Norwegian Dawn Review

First and Last with NCL

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Dawn
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travelingmead
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Cabin
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Additional details

Sail Date: Jan 2016
Cabin: Balcony

This was our 14th cruise in 20yrs, the 1st with NCL. Most of our cruises have been with Holland America or Royal Caribbean but we've also sailed 3 times with Carnival. We chose to take this ship because we were taking 5 other people with us (total of three balcony rooms) and it was convenient to sail out of New Orleans. Now that Royal Caribbean is not sailing out of NO, we went with NCL.

First, the good: the decor of the ship was very well done. There was none of the over the top "the psychopath has gotten into the Crayola box" madness of Carnival. It was elegant and well designed. The rooms were smaller than we expected (upgraded balcony, deck 10) but tasteful and the bathrooms were larger than on some ships. They had sliding glass doors to block off the toilet or the shower from the middle (sink) area. The shower gel and shampoo was fine and the towels were great. The food in Venetian and Aqua Dining Rooms and up in the Garden Cafe was good if not outstanding. If you didn't get enough to eat it was your own fault and the variety was, most of the time, quite good. Embarkation and disembarkation was a breeze and very well managed -- much better than most cruise lines.

Now, the bad: something was wrong with the morale/management of this ship. The employees almost never made eye contact or smiled. Rachelle and Sanjeev in the Venetian were exceptions to this and were wonderful as was Jesus Furtado in bar service. Otherwise...no engagement or interest from the staff and that was startling in comparison to other cruises. I wondered if they were short staffed on the first two days since our room was rarely made up and, when it was, it took a long time. On Monday, we asked for it to be made up at 9AM. He got to it at 2PM. That got better on Wednesday but it was markedly worse service than we have had on every other cruise.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BX

Nice cabin but there is only one outlet so bring an extension cord or schedule charging times. Bathrooms were a cut above the norm. Balcony was smaller than standard and storage was tight.

Port Reviews

New Orleans

We stayed in Slidell at a Best Western Plus the night before and it was an easy 1hr drive the next morning to the Juliet Street parking. It went very well.

Cozumel

We've been to Cozumel several times so just took the 2.3mile walk from the ship to town and took a horse drawn carriage ride back. We love the downtown. There are lots of hawkers trying to sell you things but Pancho's Backyard is a wonderful restaurant worth all the hassle.

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