A bit of background -- this was our first cruise  me, husband and 13-year old daughter. We splurged a bit and had an AB Penthouse Suite  the Topaz  on Deck 11, the starboard side -- which was wonderful. We flew into NYC from California Friday night (the 21st)  got delayed in Chicago because of the thunderstorms in the NYC area  but made it to our hotel by 11:00 pm.

Next morning, we got to the ship around 10:30  turns out that was a little early as we had to wait in the Lattitudes/Suites area for about an hour and 45 minutes  but it was fun watching all of the people coming and going  and we were escorted through the process, met Claudio our concierge, and were on the ship around 11:45 or so. We went to the Venetian for lunch which was nice  and then walked around until about 1:30 getting to know where things were, etc.

The Dawn is really a beautiful ship. Our bags arrived around 2:00 which was great. We unpacked, took some pictures and then headed to the muster drill in the Stardust ballroom. Then went out on deck for the sail away party  we took lots of great pictures of the NYC skyline. Read more