Overall, a great cruise. Having sailed on the Dawn 11 years ago, I can honestly say she has aged pretty well. Sadly, services aren't as good as they once were (that's impacting the entire cruise industry though) but this itinerary on this ship was great. Would I sail on the Dawn again...probably not but that's simply because I like to try different ships without repeating often.
This itinerary was excellent but definitely could have benefited from one more day at sea being added in the middle of the sailing just to recoup after so many stops and exploring.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Moving from the bus through the cruise terminal and onto the ship was a breeze. Biggest beef is that staterooms were not made available until 3:00PM...by far the latest we have ever had to wait for cabins to open up. NOTE - The transfer from the airport was a disorganized mess...it was arranged through NCL and, although we were placed on a bus within 30 minutes of picking up our luggage, it was over 1.5 hours before we finally left the Heathrow terminals as the bus made multiple stops for more passengers and then sat, unexplicably, for a good 20 minutes at another terminal...horrible experience.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food was really good for the most part with only a few blips. We ate at Le Bistro (specialty restaurant), the main dining rooms, the buffet and at O'Sheehans...enjoyed the offerings.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Didn't really participate or take part in any onboard activities as the itinerary is very port heavy and the offerings were pretty basic.
Entertainment
Didn't see any shows as the heavy port schedule kept us busy enough.
Children's Programs
Didn't have any kids with us.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Crew/staff were all nice but you could tell that staffing is much less than before and the staff seem overworked if/when you did see them. We rarely saw our room steward as they now only make up the rooms once a day...no turn down service.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
The Dawn has always been known for it's choppy deck layout and that hasn't changed. Common areas were clean and, for the ship's age, in fairly good shape.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Nice size and comfortable. Bathroom was small, as usual but it was sufficient.
Ship tip
It's and old ship with a very strange deck layout so be prepared to have to go up and down a deck to get around some obstacles.
Very rough weather day...tendering was rough (obviously not NCL's fault). Our excursion was very rushed as rain had flooded the motorway causing delays in transit so we had to run to take photos at both stops. Beautiful scenery on the excursion though (Braveheart excursion).
My new favorite place as the Orkneys are fantastic. Beautiful. Peaceful. Wonderful. Took an excursions to see the standing stones and the 5000 year old ancient ruins...great!
Just did the Dublin on Our Own excursion which buses you into and out of Dublin after you send about 2.5 hours on your own. spent the majority of our time at The Temple Bar Pub enjoying Fresh Guinness and fantastic live music and atmosphere.
This was a tender stop and the seas were very rough in the morning. Tenders took forever as the ship is anchored quite a distance from the tender harbor so, between the distance and the rough seas, tender rides were taking probably a half hour to get ashore. Conditions were better in the evening.
Due to the French going on strike, this stop was cancelled a few days before we were to stop there. NCL instead added Cork, Ireland, to our trip which was a great stop...went to Blarney Castle and shopped!
Disembarkation was a breeze but the ship called our group before the shore side time was ready with our transfer busses. Ground crew took care of us quickly though so no harm done.
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