Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I loved everything. The free styling was great. All employees speaking English was great. Food was excellent. I would at this time only cruise with Norwegian.We were very comfortable with them. Entertainment was the best I have seen on a ship too.I have been on 6 other cruises. I LOVED IT!

It did not seem to be up to the standards of the other ships, so not that great.

Myself and my daughters 21 & 16 had been on many cruises in the past but never with Norwegian.A family member

had taken a cruise with this line and gave it such great reviews I decided to try it for myself.  I must admit the boarding process was awful. As I stated previously myself and my daughters have gone on many cruises in the past but I have never experienced such displeasure boarding a ship.  The wait time and the way in which the boarding was conducted was very disorganized.  Once we were on board (3 hrs later) we found the ship to be a great experience.  If not for the boarding experience I would have given this a 3-4 star rating. The only complaint my girls had besides the wait was the ice cream.  They say its not as good as other cruise lines and they didn't like the fact that they could not get it themselves.

Overall, I gave this cruise a rating of Very Good.

The deck staff, particularly Nennette, Amitalal, I Dew Eh, and Irene were very friendly and customer focused.  Our room steward, Victor, was always accomodating and asking if there was anything we needed, in addition to jumping into our room whenever we left to keep it immaculate!  The entire staff works very hard, and we do appreciate their efforts.

I did notice, as a few other guests did, that the management of the buffet needs a little effort.  It did appear on many nights to be only open on one side - forcing passengers to queue up in line.  The quality of the food was acceptable, but towards the end of the cruise, the variety and freshness was suffering.  As far as the specialty restaurants go, Cagneys was fantastic, and Le Bistro was very good.  Moderno was not as good as on previous cruises.

Entertainment was very enjoyable, but the on deck band volume was way too high - all the time.  It was very difficult to hear guests and talk with them.  Additionally I would suggest that if you want ALL the guests to stay involved in on deck parties, mix the music up.  Many favorites were played, but drowned out by a techno overbeat which kept many people from participating.

Above average entertainment, with a magician, arielists, song and dance guys, musical groups, comedy. Did not feel the need to upgrade the meal package--the 4 free places to eat were fine.

Had a great time on this cruise. Shows were fantastic. Service was great. Weather was beautiful.

2nd time on the Dawn. Great small ship. Clean and well maintained

The price seemed reasonable considering it was the last cruise from Boston to Bermuda for the year which is always the cheapest. This was our second trip on the Dawn to Bermuda. Last year we had a great time. We got to meet a lot of nice folks, enjoyed the entertainment, the food was the same every day a little disappointing, Everything was clean, Crew were friendly, When asked if we could get the football game on the crew made it happen. (Brady vs. Manning) Spinnakers was our favorite place to hang out. White hot party, The quest, were fun. Deal or no deal & bingo were a waste of money. Casino was fun if you can handle the smokers. Getting into a hot tub was a joke. The youth were in it all the time. If your gonna buy a Bermuda T-shirt (or whatever) on the duty free shops buy it on the last day of the cruise to save yourself some money.

Being Boston-based, taking this BOS-Bermuda cruise was a no-brainer for testing our ability to cruise following a medical catastrophe earlier in the year. There isn't much to say about Bermuda that isn't lovely although I do prefer St. George's pier to King's Wharf or the other. Because there is a 2-3 night stay over, it really allows exploring the island in a more casual manner.  A couple things we learned about scooter rentals on this cruise... - The scooter rental process (Mobility at Sea) is pretty straightforward and worked well. - The size of the rental scooter was too large for easy parking in an interior cabin. Unless you have a suite, these rentals are very cumbersome for staterooms. Parking in the hallway is clearly forbidden as a safety issue for other passengers. We occasionally left it in the hall when we were just making a pit stop but overnight parking is not an option. - Getting in and out of stateroom doorways is difficult, especially when hallways are narrow and turning radius is limited. Doors opening inward make it all the more difficult. - Rentals cannot be taken off the ship. If you want/need to check out a port, you will have to make arrangements on shore to have a wheelchair or scooter waiting for you on land.

NCL never disappoints.  We got to cruise port about 11:30. got checked in and were eating lunch in main dining room by 12:30.  Very smooth process.  Rooms were ready by 1:00.    Entire cruise went like that.  A very smoothly run ship.  Crew all very  friendly.  Can't  say enough good things.  Had never been to Bermuda before, will definitely be back there again.  Much nicer and safer feeling than the Bahamas.

So, this was my first cruise, but it is why I'm taking another NCL cruise next month. I've read other reviews of the cruise, and I'll say this: When you book a cruise in hurricane season, anything can happen. Because of a hurricane, we ended up in Nassau, and Great Stirrup Cay, rather than Kings Warf. I've never been to Bermuda, but I don't feel like I missed anything. Other than the Pool Side BBQ that was canceled for fire safety (which could happen on ANY sailing. Despite popular belief the captain can't control the wind) and a few nights of REALLY rough seas (our state rooms were pretty far forward on the ship, and the seas were rough enough that we were tossed in the air and back into our beds) this was an amazing vacation. The entertainment staff was peppy and approachable. They were dancing to welcome us on board in Nassau. GSC was a fun, relaxing beach day. Our Steward was amazing too, bending over backwards to see that we were happy. The ONLY negative thing I can see was the food and service in the Blue Lagoon, but we complained on ship to the right people, and the head of dining comped our party of four a dinner, wine, and after dinner coffee at La Cuchina. 

Itinerary changed due to hurricane in Burmuda. Penthouse front of ship took a beating when rough waters caused big waves. Unable to enjoy balcony many days. Tried all the restaurants on board, all excellent with great service. We were treated very well by all staff and if not for the weather and change in I tinerary would have given 5 stars

After years of dreaming of going to Bermuda, my husband and I decided to take a cruise there. We chose Norwegian, because their sail date was over our anniversary and the time in port was to be 3 days. We scrimped and saved and planned for 10 months for this trip. I don’t know about most people, but a vacation like this is a sheer luxury for us and not something we take lightly. We had cruised on Royal Caribbean before and loved it, and foolishly expected this cruise to be similar. Now, we understand that no one can control the weather – so we don’t blame the cruise line for the change in itinerary. BUT – considering we received AT LEAST one email – sometimes more - DAILY for a month before the cruise, we know they had our email address. We flew into Boston the day before (another expense on top of the cruise) and when we arrived at the terminal thought we were still going to Bermuda. The cruise line apparently decided that the hurricane had made it impossible to carry thru with this itinerary. Ok – we get that. BUT what we don’t get is not being informed of this change until it was too late to reschedule our trip. Had Norwegian been upfront with us, we would have gladly rescheduled the cruise, flown home and been back to take the cruise another time. To not tell us until we were boarding was just wrong – they knew how to reach us – but they didn’t want us – or any other cruisers – to reschedule. Well, let me tell you – they’d have been better off to cancel the cruise than to keep us captive on a trip to the Bahamas instead. That ship had no business being out in the rough seas – we were cold, it was rainy, the wind was howling – sitting outside was plain miserable. They had to cancel the poolside barbecues, net the pools (you’d have been washed overboard had you tried to get in the pool), and cancel many shows. At one point we were all scared that we wouldn’t make it back to Boston. The cruise line did NOTHING to make any of this up to us. I don’t drink alcohol due to medical reasons, but my husband does. They wouldn’t let him buy an adult beverage package if I didn’t get one. WHAT? Other cruise lines “trust” their guests enough to let you do this – we’d already bought the “soda package” – oh but wait – if you buy this it DOES NOT include bottled waters, coffees, etc like the other cruise line packages do. We felt nickeled and dimed throughout the entire cruise. Their “Freestyle Cruising” BS is for the birds too. You have to wait over an hour to get a table at the Venetian or Aqua (complimentary) dining rooms, and we know that they are just trying to get you to give up and go pay more at the specialty dining rooms. We had already reserved a night at Cagney’s for our anniversary when we booked the cruise (in February) – another $30 per person for that dinner – so when we showed up for that dinner we were seated next to the busser’s station – great ambiance, really? – and then charged for sparkling water ON TOP of the $60 – good grief. The servers in the complimentary dining rooms were not engaged, and almost made you feel guilty for making them work. The hostesses were even worse – trying very hard to be snooty and make you feel as if they were doing you a huge favor by getting you seated. Don’t even bother eating at the café – the food was exactly the same every single day and questionable. Nothing looked fresh and believe me – NOTHING was warm. The tables were disgusting – sticky and dirty. Our balcony stateroom was just ok – very dated – not really clean, the balcony was very dirty. Our steward was rarely around. This was not the cruise we had dreamed of and planned for. The cruise director – Dingo Dave – GAWD – so annoying and really loves the sound of his own voice. We cringed every time he made an announcement. When we got to the Bahamas, we were there a couple of hours and pretty much just wanted to get on a plane and go home. There was nothing redeeming about the locations they chose. We tried many times to speak to someone about our experiences – they made no secret of letting us know that they just plain did NOT care. Also – everything seemed to be a secret – especially our tab. On the Royal Caribbean you can access your tab on the interactive channel on the stateroom tv – not on Norwegian. Nope, you gotta go stand in line and waste your time to find out where you stand. The internet package they sell is not worth the money either – I bought 100 minutes for $58 – problem was is that it took a good 5 of my minutes every time I logged on to get it up and running. My husband had also surprised me with an onboard credit for a massage, but because their rates are a “surprise” and not published, he had no idea that $100 was not even half the cost. Plus they made him choose a date. Well I went in on my date he chose, to schedule the massage to find out they “were all booked” – but then in the Freestyle Daily there were all sorts of “specials” advertised. I went ahead and booked a massage for another day – and found out AFTER THE MASSAGE that it was $245 – for a BASIC MASSAGE. Then they tried to upsell $60 lotions. So insulting. This was a basic massage you’d pay no more than $100 for in Denver! Basically – this cruise and cruise line was a waste of our hard earned money and a sheer disappointment.

The cruise was nice.  We ran into some bad weather which altered the trip to some extent, but I understand that is was nothing the cruiseline could control. The food was good, the cabin steward, Collin, was great.  The ship, for the most part was clean and neat.  My biggest complaint was with the women's restroom's located around the ship.  In particular, the restroom closest to the pool.  There were only four stalls, and two of them were out of order most of the time.  The floor was always covered in water that had come from over flowing toilets.  The toilet paper dispensers were some times empty.  This restroom was filthy most of the time.  It was the only women's restroom close to the pool.  I experience similar situations in other restrooms.  The one outside of Cagney's had the same issue's one evening.  I told several crew members about the situation, but was always told that housekeeping would be notified.  The crew members as a whole were friendly, but several were not.  The crew on Carnival ships are much friendlier.

I have done this cruise a good 5-6 times and this was by far the worst one we've been on.  The quality of their service and food has gone downhill.   Unlike the days where you had the same waiter every night and they really put in effort to make the dinner relaxing and enjoyable, this staff was either incredibly inattentive or rushing us out.   One night, one of our tables had already eaten before the other table had even ordered their meals.  The food quality is also not up to the level that It was in years past.   The only good meal I had was in one of the premium restaurants.

One thing that was amazing - the shows.  Great illusionist and aerialists. 

I don't think I will be doing this cruise again in the future.  I will be trying another cruise line.

Funniest moments, great staff, awesome destinations! Thank you Norwegian Dawn!!! Best cruise ship I have ever been on 🚢! I loved my room and I loved the food 🍔🌭🍟🍕🍗

This is the second Norwegian cruise we have taken.  The food is terrible.  Apparently the only time you are able to get decent meals is to go to the PAY MORE MONEY restaurants.  We have just returned and well now..........I've LOST a pound and a half.  hmmmmmmm

Last time for Norwegian for us.  We will go with another cruiseline.

The staff was awesome. So friendly and very helpful. The food was worth going back for more

Great time! So much to do. Beautiful ship. Wonderful staff. Entertainment could be updated. Was same s last year (we were on the Dawn Sept.of 2013.)

More than enough help, always pleasant, clean ship, great restaurants, great entertainment. Plan on going on another cruise with them.