Live from the Dawn, Jan 28 - Feb 8, in the Caribbean followed by a Disney Adventure

[Landl cruiser]

On 1/21/2023 at 6:18 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Starting to get excited about going on our 11-day cruise on the Dawn, followed by 4 days at Disney World, and then a 4-day Bahamas cruise on the Disney Wish! Hopefully if all goes according to plan, I’ll be posting the highlights of our expanded adventure on this Live From thread.
 

We’ll be in a Club Balcony mini-suite on the Dawn. Also, thanks to getting double Latitudes points, which was a total surprise from our recent 38-day Jade cruise, we’ll be cruising at the Platinum level!

 

As always, you are welcome to follow along! But please don’t expect any food pictures. That’s just not my thing. However, I will be posting a variety of pictures of our adventures, both on and off the ship, as well as from our follow-on visit to Disney World and cruise on the new Disney Wish! 😁
 

 

 

Looking forward to your  comments as we will be boarding as you get off the ship .  

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived safely at our Hyatt hotel near the airport which is about 6 miles from the pier. Hopefully it will be a short and uneventful drive tomorrow morning over to the pier since it’s a Saturday. Our check-in time is between 10:30-11 am and hopefully we’ll be on the ship shortly afterwards. 🤞
 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

11 hours ago, www3traveler said:

You might want to check out The Key West Shipwreck Museum too.  Real priates and their treasures.  In the last few years according to the television Expedition Unknown (Discovery Channel), there have been a number of finds made in the last few years.

Thanks again! We’ll definitely put the Museum on the list as well since it looks close by the pier and the Key West Key Lime Pie Company as well! 😁

  

 

[goldmom]

Another vote for the Little White House.  We really enjoyed our tour.  The tour guide we had was an older gentleman who said he used to sell papers there as a kid and actually sold one to HST.

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived onboard the Dawn! But it was somewhat of an adventure to travel the 6 miles from the hotel to the ship, especially when it came to getting across the river to Terminal 2. It seems like today was the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest which caused a mess getting to the pier. But, no worries! We’re on vacation and made it to checkin around 10:30 am. 

 

 
But we sure were glad when we finally saw the ship docked at Terminal 2. 😁

 

 

 
We were checked in by 10:55 am were directed to where they wanted us to sit until it was our turn to board about 20 minutes later. 
 
Unfortunately, our cabin wasn’t ready yet, so off we went to the Bamboo Restaurant where the GS staff directed us so we could complete our special dining reservations. We were 5th in line, so the wait wasn’t too long. Then it was off to CruiseNext to register for the Platinum Wine Tasting later on the cruise. 
 

Finally, with all the essentials taken care of, we were off to the buffet for lunch!

 

 

 

 

 
It’s now 1:15 pm and the cabins still aren’t ready, so we decided to head out to the pool area and listen to music. 😁

 

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[vegas4ever]

Enjoy your cruise! Looking forward to your posts, especially your comparison if Dawn and Jade. We love the Jade. Been on the Athens - Capetown b2b and will be on the Dawn next year in March from Capetown to Barcelona.

[Ken the cruiser]

Lesson learned today. Even though you have boarded the ship, your shipboard account is active, and you’ve prepaid for an unlimited internet package, you will not be able to actually log onto your internet account until their internet server is up and running. I know, who knew! For us it finally came up just before 1 pm. Magically just befor the Internet Cafe opened up. 😂

 

[Ken the cruiser]

 

We were finally able to access our cabin a little after 1:30 pm. Yay! Now we just have to wait for our luggage to arrive. 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 1 - Tampa FL - Embarkation Day

 

  

  

 

[Ken the cruiser]

36 minutes ago, vegas4ever said:

Enjoy your cruise! Looking forward to your posts, especially your comparison if Dawn and Jade. We love the Jade. Been on the Athens - Capetown b2b and will be on the Dawn next year in March from Capetown to Barcelona.

Initial impressions, the Dawn is just enough of a difference from the Jade to make us relearn where everything is as well as the different MDR name. For example, the Bamboo Restaurant on the Dawn is called Jasmine Garden on the Jade. And of course we have no clue yet where any of the specialty restaurants are.  But that’s all part of the fun of cruising on a new ship. 😁
 

But most importantly if you want to finalize any restaurant reservations when you first board the ship, go straight to the Bamboo restaurant rather than the Reservations Desk next to Guest Services. 

[Ken the cruiser]

For those Latitudes members that are interested, the Behind-the-Scenes Ship Tour is still suspended.

 

 
Also, NCL has definitely switched to the old style of the Muster Drill. For us we meet in the Venetian MDR at 3:30 pm. But that’s all we know right now.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[www3traveler]

Did you find my friend Noel Chaves (RM)  in the buffet when you went for lunch??

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Did you find my friend Noel Chaves (RM)  in the buffet when you went for lunch??

Unfortunately not. We had a hard enough time finding a table for 2 to see at up at the buffet! 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s my first internet speed test of the trip. Of course, we’re still in port so not sure if this is from the ship’s connection to the local Wi-Fi service or from the satellite service the ship uses once we leave the port. Sure hope it’s from the local Wi-Fi service. But time will tell. 
  

[Ken the cruiser]

We just went to the Muster Drill and it went quite smoothly and brought back memories of past cruises prior to the pandemic. One nice thing about these “old style” musters is that they gave you all kinds of information about various safety aspects of the ship that pretty much fell by the wayside during the eMusters since cruising started back up.
 

But, and this is important, we did not have to go line up outside at our applicable muster station on the promenade like we had to on past HAL cruises. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a fun fact my DW just found while reading today’s Daily for those that enjoy browsing the Cruise Critic forums, but don’t want to use up your precious FAS free minutes while on a NCL cruise. 
 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

 

And we’re off!! Next stop Key West FL tomorrow morning!

  

 
It’s always fun to try to figure out what some boats we see along the way were built for. In this case I have no idea! 😂

 

 
But I do know it’s always nice to start a cruise with a beautiful rainbow! 😁

 

 

[SplashOfWater]

Enjoy your cruise...and the Dawn!

[Ken the cruiser]

After a very tasty dinner in the Venetian MDR on deck 6 aft, we headed over to the Stardust Theater to watch the lone 8 pm show, as its embarkation day, with Tom Franek, a comedian and piano player, who had everyone either keeping beat to his fun loving songs or laughing at his jokes. What a fun way to start the cruise! 

  

 
As you can see it was a packed house with a very fun-loving crowd, most of whom were well over 50 or getting close! And here I thought NCL appealed to a more a younger demographic. Who knew! 😂

 

 
Then heading back to the cabin we stopped for a few minutes to listen to some music being played in the atrium. On the far side is Guest Services and just below us was Starbucks.

 

 
Then it was time to follow the little red fish back to our cabin which is towards the aft. For those that don’t know, the fish pattern on the Dawn’s hallway carpets always has them swimming towards the front of the ship, except for the red ones. 😂

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[LauraAnneC]

It’s so lovely to read your positive reviews both of the food and the show. There’s so much negativity around at the moment. Thank you! 

[NJLVW]

Enjoying your review. I am living vicariously through your travels. I can't wait to be back on the beautiful Dawn. The countdown continues. Enjoy every moment. 

[YoSista]

Thanks for the link.  Looking forward to checking this cruise out.

[jeaniebelle]

18 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

For those Latitudes members that are interested, the Behind-the-Scenes Ship Tour is still suspended.

 

 
Also, NCL has definitely switched to the old style of the Muster Drill. For us we meet in the Venetian MDR at 3:30 pm. But that’s all we know right now.

Are they still offering the Lattitude - Platinum and above, the Wine Tasting? If so, where do you sign up for it? I'm really enjoying you journey with posts, pictures, advice and Freestyle Daily1 I'm on the Dawn following yours. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide all this information and pictures!

[odie1024]

Tom Franek puts on a great show, saw him on the Sun in October. Enjoy your trip, we will be embarking when you get off. Look forward to your review.

[Ken the cruiser]

52 minutes ago, YoSista said:

Thanks for the link.  Looking forward to checking this cruise out.

Welcome aboard and to Cruise Critic! I like the handle! 😂