Dawn 7/6-7/13/08 Review Part I

[jdarch]

Official Disclaimer:

- This reviewer has previously sailed on Celebrity and Azamara; this may/may not color the following comments.

- The opinions expressed are largely those of this reviewer alone. The reviewer’s DW (who frequently made comments on the cruise such as, “Honey, relax!”, “I’m on vacation!”, “I’m in Bermuda, I don’t care!”, may/may not agree with these opinions; this may/may not color the following comments.

- The reviewer himself was also on VACATION, in BERMUDA, and enjoys Pina Coladas and the occasional well-made manhattan; this also may/may not color the following comments.

 

In General: We enjoyed this trip on the NCL Dawn and would recommend it to others. Everything went very smoothly (see “vacation” disclaimer above), and except for one rainy day, the weather was great – even with Bertha loitering in the wings. Bermuda, as usual, is lovely.

I was told our cruise had about 2300 passengers. Even so, we never really felt crowded, or felt the lines/waits for various services were overly long (our longest wait was ½ hour for a 6:00 pm Venetian dinner). (DW just said, “who cares we were on vacation.” See? Maybe I should just start…).

DAY 1

Embarkation: Okay, somehow embarkation with a “k” does not look right, but I now accept that the spelling is correct (I had to check…). So here we go.

NCL leaves from the West Side of Manhattan, What can you say? As a former NY’er, hey, at least it’s not Bayonne…oh sorry: “Cape Liberty.” Which, with as nice a face as Celebrity can put on it, is a bit shall we say…Desolate? Funky? It is what it is. I digress.

Back to the West Side: the signs on 12th Ave led us right to the Pier. Then…well, information was less forthcoming. Fine knowing where “Taxi Only”, or “Thru Traffic,” went; but more instructive signage, maybe not so much. With two large NCL ships looming overhead, I took an educated guess, and left DW and our luggage off at hmmm, somewhere about Pier 92 (?), and then went to park on the roof. Now that part was easy! Once on the roof, after dropping the required $210 (actually not bad compared to other parking in the area), our now-empty car was checked by NYPD dogs for explosives and drugs; as I gratefully apparently had neither, I was parked in a large, secure lot - lots of spaces. It's very big - don't worry about parking!

I returned to the concourse and found DW…but wayyyyy too far up the sidewalk. I commandeered a cart and was soon met by a porter who assured me, that even if I was clueless, at least HE knew which ship we were boarding. So there. Once we were in the lobby, the polite and numerous NCL staff whisked us through; I love when they politely look at your passport and then back at you, as if to say, "Damn, you thought you looked good in that picture...?"; anyway, as boarding was 11:30 am, we sat in the Waiting Area. Just ten minutes later we were called to board at 11:15 am? Woo-Hooo! Greeted with champagne and OJ in the Dawn's very large and nicely appointed Atrium, we then headed to the reservation desk there to make our specialty dinner ressies. Do this ASAP, as it gets crazy very quickly.

As advertised on this forum AND NCL's Concourse handouts, we headed to Venetian for lunch. BLOOP! No one in Venetian knew about lunch. Being old and wizened Forum members, we knew this to be just a clever ruse, and decided to wait nonchalantly at the top of the Venetian staircase, inspecting the fine woodwork. Shortly thereafter, a crisp, white uniform with many stripes did appear and did frown upon us. We confidently offered up our new NCL Concourse Handouts that stated the Venetian would indeed serve lunch. HA!

The crisp, white uniform with many stripes gazed upon our evidence, and dismissed it as readily as the Air Force does UFO’s. With a smile, he did look upon us as children, and said firmly, “There is no lunch here”. What could we have been thinking...?

Our tails between our legs, we headed to the Garden Buffet and had lunch. I know we enjoyed it, but have no idea what we had. Eventually, we wandered about the ship getting our bearings, and some cocktails, until our cabin was ready (about 2:00 pm?).

 

Cabin: Very nice. Size and storage comparable to other ships we’ve been on; which means for newbies: it might feel a little small, but you quickly get accustomed to the Cozy. Now. The bathroom? Strange as it may sound, we loved the bathroom: glass doors on both the toilet area and shower created a more spacious feel. Nicely done NCL. Oh by the way. Word to the wise: once you’ve had a balcony, it’s hard to go back. Ended up with a balcony last trip and found it nice. This trip, I used our balcony every day. Folks that say, “Oh, you only sleep in your cabin,” haven’t had a balcony. And for the record, it's also a nice place to nap.

 

Crew: Unlike previous cruises which had a consistently “international” crew, I found it a little odd that the large majority of Dawn's more visible crew (i.e., restaurant staff, bartenders, housekeeping) were from the Philippines. That said, the staff ran the gamut from very friendly to not so much; however, we never found any of the crew to be rude (as some have posted). Our cabin attendants, Jonathan and Marlon, were friendly and meticulous and managed to return our cabin to relative sanity twice a day. The towel animals and treats at turn-down every night were a nice touch. In the restaurants, staff-wise there were some small problems, but more on that later.

Next up: restaurants and more.

Any more specific questions on the Dawn, fire away, and we will answer if we can.

More to follow.

[cvasto]

Great review! Keep it coming!

[cvasto]

Where is the rest?