Review: Norwegian Cruise Line - Dawn - [June 19 , 2005]

[Net Reviews]

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Reviewer Comments:

I booked this cruise as a week getaway. I had been on the lookout for a
spring cruise, particularly wanted to go to Bermuda, but nothing had
really worked out. The NCL Dawn was pretty easy to arrange, I had that
week of vacation, they had a sale for this sailing, and it was a train
trip to New York instead of a flight. Most of the reviews of the Dawn I
had read were positive. I was hesitant about Freestyle dining
particularly going it solo but I wanted to try both Freestyle and also
the Norwegian Cruise Line which I had never been on. My comments about
Freestyle in this report should be taken in this light, that I had low
expectations about Freestyle dining but booked anyway. This was my 19th
cruise the others having been on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess
and Carnival.

The train trip up from Washington was a breeze as was getting a cab
from Penn Station to the Manhattan cruise terminal. Taxi fare was under
ten dollars. I arrived about 11:00 am. Checked in and waited in a
seating area about forty-five minutes until the previous sailing had
cleared, then got right on board. I would rate the embarkation as very
good. Once on board there are a couple of greeters at the gangway but
no direction to cabin.

Cabin was an outside cabin, the smallest I have had on any of the
recently built ships. Booked an outside guaranty, and got upgraded a
few categories from one with a porthole to one with I nice big window.
There is plenty of storage space. Decor is a shiny dark wood laminate.
There was the smallest TV screen I have had in a cabin. There is a
small refrigerator. The shower in the bathroom is the largest I recall.
It is a sliding door shower which is nice. The beds had been made into
twins so I found the steward and asked him to make them into one. He
said he would do it when he did the turndown. He did not do that though
so I had to look for him again in the evening. After he put the beds
together he made them up with the two twin sized duvets and in the
morning the combined bed had two twin sized bedspreads on it. Never had
a bed made up like that before. Also they do towel animals so NCL falls
into the towel animal cruise line category with Royal Caribbean and
Carnival.

After checking the cabin I went down and made some reservations for the
extra charge restaurants. I made one for Cagneys and one for La Bistro.
Then went to the lunch buffet at Garden Cafe.

The lunch buffet on Dawn is the poorest I have seen on a cruise line.
It was never very good. They have carving stations but at lunch they
only have pizza at the carving station. There is also a vegetarian
section at the buffet and a NY Deli sandwich section. I suggest using
the Blue Lagoon, Bimini Grill, pool side BBQ's or even lunch in the
main dining room. The breakfast buffets were fine. They have an omelet
station and they will also make waffles. At the breakfast buffet they
have the usual expected selections including smoke salmon. the orange
juice was pretty good but the coffee isn't very good. I did not try the
buffet in the evening. There are hand sanitizers beginning at the
beginning of every buffet line.

Evening dining, I would say the food was good enough in the main
restaurants but not as good as the food quality on Royal Caribbean,
Celebrity, Princess and Carnival. I tried all three main restaurants,
Venetian which is large, Impressions and Aqua which are smaller. Had to
wait for tables at both Venetian and Impressions. Service was good
but not as good as service I have received on traditional cruise lines,
they tended to be very fast to get you out and turn over the table.
Meals tended to be about an hour. Some people may prefer this to the
longer meals on traditional cruise line dining rooms but I thought it
was too fast. One waitress at Impressions was asking if I wanted pepper
and she already had it on before I could answer. At Aqua which appears
to have all female servers the server forgot to give me back my sign
and sail card and it took them twenty minutes to find my card after the
meal. One thing that is very nice is that they don't charge extra for
Cappuccino in any of the dining rooms like all the other cruise lines I
have been on do these days. That is a good thing as the regular coffee
is not that good.

The restaurants that require reservations, I did Cagney's, La Bistro
and La Trattoria. Cagney's and La Bistro are an extra charge. The
Italian is not, so it is hard to get a reservation except for a late
time slot if you don't make a reservation at the beginning of the week.
However I was able to get an earlier seat without a reservation by
walking up and asking. The cover at Cagney’s is $15 an La Bistro $10. If
you go the first two nights they are half price. Also a 5:30
reservation is half price. The food at Cagney's and La Bistro is better
than the main dining rooms but about on par with the food you would get
with no cover charge on Celebrity and Princess in the main dining room.
No cover at La Trattoria but the food there was very good. Cagney's is
a steak restaurant but it does not compare with Chops on Royal
Caribbean. Chops was about three times better but then Chops has a
higher cover charge. The alternative restaurant on Celebrity is about
three times better than La Bistro but again the cover is also higher on
Celebrity. The covers on NCL may be more to control demand. I did not
try Salsa which is a reservation restaurant with no cover except for
the Tapas which you can just sit at the bar for. Did not care for their
Tapas. Tapas don't really go with Tex-Mex, seems an odd combo. I also
did not try the Asian restaurant Bamboo which is one of the restaurants
with a cover charge. Tipping for the cruise is an automatic deduction
of ten dollars a day to cover the wait and cabin staff.

As for the public areas and ship decor, I thought it was nice and on
the whole the ship has a nice look but it lacks the lux touches found
on other cruise lines. It is all laminates and artificial materials.
They used a lot of cheap materials but unlike Carnival which uses a lot
of cheap materials and has a tacky looking decor, NCL used cheap
materials in a tasteful way. As for the artwork on Dawn, well I am not
a big fan of Andy Warhol but if you are you will love the artwork
hanging. There is a wrap around promenade which has lounge chairs and
"murals" on the promenade. The library is a nice size but in an odd
location on deck 12. The book selection lacks because they have not
bought anything published in the last three years. There is a cinema
near the library. Also card and game rooms in that area. These were
well use. Saw a lot of families playing board games and also people
playing checkers and chess.

The bar lounge areas are good and the ship was not smokey except for
the casino. They have delineated the non-smoking and smoking areas well
enough that I was not bothered at all by second hand smoke. There is a
separate enclosed Cigar Bar for cigar smokers. Also a Martini Bar. Two
times during the cruise they had a martini clinic which was good. A
good presentation and a good deal. You get five martinis, five oz. for
ten dollars and learn how they make different kinds of martinis. The
bar waiters in general were some of the most annoying I have
encountered. They would not let one alone in asking if one wanted a
drink. I was surprised at the drink prices. While the prices on other
cruise lines have climbed in the last few years the prices on Dawn
reminded me of lower prices of a few years ago.

I did not like the pool area. There is one main pool and it was always
crowded and difficult to get a lounge on sea days. Also they have
tables under the whole overhang so there is little shaded space for
lounge chairs. Even in the deck areas away from the pool it was hard to
found a lounge. Chair hogging was in abundance too. They do hand out
towels on deck which is a plus. Towels for shore excursions are handed
out at the gangplank, none of that beach towel in the cabin stuff.
Another nice thing on the pool deck is the ice cream stand.

The spa area was a very good refuge from the crowded and noisy pool
deck. It seemed virtually unused most of the time. It is adult only
with an indoor pool, whirlpool, and large Jacuzzi that reminded me of
Celebrity's Thalassotherapy Pool, not sure of it is the real thing but
is similar, also a sauna and steam room, Japanese hot and cold tubs.
Plus padded lounge chairs and a very good aft large window sea view. No
charges for the above amenities I mentioned. There are of course the
usual for charge spa treatments available.

Activities and entertainment, there was a lot of both, more than I
recall on other cruise lines. Which with the passenger composition of
the sailing mainly families that worked well. The cruise director,
Colin Kerr was pretty good and funny. A lot of announcements were made
but the sales pitches were not too bad. There is course the usual bingo
and "art auctions" and towards the end of the cruise they junk up the
atrium with tables of "gold by the inch" etc. This was a very lively
ship and all the lounges are active late into the night. The late night
events were good in large part as there were a lot of young people on
board who tend to stay up later than when you have an older passenger
profile on a sailing. The headline entertainers booked were very good.
Second City comic group, Edge, who is a comic juggler act and there was
also a magician. The production shows usually disappoint but I thought
they were above the average on the whole.

I thought it nice that they had a question and answer period with the
Captain. It was titled something like Behind the Scenes Digital Photo's
so if you are interested look for that in the daily. The Captain Idar
Hoydal, was there and took questions. It was not advertised he would be
there so maybe the Captain does not always attend.

Internet access, there is an internet room with stations and there are
wireless hotspots on several decks in public areas. It worked well
except sometimes it did not want to send out e-mail from your home ISP.
if you have that problem ask the manager and he will provide you the IP
address of their server to use for outbound e-mail.

Composition of passengers on this sailing, a good percentage from Long
Island and New Jersey. Many have been on the ship before as it makes an
ideal getaway if you live in those areas. Mainly families, lots of
children, about 900 I was told. More babies than I have seen on a
cruise before. The 900 children were much better behaved than the 800
children who I sailed with on Celebrity a few years ago. Not sure why
but I think there were a lot more teen activities than on the Century
and that might have been a reason. I would say the only negative with
sailing with that many children was both times I was in the restaurants
with a cover charge there were small children, that got out of hand,
and the parents did almost nothing about it.

It is not a great itinerary but there are limited options for seven day
sailings out of New York. The sailing out of New York is one of the
treats of the itinerary. You want to be on deck for the sailaway. The
ship sails by Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and there were great
views of the Manhattan skyline. Port Canaveral was first port. The
options there are the theme parks, Kennedy Space Center, the local
beaches and town area. The theme parks seemed like a lot of bus riding
to go stand in line and since I will be in Orlando in December I
decided to pass on that. I thought about the Space Center but it is an
all day excursion and I did not feel like doing it, so I went to Cocoa
Beach. Took the crew bus which anyone can use. Was disappointed in the
beach but also it was a bit raining on and off. Went back and enjoyed a
pretty empty ship. Pool area was uncrowded.

Miami, went to South Beach for a while on the NCL shuttle. Walked on
the beach and South Beach. Then went to Bayside Mall from where I
walked to downtown Miami and Cuban area around there. More rain though
so headed back to ship.

Nassau not my fave port and but this visit was a little different, ship
arrives in evening after Great Stirrup Cay and stays overnight. Some
shops stay open at night for NCL. I heard the Dig (pretty much an
aquarium) at Atlantis had no admission charge so I taxied over there.
The Dig was okay, something that was worth seeing for free but it
would not be worth paying the $25 charge they have for it in the
daytime. The next morning I did the ships Athol island snorkeling
excursion as the ship leaves at noon so the only other realistic option
would have been shopping. Turned out I had been there about seven years
ago but it was called something different by another cruise line. Still
it was well worth it, a very nice snorkeling reef with lots of fish and
coral. also last time I was there it was a December sailing and the
water was cold. It was much more comfortable this time.

Grand Stirrup Cay is the NCL private island. This is the third private
island I have been on and it is the smallest and most packed of the
three. It gets very crowded because of the small beach area. It is less
crowded away from the beach. In comparison I rate the Princess private
Island three times better, The Royal Caribbean private island at
Labadee two times better and both had a better BBQ than NCL.

The disembarkation, they had an Express option which I encountered
first on Carnival last year. Instead of putting your bags out the night
before, if you are able you can carry your own bags off. Those who do
that are in the first group off. I took that option and it worked well
for me. Also nice NCL encourages you to stay in your room before your
turn to disembark rather than have to sit in public lounges. Funny
though the steward knocked on the door several times and that was
before anyone had debarked.

Freestyle Cruising was not something I personally prefer but it looks
like a very good option for those who don't like set dining times and
dress up dining. Not recommended for the solo traveler who does not
know anyone going on the sailing, but I am sure it works for family
groups or other groups and couples who don't want to share a table. One
thing, I think it might be better with fewer but better restaurants. I
prefer not to have to make that many decisions about where to eat on a
cruise. And when you have to make reservations it losing somewhat the
flexibility you are supposed to have with Freestyle dining. I also
prefer not having to wait for a table on a cruise.

The aspect I liked of Freestyle was dressing resort casual the whole
cruise. I did not miss the formal and semi-formal evenings of other
cruise lines however I would pick the dress up with traditional dining
over Freestyle dining without the dress up.

So all in all it was a very nice vacation. I would not book it again
unless someone else I knew was going to be aboard but I am happy that I
took the cruise and I enjoyed my week getaway cruise on NCL Dawn.