Embarkation was a disaster through no fault of NCL. New York City decided to hold a bike-athon that began and ended at the West Side Manhattan cruise terminal where the Dawn would be docked for the day. Arriving vehicles could not cross 55th St. as they usually did because it was closed at 12th Ave. In addition, on normal cruise days, embarking passengers arrive on the street level and debarking passengers leave on the upper level. On this date, only the upper level was available so you had cabs and limos bring passengers to the ship competing with cabs and limos picking up passengers from the ship. As we entered the pier, we passed hundreds of debarking passengers who stated they had been waiting for hours to be picked up. Utter chaos. Once inside the pie, embarkation proceeded quickly. We were welcomed by our efficient concierge Anoop who escorted us aboard for lunch. Our cabin was ready at about 1:45PM and we found it in excellent condition. Our cabin stewards Claudia from Columbia and Albano from the Philippines took care of our every request throughout the week. The sailaway festivities were held on beautiful day for sailing past the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazano Bridge. Our luggage was delivered to our room before 5:00PM. Surprisingly calm seas awaited us outside New York Harbor. NCL had arranged a meeting for our cruisecritic roll call group for Monday morning at 10:30. Almost 100 passengers attended. We were warmly greeted by Captain Hakan Svedung, Hotel Director Hugo from Belgium, familiar to many of us. The Food and Beverage Manager, Concierge and Cruise Director Shona were also present to welcome us. Upon reading the Freestyle Daily, I was delighted to see that many familiar crew members were back on board. Vladimir Krevian would again be performing his piano artistry in the Atrium and the Venetian restaurant. Pianist/vocalists Bernie Martini and Fabrizio Caligaris would again be performing nightly in Gatsbys. Trumpet artist Larry Lockwood was back leading the Dawn orchestra for dancing in the Spinnaker Lounge. Los Amigos trio performed pleasant music in the Atrium. Dining was enhanced by the fact that we reserved a table for six nightly in the Venetian next to the Vladimir's piano. We were honored to be invited to dinner at Captain Svedung's table on Thursday night. He is a charming and personable man and it rumored he will Captain NCL's new Epic mega liner. We also enjoyed wonderful dinners at LeBistro and Impressions of Italy. Having Vladimir playing your requests made the Venetian a perfect place to enjoy dinner nightly. The nightly menus provided the same entrees nightly, with three different entrees every night. Dinner on the Dawn was first rate. Activities on the Dawn were many and varied. We enjoyed our early morning swim in the Oasis pool (open at 6AM), morning trivia in Pearly King's Pub was good fun and garnished us some prizes. The no-fee fitness classes however, were too few and far between. They were better when NCL had their own instructors rather than those from Steiner who were more interested in selling services than giving passengers a good aerobic's class. The best entertainment was provided by the musicians in the various lounges and another familiar Dawn performer, comedian Dave Heenan. The Jean Ryan production company was still performing the same Bollywood and South Beach Rave shows that have been on the Dawn for far too long. Some of the performers in these shows were not up to the level of those in previous years. Bermuda remains our favorite island port and except for a few brief showers, we were able to enjoy several of Bermuda's fine beaches where the snorkeling was often excellent. The only excursion we took was the Catamaran Coral Reef Snorkel which took us to a location in the Great Sound which was not especially notable. Our return trip to New York was not as smooth due to the increased speed of a one day passage. We arrived in New York, as we left on a beautiful day and debarkation was much better despite a scheduled parade. The exemplary staff of the Dawn, under our old friend Hotel Director Hugo, were deserving of special mention. The Dawn is a happy ship and it makes for a happy cruise. We look forward to sailing aboard the Dawn again next year.