Would you risk this cruise? Norwegian Dawn.

[digiwidgy]

I have found a fantastic itinerary for next year on NCL Dawn. Leaves Barcelona, Palma, Valencia, Motril, Gibraltar, Seville, Portimão and Lisbon. We are really keen on most ports bar Barcelona and Palma. I’ve not sailed NCL before so had a look on cruise critic and the reviews aren’t great. I am not fussed on an all singing, all dancing mega ship. I much prefer smaller ships as Dawn is but I am not sure if we should take a gamble on this or not. We are looking at April/May so it’s not an expensive cruise as it would be over the summer months. Would you take the gamble. Really keen on 5 of the ports.

I find all reviews on CC really negative- I think people have unrealistic expectations. I look for common themes and decide if it really bothers me. For this type of cruise I’m more interested in the ports than the pool!

We've just finished watching this cruise vlogger who has just been on NCL Dawn

It gives a good insight to the ship even though there isn't technically a ship tour

there are 3 of her videos if you wanted to scan through to get a feel of- but here's the first

darn it failed link! Her name is Mer Cruises Solo on you tube and insta and she has some good pics on inst in the highlighted pics section

Norwegian are just middle of the road cruise ships. This one isn’t enormous and will feed you and entertain you well enough for the money. By the way, Palma is lovely and what’s wrong with Barcelona? Gib is the least attractive! Hopefully the ship won’t be full - we go on 100 passenger ships these days!

Thanks. Should have said been fortunate enough to go to Barcelona and Palma a few times. No real interest in another visit to either.

I will take a look at the videos furball. Thanks.

Thanks. Most of the recent feed back is Africa and the Maldives with several port cancellations. A few about the food and how tired the ship is. We last sailed on Jewel of the Seas which is quite old so an older ship doesn’t bother us.

@digiwidgy I’m not a big cruiser but we did a carnival one recently after 2 weeks in WDW. Was it the most luxurious ship? Nope. Did I have a great time? Absolutely!

I looked at the newest NCL ship and it was far more expensive than our carnival ship for similar sailings. I think people want to pay two star prices for five star quality.

Cancelled ports are something that affects all ships, no matter how much you pay the weather isn’t controlled.

@digiwidgy You really could find a great restaurant in both Palma and Barcelona! You don’t have time to explore much anyway. Does the ship not offer any alternative excursions at ports?

Cruise Critic is full of Americans who cruise 3 times a year, and therefore pick fault with EVERYTHING. Take everything they say with a lorryload of salt.

I went on NCL and was similarly wary due to reviews I read on CC, but it was fantastic.

I like NCL, it suits my kind of holiday style - relaxed, no formal nights, go to dinner when you want rather than a set time and no table sharing unless you want to. You do have to make reservations for the speciality restaurants.

I find that the food is good to very good. It's rarely high end fine dining, but decent enough quality, good variety and a choice of included and speciality restaurants.

I've only sailed once on a smaller ship (Jade) with NCL, but have been on older, smaller Royal Caribbean ships as well, and found them to be quite similar in atmosphere, quality etc.

We've sailed on Norweigan Dawn although it was 5 years ago so no idea how the ships aged since then! But, we really enjoyed the NCL style of cruising, no formal nights and 2 main restaurants had the same menu but different dress codes - DH refuses to wear anything but shorts on holiday! From memory the staff, food and our room , we had ocean view with a big picture window, was all good. We'd previously sailed with Royal carribean but preferred NCL, and we enjoyed the smaller ship.

It’s not that we won’t get off the ship in Palma, we might just stay onboard and have a day in the spa or see what else is on offer. I’ve been to Palma and the surrounding areas at a least a dozen times. Yes, we could go for lunch and we might do that but might just stay onboard. Similarly with Barcelona. We will only fly in the night before. We’ve been to the city a few times previously. Quite happy to join the ship early the next day if we can and get settled rather than see the city again.

You can always find somewhere new in Barcelona.

Would rather have extra time in Lisbon at the end of the cruise. A city we've never visited plus more time for pastel de nata!

It’s departing from Barcelona, so depending on your flight time, you may not have that long there anyway. We always book cruises for their itinerary not the ship and there is usually 1 or 2 places we just stay onboard and have a relaxing day.

We have just cruised on MSC Seaside (dreadful reviews) and whilst there was 24/7 razzmatazz if you wanted it, the vast majority of decks had quiet bars and restaurants. We had a great time and tend to book our cruises for the itinerary and dates. I think you should go for it!

@MascaraGirl I’ve never sailed with MSC but they tend to get dreadful reviews- I think there’s a cultural piece going on there that American expectations are different and find the more European quirks of MSC negative.

EmmaCruises on Youtube sails a lot with Norwegian, I’d see if she has a video on the ship!

We found MSC very similar to Royal Caribbean (we sailed on Rhapsody of the Seas pre COVID), and RC also got poor reviews. I couldn’t fault either company so have decided to ignore reviews next time I’m booking a cruise!

Thanks will take a look. Think we are booking it anyway. It’s turning out to be a good deal and port intensive so the ship is mainly bee and breakfast given the port timings.