Was so excited to take this cruise. Unfortunately the ship, food and service were only fair in our estimation. However the port destinations were terrific. We have cruised with Carnival & Disney previously and had no problems and could only rave about service amenities and food. Dawn is an old ship and badly in need of updating and repairs. Entertainment was high school quality. Food was good. Wait service good. Only one pool and small. Cabin as advertised but carpet was filthy. Never received one turn down service -not sure why.

Our biggest issue was that Norwegian had scheduled maintenance for our row of balconies - of course without prior notification to embarkation - unprofessional. Our first day was a "sea day" and we received a letter advising that while we were in ports we would not access our balcony. We paid full price to get a balcony and always use it extensively. They put $200 in our ship account. We tried to talk to the customer service (CS) people but basically nothing could be done to address our inconvenience until after the cruise. Ship was full. SC people said we could access the "spa services" as we could not be in our room due to the noise of the grinders etc. Well we tried but was informed nothing was competed for us and we could sit in spa pool area only. We shook our head and gave up.

Lastly, we found that Norwegian " nickel & dimed" for everything. The items for the "complimentary continental breakfast" menu was skimpy compared to our other cruising experiences. If you wanted any other type of room service there was a $7.95 fee per request. We purchased the "unlimited drink package" in advance which was good but it took two days and several attempts to have the package explained to us... Other people in the SC line felt the same way too. Read more