Background: My husband & I are both in our late 50's. We traveled with another couple on this cruise. This was our 14th or 15th time on the Norwegian Dawn. I am fortunate to be involved in the travel industry and have cruised many times in the last 10 years or so. I seem to always want to come back "home" to the Dawn because it's convenient, has a great selection of dining options and most of all, the best crew.

Day 1, Sunday: We arrived at the pier @ 11:30. There was a lot of chaos going on due to an electrical fire which had started earlier that morning at the pier. Regardless, we were on the ship within ½ hr & greeted by the crew serving free champagne & orange juice. Because the cabins were not ready at this time, we headed straight for the Venetian Dining Room for lunch. The Garden Cafe was also open for a buffet lunch but we prefer the formal dining room. By the time we finished our lunch we were able to go to our cabins. Our balcony cabin on deck 9 was convenient, clean & if you're organized, spacious. I found that placing my clothes on wire hangers in the suitcase is the easiest way for me. We remove the wood hangers which take up way too much room & just hang up our clothes when we unpack the suitcase. There were Elemis products (liquid soap, shower soap, shampoo/conditioner & lotion) & the new bedding is very crisp, clean & white. The new beds are very hard but amazingly very comfortable. We met our room steward, Torro, and he was very excited about making our stay this week as comfortable as possible. Our bags came to our cabin about 2 hrs later. We unpacked then went for a walk around the ship, made dinner reservations for the Teppanyaki restaurant, and did the muster drill. Sail away was beautiful even though the weather was very damp & foggy. Sailing under the Verazanno Bridge is not to be missed! Also, would like to note that NCL uses one of the card rooms now for Latitude members (past passengers) to stop by at any time for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, danish & cookies. Any one can actually stop by here. Nice touch! Dinner at Teppanyaki was very good & the crew went out of their way to cook my food separately due to my shellfish allergy. Most people don't know it but you can add sushi to your meal at no extra cost. On the dessert menu, there's the strangest looking ice cream I've ever seen. Looks like a ravioli filled with ice cream. At night, there was a "Welcome Aboard" show that we entered late & only saw the last 20 mins or so. After spending a little time at the casino, (I'm not sure if it was my imagination, but, it seems there are more 1 cent & 5 cent machines than 25 cent machines now.) we all retired to our cabins. There was a cute little towel animal created on our bed this evening & every evening afterwards. We slept with our balcony door opened just enough to hear the ocean. The seas were moderate & we sailed smoothly. Our friends, however, had a cabin on deck 4 and had to shut the curtain on the window in order not to see the waves smack against their cabin. They said it wasn't rough, just too low. We were instructed to turn our clock ahead 1 hour tonight. Here's a list of some other things available on embarkation day from the Freestyle Daily: shore excursion videos, spa tours, fitness center tour, kid's & teen's center tour, poolside music (great Caribbean band-Sound Bytes), Sail away party, free gaming lessons, ship tour, trivia, liquor tasting, singles get together, live music in various locations, movies in the cinema, karaoke, late night bon voyage party.

Day 2, Monday: Put out the room service card the evening before for coffee delivery, but it never came. Neither did the wake up call. This happened the next morning also, but after that, both came on time. Had breakfast in the Venetian Dining room. No wait, service excellent, food excellent. Eggs are offered, any style, but the scrambled looked like the instant stuff. 10:30 was our Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. Our thread was extremely small & although about 20 were expected, more like 10 showed up. Nevertheless, the crew stopped by which was very much appreciated. As someone from Cruise Critics stated, there may have been more crew members there than Cruise Critics! Free coffee, danish, etc, was provided for us. Spent most of the day either on a lounge chair by the pool and up by the Bimini Bar which quickly became my favorite place to hang out & read my book on days at sea. Breezy, and snack food at my fingertips, who can ask for more. All kinds of burgers, hotdogs, chicken sandwiches, fries & yummy fat pretzels. Drinks were pretty expensive even with ordering the special of the day, which were about $6.75 w/o the souvenir glass. Tonight was the "formal" night. There's really no such thing anymore on NCL & everyone was dressed nicely, but hardly anyone "formal". Most men wore sports jackets. We had dinner in the Aqua restaurant which we enjoyed. A ½ lobster tail is in a combo plate along with other seafood. Couldn't help but wonder if this new combo dish was created deliberately to deter those that might want extra lobster. In the past, it was much easier for those lobster lovers to ask for a few tails. Now, it would mean another combo plate? After dinner, we saw the production show "Band on the Run", which was very good. Here's a list of some other things available today from the Freestyle Daily: yoga, stretch, catholic mass, trivia, spa seminars, shore excursion presentation, basketball, casino tournaments, golf putting tournament, wine tasting, Second City show, volleyball tournament, martini tasting, beers of Europe tasting, bingo (of course), dance lessons, singles social, pictures with the captain, movies in the cinema, not-so-newlywed game, Monte Carlo night. We had another night with moderate seas, and smooth sailing. Read more