We had a great Christmas cruise on the Norwegian Dawn. My wife, the teacher, and I, the plumber, had inside cabin 8595 while our three adult children (27, 26, 22) shared inside cabin 9095. Both rooms were located mid ship close to the atrium. I found the Dawn to be a great ship. It is well maintained and the staff and crew were hard working, friendly and very helpful. We did not buy any food or beverage packages. My wife and I did buy the spa pass and thought it was well worth it. The cost compared to the cost of some of the excursions. We ended up using the spa once or twice a day during the whole cruise. Besides the great food, the ship board high lights for me were the stardust shows, lounge singers in the atrium, christmas carols sing along in the atrium, second city show in the spinnaker lounge. The promenade on the deck 7 was a great place for walking and enjoying the warm nights. I am an early riser so I would get some coffee go up to deck 13 and watch the sun come up and "supervise" the ship coming into port. If you want to lay in the sun away from the crowds there are some deck chairs by the giant checker board deck 13 that go unused until late morning.

We attended the Christmas Eve non denomination service. Three guests officiated the service, a catholic decon, baptist minister, and a main stream pastor. The house piano player provide the music. About half of the people in attendance were staff and crew. It was a good service.

Our excursions consisted mostly going to a beach or shopping. My two boys dove in Cozumel and really enjoyed it. In Costa Maya we went to The Beach Club. It was a beautiful beach with lots to do. We all took advantage of the all you can drink bar. No one got stupid, but we had a good time. Read more