Live from the Dawn, Jan 28 - Feb 8, in the Caribbean followed by a Disney Adventure

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 6 - Nov 2 - Sea Day

  

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

For those interested here are the internet speeds while at sea, both upload and download, when in our cabin on the unlimited (but not streaming) internet package. BTW it’s pretty much been around these speeds the whole cruise so far.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

53 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We’re going to hopefully see today, but does anyone know if you are Platinum and upgrade your free FAS minutes, in our case 150 min, to unlimited, do they apply the 15% discount off the upgrade charge when you purchase it prior to boarding the ship?

Just got back from talking with the Internet Cafe person, and it’s basically one or the other. We get the 15% discount if we pay the full price to purchase the Unlimited Wi-Fi plan. However, if we use the FAS internet minutes to “upgrade” to the Unlimited package, we do not get the 15% Platinum discount in addition to the $100 discount (value of the FAS minutes) we used to reduce the upgrade charge.

[PATRLR]

3 hours ago, padisneyfan said:

For some reason it attached all those pictures to my post.  Sorry about that

That's because you quoted Ken's post.  I wish CC wouldn't include attachments in quotes, I know of other boards that strip them out.

[Ken the cruiser]

I just want to say we miss going to lectures or even port talks on sea days to learn “new stuff” about our destinations when we’re on an NCL cruise, except maybe on those rare itineraries like the 38-day Africa B2B we just went on. I know we’re old and NCL doesn’t do lectures or even port talks on most of their cruises, as the younger crowd really doesn’t get excited about them, and that’s ok. I just wanted to post that observation. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

After a tasty lunch at the Venetian MDR, I went to the Wines Around The World Tasting which is a perk for the Platinum and higher Latitudes members. Basically we met in The Cellars and walked around to 4 different wine tasting stations, each having a white and red (or rose) wine to sample. The fun thing about this tasting was you could continue to sample the wines at each station multiple times. 😁
 

Then after we went to watch Deal or No Deal

 

 

Notice how many winners there were out of 64 cards being purchased. 🤔 The same results were pretty much the same on the second game as well.

 

 
Then we did our laps around the promenade before heading to the Ultra Bliss Lounge to watch Celebrity Heads, which was quite entertaining. 
 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

22 hours ago, massfamilyof4 said:

Thank you so much for your amazing review! We will be boarding next Wednesday as you are disembarking. Seems so far away!

 

Can I ask you if you have seen cornhole boards anywhere onboard? Several guys in our group of 13 are huge Cornhole players and would bring their bags if so. I have not been able to figure it out.

 

Would greatly appreciate your response! Enjoy your time!!

I walked around the various places where one might find a corn hole board, but was not very successful in finding any, let alone a place to play it. But here are the sports-related areas I looked. All other places had people either laying out around or near the pool, eating, drinking and in some places smoking.

  

 

 

 
But the off the back end of the ship I also saw a bird that looked similar to the Booby birds we saw in the Galapagos! 😁

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

After a tasty dinner at the Venetian, we headed for the early show in the Stardust Theater. But first we had to stop along the way and watch the sunset

 

 
before finding a good seat to watch a Magic Show!

 

 
Tonight in the Ultra Bliss Lounge was the Battle of the Sexes. Unfortunately by the time we got there all of the seats were taken, so we headed back to the cabin for the evening.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[massfamilyof4]

Ken, I appreciate your effort so much in searching for the cornhole boards! The guys will just have to make do! Still loving your review! Its the best! Thanks again!!

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Oranjestad, Aruba!

 

 

 
Here’s the NCL excursion we’re going on today!

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 7 - Feb 3 - Oranjestad, Aruba

 

 

 

 

 

[alwalaska]

I'm loving your review.  Can't wait to see what comes next.  Thanks for taking the time to write all of this up.

[hmorrow]

Your reviews are making me feel better about booking this ship.(read a lot of negatives on Cruise Critic)

Thanks for taking the time.....

[Ken the cruiser]

36 minutes ago, hmorrow said:

Your reviews are making me feel better about booking this ship.(read a lot of negatives on Cruise Critic)

Thanks for taking the time.....

We’ve been having a pretty good time. But I will say in all honesty, we enjoyed the ship environment on the Jade on our Africa cruise much more than on the Dawn. There were just more public areas on the Jade, such as The Great Outdoors on the aft adjacent to the buffet where you could eat outside, other than the pool area. In addition, the Jade has Spinnakers up on deck 13 forward in addition to the Bliss Lounge, which is on Deck 7 midship. In the future, if we find an awesome itinerary to cruise with NCL again, the Jewel-class ships would definitely be our preference. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Had a really fun time on our excursion today seeing butterflies, going to an aloe factory, and of course going to see The Natural Bridge.

 

 

First stop, The Butterfly Farm! As you might imagine I took a few pictures there! 😂

  

This was a poisonous caterpillar, mostly because it’s getting its nourishment from this poisonous milkweed plant.

 

 

  

The caretakers of the garden collect the cocoons and then hang them in this protected container. If you look closely you can see the cocoons are in various stages of develop.

  

 

 

 

I found a friend while walking around in the garden. The inside of this butterfly’s wings are a brilliant blue, which are open in the next picture.

  

 

 

 

 

This is the local “bar” where the bigger butterflies hang out getting drunk from the sugar  juice in the pieces of fruit! 😂

 

  

 

 

 

The pond of Koi fish added to the atmosphere in the garden.

 

 
Next stop was the Royal Aruba Aloe Factory, where they grow and produce a variety of high quality Aloe products.

 

 

 

 
Then it was time to cross the island over to the east side to visit the Natural Bridge Park.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the larger Natural Bridge, which the park was named after, collapsed in Sep 2005.

 

 

 
But the Baby Bridge lives on!

 

 

Remnants from life that once lived among the rocks.

 

 
And of course had to take a couple of pictures of the local wildlife. 😁

 

 

 
This was a fun excursion if you’re looking for one to go on while docked in Aruba! On the way back, we passed by the Ostrich Farm, which we visited the last time we were here on a Celebrity cruise and had a great time as well! 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

This evening after another very tasty dinner in Le Bistro, we took a walk around the promenade to watch the sunset as there is only a late night comedy show this evening  featuring Anthony LeDonne at 9 pm in the Stardust Theater.

  

[Ken the cruiser]

We’re off! Next stop Willemstad, Curaçao 

 

 

Tomorrow’s NCL excursion has a unique title, but we think it’s a Curaçao highlights tour which includes some cool places around the area to take pictures. 
 

  

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Willemstad, Curaçao!!

  

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 8 - Feb 4 - Willemstad, Curaçao  

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

The Let’s Take a Selfie tour was as we figured. It pretty much stopped at various picturesque places around the island, and ended with a walking tour around downtown Willemstad.

 

First we went to the Hato Caves. Unfortunately we were only allowed to take pictures in 2 areas of the cave. But the various sections we went to were pretty awesome and definitely worth the time to go see! When I asked why we couldn’t take pictures in the other parts of the cave, the tour guide said it was a “commercial” cave and they didn’t want pictures showing up on social media for fear no one would want to come if they had already seen the various parts of the cave on the web. 🤔 We (silently) thought the opposite. 
 

 

 

 

 

 
Then we drove to the windy north side of the island to Shete Boka Park where there was no shortage of waves crashing against shore made up mostly of dead coral reefs.

 

Thought this was a very well put “in your face” sign at the entrance of the park. 😂

  

  

 

 

 

 
Of course, I had to take a picture of the local wildlife! 😁

  

 
Then we headed back towards Willemstad to complete the last part of our tour walking through the downtown’ shopping area and across their famous walking bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

Definitely no shortage of shops! 😂

 

 

 

 

  

 

The walking bridge

 

 

 

The King of the Netherlands was visiting today denoted by the orange and blue flag flying over the palace. Unfortunately he was busy and was unable to come say a few words! 😁

 

 

 

 

 
And luckily I was able to capture shots of not one, but two of the elusive Curaçao pigeons! 😂

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off! Next stop is George Town, Cayman Islands in 2 days!

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

After another very tasty dinner in Le Bistro, which is becoming our favorite specialty restaurant along with Cagney’s, we headed to the Stardust Theater to get good seats for the Tom Franek encore performance which was once again awesome!

 

Afterwards, we headed to the Ultra Bliss Lounge to watch the hilarious Hit It DJ Game Show. But on our walk on the promenade to get over to the Bliss Lounge, I had to stop and take a picture of the moon. 😁

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 9 - Feb 5 - Sea Day

  

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Today our plans for this 3rd sea day are to watch a game show in the morning and see if anyone wins any actual $$$ at Deal or No Deal in the afternoon. Then between all that excitement just sit on the balcony and watch for wildlife or whatever else we can see. 😁

  

 

[Ken the cruiser]

For those interested, here are the upload and download internet speeds around 9:40 am while I’m sitting here on the balcony.  Its not too blistering on the uploads I know, but I can still posts pictures to my thread without too much lag time. BTW I have unlimited (but not streaming) Wi-Fi.