Norwegian Dawn Review
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This was my eighth cruise, but first with Norwegian, others have been with Carnival and Royal Caribbean so it was nice to compare. This was our second cruise out of New Orleans. We booked last minute and got a great deal including a free upgrade so really there is little I could complain about anyway, but all in all it really was an excellent holiday.
We parked at the Fulton Rooftop Parking (although it wasn't only rooftop parking even if you pay for the cheapest) and booking on-line is cheaper then just showing up $9/day vs $11 http://www.airportparkingreservations.com/lot_new_orleans_parking_rooftop_msz They were very friendly. We took a shuttle to the ship as it was a new terminal we were going to but it was so crowded and busy at the port that we walked back to the parking garage on the way back as it is only a block away and it was great weather.
We got to port around 11am and were on the ship before noon, only sat for about 5 minutes before our number was called. Only concern was when we handed our one bag each to the porter I realized I'd left my small purse of small bills in the van. We are Canadian so we only had a bit of american money on us which was not handy to get at! I did know where I had a good Canadian bill though and although the Canadian dollar is down, after the exchange rate it was still more then I would have given in US dollars and our porter after asking for a tip three times saw the Canadian bill and said 'I can't do anything thing with that, it is useless' and walked away, not even putting our bags with the other bags to go on the ship! We were not happy and reported him to the staff in the terminal who went and talked to him and said not to worry our bags will make it on the ship!
Cabin Review
Family Balcony
We booked an inside guarantee but our date was far from a sell-out and we got upgraded to a balcony for free even though we had booked only 5 days before departure! This was a great bonus as I've only ever been in an ocean view or inside as we don't spend enough time in our cabin to pay for a balcony and yet it was nice to see if we really would use it if we had it. We discovered paying for a balcony is not worth it! The room was as good as any other balcony I suppose. It had a nice view of sunrise/sunset but we weren't usually in our cabin to see it other then while changing to head to dinner or a show. The layout wasn't great because of requiring the space to get out the balcony door. We only had two people in our cabin but it is a family balcony. If the pull-out coach was in use you would not be able to go out the door and there would be NO floor space anywhere. I'm used to a small cabin but the layout was poor and I would not want 3 people in there. I was concerned about noise from the connecting stateroom as I've heard the doors aren't a good sound barrier but only once did we ever hear any voices from them. Our cabin steward was terrible, but they change so I hope others are better. I'm not too picky while on holiday, as long as I'm not cooking or cleaning I'm happy! But if I'm paying someone to make my bed, I would like my bed to get made. We are tidy people so there was nothing else to worry about in the cabin, I change my own toilet paper rolls and hang up my clothes and towels. It was 4pm the one day when we came back to our cabin only to find our bed still not made. Another day we were up at 7am, returned at 1pm and it was still not done. I know we are not their only room but this is my 8th cruise and this is the first time I've experience such a delay in making our room.