Dawn - Jan 28-Feb 7

[newcruiser07]

First time cruisers here and I have to thank everyone who contributes to these boards for all their helpful hints.

 

Here’s my 2 cents of our cruise:

Embarkment –Drove to the pier at 12 pm – and were on board by 2 pm. Pretty painless, but did notice many people very upset at the wait – we just relaxed and talked with the people around us.

 

Room – Outside cabin with porthole. Large shower in bathroom, lots of closet space, many drawers for clothes. Not a bad size considering we only were in there to sleep and change. Always was kept clean and love the chocolate on my pillow at turn-down.

 

Restaurants – Took the good advice of posters and made all our reservations when we boarded. We took advantage of the 2 for 1, 5:30 – 6:00 pm reservation in the specialty restaurants. Cagneys – very nice atmosphere and delicious prime rib. Bamboo – average to above average asian-fusion food. Le Bistro – great service and good food. Even though it’s not on the menu, they do offer chocolate fondue. Teppanyaki – great show by the chefs and food was excellent – great fillet mignon.

We also made reservations at Salsa – good tex-mex and La Trattoria – only restaurant where I wasn’t impressed with the food although the tiramasu was delicious.

Aqua, Venetian and Impression – all had the same menu and we were able to find meals that we liked and the service was great. We wanted to go to the shows and let our server know ahead of time and they served us within 1 hour.

Garden Café – typical breakfast buffet – nothing special, but we did like the smoked salmon.

Blue Lagoon – great for snacks – chicken wings, won ton soup, etc. Food is piping hot and tasteful.

All in all, we were very impressed with the food and enjoyed all our meals.

 

Shows – Very professional and a lot of fun. Really enjoyed Romano Fregadi (sp?) (juggler) and Don Ware (comedian). Jean Ryan dancers were terrific, but I didn’t really like the singers (too squeaky). Second City and Magician were ok, nothing too exciting. Dan Hodge (pianist/singer) in Gatsby’s was extremely good and very entertaining. Enjoyed Liars Club and The Quest game in the Spinnaker.

 

Excursions – Great Stirrup Cay – Tendered – another confusing process while we were either waiting on the ship to go or waiting in line. Sat on the beach and went snorkeling. Great tip from another passenger. He had large milk bone dog biscuits and would dunk them in the water and the fish would surround him. Lots of fun.

 

Cozumel – just spent the day wandering around town. This was great since we were docked and could come and go.

 

Took the river cruise/Altun Ha ruins in Belize. River cruise was excellent, saw howler monkeys, crocs, many birds, and jungle is beautiful. Altun Ha bus trip was very long along many pot-holed roads. Would have gladly missed the ruins, but it was part of the excursion. Excursion took all day (in fact we were late getting back to the ship), but since we booked through NCL, ship waited for us. Definite plus!

 

 

Roatan – Docked. Wandered around the town – not much to see.

 

Grand Cayman – Tendered – seemed to take quite a while for NCL to organize this. We were told to line up in one area, then told to reverse and line up in another! Took a taxi ($10 for two) to 7 mile beach and rented chairs from the Marriott ($10 each). Snorkelled and enjoyed the sun for a few hours.

 

River Tubing in Jamaica – very enjoyable. Great tour guide showing us the sites on the way up and we were escorted by two very personable guides along the river. Would highly recommend to everyone. Wandered into town after our tour but didn’t enjoy as much. Lots of people trying to get you to buy things or take a taxi. Not very relaxing. Once again we were docked which made coming and going very easy.

 

In summary, being first time cruisers, we loved it. Very relaxing way to travel, sea days were great to catch up on reading and land days were spent enjoying the sun and wandering. We would definitely recommend NCL to our family and friends and are already thinking about where we should go next year.

 

Thanks again to all the “posters”, we used many of your great tips and they made our cruise that much more enjoyable.

[immargaret]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise, thanks for returning to the boards and posting your review for others.:)

[Cosmopolitan]

 

In summary, being first time cruisers, we loved it. Very relaxing way to travel, sea days were great to catch up on reading and land days were spent enjoying the sun and wandering. We would definitely recommend NCL to our family and friends and are already thinking about where we should go next year.

 

Exactly how we felt after our first cruise on the Dawn.

That's why we keep going back:)

 

Great review!

[whatawonderfulworld]

Our experience was very similar. Now my DH, who was very hesitant to go on a cruise, loves it. The Dawn is a wonderful ship - primarily, for us at least, due to the wonderful crew. Did you go to the show where the staff comes out and sings a "thank you" to the passengers? The biggest round of applause came when the housekeeping folks were introduced.

 

Now...the DH who was hesitant? Well...while on board for our inaugural 7 day cruise, we booked a 15 day cruise for this Fall. This from a man who was not looking forward to the cruise at all. I will be forever grateful to the crew...he was so impressed with them (and of course, the beautiful ship) that he agreed to book the next cruise without blinking an eye (and on a ship that wasn't even finished!).

 

Thanks again for taking the time to come back and report. (Did you have the fish and chips at Blue Lagoon? They were terrific!)

 

Ciao,

WAWW

[newcruiser07]

My DH wanted to book our next cruise too! I said we should think about where we want to go and from what port. We can drive to NY, Boston or Phil so we have many options.

 

Fish and Chips were great in Blue Lagoon. Like I mentioned, we enjoyed all our meals on board.

 

We saw the Bollywood show which had the "thankyou" at the end. Lots of applause for the housekeeping staff too.

[Steve&gayle]

Hi, my wife and I are planning on sailing this ship in April for the 11 night western cruise. It looks like the same itinerary. We were curious on which night were the formal nights on your cruise.

[Baitman19]

Hi, my wife and I are planning on sailing this ship in April for the 11 night western cruise. It looks like the same itinerary. We were curious on which night were the formal nights on your cruise.

 

The "Optional Formal" nights are now called "It's the night to dress up" and are the first full sea day down and the first full sea day back.

 

The Captain's VIP Cocktail Party is also on the first Dress up night.

 

Happy Sailing,

Monty

[Maryfrei]

Restaurants – Took the good advice of posters and made all our reservations when we boarded. We took advantage of the 2 for 1, 5:30 – 6:00 pm reservation in the specialty restaurants. Cagneys – very nice atmosphere and delicious prime rib. Bamboo – average to above average asian-fusion food. Le Bistro – great service and good food. Even though it’s not on the menu, they do offer chocolate fondue.

 

Thanks for your review, we were hooked after our first cruise too! Even though it was Carnival, it has been all NCL since. I'm so glad I can still get my chocolate fondue:D. Do you remember which nights were half price for early dining?

 

Hi, my wife and I are planning on sailing this ship in April for the 11 night western cruise. It looks like the same itinerary. We were curious on which night were the formal nights on your cruise.

 

 

Steve and Gayle, come over and join the roll call for the April 12th voyage:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=9086860#post9086860

[willjoedon]

newcruise07, Did you book you Jamicia exursion through NCL? I have seen other companys listings this ending at Dunn's River Falls and it sounds great.

[newcruiser07]

Hi to Maryfrei:

 

Everynight is 1/2 price early dining. Either 5:30 or 6:00 pm in Cagney's, Bamboo or le Bistro (does not include Teppanyaki or Sushi Bar).

 

Hi to Willjoedon:

 

We booked online through NCL for our River Tubing in Jamaica -- lots of fun. Takes about 3 hours which left our afternoon free to explore Ochos Rios.