11 Nights British Isles: Ireland & Scotland from London Cruise

Great trip!

After reading previous reviews, I was very hesitant for our trip, but the NCL Dawn was just lovely! We had a great time. Sure, it's not as fancy as some of the mega-ships that are out there, but it was nothing like some of the awful reviews claimed it to be. The ship was clean, the staff was friendly, the food was very good, and the port stops were great. We had a fantastic time! The buffet was never crowded - we always found short lines and plenty of seating. The dinners in the dining rooms were fantastic. There were plenty of food options, and our servers were more than happy to accommodate needs. Our room steward was super friendly, responded to our calls for towels and things very quickly. He kept our room super clean. The teens area could have used a bit more in the activities, but our kids were happy there.

One of our most memorable cruises ever

DH and I have been cruising roughly annually since our honeymoon almost 45 years ago. It’s our favorite way to travel. We love unpacking just once, then seeing so much. We now choose cruises based on the itinerary rather than the ship or cruise line, viewing the ship more as a floating hotel than a floating resort. Our other post-pandemic cruises have been on Princess and Celebrity. We chose this cruise because Bruges was on our bucket list. Not many cruises stop there, and those that do are often high-end, super-expensive cruise lines. Our last NCL cruise was around the Hawaiian Islands in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit. It was a fantastic cruise, but we’ve also had some mediocre experiences on NCL. So we didn’t have high expectations for the Dawn. But, because we didn’t expect to spend much time on the ship with this port-intensive itinerary, I didn’t research it much. I did know that the Dawn is mid-sized, over 20 years old, and was freshened up a bit in 2021. We choose balcony rooms because, even when it’s too cold to spend time on the balcony, we love the light and views that balcony doors provide. We can enjoy the scenery from a chair or bed. This was a challenging trip to plan. We like to do our own thing in ports, at our own pace, whenever we can. If we’re opting for a shore excursion, we like to do our own research to decide what to see, then choose our shore excursion accordingly. But travel guides covering the ports on this itinerary are scarce. The only travel guide covering most of these ports in depth is a book by Rick Steves written about 10 years ago. That was too outdated for me. So I researched each port using Wikipedia to learn about its history and culture, TripAdvisor to learn about some of the more popular sights, and Google Maps to find more points of interest. For a few ports, we also used YouTube videos to learn about the sights covered by each shore excursion before choosing which one to take. I’m super-organized, but there were so many ports on this cruise that I often found myself confused or forgetful about details (story on that to come). This was also a challenging trip to pack for. With highs potentially ranging from the high 50s to high 70s, I packed layers, everything from short-sleeved tops to heavy sweaters and lined jackets. With so many heavyweight clothes and a relatively long cruise, this is the first trip for which I packed 2 suitcases (1 checked and 1 large carry-on). Flying to Paris on Air France: We both cannot sleep in standard plane seats, so we splurge on business class seats on transatlantic flights so the seats lay flat and we can get at least some sleep. Air France offered a relatively good price on a nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey, so I grabbed that. About 24 hours before departure, I received a text and email from Air France notifying us that our flight had been moved to a smaller plane, and our seats had been downgraded from business class to “economy premium.” The messages included no info on other options such as rebooking business class seats on a different flight. The messages did have a link to “modify” our flight, but when I clicked on it, I was taken to a page that only said we couldn’t check in yet. So I couldn’t investigate flight alternatives online. So I tried calling the Air France customer service number. After being placed on hold for several minutes, there was a click and silence. I called again, and the same thing happened. So I had no way to rebook onto a different flight. A few hours later, I did get a voice mail message from a woman at Air France who offered 2 business class seats out of JFK on Long Island. DH and I agreed that was too far away—we live in Delaware—so we did not call her back. The Air France app said I could change our seats, but there was no link to do so, or even view a seat map to see where our seats were. The initial message from Air France said that we were entitled to a partial refund. But the refund wasn’t automatic; we had to apply for it. I had to fill out a form including bank information for them to do a wire transfer of our refund rather than a credit to our credit card. I had to scan and attach a receipt showing what I paid. I couldn’t believe this—they know what we paid, and the refund should have been automatic and instantaneous. When we checked in at the airport, I asked if our new “economy premium” seats were window and aisle, and I was told they were. But when we boarded we had two “internal” seats in a row of 4. Our new seats were very disappointing, far smaller and less comfortable than business class. They had one small storage well in one arm rest, insufficient for storing our eyeglasses, hearing aids, and electronics. There was no onboard entertainment. The seat backs reclined a bit more than in economy, and a footrest popped up, but mine only came up part way. We were unable to get any sleep on the flight over. We expected good food on the flight, considering France’s reputation for food, and here too we were disappointed. All food was in sealed paper or plastic containers, obviously nowhere near fresh. Breakfast coffee was in a tiny cup and so weak it was transparent. Service was equally poor. DH asked for ginger ale with dinner. He was told they had none and the only alternative was wine, which he didn’t want. It took a very long time for our dinner trays to be removed…and we needed them removed before we could settle in to try to sleep. By the time I took off my face mask and ear plugs toward the end of the flight, DH had already received breakfast. An attendant passed our row but never looked in my direction. I had to chase her down to get my breakfast. I also had to ask for coffee; she brought me only coffee and sugar and vanished before I could ask for creamer. Altogether it was hard to think of anything that went right with our flight, except that it left and arrived on time. I can’t imagine ever flying on Air France again. Paris: We arranged for AirportShuttle.Paris car service to transport us from Charles DeGaulle to our hotel. The driver was late, so we called and was assured he’d be there in a few minutes. Otherwise the drive into Paris was fine. We stayed three nights at the Hotel St Andre des Arts in St Germain. We’ve stayed there before. The hotel is in a terrific location—within an easy walk of many sights—and offers comfortable rooms, great service, and a good breakfast. Hotel check-in was 3 PM. We have never found a hotel in Europe with any rooms available much before then, and staying awake and upright until then is increasingly difficult as we get older. We went out for a walk and brunch but were back in the lobby by 12:30, hoping the hotel staffer would take pity on us and move things along. She apparently did—around 1:30 she told us our room was ready. The next time we fly to Europe from the US, we’re going to splurge on a hotel for the night we fly over. That would ensure we could get into our room as soon as we arrive to start catching up on sleep. We’ve been to Paris before and have seen most of the “must-see” sights, so we used this stay to relax and simply enjoy Paris. We walked, ate, people-watched in cafes, and basically spent 2½ days feeling Parisian. Our DD and DSIL joined us on our last day in Paris. The hotel had helped arrange a car service to take the four of us to the ship in Le Havre the next morning. The driver was wonderful. We left early enough for him to take us around the Arc de Triomphe and past the Eiffel Tower before heading to Le Havre. He couldn’t speak English, but he used Google Translate speech-to-text on his cell phone so we could read what he was saying. Cruise Day 1: Check in at Le Havre: Normally, when we arrive at a ship, we are met by porters who take our checked luggage, then we go into the terminal to check in. Here our driver had to park a distance away, then we had to pull our own luggage into a warehouse-like building. We arrived at 11 AM for a 12 noon check-in. Initially the building was unstaffed, but around 11:15 a couple of people came in and asked everyone for their UK ETA visa documentation. We have a tale to tell about that, in a separate post below! Next we dragged our luggage to the next building, where our passport, cruise documents, and UK ETA visa documentation were again checked. We finally dropped off our luggage and went through the security screen. Next, after again showing our passport and ETA visa, we boarded the ship, oddly without our stateroom key cards. Once on board, we again showed our credentials. Ship crew then directed us through a maze created by lined-up tables and chairs, periodically asking to see our passports. (By this point I was ready to say, “No, I don’t have one!”) Finally we reached a bank of tables set up in the Aqua Dining Room and staffed by people with tablets. We yet again showed our passports and finally received our key cards. We then headed to the Venetian Dining Room, one of the main dining rooms, for lunch. It was just a bit after noon and only one table was occupied, and the crew, standing around bored, were thrilled to see us. We had a very nice, quiet lunch. Afterwards DH relaxed in the atrium while DD, DSIL, and I explored the ship. Once our cabins were ready around 3 PM, we unpacked and relaxed until dinner. With only one main dining room open for dinner (the Aqua Dining Room was still being used for check-ins) and no reservation, we expected a wait. But we were pleasantly surprised to wait only a few minutes before being seated. Service was slow but it was another good meal. The ship was supposed to depart around 7 but after dinner it was still docked. Around 9 PM the captain announced that there was a “technical issue” that prevented us from leaving and they were working to address it. When I fell asleep around midnight, the ship was still docked at Le Havre. Cruise Day 1: A glitch with UK ETA visa documentation: I’d gotten our UK ETA visas a month earlier. Our approval notification from the UK clearly said that the ETA was linked to our passport and we didn’t need to show any separate confirmation. So I didn’t have documentation of our UK ETA visas at hand when we arrived at the terminal. (Granted, I didn’t read all the fine print in the NCL emails about this.) At the terminal in Le Havre, I could pull up mine on my phone, but DH couldn’t find his. (He still had the UK ETA app on his phone, but it’s only to apply for the ETA; it doesn’t offer access to approved ETAs.) We asked the staffer at the terminal who was asking for the documentation (not sure who he worked for—he did not wear anything with the NCL logo) about our options, and he offered none—he said everyone else had their approvals ready to show. (And, indeed, everyone else had already moved out of the building.) When I’d applied for our UK ETA visas in April, we’d received approval in minutes. So we now started a two-pronged strategy to get DH’s documentation. First, DH reapplied for the ETA using the UK ETA app still on his phone, hoping that approval would again arrive in minutes. Simultaneously, DSIL tried to contact someone through the UK ETA website to get a copy of DH’s prior approval notification. Within a few minutes, DH got both: an email with a copy of his April approval and an email with approval of his second application. The morals of the story: (1) Ignore what the UK ETA email says about not needing to print anything! Print a copy of your confirmation—or have it saved on your phone—to show when you board. (2) If you don’t have the UK ETA documentation with you, don’t freak out! As long as you have a working smart phone, you can reapply and get approval on the spot, with minimal delay. And here’s the punchline: once we were on board and unpacking, I went through all our cruise paperwork, which I had carefully organized chronologically. It turned out that I HAD printed both our UK ETA approvals!!! But they were filed under the Tilbury port day, not embarkation day. Even though I’d gone through all the paperwork just a couple of days before leaving, I’d completely forgotten that I’d printed them out or where I’d filed them. Cruise Day 1: An unpleasant interaction over beverage packages: We were told at lunch that our key cards didn’t show a beverage package. We had documentation that we had a beverage package, so after lunch we went to the customer service desk to straighten that out. It was an unpleasant, unsatisfactory conversation. We had received a letter from NCL dated October 14, 2024, stating, “All guests with a sailing in 2025 and beyond that booked prior to October 1, 2024, will enjoy both their current Free at Sea benefits plus the new More at Sea™ beverage package, providing an enhanced unlimited open bar experience, at no additional cost!” We booked this cruise in July 2024; we were sailing in 2025; and we had a Free at Sea package that included a wifi package and credits for shore excursions. So we clearly qualified for the beverage package. But the customer service crew member said we had to pay several hundred dollars extra for a beverage package. After we went round and round with him, we asked if we could speak to his supervisor. A woman came out and explained that the offer in the letter applied only to passengers who had the Free at Sea BEVERAGE package. We pointed out that the letter didn’t say that, and in the seven months since then, we hadn’t received any further communication from NCL correcting the October 14 letter. We also explained that we expected NCL to act like any reputable company and honor its written promises rather than create customer ill will. All this fell on deaf ears. The supervisor said she’s dealt with the fallout of that letter repeatedly, and “corporate” refused to provide the beverage package to anyone whose booking didn’t include a beverage package. She said that, while she could contact “corporate” on our behalf, she was confident that their answer would be no. We realized that she was stuck in the middle, required to enforce a corporate decision. But she could have delivered the message to us a bit more empathetically. When we asked what she could do for us as compensation, she offered a discounted beverage package and a discounted specialty dinner package. The discounted beverage package was not a good value for any of us (we don’t drink much alcohol, and it didn’t include the specialty coffees or bottled water that we do drink). But we were planning to eat three nights in specialty restaurants, so the specialty dinner package was a good value for us, and we accepted that package. Altogether the experience left us frustrated and disappointed with NCL. But we know that there is no perfect cruise…or perfect vacation of any kind! We don’t let disappointments tarnish our overall cruise experience. We were still on a very nice ship with an amazing itinerary. Cruise Day 2: At Sea (Zeebrugge cancelled): The Dawn finally left Le Havre around 6 AM. DSIL got up in the middle of the night and saw a crane and forklift on the dock, so we theorized that some critical piece of equipment failed and was replaced. Around 7 AM the captain announced that, because of the late departure, our stop at Zeebrugge (Brussels and Bruges) was cancelled, and we’d have a day at sea instead. We were really disappointed—we booked this cruise because DH wanted to see Bruges—but we’ve learned from past cruises not to plan a cruise around any one stop because, yes, they can be cancelled. We started the day with breakfast in the Venetian Dining Room, then moved to the Venetian to read and, in my case, start writing this report. When a trivia game started there, we moved to the Garden Café, finding relatively quiet window seats in the adjacent Los Lobos restaurant space, which is open to anyone during the day. The chairs aren’t terribly comfortable, but otherwise it’s very pleasant. In the afternoon I played cards with DD and DSIL in the Garden Café. (A lot of people were either playing cards or working on jigsaw puzzles there.) In the evening we again had a good dinner with slow service in the Venetian Dining Room, then made an early night of it. Cruise Day 3: Tilbury, England: The previous evening, we got notices that (1) clocks would go back an hour in England and (2) everyone, regardless of whether they planned to go ashore or stay aboard, had to present themselves in the terminal at specific times to be cleared by UK authorities. Our assigned time was 7:30 AM. Fortunately, that was 8:30 AM France time, so it didn’t feel quite as early as it sounded. We took care of that, then had a leisurely breakfast in the Venetian Dining Room. We’ve been to London several times, so we decided to make this a pseudo At Sea day, mostly relaxing on the ship, which was nice and quiet. But we did go ashore for lunch at the nearby World’s End pub and a walk along the Thames and Tilbury Fort. DD and DSIL went on the “London on Your Own” excursion. It was about 8 hours, and the trip to London was 90 minutes each way, which left them 5 hours in London. The bus dropped them near Covent Garden. They had a great time walking around, going to a museum, and having a pub lunch. Cruise Day 4: Ijmuiden, Netherlands: Initially the Dawn was scheduled to dock in the heart of Amsterdam, and we planned to simply walk off the ship and do our own thing in Amsterdam. But we’d heard that Amsterdam wanted to ban cruise ships from the city and, sure enough, a couple of months before departure, the port was moved to Ijmuiden, a good hour’s drive from central Amsterdam. We’d been to Amsterdam, so we looked into other options closer to Ijmuiden. Haarlem sounded lovely—like Amsterdam in miniature. I first booked the “Haarlem on Your Own” shore excursion, but we then realized we could get there less expensively by taxi. So I cancelled the shore excursion and booked a taxi using the Haarlem Taxi app. I also booked a Smidtje Canal Cruise to kick off our visit. The cruise terminal was a bit chaotic. Taxis have no signs on them, and there were no signs indicating where to get pre-ordered taxis. So we couldn’t find our pre-ordered taxi. We did find someone wearing a jacket labeled “Taxi Coordinator,” and he pointed us to where our taxi should be. We ordered the taxi for 9:45. By 9:58, there was no taxi, and we had the canal cruise scheduled, so we cancelled the taxi using the app and asked the taxi coordinator to help us find a taxi to Haarlem (many only want to go to Amsterdam). The Haarlem Taxi driver finally called me at 10:05—twenty minutes late—and I told him we cancelled because we needed to leave promptly. So I can’t recommend Taxi Haarlem. The fares for both taxis were the same, by the way. Our day in Haarlem was magical. The weather was perfect, and the town is beautiful, charming, quiet, and immaculate. We arrived about 45 minutes before our canal cruise, so we walked around a bit. The 50-minute Smidtje canal cruise was on a very clean boat with clear, interesting narration in Dutch, English, and German. The office sells beverages and snacks that you can take on the boat with you. We then had a great lunch at Toast, a restaurant specializing in open-faced sandwiches. The staff are supervised by Guus, an adorable golden retriever. After lunch we walked to Grote Markt, the main square, and toured St. Bavo Church, which was beautiful and fascinating. DH had heard about Koepelgevangenis, a round prison converted into a multipurpose facility, so we walked over there. Just after we crossed the 1908 Catherine Bridge over the Spaarne River, it opened for boats to pass by rotating. Really interesting! After seeing Koepelgevangenis, we got an Uber to take us back to the ship. The car came promptly and was half the price of the taxi. So I’d recommend getting an Uber if you want to go to Haarlem on your own. Buses are another option and even less expensive. DD and DSIL took the “Amsterdam on Your Own” shore excursion and had a really nice day. They were dropped off on the north end of central Amsterdam, about a 30-minute walk from a Dutch restaurant they’d reserved for lunch. They walked a lot and spent about an hour people-watching at a café. After dinner DH and I went to the Atrium to listen to music before making an early night of it. We would have loved to go to the R&B/soul show in Bliss Lounge at 10 PM, but I was just too darned sleepy. Cruise Day 5: At Sea: We all had the kind of relaxing day that a day at sea is all about. We had breakfast in the Venetian Dining Room and relaxed in the morning, then went back to the Venetian for lunch and relaxed some more. For dinner DD and DSIL treated us to Cagney’s Steak House, where we had steaks that rank among the best we’ve ever had, including at some world-class steak houses. I highly recommend the splurge. After dinner we sat on the atrium’s upper level to listen to the live music. We tried going to Gatsby’s to hear the pianist there, but it was noisy and smoky from adjacent cigar bar, so we went back to listen to music in the atrium before calling it a night. Cruise Day 6: Copenhagen, Denmark: We were up early for breakfast in the Venetian Dining Room before taking the “Scenic Copenhagen and Canal Cruise” shore excursion. A bus took us to the canal boat right next to the Little Mermaid statue. The cruise lasted about an hour. The boat was very large—it held three busloads of NCL Dawn passengers. It was enclosed and the top panels were covered with a film. So we could only see sights on our side of the boat. But we still saw a lot. The guide spoke excellent English and was informative and entertaining. The boat docked in a different part of town. Our bus guide took us to our bus, then showed anyone interested where nearby restrooms were. Then we had a bus tour of central Copenhagen. Our guide did not speak great English, and she wasn’t as informative as the boat tour guide, but we nonetheless felt we saw all the big attractions of Copenhagen…at least on the outside. We had a 20-minute photo stop at the Little Mermaid statue before heading back to the ship. At the pier we saw a few dozen crew members leaving. Their large suitcases and huge smiles made clear that they were going on break! Back on ship, we had lunch at O’Sheehan’s. Service was very slow—about 15 minutes to take our order and another 30 minutes or so to get our food, with the appetizers delivered with our mains. But the food was delicious. We continued to be impressed with the quality of food on the Dawn. DD and DSIL, meanwhile, took the Hop On-Hop Off bus into Copenhagen (it stopped at the cruise pier), walked around, had lunch at an outdoor café on Nyhavn Canal, and took the bus back. The café provided seat warmers, blankets, and heaters, so they were comfortable despite the cold. This evening DD and DSIL treated us dinner at La Cucina, the specialty Italian restaurant. Despite a reservation, we had to wait over half an hour to be seated because, as the hostess explained, guests had been arriving late and were lingering. The food was great, and we left stuffed. DH and I listened to an acoustic guitarist playing Beatles covers before turning in. Cruise Day 7: Warnemunde, Germany: We all decided not to take the extremely long shore excursions to Berlin and booked shorter afternoon excursions. After watching YouTube videos of the towns visited by each excursion, DH and I chose “Picturesque Views and the Molli Train.” One thing that intrigued us was that all the videos we found of the towns it visited were in German! Clearly this would be an off-the-beaten-path excursion. Our good luck with weather ended today. We woke to bands of rain and wind covering most of Europe. The afternoon forecast was for intermittent rain showers, winds up to 25 MPH, and temperatures in the very low 50s F, feeling like the 40s because of the wind. When packing for this trip, I debated packing a winter jacket for a day just like this. I decided instead to pack layers. They came in handy today! I was especially glad I packed my fuzzy winter hat and our umbrellas. Our bus took us to Bad Doberan, a very old resort town. Here we first visited Minster Bad Doberan, a brick church built in the 1300s. It was being renovated and was not heated. We were struck by how different the church looked from medieval Catholic cathedrals we’ve seen elsewhere in Europe. Next our bus took us to the Molli train station in Bad Doberan. The Duke of Mecklenburg had been advised to go to the forests and sea, for his health. He and other royalty and wealthy people built summer homes here. The town fell into disrepair during Soviet occupation, but today it is lovely. In Bad Doberan we boarded the Molli train, built in the 1800s to take the wealthy Bad Doberan residents to the seaside. The track runs right down one of Bad Doberan’s streets, so everything came to a stop when we rode through. The ride was billed as 20 minutes but actually lasted 30 or 40 minutes. We rode through lovely countryside and along an old road lined with linden trees. When the train ride ended, our bus took us on a short ride to Kuhlungsborn, an adorable seaside town. Here we had an hour on our own. The tour description told us we’d be treated to cake and coffee, but that didn’t happen. It was raining pretty hard, so instead of walking along the beach promenade as we’d planned, we ducked into one of the cafes and had a snack of cake and hot chocolate. It was all delicious. Nothing was written in English, and the staff didn’t speak English, and we really enjoyed having a local experience. While on our bus, our tour guide told us a lot about life in East Germany during Soviet occupation that she’s heard from her mother and grandmother (she was born after reunification 35 years ago). It was fascinating, and we learned a lot. DD and DSIL, meanwhile, chose “Enchanting Wismar and Brewery.” They had a walking tour of Wismar, a medieval town, including a brick church that looked a lot like the one in Bad Doberan. The guide felt obliged to deliver the tour exactly as described, which meant a lot of walking and standing in the rain. The town was one of the few medieval German towns not damaged in World War II, so it was quite picturesque. They ended the visit with beer and pretzels at a local brewery. They returned cold and wet and wished the tour had been tweaked a little to spend more time indoors because of the weather. DD told us that Rick Steves had written that there’s not much to see around Warnemunde if you don’t go to Berlin. We disagreed. We came away with the impression that this region is working hard to attract and keep cruise visitors and there are plenty of interesting things to see if you are open to seeing something unexpected. We all left eager to read more about Martin Luther and the birth of Protestantism and about the reunification of Germany. We all had a late dinner in the Venetian Dining Room (we like it better than the Aqua Dining Room because it feels larger and brighter…and it’s closer to our cabins). DH got the New York strip steak that’s always on the menu at no extra charge. He was very pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Cruise Day 8: Gdynia, Poland: Today the Dawn didn’t dock until mid-afternoon, so much of the day felt like an at-sea day, with lines for coffee and at restaurants. We spend much of the morning reading, relaxing, and eating. DH, DD, and DSIL had all booked an excursion to a former concentration camp. We learned when we boarded that the excursion was cancelled. So DH joined me on the “Panoramic Gdansk” excursion. The weather was better today. It was sunnier and a bit warmer than yesterday—the temperatures were in the low 50sF—but it was still a bit breezy, and I was glad I brought my fuzzy hat again. Our first stop was at the beautiful Oliwa Cathedral. It was built around the same time as the Bad Doberan church we saw yesterday, and also in brick, but it was much more elaborate. The differences between Protestant and Catholic churches were striking. We had about 25 minutes to wander around it, and we saw a mass beginning. Back on our bus, we drove past Lech Walesa’s house and past a number of lovely old buildings, presumably reconstructed since World War II We drove around Solidarity Square with its monument to shipworkers killed in 1970 protests. We were then dropped off in the heart of the historic district, which our guide told us was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt by the Soviets. Today modern buildings built in the last 35 years mix nicely with historic reconstructions along the river. We walked through the Green Gate and had 15 minutes to wander around Long Market and see Town Hall and Neptune’s Fountain. Long Market is full of shops and cafes—there’s even a Hard Rock Café! At Neptune’s Fountain there was a small peaceful demonstration protesting Ukrainians held as war prisoners. We wished we could have spent another or hour there. The final stop of our tour was a brief photo stop at Nowy Port Lighthouse, built in 1893. We got back to the ship just before 9 PM. We were too tired and hungry to endure a long wait for food in one of the main dining rooms, so we got dinner in the Garden Café and headed to bed. DD and DSIL, meanwhile, took the Highlights of Gdansk tour. The itinerary was similar to hours, except they didn’t see the interior of Oliwa Cathedral, didn’t see the lighthouse, and had more free time (2 hours) in Long Market. They saw more of the reconstructed historic buildings there and stopped at a café for pierogies and mulled wine. As I’ve said, this was a great day. Half my family is from Poland and the other half from what was once East Germany. It was good to visit their homelands. Today’s tour guide pointed out that Gydnia was a major emigration port for Poles leaving Poland for the Americas. So my grandmother, who emigrated from southern Poland to the United States around 1910, probably left Poland from Gdynia, right where our cruise ship was docked. We were really impressed with Gdansk’s mix of historic and modern. If we ever return to this part of Europe, we’d like to spend more time there. Cruise Day 7: Klaipeda, Lithuania: To be honest, Klaipeda has the least of interest to us of any port on this cruise. We knew that, at this point in the cruise, we might be ready for a break. So we planned a light schedule: walk ashore, maybe get lunch, and walk around just a bit before heading back to the ship to relax. And that’s exactly what we did. Today the weather was even nicer than yesterday—sunny and highs in the upper 50s. DH slept in and, between that and the time change (we were now on Eastern European time), we had a late breakfast at O’Sheehan’s. Its breakfast menu is more limited than the main dining rooms, but the food was good and came more quickly than in the main dining room. During breakfast DH and I talked about seeing so many countries on this cruise that were once under the control of the former Soviet Union. We used my phone to look at maps showing which countries were once part of the Soviet Union, which were Soviet satellite countries, and which are now members of NATO. It was very helpful in appreciating how much the countries we were seeing had transformed in the last 35 years. Around noon we disembarked and started exploring Klaipeda. It’s only a 10-minute walk from the ship to the center of the historic district. We first walked along the Dane River riverfront. We then had a wonderful lunch at a Lithuanian restaurant. DH had chicken with pistachio sauce, which came potato croquettes the size of marbles. I had cold borscht (beet soup), served with thin fried potatoes (like delicate French fries) for dipping. On the recommendation of our server, I also ordered “Old Town” fingers that were basically large fried cheese sticks, served with a ketchup-mayo sauce for dipping. It was all delicious and the portions were enormous. After that we explored more of the center of Klaipeda. A number of sculptures, many quite whimsical, had been installed around town, reminding me of Bratislava. My favorite sculpture was a tiny one called “The Magical Mouse.” It was Saturday, and we saw some kind of fair in Theatre Square before heading back to the ship. DD and DSIL also walked around on their own, seeing most of the sights that we did. They also visited the Klaipeda Castle Museum, which had a lot of excavated artifacts including an impressive collection of fish hooks! Back on the ship, we had naps and then dinner, trying the Aqua Dining Room this time. It still took a long time to get our appetizers, but after that service was faster than in the Venetian Dining Room. After dinner we listened to music in the atrium. I then made an early night of it, while everyone else saw the magic show in the theater. Cruise Day 8: Riga, Latvia: Today was another beautiful day, with highs in the low 60s F. We had breakfast in the Venetian Dining Room, then chilled in the Atrium, where we saw the future cruise presentation. The Dawn docked in Riga around 11 AM, a little ahead of schedule, and we were all off the ship by 11:30. DH, DD, DSIL, and I first headed to a Latvian restaurant DH had found. We saw some cool sights along the way, including the Three Brothers (three medieval houses) and the Cat House (art nouveau building with cats on the turrets). For lunch we had potato pancakes, cheese balls, and sweet potato fries. All delicious! We then split up and each did our own walking tour. Old City Riga has an amazing mix of medieval and Art Nouveau buildings. Our favorite stop was at the House of the Blackheads, a huge, magnificent medieval guild building that was destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in the 1990s. Another fun stop: DH wanted to bring back local candy bars for some friends. We spend some time browsing in a convenience store, using the pictures and Google Translate to figure out what the candy bars were. We really liked Riga. The old city was very clean and the buildings in great condition. Riga is clearly working to attract visitors. We received maps as we disembarked the ship, and there are big signs of “Riga” and “Latvia” for selfies. I am a huge fan of Art Nouveau architecture, and I would have loved to have time and energy to go beyond Old City to see more of Riga’s hundreds of Art Nouveau buildings. Maybe someday we’ll return here. After our walk, we headed back to the ship to relax. This was the first day it was warm enough to sit on our cabin balcony. DH and DSIL stayed ashore longer, taking a guided tour of a museum of Latvia’s Nazi and Soviet occupation. They said it’s an excellent museum, and they learned a lot. We had dinner in the Aqua Dining Room. DD and DSIL prefer the Aqua because the décor is more contemporary; I prefer the Venetian because it’s so light and bright. So we’ve gone to both. Over dinner we continued to talk about how much we’ve learned about eastern Europe. We also agreed that, by this point, we were starting to get homesick. We all rarely take vacations longer than about 10 days including travel time. This was one of the longest trips any of us had ever taken. We were looking forward to the rest of the cruise, but we would be ready to go home when we reached Stockholm. After dinner we went to the atrium to hear a band playing Beatles covers before turning in for the night. Cruise Day 9: Tallinn, Estonia: This was yet another gorgeous day, with highs in the mid-60s F. The ship docked in Tallinn at 12:30. We ate at O’Sheehan’s before heading ashore. Tallinn’s old city is farther from the ship than Klaipeda’s or Riga’s. It was a 25-minute walk to Fat Margaret, a (wide) tower that marks the beginning of the old city. That’s considerably farther than Klaipeda and Riga’s old towns, which are a 10-minute walk at most. At both Riga and Tallinn, there are hop on hop off buses that stop at the pier. I wouldn’t recommend for sightseeing, because many of the historic streets are not accessible to buses. But, in retrospect, I’d consider taking the Tallinn HOHO bus as an easy way to get to the historic district and hear some narration along the way. Tallinn’s old city is larger than Klaipeda’s or Riga’s, but there’s a lot to see within a short walk of Fat Margaret. Every street is absolutely charming. We stopped at a café on City Hall Square for beverages and to share a pastry, which was delicious. DD and DSIL also spent their afternoon walking around Tallinn. They went to the KGB museum, which they found very interesting. Over dinner we again talked about how much we’ve learned about this part of Europe and what it went through during World War II and the Soviet occupation. By this evening we all were tired, even though we’d been trying to pace ourselves. I went straight to bed after dinner and slept almost 9 hours! DH and I are glad we chose relatively short shore excursions on this port-intensive cruise. I woke up briefly around 3 AM and saw light along the edge of our curtain. I peeked outside…and it was daylight, the dim kind you’d see at dusk. We were far enough north that it never gets truly dark at this time of year. Cruise Day 10: Helsinki, Finland: After researching what we could see in Helsinki, we realized that we wanted to see Finland, not necessarily Helsinki. So we chose the “Porvoo – Town and Country” excursion to see more of the country. Our bus drove through Helsinki, then stopped at a farm in Sipoo that’s been turned into an event venue. The owner served us cake, frozen fruit, caramel sauce and coffee. We then continued to Porvoo, which is a much larger, more modern city than I’d anticipated. The historic district is about 2-3 square blocks. We had about an hour on our own, so we walked around and got a light lunch in a café. On the drive back we again went through Helsinki, stopping at Helsinki Cathedral and getting a great view of Senate Square below the cathedral. Today we received a letter notifying us that our refundable onboard cruise credit cannot be credited to our credit card on file. I had to go to Guest Services to get it, in cash. On our last cruise, on Celebrity, our refundable onboard credit card was credited it to our credit card. So it’s a bit frustrating that NCL can’t do the same. We ate our last dinner on board at Los Lobos Cantina, the Mexican restaurant adjoining the Garden Café. The food and service were very good—guacamole prepared tableside!—but not worth the $40 per person surcharge. Cruise Day 11: Disembarking in Stockholm: Disembarkation was about as easy as it’s ever been for us. We were told to pick up colored luggage tags corresponding to the time we wanted to disembark. We had one last breakfast in the Venetian Dining Room, then waited in the atrium until our color was called. We disembarked and picked up our luggage ashore. I pre-booked a taxi using the Taxi Stockholm app to take us to our hotel. I was glad we did—there was a LONG line of people waiting for taxis! There were no clear signs showing where to get pre-booked taxis, but I asked around and found our taxi quickly. Post-Cruise: Stockholm and Flying Home: We spent 2 nights at the Hilton Stockholm Slussen. NCL offers that hotel as a post-cruise package, but we did not book through NCL—it would have cost about twice as much as booking on our own. The hotel is in a great location—an easy walk to the Gamla Stan historic area and several good restaurants. Unfortunately, by the time we reached the hotel, it was clear that I picked up a virus. So I spent our time in Stockholm in our room. Fortunately I booked a room with a great view, so I was able to enjoy Stockholm a bit anyway. One night I woke up at 2 AM and it was still light outside! My family, meanwhile, visited the Vasa Museum, which has an incredible salvaged Viking ship. They had a variety of Swedish meatballs for dinner at Meatballs for the People, a great nearby restaurant. There are very few direct flights from Stockholm to the US! DD and DSIL flew home on Lufthansa, changing in Munich. We flew home on Lot, the Polish airline, changing in Warsaw. The service was among the best we’ve ever had. The food was beautifully presented but wasn’t particularly tasty. What we liked best about the Norwegian Dawn overall: We liked a lot about the Dawn, and those features had a big impact on how much we enjoyed our cruise. Ship condition and features: The ship is in very nice condition and immaculately clean. It’s a nice size—not enormous, not really small. The ship is also very quiet: we rarely heard or felt any rattling or vibration when the ship departed or docked. The shower in our cabin is the largest we’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. The atrium is a great feature—a nice space for relaxing. TIP: Take the stairs up from O’Sheehan’s to Deck 9 for more seating. There are no windows up there, but we enjoyed listening to the atrium’s live music there in the evenings. Crew: With the exception of our experience regarding the beverage package, the crew were pleasant and helpful. Food: The food was much better than what we’ve experienced on cruises in recent years. Almost everything we tried was cooked properly with good quality ingredients. Portions were often quite large. TIP: The soft serve ice cream machine in the Garden Café is sometimes available even when the rest of the café is closed. DD is glucose-intolerant, and a crew member was assigned to work with passengers with special dietary needs. Every night, the crew member gave DD the next day’s menus so she could pre-order gluten-free items. This gave DD access to dishes above and beyond those marked as gluten-free on the menu. What we liked least about the Norwegian Dawn overall: Yes, there were some disappointments, but none of them had a significant effect on our overall enjoyment of our cruise. Service cutbacks: There was no longer an evening turn-down service. Service in the main dining rooms was extremely slow. It sometimes took almost two hours to be served appetizers, main dishes, and desserts at dinnertime and an hour and a half at lunch. At dinner in the main dining rooms, coffee and tea were no longer offered with dessert—we had to ask for them. And at some times of day, especially evenings, it could be hard to find light grab-and-go snacks such as small desserts or sandwiches. The Garden Café shut down at 9:30 PM. O’Sheehan’s offered late night “snacks” (in other words, a limited menu), but only as table service. The coffee shop in the atrium offers snacks, but you have to pay extra for them. Cabin storage space seemed more limited than on other cruises we’ve been on. There is only one nightstand rather than two; there is a table rather than a desk with drawers; and there is no cabinet over the counter near the closet. The closet has a number of shelves but only three small drawers for items like socks. There were only 20 hangers. We did find places for everything, but I had to leave all my tops folded rather than hung. Cabin power outlets: Cabins have few power outlets, a real problem in 2025 when people need to power cell phones, tablets, watches, and in our case two hearing aid chargers and my laptop. There is one US outlet and one UK outlet on a counter near the closet. We found a European outlet at the back of a shelf next to the closet and one more behind the TV, plus a US outlet behind a cover in the bathroom. We brought plenty of European adapters because of our pre-cruise stay in Paris and post-cruise stay in Stockholm. But we hadn’t thought to bring a UK adapter. We did bring an international power port with 6 USB ports, so we managed. But I continue to be amazed that USB ports haven’t been routinely added to cabins when cruise ships undergo updates. TIP: There are European outlets under the Garden Café windows, so you can charge a device there while you eat. Wifi: The basic free wifi package (300 minutes per cabin) works out to about 13 minutes per person per day on this cruise—in other words, not much. Fortunately, on this itinerary, we were mostly either in port or close enough to shore to get a cell phone signal, so we didn’t really need wifi. The days and mornings at sea were the only times we were off the grid. The NCL app was pretty useless. Its biggest issue was it only worked when we were logged into the ship’s wifi, which meant passengers can use it only if they get a ship wifi package. We got the basic wifi package, but that was so little time online that we couldn’t spend much time with the app. Once we were in the app, it provided maps of each deck, info on the day’s entertainment, the shore excursions we booked, our charges and credits to date…and that’s about it. Unlike the apps of some other cruise lines, there was no navigation tool to get from one place to another on board and no communication tool to message others in our group. The beverage package did not include specialty coffees or bottled water. Quiet public space: On every cruise, we seek relatively quiet, pleasant spaces to read a book. On the Dawn, we found only a few such places: the atrium on the O’Sheehan’s level (which sometimes got noisy), the top level of the atrium (where there are no windows), the Garden Café including the adjacent Los Lobos restaurant between meal times, and Cellars, a wine bar that was usually too cold to be comfortable. Water bottle refill station: There is no station to refill reusable water bottles. Crew members told us we needed to fill glasses and pour water from them into our water bottles. Really??? Toward the end of the cruise, one crew member said we could ask a crew member to fill a water bottle in the kitchen. It would have been nice if we’d known this. Table cleaning: Crew members wiped down tables with rags. We didn’t see the disinfecting spray that’s key to preventing illness on cruise ships.

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!!