A Nice Freestyle Cruise

Hi all. My wife and I sail on the Dawn from Boston to New Orleans via Puerto Rico, Willemstad, Aruba, Ocho Rios Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel Mexico. We have only sailed on P&O and Princess before to New Zealand, around Australia and Pacific Islands. So this was our first for NCL. To compare NCL with the other two is chalk and cheese. NCL being the calk. But we were aware it was a free style cruise and we wanted to give them a try.

I cant say a lot of wrong with this ship and her crew as most of a cruise is what you make of it and not by how long you spend in your cabin or how much you can pile on your plate.

FOOD

The food was good to ordinary. Never bad.

STAFF

Always friendly and helpful. Never rude.

ENTERTAINMENT

This is where they need to do some thinking. The casino is a rip off (like I need to tell you that). The bingo is also a rip off. As previously said by others, they will take a lot of money from punters and hand back only pittance. The ship keeps the rest. Was not fair.

The entertainers were mostly great.

CABINS

The usual smallish room with a smallish bathroom with a ocean view window. What we ordered and what we expected.

PORTS

Most were fantastic. Except for Aruba and Puerto Rico which didn't have a lot going for them. We organised a tour in all ports to see the sites. The best was the Bob Marley tour to his mausoleum in Saint Ann Jamaica. A must for Bob Marley fans. Swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel Mexico was also fantastic. Not only did we swim with the dolphins, but they also feed you authentic Mexican food followed by all the FREE tequila you can drink.

FORMAL NIGHT

What formal night. They have one but no one dresses up for it, but for a few die hards in their Military uniforms and suites. My wife (40) and I (50) enjoy the dressing up for photo's on the Formal night. Felt like a fish out of water on the Dawn.

In summary, you cant keep everyone happy all the time. That goes with any cruise on any line. But we got what we paid for and we loved it, good and bad. The Dawn crew were fantastic and did their best as expected. The food was good and filled a hole. Never got sick or took anything back. Embarkation and disembarkation was smooth.

Would we do Norwegian Dawn again, NO. Been there done that. Next.