Trip Review -Jan 27 -

[hova]

Background – It was our 4th cruise (2nd on NCL). Our kids also joined us (ages 12 &17). It was their 3rd cruise (2nd on NCL).

 

We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise, rented a car, and stayed at the Doubletree suites. Had a great stay, and recommend the hotel for anyone needing some extra room or travelling with kids.

 

Embarkation – We had planned on being at the terminal by noon, but due to traffic and a longer than planned drive down to Miami, and with the Miami Marathon on, the streets downtown were blocked off. This made returning the rental car to Hertz downtown a nightmare. We finally got the car returned at 2:30pm. We managed to catch a shuttle over to the ship, and were walking into the terminal as they were closing the doors (at 2:45). They told us that we were the last guests to get on the ship, we came very close to missing the ship altogether. Apparently we were supposed to be on 2 hours before departure (the ship leaves at 4pm). I almost blew it, but I guess that I just didn’t pay attention to how late we could get on because I had intended on being one of the first on, not the last. Anyways… we flew through the check-in process and were on the ship by 3pm. Easily the fastest we have ever checked in. (But I don’t recommend this method to anyone!)

 

Dawn – the ship was very familiar to us, as we cruised on the NCL Star two years ago. The layout is identical, and we found our way around quite easily. The Dawn is in very good shape, and is pleasant to be on. We booked two outside rooms on Deck 4, one for us, and one for the kids. The rooms locations, turned out to be really bad, more on this later.

We ate at Venetian, Aqua, Impressions, Salsa and Garden Café. All were good with the exception of Salsa. We had poor service, and really didn’t care for the food.

We were very happy to see that our favourite server from the Star was now on the Dawn working in the Venetian. We would ask to be seated at her station each day. The staff happily accommodated this.

We also ate lunch every day at the Blue Lagoon and found it a prefect spot to get out of the sun for awhile and grab some tasty food. The hot wings and fish and chips are awesome!

Connie our room attendant was awesome, she always had our room done early, and worked around our kids who liked to sleep until noon time. Towel animals each day (the kids really liked these) and always happy, smiling and friendly.

 

Samana – We got up a couple hours early to go outside and watch for whales as we entered the Samana Bay. Despite two hours of looking with binoculars, we didn’t see any, but, it was still nice to see land after a couple days of fairly rough seas and high winds.

We took the NCL tour to Cayo Levantado. This is a little island that seems impossible to get to unless you take the tender from the ship for $33. In our opinion, this island was worth the $$ to get their. The beach was excellent, and they have plenty of food, drinks and shopping. Highly recommend going on this tour. It seemed that anyone who just went into Samana and walked around was disappointed. Make sure you plan something for this stop.

 

Tortola (BVI) – Had originally planned on taking a tour over to Virgin Gorda to see the Baths, but, because we had to get tender tickets and tender into Tortola, we arrived later than planned. We didn’t think we had enough time to make it to the Baths and back and still enjoy them, so, we took a cab to Cane Garden Bay instead ($6 pp each way). Lazed on the beach, did some shopping. After we went back to the ship dropped off our purchases and went out again. Overall, we felt that Tortola was our best stop. Nice scenery and great beach.

 

St. Thomas – Took a taxi to Coki Beach ($8 pp each way). Mainly went here because we wanted to do some snorkelling and enjoy a nice beach. We think that St. Thomas is a great stop, as there is plenty to do for every one. The stores around the dock area are quite good. Managed to pick up some cheap liquor on this stop.

 

Great Stirrup Cay - Got on one of the first tenders. Grabbed four chairs on the beach and parked their for the day. We went snorkelling, and felt that this was our best snorkelling on the entire trip. We seen a lot of fish, as well as a couple of stingrays. Took the very last tender back to the ship. We just lazed on the beach until the line-up to get on the tender was gone, and walked right on. Some people waited in the line-up for about 30 minutes, my vacation time is too valuable to be doing that.

 

Debarkation - As we wanted to get a good start on the day, as well as beat the rush at the car rental, we did the self debarkation. We carried off our luggage about 7:30 am, and we were out, took a taxi over to Hertz, got our rental car and were on the road by 8:15. Went and spent the day at in Fort Lauderdale. Overall, it a very easy exit from the ship and Miami in general.

 

Issues – Had a couple of issues that irritated us. Normally, we don’t get too upset over things, but these raised our blood pressure a bit.

 

1. While we were at the beach on GSC, a security guard came into our room, opened up the safe and left. One of our kids was in the room, and let him in. He said that he was supposed to reset the safe. After I filed a complaint, and an investigation was done, it was determined that he went to the wrong room. I really didn’t like that someone was in our safe with all our valuables without us being present, and that a staff member would go into our room with only a minor present (even though he is 17).

 

2. Our daughter wanted to go to the Basketball free throw scheduled activity. It was supposed to start at 2pm, but, after 30 minutes of waiting no one showed up to run the event, so, I went and made a call. I was promised that someone was on the way to run the event, but, after 20 minutes, no one showed up. After another call to the activity staff, they informed us, that they messed up and that the event was now cancelled. I just wish that they would have let us know earlier instead of having us wait for an hour.

 

3. The last night of our cruise, after everyone put their luggage out to be picked up, we found out, that right beside our room was the central deposit area for that luggage. The crew was very loud with lots of shouting, and luggage carts being banged against our cabin wall (we had cabin 4570 which has no cabins on the one side of it). This was going on well past midnight, finally I blew my top, went out their, and tore a strip off of the workers and the person in charge. I showed them that the wall that they were pushing luggage carts against was our cabin wall, and that we were trying to sleep. The noise stopped immediately after that, but, you would have thought that they wouldn’t need a confrontation in order for them to be quite. I would sooner take an inside cabin on any floor than a outside on deck 4. It seems that Deck 4 is used a lot for bringing in and taking goods off the ship, as well as the gangplanks are on deck 4, so a lot of people are lined up down the hallways trying to get off the ship when the tendering is going on. Just too much activity and congestion for our likings.

 

So...….Overall I would give this cruise an 8 out of 10. The ship, weather and the itinerary was great; jut a few blunders by the ship staff that took away from it.

Really didn’t notice any of the new improvements that are suppose to be coming to the NCL ships. Lobster was only served one night (first full sea day).

 

We will likely will cruise NCL again, as we really enjoy the flexibility of the Freestyle dining. Probably will try one of the newer ships next time, as we really like to explore the ship, and felt we missed out on that this time as we had been on the “Star” which is the sister ship.

 

The link below shows some photos from our cruise.

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/562388477lOFXTm

 

hova