Norwegian Dawn Review
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Background: I am married and in my late 20s, husband in his early 30s. We are both professionals. I am a nurse and he works in business. Have been on one other cruise before with carnival which I despised due to the party like atmosphere. Took this cruise for relaxation and vacation. We do not live in NYC but the cruise left from NYC and we stayed there a few days before to add a little more to the vacation. Stayed 2 blocks from Empire State bldg. Overall great trip!!
Embarkation/Disembarkation: A breeze!! Embarkation and check-in took maybe 20-30 minutes and was very easy. Bags were outside the room in approx 2 hours after boarding. Very Simple. Disembarkation was even faster and easier. We chose to carry our own bags off of the ship. We were off in about 5 minutes. At port @ 0800. Cleared to disembark @ 0830. Through customs and in a cab by 0900. Very easy. If you choose to go a different way. There are many options for people who do not want to carry their own bags off. This is a little slower it seems.
Ship Info and population: The ship appearance was average. Very tropical in decoration. In good condition. Pool was a little small for all of the people and the deck was always packed with people. However, there was a "quiet area" in the front of the ship with fewer people and a nice atmosphere but no pool. The pool was usually noisy and had a band or music playing. This was annoying if you are wanting to read and listen to your ipod. 5 hot tubs on board were usually in use. We were able to find an empty hot tub on 4 nights and they were very enjoyable and relaxing. There is a little for everyone on this ship. All age groups were represented. We do not have children and did not want to be dealing with kids on this cruise which was not the case. There were kids EVERYWHERE on this cruise. Very family friendly. But, again, activities for all age groups and kids were usually avoidable except at buffet and pool. One negative I found was that smoking was allowed on the decks. So, when we wanted to eat breakfast by the pool and outside, we were always surrounded by smokers. Gross!!