The Ship
I signed Traci and me up for the 3 to 3:30 PM slot for boarding the ship. Over the years, I have learned that this boarding time slot is when you are less likely to stand in long ship check-in lines. Once again, this technique worked. We made it through the check-in process in about 15 minutes with no lines. Check-in actually began outside. I felt sorry for the Norwegian staff who were bundled up outside to process the guests. They were in a shaded area on this windy day which made it quite chilly.
We sailed on the Norwegian Dawn which holds a little over 2,300 passengers. This was actually the second time Traci and I sailed on this ship. The first time was back in 2011 when we did the One Love Gospel Cruise in the Caribbean. The ship has been renovated since then.
There were more families and children on the ship than we've seen on our past cruises. This is probably because it took place over Christmas and New Years. I heard that there were 324 children aboard. I also heard that there were passengers from close to 50 different countries. This was evident by the fact that I rarely heard passengers speaking English amongst themselves.
We would be spending Christmas and New Years on the ship. The ship was decorated for Christmas. There was Christmas music playing in the background in the dining rooms and in the hallways. There were evening Christmas shows. Some of the passengers decorated their cabin door with holiday decorations. Of course there were New Years Eve parties all around the ship.
The ship was decorated for Christmas.
The ship was decorated for Christmas.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Some passengers decorated their cabin for Christmas.
We had a balcony state room (#9080). This is a midship cabin. I prefer midship because you feel less motion. Motion was not a problem on the Norwegian Dawn. Her stabilizers worked remarkably - even during high waves.
I was pleased with our cabin. Our suitcases slid nicely under the bed. We had a mini fridge which was stocked with expensive beverages. Traci and I took a chance and brought water, a can of soda, and seltzer water aboard. They were complimentary from the Marriott Marquis where we stayed in Doha. We fully expected them to be confiscated during ship check-in because I thought we were not allowed to bring beverages aboard. To our surprise, nothing was confiscated. We were a little disappointed that we did not bring more. Anyway, there was enough room in our fridge to keep our free beverages cold.
We ate in the complimentary dining rooms (Venetian and Aqua) as much as we could. The meals ranged from decent to delicious. Even though the service was the slowest I’ve experienced in 19 cruises, I appreciated the pleasantness of the staff. It did not take long for the them to learn our names. This was impressive given the ship holds 2,300 passengers. When Traci got sick (more about that later), the maître d’ made sure his staff brought her chicken noodle soup even though it wasn't on the menu. Furthermore, he would ask me how she was doing when he saw me around the ship.
We tried to avoid the buffet unless we were pressed for time. Some of the buffet etiquette of the passengers (especially the children) had our internal germophobic alarm bells ringing. There were Norwegian staff members at the buffet entrances encouraging people to wash their hands or to use hand sanitizer. They would say "Washy. Washy." but a majority of the people I saw would ignore them and go straight to the food.
We did not do any specialty restaurants. We just could not justify paying extra for food when there are complimentary restaurants. Norwegian was offering "free" specialty restaurant dining through their Free At Sea program but if you read the fine print, you will see that you are charged gratuities. This also applied to the "free" drink package which had a daily gratuity for each person. We declined these "free" offers.
On the other hand, we did take advantage of the half price shore excursions offer and the free 300 minutes of internet per person. These perks were also offered through the Free At Sea program.
We traveled long distances on this cruise. As a result, we had quite a few sea days, e.g. days that we did not visit a port. We had six sea days during this two-week cruise. The longest stretch was the 4 days between Dubai and La Digue, Seychelles. Our cruise itinerary was as follows:
| Sun | 12/22 | Doha, Qatar | --- | 8:00 PM |
| Mon | 12/23 | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | 9:00 AM | 11:00 PM |
| Tue | 12/24 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | 7:00 AM | Overnight |
| Wed | 12/25 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | --- | 4:00 PM |
| Thu | 12/26 | At Sea | --- | --- |
| Fri | 12/27 | At Sea | --- | --- |
| Sat | 12/28 | At Sea | --- | --- |
| Sun | 12/29 | At Sea | --- | --- |
| Mon | 12/30 | La Digue, Seychelles | 10:00 AM | 7:00 PM |
| Tue | 12/31 | Port Victoria, Seychelles | 7:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
| Wed | 01/01 | At Sea | --- | --- |
| Thu | 01/02 | Antsiranana, Madagascar | 7:00 AM | 6:00 PM |
| Fri | 01/03 | At Sea | --- | --- |
| Sat | 01/04 | Pointe Des Galets, Reunion | 8:00 AM | 6:00 PM |
| Sun | 01/05 | Port Louis, Mauritius | 7:00 AM | --- |
These sea days gave us an opportunity to participate in several activities on the ship. Traci enjoyed playing bingo. The participation fee ($80) was more expensive than on past cruises but fortunately, Traci got on a good winning streak and ended up winning back most of what she paid. She also won the cake-decorating contest.
Bingo on sea days
Traci won the cake-decorating contest!
My favorite activity was the progressive trivia. I joined a team consisting of a retired Swiss pilot, his German wife, and her mother. The couple lives in Dubai now. We met every sea day at 12:30 PM to compete against other teams in progressive trivia. I loved the diversity of our team. It seemed someone could always come up with an answer when others were stumped. The questions were challenging. They seemed to be heavy on chemistry which I have long forgotten from my high school and college days. Our total score by the end of the cruise had earned us 4th place. I was wandering what happened on the previous cruises because the hostess began each session by reminding everyone that this is only a game and that there is no extravagant prize for the winning team. She begged everyone to be nice to one another. Everyone was respectful but what happened in the past to warrant this speech?
When we were not participating in ship activities, I enjoyed sitting on our balcony. Other times, I would relax in a shaded area of the pool deck while listening to the house band perform. Traci, on the other hand, is not into sitting around. I knew to look for her in the fitness center.
Traci and I attended the evening performances in the Stardust Theater. Each night had a different type of performance. Sometimes there were song and dance performances. Other nights had genres such as magic, acrobatics, comedy, and even a hypnotist. There were special Christmas shows given we were cruising during the holidays.
For the most part, cruising on the Norwegian Dawn was a pleasant trip. It allowed me to visit faraway places that I probably wouldn’t have visited otherwise. However, I must mention a very unpleasant experience that had us wondering if we are willing to book with Norwegian again. They totally dropped the ball on the day that we were being tendered to La Digue, Seychelles. We were delayed because the captain had to reposition the ship to avoid the choppy water. We appreciated this safety measure. However, as a result people were crowded in the atrium waiting to debark. This was chaotic. I did not see any Norwegian staff there keeping order or providing information. After a while, there were arguments between passengers. We were getting squeezed as people were trying to move in this massive crowd. I thought a fight was about to break out when a passenger supposedly called a Norwegian crew member a racial slur. They began arguing and slapping the finger out of each other's face. We were in this chaos for over an hour. Frankly, it became dangerous as people were on the steps while feeling the crush of the crowd. There was no one there with authority to control this mess. There was probably no one in good mood by the time we finally made it ashore. Everyone had a horror tale from that day. That experience was enough to make Traci say that she is done with Norwegian. Continue...