Norwegian Dawn Review

4.0 / 5.0
3,027 reviews

Bermuda rerouted to Bahamas

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Norwegian Dawn
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bostonredsoxfans
6-10 Cruises • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Oct 2014
Cabin: Obstructed Oceanview

This was my first time cruising on Norwegian Cruise Lines and my first time cruising during hurricane season. Probably will not do either again...

First the season/weather - yes, the day we left port in Boston (10/17/14) a full blown hurricane was scheduled to hit Bermuda so we were told that we were being rerouted to the Bahamas. Since I know this is always a possibility, I wasn't upset about it but felt that since they handed out a pre-printed letter explaining it as we were entering the terminal, they should have emailed us first. This would allow us (who use smartphones to keep current) to tell our family that had dropped us off, what the new plan was for the cruise. Weather was rough a few days, first time I saw "barf bags" placed throughout the ship...not a reassuring sign. I take Bonine so I did not experience nausea, and was thankful. A couple of nights we did get woken by the rough waters and once by a big tip of the waves! Since I can get the same prices during non-hurricane season, I won't do this again.

Next my review of the ship - since this was my first time on NCL, I can't compare with any of their other NCL ships but I can compare with the variety of ships I have cruised on from Royal Caribbean International. I have been on RCI's oldest ship (Majesty of the Seas), on the Jewel, Serenade, Voyager, Mariner, Liberty and Independance of the Seas - all of which I liked. My favorites are Serenade and Independance. I found the NCL Dawn to be "old looking" compared to even the oldest RCI Majesty. The set up was also poor...it always seemed you were walking down the hall to get anywhere - but on RCI you have a nice middle ship area that isn't a narrow hallway. RCI is much easier to navigate through, as well as to always know where you are and where you are going.

Cabin Review

Obstructed Oceanview

Cabin OX

Deck 8 - cabin 8592: The room was an outside obstructed view cabin on NCL. I chose this since I didn't feel my usual balcony choice was worth the price on the Dawn, and was quite glad I didn't get the balcony as we had more room in our OBX stateroom, than our friends did in their balcony due to the set up of the twin beds in both our rooms. Since this was a "girls cruise" we had the twin bed set up rather than the full bed, as I do when traveling with my husband. The bathroom was odd, and there was barely any room where the toilet sat...as it was wedged into a "water closet" type of bathroom. Since I am 5'9" tall, my knees essentially hit the wall when using the toilet and that was without attempting to close the "somewhat see-through" sliding door to the water closet. If you don't know what a water closet is...it is when they enclose the toilet section with a privacy door but it is still within the bathroom assuming people can be using the toilet privately, while others can use the sink area. This wasn't the case in this bathroom. We also had a terrible gushing-water sound all the time from the wall behind the toilet, but luckily when the bathroom door was closed tight at night, we were able to sleep. Twice we had to call maintenance to help - first when the toilet was extremely slow flushing (you pushed the flush button, but it didn't flush for about 2-3 more minutes). Then when the shower didn't drain and flooded the floor of the bathroom. They did come quickly to fix it but I have since found out that other friends have had the same issues on this ship on different cruise weeks and decks.

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