This was our 5th cruise with NCL and our first on the Dawn. This cruise offered a free Ultimate Beverage Package for all ocean view and balcony staterooms. Great deal, but they seemed to cut the bartending and wait staff in half. Long lines at the bars, barely any servers walking around the pool or lounge areas offering to take your order. On past cruises, servers were hounding us to order drinks - we think it was because we were PAYING for those cocktails. The lure of the free cocktails came with a price - AWFUL SERVICE. I cannot blame the hard working bartenders though - they worked their butts off trying to keep up with demand. How does NCL management not notice long lines of passengers waiting for a drink? After waiting 30 minutes for our first cocktail at the Topsiders Bar poolside, I asked for 2 drinks each so my husband, who has a cast on his leg, would not have to wait that long again. They could not give me more than one drink each per policy, so we had to get back in line again. It was ridiculous. We did, however, get excellent service in the evenings at the Java Cafe. The bartenders were excellent and there was always a server at the tables taking orders. Service improved later in the cruise at the Bimini Bar and Gatsby's for great martinis.

Our oceanview stateroom 5018 was very nice and our cabin steward Januar was delightful! Our cabin was made up within minutes of us leaving and he was always very friendly towards us. We traveled with another couple who had the worst inside stateroom experience in cabin #11615. It was directly below the Garden Cafe kitchen and they had constant banging and clanging 24/7 - even at 3 a.m. - they got no sleep at all during the entire 7 nights onboard. They complained by phone dozens of times and in person every day at the reception desk, to no avail. There were no other staterooms available so they had to put up with it. Out of desperation they slept in the Library for a few hours one night until the housekeeper started vacuuming at 4 a.m. Why would NCL put passenger staterooms below such a noisy 24/7 operation? It makes no sense at all. No one in that deck 11 area got any sleep. As a consolation they were given $150 onboard credit and a bottle of wine. Hardly a dent in the $1,600 they paid for the stateroom. Unfortunately, they will never cruise with NCL again - and they had been on several NCL cruises in the past.

All in all, the dining rooms, food and waiters were very good. Garden Cafe was okay, but food was often cold, especially breakfast. Moderno specialty restaurant was excellent and the nightly shows had an amazing acrobatic team of Jokar and Maria that was Las Vegas level entertainment. Having cruised on other NCL ships with better cocktail service, we will cruise again, but not on the Dawn. Our experience on the Sun in Alaska and on the Pride in Hawaii was much better than the Dawn to Bermuda. Prior to this cruise, a few years ago we went to Bermuda and Canada/New England on the retired NCL Dream and had a very nice experience. I suppose it's a crap shoot what happens on each ship!