We just came back from a week on the Dawn. She is a tired old girl. The first thing we noticed was the cracked elevator button as we got on the ship and headed up to our cabin. On a whole it had been refurbished pretty well except the furniture in the cabins were older than the stuff we cleared out of my mother-in-law's basement after she passed on. The chairs didn't have foot pads on them and they took the coffee table out to be repainted in the middle of our stay. The mattress was a little better than a pullout bed and we had quite the backaches after seven days. On the other hand, the size of the mini suite was very adequate. There was a surprising amount of storage and we were able to put everything away and in its place. The bathroom in the mini suite was also very adequate with a split bath (water closet had separate door and there was a tub with a shower). No complaints about the bathroom. The duvet cover was torn and the bedding looked original from 2002.

Now the food and restaurants. The "choose your own restaurant and eat whenever you want" concept is a good idea in theory but good luck with carrying it out. First of all, we are used to food being covered with the price of the cruise and were not happy about paying as much as $30 per person for a steak that we could get at home for $35 in our favorite restaurant. Also, good luck with the reservation process. There is a TV channel in your room that indicates reservation availability for the week. Try calling the number and you can't get through. Go all the way down to the desk and there might be someone there to help you but chances are you can only get a table at 5:30 or after 8:30. The "best complimentary dining room", yes they actually call it complimentary after you have already paid for it in your package is the Venetian dining room. I promise I am not exaggerating one bit when I say it was noisier than our neighborhood bar and grill on a Friday night. It was designed to look like an elegant gilded room, but far too crowded. There were food scraping bins and stations all around (usually right behind where I was sitting), glasses rattling also right behind my chair and waiters were knocking into our chairs constantly while scraping plates, etc. We hated this dining room and only ate in there when we had to. Plus, even more importantly, the food was very mediocre and in small quantity. With all of the restaurants on board, if you ordered a shrimp dish you were lucky to get maybe four medium sized shrimp with your entre'. The Garden Cafe' had very good breakfasts and okay the rest of the day. Buffet foods tend to be a little subpar just because you never know how long they have been sitting and we all tend to mix things together that we know we shouldn't. Could you eat at Old Country Buffet every day?

I am sorry this is getting so long but I do have a lot to say. I don't think I would choose a NCL again because my feelings about the multiple restaurants aren't positive. With all of these restaurants ( that you have to pay extra for), taking up so much room on the ship, there isn't enough public area for just sitting and relaxing with a book, etc. The pool area was about the only area on this ship and it got very noisy and crowded during days at sea. Other ships we have been on have many more lounging areas. Again, the restaurants take up way too much square footage.