MelissaFreed

My husband surprised me with this cruise back in 2012. Hawaii was always on the top of my bucket list and I don't think I could ever take another vacation that would top it. A couple of things to consider...

1. The POA is a much different experience than any other NCL ship, as it is a predominantly American crew. Don't get me wrong, the crew is great. However, if you are one of those cruisers who looks forward to having crew members gravel at your feet, you probably won't find it here. The POA crew is friendly and accommodating, but not over the top like you will find on some other ships.

2. Is this your first trip to Hawaii? It was mine, so I found cruising the perfect way to see as much of Hawaii as we could.

3. Are you comfortable doing your own thing and going off the beaten path? Hawaii is very touristy. If you are anything like me and don't like the overcrowded tourist scene, Hawaii is very easy to do things on your own.

Here is the link for my review thread. I hope it's helpful.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1716047

Costa Maya...a beautiful place to port. The Epic ported here with us today! We had a surprise for the girls in store :D

We were off the boat very early to meet for the girls to swim with dolphins. We got off the ship and walked to the end of the pier where it was very easy to locate our tour group. After about 15 minutes the group was escorted off to the side to begin getting life jackets and some instruction. For those doing the dolphin swim at the port...they do offer lockers and there is a bathroom right there. They give you about 10 minutes to get ready. There are loungers on the other side of the rope right at the dolphin pools for viewers. We were literally watching them from 5 feet away (only our girls did this). It was a typically dolphin swim...groups of about 10 at a time. Everyone got a chance to have the dolphins pull them through the water, kisses, hugs, etc. The dolphins did a few flips and tricks. What was really nice was that as one dolphin and trainer was working with someone in the water, the other trainer had another dolphin with the rest of the group giving some education and allowing for more hands on time. The girls had an absolute fantastic time and it was the highlight of the trip for both of them. After the swim was over you could go to the gift shop and view the photos that were taken. We opted to buy the disc which cost us about $100 since there were two of them. The pics were so much better than the ones I got and there was close to 100 pics taken of the girls. Very much worth it in my opinion.

From there we were headed "downtown" to the Tropicante. The Tropicante is a small restaurant/bar located right on the beach. I did email the owner before hand to reserve loungers for us. I forget the actual website, but if you google Tropicante it will show up. We opted to ride the shuttle that picks you up right at the pier. I think it was $2 a person and we got off stop #3 for the Tropicante. You walk one block towards the beach, then one block to the left. You can't miss it. Disclaimer...there are tons of vendors and they are somewhat aggressive, but friendly. As we were walking from the shuttle there was a person every 5 feet trying to get us to visit their bar. I asked one where Tropicante was and he said to follow him and tried to lead me to their beachfront bar. Another guy quickly showed us the right direction.

Our loungers were set up and waiting as requested. The beach was somewhat crowded but I never felt like people were on top of one another. A couple from the Epic were sitting beside us and we swapped info on our ships :) The beach and water here really was beautiful. The water was very calm, and although there were some fish to follow with snorkels, there wasn't that many. I did see places to rent snorkel equipment, rent banana boats, and parasail very close by here. The "street" right behind the beach is lined with vendors, and vendors will walk up and down the beach all day. I would say a vendor approached us every 4-5 minutes. Even though there was a lot, a simple "no thank you" did the trick. Drinks were excellent here...some of the smoothest tequila I've ever had (and I've had a lot!). We ordered a lot of food and everything was awesome; enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos, fajitas. I felt like everything was very reasonably priced. There are bathrooms inside Tropicante for patron use, as well as free wifi. Just ask for the password. There were only two guys waiting on lots of people here. I overheard the owner telling someone that they were down a couple of servers that day. These two guys busted their tails! Service was fast and always with a smile. We tipped our serve very well this day.

We ended up hitching a ride back to the port in a taxi...I think $3 or $4 a person. All we did was walk one block back to the road and there were plenty of taxis. We had some extra time back at the port so the kids and I took a dip in the big pool (with swim up bar for the adults :D ) while the hubby did some shopping. He didn't end up buying anything so I'm guessing the shopping wasn't anything spectacular. From there it was back on the ship with tired, but happy kiddos.

This was probably the low point of the entire trip for us. We were scheduled for the NCL snorkel and private island excursion. We received a letter in our suite the first night stating that the private island portion was cancelled due to renovations on the island. As a result our snorkeling time was extended by 45 minutes. No big deal. The night before we arrived in Belize we received a letter stating that our excursion was cancelled altogether due to mechanical issues with the boat. At the last minute, 5 minutes before the excursion desk closed for the night, there I was scrambling to pick something else. The only excursion left that allowed younger kids, and would keep them content, was the private island. I figured how bad could a private island for the day be?

The cost was $49 a person. That basically got you a tender directly from the ship to the private island. The boat ride was fantastic, about 15 minutes. We passed lots of little islands along the way that made for nice scenery. We arrived and were given very clear directives on when we would be picked up. I'm going to do a pros and cons type of review here:

Pros

First mate gave a nice history lesson of Belize on the ride to the island

The water was beautiful and calm

Food and drinks from the bar were pretty good

Food was reasonably priced

Trampolines in the water for the kids (and husbands if they are like mine)

Clean bathrooms

Plenty of wait staff walking around=very little time to wait for a drink

Staff was very friendly

Cons

There isn't really sand...more like crushed up coral (suggest water shoes)

Found a piece of glass about 2in x 6in at the waters edge

Not good for snorkeling

Drinks were expensive

All in all the kids had a great time so that's what is most important to me. I probably wouldn't book again as I didn't see the cost justified for this excursion. My husband and I would love to go back to Belize to spend more time. I would have loved to do a ruin tour but I didn't think it would keep the interest of my 8 year old. For those keeping track, we did tip the wait staff a couple of dollar per round of drinks/food, and we tipped our first mate on the tender ride back to the ship. Also, there is a small gift shop on this island.

Please forgive me, as this was probably the peak day of my camera issues. I only got a few shots...

I guess I'll start with some ports of call!

Roatan was our first port of call and probably the port I was looking the most forward to. When we pulled up to dock there were local dancers there to greet us. Our 8 year old thought this was the greatest thing ever. I think her exact comment was "Mom, that lady can really shake it."

We chose to book the Zip and Dip tour with Victor Bodden, which schedules to leave one hour after the ship docks. We utilized the concierge to get off the ship right away (which I'll explain more in a later section). If you book with Victor Bodden, you have to exit the boat and walk straight down the dock. You make a right immediately after the Diamonds International store, and you will see several booths set up. Victor Bodden is the first booth on the left. We were greeted immediately and taken to our van. We were the only ones who booked that tour for this day so it was really nice.

Our drive took us on a ride through the town, and it took about 20 minutes to get to the zip lining location. We were greeted by a scraggly looking puppy who escorted us to the store to pay (this dog quickly became my 8 year old's shadow and she couldn't have been happier). We were the first group for the day so there was all hands on deck to get us geared up. Two escorts and a photographer guided us. This would be the first time for my mom and my kids ziplining. My 8 year old started to cry on the walk up to the first line. She chose to zip with me for her first line. The first 5 seconds she screamed bloody murder, then started laughing. Needless to say she zipped on the second line alone and by the third line she was flipping upside down. My 12 year old had a blast also. My mom on the other hand, was a real trooper but I don't know that you will ever catch her on a zip line again! The staff were all really young, but nice and I felt safe the entire time. The lines were not as long or high as my husband and I did in Hawaii, but I think they were perfect for the young kids and my mom :) We did tip our zip line guides. We were able to view our pics but declined the disc offered for $20 because we took our own pics.

After ziplining Victor took us to see the animals. Yes, there were monkeys...lots of monkeys. They kept two per cage and Victor would feed them sunflower seeds as they jumped from one person to the other. Sometimes they come out of no where so you have to be ready! They will sit on your arms, shoulders, head, or wherever else they feel like. There was no biting, poop throwing, or anything else unpleasant. We were also able to hold some exotic birds and feed deer. We also tipped Victor for his little tour.

Next our driver took us to a private beach area. There was bathrooms, restaurants and bars here. The driver passed us off to a member of the beach security who escorted us to loungers. Security told us to find him right away if we had any problems. Our Victor Bodden then waited in the van until we were finished at the beach (about 2 hours). There are vendors that walk this beach, but I didn't feel too bothered by them. My 8 year old got her hair braided for $2 a braid and she could not have been happier. She's been looking forward to having her hair braided since we booked the trip two years ago! There were plenty of rentals; jet skis, the hydro thing, banana boats, paddle boards, etc. The water was beautiful, very calm and the kids had a great time swimming here. We got pizza from the little pizza shop by the entrance and it was pretty good. From there it was back to the van and about a 30 minute ride back to the port. On the ride back the driver gave us a lot of interesting information on the island. He was very appreciative of tourists, as tourism is the major industry on the island. You guessed it, we tipped our van driver too.

There is a pretty nice shopping area at the port. We had a little time to walk around before boarding back on the Dawn. I don't remember anyone buying anything but the shops were very clean.

A few side notes on Roatan...

With the recent murder of an NCL crew member, there was a lot of worry with this port for everyone. I can say that there was police presence just about everywhere we went. My group of 5 felt safe while being there. Just like most other ports, as soon as you leave the port area the majority of the island is very poor. Be warned that people walk out in the middle of the street in front of cars constantly. I almost had a few heart attacks!

Sorry I skipped out last night. Had tons of stuff to do. Let's see how much I can post tonight ;)

We are not huge show people when it comes to cruising. My hubby gets a little seasick, so being in a theater with lots of lighting at the front of the boat doesn't sit well with him. We did however make it to see one of Tim Kiminski's shows while on this cruise and I'm so glad we did. This guy really is funny. We didn't see his stand up, but the one we saw he pulled members of the audience up on stage to reenact The Wizard of Oz. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. We took my 12 year old and the show was appropriate for her also. I do believe that he does a later stand up where kids are not allowed if I remember correctly. If you have a chance do go and see at least one of his shows!

Our cruise director was Dingo Dave. He was a pretty nice guy and I saw him around the ship more than I have ever seen any other cruise director. He was very personable and everyone seemed to like him also. His other staff included Shakin Shirley, a very very funny lady. I also remember the Assistant Director, Steven, and he was extremely entertaining. Romeo was another member of the team that seemed to be everywhere. He was a little more over the top but very friendly. All in all this was probably the best cruise director staff I have encountered so far.

We played most of the bingo sessions and I actually won on two different occasions! I usually spend more money on bingo then booze (I'm a sucker for the ultimate bingo package and my husband hates it). Bingo was usually held in the theater, but also in the Spinnaker Lounge on occasion. I think Bingo packages ranged from $40-$70. We also played Deal or No Deal on the first sea day. My 12 year old had fun, but I really didn't care for it. It was either $20 or $25 per card to play. They played two games and you could use the same card for each game.

We went to the not so newlywed game. There were no disclaimers for kids so we took our 12 year old. Some parents might not think it was appropriate for kids that age but oh well. It was actually pretty funny, however they chose a very intoxicated couple as one of the three couples. They quickly became very obnoxious and I found myself wanting to charge them bull style on more than one occasion.

The only other entertainment I remember going to was the 80s song trivia held at Gatsby's. We didn't actually play and keep score. We only really wanted to go and observe but ended up having a lot of fun even if we weren't in the running for a prize :D

Sorry...no pics to go along with this section :o

We were in Teppanyaki along with you and your family when the overhead smoke alarm went off. Recognized you from pic's you have posted on this review! I believe you and oldest daughter were in black dress. I saw the older guy and yes, he was a Pain in the -ss. :mad:

But it worked out anyway.:D

We were on the Meet and Greet with a tour of my Mini-Suite after, but my friend Judi was not feeling good and we couldn't go! I feel bad about that 'cause I wanted to do the Cabin Crawl which I signed up for. However, it was all good in the end. Love the review! And pic's, Thank you!:p

How ironic! I think you are thinking of my mother in the black dress. I was in the black and white striped dress. The two little ones were my kiddos :) You didn't miss anything with the cabin crawl. We actually didn't do it. The latitudes cocktail party was scheduled for the same time. There were three cabins on the crawl that backed out so they could attend the cocktail party.

Please carry on! :)

 

Photo reviews are few and far between, and I absolutely love photo reviews!

Thanks for taking the time to read! I will try to post a little each night over the next couple of weeks.

Thinking of switching my Sun cruise to the Dawn for next year. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Thanks for reading! I've never been on the Sun, but the Dawn really is a great ship to sail.

Sounds great so far. Can't wait to hear more! We are booked on the Dawn for Jan 18/2015 in a family suite as well. Reading your review is a great way to research on both the ship and the suite experience as this cruise will be our first time on the Dawn and in a suite.

Good for you! I have no doubt that you will love the family suite. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Self-serve breakfast bar...

Breakfast menu...

Almost forgot...Cagneys serves breakfast daily from 7A-930A. I forget what time lunch starts, but it ends at 130P.

My kiddos fooling around at the Venetian...you can kinda get an idea of the deco in the background...

Teppanyaki tucked in at the back of Bamboo...if you have reservations you check in with the Bamboo hostess...

I guess today I'll put in my two cents on the food. Let me first start by saying that I am far from a foodie. I seem to take the stance that any meal I don't have to cook is a good enough meal for me. However, my husband is a bit more picky so I'll give you his thoughts too. Throughout the week we ate at La Cucina, Cagneys, Blue Lagoon, Venetian, Aqua, Teppanyaki, Moderno and the buffet.

Lets start with the buffet. The Dawn has a different set up than the other NCL ships I have sailed on. I've always sailed on ships where the buffet had multiple different island/stations set up for the buffet. The Dawn has one long "bar", but a couple of them. They all have the same items more or less. I felt like it took much longer to get through with this type of set up. As for the food quality, I felt it was comparable to the other NCL buffets that I have eaten at, but my husband disagreed. He felt like the food quality and selection was much worse on the Dawn. The buffet did host the Chocolate Buffet which started at 9P. I can't remember which night exactly, but it was towards the middle of the week. The set up was beautiful, but the food quality was just OK. They did have a chocolate fountain with fruit, marshmallows, bananas and a few other things to dip in it. There really wasn't anything that wowed me.

We didn't eat at Cagneys for dinner, but as a suite perk were able to eat at Cagneys for breakfast and lunch. Lunches were again OK, but nothing I would consider outstanding. Breakfast on the other hand was fantastic! Cagneys will set up a self-serve bar with pastries, cold cereal, fruit, and a few other items. I do remember the self-serve bar having smoked trout and smoked salmon for breakfast too. They also have a regular breakfast menu to pick from, which was the same every day. I'll post a pic of the breakfast menu below. The waffles are absolutely to die for, and I'm not even a big waffle fan!

My hubby and I usually always eat at Cagneys for dinner at least once, but since we were having Cagneys for breakfast and dinner we decided to try Moderno for the first time. This was our first experience at a Brazillian steakhouse and we were both extremely glad that we tried it. For those not familiar with how this works, everyone is given a little card that is green on one side and red on the other. If your card is flipped to green staff will keep bringing you different meats and carving you a portion right at the table. When you need a break or are finished, just flip the card to red. There is also a salad bar to start with, and they bring 4 different sides to the table for sharing; garlic mashed potatoes, rice, baked beans, and fried bananas (my favorite). From the best of my memory we were served a couple of different types of sausage, bacon wrapped chicken breast, lamb, filet, pork, and a couple of different kinds of steak. Everything was fantastic. Not even one complaint from the picky hubby. If you take nothing else away from my review, please remember to give Moderno a try if you have not already.

We tried La Cucina for the first time on this trip. The food quality was excellent, and the service was probably the best we experienced on the ship all week. I had the shrimp risotto and it was cooked perfectly. My hubby and daughter got the prime rib and both said it was very good. My youngest, God love her, asked for a little bowl of spaghetti and they brought her exactly that. There was no kids menu for La Cucina and I think that the names of some of the dishes scared her lol. At one point she was cold. The waiter saw this and brought her a clean white linen table cloth and put it around her shoulders. Little things like that really make vacations wonderful.

The last specialty dining we went to was Teppanyaki, located in the back of Bamboo. We tried this on the Pride of America and fell in love. This experience on the Dawn was just as good, if not better. There is only seating for 18, so reserve early if you want to eat there. You are given miso soup, salad with ginger dressing, some type of bean that you eat out of the pod, fried rice, veggies, and the entrée of your choice. I got the shrimp and scallops, which were probably the best scallops I've ever had. There were a couple of chickens and filets ordered by our group. Everyone could not stop saying how good everything was. Dessert was a choice between fruit with a couple of different dips, or green cake with mint ice cream. I enjoyed the green cake and ice cream, but my husband didn't care for the cake. Just a side note about Teppanyaki...at the beginning of the meal the smoke detector directly above us started to go off. The wait staff explained that the exhaust hood was broken. Within a couple of minutes a ship officer arrived. He had to call the Captain for permission to have the smoke detector disconnected. Within a couple of minutes it was turned off. All the staff involved were extremely apologetic. Everyone seemed undisturbed by it except one older gentleman sitting across from me. He immediately became angry and complained, even after it was disconnected. We would refer to this guys as "the grump" for the remainder of the meal. Everyone at the table was given a complimentary glass of champagne (for kids a glass of soda) as an apology. Even though I didn't think it was necessary, it definitely was a good example of good NCL customer service in my opinion.

The Blue Lagoon was a good option for a meal in a hurry. Service was usually quick, but the menu was very limited and the food quality was OK. My kids thought they had the best chicken strips they've ever eaten. Other menu items include a grilled chicken sandwich, macaroni salad, tomato soup, and a few other "comfort" foods. Blue Lagoon is the 24 hr dining option on the Dawn.

The main dining rooms were the Venetian and Aqua. Everyone in my group seemed to agree that the food quality in Aqua was better, but the service was much faster and friendlier in the Venetian. Venetian is your more traditional cruise dining room atmosphere, where as Aqua is a bit more contemporary.

A few side notes on food...bbq style food was offered poolside daily and was a descent option if you were poolside for the day and didn't feel like dressing for lunch. There was hand dipped ice cream offered poolside also, which I was thrilled about (not a fan of soft serve). My husband raved about the strawberry cheesecake that was offered throughout the week as a dessert option so don't miss that! Also, please keep in mind that food is extremely subjective. What we loved, someone else might hate and vice versa. Slower service could have been due to the times we chose to dine, or it could just be that the service is normally slow.

I'll post a few pics related to food and dining, but due to the aforementioned camera issues, I unfortunately do not have a whole lot of food porn that everyone seems to love :(

Sofa and murphy beds pulled out and still plenty of room...

Closets...

There are 4 like this but I must have only taken pics of 3

Bench with 2 storage drawers...

We stayed in Suite 12526, which is a family suite w/balcony. This was our first time in a suite so it was a bit of a learning experience for us. I might post some things that are obvious to veteran cruisers when it comes to the suite life, so please don't make fun of me. I'll do a separate post later about some of the suite amenities we took advantage of.

I cannot say enough good things about this suite. It was incredible! As far as sleeping arrangements for 5 people, we had the standard queen bed, a murphy bed, and the pull out sofa. Both the murphy bed and pull out sofa would have slept 2 comfortably. All beds were comfortable, or at least no one complained lol. The room also had a small dining table that sat 4, a bench at the end of the queen bed that allowed for extra storage, a large flat screen TV, a lavazza (spelling?) machine, and mini fridge. The bathroom had a separate shower and tub, with double sinks. Plenty of storage under the sinks for all of your stuff. There's a large closet area with 4 separate closets. All 4 closets had a rod to hang clothes and a shelf above that. One of the closets had two pull out drawers for clothing/storage. Additional drawers were under the long vanity in the room (I'm thinking 9 drawers under the vanity, with two additional drawers in the storage bench by the bed). In any event, we traveled with 4 females and 1 male and had plenty of storage space. Another great perk of the suite is the portable phone you get that will work anywhere on the ship. It was handy for us with our youngest being at the kids club a lot. They could just call the phone if they needed us.

Now to my favorite part...the balcony! It was huge! I did do some research prior to booking and saw that cabin 12526 had the most balcony square footage for this suite category. We had two loungers and three upright chairs, along with a little end table on the balcony. Even with all of that, there was still plenty of extra space on the balcony. The balcony is NOT covered, and is open to deck 13 above. Right above this balcony was not a very populated area as it's not right above the pool, so no real issues with people looking down. Most of the time the crew stacked the pool loungers right above our room so no one was right above us.

As far as room location, it was about a 15 second walk to the pool, and right across the hall from a meeting room and the library. At no time did we have any issues with traffic noise outside the room or from the deck above. This was a fantastic room and I would most definitely sail in it again! I did take quite a few pics of the room...

Lounger half...

Chair half...

Hi everyone! I wasn't going to do a review but I changed my mind. I'm not going to do this as a day by day like I did for the Hawaii cruise, mostly because I can't remember a lot of details. Vacationing with kids makes things so much more hectic! I'll do a few different installments on some of the highlights. As a disclaimer, there won't be nearly as many pics as on my Pride of America review. I was having camera issues and if I gave more detail it would just make me look like an idiot so we'll leave it at that!

Embarkation:

Embarkation was a breeze out of Tampa. We arrived at the port around noon. We opted just to use the port parking, which is literally right across the street from the terminal. Parking was $14/day just like the NCL website stated. You pay when you park and are given a little yellow token to turn in when you leave at the end of the cruise. Now, if we would have been smart we would have dropped off our luggage at the terminal, then parked, but we weren't. It wasn't a far distance, but we had to cross the street and there was a lot of traffic when we arrived.

The drop off area was a bit of organized chaos. Lots of people, taxis, and luggage handlers. I learned quickly that you must carry on soda. We took 4 12 packs on with a total of 5 people if anyone wanted to know. We turned in our luggage right outside, then up the escalator to check in.

Priority check in went quickly...maybe about 15 minutes and we were probably the 3rd or 4th group in line. My mom was in our suite and was able to attach her own credit card to her room key for charges (also something I was not sure of). We set up our cards so our kids could not charge on their room cards. We were taken to the suite lounge. There was a few snacks and drinks there for us. After waiting about 5 minutes our Concierge, John D'Souza, came out and explained that he would be escorting the group to Cagneys for lunch. On the way onto the ship he mentioned that the suites were ready so since we ended up carrying on more with the soda, we opted to go right to our room to drop our stuff off, then headed right to Cagneys for lunch.

Here's a pic of the parking garage from the terminal...

ECongrats! I'm super jealous! We just cruised the 2 night out of NYC on the Jewel. To give you some perspective, I am the girl who gets wide eyed over the slot machines that make a lot of noise and lights up. Friday night was quite lively for us, since we are not used to adult time without our kids. We turned in sometime around 2am Saturday morning, and our room bill at the end of the weekend would show that we must have visited what seemed to be every bar on that ship...multiple times. When we woke up Saturday morning, my husband was still in bad shape and decided to sleep it off. I decided it was go big or go home time so I showered and headed for a mimosa, or 5, at the Spinnaker. Well, it was bingo time. I got sucked right in. Of course I did not win, but the activities staff seemed to be speaking directly to me when plugging the Deal or No Deal game that was upcoming. Didn't win anything at that either. Well the day would have been a total waste if I did not return for the second round of bingo, and the free cruise drawing. Again, nothing but a big L for me. In the end, I had fun, until I had to explain all the charges from my gaming at the end of the weekend to the hubby, who insisted all the charges must have been a mistake lol. Lesson learned for him: do not, under any circumstances, leave the wife alone on a bingo day.

Again, congrats!