Dawn to Bermuda Review. A tale of two cruises

[cincicruisers]

More please...

[17cruisesnsl]

Enjoying your review. Congratulations on your weight loss! Loved the Dawn in 2008 and was looking forward to reviews post dry dock.

[megansdad1]

One we got ready, we headed to Aqua for dinner. One of the things that I enjoyed was how the seating was done. For the most part, you could have the best of both worlds. I always enjoy talking to people at dinner. I had made some good cruise friends being sat with others while on my Carnival Cruises. But with Norwegian, we always sat by ourselves, but the seats next to us were close so it was always easy to strike up a conversation, which often happened.

 

 

 

 

I started with the spring roll which was so awesome. For my entrée, I had the chicken cordon blue and she had the NY strip. The chicken was stuffed with the ham and cheese. I loved every bite of it. For dessert I had the warm chocolate volcano and I don’t need to state how yummy that is.

 

 

 

[megansdad1]

 

 

She had the carrot cake which was Ok

 

[megansdad1]

unfortunately I need to get ready to go to work. I need to support my cruising habits. I will post more probably tomorrow night.

[Ivey01]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review! We are sailing the Dawn again in August so I'm reading all I can about recent trips.

 

It may be my iPad but I cannot see any of your photos, they all say "photo not found"

[MAMATAMA]

Congrats on your weight loss both of you…..love your review

[Sand and Seas]

Enjoying your review. Love all the great pictures. Thanks for sharing with us all:)

[megansdad1]

day 3 continued.

 

After dinner we headed for a drink on deck. Usually I saved the frozen drinks for the afternoon when the sun was in full force, but I wanted a mudslide

 

 

We headed to the early seating of the 2nd City Comedy Troop. For me personally, I love comedy. I enjoyed the show, even in its pg format.

 

I will take this time to say a few overall impressions about NCL. I became a big fan of freestyle dining. We had reservations when it suited our needs, we had no waits when we didn't. I know that Carnival had added anytime dining since I last went on them (2006), but this was a plus with how well it went. I did enjoy the smaller shows on Carnival better. There seemed to be more comedy shows, but with all things said, things seemed more equal than different. Both had newly wed shows. both offered similar services. The only time we attempted to go to bingo on the dawn was one afternoon in the Bliss Lounge. This was on the day of the shopping talk. There were way too many people for bliss and the sales line was moving at a snails pace. Bingo was due to start at 11:15. After 11:25 when the line was still not done, we decided to leave.

 

After the show we headed back to the room to freshen up. At this point I was still using public restrooms, but even I was starting to notice all the out of order signs on the stalls. By day 3, finding the room had was no issue. The carpets in the hallways did amuse me. I wondered why the red fish was the one the swam in the other direction.

 

 

We were greeted my our towel animal

 

 

After a night cap, we decided to go to bed. We were going to get up early to go to the beach. Tomorrow was going to be an awesome weather day. But on this night, the toilet problems in the room started. I was called into the bathroom because it would not flush. After testing the button, it still would not work. Before we had a chance to call it in, it flushed by itself and was working after that.

[megansdad1]

Day 4 Bermuda

 

We got up extra early and by that, Kristen was up way before me and got me up for about 6:30. One thing I forgot to mention was that I liked how they switched the time a day ahead of time to get us used to the new time. I will admit, that I could have done a better job with my Bermuda research. The idea was to buy the one day pass for transportation at 19.00 per person. This way if we wanted to travel around we could. After a quick breakfast we got off of the ship. There was us and 4 other people waiting in line for the ticket office to open. One of the taxi drivers said that if a group came, they could take us to Horseshoe bay for 7.00 per person. There were not enough people at that time, so we opted to use the public transportation. The ticket office was due to open at 8am. This is where we 1st became aware of the complete lack of punctuality on the island. At about 815 when there was still no signs of life, the taxi driver informed us that there was another office at the gazebo down the dock. So we walked over and got there in about 5 minutes or so. This office doesn't open until 830 and there was a 830 ferry that was due to go to Hamilton. At 8:25 someone tried the door and it was open, Yeah! We went in and was told in a semi annoyed voice that they were not open yet. We went back outside and at 8:30 the same 1st couple went in and then the girl yelled at us "We are not open yet!" I though everyone was super nice here, not so much. At 8:32 we were allowed in and bought our passes.

 

We headed to the ferry and I asked the guy if we missed the 8:30. He politely chuckled and stated that it would not be here until around 9:00. So that benefited us, so we didn't have to wait for the 9:30. Even though it was probably quicker to just take the bus, I wanted to go on the ferry. I wanted to check out the scenery. As were were waiting in line, The Anthem of the Seas pulled into port. Quiet the impressive looking ship

 

 

 

After the nice ferry ride, we arrived in Hamilton and then caught the #7 bus to Horseshoe bay. There is a nice little downhill walk to get to the beach. This is nice when you are feeling fresh, but I was not looking forward to walking up the hill when we were done. (but we didn't)

 

[megansdad1]

A quick note about the Dawn out of Boston before I get into the beach review. Sometimes I hear that people want more options out of Boston, whether it be ships or destinations. I try to talk to a lot of people during the cruise. I found that 80 maybe 85% of all the cruisers lived within 100 miles of Boston. Most were from Mass and then some scattered RI and CT cruisers. This is why there are not more options that leave from Boston. Boston doesn't draw good enough from other areas. In you live down south, you go to TX, LA or FL. Middle of east coast, you go to MD, SC, NY or FL. It seems like the only thing that drew the out of towners in was limited options to Bermuda elsewhere. Also in the earlier and later months, it is a slight turnoff leaving in chillier weather from Boston.

 

Back to the beach. Kristen and I are avid beach goers at home. We have heard that Horseshoe can get very busy. When we arrived, it didn't seem that bad at all. We rented two beach chairs and an umbrella at the bundle price of 40.00. But beach chair is actually an unfair word. They are loungers, like on the ship and were very comfy. The nice man pulled them to our choice of location and set up the umbrella for us.

 

 

 

 

 

[megansdad1]

The water is so beautiful. So different from the cloudy water here in RI. Where you often cannot tell what is swimming around you. We did see signs posted for two warnings. One was for the current. I am used to rip tides and I am a good swimmer, so that was not an issue. The other was for Man O'War. I didn't see anything but small fish while we were in there, but I was on the watch for them. In between dips into the water, I lounged in my chair and read Game of Thrones. I didn't miss much from home while we were away, but I did want to see the season finale. I guess I did have the option of watching it on my HBO app, but I would wait until I arrived home.

 

 

I was tempted to walk on top of the large hill and take some pictures. But I have had some leg problems and I am still in the process of building up their strength, I opted not to get hurt on vacation. lol. I took Kristen over the the other side of the beach. Upon entering you can go left to the main part, which we did, or go right to a small area. This smaller area is great for the little kids. It is blocked by rocks, so it has practically no tides. It is shallow and had more fish than the main beach.

 

 

 

 

[mencyn]

The fish you saw in the hall carpet always swim toward the front of the boat. Norwegian does this so if got confused getting off the elevators you know which way the front of the ship is. The red fish is the freestyle fish. They do what they want and don't follow what everyone else does.

[megansdad1]

The fish you saw in the hall carpet always swim toward the front of the boat. Norwegian does this so if got confused getting off the elevators you know which way the front of the ship is. The red fish is the freestyle fish. They do what they want and don't follow what everyone else does.

That is awesome. That would have been really helpful if I knew that onboard

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[esm54687]

That is awesome. That would have been really helpful if I knew that onboard

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

Great pics and review!! Thanks for sharing!

 

Well, it's too late now because you're home but the fish trick is in the Dailies every day....

Edited July 4, 2016 by esm54687

[esm54687]

In between dips into the water, I lounged in my chair and read Game of Thrones. I didn't miss much from home while we were away, but I did want to see the season finale. I guess I did have the option of watching it on my HBO app, but I would wait until I arrived home.

/QUOTE]

 

GoT finale would not have worked on the smaller HBO App...... you needed a full size TV for all of what went on!!! OMG

[Sand and Seas]

I've been told that the red fish is the Rebellious Fish....like the drink;)

 

Enjoying your review!

[jimbri]

Enjoying your review!

[megansdad1]

Being from New England, I am used to crowded beaches. For the 1st 3 hours or so, Horseshoe was less crowded then an average weekend at a local beach. There are more umbrellas around which makes it look busier.

I saw someone swim out to the big rock in the background. Climb to the top and drive off. It was insane. I was swimming at the time, so I could not grab a picture of it. Here is the rock in question.

 

 

I did love the beach sand. Not for its pinkish hue, but for its smoothness. Sometime the sand can get a little gravel like.

 

 

 

 

 

[megansdad1]

Sometime around lunch, I stopped by the little snack shop for water and some fries. There was no line and was served quickly. Prices were not that bad. Water was 2 for $5.00. We had already used the bottled water that we brought with us. I am super glad that the water policy was not changed during our cruise. We packed two 12 packs of the smaller 10 oz bottles. They were very helpful with keeping me hydrated. I have to make sure I stay on top of that to keep my gout under control, especially with the drinking that I was doing during this vacation.

 

 

 

 

I made it back to the lounger and started to eat my fries. Normally at the my home beaches, you have to watch out for seagulls. I have seen them drive bomb people and take food directly out of their hands. At Horseshoe, they had these cute little birds around. They are much more pleasant than seagulls.

 

 

After I finished eating, a crowd of people gathered around the water. Then the crowd started to disperse and the lifeguard was walking in our general direction with a net. She had removed a Man O'War from the water. It is hard to see it well, there is a lot of sand on it. IF you look to the right side of the net, you can see it's tentacle hanging over

 

 

Somewhere around the 1pm hour, it crowd picked up considerably. I imagine these were the passengers coming in from the Anthem of the Seas. They ran out of the nice mesh chairs and they were dragging in older chairs from storage were made of plastic strips. By this time the sun was starting to wear us down. So I went for one final swim and then we started to pack up.

 

 

As we headed out, the line for the food shack was out the door now. I went into the facilities to get changed. I was pleasantly surprised in its condition. I went into the shower stall to wash off and get changed before I ride back. Now I this point we had no desire to walk up the hill. I had read that you could take the shuttle for 2.00. We were going to do that, but for the extra 5.00 we decided to take the mini bus back to the dock yard. This way we didn't have to wait for the bus. So in hindsight, we should have just done the taxi's/minibus to begin with. It would have been cheaper and easier then the one day pass. So we boarded the ship and dinner tonight was going to be aqua again.

[megansdad1]

After a quick nap and shower, we headed to aqua for dinner tonight. I didn't grab shots of the menu for this evening. I started with the escargot. For dinner, I had the lamb chops with mashed potatoes and bacon wrapped asparagus. Every bite was like heaven. Veggies should come wrapped in bacon more often. The escargot was interesting. it came on this flaky filo dough and had mushrooms. Kristen has the chicken parm which was decent.

 

 

 

 

For dessert, i had the white chocolate mousse & red velvet genoise. Kristen had the apple pie. Both were OK. I should have gotten the volcano again.

 

 

 

[megansdad1]

Now is was time for Showdown. Singers battled each other to win fans votes. 4 started with the contestant with the least amount of applause to be eliminated. 3 audience member were selected as judges. They determined who received the lowest amount. Every time the judge did not eliminate the person who should have been. I don't know if this was scripted to get a rise out of the audience, or if they just had a favorite singer that they were saving.

 

 

After the show, I realized that I haven't gotten off the ship while it was dark out and this would be my last opportunity. As we got off, I could smell the rain coming in and could see lightening in the background. So I grabbed some photos of the dawn and anthem.

 

 

 

 

We took a quick walk. We were still discussing what we wanted to do tomorrow. I showed Kristen where the beach was that was close to the pier. Then we walked back to the ship and got there just before the rain started. Here was another byproduct of having UBP. Normally while in port, I would stop by local bars. We walked by Calico Jacks. If I had not had the UBP, I would have gone in and had a few. But instead we headed back to the ship for a snack and some drinks.

[megansdad1]

GoT finale would not have worked on the smaller HBO App...... you needed a full size TV for all of what went on!!! OMG

 

Very true, I was glad I waited. I didn't think that the finale could have been as good as the previous episode, but I was wrong.

[megansdad1]

We headed over to O'Sheehans for a late night snack because I haven't eaten in 4 hours, I might waste away. We were seated very quickly by the hostess, but the service was terrible. It took us 30 minutes just to get our drinks. We ordered chicken wings, spinach and artichoke dip and I had the shepherds pie. I normally love shepherds pie, but I had two bites and that was it. not good at all. At least the wings were decent. The thing that bothered me more then the wait was the attitude of the wait staff. They had that "I hate my job face" the whole time. There was one person who was just walking around, not doing anything. I wasn't sure what his role was. The whole process took was too long. Never did we receive a smile, a sorry for the delay. And it wasn't super busy. Our area had 4 groups seated. So I am not sure if this is a post dry dock crew issue. I have not run into this on any other cruise.

 

 

 

 

After that it was time to call it a night for day 4

[akba15]

Loving your thorough review! We went on the Dawn 2 years ago and would love to go again!