Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We selected this ship because it left from New Orleans and was visiting several ports we have not experienced.  We had already traveled on the Royal Carribean ship out of NO.

The food was very disappointing.  Very poorly prepared and not presented well.  The buffet selections were very limited.  Also, the layout of the buffet was poor.  Some stations were repeated but others weren't so you had to walk all around to see what was available. Also, the addition of the specialty restaurants made for a choppy ship layout.  It seemed they put a restaurant anywhere there was a small space.  The service was very good however.  Too much of the pool area was devoted to smoking passengers.  The veranda cabin was very small.  

We have been on Royal Carribean, Celebrity and Azamara as well as the Norwegian, Pride of America and had far better experiences on all of them.  This was our 10+ cruise so we have many for comparisons.

I'll be very hesitant on trying another Norwegian ship.

I'm 32 years old and went on this trip with my Mom (who has cruised several times before), and my Dad (who had never cruised prior to this). 

The experience was wonderful overall except for the food poisoning that we all ended up with around the last days of our cruise. I'm thinking it was the salmon that we had in the Second City lunch show because that was the only time we all had the same dish. Unless it was the food that we had in Costa Maya where the locals made us food. Norwegian said no one else came forward with illness but I spent the last day in New Orleans sick all day and my mom and dad spent the last day of their actual cruise sick. I do believe this was an anomaly because I've never had this issue on Norwegian, so I'm still giving the cruise 4 stars.

Aside from that ,the experience was wonderful....take note:

Embarkation/Disembarkation: The Port of New Orleans was all around less organized than Miami or New York. We found ourselves asking people how to get inside and outside of the cruise terminal and how to get to the places you take taxis, etc. However, we made it in! 

Food: The food was very tasty overall. We had the speciality dining package for free and so we tried all of the specialty restaurants. The Brazilian restaurant and the steakhouse were by far my favorite. The food in the main dining room was very good too - no complaints. 

Entertainment: They left more to be desired here. I am usually in the club every night, but found the music, etc. left something to be desired in the clubs. I spent maybe 30 minutes of my entire cruise in the clubs. The evening shows were ok - also not as great as I'm accustomed to with Norwegian. I did appreciate the usual Newlywed show, and the game shows that they have. I usually don't buy tickets to Deal or No Deal and all of that, because its rare you will actually be called and I think its a waste of $30...however, we sit in the audience and watch the folks go up there. That was really interesting. The cruise director wasn't my favorite. He wasn't that funny or entertaining like I'm used to and I felt the line up was overall boring. 

Casino: Was cool - can't complain here. Love the free drinks while playing....

Overall customer service: Great customer service. Miles above Carnival in so many ways. Except - i wasn't fond of how they handled our food poisoning complaints. They eventually refunded the money we paid for the Second City show where we believe we got the food poisoning from, but at first, they weren't trying to do anything for us since we did not pay to see the on-ship doctor and actually have him DIAGNOSE us with food poisoning. However, they did eventually fix it. Other than that, we had no other customer service issues. 

Ports: Super fun and educational. The Mayan house we went to was cool, and the Mayan ruins in Belize was awesome. The actual ride to the Mayan house ....the guy talked the entire time and I was bored. But...I LOVED the beach and the Gumbalina Preserve in Honduras. Favorite excursion. Monkeys got to sit on my shoulder. It was lovely. :)

Overall crowd: I often say that the crowd makes the ship experience. On this cruise, there was not a whole lot of diversity. A lot of older couples, and a lot of late teens/early twenties on spring break. As a woman in my early 30s who traveled with my parents, the experience would have been nicer with more people my age. 

 

This was my second cruise with NCL during the past 6 months, and I loved it as much as I loved my first cruise on the NCL Sky. This was my boyfriend's first cruise ever, and he also had a blast. We are already hoping to take another NCL cruise soon. The ship is an older ship, but it is in very good shape. It is clean, well-kept, and there are lots of roomy public spaces to hang out. One of my personal favorite things--there are PLENTY of lounge chairs all over this ship! We never had to camp out to wait for one or deal with chair hogs. There were always plenty to go around, even on a full sailing. The cabin was kept clean and in great shape. Even though we were in an interior cabin, we had more than enough space to stowaway 3 suitcases and put away all of our things for the week. Nice shelving and closet built-in unit. The bath and shower area is roomy and clean, and the water gets really hot. I have heard some people on the reviews complain about the beds, so I was worried. However, I found the bed to be very comfortable--sometimes too comfortable as I easily slept until mid-morning on most days. I am not sure if maybe a foam pad was already placed on the bed or not... The carpets and public areas were cleaned with bleach frequently, which I really appreciate as a "germophobe." The food was great--not gourmet but a step above hotel banquet food. There was plenty of food to choose from, both at the complimentary restaurants and the speciality restaurants. We had great service, especially from Charles in The Venetian. The shows were fun and entertaining and The Second City was AWESOME! We went to all of their events, and I would book another cruise just to see them again. One downside related to the entertainment is that 3 of the biggest shows (Adult Second City Show, Broadway Show, and Aerial Show) were all scheduled for the final night of the cruise. It was pretty unrealistic to see all three, and I would have liked to see them all across the duration of the trip. Another downside was the the Adult Second City improv show was held in the Spinnaker Lounge, which is large but not large enough to accommodate the crowd. Lots of people had to stand in the back and, presumably because they were not close enough to be engaged with the show, were loud and a bit disruptive. I am not sure how to remedy this because I know cabaret seating like the Spinnaker is probably better for improv than the auditorium-style that is offered in the Stardust. Perhaps two adult shows (an early and a late) would help. The only other downside was that the staff members designated to sanitize people's hands before they entered the buffet were not always at their post. (They were ALWAYS there on the NCL Sky.) There were machines in their place, but many people do not use the spray machines on their own. Because germs spread so quickly on ships, I would like to see the staff working a bit harder to encourage people to sanitize. Other than that, everything was great! I can't wait to take another NCL cruise. We love the Freestyle concept. Our work is stressful, so we don't want to be worried about schedules and strict dress codes on vacation. There was plenty to do on the ship every day, and you also felt very free to relax. Perfect vacation. If you want more info. about our trip, feel free to visit www.whereversheroams.com for pictures and podcast episodes that we recorded on board. Please note that NCL had no clue we were doing this and we received no discounts or anything like that. We did it for fun, and it is totally our opinion.

Food and entertainment was better on past NCL cruises.

My wife and I had a wonderful experience on our cruise.  It was a much-needed vacation and we couldn't have asked for a better time.  This was our second Norwegian Dawn cruise and both times we have been very satisfied with the crew, the food, and the ports of call.  The entertainment this cruise was absolutely amazing!  We met some great people and this experience will be a wonderful memory for us.  Thanks for everything!  

We enjoyed this ship a great deal! Service and attitudes of the staff far surpassed what we had previously experienced on our earlier carnival cruise.

Everything was great. The ship was beautiful, the entertainment was great.

Overall the ship was great. We were a little disappointed at the size of the only adult pool on board and the hot tubs were generally overly crowded. The staterooms (we had an inside) were comfortable and clean and the staff were ALL wonderful!

We chose this cruise because it offered freestyle dining, and NCL does this well. We really enjoyed evening meals in the Venetian dining room, and were happy with the menu choices. If seating was not immediately available, we were given a beeper and vouchers for a glass of champagne. Most waits were no longer than 20 minutes. Breakfast visits were split between the Aqua dining area and the Garden Cafe buffet. Food was good, but it sometimes took a while to be served at Aqua, and seating was occasionally difficult to find at the buffet. Lunch time was spent at the Garden Cafe, where the food was good, but we wished the daily menu changed more often.

Evening entertainment was enjoyable, especially a dance and aerial show, comedy sketches by Second City and a pianist's tribute to Elton John and Billy Joel. Hubby enjoyed the casino, but left a few times due to smoke.

We cruised with another couple, and met every day at the Star Bar , a great spot that was often overlooked by other passengers. The staff was excellent, and helped us select a wine package. We were given the option of having the bottles delivered to our room, or taken to a central storage area where they'd be accessible throughout the ship when an order was placed. We kept both the wine and a bottle of whiskey purchased through the bar in our stateroom, and were allowed to carry glasses and/or bottles throughout the ship. With a little planning, this helped keep the bar bill a bit lower than usual.

The ship was very well maintained, and our cabin steward was sensitive to our needs if he happened to arrive when we were in the cabin.

We chose this route because it included places we hadn't visited previously, but didn't find many must-do activities. Vendors in all ports were annoying, constantly begging you to buy something, but we were still able to enjoy sunshine while strolling the main streets. Our only tour was the Chacchoben Mayan ruins in Costa Maya, which lasted 4 to 4 1/2 hrs. Not many of the ruins have been restored, but our guide helped us to envision the way the complex used to look by pointing out areas that looked like hills, but were actually building sites covered by earth, rocks and vegetation. We traveled by bus, about an hour each way, but there was adequate time to walk through the site. Here, too, we found aggressive vendors by the bus parking area. It was hard to avoid this area since the public restrooms were located by the shops.

Great cruise! This was our 7th cruise but the first with NCL. Crews were busy and attentive to every detail. Dining in all locations was excellent. Cabin was always cleaned in a timely fashion. Great variety of excellent entertainment in the theater as well as the lounges. Our favorite of all was David DaVinci the magician.  

This is the first time we got an inside room.  Room was small but we manage very well.  Our problem was we could hear conversations (but not understand) in rm. 9613.  Our concern was could they hear us, was our TV too loud, etc., we certainly did not want to disturb them. We did not have any distraction from rm. 9609, making us believe there is an insulation problem between 9613 & 9611.  Our steward, Jeanric Godinez, was just outstanding.

After not taking a cruise in 15yrs boy have things changed. So having said that my experience on the Dawn was a good one. We had done some reading and research and waded through what reviews of this ship and crew we could find and most were hit and miss. so going in, since it had been so long since my last cruise I went in with an open mind and no expectations. First and foremost the ship was very clean, nowhere did we find anything out of place or left unattended. Our room was clean and big enough for us (MB mini suite) and we enjoyed the balcony. Our cabin steward Jerome was friendly enough but not as attentive as ones from prior cruises. They seem to be more maids than attendants. My only request of him was to keep my ice bucket full which happened about 50% of the time. But he did a good job on keeping the room clean but was a little slow with swapping used pool towels for new ones. I'd give him a B+. We mostly frequented the Pearly Kings pub where bartender Erickson(i think) and waiter Dejean were fabulous. They called me by name and they always knew what i wanted. We liked the lounge at Gatsby's as well. It was comfortable and a nice place to sit while waiting for dinner with some pretty good music. We went to the Star bar once and couldnt get out of there fast enough it was very stiff and boring. We also spent some time in the spinnaker lounge and found it to be very relaxing and a fun place. Loved the view from the Bimini Bar and Grill. Its a great place to sit and scope out the goings on around the pool and outer areas. As for entertainment we didnt see all the shows but we did catch BOTR and found that enjoyable with some decent singers and dancers. Now for the part everyone goes on a cruise for..The food..Let me put it to you this way. If you go hungry on the Dawn..Thats your fault..We ate at Teppenyaki the first night and if you are thinking of eating there do it early like first or second night because it fills up fast. The food was good and plentiful and the 2 chef/artists were enjoyable. I have eaten at a japanese style steakhouse before and this was very similar. it's not Benehana's but its enjoyable and not a disappointment. The 2nd night we ate at Cagney's it was my birthday so we splurged. Again the food was well prepared and flavorful the only hiccup was i ordered my steak rare plus and the poor filipina waitress looked at me like i was speaking chinese. After explaining to her what that was and wondering if she understood the rest of the meal was fabulous and yes the boys in the kitchen got it right. The rest of the cruise we either ate at the Garden buffet which is typical cafeteria style food and at least for breakfast the options dont change much. but its nice and at your leisure and again..I didnt go away hungry. We chose Aqua over Venetian because they have a little looser dress code. The food was good similar to what i remembered from prior cruises and we didnt have a bad meal. You want 2 or 3 appetizers no problem, 2 entrees by all means, all in all we never had a bad meal the entire cruise.Where the Dawn is lacking is in its service. Most of the waiters/waitresses are young and either filipino or indian and their grasp of the english language can be somewhat well interesting. My sense is that because the Dawn is older and smaller it is where most of the younger less experienced wait staff start. They are by no means lazy they just havent caught the gist of what service should be. I did see the Maitre' D or dining captain in the room all times we ate there but never once did he come and ask how are meal was. He seemed like he had his hands full keeping his staff organized. We also opted out of Norwegians service charge and elected to tip for services with cash and as we saw fit.Having said all I have and if you are still reading our experience was a good one..we had fun. we ate.we drank  We met some cool people and even made some new friends. If you want a nice casual cruise then the Dawn to the western caribbean is a good place to start. would I sail Norwegian again?. NO!!!!! but that has more to do with corporate sales than with the Dawn. 

This was our first experience with Norwegian. It went ok. We both got sick unfortunately. Not from the ship but from New Orleans.

FFirst of all, we had the best room steward, called us by name ,and provided us with all the extra towels  needed for our hanging, dripping dive gear in an inside cozy stateroom. We have pictures of all te great towel buddies we had on our bed. Between the fitness room and the huge variety of fun sports onboard, along with the pool and reward of the hot tubs, we managed not to gain any weight in 2 weeks of a back-to-back cruise. We had excellent diving on colorful reefs as well as hot sunny beach days. The food never quit ! Early bird breakfast of fruit,granola,yogurt; the biggest vatiety of salads and soups for lunch followed by whatever we wanted for dinner in different fancy restaurants...including a surprise birthday cake with many singing crew...makes me want to live on the NCL Dawn.On our second week, we walked the towns, talked with the local residents, bought local coffee, honey, salsa to take home.Just before we packed to leave we cashed in our fun activity points for some tee shirts and great souvenirs , all free.   In spite of the fact the cruise line is constantly trying to get passengers to buy food or beverage or spa packages, jewels , paintings or use the casino, buy excursions......we only spent what we budgeted for and had a great time. We will be back!

Hi, If your going to read this I appreciate you taking the time and hope my experience helps you in some way, more so in your decision to use a different cruise line for your needed service needs! Our boarding hours were 12 to 2 but you have to go the long way around to understand that and they got it so there's not a lot of congestion all at one time to get on the ship but there is anyway, They are not at all forthcoming with information and what you see, hear, or read may be different than what actually occurs and they bank on that! 

  Now with that being said, We were traveling with 2 senior citizens and 2 people with disabilities and they didn't offer or were not forthcoming with the information to take good care of them for boarding, while on the ship, ports, getting off ship, our group total was 13, all being adult but 1 teen and 2 children. Felt herded like cattle, like it does but uncomfortable and not like they say they have it set up. Now I won't be bias by using other company names but I have cruised before and can tell the difference, as well as worked for a cruise line in the embarkation/debarkation department so I am basing what I tell you on nothing more than my experiences!    Going into the second day not even on the ship 24 hours yet and get accused of smoking in our room, now we are smokers, but the best time of our cruise was getting out of the room to go smoke areas where (we met the most interesting people on the whole cruise every time), eat, take on activities, so I didn't appreciate our steward one bit trying to scam us out of the 250$ charge you can pay if you want to (which is really all that is), she was a very miserable person who was way over worked to give the care that position is suppose to entail, 1 steward for 15 rooms and 2 of them "penthouses". It took till the 5th day of the cruise to get ice, or a towel animal, and I had to fuss to even get that, they moved our stuff around a lot for what looked like no reason. When one of the pool towels was used they didn't keep up with replacing it, so I had to say something every day or risk losing 25$ for taking a towel I didn't take or would even want! Our cabin was easy to deal with, only us 2 adults who picked up after ourselves, living right out of the suitcases, and were out of the room pretty much the whole time, except to sleep! This was my husbands first cruise so I really hoped he could have seen that good care a steward does, but alas, I was disappointed! You have to turn a pie chart rolling thing on the wall "welcome", "make up cabin" "turn down bed" "Do not disturb" I kept forgetting to do this, we were excited to be on our cruise, why isn't this by the door knob? and with my husbands first cruise, would have been nice, if when our horrible steward came up to introduce herself why didn't she show how that thing worked?     Now I have an accent and it is possible some may have had a hard time understanding what I was saying, I took that into account until I watched it happen to a better english speaking person than me, then I knew, They just did not listen to what we told them to do, or what we wanted! Felt like I was dealing with a trained monkey who only knew how to do one only way to do something. Example and I have many, but here's an example at the buffet they had the omelet station I asked for 1 fried egg, guy gave me 2, it was little things, someone told me if you have any more trouble contact me, but oddly when you go to talk to them, they are to busy to talk to you at that time, nor make an arrangement to get back to you, and this was when I was actually going to thank a person that helped me!     My biggest complaint was the misleading information, and that they really just did what they wanted to, not what they said they would do, my first drink I got came in the souvenir cup, I didn't ask for it or get asked which one (color, style) I would have liked so when I went to go change it out I had to just first chase down a bar that was actually open to do that and they gave me a hard time even doing that! For pretty much everything there were specific opened and closed times, due to the fact that we did visit 4 ports, things around the ship finished up/closed quite early everywhere in the ship, so this was not very good at all for night time people! In all I just went through so much and was not treated fairly, I did get the daily service charges removed BUT I tipped way more in cash at the time than what they were charging simply because it brings out great service in a way of saying "thank you" letting them know I appreciated from their choice them wanting to do that for ME! This was the first time I ever had to do that, usually I over tip, but I can afford to, and have once in my life worked for making tips so I know how it feels!    Now I wouldn't say I am big on cruises, My vacationing ideas are much different, this last one I went on someone else paid for it, and I was doing it for them, "it's were conformity is taught, and learned by the impressionable minded" in a fun,"safe" way and for some it is needed, but I felt it my civil duty to review it and share with others in the hopes that it doesn't happen to you or help you handle it better if it does. They sent a survey to do in an email asking about my experience but right after a choice I made negative in one of the questions towards Norwegian my survey ended, they didn't even really want to hear about it, speaks volumes about their business practices. Bon Voyage Norwegian, people won't be back when you don't care what they want or give them what you say you will And they paid good money to get!

Dining rooms were very noisy and you did not get the option to dine with other travelers. Very limited outside quite space with no smoking. Small staterooms.

We recently sailed on the Norwegian Dawn & we enjoyed the size, cleanliness & decor of the ship. It was easy to find the restaurants, bars, spa, pool & casino using the signage. Entertainment offered was enjoyable and of a good variety.

Loved the ship

missed Lobster in dining room Spa staff not the all on same page. Some say one thing others say another

This is a really nice ship that has a lot of really good benefits. Because it is a medium sized ship, the crew really gets to know you, and there are not always big lines for most things. However, on the flip side, there is little onboard that makes this ship stand out. Unlike NCL's new ships, there is no water slide, ropes course, etc. Regardless, the ship is really nice, and the highlights of it were the large balcony and the atrium. The low points would include the show Elements, that the cruise line so highly promotes, because it just seemed really underwhelming. Additionally, the buffet is a little strange in the layout of it. Even with these downfalls of the ship itself, we had an amazing cruise because the crew was fantastic, the ports of call were amazing, and an overall really nice ship! For more information on the ship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG19F6XOQz0