We picked this cruise because of the ports, and in that respect it did not disappoint (aside from the Dominican Republic, which is a terrible stop, the other 6 were fabulous). In most other areas it fell a bit short of expectations. To give some background I have cruised on Norwegian before, as well as RCL, Celebrity, and Princess. I've sailed on NCL the most but it's been about 4 years since the last cruise with NCL. More recently I've been on RCL, and other members of the party were on Celebrity.

Overall I felt like things were a bit lacking on the Dawn. Try to go to the buffet at breakfast and find a seat - we generally had to scout people who were about to leave, because there weren't any free seats. The pool area, or any deck area, was similarly packed. We ended up on our balconies (thank goodness for them) every sea day, since there was no space on deck, or if you happened to spot one deck chair it was elbow to elbow with the people next to you. I've never had such a problem finding somewhere to sit on any cruise before. And good luck exchanging your towels, I never once saw someone staffing the towel desk, they generally just left a pile of towels there, and if they were all gone when you showed up you were out of luck.

The food was also the worst I've had on a cruise before. The buffet for breakfast and lunch was fine (never ate dinner there), but the main dining rooms left much to be desired. We only ate in the main dining rooms on 3 of the 11 nights, because the food was mediocre and the menus just not that interesting. We ate in the Venetian once for dinner and vowed never to go back because it was unbelievably noisy, we could barely hear each other talk. And the lunch menu never changed (for 11 days!). The specialty restaurants were hit or miss (we tried all but the Brazilian), most had some good dishes and some not so good. Le Bistro was the best of the bunch. Read more