The Good, the Bad, the Ugly on the Dawn

[pathubia]

Thanks for you update, it is appreciated. I'll be on the Dawn in 6 days!

 

I am so jealous!! We don't have a cruise booked until next October. (I did purchase 2 certificates a couple of weeks ago, so that may change in the spring)

 

Bon Voyage!!

[bobnpaml]

Pathubia, we sail on the Dawn on January 10th in 12032. Do you have any pic of that cabin? Also since it is a modified cabin can you tell me the bathroom setup? Had read it only had a very large shower and no bethtub. Thank you, Pam

[mickev99]

Just off that cruise today.

 

I'll do a full review in a week or two once I'm caught up at the office, but thought I'd share some main points:

 

Ship- Does not look brand new, but is in (my opinion) very nice shape...yes, there is some carpet that needs to be stretched, and I did notice a lot of wall dings in the interior hallways (we were in the newer section on 12 so not an issue for us).

 

Food- We had the UDP, so we ate in Le Bistro twice, Cagneys for dinner once- lunch twice and breakfast 6 times, :a Cucina Moderno Tepanyaki and The Venetian once each. And a few lunches at the buffet. Overall very good. The Main dining room meal was very nice. They also had pool side grilled foods twice and tacos once.

 

We also have several people in our party with food intolerance. They handled this very well.

 

Kids.....YES- over 800! The kids club was a joke- basically group baby sitting. Not their fault- you can't staff a team for 8x the normal need for one week. Our kids went twice briefly and didn't have any desire to go back...The staff though was great- our interaction with the program manager "Pickles" was excellent.

 

There are 4 hot tubs on the main pool deck- at least one is labeled Adults only. There is also one on 13 in the "quiet area" and another in the SPA. There were several groups of teens that turned into little cliques onboard. They all seemed to get along and were actually very well behaved. The older kids seemed to help the younger ones not be too loud or in the way!

 

Service- I was worried about the complaints on these boards about the UBP ruining things....Was there a lot of drinking? Yes. Yes there was. Did we drink more than we normally would have? Yes. Did I wake up with a tattoo? No. Did I notice people over consuming? Yes, but not the typical frat boys, rather the 45-55 who is probably a heavy drinker and this is a chance to splurge. Not ever did I feel the wait staff wasn't working hard. Some are better than others, but they all pitched in to get things done. Was the Sail Away hard- yesI don't think you can possibly have enough bar staff when you have 2900 people all wanting a drink at the same time.

 

Thanks so much for the information! Our cruise is almost sold out, so I have a feeling it will be crowded as well, but it will be a good time no matter what! Looking forward to your review. I plan to do one as well when I get back.

 

Do you happen to have the kid's club dailies (looking for ages 10-12 group), or the freestyle dailies?

 

Do you remember the shows?

 

Thanks!

[haply]

Hello. We just returned from the Thanksgiving cruise on the Dawn and loved it! We sailed with a 4 and an 8-year old and the kids loved, loved the kids club! Yes, there were a lot of kids, but we were impressed with how well behaved most were. The kids loved the kids buffet area also. The dinosaur pool in the back of the ship was also a huge hit. We really enjoyed the food. We ate at the buffet, Venetian (our least favorite), Aqua and Le Bistro. The Venetian dining room seemed understaffed, so we ate at the Aqua for most of the cruise. We also really liked all of the bars and snack places located around the ship. The pool bar was the slowest, but the longest wait there was about 10 minutes. We liked Gatsby's bar and the pub was entertaining also. The drinks were good-not too strong but not watered-down either. We had two connecting balcony rooms on the 10th floor and had no room problems. The carpet, furniture, etc. all looked new. Our room steward was fabulous! The entire ship was very clean and well maintained. The Dawn was large enough to offer a lot of amenities, but not too large as to lose that familiar and comfortable feel. I will post my review also. You will not be disappointed!

[mypleasure]

We have cruised the Dawn on deck 12 twice, 12020 and 12032. Love cruising on 12. Next cruise is 12018. My husband is a smoker and since smoking is outlawed on the balconies, we don't get a balcony anymore.

 

Pam and I are in 12018 and I sail again in May in 12012 :D. We are ex smokers now and always had balconies when we both smoked. Not sure if we would ever sail in an inside or even ocean view as we like the feeling of space the large door/window gives and these cabins are near the pool deck if we do start up again anyway. We had a phenomenal deal on this cabin so it wasn't worth us getting a balcony this time round.

Edited November 30, 2015 by mypleasure

[partigus]

That's a lot of kids!! Looking forward to your review. Did you have to tender in Roatan? We were scheduled to tender, but luckily, woke up docked!!

 

We tendered in Cozumel and Belize. We were able to dock n Roatan and Costa Maya.

 

Quick note on ports- we hadn't been in this area since 2002...In Cozumel we tendered- a short ride in using the ships tenders. We went in late so didn't use the priority perk. We were in a different part of the island than when we were here before. I think we preferred the original area, but this newer area was nice. We basically just walked and shopped. If you work your way "left" as you get to land, you will eventually come to a really quaint plaza.

 

Roatan- I messed this one up. A friend of mine told me that on his recent trip to Roatan they walked off the ship and straight to the beach. I thought "great- save on shore excursion$ " and told the kids it'd be a beach day. At breakfast, Patrick the concierge asked what we were doing, when I said the beach he said "great- just walk off and grab a cab". At this point I was confused. So as we walked off the ship, we walked through the line of stands selling excursions, past the taxis, and then pretty much into the 3rd world! We walked along a bit. As were now at a place where the armed security was a little thinner I was increasingly not interested in going further. My wife wanted to go into this store that said "indoor market 8000 sq feet upstairs". So we did. Best decision of the day. Very friendly folks trying to make a living. NO pressure from the kiosks, but when a few boys heard us mention the beach they kept offering a cab ride. At this point, I had spoken with a nice local woman, discovered the fares were in line with the local rate, but it was looking like rain. Expect $15-$20 PP round trip to the nicest beaches (west end and west bay). Found out my friends ship had docked in Mahogany Bay, and there IS a beach right there.

 

Belize: Did the Belize river and Al Tun Ha ruins. Skip the river cruise- don't see that many animals. The ruins were nice and can be booked with other packages (alone, beach, waterpark) Belize was nice- Everyone speaks english as they were an English territory

 

Costa Maya. Funny- I had the lowest hopes for this as I'd heard it was nothing but a place to book excursions from (and we didn't have one)...Was the best surprise of the trip. There is a really neat (tourist neat) little shopping are with a restaurant, bar, and giant pool (free). We rented a golf cart- tour the small town nearby, and spent a few minutes at their beach. We then headed back to the pool and the kids had a blast after being confined to the small ship pool.

[partigus]

partigus I want to thank you for your post and look forward to seeing your more in depth review when you get time to write it. You gave some great information here already. My sister and I are sailing in Janaury and have one of the suites where the old lounge was and I think that may be where you were located. Hoping to hear some thoughts on that but we are easy going people and got a fantsatic deal and are really looking forward to our time in New Orleans and a different ship for us too. Everything sounds very positive so far.

 

I'm confident you will love the room (that is where we were- 12016- SJ Family Suite w/o Balcony). The bathroom was great. Nice shower AND a larger than full size tub. Double sinks and plenty of storage. There is a nice area between the entry and the bath that is sort od a walk in closet area. Then there is the King size bed, the murphy bed and the fold out sofa. For us, the wife and =kids slept in the king bed, and as they were portend off, I could watch TV in the rest of the room. The murphy sleeps as good as a real bed. Also - it worked well for us having them leave that in the out position- the whole trip- there was still plenty of room for the table and chairs

[partigus]

partigus I want to thank you for your post and look forward to seeing your more in depth review when you get time to write it. You gave some great information here already. My sister and I are sailing in Janaury and have one of the suites where the old lounge was and I think that may be where you were located. Hoping to hear some thoughts on that but we are easy going people and got a fantsatic deal and are really looking forward to our time in New Orleans and a different ship for us too. Everything sounds very positive so far.

 

I forgot the best part- Location. Now- we had a few times of moderate and rough seas with force 5 winds- so there was a "bit" of motion, BUT on deck 12, you are by the Library, the pool and the buffet. Being Forward, you are directly above the Stardust Theater making it so easy to slide in for part of a show.

 

There are a few things you need to learn- you can't walk for to aft on either 6 or 7 due to the galley for the MDRs. also- the kids club and carneys are both on 13, but you have to get to Cagneys from the mid elevators and the kids club the aft

[partigus]

Thanks so much for the information! Our cruise is almost sold out, so I have a feeling it will be crowded as well, but it will be a good time no matter what! Looking forward to your review. I plan to do one as well when I get back.

 

Do you happen to have the kid's club dailies (looking for ages 10-12 group), or the freestyle dailies?

 

Do you remember the shows?

 

Thanks!

 

Our trip was not only 100% booked, but the occupancy per room was near the max. We had about 2900 passengers on board. The only time we had to wait for a table is when I had gotten days confused- Le Bistro was able to get me in though. There were always loungers on the pool deck available. My wife said the thermal spa wasn't too crowded. I only saw 1 person using the golf driving net (you need to get the clubs in the towel station on the pool deck) and there we even found a table in the buffet for lunch on sail off day when we missed Cagneys....

 

OH YEAH. BTW- We stayed the night at the Marriott at the convention center- literally a block away from the port. We got up Sunday morning- caught a trolly car to the French Market and walked back. We were getting our car from the Valet and ready to head over at 11:30. The traffic (between coming and going) was crazy. The port police officers will keep telling you to drive forward. As we were passing the area for drop off (not really labeled, but an area to pull over with a bunch of porters nearby)-as the cop kept telling me to keep moving I said " we need to drop bags- is this where?" response was "no- keep following the car in front of you" I realized we were nearing the end of the line and the parking area was just around the corner. I stopped and got a porter to help (he was worried about the cop, but a nice upfront tip helped)...I spoke with 2 other people on the ship- one of which had to take an additional HOUR to make the loop again. This is a Port of NOLA issue- not NCL. There was also very little order to the ports entry area. Once we were in the NCL area thing went fine. While we did enjoy the ability to skip the line as suite guests, the NCL check in line was still 100% more organized than the ports.

 

Don't have the kids club dailies as they kept doing something different. O mentioned my daughters didn't have fun the first couple of times- then come paper ache day, so they are excited, as I'm dropping them off I ask what time they'll be doing that so I don't pick them up too early. The response was they probably wouldn't be able to do it- too high of a kid to councilor ratio.So I asked what they would be doing..."right now they are watching a movie"

 

Might have the Dailey. After reading 100 posts of how to load pictures and get them the right size I guess I'll finally have to figure that out!

 

Didn't catch as many show as I'd like- dinner was always in the way (now I know those times were so easy to fill...actually we were just trying to keep the kids on their normal schedule) I caught parts of the magician, the areolists both were very good. The second city "adult" improve in the Spinnaker was also very good.

[partigus]

Pam and I are in 12018 and I sail again in May in 12012 :D. We are ex smokers now and always had balconies when we both smoked. Not sure if we would ever sail in an inside or even ocean view as we like the feeling of space the large door/window gives and these cabins are near the pool deck if we do start up again anyway. We had a phenomenal deal on this cabin so it wasn't worth us getting a balcony this time round.

 

we were in 12016. I think your cabin steward will be Patrick (the concierge is also named patrick). and your Butler "should" be Roland- but he is ending the end of his contract and will be spending Christmas at home.

 

If he is still there tell him Mr Bryan and his family of girls from thanksgiving week said hi!"

[pathubia]

Pathubia, we sail on the Dawn on January 10th in 12032. Do you have any pic of that cabin? Also since it is a modified cabin can you tell me the bathroom setup? Had read it only had a very large shower and no bethtub. Thank you, Pam

 

 

Pam, its a great suite. It is directly across from the library and the last before the pool.

There is a bit of noise from above (chairs moving) but not enough to wake us up. We did notice it when we were all quiet.

 

When you open the door the bathroom is to the right, toilet has wall bars to help you get up and down. Just walk into the shower, nothing to walk over to get into it. Has a shower curtain surrounding it and has a fold down shower chair. There is one sink.

 

I am attaching a couple of pictures of the suite...

 

Patrick was the concierge and Joseph was our butler, they were both great!!

 

Bon Voyage

[bamarolls]

Sailing on Dawn out of New Orleans on Dec 13. How would we find out how many kids will be on said cruise?

[pathubia]

Sailing on Dawn out of New Orleans on Dec 13. How would we find out how many kids will be on said cruise?

 

Did you book directly with NCL? Maybe your PCC or travel agent can find out. We were on the Dawn the week of Nov 15 and I mentioned to the concierge how few kids were n the ship. There were 2300 people on our cruise ( cant remember now if he said there were 20 or 40 kids on our cruise.)...He then remarked that the following cruise, week of Nov 22 had 800 kids sailing with a total of 3000 passengers!! :eek:

 

Not sure when Christmas break begins down south, but I don't think there will be many kids on your cruise.

[ILoveScotland]

Conventional wisdom plus experience of many on CC is that there is always a lot of children during school holidays and during the summer than other times. After my one experience several years ago of a summer cruise with what seemed to be a gazillion rowdy children, I wouldn't book a cruise during times I thought there would be hundreds of kids. I'm a mother of an adult daughter and not at all anti-child, and if the children are well behaved and supervised, that's great. However, such was not the case on that one cruise which made the experience less than pleasant.

[mypleasure]

Many thanks for all the terrific info. I sailed on the Star back in June and I think Dawn has a similar layout from the sound of things. Not expecting many kids at the end of Janaury so it will (hopefully) be a lot less crowded. We are expecting an older demographic plus couples or couples with very young children.

[pathubia]

Many thanks for all the terrific info. I sailed on the Star back in June and I think Dawn has a similar layout from the sound of things. Not expecting many kids at the end of Janaury so it will (hopefully) be a lot less crowded. We are expecting an older demographic plus couples or couples with very young children.

 

We were on the Dawn last January 25, there were only about 30 kids that week

 

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