Quick NCL Dawn review 7/15/16 sailing

[steveknj]

I'm not one for writing a diary of each day of our cruise, so I'll just post general thoughts. Overall, it met our expectations, and we enjoyed ourselves. On the cruise were my DW and DD (17). We've been on 2 other NCL ships (Gem and Pearl), and also have sailed Carnival and Premier!!

 

Embarkation:

We got there about 10:30, our embarkation time was 11:30 and we boarded right on time. Our cabin was ready (some rooms weren't so we were lucky). Suitcases arrived once we came back from exploring the ship.

 

Cabin:

Since this was a spur of the moment cruise decision, we decided to go "cheap" and took an inside cabin. And, well, it was an inside cabin. Roomy enough to get around. Not huge, but not too tight. Shower worked well and easy to operate. Had one mishap with the safe (probably my fault) and they fixed it quickly. One night the toilet wouldn't flush. Called down to get it fixed, went to dinner and it was fixed by the time we got back.

 

Food:

Because my daughter is on a Gluten Free diet (she has Celiac, not just a "fad" diet), we decided it would be easier to just choose one dining option for our sit down dinner, which was Venetian. I would say that dining was our biggest disappointment on the cruise, mostly because service was very inconsistent to say the least especially at dinner. We TRIED to keep to the same waitstaff every night but wound up with two different teams. But I just think it's very unorganized and, perhaps because of the drydock, they seemed to have a lot of staff who didn't know what they were doing. It was little annoying things that got us. Things like not getting bread without asking 2-3 times, or my wife wanting milk with her coffee and them forgetting to bring it, or bringing so late that my wife's coffee was cold. And one night, they forgot to even offer us coffee. One night we decided to get an "irish" coffee and asked the waiter if it was included in the UBP which we were told yes. Then, after about 15 minutes and long after we finished our dessert, the waiter came back and my wife decided she didn't want her. And in the end, we were charged for mine (disputed and got it taken off our charges). Also, we ordered my daughter's meals the night before and usually handled by a senior waiter, but our dinner came either way before or way after hers. Eventually we had to tell them to bring everything together. Breakfast (one of my favorite things on a cruise is to sit in the dining room and have a nice breakfast, I hate fighting for tables at the buffet), was much better, especially for my daughter who get exactly what she wanted thanks to a MaitreD who really seemed to care. Edgar Diaz was terrific but unfortunately he only worked in the specialties for dinner. Foodwise, it was also inconsistent, I like seafood and the fish was overcooked (I had snapper, grouper, monkfish). The rest wasn't bad, and certainly tasty enough. Did a lunch at O'Sheehans and it was equivalent to any other pub type food I've eaten. Also did the buffet a couple of times when we just felt like a snack, which was fine.

 

Entertainment:

We love Second City and as usual it didn't disappoint. We enjoyed the Band on the Run show (my kind of music) and the Dancin' In the Streets show. Found their supposedly "best" show really boring (I forget what it was called). The rest of the time was typical cruise activities: Trivia, presentations, karaoke and so forth. We did like the dance parties, and I especially liked the Rock and roll party and the White Out.

 

Pool: As with every cruise I've been on, getting a lounger on prime pool days was impossible unless you got up at 8AM and "reserved" one. I use the term loosely as I saw people take loungers and almost never be on them all day. We aren't big for hanging out at the pool so we didn't bother.

 

Casino: Only played poker machines to kill time. The smoke gets to me so I don't like spending a lot of time there. Typical ship casino.

 

Bermuda: Was great and so beautiful. Spent our first day at Horseshoe Bay, and I've heard it gets crowded on Sunday late in the afternoon. My idea of crowded is Coney Island on a weekend in July. This was nothing. plenty of room to find a spot and the further end of the beach was empty. One of the better beaches I've been on. We did our own thing and didn't do any excursions. Went to Crystal Caves on the second day using the ferry and buses (the buses were interesting in that you got a feel for native life), ate lunch at Swizzle Inn and walked around Hamilton a bit. Last day we hung around the Dockyard and did some shopping and went to the Bermuda Museum (interesting).

 

Debarkation: Uneventful. I wish we had taken an early time though. We figured we might oversleep so took a later time.

 

Notes:

Heard lots of stories about NCL getting really bad about nickel and diming, but it was no worse than the other cruises (or Carnival) that I have been on. It's what I've come to expect and I never felt like they were begging me for money. But I stayed away from the Spa which is one of the places that's the worst for it. I know some policies have changed, and maybe avid cruisers notice it more than we did. The Dawn being a smaller ship was easy to get around, which was good, but I have to say I did miss playing miniature golf as we did on our Carnival Cruise or bowling like on our other NCL cruises. I'd like to try the Breakaway sometime to compare the megaship to the small ship. My daughter enjoyed the teen camp and spent much more time there than she did on the Carnival camp which was very unorganized. We didn't run into mass issues with the public bathrooms being out of order, which was reported in some posts. Maybe they got that under control.

 

Overall, we had a great time, and it met our expectations. Not much exceeded it, but then again, it really didn't have to.

[Clarea]

Nice, consise report, thanks.:)

[riclop]

Thanks for the mini.

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for sharing your review.

[IrishMoe]

Great review. We were on the same sailing and have to agree with you the staff at dining need more training. Timing of food arrivals was very inconsistent. Either everything came out within minutes of each other or long waits between courses. One night we were in Aqua almost 2 and 1/2 hours from start to finish. One thing I noticed with the UBP promotion they have cut back the wait staff around the pool and lounges. Long lines to get drinks especially the first two days. We had a great time but their is room for improvement and I suppose it could very well be new staff right out of dry dock.

[Keith1010]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise and I thoroughly enjoyed your review.

 

Keith

[steveknj]

Great review. We were on the same sailing and have to agree with you the staff at dining need more training. Timing of food arrivals was very inconsistent. Either everything came out within minutes of each other or long waits between courses. One night we were in Aqua almost 2 and 1/2 hours from start to finish. One thing I noticed with the UBP promotion they have cut back the wait staff around the pool and lounges. Long lines to get drinks especially the first two days. We had a great time but their is room for improvement and I suppose it could very well be new staff right out of dry dock.

 

Really, the rest of the cruise was really good and not much to complain about. dinner was an adventure every night and really shouldn't be. I do wonder if part of this is because of their push to get people to eat in the "premium" restaurants. We've done that on other cruises and frankly, it feels like "eating out" at home, and not very "special". The food in the MDR is usually much "fancier" than I eat at home anyway, so it's treat enough for me. But if the service is lacking, it might push others to try the for pay venues.