My wife and I travelled on the NCL Dawn from 16-23 Dec from New Orleans, with stops in Costa Maya, Cozumel, Roatan and Belize (Harvest Caye). This is our 15th NCL curise, and 19th overall, and our first time on the NCL Dawn. We have done this same itinerary once before on the NCL Spirit in 2011.

Overall, we found this to be an excellent trip, with the highlights clearly being having the incredible city of New Orleans as our port of embarkation, and the itinerary is likely one of the best Caribbean itinerary's on offer for a 7 day cruise. Our only knock that drops this to a four star rating is the layout of the NCL Dawn. The ships staff was probably one of the best we have yet encountered on any trip, courteous and thoroughly professional, and the CD Dan France was the best we have ever seen at his job on the ship, but the Dawn herself was a bit of a disappointment for us. I understand that Dawn and Star were not built for Norwegian, but rather were purchased from Star Cruises, and this is perhaps why some things are different than on other NCL vessels. I will lay out the beefs up front to get them out of the way and then focus on the many positives of the trip. First, the kiddie area at the back of the ship is a complete was of some incredibly prime deck space. This fiberglass monstrosity covers the entire rear upper deck of the ship, and was massively underutilized on our trip, despite having a record breaking 600-800 kids on this sailing. NCL should scrape this fiberglass behemoth off the deck, and transform that incredible deck space to some outdoor dining area for the Garden Café or a Spice H20, emulating what is on other ships in the fleet. Secondly, the fitness facilities, although well equipped and clean, were poorly laid out. They are tucked in the aft portion of the ship, between the garden café and the kiddies play area mentioned above. Most of the aerobic machines either sit directly in front of a mirror, or in front of a window staring at the kiddie area and its fiberglass dinosaurs. The aerobic machines should be moved to the side windows allowing some sea views, either in the main area or in the two studio rooms, with the weight equipment centralized in the mirrored area. Getting rid of the two story kiddie area will also serve to dramatically open up the fitness space. Finally, the Garden Café and Cucina need mention. The Garden Café on this ship was the saddest we have yet seen. The food was excellent throughout, the lines and layout of the buffet are not an issue at all, but the seating area resembles an Ikea equipped high school cafeteria. Tables and chairs. It felt like a work camp, and had none of the class and style of other ships like the Jewel, Pearl or Sun. The Cucina suffered the same fate, basically an ATCO trailer style addition to deck 6 with very plain ambience, resembling a field feeding facility rather than an upscale speciality restaurant. Sadly, these two eating areas fall well short of the normal NCL standard and lacked any form of va va voom.

Enough of the negative, onto the positives. First, the embarkation and disembarkation were the best we have ever experienced. No line ups, no waiting, smooth, seamless on and off, and straight onboard to cabins ready before noon. Incredible. Next, the crew on this ship was exceptional. From the very first moment aboard, our steward, the cruise director, cruise next manager, hotel director, staff captain, you name it, they were all engaging and personable and went out of their way to take time to meet and mingle with the passengers. This was a full ship, 2884 passengers, yet the staff did a great job keeping it clean and organized, and worked hard to ensure everyone was happy and enjoying themselves. The food on the ship was excellent, we have always enjoyed the Norwegian fare, and the same was true for this trip, with some great Indian food dishes served daily at lunch and dinner to spice up the offerings at the buffet. O'Sheehans pub fare was excellent, with great service in that restaurant, and our experience of the food in Le Bistro and Cucina was equally as impressive. Of note on this cruise was some excellent entertainment. We found the Showdown and Band on the Run shows to be great, and the Elements show was by far the highlight, probably one of the best small ship shows we have seen. We really enjoyed the pace of the itinerary, sea day, 4 ports, then a final sea day to decompress. All four ports are excellent, the new Harvest Caye did not disappoint, and the other ports all offered up something fun and unique to do to make the visits there memorable. Read more