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NCL - Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Dawn Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Andra Abramson
Age: 37
Occupation: Editor
Number of Cruises: 6
Sailing Date: December 17th, 2006

My husband, my 7-month old daughter and I are just back from an 11-day cruise out of New York on the Norwegian Dawn. Overall, it was a good experience and it might be right for budget conscious cruisers and families with children. However, there were naturally inconveniences, annoyances, and other problems encountered on the ship that I would have liked to have known about, including one thing in particular that will probably keep us from cruising with NCL again.

First, the crew of the ship was overwhelmingly friendly, helpful, and pleasant to be around. Our 7-month old was showered with attention. Crew members remembered her name, they loved to talk to her and try and make her smile, and never made us feel like she was a burden to them in any way. We were told that this was an atypical cruise because there were more than 500 children on board (it was over the Christmas holiday so it was mostly extended families with children traveling together). Getting a high chair for the baby was sometimes a problem. Crew members sometimes had to search one out for her and there was one time we had to wait about 10 minutes for them to find one.

The ship is well taken care of and although our baby was too young for the kids program, I did hear parents praising it, and the kids certainly seemed to be having a good time. I heard one parent complaining about the teen program, but that was in the context of “if they had better supervision then my little angel wouldn’t have gotten in trouble…” so that was kind of suspect. There were a ton of teens on board and they seemed to all have made friends and were having a good time. I did not witness or hear about any incidents regarding trouble caused by the teens.

One thing that they don’t tell you before you get on the boat that they “don’t allow” diapers (naturally) or even swim diapers in the pools. They have signs announcing this fact all over the pool area. This is strange for a few reasons. 1- Isn’t that what swim diapers are made for? 2- They have a very nice kids pool area. Are they trying to say that kids aren’t allowed in the kiddie pool? 3- Isn’t it better to have kids on the “iffy” side of potty training in swim diapers than not in swim diapers? 4- The instruction on the Jacuzzi (the same ones that warn pregnant women and people with heart conditions to think twice) tell you that “only swim diapers” are allowed in the Jacuzzi. However, all the warning turned out to be for nothing anyway. First of all, they don’t have any lifeguards in the kids pool area (relying on the parents to keep their kids safe) so there is no one to tell you not to take the baby in the pool, and second, I spoke to the head lifeguard in the regular pool area about this and she said it was OK as long as the baby had on a swim diaper. You should know that the pools are salt water pools, not fresh water.

Although the pool area could be really crowded on “at sea” days, we never had a problem finding lounge chairs. As long as you don’t expect to be right next to the pool there is plenty of room for everyone.

I've seen a lot of people complaining about overcrowding and the tender operations but we didn't find this to be a problem. They gave out tickets to people who felt the need to be the first off the boat (we didn't) and called everyone by number to keep order. It seemed to work fine.

The food was sometimes excellent and sometimes pretty bad. We ate in a few of the specialty restaurants and these were generally good and worth the extra money. I heard people complaining about the problems of getting a reservation but we didn’t find this to be a problem. They may have been because we are good at planning ahead a bit and also because with the baby we wanted to eat kind of early (6:30) every night. The Mexican restaurant (Salsa) was excellent, especially since there was no extra cover charge. We also really enjoyed the Sushi, which was worth the extra $12.50 a person. We also tried the Italian place (no extra charge) which was pretty good, and Bamboo (Asian Fusion, $12.50 a person) which was just OK—although the baby was acting up that night so that might have soured the experience for us a bit. The buffet was really the weak link in terms of the food. I would recommend avoiding the buffet as much as possible. Service was unpredictable. We had some excellent service and one night where we didn't get our bread, our drinks didn't come, and the people next to us had their food served at completely different times.

We saw one of the main shows and it was OK. I can’t be a good judge of that because I’m not really a show person. They had two main bands that performed at the pool. The reggae band was fantastic and we would go to the pool just to hear them. The other band wasn’t all that great. They also performed in the main atrium at night and they were better in that venue. I think it was because of the choice of music. At the pool they would do “pool music” and it clearly wasn’t their thing.

More info for those of you traveling with babies: the cribs they supply are usually Graco pack and plays. I did see a real portable crib outside one door but everyone I spoke to had the pack and play variety. There is just barely enough room in the cabin to fit the thing in. They have a conference room dedicated to young children (called the “Under 2 Zoo”) but it was completely lacking in toys or anything else that would have made it a real draw. It probably would cost them $100 to make the room really fun for little kids so maybe they’ll wise up. Also, most of the public bathrooms do not have changing tables.

As on every other cruise I’ve been on, the excursions are a complete rip-off. They charge a fortune for basically nothing. If at all possible, you should ask at the reception desk and do what you want to do on your own. For example, you can get a taxi to a beach for about 1/3 price of what it costs 2 people to take a beach excursion.

Finally, wait until the last night to buy your photos. They offer the best discounts (we got 5 photos for the price of 3) as a last-ditch effort to get to your money.

Now for the reason I hesitate to recommend this cruise: If you like to play in the casino listen up: My husband, who loves to play poker, was thrilled to find they had a Texas Hold’em Table in the casino as well as two tournaments during the cruise. However, he discovered that some of the cards were marked. He brought this to the attention of the casino manager who at first tried to play it off but finally agreed to switch the cards. Just be warned if you go to play. Someone could be cheating.

I hope this is helpful to you all. As I said, this was overall a nice vacation for us, but due to the casino thing we probably won’t sail NCL again. It left a bad taste in our mouths.





 

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