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Dawn 1-17-18 review

kskelley40

By kskelley40,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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kskelley40

kskelley40

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It's been a week since we got off of the Dawn and thought I would write a quick review and answer any questions you might have.

 

Embarkation: Due to a delay flight, yes we flew in the morning of, we arrived at the port around 12:30 instead of 10am. WOW, what a mess. This had to be the busiest embarkation we have experienced. Took about 30-45 minutes to just get through security. After security since we were in a suite we had a dedicated line. BUT, that line was longer than I have experienced before for suite guests. We finally met with the concierge around 2pm. He asked if we wanted to go to lunch or just go to the room. Since the restaurant was closing in 30 minutes, decided to just go to the room.

 

Someone in the line said that this was the first time this ship had left from Tampa and the processes weren't quite perfected. Not sure if that was correct or not, but it was a long embarkation process. Heard from others that they arrived around 2:30 and breezed through with no lines. Just had to be one of those days for us...

 

Tampa was cold so there was not a lot of people hanging around by the pool or outdoor bars. But, any day on a ship is a good day.

 

After the muster drill, we were in the Stardust lounge which was so much nicer that having to stand on a deck, we unpacked and got ready for dinner at Los Lobos.

 

Los Lobos - hard to find. It is hidden behind the buffet but the food is so worth it! I wanted to eat there the first night so that if we loved it (which we did) we would have time later in the cruise to go back (which we did).

 

Not going to go through our days for you....just the usual cruising days but wanted to touch on a couple of things.

 

The M&G and Slot Pull that was organized ahead of time were a lot of fun. Had door prizes, refreshments from the ship and the ship's crew stopped by to introduce themselves and say hello. The slot pull was a blast. Had 42 participants and each person contributed $15. Ended up with $12 per person and the "winner" got $36 and a commemorative shirt.

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kskelley40

kskelley40

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We are not foodies but did try to eat at different venues through out the 11 days.

 

Los Lobos - awesome food and drinks. Try to go early in your cruise. By day 10 they did not have any avocados left so no guacamole.

La Cucina - good food - takes some time

Cagney's - ate there twice - good food, but would not pay for it if I didn't have the dining package. Typical steak house.

O'Sheenan's (spelling?) - Bar food. Nothing spectacular in my opinion but a good place to relax, have a beer and chicken wings.

Buffet - enjoyed the lunch buffet the best. The egg salad, tuna salad and chicken salad were the best. That was our lunch just about everyday. Other than that, typical buffet food.

 

We had the suite breakfast and lunch in Moderno. Good food and service, BUT, on an 11 day cruise the menu gets old real fast. Same menu every day.

Dining rooms - sorry but we never ate at the main dining rooms.

 

As far as the bars....bars are bars. Good service every time. I think that it helped that 90% of the cruisers on this ship were over 70. One crew member told me that the average age for this cruise was 67 years old. So the bars weren't that crowded except when the NFL playoff games were on.

 

That is it for food and drinks....any questions let me know and I will try to help. Next up - staterooms

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kskelley40

kskelley40

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We had the 2BR Family suite. It was an unexpected upgrade and of my goodness, it is nice. There were only 2 of us so plenty of room. We used the second bedroom for luggage and business items. One big note though....even though there were 2 bedrooms and a small living room we could only find 2 outlets in the whole cabin. Had power strips so no problem but a little inconvenient as one was in the master bathroom and one in the second bedroom. Since it is an older ship, I guess that is expected.

 

We had a cabin crawl organized on this ship and it was nice to see the other cabin categories.

 

Butler, room steward and concierge were a nice touch. We only made a request once from the Butler which he fulfilled promptly so I am sure we did not utilize him to the fullest extent. Not really "Butler" people. Cabin Steward - Jun - was great and friendly. The concierge was helpful and loved the priority disembarkation at the various ports. They handled that much better than we experienced on the Pearl. They would have people standing by just waiting for us to come down and get off the ship at the ports. It wasn't a cattle call like we experienced on the Pearl.

 

AND the final disembarkation was GREAT - more about that later.

 

Overall - the 2BR family suite can easily sleep 6 - 8 people. But sleep only.....if all 6 to 8 people are in the stateroom just hanging out, it can get a little crowded.

 

OK. Dinner is calling. More later.

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kskelley40

kskelley40

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Ship layout and in general...

 

We had sailed on the Pearl before so we were kind of expecting the same layout. But, that was also in Dec 2016 so memory of the Pearl is a little fuzzy...have been on 4 different ships since then.

 

Anyway, the layout of the Dawn was kind of different. There were a couple of places where the deck just ended. One of those "can't get there from here" moments. Really bad with deck 6. You think you are heading in the right direction and all of a sudden you are at the main dining room with no where else to go. A little getting used to. I could see this being a bigger problem on shorter cruises but on an 11 day cruise, you have plenty of time to learn the ship.

 

Our cabin was on deck 11 so it was very convenient to everything.

 

The pool - we never had a problem getting a lounge chair, even on sea days. The only issue was that all of the loungers were in the sun. The shady areas on the deck had tables and chairs or those big and really deep chairs. If you want to stretch out on a lounger in the shade, you were out of luck or had to pull one over and make a space. The other issue with the pool area was that the crew members were very late in getting the lounge chairs out. Even though people would be at the pool around 7:30-8, the lounge chairs would stay stacked up until around 9am. Not sure if that was normal or not or due to the fact that it was very windy every day. Most people just grab one from another deck and brought it down.

 

Beverage service at the pool was awesome. Never had an empty glass. Overall, the pool area was nice. Hot tubs were never crowded. It was not the warmest of days so the pool was never, ever crowded.

 

Shows - sorry, we are not show people so we did not go to any. I did have one person tell me that the comedian was not worth seeing and that the illusion and acrobatic shows were awesome. I do know that the shows were very popular with other people on the ship. We could tell when the shows let out because there would always be an influx of people into the casino.

 

Speaking of the casino - as I mentioned earlier, this ship had an older clientele. The slot machines would stay busy but the table games were dead. Also, around midnight the place was empty. I was amazed as to how empty the casino would be at midnight. There might be 4 people playing table games and about 10-20 people playing slots. All of the casino employees were nice and friendly. Of course you run across an obnoxious gambler, but that can happen at any casino (you know who you are!).

 

Crew members - every, and I mean every, crew member that I encountered in the 11 days were friendly, helpful and pleasant. I did not meet one person who gave the impression that they did not want to make my vacation the best ever. After day one, they would know your name and drink. This had to be the friendliest and hardest working crew that I have ever sailed with. I can't not say enough about the crew members. I filled out about a dozen of the cards they give you on the last day to recommend an outstanding crew member.

 

Disembarkation day - unfortunately at some point you have to get off the ship. Since we were in a suite we had the priority disembarkation. The day before they had a meeting for the suite guests to go over the procedures. That was very helpful, do not miss if you are in a suite. They also give you the priority luggage tags at this time. Since we had a noon flight out of Tampa, we decided to carry off our luggage. We met in the Stardust lounge at 7:45 with our luggage. Once they cleared the ship, we were the first ones to get off. We literally took 5 steps and we were on the outside deck heading to the ramp. By 8:05 we had disembark, gone through customs and were in a taxi on the way to the airport. Very smooth!

 

To wrap things up....the Dawn is a nice ship. Very clean, a little confusing some times, but I would sail her again. The crew was fantastic. Stateroom wonderful. Food was good - it's ship food so same as all ships. Nice ports. Not so nice weather, but it was January after all.

 

If you have any specific questions....I will try to answer them. Please note: I did not save any of the daily schedules, did not take photos of menus etc... We had a great time and will definitely sail on the Dawn again. Met some wonderful people and had a blast.

 

Happy Cruising!

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Mrearl

Mrearl

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Thanks I was the one who

Won the extra money and shirt on the slot pull

 

We thought Los Lobos was very good. We had the dinning package and enjoy the Specialty restaurant

We had good meal on the dinning rooms as well.

The buffet looked more like a school cafeteria style.

We enjoyed the music around the ship. I which they had a violinists and string like other cruise lines.

Yes, the ships layout was a little strange.

I missed the crows nest . The workout room had no view to look out at the ocean like other cruise ships. The view was blocked by the children’s pool and play area

The staff was friendly and bar tenders were also friendly

We did enjoy our trip but the Dawn was not our favorite ship but the itinerary was great

 

 

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don't-use-real-name

don't-use-real-name

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Very good Review.

Pleased that you got the upgrade to the 2 BR Family Suite.

 

Comment on outlets:

 

"One big note though....even though there were 2 bedrooms and a small living room we could only find 2 outlets in the whole cabin. Had power strips so no problem but a little inconvenient as one was in the master bathroom and one in the second bedroom."

 

On the counter with the coffee pod machine there should be an outlet used to power the portable cell phone.

Unplug the phone and plug it into your power strip.

And while the flat screen TV is mounted on a wall - look behind it for any additional outlets.

 

The bathroom outlets are generally low current - used for shavers electric toothbrushes and recharging small

electronics - hair dryer is on a separate circuit.

 

Ask the cabin steward where he plugs in his vacuum or where there are more outlets.

Very important for folks that use CPAP machines.

 

LOS LOBOS - don't give away the secret location - it is the best restaurant on the ship and glad you found it !

 

Pleased that the M&G went well - speaks well of our CC community of cruisers.

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kskelley40

kskelley40

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Will definitely look for those outlet locations on our next ship. We usually find plenty on other ships but not the Dawn. But was not a big deal. I had brought a portable power supply so all was good. I try to get work done on my laptop on these longer cruises so I am always looking for power outlets.

 

Overall even with the minor quirks, I liked the Dawn. Forgot to mention, catch Allen outside of Gatsby's for trivia and piano playing. He is very good!

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kskelley40

kskelley40

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Great review...thanks!!! On the Dawn out of Tampa in 3 days. Also flying in the day of ...arriving at noon. Was concerned but with people breezing on at 2:30 much relieved to hear that!

 

 

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I think everyone showed up at noon to get on. Later would be better. It is about a 15 minute (depending on traffic) taxi ride from the airport with a fixed rate of $28. Super easy.....

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cheersforbeers Holiday Sharing Rare

cheersforbeers

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Kskelley,

We were also on that cruise. Great review.

I’m an early riser and was on deck every day between 6-7 finishing around 8-8:30. I would walk the entire deck 13 and loungers would all be out by 6:30-7 and quite a few would already be (reserved) by then. Also loungers would be in the shade on both sides from Moderno/Carney’s aft and Topsiders bar forward.

We are close to the old Mark and I’m not sold on the 90% quote.

If you were in the casino after midnight we were 2 of handful you saw. Not much smoking on the line of slots on the back wall by craps table.

If anyone is going soon, be sure you meet Sunshine, waiter casino bar. Relizon his real name. Outstanding person.

 

 

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Mrearl

Mrearl

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I saw a few people sign tax winning forms. It was not me .

My friends played Texas Hold em

One play blackjack hit the side bet lucky ladies 100 to 1. He won $500 on that bet

 

 

 

 

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