We took the Norwegian Dawn's 9 day southern Caribbean trip leaving Miami on Jan. 28th. We would call the Dawn a comfortable ship as we do not like the new mega ships. Unfortunately, this time they caught the liquor in my suitcase as they did with most us this time. I think this is cheap, cheap, cheap on their part as some of us enjoy a drink in the cabin before dinner but not at $7.00 a pop for a tiny minature. Other thasn that, no major complaints. The food in the 2 main dining rooms was generally good, ranging from excdellent to satisfactory. The garden cafe breakfast buffet was plentiful and good variety. The coffee machines in the cafe are out of the dark ages and so slow. We ate in two of the speciality restaurants, Cagneys and Salsa, both excellent. The lobster taco in Salsa is unusual and very very tasty. The ports of call were good and we did book several trips on our own rather than the ship excursions, thanks to CCers who did a lot of shore option searching on their own.

The crew were all polite and attentive. Todd Baker, the Cruise Director, is the best we have ever had on any cruise. He is funny, lively and talented. The evening theater shows were excellent on this ship. Jose and Patti doing Neil Diamond was also outstanding.

The Dawn is going in for a refurbishing on May 1st and I woulds say it is time as the ship does seem a bit long in the tooth as they say. Read more