Dawn - June 24th Honest Review

[plcruiser]

I have to start by saying that I had a wonderful time and would go on the Dawn again in a minute. The ship is beautiful and very clean. This was my first cruise with Norwegian. I had sailed on Celebrity cruises 10 times prior to this cruise. I have to say that there was a great group of passengers on the ship. I do not know if this is usual or unusual but the week I was on there was a lively group of passengers. I preferred the passengers on this ship more than Celebrity cruise ships.

 

FOOD: I have to be honest and say that with the exception of Cagneys, Le Bistro and Teppanaki, the food is just okay; it is not very good. The next time I sail on the Dawn I will definitely go to Le Bistro and Cagneys at least twice rather than once. We wanted to try all of the restaurants so we did, the next time we will not make that mistake.

 

Cagneys: Great tender succulent whole lobster. The filet mignon was also like butter. The oysters Rockerfeller, shrimp cocktail were also great. The only item I didn't care for was the crab cakes; very little crab and a lot of bread crumbs.

 

Le Bistro: The escargot could of used more garlic; they were a bit bland but good; the french onion soup was excellent. The salmon appetizor was my favorite; it was excellent. The filet mignon and the sea bass as entrees were also excellent. All of the desserts were excellent

Teppanki: It was the best Hibachi syle restuarant I have been to. The food was very flavorful. The only item I would not recommend was the green tea ice cream. This is usually one of my favorite items when dining in a Jappanese restaurant; but for some reason this version tasted odd.

 

La Trattoria: All of the appetizors were excellent. The only thing missing from the fresh mozzerella was basil. The tiramasu was also excellent. The entrees however were not good. The chicken was just okay. The fettucini alfredo was good.

 

Salsa: The food was not good at all. The chips they serve you with the salsa are very heavy; they are not traditional salsa chips. We were a party of five ordering various items off the menu and nothing appealed to any of us and we love Mexican food. If you get the Mahi Mahi I would recommend asking for it without the sauce and perhaps just lemon. The corn crab chowder was horrible. I would recommend skipping this restuarant;

 

Impressions. The first night we had the prime rib which was tasty; but very small. The soufle was excellent as a dessert.

 

Venetian: This place is a mad house. We went there Thursday and I had to order the lobster tails three times because they were dried out. After the third time I finally gave up. The waiter was also not very accomodating. He said to me, "Very few of the lobster tails come out just right, most are either overcooked or undercooked, I can't find you one that is cooked right. We also went there for breakfast the last day. DO NOT make this mistake. It took about an hour to be served and we almost missed getting pictures of the statue of liberty. I would highly recommend on the last day just going to the buffet

 

Barbeques: Do not miss the Charcoal grilled hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken; they are excellent along with paella.

 

Breakfast: Do not miss the belgium waffles; they are very good

 

Lunch:

Buffets: If you are a lover of fruits; the ship really does not have a wide variety. It is basically limited to a fruit salad of watermelon, melon, pineapple. For example on Celebrity you had a choice of a fruit salad or individual fruits such as rasberries, blackberries, kiwi, mango, sliced pineapple, star fruit and other exotic fruits. You will not find this on on the Dawn. The other thing is that there are not many desserts to choose from. Celebrity had a wide choice of pastries, pies, cakes and cookies. The Dawn only had five to six limited desserts.

 

24 Hour: The fish and chips are just okay, the breading is extremely thick so they are not light. The wonton soup is horrible. The noodles and fried rice are just okay to bad. The only item I thought was good was the chicken fingers from the kids menu along with the french fries

 

Service: Other than the Venitian, the service was just good. The service however cannot compare to Celebrity cruise lines. On Celebrity the service ranges from Excellent to Extraordinary. You will not find this type of service of the Dawn. It is just good service.

 

Shows: The Best entertainment on the ship was Fire and Ice. DO NOT MISS THE TINA TURNER SHOW BY FIRE AND ICE; IT IS EXTRAORDINARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought this was the best show on the cruise. The first and last night show was entertaining, The south beach show had great performers but it just didn't appeal to me. Second City was okay. I have to say that Celebrity had much better shows. On Celebrity I really didn't want to miss a show; but on the Dawn, I felt like the enterntainment in the lounge was better. I thought that the entertainment provided by Fire and Ice and Dan Hodges was much better than the shows.

 

I didn't think the Caribbean band was that good. On the Celebrity ships, the Caribbean bands have been great and people were always dancing around the pool. You really don't see this on the Dawn.

 

Bermuda: MAKE SURE YOU ARE AWARE OF THE HOUR TIME CHANGE; OTHERWISE YOU WILL LOSE AN HOUR OUT OF YOUR DAY. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AT THE SNORKEL PARK; IT IS HOT AND ROCKY AND THE WATER WAS VERY MURKY. We went there after Horseshoe Bay so the kids could snorkel. What a mistake. Try to get to Horseshoe Bay early so you could leave early. We have been to Bermuda 10 times and are still amazed at the beautry of this beach. It is one of most scenic beaches in the Carribbean, DO NOT MISS IT. Starting at around one or two o'oclock there is a huge line to get the bus back to the ship. After waiting about 15 minutes the bus arrived and it was too full to add many passengers. It took about another 25 minutes before another bus came.

 

Great Stirrup Cay: Get ready for Coney Island and run to get a beach chair. This place is a mad house; people are like animals trying to get a chair. HOWEVER, ONCE YOU ARE SETTLED IN, IT IS WELL WORTH IT, MAKE SURE YOU GET OFF THE SHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Although the beach was hot, the water is crystal clear and the sand is beautiful. I spent most of my time in the water. I would recommend that if you have snorkel equipment bring it (I would even buy it if you didn't); they have cheap snorkel equipment that they rent and I believe they charge $15 for children and $29 for adults. I would also recommend bringing inexpensive blow up floats. We got the big floats for the kids ($20) and we brought the inexpensive ($2.00 floats from CVS) and they used the inexpensive floats more than the large floats because they were easy to manuever. The large floats are a lot of work getting back to shore if you go out to far. Another tip: If you plan to snorkel, make sure you get your life vest before going into the water; otherwise the lifeguard will tell you to get out.

 

Nassua: Went to the digs at night for free; it is worth the cab fare. We stayed at the Atlantis a few years ago and we are just amazed how this place keeps growing and growing. BE PREPARED TO DO A LOT OF WALKING; ATLANTIS IS MASSIVE!!

 

The next day one group of us went to the Stingrary adventure which was pretty good and the other went to the Dolphin adventure which was even better.

[plcruiser]

Although stated on this forum previously, when we requested the shrimp cocktail in the main dining rooms, we were told they were only available on the first night and only the tiny shrimp were available.

 

We were told at the main desk that the NCL dining around program in Bermuda did not apply to the Dawn cruise. We asked two people and they were perplexed as to why at least 10 other people had asked the same questions.

 

Although it is hectic, make your reservations the first day. So many people on the cruise ship believed they could only make there reservations 24 hours in advance and therefore were unable to get reservations at the specialty restaurants.

 

As a precaution, take something like bonine or dramamine before boarding the ship, my girlfriend never gets motion sickness so she didn't listen to me and ended up spending her first day of sea in her room.

 

If you like to drink order a bottle of liquor before you sail it is well worth with money. May passengers are in a state of shock when they have a $1,000 drink bill. Drinks are very expensive. If you like champagne or wine bring your own bottle and pay the $15 surcharge

 

Unless you get great service be aware when ordering drinks that the tip is already included in the price.

 

Don't be naive to think that just because there are signs posted saying that you cannot reserve chairs that people are going to abide by the signs. Face the reality of the situation, 80 to 90% of the passengers do reserve chairs. If you want a chair, place a towel on your chair between 7:00 and 9:00 in the morning; otherwise you will be wandering around for a long time looking for a chair.

 

The Stadium seating around the pool area can get very hot at times. If you are trying to get away from the wind, I would recommend going to the front of the ship on deck 13; it is also very quiet.

 

If you want to go to a quiet place to read go to Deck 7.

 

Everyday we went to the spa and were never charged. The spa area is also a great place to read a book.

 

If you enjoy sitting outside of a cruise ship on the back of the ship, the only place available is at the kids pool or the deck above. There are no outside bars or restaurants at the back of the ship.

[LindaLa]

Glad you had a wonderful trip! We were on the Dawn this past June and had a great time. Our experience with the food was quite the opposite. We thought the food was for the most part very good to excellent. Food can be quite subjective. For example, my husband just loved the Wonton soup at the Blue Lagoon. We ate at LeBistro and Salsas and the rest of the nights at the main dining rooms. No complaints! Also we found plenty of sliced fruit (cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, pineapple, strawberries) everyday at breakfast and lunch on the buffet. I know that they do not serve the sames items at every buffet station. Perhaps you may have missed it. We also sailed on Celebrity. The experience of Freestyle is much different. I prefer the convenience of freestyle, although I know it is not for everyone. We are not big on shows, so we didn't go to all of them. We also preferred the entertainment in the smaller venues such as Gatsby's and Dazzles. We also liked the group that played in the Java Cafe. They were very entertaining. We also enjoyed GSK. We did not have any problems finding a chair. We just walked to the left. There are a limited number of lounge chairs, but plenty of sand chairs. The water and beach are beautiful. I am not a fan of Nassau, so we did the stingray snorkel too. It was fun. There were a lot of sand bugs on the island that day, so be sure to bring bug spray if you do this excursion.

[cantwaitt]

It is a shame that one of your complaints was the lack of fresh fruit and variety of desserts.

 

We were on the Dawn each of the first three years and the first two years at luncn and dinner they had one employee whose sole job was to cut up fresh cantelope, melon, pineapple and watermelonsad. It was awesome.

 

At lunch and dinner they had huge viennese-like tables of a huge assortment of desserts.

 

These cutbacks are among about one dozen major food cutbacks on the Dawn.

 

The first year, they had huge, jumbo shrimp cocktail at one of the dinner buffets. Amazing.

 

At the bar b q, they used to have minute steaks and ribs. Now they have neither.

 

At dinner, they used to have chilean sea bass one night per sailing. No more.

 

There are many more examples of food cutbacks.

[Maryfrei]

Thanks for the great detailed review:)!

[Bagbklyn]

I was also on the 6/24 sailing. This was the first time I did freestyle cruising and my girlfriend and I loved it (We're in our late 20's). Like they say the food is very subjective but we also thought the food went from good-excellent. We are picky eaters and we really enjoyed the food. Like the other poster said the waffles are great also in the same area you will find the station for the fresh omeletes. We didn't find out about the this station until mid cruise. We didn't eat in any of the main dining rooms except for lunch on embarkation day. The rest of the week we did, Bambo, La Trattoria, Salsa and La Trattoria again. Just so everyone know La Trattoria is a section of the Garden Cafe that is converted into the italian restaurant the first night. Also the restaurant isn't open the night of embarkation.

 

I was a little apprehensive at first about freestlye cruising and freestyle dining but truly enjoyed it.

 

On another note the CD Matt Baker said that he is going on vacation for a month at the end of July and afterwards he doesn't know if he is coming back to the Dawn or not. It depends what NCL does. He really makes the cruise enjoyable (WIGGY-WIGGY-WA)

[mack0217]

plcruiser

Glad to hear you had a good time. I really enjoyed Dawn and hope to go again really soon! Were you able to get Jeremy's last name or email address?

[JuneauMe]

Great Review, and so informative. Could someone answer some questions? This will be my first time to Bermuda, and I want to get in 3 things. 1 Horse shoe bay is a must see it seems, I would like to see Hamilton, and then I heard there is a Rum cake factory by where the ship docks. So tell me if this sounds like I can do all 3. If I get up and get off the ship early, get my bus pass, and head over to the beach. I'll stay there till noon, the get the ferry to Hamilton (but from where?) stay there for a bit...I don't know the travel times to and from the beach and ferrys etc. so I need help with this info too. Then I thought I could hit the Rum cake (I love Rum cake!!!) and get back on for the all aboard which I assume is 4:30 for the 5pm sail. Also I see there is a time change is is ahead or back, and is all aboard ship time or shore time?

I know it's a lot of questions, but I really want to maximize my short time in Bermuda, so any and all tips and info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Donna

[plcruiser]

When you get off the ship on the right hand side you can purchase your all day pass for $12. When you leave Horseshoe bay cross the street and take the bus into Hamilton. Once you are in downtown Hamilton, you can take the high speed ferry back to the ship. Just make sure you where a watch and forward the time by 1 hour.

[Bagbklyn]

And just to add the rum factory is next door to the snorkel park. It was walking distance to the ship and also about a 5-10 min walk from the ferry stop at the dock. It is all do able. You have to make sure you are off the boat early, there is usually a line for the bus.

[sweetpea-2]

nice review, had to laugh about the Venetian, we had the best luck there and ate there more often than not....perhaps it depends on what you order and when you go...but glad you had a great cruise !!!

[yuckylucky]

Hey plcruiser and Ben! I just posted my review as well...I see the similarities and differences in them...LOL!!! Nice review plcruiser!

 

I forgot that yes, the Venetian was a bit crazy even at lunchtime...we went down there once for lunch and the line was insanely long. I looked at the menu to see what the hub-bub was about...when I saw a roast-beef sandwich listed, I decided there was no point in waiting for that! However, we ate there almost every morning...got a window table at the back each time, and never waited. I did see the line for breakfast though and we opted for the buffet that morning.

 

Ben, I kept looking for a young black man wearing silly-slogan t-shirts...where were you??? LOL...

[Bagbklyn]

Sorry you missed me. I met Dan one of the nights around midnight waiting at an elevator. He was looked at my shirt and was like Bagbklyn. We thorougly enjoyed our cruise and now we are biased towars NCL's freestyle. My parents went on NCL america the week before to Hawai and they weren't pleased. So I plan to treat them to a cruise on the Dawn in september so they can really enjoy themselves.

 

Ben

[nyflush]

Great review! I was also on this cruise will be posting my review tomorrow:) sorry i missed Cagneys it sounds great also we loved Le Bistro, we also enjoyed Salsas we ate there twice but youre right about the chips you must have went there toward the end of the cruise the first time we ate there the chips were great the second they were thick and we asked the waiter said they had to make those chips because they ran out of the yummy chips. We only ate at Venetian on the first day for lunch the service and food was good but we did not eat there again.

[yuckylucky]

Sorry you missed me. I met Dan one of the nights around midnight waiting at an elevator. He was looked at my shirt and was like Bagbklyn. We thorougly enjoyed our cruise and now we are biased towars NCL's freestyle. My parents went on NCL america the week before to Hawai and they weren't pleased. So I plan to treat them to a cruise on the Dawn in september so they can really enjoy themselves.

 

Ben

 

Get out! You did? LOL...we liked the freestyle experience too but we also like the "normal" dining options as well. We would definitely do it again!!! I'm sure your parents will love it...that's super-nice of you.

[songanddance]

Then I thought I could hit the Rum cake (I love Rum cake!!!) and get back on for the all aboard which I assume is 4:30 for the 5pm sail.

Donna

 

You can do the rum cake factory in about three minutes. It is amazing what one can turn out with a small pizza oven situated in a room the size of an inside stateroom. The most exciting thing about the rum cake factory was the name.

[cantwaitt]

Are you saying that Snorkel Park is a waste of time, or can you still see some fish and it is convenient, at least?

[plcruiser]

I would recommend going to Horseshoe Bay. On the way back you could give the snorkel park a try. It was very hot there; there wasn't much of a breeze like you have on horseshoe bay. We went after Horseshoe Bay and were very dissappointed. The beach is extremely rocky and the water was so murky we weren't able to see much at all. The snorkeling at Stirrup Cay was pretty good. The water is crystal clear and there were some interesting fish. There were two stingrays swimming around the beach all day long. You didn't even have to have a snorkel mask on to see them the water is so clear.

[plcruiser]

If you are very talented, please keep in mind that there is a talent show on the last night of the cruise whereby you have the opportunity to win a cruise. My girlfriend sang that night and actually won the competition. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping she wins a cruise. The way it works is that they videotape the performance of each winner of each Norwegian ship and send it to their headquarters. Then a professional group at headquarters reviews the videotapes and picks a winner. So if you have a talent or know someone who has a talent, this is a must do on the ship. All of the performers got a very positive response from the audience so don't be afraid. My girlfriend was very nervous but she said once you got on the stage you really didn't see very much of the audience because of the lighting

[nyflush]

If you are very talented, please keep in mind that there is a talent show on the last night of the cruise whereby you have the opportunity to win a cruise. My girlfriend sang that night and actually won the competition. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping she wins a cruise. The way it works is that they videotape the performance of each winner of each Norwegian ship and send it to their headquarters. Then a professional group at headquarters reviews the videotapes and picks a winner. So if you have a talent or know someone who has a talent, this is a must do on the ship. All of the performers got a very positive response from the audience so don't be afraid. My girlfriend was very nervous but she said once you got on the stage you really didn't see very much of the audience because of the lighting

 

Omg she was so wonderful we loved her and she looked so happy keep us posted would be interested to know what happens:)

[plcruiser]

We were all so happy she won. She is an amazing person and has a wonderful voice and yes she was overwhelmed that she did win. I really hope she does win and will let you know how it turns out. I would think that they would probably contact her within the next week or so.

[plcruiser]

If you really enjoyed listening to Fire and Ice on the cruise, I highly recommend getting their CD. IT'S GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will bring back a lot of memories of a wonderful cruise.:)