We travelled with another couple who were first time cruisers. This was our 4th cruise and our 4th cruise line. We still rate our Royal Caribbean cruise #1, though we heard they had a fire on board the ship we were on with them, the day after we got back from our cruise on the Dawn!

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise a lot. The entertainment was great. We ate the buffet for breakfast and lunch. Dinner we ate in the Venetian 6 nights, and Aqua once. We didn't care for the atmosphere in Aqua since is has no windows and low ceilings. The food was very good for the most part. This was our first Free style dining cruise, and while it worked out well for us, the service was extremely slow. We had to flag down the maitre 'd once because our waiter simply disappeared. I have a gluten allergy, which they handled well by having me preorder my dinner for the next night and simply give my cabin number when our waiter came to the table. They did have GF bread for me, but sometimes it was so slow in being served, I'd already eaten half my dinner.

The ship itself is OK. It was clean, but older. Small things like missing stickers in the shower and a few areas of peeling paint. We found the layout a little odd, but figured it out by the end of the week. They have several restaurants on board for an upcharge of $20 per meal. We tried to make a reservation our last night to use up our onboard credit, but the steakhouse was full. We felt they had a lot of other "costs" - their bingo is expensive $40 for 3 cards. Shopping on board was run-of-the-mill. Embarkation was super easy. We drove to Boston and parked in the garage ($112 for the week). We chose to self-disembark and there was a huge line to get off the ship, but it did move along. Our Stateroom (cabin 4600) was about what we expected, tiny! But our stateroom attendant was cheerful and did a good job. Read more