dexddd

Couple questions.

How was the 32oz steak in Le Bistro? I've always thought about ordering it but worried it would be 16 oz steak and 16 oz fat like some of the steaks we've gotten in Cagney's (although those were much smaller).

Also, was that the Disney Wonder in Ketchikan?

LOL!! You got my hint. :D:cool: I agree anything that we asked him to do he was right on it. It was a different experience than we had with Lani. Now that we've have had both types it's safe to say we prefer the butler that is slightly more involved ;)

 

And yes we enjoyed you're S5 but you could've gotten the fridge fixed for us :D

Thinking you had LL? We had LL on the Star and pretty much as you described. I was surprised to see him on the BA - saw him in a picture. That poster as I recall was very positive but I'd rate our experience about 4 out of 10.

From some of the posts over the years the balcony reserved seating scenario seems to depend on ship and/or concierge. The last time I was on the Dawn, the reserved seating marked with bronze placards and signs on both sides were reserved for GV, DOS, and OS (same on the Star).

However, I asked Virginia on the Dawn since she had an area reserved in the balcony for all suite guests on the port side - basically one lane/aisle that was behind the traditional reserved seating. She said that is what she normally does. On the trip prior on the Star, Patrick didn't do this and kept it to the GV/DOS/OS only in the two sections on each side in the balcony.

Also, since the Star and Dawn added the DOS, it is very possible to fill up the placarded reserved seating with GV/DOS/OS passengers based on maximum occupancy of those rooms (I did the math one time and how many seats were there and it left like 1 or 2 empty seats IIRC).

I've always liked the breakfast filet at Cagneys and that seemed around 5 oz. Can anyone tell are they using the same steak now for dinner?

OK I took the plunge and am booked (paid the deposit) with my wife on the Norwegian Sun June 30 2014 - Southbound Alaska - Whittier - Vancouver - any tips I would be most grateful for

Do a search for user "computerworks" as he has a great photo tour.

I am in a balcony cabin in Sept,but when I saw the huge shower with multiple showerheads in the mini suite i was tempted to upgrade...and still might....

Some of the minis have a bathtub and not the fancy shower. Supposedly the Family minis have the tubs.

Moderno is just on the other side of the buffet so if you want some stuff from the buffet and others from Moderno, it is very easy to do. Typically we would have to sit in Moderno as the buffet on the Sun is smaller and seating was usually filled up.

Also, you used to be able to exit/enter by the pool in the more forward door/entrance area on the port side.

I recently looked at our Dailies for the Dawn last summer to Bermuda. Then it was only 2-1 martinis. Others have reported on some ships 2-1 just about anything. Suspect it changes frequently enough.

I think there was a similar thread with tips/secrets awhile back if you try a search.

The one thing I didn't see yet was that the opposite side of the buffet (it is small on the Sun) is used for breakfast and lunch during the day and they serve some limited foods in there or you can grab from buffet and go over there.

Answering own question - I checked all the Breakaway sailings out of PC and suites for all sailings marked "sold out".

Not sure yet if they are doing it with the rooms when you get on in PC, but on the Med cruises on the Epic they didn't have all the rooms available to book either from the secondary ports of embarkation (e.g. suite categories).

What's this metallic key card? Pics anyone? Compared to a regular key card. Just curious :)

And it is not always metallic in color. Ours was a darker brown last time. There was a thread a couple months back that others had similar experience. One poster even had a picture of a number of cards over the years.

We had the garden villa on the Dawn 1/6-1/11/13...it was awesome! I am thinking of booking the Gem garden villa for next year, but know it's not as big as the Dawn. The outdoor area seems smaller on the Gem but I think the bedrooms are the same size?? Anyone who has been on both, can you let me know. I thought the upper sun deck on the Dawn was one of the best parts of the villa. Also, with Gem's villa being connected to the haven (which the Dawn doesn't have), is it noisy? I really would like to cruise from NY so we can drive there. Thanks for any info. And I am looking forward to your review...hope you have lots of pictures:)

As a PP noted, you don't have the same size balcony as the Dawn/Star. You lose the upper balcony space to the DOS rooms on the Jewel class ships.

Like family suite? In one (no bal) on Jan 13th,12516

Yes. Any categories that start with "S".

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showt...0#post34445860

Post #9 on that thread has some pictures too. If the room is the same as the Star there are three thermostats - one in bathroom, one living room, one bedroom.

Those pictures are of the outer DOS, not the inner ones.

Also check youtube.

Bumped for babs135.

And Finally….

· I have turned into an NCL cheerleader. We have nothing to complain about. NCL really fits our style.

· Getting on the ship was easy and fast.

· We think that the food was always good but we thought the food on this cruise improved on past cruises.

· When ordering the Blue Lagoon Wings, order them extra crispy with the sauce on the side. (I am not a wing snob) This way you can control your sauce distribution.

· The salad in the Blue Lagoon was fantastic.

· We sailed from Boston and believe that 50% of the people on our cruise were from the greater Boston area. These people love to party and really know how to party hard. Fun cruise.

· Getting off the ship took some time but we easily made our noon flight home. $20 taxi ride to the airport with plenty of cabs available.

· Bermuda was the most relaxed cruise we have ever taken. We will do this cruise again.

· Extreme Vegas show was the best of the week for us. We even attended the noon show on the last day of the cruise and enjoyed this show also.

· Paul Scally was our Cruise Director and he had an Adults Only show in the Stardust Theater. Very funny and slightly blue.

· On a cruise one year ago, our DOA butler was Mark. It was great seeing Mark again and he escorted off the ship one day from the 12th floor to the gangway. Not only did he remember us, he wanted to assist us once again. NCL really does hire good people.

· We didn’t think that our suite category of SD was allowed reserved seats in the Stardust but our butler always escorted us to the reserved area. We never sat in the row reserved for the Owner’s suites but it was great showing up to the late show just a few minutes before it started with great seats

· We had been invited to the Captain’s Reception on past cruises but never attended. This cruise we attended and had a nice time casually meeting and talking to the crew. We will attend if we are ever invited again.

When we were on in June I asked Virginia about the seating as the port side balcony (one lane so to speak) was marked as reserved. She said she reserves that area for all suite folks. The front two seating areas are reserved for the OS/DOS/GV. She would sometimes put the GV folks on the starboard side if the port side front sections were kind of full.

On the Star, reserved seating was only for OS/DOS/GV and it seems to vary sometimes by ship/concierge from what I've read.

we were in cabin 764 last December...never had any complaints as to any noise. Have booked a 7th floor cabin again for next August.....can't wait :)

Off topic, but looks like we are on same trip - the 11 day?

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life but was wondering if there have been any recent sightings or strange occurances on the Dawn.

We saw the other story posted here not long ago. We were on ten starboard and asked our room steward if he ever heard about such things, especially about the rooms mentioned on 9. He said he hadn't and one of his four roommates was the steward for many of those rooms (including the port OS) and had never mentioned any such strange things.

The only creepy thing we saw on 9 was the artwork - check it out.

To clarify a couple other things, Palo (all ships) and Remy (Dream and Fantasy only) are adults only.

Also, the buffet on the Dream (and I would suspect is identical on Fantasy) is way improved over what was on Magic and Wonder and Dream's buffet IMO is better than any buffet I've seen on NCL although I haven't been on Epic.

Thanks for the pictures - it helps orient the check-in process.

It looks like you didn't hit the sparkling wine yet! Will be watching web cam as you leave shortly.

Have a great time. We'll be there a week from today!

Done this several times. There are a few that are only a roughly 5 minute drive to ship. Longest thing will be paperwork but only 15 minutes at worst for us.

You pull up to security, tell them you are dropping folks off, pull to the left area, porters right there. Family goes into terminal to wait.

Drop off car, take shuttle to dock. Make sure all have id/paperwork to get through security before terminal. This whole process normally 1/2 hour.

On return do in reverse but we all go on shuttle. Unless you are packing monster cases and tiny car, we've always been able to get four people in car and four cases in trunk. Only other note is beware of gas station just north of the highway by the airport as they didn't publish gas prices and are very expensive. This would be the east west highway to PC. Drive a couple miles north.

CNN just reported 4 more bodies just found.

As others have said, and I should have added on my post, the Cagney's breakfast steaks we had in August were fabulous IMO.