My husband and I spent 10 days cruising on the Norwegian Dawn . This was our first cruise, so we were quite excited. To make this slightly easier to read, I am going to split the reviews into specific reviews on one area.

1) Embarkation. We had read that embarkations can be a bit of a nightmare, and it certainly confirmed our fears. The 'holding' area consisted of rather cramped conditions in an uninspiring concrete warehouse type area. We were told to head upstairs, which was just an area full of basic seating . There were no specific guidelines as to what was going to happen e.g time waiting etc..After sitting for about 10 mins in this cramped, claustrophobic atmosphere we decided to head back downstairs and trying our luck to get in a queue for boarding. At this stage everyone was confused as to what was happening. There was a seating area in the middle and two queues at either side. People just started queuing up without any guidelines from the very limited NCL staff. We decided to get in the queue also. We were all then penned off like sheep and had to stand for about 45 mins - 75 mins amid lots of confusion as to why others were being released from their 'pens' before us. There seemed to be no logical order at all to this process and several people became quite irate. It probably took about 2 hours before we finally got onboard. The word 'organised chaos ' springs to mind.

2) Ship Interior/Exterior. The best part of the cruise This was visually appealing, with the expected glass lifts, nice lobby etc.. Everywhere was kept spotless on the ship by the hard working employees, including our cabin, which was an inside stateroom. We could not fault any of the areas of the ship, decor wise, although bearing in mind that this is quite a new ship. The main outdoor pool became very densely populated most of the time with loud music blaring out. We did find some nice quieter sunbathing areas, however, around the front decks. Read more