DAWN SJ 5/1/15 first timer review

Ok so here goes nothing. There are a lot of reviews on here, some better (Mitsugirly's and Gambee's) and some worse (they know who they are).

This review is on my family trip to Bermuda on the Dawn May 1-8 in SJ 12008.

I am gearing it towards those that have never sailed before, both in general, in a small ship SJ suite, or on the Dawn. I am doing this because I had many questions about what I was getting into, and while I found through looking quite a few answers to these questions, most of the questions I had were not that important to ask or there was answers that still came back vague at best. I say a Picture is worth a thousand words.

That being said, I am no photographer. All of these pictures were taken with my IPHONE 5S and with my poorly placed shaky hands. So if you are demand quality stills, you will not get them ;)

Oh, and the photo host decided to post some pics upside down. If this is the case, I am sorry, but I tried to fix it.

Here is the Gallery to the dailies and whatnot. http://postimg.org/gallery/p094pl5i/

Here is the gallery to the pics http://postimg.org/my.php?gallery=2k5zvhis6

Day 1 we set sail: It was my first time ever going on a cruise. I am 33 year old Male, with a wife and 2.5 year old, and was traveling with them, my sister, and my mother and father.

We tell the nice lady we are in a suite and go to the fast line to check in and get our cards and then go to the “room” (roped off area) to hang for a few minutes ]

Oh and an FYI:

This particular cruise was not supposed to require Passports. But they did. I believe this is because it was the first cruise out of Boston, coming from a REPO cruise that hit a few other countries. But I am not too sure on that.

We skipped past all the photographers, whether we liked it or not. This made my dad happy, but not me. Yes they are a ripoff. But my wife wanted one of the ship behind us, and that didn’t happen. So we got one with the Captain later on.

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The room. SJ12008 The internet says that it sleeps 6. So we put 6 in there. Why you ask? Well we were going to do 2 inside cabins. My parents and Sister in one, and My wife and son in another. But the KSF deal came along and the 2 options were roughly the same price.

We were concerned about having a 2.5 year old in a balcony. We were also concerned about what to do with our son for baby sitting. My parents like to go to sleep early and wake early. We like to go to bed late and wake late. My son goes to bed early and wakes late. He also takes naps around 2.

So instead of trying to get my son out of my parents room and into ours at midnight, it was easier to pack us up like sardines in one room. Issue was, the one bathroom. But I had read there was a nice mens room right around the corner. (This is not the case. The mens room on the 13th floor is rarely cleaned and has no view? that I thought I had read).

They did put a shower curtain in the bathtub up on night 3, but by then, we had already figured out how to get around the showering time, so it was never used.

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There is plenty of room in this Suite. the King bed was plenty for my parents, and my sister enjoyed the pullout couch, with me and my wife (I am a big dude, my wife has some meat too) slept well on the full sized murphy bed pull out. My son slept in the packnplay that NCL provided

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It comes with a fridge and the coffee maker. Coming from Massachusetts, we are Dunkies’ people. So the machine makes Espresso. I used it a few mornings while waiting for family to get ready for breakfast a few mornings. They also provided us with OJ and Cran that we requested in fridge that was 20x better than the buffet’s machine.

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The view in the room is breathtaking. Fantastic. There are a few spots on the inside of the window, especially on the side in front of the murphy bed. But that’s ok. It was awesome. There is so much to do outside the room, that the view far exceeded any desire for a small balcony for us.

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So we checked out the room and went off the Cagneys.

Cagney’s is awesome for Breakfast and lunch. The waitstaff, Joseph and Charlie, kept my son happy, and therefore everyone happy every time we went.

I got the steak. My mother suggests if you like your steak Medium rare to order it Medium. I like mine Medium Rare and thought it to be just right. So it’s up to you.

Off to the poolside.. Ordered a drink. Officially on Vacation.

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Our MnG was cancelled due to a lack of a person to run it. So we scheduled one at Bimini Bar after the Muster. The muster was next to useless from J2. Couldn’t hear anything, and had no idea what to do. Basically all I could figure out was that if there was a problem to grab your life vest and go to J2. Ok.

Went back to the room to relax for a minute and met Roland our Butler, and Alfredo our Steward. Both were fantastic the whole week. Cannot say enough good things about them, even though we hardly used them. Roland will be up in the Garden Villa starting the 8th for the next 2 months, then down the 9th floor, for those that want to know.

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So now we get to the Winds. They were howling. White caps everywhere.

I went up to the Bimini bar to the MNG, but it was closed, and I had no way of knowing where anyone went. Sigh.

Checked out the kids pool area for my son. It was way too cold to go swimming but wanted to explore.

Look at the kids loungers lol. (there were few, if any, places for adults to lounge/sit)

We hung around exploring the ship, had some burgers at the sailaway, and relaxed. My mother went to the show (which really was a big ad for the rest of the week's show), and we went to the blue lagoon to try the wings.

The wings were really good but lukewarm at best. My wife loved the chips and artichoke dip and ordered them a few times through the week. Off to bed we go.

It is crazy windy at this point and the boat is really rocking. We are all feeling the effects.

Day 2. We start with breakfast at Cagneys

I tried the crabcakes benedict, which were quite good, even though I dislike eggs benedict.

The boat was rocking. HARD. The wind was howling. It was making a lot of people feel queesy. But, we were in a bit of a storm, and it was supposed to be quick. My father went off to play bridge, which was on the daily. He went there and found 2 ladies, and no cards. Why bother putting it on the daily if you don't even have cards??? But I digress.

We went to the Kids room where the guppies were having a butterfly painting. My son loves to paint.

Lizard ran the show, which was hard to do. One kid got sick and the boat was rocking and rolling. My wife got sick and went back to the room. pretty soon we went from 8 kids to 3, and then just me and my son.

Getting my son out of this room would prove to be difficult. He loves toys, and here there are no shortage of them. Certainly I wanted to explore more, but with the wife down for the day and night, I let him play. He loved it, and the boat rocking never really bothered him.

Today was MNG with the captain, and followed by dinner at Teppenyaki for our anniversary.

My wife was starting to get really sick, so I postponed the dinner until wednesday night. Since Seasickness comes and goes, there was a lot of rallying and then going. We still were able to get a picture with the captain, and we made it through half of band on the run, which was the one show I wanted to catch. I love that kind of music, but hate musicals, so I was marginally happy to leave.

About the captains drink. My family and I are not dress up people. Blue collared slobs so to speak. I own one suit, and I have no idea if it even fits anymore. So the invite says smart casual, which we collectively assumed meant khakis and polo.

Well, with the exception of maybe one other family, everyone was dressed up better than I would at a wedding. Awkward haha. But we still got our picture, and a drink and relaxed.

Since no teppenyaki after, we hit the buffet quick and onto BOTR for 9.

I had read that the seating for suites were not that great and somewhat obstructed. This is true to a point. One, they have a ledge for resting your drink. 2, my son can be himself and not really disturb his nieghbors if we grab the whole row. And 3, you can show up at 859 and still have the row. These are good things.

But yes you do miss the bottom left of the show, although the only thing I really couldn't see that mattered? was the piano in this shot here of Jose and Patti doing Neil Diamond later that week.

While the captains MNG was wrapping up we saw a rainbow. It was really really neat to see a rainbow that you could see the beginning and the end, although my iphone could never catch the whole thing.

Library

hairdryer

outlets

pack n play they give you, plus how Alfredo set it up every day for my Son

size matters

my son dressing up as a ghost, showing off the distance between the couch bed and the murphy bed

separators

portable phone to take with you, so if your sitter needs you they can reach you anywhere on the boat.

murphy bed down (full size)

So we lose an hour tonight, and since my bride was sick, and everyone was tired, it was bed by 11. I fell asleep around 1. The boat was crazy rocking, and it felt like falling and lifting over and over again.

I awoke to a sensation that the ship was tipping to the right hard. Have no idea if it did or not, but that's how I woke. I blindly look at my watch and see it is 545. I figure I will catch the sunrise, and fix myself an espresso.

I work the night-shift, so my sleeping habits are poor at best. I get 2 hours of sleep or 10, depending on the day. or night. By this day, I had been off since that monday morning so I had no idea what time was what.

I go outside and take some pics. It is dark. It is stormy. The boat is crazy rocking. but it is beautiful. Sunrise should be soon. I check my watch again. It is 415 am. What in the hell???

Well I guess I will take some pictures and take it all in. A self guided tour so to speak.

Kind of creepy that you can see these people's balcony

Basketball court. there was a basketball and soccer ball up there

Pool waves.

Aliens on board

Went to blue lagoon for a coffee. This was odd. The server asked me if I wanted any coffee. I said yes. He sat me down and showed me where the coffee maker was lol Ok.

kids menu for everywhere

Room service for suites only

laundry. Here is the picture of the laundry bag. I don't know how anyone fits anything in there. It is paper and the bottom is not flat.

I spent a solid hour in front of the ship waiting for the sunrise. I was surprised to never see a soul, other than an occasional worker. The wind was howling, but I figured there would be at least one other person who didn't want to miss the sunrise for anything.

Unfortunately, they knew something I did not. There was a cloud just above where the sun rises, making for a blah look. but it was still beautiful.

And Land Hooooo