Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

 Had a good time despite ship deficiencies. This ship tries to copy rcl liberty even to exact games and words but this is not rcl. It was less expensive then the dream and closer to Covington.(Galveston 6hr. drive) The ports for the most part very good.   We need more cruise lines leaving new Orleans, are a better ncl ship.(how about the ncl escape) In conclusion, if the dream is full or to high the 2nd best choice is ncl.   Happy cruising!!

We had a great time...Only a couple of real negatives.

(1)  We were unable to dock at Costa Maya...weather related

(2)  Parking our car was a bad experience....Way too expensive....Very rude parking attendants....no handicap parking and no help...tight parking spots...It was raining  and a long walk from where we had to park to board the ship.... :(

This cruise ship was very dissappointing! Staff not that friendly. Food not that good! The shows were good. The stateroom staff were amazing! He was so friendly and courteous. Did an awesome job  The Tender process was the worst ever. Would not recommend Norwegian Dawn to anyone. There is only 1 pool on shop to accomodate the whole ship!!!! needs updating and retrain the staff to be more friendly.

Great trip we enjoyed the staff and crew.  Hated tendering into ports that caused a lot of time wasted and stress. If you can't get onto a pier than it should not be a destination due to the wasted time tendering.

paul at the service desk told me when i called him that our room was not big enough for my wife to unpack our cloths and did they have a larger his answer was you booked you live with it my bathroom at home is bigger than the room was for three people. will never sail with them the room to small food sucked Mc donalds is better

The shows and professional entertainment was good.  The staff did not seem very motivated or happy!  Our rooms had maintenance issue from toilets not working one day, safe not working, lights burnt out, horrible smell from bathrooms, furniture missing, noisy beds, freezing room because thermostat did not work and a headache causing smell of varnish in an outside our room because someone must have been painting something.  In Roatan the ship uses the life boats to tender which takes hours to get off the boat an back on so expect to miss any privately planned excursions.  There was a fire on boards the ship.  Make sure you reserve your lounger by 8:00am with a towel otherwise they will be none available all day because the ship did not enforce their policy about not reserving loungers. Was not able to check out towels at the towel deck so had to go to room and get towels.  Desserts looked good but were really bad. Ship photographers block the docks at port so be very careful trying to get around and aware of the low rusty mooring posts in Belize so you do no cut open your leg like my son did.  The golf driving range on the boat is available for guests to use and no sign states this.  Staff did not show up to lead some scheduled activities.  Room service is $8 per person per order.  The in room refrigerators are filled with mini bar items so you cannot get anything else to fit.  The pool is very poorly supervised so kids will start running from the side of the boat and cannonball into the pool on top of you over and over again so the pool is unusable as well as being cold.

The experience was wonderful from beginning to end. Lot's of on board activities, and excellent excursion offerings. This is my second cruise with Norwegian, and they have really stepped up their game in the food department, with food quality and variety in preparation. Not just bland chicken, fish, beef, or pork. These meats were offered in a variety of preparations. Be prepared for kids, but maybe it was late spring break.

Excellent experience for me and my son. This was our first cruise. The food choices were excellent. The shows were wonderful.  The service was phenomenal.  Only real disappointment was that the Costa Maya port was cancelled due to high seas. 

The trip started with pouring rain on Sunday.  Monday and Tuesday the weather was beautiful.  Wednesday the water was rough so we stayed on ship.  Thursday went to port.  Very warm so we didn't stay in port only a few hours.  Friday port was too rough so ship couldn't dock.  We traveled with friends and this was their first cruise.  I am pretty sure this will be their last.  I forget to mention that there was a small fire on board.  Ship staff took care of the fire immediately so all turned out okay with this.  This being our 4th cruise and how it went, we may try an all inclusive next time.  Still undecided on that.

Customer Service was a joke!  Over an hour the first day with talking to 4 people which each said they had no authority to help and we would have to let the home office now.  We had a person die in the cabin across from us and the security was not helpful.  Security staff lied about trying to get into our cabin.  Food service was extremely SLOW.  Some food staff were rude.

The only good part was the cruise director and his staff.

I believe our cruising days are over. The food quality was fair at best, except for the specialty steak restaurant which was $85.00 EXTRA-Ridiculous! The staff with few exceptions was nonchalant and looked like they hated being there. Everything costs extra,first time we'd ever seen $20 for a steak during "complimentary"dinner. Sorry folks, when you add in the MANDATORY tips to everyone, your daily room rate doubles. You can book a cruise on the first class cruise lines for that. The shore excursions booked through you were by day 1) terrible, 2) very good, 3) fair, 4) good (excellent guide).

I will never again cruise with NCL. The ship was dirty, and the bedding stunk. The cruise line had promised us a $50 beverage package, but we never got it. Instead we got a credit for the casino, but we don't gamble. One of our excursions was cancelled the morning it was scheduled without our being notified. The other two were a huge disappointment and over priced. I couldn't believe the number o families with young kids who were completely out of control. We asked every night to be seated in a quiet area, but inevitably wound up at a table surrounded by ill-mannered children and their over indulgent parents. Kids threw screaming tantrums on the floor and crawled on the table. There were no adult activities or areas until 11 p.m. We just wanted to have a quiet, romantic dinner. To our dismay, I turned out that It was a nightmare.

large number of guests were also drunken spring breakers.

I booked this cruise for my sons and I for their spring break. Many other families had planned their trips around spring break as well. So my sons were able to meet a lot of other kids. They met up at the basketball courts and the swimming pool on our at sea days. So, it was fun for them to have new friends on board to do things with. Although the pool area could get crowded on the hot days, most of the adults sat around the side of the pools while the kids played in the water. The room stewards were very courteous and prompt in cleaning the room everyday. We wanted to watch an NCAA basketball tournament game in one of the pubs one night, and the bartenders told us they weren't able to change the channel. That is my only complaint on the service on the ship. Our shore excursion was canceled on our stop in Cozumel due to the weather that morning. We received a call to our room the morning of our shore excursion notifying us of the cancelation so we had plenty of time to schedule another activity.

 I decided to try and I decided to try and Norwegian Cruise Lines I decided to try and Norwegian Cruise Lines figuring that I would get a great deal and a good value for my money I will soon mistaken with all the hidden fees that they charge they charge 13.50 per person per day additional watch for my family of 4 for this Cruise turned out to be an additional an additional $378 for what they call gratuity also I paid my balance in full but yet I'm noticing fees on my credit card from Norwegian Cruise Lines the entertainment was not good and they had no stand-up comedy shows the food was alright but very confusing on the different restaurants to go to I had a mini-suite  and I requested 3 beds  4/4 people in the mini Suite  my kids had to share a bed  which one is a step kid  and that did not work well also the bed that they gave them did not accommodate them because their legs hung halfway off the bed I don't think that I would ever cruise with Norwegian again

After viewing the Norwegian Cruise line on Undercover Boss my expectations on my first cruise onboard a Norwegian ship was very high. I must admit I was a little disappointed. The freestyle dining was okay but there were only a few restaurants to choose from and two of the four restaurants that were complimentary practically had identical menus. Overall we still had a great cruise. Loved Deal or No Deal game show and the Blue Lagoon restaurant. We partied hard at the Spinnaker Club. Traveled with my family a group of 11 from ages 22 to 58.

Norwegian was great and very hospitable. the food was great. This was my second cruise with them and I plan to go again. I was surprised and blind sided by the daily, per person extra resort fee style charge that came out to be about an extra $200.00! 

Good:   1) Ship surprisingly good shape.   2) Clean and well staffed.   3) Love having a balcony! Roomy, and have a nice view, inside & out.   4) Great food! Seriously. No bad meals, the entire trip. Top notch!   4a) And the service staff in the restaurants were really great.   5) Steakhouse was excellent.   6) Motion of ship pretty slight, even in larger swells. Didn't have trouble sleeping, even in choppy seas.   7) Room steward was fabulous!   8) Cool that there's a bow cam. Wish it was clearer. HD upgrade?   9) The nightly shows in the theater were quite high caliber. We thoroughly enjoyed them. That David De Vinci & wife show is great!  

Bad:   1) Sales speech over room intercom that woke everyone @ 9:45 am, on the first day at sea!?!  Seriously!?!  WTF? Someone should be fired over that.   2) Workers cleaning decks above ours drops water, sand and debris on our deck almost daily! Really?! Could they not coordinate a "top-down" cleaning method, so that all deck balconies get cleaned? I know our own room steward had already cleaned ours on at least 2 of those occasions.    3) Pool crowded with rowdy people most of the day.   4) Loud music poolside, obnoxious and sometimes even live - & obnoxious!   5) Bow cam poor image.   6) Maintenance of ship during port calls disturbs guests who have stayed aboard.   7) Balcony glass doors and outside (on deck) glass quite dirty, and outside ones never cleaned on entire cruise. (Balcony door glass cleaned a number of times.)   8) Cabin needed more American style electrical plugs. There was only one. We have 2 cell phones and a tablet.   9) Like that the ship's position and speed and weather are available on a TV channel...but the info was pretty inaccurate...especially the weather. Speed often missing.

Ugly:   1) When tendering, NCL takes all of their own shore excursion people first. Expect a few hours before "your time" to get to shore. Makes it difficult to impossible to use a non NCL tour operator at those ports.   2) The "parade of staff" through the theater, so that everyone can "thank them" by applause was embarrassing, for BOTH the passengers and the staff. Whose idiotic idea was that? I work in a public service position, and I don't work for applause. Sure, a thank you is great. But, I do what I do because I like the work and they pay me to do it!   3) A LOT of sales pitches. I mean, a LOT! The "assistant cruise director" is essentially just a salesman. Did you know that they have over 100 staff members dedicated to the cassino?! Does that tell you how much money they make off of it??   4) Difficult to get reservations for the "specialty" restaurants. Makes it hard to use that dining "credit" !!   5) And, you lose what you don't use. Plus, corrections to your account must be made on board the ship...which means long lines the morning of departure.   6) Apparently, they are counting on you not being willing to wait in line, or just hope you won't notice the discrepancies!

Port Notes:

  Cozumel) Beautiful Island, but not very big or populated. Lots to do, in different excursions. Mayan ruins are small and insignificant historically. Easy to get tours off of the ship, and they are much cheaper than aboard. 6 cruise ships here at same time!

Belize City) Again, beautiful place. Very small and unpopulated country. Most people speak English.  Using the tenders a pain. Be advised that NCL will give all of their own tours priority in getting off the ship. Small tourist area at the port, with loud music. 3 cruise ships here. Tour guides very proud of their country. Don't recommend that you wander alone, as Belize has had violence issues.

Roatan, Honduras) Best port yet! 😄 Absolutely gorgeous scenery. Clean port, dock and pier. Nice shops right there. And lots of tours available for much cheaper than aboard the ship. Glass bottom boat tour was awesome. Took about 500 pictures. Also did the monkey and bird place, and around island tour.

Costa Maya) Unless you are into Mayan ruins, this is totally a "stay aboard the ship" port. But: There's a very small village within walking distance, or a $2 (per person) cab ride away. It has nice beaches and a lot of people who want to sell you trinkets & souvenirs, or drinks & food. It was pleasant to sit under an umbrella and drink soda.

OVERALL:  I DID enjoy the cruise, and will cruise again...maybe even with Norwegian.  But, I did want you to be aware of all those annoying things.

Pros : We had great experience at NCL Dawn. The freestyle cruising was very good, and allowed to enjoy the vacation. The restaurant and the services were great. I will definitely recommend to my friends. 

Cons: My friend booked the ticket from Costco, and he got $200 on-board credit. I contacted NCL and to match the credit, but they did not consider, which was big bummer.

I was hesitant to cruise, as I'm claustrophobic, but the trip turned out great!  We even did an inside room and I did not have any issues!  Our cruise had quite a bit of college spring breakers, but that was not an issue for us at all!  We did hear from the staff that the spring breakers make them crabby.  The service from the bar staff was subpar, with the exception of a few.  I've done all inclusives in the past where service is awesome, I expected a similar experience, so was a bit disappointed in that regard.  The Norwegian Dawn was a nice boat, but I did learn that it is being dry docked very soon and redone - so would be excited to see an updated boat. We traveled with 2 other families and the kids and adults all had a great time.  We loved the freestyle dining options, so that we weren't stuck on some schedule.  I loved that we had 4 ports in a row and then a relaxing day back at sea.  Our favorite port was Roatan.  Our least favorite Belize.  Would recommend this cruise to others.

The check-in process in New Orleans was smooth.  It took half an hour total.  We had booked a guarantee balcony and it was a spacious room with a beautiful view.

We were very happy with the food on the ship.  We are not very picky eaters and we loved the variety and quality.  We quite liked the freestyle dining.  We didn't eat at any specialty restaurants.  The Aqua food was good, not great.  The Bamboo was just okay.  The Venetian had good food and we also shared a table with 3 other couples and enjoyed that.  We also enjoyed the Garden Cafe and ate there often, sometimes even for dinner.

The entertainment was great!  Most of it was family-friendly which I appreciated.  We really enjoyed Jocka and Maria and The Second City.  

The customer service of the crew was fantastic.  Every worker was happy, kind, and smiling. I was really impressed with the workers all over the ship.

We didn't use the pool or the hot tubs much.  There were a lot of college students on spring break and they hogged the hot tubs most of the time.  It was also windy most days and so we weren't looking to get wet.

We didn't book any excursions through Norwegian.  At Cozumel, we rented a scooter and rode around the island, stopping at a couple of places to snorkel.  (We brought our own gear).  In Roatan we went snorkeling at West Bay Beach.  We just went in a van with a company that was at the dock.  It cost us $15 round trip per person.  A person from the company stayed with us there the whole time we were there.  The snorkeling at West Bay was amazing!!!  The beach was crowded but we paid $10 each to use the facilities of the resort where they dropped us off (shower, bathroom, pool, wifi, beach chairs).  We did have an excursion booked in Belize through Coral Breeze.  They took us on a 40-minute boat ride to Caye Caulker where we snorkeled at Shark Ray Alley and also out at the reef.  Then we had about an hour on the island before they took us back to the port.  I would recommend that company to anyone looking to do that excursion. I booked it online before we went.  We didn't get to stop in Costa Maya, as it was too windy.

I loved this cruise, the ship, the itinerary.  I would recommend it.