HORRIBLE

Norwegian Dawn Cruise Review to Bermuda

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 50

Overall rating:

1.5 out of 5
Verified Review
Norwegian Dawn

7 Night Bermuda (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 02, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Dawn

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 8090

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

I’ve been on 15-20 cruises in my lifetime, all of which were Royal Caribbean, and Carnival and I loved them. The food was phenomenal and the night life was amazing and fun. I had never been on a Norwegian, so I figured I’d give it a try! Well, I regret that I made that decision. Starting from the embarkation, there was a problem. We were supposed to board the ship at 10am, we didn’t board until 4pm! Ok, ok, I TRIED to forgive them, because apparently they were having issues with the gangway. We came aboard STARVING, because we were waiting around for 6 hours for the ship to let us on, so we figured they’d have the restaurants open, NOPE. I was wrong. We had to wait around until 5:30 to get food in our stomachs. And even then, I was expecting the food to be great (hoping it was worth the wait). WRONG AGAIN. The food was SUBPAR, and I’m being generous. Most of it was awful. We had 3-specialty dining meals, which we chose hibachi (Teppanyaki), the steakhouse (Cagneys) and Italian (La Cucina). They were better then the main dining, but still not phenomenal, EXCEPT for the Italian. The Italian was pretty good, but I don’t know if it was really as delicious as I think it was, or delicious by comparison to the nonsense they subjected us to the rest of the trip. Since the Dawn is a small ship, you will feel EVERYTHING. So if you get seasick, DON’T Even bother. I had never gotten seasick on a ship in my life, and I woke up in the middle of the night on two separate nights, throwing up from the movement. The nightlife is TRASH. Other than the one pub that is open 24 hours (Osheehans) which has maybe 10 items on the menu total, everything closes at about midnight. My friend and I (26 and 31) were looking for something fun to do and people around our age to hang out with and meet, but everything closed early, and it was as if it was a geriatric convention. The cabin was of average size, so I cannot complain, but because the ship was refurbished you can tell it’s old with rust spots and the like. And to add insult to injury, It rained almost the whole time. I understand that’s not the cruise lines fault but it just added to the horrible experience. I felt horrible, this was my friends first cruise experience. And I had to keep apologizing, explaining that this wasn’t the norm for a cruise, since it was my idea. Overall, unfortunately I would NEVER sail Norwegian again

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Service and Staff

2 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

Ports of call

New York, New York

1 out of 5
Embarkation was supposed to be at 10am, they didn’t let us on until 4pm.

Royal Naval Dockyard, West End, Bermuda

1 out of 5
Pretty but it rained the whole time.

Disembarkation

1 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 50

9 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

masonmaurer1    4 years ago

The food did suck on the dawn

Oceandweller    4 years ago

You’re review cracks me up.. you’ve got issues with the geriatric crowd do you? Yeah, I remember when I was 30.... seems like yesterday. Ahhhh, you’ll see soon enough. Hope you’ll remember this post. One day, you’ll wake up, and realize your skin has wrinkled some, and the whole body, piece by piece, just doesn’t work like it used to. Lol. It happens fast. Yeah, it’s true, the whole ship kind of shuts down after 11pm, that’s because we all need to rest up so we can wake early and see a beautiful sunrise....might be the last one!😂 You think us geriatrics don’t know, but let me assure you that we’ve done more crazy S&/t than you can imagine. Been there, done that.. in the mean time, get crazy, get wild, have fun, and party lots, but next time, you might want to try that other cruise line, Carnival.. you know, there’s a lot to be said for what’s in a name! Be good.

luckylori    4 years ago

Wow, we have only been on 2 cruises the Breakaway and the Pearl, we will be on the Dawn in 15 days. We are in our 50’s but had a great time on both ships! Sorry you had a bad experience. We love the casual dress code. Everyone has a different expectation when it come to cruising. We are new to all of this but we chose NCL because of the free style dining, the ports and the price!! For us getting out of the cold weather here in January and going to a different beach 6 days in a row with out having to unpack sounds like paradise to us!!

monicaarosen    4 years ago

Not a fan either of NCL Breakaway. We took 4 grandsons and spouses a year ago. The kids had a good time. The food was sub par. Very disorganized layout and way to many kid for Oct. We had 3 mini suites. Extremely small balcony.

TravelingSmis    4 years ago

We sailed on the Dawn in May 2019. I’d never sail that ship again. It’s very true after 10 there’s really nothing to do. I didn’t find Cagneys to be all the hype and as for the cabin, it was not clean. Balcony had rust all over. I’m going to sail with NCL again but not on the Dawn.

samanthafierro    4 years ago

People sure love to complain about being on vacation.

iamkates    4 years ago

I'm sorry you had a bad time on the Dawn. Our first cruise with NCL was on the Dawn and we LOVED it so much we booked the new Encore. Can't wait!! Maybe give a newer ship a try, there will be more to do.

eddiemac1    4 years ago

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