Norwegian Dawn experiences

[magnus1977]

To you thats on the Norwegian Dawn now or just have been. I would have appreciate it very much if you could share some true information regard the ship overall, the cabins, the food and facilities for kids. 
 

Me and my family are consdering a 12 nights cruise out of South Africa to Mauritius in February onboard the Dawn, but are a bit biased from all the mixed reviews/comments of this ship. We have sailed Norwegian before, but on the bigger and newer Escape.

[Big_G_111]

I was on the Dawn in August 2023, when it was in the Baltic. 
 

In short, it was “fine”. Yes, it’s old. Yes, it’s small. Yes, it’s missing the bells and whistles of their top-tier ships. But there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it (looking at you, NCL Epic). 
 

It’s clearly one of the lesser ships in the NCL lineup, which is why it’s relegated to oddball routings such as your proposed Africa cruse. 

As far as staffing, I got the sense that this ship was an opportunity for newly-promoted crew to get an opportunity at a higher level on a smaller ship. Some did well, some were over their head. 
 

IMO, the food, service, etc. were all at normal NCL standard - good, not great. The entertainment was a bit weaker than my previous NCL experience - probably a combination of post-COVID cutbacks and the smaller size of the Dawn. 
 

Can’t comment as to the kid areas. I would guess they would be very lightly used on the cruise you’re planning to take. 
 

I think that routing looks interesting, and I certainly wouldn’t pass on it due to the mediocre quality of the Dawn. I encourage you to go for it. 

Edited November 24, 2023 by Big_G_111
Fixed errors

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

@Big_G_111

 

...  to oddball routings such as your proposed Africa cruise. 

 

I would disagree with your comment; the ports that the Dawn is visiting are the sort of "out of the way" places many people want to visit.   We loved the ports in that area we visited.

 

@magnus1977

 

If you are a "big" ship NCL person clear your mind and go on a small ship with an open mind.   We love the small ships and, having recently been on the Prima, are looking forward even more to going to the smaller ships early in 2024.

[cmph]

You don't mention how old your kids are. We sailed on the Dawn on a Baltic this summer, with our 2 teens (14 and 18 at the time). I thought the ship itself was fine - nothing exciting, but perfectly fine. My kids thought the arcade was super lame and didn't find the live shipboard entertainment to their tastes, but it was a port-intensive cruise... and teenagers sleep a lot anyway! We thought the kids pool area looked like something we would have gotten a lot of use out of, years ago, and it was nicely separated from the other pool area.

 

I thought our cabins (oceanview, connecting) were pretty decent, overall. It had great storage, IMO, and we were on a 10-nighter with a pre-stay in Stockholm, so we had a fair amount of stuff. The shower was better than expected. The toilet space was a little ridiculous. They put this see-through door between the toilet and the sink, which really just got in the way, and left no privacy. It was a pointless door, but we had 2 connecting rooms so it wasn't a big deal, just a bit laughable. We had a great room attendant, no complaints there, and we didn't have any issues with a single service per day.

 

We weren't huge fans of the MDR food, in general, and were surprised just how many issues they had with food supply restocking in Europe. We liked O'Sheehans, parts of the buffet (for the two of us that don't have food restrictions), and 2/3 of our specialty meals. The restaurant service was ok for the most part, if politely indifferent, generally. Outliers went both ways. I should add here that our prior family cruises have been on Disney, and our general impression (teens included) was that service was noticeably less personable; I'm not a total Disney cruise snob (been on Royal, Carnival, HAL, Princess sans kids), and I'm sure others have had not-so-great service on Disney too. But this was definitely the first cruise I've ever been on where I told a waiter that something was wrong with my entree, and he just took it away without trying to fix it even after I explained what was wrong with it - he literally just took it away uneaten and came back with dessert menus lol. (I ordered a seafood hot pot with lemongrass broth, and it was missing the broth.) We all chuckled, and my daughter and I decided that was a good reason to order 2 desserts apiece! There is always more food to be found on a cruise, right?

 

The Dawn goes to really interesting places and has unique itineraries, which is more important to us now. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to avoid sailing on her again, but I also wouldn't pick her for a non-interesting itinerary like the Caribbean.

Edited November 24, 2023 by cmph

[magnus1977]

Thank you.

 

By the way, our kids are 3 and 5 years old. We have the choice of doing a 5 night cruise from Durban onboard MSC Splendida as well, maybe this is a be better idea, I am bit worried sailing 12 nights onboard the Dawn, I cant see I ecperiemce rave revires about her😅 

[Huntingdon1701]

Unless you're going in the Yacht Club you won't really find that Splendida offers much different from the Dawn, aside from multi-language announcements. And Yacht Club won't really help with the kids. The Dawn's itinerary sounds far more interesting.

[scamper]

One of the advantages of cruising on the older ships is not having to pay the premium fares that the newer ships generally command.  Although this might not apply to cruises to out-of-the-way ports such as the one discussed, it certainly works when a line has several ships in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, etc. during the appropriate season.

[itsnotjustme]

We sailed on the Dawn in Summer of 22 out of Amsterdam.  We enjoyed it very much.  Food and staff I found to be what I expect from NCL - no better or worse than other ships.  It is smaller with fewer venues than the new big ships, but that was fine..

[dandee2]

We sailed on her last month (12 days Canary islands). Everything was spotless. Very good upkeep. We are used to Celebrity so it is a notch under Celebrity overall. The things that annoyed us the most was the lack of a lounge up front, the location of the sun chair forward near the pool and the weird arrangement of the buffet. For similar price/destination we would choose Celebrity but the Jewel was fine and we had a good time.

[jazzydiver]

I sailed on the Dawn a few years ago and enjoyed it.  Yes, it's smaller and older, but I liked the ship.  If you are the kind of person who likes to explore odd corners of a ship, be sure to visit the lounge overlooking the atrium on deck 9.  Nothing special about it, just an interesting spot to have a place to sit, and my group used the "secret" side door from the cabin hallway on deck 9 as a shortcut to get to the "fancy" staircase adjacent to the atrium (as we are stair-takers vs elevator users).  Depending on where your cabin is, the secret door is pretty useful.

Edited November 28, 2023 by jazzydiver
correction

[cruiserbear55]

 

  Sailed the Dawn nine times out of Boston. Finest ship in the fleet, IMHO, and hope she makes it back to Beantown someday!

[complawyer]

for what it's worth, after 25 cruises on most of the ncl fleet. i can honestly say that we have never had a bad or even disappointing experience on any of these ships, other that the epic. the cruise itself wasnt

the problem. the 1st time we had a aft balcony suite. the round bed took up almost all of the space in the cabin, and the bath/shower/ toilet left much to be desired. i'd never book a cabin like that again, and the 2nd time, we had a 2 bedroom suite (again no problem with the cruise,) but one morning we were coming out of the breakfast buffet, they had just mopped the floor and the sign was blocked. my wife shipped/fell and severely hurt herself.

 

i have said before that for me ,the sheer joy of being on a cruise, being able to sit on my balcony and watch the world sail by is more than enough. i think ive only had one or 2 bad meals, i dont need the extra bells and whistles, i never bother with the after hours entertainment, and whatever shows are being presented in the stardust theater, to me are just meh! since 2010, our 1st ncl  cruise ,and continuing through 2023, i have really nothing to complain about or, criticize 

 

just my humble opinion. 

[Travelling2Some]

On 11/27/2023 at 7:28 PM, jazzydiver said:

I sailed on the Dawn a few years ago and enjoyed it.  Yes, it's smaller and older, but I liked the ship.  If you are the kind of person who likes to explore odd corners of a ship, be sure to visit the lounge overlooking the atrium on deck 9.  Nothing special about it, just an interesting spot to have a place to sit, and my group used the "secret" side door from the cabin hallway on deck 9 as a shortcut to get to the "fancy" staircase adjacent to the atrium (as we are stair-takers vs elevator users).  Depending on where your cabin is, the secret door is pretty useful.

We have been on the Dawn several times, recently for a Baltic itinerary.  Our cabin was on Deck 9 right by the door to the lounge you mention.  It was a great perk and a rather unique space. I don't think many people knew about it.  The layout of the buffet is a bit "old school" and the ship lacks an observation lounge up front.  I am a huge fan of the observation lounges on the bigger ships but we didn't miss it since we had no sea days anyway.  The service was very good.

[quercus alba]

On 11/23/2023 at 9:39 PM, Big_G_111 said:

...
As far as staffing, I got the sense that this ship was an opportunity for newly-promoted crew to get an opportunity at a higher level on a smaller ship. Some did well, some were over their head. 
 

IMO, the food, service, etc. were all at normal NCL standard - good, not great. The entertainment was a bit weaker than my previous NCL experience - probably a combination of post-COVID cutbacks and the smaller size of the Dawn. 

...

Just got back from the 10 day Eastern Mediterranean itinerary, and I would concur. My previous NCL cruises were on Epic and Pearl--and I was expecting this to be something akin to the Pearl in experience. Don't know if it's related to "post-pandemic blues", or the staffing priorities that you mention above, but Dawn was not up to the level of our Pearl cruises (2013 and 2015...so the world has certainly changed since!) in terms of staff morale and initiative.

My sense was that a lot of the staff were new in their roles, and very reluctant to step out of defined protocols (even altering a drink recipe slightly in a bar, for example).

 

That said, though, I think Dawn is nicely suited for "grown-up cruises" --i.e. people who don't need constant entertainment and stimulation from VR arcades or go-kart tracks. It was great for this kind of port intensive trip -- not a single planned sea day , though we got one due to having to miss a port for weather conditions. We covered 9 different destinations in 10 days, and could come back on board to soak weary legs in the hot tubs and recklessly enjoy our food and drink. I think it's kind of cool that a ship like the Dawn is doing so many long cruises to non-standard places, even though the 10 days was plenty long for us this time. (Some people were doing not just B2Bs, but 3 or 4 x B2Bs...nice life!) 

 

I liked the layout for the most part, and thought the atrium was nicer than Epic's or Pearl's--seemed "right sized" for the way it was used, and was pleasant to look at while seated at O'Sheehans or the coffee bar. As always, YMMV.

[gerry1.10]

Hi Alba

 

Do you remember who the officers were on your sailing. Will be on it next month.

 

Thanks

[quercus alba]

1 hour ago, gerry1.10 said:

Hi Alba

 

Do you remember who the officers were on your sailing. Will be on it next month.

 

Thanks

I just sifted through some Dailies---it's crazy, lots of opportunities to spend your money unnecessarily, but no simple listing of basic information like that. Go figure!

 

The captain, IIRC was Ronnie(?) Berg.

The Cruise Director, who we did actually chat with at the coffee bar on our unplanned sea day as he was personally passing out updated activity schedules was Jerry _____ , and he was from Latin America somewhere I think. 

The General Manager was a pleasant French gentleman who made a jovial attempt to steal my coffee from me in line to board tenders one morning--and I'm blanking on his name too.

[gerry1.10]

Thanks! I have sailed with captain Berg several times on the Jewel. 
 Hopefully he’ll be still there when I get on in January because they only stay 4 months.

[tj&3littlecuties]

Curious about smoke from the casino filtering through deck 6.  Any notice of this?

[cmph]

5 hours ago, tj&3littlecuties said:

Curious about smoke from the casino filtering through deck 6.  Any notice of this?

We are very sensitive to smoke but truly didn't notice any issues coming from the casino this summer. And that was a Baltic cruise, so it had a decent number of European and Asian guests who have a higher rate of smoking than we are used to. I did, however, find the smell from the cigar bar to be a little annoying when I walked past. Same deck. The casino is kind of tucked away, while the cigar bar is just out there for you to have to (literally) walk around. Not a deal breaker, but it was more obvious to me than anything coming out of the casino. 

[Travelling2Some]

14 hours ago, tj&3littlecuties said:

Curious about smoke from the casino filtering through deck 6.  Any notice of this?

Never noticed a smoke problem.  We were also on a Baltic cruise this past summer.

[quercus alba]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:40 PM, cmph said:

We are very sensitive to smoke but truly didn't notice any issues coming from the casino this summer. And that was a Baltic cruise, so it had a decent number of European and Asian guests who have a higher rate of smoking than we are used to. I did, however, find the smell from the cigar bar to be a little annoying when I walked past. Same deck. The casino is kind of tucked away, while the cigar bar is just out there for you to have to (literally) walk around. Not a deal breaker, but it was more obvious to me than anything coming out of the casino. 

We spent a fair amount of time almost every day in Gatsby's, immediately adjacent to the cigar bar, and generally didn't find it to be too obnoxious. It is a somewhat more pleasant, and briefer, whiff than the constant cigarette smoke from say, the Epic casino, back in the day. We were more bothered by the smoking on the streets of Athens and Istanbul than onboard.

 

[marrashadow]

I'm scheduled for the Mediterranean cruise Trieste to Rome on the Dawn its 10 days with 9 port days. We were on the Rotterdam which is an older smaller ship as well. Our plan is more based on floating hotel than looking for a cruise to keep us engaged 24/7 that being said we do have a sea day. I'm hopeful that with the ships age, size, and itinerary it will be less kids. 

Edited April 17 by marrashadow