Norwegian Dawn is truly BAD

My wife and I just got back from the Honeymoon from hell cruise aboard the DAWN from NY to Halifax. From the time we boarded we found our cabin dirty, footprints on the walls, gum on the ceiling and dirty glasses left from the prior occupants. The safe was locked and the beds where not as requested. We promptly went down to the front desk and we where very rudely treated by the clerk. This has to be the worst customer service organization I have ever dealt with. Nobody on the ship will take responsibility for anything and they act as if your annoying them by asking for resolution to your issues. As the week went on the trip got even worse. The shows are awful and the food was not worth eating. I would NOT recommend to anyone to cruise with NCL. By the 3rd day the supply of food was running out, and items where scarce to say the least. They ran out of Tea and started to serve salad dressing from the bottle, they did not have cucumbers so the put cream cheese on top of zucchini, who could tell? right? We looked forward to getting of the boat so we could get a real meal. The best meals we had where while we where ashore, and these where at chain restaurants that we could have gone to at home. They where far superior in quality of the food, service and taste. Basically the only thing NCL wants to talk to you about is how they can sell you something, especially BOTOX treatments. When the excursion was filled up, the people at the desk would not talk to you... nothing left to sell to you... If you are expecting the service and the quality that NCL has had in previous years, you will be very disappointed! Don't waste your time or your money with NCL! Go with another company.
I wish they had lower then a 1 for Service and Food, because they are the absolute worst you will find anywhere. In the restaurant the staff would reach accross you while you are eating to replace items on the table and as you are walking they would mop under your feet. The words "excuse me" or "are you finished with the plate" are not in the vocabulary of NCL either is "we are sorry" they will not admit they did anything wrong and act arrogant about everything. Well I am SORRY we chose NCL to waste or honeymoon on, the once in a life time trip turned out to be on problem after another. We went on an NCL excursion and the tour guide could not count the number of people on the bus, the started to leave without us and I had to run after the bus and flag the driver to stop. After I told her that there are 28 and not 26 people on the tour, she counted 26 again at the next stop and left another couple behind, lucky them, because on the way to the next stop the bus broke down and we sat for a half hour in 90 plus temperatures until they decided to call for a replacement bus. When it arrived after another 20 Mins we where already late to get the last tender back to the ship. They did wait for us though and we sat on the tender for about 25 Mins while the engines ran and the cabin filled with smoke and carbon monoxide. When asked by the people at the port to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner they told him it was broken! Entertainment was poor and should get a "1" rating. The NY Port Authority gave us better service then NCL did!!!! That is not saying much, believe me... You may save some money on the initial booking with NCL but they will rip you off in some other way, they nickle and dime you as much as possible. My advice is if you are considering NCL, instead go to a Motel 6 and a Country Buffet, you will get better food and service!

Bahamas Cruise Reviewed by Diane

It's been over a year since Diane and I returned from this cruise. I was going through my reviews and realized I never posted it. Some of the information may be irrelevant at this time but I hope readers will get something out of it and not think of me as an idiot

Introduction

Another September and another last minute cruise. Last year we cruised on the Carnival Legend. This year it was NCL Norwegian Dawn. I was feeling real disappointed that we had not cruised all year. We had planned a September cruise but had to cancel our plans in May. Events made it possible to cruise in September after all and being the 19th I couldn't get us on the ship we had planned for the 22nd but I was able to get us on the Norwegian Dawn for the 25th.

For those of you who have not read any of my reviews of previous cruises�?�Diane absolutely hates to fly. After our November 2004 cruise she made me promise we would not fly for at least 2 years. We had taken the train from Boston to NYC last September and she loved it. This made it possible to book the Dawn out of New York. Booking

Itinerary

The itinerary was less than impressive. Port Canaveral, Miami, Great Stirup Cay (NCL's private island) and Nassau. Diane and I do few excursions and prefer to laze around on the ship while others are off enjoying the various ports. We do get off the ship and walk around the local shops for an hour or so than return to the ship.

More about this under Excursions.

Embarkation
What a difference from last year when embarkation was an absolute disaster. NCL definitely has its act together. We walked into the terminal at 11:12 A.M., checked in our luggage and proceeded to the check-in desk. We were sitting with our coffee all checked-in by 11:30. They had chairs set up and coffee, tea sandwiches and sweets available. Boarding started about 45 minutes later. We were on board and in our cabin at 12:30. Ship

The Norwegian Dawn is a wonderful ship, very clean and well organized. Lots of restaurants and lounges, a library with plenty of reading material, a movie theater, and more.

The pool is great and plenty of hot tubs. The tiered area for sunbathing was great leaving the chairs around the pool for swimmers.

Cabin
Of course the only thing left was Category N Deck 4, inside, front of the ship. Being past cruisers with NCL may have helped because we got upgraded to Category J �?? Deck 8, inside, middle of the ship. This was our first experience with an inside cabin so we went to sleep with the T.V. set to Bridge Cam station (Dark) and woke to Sunshine. It was our porthole window. The room was larger than I expected and plenty of storage areas. There was a coffee maker which we liked as we are big coffee drinkers.

There is a refrigerator but no mini bar. We picked up a few extra cans of soda at one of the bars and stocked the frig. Our steward kept our room clean and the ice bucket filled with fresh ice. Dining

There is a huge choose for dining. This was our first experience with freestyle dining. Diane loves it while I prefer traditional cruise style dining. Rather than 1 large Main Dining room there are 3 smaller venues which have no surcharges and require no reservations (Aqua, Impressions and Venetian). Also the Garden Café for buffet style dining and the Blue Lagoon for snacks and open 24 hours.

The food was wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the Beef Wellington at Impressions.

Excursions
Diane and I are not big on excursions as I mentioned earlier but on this cruise there really was little to do. One thing we like to do in Nassau is to visit a little bar named Iguana�??s. Unfortunately, for all intent and purposes EVERYTHING was closed. The exceptions were the shops in the terminal, a cheap souvenir shop and a bar. A native beer company was giving out free beer at the bar of which I took full advantage. This was after our traditional Bahama MaMa�??s which we couldn�??t have at Iquana�??s, of course. The other port worth mentioning was Great Stirup Cay. This is NCL�??s private island and while it doesn�??t meet HAL�??s Half Moon Cay, it offers a nice day on the beach. There are two beaches. One of them is very rocky. I saw a couple of people with cuts on the feet from stubbed toes in the water. NCL puts on a nice spread of hamburgers, corn on the cob, fruit, etc. Staff and crew

Only good things to say about the staff and crew on the Dawn. The wait staff in each dining venue was wonderful. On ships with traditional sitting the wait staff gets to know the guests. They learn there likes and dislikes and close bonds are developed. Open sitting does not offer this opportunity but the wait staff compensates for this and I still felt I was being treated �??special�?� by all of them.

There was one incident at the Chocolate Buffet which was held in the afternoon. An opportunity to take pictures prior to the eating was offered. As you probably know bathing suits and tank tops are not permitted in the dining room. I was wearing a sleeveless shirt and was told �??tank tops are not permitted in the dining room�?�. After explaining that it was not a tank top but rather a sleeveless shirt, the woman said it didn�??t matter, I was not permitted in the dining room. I had bought 3 from L.L. Bean at $29 each just before the cruise. That night was formal night. We were dressed appropriately, I in a tuxedo and Diane in a gown and seated next to us was a gentleman in dungarees and a t-shirt. When I mentioned this the head waiter simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Go figure.

Entertainment
The various lounges have wonderful entertainment but the Bollywood performance in the Stardust Theater was horrible. We had never walked out of an act but after 10 minutes we did. The performers where fine but the music�?�

Pictures
I have to talk about the onboard photographers in every review. Some day I will find a photographer who can take a picture of a tall person (I�??m 6�??2�?�) without cutting off my feet or head, because it hasn�??t happened on any of our cruises. The 6 photographers are out every night taking the �??formal�?� pictures. With all the complaints I read from people complaining about the picture taking, it�??s amazing how long the lines are every night to have pictures taken. Just an observation.

Conclusion

Diane and I are committed cruisers. The itinerary was disappointing and the Bollywood entertainment was the worst I've seen. But everything else was wonderful and we look forward to again cruising on the Norwegian Dawn again in April 2007.