Slickn

Hi, we were just on the Pearl in a 2 bedroom suite at room 11506. It was super quiet, but above us was the spa. Front of the ship, so we did allot of walking from the back of the ship(great outdoors) to the front. Good location to get to the theatre and casino if thats your thing. One thing to consider is that 11512 is located right at the elevators/stairs... may be more traffic. Noise from the elevator/stairs shouldnt be an issue for the main living area or primary bedroom, but may be heard in the smaller bedroom. 

 

Nick

Yes, children can order off the standard kids menu for no charge, even in the speciality restaurants.

 

I wouldn't do it at Teppenyaki (although they may allow it), as it would be taking up a seat that someone else could use.

We took our son to Teppenyaki the last time we were on the Dawn. We were offered the kids menu, but they warned us that it would take a while to run up and get the food and bring it back. He was little so we just shared some of our meals with him. Since he was in a high chair they just placed him in the corner so as to not take up any extra space. We didn't take him to any of the other specialty restaurants, but he did well in the regular dining room, even with dinner taking 2+ hours most nights.

 

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Considering one of these for a cruise in Sept with our then 2 year old -

 

Does anyone know or have photos of how far over the room divider goes??

 

Just trying to see if this would suit our needs with regard to being able to put baby to bed in a pack n play in the "living area" while we stay up later in the bed area.

 

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We were in a family suite this past fall on the Dawn. We were in room 12530, which is a larger room with a smaller balcony. We had extra space due to the larger size, so we used that space to put the pack and play right next to the divider. With the divider fully pulled out it allowed the pack and play to be in darkness, but be warned that the tv is in view. Our 14 month old had no problem sleeping while we watched TV or talked amongst ourselves. The one downfall to the family suites on that side of the ship was the fact that the smokers area was close by, and any time we left our room all we would smell was smoke in the hallway. Room 12032 is on the opposite side and is what we would choose next time if it were available. I've attached the best picture I could find.

 

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I was just in the family suite with balcony on the Dawn. There was one us plug on the counter in the living area and another us plug for shavers(or cell phone charger) inside the bathroom. There were also european plug outlets in the living area.

 

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Awesome video. Looks like you had amazing weather. We loved the sunset rum swizzle catamaran!

 

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Another data point for the thread: family vacation to Bermuda on the Dawn, sailing Sept 8th, 2017.

 

First room was an ocean view, my parents bid $200/person to upgrade to a mini suite. They were quite happy when their bid was accepted 2 weeks prior to sailing.

 

Second room was a mini suite. We originally paid $1600/person for this room. Placed multiple offers to upgrade to full blown suites. NCL accepted our offer of $445/person for a family suite with balcony seven days out from departure. Our bid was in the poor range.

 

I figure we were lucky since most kids are back to school and the family suites weren't booked full.

 

 

 

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They use european two prong connectors.

 

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Four years ago we had been in the Spirit penthouse cabin. In Nov we are in a balcony. I see in older photos that one side of the bed has a floor lamp. Does anyone know if they changed that since the ship was refurbished I think in 2014?

There were no floor lamps in our balcony cabin on the 10th floor. There were two reading lamps mounted to the headboard. And plenty of overhead lights.

Slickn, you said this was your 5th cruise. May I ask what other cruises you were on?

 

Royal Carribean - Navigator of the Seas - Western Carribean - Jan 2009

Royal Carribean - Voyager of the Seas - Eastern Carribean - Jan 2011

Carnival - Victory - Southern Carribean - Feb 2012

Norwegian - Dawn - Bermuda (got engaged) - Oct 2013

Norwegian - Spirit - Mediterranean (Honeymoon) - May 2015

 

and soon...

Norwegian - Dawn - Bermuda (2nd Honeymoon) - Aug 2015

When you were in Livorno, did you happen to note whether or not NCL arranged a shuttle to the train station from the port?

My wife and I took the train from Livorno to Pisa and Lucca. There were no shuttles that would take us back to the Spirit. There was a NCL shuttle that took us back to the Epic! We had to scamble and rent a taxi in order to get back to our ship since they wouldn't let us walk in the industrial area. 20 Euro later we were back enjoying the Spirit.

I *think* there was another option offered through NCL but I don't know the details. Nick and Dawn used this option so hopefully they see this and jump in to share their experience.

NCL offered a water shuttle between the ship and St. Marks square. The cost was $25 US per person. We caught the last shuttle out of St. Mark's square at 10:30PM. It appears the cost was worth it considering the aggrivation involved in having to find your way back, in the dark, in a place you are not familiar with.

 

Nick

Hi Nick and Dawn! I was going to watch a movie tonight but ended up watching your video instead. :p. I enjoyed it tremendously!

 

I love how we were on the same cruise but saw very different things in some of the ports. Looking at your pictures, I wish we had seen the Egyptian room and mummies at the Vatican. Maybe next time...

 

I was wondering if you would be willing to send me a few of your pics? Maybe 6 or 8 of them? I can watch the video again tomorrow and notes the times of the pics I'd like.

 

Thanks!!

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading your review of the cruise... so many things you guys saw, that we missed... it just means we will have to go back and do it again!

 

Let me know what pictures you would like, I have both the jpegs(which are only black and white) and the RAW picture files(which is the full color photo). I assume you have a way of viewing RAW images... if not let me know and ill run them through photoshop and save them as color Jpegs.

 

Nick

My wife and I took the Norwegian Spirit for a tour of the Mediterranean for our honeymoon. I ended up taking over 4000 photos. I've created a video slide show to show our friends and family and thought that some of you guys may be interested in seeing the photos if you are considering the same itinerary. This was our 5th cruise(2nd on NCL) and by far the best experience so far. We had an awesome roll call which made our tours fantastic and economical.

 

Itinerary:

Barcelona, Spain

Toulon, France

Livorno, Italy

Citavecchia, Italy

Naples, Italy

Mykonos, Greece

Istanbul, Turkey

Kusadasi, Turkey

Piraeus, Greece

Venice, Italy

 

 

Nick

Hi Carolyn / Loving My Life,

 

I've been following your review since our family leaves in 2 weeks on the Venice-Barcelona cruise. You've been so detailed, but I have a few questions:

 

Did your tours require Euro cash upon completion? We've booked semi-private tours in almost every port & with 3 people, that's a lot of money to carry around each day. Did you use ATMs or pre-purchase Euros? I have a x-body purse & hubby has a hidden wallet--any thoughts on money safety / ATM use?

 

We don't know if we will get seasick, so I've purchased Bonine just in case. Did you take medicine the entire cruise?

 

We're in a balcony stateroom--are there 2 outlets each for American, British, & European? Did you use an adapter on board?

 

I'm all set with my wardrobe, but I'm having a hard time packing for my hubby & teen son. I'm trying not to let them look like "American tourists"--what did you notice male passengers wearing; especially in Turkey & the Italian cities?

 

I was thinking of purchasing a case of water in Venice so we would each have a bottle of water when we tour; did you see anyone bring on water? Or, should I just pack 3 water bottles & fill up each day on board?

 

Thanks!

I can help answer a few questions from my perspective.

 

My wife and I did not bring any Euros with us to Barcelona. We immediately hit an ATM at the airport and withdrew $500 Euros. I had a hidden money wallet that I placed this cash in. Before leaving Barcelona for the cruise we withdrew another $500 Euro. ATMs were plentiful and I was able to avoid fees by using banks that BankofAmerica works with. I felt safe leaving this cash on our cruiseship in the safe and just bringing enough with us for our day trips. I also purchased special shorts that had zippered pockets with a fabric button sleeve that went over the pocket. Everything I had read was to be cautious and I may have went to the extreme but I felt secure 100% of the time.

 

We looked like tourists the whole trip... there was no getting around it. I had a camera around my neck, a red sox hat, a back pack and a glow of excitement across the face. Every tourists stands out, even if you try to blend in.

 

As for the outlets in the room... we had 1 european and 1 american outlet(that didnt work) in our balcony room. We also had an additional america outlet in the bathroom built into the hair dryer that was for low current devices.

 

As for water... we carried on a 24 pack of diet coke and 6 - 1 liter bottles of water. We had our room steward empty the fridge(they put the mini bar items under the bed in a trash bag) and were able to fit a bunch of sodas and 2 of the 1 liter water bottles in there at a time. There were no problems with carrying it on. Water was cheap in turkey so we purchased an additional 2 - 1 liter bottles for 1 Lira (around 0.40 Euro).

 

Nick

From your experience in Istanbul would you feel comfortable doing it yourself? I've read that the Tram goes by most of the sites on these tours and you can avoid traffic this way but I don't really know if it's that easy/safe.... Thoughts?

My wife and I were on this same cruise and did Istanbul on our own. We are both 32 and pretty active. We estimated that we walked over 12 miles for the entire day. We did not take the tram because we didnt want to take out Turkish Lira from the ATM(but we had to anyways to get into the Basillica Cistern). In hindsight we would have taken the tram to the Blue Mosque and walked our way back. The trams looked crowded though. We found our way to the sights by actually following the tram lines... so it was easy to find our way.

 

It was funny, we were doing it on our own with Rick Steve's in hand, but we kept on running into Carolyn and her tour group.

 

And another note, was that we were there on a tuesday and the Topkapi palace was closed... which was something we were looking forward to seeing, but at the end of the day we found that we wouldnt have had time to do everything if we had made it into the palace.

 

Nick

We have sailed on two Royal Carribean ships and very much enjoyed the food, activities, and shows. These cruises were around the carribean.

 

Last october we sailed the Noweigian Dawn from Boston to Bermuda(a steal at $500/inside room). The inside room was much smaller than what we were used to on RC and Carnival. The food was not up to our expectations in either the main dining halls or the buffets. This isnt to say it is bad, but rather that we had much better included food experiences on RC. We ended up going to the specialty restaurants for 4 out of the 7 nights on the Dawn. We also felt that the shows did not coordinate well with our dining plans, whereas on Royal Carribean with the fixed dining time you were done with dinner before the shows started.

 

For what it's worth we will be sailing on the NCL Dawn again this summer around the same time as you. I felt the shortcomings were justifiable at the $500/inside room price, but the august sailings are around $1000/inside room right now... and not as easily justified. We will be purchasing the ultimate dining package, which makes this an expensive cruise, but thankfully no flights are involved due to leaving out of boston.

 

Nick