My wife and I are 55 years old. This was our second cruise. Our first was with Royal Caribbean in 2005. We chose NCL and the Dawn because of the itinerary and the fact it sailed out of New York City. We live in Connecticut so it meant we didn't have to fly anywhere.

The embarkation out of NYC seemed very disorganized and involved a lot of standing and then sitting around with very little communication. The facility itself was old and unpleasant. Nothing like the RCC embarkation facility we saw in Tampa. We arrived at 11:00 a.m. and it took over two hours to get on the ship. People who arrived later required over three hours. Then we got on the ship....

I will start this portion of my review with the following: Normally, half-way through a vacation I start thinking of the comforts of home. This was the first vacation we ever took where we both really regretted the end of the cruise. For us, this was a wonderful vacation! Before the cruise, we had read many negative comments in the Cruise Critic about the Dawn. They must have been on a different ship. Read more