Norwegian Dawn Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Bad food mediocre serivce and total confusion at debarkcation. The enterment was good the only bright spot on this cruise.Been on 14 cruises and this was about as bad as it gets.

Everything aboard met my expectations.  Staff was excellent in service and friendliness.  Very serious problems with the quality of food especially the food served on the buffets.  Otherwise had a great adventure with many friends.

Very good name for this cruise. Nothing about it was nice. I reserved a suite, which turned out to be nothing more than a balcony room. We spent the entire weekend with no room service. We couldn't even get our ice bucket filled. We never saw our room stewart, until we had to demand clean towels ,on Saturday , for our room. We never ate in a dining room , because Norwegian has what is known as free style cruising. We had to wait for at least an hour to have dinner. We chose the buffet , which was the worse we ever experienced on any cruise. Outside of all that , I'm grateful the cruise was only for 2 nights. Probably never cruise on NCL again.

This ship was okay but nothing spectacular.  We booked a penthouse suite so had excellent service in our cabin.  The dining room was not as good as previous cruises.  I have been on over 20 NCL cruises.  Since Freestyle Dining was introduced, they are less attentive.  They seemed to rush you through your meal; some nights we were out in 1 hour with all courses.  Had to continually ask for water, butter, bread and cream.

This was the 2nd trip on the Norweigan Dawn for my husband and I so we knew the ship pretty well and how things were run. Going in October was a little disappointing as it was cloudy and cool on the way to Bermuda, so being at the pool was okay. Coming back we hit a patch of rough seas and also it rained and was cold in the 50s on the return voyage. So once again we had to stay inside the boat. Bermuda was beautiful, sunny and fun to explore. We had not gone to St. George on our last trip, so this was a priority for us to see. Was nice but we prefer the more hustle and bustle of Hamilton with the shops, people and also Horseshoe Bay. We love Bermuda and would go back again. The highlight of our cruise was the Rising Sun Cataran trip. We snorkled, tried our skills on kayaks and my husband did the standing on the paddle board. The crew was great, gave us a scenic tour and we had a bunch of fun people with us. Unfortunately the 2nd day of trip my husband got a stomach bug and then I got it on the last day to see Bermuda (Tuesday). We both recovered but it put a damper in our trip. Also we were excited to try Cagney's Steakhouse as we missed the chance last time on the boat. The restaurant is lovely and the food was good, but our service was horrible. The waiter was so unattentive to us that I had to ask the hostess to clear our plates while we waited almost an hour for our food to arrive and then my steak was uncooked. Not an experience I would do again especially paying an extra $30 pp. Our cabin steward was awesome and the comedian, Tim Kapinski, was so funny!  The shows need to be updated as 2 years later they were the same. Jose and Patti duo were awesome and did a Neil Diamond salute. Overall our experience was good. The food was okay and if you go, go in September not October.

the state room was nice. room stward was good. the food was above avg. the rest of the service was fair. dining your way had alot of rules we were not told about . if we were told about these rules we would have pack accordly.   

Beautiful ship.  Good food.  We enjoyed "Free Style Cruising".  The restaurants were all very good.  We didn't mind paying a token amount to dine at one of the optional restaurants.

The ports chosen were good with the exception of Cornerbrook.  Not much to do there except go to Walmart.

The only downsides:

                    1. Service in the Venetian was somewhat slow.

                     2. Paying a $15.00 Corkage fee for wine brought onboard was             .

                         insulting.  They go through your luggage like you are a common

                         criminal, all in the name of greed. (That fee is charged even if  

                         the wine is consumed in your stateroom.)  Not very classy...

                     3. The entertainment was subpar.  It was much better on other on

                         other ships we have been on.

I would not go on a cruise again because of the following:

-At no time was I ever informed about the fact that the cabin that I chose was under a kitchen and found it impossible to sleep because of the all night noise. Dragging and clattering by the crew was deafening and I think that honest representation of that fact would have been more professional.

-I was informed that because I had never cruised before that I was to expect a packet of ship credits up to, $250 which never came and was never acknowledged that anyone knew anything about

-for a nice a reputation I believed Norweign to have had and for all the variety of food, I found the quality particularly poor. Great attempts were made to prepare the food well and label it as upscale but over steamed fish or meat is still over steamed and made poor. Likewise, Belgian and French chocolate is nothing when its got a lot of additives, hydrogenated shortening and chemicals to make it stand all night. The quality of the food was not something that would ever enduce me to cruise again with this line.

-if entertainment could be scheduled then so could some sort of education, lectures on the area, history etc.

-I found it cheap to always be trying to sell something rather than simply have the class about facials, foot health, exercise etc.

-getting off the boat for day trips was chaotic and wearing, standing in long lines and then being lead from one side of the boat to another was silly

Cruising once is too often to attempt any further interest

I will however say that I found the crew, the young men and women who were making such great effort to do their jobs vacuuming, making up cabins, clearing tables etc. to be most professional, courteous and pleasant.

After cruising with Carnival for my last five cruises, I convinced the family to return to what I had remembered fondly of the Norwegian experience.  Unfortunately I found the old ways of Norwegian to be absent and my disappointment grew each day of the cruise.

There was nobody to greet us on the ship, only the pier crew along the way.  Absent was the smiling crewmember to welcome us aboard and send us in the general direction of our cabin.

Once aboard we discovered that they had already conducted the emergency lifeboat drill and we were required to attend a makeup drill the following day.  Seriously, when did they start doing lifeboat drills before everyone is onboard?  We were made to feel as if we were juvenile delinquents for missing the drill.

Spa service was very unprofessional and when confirming that they had indeed already added an 18% "service charge" to the bill, I was told straight to my face that the "service charge" was "not a tip".  I added an additional $10.00 tip to my bill and later inquired at guest services exactly what the 18% "service charge" was for.  Their response (after confirming with the spa manager) was that IT WAS THE TIP!  Telling me a lie, straight to my face, is one thing.  When you attach that lie to a monetary transaction, it becomes a crime.  The spa manager made things right, however I spoke with several people on the cruise who had the same experience.

The White Hot Party was a total dud.  The band played for 30 minutes and then left us with the comment that the party wasn't over  yet - that they had the best DJ's at sea.  The DJ never showed up and only after complaining at guest services did they do something.  The band returned an hour later when everyone had already left.  There were 9 of us left to enjoy the White Hot Party.

Getting off the ship was a carnival in itself.  What was extremely annoying was the fact that in Saint John there were no taxis or other type of transportation at the dock.  We were told by several people that all the taxis and shuttle busses were at the other pier tending to the two bigger ships which were in port.  We were truly made to feel like second class people.  All this only after we missed the tide and got stuck waiting for the right tide to be able to enter the port.  Seriously?

Do you see a trend here?  This is not the type of customer service I had so fondly remembered of Norwegian.

We took the Dawn out of Boston for the 4th time. We love this trip, it's easy and convenient for us to go out of Boston and we love Bermuda. We went on the Dawn the first year she was in service and loved it. BUT, it seems the food quality is getting less and less and the entertainment (with no offense to Jose and Patti) needs to be changed out. Jose and Patti are great entertainers the first time you see them, even the second time around, the third time they're okay but the fourth time is just "old". There were alot ALOT of people on this trip for their third and fourth time and they were feeling the same way. We also noticed that the photographers were a little less knowledgeable about how to take pictures than on previous trips. Other than that, all in all it's always a fun trip, and we got an extra night in Bermuda because of the storm. Next time tho' I think we're heading to NY and the Caribbean. Happy Sailing!

My wife and I had a great time on the Norwegian Dawn and in Bermuda. Even though our last day was a little chaotic due to the remnents of the tropical storm. We will certainly be returning to Bermuda in the future. Our time on the island was just too short to see all we wanted to. We would also travel on the Dawn again if the opportunity arose. The ship is beautiful and the crew most helpful and friendly. The food and entertainment are on a par equal to all other cruises that we have been on. We would also like to say that we especially enjoyed the singers Patti and Jose. They performed every night and we attended all of those perfomances. We would recommend this trip to all.

I wasn't crazy about the dining choices, both restaurants offered the same menu choice just about every night. The choice of the menu buffet was not that great either. I ordered chicken one night and I did not expect the chicken pieces to be a leg and thigh, but this is what I got! Food at best was ok. The atrium of the ship was pretty but the balcony cabin was a bit small in comparison to my other cruises I have been on with a different cruise line. Room service was great and the entertainment of Patti and Jose was wonderful! Not sure if I would give this cruise line another try, will see.

I would recommend this cruise. However I found the balcony staterooms to be extremely small, and although there were dinner specials on the menu I found that there was not enough of a variety to pick from.

A great cruise and wonderful ship!! This was my 9th cruise on various cruise lines and it was one of the best! We really enjoyed the great entertainment and food. Wonderful cruise!

It was a more relaxed cruise than we have ever been on. I like the "free style" cruising...you can do what you want...when you want. I like the fact that you could dress up or down for dinner. We had a great time and our room steward was fantastic and called us by name. Everything was perfect (well maybe the room could have been a bit bigger and set up differently (we had three people and the extra bed made it hard to get out onto the balcony. But, we worked with it!

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE LAST NIGHT THEATER SHOW PRODUCTION AND NOT HAVING A BALCONY CABIN ,ALL WENT WELL .FOOD AT SPECIALTY RESTAURANTS[CAGNEYS & LE BISTRO] WERE VERY RIGHT ON. WE FEEL THAT THE SERVICE FOR BREAKFAST IN THE DINNING ROOM WAS VERY SLOW AND NOT GIVEN MUCH ATTENTION TO THE GUESTS. WE ALSO NOTICED THAT THERE WAS UNDER STAFING.OUR ROOM WAS ADEQUITE BUT TO VIEW THE OUTSIDE,WE HAD TO STAND ON THE BED.WE ALSO HAD A PROBLEM WITH OUR TOILET SEVERAL TIMES

this was our first cruise and I was very pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed most aspects of the cruise except the crowds. Food was fine, room was small but the balcony made it more spacious, services were very good, there was a lot to do during time at sea, Overall I enjoyed the cruise. I'd do it again someday.

My personal experiance for Dawn was pretty good, but it not what I had thought it would be. Food... EXCELLENT, you can enjoy great food 24 hours, but seem that Dawn was 90% forcus on food. If you love to eat and do nothing else, then this would be the cruise for you. Activties are somewhat limited... the weather over the Atlantic is breeze, but the Dawn does not have much or any indoor activities (like indoor swimming with out paying for extra). We have couple of windy days with nothing to do (no hot tubs :~). We ended up walking around and staying in the room and watch tv. The Nightly show was GREAT. I really enjoy it and highly recommand that you watch every shows. Overall, it meet my 2 major requirements.. is strees free and travel free.

Nice boat, great people but poor value. Drinks were outrageously priced (dont bother with the soda card either) and even though you have to pre-pay gratuities you still feel like you have to tip the entire time (I bet Norwegian pockets the pre-paid gratuities). The Shore Excursions were a total rip off (just get off the boat and ask the Bermudian Traffic Officer how to get were you want to go). Finally the boat was just too crowded and the fellow passengers were very rude (although they were probably just trying to get the most bang for their buck too).

My husband and I took this cruise to celebrate our 25th anniversary.It was our 1st cruise and we liked the idea of leaving from Boston. Everything exceeded our expectations.We bought the anniversary gift pack,so when we arrived in our room we had a dozen long stemmed roses,a bottle of sparkling win and chocolate covered strawberries.It was a great start. I was surprised by how large our stateroom was,with a nice balcony to sit out on.The only drawback was our noisy neighbors.We also purchased the ultimate beverage package so we knew what our bill would be at the end.On Bermuda we got the 2 day ferry and bus pass and had fun taking the ferry into Hamilton, shopping then taking a bus to the beach.At the end of the cruise disembarking couldn't have been easier.There was always fun things to do on the ship and we will cruise again in the future.