I'll break this down bit by bit starting with the port. New Orleans was my favorite port to sail out of thus far. First because it's New Orleans, second because things seemed well organized. Everything from checking bags to checking in went smoothly and more quickly than we've experienced at other ports.

The Dawn-This was our first time aboard the Dawn but we have sailed her sister ship the Star on 2 previous occasions so felt that we had some idea of what to expect. The Dawn underwent dry dock earlier this year so I was interested to see what might be different. Overall I thought the ship looked nice the only exception for me personally being how they decided to treat the art in the Venetian dinning room. Painting a stripe or blob over an existing painting to make it modern (I assume that was the goal) seems silly and frankly ugly to me. I'm sure they paid someone a great deal of money to do it and that's just a matter of personal taste and had no bearing on the enjoyment of the cruise itself. There were a few elevators that seemed to have some issues but still worked.

Our cabin 2 bed, 2 bath family suite 11550- This was our first time staying in a suite and it was NICE! We traveled with another couple and though their bedroom was definitely designed more for children than adults they seemed to enjoy their private space. The only issues I can think of at all were that one night we had fairly rough seas and we learned that a wooden stateroom really squeaks and creeks. It actually made it hard to sleep that night. One day we returned to find our toilet was not operational but let our room steward know and by the time we were back from dinner it was fixed. We loved having all of the space and windows. I will say that I was very excited to have a jetted bathtub but quickly learned that it was for smaller adults than I. LOL I still enjoyed a couple of baths overlooking the open ocean I just didn't run the jets. Read more