Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The crew is wonderful. The ship is a very beautiful ship. They are always cleaning up. Even with all of the cleaning I found my cabin full of previously placed finger prints all over doors wall etc. kind of yecky. It was clean but not what I would call sanitized. It also seems like the ship nickel and dimes you to death hawking their wears. That gets a little annoying. They also boast great giveaways at contests and most are simply beach balls or keychains wit NCL logo. They could afford to be more generous. Bermuda is a beautiful island but closes down too darn fast .Not much in the way of shopping except those souvenier shops with items all made in china or mexico. China and imported name brands are there but no great bargains that I saw.

This was a first cruise and we went for our Honeymoon. We had a good time. Really enjoyed the Jean Ann Ryan Company and Second City. The Salsa restaurant on the 8th floor was the best on the ship. Was not really happy with some of the other restaurants, and the dessert selection. The room attendants were amazing and very welcoming. The pool was very small and it was hard to find seating near the area. The ship was very pretty and pretty easy to navigate. Overall a great time with only a few exceptions.

We just got back Sunday April 6, 2008 from sailing on the NOrweigian Dawn. the ship was incredible. Had so many restaurants we couldn't even visit them all. we opted for an oceanview cabin on deck 8. we were not really impressed with the cabin size, but we dealt iwth it and made the best of things.though i i must say the bathrooms are partitioned off with sliding doors, so that when someone is using the bathroom , someoen else can be showering or brushing their teeth, very nice touch ! WE loved the Salsas bar and restaurants, great band and great margaritas and the service was incredible. the kids area was very nice, they had their own pool and slides, etc. overall i would highly recommend this ship.

A floating 5 * + hotel.

We eally enjoyed the flexibility of the free style format. The quality of the food and service was excellent .

Great service, room and destination! Wonderful entertainment and food!

This was our first cruise experience and my wife and I agree that it turned out to be the best vacation we have ever had. In fact, I am afraid that I have been pretty much ruined for other types of vacations from now on. Is it possible to become a cruise addict in just one try? The freestyle cruise format was one of the reasons why we chose Norwegian Cruise Line and we were not disappointed. The dining experience aboard ship was much better than we expected. There were enough restaurant choices so that dining was always an adventure and breakfast in the Venetian room was pleasant and consistently good. We liked the fact that portions were reasonably sized so that you cold enjoy a variety of items from the menu without feeling that you had overeaten. Dinner in the Venetian was excellent also. We thought that the food quality was great and the presentation was pleasing and artistic. The wait staff was helpful without being fawning, friendly without being intrusive; in short, very well trained and professional. We enjoyed getting to know them. Freestyle dining means that you dont have the same servers every meal but we enjoyed that too. Perhaps interacting with the servers is what made the dining experience so much fun. We avoided the buffet so cannot comment on its quality or variety. The specialty restaurants, though, are the real treat on NCL. Le Bistro was top notch and we enjoyed The Bamboo (asian), Impressions (Italian) as well as the sushi bar. In our opinion, they were all worth the extra cover charge. We are not big steak eaters so we didnt try Cagneys. The only negative dining experience was the Aqua room, which we felt was too noisy even though the food was still good. In truth, we had been prepared for the catered fund-raiser banquet type of food on a cruise ship and the reality far exceeded our expectations. We were grateful for the readily available exercise options. We had been warned that we would gain weight because of too much food and too little exercise aboard ship. But we were able to get in our 2 to 3 mile walk every day. Didnt gain an ounce. We booked a penthouse suite (Category AE) located at the stern and were really pleased with the room. Lots of closet and drawer space, convenient layout, great bathroom with a tub, separate vanity, king sized bed (pretty comfortable too), and a separate sitting area. The big plus was the balcony with room for two lounge chairs and a small table. Even in port, we did most of our relaxing and sunbathing there. Perhaps the location contributed to the room being very quiet as we seldom heard any noise from those around us, or, maybe the rooms are particularly well insulated. We loved the perks that came with the suite also; VIP boarding and debarkation, butler service, and the concierge service. One of the best perks was that we were able to make dinner reservations for the whole cruise when we boarded. We thought the penthouse was well worth the extra expense. Our room stewards were great in all respects and went the extra mile to take care of all our needs. NCL really treated us well. This was a spring break cruise and the ship was packed (the rumor was that there were 900 kids on board) but we never felt crowded, overwhelmed, or bothered. I think its a tribute to NCL that they can provide so much for so many different folks. We did sort of avoid deck twelve (the pool) though. The selling pitches didnt bother us either. We just ignored them. We were able to do what we wanted when we wanted with no pressure. We did book two shore excursions, one to the national park and mangrove forest on Semana, and the city tour/botanical garden on Tortola and were happy with both. We were glad that we booked ahead of time on line as there was quite a press at the excursion desk on the first day at sea. All in all, we had a great time and are already planning our next cruise with NCL.

Large ships like the NCL Dawn are difficult to get on an off. Young adults running around without any hint of supervision was a serious problem. Allowing groups of young adults to openly intemidate passengers was a very serious problem. Charging for food when the food for the trip was prepaid was outragious. Constant adds for on-ship stores showed on three of the TV channels at times when all other channels were off the air is an insult. I will never cruise with NCL again.

I never felt like a part of things, I have never had such poor service when dining. i would never buy 165.00 in pop coupons and teen passports again based on how poorly we were treated every single time we went to use them. in the dinig rooms especially once they knew they werent going to make any extra tips off you, they were very rude, we had to ask numerous times every time we wanted a beverage and much more attention was given to those drinking wines......

Clean, big balcony rooms. Helpful staff and the freestyle dining is the best option to let you feel that you don't have to follow a schedule and can eat/relax when you want.

Finding your way around the ship is not intuitive. Making reservations is cumbersome.

The Norwegian Dawn is a wonderful ship, the crew is constantly cleaning and attending to your needs. The freestyle dining experience was wonderful - I loved being able to go to dinner in my jeans with a golf shirt. The dress code policy could use a little more explanation prior to the trip as they really did not enforce the "resort casual" policy very much. The trip was an overall good experience but I want to list the negatives you should be aware of before you go. The negatives were as follows: 1- The carpeting and small sofa had a number of stains and marks - an upgrade to new furniture is warranted. 2- The balcony is not private as your neighbor can easily look around the wall and the spacing next to the hinges is approximately 1/2". It was nice, however, to be able to open the sliding door and get the fresh air every day. 3- The prices for the spa services, bottled water and photos were high. The large bottle of water was $4.75 plus a service charge. 4- Le Bistro restaurant was a waste of time and money - we sat down at 7pm with a reservation and left the restaurant at 9:50pm - our food took forever to arrive and the service was lousy. 5- The use of a tender to get to Samana was my personal worst part of the trip. First you have to wait on line to get your Tender Tickets, then you have to wait for a tender that holds 80 people to take you to shore. All in all it took over 1 hour to get off of the ship to visit Samana. The trip back was smoother except for the completely drunk college students on spring break. 6- The most over-rated part of the trip was "NCL's" private island - Great Stirrup Cay. They take just about everyone (2200 people) and cram them onto a small beach. I thought I was at Jones Beach in NY in July. The flies also made eating the food they barbecued impossible-as they landed on your burgers or chicken as soon as you stopped moving. We wound up going back to an empty ship, enjoyed the quiet and the ease of getting around. 7- The ship was sold out and crowded. It was very difficult to get lounge chairs around the pool area unless you got up early and put your towels and some personal effects on them.

Freestyle cruising means you get to pay to go to the nicer restaurants on board, Cagney's steak house can set you back $35/person if you want surf and turf and the food was no better than regular cruise food. They close some of the eating spots, i.e. ice cream bar, some buffets during times people were looking to eat. Bottles of wine were outrageously expensive, overall a big disappointment.

I had not been on a cruise in 30 years. I just retired last June and my girl friend found us this cruise in early December. She is an experienced cruiser and loves Norweigan. I agree wholeheartedly! The ship was clean, brightly decorated and our stateroom was fantastic.

Well to start our room was dirty there was dried up blood stains on the headboard. The room looked it had not been dusted in a year. The bathroom shower was putting off an odor to make a person sick it smelled so bad. And to make matters worse we where at the casino one night and they ran out of the beer i like to drink so the tried charging me for a complete bucket and there was only four in there. Custmer service was awlful. And if you where not drinking at the pool side getting a diet coke was immpossible. my overall expericence on this boat was terrible.

enjoyable cruise. Good service. Terrible food.

Our cruise on the Norwegian Dawn February 2008 was our 7th cruise and our 3rd with Norwegian Cruise Line. We found the entertainment at the nightly shows to be the best we have ever experienced. The cruise director and assistant cruise director and their entire staff was great. The 60280 band was great. We found the food on the ship to be the worst we have ever had. Most evenings we dined in the main dining room. The appetizers and deserts were good but the main course every night was of extremely poor quality. We had to wonder where they got the beef they served. The evening that lobster was served it was cooked to a rubber like consistency and our waiter did not offer drawn butter so we had to eat it dry. The nights steak and prime rib were served the meat was tasteless, tough and only about one quarter of an inch thick. On the final night the choices were limited and one of the offerings in the main dining room was hotdogs, which we decided to skip. The food in the buffets was okay at times but here again the main courses left something to be desired. One of the two evenings we ate at the buffet my wife had a slice of beef that was so tough she had to set it aside and try to find something different to eat. There was no soft serve ice cream, pizza or other snacks available as we have experience on other cruises and after the late show at 9:30 each night, choices of snacks etc. was limited to the Blue Lagoon Lounge which was very small and served a limited fair. The buffets were closed. Overall this ship gets a significantly failing mark on food from us. Drinks onboard were "pay through the nose". Our first and last alcoholic beverage onboard was a Pina Colada that we ordered upon arrival. $19.95 U.S. for 2 including an automatic 15% gartuity for the bartenders on the drink as well as the plastic "sourineer glass." I asked about the automatic inclusion of the tip on the drinks as well as a tip on the plastic glass and the bar tender told me they had been working hard and long hours so they deserved it. After that we felt the purchase of wine or a drink onboard to be an absolute rip off so we saved our drink money for purchases of drinks in port rather than onboard. As far as ports of call, we had to wonder why the ship even stopped at the Dominican Republic. The ship’s staff even joked about this port of call. We did the whale-watching excursion at this port. They handed out raincoats and we got soaked. We did see whales surfacing but it was not worth the money or seasickness some of the passengers experienced. We did not go ashore at this port after our whale-watching excursion but heard from other passengers that we did not miss anything, as there was little to see. We did an excursion at Tortolla, which was good and St. Thomas is St. Thomas. We felt that the cruise lacked good ports of call as well as good food. It might seem that I dwell on the food but only because it did not measure up to past cruises. The layout of the ship itself was only okay. Our stateroom was the smallest we have ever had. The bathroom in our stateroom was adequate. Shopping onboard was limited to one small shop. Not up to par. The ship was stable in 4’ to 9’ seas. We hardly felt the movement. The dining and stateroom staff was pleasant but not outgoing. There was a $10 per day per person “service charge” added to our bill that supposedly took the place of tips for stateroom and dining room personnel. Most passengers were not aware that this charge could be removed from their bill. We would rather tip our stateroom and dining room staff with cash. Who knows where this money goes otherwise. Overall, not our best experience. What made this cruise great was our understanding of what a cruise is and our ability to enjoy ourselves in less than optimal circumstances. Public areas okay. Shopping onboard sub par. Our advice; find a different ship and different itinerary.

A great Ship.

Excellent ship, ports, and service.We had a mini-suite and really enjoyed the design of the limited space. The bathrooms felt uncrowded and comfortable. Our balconey was private and attractively furnished.The ship was full and the decks were a little congested on the days at sea,so the balcony was nice to have some quiet space alone.Our waitstaff was pleasant and very efficient.The food was a mixed bag. The garden cafe (buffet) was very inconsistent in quality. You really had to work hard to find anything good on some days. The regular "menu" restaurants were better quality however the portions were vey small! It was a frequently heard complaint among fellow travelers. Some waitstaff would allow you to order 2 items, which helped. The pay restaurants served slightly larger portions.I can't imagine how hard it is to feed all those people everyday !

HAVE TAKEN OVER A DOZEN CRUISES ON ALMOST ALL CRUISE LINES. THIS WAS THE BEST AS FAR AS THE CLEANLINESS, FOOD, AND THE SERVICE. THE FREESTYLE DINING WAS THE BEST EXPERIENCE WE HAVE HAD ON A SHIP SO FAR. THE SERVICE EVERYWHERE WAS GREAT. OUR CABIN WAS ROOMY WITH A KINGSIZE BED, AND VERY COMFORTABLE. WE HAD A VERY EASY CHECK IN WITH NO WAITING AT ALL. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS SHIP TO ANYONE THINKING ABOUT TAKING A CRUISE.