Experiencing a trip (with some imagination) as explorers, fishermen, merchant seamen, or navy personnel may have done, except in the comfort of a large cruise ship. We hit some of the major weather patterns. Fog on the trip from Portland, ME to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The fog horn sounding, one could almost see some of the words from Captain's Courageous come to life. The thrill pretending to be an explorer going up a Fjord off the St Lawrence - to La Baie, Quebec. Being at the Citadel fortifications in Quebec City, overlooking the St Lawrence River, daring any enemy to try to drive up the river. Sailing in the Bay of St Lawrence at the entrance into the Atlantic - imagining you are in a Corvette (which is on Display in Halifax, Nova Scotia) escorting a WWII convoy of cargo to England in a rolling ocean moving your ship up and down on 20 foot swells whipped up by a cold wind while you are looing for U Boats that were out to kill you. (in reality the ride on the 1000 ft cruise ship was very smooth).

Back to reality, the Entertainment was good. My wife and I participated in a lot of ship activities from, ping pong and shuffleboard tournaments to bean bag tosses to trivia. The Activities people on the Dawn deserve Kudos!

Halifax, NC and Quebec are must sees. Food was very good to excellent. For specialty Restaurants, we loved the Moderno Churrascaria - but in talking to other cruisers - I recommend early reservations if you have a preference for your meat to be cooked rare or medium rare. For the main dining room (Aqua or Venetian) we preferred the Venetian - this was just a personal preference. Read more