I realize this was filmed 2 years ago but we were on the Dawn in July and will be for 24 days in February so found this video as a reminder. Your comments about O’Sheehans were spot on. That’s where we always eat breakfast early. Often lunch, too. We were in an ocean view on 5 th floor but will be in a balcony cabin on the cruise coming up. We enjoyed the cozier feel of the Dawn as opposed to the last 2 ships we were on that were huge.
Good honest review. Very helpful as we're contemplating a trip on the Dawn, though we have travelled a lot with NCL (5 times alone in the past 12 months) but never on the Dawn. Confess I had to smile when you mentioned not getting chicken in Cagney's Steakhouse. All the same, thanks guys.
Norwegian Dawn starting Cruising, my Son are working in Norwegian Cruise line as a Crew, and his next ship is Norwegian Dawn, he has arrived in Paris, France from Philippines last night, because Norwegian Dawn is in Paris, france! Keep safe!🙏
That's great news!! Congrats to your son and we are so happy to see that the wonderful crew members are getting back onboard all the ships to start sailing. We have met incredibly kind staff from the Philippines and talk to them often about their family at home. I see the NCL Dawn and NCL Star are in Marseilles France - on the Mediterranean south of Paris. Looks like he doesn't have far to go until he's back onboard!
Have a great time! We miss the Dawn so much. Be sure to enjoy a cool drink and the great views from the Mojito Bar up at the Brazilian restaurant for us. 🛳
Very nice to have this type of personal review! But I would have loved to know your cruise destination as well as something about the organization of the excursions. A northern Europe cruise vs. a Caribbean cruise can greatly influence which qualities of the ship are of importance… Again, refreshingly nice, personal and informative - just please give a few more of the itinerary and excursion process (if not the actual excursions) on any future RU-vid if you would - up to you of course just my input here. Thanks for doing this as we plan a Norwegian Dawn cruise for September 2022!
We are glad you enjoyed the review. We deliberately didn’t cover ports and just the ship because we figured itineraries change from week to week. We have since changed from just doing reviews to vlogging each individual day or each cruise - so folks can see the thinking and details at each port, along with life on the ship each day. Hopefully we will be vlogging a ship and /or port in the future that will be helpful.
Good objective review. Thanks! We are booked on the Dawn for early 2022. We also like to dance and have suspected the Dawn will offer fewer opportunities than other ships, even of the same size class.
A couple tips for dancing. Be sure to check out the Bliss lounge for the best options. As a bonus - when there was a band in the atrium then we would just declare the space between the seating area and the guest service desk as our own dance floor. Other folks then joined us! You will have a great time on the Dawn!
I agree with you, a pretty good overall review! We are also booked on the NCL Dawn (02/27/22, 14-day round trip out of Tampa, FL). The Dawn offers dancing options in the Bliss Lounge as well as on deck 7 in the open Atrium area. Usually either a band, small group of individuals (2-3) or a piano player entertains the guests. Some individuals may dance on deck 6 by the Gatsby bar area as well as dancing in the pool area on deck 12.
We went on a cruise a couple of years ago. We didn't know much about cruising at the time and didn't know that the earlier you book the cheaper the price. We booked only 2 months before the cruise and our best price option was the 1980s Majesty of the Sea... it was totally fine... boring... but we were just so happy to be out on the great waters! We can't wait until the cruise lines open back up and we are fully vaccinated. We live in Ottawa so we've both only received our first dose so far.
We are also counting down the days until we can cruise again. We have a 14-day cruise booked for Christmas/New Years on Holland America - hopefully cruising is back by then! We'll be doing a video soon(this month) on all the cruises booked(8 of them!) that we will be VLogging in 2022. We have often looked at the smaller RCL ships, but heard from others that they are pretty quiet. We have used a variety of booking strategies to get the best price. We find you either have to book years ahead or a month or two in advanced to get the best prices. The advantage of booking years in advance is prime selection of the exact cabin you want.
We once had a room with those bunks on the wall making it tricky to get and out of bed during the night in the dark. We ended up having them separate the beds which also gave the room more floor space and the two beds became like couches downside (or perhaps upside for some folks) is that you aren’t sharing a bed with your honey.
We’ve since paid a lot more attention to the cabin capacity and the inferred bunks that would be in the cabin. Jerry is very careful now when he books other people’s cabins (especially inside) to avoid these rooms unless they need the bunks. The Sky Princess ships won’t even allow the bed to be pushed together if the bunks are in use - something about the ladders to the bunks.
We sailed the Dawn years before. Your version, while familiar, was clearly refurbished since we were on. Your carpeting is much more sedate. We did Cagney's, La Cucina, & Teppanyaki for specialty restaurants. I wasn't impressed that much with the steak or the Italian; I did love the teppanyaki. Hit O'Sheehan's a lot. It never disappointed. For MDR, we mostly hit Aqua, sought out the same servers as much as possible, and loved it. May have had slow service once. We may have hit the Venetian once but didn't go back. May have done breakfast there once. Still, it was a good cruise. I remember the comic was a riot!
We thought much the same. We weren't overly impressed with the MDR, but recently we did the MDR on another NCL ship and loved it. We think the O'Sheehans is best on this ship with respect to location, seating and atmosphere!
We are leaving January 2nd on NCL Dawn out of Tampa, Florida on 11 night Eastern Caribbean cruise. This will be our 33rd cruise. We love NCL and Royal Caribbean but been on 6 different cruise lines.
Sorry, some how I got my comments on the incorrect VLOG. I've tried to fix the error by transferring the comments to the correct VLOG in regard to the NCL Dawn, as follows: Norwegian Dawn Ship Tour - Narrated full Walkthrough
Very good review, thank you. We are going on the Dawn for the first time in January 2022. We have only ever sailed NCL. Would love to hear your thoughts on NCL vs other lines you have sailed on. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 🇨🇦
Hello fellow Canucks!!! Congrats on your cruise in January!! We are also doing an NCL cruise in January, ours is out of New Orleans - maybe we’ll cross paths in the Caribbean. We are currently working on a video that compares all the different cruise lines we’ve experienced. It’s so hard to compare - since everyone cruises their own way. We enjoyed NCL and found they do a little of everything well. We’ve only done small NCL ships like the Dawn and are looking forward to trying a bigger ship(Breakaway) in January to see if the experience is the same. We will be doing daily vlogs on that trip. So watch for our video comparing different cruise lines - also we will be doing a video on the eight cruises (and vlogs) we have booked in 2022! We’ve gotta make up for lost time since Covid.
@@CruisingCanucksNice, we have been on the Getaway, the sister ship to the Breakaway, twice and absolutely love that ship. Our favourite place to hang out is Spice H2O aft on deck 14 if I remember correctly. You will love it! The experience will not be exactly the same, there is so much more to do on the larger ships and I believe the staterooms are slightly larger, the entertainment is incredible, the food fantastic and the waterfront area on 8 spectacular views all round. We’ve also got a 2023 cruise booked on the new ship Prima!
That’s great to hear! We are going with a group of at least 12 folks and hope there are lots of spots to enjoy the drink package and taking in the cruise life. From the reviews we’ve watched - it’s so hard to get a feel for that ships layout. Your comments make me look forward to it even more.
Thank you SO much for a great review of this ship. We are thinking of booking a 2024 cruise on the Norwegian Dawn and your thorough review is most helpful. A couple of questions if I may about the buffet restaurant, accepting that you didn’t use it much. Is it self-serve or do you have to ask servers to plate up the food for you? Self-serve is much preferred by me. Secondly, is there adequate seating? Of the two cruises I went on in the couple of years pre-Covid the Nieuw Amsterdam was bad in both respects while Radiance of the Seas was very good.
The buffet is self serve but there may be some waitstaff to take drink orders. Really busy at lunch as there aren’t a lot of other options. Not sure about business at dinner - we’d suspect less busy. It wasn’t as insanely busy as we found on royal Caribbean (where we couldn’t find a seat) but pretty average compared to other cruise lines. It’s a decent sized buffet for the size of ship but the decor is very cafeteria-like.
You went to the steak and were disappointed that they served STEAK and did not have a diverse menu! ITS A STEAK HOUSE!!!!! I think you were overly critical of the food due to your limited diet, and the entertainment I found was a welcome assortment, who wants the same type of entertainment every night.
We look forward to trying NCL for the fourth time this summer! We will be boarding the Epic in the Med and are curious to see how life onboard a larger NCL ship is like.
Sounds great for sure! We just booked a similar itinerary on HAL for March 2023! Great to hear they are switching it up a bit from the usual western Caribbean (although we love those ports!)
It’s been a while since we’ve been on the Dawn but most cruises now have good items and menus with symbols indicating veggie and GF. We are pretty sure NCL would be following suit.
None. You show up, eat and leave with no costs(if you have the specialty free dining credits). They will bring a bill to sign with an 'optional additional tip', but the regular tip is already included. We've only tipped extra the few times the service was above and beyond - otherwise there was no hidden costs and we had access to everything on the menu.
I’m pretty sure the Bliss Lounge also had some times there was DJ music later in the evenings. It was the only venue with more of a nightclub feel with a dance floor.
My wife and I took a cruise on the Dawn in 2019. It was the worst cruise that we had ever been on. There were sewer and water issues. The food was terrible. I was standing there when they put out a batch of fried chicken and it was cold when they put it out. I dont mean warm I mean COLD. The crew wasnt happy. One of the uniformed officers told me that she coulndt wait to get away from that ship. I contacted Norwegian when we got back from the cruise and they sent me an email saying that someone would be getting intouch with me soon. That was in 2019, I have contacted them twice more over the years about this and the only response that I have gotten was "someone will contact you soon.
We cruise on the Dawn in 2018 and then again in 2019 and had wonderful experiences. The staff were wonderful and we managed to get to know them very well. We found the best food in the specialty dining and the free Asian restaurant. The dining room was just okay, but for us the staff were amazing and didn’t speak of or show signs of anything you experienced.
@@CruisingCanucks The ship was going in to drydock soon after we went on the ship. There were a lot of sewer problems. There were a lot of water problems also. I couldnt use our shower for 2 days/The worst part is Norwegian its self. They couldnt even be bothered to reply to my complaint. All I got for a reply was " Thank you for contacting Guest Experience. We have successfully received your case and a team member will be in touch with you soon. We appreciate your patience as we work hard to get back to you as soon as possible. Please note, due to the high volume of inquiries, our response may take up to 15 business days" That was the latest reply that I got from them. I got that message on Feb 2nd. I dont expect to hear anything more from them. This was the 3rd time I sent them a message since 2019. I think I have been pretty patient.
@@whelmo14 we totally understand the challenges with NCL head office. We had issues with them about a cruise cancelled due to COVID. We fought and fought with them as excuses and policies changed in the fly to meet their needs. We swore off NCL….but….we had credits we had to use up. So we went on the NCL Epic and the cruise blew us away. So much so that we decided we would cruise NCL again. So it appears that cruises NCL has the potential to be enjoyable, but hopefully you never have to deal with the head office for anything. The Dawn had come out of dry dock on one of our cruises - so we must have been on after you that one time.
@@CruisingCanucks There were many unhappy cruisers on our cruise. The biggest thing that bothers me about NCL is that they dont care about their customers to even bother following up. They never even sent me an emal saying something generic like "We have people looking into it " They treat you like customer concerns are not important to them at all.
We've often been asked about our best cruise ever and it's VERY tough to answer, and sometime we are asked about the worse . Which is even harder to figure out. What made it the worst - we're curious. Was it the ship, or a circumstance on the ship? Someone once told us - a cruise is what you make of it. The caveat of course is if something happens that is unavoidable during the cruise. Just curious.