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My BF and I went on the last cruise of the year for Bermuda on the Dawn out of New York. The embarkation was much easier than I thought it would be. No complaints there. Once we were on our ship we waited a LONG time for our luggage and we had checked in during the first hour you could. When it did arrive it was outside the door. Forgive me, I assumed it would be in the room (perhaps thats not standard on cruises).
When we first boarded and were waiting for our rooms to be ready, we went to the pool deck bar to of course start things off with a cocktail. 20 minutes later a not so busy bar tender was told by his manager that we were waiting for service. Hadn't even noticed us, and seemed kind of bothered by my needing, well, anything. Not a great way to make a first impression as far as service. The BF had a beer that he described as tasting horrible. Ok, could have been the end of the keg. All was forgiven when we raced to our rooms once the announcement was made that they were ready.
The rooms are pretty well appointed. Our balcony was great. Not a whole lot of places to put luggage, though I guess that's on most ships. We got ready for dinner and went for sushi at Bamboo (heard the later in the cruise you get it, the worse the sushi gets). Plus, Bamboo was having a 2 for 1 deal... Oops except on sushi.
I was a little aggravated that we paid extra for any restaurants and to be honest, I have had better sushi from a grocery store (I said it, I've eaten sushi from a grocery store... now what?). Ok, not the best experience, but now they have an Indian menu! Mmmm.. so we planned to go back to Bamboo the next night to get the Indian food. Luckily, that was included in the twofer deal that was still going on. Now, I'm no expert in Tikka Masala, but I am pretty sure that's not what it tastes like. There was no spice to it at all. It was just bland. I had a beef dish with a green curry. It could have been tomato sauce and pesto light on the basil for the way it tasted. It wasn't terrible, but it really wasn't good enough to go back for. A bad first impression if they were just starting to serve it.
During the day in the dining rooms that were open for lunch (Venetian, Blue Lagoon and the Garden Cafe) there was tons of food! None of it was great though. In fact, I am an ice cream freak.. you tell me where it is and I'll eat it. Theirs (all three flavors :( ) were lackluster at best. All the morning pastries were hard (and I did get up early a few days to see if it was better). It reminded me of the food at my dining hall in college. Quality and setup.
One day for lunch, I had a black bean veggie burger at the Venetian that was clearly frostbitten. I didn't want to complain because who wants to get stressed out on their vacation, right? I let it go.
One night later in the cruise we ate at Salsa, the tex/mex/tapas (too much at once) restaurant. I got the Southwestern Caesar salad. Anyone that's been to any chain restaurant or to any restaurant that has a Southwestern salad at all, back me up. One might think that would have black beans and corn and tortillas and maybe guacamole, right? Nope. It was literally Caesar salad with chicken (simple grilled, no flavoring) with small square (think cheeze nips style) tortilla chips thrown in. Needless to say for $10 extra a head, I was disappointed. I felt the need to say something. When the waitress asked, how everything was, i answered with "I expected the Southwestern Caesar salad to be more southwestern" and explained my expectations. I thought my tone of voice said "just fyi" but I guess it didn't because she immediately began explaining why it is how it is and how that's how they make it. She was adamant that that's how Southwester Caesar salad is made, instead of saying "I'll pass along the suggestion" or something of the sort. I said ok, and once she left I shot an eyeball to my BF.
Not ten minutes later a manager came over and again challenged my idea of Southwestern. He explained the same thing the waitress had with the same defensive tone of voice. I simply explained what I thought southwestern meant for a salad and he kept defending his menu. I wasn't argumentative at all. I just said ok in the hopes of the encounter ending quickly. When he finished he left the table and my BF and I had a chuckle but were still feeling lighthearted and ready to go out for the night. Until the head chef showed up at our table. Yes, the head chef. And he explained how the salad I got is how they make the salad and they have to follow a recipe... I was floored. I looked at him with a "seriously, did YOU have to come out?" look. He got that look and said "They asked me to come out". Normally I'd be impressed by how quickly I spoke with someone in charge, except, I didn't ask for any of them and they each denounced my thoughts on Southwestern anything in the most defensive tone possible.
I think most of the review board have the rating pretty right. Though the food was TOO highly rated and I think people must take for granted the extra costs... for everything. I don't think I'd do the Dawn again and they'd have to include more to persuade me to try another ship in the line. I will say this my cruise consultant was WONDERFUL to work with. She was really patient with all my questions. I highly recommend her :)
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