We sailed on the NCL Dawn last week for school vacation. I chose the Dawn because of the itinerary. Embarkation went smoothly, If you don't want your picture taken when you board you can bypass the long line and get right on board. My biggest disappointment was the lack of detail to the cleaning of the staterooms. We had adjoining balcony staterooms that were midship. the rooms were smaller than I expected. the bathrooms were not bad. the shower was a good size. When we got there I had to ask the steward to come in and clean both state rooms again. There were fingerprints everywhere and the coffee makers still had coffee in them. This turned out to be a sign of what was to come from the stewards. On the third day of the cruise coffee was spilled on the bed. I asked them to change the sheets and they only changed the bottom sheet and left the top sheet and comforter with coffee spots still on the bed. I tried twice to get the bath mat changed by leaving it on the floor near the door and it was refolded and placed back in the bathroom. I know this because it still had the same stain in it as when we got there. If you were in your stateroom when they came to turn the bed down they would hand you your mint at the door and say goodnight rather than come back when you left. The food on board was ok. The portions were small in all the restaurants including those with a cover charge. The quality of the food in the cover charge restaurants was slightly above the included ones. The sushi restaurant was excellent and the portions were good. The on board entertainment was really good. We found ourselves going from one show to the other at night. The comedy shows were excellent. The dancing was top rate. Don't miss "Bollywood" or "band on the run". The band at the pool in the afternoon kept things lively.

After a few days the constant pushing to get you to spend money got annoying. The servers were always after us to buy more drinks. The Photographers were interrupting our dinner to get a picture. Everytime you got to a port the line to get off was long because they kept trying to stop people to take a picture. In the end we did enjoy our vacation. I don't think I will travel with NCL again. We came to the conclusion that "Freestyle" means a la carte.