This was my third cruise in three years and I was looking forward to checking out Norwegian. I must say that I was underwhelmed. Our balcony cabin was a little tired (carpet stains, tears in bed skirts, etc.) and I did not get the sense that this ship was well-maintained. Nothing horrible... just the little things, like chipped paint and dirty carpet. One thing that we like about cruising is great service at the bars and at the restaurants. To be clear, we only ate in the main dining room (The Venetian on this ship) and did not pay for the specialty restaurants. This had served us well on our last cruise (with RCCL). We made reservations at the same time each night but never had the same table. We never had the same servers and all servers (while polite) seemed to be less knowledgeable about the menu than I expected. We asked basic questions about the menu and selections and never got a concrete response that would indicate the server was familiar with the dish. The food was fine. But not great. Of the seven meals, only two or three were better than fine. The selection was not as interesting as we had on either of the two previous cruises. The service was fine. But not great (we had amazing service on RCCL and Carnival). My best guess is that there is a training issue or management issue in the kitchen. And we never had a lobster night, although I didn't really expect it.

The bar drinks were extremely expensive and even though we had the drink package, I was disappointed. We had found some fun (and unusual) cocktails on our previous cruises that we tried to duplicate on our return. On the NCL Dawn, I didn't find an interesting drink menu and basically ordered the standard things. On more than a few occasions, they were out of an ingredient with which to make standard drinks. On deck, the 'fun' drinks were merely mediocre. We had enjoyed frozen mojitos last year on RCCL and had a 'drink of the day' on Carnival that were fun to try. Unless you looked at the Cruise navigator each day, you would have no idea what the drink of the day might be. On deck, they were never quite cold enough and by the time the beer got out to you, it wasn't cold either. Again... it was fine.

The service was.... fine but not outstanding. Read more