I cruised on the Dawn August 10-17 to Bermuda with my husband and parents. My husband and I are 30 and 24 respectively...my parents are 48 and 52. My parents cruised once before (with me when I was 14) on Carnival. My husband and I have cruised together twice before, but this was the first NCL cruise for all.

Embarkation: We booked a bus transfer with Yankee Trails in upstate NY. If you live in the Albany area, this is an ideal way to get to the pier in NYC. $80 round trip per person, and it drops you directly at the pier—no trains or cabs needed. Driver was very friendly and got us there early—we were at the pier by 10:15am.

Check in was a breeze. We were very early so we were sitting in our seats with a boarding number by 10:45. We were first told boarding would begin around 12:15, but were very happy when they actually began around 11:30. You were given a boarding number when you checked in—I'm not sure how these worked because many people that showed up AFTER us got boarding numbers lower than we did. Oh well, it didn't really matter in the end. Read more