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About Your Ship: Norwegian Dawn

14 Night Caribbean Escape
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Departs Boston aboard Norwegian Cruise Line – Norwegian Dawn

Sailing Date(s): November 1, 2013


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	Average Norwegian Dawn Rating



	SORT BY: Most Recent \| Positive \| Negative \| Helpful 1 - 10 of 89 \| Next 10 >
	Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 18 - 29 Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Inside Worst Cruise Ever by Natalie W from Boston Sailing date: May 2012 Pros: Bermuda Cons: The staff constantly trying to get more money out of you. This cruise line focuses on getting more money out of its customers. The activities are terrible and any that you might be interested in will cost you money. Their idea of free activities include basketball, open chess play, visiting the library, and seminars pushing the activities you must pay for. Very disappointing and BORING. I felt like every time I turned around another waitor was bringing me the wrong more expensive drink or shoving raffle tickets in my face trying to make money at the little free activities they had. You even have to pay for yoga and pilaties. Terrible. They only raffle away a hand full of prices after making thousands from the tickets. The worst part, their ATM broke conveniently after we docked at the island. Problem? You MUST have cash to get off the dockyard. After blowing all of our cash in the casino out of pure boredom on the boat, we tried to get more before deboarding, little did we know. Be ready to either spend a lot of money on board or just lay out in the sun if the weather permits it. If you have bad weather like us, you're in for a long trip. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dirty used cups found under our bed and an old drink of soem kind left in the fridge from the last cruisers. Very gross. Dining/Food Two main buffets and 2 restaurants (that no one even told us about until day 5). Bring pants and something other than flip-flops. Stateroom Quality See "Quality" above Ship Staff Quality Other than the rude women working in the casino that literally laugh at you when you asked to take out less than the minimum $100 cash (casino not opened when docked), the service from some other staff wasn't too bad. Entertainment & Activities A couple of good shows, but don't expect them to start on time. 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: 7+ cruises Traveler Type: Family w/older children Stateroom Type: Balcony worst experience ever by A Traveler from Philadelphia Sailing date: Mar 2010 Pros: nothing Cons: food, room Stinky toilet Only 1 free restaurant, 9 others charge cover charges (5 free and 5 charge on Jewel 3 years ago). Cover changes are $15 - $25 now instead of $10 - $15. Same menu every day except one new entre in the free restaurant. No more cilantro or green scallions after first 30 minutes for soup in buffet area. Even Refuse to replenish when asked for. No buffet from 4:30 5:30 pm (when most people back on ship). Really bad ice scream. Annoying promotion/sales announcement all day. Leaking ceiling in hall way and restaurant. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food Stateroom Quality Ship Staff Quality Entertainment & Activities Nightly show is pretty good. But just 1 hour out of 24. Children's Programs 8 out of 12 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 18 - 29 Cruise Experience: First cruise Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Inside take a different cruise line! by A Traveler from Kalamazoo, MI Sailing date: Jan 2010 Pros: not having to work Cons: the activities, the food( you had to pay extra for better food and even then it wasn't anything wonderful), the staff was not helpful or friendly, it was completely disorganized, there weren't any fun activities to do for adults besides gambling, the hot tubs were not hot! This was my first cruise and I had somewhat high expectations from friends who had gone on other crises, unfortunatly I won't be going on another cruise because of this trip. Getting on the ship was like finding your way through a maze and there were staff standing around not willing to help. Most of the staff spoke broken english at best and were not friendly. The weather was horrible, which is not the ships fault, but there were not enough fun things to do inside if the weather is bad, unless you like to gamble which I don't. The ship advertised a dance room for all night, but it was geared towards teens and the music they played was horrible. Drinks were very expensive, food was hospital quality at best. The sushi was horrible, and you would think being in the middle of the ocean you would have good fish. The best meals we had were at the Cagneys Steak house and you had to pay an extra $35 a person to eat there, and you can't eat all you want like other places, so not worth it because portions are very small. The inside stateroom was fine, but we had problems getting our room made up and towels replaced. Also the two days we were at port there was not enough time to really explore the islands, I found that other ships were docked a lot longer than ours was and limited time really makes it stressful to get back on ship on time and you can't enjoy the place. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food I did like that you didn't need reservations and could eat at any time. Stateroom Quality we were at the very front of the ship and it was a very long walk to get to anything else on the ship. Ship Staff Quality Entertainment & Activities LAME 3 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: Could be a better cruise by A Traveler from NYC Sailing date: Mar 2013 Pros: the itenerary Cons: the service The ship was nice but there was never enough pool chairs and the restaurant hours closed to early. Room service selection was terrible. Ship Details: Ship Quality some hallways and elevators smelled like vomit Dining/Food Stateroom Quality a little small Ship Staff Quality SHore excursion people lied to me to try and buy their over priced excursions. When we got off the same excursion cost half or less than half as much. The lady at the guest service did not help me and said there was nothing to do and no manager on duty Entertainment & Activities Best part of the cruise! 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 18 - 29 Cruise Experience: 2 - 3 cruises Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Oceanview Subpar service by Stefanie B from Portland, ME Sailing date: Oct 2011 Pros: The island of Bermuda. Cons: The food and service of the staff was terrible. The ship was nice but the staff was not friendly, a lot of them seemed to have poor attitudes. The people at the front desk did not speak very good English and were always questioning everything said to them. It took 3 and 4 times of repeating before they understood what we were saying. The food was terrible. I would not suggest the specialty restaurants because the food is not much different from the main dining. One example is that the "Rib Eye" steaks were about 1/8 of an inch thick and did not contain any bone for flavor. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food See review above. Stateroom Quality Bedding and towels had yellow stains on them and we went without a top sheet for 3 days on our bed. A top sheet was only put on once we complained at the front desk. Ship Staff Quality See above review. Entertainment & Activities Read this user's port of call reviews: King's Wharf, Bermuda Collapse List of Ports Ports of Call: King's Wharf, Bermuda Hamilton is a must see. That is the only city we were able to visit. Horseshoe Bay Beach is a definite see. The scenery was absoultely beautiful! I heard from other passengers that St. Georges wasn't all that great. It's a very old city and not much to see. Don't Miss: Horseshoe bay Beach 3 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: 4 - 6 cruises Traveler Type: Family w/young children Stateroom Type: Oceanview Worst cruise so far by Leonid K. from Fair Lawn, NJ Sailing date: Jun 2010 Pros: Bermuda Cons: Penny-saving policies of the NCL That was our 4th cruise and first one with NCL. Based on our excitement of previous trips our friends had decided to celebrate their 20th anniversary at the Norwegian Dawn. Unfortunately, after this trip I am not sure if our friends are going to cruise again - so many disappointments we had experienced. Most of the things we got frustrated with must be NCL policies compared to other cruise lines we'd been to. I will try to describe them below. 1) Rooms. Our party included me, my wife, our 20 years daughter and 10-years old son. We had outside cabin with large window. The room was very small. There were 2 single beds on the sides and one folding out bunk bed. The bed for the fourth person was set between two single beds making one 3-people surface. Pretty awkward setup when you have 20-years old daughter in your party. Our friends' room was one with the balcony. It was so small even for 3 people. When their beds were prepared for sleep there was almost no way to get to the balcony. 2) Restaurants. There were 2 restaurants (large Venetian and smaller Aqua) and 2 cafes included in price of the cruise. On the first day of the cruise it took us 3 hours to dine (including an hour of waiting in line). When we complained, we were told that it's "free style cruising" and therefore to avoid lines we have dine at "unpopular" times. At the same time there were 7 or 8 restaurants with cover charge (usually from $15 to $25 per person) which were promoted by NCL staff at every corner of the ship. Most of those restaurants stayed completely empty for the duration of our trip. Imagine how much precious ship space those useless restaurants took 2) Food. Cafes Food quality was OK. But variety of food was very mediocre. Exact same menu every day within seven days is not what we expected for. By some strange reason Ice cream had to be given out by the cruise staff member and that always caused lines. The only drinks included all the time - tea and coffee. No soda for free whatsoever. Free juices only included at breakfast. Glass cover above the food counter was set out so far, that it was extremely inconvenient to get any food located far from the edge of the counter. Restaurants. Food quality was OK. Service was on a slow side. Taste wise the food was very mediocre, absolutely nothing to be excited about. 3) Duty free shop takes a hefty part of the ship. Never seen it's been that big on other ships. 4) Pool - extremely small for 2000 guests. Never enough lounge chairs. $25 deposit to get a towel by the pool. Jacuzzis were always full and no staff managed rotation of people in there. 5) NCL collects $12 per person per day as a service charge. For our party it was $350 for the duration of the cruise - pretty good tips in my opinion. But getting food to the room, for example, was not free. Waiters on the ship sell drinks so aggressively that for 10 minutes of sitting with a bottle of beer I was asked by about 10 of them if I want more. Nobody seemed to manage them. 6) No ESPN and therefore no World Cup 2010 coverage huge disappointment. Sports bar had only ESPN2 channel showing college baseball or something similar. The bar was empty for 7 days. 7) Personnel on the ship was friendly, but pretty unsmiling. There was no atmosphere of celebration which I always felt on my previous trips. I will not going to cruise with NCL again. Ship Details: Ship Quality Moving around the ship is not very convenient. Pool area is extremely small and always overcrowded. Dining/Food 2 included restaurants against 8 you have to pay for. Stateroom Quality Extremely small room. Very inconvenient setup for 4 people. Ship Staff Quality Very good people, but very unsmiling. No "going above at beyond" at all. Entertainment & Activities Read this user's port of call reviews: King's Wharf, Bermuda Collapse List of Ports Ports of Call: King's Wharf, Bermuda 23 out of 28 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 65+ Cruise Experience: 4 - 6 cruises Traveler Type: Singles/friends Less than perfect cruise experience. by Shirley from Bainbridge, N.Y. Sailing date: Dec 2006 Pros: Staterooms with balcony & chairs. Boarding experience lengthy; lunch not available day of boarding. No help in navigating ship to acclimate first-time cruiser to what and where things were. Ship Details: Entertainment & Activities Entertainment: Excellent. 0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: 2 - 3 cruises Traveler Type: Couple Not what I expected. by Russ from USA Sailing date: Jan 2007 Pros: The friendliness of the staff. The embarkment took way too long. The food on the ship was nothing short of horrible. Sometimes, I didn't even know what they were serving. The only good food on the entire ship was at Cagney's. Ship Details: Entertainment & Activities 0 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 50 - 65 Cruise Experience: 2 - 3 cruises Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Oceanview The crew is outstanding! by A Traveler from Cleveland, OH Sailing date: Apr 2013 Pros: The friendliness and cleanliness Cons: Air conditioning was set too low, I froze most of the time. Buffet food was below standard. The crew was awesome. Friendly and at your beckon command. Although some of the beverage servers were too persistant. The ship was pristine. Very clean and tidy.Some of the areas could use an update though. Ship Details: Ship Quality Very clean. Dining/Food I was disappointed in the buffet. However we ate at both restaurants that were included in the price, their food was several levels above the buffet quality. I would definately recommend eating at the restaurants. Stateroom Quality Ship Staff Quality Superior! Entertainment & Activities Wonderful. Not disappointed. We went to every show and they were wonderful. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: 4 - 6 cruises Stateroom Type: Inside A Great Vacation by Chris C from Toronto, Ontario, Canada Sailing date: Dec 2012 Pros: Destinations were great! Weather was great! Cons: Food was ok. Ship was older Unfortunate that there was only 1 pool - too busy to find a lounge chair. Older layout of the ship makes you go through too many rooms/bars to get to where you want to go. The food was disappointing - ok, but I've had better on many other cruises. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food Stateroom Quality Ship Staff Quality Entertainment & Activities Children's Programs 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful?
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