The "NEW" Dawn-just back from Boston-Bermuda trip

[mesci14]

I am having a hard time reading the dailies. Any suggestions on the best way to view or download these? Thanks

[l1lgreekprincess]

Thanks for a great and fast review! We are on in three weeks and have been waiting to hear all about the new changes!

 

Murphmusik...join our roll call for the 24th!

[muffy168]

thanks for review, we are going in July. Anyone who just got off, can you give us some good hotel ideas for Boston ? We are flying in on Thurs. afternoon, want a clean,not too expensive place to stay the night before leaving on the Dawn.

[CruisinMaterial]

thanks for review, we are going in July. Anyone who just got off, can you give us some good hotel ideas for Boston ? We are flying in on Thurs. afternoon, want a clean,not too expensive place to stay the night before leaving on the Dawn.

 

Do you care where you stay in the Boston area? Is there anything you would like to see in the city before boarding or do you just want to be closest to the ship in the AM?

[cruiser1955a]

Thanks for posting the daily's. The full page pics are too faint & fuzzy to read, but looking at the first pic of the 7 night summaries, it looks as though they only have one stage show per night (not an early & late show as they had on the Spirit). Is that correct ? And in a much smaller theater than Spirit's ?

 

And thank you again for posting so quickly after your return ! I've been so anxious to hear about the post-drydock details. Also, thanks for your updates prior to sail-away last week.

[Charbie]

....As an earlier poster said, there were several comedy nights and not enough singing and dancing shows, but that was really a minor complaint of ours . We enjoy music more than magic shows or comedy. ....

 

Hello FuninWB, Had you previously sailed the Spirit on this itinerary? (Bos to BDA) On the Spirit we LOVED Arvin & Emily, and was wondering if there is anyone like them now on this ship? I like you prefer the music and singing to comedy and magic.

 

Can anyone tell me who the concierge on this ship is?

Also, whoever mentioned that the captain was leaving for the Epic -- who was the captain and who is replacing him?

thanks,

Karen

[Crissy699]

Hello FuninWB, Had you previously sailed the Spirit on this itinerary? (Bos to BDA) On the Spirit we LOVED Arvin & Emily, and was wondering if there is anyone like them now on this ship? I like you prefer the music and singing to comedy and magic.

 

Can anyone tell me who the concierge on this ship is?

Also, whoever mentioned that the captain was leaving for the Epic -- who was the captain and who is replacing him?

thanks,

Karen

They have Kenosis, very similar to Arvind and Emily, a little better, even?

 

They also have Ariel Jacobe who sounds JUST like Frank Sinatra! He often played piano in the Venetian, and also sang/played in the Atrium.

 

I think the concierge may have been Anoop, though he may have been the butler? I met so many people, and though I usually remember names, sometimes dont remember titles. He was very, very nice and accommodating.

 

The captain was Sverre Sovdsnes from Norway, they didnt say who was replacing him. He is very funny and was very visible around the ship, we met him on Saturday and saw him around almost every day.

 

Oh, I see the Dailies did post quite small on here! They are full size on my comp! I can post pdfs on monday, if someone else hasn't already posted them by then....

 

You could also save the files to your comp and zoom in, maybe? :(

[goin-away]

...

 

You could also save the files to your comp and zoom in, maybe? :(

 

Nope, tried it; too fuzzy when you zoom in.:(

[patar]

Thanks for all the information! Do you know who the Latitudes representative is on the Dawn?

[RenieRaider]

Thank you Chrissy for the Review! How exciting that you were on of the irst t sail on the "New" Dawn! Very excited to have her here in Boston!

[fridaythe13th]

Do they still have bingo and not so newly wed game in the Spinnaker? I always thought they should be in the theater as the SL got too crowded.

[cruznsuzn89]

Thanks for the great review! It sounds like you had a fun time. We are going on the Dawn on the 17th and this is my first NCL cruise, so I am really looking forward to it. Did you know anyone on board who tried the Japanese resteraunt? I am wondering if it is worth the extra money. I would really like to try it. Also, my favorite dessert on Carnival is the chocolate melting cake, and also bitter and blanc.. do they have either one of these? Do they have movies daily in the theatre?( I couldn't read the pages you posted, they came out too small on my computer) Thanks for the great info and welcome home! :)

[sullyd]

nice review crissy ,also thanks again for organizing m&g . we were in 11150 mini suite the , it was really nice lots of room for 2 . we had a great room steward (Jason) he did a fantastic job . first nite : we ate in moderno very disapointing, salad bar was good , but meats disapointing even though hostess kept telling us we would "love it" dried out chicken legs ,linguica and chrocios was breakfast sausage .the lamb was good, chicken wrapped in uncooked bacon was dry the last meat they offered was good but very rare ,asked for more medium they made a special plate of it for me kind of saved it for me but wife hade already given up. also le bistro was good had duck wife had filet mignot (again dried out) but she ate it , chocalate fondue was great. presumed murdered second city luncheon was good. noticed pay restaurants were dead except teppanyaki . buffet was always pretty good . bermuda was beautiful went to horseshoe bay one of most beautiful beaches in the world they had a special bus non stop not crowded included w/bus pass. dock yard was really nice shopping ,beach ,bars . overall a relaxing ,awesome vacation.

[raitch]

Bingo and the Newlywed Game were both in Spinnaker. Some nights only had one seating of the main show and some had two- it differed from night to night. I think the production shows were usually 2 seatings. Also, they had what they said was a new show called V- it was basically a variety show. The singers from the production cast each did one or two numbers and there was some dancing. It was a bit discombobulated.

[negc]

The dancefloor is only the space between the lights, it was pretty small, no more than 10 couples could easily dance there I would say.

 

8086 was right next door, probably a mirror image. yes, more light than I thought we would have, since we could only see a sliver of the ocean on the side of the boat. However, something else I wasnt expecting, was the 24/7 lighting on the boats, so it looks like daylight ALL DAY AND NIGHT. Not so good for wanting the light to wake us up LOL...so we slept in a lot more this cruise than usual...however it was good for being able to walk around your cabin with the lights off. Also, as others have posted, there are crew walking by your windows every so often, so may have to watch out if walking around nekkkkid :D

 

What kind of a room did you have where crew could walk by and look in your windows (no one way glass?)? Thought they might have that kind of a problem with the inside staterooms on Epic that looked out on the public hallway but apparently the glass there doesn't allow passersby to look into the staterooms. Seems they could or should have done something similar in your room.

[Studebaker59]

See #4 in this thread. They had an obstructed view.

On any ship, when you have an obstructed view, the lifeboats can be outside of your windows. When the crew members are maintaining the lifeboats, they use a catwalk outside of the cabins.

We had this on the Noordam, and I waved to crew right outside of our windows. They never waved back so I assumed they couldn't see me.

[bmraar]

Great review! We were onboard as well. I was particularly interested in the Spinnaker lounge renovation, as my sister got married there on the first day. I hadn't been on the ship previously, but I knew a lot of people were concerned. I did take the virtual tour online, and I didn't really like the decor of the old lounge. The new decor, although a bit dark, was very classy, and made for a beautiful wedding.

We went to Moderno as well (my dad went twice) and we loved it. Our meat was not dry at all. The garlic beef, the picanha, and the roasted pineapple were the biggest hits at our table. We had a group of 10 there, and we all loved it. We also ate at the Bistro, which was good, but we preferred Moderno.

Blue Lagoon was strange. I think they left the tapas restaurant decor-- murals of flamenco dancers? The food was good, but it really seemed like they just stuck it somewhere. A shame really, because we all really liked it.

Looked like a poolside casino is still under construction, which will be fabulous for future cruisers.

We loved Second City. Went to the murder mystery lunch too, great fun.

Never had a problem finding a pool chair, which was a pleasant surprise.

There is all new art onboard after the drydock, so the art auctions were fun.

The room was to be expected. Our service from our room steward was underwhelming. We did not get a single towel animal until the second to last day when my sister asked her room steward to get us one. We asked for ice and pool towels multiple times without getting them. Our steward never introduced himself, so we aren't even sure who he was. There were multiple in the area, so we would ask whoever we found, and the answer was always that they would get our steward to get it for us. Just never happened.

Since we all had kids with us, we spent a ton of time at the kids center and the kids pool. My 5 year old daughter is now in love with "Tizzle". They were all wonderful.

We had heard that our cruise director would be someone named Julie, but it was actually Johnny "Cash" Sanchez. We had heard that Jose and Patti were not to be missed, but they weren't there either.

Overall, we had a great trip! My sister who got married and her new husband won the free cruise! My other sister and her husband won the not so newlywed game, and my husband and I won the perfect couple. We won 3 pieces of free art, and bought a 4th at the auctions. My dad was brought up on stage as the "guest magician." We all left having had a fantastic vacation!

Kim

[raitch]

Kim, I saw you guys all over the ship! Sure seemed like your family was having a great time :) What did you think of Johnny Sanchez? He left me underwhelmed.

[FuninWB]

Charbie, yes, we had been on the Spirit twice and were really hoping for a duo like Arvin and Emily, but Jose and Patti, whom we were told were equally as good, were not on this cruise. They may be on their two-month hiatus.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the casino. I did not have any luck at all on the slots. I kept trying... which was a big mistake. I did hear a lot of complaining that all the slots were tight. Next time I will definitely limit myself to a small amount of money. My problem is that I was having fun with the games and kept playing. I should know better.

For anyone who is purchasing the anniversary/romance package, the cake and champagne party was the first day in Bermuda. We ended up near the ship so we came back for it, but only four couples were there. From the size of the cake and all the champagne we were offered, they were expecting many more. This party would be much better planned for a sea day.

Great cruise. We were surprised that the weather was warm and dry, not hot and humid like last May.

[bmraar]

Hi Rachel! Yes, we had a very nice time. We are a family of participators, haha! I felt bad for Johnny Sanchez-- big shoes to fill. I was just searching for him on these boards, and it looks like he was newly promoted? He was okay, and I was very amused by his running commentary during disembarkation. Throughout though, he just didn't seem to have quite the presence that I would have expected. Hopefully with time and experience he will develop.

Noone has commented on Kenosis yet either- the male singer was very good, but the female got on my nerves a bit (I'm a tough critic, as I was a music major in college!) They lost me when they had to use sheet music and didn't have the words memorized during the Beatles show! Are they a brand new band, or had they been on another ship previously?

Kim

[raitch]

I wasn't impressed by Kenosis either, though they were fun when they were participating in stuff in Spinnaker. The lead singers jumped in to help out during Sing It If You Know It, which I was very thankful for since most of the people on my side of the room just sat and stared at us :rolleyes: Nice people, just... not great.

The comedian annoyed me, but I LOVED Second City!

[Crissy699]

Johnny Sanchez did ok, he was definitely used to saying "your [U]assistant[/U] cruise director" and he was used to saying the "Norwegian [U]Sun[/U]" as well LOL

We really liked Moderno, but probably wouldnt pay $40 for the cover (2 people) again. I LOVED the roasted pineapple and loved the chicken and bacon, it was the most succulent piece of chicken I've ever had! We went on Tues, so they must have taken the comments on the first night and made sure they didnt overcook anything on future nights. I also didnt experience anything cooked less than medium-well, no pink centers.

[Wildroze]

Great review Chrissy699 :)..Glad to hear you had a great time.

I have a question about the deck 8 cabins.. did the cabin curtains when drawn at night block the light? We like a dark room for sleeping.

Also how much could you see out past the lifeboats when you were out to sea?

Thanks

[doitallWMB]

Thank you for the great information. Glad to hear the pool situation is good. We love NCL's food and the alternatives. Can't wait to try the new eatery!

[Crissy699]

[quote name='Wildroze']Great review Chrissy699 :)..Glad to hear you had a great time.

I have a question about the deck 8 cabins.. did the cabin curtains when drawn at night block the light? We like a dark room for sleeping.

Also how much could you see out past the lifeboats when you were out to sea?

Thanks[/quote]
When the curtains were closed, you could see the light around them, as if it was daytime all the time. The light at night was more yellow, so you could tell if you really paid attention (I wear glasses, so when I wake up without my glasses it was hard to tell, therefore tough to tell whether it was sunrise yet)

I am a sensitive sleeper, I need a dark room and I wake up with a light lamp alarm (the light gradually turns on to wake me up) so my body was all confused on this trip LOL

I would probably avoid these rooms for this reason going forward, unless the price was too good to pass up or they were the only OV's left on a trip I [U]really[/U] want to go on. :) It was better than being in an inside room for me.

When the lifeboats werent out for the drill (95% of the trip) you could see a sliver of the ocean if you stood to the very side of the left window, so we could at least see where we were, but definitely didnt have a view.