EMBARKATION

We arrived at about 11:45 A.M. after an easy trip to the pier: a ride to the ferry, an 8-minute ferry ride, and a nice walk up the street to the pier. After making sure our bags were headed onto the right ship (HAL's Veendam was sailing from the same terminal), we proceeded into the terminal. Mass confusion because everyone had to go through the same security, whether or not you were sailing on Veendam or Dawn. Lines of people, poor signage. The NCL customer service person checking us in welcomed us by saying, "Ticket, passport and credit card." Not "Hi, how are you today, welcome to the Norwegian Dawn. I hope you enjoy sailing with us." We have to wait a few minutes to board, and when we try to go up to our cabin on Deck 10, we find the large doors are all closed and we wonder what's going on. There is no one to escort us or tell us that cabins would not be available until 2:00. The announcements were not repeated often enough for us to have heard this. Everyone was directed to the Garden Cafe as if they were herded cattle. We had wanted to go to the Venetian Restaurant but were blocked.

Every conceivable way to extract money from passengers was evident: ship's photographers, specialty restaurant reservations with surcharges, welcome aboard drinks in expensive plastic souvenir containers, bottles of wine for purchase, passes for the private on deck quiet spa area. This was only a preview; to come would be pay to eat with the captain, the Behind the Scenes tour of the bridge, galley and more, loud speaker solicitations, the Freestyle daily list of activities, the crew, and spa services being sold in the dining rooms at meal time. Read more