BACKGROUND: My wife and I are both retired and have cruised Princess, Carnival and Celebrity multiple times. We did the NCL Dawn repositioning from Boston to Tampa last November and decided to do the reverse this April. We booked an aft balcony on Deck 10 just 2 decks below the Garden Café & Fitness Center and 3 decks above the Venetian Restaurant. Since I spent 5 years as a teacher, I decided to give letter grades for each component I reviewed.

ARRIVAL + TAMPA: We booked our American Airlines from Central New York State (Syracuse) to arrive the night before the cruise. The complimentary shuttle to the Quality Inn picked us up around 11:00 PM and had us at the hotel by 11:30 PM. Check in was a breeze, we set up a shuttle run ($8 p/p) for noon the next day and we settled in for the night. The next morning we enjoyed the complimentary breakfast and later took the 1:00 PM shuttle to the pier. The Quality Inn staff was helpful, professional and friendly and the price was a real bang for the buck. We’re planning to stay there for out next post cruise stay in early 2015. Hotel + staff = A

EMBARKATION: By the time we got to the ship, the lines were gone and we breezed through with no problem. The cabins were ready so we dropped off our carry-on bags and had lunch at the buffet. Easy peazy (if there is such a phrase) Embarkation = A Read more