Just off the Dawn (itinerary changed from Bermuda to Canada)

We are just off this cruise and I'll be sharing some thoughts shortly. I realize that there were a lot of people that were/are (perhaps understandably) disappointed that we were diverted to Canada. We were happy to be on vacation, on a beautiful ship, regardless of the destination(s).

I am far from an NCL "cheerleader" as referred to on this board, as I certainly have a few criticisms here and there... relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. We like the convenience of the Boston port. We are fortunate to be able to cruise in the first place. So I'm happy to share some of our experience in the hopes that it helps someone who may be considering NCL and the Dawn.

Sounds like you enjoyed your trip! Look forward to your review.

Happy to follow along ... :D

I'll start with the elephant in the room. We found out "unofficially" about the itinerary change late Thursday night through these forums. Got the "robo-call" Friday morning before we left for the ship. We were fortunate to be able to switch some swimsuits out for long sleeves and pants, didn't change too much out though because we figured we'd be on the ship much of the time anyway.

We had already been to Bermuda 3x, and while we were looking forward to seeing it again and taking our 2 year old to Snorkel Beach, we were honestly fine with seeing places we've never been. Again, understanding not everyone shared that sentiment. I won't get into "when they made the decision", or why, or whether we should have/could have been notified sooner or given the choice to cancel because I don't know what goes on at the corporate level.

We could seriously not have asked for better weather. Every day felt warm and sunny, if it rained at all it was overnight. The seas were very smooth; I felt a bit of bumpiness a couple of the evenings but I'm pretty sensitive to that anyway. Lots of people out on the pool deck each day. Honestly, it did NOT feel like we were in Canada. I didn't imagine I would be spending multiple afternoons lounging in the sun but that's what I did!

As far as the itinerary, we were quite pleased. In order, I enjoyed Bar Harbor the best, then Halifax, then Sydney, then St. John.

We didn't do any excursions. I find the ship excursions to be a bit pricey, even with the $50 excursion credit per port. Plus we hadn't had the opportunity to do a lot of research beforehand. For us it was just as well, we enjoyed going ashore on our own and walking around.

Bar Harbor was a tender port. First time we had ever done that. One thing I found interesting was that since we were anchored, not docked, the ship shifted throughout the day so the view was always slightly different! The scenery was spectacular - lots of little islands, lots of sailboats, there was a Celebrity ship anchored nearby... just breathtaking. The port area itself seemed to be the quintessential New England summer town... beautiful architecture, a spacious park up on a hill, lots of little shops and a couple of waterfront seafood restaurants.

Halifax port area seemed fairly modern, with some shops and a microbrewery nearby.

Sydney's shopping seemed pretty contained to the port area itself, with a few small shops, a restaurant or 2, and a large exhibit hall where local artisans and craftspeople were selling their wares. Just outside of the port area was a beautiful park area, nice for walking around and taking pictures.

I did a quick walk ashore at St John (New Brunswick), I was told there was shopping under a large tent just on the other side of the port area, but I didn't check it out myself. NCL Gem was also docked there with us that day.

Thanks for reporting in! So glad the weather was good for you! I've been to Bermuda many times so I would have been one that wasn't disappointed in the change as I have wanted to do this itinerary for awhile.

We are just off this cruise and I'll be sharing some thoughts shortly. I realize that there were a lot of people that were/are (perhaps understandably) disappointed that we were diverted to Canada. We were happy to be on vacation, on a beautiful ship, regardless of the destination(s).

 

I am far from an NCL "cheerleader" as referred to on this board, as I certainly have a few criticisms here and there... relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. We like the convenience of the Boston port. We are fortunate to be able to cruise in the first place. So I'm happy to share some of our experience in the hopes that it helps someone who may be considering NCL and the Dawn.

A great attitude! Glad you had a great time despite the change

We've never been to Bermuda and our only other cruise was to Canada last year! Still, we had a wonderful, relaxed time. Couldn't believe people were complaining about being on a cruise ship no matter what!

A great attitude! Glad you had a great time despite the change

Those who, like ourselves, chose to make the best of it and wanted to have a good time regardless of where we went. Believe it or not, we talked to several folks on board that lived right near where the ship called, and the ones we talked to all seemed to be mostly of the mind that "it is what it is".

On the other hand, I overheard various folks complaining up until the last day. How the cruise ship should have been bending over backwards to make it up to them, etc. While some may have had legitimate concerns regarding service or other things, I feel like some folks were just determined to not enjoy themselves no matter what.

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OMG, yes! We were at the senior officers' Q&A in Bliss, and there was one obnoxiously entitled guy there who thought it was Festivus—the Airing of Grievances! Made me very grateful to be with my optimistic, happy husband!

Excellent. We got off the Dawn last Friday as you were getting ready to board. We were shocked to hear at Friday morning breakfast, from the crew, that the ship was cancelling Bermuda that day and heading north instead. The crew had just been advised late Thursday evening. With this hurricane's path and strength, I'm sure weather decisions had to wait until the last minute, which way to proceed. Your report on those stops make me want to do that cruise now. Glad it turned out to be a good cruise regardless. I think the Dawn and her crew are both might fine.

OMG, yes! We were at the senior officers' Q&A in Bliss, and there was one obnoxiously entitled guy there who thought it was Festivus—the Airing of Grievances! Made me very grateful to be with my optimistic, happy husband!

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Ha ha. I was there as well. I enjoy learning about the ship... and agree that there is a time and place (as the Captain himself even said)!

 

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Do you remember what was the total distance, or one way distance cruised on that cruise.

Do you remember what was the total distance, or one way distance cruised on that cruise.

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Thank you for your review! We are scheduled for Bermuda in a couple weeks if it gets rerouted, I am taking your attitude!

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So as I mentioned before, we traveled with our 2 year old. We were cruising on her actual birthday so we had the Birthday Decoration package - balloons and Happy Birthday banners hung from the ceiling. It was cute, not overdone in my opinion. They also delivered a cake to the room... and we had a certificate for a cake at dinner the night we chose to celebrate (we chose the last night).

We were in an Aft Penthouse. We had stayed in that category stateroom before and thought it made the most sense, space and amenity-wise. At first we were a bit apprehensive about the balcony because of our toddler but our concerns turned out to be completely unfounded. The glass "railing" design was high enough that it didn't pose an issue for climbing, etc.* She loved going back and forth from the cabin to the balcony and got a kick out of setting up her toys out there!

There were a couple of things in the cabin that made me a bit nervous. There is a pretty high (maybe 3-4 inches if I had to guess) threshold that you have to step over to get to the balcony... and the bathroom was up a step as well. Just something I thought I would mention for anyone planning on cruising with kids. Ours likes to run and climb and luckily walked off the ship unscathed ;)

We realized how glad we were we booked the suite as soon as we arrived at the terminal. We arrived around 11:30am. We were quickly escorted past the long check in lines and up to the counter. No waiting. From there, escorted to the suite waiting area. No real wait there either. From arrival, check in, and embarkation photo to being on the ship was *maybe* 25-30 minutes. Priority embarkation was a HUGE benefit for us... as anyone with a small child can attest to, there is often a "window" of time until a child starts to get restless, particularly in a new setting! But all was good, we went right to the suite to drop off carry on bags, and then it was off to Moderno for lunch!

Thank you for the review. We will be on the Dawn in October, because we chose to visit Canada. This will be our first time on the Dawn, and we have heard only good things about the ship and her crew.

I have no idea if corporate could have made a decision to reroute any sooner, and I sympathize with people who got caught off guard. On the other hand, anybody sailing the Atlantic during hurricane season should know the risks. I'm sure anybody in the Carolinas would be happy to change places! Imagine, a week on a cruise with nice weather, the horror! And I can't wait, no matter what the weather does.

It was a great cruise! One of the best I've ever taken, and this was my first sail with Norwegian. I am enjoying your take on things :cool::cool:

One of the things we probably hate to admit, but that is echoed repeatedly whenever anyone posts a "how could they do this to us" thread either here or on FB, is that we do pay less to cruise during hurricane season compared to any other time. I say it that way because it is true... but when we're still paying thousands of dollars for a family vacation, we don't always see it as a "bargain".

That being said, I do feel for the folks on other ships that were diverted to Bahamas/FL. That one might have stung a bit, since that itinerary does appear to be considerably less expensive overall than the Bermuda run. Canada/NE cruises on the other hand, actually seemed pretty comparable cost wise, which surprised me a little bit.

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I won't detail our day by day in detail but I'll share some of where we dined, and our experience in the restaurants.

For the most part, I would give the service a 8/9 out of 10. While I found the service to always be very pleasant and accommodating, at times I thought it was a bit slower than it should be. And not necessarily due to the fault of anyone in particular... more like inefficiencies in their systems. Each time though they had the kids menu, crayons, and a highchair readily available.

For breakfast, we ate at Venetian twice, had room service 3x, and went to Moderno 2x (split up throughout the week).

On our previous 3 Dawn cruises we'd never done Venetian for breakfast and were glad we did this time. We got there early (our daughter is an eaaaaarrrly riser lol) and were seated by the window on one of our visits.

We opted for room service a couple of mornings for convenience more than anything.

Moderno is the best bet for us because in addition to the menu itself, there is a nice selection of fruits, pastries, meats, cheese, breads, and cold cereal to choose from. This worked well as our daughter enjoyed the fresh fruit, croissants (and the hash browns!). We liked the waffles and eggs Benedict. They do a seafood eggs Benedict type dish served on brioche... quite rich and decadent but delicious.

My family and I did get to go to Bermuda in August.... love it there... BUT to be honest I am a bit jealous of the itinerary you had!!!! I would love to use NCL for a ME/Canada cruise, but don't want to book a back to back or find a way back to Boston.

Glad you had fun!!!

My family and I did get to go to Bermuda in August.... love it there... BUT to be honest I am a bit jealous of the itinerary you had!!!! I would love to use NCL for a ME/Canada cruise, but don't want to book a back to back or find a way back to Boston.

Glad you had fun!!!

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A couple of things about the kids menu. The menu itself, meaning the items printed on the menu, are consistent throughout all of the restaurants onboard. However when it came to actually what was available... totally different story.

Breakfast for kids was choice of pastry, plus fruit, plus main (scrambled eggs or banana pancakes). The scrambled eggs were runny and our daughter didn't care for the pancakes.

The inconsistency came at lunch and dinner time. Choices were burger, hot dog, mac and cheese, chicken tenders and fries, or a mini pizza. The few times we ordered mac and cheese, at different places, the consistency was different each time (and as those with little ones know, that could make a huge difference as to whether they will eat it or not lol). I tried to order her a mini pizza at O'Sheehans... they said they "couldn't do it", and that mac and cheese would be somewhat of a special order.

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For lunches, we went to Moderno or O'Sheehans. I know a lot of people with kids opt for the buffet, but for me - the last thing I want to be doing on vacation is preparing plates of food!!

The brie burger was great at Moderno, as was the lobster bisque. They also had a nice lightly fried seafood appetizer, Fritto Misto maybe? My husband ordered the scallops for lunch one day and we agreed the portion was VERY small. Again, we liked Moderno a lot because they bring a basket of bread to the table, even at lunch, which worked wonders at making our daughter happy :)

I loved the steak fajitas at O'Sheehans. My husband enjoyed the open faced Turkey sandwich and the apple pie was delicious! We were always seated quickly and had a nice booth by the window a couple of times on port days.

The one thing I seemed to miss was Bimini Bar? I recall them serving burgers and hot dogs during the day up there... I think maybe Topsiders Grill has replaced it for the outside "grill" option. I had a burger out there by the pool one day, it was delicious.

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For dinners:

Venetian

Cagney's (room service)

Bamboo

Venetian/Teppanyaki *

Cagney's

O'Sheehans/Teppanyaki *

Bamboo

No, we didn't eat dinner twice some nights, lol. We had the dining package and wanted to do Teppanyaki, but didn't know how our daughter would like it. Plus, my understanding was that they would still charge her the $30 cover charge as she was technically taking up a seat (even if she ate little to nothing there). So we opted to alternate - one evening I had dinner with her while my husband went to Teppenyaki, and the other time he dined with her and I went to Teppanyaki. Some people probably find it strange but honestly it was nice to get some "alone" time in the evenings. And being that it was just the 3 of us, it was our only option for some things. So we made it work.

I remember on previous cruises, Bamboo seemed like such a wasted space. I never knew if it was included, or a la carte, or what - but there was never anyone there. Now it is an included option (with a couple of a la carte entrees) and we were glad we made reservations both times, as it was packed.

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Butler and concierge service was fantastic. The first couple of days were a bit slow going but after finding out our butler had to suddenly leave the ship for personal reasons back home, it was understandable. Each day was little afternoon treats per our preferences - again, it's the "little things" that make paying for the suite experience so worth it.

Each day we'd call the concierge with where we wanted to go that evening. We had to do Cagneys on a different night than originally planned as they were full that night, but it was no big deal. We were able to eat at our preferred time (6:30 ish) every night. To me that is huge, knowing how busy the restaurants get.

We didn't do any priority disembarking at the ports, and only went to a couple of shows. That said, we probably didn't take advantage of all the concierge offered but were happy with what he did do to help us.