My husband and I, both in our early 60's, just returned from a week's cruise from NYC to Bermuda on the Norwegian Dawn. After reading the reviews, I was baffled since NCL has a good reputation and I couldn't see from my past experience how the Dawn could be so much worse than the Pride of America which I sailed on a few years ago in Hawaii.

Here are my impressions and some tips based on eight other cruises and fifteen years as a travel agent:

1. I didn't take the NCL transfers offered from the airport to the pier. They were $50pp each way. I went online through Orbitz and booked a car through Carmel's and paid $40 each way for TWO. Rather than paying $200, we paid $80! Savings #1. Read more