This was our first time on the Dawn and we had a great time. We had a balcony room for us and a oceanview room for our teens. We drove down to Tampa and stayed at the Hampton Inn. They have free parking if you book the cruise/airport package. Checking in was fast but not as friendly as the Miami port. We are latitudes members and we didn't get any special number to board. On our second cruise in Miami we got a latitudes boarding pass. Still we got on fairly fast and began to check out the Dawn. The ship is lovely. The buffet was good all week. We did miss being able to eat outside like on the Sky but it was still good. Without the outside section the buffet area is very long! Happy happy washy washy!

Our rooms were ready very fast. Both rooms were bigger than I thought. The bathroom was very nice! I was expecting the tiny round circle shower with the shower curtain but the separate shower stall on the Dawn was a great surprise! There was plenty of room for all of our things in the bathroom and in the closet. The tv is a flat screen and the bed was very comfy. The room we had was a hull balcony. I had no idea what that meant when I booked it and it was just fine. We had 2 small chairs and you really couldn't have fit a full beach chair on it to sun in, but that was fine too. Still nice to walk out and get fresh air and a view of the ocean whenever we wanted.

We waited up top to pass under the Sunshine Skyway bridge. It was beautiful but much colder than we expected! People brave enough to get in the hot tub up front we very cold in all the wind. After passing under the bridge we ate at the buffet for dinner and went to enjoy some shows. Read more