I recently cruised in one of the cheapest cabins available onboard Norwegian Dawn, which is one of Norwegian Cruise Line’s oldest ships. Norwegian Dawn was launched in 2002, making the ship nearly 22 years old. Norwegian Cruise Line has provided this older ship with plenty of upgrades, with a multi-million dollar refurbishment in 2016 and dry dock refresh as recent as 2021.
During my 12-night African safari itinerary, I was fortunate to visit exotic destinations across South Africa, Mauritius, and Madagascar. For this exciting cruise on Norwegian Dawn, I traveled with my longtime friend, Rosina. The two of us actually met on a cruise ship at the teen club back in 2008! In some ways, this cruise together was a full-circle moment for us.
Norwegian Dawn is the flagship vessel for Norwegian Cruise Line’s Dawn class. Along with her sister ship, Norwegian Star, the two midsized cruise ships hold around 2,340 passengers at capacity. The Dawn Class is only comprised of Norwegian Star and Norwegian Dawn, and both of these cruise ships are two of the oldest ships in the fleet.
Norwegian Dawn measures around 92,000 gross registered tons and features 15 decks. Being on the smaller side, Norwegian Dawn lacks many modern amenities that you can find on the cruise line’s newest ships. Regardless, this older and smaller cruise ship was the perfect vessel to call home during our African adventure.
Overall, we loved calling this obstructed-view cabin our home for 12 nights. The cozy cabin felt like our safe space to return to each evening after a long day in the African sun.
Cabin Overview
One of the cheapest cabins available to book on Norwegian Dawn was 8076. We wanted to choose our cabin’s location, so we did not plan to book a guaranteed cabin for this reason.
Although I would normally book an inside cabin to save money, we found this obstructed ocean view cabin on Deck 8 for a slightly higher cost. Having some natural light during our long itinerary was appealing, so we felt the splurge was worthwhile.
In addition, our cabin was centrally located midship on Deck 8. Because of this, we felt minimal motion of the ship while sailing in rough seas compared to cabins in the front or back of the ship. Whether we were returning from the day’s adventure or heading up to the pool deck, we never had far to go.
Read: How to avoid cruise motion sickness
The small cabin was only around 160 square feet. Normally this would be plenty of space for two guests traveling together; however, we each brought three suitcases onboard. With so much luggage, the small cabin quickly felt very tiny!
Because we were two friends traveling together, Norwegian automatically separated the beds into two twin beds. Considering the size of the cabin, having the beds separated helped open up the space to make it feel less cramped.
Obstructed View
Upon entering the cabin for the first time, I was most interested to see how obstructed the view would be. Sometimes obstructed views are only partially obstructed while others can be completely blocked.
Our cabin’s view was partially obstructed by a lifeboat suspended from the deck outside of our cabin. I would estimate that 75% of the view was blocked by the lifeboat. We could see a small glimpse of the horizon above the lifeboat, but there was not much we could see.
Moreover, the window was quite dirty and definitely needed to be washed. I wondered how often the window was cleaned since it was hidden behind the lifeboat. Cruise ships will normally clean windows and balconies routinely, but our particular cabin might have been overlooked given its hidden location.
Having natural light throughout the cruise was an unusual experience for me considering I almost always book inside cabins. Even though we could not actually see much outside of our porthole window, it was nice to have natural light throughout the day.
I noticed on the first morning that our cabin seemed to get very warm because of the sunlight shining on the window. The curtains were hardly blackout, so our room was very bright in the mornings as the sun came up. Because of this, I decided to wear an eye mask.
Since we only had two guests in the stateroom, the pullman bed above Rosina’s bed went unused. In fact, our cabin could accommodate up to four guests with a trundle bed as well. Personally speaking, the cabin would have been very cramped with more than two guests.
Two small nightstands were available next to each bed. These were generously sized with two shelves to use. Because we had so much luggage, it was very helpful to have as many shelving options as possible.
Above each bed was a small, protruding light for each of us to use. We often used these lights at night for cozy lighting before going to sleep. I wished that these lights had USB plugs available for charging. Also, I was worried about hitting my head on these lights while lying in bed.
Storage
At the end of my bed was the cabin’s main vanity. On the vanity, there were only two outlets to use: one UK plug and one US plug. This is fairly common for older ships, so I anticipated having limited outlets to use.
The vanity also featured three drawers for storage and two exposed shelves. Since this was near my bed, Rosina and I decided that I would have this vanity exclusively. I was surprised how much I was able to store in the drawers considering how much I packed.
Read: Why smart cruisers bring a European power adapter on a cruise ship
I used the exposed shelves to store my souvenirs and daily necessities like bug spray and sunscreen. By the end of the cruise, the vanity was pretty full of my African treasures!
One downside of this cabin was that we did not have anywhere to sit in the stateroom other than our beds. The vanity did have a small ottoman for sitting, but I pretty much only used this to get ready in the mornings.
The cabin had a blowdryer available to use, which was stored on the vanity’s countertop. A small light switch also illuminated a dim light above the mirror, but this did not provide much light at all.
Opposite of my vanity was a small table, which Rosina used for her daily necessities and storage.
When boarding, we were greeted with an invitation to the military ceremony since we had booked this cabin using the military discount. We also received truffles and a bottle of water because of our Latitude’s loyalty status!
Read: NCL Latitudes Benefits, Tiers and Cruise Loyalty FAQ
Adjacent to the small table was additional storage and shelving to use. Rosina had three drawers to use for her clothes, which were the same size as the drawers under the other vanity.
The cabin’s safe, along with a few other areas of storage, were available to use above the drawers.
Our stateroom also had a very large closet with even more shelving for storage. Because I had packed the most clothes, I ended up using all of the shelves in the closet.
Rosina and I split the hangers to hang our dresses. We were surprised that all of our belongings fit comfortably in the cabin!
Since we each traveled with three suitcases, we utilized the space under the beds to store them. I used one empty suitcase to hold my dirty clothes throughout the cruise while the other suitcase had my carry-on inside.
Near the cabin door, we had even more shelving to use. These were being used for the cabin's life jackets, which we moved to be under our beds instead. Rosina used these shelves for her shoes instead, which seemed like a better use of space to us instead of the life jackets.
In the end, we had plenty of storage for all of our belongings from six suitcases!
Bathroom
Opposite of the closet was the stateroom’s bathroom. Since this was an older cruise ship, I had pretty low expectations for the bathroom’s design and functionality. More often than not, these older cruise ships have very small bathrooms with especially tiny showers.
In my opinion, our cabin had an unexpectedly spacious and well-designed bathroom for the ship’s age. The walk-in shower was especially big with plenty of space to use it comfortably. I loved having a large door instead of a clingy shower curtain.
I also appreciate that Norwegian Cruise Line provides both body wash and shampoo instead of a 2-in-1 solution like Royal Caribbean does. The shower had a small shelf for other cosmetics, which we filled up with all of our products!
The bathroom’s vanity had additional shelving above and below the sink. We only used the shelves above the sink, but the extra storage was appreciated. One other notable feature was the liquid hand soap dispenser above the sink. I prefer liquid soap over bar soap, so this was a great feature of the bathroom.
The biggest surprise was that our cabin’s bathroom featured a somewhat separate toilet area. The toilet was off by itself with a small divider that could be used to close off the area. Having a separate toilet area is becoming more common for newer ships, but this was something that I had never seen before in a cabin on an older ship.
Overall, this was one of the best bathrooms for an older ship that I’ve ever had before! The bathroom was well-designed and did not feel too small. The large shower and separate toilet space were the best features.
Technology
Because of the cabin’s age, there was limited technology available. The cabin featured a small TV for us to use, but we did not utilize this much. The one time we tried to find the ship’s location on the TV, we were surprised by the difficult navigation screens implemented by Norwegian. Because of this, we never used the TV again.
The temperature control in the cabin was far from advanced. While newer cruise ships might have touch screens for these now, older ships have very basic thermal controls. Because it was so hot during our cruise (one day was around 108 degrees!), we had the room as cold as possible for the entire sailing.
As mentioned earlier, the cabin seemed to get warmer in the mornings when the sun started to shine onto our window. I wish the cabin had better shades, such as blackout curtains, to help control the temperature.
I was unsure about which plugs would be used in Mauritius, which is where our cruise departed from, so I brought three adapters for US, EU, and UK plugs. This proved to be useful since our cabin had one of each!
Booking a cabin with an obstructed view on a cruise ship is a little bit of a gamble since you might not know the extent of the obstruction
In our case, the view was considered partially obstructed by the cruise line. However, about 75% of our view was blocked by the lifeboat outside of the porthole.
We appreciated having the natural light considering we had a longer itinerary with 12 nights onboard Norwegian Dawn. In particular, our cabin’s location was excellent. We were never too far from anything onboard. Moreover, the cabin was exceptionally quiet, so we did not have issues being woken up in the night.
While our cabin could technically accommodate up to four guests, this would have been very crowded. Perhaps this is because we traveled with a lot of luggage and enough outfits for back-to-back cruising!
If I could do it again, I would maybe consider booking an inside cabin onboard Norwegian Dawn. While our location was great and we did enjoy the natural light during the day, our cabin felt warm each morning when the sun would come up. I wish the shades were blackout curtains instead, so the cabin didn’t get too bright in the mornings.
Allie Hubers
Allie Hubers has been cruising since she was a tiny toddler. What started as a yearly vacation with family quickly turned into a passion for travel, cruising and adventure. Allie's been on over 45 cruises all over the world. She even studied abroad on Semester at Sea, sailing the world on a ship while taking courses for college and visiting 4 continents.
