This was our very first cruise for my husband,me and our six year old son, so we were all very excited. We really didn't know what to expect but I had been doing all the reading that I could from Cruise Critic and you all gave me a lot of useful information everyone had something to share that I could use. Well our cruise was scheduled for January 6,2008 , we decided to go one day early. We booked a room through our local travel agent. She recommended to hotels we decided to take the Bayside Inn in San Diego. She booked us a room with a balcony overlooking the port so we were able to see the ship coming that morning (we were so excited we couldn't sleep).The hotel was very clean it was near little italy, the port and also the trolly to old town in san diego and also the gas lamp district. The only bad thing I can say about this was that we flew in on bad weather my husband was always telling me about how in San Diego the weather is so nice it rarely gets cold and it rarely rains, Well it rained and it was cloudy, but we decided to enjoy since we would be getting warmer weather once we got on the ship and started our sail to the mexican riviera. Well we started our embarkation around 12pm but we were able to make it on board the ship within 30 minutes. They made us sign a paper asking whether anyone of us had any gastro intestinal illnesses. Now I know why they made everyone sign that paper and I will explain later it is very important that everyone be honest. We were so excited getting on the ship and trying to explore before our muster drill (this is a very important process you never know when you will use this information but you want to be prepared) I know it is probably hard for those who have taken several cruises because it makes you wonder why one needs to do the muster over again but like I say it is an important process. When we walked into the ship it was just so beautiful I had read many reviews where people complained about the Dawn being old and needed several things replaced but I kept looking around and all I saw was a beautiful ship that was well maintained and very clean and beautiful. We were on the baja deck cabin B519. We walked in and like I said I had read people's comments about the room being small and the bathroom being very small. I found it to be adequate and not that small even though we had an inside room and I am claustrophobic it didn't bother me it was big enough where it didn't affect me I was worried that I would be bothered by this and like I said the bathroom was larger than I imagined. Right away we met our room steward she introduced herself to us, her name was Lennie as I was talking to her I realized that I had read about her on one of the reviews so it was almost as if I knew her as a matter of fact I had printed out some information about a persons trip and her name was there so Lennie was very surprised and happy that someone had remembered her. Lennie was all that the other person said that she was very helpful. Every night she would make sure to bring cookies to our son, and she would also make the animals for him out of the towels she always had such good helpful advice and suggestions for us we really appreciated having her as our steward our room was always cleaned very well. The very first suggestion was for us to introduce our son to kids in the kids fun zone . So off we went they suggest that you go right away if you have a child that way they can right away feel comfortable and team up with someone. We also decided to go to the buffet and get some lunch I wasn't too impressed with this part of the ship not very much to pick from but anyways its food. We also found out that we had late traditional dining in the Venetian dining room which I wasn't too happy about only because it would interfere with our son's visits to the kids zone because the hours are from 9a.m to 12pm , 2pm till 5pm , and 7pm till 10pm. We decided to see if we could change the time from 8 to 5:45 but we would have to visit the Maitre d' well I guess alot of people had the same idea because there was already a line formed so we were number 7 so we waited there our son took a little nap till we spoke to the Maitre d' he was very understanding and said that he would look into it and he would try to change our dining if it was possible and the next day we would know he would send a letter to our cabin sure enough the next day we got our change to early traditional dining. Dinner was wonderful we seemed to have gotten the best waiters (I guess everyone probably feels the same way) we got for a waiter Mircea Citirel from Romania and Kristo Stoyanov assistant waiter. Mircea was a very nice person he really tried to get to know us which makes one feel special our son felt this way our son made a comment on our third night "mom how did he know what I wanted for dinner?" mom how did he know how much of my hot dog I would eat?" mom how did he know I wanted chocolate milk? They really try to do their very best in getting to know each one of their tables persons. While we were eating our first dinner on the ship the Captain made an announcement that we were headed to Ensenada rather than Cabo San Lucas because of a medical emergency and that he was sorry for this inconvenience but that we would be going full speed because we had to get there as soon as possible because of the situation. I didn't realize what full speed would be like it was hard to walk in a straight line the ship was very rocky and I mean very rocky and the winds didn't help. My husband who has a very queasy stomach and gets motion sickness did not experience any of effects from the ships travel although I who has never had any problems felt queasy for the first two days. Monday morning there were rough seas alot of white caps we still had quite a ways to go but we were still at full speed to try to make it to Cabo as scheduled but we weren't going to be there at the time they said we would on the itinerary but the Captain said we would stay there longer since we weren't getting there when they said we would. We still enjoyed our day our son went to fun zone and we went exploring trying to learn our way around we decided to go to afternoon tea we met so many wonderful people they were all so kind ,we met Bodo and Karen and others during tea I can't recall everyones names there were so many nice people and for all those that complained about so many older people on the ship they really missed out on getting to know them there are so many things that one can learn from others and it was enjoyable speaking to them and getting to know them.This was our first formal night it was nice seeing everyone dressed up we aren't ones that like to dress up but we did and enjoyed it. There was one couple that we met at dinner they were sitting right behind us and they tapped my husband on the shoulder and told him how impressed they were with our six year old and his behavior that he could sit quietly and not fool around. We felt so good and not too long after that a group of older ladies came by our table and introduced themselves telling us that they had been studying our son and noticed how well behaved he was and how impressed they were. This really made us feel so good and others kept approaching us telling us how beautiful our son looked with his little tuxedo. This made us feel so good that others noticed our son's good behavior he is a good boy very shy.
Tuesday we tendered into Cabo San Lucas weather was very warm,we ate breakfast and were excited getting on the ferry from the ship the ride was into Cabo was nice we saw so many pelicans all over the place. Julian our son wanted to buy some things from the kids there he felt bad for them so we allowed him to get some things and to also just give them some money explaining to him how some kids have to help their parents in order to feed their families. We went to the shrimp factory the food was good but very expensive I thought that since this is a fishing village that the seafood would be very reasonable a plate of beer batter shrimp was 19 dollars can you believe that I couldn't. I didn't really care too much for Cabo to many peddlers. Going back to the ferry we ran into a group playing some music on the dock they were very entertaining the little drummer was only 5 and he could really play.
Wednesday we got to Mazatlan the weather was wonderful but a little breezy we were approached by a tour person looking for another couple to complete his tour we decided to go ahead and take the tour of the city he was very good his name was Tony. He took us to the hill where we stopped and saw the oldest cannon I can't remember how old it was but it was old there were some peddlers there one gave me a free painting since I was his first customer and I didn't want to buy anything. Anyways that was nice I didn't have to pay for a souvenir. The other couples on the tour were very nice there were two couples I can only remember one couples names they were Betty and Harrold very nice. Again we went back to the ship to have afternoon tea even though our dinner was only two hours away we really enjoyed this time talking to others and getting to know them finding out where they were from and telling them about ourselves. Everyone should try going there you will meet some wonderful people. Dinner again was very good and again our waiters were very attentive.