11 Nights Mediterranean from Lisbon Cruise

Mediterranean Magic

This NCL cruise was great. NCL excursions reasonable and alot of choices at each port. Food was excellent, drink package perfect choice. Wifi not so good..spotty at times but you are on a ship. Stateroom was a club balcony had lots of room and came with robes and treats during the cruise plus a bottle of champagne. Definately treat yourself to a suite. No port problems, one tender but they ran that op smooth!. 5 days in Spain, 1 day Gibralter, 2 days Italy 2 days France. Wish it was evenly divided by counties but all countries are beautiful and full of history you will enjoy! If you are looking for a smaller ship, great staff, not so crowded (only 2290 guests with 1300 staff) then this is the ship for you. Easy to navigate and the in ship entertainment was good. Casino was full every night and fun was had by all!!

Wonderful experience in South Africa & Madagascar

We had a fantastic experience sailing from Cape Town to Mauritius on NCL Dawn. The itinerary included four ports in South Africa, which offered a huge variety of experiences from safaris, to cultural immersion and much more. We also stopped at the islands of Reunion, Madagascar and Mauritius - beautiful paradises of culture, wildlife and wonderful people. CHECK IN: after reading about port delays in Cape Town for some earlier cruises, we were pleased to find no line ups. An Uber from the hotel dropped us off at about 11:20 (inside the port area, close to check in). Our check in time was 11:30-12:00. We walked right up to security to scan bags, then to the NCL checkin desk. We sat down to wait for boarding and were called up right away to board. We were at a table for lunch at 11:40. ROOM: we had a family suite SP on deck 12 near the library. We were able to upgrade from balcony to suite after final payment when the price for the suite dropped down to the same amount we had paid for the balcony. This suite has no balcony but the room is as big as a regular penthouse plus balcony. I would happily stay in this category again. PORTS: Africa is not an area geared to regular cruise ship docking, so don’t expect any port facilities. These are industrial, working ports. Mossel Bay and the two Madagascar ports require tenders. Disembarking was fairly smooth and at times there was a long line of people waiting to get back to the ship. Richard’s Bay is a coal shipping port and the air and grounds are thick with coal dust. We had heard this many times and were sort of prepared. Dark coloured clothing and a mask are recommended. It was raining when we arrived so instead of having the air full of dust, the ground was mucky with slick black mud and puddles. I wore washable shoes and washed them when we returned. The sights and excursions available at all of the ports are well worth the little inconvenience. EXCURSIONS: my favourite places that we visited were Addo Elephant National Park (Gqeberha/ Port Elizabeth) and iSmangaliso wetland park (Richard’s Bay). Also the two ports in Madagascar had fantastic tours, especially Amber Mountain Park where you can see lemurs in the wild. FOOD: the Dawn has many specialty restaurants to choose from including Cagney’s (steak house), La Cuchina (Italian), Bamboo (Asian/Sushi), Los Lobos (Mexican), Moderna (Brazilian), Teppanaki, and Le Bistro (French). Our favourite meals came from the main dining room - there are two, Venetian and Aqua and we preferred Aqua for its contemporary decor, smaller room feel and terrific service (the menus are the same in both). They get really swarmed when the show audience gets out, but otherwise we had no delays getting a table or food. Some dishes weren’t hot enough for us but when I made a point of asking the server to make sure it was hot, it helped. SHOWS: loved the production cast shows - Elements is outstanding. The comedian was entertaining but the mostly baby boomer audience did not appreciate millennial humour. The music in all venues was fantastic. SURPRISES: There are no computer terminals in the Internet cafe. This is a missed opportunity for NCL because I like to use them on sea days to look for my next cruise! When I asked about this, the manager shared that they are on order. They have a little-used lounge area on deck 9 just off the mid-ship stairway/elevator. It has tables and chairs, board games, cards and puzzles and it overlooks the entertainment in the Atrium. The crew are amazing! Cheerful and always wanting to ensure you are having a great time. If anything goes wrong for you, talk to them and they will go out of their way to make it right. General Manager Alain is very accessible and can often be seen walking around to check things out. Africa provides many logistical challenges for the cruise line, particularly with sourcing food and beverages. They made the most of it by stocking South African beers and wines which many found to be better than the usual stock. Most things that people complain about (coal in Richard’s Bay! The heat! The weather! Oh my!) are beyond the control of the cruise line. NCL did a fantastic job of making this vacation memorable.

Great Experience on the Dawn

This was our 4th overall cruise and our 2nd with Norwegian. We selected this particular cruise based on the ports visited in the Mediterranean and the price/deals offered by Norwegian. Overall, we were very satisfied with the itinerary, the selection of excursions, and the value offered by this method of travel combined with Norwegian’s relatively low price. We did not have any complaints about the ship. The common areas appeared well kept, the crew was friendly and helpful, and the entertainment was much better than expected. Since we chose a cruise simply as a method of travel and not necessarily for the experience or the entertainment, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the shows on this cruise. We also did not choose a cruise for the dining experience, but we were mostly satisfied with the number of complimentary restaurants and the quality and variety of food offered. The cafe (providing buffet style dining) appeared to have enough different options to satisfy most people and the quality of some items was actually quite good. The ship has a number of specialty restaurants, though we only went to one (Teppanyaki) and our steak and shrimp were excellent. We were happy with the number of excursions offered at each port (there actually seemed to be too many to choose from in some cases). We decided to stick with those offered through Norwegian, but we met some couples that arranged their own independently for less cost. For any cruise, it helps to do a little research about the ports and what’s close to them ahead of time. For instance, we enjoyed visiting the old, historic towns that are still in use such as the ones in Kotor, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia. The old town in Kotor is easy to walk to from the port, but the one in Dubrovnik is several miles away. Overall, we do not have any regrets in choosing this cruise and I would not hesitate to sail with Norwegian or on this particular ship (the Dawn) again.