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

[Ken the cruiser]

30 minutes ago, jeaniebelle said:

Are they still offering the Lattitude - Platinum and above, the Wine Tasting? If so, where do you sign up for it? I'm really enjoying you journey with posts, pictures, advice and Freestyle Daily1 I'm on the Dawn following yours. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide all this information and pictures!

Thanks! Yes they are. After we went to the Bamboo restaurant when we first boarded to finish booking our dinner reservations, we headed over to CruiseNext to sign up for the Wine Tasting.

[odie1024]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! Yes they are. After we went to the Bamboo restaurant when we first boarded to finish booking our dinner reservations, we headed over to CruiseNext to sign up for the Wine Tasting.

Any idea if BF can come with me to the wine tasting as he is not Platinum yet? 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Key West FL! Today, we didn’t book an excursion because we’ve traveled here before and have already seen Hemmingway’s six-toed cats. 😂

 

Our plan is to just walk around the town, check out some sites discussed earlier in the thread, and take some pictures. BTW this picture is just from our balcony. 😁

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

4 minutes ago, odie1024 said:

Any idea if BF can come with me to the wine tasting as he is not Platinum yet? 

That I do not know. Maybe someone else following this thread might. 

[debnjoe1438]

In o Sheehan's, the wings are great.

[Ken the cruiser]

We had a fun self-guided 3-hour tour today! We went to the Harry S. Truman Winter White House, the Shipwreck Treasures Museum, and the Aquarium, all within walking distance from the pier. If you go to the ticket booth near the Shipwreck Treasures Museum, you can save a few $$$ if you buy tickets to all 3.
 

But first we had to walk from the ship, buy the tickets and get to our first stop.

  

  

 

 

 

 
Harry S. Truman Winter White House. I forgot to take pictures of the outside, but there are some on the first page of this thread.

 

 

The famous world affairs table by day and poker table at night!

 

President Truman used to have a large shot of bourbon in the morning and one in the evening for his bad heart, as prescribed by his doctor! 😂

 

 
The table where many world affairs were handled after Truman arrived in 1949 to get rid of a nasty cough. I have to say we learned quite a bit about Truman and the Winter White House on our guided tour. We definitely recommend paying the $23 plus tax per person if you have time. It’s about a 45 minute tour.

 

 

 

 

This was the uniform of the day at the Winter White House! 😂

 

 

 
Then it was time to head over to the Shipwreck Treasures Museum, to include climbing up the tower for some great views of the area.

 

 

  

Ever wonder what pieces of eight looked like?

 

 

 
Then came the rewards for climbing the tower! 😁

 

 

 

 

 

It was then a short walk across the street to the Aquarium.

 

 

 

 

 

They had some big fish and turtles in their outdoor pond!

  

 

 

 
Then on the way back to the ship I had to take some pictures of the local wildlife. 😁

  

 

  
To include the elusive Key West pigeon! 😂

 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[rxlowry]

5 hours ago, odie1024 said:

Any idea if BF can come with me to the wine tasting as he is not Platinum yet? 

They were strict about it on breakaway in November.  Didn’t let my dad go as he was only gold.  

[Ken the cruiser]

Not quite sure why we got a second bottle of bubbly (on the right) today. But as they say beggars can’t be choosy! 😂

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 2 - Key West, Florida

  

 

 

 

  

[odie1024]

38 minutes ago, rxlowry said:

They were strict about it on breakaway in November.  Didn’t let my dad go as he was only gold.  

Thanks, I figured they would be strict about it, but I'll ask all they can say is no. 

[www3traveler]

Thank you for all the wonderful pictures from Key West.  Brought back a lot of good memories.  So happy to see that the Aquarium has been restored once again.  More than one hurricane has damaged it through the years.

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Thank you for all the wonderful pictures from Key West.  Brought back a lot of good memories.  So happy to see that the Aquarium has been restored once again.  More than one hurricane has damaged it through the years.

Thank you for letting us know about them. Supposedly the 2017 hurricane did the biggest damage to the Aquarium. But they have big plans to expand the aquarium even further over the next 2 years or so. 

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off! Next stop is Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic day after tomorrow!

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Landl cruiser]

7 hours ago, odie1024 said:

Any idea if BF can come with me to the wine tasting as he is not Platinum yet? 

I would go to Cruise Next and sign up for 2.   If they want to check latitude status then so be it.

[Ken the cruiser]

While we were waiting to go have an awesome dinner in Moderno’s, we were watching the sun set into the sea. 😁

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Tonight after our tasty meal in Moderno, we headed to the Bliss Lounge which is on Deck 7 aft to watch The Not So Newlywed Show, which was hilarious as usual. Afterwards, we were going to watch an acrobatic show in the Stardust Theater, but the seas are a little rough this evening, so they postponed it until a late date. Instead, they were showing a Mr Rogers movie with Tom Hanks called It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which we’ve seen already. So we called it a night and headed back to the cabin.

  

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a fun fact. On the Dawn if you want to call it an early evening and head back to your cabin to watch TV, be prepared to pay $9.50 to watch a movie, any movie. Oh, and by the way, there are no free TV shows or stations to watch. Just as a side note, this was definitely not the case when we were on the Jade from mid November through late December. Just the opposite in fact. I have to say we’ve been on over 60 cruises and this is the first time that I can remember this type of a situation. 

  

 

 

[BettyCruiser]

When we were on the Joy recently all the movies accessed via this movie option did cost $. But if you hit the TV button on the remote there were several different movie channels playing movies for free. You would have to be lucky and click into it when something was starting or just start watching a movie already in progress. There was a Drama channel, an Action channel, etc. 

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, BettyCruiser said:

When we were on the Joy recently all the movies accessed via this movie option did cost $. But if you hit the TV button on the remote there were several different movie channels playing movies for free. You would have to be lucky and click into it when something was starting or just start watching a movie already in progress. There was a Drama channel, an Action channel, etc. 

Thanks Betty!!! I found the TV button on the remote as you suggestion, and it worked!! The Lost City (2022) starts in 3 minutes! Yay!! 🕺

[BettyCruiser]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks Betty!!! I found the TV button on the remote as you suggestion, and it worked!! The Lost City (2022) starts in 3 minutes! Yay!! 🕺

Enjoy!

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 3 - Jan 30 - Sea Day

  

 

 

 

 
And for those interested, here’s the internet speeds on our balcony balcony this morning.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

 

Did a walk around the Dawn today as we don’t have anything planned until 2 pm on our first sea day when we go to the “Magic Workshop with Paul” in the Bliss Lounge. Along the way we stopped by Guest Services to see how many people were on the ship - 2,322 guests and 1,067 crew. The max capacity (dual occupancy) is 2,340 guests. So pretty much a full ship, which definitely explains why the public spaces, to include the buffet, pool area, and lounges feel so packed!

 

FWIW there is definitely a noticeable difference between the available public spaces on the Dawn versus the Jade, even though the max capacity levels are about the same. On the Dawn there is no Spinnaker Lounge on deck 13, and no Great Outdoors let alone an aft area on Deck 12 to eat outside. The Jade also has the La Cucina restaurant in the aft which also serves in the morning as a Garden Cafe breakfast area overflow.
 

From a personal point of view, we sure are glad we were on the Jade on our recent 38-day Africa cruise, as the Dawn just feels a little more cramped when going to many of its public spaces, whether it’s eating up in the buffet or going to an entertainment event. But that’s also understandable as the Dawn was first launched in 2002 as one of the Libra-class ships where as the Jade was launched 4 years later in 2006 and eventually became one of the Jewel-class ships. 
 

For more details about the two ships, if your interested, here’s a couple of links to check out.

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Dawn

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Jade

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[SplashOfWater]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

Did a walk around the Dawn today as we don’t have anything planned until 2 pm on our first sea day when we go to the “Magic Workshop with Paul” in the Bliss Lounge. Along the way we stopped by Guest Services to see how many people were on the ship - 2,322 guests and 1,067 crew. The max capacity (dual occupancy) is 2,340 guests. So pretty much a full ship, which definitely explains why the public spaces, to include the buffet, pool area, and lounges feel so packed!

 

FWIW there is definitely a noticeable difference between the available public spaces on the Dawn versus the Jade, even though the max capacity levels are about the same. On the Dawn there is no Spinnaker Lounge on deck 13, and no Great Outdoors let alone an aft area on Deck 12 to eat outside. The Jade also has the La Cucina restaurant in the aft which also serves in the morning as a Garden Cafe breakfast area overflow.
 

From a personal point of view, we sure are glad we were on the Jade on our recent 38-day Africa cruise, as the Dawn just feels a little more cramped when going to many of its public spaces, whether it’s eating up in the buffet or going to an entertainment event. But that’s also understandable as the Dawn was first launched in 2002 as one of the Libra-class ships where as the Jade was launched 4 years later in 2006 and eventually became one of the Jewel-class ships. 
 

For more details about the two ships, if your interested, here’s a couple of links to check out.

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Dawn

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Jade

 

There is a small lounge on Deck 9 above O'Sheehans. You can access it from the curved stairs on Deck 8 in the Atrium or the passenger hallway on Deck 9 near the mid (I think) elevators.

[alwalaska]

Thank you so much for sharing all of this info.  I can't wait for next week.

[Ken the cruiser]

After dinner in the Venetian MDR this evening, we headed to the Stardust Theater to watch the production show Soul Rockin’ Nights, which was pretty good I might add. Of course, it’s always fun to watch a musical show where you recognize all of the songs! 😂

  

  
Then we went to the game show in the Bliss Lounge called The Eliminator. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that much fun to watch, so we headed back to the cabin.

 

 
Here’s another lesson we learned this evening, especially if you want to be seated at 5:15 pm in the Venetian MDR once the doors open. Make your MDR reservations ahead of time, even if it’s in the Bamboo restaurant when you first board the ship. Tonight when we arrived at 5:15, there were two lines, one for those with reservations and one for those without. The ones with reservations followed the arrow to the lower Deck 6 entrance and were seated immediately. There were at least 30 people in the line without a reservation and as you might imagine, it took a little while to get everyone seated. Just a heads up.