Norwegian Dawn Review

4.0 / 5.0
3,027 reviews

Norwegian Dawn - wonderful cruise and eating gluten free

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Dawn
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cruising_sunshine
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Mar 2011
Cabin: Mid-Ship Balcony

We were quite concerned about travelling on the Dawn considering the terrible things we read about it...buckets collecting water, dirty, terrible service, falling apart! However, we had a wonderful time on a great ship. Everything from embarkation (which only took about 15 minutes even at 1pm) to debarkation was smooth and stress free.Ship: The ship is very nice. Overall not as nice as the Gem but still really nice. We did not see one bucket collecting water and she is certainly not falling apart. Of course there are things that could be upgraded like carpeting in some areas, some repainting, etc. but these things are so minor. How can they ruin your vacation??Staff: We never found the staff to be anything but friendly and helpful. One must remember that new staff are always being trained and they may not know as much as the next person. Give them a break! Food: The food, as always, was really good. We did eat in two speciality restaurants and there were great. We mostly ate in the Venetian dining room. I have to eat GF so I was quite nervous about taking my first GF cruise. We talked to the Maitre D as soon as we got on board and he explained that I would order my dinners from the main dining room the evening before. Easy enough. There is ONE dedicated wait staff to take care of all special dietary requirements in the dining room. This is amazing and makes you feel much more comfortable. He brought me my meals and GF bread every dinner and would bring me the menu for the next night to order. Gluten-free food: Overall my meals were good. Let's face it, eating gluten free is not going to taste the same as not. It's just the way it is. However, I was able to order nearly everything on the menu and it was made GF. Desserts were sometimes an issue but you can always have flour less chocolate cake or mousse. Two great choices! The lasagna I had was the only thing that wasn't good - it didn't have any noodles! Other then that I had rice pasta, steak, chicken... etc. with GF sauces. Again, not the same as "normal" sauces but good nonetheless. I didn't get sick ONCE! And that is amazing as I am very sensitive. I stayed away from the buffet except to have salad.One suggestion I would have for NCL is to make available a list of gluten free foods they have on board. You can get GF English muffins (yummy), bread, waffles in the dining room but if you ask at the buffet, most of the time they don't know what you are talking about. Best to stick with the dining room. However, there were probably other GF options that I didn't know about. This is where a list would be helpful.Ports: Samana, Tortola, Antigua, Barbados and St. Kitts - all wonderful. We did mostly adventure type activities. We loved these ports and would certainly do them again.Overall, a wonderful cruise. Thanks NCL!

Cabin Review

Mid-Ship Balcony

Cabin BA

NCL Dawn #9592 - great balcony, very quiet location, sufficient storage, smaller size room than Carnival but still great.

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