Norwegian Dawn Reviews

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Embarkation from Boston went well, we arrived Black Falcon Terminal noon time. It was very rushed, my husband's sunglasses were in the tray you put wallet, etc. in and they almost broke them (assuming the tray was empty). I made a little joke about the police dog smelling my dog, and the officer said "the dog is not here to make friends". (Sorry for making conversation; I was going on vacation and in a good mood. We were able to have lunch in the Venetian MDR, plenty of seats (most people must have done to the buffet). Food: We dined @ the Venetian first few days. It is elegant, but quite noisy. Staff seemed tired from beginning of trip. We then tried the Aqua MDR which is smaller. The food is the SAME and we enjoyed the quieter atmosphere and much friendlier staff. Less people to serve, less pressure on them. Not much variety in menus, but still good. Blue Lagoon open 24 hrs, best feature buffalo wings, check out the breakfast! Sometimes the staff forgets about you, we were told to raise our hand. Balcony Stateroom: Very nice, Deck 9 quiet. There was hand soap by the sink and shampoo and shower gel in the shower. (I had read there would be other toiletries such as on the Spirit in 2010 when we had lotion, powder, mouthwash). No biggie. I also read on NCL Q&A there would be robes in Balcony & above. None, again no biggie. Odor in bathroom area. Entertainment: My hub and I were disappointed in the quality of entertainment. Second City improv not very good. Bollywood about the best show. Band on the Run, ok. Band by the pool about the best music which was the reverse on our previous cruise; we miss Emily & Arvin. Dawn had poor quality bands/singers, trying to sing Beatles, Elvis, Sinatra.

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We are just back from our 3rd time on the Dawn and 3rd time to Bermuda - #1 in my book for an island destination. Getting to Boston was a breeze, actually picked up our daughter at Logan and drove straight to pier - only 10 minutes away. We were actually too early but they took our luggage anyway and we drove around Boston to see the sites. After 12 we parked the car in the convenient garage - just a street away and we were onboard within 1/2 hour. The rooms were not ready until 2 so we took a tour of the ship and ate at the Garden Cafe. Our room was conveniently located right next to the spa so there was no excuse not to use the treadmill. The first time we had seen the $119 charge to use the spa indoor pool and hot tubs. I would love to know how many really paid the additional charge. We took note of the "casual" dress of everyone and hoped it would improve especially towards the dinner time. We enjoy dressing for dinner and knew we would probably be in the minority looking at the other passengers. Hoodies and do rags aren't acceptable in my book.

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I just returned today from a week on the Dawn, April 27 - May 4. I traveled with my husband, my 5 year old daughter, my sister and a female friend of hers. This was my second cruise. Embarkation was quite easy. The lines moved as quickly as can be expected. We got in and headed to the Garden Buffet for lunch. The lunchtime buffet food was adequate, not bad and not great. While at lunch they announced that all staterooms were ready, this was before 2:00 PM. We stayed on the 8th floor, mid-ship, in an obstructed oceanview room. I had decided to try that for a savings. The view was quite obstructed, as they describe, but it did allow for letting some light in. The room was small but very clean and I liked the set-up of the bathroom, with the separation between the toilet, sink and shower. The shower was quite good-sized. The beds were pushed together and we pulled the bunk bed down off the wall and set the ladder up and it worked great. Food: The breakfast in the buffet was very good. They had everything you could imagine there. I especially loved the waffles and the fresh fruit was wonderful. I never ate breakfast in the restaurants so I can't really compare. We had lunch in the buffet one day and dinner in the buffet one night. That was enough for me. First, the food on the buffet just was not very good quality. The pizza was worse than the cheapest frozen pizza. The desserts were not bad, so both times I ended up eating mainly dessert. I'm not a big buffet fan anyway, and it's mostly because people tend to be gross. I observed two people touching food and then not taking it. Anyhow, we had a few lunches at Blue Lagoon, as well as a few midnight snacks, since Blue Lagoon is open 24 hours. All of the food there was quite good for what it was. We especially enjoyed the buffalo wings and the spinach artichoke dip. Not as good were the panini (cold) and the strawberry poundcake (dry). Most nights we had dinner in Aqua and the Venetian, and had lunch in the Venetian on a few days. Both dining rooms had very good food. The service in Aqua seemed to be faster than the Venetian, but wait staff in both were very nice and attentive. We found the food served in the dining rooms to be of very good quality, no complaints there. I would highly recommend taking advantage of the dining rooms for lunch and dinner, although it does take longer. But the biggest dissappointment all week was the chocoholic buffet. We literally ran back to the ship after a shore excursion in order to get in before it ended. The buffet was so bad that there was nothing I could even eat on it, and I am not picky, especially when it comes to chocolate. Honestly, I can't even remember what was on it. I filled my plate with the different items (about 7). Out of that,there was one piece of mocha cake that was edible, but it still wasn't good. All in all, the food was very good, but if/when I go on this cruise again i will do breakfast in the buffet and then go to the dining rooms for the rest. My only prior cruise experience was in July on Carnival Imagination and I have to say that the food on Carnival was a little bit better. Entertainment: The shows and offerings on this ship were incredible! To me, that was the most important part. I like to pack in a lot of activities and they had constant activities like game shows, dancing with the Dawn stars, karaoke idol, daily trivia, pictionary, scavenger hunts, etc, as well as many outside activities by the pool. They did a great job in spacing these out to allow for you to attend as many activities as possible in a day. The cruise entertainment staff was very upbeat and a lot of fun. I can't say enough good things about the entertainment on the ship. They had a big show each night and it was really something to look forward to. Bermuda: We bought a 3 day transportation pass in Bermuda as soon as we got off the ship. You have to walk through the port building and you will see the desk to buy them. We took a bus to Horshoe Bay Beach just to see it. The bus was scary due to the narrow roads, but it was fine and it was so worth it. The beach was absolutely gorgeous and a must see! The next day we took the ferry to Hamilton and went to the zoo/aquarium there. It is small, but a very cute, well kept zoo. After that we took the bus back into downtown Hamilton and walked around the shops. That night we went on a shore excursion. We took the bermuda triangle night cruise in a glass bottom boat. It was so worth it! Highly recommended. Kids: If you have kids this is a great cruise. They have a really good kids pool area with two dinosaur waterslides and a kids pool in the middle. They also have a great Kid's Crew staff. My daughter could not wait to get there each day and I felt very comfortable leaving her with them. We had such a wonderful time on this cruise and would like to go again.

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Another great trip on the Dawn! We sailed last October with the same destination, Bermuda. Last time we were upsold to the Deluxe Owner's Suite and have found out we can't go back. My teenage son and one of his friend's accompanied us for this vacation that we planned late last year. We arrived early at the Black FalconTerminal knowing that the Dawn had arrived empty from Miami. Security was quick and easy and we were brought directly to the VIP lounge where we were reunited with Virginia, our concierge from our last trip. She is so sweet, remembered us immediately and before long we were escorted onto the ship as its first guests! Our suite was all ready and we were introduced to Jeffrey Ignacio, our butler and my hero for the entire cruise. He alone made the extra for the DOS well worth it. Jeffrey made sure the boys had all the food, movies and drinks they needed and watched over them like a ......butler! He was awesome. Anyway, we proceeded poolside where we were greeted by Dennis and Jeffrey (different from our butler, poolside waiter). We remembered these guys from our last trip. That is what we love most about the Dawn -- we've gotten familiar with a lot of the staff and we enjoy seeing all their faces. Some remember us, some don't. From poolside we went to Cagney's, hands down the best perk for booking a suite, breakfast and lunch at Cagney's! I had their shrimp appetizer every day at lunch. Soon enough we were off and the party began. I like to do spa treatments on the first day while we are heading out (so I don't miss casino time, LOL). DH enjoyed the poolside activities. Having the kids with us, we decided to eat at the Venetian for the first night. I will say, it was not the best service and food. The snapper was dry and the service was very, very slow. We proceeded to the casino where my DH ended up winning a small amount at the Poker table and I broke even at the slots. The night was very rocky and the seas quite rough. Day 2 was filled with bingo and trivia after our morning breakfast at Cagney's. DH won (well split) the poker tournament and we continues to have rough seas, but the sun was out. The wind was totally outrageous later in the afternoon. We went on a bar crawl with friends and that was very unimpressive. Close to 200 people on a 6 bar crawl was not worth the $25 per person. We went to the Vegas show which was fun after dinner in the Aqua which was extremely good with fast service. They had a new game -- Deal or No Deal that was a blast. Day 3 was our arrival in Bermuda. Beautiful, but windy. Our excursion to jet ski that we planned on our own was rescheduled to the next day due to the weather and we decided to take the bus into Hamilton. We had not gone to Hamilton the last time and we found this city to be very over rated. We stopped off at the Crystal Caves and did the tour which was nice. Again, we did this on our own and saved a ton of money. $20 at the caves compared to $49 NCL excursion price. We came back to the ship and ate in the Garden Cafe with the boys and took in the "Not so Newlywed Show" at Spinnakers. Day 4 started off with a tad bit better weather and we decided to try out Horseshoe Bay with the kiddos. Water was way too cold for me, but the kids enjoyed it. There was an awful lot of jellyfish washed up on the shore. We headed to our jet ski excursion afterward, just as the sun came out and the wind died down. We had a blast!! Can't say enough about Somerset Bridge Watersports. Great guys, great tour on jet skis and great time. We returned to the ship and had an awesome dinner at Cagney's after sailaway and found out we had a bit of a burn. Slept very well that night! Day 5 was back at sea and we continued to fill our days with Bingo and trivia. I won $1000 on their raffle tickets!!! Woot woot. We had dinner at La Cucina, it was okay, but I am not a big Italian food fan. Service was very prompt though. I returned to the Casino since I was feeling lucky and hit a few good slots! Day 6 was a much laid back day. Trivia, Bingo, Spa treatments and checking our room charges. Everything was in order. This is a good place to mention that I was very disappointed with my Iconcierge app for my iphone. I could not get it to work on the ship from Day 1 and whenever I asked anyone about it -- no one knew about the app. Not our concierge or the internet cafe people. I do have to mention that to NCL. We ate at Moderno which was extremely good and extremely filling. We met up with Virginia Friday morning and were disembarked within 15 minutes after saying good bye to our favorite staff members. There was a lot more of course, but this is a general overview.

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We just returned from a 6-day cruise to Bermuda. Before we left, we read a lot of the reviews on this site and were grateful for the advice and feedback we received. The embarkation process is smoothly handled by NCL. They had everything organized in their computer system. We just needed to present out passports, credit card and "e-documents" (from pre-checkin on the NCL.com site). We were traveling with another couple - where one of their party happens to carry a Belgium passport - and his check-in wasn't as seamless. Nevertheless NCL handled our check-in quickly. One side note for those leaving from Black Falcon terminal in Boston: Massport (the state government authority) seems to run a chaotic process when you arrive at the terminal. The scene approaching the terminal from the street is one big ball of confusion with no clear organized staging for those arriving or for taxis dropping off. After we finished our embarkation process (around 40 minutes), we were on board at about 1pm for a 4pm departure. We were informed that our cabin was ready, but we opted for a quick lunch at the Garden Cafe. There's a kid's seating section where we ate grilled vegetables and other hot dishes. Then we proceeded to our cabin. We began to settle in and enjoy the accommodations, when we were directed to a muster drill in the Aqua restaurant. They basically told us where to go, in case of an emergency. Then we met up with our fellow travel companions and headed for the pool party on 12th deck. We snacked on barbeque burgers and enjoyed some cocktails, as we cruised out of Boston harbor. We traveled with our 21-month-old daughter - and we noted that there were a number of other families on the boat. At our daughter's age we didn't struggle to keep her entertained. The Dawn has a kids area - with a "Under 2 zoo" playroom. For those over 2-year-old, the Dawn has a very well run kids camp. Where there are supervised activities that keep the children busy from 9am-4pm. We over hear some kids say to their parents that they didn't want to leave the activities center. Also on the back of the boat there's a kid's oriented swim/play areas. Our daughter was unfortunately too young to use this facility. We ate at Cagne's steakhouse once (our only play-to-play dining experience) - and found the food fantastic. One area (across from Cagne's steakhouse) does not seem properly utilized on the ship - the Star Bar - which is a really nicely appointed bar overlooking the 12th deck and pool area. It just seems that there is very little going on in that bar. But it was an ideal location for us to have some quiet time to ourselves and enjoy some drinks in somewhat private comfort. On other nights we ate at Aqua or the Venetian. We thought both were good - but we liked Aqua's more contemporary atmosphere better. My wife summed up the our fellow Dawn passengers as: "...a mixed bag of nuts." An extreme rage of folks from conservative to "edgy" (to put it kindly). We saw people in very tasteful attire - and then we saw many that looked down right scary. Gang-bang looks, neck tattoos and pajama pants were the fashions of choice on a lot of the crown - particularly those that hung out by the pool areas. Not assuming that NCL caters to this demographic - but nevertheless the down-market/mixed bag of nuts are in abundance on this cruise. Our stay and activities in Bermuda were dictated by the weather in large part. It rained and gusted relentlessly until the morning of our last day in Kings Wharf. We made the most of with a delightful morning at Snorkel Beach ($5 access fee - well worth it). Lunch at the Frog and Onion pub. And a ferry ride to Hamilton. The service on the cruise was wonderful, throughout. The enthusiasm of the staff was infectious and made our time on-board memorable. All-in-all, we would do the trip again - even with the mixed bag of nuts.

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