**REVIEW: NCL Dawn 8/2-8/9/09

[kttest]

We arrived at the pier at noon and headed for the Latitudes member line which in and of itself was quite long, but still short compared to the “regular” line. While we waited there were TVs around showing the new EPIC ship, it looks very cool! The wait to check in was about 30 minutes, not bad. As usual you were greeted with hand sanitizer and champagne.

CABIN: We were in an inside cabin on deck 10 FWD (#10587), cabins were ready around 2pm and we received our luggage maybe around 5pm. For 2 people the size of the room was fine, especially when you don’t spend much time there. We had a 1 large suitcase and 1 medium sized. We put the medium bad into the large and they fit standing up in the closet so they were out of the way. The room was clean. The bathroom was showing some signs of age. I.e. The clothes line in the shower didn’t retract back and was starting to look a bit grimy. Our safe did not work, but within 30 minutes of me calling about it they came to fix it and after that it was no problem at all. My only gripe with an inside room is the darkness in the morning. You never know what time it is. Your cell phone is acting wacky because you are at sea so you can’t rely on that for the time (half the time it was on California time…very strange!) and the only way to see the time was to look at the display on the phone, which is dark, so you’d need to turn on the light to see it. Next time I would bring little clock that is visible in the dark. Our cabin stewards were very friendly and always got our room clean and turned down quickly.

SHIP: Some people say that the ship is looking old, but I didn’t really get that feeling. I thought it looked great. The Dawn is the same model ship as the Gem which we sailed last year. One of the things that we loved on the Gem was the bar and sitting area at the back of the ship on I think it was deck 12. The Dawn didn’t have anything at the back of the ship except for the kids’ pool, so we missed that. Our sailing was completely sold out, but I never really felt like I was crowded by loads of people.

POOL: While the chairs right around the pool were always filled up, we never had a problem getting a chair if we walked towards the front of the ship. This at times seemed better because the speakers around the pool are VERY loud, almost too loud, you couldn’t even talk to the person next to you with out screaming. Don’t get me wrong, I’m only 35 and the band at the pool was great, but the speakers could be lowered just a bit.

SPA: On the first day at sea it was overcast and sitting on the deck it was pretty windy and a bit cold, so we decided to buy the day passes for the Spa pool. It consists of a lap pool as well as a salt water jacuzzi and a regular chlorine jacuzzi. You also have access to the lockers and changing rooms which include showers, a sauna and steam room. The padded lounge chairs are facing full length windows overlooking the back of the ship, talk about relaxing! It was a great place to take a little nap.

FOOD: There has been much talk about the new static menus and I could see if you never ate in a specialty restaurant you’d get bored, but we didn’t mind it. The daily chef specials were posted at the beginning of the cruise so it was easy to plan where you wanted to eat. We ate at both dining rooms. Venetian is the bigger grand dining room and I felt that things tended to take more time there. Aqua is the smaller dining room which had more of a cozy feel to it. Both were good. I wasn’t overly impressed by the food, but they were good. I definitely recommend the mushroom ravioli appetizer in Aqua, which was delicious! We also ate in 3 of the specialty restaurants. Impressions (Italian) was very good and for $10pp, it was a bargain. Le Bistro (French), what can I say, I mean foie gras and duck confit for $15pp, I mean come on!! It was fabulous! Everything we had there was heavenly and the service was great. On the last night we went to Cagney’s Steakhouse which is $25pp. I have been to quite a few NYC steakhouses and Cagney’s in my opinion has some of them beat! The ribeyes, were like they say on the menu…”like butta”! The sautéed mushrooms were so flavorful and perfectly cooked and the cream spinach was light and delicious. It was a wonderful meal and well worth the price. We mostly did the buffet for breakfast and lunch which was pretty good; I had no complaints about it. We also snacked at Blue Lagoon. Here service is a bit spotty, sometimes it’s quick, sometimes only 1 of your orders comes. However the food was pretty good. This is where you go to get water/tea/coffee after the buffet closes at night since it is always open.

STAFF: The crew was great and we got to chat with quite a few of them. They were always happy and helpful no matter where you were on the ship.

BERMUDA: What a beautiful island. We opted not to take any excursions so we bought a 3 day transportation pass that worked for both the buses and ferries and traveled around on our own. Horshoe Bay is a beautiful beach and does get crowded. If you keep walking towards the rocks at the far end of the beach it gets quieter and you can find a near empty beach, definitely worth seeing. We stopped at Church Bay, but I wasn’t impressed. The day we went it was very windy so there was no way you could snrokle nad the beach is pretty small. We moved on the Elbow beach, which was pretty quiet. We did spend an hour or 2 at the Snorkel park, it was fine, the snorkeling was good since the water was so calm. The beach itself is small and a little rocky but if you’re going in the water, it’s good. We took the ferry to Hamilton to walk around there and did a little shopping. If you need to check your email, the library provides 30 minutes free interenet access per day. We went over to St. George as well, but got theree to late to go into the churches and town hall, but it is a nice little town with some shops.


All in all it was a lovely cruise. If anyone has any questions, let me know!

[op1]

Thanks for the nice posts and observations. Sounds like you had a nice time.
It all falls within my expectations. A couple of questions if you don't mind.

What do they charge for a day pass at the spa?
Were there sufficient chairs on the promenade deck?
Where the menus at Venetian and Aqua the same?

Thanks
OP1

[paulekrause]

I was on the week before so I can help answer.

a Day at the spa costs $20 PP. A week is $99 single, $150 per couple
We did the week and loved it... used it every day

There are not nearly enough chairs on the promenade and they are not deck chairs, just upright with blue mesh nylon type material.

The menus at the Venetian and Aqua are different

[lizjoemom]

Whoa! Free Internet? Wish that we had known that as we bought the 250 minutes package for the internet cafe. My husband opted not to bring the laptop so that we would not have too much baggage and just used the ships computers for work. How did you find out about free internet?

[kttest]

I think my BF read about it on some website. They had a about 4 computers that you could use and then there were a bunch of people with their own laptops. 30 minutes free, it was a good deal!

[op1]

Free internet!! Wow I missed that when I read your review. Thats great I use skype so that gives me some free talk time if I need to call the office.

Guess I'm lugging the laptop.

OP1

[ETski]

Krista
Great review, glad you had a nice time. The spa on the Dawn is soooooo relaxing. We cruised on the Dawn 4 yrs ago and it was free. But the fees youn mentioned seem very fair. On our Sept cruise we only have one sea day so I don't know if we would really use the spa that much. I remember some lounges chairs in a bubbling pool, so nice I do have a question, you said the chef specials are posted at the begining of the cruse. Where are they posted? This is helpfull in planning what day to go to the speciality restaurants. We plan on going to LeBisto one other one. Just depends.

[tokidoki]

Hi, glad you had a great time, did you see the 3 production shows?

[kttest]

Originally Posted by ETski

Krista
Great review, glad you had a nice time. The spa on the Dawn is soooooo relaxing. We cruised on the Dawn 4 yrs ago and it was free. But the fees youn mentioned seem very fair. On our Sept cruise we only have one sea day so I don't know if we would really use the spa that much. I remember some lounges chairs in a bubbling pool, so nice I do have a question, you said the chef specials are posted at the begining of the cruse. Where are they posted? This is helpfull in planning what day to go to the speciality restaurants. We plan on going to LeBisto one other one. Just depends.

Thanks! I believe the chef specials were posted outside both Venetian and Acqua and were also on display at the reservation desk in the main atrium on deck 7.

[kttest]

Originally Posted by tokidoki

Hi, glad you had a great time, did you see the 3 production shows?

Geez I forgot to mention the entertainment! Band on the Run was OK; it seemed like a typical cruise show. We only saw the end of South Beach Rave which I'm glad since I don't think we would have enjoyed it based on the few minutes we did see. The best of the 3 were Bollywood. It was actually very good and there was this couple that was not in the other shows, that didn't seem like they were normal cruise dancers because they were pretty amazing. The magician Gregg Gleason was very entertaining. The comedian, Dave Heenan was funny and he was always around the ship chatting with people and saying hello. One of my favorite performers on the ship was Bernie Martini played piano and sang, he was great, I really enjoying watching him.

We were also lucky enough to have some special entertainment on board including Mary Wilson and Phil Flowers. Phil was great! He put on fantastic shows and even performed twice at the pool late night.

[terrymtex01]

OP thanks for taking the time to share your review with us. We are sailing on the Dawn this Nov and are very excited.

For others reading this thread and for you maybe on your next cruise.. 8-).. just wanted to let you know there is a setting on your cell phones that will have the cell phone keep network time or where you set the time manually. When you are on a cruise ship you always want to change that setting to manual or you will have the issues you referred to in your posting. 8-)

Thanks again for sharing.

T

[kttest]

I didn't know about that phone setting, I'll have to remember that for next time, thanks for the tip!