Dawn Review 1/12/14 - First Time with NCL

Hi All!

I want to start my review by saying Thank You to all the fabulous Cruise Critic readers and writers out there who write reviews, give advice and help make everyone's trips even better by helping us be prepared. I love reading the reviews of others, and I get so much information and so many tips. I read a lot about the Dawn before I left and was thankful for the things I learned about the ship before we got there. I will try to finish the review as soon as possible, but with snow days (yuck!) and kids at home, I may have to do it little by little!

This trip was an extended family trip. My parents went (60's) as well as my sister, her husband (30's) and their daughter (3). My youngest daughter (5) went with me....and my poor husband and other two kids stayed at home and missed out on the fun this time!

My brother in law was supposed to run in the Disney Marathon, but wasn't able to due to an injury. We spent one day in Disney before our cruise and then headed to Tampa. We've gone on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas the past few years after his marathon, but chose NCL and the Dawn this time to change things up and see some new ports. We were excited to try something new and were looking forward to some of the things that make NCL unique.

I know that posting reviews are important. I like finding out ALL that I can before a cruise and these reviews are such a huge part of that. I like to think that I represent "the common cruiser" in that most of our cruises have to have budget in mind (we have three kids and normally it's five of us, so expense is something we always have to factor in) and we usually wind up with inside cabins since we aren't in the rooms much and save the savings for excursions. Kids activities are important to us as well. So with that in mind, I feel like I'm writing this review for that demographic of families/budget minded cruisers.

Why do I feel the need to explain that? Well, because to be honest, our trip wasn't really our best. I know how passionate people are about "their" cruise line. I know this is posted on the NCL forum. I am not trying to stir the pot, or say "EVERYTHING was terrible" (don't you hate those people? It's sun! It's sand! It's a drink in our hands!). However, based on other cruise lines we've been on (RCCL, Disney, Carnival and Princess), we just didn't love this cruise. There was good. There was bad. There was awful. But what I DO promise, is to write as objective as a review I can....because THAT is helpful. If you are a "Suite Life" cruiser, or a Haven cruiser, or a beautiful balcony with butler cruiser....then you probably won't be able to relate to my review. I have SEEN those rooms from the hallway and I drool!!

That being said, here goes!

I worried about the embarkation process in Tampa since the Dawn had so many issues with that as of late. Thankfully, we got to the port around before noon and were on the boat very quickly. There was a small stand outside the building where they were selling cases of water for (I think!) $5. The money went to the Kiwanis club or a charity....but my parents bought a case and it was well worth it! That's just a quick tip in case you don't want to lug a case of water TO the port with you. You can get one there!

One thing we noticed as soon as we got on line to check in is that the demographic was VERY, VERY much to the older side. We didn't see ONE other child until later that night on the boat. There were no children, I didn't see anyone in their twenties and my sister and I (30's and 40) looked like the young uns on the boat. I know the kids are back in school and it's right after the holidays, but we cruise this week every year and we have never seen such such an older demographic. Perhaps it was a fluke, perhaps there had been an AARP special or something, but it was just odd. It wasn't a bad thing, but it definitely changed the feeling of the boat overall. The plus side is that there were lots of people to ooh and ahh over our little ones. We were checked in quickly and on the gangway in no time.

The embarkation area was festive with balloons and the ever-lively workers giving friendly "welcome"s to all. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at the buffet. Our girls LOVED the little "Kids Cafe" area where everything is child sized. We had to stop there many times throughout the week!

Afterwards, we were excited to check out the T-Rex Kids Pool. I will have to say that this was one of the very best parts, for us, on the Dawn. The slides and pools were PERFECT for our 3 and 5 year olds and they had a blast there. They would stay for hours if we let them (and on the sea days, we WERE there for hours!) and they were very enjoyable overall. I know many people ask about this pool beforehand, so hopefully these pictures help you see the layout of the area.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/<a href=http://s544.photobucket.com/user/aimathy/media/Norwegian%20Dawn%202014/IMG_4540.jpg.html target=_blank>

The one huge pet peeve I had though, was that there was nobody there, ever, from NCL to enforce the rules. The biggest rule was that there should be no non-potty-trained children in the pool. I'm not an over worrier when it comes to germs...but seriously, poop (or traces thereof) in the pool can cause some wicked stomach issues. That is not what I want for vacation! There were many, many parents who brought in infants, toddler and young ones into the pool. Some at least had on swim diapers, but there were a few small babies that had on regular diapers under the suits. ICK. Now I've seen people bring little ones into pools on other cruise lines, but the difference is that there is usually somewhere there to enforce the rule and tell them to go out. (And yes, on many lines that is still somewhat lax, but on here it was non-existant.) In fact, the assistant captain seemed to be onboard with him family and HE brought his baby into the pool! Oh well. Thankfully nobody got sick and hopefully they chlorinate the pool well.

Later, we were ready for our first night of "Freestyle Dining". We were excited about this because we thought it would be really nice to just show up when we were ready to eat, and not to have to follow a schedule of a time to be there. It sounds awesome. We heard great things about it. However, it was a DISASTER on this trip. On this first night, we had no idea what we were in for. We got to the Venetian stand, the area was MOBBED with people and chaotic as could be. It was around 6 pm, which we thought was on the earlier side and were handed a beeper and told to wait....for 60-75 minutes!! So we waited. And waited. And waited. At the 70 minute mark we checked in to be sure they didn't forget us. They didn't. But we still waited. We finally sat down after an hour and 25 minute wait. With 2 small children and 5 hungry adults, this was unpleasant to say the least. After being seated, we waited 20 minutes for the waiter to come with the menu. All in all, our dinner process lasted 3 and a half hours. We were reassured from the hostess before we were seated that "it's always like this the first two nights". Well, why?? If you know that it's this unpleasant (and it was....there were many upset people that night) and disorganized, then why not find a solution? However, we tried to reassure ourselves that if it's only on the first night or so, the rest of the week should be a breeze. I wish that was the case!

Every single night that we ate in the main dining rooms, except our last, we waited at least 40 minutes for a table. Every time. I think the consensus between us all is that this was hardly "Freestyle" and carefree. We tried to make reservations and were told that they were only for groups of 10 or more. Then they said they would consider it, because of the kids, but all of them were for 5 pm, which was just too early considering the time we got back to the ship from our ports. Overall, it was a stressful process each night and not how we wanted to spend time each evening. One night we got so tired of waiting, and the kids were hungry and cranky, that we ate at the Blue Lagoon. Another night, we tried La Cucina.

Now here's where I know people will say "well, WE never had that happen on NCL". And you know what? I believe that. If it were THIS bad every single cruise on every single ship, nobody would sail NCL! So was it a fluke? Again? Perhaps. We thought that maybe since the crowd was a bit older, they maybe didn't splurge as much for specialty restaurants and therefore, the crowd never spread out among restaurants and caused backups in the main dining room. Every single specialty restaurant (except the Teppanyaki one because it's so small) was "all green" (free spaces) for every time slot for every night. So clearly, people were not using the specialty restaurants.

But I think this became a recurring theme throughout the week....was it always like this? Was it just random bad luck that we faced some of the issues we did? Who knows. But the dining wait was seriously something that made most of us say we'd rather do set dining on another boat than wait that long every night for dinner. Perhaps if we didn't have children with us, and we could wander more leisurely, or have some drinks in a bar, then the wait would seem better. But for our family, it was really just a very unpleasant part of each day.

However, I will say that the food in the restaurants was very, very good and we fully enjoyed our meals. The Dawn's food in the main dining room was FAR better than Carnival (as most of us would expect) and it was on-par if not exceeded Disney and RCCL in our opinion. We preferred Aqua over the Venetian. It seemed more restaurant-y and not so much cruise ship dining room. They never seemed to have any unique dining choices like on some other ships (escargot, quail, buffalo, ostrich etc) but what we did have was always yummy.

The Blue Lagoon was a favorite quick stop for the wings. My daughter loves hot wings and would've eaten them for every meal, given the opportunity. We got them on two days for lunch (to go! Just ask and they'll serve them on a plate with a lid!) and as an appetizer one day when we ate our full dinner there. They had a nice assortment of comfort food and a great view to boot.

The staff in general on the boat was excellent. They were pleasant, friendly and always made an effort to smile at the kids or interact with them. I always feel a bit bad to know they're all away from their own families (and that they don't get paid enough!) but we were very pleased with the crew in general.

Our next day was a sea day. We were surprised that there were so many empty chairs by the pool for a sea day, in the morning. Again, maybe it was the crowd, but at least it seemed pleasant enough. We whiled away the hours at the kids pool (we never made it into the "regular" pool!). We had lunch by Topsiders bar where they barbeque every afternoon. We had some very tasty grilled beef to make gyros with tatziki sauce.

Very detailed review! Thank you for the T-Rex pics- I'm super excited to bring my 6 and 4 year old there! We are rule followers when it comes to not bringing infants in the kids pool too, but honestly, I don't worry anymore than I would at say, Sesame Place, where swim diapers are totally acceptable in public pools. I'm sure they do over-chlorinate that one! I'm sorry the vacation didn't live up to your expectations overall.

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

Next up was trying out the Kids Club "Splash Academy". My daughter loves the kids club on every cruise we've been on. I am happy that she gets to do so many fun activities while we can read or explore the ship a bit. She was looking forward to the kids club SO, SO much and was going to be in the 3-5 aged club "Turtles" with her cousin who was 3. She was excited to spend time with her cousin there. Overall, our kids club experience was good. It wasn't great (Carnival) and it wasn't awesome (RCCL and Disney). And honestly, there was one incident that was really disturbing to me, but I'll get to that.

One very big reason that the kids program may not have been stellar (because again, I'd heard great things) was that there were only 40 kids on board. 40 on the whole ship!!!! They told me that they had 600 a few weeks ago over Christmas break! Yikes! So one problem is that there were only 7 children TOTAL in her age group, and that includes her and her cousin. With only 4 other children available to go, there were almost never any other children her age in the kids club. So the counselors were always combining groups. I get that it's hard to have a group for each age when it's slow, but honestly, I wasn't crazy about finding out that she spent hours with 8 to 12 year olds at times. Thankfully, she seemed to always enjoy it and that's what matters....but she definitely didn't love it the way she has loved other clubs on our other cruises. Here are some pictures of some of her Splash Academy Fun:

Unfortunately, her cousin did not like the club at all (and she goes to daycare/preschool every day and has since she was an baby) and never wanted to go. Our hopes of them having a great time together in there were dashed. Again, my daughter generally liked it and still asked to go every night. She went four of the nights and had fun. However there were two things that as a Mom, I found very unfavorable.

The first was that since there were always so few kids, I'd often ask how many children were there when we arrived, so my DD could decide if she wanted to go. There were almost never any children her age. Instead of saying "that's fine! We have so many fun things to do!" or anything to really make her feel excited about it, they always seemed to try to convince us to come later. And in fact, on the last sea day the woman even said "well there's only 11 year olds in there, so you can just come back tonight for our pajama party". Now, I understand that when there's so few kids, you can't do group games, things have to be altered a bit etc. However, if you can entertain 60 3-5 year olds on a sea day....don't you think you could pull out some crafts and books and entertain ONE? They seemed very disinterested in making the effort at times. And honestly, my daughter is so easy going and well behaved (and thankfully they told me that too!) and so excited about "school" type activities that could have done almost anything and she would have been happy to do it.

The worst though, and scariest in my opinion, is that one night I came to pick up my DD. I handed the woman my cards and gave her my password (which I THOUGHT was a nice security touch) and as I was doing that a little girl walked up to the gate. The woman working there was distracted but I heard her say "where's my Mommy?". I wanted to reassure the girl so I started saying that she would probably be there soon. Before I knew it, the woman opened the gate, the girl walked out in hallway and we were both standing there as the little girl walked out of the room. I thought maybe the counselor was going to take her somewhere, but she sat back down at the computer desk and started typing. After a moment, she looked at me like "why are you still here?" and I told her I was waiting for my daughter! I realized in that minute that she thought that girl WAS my daughter so I ran out of the room and found the girl ready to go down the stairs! The counselor got her and apologized and went to get my daughter, but OH MY GOODNESS, that did not instill confidence in me! I can't even imagine what would've happened if the girl was quicker etc. Again, I know that things happen and mistakes are made but that seemed like a fairly big one when you're talking about a child's safety.

On to something more fun! The day was our stop in Roatan. I booked us a private excursion to Little French Key and it was AMAZING!!!! It was probably our very favorite excursion of the whole trip. We met their representative outside the gates and they loaded us into a van to get to Frenchy's 44 restaurant where we took a small boat to the island. It was simply paradise.

Our weather wasn't the best. It was partly cloudy and drizzled a bit, but we got some sun in too and even the weather couldn't detract from our awesome day. It cost us a fraction of the cruise excursions and was a million times better. No crowds, great location, great price. I very highly recommend it!! The pictures can speak for themselves, but there was very little that I would change about this day.

They give you a short tour when you arrive so you know what you can find on the island. We walked through their small zoo area and saw some very interesting animals, including monkeys and jaguars. We even got to hold the monkeys later on.

We were told that they're all rescue animals and they all seemed to be very well cared for and clean.

I know that you could add on snorkeling, but we didn't do that. However, we saw people snorkeling out at the reef and in by the dock and mangroves and they all seemed pleased with what they were able to see. There's a two story building, and you could even jump off the second floor into the ocean. It looked fun, but we didn't give it a try this time around!

We had a very relaxing day, just splashing around, kayaking (included) and eating. :) Two drinks were included with price of the trip, but the bar's prices were reasonable if you were having more than that. Try a Monkey Lala....they're similar to a mudslide but with a banana twist. They also had WiFi under the bar area, which was a nice perk.

Lunch was delicious!!! And it was also included in the price. It was a combo of chicken, shrimp, beef and a lobster tail....along with rice and beans, yucca chips and super delish salsa.

We walked over to another part of the island that had a beautiful palapa area and wooden boardwalks, surrounded by water. There were tables and soft lounging chairs and we enjoyed our delicious lunch there.

Thanks for your review! Love all the pictures!

I seriously can't think of one thing to critique about Little French Key. It was really just that great. The workers there were super attentive but not intrusive and went well out of their way to help out. One of our little ones did not like the lunch, and they made sure to get us something for her since in our rush to get off the ship, we forgot to take some snacks with us. My sister and I got massages that were wonderful and inexpensive (especially compared to the ship!). My DD even made sand castles with the massage therapists daughter, even though they didn't speak the same language. A smile talks every time!

I thought the island was beautiful, but when the sun came out? Oh my goodness, it was heaven.

So, if you ever get a chance to go.....do it. You won't be disappointed!!

After all that happiness, we went back to the boat with time to spare and got ready for another night aboard. Our dinner wait was obnoxiously long again and we started to realize that anytime dining really wasn't....becuase we spent the rest of the trip having to coordinate how to "do" dinner. What time would we run to get a beeper? What time would be least crowded? Would that work with our schedule? Could we wait until 7:30 until dinner without the kids losing it? Should we feed them first but then have them wiggling at dinner? Should we wait in one spot or walk around? How much longer was it going to be? We really didn't want to do the buffet for dinner, since it seemed like we were missing out on a "nice" dinner. I won't say more about the dining, but again, that was really a very big reason that we didn't enjoy Freestyle Dining. I know many of you were fans, but it just didn't work for us.

I have to be honest. I found the ship to be pretty boring at night. I'm not a big drinker, I don't gamble, I have kids to keep track of.....but that being said, when my daughter was in the kids club, there just didn't seem like there was much to do. My sister and her husband felt the same way. A few nights we watched the early show and then went to dinner afterwards, so that took up our whole night until I had to pick up my daugther on the nights she went to SA. But on the nights that we really WANTED to do something, we just couldn't seem to find much that was good for us. Comparing the Dailies for each night...the activities were very repetitive. There were gambling tournaments, the one main show (which was VERY hard to fit in by the way with the long waits! We would wait so long that we were in dinner for the first show and it ran into the second dinner. That was disappointing.), piano and guitar players in lounges which wasn't really our style and karaoke. The late night stuff (after 10 which was usually one party of some sort) was out for us, since we had to put the kids to bed. Again, I'm not saying there wasn't anything to do or that it was terrible...but there was never a sense of "yay! let's go do that!" for the grown ups at night, and we had that on other cruises. Maybe it was due to the lower key clientele at night, but there just wasn't much nightlife for people our age.

Even activities on sea days were odd. The chess and checker pieces for the large playing board and the golf equipment for the small driving range were locked up for hours and only had certain hours they were out. Why not leave them out all day? Shuffleboard was often locked up. On most ships that is practically a 24/7 activity. And in the library you could only check out books for 2 one hour sessions each day!! So on sea days, you had to plan when you could get a book. That was incredibly odd and inconvenient. Again, horrible? Trip ruining? Awful? No. But it just made the ship feel sorta locked down on sea days, the days that most people are looking for something to do.

When they were out though, they were enjoyed by many:

The shows were very well done and overall they were enjoyable. The Tim Kaminski shows were very funny, as were the Second City shows. They weren't top caliper, but for a cruise ship, we really liked them. I didn't see many of the other shows because we were always stuck at dinner. We did see part of the Bollywood show, and although it was well done....we all thought it was quite odd that none of the leads were Indian! My Mom, sister and I did the Murder Mystery luncheon on the last sea day. It was $20 a person and it was okay. It wasn't really the best murder mystery, but it was something nice to do together that day. The chicken they served for that meal was incredibly flavorful and moist...so yay for the chicken! :)

Our next port was Belize. I booked a tour independently through cavetubing.bz with Vitalino. It was another excellent adventure for the four of us that went. It cost a fraction of what they were charging for the ship tour and it included (a delicious!) lunch. We were picked up at the port gate by our driver and walked a short distance to our van.

The day was overcast and it was going to rain most of the day. I'm glad that it was on this day, because what better day to rain than the one where you go to the rain forest? Overall, I have an A++++ to this company and loved the tour. I'm not usually a worrier, I like being away from the crowds and I love planning excursions. However, one thing about this excursion that scared the $% our of me is that on the way there, they kidded around about how the speed limits were "suggestions", how there's no police to check speed etc. No problem. I've been in Jamaica and other countries where they drive like crazy people. I've been in cars that pass other cars on bends, go too fast etc. Live like the locals, right? Well, the ride there scared the bejeezus out of me! We were going seriously fast (my Dad estimated 85 at least) on a one lane each way road, in a light rain. I couldn't wait for that part to be over. The drive was an hour long and it was a long, long hour for this Mommy!

However, once we go there, it was all forgotten because we had an AMAZING time. First, we trekked about 35 minutes through the rain forest. The guides were amazing at showing us the flora and fauna of the area. If you do this trek, bring HEAVY soled shoes. The rocks they warn you about on the path are no joke. I rented water shoes from them and they were too thin soled. So you've been warned!

The craziest part of the hike was that they found a tarantula and got her out of her hole for people to hold. I HATE spiders. Hate them, so how in the world did I think it was a good idea for me to HOLD one?? I don't know...but it was a bucket list sort of thing. Of course, the moment they put it down on my arm....it started running up my arm! Eeek! Thankfully, he blocked it and then it just sat there. My big proud moment:

Dad's turn:

We finally got up to where the tubes were waiting for us. This is another reason that this company was great. Most other companies had their customers carry the tubes with them for the whole 40 minute trek. That would've been rough. Thankfully, this company has them waiting for you at the beginning of your tubing. Also, other companies only go through one main cave. We walked up a bit higher on the trail and got to go through and extra cave. A nice perk!

My daughter was too young to do this through the ship for some reason, but I had researched this ahead of time and knew that she was plenty big (and a full swimmer on top of having a life jacket) to do the excursion. However, we had a choice of having her in her own tube or her sitting on my lap. We had her sit on my lap. I know she would've been sliding down in the hole during the float and it would be hard to help fix her. I'm glad she sat on my lap, even though it was a bit harder for me!

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the actual tubing. I had my iPhone to take pictures, which is in a waterproof case and in a baggie. However, when we got to the tubing part, I realized that trying to hold on to my DD AND the phone was going to be a challenge. I chose to hold on to my kid. :) Plus, one slip or one elbow from her and the iPhone would've been at the bottom of the river as an offering to the Mayan gods. I can tell you though that it was very cool to float through the caves, hear the stories about how the Mayans used the caves and see the stalactites and stalagmites.

Once finished our tubing, we changed at the bathrooms (there was a little "village" at the end with crafts, pig tails and other vendors for lunch and bathrooms) and got back in the van for the short ride to their lunch site. It's a road side stand where we paid for our trip. It also had a little gift area, but it was mostly big picnic tables. They served us a seriously yummy lunch of stewed chicken on the bone, coleslaw and rice and beans.

Thankfully the ride back was better than the ride there. They served a wonderful rum punch with lunch. I only had one glass but they packed a gallon of it for people to drink on the way home. It was fun to see the rum punch take its hold on the other people...so maybe the ride back was better because there was more chatting, or we were all just tired, or he drove slower? In any event, we got back safely and again, with plenty of time for the tender and smiled at what a wonderful time we had.

Well folks, I have to end it there for now. I'm a bit cross eyed right now, and the natives are getting restless. We are set to get a FOOT OF SNOW today. UGH! I am so thankful for our time away, but boy do I hate cold and snow. These pictures are helping to warm me up! Feel free to ask any questions and hopefully I can finish some more of the review tonight or tomorrow.

And PS:

I'm sure I'll clarify this more at the end of my review....but we had a great vacation! I don't want people thinking that we hated everything. The things that weren't my style on NCL did not ruin our trip or make things "terrible". The ports were awesome, the company divine and we made the best of what we didn't love. What can be so terrible about sunshine, sand and the open sea? That being said...more to come next time!

Loving your review! Keep the wonderful pictures coming!

Your experience with the horrendous waits for the MDR is very worrisome. Makes the ultimate dining package look more and more tempting!

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. I look forward to reading more.

We were on the Dawn the week before- and I have to agree with you about the Kids' Club staff! They weren't at all inviting or excited when we dropped our kids off. My 3 year old refused to go after the first day- they did nothing to encourage him to stay. Four of them came to the door when he started crying and looked at him. Then said "He can't stay if he's crying. He'll make other kids cry." I guess I can somewhat get the rule (somewhat- I mean, you could always use the handy-dandy pager to page me in 3 minutes if he's still crying.) There were not many kids on our cruise either- but a mixed-age crowd overall- I'm assuming many college kids who were still on break.

We lucked out with dining and rarely had to wait. After the first day, our routine most nights became- feed the kids at Garden Grill, drop at Kids' Club (well, all except 3 year old), watch the 6:30 show, then dinner at Aqua or Venetian. I know that advice isn't so helpful now...maybe it'll help someone reading though!

So I'm going to try to mix some of the bad with the good. It makes it more palatable when something not as great is followed by something wonderful, right?

The room. Here's where I know people will disagree. This is just my lowly opinion. I know that many of you get awesome amazing rooms (I saw them with my own eyes as I passed open doors around the ship). I am very certain that you will say "I have NEVER had that problem on NCL!". Well, you're right...because you probably never had a two person inside room on NCL! :D Since my very wonderful, amazing parent paid for my daughter and I to join them on this trip, we had an inside room. I have been on many cruises and have only had a balcony once, on my honeymoon. I know my way around an inside stateroom! And this is another area that I felt like NCL really paled in comparison to comparable rooms on other cruise lines.

Our room felt very worn and very old. Was it horrific or unlivable? Of course not. Do they update rooms often on most ships? No. I know that. But this room just felt like they could care less if your room was nice or not. I know we were low men on the totem pole....but really, it was hard not to notice how used the rooms really felt. I don't want to drone on about what was wrong, but the quick list would be hairs in the shower, on vanity and on floor upon arrival; chipped vanity and shower, crusted dirt/debris all around base of shower frame, chipped wood on desk, streaks of dried crusty dirt on desk, taped together remote, stained sheets, tv that faced the floor instead of forward, missing hooks on wall, stained toilet seat.

I know, I know. Impossible right? It's not. I have pictures for all of these things, but don't think that posting 15 or more pictures of this will make the point any clearer. I'll post a few so you know I'm not making this up, but long story short, this room just felt like an afterthought. One day I'll make it to the big leagues and get the robes and butler and balcony....but in the meantime, it doesn't feel very good to hand over your hard earned money and then feel like you got the bottom of the barrel. As I said before, we've sailed in very similar rooms on other ships and did not have this problem. I know (again) that the NCL purists will jump in and say "oh get over a few hairs and some stains"....but really, if this were YOUR room for the week, would you think it was great? Probably not. And, yes, it could've been worse. I get that and we slept well, got showered and changed in our rooms with no issue, so overall, it was ok. Here are some of the pictures:

I think you get the point! Our room attendant was good, not great. He smiled and said hello when we saw him, but that was about it. My sister's attendant was extremely nice and always went out of her way to say hello to the girls and ask how their day went. Most of the rooms attendants in the hallways were very pleasant and friendly.

My parents had a balcony. Balconies are definitely lovely! It was fun to go in and watch the world go by and we especially loved it in the ports, to watch people getting back on the ship. Another downside for all of us non-smokers, was that you can smoke on the balconies still and most of the time you were smelling smoke from someone else. Again, that doesn't bother some people and some are smokers themselves and love that as a perk....but it wasn't our cup of tea, as they say.

On to the good!! Our next port was Costa Maya. We had made reservations to go to Maya Chan, a beach club in Costa Maya that we read about on tripadvisor and cruise critic. It turns out that the owners were on a b2b2b cruise on the Dawn, so we were able to meet with them right on the ship and then head on out. They were in our van on the way to Maya Chan and they were fabulous. They told us all about the area, the government, their process in owning the beach club, what they do....it was really a great and informative ride there. The ONLY downside? You'll read reviews about a bumpy road. OH MY WAS IT BUMPY!! Apparently, it's always bumpy...but it also had rained in a few weeks, what it normally rains in four MONTHS, so the road was very much washed away and had potholes (well, LAKES) in the road. I felt bad for the cab driver!

Anyway, the reward at the end of the bumpy ride was this:

And this:

And this:

As soon as we got there, their son came up and showed us around. We had a beautiful little spot right near their main palapa/building which was perfect. It has a bed (yes, a bed), lounge chairs, palapas for shade and toys for the kids. They brought out a round of rum punch for everyone, with just punch for the kids and my pregnant sister....along with delicious chip with fresh guacamole and salsa. YUM! This was an all inclusive resort, so we were sure to take them up on some fun cocktails and beers, while the kids had smoothies, water, juice....you name it. We had a blast lounging in the hammocks and floating chairs and while away a beautiful sunny day!

The water there was not your traditional Caribbean blue, which I had read alot about. It can get cloudy from the tannins from the mangroves that are nearby. There was some sea grass, but they had people raking it, and the sea grass in the water was not a problem at all. The place itself was beautiful and they were attentive and fantastic all day long.

Next up was lunch. Wow. I think this was my favorite meal of the entire trip! They had a buffet type set up where you got fresh baked tortillas (you watched as they made them!) and then added on what you liked. They had marinated skirt steak, chicken, pibil (pork) and fish in butter sauce...along with cotija, fresh salsas, pico de gallo, crema and hot sauces. They also had a bean soup. Everything was fresh as could be and simply delicious. I had to take a picture! :)

We were also treated to some fresh coconut water. The girls loved watching him cut them open. They didn't like the taste as much...but it was fun!

By the way, my poor DD gets red and flushed from heat. I promise she was thoroughly sunblocked and protected! :) They also had wifi which was nice to get back in touch with home. The Oreo drink was divine, try it if you go. We spent the rest of the day just enjoying the good weather and company. I would recommend Maya Chan VERY highly. It was the perfect beach day!

Great Job, Keep writing please... we leave on feb 9 on the dawn

We ended our day sad, but with smiles on our faces as we headed back in the bumpy cab to the port.

The port at Costa Maya is actually quiet nice. They have a huge pool with a swim up bar that you can go to and I'd bet some people would be content just to stay there and hang out all day. There was a Senor Frogs right next to the pool and I'm sure it would be nice enough to spend some time just relaxing there too. One thing I didn't love was that the vendors at the shops were much pushier at Costa Maya than at other ports. I know they want to sell what they can, but after a few few stores of feeling very watched and preyed upon, we just gave up and went back on the ship. It was close to 4:30 anyway, so we didn't lose much by heading back.

Our next and final port was Cozumel. We had been there a few times before and wanted to do something new. (I did Nachi Cocum last time with my family and LOVED it, if any of you are researching that as well.) We decided to go to Chankanaab and do a dolphin swim. I'm not a huge fan of the dolphin thing, just because they're in captivity, but my brother in law wanted to do it and I knew my DD would love it too. My parents stayed on the boat this day and the other four of us headed out to Chankanaab. We did this excursion on our own and well and also saved money over the price of the cruise ship. My daughter was also allowed to participate in a higher dolphin adventure than she could through the ship, so that was nice too.

I had read lots of reviews about Chankanaab and they're all quite good.

To be honest, I didn't love it. It felt so fake (yes, I know we're all tourists and all these spots are for tourists) but it just felt like something built only for cruise people and somehow just felt a bit lackluster to me. There seems to be alot to do there: sea lion shows, dolphins, snorkeling, massages, tequila tasting, a pool etc.

First we visited the Mayan "ruins" that you could walk through and a little village where you could learn about Mayan life. We got to try a homemade tortilla made over an open fire.

We were a bit disappointed because I didn't realize from reading the reviews that there was no actual beach. The "beach" was sand on a rock wall, where you could walk in down some steps, or jump in to go snorkeling. It was mostly rocky water and not good for plain wading and/or swimming. They did have one little area that we found towards the end where the kids could walk in directly but it was a small area.

Lunch was included with our dolphin adventure, but you could buy food and drinks at the beach area from a waiter that walked around, or go to one of a few restaurants they had around the property. There was snorkeling equipment that was around $10 to $15 to rent, but we didn't do that so I don't know how good the snorkeling was!

We relaxed awhile and then my BIL and my DD and I headed over for our dolphin adventure. The time for our session said 12 on the paper, and to be there a half an hour early, which we were. However, they told it was actually 12:15 and we didn't actually start until 12:30. That was a bit frustrating because we wasted an hour standing there instead of enjoying the other areas. When my BIL asked why this was, compared to what the paper said teh guy kept insisting that the paper said 12:15 (they had already taken it from us, but I checked my email when I got home and it says 12 and to be there at 11:30) and that they were only running 5 mins late. Oh well!

The dolphin part was lots of fun despite some choppy water and some very cool temperatures. It was only in the 70's that day. The water was warmer than the air!

The experience was fun. We did the middle level program, so we did all of the usual (kiss, hold, dance with dolphin etc) plus a boogie board where he pushes you with his snout (?) on one foot to propel you through the water...and one where you hold on to his fins and he swims you back in.

These are the only two pictures I have. The pictures were obscenely expensive ($188 for the album for the 2 of us with 80 pictures, most of which were stock photos). I got a "deal" to get these two images for $50 cash. I wish I had more, but that was about all I could spend after the cost of the swim itself. My DD loves looking at these two pictures though, so it was money well spent!

Afterwards, I got the most heavenly massage ever. Ever! I get lots of massages and like them all, but this one was amazing for the price. Sigh.

Spying a lizard:

Sadly, our time was limited and after the massages we only had a little bit of time to explore and then have lunch before we headed back. We didn't get to do much there. The pool looked really nice, and I wish we saw that earlier because it probably would've been nicer for the girls to swim instead of playing on the sand all day. The lagoon was nice and they had fun seeing the brightly colored fish in there and we saw the alligators as well.

We had lunch at their buffet, which was a very American-ized buffet but we were starved and it was included. We filled our bellies and then headed back in a cab (about 10 minutes) to the Port Langosta. There are two ports in Cozumel and this was my first time at this port. There are the usual outdoor shops, so we looked around a bit and then headed back to the ship.

One very fun thing we saw when we returned was a "dance off" party between the two NCL ships that were docked there, the Dawn and the Jewel or the Pearl (I think!). They had music blasting and lots of crew dancing. The girls loved watching them, and then we headed up to the balcony room to watch from up there.

We were sad that our port days were over, but we were thankful that the weather was generally decent for us all week since it rained a ton in all of these ports the weeks previous and this week I heard it's really cold. So, we were thankful!

Our last sea day was the usual mix of kids pool, lunch and dinner. We had the kids club issue that day, but my daughter went to the party at night and seemed to enjoy it. This was also the night that I realized that NCL just wasn't going to be in our future again. I had a big problem with the laundry (I posted it before, so I won't go into detail in the review), but the quick version is that I had 11 items stained in their laundry and got a $50 credit as compensation. I have to buy new items that will be around $150 and I had to use credit I didn't want or need, which didn't help me with my clothes. I know things happen, I know people disagree with what should have been done or what could have been done....but the bottom line is that I left feel stressed and unhappy about the way it was handled. Was it a lesson learned to not put anything in their laundry again? You bet. But when it happened, I made the sad assumption that their customer service would find a way to help me out and that didn't happen. I know it could happen with any cruise line, at any time....but for me, it happened on NCL and it didn't go well. Again, did it ruin everything? No. But it was just one of a number of things that didn't make me feel like rushing back to NCL anytime soon. Policy or not, it just left me feeling like I didn't matter at all and so, I don't really think they'll miss me (or my extended family)! :)

In summary, we had a great time and a good vacation under our belts. Most of it was off of the ship, but there were many happy memories made onboard as well and I don't think that NCL is terrible. There were things that made me say "wow that's cool" like the refreshments for when you waited for tender tickets, the outdoor barbequing or the fabulous staff in the restaurants. And then some things that left something to be desired. I'm not painting anything all in one light. If you are booked on the Dawn, don't fret. You will make your own fun, and maybe you will even love it. Many people do!

Many things could be chalked up to a fluke or the fact that I'm not in the upper eschelons of the cruising hierarchy. Maybe on most sailings the dining wait times are not bad, the laundry gets done without incident and the rooms are cleaner. All I know is that this was OUR experience for our week of vacation. And when it's your week, well, you want it to be an amazing one.

On debarkation day, I found out that my card (that my credit was put on) had been deactivated. Everyone else's cards still worked...so I had to go wait on yet another line at customer service so they could sort it all out. Then we headed up to breakfast and waited for our color to be called. We had a 2 PM flight out of Tampa and were in no rush. It did seem like they called things later than usual though. Self debarkation was called at 9:10 AM. Our color (the last) was called at 10. We were off the boat with our luggage by 10:40 and at our gate at 12 (with some airport lollygagging outside the security line).

So that's all folks. If you have any questions, I'd be very happy to answer them. I also have all the dailies and the Splash Academy paper for the Turtles saved, so if anyone would like them, let me know.

I'll leave you with some parting shots from random moments! Thanks for reading the review!

 

I have to be honest. I found the ship to be pretty boring at night. I'm not a big drinker, I don't gamble, I have kids to keep track of.....but that being said, when my daughter was in the kids club, there just didn't seem like there was much to do. My sister and her husband felt the same way. A few nights we watched the early show and then went to dinner afterwards, so that took up our whole night until I had to pick up my daugther on the nights she went to SA. But on the nights that we really WANTED to do something, we just couldn't seem to find much that was good for us. Comparing the Dailies for each night...the activities were very repetitive. There were gambling tournaments, the one main show (which was VERY hard to fit in by the way with the long waits! We would wait so long that we were in dinner for the first show and it ran into the second dinner. That was disappointing.), piano and guitar players in lounges which wasn't really our style and karaoke. The late night stuff (after 10 which was usually one party of some sort) was out for us, since we had to put the kids to bed. Again, I'm not saying there wasn't anything to do or that it was terrible...but there was never a sense of "yay! let's go do that!" for the grown ups at night, and we had that on other cruises. Maybe it was due to the lower key clientele at night, but there just wasn't much nightlife for people our age.

 

Even activities on sea days were odd. The chess and checker pieces for the large playing board and the golf equipment for the small driving range were locked up for hours and only had certain hours they were out. Why not leave them out all day? Shuffleboard was often locked up. On most ships that is practically a 24/7 activity. And in the library you could only check out books for 2 one hour sessions each day!! So on sea days, you had to plan when you could get a book. That was incredibly odd and inconvenient. Again, horrible? Trip ruining? Awful? No. But it just made the ship feel sorta locked down on sea days, the days that most people are looking for something to do.

 

When they were out though, they were enjoyed by many:

Thanks for the review. Sorry you didn't enjoy freestyle and the Dawn as much as we have in the past and what we hope to in a couple of weeks.

But I do have a question. I've only been on one other line and that was Carnival, which I found completely comparable to NCL in the way of activities offered and available.

What other type of activities have been offered on your other cruises with RCCL and Princess. And were your cruises on RCCL and Princess basically the same size ships?

Thanks for taking the time to write what I feel is a great, unbiased review of your trip. May I add that your daughter is very photogenic and cute. I would have had my steward take those sheets right back where they came from and brought me new ones. I sailed the Dawn this past February and am leaving on her again in 4 days! We did not experience any of the wait times for dinner as you did but we ate early every night. We felt the food was just OK not exceptional but we were not gonna starve. That said we loved her enough to buy a FCC during first trip

to book a second one with. I agree that the rooms look a little beat up but that

is never any excuse for dirt, we happily didn't have that on our cruise. I laughed at your comments about the passengers ages on the ship, when we went there were only 40 people on board under the age of 18. This was a highlight for us because we were looking for a quiet and relaxing cruise without our kids! We were in our very early 50s and felt we were the young ones on our cruise! ( made us feel good) Anyways I loved your pictures! We also go to Maya Chan and cave tube so it was great to see anticipation photos.

Thank you for a wonderful review and the time you took to explain everything in detail - and posting the pictures. You mentioned the high cost of photos at the dolphin encounter and having all the dailies. I agree that the price of the photos is high, however, I've come to the conclusion that years later, it's really the photos/videos that allow me to remember and actually relive the experiences. We end up buying all the personalized photos for those 'once in a lifetime' events.

Could you post the dailies? Or, let me know how I could get them?

Thanks,

Thank you for the excellent review & pictures! We will be boarding the Dawn (1st time on NCL) this Sunday on the 26th with an inside cabin. We have sailed on Celebrity and Princess cruiselines, always with a balcony & never with these kinds of problems. I am discouraged at your report about the room. Did you go to the front desk to address these issues? I will not be happy if I see dirt & disrepair in our room! Loved the pictures of the dolphin swim!