We sailed on the Norwegian Dawn for our first-ever cruise and have to say that our trip was wonderful.

I won't get into the details of the excursions; I'll leave that for another forum. I'm here to comment on the Norwegian Dawn and our experience on-board this cute, comfortable and enjoyable ship.

Not knowing what to expect, but having a lot experience with traveling, we were pleasantly surprised by the boarding/check-in process. From the time we left our Miami hotel by shuttle, to the time we were in our balcony stateroom was less than 90 minutes. Check-in was quite smooth and the staff were extremely helpful. I was a little surprised by the fact that we were charged for our welcoming cocktails (we had heard that champagne was given out), but heeded the advice of the server to "keep the glass" as you were discounted on cocktails for the rest of the trip if you used the glass again. It was only considered a "refill", and thus $3 was discounted. Sweet! And a souvenir glass to take home! Read more