NCL Dawn 12-7-14 Opinions about ship and crew review/chat..

[radzer0]

I saw the other post disappeared which talked about many things on the ship. Based on my experence with this NCL cruise vs my other 4 NCL cruises. If this ship was a person it may commit suicide like the triumph to get fixed properly.

 

First I want to point out that not ALL is bad on this one. I know alot of people do those kinda reviews but that isnt what this is.

 

Good things, 90% of crew id say did there jobs well. David Davinci show was a good show and worth seeing again. Cabin person did a good job at keeping my room clean and tidy. Im sure there is more in this category I will think up later (currently have a sinus headache).

 

 

Bad, all over the ship lights were burnt out. In venisian restaurant I noticed on my 4th day one of the lights hanging from its wires and swinging (Recessed light) 7th evening for dinner, Light is still hanging and swinging with the seas.

 

LED lights near the pool were out when we got on. They went along and replaced 80% of these with what I will call "Chinese special" led strips. End of the cruise 2 of the ones they had replaced already had some colors and bulbs burnt out.

 

Public areas seemed to be in major disrepair. One bathroom the air freshener holder was broken, so the solution was to take a under the seat car air freshener and duct tape it to the holder. Elevator screens were all having issues, 90% of the burnt out and showing random letters. 2 elevators I noticed mildew or minor mold growing on the light covers in the corner. Paint all over the interior of the ship needs touchup. Scratches, etc all over. Outside there was alot of "Repair" paint touchups. But oddly enough, in colors that were not even on those walls. It was like taking a white car with scratches and filling the scratches with silver paint.

 

One whole part of deck 7 was closed off with "Restricted/crew only" signs printed out. I looked thru one of these glass doors and they still have the signs on the wall directing passengers where to go as this was a public hallway at some point.

 

The crew members in charge of events really tried to get the little that they were actually doing going but I think by the 4th day most people gave up doing much after dinner besides shows. In this case based on all previous cruises this was the MOST boring cruise ive seen. Im not a heavy drinker nor am I one who thinks the craziness on carnival is fun.

 

There was also scotch tape holding many things together around the boat. Pearly kings was always flooded and every few hours they had the shop vac, blowers, and dehumidifiers running trying to dry it out.

 

There is also a apparent bow thruster water leak. My family was in a room directly next to and above the crew hallway the access to the equipment was in and every 30-45minutes a bell would go off and you could hear someone run down the stairs than a pump come on. Apparently its nothing major that would cause a issue but the bell is VERY loud and goes off all hours of the night.

 

 

I didnt eat in any specialty restaurants but I heard that in cagneys the meat quality was poor and chewy (Dont know what cut) And I was talking to one of the crew members who went to the french restaurant with a bunch of there friends one night and they said after they left there the food was so bad they went to the blue lagoon (What I had in the blue lagoon one time made me not go there again, it was bad too). Also they had a prawn dinner, but it wasnt prawns as the next day the fried shrimp were twice the size. The prawns were the size of sandwich shrimp.

 

 

Desserts on the boat were mostly good. I also remember a post about windows leaking water into the rooms and family suites when it rained. I noticed one day walking down that hall that they were resealing many of these windows. So that is one complaint from the past I believe they should have fixed up very soon.

 

I see why this cruise ship is the cheapest in the NCL fleet for a 7day cruise. They need to move one of the other ships drydock back and push this one in as it really needs alot of work that cannot be done while passengers are on board.

 

 

And on another note, the white hot party was around 60% under 18 just to give you an idea of who was doing anything on the boat. Once 11 came and they asked them to leave the dance floor was pretty dead and there was just people sitting in the chairs listening to the music. Which ive been to neighborhood bars with better speakers than they used for this one.

 

Toga party was even worse.

 

 

Not to mention one of things most noticeable. The speakers inside the cabins didn't work until the final morning. In costa maya they were calling looking for 2 members of our party who were already on the boat but there cards showed them off the boat. They couldnt hear them calling there names because of this issue. Also when you heard the ding dong atleast in my area you would hear alot of doors open for people listening.

 

 

Would like to mention this one, the nutella "pudding" that they made was my favorite food all week. It was called something else and I didnt know what to expect. But I do know to expect this to go the way of the do do bird just like the delicious watermelon chilled soup NCL had years ago. If its that good. They get rid of it.

Edited December 14, 2014 by radzer0

[Demonyte]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

 

It's funny how differently people can see things, we were on Dawn for 12 nights in April/May and while she isn't in as good condition as some newer ships, I would never say that if she was a person, they would commit a suicide. But then again, I don't rate my cruises based on burnt out decorative lights, paint touchups or second hand rumours.

 

There are some things that I have to agree to, for example the state of the info screens in elevators is sad, and I can understand being disturbed by the maintenance noises where ever they might originated from (that's why I'm very picky about the cabin choices).

 

One thing that I definitely do not agree with is the complaint about announcements not being played to the cabins (it is a choice by the management, not "not working speakers"). One can hear all announcements if they want to by turning on the TV to the correct channel and when people don't want to be disturbed, the sales pitches etc stay out of the cabin - earlier on some ships they played all dozens of bingo etc announcements to cabins and it was beyond annoying. And if it was a real emergency, the announcements would be played directly to the cabins also.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Demonyte

[radzer0]

But why wouldn't an announcement looking for people they believe may have missed the boat in the rooms? On other boats the in cabin speakers were on for major announcements. I agree I wouldn't want to hear about the art auction rip offs and bingo and such. But major things should be done in the rooms.

[pisenor]

A very interesting review/perspective of the Dawn. Thanks for contributing. I sail on her in 35 days on Jan 18/15. I will watch for the deficiencies you have noted to see if any repairs have happened since you sailed. There are 4 others in my party that I do not plan to share any info regarding her condition. I plan to take a wait and see approach to see if they pick up on or feel the deficiencies took away anything from their cruise experience. I plan on doing a review after I return and I will include our findings there.

 

Thanks again for your thoughts. :)

[NH Cruisers]

I guess the ole girl has gone downhill alot since our June cruise. Hopefully it will be all fixed up for our June 2015 cruise.

[Samstress]

A very interesting review/perspective of the Dawn. Thanks for contributing. I sail on her in 35 days on Jan 18/15. I will watch for the deficiencies you have noted to see if any repairs have happened since you sailed. There are 4 others in my party that I do not plan to share any info regarding her condition. I plan to take a wait and see approach to see if they pick up on or feel the deficiencies took away anything from their cruise experience. I plan on doing a review after I return and I will include our findings there.

 

Thanks again for your thoughts. :)

 

I truly hope you do a review. I, like you, have 3 other travelling companions who are not on 'Cruise Critic' and I am starting to second guess my choice of ships. Your review might just make up my mind whether to jump to another ship or not. If there's anything I trust...it's a fellow east coaster...I was born in Yarmouth!

Cheers,

Sandra

[pisenor]

If there's anything I trust...it's a fellow east coaster...I was born in Yarmouth!

Cheers,

Sandra

 

Sandra I certainly will do my best to get the review completed with lots of photos. Small world we live in. My wife is also from Yarmouth, actually Melbourne.

[Samstress]

Sandra I certainly will do my best to get the review completed with lots of photos. Small world we live in. My wife is also from Yarmouth, actually Melbourne.

 

I look forward to your review!

Cheers,

Sandra

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I was also on this cruise. This was our 21st cruise onNCL and we are pretty easy going folks, but I've got to say that the Dawn was our least favorite ship thus far. Nothing was earth shattering and I am already booked on her for March, but I sure miss having our other ships from NO.

 

There did seem to be a lighting problem as several f our cabin lights burned out throughout the seven day cruise. They were always replaced the next day, but it did seem odd.

 

My biggest beef was the 500+ group from Seven Stars who overwhelmed everything, especially in the casino where it got downright ugly at times. Another group from VTG had private events in bars regularly so between them muchm of the bar or public space was blocked off for private events. I would never knowingly sail with either of these groups again because they were, generally, obnoxious with an entitlement attitude.

 

Otherwise we had a nice cruise, but the staff was overwhelmed by the demands of these two large groups.

[Demonyte]

My biggest beef was the 500+ group from Seven Stars who overwhelmed everything, especially in the casino where it got downright ugly at times. Another group from VTG had private events in bars regularly so between them muchm of the bar or public space was blocked off for private events. I would never knowingly sail with either of these groups again because they were, generally, obnoxious with an entitlement attitude.

 

 

 

Otherwise we had a nice cruise, but the staff was overwhelmed by the demands of these two large groups.

 

 

This is very unfortunate but can happen on any ship any time, we once had similar thing happening on Pearl from Miami when there was a large, very visible religious group that also caused many public spaces to be closed for private functions throughout the cruise, kids in the group running around and hogging places to sit in bars before dinner, etc.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Yes, groups are always an inevitability, but you would think common sense would dictate how many groups of significant size would be manageable. Especially a group of 500 high rollers in a casino the size of the Dawns. :rolleyes:

[Demonyte]

Yes, groups are always an inevitability, but you would think common sense would dictate how many groups of significant size would be manageable. Especially a group of 500 high rollers in a casino the size of the Dawns. :rolleyes:

 

In the corporate world making a buck has often nothing to do with common sense. ;)

[Va. Plumber]

I am either myopic, in a coma or the Dawn went to hell in a handcart in the month and a half since we sailed.

 

I didn't notice any of the problems you referenced. Of course, anything can happen at any time, especially at sea.

 

As to the food, we had no complaints. You indicate you heard second or third hand that the food in Cagney's and Le Bistro were bad. We dined in both and the food and service were impeccable. We especially enjoy Le Bistro every time we sail.

[seemoreroyals]

We were also on the 12/7 Dawn sailing and wanted to chime in with our observations and opinions.

 

Appearance / Maintenance: About what we expected. We found the ship clean, easy to find our way around on, a little worn in some places. Our biggest complaint would be the elevators. They were small and some the buttons indicating deck level did not work. A couple of times the light indicating the elevator had arrived lit up but the doors did not and I had to iterally open up the doors myself.

 

Cabin / Steward: In this category NCL exceeded our expectations. We had a midship balcony cabin on deck 9. The room was small but well utilized with lots of drawers and places to put stuff. The AC in the cabin worked great. On our last cruise on Oasis of the Seas we could never get our room cool. A cool room and a comfortable bed for us anyway makes for a good nights sleep. We also liked the bathroom arrangement and the large shower with a glass door. The last time we did a Carnival cruise I think they only had a plastic shower curtain. And our steward although we made few demands of him was very friendly and attentive.

 

Food on the Dawn: The food was about what we expected to slightly disappointing. We did three specialty restaurants: La Cusina, Le Bistro, and Moderno. La Cusina was awful. Food was bland and service was terrible. Le Bistro was better but a major disapppointment. We paid extra for the lobster for my wife and the ribeye for two. Again the steak had little flavor and my wife's lobster tail was cut up and served mixed with potatoes and some sort of cream sauce. Unfortunately there were more potatoes than there was lobster. Of the three specialty restaurants we did Moderno was by far the best. The soup and salad bar as well as the breads were very good. They brought the various meats out individually and you could get as much or as little of it as you wanted. With a little extra effort Moderno could easily be the best place to eat on the ship.

 

The food at both of the main dining rooms was very good and overall IMO better than the three meals we had at the specialty diners. We had breakfast almost every morning at the Blue Lagoon as well as a couple of snacks and always enjoyed it there. The Garden Cafe was okay. We ate there a couple of times but it was just a little to busy for us. We never did room service although one time around 9:30 in the morning we wanted to order a BLT and were told we could not get one until after 10 AM.

 

Drinks / Bars: We were pleasantly surprised with the variety of bars. Other than the Sake Bar I think we had a drink just about everywhere on the Dawn. We got the UBP and took full advantage. We spent much of our time either at Gatsby's or the Atrium bar in the evening before and after the evening shows and during the day drinking and relaxing by the pool. The service while not outstanding overall was pretty good.

 

The Dawn Casino: We only played at the casino the first night. As others said is is small and crowded and full of smokers. We don't smoke and since there was so much other stuff to do we never set foot in the casino other than just passing through after the first night. I did not observe any obnoxious behavior while we were there.

 

Entertainment: We thought the entertainment was outstanding. Other than the new friends we made the entertainment was the best part of our cruise experience. We went to every show and they were all very good. The only letdown for us is that we would have preferred stand up comics as opposed to the second city group that was there. They were okay but the magician and the acrobats and singers and dancers were all very good. And the individual acts at the bars were all a pleasant surprise. Our two favorites were the guy doing the classic rock and the couple that used to be part of the Stylistics doing the rhythm and blues. We even enjoyed the karaoke although we just listened and did not participate.

 

Shore Excursions: At Cozumel we did the majority of our shopping and I am glad we did. Souvenirs, meds, jewelry, and other shopping opportunities seemed to be much better there. At both Belize and Roatan we got off walked around a little bit found no buying opportunities but did find a place to get on our laptop and then got back on ship. The only shore excursion we did was to Maya Chan at Costa Maya. If you are considering doing something there it is well worth the $59 per person they charge. The mexican food we had there was probably the best meal we had on the trip and the drinks and the cold beer we enjoyed in our private cabana made for a relaxing couple of hours

 

Other Observations: We were part of the 7 star event group and thought we did a good job of blending in. We did not notice any of our group being obnoxious or asking for special favors. We only spent time in the casino the first night so we must have missed all the excitement there later in the week. There were more kids on the cruise than we expected. Some were good some were kids from hell. There was one family at the pool when we were there one day with about 5 or 6 stairstep kids. One of the kids shortly after they arrived told their mother that they had to go pee. Their mother told them to go ahead and pee in the pool. After that, I never set foot in the pool the entire trip.

 

Thanks for reading. I hope I did not offend anyone and I hope someone gains something useful from our experiences during our cruise.

[rvsullivan]

We too were on this cruise and had an entirely different experience than the OP.

We did have a problem with disembarkation that is awaiting a response from corporate, but we will wait and see what they say about that.

Otherwise, great cruise, great ship and great employee's.

Used almost every elevator on the ship, front, mid and stern, never a light out, doors always opened and they took us where we pushed the buttons to. Many of the Seven Stars group were a PITA, very demanding, insisting on getting ahead of the suites, using many of the suite facilities, i.e. Cagney's for breakfast/lunch, using the reserved area's for Garden Villas and OS's, etc., many were escorted out under protest. One couple from the group was kicked out of Teppenyaki for causing a scene. Between the singles group and the Seven Stars group things got overwhelmed at times.

They had a crew onboard to replace all the mood lights on the bamboo surrounding the pool, they did one at a time to not impact the guests. Other posters have mentioned leaks in the windows of the new suites on deck 12. The manufacturer had a crew on board to repair all of those windows as it was beyond the ability of NCL. This was an installation/manufacturer issue that was worked on every port day. The jogging track was shut down quite a bit to completely repair/replace to a like new condition. Rather than wait till dry dock, they opted to take care of it now. Did a great job and waited every day until the morning runners were finished to shut it down.

The evening activities were down a little in attendance but mostly due to the two groups on board having night time private activities. The speakers in the cabins never are activated except for emergency information. The broadcast for missing passengers were throughout the ship in all public area's and the tv's, it has always been this way.

We found no rust, decay or mold anywhere on the ship.

We ate all dinners in specialty restaurants, so can't comment about any MDR's. We did find the buffet the smallest of any NCL ship we've been on, but the food was ok.

We never found lights dangling, tape holding things together or anything broken. We stayed on the ship almost full time as we've done this itinerary many times now. One of the best maintained and clean ships we've been on.

Have already booked the Dawn for another cruise.

[seemoreroyals]

Just to be fair and balanced the only 2 formal activities for the 7 star group were cocktail parties from 4pm to 5pm at the Spinaker lounge on the first and last days at sea. And we did take up the Stardust Theater briefly after the first cocktail party to take a group picture. Other than that to my knowledge there were no other formal activities for our group. I absolutely did not see any obnoxious or demanding behavior by any of the 7 star group anywhere on the ship.

[NH Cruisers]

We too were on this cruise and had an entirely different experience than the OP.

We did have a problem with disembarkation that is awaiting a response from corporate, but we will wait and see what they say about that.

Otherwise, great cruise, great ship and great employee's.

Used almost every elevator on the ship, front, mid and stern, never a light out, doors always opened and they took us where we pushed the buttons to. Many of the Seven Stars group were a PITA, very demanding, insisting on getting ahead of the suites, using many of the suite facilities, i.e. Cagney's for breakfast/lunch, using the reserved area's for Garden Villas and OS's, etc., many were escorted out under protest. One couple from the group was kicked out of Teppenyaki for causing a scene. Between the singles group and the Seven Stars group things got overwhelmed at times.

They had a crew onboard to replace all the mood lights on the bamboo surrounding the pool, they did one at a time to not impact the guests. Other posters have mentioned leaks in the windows of the new suites on deck 12. The manufacturer had a crew on board to repair all of those windows as it was beyond the ability of NCL. This was an installation/manufacturer issue that was worked on every port day. The jogging track was shut down quite a bit to completely repair/replace to a like new condition. Rather than wait till dry dock, they opted to take care of it now. Did a great job and waited every day until the morning runners were finished to shut it down.

The evening activities were down a little in attendance but mostly due to the two groups on board having night time private activities. The speakers in the cabins never are activated except for emergency information. The broadcast for missing passengers were throughout the ship in all public area's and the tv's, it has always been this way.

We found no rust, decay or mold anywhere on the ship.

We ate all dinners in specialty restaurants, so can't comment about any MDR's. We did find the buffet the smallest of any NCL ship we've been on, but the food was ok.

We never found lights dangling, tape holding things together or anything broken. We stayed on the ship almost full time as we've done this itinerary many times now. One of the best maintained and clean ships we've been on.

Have already booked the Dawn for another cruise.

I am happy to hear of your take on the maintenance issues. I have had nothing but positive to say about the DAWN, as per MY experiences. I too felt the ship was clean and well maintained as of last May/June 2014. As per ther buffett being small. Perhaps it is, but I really don't notice it because I am usually just a salad and meat and potatoes guy for lunch. I do much perfer the specialtys and feel they are well worth the extra price. That said, I have always enjoyed the MDR on the occassions that I have been.

 

I have sailed Carnival, Celebrity, HAL, Princess (Gold), RCCL (Platinum) and NCL. NCL has me hooked and a large reason is the DAWN.

[rvsullivan]

Just to be fair and balanced the only 2 formal activities for the 7 star group were cocktail parties from 4pm to 5pm at the Spinaker lounge on the first and last days at sea. And we did take up the Stardust Theater briefly after the first cocktail party to take a group picture. Other than that to my knowledge there were no other formal activities for our group. I absolutely did not see any obnoxious or demanding behavior by any of the 7 star group anywhere on the ship.

 

Enjoyed meeting you at the M&G! If you wanted to see some fun antics, you should have followed us around for a while. The couple getting booted from Teppanyaki was the best!!:eek:

It would have great if all from your group were as gracious as you were!! Debarkation was crazy!!!