NCL Dawn Itinerary Summer 2024 - Which ports are tender ports?

[amypintx]

We're looking at doing this itinerary in July 2024 and are wondering which ports are tender ports. I found this page on the NCL site that lists tender ports (https://www.ncl.com/about/accessible-cruising-tender-ports) but last summer we cruised NCL Breakaway in the Med and we had to ferry/tender over to the main port in Valetta and they don't even show that as a "sometimes" on this list so I don't totally trust it. Thanks for any help you can provide! 

 

I'd also love any other thoughts about this itinerary or ship!

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by amypintx

[CruiserBruce]

Any port can be a tender port, if the number of ships exceeds the dock space. Juneau and Corfu are perfect examples.

 

Can't speak for Helsingborg as haven't been there. But the others should be docked.

[hallasm]

All should have sufficient capacity for docking including Helsinki - likely no tendering.

[CruiserBruce]

4 hours ago, hallasm said:

All should have sufficient capacity for docking including Helsinki - likely no tendering.

Are you saying Helsingborg is Helsinki? If yes, the OP will dock at Helsingborg, particularly if that is where they are disembarking the ship.

[hallasm]

3 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Are you saying Helsingborg is Helsinki? If yes, the OP will dock at Helsingborg, particularly if that is where they are disembarking the ship.

Thank you for your correction. There aren't that many cruise ships calling at Helsingborg, so I didn't think of that as a possibility. Correction: larger ships tender in Helsingborg.

[amypintx]

Thanks for the info everyone!

[Desdichado62]

Helsingborg will be a tenderport since the quays only handle ships of max 250 m length and max 11 m draft. NCL Dawn is 294 m long.

[kitkat343]

The itinerary looks great.  But after my last experience on NCL (they cancelled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment, continued to advertise the original itinerary for a month after the dropped ports and refused to let anyone cancel because this all happened after final payment) I was very concerned about booking the next NCL cruise that I loved the itinerary for - the Prima to Iceland and Norway.  And there were a lot of problems and cancelled ports on those voyages and I was really glad I hadn't dragged my 3 kids on that cruise.  My best advice would be to go and look at cruise critic reviews of the dawn, and see if they tend to make the itinerary on their baltic cruises .   https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/norwegian-ncl/norwegian-dawn/reviews  And always double check the cancellation policy of any private excursions prior to booking when sailing NCL.  

 

 

 

[cmph]

NCL puts dock/tender info into the confirmation email with your cruise details. The confirmation email will have a pdf attachment with the itinerary, and there is a "dock/tender" column for each port. (That's not to say that a change is impossible, of course, before someone else chimes in to make a note of that.) I overlooked this until someone else pointed it out on the NCL forum. So even if you don't have the info before booking, you will have it in advance of the cruise. 

 

We did an NCL Baltic with a mostly-different itinerary this past summer and hit all of our ports as scheduled, no changes, no tenders. Warnemunde was the only one port we visited that is also on this itinerary; that dock was literally right there by the town and train station. I don't think there is any way a ship could tender there, tbh. Cute little town!

 

We thought the Dawn was fine. We didn't think the food was great, but it wasn't across the board bad, and the entertainment options weren't really our speed, but for a port-intensive Baltic - it was a good floating hotel. There was plenty of storage in the staterooms, everything in the rooms was in pretty good shape, comfy beds IMO, shower was a decent size for an older ship. I wouldn't choose it for an itinerary with a lot of days at sea, for my family anyway (2 teens and 2 adults). The kids pool area was cute, so I actually think families with younger kids might be pretty happy on a quieter ship with that amenity. Not sure what aspects of the ship matter most to you, but happy to provide more details if you have specific questions. 

[amypintx]

@cmph Thanks for the info! Did you go to Berlin from Warnemunde or just stay in the town? 

[cmph]

1 hour ago, amypintx said:

@cmph Thanks for the info! Did you go to Berlin from Warnemunde or just stay in the town? 

We elected not to go to Berlin. My husband didn't think we'd be able to do it justice in one day, with all the travel time to get there. I was fine with that, b/c it was the 2nd to last stop on a port-intensive 10 night itinerary (no sea days at all), and I figured our teens would be very disinterested in such an early rise and long day. (Accurate!!) We did the Schwerin Castle excursion that runs for 6 hours and loved that. We did a mix of NCL excursions, where it made sense, and OYO this trip, and this was definitely a good tour. Our guide was born and raised in East Germany, so the bus ride was full of fascinating stories of her life and the area. The castle and grounds were gorgeous, and we had time in the town of Schwerin to eat/shop a bit. 

 

Our tour was back at 3pm, so we had time to spend a few hours in Warnemunde too. It was really a very cute little beach town! and literally just walk right off the ship and you're there. We ate at a waterside restaurant, browsed in some shops, and went to the strange strawberry place the ship docks next to. Some German strawberry company has little stands all over, and they had this larger store/cafe right there, almost like a Cracker Barrel (but with strawberry alcoholic drinks - I got a beer with strawberry syrup). We did not go to the beach itself, which I slightly regret, in retrospect. 

[edinburgher]

Schwerin Castle

15 hours ago, amypintx said:

@cmph Thanks for the info! Did you go to Berlin from Warnemunde or just stay in the town? 

There have been quite a number of previous threads about Warnemund V Berlin and what to do if Berlin is decided against, so you might want to find them in the usual way by using the SEARCH tool under your username so you can read them for info and ideas.  Most popular options are to visit Schwerin Castle  then spend time in Warnemunde or visit Rostock then spend time in Warnemunde, but do read past threads to help you decide.  This is probably typical of what you would find if you used the word Rostock, but there will be others if you use the word Warnemunde or even Berlin or Schwerin Castle.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2920861-what-to-do-in-warnemunde-berlin/#comment-64949265