NCL Dawn food review

I reviewed everything else separately, but wanted to give food it's
own review.

First off, I love the freestyle cruising - no set times for dinner,
which is really helpful. It gave us a lot of flexibility - something
especially important when traveling with children (we have one son 9
years old). If we wanted to eat together, we could eat between 5:30
and 7 when the kids program startd (since my son wanted to not miss a
single second of the kids program). If we wanted to eat separately, we
could feed him at either the buffet, the blue lagoon (a 24 hour snack
bar) or room service. My husband, however, prefers the set eating
time, since it makes it easier to get to the shows. (I wasn't
organized enough to make it to dinner and shows every night).

The sanitation was very, very impressive. A big worry of mine was my
husband contracting something, since his meds suppress his immune
system. At the beginning of each buffet line, and at each restaurants
front desk, there is a motion activated, touchless machine that has
hand sanitizer. The first day of the cruise, all the staff reminds
guests to use the sanitizer. The Buffet is set up in 4 sections - each
section is open only for maybe an hour or two at most. Once the
section is closed, the entire section is practically taken apart and
scrubbed down to get any little bugs that might even fantasize about
having a party. All the beverage machines in this section are scrubbed
down at this time too. Guests are encouraged to take a fresh glass or
cup for each refill. I was told that NCL consistently gets marks of
'100' from health inspectors.

In general, I would rate the food overall an 8 out of 10. The fruit,
vegetables and fish were excellent - I rarely came across a poorly
prepared dish in these categories. The fruit soups were for the most
part excellent, although one night we had a pistachio and pears soup,
which tasted good, but the pistachios should have been more finely
ground - the large chunks were extremely distracting. The breads were
so good I'm now inspired to try to recreate some of them at home. The
chicken was usually good. One night my husband had duck and was very
happy with it. The meat (lamb and beef) was disappointing - although
flavored well, it was not good quality. I found the lamb tough, and my
husband said his meat was more like eating at the Sizzler. (I don't
eat beef).

The fruit based desserts were good - I loved their cobblers and one
night we had a 'slump' (I'm not sure what the difference is between a
slump and a cobbler, but it was good). Cherries Jubilee was really
good. My son ate his weight in pound cake, I believe. The other
desserts, such as mousse and the cakes, were not really sweet enough
for our tastes. We are used to buttercream icing, and they use whipped
topping, so the desserts were usually not worth the calories. THey
really need to get just plain pies and buttercream cakes for
Americans.

Anyway, there are 10 restaurants, not including room service. 3 are
the main dining rooms - Aqua, Impressions and Venetian. They all share
the same menu each night (the menu changes each night, but is the same
in all these restaurants). They always have a vegetarian choice, and
if nothing appeals to you, you can request pasta with tomato sauce.
The waitresses really push the food. One night, I wasn't really very
hungry, so I ordered just an appetizer and a salad. The waitress must
have asked me at least 4 times if I was sure I didn't want more food
(maybe they have a jewish mother gene in them somewhere). Another
night my husband and I wanted to make the show, so we left without
eating dessert. Our waitress saw us the next day sitting down, and
actually spoke sternly to us (in a friendly, joking way of course),
for leaving without dessert.

There are two specialy restaurants which you need reservations for -
an Italian and a Tex Mex. It is very hard to get reservations unless
you're organized enough to do it the day before. Since I don't know
from day to day how my husband is feeling, I couldn't plan to eat at
any of these.

There are another three specialty restaurants with a cover charge. One
of them we didn't bother with - it was a steakhouse, and between my
not liking meat and my husband finding the quality of the beef not
very good, we didn't bother.

A second restaurant with a cover charge is an 'Asian Fusion'
restaurant. They have an all you can eat Sushi bar for $10, various
Thai/Japanese/Vietnamese dishes etc. We ate in the Teppanyaki room -
it was extremely entertaining, although the food was not particularly
terrific.

A third restaurant with a cover charge was the French restaurant 'Le
Bistro'. The food was fantastic, and I will always remember with
extreme fondness the Chocolate fondue. They used a very high quality
chocolate, and gave my husband more fruit when he wanted more. My one
minor complaint was the plastic water pitchers - here we are in an
elegant French restaurant, and they're using plastic water pitchers.
They need to lose the plastic. It's okay in the other restaurants, but
for some reason I found it extremely incongruous in the french
restaurant.

The 9th restaurant in my review is the Buffet - they always seem to
have at least one section open. Every day at lunch they have a
vegetarian buffet - the indian food was VERY toned down, but still
delicious. There is a kids buffet area - small chairs, lower tray
rests etc. Hot dogs, chicken nuggets, french fries etc. The main
buffet areas also usually have kid friendly choices. There is also a
soup station, a pasta station and a fruit station at the buffets.

The 10th restaurant is the 'blue lagoon' - a 24 hour snack bar. Hot
dogs, fish and chips, fried rice (they prepared mine without the pork
and shrimp). My son had pound cake and milk there every night - by the
end of the cruise, the waitresses were our friends here. One waitress
gave him a HUGE plate of pound cake to bring back to the room. They
were very, very funny.

Actually, there are also a few other places to get food. The Bimini
bar has grilled chicken, hot dogs and french fries. The pool area has
Barbeques at lunch, and also has an ice cream bar (no charge for the
regular ice cream, only for the Haagen Dazs). There was also a
Chocolate buffet at one point - the food wasn't great, but the
chocolate sculptures and artistry was nicely done. There is also room
service. Also, there is a buffet by the pool some evenings (maybe all)
- by that time, I'm not eating anymore, so I didn't really pay
attention.

Just a few things that might improve things: They should use colored
food wrap on the glasses for room service - we kept pouring liquids
onto food wrap not realizing that wrap was on the glasses of ice for
room service. The grits were too watery - they need to be thicker.
Beef should be better quality, or use tenderizer. And they need to get
desserts with buttercream.

That's all I can think of.

Heidi

Heidi, this is an excellent review and pretty much sums up how we felt
about our NCL Dawn dining experience.

Like you, we loved the freestyle dining option because we had our
children with us. By the 2nd day, they didn't want to dine with us in
the main dining rooms so taking them up to the Market Buffet before
our dinner was extremely convenient. We'd drop them off at Kids' Crew
then meet with others for pre-dinner cocktails. Then a leisurely
dinner was enjoyed with whomever we wanted to dine with before picking
up the kids at 10.

Because of this flexibility and the reduced prices for children as a
3rd and 4th in the cabin, NCL has us sold til our kids graduate.

andrew


On 28 Nov 2004 18:47:36 -0800, (nekochan) wrote:

I reviewed everything else separately, but wanted to give food it's
own review.

First off, I love the freestyle cruising - no set times for dinner,
which is really helpful. It gave us a lot of flexibility - something
especially important when traveling with children (we have one son 9
years old). If we wanted to eat together, we could eat between 5:30
and 7 when the kids program startd (since my son wanted to not miss a
single second of the kids program). If we wanted to eat separately, we
could feed him at either the buffet, the blue lagoon (a 24 hour snack
bar) or room service. My husband, however, prefers the set eating
time, since it makes it easier to get to the shows. (I wasn't
organized enough to make it to dinner and shows every night).

Heidi


Carnival Tropicale 1982
NCL Dawn 2004
HAL Noordam 2004

(nekochan) wrote in message . com...
We are used to buttercream icing, and they use whipped
topping, so the desserts were usually not worth the calories. THey
really need to get just plain pies and buttercream cakes for
Americans.
And they need to get
desserts with buttercream.

Hi Heidi,

Great food review. I have buttercream on the brain today, because I'll
be making some a little later to finish off a birthday cake for a
co-worker of mine. Problem I find with "buttercream", except at
really, really expensive bakeries and fine restaurants, is that what
they (supermarkets, family restaurants) call "buttercream" is really
solid vegetable shortening (Crisco) based stuff which I find pretty
gross. A true buttercream is expensive to make and time consuming
(though I hope not too time consuming...don't want to be up all
night). I'd rather they use whipped cream as a topping rather than
resort to cutting corners and serving me Crisco with sugar. Not all
Americans need plain pie and buttercream cakes to satisfy their
dessert cravings.

Lee

(nekochan) wrote:

I reviewed everything else separately, but wanted to give food it's
own review.

Thank you for the comprehensive review -

First off, I love the freestyle cruising - no set times for dinner,
which is really helpful. It gave us a lot of flexibility - something
especially important when traveling with childrensnip

I loved this too even though we weren't traveling with a kid. It was
nice not to have to be back at the ship and dressed for dinner if we
didn't feel like it. Also when we ate dinner ashore, it didn't leave
a big gap in the table, and we met new people all the time.

The sanitation was very, very impressive. A big worry of mine was my
husband contracting something, since his meds suppress his immune
system. At the beginning of each buffet line, and at each restaurants
front desk, there is a motion activated, touchless machine that has
hand sanitizer. The first day of the cruise, all the staff reminds
guests to use the sanitizer.

I figured out that this must have been alcohol. We also had them
stationed at the gangway for coming back from shore. I'm not sure how
effective alcohol is at removing germs. The ladies that handed out
the buffet trays and implements also wore gloves. .
snip
There are two specialy restaurants which you need reservations for -
an Italian and a Tex Mex. It is very hard to get reservations unless
you're organized enough to do it the day before. Since I don't know
from day to day how my husband is feeling, I couldn't plan to eat at
any of these.

That was my problem too - I couldn't tell in advance if we'd want to
eat Chinese (which was one of our specialty restaurants) or Italian.

I've wondered what would happen if you just showed up without a
reservation.

grandma Rosalie

(nekochan) wrote:

I reviewed everything else separately, but wanted to give food it's
own review.

Thank you for the comprehensive review -

First off, I love the freestyle cruising - no set times for dinner,
which is really helpful. It gave us a lot of flexibility - something
especially important when traveling with childrensnip

I loved this too even though we weren't traveling with a kid. It was
nice not to have to be back at the ship and dressed for dinner if we
didn't feel like it. Also when we ate dinner ashore, it didn't leave
a big gap in the table, and we met new people all the time.

The sanitation was very, very impressive. A big worry of mine was my
husband contracting something, since his meds suppress his immune
system. At the beginning of each buffet line, and at each restaurants
front desk, there is a motion activated, touchless machine that has
hand sanitizer. The first day of the cruise, all the staff reminds
guests to use the sanitizer.

I figured out that this must have been alcohol. We also had them
stationed at the gangway for coming back from shore. I'm not sure how
effective alcohol is at removing germs. The ladies that handed out
the buffet trays and implements also wore gloves. .
snip
There are two specialy restaurants which you need reservations for -
an Italian and a Tex Mex. It is very hard to get reservations unless
you're organized enough to do it the day before. Since I don't know
from day to day how my husband is feeling, I couldn't plan to eat at
any of these.

That was my problem too - I couldn't tell in advance if we'd want to
eat Chinese (which was one of our specialty restaurants) or Italian.

I've wondered what would happen if you just showed up without a
reservation.

grandma Rosalie

(nekochan) wrote in message . com...

It's the shortening that kind of grosses me out. Not sure why eating
butter creamed with sugar is okay (to me) but eating Crisco with sugar
kind of turns my stomach.

My buttercream recipe is a little more elaborate - it's a traditional
"cooked" french buttercream:

6 egg yolks
1 C sugar
1/2 C water
1 lb butter
flavoring of choice

Beat yolks until light in color. Meanwhile, put sugar and water into
non-stick pot and heat to boil, stirring constantly. When it reaches a
boil, stop stirring and allow to heat to "soft ball" stage - 238°F.
Immediately pour sugar syrup into a greased glass heat-resistant
measuring cup to stop cooking. Pour a small amount of syrup over the
egg yolks (mixer turned off - do not allow syrup to touch whisk) and
beat on high for 5 seconds. Add a larger amount of syrup and beat
again for 5 seconds. Add the remaining amount of syrup and continue
beating until totally cooled. Then, add the flavoring (liqueur,
vanilla, eau de vie, etc) and add the butter, a little at a time,
beating well after each addition.

That's the only way I know how to make a buttercream . I kind of
expect to be served a Crisco "buttercream" on a cruiseship, and it
wouldn't be something I'd enjoy, so I'm just as happy that they used
whipped cream.

Lee

I decorate ALOT of cakes (for fun). Here's my buttercream icing recipe
- it works very well, tastes great, and is very good for both icing
and decorating.

half cup butter
half cup shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla
a little salt (maybe half teaspoon)
2 pounds confectioners sugar
half cup (more or less) of water

Dump everything into a bowl except the sugar and beat well on a high
speed. Then add the sugar and beat on high for about 5 minutes. If you
want chocolate icing, add a little more water and as much cocoa powder
as necessary to get the color chocolate you want.

Cakes iced with this do not need refrigeration, unless you use a
filling which needs refrigeration. If there's leftover icing, it can
keep several weeks in the fridge in a plastic container.

for more icing recipes, you can go to www.sugarcraft.com and find
their recipes board.


(Lee) wrote in message

Great food review. I have buttercream on the brain today, because I'll
be making some a little later to finish off a birthday cake for a
co-worker of mine. A true buttercream is expensive to make and time consuming (though I hope not too time consuming...don't want to be up all
night).

(nekochan) wrote in message . com...

It's the shortening that kind of grosses me out. Not sure why eating
butter creamed with sugar is okay (to me) but eating Crisco with sugar
kind of turns my stomach.

My buttercream recipe is a little more elaborate - it's a traditional
"cooked" french buttercream:

6 egg yolks
1 C sugar
1/2 C water
1 lb butter
flavoring of choice

Beat yolks until light in color. Meanwhile, put sugar and water into
non-stick pot and heat to boil, stirring constantly. When it reaches a
boil, stop stirring and allow to heat to "soft ball" stage - 238°F.
Immediately pour sugar syrup into a greased glass heat-resistant
measuring cup to stop cooking. Pour a small amount of syrup over the
egg yolks (mixer turned off - do not allow syrup to touch whisk) and
beat on high for 5 seconds. Add a larger amount of syrup and beat
again for 5 seconds. Add the remaining amount of syrup and continue
beating until totally cooled. Then, add the flavoring (liqueur,
vanilla, eau de vie, etc) and add the butter, a little at a time,
beating well after each addition.

That's the only way I know how to make a buttercream . I kind of
expect to be served a Crisco "buttercream" on a cruiseship, and it
wouldn't be something I'd enjoy, so I'm just as happy that they used
whipped cream.

Lee

I decorate ALOT of cakes (for fun). Here's my buttercream icing recipe
- it works very well, tastes great, and is very good for both icing
and decorating.

half cup butter
half cup shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla
a little salt (maybe half teaspoon)
2 pounds confectioners sugar
half cup (more or less) of water

Dump everything into a bowl except the sugar and beat well on a high
speed. Then add the sugar and beat on high for about 5 minutes. If you
want chocolate icing, add a little more water and as much cocoa powder
as necessary to get the color chocolate you want.

Cakes iced with this do not need refrigeration, unless you use a
filling which needs refrigeration. If there's leftover icing, it can
keep several weeks in the fridge in a plastic container.

for more icing recipes, you can go to www.sugarcraft.com and find
their recipes board.


(Lee) wrote in message

Great food review. I have buttercream on the brain today, because I'll
be making some a little later to finish off a birthday cake for a
co-worker of mine. A true buttercream is expensive to make and time consuming (though I hope not too time consuming...don't want to be up all
night).