My partner and I have travelled on NCL 3 times now, twice in a Penthouse Cabin and once in a regular balcony.
The Dawn, was in my opinion, a little disappointing compared to our previous trips on the Gem and Jade. It's really quite obvious that the Dawn is the oldest ship in the fleet, many areas are looking tatty and tired. However, the ship's staff are on the whole fantastic.
Cabin: We got a great deal on an Aft Penthouse, one of our personal favourites as they are great for sailaway views. The Cabin itself was not bad. We had a very modern Bang & Olufson TV (although who cruises to watch TV?) which was a little hard to control at times, but hey, its was a good sized screen. We had the Lavazza Coffee maker in the room which was simply fantastic and the butler kept the supplies well stocked. This was an improvement as this was missing the same cabin on the Gem. The beds are absolutely fine, very comfortable memory foam mattress toppers as usual. Our cabin stewards were brilliant, very friendly and cheerful. They made a nice job of looking after the cabin for us.
Great location, perfect views for Sailaway. Plenty of storage.