-

Frozen, Hunger Games-Catching Fire, Free Birds, Delivery Man, Thor:The Dark World, Gravity, The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug

Those 7 movies just played in a constant, yet shifting, rotation all day, every day, throughout the cruise.

Until the final night when a few new movies got added in for the next week I guess. Grudge Match, Jobs and another movie played in the wee hours debarkation morning.

 

Channel 16 - Feature movies - Movies released on DVD years ago.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hunger Games, Thor (anybody who hadn't seen the first 2 parts of these series could catch up) Captain America:The First Avenger, Iron Man 2, Meet the Fockers, A League of Their Own, Fifty First Dates, Skyfall, The Bourne Legacy, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Rock of Ages, Up, The Social Network, The Proposal, The Muppets, Sherlock Holmes, Pitch Perfect, Men In Black 3, Lincoln, Jurassic Park, The Big Miracle, the Artist, Crazy, Stupid Love, Rocky, Chicago, the Smurfs, etc..

 

Channel 18 - Engage -don't think I ever watched this channel.

 

I actually think I enjoyed NCL's rotating, new movies each day, over Carnival's older movies and network TV offerings. (now I would NOT say that during football season. ;) )

 

I was very impressed with NCL's mix of movie and tv offerings.

Definitely plenty for the limited time you expect to spend in your cabin.

And enough if you wind up forced into your cabin more than you thought. (like we did)

[bguppies]

Since you opt to dispute my post ---- How many elevators would be enough ??

Clearly more than 12 on our sailing.

I know with kids being out for school breaks, we had to be at capacity.

 

I've experienced similar shortages on the fantasy class on carnival.

But like I stated, never seemed nearly as bad as on the Dawn.

 

Another poster said muster drills were held outside on the Star -- That is not true. I didn't say anything about the Dawn muster drills in my post.

 

My bad, I misread your response that you had experienced indoor muster drills on a sister ship and were disputing the fact that the Dawn would not be the same.

So clearly my assertion that the Dawn should be able to accomodate everyone inside was correct.

 

You stated John D'Souza was the best in another post. Why didn't he get your issues taken care of ???

He did take care of what he could.

Like I said, what could anybody do about the poor Muster, after the fact?

Call the 3-4 crew to the Garden Villa and chew them out in front of us?!?!?

We reported it to both, so hopefully they correct it for future cruisers.

 

What could John do about the broken elevators that the Hotel Manager couldn't correct?

 

If I ask politely, the crew at the Blue Lagoon will assist me with whatever I ask for.

And the server I encountered, clearly didn't want to be bothered serving one person in the wee hours and would have preferred I would have been "nevermind" and left like the other couple did while I was there.

I found the other visits to the Blue Lagoon for breakfast and lunch to be very good.

 

Searching for flaws can be productive or detrimental if you have an agenda to prove or disprove.

Brand bias can cloud judgement --- Do you agree ??

 

I did not go searching for flaws with NCL.

We were extremely excited to finally get to try the NCL product.

Been trying for years, but could never make the $$$ work versus the same cruises on Carnival.

 

Just came into this review trying to layout all of the good and bad of my cruise on NCL and compare the differences between it and my 12 experiences with Carnival, for others who are like us, looking to try something other than Carnival or for NCL cruisers maybe thinking about trying Carnival and wanting to see what is similar and what is different.

 

Honestly there is way more that is 100% identical or extraordinarily similar, than is different between carnival and NCL.

 

Sorry if my honest opinion of MY experience doesn't 100% align with your experiences.

Edited April 20, 2014 by bguppies

[jdvmd]

Enjoying your review!

[kdzkatz]

NCL cheerleader here and I must say I feel you are being pretty darn objective in your review. Obviously you are a big fan of Carnival as you have cruised them 12 times. With that being considered I think you are doing a very good job of explaining your experience and how it affected you personally without cheerleading Carnival. I am enjoying reading your review and I am sorry of the negatives that you experienced on your cruise. With some of the disrepair on the ship hopefully she is getting close to dry dock. We are super lucky as we found out after we booked our cruise for May 24th on the Jewel that she is going into dry dock from may 5th to may 17th and we will be the second cruise to enjoy the new improvements. We will be in a suite and one of the things they are going to do is update the suites so we are very anxious to see the changes. We will be sure to gets pics and/or video and post the dry dock changes that happen to the Jewel next month.

Thanks again for your review. I look forward to reading more! :D

[SeaShark]

I'm sure some suite and or NCL cheerleaders might get on me for some of my views.

 

(I always love when people express a valid OPINION in a review, like my Cagney experience, and then a bunch of people chime in, how they can't imagine anyone ever got a bad steak at Cagney's, because they personally never have.?!?!?)

 

But I'm just trying to lay out my honest opinions about MY experience.

For anyone with similar experience or views to take whatever they want from it.

 

Just like I sort through the tons of reviews on these boards.

 

I throw out the reviews from obvious cheerleaders who see no faults, with anything on their line of choice and I throw out reviews from the extraordinarily negative folks, who clearly could never be pleased.

 

I hope everyone can take a little something from my review that helps them plan an upcoming NCL. (or Carnival cruise)

 

Bill

 

FWIW...I understand that you're just trying to lay out your honest opinions about your experience...however, you have to accept that other people are allowed to lay out their honest opinions about their experiences in response. That is how a discussion board works.

 

The easiest way to avoid this would be to place a review in Cruise Critic's Review Section...where nobody else would be able to comment on it. Problem solved, right?

 

If you choose to place your review on the discussion board, then you have to understand that it is going to generate discussion...some pro, and some con. You have to be able to accept that both will occur.

 

 

I've never understood why people post on the discussion boards when they clearly are not interested in anyone having an OPINION that differs from thier own. Especially when there is an area available to post reviews without any comment.

[PorkChopKid]

Honestly there is way more that is 100% identical or extraordinarily similar, than is different between carnival and NCL.

As you can see from our footnote, we've been on a bunch of cruises in the last 4-1/2 years. Most were on NCL, a bunch on CCL and one Princess and one Celebrity. People ask us all of the time what are the differences. I agree with you and have to say that they are more SIMILAR than DISSIMILAR. The things that are different tend to be VERY SUBJECTIVE. You see it all of the time here on Cruise Critic.... someone will say that food on "A" was better than on "B" and someone else will have the opposite opinion. Maybe it's the service on "A" compared to "B", etc, etc.

 

While on a cruise, I'll hear people complain about whatever cruise line we're cruising with and say that some other cruise line is better. When asked who did they cruise with on their FIRST cruise, more times than not it's the OTHER cruise line. Seems our first cruise is such an exciting experience that we end up measuring everyone else against it. It's hard for any cruise line to put the "WOW" into an individuals 2nd, 3rd, etc cruise.

 

I'm reminded of the couple we met on an NCL cruise who said that was their FIRST and LAST NCL cruise. When asked why the answer was "no organized bridge card games" and "no classes about the ports we were visiting"... We were FLOORED at the response. I guess how good or bad the experience will be comes down to an individuals expectations....

 

I suspect you and I are alike in that we search out lower cost cruises so we can cruise more often.... Enjoying your review, keep up the good work.

[bguppies]

NCL cheerleader here and I must say I feel you are being pretty darn objective in your review. Obviously you are a big fan of Carnival as you have cruised them 12 times. With that being considered I think you are doing a very good job of explaining your experience and how it affected you personally without cheerleading Carnival.

 

We have cruised Carnival exclusively up until this point, but I am far from a cheerleader for them.

Like I said, we have been looking to try NCL and RCCL, but pricewise, from the ports we want to sail from, (drive to) we have yet to find a similarly priced NCL or RCCL for the same itinerary/days on Carnival.

 

Thus far to us, the amount of times we can sail per year, has overidden any deficiencies or declines we have seen in the Carnival product.

 

My Parent's choosing this cruise, to be able to have all 3 kids with them for their 50th anniversary, pretty much forced DW and I to finally try NCL. (thus the zero cruises in 2013, saving up for the Dawn cruise, versus the two cruises we would have had that year with Carnival.)

But we were extraordinarily excited to finally get to sample NCL.

 

It may seem that I am hammering NCL up until this point in the review, but I was honestly trying to get the bad out of the way, by sliding in the mechanical stuff in with my problems with specialties early in the week.

 

In 13 cruises, we have yet to have a bad time and conversely we have yet had a perfect cruise...

 

There are always things that can be improved and always things that surprise you that were better than you expected.

[swedish weave]

I did not go searching for flaws with NCL.

We were extremely excited to finally get to try the NCL product.

Been trying for years, but could never make the $$$ work versus the same cruises on Carnival.

 

Just came into this review trying to layout all of the good and bad of my cruise on NCL and compare the differences between it and my 12 experiences with Carnival, for others who are like us, looking to try something other than Carnival or for NCL cruisers maybe thinking about trying Carnival and wanting to see what is similar and what is different.

 

Honestly there is way more that is 100% identical or extraordinarily similar, than is different between carnival and NCL.

 

Sorry if my honest opinion of MY experience doesn't 100% align with your experiences.

 

You have managed to find flaws in many areas that could have been corrected by the ships officers and crew very quickly. If that had been done, there would be no reason to point them out to everyone who reads your review on CC. That is what the officers request at every meet and greet I have attended. Give them a chance to correct problems rather than go home and tell the world how bad the ship is.

 

No ship is ever going to be perfect, and if you look for flaws and problems, you can find them. It is disrespectful to the crew to post every detail that you find instead of letting them fix these things and move on.

 

It is your choice to handle in the manner you are doing, and it is my choice to point out the things that I feel you handled improperly.

[bguppies]

FWIW...I understand that you're just trying to lay out your honest opinions about your experience...however, you have to accept that other people are allowed to lay out their honest opinions about their experiences in response. That is how a discussion board works.

 

The easiest way to avoid this would be to place a review in Cruise Critic's Review Section...where nobody else would be able to comment on it. Problem solved, right?

 

If you choose to place your review on the discussion board, then you have to understand that it is going to generate discussion...some pro, and some con. You have to be able to accept that both will occur.

 

 

I've never understood why people post on the discussion boards when they clearly are not interested in anyone having an OPINION that differs from thier own. Especially when there is an area available to post reviews without any comment.

 

I absolutely don't mind people chiming in.

 

Especially if I missed something that I can look for next time to improve my cruise.

 

But I disagree when people try to tell me my opinion and experiences are wrong.

There is no right or wrong.

 

Feel free to have an opposing opinion, but don't state that I have been laying out "misconceptions" in what I experienced.

[bguppies]

You have managed to find flaws in many areas that could have been corrected by the ships officers and crew very quickly. If that had been done, there would be no reason to point them out to everyone who reads your review on CC. That is what the officers request at every meet and greet I have attended. Give them a chance to correct problems rather than go home and tell the world how bad the ship is.

 

No ship is ever going to be perfect, and if you look for flaws and problems, you can find them. It is disrespectful to the crew to post every detail that you find instead of letting them fix these things and move on.

 

It is your choice to handle in the manner you are doing, and it is my choice to point out the things that I feel you handled improperly.

 

I believe I have stated "No ship is going to be perfect" numerous time in 3 pages thus far.

I did not expect the Dawn (or ANY ship) to be.

 

I believe, outside of the 3-4 crew at the Muster drill and the one server at Blue Lagoon, I have been praising the Dawn crew, NOT disrespecting them.

(although I guess my mechanical observations are a slap in the face of the engineering crew, but clearly they need to step up their game)

 

We will just have to agree to disagree...

[TrumpyNor]

Just for the record - I think you are doing a pretty good job in being objective in your review. And I am truly amazed about how much details you remember regarding everything.... Looking forward to your next post. :)

[SeaShark]

I absolutely don't mind people chiming in.

 

Especially if I missed something that I can look for next time to improve my cruise.

 

But I disagree when people try to tell me my opinion and experiences are wrong.

There is no right or wrong.

 

Feel free to have an opposing opinion, but don't state that I have been laying out "misconceptions" in what I experienced.

 

Sure...but people aren't telling you your experiences and opinions are wrong (fwiw...opinion can never be "wrong") they are simply stating that in their experiences and opinions, things are different than what you claim.

 

If people want to on a discussion board, they can use the term "misconceptions" to define things if that is WHAT THEY BELIEVE.

 

I go back to my first point. People...including YOU...are free to state their opinions and perceptions on a discussion board. Unless you are 100% prepared for many people to disagree with your opinion (some to the extreme), you should post reviews in the review section where you don't have to deal with the opinions of others.

 

The best thing to do is to post your own opinion and move on...no need to worry about, or even read what others have to say about it.

 

 

When you truely "don't mind others chiming in", then you'll have no problem with them telling you that (in their opinion) you are wrong, or labeling your words as "misconceptions". If you object to either, then you certainly DO mind.