Embarkation: We knew from the message boards here on CruiseCritic that the Dawn would be late coming into NYC. So we arrived accordingly at 4 pm (normally sailing time) and found no lines. We were assigned a boarding number and were on the ship in less than an hour. Our balcony stateroom was beautiful - well worth the $75 per person upgrade we'd been offered from obst. oceanview! Plenty of room for all our things, and a nice place to spend some quiet, private time whenever we wanted. We explored the ship - the biggest we've been on, but easy to get around.
Dinner at Impressions, one of the main dining restaurants, was wonderful - our favorite restaurant by the end. The Dawn didn't leave until almost 10 pm, as it took longer to refuel than thought. Got hungry at about 11 pm but there was no place to grab a snack (the 24-hour Blue Lagoon was overrun) so called room service. Estimate of a 45 minute wait happily turned into 15.
Sea Day #1: Unfortunately muster drill was set for 10 am, same time as our cruisecritic get-together, so didn't meet everyone we'd hoped to. Plenty of activities to choose from throughout the day, although admittedly not as many appealed to us as on our trip last year on the Carnival Inspiration. Since it was still only the first day of March, the weather wasn't quite warm enough to spend time around the pool. Chocoholic Buffet - surprisingly, nothing appealed there either! I was expecting more actual chocolate and pastries and less cake. Desserts overall on this cruise were not as good as I'd hoped. Petit fours after one dinner were made with Rice Krispies! Rest of the food was excellent.