Will we like dawn princess?

[melika091900]

weve sailed on celebrity mercury, carnival conquest and NCL star .

our friends booked the dawn princess 11 day mexico from SF and are begging us to go ,

any comparisions to other cruiselines weve been on ?

i know we are hooked on NCL freestyle dining , but im more worried about entertainment? ages on board? kids programs ? things like that

any info id appreciate,,

thank you all in advance

Melissa

[Druke I]

I've been on Sun Princess, sister to Dawn Princess, and Celebrity's Mercury.

 

I prefer Princess - and thought Mercury over-rated.

 

We thought dining room food and its presentation slightly better on Mercury, and thought the Lido's food selection better on Sun Princess. We also thought the production shows on Princess better than Mercury.

 

Very subjective of course.

[nco4242]

Hi: I just got off it Tuesday. Service was good, but be sure you take a seating time. We choose anythime dining and found that we could not get any reservations before 10pm. And we attempted to book within a hour of boarding. Seems several tour groups were on ship and had booked everything up.

I am early riser (4am) so I hit the Buffet some days coffee was fine others you could not drink it. Otherwise food, service etc. was good.

[margaritawoman]

We have been on the Dawn twice. I don't think you will fine the kids program to be the same as on a 7 day cruise. It is an older crowd. We love the 10 & 11 day cruises because they are more layed back with not as many kids on board. It all depends on what you are looking for. We find the entertainment on all Princess ships good to great. I have not been on NCL so I don't know how it would compair but I would not like freestyle cruising. We always do traditional dining but they do have anytime dining on Princess.

[hugger]

I have been on 30+ cruises the Dawn is our favorite ship. Granted with a longer cruise you can get a bit older crowd. However, that was fine with us - no problem getting seat in any of the venue's. We LOVE the anytime dining as opposed to the traditional seatting. We are late 40's/50's to give you a point of reference.

We prefer the smaller ships to the larger one's.

If you go for the balcony cabins I will encourage you to go with a BA or BB balcony cabin as the BC's are smaller on the Dawn. We had a BC and were a bit cramped the future cruise agent told us that the BA's and BB's are larger on the Dawn.

Would love to try one of the mini suites on the Dawn as they are more like full suites on the other ships.

 

have a wonderful cruise - you'll be with your friends :)

[Kentchikan]

We went on the Dawn last October and we are booked on it again this October.

We had a suite on the Mercury and a suite on the Dawn. The suite on the Mercury was small but the butler service was great. The suite on the Dawn is huge but no butler.

Still all in all we prefered the Dawn. Except for the butler service we found the food and service on the Dawn to be better.

It is an intimate ship. Nothing ever feels crowded. There is plenty of space. It is a pretty ship.

I think you will enjoy it.

[melika091900]

Thank you everyone for your responses..

im just a little skeptical only because we really enjoyed freestyle dining on NCL... it really made us never want to do traditional again

but hey , its a cruise !!! it will be a good time no matter what,, ;)

thank you all again

Melissa

GO A's !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!yeah 1st place in the west

[tequilasunrise]

I've done the Dawn from SF before, slightly different itinerary now but same idea. The kids programs were ok, but there weren't many kids in them so they weren't as active as the 7 day cruises (we went in early November). Still, the kids had lots of fun, as we did, and they made some friends. More older people, true, but they still had pool games, and other active things to do. They had a great band playing 70-80-90's rock in one of the lounges (the other was older big band). There were comedians, and standard Princess shows. The disco wasn't very active and was so smoky it choked you--too unpleasant to stay in. The piano bar was older person oriented music.

 

The shore excursions were so varied that most people will find something that looks good, and our family had lots of choices and lots of fun.

 

We had traditional dining, so can't speak about pc. But there are several choices for included dining.

 

I'd recommend it, I think you'll have a good time!

[hugger]

because of the traditional dining - you can do the personal choice dining. That is what we do and LOVE IT. You may not have as many different restaurant's to choose from on the Dawn. However, you've got quite a few. We espeically liked the pizzaria on this ship for lunch or a quick dinner, snack etc.

I really believe that you'll like it better than NCL. The only thing you may not like is that you are required to dress for dinner. However, don't most people do that on NCL too.

[Tina G]

Unless you have a large group, reservations for anytime dining are not necessary. As long as you are willing to share a table, this will give you the opportunity to meet a variety of people on board. If you find some are not your sort, you need never see them again. If you hit it off, you can meet at other meals. As for dressing for dinner, only shorts, halter tops and bathing suits are forbidden. Most women wear slacks or casual dresses, except on formal nights. I think you'll like Princess!:)

[Kentchikan]

When we were on the Dawn last year we always asked for a table for two. One time they gave us the beeper and told us there would be a wait. Before we could get to the bar and order our martinis it beeped. Another time they told us that it would be a long time so we opted for a large table. Before we could order they came and led us to a table for two. So even if you want tables for two they are usually available. We opt for tables for two because we are so busy "ashore" that we love dining alone together. Also there were these ghastly table mates on a 10 day fixed dining Princess cruise that will forever remind us why we eat alone but that's a looooooooooong story. But when we meet nice people aboard we do take the opportunity to dine with them.

And if all else fails the buffet upstairs has a section with table cloths and waiter service that is usually available. There is no extra charge. We have friends who sail Princess and never eat in the dining room. But always in the Lido. The waitstaff is great to them and even brings them things not on the menu.

[smoothdancer]

Although the last time we were on the Dawn was in 2003, I loved it. I go more for subtle decor and we loved the deep woods in our room. We have sailed the X's Mercury too, and they are quite comparable. We sailed freestyle NCL in July. If you are a food person, Princess food in my opinion is much better than NCL.

 

I can give you a few links. First link to our Dawn pictures, most of them our of the mini suite. Next a link to our website where we post our picture reviews. Click on the Calif button for a lot of ideas as to what you can do and see pre-cruise. Definetly try to go at least a day early.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/100424059PPWhLa

 

http://WWW.JustCruisin-SV.com

[LonghornKJK]

When we were on the Dawn last year we always asked for a table for two. One time they gave us the beeper and told us there would be a wait. Before we could get to the bar and order our martinis it beeped. Another time they told us that it would be a long time so we opted for a large table. Before we could order they came and led us to a table for two. So even if you want tables for two they are usually available. We opt for tables for two because we are so busy "ashore" that we love dining alone together. Also there were these ghastly table mates on a 10 day fixed dining Princess cruise that will forever remind us why we eat alone but that's a looooooooooong story. But when we meet nice people aboard we do take the opportunity to dine with them.

And if all else fails the buffet upstairs has a section with table cloths and waiter service that is usually available. There is no extra charge. We have friends who sail Princess and never eat in the dining room. But always in the Lido. The waitstaff is great to them and even brings them things not on the menu.

 

We were on the Dawn to Alaska in August and had a similar experience. We never had to wait for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, whether we asked for a table for two or said we didn't care. We loved being able to go whenever we felt like it and on four nights, we didn't go at all. One night we had room service, another we went to the Horizon, and in Victoria and Juneau, we ate out. If we had been assigned to a table in traditional, we would have had to let our tablemates or the maitre d' know that we weren't going to be there.

 

The only other ship I've been on is the Grand and I didn't see that much difference between them except that the Grand is a bit bigger and each has some unique features. I must not be a very observant person because I'll read about folks traveling on these ships who will mention "showing her age" or "wear and tear" and I've never noticed anything like that.

 

I thought the food on the Dawn was excellent, with the exception of the buffet which was still good. We enjoyed a lot of time in the fitness center followed by a soak in one of the aft hot tubs (our room was only one floor below.) We also enjoyed walking a mile now and then on the Promenade Deck. We went to one show and one movie and enjoyed both. We also did a wine-tasting, which we also enjoyed. We were so engrossed in conversation with our tablemates that we were the last to leave! :)

 

My husband and I did a non-scientific study -- we counted about 20 people who passed by us in the atrium and estimated their ages in order to determine a median age. We came up with about mid-60s. Of course, school had already started in some parts of the country so a lot depends on where you're going and what time of year as far as age. We're 51 and did not feel outnumbered by any age group. We were right under the entrance to the kids center and occasionally heard some running and jumping from above -- they sounded like happy feet. :)

[Kentchikan]

Hi Smooth Dancer,

Thanks for the great pictures. Your room looks wonderful.

Here's a link to some pictures from our Mexico cruise on the Dawn last year. Some of the ship and some of Mexico.

Enjoy.

K

http://flickr.com/photos/20168464@N00/sets/72157594274183205/

 

Longhorn: On our Mexico trip last October there seemed to be quite a few seniors. But since I was a teacher forever and had just retired that was my first opportunity to travel when children were in school. So on all of our other cruises there were many children. When we went on the Mercury I was a district roving teacher so went to all of our schools. There were at least 10 kids on board that I knew and two former students now in college. It was fun having them say hello around the ship.

[melika091900]

Although the last time we were on the Dawn was in 2003, I loved it. I go more for subtle decor and we loved the deep woods in our room. We have sailed the X's Mercury too, and they are quite comparable. We sailed freestyle NCL in July. If you are a food person, Princess food in my opinion is much better than NCL.

 

I can give you a few links. First link to our Dawn pictures, most of them our of the mini suite. Next a link to our website where we post our picture reviews. Click on the Calif button for a lot of ideas as to what you can do and see pre-cruise. Definetly try to go at least a day early.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/100424059PPWhLa

 

WWW.JustCruisin-SV.com

 

thank you for sharing the pics. so your room was a mini-suite right ?

yeah we are really considering trying princess...

we live near SF only about 15min away so it would be ideal....

 

yeah i did get kinda worried about ages.. i hate saying that, but i just remember on mercury,, it was like wow , we felt really out of place..

 

 

thank you all again

melissa

 

GO A's

 

 

thank you all again for all your responses...

[iancal]

Have been on Mercury, NCL Sun, and Sun Princess (sister ship to Dawn). We very much liked the layout of the Sun Princess. We now travel on shoulder season so seldom have a lot of children on board. Our kids all time favorite programs were on Celebrity-and the Mercury in particular. We enjoyed freestyle on NCL and found the entertainment to be better that what we had on Mercury or SUn Princess (our Princess entertainment was terrible..to the point that many walked out) but this, like food, changes constantly on a ship so I would not judge by comments in this area. I think that I would concentrate more on the itinerary, then the ship, then the cruise line.

[liv2cruise4ever]

Kentskie

 

Great pictures. Brought me right back to our Mar. 06 sailing. We're going again in 116 days....:D

[smoothdancer]

Yes was a mini... This was an aft cabin, our first time we tried the aft. Absolutley loved it, so quiet.

[Kentchikan]

Thanks liv2cruise4ever. Mexico is great. I've been going since I was 11 and love it and the people. I also like your online name. A great thought. Did you ever read about the woman who lived on the QEII? Sounds like a great way to go to me.

Smoothdancer: Our cabin was aft as well. We loved it. Almost like having your own private part of the ship since nobody ever came back there. We had a suite but checked out the mini suite and they are almost the same size. Great cabins. Wonderful location.

[jlp20]

nco4242

 

Since you just got off, maybe you will know.

 

Will be getting on in just over a month. Do they offer the “Coffee Card” on the Dawn? If so, what is the cost and where on the ship is the coffee “bar”?

[Kentchikan]

nco4242

 

Since you just got off, maybe you will know.

 

Will be getting on in just over a month. Do they offer the “Coffee Card” on the Dawn? If so, what is the cost and where on the ship is the coffee “bar”?

 

I don't know about the coffee card. I know that they have specialty coffees in the Patisserie on the Plaza Deck across from reception.

When are you sailing?

We're booked on the 29th of October.

K

[2Ports]

I'm sorry to tell you you'll absolutely HATE it. Please send me your tickets and I'll save you from this awful experience. :D

[envy4u]

I'm sorry to tell you you'll absolutely HATE it. Please send me your tickets and I'll save you from this awful experience. :D

 

Good one !!!