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Norwegian Cruise Lines
Ship: Norwegian Dawn Cruise Review
7-Day Western Caribbean

Terry L. Rahmsdorff
Age: 57
Occupation: Attorney
Number of Cruises: 10
Sailing Date: October 30th, 2005

This was an 11-night cruise to the Western Caribbean. Because of the hurricanes in the region we weren’t sure exactly where we were going until we arrived at the pier. As it turned out, two of our ports were switched. We went to Costa Maya instead of Cozumel, and to Nassau, instead of NCL’s private island, Grand Stirrup Cay.

Let me quickly tell you a little about us. I’m a 57 year-old lawyer. My wife is 54 and in the finance industry. Our daughter is a 22-year old college graduate hoping to go to grad school in vocal performance.

Embarkation process/ Disembarkation process: This was our 10th cruise and this was by far and away the best for getting on and off the ship. We were told that the ship would be ready for boarding at 2:00 PM. We arrived at the pier around 1:40. Because they had an email address for us, all our documents arrived online. This meant we were not sent the luggage tags. They were provided at the pier and put on in moments and the luggage was whisked away. We were directed through customs and then checked in, photographed and given our key/cards. In less than 20 minutes of our arrival at the pier, we were sitting in our cabin. The luggage arrived at our door about 45 minutes later. Leaving the ship was even easier. We signed up for the carry it yourself procedure because we had a potentially tight flight connection. We docked in New York an hour early at 9 AM. We were in the first group to leave the ship about 35 minutes later and we were in a cab on the way to the airport before the ship was scheduled to dock. By the way the cab fare from the pier to Newark airport was only about $55 for three. I was pleasantly surprised.

Cabin: We had an ocean view cabin on deck 6 forward. There are only 4 cabins on all of deck 6, and they are conveniently located in an alcove between the casino and the Stardust Lounge showroom. The cabins are slightly smaller than on Celebrity or Holland America. There was adequate storage space, and even with a bunk bed, we were not horribly cramped except in the toilet area. Our bathroom was divided into three parts. The shower section was actually bigger than most ship showers I’ve seen. No need to soap the walls and spin. The sink area was pretty standard, but the toilet area was tiny. I, unfortunately, am not. (+/- 330 lbs.) There was a sliding door into a space slightly smaller than an airplane restroom. I literally had to squeeze in every time and I ended up loosing a button in the process. There was a normal sized public restroom down the hall next to the casino that I used when I could.

Our cabin stewards were wonderful. They helped with plug problems and left my daughter’s bunk bed down when she wasn’t feeling well. They made the most amazing selection of towel animals I’d seen, and they were never there when we didn’t want them to be.

Public rooms: The Dawn is a relatively new ship. It went into service in 2002. It has a bright color scheme and a very pleasant general appearance. The main atrium is especially attractive with glass elevators to see all the beauty. The many restaurants were nicely maintained, as were the bars and other public eating and drinking areas. The pool was pretty typical as well except that all the way aft, there was a delightful looking children’s area with special pools, slides, and a warm tub just for them. The Internet café was spacious and largely unused because of the prohibitive pricing. In fairness, this is not an issue specific to the Dawn or NCL. When we were in port, Internet access places were packed to the gills with people from all the ships checking their email etc. for $ 3.00 per hour as opposed to $45.00 per hour on board. I expect a more affordable technology for Internet at sea will come along soon.

Entertainment: The entertainment on the main stage was pretty much typical of cruise ship entertainment. There were some production nights, a very good magician, a hypnotist, some singers, dancers and comedians. The passenger talent show was better, and better attended than most because the possibility of a cruise ship employment was dangled in front of the contestants. The Norwegian Dawn stage band was a little below par for these type of cruises, but certainly not inadequate. In the smaller lounges were some very good entertainers. Probably the best was Fire and Ice. This lady was an entertainer; every performance had an intensity that just rocked the house.

Bingo aboard ship is big business. The cruise director’s staff host the bingo so I’ll include my comments in the entertainment section. Our family has enjoyed bingo on cruises on almost every cruise we’ve taken. Bingo aboard the Dawn was not very enjoyable. To begin with, the prices were through the roof. This has been aided by technology. I’m told other cruise lines have started using power bingo boards as well. All the player does is put in the number called, and the machine automatically checks each of the cards for that number. The machine tells you when you’re waiting for just one number. The machine tells you when you have bingo. While grandma could maybe check three cards at a time, the machine can check an infinite number. One sitting on the Dawn featured up to 24 cards on a power machine and some folks were using multiple machines. Of course having more game boards entitles the cruise line to charge more money. 24 boards on the machine cost $49.00. Worse, the more 3 board traditional push and fold cards were available at a cost of $29.00. While the prices went up, the prizes didn’t. To make a bad situation worse, the Dawn staff was not particularly good at bingo. They were hard to understand, used the tired old bingo jokes ad nauseum, and provided limited service when the power bingo boards allowed human error to come into play, as it was wont to do. If, for instance, I-44 was called, you simply needed to push 4 and then 4. From time to time only a single 4 registered, then you had 4 marked as called on all on your cards, but not 44. There wasn’t an easy way to void an entry; games were delayed while people were trying to straighten things out, and in toto, it was nowhere near the fun it used to be. Attendance appeared to drop. Even the jackpot game was poorly attended.

The Casino was one of the best I’d seen on a ship. There were ample table games and a good variety of slot machines in denomination from a penny up. Many of the machines operate without coins. You put a bill in and collect your winnings on a ticket the machine issues. You can take the ticket to the cashier and redeem it for cash, or you can put it into that machine or another machine. No more need to wait while someone comes with a heavy sack of coins from somewhere far away to pay your $6 winnings. No more having the slot machine indicating that it paid 800 nickels, while the cashier says that you’ve given him $ 39.90 worth of nickels. I’d like to see more penny and nickel machines, but this was a good selection and the staff was friendly and attentive.

There were also unexpected bright spots. All passengers were invited to join in a murder mystery dinner. Participation was limited to 250 people. We were divided into groups of 8, given a character, and a barebones script and sent to a regular dining room. It was the most fun we had on the entire trip. We played between courses, and tried to solve the murder. We laughed and distracted the rest of the dining room, but we solved the crime. Later we got to know our team as real people and discovered we had a judge, a defense lawyer and a psychiatrist on our team. Our teammates are among the people we met on the cruise with whom we’ll try to stay in touch.

Another unexpected bright spot was a series of 45- minute history lectures about the places to which we were heading. The speaker was Dr. Joyce Salisbury a Wisconsin college professor. Her style was clear and engaging. She had a wealth of information about a number of topics. One day she spoke about Columbus. It sure was different than what I thought I knew. The next day she spoke about the real pirates of the Caribbean. The next lecture was on the Mayans whose ruins we got to see. Each of these lectures gave me a new perspective on the region and the times.

The magician who entertained us, gave a free memory seminar. CD’s were available. I forget the price, but then I wasn’t buying. The hypnotist offered a free stop smoking clinic. There were some good unusual offerings on board to supplement the art auctions and spa gimmicks.

Food: Reviewing food on the Norwegian Dawn is complicated. NCL has a freestyle cruising system. You don’t have to be a dinner at 6:15 to eat with the same tablemates each evening. You can eat in any of a number of restaurants at any time between 5:30 and 10:00 PM. There is no obligation to dress for dinner any night. At least that’s the theory. On our 11-night cruise there were two optional formal evenings and most folks did dress somewhat. I suspect that this is a concession to the photo department, which makes lots of money on dress up nights. The other nights were listed as “resort casual”; no swim wear, shorts or jeans allowed in the dining rooms. That being said, my daughter showed up in jeans at one of the premium restaurants on board and no one said a word except her cranky old father.

I mentioned premium restaurants. This seems to be an evolving concept. It used to be that everyone ate in the main dining room. Various cruise lines started to have an alternative dining room. Then you paid extra to eat in the alternative dining rooms, then they raised the premiums, and now there are super premium entrees at the premium dining rooms. This is another way to enhance revenue for cruise lines.

This was our first experience with freestyle cruising. My wife and daughter went into the cruise favorably disposed to the concept of freestyle cruising. I had more reservations. My wife was just as happy to leave the wide selection of fancy clothes and jewelry at home. Our 22 year-old daughter enjoys dressing to the nines, but really liked the idea of having different places to eat. I was pleased with the venue choices and the flexibility in terms of time, but I had some concerns. I know how I like things and I appreciate the wait staff assuring that I get things just as I like them. I like it when the wait staff call me by name, and keep my iced tea glass full. I also like getting to really know new people and to hear about their adventures every day. In hindsight, there are trade-offs, but we’d book another freestyle cruise in a heartbeat.

Because our cruise was long enough, we got to have dinner almost everywhere. I’ll give you our thoughts on each of the venues, starting with the premium restaurants:

Cagney’s is billed as an old-fashioned steak house. It was the most expensive place on ship, but it was awfully good. The premium was $20 per person. If, for instance you ordered the 24 oz. Porterhouse or the 1.5 lb lobster you paid $25. The food and the service were comparable to a Morton’s; we enjoyed it! A

Bamboo is the Asian place. It was our single biggest disappointment on board. We love Asian food. The menu is varied from Indian, to Thai, to Japanese, to Chinese. My daughter thinks it was that breadth of cuisine that lead to failure. She may be right about the lack of focus. To be fair, there were flashes of superb food, but the bulk of what we ate, or, more accurately, left uneaten, ranged from bland to awful. Service was even worse. We ate later. There was a group of crew and officers at a table about 50 feet away. The wait staff was most attentive to their needs; the rest of the tables were an after thought. As we were being ignored, my wife was railing about a view of a mountain of dirty dinner plates piled directly in her line of sight. This was the only restaurant where a maitre’d didn’t come to see if everything was to our satisfaction. What a shame! I wanted to complain. After a lousy meal I was tempted to go to the officer’s table and give them my review. My wife wisely persuaded me to forego that action. I should also note that my wife and daughter went to the Sushi Bar at Bamboo one lunch. They report the conveyor belt sushi to have been a little below average, but nowhere near as dreadful as our dinner. There was a $15 per person charge for dinner and a $10 charge for all the sushi you could eat. Our dinner premium was the only premium charge that stuck in my craw. D

Le Bistro is the French restaurant. It features original masters by Monet, Picasso and others on the wall and the food is as good as the art. There was a foul up with one of our entrees and dinner was a bit delayed. The waiter kept us informed about the problem and we were not inconvenienced at all. We were close to Gatsby’s bar and were thoroughly entertained by pianist/singer Dan Hodge. Once it came, our meal was delightful. The sauces were superb and our chocolate fondue was the best I’d ever tasted. There is a $15 per person charge. A

The Organic Restaurant is another premium venue. It’s important to note that it is NOT VEGETARIAN, just organic. Meat was on the menu. My wife didn’t see any dinner entrée that tickled her fancy, so we ate elsewhere for dinner. My wife and daughter did eat there for breakfast and lunch and raved about the fresh taste; especially the fruits and berries.

There are other specialty restaurants that take reservations but charge no premium.

Salsa is the Tex-Mex place on board. My wife and daughter enjoyed their meal at Salsa more than I did. I suspect it had something to do with the raspberry flavored margaritas they kept downing. I found the food quite bland. They were very pleased with the tastes. We all agreed that the service was wonderful. B.

La Trattoria was one we put off trying. My daughter felt that because it was in a room where they did a lunch buffet, it wouldn’t be much good. She will now quickly admit that it was among the very best meals on the ship. The food was authentic, flavorful and plentiful. Our waiter, Felix was by far the best we had on this cruise. A

Impressions is located near Le Bistro and also features artwork—just not originals from the masters. It’s also very good food. It featured some of the same menus as the main restaurants, but we enjoyed it a bit more. A-

There were two main restaurants, the Venetian, and Aqua. The Venetian has a wonderful view from the aft end of the ship. We enjoyed the view when we got to have lunch there. The dinner experience at both the Venetian and Aqua were comparable to the main dining rooms on most cruise ships. The service was quite good-- much better than I expected given the tipping policy. B+

We never had dinner in the Garden Café buffet line. I met folks who enjoy buffets for dinner, but with the variety of quality choices available, it made no sense to me.

At breakfast, the Garden Cafe was about par for breakfast buffets on cruise ships. The Organic offered a very fine premium alternative. Lunch, unfortunately, was nowhere near as good. There are several choices of lunch buffets. There was a vegetarian buffet. I never tried it, and never talked to anyone who did. There was also the NY Deli. I’ve read other reviews that deride the NY Deli. They are correct. It is nothing like a real NY Deli. Most days the meat choice was ham, a lousy fatty salami, or a steam tray of pastrami. There was no roast beef, no corned beef. There was a pathetic selection of condiments. The only mustard choice looked like French’s yellow. There was no horseradish. Sadly, however, there were days when the NY Deli was still the best no premium choice for lunch. The Venetian was open for lunch about half the time. It provided a nice sit down meal. As previously mentioned Bamboo and the Organic did lunch at a premium.

Tipping: Because of the Freestyle system NCL simply add $10 per day for each person over age 13. This worked quite well for us.

Destinations: As I mentioned we were unsure about where we would be able to stop. Hurricanes Wilma and Beta had raked the Caribbean just before our departure. My original plan was to look at shore excursion on the Internet at sites other than NCL. Because we didn’t know where we were going, we wound up booking at the dock. Most of the time that worked pretty well.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica was our first stop. It was a pretty spot with nice beaches, a rainforest and Dunn River Falls. My wife and I got a cab to take us around. Our daughter went to the beach at Margarita Ville; she made the better choice. Our driver took us to see a guy eat fire, and to various enterprises run by folks who expected him to get us to buy. The pressure was far more intense than other places we visited. One lady started braiding my Santa like beard and then demanded payment. We stopped near Dunn River Falls. Our guide said that we could see what we needed to see from a location he knew rather than paying admission into the park. His place had more hawkers. One hawker threatened me with a voodoo curse if I wouldn’t buy his cheap ugly necklace. The curse may have worked. After the driver knew of no Internet site, and left us by the ship, we walked into town and found a place, and got bad news from our other daughter in Germany. Ocho Rios is not on our list of must return locations.

The next day we were in Georgetown Grand Cayman. This was a much more affluent place. My wife had a good time a few years ago at Sting Ray City and our daughter and I were anxious to see it. Even in the rain, it’s quite an experience.

The next day, we were in Roatan, Honduras, an island off the Honduran mainland famed for its coral reef. It’s quite poor, but the people were not pushy. The weather was still lousy and we took no organized tour. We did walk out to see a cameo factory recommended by the on board consultant. There were some lovely items, but not at a price we felt obligated to pay. This is an area ripe for development and I’d like to see how far it’s come in a few years.

The following day we were in Belize City. Here we were very fortunate with our choice of tour. We got a great guide for about 50% less than the NCL shore excursion and we saw considerably more than their tour. We toured the city and then the country on the way to the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha. These ruins were well maintained—if that makes any sense. They date from about 200 BC and are quite elaborate. Others saw larger ruins, but these were closer and more accessible. This is a place we’d like to come back to see.

Costa Maya was one of our replacement destinations. This is a place that didn’t exist a decade ago, but we were there almost 3 years ago. There’s now a deep-water pier and quite an elaborate complex around the pier. There are ruins nearby, but we’d been there before and this time we spent our time around the pier. This is one of those places where the Mexican government is putting in lots of money to spur tourism. I worry about the danger to the environment. The last time we were in Costa Maya swamps were beings drained and species were disappearing. Not only is there no EPA in Mexico, there’s no apparent plan for the maintenance of the historic sites. I’m holding my breath.

After a day at sea, we got spend a morning in Nassau in the Bahamas. This was a spot none of us had ever been to see. This was also the best of my pier purchased tours. Our guide was inexpensive and knowledgeable. We saw historic spots, got a glimpse into the history of the city, saw the rich and poor sections of town, got a feeling for life there, and then saw the spectacular beaches and finally toured the Atlantis resort and its amazing aquarium. I couldn’t afford a glass of tap water there, but we enjoyed the polished pink marble floors and the gold encrusted dome.

From there we headed back to NYC.

Overall this was a very enjoyable cruise. I highly recommend both the Dawn and Freestyle cruising. We’ll be back.

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