Dawn 3/19-3/26 My thoughts

[njkate]

Dawn Western Caribbean 3/19-3/26 my take
We drove to Tampa on Saturday the 18th, stayed at Hyatt Downtown, hotel was fine all though a tad pricey, most hotels were unless you wanted to stay at a Motel 6 or Rodeway Inn in sketchy parts of Tampa.

 

Parking, I prebooked parking at Port of Tampa for $105 for week, its a short walk to pier, traffic between people coming and people going plus aquarium was very congested so don't wait until last minute.

Embarkation, I had chose 1:00-1:30, we arrived in line at 12:45 and were on the ship by 1:30, it went pretty smooth.

 

Cabin, service has been reduced to one time a day, which was fine for us but most days cabin wasn't serviced until 2:30 or later, no biggie. Cabin stewards looked burnt out, I only saw mine once or twice.

 

Food was mediocre in MDR, biggest complaint in both the MDR and the Asian restaurant is food was never hot, barely lukewarm. Buffet had plenty of different options, if you go hungry on a cruise you're way too picky imo.

 

Entertainment, the smaller ships don't put on the Broadway like productions, I went on night 4 to see Soul Rockin Nights, it was ok, nothing to write home about. The last night I went to the over 18 years old comedy show, I forget his name but he was very good.

 

Ship was sold out so many people on board with plenty of kids who never seemed to get unruly.

 

PSA for smokers, no snark please as it's info, so just slow your roll here. As far as I could tell only 3 smoking areas, The casino if you're playing, the cigar bar and Bimini bar and grill which by the way was bar only, the grill was never open.

 

You can only access Bimini by taking an elevator to deck 13 then you have to climb a flight of stairs so if you are handicapped or in a wheel chair this is not going to be possible. I was told there was an outdoor smoking area on one of the decks, no tables or chairs just a stand up ash tray but I never seen it, might be there but never saw it. Bimini was absolutely slammed with line for drinks snaking around, even with 3 bartenders behind the stick it could take a few to get a drink so If you are on one of the last sailings before she heads for her transatlantic pack your patience and manners. Half the bar was smoking the other half non smoking but by the second day people smoked any where they could grab a seat, I did not see anyone complain.

I did see cigarette smoking in cigar bar and only two people told me they were told to leave, I think for the most part the cigars smokers were tolerant due to restrictive areas to smoke and saw many cigar smokers at Bimini.

 

The ports, typical caribbean ports, I did get to see and hold sloths.

 

Our last night Capt hauled butt due to fog in Tampa Bay, we were supposed to arrive 7AM but arrived about 2AM, guess he didn't want a repeat of coast guard halting marine traffic under Sunshine Causeway

 

Disembark was smooth.

 

My thoughts on ship? I do prefer the smaller ships, Jade is my favorite, but not a fan of Dawn. I did miss the Spinnaker Lounge and the Great Outdoors at back of buffet. She would have to have a great itinery at rock bottom prices for me to ever book her again. That said glad I sailed her as I was looking at Northern European cruises in the summer or one of her transatlantics, scratch that.

Edited March 28, 2023 by njkate

[Boxerjim]

Thank you for your review, very informative!!!

[cruiseny4life]

Yay! So glad you took the time to write this. And, you got to hold a sloth! Double yay! Yay! 

 

It's nice to hear a bit about the smaller ships in the fleet.