Norwegian has fallen!
Norwegian Dawn Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 4
11 Night Baltic: Finland Germany & Denmark (Stockholm To Oslo)
Sail date: June 05, 2024
Ship: Norwegian Dawn
Cabin number: 8666
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 15 days ago
Review summary
We did this cruise to visit the few countries we hadn't gone to in Europe. I think hiking with tacks in my shoes would have been more fulfilling. This was hands down the worst vacation I've ever had. I've gotten Giardia in Cambodia, had flights home canceled last minute in Egypt, and vacationed in an area that was technically in a civil war. Norwegian somehow made this cruise a more miserable experience. I am shouting from the highest window to all who will listen: AVOID NORWEGIAN UNTIL THEY GET THEIR HOUSE IN ORDER.Embarkation
Terrible. Huge line outside (thankfully not raining) for everyone. They'll ask you to pick a time to show up, just show up early. The port staff said that Norwegian paid for the lowest support and embarkation process. This was a theme that would show up again and again. Three hours in line. Are you a VIP member? Sorry, remember I said that there was ONE line. They even came buy to say that if they caught anyone cutting in line that they would deny boarding and they would catch you. I should have known that the rest of the 11-day cruise wouldn't be much better.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Norwegian is apparently in the hole to the tune of 100s of millions. What better way to make some of that money up than take away all flavor in the food. Normally, we enjoy eating in the dining room. This cruise's options for dinner were not only terrible but inedible. We ate in the dining room twice, the rest of the time we either ate at the buffet (Mmmm, cold slop on a plate), O'shehans for wings and sandwiches, or once to the Chinese restaurant. Here are the highlights for the food: One night there was Tom Yum soup. It was delicious. I don't think it was a normal thing because when I got it and tasted it, I went back to tell them how good it was. They pointed out a guy who made it and he was beaming ear to ear. Good for him! The line for that soup was long because it was the only thing that didn't taste like wallpaper paste. I'm sure they've since drawn and quartered the soup maker as it shows that they were capable of making something that had a semblance of flavor. Highlights two and three: sucking pig and duck at the carving station. Wasn't the best I've had but it was better than everything else on that ship. I took it upon myself to get the pig and mix it with a bit of the Indian offering that day. That's it. Those are the three hightlights on a 11-day cruise. It seemed like they printed out recipes on a printer that was running out of toner and gave it to people who never actually had tasted anything that they were making. Unless, of course, that is what the recipes called for. If that is the case all hope is lost.
Onboard Activities
I'm sure there were onboard activities. I'm just not sure where or when they happened.
Entertainment
Elements was phenomenal. The rest was like a B-movie comedy parodying a cruise ship.
Service and Staff
Here's really the only good thing about the cruise. The staff are making the best out of a really crappy situation. A couple of times I caught the look of despair and frustration in their faces. You can only hear people complain so much before it starts eating away at your soul. If Norwegian reads this I am sure that the take away will be that I saw some crew members not putting on a happy happy joy joy face and will increase floggings until morale improves.
Ship Quality
Why put these two things in one category? The ship is older but was still clean. They kept that up nicely. Design? Who in their right mind designed this ship? You can't go anywhere without going up and down flights of stairs, turning around, and then going back. It is one of those stupid designs where one side of the ship is completely blocked off on certain floors so you can't get to where you want to go, although I don't really know where you'd be going. This cruise was in the Baltic, so it was chilly. Absolutely no use for the pool deck. The only real place to hang out was O'Sheehans. Of course you have to be seated by the hostess (who was actually quite nice) but that means that 2400 people are jockeying for about 100 tables.
Cabin / Stateroom
It was ok. Nothing special, nothing terrible.
Ship tip
Don't do it. Save your money, do something else.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Meh. Did an excursion on this one. I have no idea why I thought that it would be worth the money but I held out hope.
This is one of those tricky ones. Gdynia is a dump port. You actually need to get a taxi (or pay the cruise to put you on a shuttle to Gdansk for a nominal fee of $100 per person if memory serves). Gdansk was cool. We got in at 7ish and the ship left at 2:30. Of course, nothing opens until 10. Lunch doesn't really start until noon and you've got about an hour ride back to the ship so have fun stressing about what you can actually do in Gdansk. It is a shame too because it looked like a really neat town. It would be better if Norwegian actually docked in Gdansk. If only Gdansk had a port, oh wait it does. Go figure, Norwegian screwed that up too.
Ah, East Germany. We chose not to take the 2.5 hour train to Berlin. 5-hours on a train didn't seem like a good time. The port was OK. picturesque is the best way to describe it.
This is ostensibly Hamburg's port although, Hamburg actually does have a port. So you have to walk a mile (even though there are much closer docks) to the train station to take an hour or so train to Hamburg.
Cool town. Fun story. You dock many miles away from Copenhagen. Not other cruise ships though. Luckily, Norwegian charters a bus to take you back and forth. They'll pop you for $20 a person for the honor but hey, they've already screwed me out of money for the cruise so why not keep the theme. The bus drops you off in. . .that's right nowhere particularly convenient. In fact, getting off the bus the driver tells you to watch out because you are exiting into a bike line. It isn't even a bus stop, just the middle of the road. We found it much easier and convenient to use the public bus to get back to the ship.
Another "neat" town. They pulled the same shenanigans again with the shuttle bus. The little map that they give you actually says that if you are at that dock the cruise line has paid for the shuttle to take you to and from town. Oh, those crazy Norwegian corporate types are a hoot. Let's break it down. Let's just say that 1500 people used the service. At $20 each that is $30,000. Figure they paid the bus company 10-15k. That's a captive 20-15k they made on us.
Disembarkation
Norwegian likes to bookend things. Getting on the ship was a cluster so why would getting off the ship be any different? Let's just dump you off the ship not at the convenient in town dock that the other ships use. (We stayed for a few days so we saw other ships do what Norwegian should have done.) Nope, they dump you in an industrial port without any transportation. There is a $59 airport shuttle that they offer. If you are leaving right away, I highly suggest that you avail yourself of this option; it is the only thing that they didn't overcharge for. So anyone who was spending some time in Oslo just gets dumped on the dock. But I don't think they told anyone that we were coming. After about 30 minutes some taxis started showing up. Most of the time there would be a queue, but nope. Not this cat circus. Just a mass of people without any support from Norwegian. It was raining too, although not Norwegian's fault, there wasn't any shelter. Let's get back to the cabs. Because they dropped us off at the most inconvenient place, you had to negotiate with the cabs. $100 was about the average (I talked to people while we were in Oslo about their rate). I somehow negotiated it down to meter fare which ended up being $65.