Cruising Alaska -- glaciers and all -- on the Norwegian Dream.
Written: Sep 14 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Freestyle dinning and the beautiful scenery
Cons: NCL won't be doing 10 & 11 days to Alaska next year
The Bottom Line: NCL has the wonderful Freestyle concept going and that added into no cooking and cleaning for 11 days makes the age of the ship seem like a small item.
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| 2buzy's Full Review: Norwegian Dream |
At the end of August, my family spent 11 days aboard the Norwegian Dream. There was a total of seven of us and we had 2 outside rooms.
PARKING and GETTING ON THE SHIP
Since we live in Washington state, we drove in and left our car. The Dream takes off out of Pier 66, in Seattle, for it’s Alaska runs. They have a covered parking garage right across the street. I pre-paid for parking on the net and took the confirmation with me as proof. You grab a ticket as you go in, place it on the dash and park yourself. When we drove out, we simply gave the guy our email and he gave us a receipt. The cost is $11 per day.
You can have them bring over your luggage or give it to the porters at the pier. There is a sky bridge over to the pier. Out in front there is a drop off area if you have someone else drive you or are coming by cab or shuttle. Once the bags are checked, it is up the escalator and into line! Since we are Latitude members (returning guest) we were able to go into that line which is always very short as they will take them before the regular line.
When you check-in, you need to give them a credit card which is charged for all of your onboard purchases. They then check each passport and take each person’s photo which will show up every time the cards are scanned. You use this card to get on and off the ship, to make any purchases and to get into your cabin. When all of your group is checked in, you may head onto the ship! We were on the ship in less than half hour from going up the escalator.
SAILING ON THE DREAM
The Dream is an older ship but she is well maintained. She was “streached” - cut into two and then a new middle section added in. The makes it a bit confusing to find your way around. The Midship elevators only go up to deck 11. Forward and aft elevators go up to deck 12 which is where the Sports Bar, Observatory, Spa and fitness centers are. Also, once you are on the 12th floor you have to walk outside to get from one side to the other, there is no way to do that inside unless you go down a floor, walk to the other side of the ship and then go back up a floor.
The rooms are nicely laid out with a pullout couch placed under the window. This is a nice place to sit are look out or watch TV from. It does pull out for a bed (some had a single and others a twin) and there is a curtain you can pull to separate it from the main room.
Note: Here is one negative thing -- that pull out couch is the bed for the 3rd/4th person in the cabin. This is no big deal unless you those passengers are of the opposite sex and sharing the bed is not practical. We talked to one family where the parents had to use the pull out bed as their children where a boy and girl teen. This would NOT be the choice I would pick as the pull out bed is REALLY low to the ground and would be a major pain getting in and out, especially after sleeping on that thin mattress a few days!
All ships have photographers that seem to be pop out everywhere and the Dream had them too. But one thing they offered that I hadn’t seen before was a photography package you could buy that let you have an unlimited number of pictures -- ANY and ALL photos they take are yours. The cost is $199 for 2, $25 for the next person and then $15 for the next ones. We bought this and we came home with a HUGE selection of great photos! We had family shots, ones of the kids together, individual shots of the kids and pictures of my husband and I. We had them taken at least 8 nights, during some dinners, on the deck with the Glaciers in the background, with the Captain and of course when we came on the ship or reached a new port. Knowing we were getting all of the pictures, we always had the kids go alone so they would each have a separate shot as well as the family one.
The kids always enjoy sailing and make new friends easily. My twins are 15 and didn’t want to go to the teen club but we talked them into checking it out the first night. They met a lot of other kids that were “told” to try it out too and all 5 of my kids really enjoyed the trip.
We all used the fitness center on and off -- it was small but had a good choice of equipment. I used the spa once for a 50 minute foot reflexology session which cost $89 but I got a 20% discount for being a Latitudes member.
There were multiple lounges and bars as well as a Disco that turned to an “over 18” club after 11pm. Each of the clubs had a different type of music so it was easy to find something we enjoyed.
There was nightly show with the best acts being the comedian and the magician. Movies were shown (with popcorn) a few of the afternoons. We watched National Treasure which we had somehow missed when it was out. There were also 2 movie channels on the in room TV’s.
Besides all of that, there was Bingo, trivia, lectures, demonstrations, contest and crafts classes daily. The Casino was small and had the tightest machines I have ever experienced on any cruise ship.
FOOD, FOOD and MORE FOOD!
All of NCL ships have Freestyle dinning which alone, is a reason to sail the line! What this means is that you can eat at whichever restaurant you want, at whatever time you want, during the stated times. For example, lunch was from 12-2 at the main restaurants but it was available at the Pizzeria until 5:30.The dinners started at 5:30 and ended at 10:30 at which time the late night menu started. I really love the Freestyle idea and even though the Dream was not built for the concept, we rarely had a wait for a table when it was for just two of us or all seven.
Like all cruises, this one had plenty of food options! The Dream has two main restaurants -- Four Seasons and The Terraces. They are located on opposite sides of the 9th floor. The Four Seasons is larger and offers a buffet breakfast (with a waffle bar) and a sit down lunch. The smaller Terraces offers the only sit down breakfast and was closed during lunch. They are both open for dinner with identical menus. We ate at both and enjoyed the Terraces a bit more as the service seemed faster.
On the 12th floor was the Sports Bar which is a buffet opened 24 hours. For breakfast they add on an omelet bar and for lunch soup and pasta bar.. Each evening they offer a different theme (seafood, International, Asian etc) buffet. They also offered afternoon tea and late night snacks. We only ate one late lunch there and a few late night items. It is pretty small for the number of passengers on board but we were able to get a table without waiting, I am guessing this isn’t true at peek times.
There was a wonderful smaller, tier Italian-themed restaurant called Trattoria. It is located on the 10th floor and open for lunch and dinner. The offer a buffet of Indian food, 2 pasta choices, an omelet bar, sandwiches and desserts for lunch. For dinner they have an Italian menu (which remains the same except the catch of the day) except they serve the same menu as the two main restaurants for the Gala dinner, Farewell Dinner and the President's Dinner. On those nights, you can get seated there the fastest as not everyone seemed to know that. They have WONDERFUL calamari that is served with an DELICIOUS creamy garlic sauce. Since it was an appetizer we would stop in and get an order (or 2) before a show and then catch a late night dinner elsewhere. If we ate early, we would sometimes stop back and get an order around 10 at night -- really it was that good!!!
The Dream has one surcharge option The Le Bistro. It is a small French restaurant with a $15 pp charge -- $20 if you order Surf and Turf. We ate there 2 times, once with the whole family and once with just my husband and myself. Both times I had the the Surf and Surf -- two lobsters and they were wonderful. They have a wide selection of wine (reasonably priced, ours was only $28) and WONDERFUL desserts such as individual chocolate fondue and bananas foster. Everything was excellent including the escargot and French onion soup.
On the 12th floor they had a Pizzeria which had pizza, pasta, salads and wonderful cookies. On nice days, they held and outdoor Bar B Que and at the bar, Lucky’s you could get sandwiches made to order.
If you were still hungry, there was always room service! I only used this once, to order sandwiches to take with us when we hiked the glacier but my kids used it a lot. They used it in the morning to get up --you placed the order card out the night before and they called you to let you know they were on the way. They also ordered milk with cookies and, brownies, fruit and cheese plates, pizza and salads. The service is free but they tipped a few dollars each time. It took between 10 and 25 minutes to get the food.
THE PORTS
The Dream lost an engine and in order to make up time, they dropped Sitka from the itinerary back in June. We knew about the change but were sad as Sitka is a really fun port and filled with Russian heritage.
This gave us from 4:00pm on Monday until on Thursday morning at Sea! It was longer than we have had on past sailings but it was a laid back way to get settled into the cruising mode. It forced us to do a few of the activities we might have otherwise passed on from the different dance lessons (they have a professional dance couple on board giving lessons on a different dance daily) to trivia which we won a few times.We also got a couple of hours at Hubbard Glacier which was really beautiful. It calved a few times while we were there and was a great sight to wake up to.
We arrived in Whittier in the morning and stayed until.4:30 pm. There was very little to do there so we booked a boat trip which got us up close to both Glaciers and some whales.
We then had another Sea day We got into Juneau at 10:00AM We started the day with shopping then the kids all went on a gold panning trip. My husband and I checked out the Red Dog Saloon and when the kids got back we went out to Mendenhal Glacier and hiked out to the falls. We got back on board just in time for the 7:30 take off.
The next day we arrived at Ketchican at 3:00 pm. We took the DUCK tour which first gave us a tour of the city (and some totem poles) by bus and then it went into the water as a boat and gave us a tour of the harbor. We then went shopping for a couple of hours and got back in time for a late dinner. We took off at 10:30 pm.
After another Sea Day we stopped at Prince Rupert the next morning We docked at 7:30 and got off the ship around 8:15 and went straight out Kayaking for a couple of hours. Since we all knew how to Kayak, we were allowed to get going right away while the other group took time learning and then practicing. This was great as it gave us plenty of time to hit their two museums before getting back on board.
We then had another Sea Day .as we sailed the Inside Passage the rest of the way home.
~~ ** ~~ ** ~~ 2BUZY'S FINAL THOUGHTS ~~ ** ~~ ** ~~
This was a fun family cruise for us. All of the sea days gave us plenty of time to do things on our own as well as spend time together. We played board games, trivia, watched shows and even played in (and won) a photo scavenger hunt. Yet there was enough time for the kids to do things together and with their new friends and still all get together for dinner.
Since this was a “Freestyle” cruise, we didn’t pack any formal wear which really helped cut down what we needed to pack. Everyone was able to dress like they normally do and enjoy themselves more.
We were blessed with great weather (we went in short sleeves the whole day in Juneau) which made the trip even more enjoyable. The staff and service were all top notch and the ship was clean. We were able to be as busy or as lazy as we wanted to be. There was a nice variety of food available and always tasty.
I am a big fan of NCL and would choose it above the other lines, mostly because of the Freestyle concept. Once you sail with them, you become a Latitude member with special discounts and rewards. On our cruise, we got a $150 per cabin on board credit which was nice bonus. I am giving the dream a solid 4 stars, marking her down for the mechanical problems that cost us Sitka and the fact I prefer a little newer ship. She does however have character and the best looking, most charming, most accessible (he came and sat with me at the coffee bar) Captain I’ve sailed with to date!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
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Epinions.com ID:
2buzy
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