I am going start this out by saying WE LOVE THE DAWN!! This was our 5 cruise on her. We were in a SJ (family suite with no balcony) on deck 12. 12032 it was a handicap accessible cabin. It was perfect for my husband and I, my 22 year old daughter and her best friend. In this suite there was a king bed and a couch that converted to a bed. The girls weren't thrilled by the pull out couch, not very comfy, but heck they were on a cruise...

There were 12 in our group, but only 6 of us stayed at our hotel in the Garden District. (Prytania Park, free parking during the cruise!!!) We took a taxi to the port. It was 8 dollars per person, $48 dollars for a mile ride seemed high, but whatever....We had a great porter that got all of our bags (about 10 and a case of water) on to his two-wheeler. We were going to carry the water up, it was actually for a friend in another cabin, but we stopped at walmart and bought it in the morning and the porter took it.

We probably got there about 10:30 and we were sat directly in the "Suite Section" as they hadn't started checking people in. As soon as they opened up, we where whisked into the special line, then for our boarding picture, then the "suite waiting lounge". We met with the concierge, Patrick (who was great all week). He gave us the suite talk, took our ressie info for teppanyki and we waited till about noon to board. Patrick announced that anyone on the 12 deck could board right away, so away we went. Not sure if we lost the butler in the escalator or if he abandoned us, but he didn't escort us to the suite, we wound up behind a group of people in wheelchairs being escorted on board, No biggie, we know where to go. So up we went. We dropped off our carryons in the suite and set off to find our friends. MY husband and I took this cruise in January. We loved it so much we booked it again as soon as we got home. We talked about it so much in glowing terms, ten more people from Boston decided to join us. Read more