Jbrase0424

Correct- they serve Starbucks coffee but it is not a Starbucks cafe- your gift cards will not be honored there. 

We just got off the Dawn on June 26th after 10 day Baltic cruise.  I agree with a lot of what was said below.  

1. Most of the ports are a decent way from the city center.  Amsterdam required a 30-40 bus ride either through the ship "on your own" excursion or you can research the public transportation.  We took a bus to the train station and then a Tram into the city center.  Most public transit have apps or you can use Google Maps which will plan your route using public transit.  It worked well for us. 

2. LeHavre is a two and half hour train ride to Paris.  If you do not want to spend that much time on the train, consider Rouen which is only 30 minutes by train and offers quite a bit to see. 

3. Zeebrugge is about 30 minutes by train to Brugge and about an hour plus to Brussels.  We chose Brugge and it was great.  Old city but charming with lots of shops, horse/buggy rides and chocolate and lace.  

4. Dress in layers in Europe, regardless of the time of year.  It is easy to take a layer off if it is warmer than expected.  Rain is always a possibility for rain gear/umbrella are a must for the back pack. 

5. The Dawn is a smaller ship and certainly shows its age, especially in the outside areas.  The food was decent but agree the specialty restaurants are much better quality/service.  We were disappointed that there were no comedians- live music was good but changes every few months.  

Enjoy your cruise!

We just cruised on the Dawn in mid-June.  The food was average in my opinion.  The MDR menus lacked variety for dinner and the service was slower than I remember.  It seemed they lacked assistant waiters who often do the running for the food and help get drinks from the bar.  It seemed our waiter had to handle it all.  

The buffet was also average.  Our last NCL cruise was on the Encore so the Dawn buffet was much smaller with less variety.  The specialty restaurants were very good and would recommend doing that a couple of nights at least.  

We were on the Dawn June 16-June 26th.  We did not lose any ports but they swapped Wandemunde and Copenhagen and the reason given was for environmental reasons which I would assume fuel consumption.  There seemed to be no problems with the propulsion system as we eclipsed 20 knots a couple of times.  By the way an overnight in Copenhagen should be welcomed.  Lots to see in that city- wish we had more than 10 hours in port.