Just returned from a 7 day cruise to Canada/New England on the NCL Dawn. We enjoyed our cruise and wanted to share our experiences.

Pre-cruise: We flew from SLC into JFK, with a long 5 ½ hour layover in the Cincinnati airport. We didn't arrive at JFK until about 10 PM, so by the time we collected our luggage and caught the hotel shuttle, we didn't get to our hotel until about 11 PM. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn near JFK. The hotel was fine for one night, with excellent service from the employees and a nice continental breakfast. The room was a bit on the small side, but clean, and the shuttle was quite slow in coming to pick us up. Grade: B+

Embarkation: The charming young lady at the hotel reception desk called a cab for us, and we waited about 10 minutes for it to arrive. We were lucky and had a very nice driver, who was gave us a good tour of the sights we were seeing as it was our first time in NYC. He dropped us at the pier, we checked in about 11 AM, and were on the ship shortly before noon. They notified us that the rooms wouldn't be available until about 2 PM, and we headed into the Venetian restaurant for that first bowl of chilled soup (banana) that has become the first indication that we're really on the ship! Grade: A Read more