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Welove2cruise2
Frequent Cruiser
| Joined: | Sun Feb 18th, 2007 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 528 |
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Posted: Sat Aug 9th, 2008 02:30 am | 1st Post |
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NCL Dream review 7/20/08: This is very long…
We had such a great time; we’ve actually booked ANOTHER cruise on the Dream – the last one from Boston to BDA!! Here’s our review:
Background: DH and myself were on this cruise; this was our 13th cruise on NCL; we’ve also cruised twice on HAL (Noordam). We love NCL for the relaxed atmosphere and freestyle; HAL is a very different experience, though we loved that as well. As far as we’re concerned, there’s no BAD cruise or line (so far)!
We left home around 10 a.m. planning to arrive at the pier at 11. About 40 minutes into our drive to Boston (it was raining on and off) the windshield wiper on the driver’s side of our car broke; rather than take a chance, we drove back home and swapped cars. Back on the road by 11, we arrived at the pier at noon. What a difference a year makes! What is WITH the long line to wait for a porter to take your luggage? Seemed like insanity to me! This is NOT like what we’re used to sailing from Boston, and we do NOT like this change… Fortunately a porter came up to me as I stood there with our three pieces of luggage (looking lost and perturbed), loaded them onto his cart and whisked them away (note – people standing in that line were NOT happy with us… Perhaps this was not the BEST thing to do, but hey, you do what you have to do…)! No line for us – went directly into the terminal, no line for latitudes, and we were on board at 12:15. Our cabin was ready – wow, what a difference from the Majesty! We were in a GG obstructed ocean view on deck 8 (8229 15% obstruction) and had PLENTY of space to store the contents of our over-stuffed suitcases, with room to spare! Bathroom has four or five glass shelves (in addition to the shelves under the sink), so we put all our stuff on the shelves and stored our toiletry cases. Shower is TINY! But overall the bathroom was fine for the week (VERY interesting shaving my legs, however…). No problems whatsoever with using my 1875 watt blow dryer, and I didn’t need the power strip I packed. There’s a great little vanity table with mirror and lights just for this purpose. The cabin has two twins (founded at the corners) put together, a sofabed, chair, ottoman and coffee table; full sized window; tiny (13” maybe?) TV that we rarely watched, and a shelf for our bar setup (which had already arrived), glasses and ice bucket (no fridge in this cabin). Beds are HARD AS A ROCK – but miraculously, we had no trouble sleeping at night – in fact, we slept until 9 a.m. most mornings – unheard of for us! Also in our cabin was a bottle of champagne and a fruit basket, courtesy of latitudes. Our cabin stewards, Eduardo and Romeo, were excellent throughout the week, knowing when we were out of our cabin and making sure we had ice twice a day (no fridge), and towel animals almost every night. As gold latitudes members, we did receive several treats throughout the week (chocolate covered strawberries, cookies) and another bottle of champagne from the Hotel Director. All our luggage had arrived by around 5:30 or so.
We unpacked our carry-ons and, after calling the reservation desk (we didn’t have the concierge’s extension at this point) to make dinner reservations at LeBistro for Sunday and Friday night, we headed up to the pool deck. The area around the pool bar is huge, and great for the many deck parties held while in port. We spent lots of time at the pool bar – Samir is the bartender there, and Javerne is one of the bar waiters, and they’re the best! Samir did a great job of keeping the “kids” out of the pool bar, so it was definitely adults only most of the time. We experienced none of the issues previous cruisers talked about regarding slow bar service – whether we were sitting at the bar, or on deck, these two gentlemen took great care of us. Same with inside the ship – we had great bar service in the restaurants as well as the bars.
The lifeboat drill was a little scary, with thunder clapping and lightning all around us, but we survived unscathed (but not many people paying attention…) and stowed our life jackets before sail-away.
We explored the ship, and then got ready for dinner at LeBistro, which was wonderful, as expected. Service and food here is excellent. We turned in early the first night, as it was a long day!
Seas were relatively calm on Monday and Tuesday prior to arriving in Bermuda, though it was SO windy on deck on Monday (remnants of a storm) that it was almost impossible to sit on deck! We arrived in Bermuda on time, with the usual welcome at the entrance to the cut by the Town Crier and cannon blast, and his welcome speech at the pier. We docked starboard side to the dock, so we had a great view of St. George’s.
A perk for gold and platinum latitudes members and suite guests is breakfast and lunch in LeBistro – wow, this was incredible, and according to our wonderful concierge, Karin, only offered on the Dream (for latitudes members)! Never a wait for a table at breakfast (we never had lunch here, so don’t even know what the menu consisted of) and had a great choice of breakfast offerings, including French toast, pancakes, eggs cooked to order, omelets, eggs Benedict, steak (petit filet mignon!) and eggs, as well as a small buffet that contained fruit, rolls and breads, smoked salmon, pate, cream cheese, etc. We could order coffee or cappuccino/espresso (no charge), as well as fresh squeezed OJ for a nominal fee (though I did have this several mornings and was not charged). Karin was present every morning to check on us, inquire as to our plans for the day, as well as to make dinner reservations for us if we wished.
We had most of our dinners in LaTrattoria, as Karin could make a reservation for us at any time – the food was good, too, and this is a very pretty restaurant overlooking the aft pool and wake. Much broader menu than the Majesty. We had dinner twice in LeBistro, and one dinner in the main dining room (Terraces – also a very pretty dining room). Reservations in the main dining rooms had to be made before 6 or after 8:15 (I think). We felt the food was good and we received very good service every evening, with the exception of Saturday night at LaTrattoria, when we felt rushed (we were served our pasta and entrée at the same time), and the waiter seemed annoyed when we ordered cappuccino, which took forever (he did warn us)! We rarely had lunch, but did hit up the buffet for a pre-made sandwich, salad, or snack once or twice; while in BDA we ate on shore. FYI, we paid no attention to how other passengers were dressed, but the dress code was very relaxed. We didn’t care… I did speak with people on board who were travelling with large groups, and heard comments regarding service and wait times for dinner. It seems that the staff couldn't handle the larger groups, or the groups were not made aware that they could make reservations in the dining room for their group (or the group was too large to accommodate). However we never encountered a problem.
While in Bermuda we visited our favorite beach, St. Catherine’s. The “Beach It” bar and grill was still open, and we were able to rent chairs and an umbrella. We also went to Hamilton one day to walk around and do some shopping, had lunch at Café Gio’s and the White Horse Tavern on two different days, and nachos and swizzles at the Swizzle Inn. The weather was wonderful all week, with some rain after we sailed away. NOTE: the bridge on this ship is OUTSIDE on the port and starboard sides on deck 9 (or maybe it’s 8). I was on the sun deck starboard side when I walked forward and down a flight (or two) of stairs and saw the outside bridge. I was amazed to see the Captain piloting the ship out of St. George’s. I was able to talk to him (didn’t want to distract him TOO much) and he told me “this is an old-school ship!”
We were invited to three latitudes/VIP cocktail parties at which the Captain and several officers were present. Captain Aage Hoodevik was quite a character, very approachable and congenial! The crew has much respect for this man, and many consider him a father figure. Every time he came over the PA he’d end his talk with a poem. He left the Dream when we did, and we’re not sure where he’s going, but know he prefers the small ships, so I would presume it’s back to Marco Polo.
We had a great turnout for our CC get-together. The Captain, Hotel Director, F & B Manager, Housekeeping Manager, and Group Services Coordinator (I’m sure I’m forgetting some) all attended. They provided our group with coffee, juice, water and cookies. I was surprised that we rarely ran into anyone in the group, with the exception of two couples that we saw towards the end of the cruise. Those present were invited to tour the bridge (don’t know how many took advantage) and the Hotel Director informed me that he sent a bottle of champagne to everyone in the group – what a peach!
There is a latitudes lounge located outside the entrance to LaTrattoria – it’s stocked throughout the day with coffee (regular and decaf), tea, water, cookies and (I heard) pastries in the morning – this is a great benefit to latitudes members, and I would recommend that every latitudes member take advantage of this. There is a sign in sheet when you enter that you’re encouraged to sign as this is how they keep track of how the facility is being utilized – there are many tables (several against the floor to ceiling windows) and games and cards on a table in the corner – it’s a great place to chat, read, have a bite to eat or play a game. Note that the windows are tinted – I was sitting here on Friday reading a book, looking out the windows and thinking it was so dreary outside (it had been raining) when DH came looking for me around noontime to tell me the sun was shining!
There was a “white hot party” on deck one night (they had a “screen” set up in front of the ice cream stand with a looping video – very cool – and black lights – wear white!), and a “Monte Carlo” party in the casino another night. We weren’t overly impressed with the entertainment on the pool deck (they were hit or miss, not bad, just okay, but we missed the steel drum band…) and the (recorded) music they played on deck at the beginning of the cruise can only be described as “weird” -- it did, however, improve towards the end. I can only attribute this to the fact that the ship had previously sailed South America. We only attended a couple of the production shows (the country show and the “last night” show), which were entertaining. The Vietnamese comedian/juggler, surprisingly, was a riot! We also went to the open mike comedy night, which was hilarious! There was another comedian on board who we saw (can’t remember his name but he was VERY funny); we tried to attend his late night show but the lounge was packed, so we gave up. We spent some time (and too much money) in the casino, and had not even earned enough points on our CAS cards to cash in. There were a couple of other deck parties, which were a lot of fun (we LOVE deck parties in BDA! Great music – mostly DJ), and they also had the chocolate buffet on deck (this was different), which was mobbed! Entertainment was great that night – the cruise director (Sandi -- she was filling in for Fith who was on vacation) and her staff did a great job at all the deck parties. There was a martini clinic, mojito and muddling clinic, and a few wine tastings that we didn’t attend. There were yoga classes on the sun deck (basketball court) almost every morning (no, I didn’t do that either…). We basically cruise to relax and don’t necessarily look for something to entertain us every hour of the day (especially on a cruise this short) but from reading the dailies there seemed to be many activities to keep people occupied. Yes, LOTS of bingo, and some art auctions. Not an excessive amount of announcements, which was fine with us. We were perfectly happy to spend sea days at the pool bar, and port days exploring our beloved Bermuda.
I really don’t like the new towel policy (where they leave towels in your stateroom that you’re responsible for – and will charge you $25 each for if they’re not returned at the end of the cruise) – I much prefer being able to grab a towel on the pool deck or when debarking the ship when in port – but on the other hand I can understand why they do this, and we found much less chair saving on the pool and sun deck as a result. Our stewards always replaced our towels when required, but I never could find the spot on deck to swap towels.
On Wednesday around dinnertime the Captain came on the PA system to inform us that “kids” were going into the public restrooms and turning all the water faucets on. He said if it continued he would be forced to turn off all the water in the public restrooms, and passengers would have to go to their cabins to use the facilities and get water. In case you don’t know, it is not possible for a cruise ship to make water in port – if we’d have run out of water we would have had to leave BDA. The Captain was NOT happy – however when we saw him a day or two later he told us that his announcement had solved the problem. We also had some problems with kids running down the corridors and banging on walls and doors (especially the night of the chocolate buffet) and taking “do not disturb” signs from the doors. Again, this is just the chance we took when we chose to sail in July.
It was a great trip, with very few things to complain about. The ship was at full capacity, so the outside decks did get quite crowded. We never set foot in either of the pools or hot tubs – too many kids! Of course that’s the chance you take when cruising when we did. As much as we love to cruise for our anniversary we may consider cruising on the Spirit in June next year.
Any questions, feel free to ask!
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"I'll take the deck of a ship any time..." Jimmy Buffett
Majesty 10/00 & 01, 7/03 & 04, 5/05, 6/06, 9/06, 7/07 Dawn 11/04, 10/05, 3/07 Spirit 11/06, Dream 7/08 Noordam 10/07, 3/08
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Cubechick
Funnel Deck Cruiser
| Joined: | Sat Jul 21st, 2007 |
| Location: | The Burrow |
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Posted: Sun Aug 10th, 2008 12:56 am | 2nd Post |
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Great review! Glad that you enjoyed the Dream as much as we did. Sounds as though we had very similar experiences.
I also thought the Captain was wonderful, but see that you had a new HD since we sailed on the Dream (we had Monique Baarnhorn). LOVE that he comped all the M&G members a bottle of bubbly. THAT's customer service! And agre that Karin was an exceptional concierge.
Wasn't breakfast in LeBistro heavenly??? You've made me hungry reminding me of all that wonderful food.  :breakfast:
We won't get to sail the Dream again as we're sailing to Bermuda on the Dawn October 12th. (We're really looking forward to getting sail her as she is so beloved by so many NCL folk).
Your review reminded me of how much we loved our cruise and makes me wish we could join you on her final voyage with NCL!
Cube
BTW, also hate the new way they handle the luggage at Black Falcon! 
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"The early bird gets the worm. Yet, it is the second mouse that gets the cheese."
Next up:
NCL Gem 1/14/09 (formerly Jade cruise)
NCL Pearl 6/7/09 Alaska at last!!!!!
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Jetlagged
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| Joined: | Tue Oct 30th, 2007 |
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Posted: Sun Aug 10th, 2008 01:28 am | 3rd Post |
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| Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough review of the Norwegian Dream. I appreciate hearing your experiences. :-)
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hstrybuf
Founders
| Joined: | Sat Jun 17th, 2006 |
| Location: | Kansas |
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Posted: Sun Aug 10th, 2008 02:24 am | 4th Post |
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| I've enjoyed reading your review! Having never been to Bermuda, but hoping to someday, I picked up some tips on where to go. All in all, it sounds like you had a great cruise!
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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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