We are long time cruisers and typically purchase suite accommodations. Prior to the Norwegian Dawn our previous cruise was this past fall on the QM2 (Queens Grill) and before that suites on the Princess Star. Our travel agent recommended the Norwegian Dawn because we wanted to have accommodations that would allow our entire family to travel together (children and grandchildren) in one suite. The Norwegian Dawn has two very unique Garden Villa accommodations that are the best accommodations we have ever had on a cruise ship. Each is over five thousand square feet including three magnificent staterooms, private outside area (with hot tub and sauna) and a living and dining room. In addition you have a maid, butler and almost exclusive services of the concierge. The only downside to the accommodations is the price because the 10 day cruise goes for $35,000. Because we were in the Garden Villa suite our experience was not typical of other passengers for the cruise. For example we had many of our meals served family style in our suite. Our butler could get our meals from any of the specialty restaurants. After the first few days where we experienced incredibly slow service in the main dining room for breakfast we had all our breakfasts served in our suite. Also because we had our own outside deck with hot tub and sauna we did not have to deal with the incredibly overcrowded pool area where there are not sufficient deck chairs to handle the number of passengers on the ship. Our villa overlooked the pool area and during the cruise we observed three situations where passengers ended up in shoving matches arguing over ownership of deck chairs. Also the pool area is not covered during inclement or cold weather which is problematic for a ship that leaves in the winter from New York City.

Some other observations:

Leaving from New York: Living in Connecticut about an hour from the NYC cruise terminal having the ship leave from New York is an incredible convenience. I don't believe we will ever take another Caribbean cruise from Florida again. While the terminal is old, parking is available on the roof deck, just a short elevator ride from the cruise embarkation area. Because we were in the Garden Villa accommodations we were escorted to the front of all the embarkation lines and it was literally a few minutes from parking our car to being in our cabin—a huge convenience. Read more