Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

extremely clean and well maintained

I was a little surprised that no one informed me I would have an additional $10.00 per person per day charge for gratuity. I feel I should tip what I want and when I want...or least be given the option. Also, since I was paying this charge, I should not have also been charged gratuities each time I got a drink. There were 13 Restaurants on board, but only 3-4 were not given the additional cover charge. I paid $2500 for this cruise, which stated "everything included" and felt I was nickel and dime every day and it is false advertising. For the record, it does not include everything.

The service is great, we love the "free style cruising" concept!!! We highly recommend this line to our friends and family. The only downer this time versus when we were on the same ship in May of 2005, many of the hallways and public areas were not cleaned as quickly as before. There seemed to be a reduction in the staff.......................

Wonderful, courteous staff ... clean ship!!

Nassau, Bahamas is the most pathetic place island to visit to. You might as well go to your local beach. Food was terrible. They would not customize any thing for us. Most of the food at formal dining is already prepared - Stopped going there after two days. When you call the front desk it takes 5-15 minutes once you call!

The ship was beautifual and very well kept.

Having cruised with NCL and 3 of the other lines I was very disappointed in the Dawn. The set up is very difficult to minuever. It seems every thing that used to be included, there is now extra charges for. They are consentrating so much on specialty restaurants they are neglecting the quality in the regular non pay dining rooms. Having to pay for indoor pool is outrageous.

We cruised on the Norwegian Dawn, a great looking ship. We loved everything about it great food and restaurants. The service was great everywyhere except the main dining room. Everyone seemed to be running for no particular reason. I know they should serve on time and what not. But there is no reason for the hurried service, after all there is no second seating. I would cruise again.

Our overall impression of this ship was poor. We have done seven of our twelve cruises on this line and found a whole new atmosphere on this ship. Many of the crew members were rude. Don't get me wrong there were some great crew as well. We booked a Sea and Air package with the line. Transportation from La Guardia Airport was horrible. The driver had seven people going to the ship in a small van and picked up a private fare along the way and took this person way out of the way first. Made the trip one and one half hour long. Embarkation was a zoo with nobody telling us where to go as Latitudes members or what to do. As a result the ship left one hour late. On the first evening we found the food at the main restaurant only fair and the sever service poor. It never improved for the rest of the cruise. One evening around the seventh day of this eleven day cruise I finally got up and walked out of the restaurant. I had been sitting there for twenty five minutes without anybody coming to the table. When you complained to a manager you were told rudely, "that's the way we do it here". It's a shame that we had to pay an additional service fee to go to one of the specialty restaurants in order to get a really good meal and good service. Room housekeeping left a lot to be desired. Getting towels was a hassle. One day they never turned down our room or gave us towels. We arrived back at out room at ten thirty PM to find wet towels on the floor and the bed not even turned down. We complained the following morning but were just told, "we are sorry for the inconvenience". The ship had a great pool area but it was it was spoiled by the fact that they allow all ages of children in the pool and the hot tubs. This is the first time we have encountered this. One of our fellow travelers took a bad fall on the pool deck while carrying her breakfast to a table. The deck surface was wet due to a recent rain shower. She was definitely hurt and is still hurting today. A crew member walked by her while she was laying on the deck and stated, "the sign says the decks are slippery" and kept walking. Other passengers had to help her to her feet and sit her down. We tried the remainder of the cruise to get a copy of the incident report but were unsuccessful. She will be seeing her personal doctor this week. Disembarkation was well done with the new system of letting US citizens off first. Transportation back to La Guardia Airport was again a zoo. NCL ordered that the bus couldn't leave until they got a wheelchair person off the ship and onto the bus. The other thirty plus people on the bus were ready to riot. We sat there for ninety minutes. As a result some of the travelers missed their flights. Now you tell me that's right. They probably had to pay an additional fee to get a new flight. We had previously booked two future cruises but definitely not on NCL. We have always found Royal Caribbean and Disney to be a giant step above NCL. Too bad as we had five people traveling together on this past cruise and have six people traveling on RCL in the fall and eight people traveling on Disney the following year.

We were not sure we would like the freestyle cruising, but we loved it ! EVERY option is yours! Also, the crew seemed to worked HARDER even tho we were charged a service charge instead of tipping ourselves. Our cabin guy, Tony, was exceptional. We were very impressed with Norwegian!

We sailed on the Norwegian Dawn cruise to the Caribbean from New York. The ship was well maintained and the staff were exceptional. The embarkation and disembarkation processes were handled flawlessly.

The ship was absolutely beautiful, but we found it hard to navigate. Our stateroom was on the fourth deck and we could not get there easily from all elevators and/or stairs.

the ship is nice to many stairs not really open - the pool is small and eventhough they have a whole deck area for children they allow them in this pool with floatation devises and toys the babys were in the pool and hot tub with diapers on. poor in service and

Cruising is the best deal for your money and NCL free style is even better then other cruise lines. The Dawn is absolutely beautiful ship. And the casual atmosphere is a perfect way to enjoy your vacation.

I would recommend this if you are not traveling with children or you choose not to use the childcare. Very limited times and very rude staff!!

overall excellent

Overall a good price for a good trip. Got to see some islands I probably never would have seen. Liked freestyle dining but hated to have to pay extra for speciaity restarunts. Wife talked me into a balcony room- best thing ever invented- a must. A lot of kids (unattended) on board due to spring break made getting into pool/hot tubs almost impossible. There were also a lot of people from other countries- many nice some not so. I always seem to travel to places where scrambling to get a lounge chair is manditory, things must be bad up North.

Since this was our first time on a cruise, we can't make a comparison. We thought the Grand Atrium was impressive with the 4 glass elevators. Lots of public areas. Never felt confined. We enjoyed walking all around the ship and met many friendly persons. Unfortunately, sometime between leaving our luggage at the NY Pier and its arrival at our cabin, 3 of our 5 pieces were badly stained with grease -- several other passengers had the same complaint! At 4:30am on our fifth day, we were rudely awakened by loud noises above us. We called the Reception Desk and were told that an emergency had occurred -- broken sprinkler pipe which flooded several rooms above our deck. Furniture was removed and the rooms were recarpeted. The noise continued until 10pm that night. Hopefully, this was a rare occurrence.

The ship itself was lovely, but a bit dirty. When we first embarked, there was no grandios...no greeting, no nothing. It was very disorganized as you saw people running around with their lifejackets on as they participated in their tender drill. It was mayhem, and the initial whiff of scent was urine. I was hoping it was not a prelude of things to come, but it didnt get much better after that.

Just returned from ten days on the Norwegian (NCL) Dawn and all we can say is that the experience was "beyond words". Although this was our first cruise, we have traveled extensively and we were completely impressed and satisfied with this experience. The staff are courteous and continually exercise the crew goal program which they address as "Style". We certainly felt like we were traveling in just that manner. Our every whim and desire was enjoyably antipated and provided to complete satisfaction. I was very impressed when a meal was delivered to our table and my guest had barely noticed that the main entree was not cooked quite the way she desired. Before I could request assistance, a Mait're-de was already inquiring if there was a problem with the meal. He quickly removed the plate and then returned it, cooked to perfection, along with his sincerest apologies. We encountered this type of performance and attention to detail throughout the cruise. We are sold!!!! This may have been our first cruise, but it will definately not be our last. NCL did a superb job.