Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Good cruise. Enjoyed Freestyle with no commitments on dinning times, etc. Ship, Norwegian Dawn could use some updating but was very pleasant and clean. Food was excellent and staff service was excellent.

Favorite part: entertainment and nightly bar piano music.

Improvement: eliminate the table for 4 in the Aqua restaurant by the exit/entrance door and where the servers take food and dirty dishes out. Sitting at that table is like eating in the hallway which is visible.  Did not enjoy dinner that evening- people coming and going constantly.  Also very noisy. They actually tried to put us there a second time and I insisted in getting another table. 

The restaurants food and service were outstanding 

This was our 5th time on this ship and it didn't disappoint. The staff was great and we picked the 4 dinners and the open bar. I would certainly recommend the open bar. Not sure about any of you but 15 drinks per day is more than enough for me. I drink Gray Goose so I certainly got my money's worthh on that one. We actualyy canceled one of the dineers as we like the freestyle ways of old and making dining reservations for every night kind of gets away from that. We're platinum members so we got 2 additional free dinners and boarding was sweet for gold and platinum in Boston. Very fast!!!

we have always enjoyed this trip.  This is our 4th.  the changes in decor are dramatic and classy.  Love the change.  The food has also been upgraded and everything was delicious.  have already booked for next year.

Liked least, as stupid as it sounds, the steps going into the hot tubs in the spa. They are too far apart and too high for the average person.

Unlimited beverages did not indicate that there are three levels of premium drinks. When purchased it only said all drinks including "premium drinks"

Liked most, the spa package, the Mexican restaurant and bar.

We had an amazing cruise. We love the Dawn and we love Bermuda. The staff was excellent. The food was excellent and the best part was Anna Bannas at O'sheehan's. She.made our nights so fun. 

There were so many nice things about the Dawn.  The recent refurbishment made the boat look new again.  Although we had never sailed on the Dawn prior, we heard of the many great changes that were made.  We enjoyed the entertainment so much - all of the shows were done so nicely and a lot of fun.  For the food, I found the buffet to be a little boring, too much of the same thing and I found that certain areas in the buffet didn't have enough "stations", i.e. pasta station and omelet station were only able to accommodate one person at a time and the wait times were a bit long.  The food in the specialty dining rooms were amazing - we tried Moderno, Cagneys, Tepinyaki, and La Cucina.  I have to say that Cagney's probably had the best filet I had ever tasted, hands down, my favorite meal on the ship.  We did also eat at the Venetian - I found it to be a bit too formal for my liking and found the service to be very slow.  Overall, the room is beautiful.  Now for our cabins - we are a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) and I was very concerned about space.  We had an oceanview room and I was pleasantly surprised at the use of space.  We had just enough room for all of our clothing and items.  The cabinetry was well thought out and made the best possible use of every space there.  Lastly, my comment about leaving the kids home - I found that the clientele on our itinerary was a bit older.  There were very few kids on this cruise (1st week back to school is likely why) and I found that most of the adults weren't thrilled that there were any kids around.  The "kids" pool was definitely for much younger kids (5 and under) and with my kids being 10 and 11, they found themselves in the bigger pool with a lot of adults who didn't want them there, not very enjoyable.  And while the pool is nice to lounge in, there's nothing special about it - just a basic pool that 5 feet deep all around.  And lastly, with the kids, I didn't find that there were enough events going on to keep them busy all day - for that reason, I would probably make this cruise Adults only next time and take them on a Disney cruise or vacation instead.

Casual dining, ultimate beverage pkg, Vegas style entertainment...What more could you ask for!?...Vacation Outlet makes it happen! The renovated Norwegian Dawn is grand, with a great crew/staff.

The cruise to the Island and back is always phenominal, service, crew members, food, excursions, courtesy...I could go on and on.

I have booked through since 2007, when I married my darling on the Majesty and went to St George. They are more than competent and treat each passenger with enthusiasm.

A few suggestions for the cruise line: banish smoking in the casino, non-smokers don't need to breath in second hand smoke from people with bad habits / stock straws at the beverage counters in the buffet area / expand the gift shop, too much booze, smoking stuff, and jewelry, not enough memorabilia.

I am a Platinum member and enjoy the benefits afforded to me. Been cruising since 1995 with NCL. 

The service staff is efficient and always very pleasant. The ship has only one pool which is an absurd size for the number of passengers.  There are a lot of chairs overlooking the pool area but only 10 lounge chairs total (that's not a misprint) on the promenade deck for those wanting to get into some shade. Food flavors mostly okay in buffet area and dining room.  However, in both locations hot food was at best lukewarm. Freestyle is a great concept except that there is no threshold enforced in the dining room when suggested resort  casual morphs into beach wear, workout clothes, etc. Production shows in the theater not good. Disembarkation procesure in Boston much better than embarkation.

I would recommend this cruise to others. This is the second time I have taken this cruise with my family. There are 11 of us and we find it easier to cruise Boston to Bermuda since we live locally. It was nice to be able to park at the pier instead of having to worry about flying. If I ask the children about their experience they have no complaints. All-in-all we had a wonderful cruise. There are a couple of things that stand out for me. I find the cabins on the Norwegian ships to be smaller than other ships. We had all purchased the beverage package and the Specialty Restaurant package. When I attempted to book the dining times for all 11 of us I was told there was no availability for the whole cruise. I asked for the Dining Manager and within a day he was able to get us into every restaurant. We love the Aqua restaurant, the food and service is wonderful. The main dining room Venetian service tends to be very slow. It seems like most of the staff is just talking around joking with each other. I am not a fan of the buffet upstairs either although it worked well for ice cream. 

When I heard they were doing an upgrade to the ship I thought that they would have taken some time on the kids pool area. I find that it's very small and the kids are bored with it.

We didn't attend all the shows but the ones we did attend were good.

Loved playing Deal or No Deal.

Bingo is over priced.

Not enough Stores and shopping on the ship.

All that being said we would take this cruise again because it's so close to home. 

There were three things that were great, the food, the entertainment and the wait/room staff.  All were exceptional.

Most everyone that I spoke with were unhappy with the charges to play bingo and win or lose.  Anywhere else you would go to play would give you more sheets, more games and have to pay less.  If you are trying to please your customers and not make more money you would reduce the cost.  I am not sure how you do the payout but this should not be a moneymaker for Norwegian.  Less money to buy in and less paid out could bring you many more happy people playing. 

Favorite  thing was the entertainment. But was disappointed  jose &Patti didn't have a show in stardust theater. Saw them on last year's  cruise and enjoyed them very much.

Least favorite  was the way things were handled for the wheel chair service. I had ordered  one for my sister. Her first cruise. Apon  arrival, all went smoothly. The worker that helped us was wonderful. I was expecting a cruise member  to help us get off the cruise. It took us at least 5 different workers to direct us to the wheel chairs.  Once we found them, there was no one there to help us. My sister was lucky she was not traveling alone. I wheeled her off the ship. This was very difficult to do. When I finally  got to the gang plank I had alot of trouble getting her and chair up the ramp. There were at least 6 or 7 workers standing there dancing to the music. No one helped me at first. Then a girl worker finally helped me aft err she saw I was having trouble. This is not my first cruise.  Also took a excursion  to the beach, booked  with ship. The excursion  driver was so rude. He separated my husband from our group. He said bus was full. Only to allow 3 more people on our bus a few minutes  later. To say that I was upset is a under statement. 

Also as a silver  member I think we deserve better service. 

Also had a terrible experience  with colombian emeralds  store on board. I bought a Kabana bracelet  on last year's  trip with the dawn. I returned it, as it was damaged.  It took me 8 long months to get the credit on account. Had to contact bbb and attn. General  office. This store has a f grade with bbb. I called ncl last year for help. Told nothing they could do. I think ncl should remove this store from their ship.

First, many thanks to Kimberly Lindsey our VacationOutlet Agent at x76048, as she worked above and beyond throughout the whole process, and up to a day before sailing!! Flawless time on the Dawn. We stayed in Deluxe Owners Suite 12000 and highly recommend for family, with extra bedroom.Our butler Ranaldo was awesome and room steward Randy was the best. The concierge did not do much and seen a few times.The priority embarkation and disembarkation's was awesome. Our complimentary breakfast and lunch in Mondero was superb. The specialty dinning is well worth it. We highly suggest the week spa for 149.00 with unlimited access, another well worth it.  

Bermuda was so much fun and many snorkel spots and beautiful beaches. Very friendly people and would go again soon!!

First told us that a child soda package included soda, bottled water and juices. This was absolutely FALSE and a COMPLETE waste of out package. It ONLY inclides soda, NOTHING ELSE, and my daughter doesnt drink soda!!!

No bottled water on board is included. There are juices available for free all day in the buffet. Do not waste your money!!!

Next when they say wifi package it doesnt mean if you want to connect to the internet via your laptop. Norweigian literally blocks your phone from data but allows text and calls. So we were completely out of access to the outside world. Data from norwegian was over 200$ per person for the trip!!

So we basically chose a bum soda package over an internet package that we could have made use of!

The pool was tiny, but everything else was great. It would be nice if knew what they were talking about so we could have chosen the correct packages.

Really enjoyed the food and entertainment on the ship.  Lots of parties.  The crew were really nice with a few exceptions.  It was nice to visit Bermuda but would not want to go back, very expensive.

For our first time cruising this was a great experience. The staff were very friendly. Parents need to be more responsible for watching their children.

The cruise director and staff are among the best of any ship!    They make you laugh at every performance.   Richard and Dan drove the atmosphere of the vacation.

The food looked great, but I could not eat most of it!    They ship did not support my gluten free diet.     Bread with dinner was toast.    If I was willing to wait 1/2 hour, I could order gluten free pizza.    Several other cruise lines are miles ahead of NCL in this regard.     

House keeping was marginal.    Our room was not kept in order.   We did not develop a relationship with the steward (very different experience for us).    We had two cabins with the same experience on different decks.

This was our first cruise and we loved it!  We had a room with a window and were nervous if we'd feel cramped.  Luckily we didn't.  The room was great, super clean and the cleaning service was awesome and super friendly.  There were tons of food options to try.  So much so that by the time we finished the cruise, I didn't want to eat anything for awhile.  We did try a few of the restaurants that aren't included in the price of the cruise.  We went to the French, Mexican and Brazilian restaurants.  The best was the Mexican.  The service at the French restaurant wasn't great.  There were lot's of fun activities and shows to attend.  Everything on board was very neat, clean and organized. They had a party the second to last night on the cruise where everyone wore white.  That was a lot of fun.  However, although they say it's kid friendly, I wouldn't bring my kids to it.  We did notice that after the white party, the staff was ready to be done with us.  The last day and night the service wasn't as good and the staff (including the cruise director and assistances) weren't as friendly.  I was really surprised at how much people smoked on board and it seemed as if no one regarded designated smoking areas.  Also, I'm not sure if this is common on a cruise, but the last evening the pool and hot tubs were closed.  The drained the water and had people cleaning and what appeared to be sanding the pool.  In the morning, it was still empty.  I thought that was pretty poor considering the point that we paid for it, but couldn't use it and there was no announcement or reason for any of it.  The other thing that frustrated us was that the cruiseline treats everyone like they've done a cruise before.  An example:  we printed off our luggage tags prior to boarding.  All went well with boarding, but when we tried to get off the cruise at the end, we learned that we needed different tags, but didn't have them.  We had no idea of this as Jet Blue nor Norweigan told us this and the result was we couldn't leave until everyone else.  Overall, we really enjoyed our cruise and plan to do it again.  This time though we'll know how to prepare. 

Ship personnel were very friendly, helpful, attentive to everything.

Live shows in the main theater were Broadway nad newar-Broadway quality with ONE GLARING ISSUE - >>Lighting 

I am an alcoholic and drink only NA beer, unlike most people.  But there are a lot of alkies over 50 like me as well as diabetics who choose NA beer.  On this ship the only NA beer available is Buckler - not my favorite.  From talking to others I find three of the NA beers people like me like the best are St Pauli NA, Erdlinger,  and Clausthauler NA.  The least that NCL could do is offer a choice - don't you think?  Buckler is made by Heinekin and in Holland they do not even sell it there!

Ray Berggren

Natick, MA