Dawn Review - Enjoying The Suite Life! July 26th - August 2nd

[tammi0916]

We headed to Moderno for our 6:00pm reservations. This was a restaurant a great place to watch sail away since the views are great.

 

However, sail away was delayed until around 6:30 due to a medical emergency and the ship was waiting for an ambulance to arrive. I heard later on that someone had a heart attack and they needed to get him to a local hospital before we sailed. I hope everything worked out for that person.

 

This is the first time we had been to this type of restaurant and we all really enjoyed the salad bar – especially my husband (he would have been completely happy with just the salad bar) as for the meat – we did not care for any of it! None of them had great flavor and they just did not impress any of us. We ordered dessert which was just ok and then left – not our favorite place but we can say that we have tried it.

 

We wanted to see the show tonight so we got there a little early to get seats in the front middle instead of using the reserved seating.

 

Tonight’s show was Alexey and Sally – an acrobatic duo. They were absolutely fantastic! This was one of my favorite shows on the ship. After the show we stayed and played deal or no deal. This was my first time playing this game and I had so much fun! Much more fun than bingo and we didn't get picked or win any money but we won 4 pull stips!

 

After deal or no deal we headed out to the upper deck to walk around and grab a snack since we didn’t eat much at dinner.

 

We decided to head back to the cabin and relax and watched a movie. We had 2 more sea days!

[CapeCodMama1976]

Hello! We traveled on the NCL Dawn from July 26 – August 2nd.

Here is my review of our trip, but please remember that this is my opinion of my vacation – so here is the good (so much!), the bad (too much eating) and everything in between!

 

Background:

 

This is our 7th cruise – but the first with NCL! Traveling is myself (Tammi), my husband (David) and our 14 year old daughter Victoria and her best friend Tabby. We live in Connecticut so leaving out of Boston was a great option for us.

 

This was a special trip for us as we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this year and I decided to go all out and book a suite. After doing many hours of research I decided on the Owners Suite with 2 balconies. Boy am I so glad that I did – this suite is awesome!

 

We left our house in Connecticut around 8:30am on Friday morning; one of the special surprises that I arranged was to have limo pick us up and drive us to the port. The girls had no idea so they were so shocked and thrilled – seeing the surprises on their faces was so worth it. I had told David the week before as he was digging in the attic for the car rack to put all the luggage. He works second shift so I also thought this would be a great relaxing way for him to start the vacation.

It was a rainy Friday here and in Boston so it was nice to have someone else driving us to port!

We arrived at the port around 10:15am and the driver dropped us and our luggage off at the terminal and we headed up to security and the Priority Lounge.

 

Our concierge; Virginia met us there and after a short wait she had a butler (Jayson) take us on ship. We were in our room by 11:05am and got a chance to check out our room before Jayson came back to get us to take us to Cagney’s.

Lunch at Cagney’s was so relaxing; this was a great perk of staying in a suite and we really enjoyed eating at Cagney’s.

 

After lunch we went back to our room and met our butler; Erlindo. We explored our suite and relaxed and then our bags arrived so I started the process of unpacking. The weather was still raining and grey so we just hung out in the suite until the drill – we had to go to the Stardust palace (this was by far the quickest and easiest drill I have ever been to!) it took all of 5 minutes!

 

Just a note that all of my pre-concierge requests were completed and ready in the room when we boarded!

 

Since the weather was still bad we decided to watch sail away from our balcony. I got a call from someone on our roll call “whenisthemidnightbuffet” and her and her husband stopped by the suite for a drink. It was great meeting you Phyllis and Scott! We were a little late sailing off so they had to leave to go to the CAS party!

 

I called Virginia to make dinner reservations at Venetian (love having that option!) so we got finished packing and then got ready to head out to explore the ship and have dinner. We then went to the teen club to sign the girls up and this was a mess – they had about 50 people in line and 2 workers signing kids in – it took forever and seemed really unorganized.

 

When it was time for dinner we walked right into the Venetian and told them Virginia had made reservations and were seated immediately.

I hated the Venetian dining room! The tables were on top of each other and you could barely walk to your table. The wait staff seemed so rushed and I did not enjoy dinner. Food was good – not great but good and everything was served hot. This would be the last time we would eat in the Venetian.

 

After dinner we walked around the ship to explore and then went to the late show. We used the reserved seating in the Stardust – seats were ok but you have to really lean forward to see the entire stage.

 

It had been a long day and so after the show we went back to our suite and watched tv and I finished unpacking.

 

Tomorrow would be our first sea day!

 

LOVE this reviews. Thanks for the info and pictures. Glad to hear you arrived at 10:15 and were boarded quickly and even in your suite early!! I cannot wait. 6 days to go!

[ohioworkingmom]

waiting for you to finish your review. we were on the same cruise, sorry we did not get to the meet and greet, too many things to do and not enough time for them all. would like to see the rest!!!

[tammi0916]

waiting for you to finish your review. we were on the same cruise, sorry we did not get to the meet and greet, too many things to do and not enough time for them all. would like to see the rest!!!

 

 

Will finish soon - back on vacation with my family in Florida! Sorry we missed you at the meet and greet!

 

Tammi

[Barb Nahoumi]

Loved your review and pictures. Sorry to hear that the snorkeling didn't work out.

 

Hopefully there were no jellyfish at Horseshoe Bay. Once in a while Bermuda does become inundated with the Portuguese Man O' War, which packs a powerful sting.

 

The Dawn is one of my favorite ships. Last April we did the 12 day repo cruise on her. We're doing something different this spring, but we'll be back.

[rmandmm]

Can't wait to hear the rest. On the Dawn in November! :D

[lotsofkids]

also enjoying your review and pics. I do think your daughter's porthole pic is a fan favorite!

 

We are on the Dawn in 2 weeks and are doing the Owner's suite without a balcony. Can't wait!