This week is an inaugural, of sorts, for the Norwegian Dawn, which currently is dodging winds from Hurricane Katia on its return to Boston Friday morning from Bermuda.
The 2,224-passenger ship debuted in 2002. In a spring renovation in drydock, the Spinnaker Lounge and some other public rooms were moved from Deck 12 at the bow to make way for new Owner’s Suites and Family Suites. The suites, similar to those on renovated Norwegian Star, were finished in late August, and this week passengers began sleeping in them.
When I was aboard the Dawn in August, I snapped pictures of the almost-ready suites.
Below, left, is the living room of a corner Owner’s Suite. At right is a Family Suite. Cruisers familiar with Norwegian ships will notice that the floor-to-ceiling windows in the Owner’s Suites look like the windows in the former Spinnaker Lounge. That’s because they are the windows from the Spinnaker Lounge, which is now on Deck 8. Click on the pictures for a larger view.
Suites sleep four to six
There are four Owner’s Suites, two on the corners of Deck 12 toward the bow and two facing the bow in the middle. They sleep four-six people. Each of the Owners Suites has a separate bedroom, with additional sleeping capability in the living room. The two middle suites, which have a second interior bedroom, can be connected with a corner suite for a large family.
The new Family Suites also sleep four-six people in a large room, about 400 square feet. These suites were placed on both sides of the ship, near the bow on Deck 12. Each has a queen-sized bed, a pullout sofa and a murphy bed (folded down from the wall). They are spacious, but do not offer much personal privacy, even with the room screens that pull out around the queen-sized bed. Ten of the suites have balconies. The rest of the new cabins on Deck 12 are interior rooms.
During drydock, Norwegian spruced up Dawn’s cabins with new carpets and furnishings, including flat-screen televisions, and added the Moderno Churrascaria restaurant (in the space previously occupied by Tex Mex). The new restaurant, like the popular Brazilian steakhouse on the much newer Norwegian Epic, features a large salad bar and roaming passadors, the servers. Meats – including steak, sausages, lamb, and chicken – arrive every few minutes on skewers until you say uncle, turning over a table pad from green to red.
David Molyneaux is editor of TheTravelMavens.com. For more cruising, CLICK ON TheTravelMavens.
