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Norwegian Cruise Line

MS Norwegian Dream

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Jim Shannon
# previous cruises: 1
Date of Trip: April 28, 2003
Itinerary: Baltic/Black Sea/Russia

This was our first cruise and the ship was excellent and exceeded expectations: the trip to St .Petersburg was cancelled due to ice but we enjoyed the other ports of call and will catch russia next time. Very interesting ports of call especially if you have not been before.

We especially liked the observatory lounge and the coffee bar was good for a quiet listen to the piano in the evening. The stardust theatre was good and you had a number of comfortable couches to rest your weary limbs.

The terraces turned out to be our favourite and the staff were excellent on the whole. We didn't warm to the four seasons as much but it was an excellent dining room. The Bistro and Trattoria were popular and the sports bar was good if you were in a hurry. Breakfast was usually colder here.

We had an E grade outside cabin with a picture window which was better than we had expected in terms of space and practicability. I don't think that we would have fancied an inside cabin with no window. Deck five and we found it reasonably quiet with no issues with sleeping.

Shows were excellent especially the magic show and they varied them each night so you could visit the stardust every night and see something different. 42 nd street was one of the shows which my wife enjoyed best.

I brought a couple of books and didn't turn a page there was so much to do. The gym was ok for its size and the weather did not beckon you into the pool. Although they were excellent and there were enough of them. We visited Warnemunde, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hardanger Fjord, Oslo and bergen then finished in Amsterdam. I personally liked Copenhagen and Stockholm the best with bergen pipping oslo for friendliness and price. The Kiel Canal transit on the second day was wonderful with a german band on board and hundreds of locals and Norwegian Dream fan club memebers lining the bridges and banks to wave us by. We saw the worlds most expensive yacht glide past in the canal and it was fantastic complete with helipad on its sea trials.

90% of the passengers were American and lovely to chat with. They were all dissapointed that St .Petersburg was cancelled. There were a number of protest meetings over this but I can only say that the captain took the trouble to personally explain to me about the ice and showed me some pictures on the second day and as he said the dream is a cruise ship not and ice breaker and the trip to Russia was not possible. We took it on the chin and got on with the revised itinerary.