Overall Score

BERLITZ'S RATING
	Possible	Achieved
Ship	500	424
Accommodation	200	161
Food	400	266
Service	400	291
Entertainment	100	86
Cruise	400	304

How this score is created

Dawn Princess is an all-white ship with a decent contemporary profile, well balanced by a large funnel that contains a deck tennis/basketball/ volleyball court in its sheltered aft base. There is a wide, teakwood wrap-around promenade deck outdoors, some real teak steamer-style deck chairs (complete with royal blue cushioned pads), and 93,000 sq. ft (8,640 sq. meters) of space outdoors. A great amount of glass area on the upper decks provides plenty of light and connection with the outside world.

The ship absorbs passengers well, and has an almost intimate feel to it. The interiors are very pretty and warm, with attractive colors and welcoming decor that includes some very attractive wall murals and other artwork. The signage throughout the ship could be better, however. There are a number of dead ends in the interior layout, so it’s not as user-friendly as a ship this size could be. The cabin numbering system is extremely illogical, with numbers going through several hundred series on the same deck.

There is a wide range of public rooms, with several intimate rooms and spaces so that you don’t get the feel of being overwhelmed by large spaces. The interior focal point is a huge four-deck-high atrium lobby with winding, double stairways, and two panoramic glass-walled elevators.

There are two showlounges, one at each end of the ship; one is a superb 550-seat, theater-style showlounge (movies are also shown here) and the other is a 480-seat cabaret-style lounge, complete with bar.

The library, a very warm room, has six large butter-­colored leather chairs for listening to compact audio discs, with ocean-view windows. There is a conference center for up to 300, as well as a business center with computers, copy and fax machines. The collection of artwork is good, particularly on the stairways, and helps make the ship feel smaller than it is, although in places it doesn’t always seem coordinated. The casino, while large, is not really in the main passenger flow and so it does not generate the “walk-through” factor found aboard so many ships.

The most traditional room is the Wheelhouse Lounge/Bar, which is decorated in the style of a late 19th-­century gentleman’s club, with wood paneling and comfortable seating. The focal point is a large ship model from the P&O collection archives: aboard Dawn Princess it is Kenya.

One nice feature is the captain’s cocktail party – it is typically held in the four-deck-high main atrium – so you can come and go as you please, and there’s no standing in line to have your photograph taken with the captain if you don’t want to. However, note that cruising aboard large ships such as this one has become increasingly an onboard revenue-based product. The in-your-face art auctions are simply overbearing, and the paintings, lithographs and faux, framed pictures that are strewn throughout the ship (and clash irritatingly with the ship’s interior decor) are an annoying intrusion into what should be a holiday, not a cruise inside a floating “art” emporium. There are no cushioned pads for the sunloungers on the open lido decks.

The swimming pools are quite small for so many passengers, and the pool deck is cluttered with white, plastic sunloungers, without cushioned pads. Waiting for tenders in anchor ports can prove irritating, but typical of large ship operations. Charging for use of the machines and washing powder in the self-service launderette is trifling.

As is the case aboard most large ships today, if you live in the top suites, you will be well attended; if you do not, you will merely be one of a large number of passengers.

Berlitz Guide © Apa Publishing 2008