We first sailed NCL Dawn May 2022 on a 10-day British Isles cruise, and liked the ship. So no hesitation to book it again for a Western Caribbean trip. Embarkation was a breeze and we were on the ship within a few minutes after check-in. NCL used facial recognition for embarkation/disembarkation, it is a little slower than tapping your key card, but there is a payoff! Enjoyed a quick lunch ...
Despite a couple hiccups upon check in, we were very pleased with our overall experience. We specifically booked this cruise for our belated honeymoon/vow renewal as we had a “Covid” wedding in March of 2020. Norwegian did a beautiful job with our private ceremony renewing our vows, photos, cake and champagne, dinner arrangements.
We were also very impressed with how well organized ...
We chose this cruise because we haven't been to the Western Caribbean in several years, and the Dawn was our very first NCL ship that we sailed on. For these reasons, we thought it would be a great getaway. We used NCL flights and hotel so we arrived the day before. It was a rocky start to our cruise due to the problems at the port with the previous cruise unable to disembark due to a ...
Dec. 2022 Norwegian Dawn from Tampa to the southern Caribbean
This 11 night/10 day NCL Dawn cruise from Tampa to the southern Caribbean exceeded my expectations -- and I have been on almost 60 cruises to date on most major cruise lines, from Carnival to Silversea. This itinerary is a nice mix of activity (5 islands) and relaxation (5 days at sea). Every aspect of this cruise merits 4-5 stars ...
This was my wife and my 26th cruise; our 5th on NCL (although they only show us as our second because the 3 previous ones were back in the 80's/90's). We fell in love with the layout of the ship and the spaciousness of the public areas made us feel like we were in a much larger ship. As with most NCL cruises, there were many dining choices, and all were dining on your own time. We liked the fact ...
We chose this cruise for the excellent entertainment. The theater/stage shows are always consistently fantastic, but the impressive thing about this cruise was the extremely talented “smaller venue” entertainers. Randon Lauron, from Phillipines, is a very humble gifted guitarist and vocalist, we we were mesmerized with him EVERY evening! He accepted requests, and if he wasn’t familiar with the ...
We love NCL for the relaxed, layed back vibe. So glad we don't have to dress for dinner, unless you want to of course. The ship was 60% full, but even if it was 100% I think there would be plenty of space on board. What a wonderful time we had. The ship may be older, but we do prefer a smaller ship and it was very clean and comfortable. The crew was the friendliest and most helpful crew we ...
This was our first cruise back after the Pandemic slowed down. Once we cleared the mandatory Covid test at the port we boarded quickly and with lots of well wishes from the staff we passed. The ship was spotlessly clean. The staff was extremely happy to have us on board! There were only about 900 passengers on board, so there was never a wait for anything. Restaurants had immediate seating, ...
Post cruise report:
To start, I have to say the sanitary precautions on the cruise were outstanding. Every single day the crew washed down all the walls, doors, railings, etc. in every corridor, you couldn't walk two feet without tripping over a hand sanitizer dispenser, and the "washy-washy" (really, they say that) staff were constantly spraying your hands. They were worse than the perfume ...
My wife and I usually choose Norwegian as our preferred cruise line, although we have used several others. We like the casual attitude, the overall friendliness of the staff and the Free Style dining and, so far at least, have preferred the smaller ships to the new mega-giants.
This was our fifth NCL cruise. In fact, our last time at sea, two years ago, was on the Dawn and the same itinerary. ...