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jimswims
Frequent Cruiser
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Posted: Mon Oct 29th, 2007 02:12 am | 1st Post |
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This was our 11th cruise, 5th on NCL, and second time on the Dawn. It was our first weekend cruise. My wife surprised me with this trip and we traveled with two of our closest friends.
Embarkation:
We left the Boston area at 5:25 am on Friday. We arrived to the pier in NYC at 9:40 am. The drive down was terrific and somehow we missed the rush hour traffic for Boston, Hartford, and NYC. We arrived at the check-in area at the Manhattan Pier and were greeted with the news that there was a Noro-like virus that infected about 5% of the passengers and crew on the NCL Dawn last week. We received a statement in writing with an offer of a credit if we chose not to sail this week. The actual embarkation was not going to occur until 1:00pm because the crew was performing extra cleaning in all areas. We decided to stay and take the cruise and were glad that did.
The cruise was an excellent experience and a fun weekend away.
Food:
We enjoyed all of our meals on this cruise. Since this was our second time on the Dawn, we had a plan on the restaurants that we wanted to try.
We first ate dinner in Venetian as soon as we boarded. I ordered the Tilapia and it was excellent. We all enjoyed a nice leisurely lunch by the back window.
We ate dinner at Le Bistro on Friday evening. We have been to this restaurant on all of our NCL cruises and consider it our favorite. We all chose the lobster and shrimp martini, escargot, and short ribs and filet for our main course. Everything was once again perfectly done and the service was superb. We asked for chocolate fondue and fruit for dessert and although it is no longer on the menu, it was delivered with a smile and was delicious. This was a great way to introduce our friends to NCL and freestyle cruising.
We had a nice hot breakfast delivered by the butler on Saturday morning. I had Eggs Benedict and fresh fruit which were very good. This was a nice treat for us and everything was hot and got our morning off to a good start.
Bamboo, Teppanyaki, and Cagney’s were all open for lunch on this cruise. Back in August, Bamboo, the Asian restaurant, was my least favorite of all of my meals. We decided to give it another try and I was glad that I did. It was delicious and the portions were large. However, the service was quite slow and the head waiter came over and apologized for this. We were not too upset as we were enjoying the company and conversation. I had the lemon chicken for my main course and it was worth the wait. It was a two hour lunch but we really did not care. It gave us the opportunity to spend quality time with our friends in a nice atmosphere.
We had dinner in Impressions of Italy. The Caesar salad, minestrone soup, and beef dish was excellent and the service was again superb.
All of our meals were as good and some even better than we experienced on our week on the Dawn back in August. It was a nice surprise because for some reason I was prepared for things to be not up to the standards we experienced on longer cruises. This was not accurate in our experience. All of the crew that we encountered went out of their way to make our weekend enjoyable.
Entertainment:
We did not go to any shows in the Stardust Theater. We did go and see Fire and Ice, a singing group from Barbados. Rosie and Max can sure fill up a room! She has such an incredible singing voice and we first saw them on the Dawn in August. If you have a chance to see her perform do not miss it. She sings Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and others. We also participated in the Quest. It was a lot of fun and definitely an adults only show. If you are up for a good laugh and want to have some fun you must add this to your “to do” list.
Public Areas:
We found that the public areas were very clean. The Noro-like virus from the previous week prompted a thorough cleaning of all the public areas. Although this delayed our embarkation, it was evident that lots of cleaning had taken place. The Casino was filled with smoke for most of the weekend. Although I am not a smoker, I can be around it without any problems if I choose to. I found it hard to stay in there for very long.
Stateroom:
We stayed in an AB Penthouse suite. This was our second time in this cabin this year and we knew what to expect. It is a great place to stay and it is my favorite cabin on a cruise ship with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living and dining area, and balcony. The master bath has a huge shower and a Jacuzzi. It is a comfortable cabin and at over 550 square feet offered lots of room for the 4 of us.
Penthouse Perks:
I will self describe us as people who are easy to please. We do not ask for much but do enjoy some of the services of the concierge and butler. Michael, the concierge and his assistant Johnny were very helpful and got us the dining room reservations that we wanted. Anshuman, the butler, came in to introduce himself after I called him. He told me that on the weekend cruises, we will not receive the perks that we received back in August (we did have another butler in August). He told me that there was no complimentary champagne (this actually arrived to the cabin about 30 minutes after our conversation), no in-suite dining, and no suite menu breakfasts. When I told him that we already had our dining reservations and that we only wanted a hot breakfast in the suite, he said that he could do this. He got the menus and instructed us to put whatever we wanted and leave it on the table in the suite and he will get it. We had a great breakfast in the suite on Saturday morning. Anshuman never came to get the menu on Saturday evening for Sunday’s breakfast. This was not a big deal for us and we decided to eat in Venetian before we left the ship.
Debarkation:
We arrived back to NYC at about 8:00 as we were eating our breakfast by the back window of the Venetian dining room. The NCL Spirit followed us in and the NCL Crown was ahead of us. With 3 NCL ships in port, the pier was bound to be busy. However, at about 9:00 am it was announced that we could leave. The Freestyle requested that we leave the ship by 9:00am. I do not remember reading this on the longer cruises and were planning to leave about that time anyway. We gathered our things and in about 15 minutes, we were off the ship and leaving in our car at 9:25 am.
We enjoyed our weekend away on the Dawn. We will definitely consider another 2 day cruise out NYC or Boston in the future.
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Jim
8/7/09 NCL Spirit, Boston to Bermuda
Previous cruises NCL: 6; RCCL: 4; Carnival: 2; Cunard:1.
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whatawonderfulworld
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Posted: Mon Oct 29th, 2007 02:42 am | 2nd Post |
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Excellent review, very enjoyable read. So happy to hear that you all had a great time. And I could relate with regard to you all enjoying your prolonged lunch - when you're on a beautiful ship, with superb food and great company...what's the rush? During our recent Pearl voyage, we closed out several of the restaurants. We were never ever rushed out...and the only reason we noticed that it was "closing time" is because the rest of the place was empty! Dining at it's best - excellent company, fabulous food, beautiful atmosphere - what more could you ask for????
You had a beautiful day to enter NY today (I special ordered it for you!) I love the Dawn - she's a beautiful ship and will always hold a special place in my heart. She's the first ship that DH and I cruised on together and all his reservations about cruising were dashed. As a result, this has now become our favorite way to travel.
What you witnessed today, with the 3 sister NCL ships all in port, is not going to happen again for a long time. In fact, we won't have an NCL ship into a NY port until the Gem arrives in December. What is that expression again...good things come to those who wait?
Welcome home and again, thanks for the terrific review.
Ciao,
WaWW
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Mark Twain
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sauvichick
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| Joined: | Sat Aug 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | Long Island,NY |
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Posted: Mon Oct 29th, 2007 03:54 am | 3rd Post |
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OK I just a detailed review it was not posting and now I lost all of it ! I'll rewrite it tomorrow so until then you will all have to wait. I cannot type to save my life and now it's bedtime!
Last edited on Mon Oct 29th, 2007 04:01 am by sauvichick
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jimswims
Frequent Cruiser
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Posted: Mon Oct 29th, 2007 11:18 pm | 4th Post |
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sauvichick wrote: OK I just a detailed review it was not posting and now I lost all of it! I'll rewrite it tomorrow so until then you will all have to wait. I cannot type to save my life and now it's bedtime!
You still need to do a review  you cannot get out of it that easy.
It was great to meet you at the meet and greet and around the ship.
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Jim
8/7/09 NCL Spirit, Boston to Bermuda
Previous cruises NCL: 6; RCCL: 4; Carnival: 2; Cunard:1.
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hstrybuf
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Posted: Tue Oct 30th, 2007 12:05 am | 5th Post |
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| I wish we lived close enough to a port to be able to do a weekend cruise. Glad you found things better than expected!
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Deb
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/hstrycrsr
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sauvichick
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Posted: Wed Oct 31st, 2007 02:33 am | 6th Post |
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jimswims wrote: sauvichick wrote: OK I just a detailed review it was not posting and now I lost all of it! I'll rewrite it tomorrow so until then you will all have to wait. I cannot type to save my life and now it's bedtime!
You still need to do a review you cannot get out of it that easy.
It was great to meet you at the meet and greet and around the ship.
OK,I'm not looking to get out of the review, Jimswims! I have an extremely busy week & I promise I will rewrite a very detailed 2ND review of this weekend cruise!!! After all it will be my 1st review! It was fun but exhausting!! Happy Halloween all!
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http://www.iberostar.info/ticker/image.php?code=0XT13268bdXk7Xs23XEurodam cruise to nowhere
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jimswims
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Posted: Thu Nov 1st, 2007 02:41 am | 7th Post |
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Think of your first review as your rough draft .
I look forward to reading it when you are able to do it.
Take Care.
____________________
Jim
8/7/09 NCL Spirit, Boston to Bermuda
Previous cruises NCL: 6; RCCL: 4; Carnival: 2; Cunard:1.
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Coka
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| Joined: | Sun Feb 18th, 2007 |
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Posted: Fri Nov 2nd, 2007 01:01 am | 8th Post |
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Hi Jimswims and Sauvichick! I enjoyed meeting you and it is fun to see how everyone spent the 48 hour trip!
Is it okay if I just cut and paste my review?
Coka
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jimswims
Frequent Cruiser
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Posted: Sat Nov 3rd, 2007 01:08 am | 9th Post |
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Coka wrote: Hi Jimswims and Sauvichick! I enjoyed meeting you and it is fun to see how everyone spent the 48 hour trip!
Is it okay if I just cut and paste my review?
Coka
I loved reading your review. Feel free to paste it here.
I want people to read yours so put where ever you think it will get some action!
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Jim
8/7/09 NCL Spirit, Boston to Bermuda
Previous cruises NCL: 6; RCCL: 4; Carnival: 2; Cunard:1.
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sauvichick
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Posted: Sat Nov 3rd, 2007 05:22 am | 10th Post |
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| Hi Jimswims. My review will be detailed but nowhere as detailed as Coka's! I do not have the patience to type with 2 fingers for such a long period of time. By the way thanks for the review. Same ship different views.
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jimswims
Frequent Cruiser
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Posted: Sun Nov 18th, 2007 01:10 am | 11th Post |
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Liz and I decided that we liked the weekend cruise enough to book another one.
Since there are none leaving Boston in 2008, we are going to go on the NCL Jade out of NYC December 2008. Hopefully we will be celebrating the completion/defense of my doctoral dissertation. Actually, I should be working on it right now but I am procrastinating  
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Jim
8/7/09 NCL Spirit, Boston to Bermuda
Previous cruises NCL: 6; RCCL: 4; Carnival: 2; Cunard:1.
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