Dawn has put me off NCL

[BrPanthers99]

It never makes sense to play the pull tabs. If you do, wait until the final day when the deal is the best!!

[NLH Arizona]

The Dawn is home ported in Boston for the summer. What's in N O while she's here?

I believe they stop cruising out of New Orleans in May and then they start again in November.

[bermudafan8]

-We sailed on the Dawn out of NO on 4/5/15. We had a nice time. The balcony of our deck 10 cabin was larger than the very tiny balcony we had while on the Breakaway in a similar cabin. We were very disappointed with our balcony on the Breakaway. The balcony size on Dawn was similar to most of the other balconies we've had on NCL ships.

-The pull tabs - a few years back it seemed NCL was selling these 'crackits' everywhere, like peanuts at a baseball park and it was so annoying. I think they have toned this down, as the only time we saw them being sold was just prior to the evening show in the theater.

-We would sail on Dawn again.

Edited April 19, 2015 by bermudafan8

[Sunnysafari]

We were on the Dawn to Bermuda last May and are going again in a few days. We found the service to be great. No problems. One night we had to wait awhile to get into the Aqua dining room, but we met nice people as we waited. I expect to have a great time.:)

[JPV072900]

Hey Cod, I agree with you 100%!!!

 

We went on the Dawn last year. We had a WONDERFUL time, but the dining rooms were lousy!

 

On the first night, we had a grumpy waitress. She was rude and unpleasant.

 

On the second night, we went back to the Venetian, and I figured we'd request a different area in the dining room. WE GOT THE SAME WAITRESS, AMIE, AGAIN!!! We couldn't believe it! She was slightly better on the second night, as I told her my stepmom had cancer.

 

On the third night, we went to the Aqua. The service started out great. The waiter was friendly, but then suddenly it all changed when there seemed to be some issues with the kitchen and the waitstaff. The minutes ticked by as we didn't get our food. By the time we got it, it was COLD!!!

 

On the fourth night, we ate at the buffet!! I enjoyed it there better.

 

On the fifth night, we had an okay experience in the Aqua.

 

On the sixth night, we gave up and ate at Le Bistro. It was a GREAT meal and GREAT service.

 

On the last night, my dad and I requested a portion of money back from the DSFs. I took the portion, and we ate at the Brazillian restaurant. It was EXCELLENT!!!

 

We live in MA and NH, and whereas the Dawn would be much more convenient, we booked the Breakaway! PLUS, it included the UDP, so we feel better knowing we'll probably eat good every night!! :D

[bladeguy]

Our most recent cruise on the Dawn was the November Boston to NOLA repo. We usually cruise on the Dawn once a year in the summer Boston to Bermuda. We have done this many times. We usually get a suite and the UDP. As a result, we do not eat that often in the MDRs.

 

I noticed on the repo cruise that the ship was very full and there were very few children on-board. I also noticed that the buffet was rather empty in the evenings, so I am making the assumption many fellow passengers ate in the MDRs. I am thinking the small number of families with children, who often eat at the buffet in the evening, combined with the itinerary with more sea days then usual resulted in the MDRs being busier than usual and that this impacted some service. We ate in the Venitian one evening and we also felt the service was slow, but the food was good. Most of the other times we ate in a speciality restaurant where the service and the food were both excellent. I will also note there were several very large groups on-board and if a few of them decided to eat at the same time, that impacted service to them and to others.

 

The entertainment on the ship was great. Jose and Patty are always wonderful and attracted a huge crowd at every performance. The production shows were better than usual and the music on-board was great. Too bad Chips Ahoy is no longer on the Dawn. At least he was not on-board for the repo cruise.

 

We are cruising on the Dawn in June and I will report back on service on that cruise when we get back.

 

I also cruised on the Getaway this March and the balconies on the Getaway were generally much smaller than the balconies on the Dawn. I believe that is also true for the cabin sizes as well.

[galensgrl]

Hmm okayyy. So the pull tabs upset you. The service in the MDR was mediocre and your balcony was smaller than you hoped. I'm still waiting to hear the awful part.

 

What drove us away wasn't the tiny balcony cabin, it was the ATROCIOUS service and horrible food in every dining venue with the exception of the Lido. It's pretty sad when you pay extra for Specialty dining and it's no better than the pathetic swill they serve in the MDR. Many people think it's sufficient, but I don't cruise to eat food that's barely edible, with terrible service to boot.

 

That was our experience.

 

Lorie

[knitlady037]

I am currently on the repo to Boston and all I can say is the service in all dining venus has been outstanding! Officers all over making sure everything is just right. The steaks in Cagney's have been the best we have had in all our cruises.

[leekel619]

I am currently on the repo to Boston and all I can say is the service in all dining venus has been outstanding! Officers all over making sure everything is just right. The steaks in Cagney's have been the best we have had in all our cruises.

 

We're boarding the Dawn on Friday!

[newmexicoNita]

Just back from a week on the Dawn and, for the first time, did not purchase a cruise reward certificate. But before I go on, I want to let you know NCL has been my favorite cruiseline for a while now and I'm Platinum +.

 

We (me, 2 daughters and 1 granddaughter) had connecting balcony cabins on deck 10. Cabins were okay and kept up well although I don't remember other NCL balconies being as small as these.

 

Entertainment was great...as always. My main gripe is with the MDR food and especially the service...very indifferent and, on a couple of occasions, downright rude.

 

And those darn pull-tab strips they sell. On every cruise I've been on, it always gets down to the final day and 'no one has won the $2000 yet'!! I spent too much time explaining to my 11 year old granddaughter that this is what is known as a colossal ripoff!!!

 

I promised another daughter (who could not go this time) that she and I would go on a cruise together later this year. I wish RCL was sailing from NO but since they are not, I am seriously looking at the Dream. I'm not a big Carnival fan but I think the time has come to give them another chance.

 

As always, JMHO.

 

One more thing. Loved the Spirit and Jewel (sailed both from NO.. the Spirit 4 or 5 times while she was here) and really liked both. Unfortunately, it looks like the Dawn is going to be parked here for a while. DARN.

 

this is why you have so many choices in cruise lines, but I can't see one complaint you had that would cause most to change lines.

 

The pull tabs, has it ever occurred to you not to buy them? I think we did it once or twice. I have never seen NCL really push them though they do have them for sale here and there and of course they are not going to pay off too often. It is called gambling.

 

As for the service in the dining room, I can't judge what you call indifferent or rude, but on our last Pearl cruise earlier this month the service with the exception of one night was awesome and the MDR food good with a great selection. I brought a couple of sample menues home if anyone wants to know what the choices were.

 

Small balconies, I don't think the Dawns are smaller than the Spirit. In face I am 99% sure they are larger. NCL isn't known for large cabins or large balconies. We were docked next to a HAL ship and I was amazed at how larget their balconies were compared to ours.

 

Hope you enjoy your new cruise line choice. It appears you were cruising during spring break. It is rare to read a really good review from anyone sailing that time of the year. Just the sell out ships and the kids everywhere can cause the crew and some passengers to get a little testy.

Edited April 30, 2015 by newmexicoNita

[Loucat]

What drove us away wasn't the tiny balcony cabin, it was the ATROCIOUS service and horrible food in every dining venue with the exception of the Lido. It's pretty sad when you pay extra for Specialty dining and it's no better than the pathetic swill they serve in the MDR. Many people think it's sufficient, but I don't cruise to eat food that's barely edible, with terrible service to boot.

 

That was our experience.

 

Lorie

We had a different experience. If things are so bad, maybe you should try another form of vacation!

We had good food and believe me, we are foodies.

Service was also good.

None of us cruise for such "barely edible and terrible service."

Try Disney, Celebrity or another line if you like to cruise.

[kcwiak]

OMG...some of you folks slay me. Yes, I mentioned the pull tab sales pitch as being annoying and some of you are intent on coming back to it as if it were my major or my only gripe. It wasn't. I think I mentioned enough other things to justify my not being a Dawn fan so I won't rehash them.

 

Loved the Jewel, sailed on the Spirit 4 times which says it all, liked the Sun (one cruise on her was a Hawaii repo which was great) and even the Sky (Alaska years ago) was a very good cruise. Not crazy about the Star so would not choose her again either.

 

Once again, different strokes for different folks. Happy cruising on whatever your choice of ships is.

 

You some ppl an inch and they take a mile! LOL Thanks for the info.

[conandrob240]

I'll never for the life of me, understand the "kooks" on these boards who argue and belittle a person's opinion of their cruise experience as if they were defending their own mother.

 

First of all, any passenger is allowed to have any opinion they want about their cruise. Unless they are disparaging another human being or using foul language or racial/ethnic slurs, who the bleep cares what they say? It was their cruise, their money, their expectations- and they and only they are allowed to decide how they felt about it. If it isn't valuable to you or useful to you, then shut up and find another thread.

 

Second, this is a service provider to whom we (they) pay hard-earned $ to. This isn't some charitable organization or fragile person that anyone needs to defend to their death. They try to please customers the way that is most profitable for them- for some it works, for others it doesn't.

 

Get over yourselves.

Edited May 2, 2015 by conandrob240

[newmexicoNita]

We had a different experience. If things are so bad, maybe you should try another form of vacation!

We had good food and believe me, we are foodies.

Service was also good.

None of us cruise for such "barely edible and terrible service."

Try Disney, Celebrity or another line if you like to cruise.

 

My feelings exactly and we too are foodies and want decent meals on any vacation. Sure we have had a couple of items that were, either not to our liking or just plain not good. We have had poor service a handful of times, but generally we have been more than happy with the dining rooms on most ships. Anyone who puts down the specialty dining rooms needs to try other lines. NCL has by far the best in our opinion. The only one that came close was Princess years ago, but not anymore. We haven't tried specialty dining on Carnival as we haven't sailed them for years.

[newmexicoNita]

I'll never for the life of me, understand the "kooks" on these boards who argue and belittle a person's opinion of their cruise experience as if they were defending their own mother.

 

First of all, any passenger is allowed to have any opinion they want about their cruise. Unless they are disparaging another human being or using foul language or racial/ethnic slurs, who the bleep cares what they say? It was their cruise, their money, their expectations- and they and only they are allowed to decide how they felt about it. If it isn't valuable to you or useful to you, then shut up and find another thread.

 

Second, this is a service provider to whom we (they) pay hard-earned $ to. This isn't some charitable organization or fragile person that anyone needs to defend to their death. They try to please customers the way that is most profitable for them- for some it works, for others it doesn't.

 

Get over yourselves.

 

wonder if you have heard the expression: it isn't what you say but the way you said it"? Objective reviews and postings are welcomed by most and yes, negatives should be noted, but when people start mentioning things like pull tabs not paying off as reason not to cruise a particular line again, I think people do get defensive. This goes for complaining about small balonies when the balconies on that ship are no smaller and maybe slightly larger than other ships they have sailed. Anyway, I don't think it makes much difference now; the Op posted about a month ago and hasn't come back. I would doubt if she is even reading what we are saying right now.

 

That being said, you are right, some of us should be more careful how we react to negative postings, but negative posters need to think before ranting as well.

[Arzeena]

We just came back from the 12 Day Repositioning on the Dawn. LOVED IT!

The ship was as clean as it could be. Food was very good and plenty (too plenty!;)) Service was excellent. Absolutely no complaints at all....but to amuse anyone who may want to nit pick, then yes, the water took more than 6 minutes to heat up on 2 out of 12 mornings and my laundry came back damp.:rolleyes::rolleyes::D

 

I am sorry to hear that some people had different experiences and I respect their opinions.

[Megamixer]

I have to agree with the original poster about the dining experience on the Dawn. I think for me, even though at first I thought "freestyle" was fun, now I'm realizing part of what attracted me to cruising was the traditional dining. I was on the Beans 2 Beads re-positioning cruise last fall and I felt like I was at O'Charley's on a Friday night every night of the cruise. It's just hectic with diners coming and going all during your meal. The food was cruise food. I don't think I ever had a "bad" meal and I had several "good" meals, but I had no excellent meals even the two times we went to a specialty. I enjoy having the wait staff greet me by name, know that I only drink iced tea and bring it as soon as I sit down, etc. We're going to Alaska in a couple months and picked RCCL for the traditional dining. We have avoided their new large ships but I notice now they're backing off the dynamic thing and offering something similar to traditional.

[Buffcc]

We just got off the Dawn yesterday. It was our 3rd time on the Dawn. We found the MDR really good. Better than in the past. While the service is a little slow it isn't Mickey D's so I expect to wait a bit. I did see the pull tabs being sold in the theater and NCL didn't have to try very hard to sell them. People were waving money all over. I figured they would probably run out. Don't know if anyone won anything.

[SuiteTraveler]

I was at the casino several times...slots and blackjack. Won a little over all but fully expected to just 'make a donation'. What is annoying about the strips is all the hype and, yes, no one twisted my arm the two times I weakened and purchased them so that DGD could have some fun.

 

I'll be a little more specific about the food. I let my two daughters use my specialty restaurant coupon to go to Le Bistro one night. (My DH and I always enjoyed doing that). One daughter had the duck but said it was as dry as a bone. The other had some cheese and vegetable dish but she said she found no vegetables...just a 'tower' of cheese. She said the waitress asked twice if everything was okay as she passed their table at full speed. Anyway, they were not impressed.

 

I always liked going to the dining room on the day we boarded. When we got off the elevator on 7 to enter the Venetian DR a fellow was standing there telling us the DR was almost full and that they were serving only sandwiches and so we should go to the buffet on 12. I told him we'd chance it so we walked down the stairs and found it was about a 1/4 full and they had a full lunch menu. It was not yet 1:00 so it wasn't that they were about to close down. When we left, he was still there and I wanted to say "XXXX,XXXX, pants on fire" but controlled myself.lol And anyway, I'm sure he was just following instructions.

 

I will describe one DR experience so that all 'doubters' will get the drift. First let me say that we tried to get in Aqua twice and always found the line too long, even shortly after 5 when they wouldn't open till 5:30. The Venetian was not only easier to get in to, we were very near the rear elevators and so it was a direct shot. This was the evening of the Element Show and we wanted to make the 6:45 show. We were some of the first to enter the DR...a little before 5:00 and our order was taken rather quickly so we thought 'all was well'. Then our waiter disappeared and was replaced. We'd gotten our starters fairly quickly but by 6:10 we'd not gotten our entrees. The table next to us, who ordered at the same time we did, were through with their entrees and we finally got our waiters attention and asked about our dinners. In a real 'smart alecky' tone he said, "Well, you got your starters" and stopped just short of saying, 'what more do you want'. Our dinners came about 5 minutes later and in the meantime the Matre'd came over and his solution to the slow service was to come back later for dessert and coffee. And - out of curiosity - we asked him what happened to our original waiter and he said that there was an emergency in the kitchen(?) I have no idea what that could have meant.

 

If and when I come back to say more, it will only be good...enough complaining!

 

Sorry you had such a bad experience. This is JMO, but my husband and I always stick to the newer ships where the best of the crew is and we generally always have a great experience, no matter what line we cruise. You are not going to get one of the newer ships cruising out of NOLA, though. You might want to try the Carnival Magic out of Galveston or fly to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami where most of the newer ships are based.

[AlFrank]

We just got off the Dawn on 7/17, having sailed this ship twice before. We were a little disappointed. The food at the buffet was just 2 steps up from McD's. We ate all our dinners at Cagneys, Le bistro, La Cucina and Moderno. We could not eat the meat at Moderno, it was extremely salty. We enjoyed La Cucina and Cagneys but we went to Le Bistro 3 times. The food was excellent and service the best. Our meal one night at Cagney's was ruined by a group of screaming children. The parents sat at one table and their children at another. Twice we saw one of the kids trip a waiter, we could barely carry on a conversation because the kids were so loud you had to yell be be heard and we were several tables away. On leaving and walking by the table we noticed that the kids had been given crayons and paper to keep them busy but they seemed to think it would be better to write on the tablecloth. From that night til the end of the cruise if we saw a group of kids we went the other way. I know it was a vacation for everyone but sad to let things get so out of control it affected the complete restaurant. Many people got up and left before they were done. We left as soon as we finished our entree. So what is better substandard food or unpleasant atmosphere.

[motleyfan]

Just back from a week on the Dawn and, for the first time, did not purchase a cruise reward certificate. But before I go on, I want to let you know NCL has been my favorite cruiseline for a while now and I'm Platinum +.

 

We (me, 2 daughters and 1 granddaughter) had connecting balcony cabins on deck 10. Cabins were okay and kept up well although I don't remember other NCL balconies being as small as these.

 

Entertainment was great...as always. My main gripe is with the MDR food and especially the service...very indifferent and, on a couple of occasions, downright rude.

 

And those darn pull-tab strips they sell. On every cruise I've been on, it always gets down to the final day and 'no one has won the $2000 yet'!! I spent too much time explaining to my 11 year old granddaughter that this is what is known as a colossal ripoff!!!

 

I promised another daughter (who could not go this time) that she and I would go on a cruise together later this year. I wish RCL was sailing from NO but since they are not, I am seriously looking at the Dream. I'm not a big Carnival fan but I think the time has come to give them another chance.

 

As always, JMHO.

 

One more thing. Loved the Spirit and Jewel (sailed both from NO.. the Spirit 4 or 5 times while she was here) and really liked both. Unfortunately, it looks like the Dawn is going to be parked here for a while. DARN.

 

I'm sorry you did not enjoy your cruise but should one bad experience really put you off Ncl completely?

[bmwman]

Just back from a week on the Dawn and, for the first time, did not purchase a cruise reward certificate. But before I go on, I want to let you know NCL has been my favorite cruiseline for a while now and I'm Platinum +.

 

We (me, 2 daughters and 1 granddaughter) had connecting balcony cabins on deck 10. Cabins were okay and kept up well although I don't remember other NCL balconies being as small as these.

 

Entertainment was great...as always. My main gripe is with the MDR food and especially the service...very indifferent and, on a couple of occasions, downright rude.

 

And those darn pull-tab strips they sell. On every cruise I've been on, it always gets down to the final day and 'no one has won the $2000 yet'!! I spent too much time explaining to my 11 year old granddaughter that this is what is known as a colossal ripoff!!!

 

I promised another daughter (who could not go this time) that she and I would go on a cruise together later this year. I wish RCL was sailing from NO but since they are not, I am seriously looking at the Dream. I'm not a big Carnival fan but I think the time has come to give them another chance.

 

As always, JMHO.

 

One more thing. Loved the Spirit and Jewel (sailed both from NO.. the Spirit 4 or 5 times while she was here) and really liked both. Unfortunately, it looks like the Dawn is going to be parked here for a while. DARN.

 

Can you tell me what platinum plus is please :confused:

[LEtue]

I agree with you about the Dawn - our first NCL cruise was last year on the Jade and we loved it, so we quickly signed up for the Dawn, and were disappointed - the food was bad in the MDR and the buffet, the service was also bad in the MDR. Had the Dawn been our first NCL experience, we would not try again. Since we have had the Epic booked for awhile we'll see how we feel about NCL after that cruise in January.

 

Interesting. The Dawn was my first NCL cruise and I haven't been back. The food and service in the MDR was just horrible. I thought it was just me since the Dawn always got great reviews.

 

May have to try NCL again someday.

[coscab]

Can you tell me what platinum plus is please :confused:

Not sure but I think they might mean 250 or more points which gives you some kind of gift, some have mentioned a picture frame or photo book or something like that.

[nanwel]

I do not understand the comments about having to "book" in the main dinning room. What about all the ads saying "freestyle".

I could never book before I went on the cruise, I do not know where I will be every day yet???

we are doing our first Norw - on Dawn in March - very experienced cruisers, but hate having to run on a schedule every minute - that does not equate with vacation to me. And, do not expect to eat dinner in the buffet - only breakfast/lunch - I want to be waited on at dinner.