I have often wondered how passengers would follow instructions in case of a real emergency as the muster drill hardly replicates the emotional state of a real life or death situation.

Next time you are at your muster drill, pay attention. Find the nearest staircase to your stateroom and take note of it. Some people even count the number of doors to the staircase or nearest exit.

For a quick review of a typical safety explanation, take a look at the following Carnival safety film.

Sail Away

Sail Away.

There were a few things that we could pick at, especially the condition of the chairs in the relaxation area of the spa. I never expect to experience anything that is in worse condition than my house.

Where's the upholsterer?

Other than the worn chairs in the relaxation area, I can’t think of any other negative. My bed did slide, but I found it more entertaining than annoying, but it was noticeable. I thought that I should be looking for a spot where I could insert a quarter for more action.

In 2012, the sailing season from Boston to Bermuda has been shortened. The last cruise of the year will depart on September 14. After that the Dawn will sail a Canada and New England itinerary.

Sail Away

Casino

We are small-time gamblers so getting an extra free $25 of slot play is appealing to us. We took advantage of the coupon that is offered at Slot Play Coupons.(Be sure you select the ship that you will be sailing on.) With this coupon, we paid $25 to get $50 of slot play. We were at first hesitant to do this not being sure if it were a legitimate offer. But, we spoke with several other cruisers who had used it, so decided to try it. It was a simple matter to take our coupon to the Dawn casino service desk and get the $50 added to our Casinos at Sea card.

To use this, print out your coupon, go to the casino and sign up for Casinos at Sea and the amount will be added to your card. Keep in mind that you will need to spend whatever amount you originally put into the slot machine. So, if you are thinking of playing at more than one slot machine, be sure to add a lower amount than the value of your card. We will be taking advantage of this offer on our upcoming Gem cruise.
This coupon is only good for NCL cruises (it is good at certain land-based casinos as well) and it is good for a year. You can only use a coupon once every 14 days on your particular ship, so don’t even think of purchasing one for every day that you will be onboard. But both you and your cabin mate can purchase a coupon. Good luck!!!

Looking for another way to increase your betting dollar? Go to the Bon Voyage gifts at NCL and find Triple Play Coupons as well as a slot play coupon. What could be better than having more money to lose? I didn’t do too well on the Dawn and made a nice donation to the casino, but ran into a lady who was going to play a 25 cent machine. She put $100 into the machine and hit the double bet. She panicked when she realized that she was not at a 25 cent machine, but rather at a $25 machine!!!!!! As luck would have it, her double bet won her $2500! Most of us would have simply lost $50, but it goes to show that you never know with the slots. I hope to announce one day that I hit it big – not too likely at the penny machines that I usually play.

As a big fan of the penny machines, I did notice that there seemed to be fewer penny machines and many had more lines for betting. Some had so many lines that the penny machine became a dollar machine. A little bit of searching led me to a few machines with fewer lines, although I often had to wait to use those machines.

Sail Away

Enjoy.

Belgian Waffle

Sail Away

NCL Dawn

Embarkation
We arrived at Black Falcon terminal around 11:30am and found the lines for registration very short. We didn’t wait in line more than 2 minutes before we were called to the counter. Just before we approached the counter, we received a tag with a number on it, which told us which group we would be in when the ship began boarding. Well, check-in went swiftly and by the time we had checked in, we were able to walk right onto the ship without waiting for numbers to be called. I miss the welcome champagne that NCL used to offer upon boarding. Even though it wasn’t the best champagne, it made a good first impression. We still had a pleasant welcome aboard through a balloon arch.

Welcome Aboard the Dawn

Being just about noon, we assumed that the rooms wouldn’t be ready; typically they are open around 2:00pm. I explored the ship and waited for my companion to return to the ship after taking care of parking arrangements. The party had already started and I observed many folks carrying beer helmets and even some already in the pools and hot tubs.

Lunch
Right before we headed to lunch, we heard the announcement that the cabins were ready. Unlike many other times when this announcement is made, there was no mass rush to the elevators, nor were the elevators full when they stopped at our floor. Maybe the embarkation goddess was watching out for us. After we dropped our bags off, we headed to Venetian for a full-service lunch. Usually, there are few people who select this option, with the majority going to the Garden Cafe. The majority was still at the Garden Buffet, but there were quite a few more people taking advantage of sit-down service in Venetian.

As we walked into the Venetian, I recognized the hostess from the last time that I had sailed on the Dawn. Seeing a familiar and friendly face was a good way to start the day. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and then prepared for the muster drill. My favorite dish on the lunch menu had been the Grilled Portobello Mushroom. That is still there, but is now an appetizer and a much smaller portion.

Muster Drill
The safety drill gets shorter and shorter with every cruise that I take. Carrying PFD’s (don’t confuse this with a PDF) is no longer required, nor is lining up on the deck. Our muster station was in Venetian, back by the aft windows. The drill went quickly; not one single person blew the whistle on the jacket- mostly because they didn’t have a jacket. That made me wonder if using the jackets might be a health issue. Just think of all the people who have touched those jackets, played with the light and entertained themselves by blowing into the whistle. I don’t even want to think about it.

We enjoyed the view after the drill and stayed at our table waiting for the rest of the crowd to exit. A man approached to look at the pier and began ranting about his life. Did we look like therapists? Our sign wasn’t out. We listened and let him rant on. He quit and turned around to leave, but after just a few steps, he returned to tell us some more details of his travails. Finally, he left for good.

Sailaway
We pulled out on time and got some sprinkles. Our drive to the port was a mix of rain and sun and it seemed that we brought the rain with us. It was just a light misting. As we passed by Castle Island, I had to ask what it was. It seemed so familiar, but when was I there before? It was at the infamous Tall Ship festival long ago. It has a special place in our family history as an event that we didn’t laugh about then, but can now look back and find a bit of humor in the experience. We had a good laugh about it and proceeded to find a sail away drink, but somehow we got sidetracked and never found that drink until right before dinner.

Castle Island

Cabin 8603
Although I had sailed the Dawn before, but in a balcony cabin, I hadn’t noticed how paper-thin the walls were. Being sensitive to noise, I would have remembered that. We could hear conversations from our neighbors and also other noises that we didn’t want to hear. I will only say that the woman said “Oh” many times successively. We left and found something else to listen to.

Jess was our diligent room steward. He kept our room clean, made us a variety of towel animals and even found me a feather pillow. We used our other pillows to put on the window ledge at night to block the light. Both of us have light issues and a totally dark room is our goal. Total darkness is one major advantage of an inside cabin for us. For others, the total darkness is a negative. I wish that all the ships installed the magnetic curtains like they use on the Epic. It was such a convenience to totally darken the room with the magic of magnets.(That doesn’t include that blue light on the bedside lamps, which required something be set on them to block their glare.)

We had two interesting features in our cabin. The toilet required a multitude of pushes of the button to flush it. Even then, there was a long flush delay after we gave up on button pushing. We would hear the toilet suddenly flush after we had left the room.

I had a glider bed. When I got in the bed, the mattress would move back and forth several inches. The bed itself didn’t move, just the top part of the bed. It didn’t really bother me, but moved a lot more on the rough sea day. I kept forgetting to tell Jess and finally let him know the last night of the cruise.

Food
I am pretty sure that there must have been a huge group of people who hadn’t eaten for a year who joined this cruise.
The excessive gluttony (is that redundant?) and the excessive waste make me wonder about some of these people. Have they never seen food before? Do they have willpower issues? It is certainly tempting to try the variety of food on offer at the Garden Cafe, but taking a bit here and a bite there might be a good strategy.

We usually ate breakfast in the Garden Cafe just because it was quick and easy. And we didn’t eat breakfast everyday. Well, we didn’t eat any of the meals everyday because of our schedule. If we had late breakfast, we just skipped lunch and had an early dinner. When exploring Bermuda, we ate breakfast and then had either a very late lunch or early dinner. We always planned on trying the pizza, but even with our early dinner, we weren’t hungry for food later in the evening.

We found a pleasant server names Jason in the Venetian and requested to be seated in his area. Only one time did we need to wait, but it was worth it to us. Even though NCL offers the Freestyle dining plan, it is possible to request to be seated in the area where your favorite server is assigned.

The Blue Lagoon offers food 24 hours per day and has a good selection of comfort food. This was our venue of choice for our late lunches or early dinners. We thought that we should try Cagney’s because of its reputation. The food and service were great, but neither of us were able to finish the entire meal. The portions were too large for us. The staff insisted that we try dessert after we said that we had no room for anything else. Easily coerced, we requested a very small piece of their chocolate dessert, which was wonderful. We felt bad that we couldn’t finish our excellent meals. We felt worse that we essentially wasted the surcharge as well. We have to try everything once.

Entertainment
The Freestyle Dailies (several samples in the tab above.) listed all sorts of entertainment with something to suit a variety of tastes. Neither of us are really show people and can entertain ourselves. The only show that we attended was Second City. We had good intentions of attending the Memory workshop, but forgot. Other guests found it informative and interesting. In the evenings, we enjoyed a variety of performers in the different lounges.

We came prepared for the White Hot Party and were all dressed and ready to go. But, our trip back got rather rough and as my traveling companion was seasick at the beginning of the trip, we didn’t want to chance that. We also didn’t want to work too hard to stand upright or walk in a straight line.

To Be Continued…

Sail Away

Freestyle Daily programs from the October 2011 Norwegian Dawn cruise to Bermuda have now been added to the Dailies section.

Sail Away

Casino

Watch for a review of the NCL Dawn, which recently came out of dry dock. It will be especially interesting to experience the changes since I sailed this ship last year. I just realized that this is the first ship that I have sailed on twice. Ready to cruise like a Norwegian.

Sail Away

Sail Away