This is a review of the December 16-23 sailing of the Dawn. I traveled with my adult son for an "Indiana Jones" tour of the ruins for the "End of the World". He has cruised NCL 4 times,and I have 39 NCL voyages under my belt, with 4 more on other lines. DS has been on Dawn twice and I, 3 times. While it was not an awful cruise, we were both a little disappointed in comparison to our previous cruises. There was nothing that would preclude us from sailing NCL again, but "it ain't what it used to be".

NCL sort of dropped the ball...We never received final documents (download) or a precruise call from the concierge department. This was billed as the End of the World cruise, but there wasn't a single lecture or enrichment activity relating to the event or the Maya. My son's Bronze welcome was in the cabin, but I had to chase down the concierge to obtain my Platinum benefits packet. That was the last time we saw her. Oh, I miss Alex, Anshuman, Carlos and Karan, concierges worth their weight in gold.

We originally booked a family suite, but realized that the "family" part would not be the best area to be in during the week before Christmas. From the masses of "suite" kids in Cagney's, we made the right decision to change to an aft penthouse. The amazing view of the wake almost made up for the general inadequacy of the rest of the trip. Dawn, while still fine, is a little run down. Not a single crew member smiled or returned our greetings except our butler and room attendant. They used to be so friendly. Daytime activities that were not related to Bingo or buying something were meager. Too many early PA announcements starting with "here's Johnny!" were annoying at best. Read more