Norwegian Dawn Review
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We cruised on the Norwegian Dawn from 5/23/14-5/30/14 (Deck 9, cabin 9710). We cruised with a party of 8 to celebrate my Birthday; we all arrived at the Black Falcon Terminal around 11:00 a.m., four of us parked (1 vehicle) in the parking garage across the street. Check in at the terminal was smooth and easy. We were called to begin boarding around noon. We purchased the Ultimate Beverage package and was a bit disappointed to find out we had to go to "Guest Services" once on board to receive the sticker for our room key identifying that we had purchased the package. There was a short line but it moved quickly. All (4) of our cabins were ready upon our embarkation. Our room was well decorated for my Birthday with the Birthday celebration package purchased though NCL from friends of ours that were cruising with us. We carried on 4 bottles of wine with us, we paid the corkage fee up-front of $15.00/bottle (still less $$ than if we purchased a bottle of wine on the ship and this way we knew we liked the wine we were drinking. NCL puts a little sticker on the label of each bottle identifying that the corkage fee had already been paid. I don't believe we were given an option on when to pay the corkage fee, an upfront charge was acceptable to us.
We started with a nice sit-down lunch in the MDR (The Venetian), the food was very good, the service was a bit slow but the MDR may not have been fully staffed just yet. We weren't in ANY hurry and enjoyed being waited on. While we were eating lunch, we were approached by a member of NCL staff; she was looking to sell (10) seats at the "Chef's Table" which is a 9 course meal prepared by the Executive Chef and his team paired with wine. It was a $99.00 up-charge per person. All 8 of us decided to purchase it (more on the dinner later).
I found the coffee to be way too strong for my taste, one of the servers at the Blue Lagoon (great breakfast buffet but the menu stays the same all week) would pour coffee "wakey, wakey" and while pouring would say, "Coffee? Fresh out of the ENGINE"...very cute.
Cabin Review
Our cabin (9710) was spacious enough for the two of us. There was a decent sized closet with some shelves inside, plenty of room under the bed for storing our suitcases. I always bring an over the door shoe holder (the kind with pockets) to hang in the bathroom for additional storage. The bathroom was the largest I've had on a cruise, the shower was larger than a past cruise as well. The deck is on the smaller side but two chairs and a small table fit great. Our cabin Steward was Harvey, he was always good about taking care of anything we wanted or needed. I would just leave him a note if I didn't see him in/out of other cabins. The towel animals were fun to come back to each evening. Don't forget to turn the dial outside your main hallway door for the type of service or privacy you desire.The bed was a bit hard but I prefer firm over soft personally. You may be able to ask for an egg crate but we didn't bother.Harvey was really good about providing fresh towels all the time. I would hang my towel up to use again and he would take it down and replace it with a clean folded towel in the towel rack.I hope you find this cabin review helpful.