Over the years, my wife and I have sailed on ten cruises with six different cruise lines. We had not sailed with Norwegian since our 1998 sailing from Boston to Bermuda on the "Majesty". We had been somewhat disappointed with the cruise on the "Majesty", but decided to give Norwegian another try. We chose a Christmas cruise to the Caribbean aboard the "Dawn".

We arrived at the pier in Miami about five hours prior to sailing, and breezed through the check-in and embarkation procedures. The luggage handling and check-in personnel were efficient and helpful. We boarded the ship and headed to the buffet for lunch. So far, so good.

We found our cabin on the sixth deck, down a short hallway from the casino. As the cruise progressed, we found this location to be bad as cigarette smoke constantly wafted in from the Casino. We asked the staff to keep the hallway door closed several times, but finally gave up. Upon entering the cabin, we found the safe to be closed and locked, and the beds to be separated into singles. In addition, our key cards had not been properly recorded and did not function. We obtained new key cards, asked for the safe to be opened, and re-arranged the cabin furniture to put the beds together. It took about four hours for someone to unlock the safe. It also took eight hours and several inquiries before our luggage finally arrived. Read more