Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I just plain like the cruise vacation. Norwegian and the staff of the Dawn did well to deliver a nice sailing experience. Overall they did very well from housekeeping, restaurants and activities.  Having not booked any shore excursions, we have no insight on that, other than our family was going to make a pleasant trip out of this.

The cruise director, Dan and his assistant Fernando did a splendid job of putting energy and creativity into the many enjoyable activities. The shows were really good. The Elements show was over the top good.

On the improvement side, I would have liked somewhere to hang out and play a board game other than.in a restaurant. Bars with cocktail tables are the norm. Bigger tables for folks who are not very inclined to run up a big bar tab...I get that. I feel as though the cut rates to get on the cruise are being aggressively balanced by on board 'extras'. As I choose cut rate I would expect a certain degree of this.

I think the Bingo fell into this category of 'Lets make some Norwegian Money'. Rather than a fun game, throw a couple bucks in and add to the fun, I felt as though I had to win in order to justify the exorbitant expense. Our plans of playing Bingo were dashed.

One thing that did not set well with me was how the situation with the fan I packed was handled. I sleep with a fan. Without it sleep is fleeting. I got my baggage late, very late the first night only after asking whoever I could to help find it and get it to my room. It did make it, without my fan, and a note instructing me on how I could get it back upon disembarkation. I asked for further explanation about this the following day at the front desk. I was told it must be tested by the staff to verify its safety. If it passed I can have it back. I asked why this was not explained in the information I was given. No explanation was forthcoming. Once it passed the test I was instructed to retrieve it. I think it would have been a nice gesture to have it brought to the room.

Disembarking by tender in Grand Cayman was a bit laborious. Our family wanted a casual walk around the island and were able to do this. We got on a tender 2 hours after the first groups went ashore.Shore excursions booked through Norwegian got first priority everyone elses  plans fall somewhere behind that. Two gangplanks for docking at a pier, and one when tendering, the math does not work well.

The crew to passenger ratio was good, meaning service was good everywhere on board ship. Great!

We enjoyed the open anytime dining schedule. However, we found the food (dinner) to be less than exciting - boring really - and not up to the standard of other cruise lines. The breakfasts in the dining room were good. The buffet dining was good, especially if you happen to enjoy Asian food.

We found the internet cost to be exorbitant! Unreasonable! Ridiculous!

In fact, everything on board this cruise was more expensive that every other line I have cruised. 

The entertainment was fine but unimaginative. The acts were good, but the same as we see on every cruise. (Except Cunard)

Our stateroom was modernized and clean. It needed a chair with a little back support. We had only a little stool! Like other cruise lines, the things we used to expect are no longer provided. Such as lotion, cotton balls, cotton buds, a robe and so forth. So take your own along.

All embarkations and disembarkations ran smoothly and efficiently.

This is a refurnished ship. looks news and beautiful. Cabin size a bite small. the foods at formal dinner is good but not great. dinner buffet almost same foods everyday but my kids love it not me! Nightly entertainment is very very good. The entertainment team and the cruise director is the best 

The entertainment in the Stardust is excellent.  We have seen theatre all over the world and enjoyed these shows immensely.  Even the crew shows were fun. Cruise Director Dan is doing a great job with all of this, also loved the change of pace from sequins to Second City.

Your housekeeping staff are good guys, kept everything ship shape and were always pleasant to be around.

The service in the Venetian is SLOW and poorly paced.  We sat down for dinner the first night and did not even have a chance to look at the menu before they were asking for a drink order.  Offer a wine menu maybe? a chance to figure out what we were eating first? Then the food took forever to come out.  Dinner took easily 1 1/2 hours. We tried it for lunch the next day and the poor pace. We did not go back again. We had a much better experience in the Aqua dining room, O'Sheehans and Bamboo. 

The activities on this cruise are lame.  Days at sea are boring if you are not a lay around the pool all day person. ( Princess for example, excels in this area.)  

The Costa Maya and Harvest Caye ports are uninspiring.  Both cruise ship made ports and no real culture, don't think you are actually seeing Belize there, we took an excursion to the ruins in Costa Maya, and then went to Mahahual for lunch.  Meh.  Roatan and Cozumel were much better. 

It's a smaller ship, so decks were closed nearly every night due to the boat rocking.

Guest services are snotty and unhelpful even though we had no real issues, just had questions. 

All the ship directors are out and about and available all the time, we saw the Hotel Director, Mr. Alain, everywhere and he was very approachable. Photo services were great too. 

We came back relaxed and happy, and that is the point, right? 

Although we are both world travelers this was our first cruise on a ship of this size. 

Good Things:

Staff and Crew were EXCELLENT. Really top notch, kind, wonderful people.. out of a 1,000 we encountered only one person with a little attitude and he was quick to correct himself. Yet, the maintenance crew seemed overwhelmed by our requests to rid our room of a plumbing stench.

Dining was great, yet none of the restaurants really "understood" desserts - no "wows", just passable. 

Shows - Second City was great- saw all their performances including the murder mystery and the "adult" show. They were at their best when they had to think, instead of settling for expletives or sophomoric sexual innuendos, his the "adult" show was the least impressive if not just plain boring, due to their playing to the lowest intellect and or maturity (there were quite a few people in the room that were clearly under 18, despite the caution).

The singers and dancers were very talented, yet it would be nice to have them more clothed or at least warn focus with children about the level of skin. Elements was brilliant, minus the overt "sex acts" in the fire movement, again just give folks a heads up, so they can decide for themselves what they want to tolerate. Otherwise the Frog aerialist were wonderful, the Wind, Movement was actually quite moving, Water Movement was lovely, but the jellyfish moving across the backstage is kind of "lost" (intentional?), yet the Snow movement was gorgeous and a brilliant finale.  It is a fun show, despite that fact that Haines and Haines majic performance and style is a bit "dated" and was underwhelming...again the dancer ensemble and aerialist save the day. The Ineffable Two were flawless...really spectacular demonstration of strength, elegance, and grace. Well Done.

Accommodations: our room was surprisingly spacious and our attendant, Jasemere was lovely and kind. However, the shower and toilet had an unfortunate, yet pervasive stench that lasted the entire trip. we reported it 3 times and, but solution wasn't found. We suspect the traps needed to be cleaned because they smelled of refuse. It would have been nice to have been moved to a different room, since it was our anniversary/honeymoon, but there was not offer to do so.  Fortunately for us the excursions and events kept us out of the room most of the time,but sleeping in the stink was unpleasant and unromantic.

We specifically, loved Dan French. He was delightful, witty, kindhearted, and engaging. Dan also facilitated a Christmas service that was quaint and sweet. He is also a heck of a tenor, despite the late hours and lack of sleep he must endure. 

Dora, the Internet Director, was a saintly example of customer service and professionalism as we witnessed her being bombarded by tech savvy-less cruisers from all walks of life. We were impressed. 

Sunshine, in the Spa was helpful in dealing with the drunk people who overran it daily and unfortunately made what should have been a restful haven an ineffective expense, instead of an alternative to the crowded and noise main deck pools. Again, maintenance was poor in the Spa as well, with slippery dressing rooms, running toilets, broken saunas and steam rooms, and a weird black slime in the swimming pool around the rim near the ladder (all of which we reported to no avail.)

That all said, minus the mall like atmosphere and constant up-selling, the lack of a really good dark chocolate dish, and the smelly room... we had a great time because of our love for each other and mostly cheerful encounters with new people. It isn't for everyone,but now that we are more knowledgeable we would cruise again... and having spent almost 5,000 on the cruise alone, we will do some informed shopping to see what else is available to us.

A refund on our room and the spa, would make us choose Norwegian again, but if not we can afford to spend our money elsewhere.

For additional clarification feel free to contact us:

Mary Johnson Ernst and James Ernst

Happy New Year.

Favorite part was spending time with my husband and friends. Improvements: 1. No Announcement's- first disembarking was a disaster no one knew where to go or what to do just one poor girl yelling at everyone to get in line here if you are getting off the boat,  I felt sorry for her and us.  Should make announcements either the night before or the morning of on what to do and where to go so you can prepare. Music from the band was extremely loud, we were at the Bimini Bar and had to yell at each other. Bringing the volume down was be awesome. If I pay to go to Belize I want to see Belize, the people, jungle, local spots not a commercial island made and designed fore NCL.  All of the restaurants had the same menu. So much smoke in the casino that we could not even stay!

We really enjoyed this cruise.  There were Christmas shows and music, as well as a lot of decorations.  Also, if you go to Harvest Caye, the private cabins on the beach are fantastic!  They are pricey, but if you divide the price up between the number of people going, it is not too bad!  This was our favorite day off of the ship!

This was our second cruise and our daughters first and it went almost perfect. The best thing we did was book a family suite. With young children and all the excitement of a cruise ship our butler and room steward made everything 100 x's easier! I don't think we met a crew member that wasn't completely happy and helpful whenever we needed anything. I had to do a lot of research into shore excursions since we were traveling with a 3 year old and many of the better ones were not age appropriate but it all worked out. 

The kids zone was staffed with people who were young and energetic and truly loved the kids they were working with. Our girls were asking to go every chance they got. They did arts and crafts and plenty of theme nights and generally kept them so busy that we could have a little guilt free adult time. 

The only complaint we had was our concierge and it might just be we were spoiled on our last cruise (also Norwegian) by a concierge that everyone seemed to know when we mentioned her on this one. All of our dinner reservations were moved to late times and they were very unhelpful with rescheduling even though I had everything documented and had made it clear our kids were used to early bed times so eating at 9pm with a 3 year old was not possible. Unless we tracked our concierge down we rarely saw or heard from her and it was really just a lower grade of service then what we had previously experienced. I will say our butler, Made, went above and beyond at every opportunity to make our vacation smooth and memorable. Somehow he always managed to produce bowls of gummy bears, sandwiches and snacks after shore excursions, and kept my champagne corked (that one is still a mystery to me). 

We will definitely cruise again and it will be with Norwegian most likely. They have an attention to detail that was very important to us and a level of service overall that I haven't heard of from my friends who have sailed with other cruise lines. 

The food was excellent and the shows were superb.  However, the servers in the Aqua Restaurant where we dined 3 times were efficient but not at all friendly.  I don't believe one staff person in that restaurant smiled.  We highly recommend eating in the Venitian dining room instead.   Harvest Caye Belize was very commercialized; The "best of tour of Roatan" was a waste of money. 

This was my first time on a cruise. I'm fairly certain I won't choose cruises as my primary way to vacation in the future. I like to explore destinations and countries more than cruises allow. I will probably go on an Alaskan cruise at some point and possibly cruise through the Greek islands. The Norwegian Dawn is an older ship but has been refurbished and is nice, although smaller than other ships. However, that means there are less people on board (about 2000). The service by the staff is outstanding - they feel like a family to me. We had an outside verandah which was small and could only hold chairs, no table. The room had only one place to charge your electronics - 2 outlets is all. The bathroom smelled like icky ocean water when we first boarded but that was generally fixed soon. The bed was huge and comfortable. The TV was small and channels were very limited: two movie channels, one TV show channel, two news channels (MSNBC and FOX, where was CNN?) The rest were ship channels like navigation, on board activities, and advertising basically. The internet (we got the 250 minute complimentary package through ) absolutely sucked. Very slow, and it used up your minutes just getting on. It was completely out for almost one whole day. It was a good thing I didn't pay for it. I like the Freestyle Dining that Norwegian has - two dining rooms and two other restaurants were free, in addition to the buffet. I did not think that the food anywhere was outstanding although the Irish bar had great food (shepherd's pie, reuben sandwich). Make reservations for every night in a free dining room (Aqua or Venetian - they have the same menu) or restaurant (Bamboo - we never did get in there because we didn't make a reservation) if you don't want to eat the buffet every night (it's not that good). You can make reservations before the cruise even starts online. 

This cruise had 4 ports - Costa Maya (Mexico), Harvest Caye (Belize), Roatan (Honduras) and Cozumel (Mexico). The Chacobben Extreme Tour in Costa Maya (through ) was a wonderful tour with a wonderful guide. You can book the same tour through "Native Choice" online. The ruins were very interesting and our guide Kasi was extremely knowledgable. They took us to a very nice restaurant which was complimentary and great food and after that to a private lagoon (lake) where they had free drinks, snacks and beach chairs. Harvest Caye (Belize) is a private island owned by Norwegian. Basically a beach and a lagoon with a zipline and a few animals to look at and limited shopping. Everything is an extra charge including food, beach chairs, kayaking, ziplining. Not worth the time hardly to walk off the ship and you are NOT visiting Belize. On Roatan, Honduras, the tour "Reef Snorkel by Boat" through was also a fairly good tour. They take you by van to a marina at Turquoise Bay Resort (which is very nice), and you snorkel by boat at Seastar and Turquoise Bay. The snorkeling was good and afterwards you can swim in the resort's pool, use their beach and eat at their restaurant (for $15 each). The boat driver, and two dive masters were great. Then you have a little time to shop in the little town where the ship docks. If you stay outside the pier area to shop, it is a little more authentic although no real bargains. On Cozumel, we booked our own tour (Mystic Snorkel - boat name APOLO) online before the trip. It was great - for $65 they took us to 3 reefs - Sky, Columbia and Palancar. Sky was very shallow - saw a variety of fish including eels, and lobster. Columbia was amazing - a little deeper, more fish and we saw several nurse sharks. Palancar was even deeper - not quite as many fish.

Back to the Norwegian Dawn - I did think that the entertainment was outstanding - several of the shows approached Las Vegas quality.

Other details - not much to buy on board - my husband forgot his flip flops, all they had were the basic rubber ones for $25. Ridiculous. The ship only had one pool - pretty small and one hot tub. They did have a great kids pool complete with water slides, and dinosaurs. The jogging track was good. The classes we took at the Fitness Center (which had a fair number of machines) were pretty good - morning stretch and abs class. You have to pay for the yoga and cycling classes. I did not do any of the spa services(they were quite expensive). After touring the spa area (a few pools, some hot relaxation chairs which were uncomfortable, and a sauna), I did not think it was worth the $150 or so for the 7 day pass.

Also, I forgot to say that they charge you extra for almost everything (bottled water, soda, and of course alcoholic drinks). The tap water onboard was not good and bottled water would be the only other option. So in conclusion, the cruise was nice but I probably would not choose Norwegian again.

Our entire family loved the cruise. We have two kids in college and one in high school. Everyone had a great time. Mostly we were impressed by the well-trained staff who were all friendly, gracious and welcoming. It was our first cruising experience and found it relaxing and fun. Between the 5 of us, we took full advantage of the ship offerings--from the shows, fitness center, spa, basketball court, shows, activities & lounges. We loved that you could dress up or dress down and feel comfortable.  The Dawn's casual and friendly atmosphere made for a great vacation. 

The crew was very nice, always helpful and pleasant.  I feel like they could improve on not nickle and diming you to death.  On others cruises I have been on you could have all the options in the dining room without being charged extra and it seemed like they charge extra for more than other cruise lines.  I prefer other cruise lines so I am not sure I would recommend Norwegian, although it has been a while since I have cruised with them so I don't know if things have changed. If you like freestyle this might be a better option for you.  The jury is still out for me on freestyle.  We would try to make reservations because we had a large group  and most of the time it was full, although if we went early we could usually be seated except we had a 20 minute wait one night and I don't like how they charge extra for lobster etc.  

Dinner at the Aqua restaurant was a disaster. The restaurant was in constant chaos affording poor seating, lack of servers and a general sense of disarray. Food was not served in an efficient manner. Waiters ranged form stoic to borderline rude, with absolutely little personality.

This was not the case in the Venetian restaurant, unfortanely myself and my spouse made reservations in the Aqua Restaurant beforehand.

I love the freedom effect of dining although on this particular trip. The food was not up to my past experiences . Someone moved the piano bar in Gatsby so now you lose the real effect of piano player with audience. Which to us is the real beauty of a piano bar. Otherwise we had a great trip 

Out of 18 cruises this was my least favorite. The public restrooms were always dirty. The food in the buffet was lukewarm at best. Our room attendant was slow to clean the room in the mornings; many days the room was not cleaned until mid afternoon.

This is our 2nd cruise on the Dawn.  We liked the exterior upgrades and new carpeting throughout the ship.  The gym was nicely appointed.  Although the adult pool was made smaller, we did like the stadium seating that replaced it.  This ensured a good amount of seating and no fighting over lounge chairs.  We were disappointed to see the removal of the aft outdoor cafe. This area is now a kiddie pool which appeared to get little usage--probably because it separated the child/adult from other guest.  Getting on and off the ship were easy and hassle free.

A new feature to NCL was the iConcierge.  Use of this app costs $10/person. Listed below are pros and areas of improvement:

Pros:  the app was excellent for booking restaurants and excursions.  It made it easy to communicate with other members of your traveling party.

Areas for improvement:  Since this app offers convenience to the cruiseline, it should be complementary to certain Latitude members and/or offer the individuals who pay $10/person should receive certain premiums.  The app should also list the daily menus of all the restaurants.  It should also list the daily activities.  Frankly, this is an exciting service that needs to be more fully developed by people much more familiar with digital technology than me.

With regard to dining, the Dawn now offers--in addition to Cagnie's, LeBisro, Moderna, main dining halls, etc.--several new dining experiences including Mexican food, Asian fusion, and updated Italian.  We particularly enjoyed the upscale menu at the Italian restaurant.  As usuals, the buffets in the Garden Cafe were chaotic.  After our first day on the ship, we chose to eat breakfast in Venetian room.  We like and enjoyed the wine/champaign bar.  Interesting idea.

Please note that the specialty restaurants are no longer fixed priced, but ala carte.  If you don't have a specialty restaurant package, eating in these restaurants can become pricey.

Entertainment:  The excursions were a little expensive and quite short-typically 3-4 hours.  We suspect these were kept short to accommodate the long distant the ship sailed between ports. In almost all cases, the ship sail by 4PM.  The new port in Belize, Harvest Key, was nice and new.  Note that this not necessarily equivalent to NCL private island since the island is entirely managed by Belize.  However, to maintain the quality of the area/experience, the island would benefits from better signage and more trash containers.  We noted trash blowing around, likely because it was difficult to find trash containers.  

In terms of nightly entertainment, we have seen the "Band on the Run" three times.  Its OK, but it may be time to renovate this show.  The Second City program was mediocre.  The on-board comedian was funny, but could be offensive to some people.  Noteworthy, however, were the shows entitled "Elements" and "Ineffable Two."  These shows were fantastic and should not be missed.  Show-up early to the 2nd show because many of the people who attended the 1st show come back for the 2nd show.  We also enjoyed the crew talent show.  The ship had two excellent bands--"Flavors" and "Mus'k Nation"  Flavors focused on Reggae while Mus'k Nation had an incredibly broad repertoire.

Although this last comment may reflect our expectations, it seemed that many of the crew seemed to be less friendly.  The "welcomes" and "good morning" and "have a great evening" seemed to be vocalized much less than other NCL cruises that we have been on.  Its this something unique to the Dawn or is this a broader NCL phenomenon?  Don't know.

Recommendations for improvement:  

Since smoking is allowed in the casino, we suggest that the cigar lounge be move into this space.  Keep all the smokers together

We note that many children ran wild at the adult pool.  Parents need to pay more attention to these activities and they should be enforced by a "pool life guard."

We think the "quiet/meditation" rooms should have a daily option instead of a weekly option.

Favoite was the specialty dinning food.  Least favorite was the level of the shows that were in the theatre rooms.  The poorest were the narrow hallways and the doors to the handicap rooms were horrible.  The doors could not open by themselves.   Doors need to be change to accommodate the handicap person that is in a scooter/wheelchair.  Not enough activities at night.  The 12th floor outside deck was dead by 9:00pm  Nothing going on.  Got bord quickly. 

Our first time with NCL and loved it.staff was very nice and helpful since we are new to NCL.we had large aft penthouse suite and it was awesome.star gazing was outstanding.cagney steak house was poor service but food was great.all food venues were great! only thing I didn't like was we couldn't order from o'sheehans and carry it back to our cabin.

There really is so much to say but lack the time and space to do so. The big issue was the water. I was told by 20 employees, at different times and place on-board if the water in our cabin's bathroom was consumable. I was told by 17 that the water was not consumable. 2 employees told me that they were unsure, and 1 employee told me that not only was the water not consumable, but that we should rinse our mouths out extra well with bottled water, I would like to also mention that there were no posted signs nor any literature in the cabin about the drinking water (other than the prices for bottled water packages for extortionary prices). After all of this, i sat down with the Hotel Director, who when told of my woes, he addressed my concerns and told me that the water was absolutely safe to drink, and added that he drinks the tap water in his cabin daily. Smoking: As you board the ship, you are barraged with announcements over the PA system, one of them is in regards to smoking and state that the only smoking sections on the exterior of the ship are on decks 7 and 12 on the right side of the ship, and that there are two smoking places interior at the cigar lounge (d6) and the casino (d7). The last part of the announcement specifically adds that if there is any confusion of places which are permitted to smoke to remember this rule, "If there is an Ashtray, you are good to smoke there.".. This is not accurate, of our group there are 8 families present, 6 of our bathrooms have an ashtray, but one of our group members were hit with a 250$ room cleaning fee despite the error being on the NCL's straff. Lastly, be sure to clarify and bundle/package bonuses, Our group was given a Dining incentive package that gave the individual adult group members 3 credits to the premiere dining. At the time of being issued, the NCL crewmember said that these credits could be used at any of the restaurants which was not included as a "free to eat" places, with an exclusion being the Bamboo Sushi restaurant (d7). My wife attempted to dine at 3 of these pay-locations, each time we were told that the Universal Dining Package (UDP) was not included. A big waste of money.

The cruise staff was, for the most part, excellent. Our cabin steward was friendly and extremely hard working. The restaurants were all good, and while the specialty dining was very nice, the meals we had in the main dining room (Venetian) were very good. My only "complaint" being that Norweigian no longer has a chocolate night, nor do they have a lobster night on the main menu. It is available for a pretty hefty up charge (comparable to a regular restaurant).