Pepper's review of the Dawn - LONG!

[mimi41385]

Pepper,

So glad we were able to bring in some warmth before you arrived home. Wasn't sure we were going to be able to but it worked out.

 

We're definately looking forward to our cruise. We are flying into NY 2 days early to stay with friends and do some sighseeing before we all set sail on the cruise. I'n not one that likes to drive long distances so we usually fly in early. Last year we stayed at a hotel and did some sight seeing and went to a broadway show.

 

Thanks again for the great blogs and review

[logant]

Thanks Mimi! And thanks especially for getting all that frigid air out of here just in time for our arrival home! :D

 

I'll bet you can't wait for 4/26 to get here! Are you going south a day ahead, or leaving the morning of your sailing?

 

We stayed in southern CT the night before and it really made sailing day so much less stressful! ;) I just wish I'd chosen a different hotel! :eek:

 

Thanks for your review. Loved the couch story.

Could you please tell me which hotel you stayed in? We are planning on doing the over night in Ct. next Feb. but not sure where. But if there is one that we would not like I would like to know.

Thanks for your help!!!:D

[FundyGirl]

Thanks for your review. Loved the couch story.

Could you please tell me which hotel you stayed in? We are planning on doing the over night in Ct. next Feb. but not sure where. But if there is one that we would not like I would like to know.

Thanks for your help!!!:D

 

Hi Pepper,

 

I would be interested in the CT hotel information too! We're planning on doing the same thing before our March 26 sailing.

 

Thanks for the great blog & review!!! It's made me even more exited about our cruise.

 

Kathy

[Joanniebop]

Thanks for the great review and the dry run, Pepper!

 

Did your family member have 10506, perchance, and if so, was the service good?

 

Hi Flyingpirate

 

My DH and I were in 10506.

Carmen was our butler and the cabin was very nice except like Pepper my DH complained about the uncomfortable living room furniture.

Initially, Carmen wasn't around to greet us nor was there anyone to take us to our cabin, ( DH in a wheelchair) and to show us all of the gadgets in the cabin. Couldn't work the CD player, no water,soda,ice the first night this may sound silly but didn't even know where the powder room was till our son in law happened to find in during a visit. Had to figure everything out for ourselves. Not a big deal, just expected someone to show us around.

The service was good once we got to meet and speak with Carmen to let her know our likes and dislikes.( just soda,water and ice were basically our request) I thought the late afternoon snacks were a little too late. On other ships they usually bring them in around 4/4:30pm so that you can have a little snack before dinner but Carmen seemed to bring them in around 6:30 or later and just too close to dinner for me. We, at times had difficulty getting what we wanted for breakfast if we called after 9:30AM. We are not the kind of people that can order the night before because we never know if we are sleeping in so usually just called in the morning.

Getting back to the cabin.. you will have sooooo much room for all your things I guarantee that you will have some empty drawers and shelves. I miss the bed which was extremely comfortable and big. Having two balconies was great for sun/shade ( I had to have Alex show me how to open the outside door for the front balcony) Bathroom quite nice and very large. The shower area had a really gross smell. Hair dryer in dressing room was pretty good as far as power.

If you want to know anything else, please feel free to just ask.

Joannie

[Joanniebop]

Just thought of one more thing and again it was no big deal, but there wasn't any champagne in the cabin for our sail-off. Was kind of looking forward to that. I'm just not much of a complainer so we got it the next day.

[Baitman19]

Pepper,

 

Loved your Live from the Dawn and your review. Can't wait to go again.

 

I think the person you spoke about travels on each cruise. They have no clue that people can't understand them and wonder why!

 

Happy Sailing,

Monty

[Maryfrei]

Pepper,

Thanks for the great review.

Quick question: do certain cabins get special boarding privileges?

I'll be sailing on the NCL for the 1st time in May. Booked a mini-suite on the Dawn.

 

Thanks Again!!

 

Ditto on the thanks for the great review:)!

 

We were in an AF mini-suite on the Dawn last June, and we did get priority boarding. Very nice!

[shoreguy]

Ditto on the thanks for the great review:)!

 

We were in an AF mini-suite on the Dawn last June, and we did get priority boarding. Very nice!

 

Did you get that because you were a Latitudes member ? Generally no priority boarding for Mini Suites on the Dawn.

[hillbil]

-while seated & waiting to board the Dawn in New York, excited and optomistic, a couple disembarking came over to the huge group of us and inquired if there were any Cruise Critic folks around - I volunteered that I was - he proceeded to say that the cruise was the worst experience they ever had!!! We didn't let his comments deflate us:

-our party of six enjoyed the Dawn experience - followed the threads for couple a months prior - Pepper's in particular - lots of great advice that we followed - that said, a few suggestions/comments: scrap Samana - very impoverished - go to Nassau instead if GSK is unavailable - from a non-aAmerican point of view, trip to Puerto Rico is a pain waiting to get passports back for 10 seconds then returning them to Immigration - great waste of time - pick another destination instead! Info regarding retrieval of passports before debarkation was completely lacking - huge line we found out had nothing to do with 'colour tags' sent to us - a bit disorganized/frustrating. Definitely bring your own soda (Pepsi) - save $60 and had the drink I enjoyed! Great staff! Very polite & efficient! Wasn't the weather unbelievable? Thank you Lord!

Sunny, the manager of Cagneys and mornings in the Venetian, was one of the outstanding staff we met! Our room stewardess was a gem - made the room up twice a day! Very friendly and not the least bit expectant of gratuities other than automatic ones (we gave her $20 at end of trip anyway) -they probably have to submit extra tips to a pool anyway but we had to reward service above and beyond!

We heard a mixed bag of comments as we departed from "Never again on NCL!" to "Wow"

hillbil

[NormanW]

Pretty much a joke...

 

Didn't even ask for the receipt that MUST be presented at the gangway upon disembarking. :rolleyes:

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

[WaldosPepper]

Joanniebop, I'm so glad to see you jump in here and add your experiences! :D I'm hoping others who sailed with us will do the same.

 

If I'd know you had no champagne up there, we'd have come up with one of ours and shared!!!!!

 

To all those inquiring about the hotel in CT:

We stayed in the absolutely worst Super8 on the planet. It was immediately off the highway at Exit 5 on Southbound 95. The entire property is surrounded by 8-foot high chainlink fencing, and there must be 24 security cameras around the perimiter and the entrance of this dump. Once inside, things got much worse. :eek:

 

The one and only elevator was not only filthy, I daresay it was unsafe. The noises it made were hair-raising! Once inside our room, we were less than impressed with the filthy rugs, broken tiles in the bathroom, baseboard molding peeling away, and mildew everywhere. The scariest part of all is the way they plugged in the various electrical appliances! The room features a small refrigerator, an alarmclock, a microwave oven and a television. All four are plugged into a power strip which is stapled on the wall! In hindsight, I wish I had taken a photograph of that, because it's the sort of thing you just have to see to believe.

 

Heaven only knows how the room was originally wired, but I can attest that if you flip off the switch on the wall between the beds, it cuts the power to the whole power strip across the room! :rolleyes: Needless to say, we were extremely happy to get the heck out of there!!!!!!!

 

My strongest recommendation would be to stay at the Fairfield Inn located at the same exit but in the opposite direction. Friends stayed there last October and raved about it. We were unable to get a reservation there, as a function had taken all the rooms far in advance. Whatever you do, do NOT stay at that Super8!!!!!

[WaldosPepper]

Hillbil - sure wish we could have had the opportunity to meet you onboard at our meet and greet! I'm sad that you didn't post until now. :(

 

Sounds like you did the right thing by ignoring what those passengers said on 2/23. Why let someone else's opinion start your vacation off on a bad note. :confused: Wonder what they were trying to accomplish? :rolleyes:

[hillbil]

-Pepper, I tried in vain for what seemed like weeks to register on CC prior to sailing - the person in charge was apparently on vacation and I only received writing privileges the day before sailing! We did meet some really nice folks!

hillbil

[WaldosPepper]

You were not alone! Apparently several folks where having similar difficulties at that same time.. What a shame.

 

Really glad you had a great time and met some nice people! :D :D :D

[Catbiri2]

-Pepper, I tried in vain for what seemed like weeks to register on CC prior to sailing - the person in charge was apparently on vacation and I only received writing privileges the day before sailing! We did meet some really nice folks!

hillbil

 

Hillbil - I heard of others having problems like this, they e-mailed another cc'er through an e-mail tag in their signature... that way they were able to hop on board with the meet & greet. It is too bad that there was no way for us to suggest this before your cruise. Glad you had fun though.

 

Pepper - Welcome home. LOVED the bog, and enjoyed the review. Man, I really miss the Dawn, though I think I am slowly getting over PCD as I don't find myself refreshing the boards every 5 minutes *grin*

[greenie]

I'm sorry but this made me howl, rofl :D

 

I had to stop reading... but I'll be back

 

lol missing couch

 

Maybe it was hanging out with our balcony furniture! ;)

[greenie]

Pepper, awesome review! I wish I could organize my thoughts & impressions like that...this review was very informative and useful as well as making me feel like I was there too. How cool is THAT?

 

:)

 

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us on top of your daily blogs. You're the best!

[seahorse]

Joanniebop, I'm so glad to see you jump in here and add your experiences! :D I'm hoping others who sailed with us will do the same.

 

If I'd know you had no champagne up there, we'd have come up with one of ours and shared!!!!!

 

To all those inquiring about the hotel in CT:

We stayed in the absolutely worst Super8 on the planet. It was immediately off the highway at Exit 5 on Southbound 95. The entire property is surrounded by 8-foot high chainlink fencing, and there must be 24 security cameras around the perimiter and the entrance of this dump. Once inside, things got much worse. :eek:

 

The one and only elevator was not only filthy, I daresay it was unsafe. The noises it made were hair-raising! Once inside our room, we were less than impressed with the filthy rugs, broken tiles in the bathroom, baseboard molding peeling away, and mildew everywhere. The scariest part of all is the way they plugged in the various electrical appliances! The room features a small refrigerator, an alarmclock, a microwave oven and a television. All four are plugged into a power strip which is stapled on the wall! In hindsight, I wish I had taken a photograph of that, because it's the sort of thing you just have to see to believe.

 

Heaven only knows how the room was originally wired, but I can attest that if you flip off the switch on the wall between the beds, it cuts the power to the whole power strip across the room! :rolleyes: Needless to say, we were extremely happy to get the heck out of there!!!!!!!

 

My strongest recommendation would be to stay at the Fairfield Inn located at the same exit but in the opposite direction. Friends stayed there last October and raved about it. We were unable to get a reservation there, as a function had taken all the rooms far in advance. Whatever you do, do NOT stay at that Super8!!!!!

 

DID YOU CHECK FOR BED BUGS:eek: :D ??

[NormanW]

Yes bringing them with you from a place that's less than sanitary (I'm not talking Joe's Apartment either!) is certainly a possibility.

 

Read up on the problem (Bed Bugs) here:

 

http://www.uos.harvard.edu/ehs/pes_bedbug.shtml

 

Good information.

 

Cheers,

 

Norman

[juried]

Hey Pep,

Loved your review, so articulate and entertaining. This was a blast.

I too have a ton of digital images that I will attempt to post soon.

Hope to cruise with you again someday.

Terry

[WaldosPepper]

DID YOU CHECK FOR BED BUGS:eek: :D ??

 

Are you kidding me? After all the time I spent on your roll call getting freaked out, you'd better believe I took those sheets off and checked every inch of the mattress and the ribbing! ;) Blessedly my search netted no bedbugs. :D Unfortunately, the place was no less of a dump. :mad:

[WaldosPepper]

Hey Pep,

Loved your review, so articulate and entertaining. This was a blast.

I too have a ton of digital images that I will attempt to post soon.

Hope to cruise with you again someday.

Terry

 

Terry, we'd sail with you and your family again any time, any where! ;) Kyle asked that I please send his hellos to Chris Jr., David, and Ben. Would you be kind enough to pass along that message?

 

Joannie, Kyle also wanted me to send a BIG hello to his buddy, Chuck! He says to tell Chuck he's looking forward to scoping out the chicks with him! :D

[Joanniebop]

Pepper, Chuck says to tell Kyle that we are coming up in a bus because he's got enough chicks to fill it for himself and Kyle.

Chuck needs the following info:

Age/hair color preference/big on top or big on bottom ( hands or feet)/does he have a tent big enough to hold everyone?

Tell Kyle that Chuck says to keep the dream alive:p

Also sends his LUV

[WaldosPepper]

Joannie - Kyle is back at his Mom's now, so I will relay the message to him by phone tomorrow. :D I'll make a note of his preferences, and post back via email. ;) :p :D

[tigerlilycruiser12]

Pepper

 

Great review. We all had a blast. This cruise was the best. Had so many laughs and met so many wonderful people. Wish we did not have to get off the ship.

 

TLC