SHIP TOUR

Now I will show you our AWESOME interior room. Yea, you may think I'm saying that with a little sarcasm in the tone of my words, but really I'm not.

We "normally" stay in interiors and they suit us just fine. In all honesty, we are hardly ever in the room other than to sleep, shower and change so the few times we have gotten a balcony, I felt like I was obligated to spend more time in the room. We have had a balcony, a cove balcony and a mini-suite balcony before. Yes, they were nice and we enjoyed them. But I'm just as happy paying a lot less to stay in an interior and being able to take the money saved from not getting a balcony and take another cruise. ;)

What makes THIS interior different was that it was a sideways cabin. I think these cabins are just awesome. We have only had 1 other sideways cabin, on the Spirit, and it just feels like there's so much more room in them. Honestly! Even Kendra thought so, who had a regular room in the same area. Although this cabin was a lot different with the configuration on our Spirit cruise, it still worked great for us. I will definitely be booking another room like this...and I actually did.

So, I was on the Star back in 2012 (I think it was) and that is the sister ship of the Dawn. I knew back then that they had taken the Spinnaker Lounge with all the beautiful windows and made that entire area suites and interiors. So...what that meant was this particular area was a little "newer" than the rest of the ship. I had searched online and on here and came up with a few pictures that showed that the rooms were really nice and had a more updated look with darker colored wooden interior. I knew I liked what I seen and knew I HAD to have one.

There were only a few cabins (4 total) in that area that were sideways cabins. I booked one right away (this cruise was actually booked last year awhile ago so all 4 of them were available at the time I booked and I had my option of which one I wanted). Kendra however waited too long to book and they were all gone by that time and she ended up with a regular room around the hall from us.

So here's the layout of our rooms.

So coming down the main hallway, the very first cabin in the middle you come to was Kendra's

Turn left at that little hallway and you run straight into our cabin. (This picture is actually taken from our cabin door looking at the main hallway and to the left is Kendra's).

The hall and the wonderful fishy carpet. I always tell Sakari I'm the red fish swimming against the current.

The wonderful fishy carpet. I always tell Sakari I'm the red fish swimming against the current.

You walk into the cabin and to the left was the "bedroom". It had the 2 beds pushed together to make 1 nice comfy bed and then there were 2 pull down beds on the walls for a total of 4 people in the room.

We always end up taking the big bed and pushing it against 1 of the walls to create more of a "walk space" on one side. That side just happens to be mine. hehe

This is me turned around and facing the door. They had a long mirror there to check out your hot bod before leaving for the night all dolled up. Who am I kidding? I hide from that mirror.

Notice the little round yellow circle on the door above the handle? It glowed in the dark at night. I guess so you can find the door in case of emergency?

Directly in front of the door and straight ahead was the "desk" with another mirror, your hair dryer (which works just fine for me and Sakari's hair, which is both long) and the tv area along with 3 drawers to store your goodies and clothes and a big shelf above the tv.

One nice thing I wanted to mention was there are 2 outlets here. We "normally" bring an electrical gfi strip with us, but this time since the hubby decided he was turning off his "work" this cruise, we didn't have the computer or ipad or anything with us to charge this time around. And we certainly DID NOT HAVE ANY CAMERA CHARGERS EITHER!!! So having these 2 outlets worked out perfect for us.

Of course the good thing about the sideways cabins is that this particular desk was pretty long and had plenty of space on it (well, at least until I pulled out all my personal stuff, then I used every bit of it up) and the regular rooms just had the small corner desk with next to no room on it.

So the right of your entrance door, you have your "hallway" which consist of the closet area on the left side, tons of shelves and plenty of room. This is normally the area that you'll find your door at to walk into your room. (Sorry for the blurry picture, I must have been rotating and snapping pictures in motion at the time).

This is your "hanging" closet, which was pretty big with tons of hangers and a small shelf <---which I never fully understood what it is used for since you hang your clothes there and it gets in the way of that, but it does fold down to get it out of the way. There is also tons of floor space here too. We always keep all our shoes in here and our "laundry bag" nice and neatly tucked away. There's also a light in there and we left it on all the time to be used as a night light. With the doors closed, you only got a bit of light from underneath and it worked out great. They store both the ladders to the pull down beds in here. We told our room steward that we didn't need them pulled out. Sakari had fun just climbing up there from our bed. No need to create more work or have something else in the way in the room. This is always where they store the life jackets (on the top shelf).

Here are the shelves at the very end. I believe there were 5 of them and plenty of room. There's one thing that I love about "most" of NCL's ship and that's the storage space most of the ships have on them. They make the most out of them (except for the Sky...it sucked and wasn't enough room for a couple day cruise let alone if it would have been a 7 day cruise).

In between these shelves, there is a little door and behind that door is your safe. It was real simple to work (I've seen a different variety of these on the NCL ships, but this seems to be the most current and up to date ones they have). You just simply put in a number and hit lock and you are done. To open, just put in the number only and it pops open. So simple.

Everyone always ask about the "size" of the safes and what they can fit in them. The easiest way to describe the size of it is to take your regular letter sized manilla file folders...yes, tabs and all, and put them in there and they fit perfect with just a little bit of wiggle room. hehe So yes, an ipad does fit in there and when I take my 10" laptop it fits as well.

Now this little baby is awesome. I haven't seen a refrigerator on the other ships that look like this with the clear front. I don't even think the newer Getaway had them??? I would have to go back and look at my review to double check but it seemed new to me. The shelves were adjustable and we were able to adjust them so that we had 3 rows to put our pop on the shelves...which held quite a bit and much more than most of the other fridges. We were able to get each row 2 rows deep.

Everyone always goes back and forth about whether these are actually a refrigerator or a "cooler box". I have had plenty of these that worked like a refrigerator and kept my items cold the entire cruise. "Usually" it will take about a day to get them to a good temperature. Then of course there are other cruises that they just barely put a chill on anything and you would still have to use ice in a glass to even be able to drink your beverage.

This particular one, I'm going to go with a "cooler". It did get our pop cold, but not as cold as I have had experiences with on other ships. It was drinkable, but I like my pop ice cold. The hubby did put beer in there and he was able to drink it and said it was fine so....you be the judge.

Of course down below that was the shelf with your ice bucket (which we ask the room steward to keep full for us when she was in the room and she did a nice job of keeping it "1/2" full most of the time) and your 2 glasses for your drinks. Also you have the "alligator teeth"...which is what Sakari says the thongs for picking up the ice are called. The space was pretty big for just those items so when I emptied my "cooler" out, I put all the items from it down there behind the ice bucket and still had plenty of space left over.

Oh, I just want to thank NCL for having Pepsi products (I can drink either Pepsi or Coke, so I never debate this issue like other people on these boards) because the store I purchased pop at had the 4 cases for $11 of Pepsi products and that's what I had purchased...what does this mean you ask??? Well it means they already had me a few cans of Diet Pepsi that was cold and waiting for me in my room when I arrived. I just took some out of my case of pop and replaced them with hot pop. SCORE. 😀

On to the bathroom. It was pretty and very up-to-date. It had the same earth tone colors that we had in our mini-suite on the Getaway and I loved it. (The only thing missing was that awesome dual/triple shower thingy ma-bob in the shower that squirted out up and down your body...man that thing was nice). <--Ok, back to reality that I only have an interior. (You win some, you lose some).

It had your normal glass shelving like all the other interiors and balconies I have been in.

I have to mention...since we have been cruising regularly since 2010, it was only AFTER I went on our first Carnival cruise that I noticed this. When we were on Carnival, they paid attention to small little details and one that I noticed was they would fold the bathroom toilet paper in an arrow shape. I thought it was cute because I have only seen that done at hotels in the past. Shortly after that cruise (and my review where I mentioned this...just adding that in there) all of our NCL cruises after that are now doing this. LOL Is it possible NCL reads all of my cruise reviews and took note? :p (I do know for sure that some of the NCL staff does read the reviews and I only know this because back when I did my Epic review, they read it and even COMMENTED on it thanking me for the review...which was a honor because I went back and looked at their post count and what they had commented on in the past and it was not very much at all and I don't think they had ever commented on an actual review at that time....so yea, I felt like royalty at the time and my Epic review wasn't even that great LOL) But THIS cruise I noticed that not only was the toilet paper folded like that...SO WAS THE TISSUES. LOL They are either adding more details or my room steward is trying to bonus up her brownie points with us. LOL

The shower had the adjustable shower head that moved up and down the wall, which Sakari just loves because I can adjust it down to "her size" when she showers. Short people problems...😂

So that is a tour of our room.

I loved this room and I will try to get a sideways cabin any time 1) they have them available or 2) our budget allows for it (because they are not the "lowest" interior priced category).

I will add that I have already booked THIS SAME ROOM for another Dawn to Bermuda cruise next year...same time (June 3), same ship (Dawn) same cabin (12041). I'm just glad I liked the room so much after seeing because I booked before this cruise started. HOWEVER....I'm not sure if I will be keeping it. More on that later.....

Now it's time for the ship tour itself. 

I have to say that I did not get all the pictures I would have liked (or expected) to get due to not having a charger for my cameras and trying to conserve the batteries as much as possible. There are a few areas that I didn't get at all...but this will have to do. I spent most of my cruise turning the camera on, snapping the picture real quick, then turning the camera off. Rinse and repeat...all day long. :(

A lot of people ask me what type of cameras I use. I have 2. They are both an Olympus Tough cameras models 620 & 830. I love them both and I think they do such a great job that I haven't even carried my DSLR for several years now on my cruises. I probably won't ever take my DSLR again...unless I go on an Alaskan cruise. I just have too much equipment to haul around when carrying that camera and it's just too much work...now maybe if I was getting paid by a cruise company or some of the places I visit...then I would consider...HINT HINT!

Anyhow, the camera's I have do an awesome job and they have so many settings on them. I am constantly playing around with the settings and may adjust to different modes and take 5 of the same picture hoping to get "that good one" that will satisfy my needs out of a picture. I did not get to do that much here with my battery situation. Just saying... You will find that I may have a few pictures that are almost the same picture, but yet they look different in color. (For example I noticed a picture of the Stardust theater...which has purple seats in it, 1 picture shows the pretty purple, the other it totally different and you can't tell the real color of the seats. That happens when you change the settings).

I do a lot of snapping while I'm walking. Sometimes it works, depending on the setting, and sometimes it don't. I do like to put it a mode with the flash off a lot. This does several things...creates a picture that shows off the lights displayed...like in a theater or on the pool deck at night. When you have the flash on in places like this it's going to illuminate what's close around you and make the rest of the picture too dark to see what's in it. So, turn the flash off and take the pic...HOWEVER, you must have a steady hand or it blurs easily (which I get a lot of if I'm walking and snapping which is a no-no in this mode). So, I guess that's my apology in advance for some of the crappy pictures.

Also, the camera has a few settings that will make the pictures really pop with color. One thing I discovered on my November cruise last year is that if you put the camera on the underwater setting and take pictures on land...man-o-man do the colors pop!!! I actually like this setting. (My old Canon D10's I had prior to this would make everything pink if you tried this). So I do use that setting quite a bit.

I do put my copy-write stamp on them using PS (I had problems finding my pictures of various websites, even here, of people posting them as if they were their own) and I save them using the web save, which sharpens them for the web. I also have to resize them since they take up too much space and would take forever to download and then upload. It just makes it a lot easier on me and the website to do this. Every time you do anything to a picture and save it, it decreases the pixels in it and the picture gets worse. That's why I save for web with a sharpen...to help pop the picture a little and make it more like the original that I see here at home.

Yes, it's a lot of work...A LOT to do a review like this. I know people get aggravated sometimes and feel that it's taking too long to complete and they unsubscribe and I'm sorry for that. Until you've done a review like this, it's hard to understand. I try to work on them daily and I try to get them done as soon as I can...but then again, doing this causes me to miss a lot of the details I might have wanted to share with you. But it is what it is. Please be patient with me and I appreciate those who decided to stick it out until the end. You are troopers I tell ya! :D :p

So on with the SHIP PICTURES REVIEW...... 🙂

DECK 5 

STARDUST THEATER

DECK 6 

AQUA MAIN DINING ROOM

We ate here a few times and enjoyed it. The service was good and the environment was excellent. Sakari loved this dining room and stated "This is so pretty. It's just the our Pride cruise." I had no idea what she was referring to until she pointed at the pictures...the pictures of naked people. LOL

CASINO 

We had an awesome time in here...I guess that's mainly because I was kicking butt and taking names. I "normally" do well in the ships casino (wish I could say the same for back here at home) and I think I have only had 1 cruise that I did crappy on NCL.

It takes awhile for me to find "my" game, but once I do, it normally treats me pretty well. 

This casino had your normal games that you find on most NCL ships. Gold Fish (which didn't do too well), Penguins (which 1 of the 3 games gave you round after round of bonus games and kept you playing for awhile and I did see a lot of people winning on it). Quick Hits games (I didn't do well on them, hubby did ok, but I did see a lot of people playing them this cruise). Then there's the games that you find on the ship that I like to call the seizure games...they are the ones that light up so bright and everyone loves them. They are the games that you will always find people on and sometimes people standing behind them waiting for that opportunity to grab their seat IF they ever get up. They are pretty popular games and I have done well on them in the past. However, I only played them once this time around and the hubby tried once and neither of us did well so we moved on. They had a row of the monkey/banana/primate games. I didn't try them but the hubby did and said it was "ok" to him.

There were other games that I didn't get a picture of that I "thought" I got and I guess not. But I did want to mention them...

The LONG row of games along the wall (these are the ones that they use for the slot tournaments) are just fricken AWESOME games. Like seriously awesome. Everyone was winning on them and ESPECIALLY ME!!

They had several (I think 3) of the Carnival In Rio games (I did well and seen others kicking butt on these as well), they had 1 of the Haunted House slots and I hit the bonus round over and over again and wracked up the $$ only wishing that I had bid a higher amount than the minimum. They had some type of a chameleon game that was "ok" but in the end kept taking my money LOL. There was a fairies game on the end that my hubby did well on but I didn't. A few others...and then there was MY GAME!!! I hit almost every time I played this game. I would get up and walk away, come back and hit again. It was the Wild Rainforest game. It was smoking hot I tell ya!!! This was the game that I bid the max bid on every time and always ended up a winner with the exception of maybe 2x. The max bid is $3.50. If you hit the bonus round (which is 7 spins) there was NEVER a time that I hit the bonus round that I didn't get more spins. Like seriously MORE spins...like up to 100 spins...I'm telling ya. This game is HOT and a must play. I just had to mention it because I'm looking out for my peeps. (hehe).

Ok, so more about that game and my winnings later in my review. I just had to mention it.

Another that I'm throwing in there that I play all the time IF the casino has it (and I have always done well on) is the Cave King game. Now this game is one of those machines that you have to hit "other games" to find it. It's always located on the Sirens game and will have a list of 4 games total to pick from within the slot. I always do really well on them and I did well this time too.

They had a video Black Jack game, which my daughters bf loves this game (he's a card guy and doesn't normally play any slots) and he wins big time here back home on it (has even been in the tournaments for winning big here) and he did really well on this game too. He managed to get over $1,000 in one sitting while we were there one night.

They also had the money game where you try to scope down and pick up a wad of money and also the key game that you have to maneuver a key into a small hole to get the prize. 

So those are my gaming tips for all you slot players out there. 

I did want to mention that this is probably the smallest casino I can remember being on a ship. Like super small. It was kinda weird to me seeing one this small but at least I found it well worth it. :D

Also, I found that the entire casino seemed to be a smoking casino. I seen ashtrays in every location.

GATSBYS CHAMPAGNE BAR

These pictures were at the top of the stairs that lead down to Gatsbys:

I absolutely loved this one and want it for my house! Obviously NCL had these made especially for the ship since it actually says "NCL" on it.

HAVANA CLUB=CIGAR BAR 

This place was located behind some glass windows in the area of Gatsbys. I can say that walking in here to take the pictures completely blew me away with the smell. Usually smells don't get to me, but it was pretty strong. I have been in some of the cigar bars on the other ships (believe it or not, they take you that way on another ship if you are VIP status and they are taking you down the back halls/steps to get off the ship or onto a tender) and they never smelled as bad as this one did. I'm not sure what type of filtration system they had but I can tell you that it's not working and I took this picture shortly after we got on the ship before anyone was in there smoking. You could also smell it on the outside of the room as well (probably just from people opening the doors going in and out).

LA CUCINA-ITALIAN RESTAURANT 

This is also located in the Gatsbys area. We did not eat here this time, but have tried it on several of the other ships. It's "ok" in my opinion, but each time I have eaten here I felt it wasn't worth the price. So, unless it's part of the free UDP, I won't be paying for it again.

LE BISTRO-FRENCH RESTAURANT 

The "meat" place I call it. No I have never ate here before and no I will probably never eat here. I'm not a big meat eater (but will eat things with hamburger in it like lasagna or spaghetti) so it's just not one of those things I decide to pay extra for. Yes, I know others have said you can get seafood (which I love), but I'll still pass. I'm not a "fancy" place-eater-person and when there's names on the menu I probably can not pronounce let alone know what it is or what's in it, I prefer not to go there...just saying.

It is also located in the area of Gatsbys and it has a wine cellar there as well.

WALKWAY OUTSIDE OF LE BISTRO 

This was a long hallway/walkway just outside of Le Bistro with windows looking in to the restaurant. It was very pretty.

The Star had the same walkway and the Star had this HUMP in the carpet. I called it the tripping hump. I'm here to tell ya that the Dawn has that same carpet hump. LOL

VENETIAN MAIN DINING ROOM 

I love this MDR over the other one. I'm not sure why. It's much bigger and in the past we have had issues with the service being super slow. But this time around it was fantastic. The food was good and so was the staff.

The place itself seems a little dated to me but that's just my opinion. But pretty none-the-less.

DECK 7

THE ATRIUM 

I love atrium's that have the glass elevators and that are open up to the top of the ship. They have always been very appealing to me (which is something that I don't like about the Gem class ships). However, this atrium just didn't do much for me. I'm not sure why. The center piece hanging wasn't really anything special and there's a huge arch that went over the atrium from one end to the other that kinda took away from the openness of the atrium. They pulled down a screen a lot of the time to show things on it and it was just a bit of a turn off to me. It seemed kinda "dated" to me as well. It did have a fountain in it (well water running down a wall) and it flowed into a little "stream" but I'm not one that enjoys fake flowers. It's just cheesy to me and it had fake flowers around it. Just saying...

In the atrium they also have a replica ship on display.

They had the fake fire things on the wall. It took Sakari about 4 days before she figured out they were "fake" LOL

This was behind the customer service desk and was kinda neat and different. It had a light behind it that changed colors.

Then you have these little places that hang out in between the elevators that you can walk out on and look down. I have always liked these.

SHORE EXCURSION DESK:

WALK WAY LEADING TO THE ATRIUM 

This area is another walk way that has the cushions in the windows for day dreaming. ☺️

PHOTO GALLERY 

This is the place you will find all your wonderful (cough, cough) pictures that are taken of you all over the ship and when getting off on shore. You know, the ones you will find with your eyes closed, hair in your face and if you're lucky...a boogie hanging outcha nose. Just saying...

You will also find your (my) necessities for every cruise which consist of scrapbooks and paper (I get one on every cruise), and CAMERA'S (you know, the kind that come WITH the charger) and other little things like selfie sticks and binoculars and such.

Now the following I found on almost the next to last day and found it quite interesting and funny all at the same time. Can someone explain to me why there is a picture of the JADE on the wall in the DAWN's photo room??? LOL

THE PEARLY KINGS PUB

SPINNAKER LOUNGE: 

The place they hold the latitudes party and lots of dancing.

SUSHI BAR & BAMBOO: 

Here's the sushi bar where you purchase a la carte and the Bamboo Asian restaurant, which recently NCL decided to make this a "free", yes I said FREE, restaurant instead of the former specialty "paid" restaurant.

I have to say that this is the ONE restaurant that I would pay for while any of the ships and have. I absolutely love Asian food. I am so excited and happy they have changed this to a free restaurant. WOO HOO

I really hate that I did not get any pictures closer up of Bamboo (that camera vs battery thing again) or take the time to go into Tappenyaki (which I also love as well).

ARTWORK AROUND THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP. 

I'm closing out the night with the awesome artwork on the outside of the ship on deck 7. I really enjoy looking at the ships artwork on these floors on the various ships. It's kinda neat to see what they come up with and it usually corresponds to whatever is on the inside of the ship. I found that the artwork on the outside of this ship is probably one of my favorites so far.

Maybe some day Sakari will be someone who is able to draw some artwork for NCL. Wouldn't that be cool? Although she is more of a pencil/pen type of person and she hasn't learn to master the whole "paint" thing as of yet. At least she has a good start.

One thing I will say is that we also seen the "artist" or at least the guy that keeps these murals up to date and fresh. I had seen him earlier inside the ship with a pallet of all the various colors in the murals and wondered where he was going with it and what he was going to do. Then I found him outside touching up the murals. It was kinda neat to see this. I will point him out when I get to that picture (not that you won't be able to tell when you see some random guy in a white jump suit with paint beside him sitting in front of the mural and not be able to tell...just saying).

There were a bunch of these painted around the end of the ship and I thought they were really neat. They had different flowers and colors and I wish I could have got pictures of all the varieties, but then again...camera + no battery=photo blocking for me.

Once again, here's the Pride cruise coming out on this ship according to Sakari and the "naked" people.

Here he is...touching up the paintings....

And that's the end of the outside paintings on the ship. Like I said, I really do enjoy seeing what they come up with. They are very pretty and of course something that sets NCL apart from the other cruise lines.

DECK 8:

BLUE LAGOON-24/7 food!!! 

This is your go-to place for food anytime of the day or night. I always love this place. They have awesome food like hamburgers, wings, artichoke dip & chips, fish, fries and so on...AND....CHEESECAKE!!! Like the New York Style cheesecake...NOT what you get at the buffet. It's awesome and yummy.

More to come on this place with the food and service (during my review). 

This is located on Deck 8 right up from the main area at the Atrium and you can look down over the atrium while dining and also hear the entertainment at night.

MODERNO 

This is located on the opposite side of the Blue Lagoon and basically looks identical to Blue Lagoon except it has wine over there. I did not eat here...once again, the meat thing. 

DECK 9:

INTERNET CAFE 

There's tons of computers up here waiting for your use...however, I didn't see anyone on them the entire cruise. I guess we live in a society where we no longer require an actual computer and everyone uses their cell phones for everything these days. So, these didn't seem to get much use on our cruise whenever we were in the area. (I have to say I'm totally opposite. I like my computer over a small phone with a touch screen that types everything you DIDN'T mean to type...just saying. Give me a computer over a phone any day).

I had some concern with the internet prior to leaving on this cruise. Hubby has his own business at a store and also online website and he always just either buys a package or plays catch up while we are in port with free wifi. This time he decided to just turn everything off and just do the store sales (ran by youngest son that just had the baby). So, I didn't get a chance to use the internet to see what the speed is like.

I do know that every report I have ever read states that the internet on the ships is like the "good old days" of dial up AOL service and so slow that things time out and it eats up all your minutes and not worth it. We tried the ship internet for the first time last year on the Sun and I have to say, it was pretty darn fast IMO. We had absolutely NO problems at all and he was able to keep up with his online sales, orders, problems and everything in about 1 hour each night. It worked perfect.

I do know that the speed varies depending on how many people are using it at the same time, the distance we are to a satellite or port/land, and the computer/equipment itself, so it can vary each time.

Like I said, we didn't use it. However, Kendra did on the last sea day coming home (she had to check in for our flight home 24 hours ahead of time). So, instead of including that in my review (because I'll probably forget), I'll just say it now. She used her phone and it seemed to work pretty good. She was able to check in and get good seats for her flight, some social media and talk to the sitter back home with her daughter. She paid the $3.95 to connect and then it was supposed to be $9.95 for like 15 minutes and she kept staying on it forever and the time never ran out....or did it?

Once I got the final bill with NCL, they charged her another $9.90 (not sure how they came up with that amount), but obviously it didn't tell her that her time was up and disconnect her. Instead it just kept going and charging her. So just be aware.

DECK 11:

SPA ENTRANCE FOYER 

(Which is also an entrance to the gym, which also leads to the outside T-Rex kids pool area). On one side of the windows you have the gym and the other side of the windows you have the kids club.

DECK 12:

EL DORADO GYM & FITNESS

It had a pop machine....weird, in a fitness center? You don't know how much restraint it took for me not to buy one here. They were $2 each. But, I had the soda package and decided against it.

T-REX KIDS POOL 

This pool is located on the back of the ship and it's a wonderful place for the kiddos to hang out at and have lots of fun. Ours definitely got their play time in here this cruise.

They had 2 regular slides for the bigger tots and 1 small one.

They had 2 small pools that you end up in once you come down the slide and a bigger pool in between the two of them.

They also have a smaller baby pool as well. 

There was a hot tub, which was perfect for the adults to hang out in while the kiddies were having fun.

They come equipped with showers (in a cave!!! How cool is that) and a cave tunnel that leads in and out of the place.

There's also a pretty big area beside this with a bouncy toy but it would be super nice if they had some chairs in that area for the parents to sit down at.

There were no chairs at all for the adults but they did have pint sizes lounge chairs and regular chairs for the tots...which I watched people squeeze themselves into the chairs that honestly shouldn't be in the chairs at all. Just saying...

I will show a picture of these chairs later in the review.

GARDEN BUFFET

Usually my favorite part of the buffet...the crape station. I am so hooked on them. For some reason I did not have 1 this time around. Either they weren't open when I was there or I was too full to have one when they were open.

I did want to say they do have a kids buffet here as well and it's a little section right as you walk in to the buffet area. It comes in handy when you have kids and they are able to serve themselves. There was quite a bit of seating and we managed to sit there several times during the cruise. One nice thing about it was they had everything I wanted there for breakfast and I didn't have to stand in any lines to get my food. (hehe). Sorry I wasn't able to get a picture of it...camera/battery problems again.

TOPSIDERS BAR

BUFFET TO POOL WALKWAY 

Now we're going to head out of the buffet and down the walkway toward the pool area. 

But first, there are a table and chairs in this little cove area in case you want some privacy while eating. Other ships have had these and they were always full. However, on this ship I hardly ever seen anyone at them when we passed by.

OASIS POOL AREA 

1 pool on this ship and 4 hot tubs in this area. 

(I do want to mention there is a hot tub on the front of the ship as well and we were only up there once during sail away exploring and I didn't take a picture of it because there were people in it...so, no picture sorry).

During one of the many cook outs/BBQ:

There's a pool behind the band stage and in between the 2 hot tubs.

Here come the night pics...prepare yourself for the colorful explosion on the pool deck at night with the fake palm trees changing colors...however, there was one that refused to stay in sink and was off most of the time. We'll just refer to it as the black sheep. Or maybe it was considered the "fish" of NCL swimming against the current.

Just a few more because you know you can't get enough of the color. 😆I mean I took the time to stand there trying to capture each color, you're going to see every color...just saying. LOL

The Bimini Bar up yonder all lit up

Some of the statues by the back small pool behind the band area. 

I would like to introduce your Dawn Olympic Swimmers.

In case you wanted to know what they looked like a night and all...

THE LIBRARY 

A place you can go to check out books or games for the cruise (Kendra checked out the monopoly game), and a quiet place to read....or just to sit around in the middle of the night partying with your beer. Yes, I seen this. Just saying...

DECK 13:

BIMINI BAR & GRILL

We head on up the steps to the Bimini Bar & Grill??? How is this a grill? I never seen any food there so just wondering.

I have always loved this place to hang out at in the past on the ships that have them. It has the layers of floors with plenty of lounge chairs and then seating up under the big tent roof by the bar. We have always hung out here but we really didn't do it this time. You get an awesome breeze going up there and normally it feels awesome. However, a "breeze" was the last thing we wanted on this cruise with it being cold. We only ended up hanging out there 1 day on a sea day coming back.

It's usually an awesome place to be able to get your drinks or soda. Not this time. The place was packed and only 1 bar tender. You would stand there for at least 20 min - 30 minutes just trying to get service.

SPORTS 

They had the driving golf range

They had shuffle board (this was also in several places on deck 7 as well), and if you look hard in the background there was a huge deck chess game (there were people playing it and I didn't want to take a picture of them or interrupt their game).

I know they also had a basketball court, but honestly I don't even recall seeing it or know where it was at up here. I guess I wasn't paying much attention. I know that Kendra and her family went up and played it one day because she has pictures from that day. Oh well. Just know there is one on the ship.

VIDEO ZONE (ARCADE). 

You could either access this by an outside door that somehow lead over to the t-rex pool or you could get to it from deck 12 and walk up the steps to deck 13.

This was a pretty big arcade I thought with a little bit of everything in it.

KIDS CLUB 

On the opposite side of the video arcade is the kids club, splash academy or whatever the name is at this point.

There were 2 separate doorways to get to 2 of the sections. 

To the right was the wee ones area (3-5 year olds)

Then Sakari's age group (6-9 year old's I believe) 

You see that floor? It's a game/dance floor that lights up and you do stuff on it. Sakari absolutely loved this thing and every night she would come back telling us she just danced and danced. We did not realize what she was talking about until the last day of the cruise when we decided to go to the windows and peep in and she was playing/dancing on this game.

I believe this is what they considered the young teen room?? I'm not sure the ages since I don't have one of these at the moment. (I also know that I seen a sign that said teen disco on a wall or door and I'm not sure if it led into this room or if it was something totally different).

Sakari did say that there was one night that her group was allowed to go in here and dance and have fun. 

It looked out into the spa foyer

Arrows at the steps you have to walk up from deck 12 to get to the kids club on deck 13.

They only had 1 elevator that would take you up to deck 13 in this area. I believe it was the middle elevator.

I have to stop and say that I think (and approved by Sakari) that the kids club on the NCL's ships are amazing. Like super amazing. She has so much fun in there and it makes me so happy. She has always loved going there...begs to go, begs to stay and can't wait to get back. The only other option she will take over going to the kids club is if it involves swimming.

The kids club has planned activities each day (for all ages) and they also have themed days. Some days it may be pirate day and everything that day (including the decorations) all involve pirates. The kids get their faces painted and have a parade around the ship singing. Another day is Survivor Night. Another night will be a prince and princess night. There's always dressing up involved, face painting, singing, dancing and so on. They have a blast.

The kids club is free to go to from opening to close at 10:30pm. You can sign up for sitting services after 10:30pm that last until 1:30am. They charge $6 per child per hour. If you have more than 1 child, they reduce the cost of the second child to $4.

During these after hours, they still have activities and some times they relate to what may be going on with the adults...like the White Hot party (they will have their own white hot party with glow in the dark items and dancing). They have "fashion shows" where the kids make their own costumes out of anything they want.

One last thing I wanted to mention. The counselors at the kids club are just plain AWESOME. Just think, they have your child for only 1 week. By day 2, they have remembered everyone's name, their parents and everything. These people are not just people that are hired off the streets. They have degrees related to children. Some have multiple degrees. They are more than qualified to handle your child and show them a good time and a good time is always had. I just had to put that out there.

Wee sized restrooms

EXTRAS 

These are just a few extra pictures I took here and there that really doesn't go under any type of category I guess.

Ok, that's all I have on the Deck Plans.

THE BRUTALLY HONEST REPORT 

Ok, here we go. I'm going to do this and get this over with and out of the way. Some may agree, others may not. But I'm doing it anyhow.

Everyone knows (and even if you don't you can see from my signature line) that I primarily cruise with NCL. This doesn't "just happen", it happens for a reason and that reason is because I seriously enjoy NCL. I feel the staff is absolutely wonderful, friendly and do a great job. They are always cleaning and keeping everything tidy. I feel that the food is good whether it's from the buffet or MDR. "Usually" the service is just as great (with a few bloopers in the past with the MDR being extremely slow). Yes, I love NCL.

HOWEVER...I do call it like it is. I'm honest in MY opinion and this is MY opinion only. I think because I'm a "photographer wanna-be" I notice things that a lot of people don't. I have been on cruises before and noticed things and had people on the same cruise with me on these boards come back an basically flat out call me a liar (in a so-so nice way) that I did not see the "bad" things that I seen...just because they were on the same cruise or they have sailed that ship over and over and never had that experience.

Now everyone knows I'm a firm believer that your cruise is what you make of it. I make EVERY cruise a good cruise and little things that I see that are not "up to par" does NOT deter me from 1) having a good time and 2) bad mouthing a cruise line or completely going off the deep end as some do. BUT, I will report what I see. Period! I try to get pictures of "proof", but it's not always possible to try to be so inconspicuous of what you are doing and of course this time around I was on a "battery saving" journey the entire cruise. So, it is what it is. Believe it or not.

So, here goes... 

There were a lot of things I seen on this ship that kinda made me go hmmmm. 

Right from the beginning, on the first day, I noticed several public bathroom stalls out of order. So no, this wasn't something that happened along the cruise, it was already like that and wasn't fixed nor did it get fixed the entire cruise.

Another I managed to get a picture of. No, this is not the same stall. This stall didn't have the "Out of Order" sign on the door and I walked in to find it.

There was NOT ONE of the public restroom doors that I went in to that still had the door lock on it. You know, the original door lock that you see on all the other ships that when you turn them from the inside to lock them, from the outside you see "red" meaning it's occupied and "green" if it's empty. They were all missing and most had holes where they use to be, as you can see in the following picture. Instead, they had the little slide lock that you try to line up with the hole on the door and then push down.

I found bathrooms that were so rusty at the bottoms of them that the rust was actually still laying on the floor.

A few times we found the ENTIRE restroom closed. Not for cleaning, but because it was flooded. My husband said the same with the mens restroom a few times. The entire restroom was flooded. I heard others on the ship comment about it as well. Now of course this is probably a problem caused by a passenger on the ship putting crap in there they shouldn't. So totally not NCL's fault. I did notice they had signs in EVERY stall on the door saying what NOT to put in the toilets with a warning that if you clogged them, it would affect 50 other toilets on the same drain. I have never noticed this before on the other ships. Maybe I missed it before. Maybe it's something new just starting. Maybe it's just a major problem with this ship. I don't know.

Now I know this is not a new(er) ship, but I have been on most of the fleet with older ships and did not find these problems. Just saying...

Of course there's always good as well.

I found a lot of signs all over the place reminding people to wash their hands, their children's hands and so on. NCL is one cruise line that I feel that takes sanitary issues to heart as they should. (Washy-washy, hand sanitizers all over the place and so on). I feel they do everything they possibly can to try to keep an outbreak from happening...short of going in and washing peoples hands for them.

This is something I hadn't noticed in the past on other ships, but then again, maybe it's just that...I didn't notice it. But it's a very nice added extra touch on the part of NCL to provide this. The only odd thing I found was (this was right next to the diaper changing station in the "womens" restroom) that the diaper changing station you pull out from the wall always seemed to be right there in front of the door. That meant that you could potentially be blocking the door as people entered...and others outside seeing your naked child's bum and parts. Poor placement I thought.

There was always Ms Washy Washy at the buffet line (but only 1 end) and they only had 1 employee there, which stood in the middle of 2 separate doors going back and forth trying to catch everyone that walked in. You win some, you lose some.

I have noticed over the last several cruises that the "Washy washy" seems to have taken a back seat in the entertainment department. You use to always hear them say it, now it's a hit or miss if they say anything at all. I have been on so many cruises where you even have them "singing" washy washy songs. Yes sometimes tacky, but yet super funny and Sakari just loves it. 😍

We did see some "leaks" from the ceiling during the cruise. They were all in hallways, so no clue what was above there leaking.

As I have mentioned previously...there were a few places that had the carpet "bumps" in them. I didn't get pictures (no camera at the time), but I assure you they're there and I was not drunk.

Blue Lagoon. These poor tables really need to be replaced. There are A LOT of them like this, obviously from water damage of course. The bad part is, you really have to watch where you put your cup down because the wood is so even from the decay.

I noticed a few places the window tint was peeling. At first I really wasn't sure what I was seeing when it caught my eye and thought it was just a dirty window or something. Maybe they just had some vigorous window cleaners.

The pool towels...oh lordy lordy where do I begin. Ok, we had 4 in our room. They were used daily x6 days. I can guarantee you that out of those 24+ towels (including 4 towel each x6 days in Kendra's room) we maybe had a total of 5 towels that DID NOT have a yellow stain on them. They were nasty looking. I don't know what this yellowish stain is, but if odds are that we had them, everyone else on the ship did too. They seriously need to do away with them and start all over!!!

Service at the bars=excruciating painful waits. I found that most bars had 1 bar tender doing everyone's drinks. Then they would have 1 person that was making the drinks only for the runners on the floor. This is either at a pool bar or the casino bar. Every once in awhile we might see 2 people back there helping those standing in herds around the long bars, glaring at the bar tenders, and demanding their drinks saying they were skipped. I would NOT want their job. They seriously need to hire more people. But hey, I guess this is a way to slow down the drinkers with the UBP right? I just want a fricken Pepsi. Just give me a Pepsi...but I would wait, and wait and wait, and be passed up and wait some more. Some times the hubby would think I ran off on him and vice versa. But nope, you'd find me still there waiting. This is one cruise I would say that I DID NOT get my moneys worth out of the soda package.

Shower in the room-I have had this problem happen on several cruises...the water temp will vary and go up and down. Now normally it doesn't bother me "too much" but when you are a little red from the days water/sun activities, going from cool water to scalding hot can be a little aggravating. Just saying...

I have always noticed how well NCL likes to try to keep their ships in tip top shape. Every cruise I have witnessed the workers always sanding and varnishing the railings and steps. This would be no exception.

There was a guy out on the pool deck EVERY day polishing the NCL Olympic Swimmer girls. (Wait, is this maybe why the towels are getting yellowed? Notice the pool towel he's using?)

People were always cleaning dishes and cups away. Sometimes they are so quick that if you are not looking your stuff is gone before you are finished. LOL (Not always a good thing) Heaven forbid you have to get up to get a refill on a drink. You may come back to an empty table with your food long gone.