NCL Dawn, The Good, the Bad, The Great and the Ugly... my review!

Profile: Sail Date 04/06/2014

Self (43) Hubby(52) Friends (52)

Previous lines, Premier, Carnival, Royal Carib.

Cabin... Owners suite #10006 and friends had balcony #10008

Concierge was John, Butler was Akhmed and Steward was Chris.

We arrived in Tampa on Sat and went to the Airport to pick up our friends who arrived from Nashville. We booked a room at the Intercontintal. The room cost about $135 each. They have a park and cruise package but we opted to park at the port. I just like having my car accessible. There is a nice mall across the street from the hotel with lots of dining options.

We took our time getting to the ship and arrived around 1pm. We dropped our car off with Valet and a porter took all our luggage. Since we had to go through the VIP line, we left our friends. It was VERY fast. After showing our passports we were escorted to the Concierge area that had refreshments and snacks. We were met and given a small speech on what to expect by our Concierge John and then giving cards to fill out and instructed to pick out three bottles of liquor for our cabin. I picked, Bacardi Rum, Smirnoff Vodka and a bottle of Kahlua. We were then escorted to our Cabin.

Our cabin was very nice... a little bit dated and you could see some wear and tear but honestly, it did not bother me at all. We had a large area that had a king size bed, a forward balcony that is right under the bridge and right next to the bed, a very large his and hers walk in closet with a vanity area and a bathroom that was so large it made me want new ones in my own home. The Bathroom had a whirlpool tub with a small flat screen tv above it, a double vanity sink, a separate toilet closet and a fairly large shower stall with multiple shower heads. LOVED THAT SHOWER! Outside our bedroom area(with sliding doors and curtains that closed it off from the rest of the cabin) was our livingroom/dining area. We spent quite a bit of time there. In that area, was another large balcony, a guest bathroom, a small mini bar with a fridge and coffee machine and a larger flat screen tv. There was a lounger, a chair with an ottoman and a large couch. There was also a dining table for four. On the side of the couch was an adjoining door to our friends cabin which we had our butler keep unlocked. It was almost like having a two bedroom cabin that way. We spent a lot of time with our friends in the living room area and they got to enjoy our balcony's as well as their own.

It took our friends only about 20 minutes to get to their cabin after we got to ours.

This is going to be a VERY long review so I will do it in increments.

Looking forward to your review, I'll be on the dawn in 230 days.

give us more dawn dec 28 259 days from now

Looking forward to your review!

Im very much looking forward to this.

Going on my first ever cruise. Dawn in 137 days (I think - Sept 5th).

Anxious to hear more of your comments!

Looking forward to your review.

can't wait to hear more...

Thanks so much for taking the time to record all the details! Do you have any sense for how long John will be onboard? We are sailing 6/20 from Boston and I'm curious as to who our concierge will be. Thanks again!

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

can I ask what os suite # you where in

Hi.. we were in OS Suite number 10006

It did not take long for our booze to arrive in the cabin and we also got a welcome treat of chocolate covered strawberries. We decided to stay in our cabin for the sail away but first we had to go to the muster drill. That was around 4pm. Whats different about this ship is that you get to leave your life vest in your cabin and you go to the very large auditorium they use for shows. They tell you where to sit according to your cabin location and you just watch them demonstrate and talk about what you will do in case of emergency. Honestly, I got nothing from it and was a bit confused. Guess I would go down with the ship...LOL.

We went back to our cabin for the sail-away, made some drinks and went to the forward deck of our cabin. This had two loungers on it and a small table. It was the PERFECT location because you are on the very front corner right under the bridge. One thing you HAVE to experience is going under the Tampa Bay bridge. I forget what its called but its a great experience. We took tons of photos.

By the time we did that, our luggage had arrived and we unpacked. There is TONS of space and storage in this cabin. I used one of the HUGE drawers in the vanity for our dirty s. I sprayed it with lysol before we left the trip.

Now I am going to describe some of our experiences.

Dining... We did not go to the Main Dining room AT ALL! We opted for the Ultimate dining package for $119 per person and got to go to ALL of the specialty dining options. We did try them all...

I have to say that the food in all of these were good.. not great! I honestly think Royal Carib does the food so much better! Out of all of them my fave was either the Italian or the French. Cagneys was OK.. We ate in Bamboo twice and I had the sushi both times. I have had better back home. We also ate a couple times in the Garden Cafe for Breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is typical for a buffet but we never had a problem finding a table. On port days we ate breakfast in our room. On port days we had lunch in the ports of calls that we went to. On the last sea day we had the Pool side BBQ. That was HORRIBLE and DO NOT try the cold potato salad that sits in the sun.

First Sea day... I spend it sitting out by the pool. I did not feel it was that hard for us to get a couple chairs as long as we sat on one of the top decks above the pool. I drank way to much this day and had to take a nap...LOL..

Day 2: Rotaan Honduras... we did not get to go to this port of call.. the day before a crew member from the NCL Pearl was shot and killed. NCL decided that all ships would skip this port. We were a little upset by this. We had an excursion booked and was really looking forward to it. They had already caught the shooter and to us, it just felt like all NCL was doing was punishing the people of Honduras who rely on tourism for a living. Plus, No other cruise lines were skipping this Port. Maybe they should have skipped taking us back to Tampa also because people are shot and killed there EVERY DAY! We ended up having ANOTHER Sea day.

Day 3. Belize... We booked the Cave Tubing/Zip Lining excursion through the ship on this port. You hope on an old school bus with your guide and drive about an hour and 20 minutes to the Jungle. Great excursion! The water in the caves were cool but perfect, the caves were amazing and the zip lining is not for the faint of heart. If you have a hard time walking stairs.. do not do this! They ended the excursion with an amazing lunch of authentic Mayan food. Our guide gave us so many details of his country and if you do this tour, I recommend you ask for him.. His name is Stanford. The tour is called Chuuka or something like that but its the only excursion called CRYSTAL cave tube and zipline. There are others similar on the NCL website but do not confuse them.. they are different.

Day 4. Costa Maya... We booked our OWN excursion on this Island called Maya Chan. You can google it. Its AMAZING. Its an all inclusive beach that includes all the food and booze you want, beach chairs, umbrellas, hammocks and beach beds. We also got to try Kayaking on this Island. The place is owned by a couple and they are VERY generous and so much fun. They have a large staff and keep the place extremely clean and even rake the beach every day and all day. I could have stayed at this beach for days.

Day 5. Cozumel... This excursion we have booked before and I would probably book it every time we go there. Its very much like Maya Chan and called Nachi Cocum. You have to book this one also on your own. Its a little more resort like and not as rustic as Maya Chan but the food is fantastic, the booze keeps flowing and you get all the amenities you could want. The big difference it that you have to pay for all the water stuff where on Maya Chan they just let you use it all. They also have a swim up fresh water pool and hot tub at this place. They offer beach side massages at both places and I got one at Maya Chan.

Day 6. Sea Day. This day we just lounged around on our own balcony's and walked around the ship a bit looking at our photos and people watching. We did go to the pool side BBQ and tried it, but I would not do that again... food was HORRIBLE and I am not sure but I think I got food poising either from that or the Garden Cafe that night.

Day 6.. Medic.. this was the first time I have ever had to use the Medic on the ship. Around midnight everything started flowing out of both ends and would not stop. I had some zofran pills that I had brought on board but I think I threw them up also. Around 1am I called the ships doctor and they said that he was asleep but the nurse would meet me in the medical office on deck 4 for a charge of $148.00. They were going to send a wheel chair but I told them I could walk. Hubby took me down and I have to say.. the nurse on that ship was so nice. She took my vitals and they were fine. The doctor then came down and he was very nice but I could not understand a word he was staying. He had a very thick accent. They have me a shot of zofran in the bootie and some anti diarrhea medicine and sent me to my cabin. I guess they told my husband that I would have to be quarantined to my cabin for now on because he thought I had the Noro Virus... They also did not charge me because they thought it was the Noro. Honestly, I think it was the food on the last day. I was not that worried about being quarantined because it was 2am by the time I got to my cabin and the next morning we were back in Tampa.

Tampa.. Because we were considered VIP.. we got escorted off by our Conciser John. Let me tell you.. It was FAST! We got to our meeting place at the Spinnaker Lounge and he took us down a private elevator and we were at Customs. We had a separate line for customs and I do not think that the Customs guy even looked at our paper. Since we did the valet service, our truck was already outside and waiting for us. We found a porter (or he found us) and we were back on the road in about 20 minutes from ship to luggage.

Shows: We only went to two shows and both were really good. We saw the Comedian Tim Kaminski and he was funny and we went to Bollywood and that was AMAZING!

Casino: Hubby went there quite a bit and did OK.. he lost but got some of it back. Kinda smokey but it didn't bother him.

Crew... I HIGHLY recommend John. I have heard things on these boards about the Conciser not doing much and not worth the extra tip but we had the opposite experience. It seems like John was everywhere on that ship and ALWAYS wanting to help us with something. He also have our friends the VIP treatment even though they were in a regular balcony next to us. They even got to dis embark the ship with us and given priority luggage tags which was great since we were taking them back to the airport. Tipped him $150.00

Buter.. Honestly, this is where I kinda think its a waste. Ours was nice but we did not see him much. He brought us Ice every day and a snack but that's about the extent of it. He might have also brought us soda refills for our cabin but we never saw him. Tipped him $150.00

Cabin Steward: Chris.. This guy worked his butt off! He was always so nice and ALWAYS had a huge smile on his face. He remembered our names from the very first day. We honestly wanted to tip him the most but we gave him an extra $100.

Overall I would give the following stars... 1 being low and 10 being high.

Ship: 5 (did not care for the layout and did not like that there is not an adults only pool. You can use the pool in the spa but you have to pay $129 for the week to use it)

Food: 7 (except for the poolside bbq.. that gets a 2)

Shows: 9

Cabin: 9 (can only speak for mine) my friends was nice but I didn't see that much of it.

Crew: 7 .. most did not smile

I am not sure if I will choose NCL again. I am sure the larger ships might be nice and maybe one day I will consider the Breakaway but for now I think I am going to go back to RCL or maybe try Celebrity or Holland America. To me, NCL is a step above Carnival and I am not a huge fan of Carnival.

This is just my opinion and I feel like you really need to go with no expectations and then make your OWN judgement's. I think a lot of it is what your past experience has been on other lines and comparisons to those.

Crew... I HIGHLY recommend John. I have heard things on these boards about the Conciser not doing much and not worth the extra tip but we had the opposite experience. It seems like John was everywhere on that ship and ALWAYS wanting to help us with something. He also have our friends the VIP treatment even though they were in a regular balcony next to us. They even got to dis embark the ship with us and given priority luggage tags which was great since we were taking them back to the airport. Tipped him $150.00

 

Buter.. Honestly, this is where I kinda think its a waste. Ours was nice but we did not see him much. He brought us Ice every day and a snack but that's about the extent of it. He might have also brought us soda refills for our cabin but we never saw him. Tipped him $150.00

 

Cabin Steward: Chris.. This guy worked his butt off! He was always so nice and ALWAYS had a huge smile on his face. He remembered our names from the very first day. We honestly wanted to tip him the most but we gave him an extra $100.

Holy crap, those are some insane tips! $400 is like another person going on a cruise (we do inside).

Holy crap, those are some insane tips! $400 is like another person going on a cruise (we do inside).

FYI booking an OS these are normal tips. Now an IS (which is what I book) different story.

Probably why I will never book the Owners Suite. Can't afford the tips.

It's always good to hear about the nitty gritty of a ship and cruise. Thanks for all the details you included.

I'll piggyback on some of your comments until I get time to sit down and write a full review this weekend.

We were staying in the 14000 Garden Villa...April 6, 2014

It did not take long for our booze to arrive in the cabin and we also got a welcome treat of chocolate covered strawberries. We decided to stay in our cabin for the sail away but first we had to go to the muster drill. That was around 4pm. Whats different about this ship is that you get to leave your life vest in your cabin and you go to the very large auditorium they use for shows. They tell you where to sit according to your cabin location and you just watch them demonstrate and talk about what you will do in case of emergency. Honestly, I got nothing from it and was a bit confused. Guess I would go down with the ship...LOL.

 

We had to go outside on Deck 6 for the Muster Drill.

We got out there and stood there doing NOTHING for 20 minutes. (other than piling us 5 rows deep on the deck)

Then one of the crew demonstated the lifevest for 2-3 minutes.

We were then told we had to remain standing there. (for another 20+ minutes)

My Mother (who is in her late 70's) and an even older gentleman with a cane, were keeling over by this point of standing.

I told her and him to sit inside the door on one of those window benches and told them if anybody bothered them, to come get me.

Utterly ridiculous to force any elderly or impaired passengers to stand, outside (luckily it was only low-mid 80's)for 40+ minutes.

 

Have been on 12 Carnival cruises and NEVER had such a ridiculous, unorganized, or long, muster drill.

 

We went back to our cabin for the sail-away, made some drinks and went to the forward deck of our cabin. This had two loungers on it and a small table. It was the PERFECT location because you are on the very front corner right under the bridge. One thing you HAVE to experience is going under the Tampa Bay bridge. I forget what its called but its a great experience. We took tons of photos.

 

By the time we did that, our luggage had arrived and we unpacked. There is TONS of space and storage in this cabin. I used one of the HUGE drawers in the vanity for our dirty s. I sprayed it with lysol before we left the trip.

 

Now I am going to describe some of our experiences.

 

Dining... We did not go to the Main Dining room AT ALL! We opted for the Ultimate dining package for $119 per person and got to go to ALL of the specialty dining options. We did try them all...

I have to say that the food in all of these were good.. not great! I honestly think Royal Carib does the food so much better! Out of all of them my fave was either the Italian or the French. Cagneys was OK.. We ate in Bamboo twice and I had the sushi both times. I have had better back home. We also ate a couple times in the Garden Cafe for Breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is typical for a buffet but we never had a problem finding a table. On port days we ate breakfast in our room. On port days we had lunch in the ports of calls that we went to. On the last sea day we had the Pool side BBQ. That was HORRIBLE and DO NOT try the cold potato salad that sits in the sun.

 

I am usually VERY easy to please foodwise on a cruise.

 

The only redeeming thing foodwise on this cruise was the amazing pretezel rolls at the buffett.

We tried to eat at as many different venues as we could throughout the week.

 

Ate breakfast and lunch at Cagneys, one dinner there also.

The steak I had for lunch at Cagney's was 100% better than the piece of leather I got served at my dinner there. (I was stunned after my Brother had raved about it from a previous cruise. Forced him to eat a piece of my steak so he could see how horrible it was. Turned out his was bad also.)

Breakfast at Cagney's was good, but the same quality as I experienced in the buffett other days, so I saw no reason to wait until Cagney's opened each day.

 

I found the food at the buffett to be very good except the pizza, which was horrible and the soft serve which was so poorly calibrated that it was melted, before you could walk 10 feet from the machine to a seat.

The downside at the buffett was the equipment. Something was constantly broken. (more on equipment later)

 

Ate one dinner in the Aqua dining room which was good, not great.

 

Ate one dinner at La Cucina, which was poor to mediocre at best. (stunned at how poor the specialty's food was prepared)

 

Overall, comparing NCL's food to Carnival. Carnival is much better, hands down. (which stunned me, as the freestyle dining was the thing about NCL I wanted to experience most)

 

First Sea day... I spend it sitting out by the pool. I did not feel it was that hard for us to get a couple chairs as long as we sat on one of the top decks above the pool. I drank way to much this day and had to take a nap...LOL..

 

Day 2: Rotaan Honduras... we did not get to go to this port of call.. the day before a crew member from the NCL Pearl was shot and killed. NCL decided that all ships would skip this port. We were a little upset by this. We had an excursion booked and was really looking forward to it. They had already caught the shooter and to us, it just felt like all NCL was doing was punishing the people of Honduras who rely on tourism for a living. Plus, No other cruise lines were skipping this Port. Maybe they should have skipped taking us back to Tampa also because people are shot and killed there EVERY DAY! We ended up having ANOTHER Sea day.

Or at least give us a extra day in Belize...

Day 3. Belize... We booked the Cave Tubing/Zip Lining excursion through the ship on this port. You hope on an old school bus with your guide and drive about an hour and 20 minutes to the Jungle. Great excursion! The water in the caves were cool but perfect, the caves were amazing and the zip lining is not for the faint of heart. If you have a hard time walking stairs.. do not do this! They ended the excursion with an amazing lunch of authentic Mayan food. Our guide gave us so many details of his country and if you do this tour, I recommend you ask for him.. His name is Stanford. The tour is called Chuuka or something like that but its the only excursion called CRYSTAL cave tube and zipline. There are others similar on the NCL website but do not confuse them.. they are different.

 

Day 4. Costa Maya... We booked our OWN excursion on this Island called Maya Chan. You can google it. Its AMAZING. Its an all inclusive beach that includes all the food and booze you want, beach chairs, umbrellas, hammocks and beach beds. We also got to try Kayaking on this Island. The place is owned by a couple and they are VERY generous and so much fun. They have a large staff and keep the place extremely clean and even rake the beach every day and all day. I could have stayed at this beach for days.

 

Day 5. Cozumel... This excursion we have booked before and I would probably book it every time we go there. Its very much like Maya Chan and called Nachi Cocum. You have to book this one also on your own. Its a little more resort like and not as rustic as Maya Chan but the food is fantastic, the booze keeps flowing and you get all the amenities you could want. The big difference it that you have to pay for all the water stuff where on Maya Chan they just let you use it all. They also have a swim up fresh water pool and hot tub at this place. They offer beach side massages at both places and I got one at Maya Chan.

 

Did Nachi also (arrived at 8:30AM and stayed until a little after 3PM. Great as always.)

 

Day 6. Sea Day. This day we just lounged around on our own balcony's and walked around the ship a bit looking at our photos and people watching. We did go to the pool side BBQ and tried it, but I would not do that again... food was HORRIBLE and I am not sure but I think I got food poising either from that or the Garden Cafe that night.

 

We watched the punk kids overun the pool area from our Garden Villa and saw no staff attempt to regain control of the pool for the guest the kids were harassing.

Also got to let John the concierge know that there were used condoms outside of his office at the Star Bar, beside the ping pong table.

My 4 year old nephew found them...GREAT day..

 

Day 6.. Medic.. this was the first time I have ever had to use the Medic on the ship. Around midnight everything started flowing out of both ends and would not stop. I had some zofran pills that I had brought on board but I think I threw them up also. Around 1am I called the ships doctor and they said that he was asleep but the nurse would meet me in the medical office on deck 4 for a charge of $148.00. They were going to send a wheel chair but I told them I could walk. Hubby took me down and I have to say.. the nurse on that ship was so nice. She took my vitals and they were fine. The doctor then came down and he was very nice but I could not understand a word he was staying. He had a very thick accent. They have me a shot of zofran in the bootie and some anti diarrhea medicine and sent me to my cabin. I guess they told my husband that I would have to be quarantined to my cabin for now on because he thought I had the Noro Virus... They also did not charge me because they thought it was the Noro. Honestly, I think it was the food on the last day. I was not that worried about being quarantined because it was 2am by the time I got to my cabin and the next morning we were back in Tampa.

 

Sorry you had the last night ruined like that. Thankfully it was the last night though. Hope your feeling better.

 

Tampa.. Because we were considered VIP.. we got escorted off by our Conciser John. Let me tell you.. It was FAST! We got to our meeting place at the Spinnaker Lounge and he took us down a private elevator and we were at Customs. We had a separate line for customs and I do not think that the Customs guy even looked at our paper. Since we did the valet service, our truck was already outside and waiting for us. We found a porter (or he found us) and we were back on the road in about 20 minutes from ship to luggage.

 

Embarkation and debarkation were amazing at Tampa.

Had the same experience.

 

Shows: We only went to two shows and both were really good. We saw the Comedian Tim Kaminski and he was funny and we went to Bollywood and that was AMAZING!

Casino: Hubby went there quite a bit and did OK.. he lost but got some of it back. Kinda smokey but it didn't bother him.

 

Crew... I HIGHLY recommend John. I have heard things on these boards about the Conciser not doing much and not worth the extra tip but we had the opposite experience. It seems like John was everywhere on that ship and ALWAYS wanting to help us with something. He also have our friends the VIP treatment even though they were in a regular balcony next to us. They even got to dis embark the ship with us and given priority luggage tags which was great since we were taking them back to the airport. Tipped him $150.00

John was an incredible concierge and I cannot imagine NCL has a better one in the fleet.

He was everywhere and handled everything thrown at him incredibly fast.

A true credit to NCL....

 

Buter.. Honestly, this is where I kinda think its a waste. Ours was nice but we did not see him much. He brought us Ice every day and a snack but that's about the extent of it. He might have also brought us soda refills for our cabin but we never saw him. Tipped him $150.00

 

I saw our Butler Caesar and room steward Uze multiple times each and every day.

Both got everything done as soon as we asked...

Helped make for a great, pampered portion of the cruise.

 

Cabin Steward: Chris.. This guy worked his butt off! He was always so nice and ALWAYS had a huge smile on his face. He remembered our names from the very first day. We honestly wanted to tip him the most but we gave him an extra $100.

Now DW and I prefer sailing on the older, smaller ships, than the glitzy new behemoths, with all the bells and whistles we would never use, but also all the extra passengers.

So we were happy for the Dawn to be our first foray into NCL.

Better to compare to our many Carnival cruises. (75% on the older ships in their fleet)

But the sheer volume of broken equipment throughout the Dawn was staggering.

Knowing older ships, you expect the occasional machine in the buffett or ONE elevator to break each cruise.

But the Dawn had so many things it actually got funny and about Thursday I started taking pictures of the many, many signs, everywhere you went, that said BROKEN.

I'll save the laundry list for my review, but it was staggering.

NCL Staff - I'd give an A++ better than most crew we've sailed with on Carnival. Everyone we dealt with all week was a credit to NCL...

NCL Food - outside of the pretzel rolls, the food on Carnival is much better at all venues, except the buffett, which sadly, was the best food on the Dawn last week.

NCL Ship - I liked the Dawn's layout, in general. (the tiny pool behind the grandstand was a waste and there clearly are not enough elevators)

The venues were all nice, exept the tiny seats and zero legroom in the main theater. (at 6'1" I had to leave my Niece and Nephew's Circus performance, before I wound up crippled from no legroom.)

But the upkeep of the equipment, EVERYWHERE, was poor.

NCL Experience - Liked alot of the little touches, like the return to the ship party in Cozumel, etc..

Enjoyed, most of the NCL cruise experience, but not enough to sway us from Carnival, unless we could find a better rate. (which we rarely are able to)

Bill

We were also on that cruise, and also did not agree with NCLs decision to not port. They could have at least cancelled free roaming and left people with guided excursions go. Thanks to the lost day in Honduras and extra sea day, we discovered that we would not enjoy a transatlantic cruise. ;)

Other than that, my only issue with the cruise was unruly teens. After 2 nights, we gave up walking on deck 12 or 13 after dinner. The last time we tried, we came around a corner and heard some kid say "Im going to do it to the next girl I see", which happened to be my wife. :eek: I saw him think about whatever he was planning for a second, and then wisely choose not to have his privates meet my wifes knee and then meet security. After that, we just stuck to the promenade deck. No nooks for some maniac to jump out of. ;)

Those things aside, we loved the cruise, the food and the excursions. Its one of the few cruises my wife has said she would like to take again. :)

 

We were staying in the 14000 Garden Villa...April 6, 2014

 

Since you were in a Garden Villa.... I was soooo looking forward to hearing your take on TIPPING but nothing mentioned. Must we wait for your review this coming weekend? Hope not....

Since you were in a Garden Villa.... I was soooo looking forward to hearing your take on TIPPING but nothing mentioned. Must we wait for your review this coming weekend? Hope not....

As only a portion of the people in the Garden Villa I can only speak for the two of us

... my parents had the master bedroom, my Brother and his wife and twins had the 2nd Master with the sliding glass door to the patio.

We had the middle room. (bigger cabin, small bathroom)

We did not use John the concierge or Caesar the butler as much as everybody else in the cabin did.

The entire cabin had the lobster dinner delivered to the GV the first night by Caesar.

Everyone else in the cabin had multiple breakfasts and lunches delivered.

(DW and I just got our own)

The only other thing DW and I used Caesar for was requesting specifics for a couple of afternoon snacks.

But he was great doing what was expected and in a timely fashion, so we tipped him $100.

We used John the concierge a little more.

He took us personally for priority debarkation in Costa Maya, Cozumel and Tampa debarkation.

He booked a La Cucina dinner for us and helped with any and all piddly questions anyone had. (even though he had just boarded himself)

We tipped him a $150 for the week.

Uze our cabin steward was great..

He was extremely helpful after DW got badly sunburned in Belize and stayed in the cabin, the next few days.

We tipped him $70, on top of the standard he gets.

Again, I have no idea what the other two groups in the GV tipped each person.

Hope that helps.

we have stayed in the OS before. We tipped according to how much we required there services. We always tip our cabin stewards generously. I feel they do the most work for the least amount of money.

My DH and I were on the same cruise last week with three other couples, and each couple had a forward Penthouse Suite. We had a blast! We found the food to be fairly good in every venue EXCEPT the buffet. Our last cruise was on the Pearl and the buffet on that ship was far, far superior to the Dawn's. We ate breakfast several times in Cagney's, and I really enjoyed ordering different things like the Crabcakes with Poached Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce, and the Lobster & Scallops dish, both of which were not available in the buffet. Also used room service for a nice breakfast on one of the Port days.

Agree with the comments about the butler--ours was very nice, but the steward did far more work than the butler. John the concierge was great, and we had him make dinner reservations one or two nights for our group of 8. He seemed gracious at all times, and only once did he mention that he "had a lot of other suite guests" to take care of when we asked about seating at the Bollywood show. (Ha--I know we as PS guests rank at the bottom of suites! Oh, well.)

I also agree with the comments about the pool area and the teens. Again, the Pearl has two pools, an adult pool and a kids pool, both on the lido deck. It's a larger pool area in general than on the Dawn, so it's not as crowded. Overall, I didn't think there were many Spring Breakers on this cruise as I expected, though. We were entertained by some of the older guests' freaky actions during the various poolside contests--more so than by the younger guests. We are middle-aged and definitely not prudes, but we saw one "lady" competing in a push-up contest with her backside and more totally exposed! Yikes!

We went to the Venetian the first night and had the surf and turf, and a couple of the guys had more than one lobster tail. The tails were fairly large and very tender, a surprise to me, as I thought I had read on CC that this was not the case. We also ate at Aqua and had a nice meal there, nothing outstanding. La Cucina was very good. My Italian husband is a lasagna nut and had such a generous portion with lots of meat and cheese that he couldn't finish it all, which is very unusual. We also ate at Moderno the last night and had an excellent meal. This was probably the highlight of our dinners for the week. I favored the lambchops, and most of our table enjoyed the filet mignon and the seasoned steak. Service was excellent.

We were disappointed in the cancellation of the Roatan port stop but totally understood why NCL cancelled. After all, one of their crew members was KILLED the day before. I know this can and does happen in other locations, but come on, this was one of their own. They were rightfully concerned about the safety of guests and crew. Also, some may not be aware that a family of four were also held up at gunpoint on a jeep excursion on their own on Roatan a couple months ago. NCL was sending a message that this will not be tolerated without consequences. The negative publicity for this port could harm any future cruise ship stops, I'd think. In any case, we had booked the ship's catamaran snorkel trip, and of course, it was fully credited to our onboard account as promised.

We did the Sharks Rays Island Getaway tour in Belize and really enjoyed this day. Excellent guides on that one. The next port was Costa Maya and we went to the Pez Quadro all-inclusive beach club. After initial confusion by the staff there that we had guaranteed lounge chairs and palapas for all of us for the day, we were guided to eight lounge chairs and had excellent service at this very nice venue and beautiful beach.

Our final tour in Cozumel was the Bar Hop Tour which we all agreed totally lived up to all the five-star reviews on TripAdvisor, etc. A really fun day on the wild Atlantic side of the island, where my DH and I had been before. Four different bar stops with a free drink at each, ending with some excellent coconut shrimp at the Rasta bar. This made a nice variety for shore excursions for us for the week.

One other side note about our pre-cruise stay in Siesta Key....we arrived on Friday in Tampa, rented a large van and took the one hour trip over the Skyway Bridge (the one the Dawn sailed under) to Siesta Key for two days, and it was fabulous! None of our group except for me had been to SK before, and they absolutely loved it! We rented two condos, with two BRs and two baths, full modern kitchen each, just a block from the Village and 3 blocks from the beach. Saturday was a perfect beach day, and our friends just couldn't believe how nice the pure white, soft sand was with the turquoise ocean. Perfect day! I highly recommend doing this if you arrive at least two days early for your cruise out of Tampa. We were actually reluctant to leave SK Sunday morning to drive back to Tampa!

Crew... I HIGHLY recommend John. I have heard things on these boards about the Conciser not doing much and not worth the extra tip but we had the opposite experience. It seems like John was everywhere on that ship and ALWAYS wanting to help us with something. He also have our friends the VIP treatment even though they were in a regular balcony next to us. They even got to dis embark the ship with us and given priority luggage tags which was great since we were taking them back to the airport. Tipped him $150.00

 

Buter.. Honestly, this is where I kinda think its a waste. Ours was nice but we did not see him much. He brought us Ice every day and a snack but that's about the extent of it. He might have also brought us soda refills for our cabin but we never saw him. Tipped him $150.00

 

Cabin Steward: Chris.. This guy worked his butt off! He was always so nice and ALWAYS had a huge smile on his face. He remembered our names from the very first day. We honestly wanted to tip him the most but we gave him an extra $100.

But he was great doing what was expected and in a timely fashion, so we tipped him $100.

 

We used John the concierge a little more.

He took us personally for priority debarkation in Costa Maya, Cozumel and Tampa debarkation.

He booked a La Cucina dinner for us and helped with any and all piddly questions anyone had. (even though he had just boarded himself)

We tipped him a $150 for the week.

 

Uze our cabin steward was great..

He was extremely helpful after DW got badly sunburned in Belize and stayed in the cabin, the next few days.

We tipped him $70, on top of the standard he gets.

 

Hope that helps.

Thank you BOTH for letting us know about the service provided by the crew and what you decided to tip. We have never had a cabin that came with the services of a Butler and Concierge but have, of course, always had the service of a Cabin Steward. As you know, cabin stewards are covered by the DSC but we always ask ourselves if we should leave a little extra. They are, as a group, very hard working. Our cabin has always received excellent service but on some cruises we weren't sure who the steward was while on other cruises the steward went out of their way to introduce themselves, greet us by name, and stop by to see if there was anything we needed. Probably half of the cruises we've been on, the steward was given an extra $10 to $20. The other half received whatever they got from the DSC. I should mention that we look for the lowest cost cabin we can get and often book an inside and wonder if that is where the unseasoned stewards start learning their craft.

Thanks again....

 

We were disappointed in the cancellation of the Roatan port stop but totally understood why NCL cancelled. After all, one of their crew members was KILLED the day before. I know this can and does happen in other locations, but come on, this was one of their own. They were rightfully concerned about the safety of guests and crew.

Have to disagree. NCL was not skipping the port for the safety of the crew. NCL has the power to restrict ALL crew from going ashore at any port at any time. This knee-jerk reaction took the decision away from paying customers. A notice and direct warning to the passengers about the dangers of Roatan is all that was needed.

This was a 'teach them a lesson' by NCL at the expense of paying customers who had their choice taken from them.

I was in Roatan a few weeks ago and knew the dangers when I got off the ship. I do not need NCL deciding for me what is too dangerous. I believe adults are capable of making that decision given accurate information.