Overall, our cruise was excellent and we had a great trip. The food and service were great. The biggest problem was the lack of Internet data. Our plan promised us wifi, but it didn't work.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
The process was smooth and easy. We had to have COVID vaccination cards.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Overall, the dining choices and service were excellent. The Garden Buffet had a huge selection of food available from breakfast until about 10 p.m. Some things were featured every day, but other things changed day to day, so it never felt old. We really enjoyed the speed and selection of food at the Garden Buffet. There were theme nights, such as German or Scandinavian. The staff tried hard to cater to different types of eaters, with vegetarian and Indian options available at all times. Our ship wasn't full, so there were never any long lines. Not everything at the buffet was fantastic, but everything was decent. I would say the biggest letdown at the buffet was that the desserts were mostly bland, but they had soft-serve ice cream every night, and they had good crepes made in front of you a couple of times. Our favorite restaurant was the Venetian because we usually had a great view at the back of the ship, and the food was excellent. The food staff was excellent at all the restaurants. The Asian restaurant wasn't that great, but the steak restaurant was good.
O’Sheehan’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill
4 out of 5
Food was pretty good.
Venetian (Main Dining Room)
5 out of 5
Excellent food and service. I loved the chocolate desserts and stracciatella ice cream.
Cagney's Steakhouse
5 out of 5
The food and service were good.
Bamboo Asian Restaurant
3 out of 5
The food was pretty ordinary.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
We used the hot tubs, library and the fitness center. There was a nice pool and several hot tubs. There was a quiet library, but it was locked in the evening when I went. My biggest complaint was that the "free wifi" was almost nonexistent. I even went to the onboard Internet cafe, and the Internet service was so slow that nothing loads past the first page, so I couldn't do ANY of the work I had planned to do onboard. You can't even check your social media onboard because there is NO WIFI even though our plan was supposed to include free wifi. If you want more hours, you can pay an arm and a leg for wifi, but there was no point because it was only a trickle of data.
The Library
3 out of 5
There was an OK selection of books, but you could only check them out during certain hours when an attendant was there.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
We went to three shows: Shimi Goodman the opera singer, a Ukrainian acrobat duo, and a Ukrainian dancing duo. They were all very good. My favorite was the acrobats. They had an act kind of like Cirque du Soleil but with only two people.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
All the staff were excellent, attentive, polite and friendly. Our room steward called us by name and cleaned our room almost every time we stepped out. Our only complaint would be that while everyone spoke at least basic English, they didn't always know enough English to be able to answer all our questions. All the staff wear masks at all times.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Everything was very clean and well maintained, but I wish they didn't have a smoking parlor, because the smoke leaked out into the adjacent bar/music performance lounge. Or maybe they could put the smoking parlor out on the top deck!
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We were lucky to score an upgraded cabin and thought our cabin was huge and luxurious. We had a nice, big balcony, a nice bathroom with a tub and shower, a huge bed, a safe and fridge, a hair dryer, even a couch and coffee table. The coffee table was really helpful for using our laptops and spreading out our papers. The steward kept the place impeccably clean. I recommend Americans bring a power strip from home because there is only one outlet that works for American plugs. Luckily my husband saw someone recommend this on a cruise vlog, and it was a lifesaver for us. Every night we had six or seven electronic devices plugged into our power strip to charge up for the next day.
We took a Norwegian bus straight from Heathrow Airport to the ship dock, so we didn't get to explore this port, but I saw some stores through the window, like a grocery store and home-goods store.
We had a great time walking all the way to the lighthouse and back. We did hop aboard a city bus for part of the way. Great scenery! But we found out that you can't walk straight into the port. You have to be on a bus or in some other vehicle for some stupid reason. We walked up to the guard shack, but the guard wouldn't allow us through because we were on foot. Luckily a taxi driver drove up and let us aboard her cab so we could get through to the ship.
Cobh is small but very cute. We took a train to Cork and then a city bus to Blarney Castle. Unfortunately we found out the hard way that the trains run only once an hour on Sundays, so we barely got back to the ship on time. Cork wasn't very interesting, but Blarney Castle was fun to visit.
Liverpool itself wasn't that pretty or exciting, but we took the "Charming Chester" shore excursion to Chester that was terrific. Chester is a charming little medieval town with tons of old, half-timbered buildings and even some Roman ruins.
We walked and took a local tourism bus all around the city and enjoyed the sights. My favorite part was seeing the Long Room in the library at Trinity College. It was AMAZING and had a good gift shop, but the tickets are only available online, so do this in advance.
We did not explore Belfast itself because we took a terrific shore excursion up the coast and saw lots of beautiful scenery. The bus took us to Antrim Glen for a gorgeous panoramic view and a scone tea, with a great little gift shop.
We took a great shore excursion to the ancient archeological sites and saw standing stones and an excavated prehistoric village. It was really interesting.
We took a city bus until it got stuck in construction traffic, and we got off and walked the rest of the way to the town center. We toured Edinburgh Castle, which was fascinating and really windy. Then we bought souvenirs on the Royal Mile. There are lots of terrific shops.
We were there on a Saturday and were lucky to be able to visit a terrific flea market at the beautiful, old Victorian Tynemouth train station. Then we took a train to Newcastle. Newcastle was interesting and had a lot of churches. Our biggest problem was that when we took the train back to Tynemouth, the train stopped because of stuff on the track, and we had to wait about an hour and barely got back to our ship on time. We barely missed the shuttle from the Tynemouth station to the port, and a kindly flea-market vendor drove eight of us back to the port. We barely made it on time before the ship sailed.
We stayed in Amsterdam a few days after our cruise. The city was beautiful and fascinating, but it was hard to find reasonably priced hotels. We rented a tandem bicycle and enjoyed biking to the Zaanse Schans open-air museum and back.
A nice detailed review basically what you would expect. The Wi-Fi has never been good on any ship but I’ve heard that NCL is negotiating with Starlink.
Great review, thanks. I assume you got caught in the absolute farce of roadworks we have in Edinburgh just now while they extend the tram lines out to Newhaven, but glad you still found a way to enjoy it!
Thank you for you review and detailed comments. We really enjoy the Dawn and were disappointed when it stopped sailing from Boston. We cruised on her 5 times, 4 times in the same suite. LOL. It was old home week each time. "Did you miss us?", we would ask.
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