Norwegian Dawn

The Dawn was quite a small ship compared to who we had sailed with previously. I did not find the same warm welcome when first boarding and some staff looked unhappy. The room we were allocated was an accessable inside cabin. It was a really great size with loads of storage and big walk in shower with rails. Great for my hubby. The food on the ship was limited with less range than I've had previously. We ate at the speciality restaurants all nights bar one. We found Cagney's steak house to be the best. The garden cafe was ok but the layout is awful and trying to get a seat can be tricky. Staff singing was a highlight though. Deserts were poor mainly cake and weird coloured jelly. No formal night which we were disappointed with and I hated seeing people turn up for a cocktail party (with the captain) dressed in t shirt and shorts. Cruise mainly filled with Americans and Canadians. Theatre shows were poor in my opinion not enough variety and their resident singers just singing. Ports of call were fine apart from Morocco where everything was closed

Very poor organisation at both Lisbon and Barcelona cruise terminals. Had to stand out in blazing sun for approx 3 hours to get on ship. At Barcelona port got put out of cruise terminal just after 8 am but taxi was not booked until 10. 20am Good selection of food in Garden Cafe but difficult to get a table some days Food in main dining rooms was disappointing - small portions and poor menus Not very attentive with wine at dinner - lucky to get more than 1 glass of wine with dinner! Poor selection of wines Speciality restaurants were most enjoyable Enjoyable itinerary but not keen on Gibraltar Evening entertainment not as good as previous NCL cruises Cabins were quite small compared to what I remember on previous cruises Excursions were too expensive for a family of 8 persons so the complementary shore excursion credits for our 4 cabins were not used Flights booked by Iglu did not allow sufficient time to transfer in Amsterdam (despite questioning this twice with Iglu before the cruise) resulting in us missing the connection on our return journey Lumen hotel in Lisbon very enjoyable One of the 2 taxis booked by Iglu for our return journey to Barcelona airport did not turn up at all, the other one was about 40 mins late

The ship seems dated and drab plus there was overcrowding mainly in the Buffet Restaurant.

I just returned from a cruise on the Norwegian Dawn, and unfortunately, my overall experience was average at best. The biggest issue was boarding the ship in Lisbon. Despite having an allocated boarding time, we were left standing in a queue in the blazing heat for 3½ hours before we were able to get on board. What made this even more frustrating was seeing passengers boarding the Dutch ship next to the Norwegian Dawn with no apparent issues, while NCL seemed completely unable to manage the process. There were no meaningful announcements, no explanation for the delays and, most disappointing of all, not even an apology from any member of staff. This was an incredibly stressful way to start what should have been a relaxing holiday. If there were problems with the boarding process, NCL should have communicated with passengers and acknowledged the situation. Unfortunately, the rest of the cruise didn't really improve my impression. The entertainment was disappointing and, overall, I found the food to be average. I appreciate that no holiday is perfect, but the combination of the poor boarding experience, lack of communication and apology, average food and disappointing entertainment left me feeling that the cruise simply wasn't worth the money. Sadly, based on this experience, I won't be cruising with NCL again.