As a first-time cruiser, I had heard stories about great food being available on cruise ships. The Dawn satisfied some of these expectations (the restaurants with cover charges, like Le Bistro, were great) and out of all the "free" restaurants, our favorite was the Venetian, though the food menu was identical to that of Aqua (the atmosphere wasn't as classy). However, I noticed that, whenever I ordered cheesecake or chocolate cake, it felt light rather than rich or dense. The same went for ice cream at the Topsiders Bar near the pool deck. All they had was soft serve ice cream and only three flavors (vanilla, strawberry, butter pecan), and they melted pretty quickly. It seems that anything with dairy is watered down a bit, almost artifical. That was a disappointment. The breakfasts at the Garden Cafe were very good, though - the best was the unlimited smoked salmon, which I helped myself to, and the made to order omelets and waffles. Maybe these things are standard on cruises, but they were new to us.

The stateroom: we had a nice balcony room on the 9th floor. When we entered our room on the 1st day, however, to our shock the toilet hadn't been flushed -someone had left paper there. Ew. We had to call them to come and clean it up. I didn't like that at all. Already I felt the rooms were being adequately cleaned. The bathroom also had a mildewed smell to it. The balcony windows also needed cleaning and grime seemed to be on the edges of it. So it was much dirtier than I expected NCL to be. Also the room felt very small. I was expecting a larger room, but then I'm new to cruising and am used to big hotel rooms.

Entertainment: I was impressed with the quality of the shows, especially Bollywood. Dave Heenan, the Irish foul-mouthed comic, was funny but had the aura of the second-rate (old comedians never die, they end up on cruise ships). The second best was the Gleason guy, the magician who sawed a woman in half. That was fun. Read more