Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We had a wonderful experience on the Dawn. The embarkment was smooth with friendly staff moving us along efficiently. We had an inside cabin 11027 it met our needs with plenty of closet space. The entertainment was very good,  The staff couldn't have been better! We only had to wait once for seating in the Venetian, and then we were given a glass of champaign. A very nice gesture as we had not made reservations.   I would carefully consider the hidden fees before booking another NCL cruise. Having to pay extra for the use of the lap pool and upper lounge, and buying tickets to attend the game shows I found disturbing and did not purchase them! I will forewarn friends wanting to cruise that they will incu hidden fees. I felt a 15% gratuity for a drink a little stiff. I was impressed with the cleanliness of the ship and the friendly way to start your day with "washy, washy, happy, happy   We were delayed disembarking due to extreme fog, for us this was a good thing as our flight was later in the day & felt bad for those waiting to start there venture! Thank you crew for a very pleasant week.

I would recommend Norwegian Cruise line and the Dawn Cruise ship.  The ship crew was fantastic and made sure that our cruise was the best.  our state room 12030 was great.  We liked the stops in Houndorus, Belieze and costa maya.  Cosamel you felt like the voltures were attacking you to get you into their stores.  

I thought the communication was lacking for the whole line, There was not a safety drill done on the first day after the scorching start at the dock. Then the only partial info was on the daily papers or what you could find on the TV, Happy the hand sanitizer was well used.  I thought the excursions would have been explained in more detail. Would like to have had the upgrade info before we boared to know where we were assigned. We were on the front of the ship & when the thrusters were started it was a bit of a start.

Only 1 complaint, when we had to wait outside in Tampa in line because our ship had a fog delay comeing in we all had to stand outside in the sweltering sun, someone should have been out there passing out water, it was very hot, extremely uncomfortable, and we were out there toooo long.

The acutal cruise and entertainment and food A++++++++++, tell Aerial Jacobe the piano player in the Gatsby lounge he made our trip very rememorable, he was awesome!  Always a smile on his face and we loved the sing a longs, we couldn't get enough of him & whinned when he had a night off.  Cabin staff Putu a wonderful man, great service.  The dining and food and service was all top notch, I would do this trip again!  Tell Aerial Jacobe to play Uptown Girl for us on his next cruise!

We have been on many other cruises in the past mostly Royal Caribeann, was not that impressed with NCL.  Free styling cruising is not for us, I don't think you should have to wait in line in order to eat.  The food in both the main dining and the buffet was just fair. The shows were just fair, entertaining, but not great.  The pool was small for all the people on board.  Didn't feel it was an over friendly crew.  Our room was always kept very clean and not a bad size, there was plenty of storage and the shower was great. I might of seen our room steward maybe twice.  We did receive a bottle of wine and chocolate overed stawberries in our room from them, so that was a nice gesture.  Over all I wasn't that impressed with the cruise, not sure if I would try NCL again.

We enjoyed the cruise although we have been to the Caribbean before on this same cruise.  Newcomers would probably enjoy it more than we did.  We were disappointed to find out on the last morning (when our bill arrived) that we had been given $50 in onboard credit.  No one told us that we had this so we didn't spend all of it.  We had a couple of drinks, but we would have had others had we known about the credit.  We have now learned to ask at the Guest Services counter about any onboard credit at the beginning of a cruise.  This was very disappointing considering we did go to the Guest Services desk about a couple of other items.  All in all the trip went well.  We had enough time in each port so as to enjoy either an excursion or just our free time to wander around.  There wasn't as much variety in the food in the dining room or on the buffet as on other cruise lines, but it was all good food.  We were wondering  why we had to request cookies; they were rarely put on the buffet line so as to help ourselves.  Someone behind the food lines had to get cookies except for two or three different times.    

We have cruised Norwegian before, but were not all that impressed.  We decided to give them another try and we are glad we did.  People were friendly, food was great, and the entertainment very good.  The only negative iwas a few areas of the ship showed some wear and tear, but none was bad and they were always doing maintenance to keep things in order.

Most every aspect of this NCL cruise was mediocre, incuding food quality, entertainment, and service.  The most unpleasant aspect of the cruise was the dependably-long lines for the main dining hall at the evening meal.  Because of the long lines, beepers were routinely handed out with an up to 40 minute wait.  It appeared that NCL was wanting to encourage patrons to pay for one of many specialty restaurants.  We did back-to-back cruises with Carnival and, unfortunately, found that NCL paled in comparison.  

I allways been with Royal Careben Cruises ( 5 times), and nothing whent wrong. My time with Norweigian ( Dawn)  I had nothing to do during  the time that I had on the cruise.  At night was  the worse time ever, once againg nothing to do at all.

Entertainment was amusing and of good quality, except for Saturday Night Live which was awful and Liar, Liar where language was a little offensive.

I missed the theme nights and the formal nights found on other cruises.  Due to the weather, the Cafe was always crowded.  Enjoyed the variety of restaurants and quality of the shops.  Found the dress of many of the passengers quite poor and shabby.  Likely a cheaper free style cruise so attracted those that didn't care how they looked.

The only reason I give the cruise such a low score, and rate them so harshly is because this was my vacation, and I expect to be given even a little bit of respect. The crew on this ship seem disgruntled, and clearly hate their jobs.  It shows in their work performance and the way they treat customers.  First of all, their billing was messed up.  We bought a romance package several months prior, and for some reason they weren't reflecting that properly on our bill.  When we got massages that were on the prepaid romance package, the spa charged us for the massage again and we had to go through an ordeal to get it fixed.  Also, the guest services desk was always packed and there were only ever 2 representatives helping customers at a time.  There were 5 slots with computers for representatives. Piss poor planning on their part!  Our biggest ordeal was how the shore excursions staff handles problems.  The night before our arrival in Belize where we were scheduled for two boat dives, everything seemed fine.  We returned to our room at about 11:30 and wanted to get to bed for an active day following.  We woke up bright and early, dive gear in hand, and on our door was a note notifying us that the tour was cancelled due to mechanical issues.  We were upset of the late notice, because that drastically changes our day, we had nothing planned and everything was booked up.  So we went to the shore excursions desk making sure we got a refund and explained how poorly this was handled.   They didn't even try to help us set something else up. We were banking on two dives!  (Which by the way, once we were in Belize city all of the dive shops were already booked out for the day, so no diving was possible).  Ok, so when we showed that we were disappointed the staff simply said "what am I supposed to do about it?" And she continuously sighed and acted as if irritated with our interaction, and we weren't yelling or carrying on, we were calmly asking questions and showing that we were disappointed.  No help was given.  We complained to customer service, and got all call from the shore excursions desk a day later.  The manager was also defensive and asking "what can I do?  I can't do anything!"  I told her that we weren't upset because of the tour being cancelled, we were upset with the treatment we were receiving from the shore excursions desk.  She said sorry and after I gave her a long speech about being patient with customers and not acting inconvenienced when someone asks a question, she felt guilty for her behavior and said "I will credit you $10 to your account so you can use the 75cent per minute computer lab to research dive shops in your next port of call."  Gee thanks.  A bottle of wine and an apology would have sufficed.  Then she says, "here's tickets to a beach in Cozumel.  You have to pay your own transportation, which is $35 per person round trip.  Also, if you want to do anything there it's extra."  It was garbage.  Really?  That's what you offer?  There's nothing free about it.  We pay $70 + for something we don't want to do?  Thanks for nothing!  Needless to say, we are truly unhappy with what happened.  We loved cruising prior to this experience, but we won't be going on a cruise for our next vacation.  They actually turned us off from cruising!  And it's a shame, because the food they had was wonderful.  Very well done in the restaurant and bar category.  Anyways, if you consider Norwegian, don't!  Go to the cruise line that gives a hoot if you enjoy your vacation, Royal Caribbean International!  The best!

Ports of call are interesting -- overall a good experience.

Very efficient -- cabin is very clean as are the public dining areas.

Entertainment is average and designed to appeal to a wide variety of tastes.

We were a party of 4 and enjoyed spending Christmas together.  The cruise was our way of accomplishing it.  The food was mediocre at best, and we were not served the food we ordered.  The waiters weren't interested in pleasing us, but were trying to hurry us through our meals in order to seat the next guests.  We had one superb server, and wished we had been at her table every night.  The choices of food were not varied enough either.  The ship was very noisy, and we couldn't find any quiet place on the ship where we could sit and talk with each other except the library, which is an inside room with no view of the ocean.  The music on the deck around the pool area was played at the loudest deceibel possible and all the time.  There was one server who was a jewel and really took care of us.  I saw the room steward once briefly the day we boarded and the other 3 of my party never saw him.  We would not go on Norwegian Cruise Lines again.  Cruises Only booked us on shore trips which we couldn't use because of time restraints; the early one we couldn't get off the ship in time to make it and the afternoon ones we were told that the ship would leave without us because we couldn't get back in time.  We will also NEVER use Cruises Only again.

We have used NCL on a number of occasions and have generally found the food in the "buffet" area to be quite good.  We were very disappointed by the quality of food on this trip.  It seemed that the menu changed very, very little from day-to-day.  We were amazed that the ice cream machine was always busy because it was always working so very slow.  Another soft serve ice cream machine would be a good investment for NCL.  The food in the Venetian was very good for dinner.  I was amazed at how much breading could be added to a small piece of fish to create a "fish and chips" entree in one of the restaurants.

Ports visited were excellent!  Espcially enjoyed Belize and Costa Maya.  Unfortunately, most  excursions centered on snorkeling, swimming, etc.  Not my strong suits.  On-board entertainment and activities were not the best.  The theater shows were not well executed and singers left a lot to be desierd.  Other activities were limited.  I never knew so much time could be devoted to art auctions on board ship, but that was not my interest.  Cabins were  much smaller than expected!  There were three of us sharing a balcony stateroom, and we had NO room to move when the sofa bed was extended--would have preferred a bunk if that would give us more room.  Also, the beds, especially the sofa bed, were extremely uncomfortable.  Otherwise, the cruise was fun.

this cruise was so bad  we will never cruise again on that cruise line an that is a fact we will never cruise on that cruise line again we will go back to our other cruise line its rooms were great an its rooms were big an the food was great . it was a real bad trip for us altogether.

Nice ship and itinerary.  Enjoyed the smaller size of the ship in comparrison to the mega ships of today.  Liked the days at sea first and last with the ports in between.  This gave you the first and last day to relax and enjoy the ship.  Enjoyed the ports of call with totally different things to do in each port.  Staff was very friendly.

Overall, very good.  We did not have any issues boarding the ship but I know that people were complaining about really long lines and waiting in the hot sun.  They should probably assign boarding times that are more specific.  The staff was very friendly, except the bartenders seemed to get grumpy as the week went on.  The food was wonderful.  The entertainment was good and you could always find something to do.  Disembarking was a breeze.

overall experience was very poor.  will not use or recommend to family or friends. food was some of thee poorest in 10 cruises on other cruises. the entertainment on sea days was very boring. the only truly eenjoyment was thr room stewart was was most accomodating and always happy and helpful.  the ladies with the ''happy,happy,washy,washy' were very irritating and numerous individuals stated so.  ??spray bottles for bacterial wash---really!!

This was my second cruise, and I was very disappointed in my experience. I had previously cruised with Carnival, and although its at a lower price point, I had a much better experience with Carnival. 

One of the biggest issues that I had was that NCL canceled my reservation roughly 30 days before the cruise, and I was unaware. It took 3 hours of being on hold, and lots of frusterating conversations to get my reservation reinstated. 

Once on the boat, I quickly realized that most, if not all staff on the boat were inexperienced, and not helpful in making my trip enjoyable. Every time I asked a staff person a question, they would always say, "Let me check". NCL needs a different training model. Having a boat full of new employees during the Thanksgiving holiday is not a very smart strategy. 

Below are a list of complaints. The only thing positive I can say about the cruise is that the quality of the food was good. 

 - Beds were hard, and pillows were lumpy

 - The dining rooms could not accomodate a large party (there were 15 of us traveling together)

 - The service in the dining rooms was HORRIBLE. Orders were incorrect, and the time it took to get food was very long. 

 - Wait staff did not make an effort to get to know any of our family

 - The spa was very limiting, and did not offer many services. 

 - There was not a disco / night club for dancing

 - Many of the public bathrooms were without papertowels and soap on the last night of the cruise, as well as the last day

 - Boarding was delayed, and the accomodations to wait to get on the boat were subpar. Checking in was great, getting on was horrible. 

 - Getting off of the boat took way too long. We did not start disembarking until 11amish, and it took forever.