NCL Dawn Review (AB Suite, Canada 9/27-10/4)

[Mr Owl]

Just got off the Dawn yesterday. Figured I'd share a few thoughts.

Background

This cruise was our tenth anniversary present to ourselves, and also our first cruise. I'm 43, and my wife is 47. We're fairly experienced travelers, and having no kids, we tend to indulge a little in our vacations. For example, we like a lot of space, so wherever we vacation, we book a suite / larger room. We also really like to splurge a bit on food, etc. So the cruise idea seemed perfect.

After comparing prices of the various rooms, we chose the AB suite, as it seemed the best value to us for our style of travel. When we booked, the space was the selling point - we didn't even know about the VIP perks until after we booked

Disclaimer: Although I hope everyone can get something out of it, this review will be slanted more towards our style of travel and the "suite life".


Embarkation

A breeze. We live in NYS, so it's a short two hours to the pier. I parked at the dock, and we took the elevator down. About the only complaint I had here was NCL should really have someone up top - we kinda had to figure out where to go (etc) on our own, which isn't easy with luggage (being our first cruise, we grossly overpacked!)

But that complaint soon faded - we got down to where we needed to go, checked our bags, and sighed a bit as we looked at the line (I hate lines). But then something happened - when we showed our paperwork to the first attendant, she said "oh, you're VIP's", and everything changed... we were ushered to an empty counter, got handled right away, were brought to a room w/ coffee and cake, and were introduced to Anoop, the concierge, who led us onboard. And we were having lunch in Cagneys in no time. Wow.

Right away, I knew getting the suite was a great move.


The Boat / Room

We were blown away. Absolutely blown away.

The Dawn is a nice ship, and is really easy to get around once you realize that every deck generally has only two hallways.

The suite was everything we wanted. I even felt it was a little overkill, as there are just two of us. But we used the "kids bedroom" as our luggage room, and that second bathroom was great for not waking your partner at night (the toilets are loud).

Everything was clean, presentable, polished, etc. The balcony was roomy, and I knew we'd be spending a lot of time there. I know a lot of people say "you don't spend any time in the room on vacation", and that's probably true for many, but we have always found that to be the opposite of our style of travel. A roomy, comfy "home base" is important to us, and the AB delivered.


The Food

Breakfast:

We had John (our butler) deliver us breakfast each morning, and ate in the room, having second and third cups of coffee on the balcony. Was really nice to have a real breakfast in the room. The food was excellent - we got the same thing all week: cheese omletes, bacon, a fruit plate, toast, juice, and coffee. This suite perk ruled.


Lunch:

We took advantage of the Cagneys perk a few times - it was great. The French Dip was really good - I had it twice. We also ate in the Garden Cafe buffet twice to just grab something quick. Wasn't overly thrilled with the food there, but I expected that, too (I never liked buffet food all that much.) But we got what we wanted out of it - a quick, passable lunch on our way to do something else. The NY Deli was probably the best part of the buffet.

We also ate at the the Blue Lagoon cafe once (burgers, wings, "comfort food", etc). That was pretty good, akin to a nondescript lunch counter that all the "in the know" locals frequent over McDonald's. I liked it - probably should have eaten here again instead of the buffet.


Dinner:

Odd as it may sound, we didn't visit either MDR (Venetian and Aqua). We love nice dinners out on vacation, and in talking to a few people about the MDR's, we got the "good but not particularly great" report about the MDR's. Plus, the menus were a bit limited, and they seemed pretty crowded from 6-8.

Thus, we opted for specialty restaurants every night we had a dinner. We figured the cover charges cost us about $150 for the week, which was well worth it for what we got.

Doing it this way made dinner an "event", which we really liked. We dressed up most nights (my wife looked great in her purple dress), and really enjoyed ourselves. The specialty restaurants were perfect - not too crowded, a great atmosphere, choice menu selections, etc. And the food/presentation were wonderful. These restaurants are probably better than the best restaurant in most towns (I can't get prime rib like Cagney's in my town.) We ate in Impressions twice, Cagneys once, Salsa once, and Bamboo once. The other two nights were either room service or a late lunch. I'm not nuts about French food, so we skipped that one, although I'll try it next time.

The food was exceptional in all of them. I easily gained a few pounds. The drinks didn't help...


Drinks

I'm on vacation, and I'm not driving. Nuff said. Fill er' up.

I was a little concerned that there would not be any "good" beer or liquor onboard. But as it turned out, it was fine. While I personally would make the beer menu a little more adventurous, they did have Sam Adams, Guinness, Bass Ale, and a decent IPA I cannot recall the name of. So any of you fellow beer snobs can take comfort that you won't die of thirst.

My other drink of choice is whiskey, especially w/ a cigar. They had Makers, Knob Creek and Bookers bourbons... I even saw a bottle of Blantons in one of the bars. They also had The Glenlivit in most bars, and another noted single malt Scotch I forget the name of. So we got top shelf Bourbon and Scotch... we're good.

My wife had some wines that I forget the name of, some fruity drinks, and she says they make great pina coloda's. We were both happy.

Drinks were not all that expensive - no more than you'd pay in any hotel bar.


Entertainment

Loved it. There's stuff going on every evening. The 70's show in the Stardust Theater was fun, Fire and Ice in Dazzles lounge were really good (my wife loved them), and I thought the band Next Stage was incredible. Easily one of the best live "cover" bands I have seen - and they played it all (Rock, pop, disco, Beatles, etc). I saw them three times.

There were comics, lounge singers, jazz bands, a piano guy... stuff for everyone. You won't be bored.

I'm not a big fan of activities and planned parties (like the White Hot, etc), so we didn't do those. But for others who do like doing those things, they were plentiful. There was also a lot of Bingo, and of course, the Casino - we're not into either, so I can't report on those.

I would have liked to have seen a little more going on during the day by the pool area. Maybe this just doesn't happen on cruises (as they may figure most people are off the boat), or maybe it was because it was a fall cruise up north.


Ports

Not much to say here, as this is secondary to us (we didn't book excursions). We MUCH prefer to do our own thing. We got off in Halifax and walked around, and also got off in Bar Harbor, where we took our own tour of Acadia. We enjoyed both, although I don't like when you have to take a tender to shore (Bar Harbor).

Our next cruise will be Bermuda in 2011, where we'll dock for three days, so we'll do some exploring then.


Service

Impeccable. Everyone treated us like royalty. Anoop the concierge was attentive, and got us great balcony seats for the Stardust 70's show; John (our butler) was great; and everyone else was wonderful. The people on the ship seemed to work very hard at pleasing customers, no matter what their job or title was.


Ship Ambience / Fellow Passengers

Must be the time of year and destination, but this was definitely a much older crowd than I expected. I think I saw 2 or 3 kids the entire time (which, being childfree, is fine with me. ). If I had to guess, I'd say the average age was easily 65 or so. I did enjoy the relative quiet, and I got along fine w/ everyone I spoke to, but some nights, I was really wishing for a few more people our age or younger. There were some, but we couldn't fill Dazzles for Next Stage or Fire and Ice. The last night, Next Stage played in the Spinnaker, and there were six people watching (which stunned me, as they are really, really good.) I saw the video of the White Hot, and boy, it looked positively bare. I do suspect Bermuda will be a little more lively.

This really isn't a complaint or anything - please don't slam me if you are a senior (I'll be one myself someday.) I enjoyed myself fine, liked everyone I spoke to, and will do this itinerary again in a few years. It's more an observation for those who maybe want to book this cruise next year - just expect the fall Canada cruise to be an older demographic, and not a real "party" crowd.

My wife did have words with someone right at sail away. We were in the Bimini bar up top, and this woman at the next table was loudly complaining about a smoker sitting a few tables away - just loudly saying to nobody in particular "why are they smoking? They can't smoke here. Don't they understand I can't STAND smoke..." We were giving our drink order to the server, and this complaining woman grabbed the servers arm and interrupted, saying "Hey, they are smoking and..."

that's when my (very tough when she wants to be) wife got in her face and said (in a decidedly icy "you are really close to going overboard" tone) "EXCUSE ME - we were talking to him, and you are being EXTREMELY rude." The woman didn't say a word and slinked away to a less smoky part of the ship. Good.


Tipping / etc

I'm putting this little section here because I'm a fairly good tipper, and I think it made a difference in our cruise. I read a lot of posts here about the service charge, "they should be happy with that, why should I tip more?", etc etc... I travel the way I travel, and part of that is being a little loose w/ the wallet. There are others who think like me, so I figured I'd report that I felt it made a difference.

One day, I was out by the pool, having a few drinks. I decided to go up top to the (closed) Bimini bar to have a cigar (as not to disturb others who don't like that kind of thing). I threw the guy $10 as I left, as he had already brought me a few drinks.

I was the only guy up top (ironically, I was smoking exactly where the non-smoking complainer was a few days earlier ) About 15 minutes later, "my" server makes his way up w/ a cup of nuts/snacks, and asks if I want a drink. I was impressed - he really didn't have to do that - it was quite a ways away, and two flights of stairs.

Another time, we got a few cups of snacks in Dazzles just brought to us by the server I had tipped... nobody else around us got them. Was it because we had a VIP keycard? Or because we tipped? I dunno... we didn't ask for them, but we got em. Repeatedly (I gave one cup to the people next to me, whom devoured them.)

These are just small examples, but I really felt a few tips made a difference in an overall sense. Now, don't get me wrong - I got great service even from those I didn't tip. But if a guy brought me a few drinks and I threw him a few bucks, I got extra special attention from that person for the rest of the cruise.


Disembarking

Again, a breeze. We opted to take our own luggage and take advantage of VIP priority disembark. We met Anoop at 7:45am, and he led our small group off about 15 minutes later. I was on the George Washington Bridge before 8:30. Sweet.


Closing Thoughts

We loved the cruise, and already put our deposit on the next one, which will likely be in May, 2011. We'll probably try and get the same exact suite because we loved it so much

Again, we really went top-shelf on this cruise, but I felt it was really worth it. I know it's not for everyone, but I wouldn't do it any other way, and am happy with our choices. But that's the great thing about cruising - you can do it your way, and with your budget, and still have a great time.

Hope everyone enjoys their cruise as much as we enjoyed ours. If I can answer any specific questions, let me know.

[flashdog_1]

Thanks for the review. We are taking this itinerary on Dawn next Sept 12. I realize you went slightly later, but I wondered about the weather/temperature and any color in the leaves. Thanks

[Mr Owl]

Sadly, you probably won't see much color. We really didn't see much on this "end of September" trip. It's still a week away or so for the areas we were in. Acadia had a little color in areas, but there was less overall than I was hoping for.

The weather was juuuust in that area of "should I pack t-shirts or long sleeves?" So I would say early September, you should probably plan for the warmer end (more t-shirts than long sleeves).

That also depends on your tolerence for cold. Personally, I consider 60 fairly warm, but people from Florida might be breaking out a jacket.

[WinnieinWA]

Thanks so much for your review. I think NCL has the warmest, nicest crew! The Dawn is my favorite ship so far.

[flashdog_1]

Originally Posted by Mr Owl

That also depends on your tolerence for cold. Personally, I consider 60 fairly warm, but people from Florida might be breaking out a jacket.

Thanks! We live in Alabama which is about as hot as Florda, so thanks for the heads up!

[dtiger]

Very nice review, glad you enjoyed yourselves.

[autrucheplume]

Thanks so much for your review! We're on the Dawn next year in an AD suite, so it's always nice to read reviews from those in other suites.

So glad you enjoyed yourselves!! (Though in my opinion, it's hard not to when you're on a cruise!)

[beachbird]

Man, I wondered what Anoop was up to these days. He was great on American Idol...

[Mr Owl]

I just read that this was Anoop's first stint as Concierge. He really did a nice job - glad we filled out one of those cards for him (and gave him a nice tip)

[Sailaway Girl]

Mr Owl

As you got off the ship I got on headed for Bermuda. Had AB 11020 which gave me both John and Anoop. I could not agree with you more they were both great. Got really spoiled by that in room coffee maker, room service and that great shower.

Thanks for the review. I am going through ship withdrawal tonight and would love to head to Dazzles and hear Rosie from Fire and Ice belt out a tune

[rickechambers1@aol.com]

Thanks for the review...NCL has a truly superior suite product. Do yourself a favor and try to never go backwards...once you have a suite, it's really hard to go back...on several occasions, we've asked ourselves "what are we thinking, no butler?!". Welcome back to reality until next time!

[Mr Owl]

Originally Posted by rickechambers1@aol.com

Thanks for the review...NCL has a truly superior suite product. Do yourself a favor and try to never go backwards...once you have a suite, it's really hard to go back...on several occasions, we've asked ourselves "what are we thinking, no butler?!". Welcome back to reality until next time!

Yea, we won't. Even if the AB is overkill for 2 people, we loved that "extra" area for laying out luggage and that second bathroom. And, of course, the butler - it was great!

[maryln]

Thanks for the review. We'll be in an AB on Sunday. Can't wait!