Norwegian Dawn

March 2, 2008 - March 9, 2008
Eastern Caribbean
Review

Day 1 Embarkation

I left hotel in Miami around 10:20 and had completed the checked in procedure and was waiting for ship to open by 10:45. The customer service staff in the waiting area can best be described as rude (and that is being nice). They were getting upset that people were not staying exactly in chairs that they had been directed to, and instead wanted to look out the windows at the ship. The passengers all knew where they were supposed to be in the line and there was no line breaking. On a number of occasions the staff raised their voices at people to get them to comply with their orders, which appeared to have no real purpose other than to assert their authority. I noticed this same behavior at debarkation. NCL needs to train the Miami staff in some customer service.

Pool Deck	Interior Art	Atrium
Miami Skyline from the Deck	Cabin	Leaving Miami
Casino	Miami	Spa Pool

The ship opened at 11:35 and passengers were allowed to board. Of course before being allowed on board there was the obligatory (you were not allowed to by pass this photo, and it was not for security) boarding photo. Boarding takes place on deck 7 and passengers are directed to deck 12 to the garden café for lunch. One thing that I discovered is to look around at the buffet. There are six lines. Desserts are located at the aft most line on the starboard side of the ship. The “deli”, is the aft most line on the port side. There was plenty of food in the buffet. Not real interesting, but the hot food was hot and the cold food was cold. It all was well prepared and tasted fine.

The cabins were supposed to be ready at 2:00 but were ready for us at 1:15. I explored the ship until then. When I got into the cabin I discovered that the beds were apart, but this was quickly and easily remedied by the room steward. I found my steward who was delivering luggage and he took care of it while I was at dinner during turndown service. My luggage was delivered to the cabin by 2:15, and I was unpacked prior to safety drill at 3:30. The drill took all of 15 minutes. My station was in the Aqua restaurant and the drill involved sitting and watching some of the crew demonstrating how to wear the life jackets.

The Dawn is tastefully decorated and relatively easy to navigate. The public spaces are really in two areas, decks 6 and 7 and decks 12 and above. There are not enough beverage stations offering soda and juices and finding snacks is not an easy task. The Garden Café can use some reworking to turn it into a modular facility as opposed to a linear one, which would improve traffic flow and make duplication unnecessary.

The Dawn followed the Pearl down the channel shortly after 4:00 p.m. Once we hit the open ocean we had an interesting ride as seas were running about 10 feet. I enjoyed dinner in Aqua. If you complain about the food it is your issue, not an NCL issue. Portions were small, by US standards, but with as much food as was around, they were still too large. I had a mozzarella and wild mushroom tart for an appetizer, a Creaser salad, and the Mahi Mahi. Prior to dinner I had spent some time at the Java café listening to the sounds of “Quarter Notes”, a quartet that played acoustical guitars. They were very relaxing and made the nice drinks even more enjoyable.

Hall Art	Atrium Sculpture	Pearly Kings Pub
A Well Stocked Bar	Quarter Notes	Tender

During the night I kept hearing what I thought was someone bouncing a ball off and on all night, turned out that it was the hangers in the closet. A minor adjustment and all was fine. The bedding was fine, though it is not new. The duvets are nice but there are times when a good blanket would have felt nice too. The shower door is a nice addition. The cabin was service twice a day without fail and always in an unobtrusive way.

Some Notes:

Soda card for the duration was $50.31 including gratuity. (6.25/day +)
Helmet of domestic beer is $19.75 + gratuity for 6 (Pay for 5 get the 6th free is the hook here)
Casino limits are high, often $10 minimums at night sometimes $5.
Grey Goose Martini was 10.25 + gratuity.

Day 2 at Sea

I started today with breakfast at the Venetian. The food was quickly delivered and was prepared as ordered. We are bouncing around 6 -8 ft seas which made for a number of “green” passengers. Since it was a sea day the chair hogs were out in force. I was unable to find anywhere to sit after 9:30 a.m. This was the first week of spring break so there were a number of college students on board. This may have contributed to the chair issue as they tend to be sun worshipers. Bar-b-que served poolside for lunch. The hamburgers were very good and cooked over charcoal grills set up on the deck. The food on the entire cruise was consistently good. It was always well prepared, and there was a wide variety. This is not to say that it is 5 star food. It is not and don’t expect it to be. Remember that they are preparing 2500 meals at a time.

Today was very windy, cloudy and cool. It was almost impossible to be on the decks forward. It was also dress up or not day. I noticed that about 10% of the men had on jackets. A number of the women were dressed more than the men. I did notice that on the rest of the day that most people tended to dress in resort casual. In fact, the impression that I got was the people dress just as they do on any other mass market line except for formal nights. This is not to say that there were no slobs, they are everywhere, but most people dressed in an appropriate fashion and would have been fine on other mass market lines too.

We had a time change, which will not occur if the Eastern US is observing DST, and since the mainland switched to DST while we were sailing we never turned our clocks back.

Kids Hot Tub	Kids Pool	Main Pool
Following Carnival	Chair Hogs	Waves in the Pool

Some Observations:

Tonight's dinner menu in the main dining rooms includes Beef Wellington, Caribbean Rock Lobster and Roast Duck. NCL needs to have self serve soft serve ice crème available 24 /7. NCL should keep at least one of the 6 serving stations in the Garden Café open all the time. Closing them all down at the same time doesn't seem to be the right thing to do. There needs to be a bar or beverage station in the Garden café. There is no reason to have to walk all over the ship to find a soda. Bartenders tend to pick favorite customers and ignore the rest.

Day 3 – Samana

The seas are still rough, but we arrived in the Bay of Samana right on time. It is a beautiful area. This is one stop that is not to be missed. This is what most of the Caribbean is really like when you get away from the tourist areas. They Cayo Leventado beach excursion is nice. The sea is beautiful, wonderful color, no sign of any run off, etc. I doubt that it was ever there. Since we are in a bay with a sandy bottom and sea grass , it just looks different than most island stops.

Arriving at Cayo Leventado	Greeting	A Beach on Samana
The Beach Bar	Cayo Leventado Map	Local Fishermen
Shops in Samana	Samana Street Scene	Samana from the Ship

One thing to remember is not to worry about taking water off the ship with you, in fact don’t do it. Water on shore is $1 per bottle and soda is $2 for a 20oz bottle. The first tender back was at 3:00. The tenders run on this schedule to accommodate other tours and tendering operations. No other reason. There are a lot of tenders going to the ship from third parties and this way they do not all pile up waiting to unload. There are plenty of free chairs available. A spider monkey and a seal are brought out by locals for picture taking ($8) opportunities. Beer was available for the typical bar price $4 - $5 depending on brand. One pound of Caribbean lobster was available for $20, hamburgers and hot dogs were also available on the beach for less than $5, and there was a buffet for $12.

The ride to Cayo Leventado was great, it was on an open boat designed to transfer people and since the seas were rough it was almost like being on a Zodiac. Great fun! Of course we got wet, but we were going to the beach. There is no reason to be concerned, if you don’t want to get wet then simply don’t go! The ship had 6 tenders in the water all day running back and forth to town.

I went into town after I finished enjoying the beach. There is not much there. It has the look and feel of the small towns on the west coast of Mexico. They have built a new shopping area that has a couple of stores and there is the usual straw market. The local transportation consists of small carts pulled by mopeds, they provide for an entertaining ride for $8 to town and back, BUT don't do it, they are steering you to shops in anticipation of you buying. Once the driver figured out that I want to take a lot of pictures, he left me alone. Remember not to buy green leaf items as they will not be allowed on the ship. This warning is given BEFORE you leave the ship

Samana is a good stop. There is a lot to do, but if you expect St. Thomas type activities and shopping (though from what I have seen if you get away from town on St. Thomas it is just like Samana), you are going to be sorely disappointed, but this is the real Caribbean.

Day 4 Tortola, BVI

This is a great port to venture out on your own. I took the ferry to Virgin Gorda and spent the day at the Baths. The walk to the ferry from the cruise ship is about 10 minutes and is an easy walk. The ferry through Speedy's, was $30 and included both the ferry ride and Virgin Gorda transport. There is an additional $3 admission fee to the Baths. The ferry ride is about 30 minutes each way. We arrived in Spanish Town around 1:00 and had the option of either the 3:30 or 5:30 return, either worked fine as far as the ship schedule. I returned on the 3:30 ferry which allowed me plenty of time. The Baths are beautiful as usual. The snorkeling at Devil’s Bay is good off to the left near a large rock. I did not explore much of the rest of the bay.

Approaching Tortola	Nearing Roadtown	Roadtown Shoreline
Shops and Buildings in Roadtown Tortola

We were there with some Costa passengers. The Europeans are not shy so there were a number of topless women at the beach. Be aware that the sand at Devil’s Bay is very soft and gives you legs a good work out. I was tired until Friday from the hike. You need to be aware that from Devil’s Bay there is an alternate trail back up to the top of the hill. It is a bit longer but not as steep and allows you to avoid going back through the rooks if that is a concern.

Back on Tortola wandered around town for a bit. It is much more picturesque if you get off the main street and go one row back. I am still perplexed at the seeming hustle and bustle in the dining rooms. I am not sure why it exists but it is an efficiency problem that NCL needs to address.

Day 5 St. Thomas

We arrived in St. Thomas about 30 minutes early. Since we had been outside the US and were returning all passengers were required to clear immigration. It took place in the Spinnaker Lounge on deck 12. It is a very efficient process and took less than 90 seconds. It is certainly not something to be worried about.

I grabbed a cab driven by Dennis, who is great guy who took me to Coki beach where I had a dive scheduled with Coki Beach Dive Club. I was the only guest in the morning. Alex and I dove right off the beach. The reef was nice but the current got to be a bit too much for me. Dive as 45 minutes max depth 55 feet for 6 minutes. We did a very slow ascent following the couture of the shore. It took at least 20 minutes to ascend. I then grabbed a cab back to the pier to clean up to go to town to shop.

Dawn docked at St. Thomas	WICO Ltd.	Dawn docked at St. Thomas
Paradise Point Skyride	St. Thomas	Frenchman's Reef Resort
The Harbor	St. Thomas	Leaving our Friends

I was looking for a particular item and after shopping a few places discovered that the prices were all the same. This made my decision about where to purchase easy since the first gentleman that I dealt with was truly a gentleman and he deserved my business so after the obligatory lunch of jerk chick at Gladys I went back and made my purchase.

We were docked right in front of Mariner of the Seas. There were two other ships at Crown Bay but I did not think that town was too crowded. There is not a lot to write about St. Thomas. It is a great shopping stop and has some beautiful beaches, but it is so well covered in these boards that I don’t have anything to add.

Day 6 and Day 7 Both at Sea

I am amazed at how little there really is to do on the Dawn on a sea day. There is the Bingo and the Art Auction, but I was expecting more in the way of activities that never materialized. This leg was from St. Thomas to great Stirrup Cay. The weather was much better heading north than it had been heading south.

Pool on a Sea Day	Dawn	Pool Area

We were due to arrive at Great Stirrup Cay at 10: 00 a.m. There was a front coming off Florida. Great Stirrup Cay is a tender stop and due to weather the captain canceled the stop at 10:20 a.m. There was no announcement made regarding any change of plans. We were refunded the “port fees” for the day. No other compensation was offered. I am not sure why we did not go to either Freeport or Nassau.

Final Thoughts

NCL is very typical of other mass market lines. The only differences that I note between NCL, RCCL and CCL are the freestyle dining. People dress in a very similar fashion except for formal nights. Chair hogs are present everywhere. The quality and quantity of food is consistent across lines. The shore excursions and the ports are all the same. I find that the crew members are consistently hard workers that are always friendly and happy to chat with you. Every ship is different, yet they are in a way all the same. RCCL has the most beautiful ships, NCL has the most variety of dining, and Carnival has the most on board activities. Which is right? The answer is always a big it depends.