Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This is a small ship and only has one swimming pool.  This was a summer cruise and there were a lot of children in the pool.  Unfortunately, with few parents in sight, the kids went wild.  There were no places to sit in the sun unless you get to the pool before 8am.  Towels were used to save seats and in some cases no one ever came and used the lounges all day.

Our stateroom was just OK.  Its an older ship and needs an update.  Beds very uncomfortable and each room had a pull down bunk bed that took up a lot of space even in the stored position.

The food was good, restaurants were nice, service good.  Freestyle cruising means you go to any restaurant with a reservation.  Unfortunately, reservations meant nothing.  Anyone shows up when they want and it really becomes first come first served.  If you eat before 6:30 PM in the dining rooms, usually no waiting, after that long lines.  Specialty restaurants were excellent.  We ate in Cagneys and Le Bistro and were very impressed with the food and service.

All food and drink purchases have an 18%  tip added to the bill.  I found this convenient, but it seemed some wait staff in the bars were not very motivated and service was disappointing.

Disembarkation was the best I have ever experienced!   Well done NCL.  We were off the ship exactly as scheduled.

Shows were pretty good, especially "Element".  Don't miss it.

I have had 9 previous cruises on 3 other cruise lines (most on Princess) and I would not do NCL again.

We were on the Norwegian Dawn cruise form Boston to Bermuda July 2015. Service was excellent, Staff was very friendly, helpful and professional. We liked  the freestyle dining options and totally recommend the Ultimate Beverage Package which we got when we booked our cruise.  It was a great value.  It made the cruise  so easy you just needed your room key and there were no unexpected charges.  We loved Bermuda,Arriving  in Port on Sunday at 11:00 and not having to be back on the ship till Tuesday at 5:00 PM gave us plenty of time to enjoy the  the beaches.  The people of Bermuda were very friendly and helpful and would not hesitate to take this cruise again in the future.  Our weather on ship was rough and not ideal , but the cruise staff was  helpful and there were plenty of activities so even though the pool  time was  limited due to weather on the return trip  we still had a great time. Would highly recommend to anyone in the Boston area, as not having to fly to catch the cruise made it a more relaxing vacation . Boarding and disembarking goes smoothly . We personally liked having more time in one port  and would have liked it even beter if we could have had another day in Bermuda.  Ship was clean and the food was very good. Something for everyone ant all times.

I have sailed on the Dawn in the past and had a bad experience, but I decided to give it another try since it is the least expensive way to go to Bermuda. I have sailed on several of Carnival's ships and have always been extremely satisfied with the entertainment, service, shipboard credit and food options. Norwegian is NO match to Carnival. The food on Norwegian is subpar, unless you pay extra to go to restaurants that are not included. Some of there shows are good, but they have no comedy or other options available except for the main show each evening!! On this last cruise we received the drink package.  They do not have enough staff available to serve you in any of the areas on the ship so it takes forever to get a drink. Once you get the drink I believe they water the liquor down because I never drank so much in my life and I never felt drunk. Usually I have 2 drinks and get drunk!!! In general, I feel the service is below average!! As far as the $200 shipboard credit, BEWARE!!! There is refundable and nonrefundable credit- you can not use the nonrefundable credit for gratuities!!! After we disembarked I realized that my mother in law did not realize this. She had $180.00 shipboard credit that was unused. She paid $180.00 for gratuities. When I called the day we disembarked to remedy this, I had to write to Norwegian. They answered in 2 weeks and said, "SORRY"!!  Each year I plan a cruise for a group of 10 + people. I booked 6 rooms, with 18 people and they did nothing to credit the $180.00 to my inlaws. Instead they offered a free bottle of wine OR chocolate covered strawberries for the next cruise I booked with them!!! Needless to say, I WILL NOT be traveling with them again, nor will any of my other family members!!! My recommendation to you, is to consider travel with CARNIVAL or ROYAL CARIBBEAN! I have ALWAYS had exceptional service from both of these cruise lines!!

I have Cruised with NCL with 125 sea days in total. Dawn is a Tired Ship and needs to be let out to sea and sunk. I have traveled on NCL's Mega ships and was not impressed.The Staff were wonderful, entertainment as far as Production Shows need to change, I have seen the same one now for 3 years. The food was ok, never ate in the Dining Rooms, just the Buffet. Need  to choose another Line next time around.

Well, we thought we were sailing from a port that had not only a lot of history which would further enhance our experiencing Bermuda for the first time.  We were so wrong.  Bermuda was gorgeous, but the cruise experience was a nightmare.  We were inundated with small children running completely wild all over the ship.  We were further tormented by teens without boundaries or rules which made them either rude or so loud that you could not enjoy a meal. Then there were the adults who must have been on a crusade to drink themselves senseless.  They were loud and rude all day and all night long all over the ship.

As a result of the wild and senseless drinking, we got very little sleep.  The cruise line helped us one night, but we just could not see complaining every night.  It is not our style to whine about things.  But this was probably our worst cruising experience ever!!

One night we tried to get to sleep and were disturbed by drunken fighting and shouting right outside of our door---it was 3:30 a.m.  Other nights were much the same.  We asked the staff to help once and they must have removed the guy next door as he sounded like he needed to be restrained.  Never heard him again, but the mother and the kids were drunk and loud every night until the wee hours of the morning.  I even saw our room attendant scrubbing their carpet after their all night binge---can't imagine what they did to warrant that!

This was our fifth cruise and I have to say I was disappointed. My previous 4 cruises were on Carnival and we thought we'd try something different and booked the Norwegian Dawn to Bermuda. The island was beautiful and I loved having 3 days in port. The ship is an older ship with a lot of attention to detail when it was built. The atrium is beautiful. The overall layout has a very cramped feeling however with many narrow walkways (when you think of how many people are trying to get by). There were also not nearly enough seats in the theater, people were always standing in the back to see the show. To me this ship had a crowded feeling. The maintenance of this ship needs to be stepped up.The doors on the bathroom stalls were rusty. Half of the ellipticals in the gym were down as well as 3 of the 15 treadmills, that's 20%! The buffet did not have as much variety as Carnival's and the staff was not nearly as friendly. Many of the staff looked either bored or unhappy, and some of the hostesses in the dining rooms were down right rude. Our room steward was excellent as were the entertainment staff. The "washy washy" staff were also pleasant (they stood at the entrance to the buffet area and sprayed guests' hands with hand sanitizer- I loved this precaution).  The biggest disappointment for me was finding out that if I wanted to use the steam room or sauna in the spa I needed to purchase a $130 pass for the week. This is included on a cruise with Carnival, no additional fees for the spa unless you booked a service. Pricing in general on board was more expensive than on Carnival, especially for the portraits/pictures they take. Don't get me wrong, a vacation is a vacation and I still enjoyed my week, but I will be giving my business back to Carnival in the future. I would only book Norwegian again if the fare was offered at a very steep discount. 

Our trip didn't start off too good, we purchased the liquor package and was told we didn't when we bought our first drink! My husband and I were so upset and I called by travel right away. Michelle at bj travel was very helpful and she sent me the email that we did purchase it. Guest services wanted the email from the Miami office and it wasn't received and straightened out until Saturday evening and we were on the ship on Friday. When we went to buy a drink on Sunday they declined it. We were at guest services so many times it was frustrating and embarrassing! I think by travel and Norwegian cruise line owe us something for this mistake which made our trip very stressful!

My wife and I took the one-week cruise from Boston to Bermuda on the Norwegian Dawn recently.  We had a balcony room and really enjoyed being so close to the ocean.  Bermuda is so clean and the water is so blue -- the beaches are beautiful!

This was our first cruise and we had a great time although I'm not sure if we would go on one again. The food and service was excellent, although the pool was rather small and got pretty crowded. I didn't like that you could smoke, especially around the pool area where there were lots of young kids.

All the staff were very friendly and attentive and made us feel very welcome. Some of the entertainment was a bit cheesy but everyone tried very hard to make it an enjoyable experience (we loved Deal or No Deal though!!)

Things have changed since June 2012! The buffet had less variety to choose from! The gift shop also had less to choose from & looked empty! Could not buy White Hot Party shirts for the White Hot Party Event! Was looking forward to dance with the White Hot Angels that also no longer exists. The music was more like going to a rave for college teens. All the songs were remixes with the constant blowing of a horn. My sisters love to dance, never got on the floor. Only had one drink & left after an hour. As so did all the adults. The music should have been from the 60's to now with original songs playing not all remixes. And no chocolate day with chocolate sculptures. Bummer!

This was by far the best vacation for me. Once the family was all packed and onboard, It was my time to relax and enjoy our family time. NO COOKING and NO CLEANING, what else could a mom what. The cruise staff made everyone feel special!!

My children ages 14, 17 and 18 all had a blast and can't wait to return!

A must for moms!

We had our 12 year old son with us, and he had a great time at the main pool, kids pool and arcade. He especially loved the theme nights in the kids area, such as spy night, world domination night, boys vs girls night, and the pajama party. I thought the food in the included restaurants was good, but not outstanding. However, we were very disappointed that there was no lobster dinner as the featured dinner on any of the nights! We also thought that it was very odd that there is only one pool (besides the kids pool) on the whole ship, and it is quite a small pool for the amount of people on board. I will make sure that I check into how many pools are on the ship before I book any future cruises, as there were times when the pool was so crowded that it was not fun to be on the deck.

Second cruise with NCL. Food and service better this time, though it is still a shame some not so nice servers share in the required gratuity. The first night show was EXACTLY the one we saw two years ago, though still enjoyable. Ultimate Beverage Package is great IF you really are drinking at least 8 beers a day or 6 mixed drinks/wine. Bermuda is beautiful. Ferries and buses easiest way around, though usually crammed. Beaches are gorgeous. My one real complaint is that it really seems NCL could let us have one more day in port or at least leave later at night rather than rush us back from the beach. After all, they sure did get the Dawn back quickly after it had run aground in the spring. Let us stay and speed it up!

Rooms were fine and the staff on the ship were all fantastic. The food was awful and it seems like no one in the kitchen spoke English when I tried asking about allergen information. The room attendants clean your room twice a day which is way too much - and when we put our door on "Do Not Disturb" we were met with confusion and hesitation from the attendant who wanted to clean it anyway. Bermuda was absolutely beautiful though.

As with most vacations, weather is everything and ours was fantastic.  Reserved 2 rooms very last minute.  Although the 2 rooms were 6 floors apart, Norwegian had bumped my wife and I to a balcony mini-suite and our 2 daughters 17 and 20 were about the same mid-ship location on the lower floor and easy to get to. The staff are all friendly and nice people.  Food and entertainment was also very good.  We would travel with Norwegian and to Bermuda again.

2 minor complaints.  since you cannot book a room with at least 1 person being over 21, we had to (on paper) split my wife and I in the 2 rooms.  Since I wanted the beverage package, that forced us to buy it for both rooms.  I would not do that again.  Also, since many people choose the beverage package, service (although always polite) can be slow at the bars.

2 happy points.  On-off access in Bermuda is excellent.  Rooms (the balcony and the window rooms) are quite nice.

NCL's freestyle dining is a plus.  Service was excellent, every events were on time. Entertainement  was great very professionbal and diversified shows.  Of course Bermuda is a choice destination.

I recommend this fabulous vacation to everyone.

was hesitant to book this trip for ten people consider the rating and our past cruise with NCL but I was worried for nothing! Boston port was the best embarkation we have experienced, all workers incredibly friendly and helpful, on the ship in 30 minutes. Dawn is an older ship but common areas well maintained, public bathrooms always clean; our room had typical wear and tear on furniture, curtains, and carpet. Dinner in the main dining room and garden cafe were good to great, better than our last experience. Something for everybody, if you complain then you are too picky! Never had any trouble getting a table for ten, we ate dinner usually between 6-8:15; preferred Aqua over Venetian for the atmosphere and servers. Nightly shows were fantastic! The aerial acrobats show and magician show were Vegas caliber and nothing like I have seen in my past cruises. The musicals not so much, old songs and very much cruise cheesy but still fun. The ship also rescued a sailboater in distress in the middle of the Atlantic, rescue mission and we didn't even skip a beat on our way to Bermuda! All crew members were pleasant and never showed that they were overworked; senior officers were personable and engaging from the time we boarded the ship until the moment we stepped off the ship. Read this review, look forward to your cruise, then enjoy your vacation!

I will go back on a cruise to Bermuda in the blink of an eye, not sure if will go back through Norwegian, I was disappointed with the accomodations, however the overall trip was wonderful

i never received my on board credit, and my birthday was wrong on the system i was not able to use 2 days of my drinking package, i was not happy!!! 

I have been on 5 cruises thru norwegian and the Dawn was the worst one ever, I felt as though I was on a retiree ship, it was too laid back compared to the others. the Cruise Director and crew weren't personable nor outgoing like on the Getaway and Breakaway. if you are looking for a cruise to just lay back and rst then this is the ship, but of if u like shows and many activites this wouldn't be your ship. the lines to wait for buffet is hurendous. the best part of the cruise was Bermuda and the Butler and stateroom attendee Gian and Alfredo.