We just disembarked yesterday, and feel overall NCL gives a good cruise for the money. Of course, all reviews are going to be based on a cruiser's expectations and requirements. My husband and I enjoy cruising and enjoy quiet time, enjoying the ocean, and spending time with each other. We expect a quiet, peaceful cruise, good food, good liquor, and good service. It's always planned to be a romantic experience and since we want it to be somewhat upscale, we generally book either the bigger Penthouse cabin (the 2 bedroom - for the fabulous bathroom) up to an Owners Suite. On this ship, we knew the Owners Suite was pretty dark, just like the one we were in on the Pride of America, and once on the Pearl, so we went back to the Deluxe Penthouse for this one. This ship is a bit older than some, but still in good shape. The crew was really good, thought it still didn't quite match the crew we have experienced in the past with the Pearl and Jewel. Some notes:Spa: Excellent as always. Of course, it's more of a Steiner product than an NCL product, but we love indulging in spa treatments the entire cruise. Kudos to Steiner. Shore Excursions: We rarely do them anymore. Often the entire 'theme' of the excursion changes by the time you're on board the crowded little bus. For instance, on this one when we booked a rum factory tour a few months ago online with NCL, the website said it would be Mt. Gay. By the time we were on the bus, it was now 'Four Corners', I think, and there was no real educational experience there - no info on making rum - just walked us through some computerized rooms that now mixed and distilled the rum. And the finished product was not that good - no really aged rums there. When we did Hawaii last year, we rented a car in every port and did our own thing and it was a fabulous vacation for us...we never wanted to go back to the ship (because of the kids - see noise below. )Noise: We like to cruise in March to coincide with our anniversary and the weather is usually quite good. We chose the 9 day cruise because we had hoped it wouldn't be over run with unsupervised, loud, spoiled, out-of-control kids. We were very, very wrong. I guess in my day, we expected spring break to be 5 days. Obviously these days, parents take their kids out of school for anything. We have no problem with kids, as long as they act appropriately and as long as their parents don't turn their little darlings loose to wreak havoc on the ship and other guests, while they selfishly eat and drink themselves into a stupor. When we've been on European cruises, we find the European passengers with children have great kids. But not Americans. It's one of our biggest complaints about NCL. This time, kids that had broken into meeting rooms above our cabin, at night, and it sounded as if they were breaking through the floor. And then there's the constant door-bell ringing all night long. Have these children never seen a doorbell before? And the behavior, even in the 'suite' dining area of children is really awful... loud, rude, running from one end to another, throwing tantrums. Unbelievable. The parents aren't held accountable for their children and the cruise staff seems unable to control them. Food: The food continues a downward spiral. At home, we eat almost 98% organic, drink healthy, filtered water, and rarely eat meat. The bottled water sold on the ship is rated 'F' by the agencies who rate water for health. So it's either pay $6 for a bottle of 'F' rated water, or drink whatever was pumped out of a municipal source, containing arsenic and fluoride and other toxins. Just try to find decent seafood or fish on this ship. It's all salmon that's too old (and way too strong), or maybe occasionally shrimp are offered, and we've had some bad scallops. I did have some excellent seared tuna as an appetizer in the Tex-Mex restaurant, but...the service was bad there, as was the rest of the food. We stay away from the buffet (or trough, as we call it) because the noise factor is through the roof and the glutony is really awful to watch. We generally do not eat in the main dining room because of the service. So we're in specialty restaurants every night. Cagneys as always, was good. We were there for breakfast and lunch every day, and we had dinner there twice. We rarely eat beef, but the beef there is quite good. About 3 years ago (and prior to that) Cagneys generally had fresh seared tuna but alas, no longer. Just the usual slab of salmon. We were at Le Bistro twice. Also good. I did have swordfish there that was very good. We ate at the Asian Fusion restaurant once and there were a few seafood entrees available, and then we went for sushi another night - also good. We generally have been horribly disappointed in the Italian restaurants in the past but tried it again this time and found it to be good. Again - salmon (UGH) but the rest was ok. Trends: We are concerned that NCL is trending downward. The menu selections become fewer and fewer every cruise. (we generally cruise every 6 - 9 months). The quality of the food is going downhill. They once had fabulous soups at lunch in Cagneys and now? Chicken Noodle every day. They once had a fresh, new menu for lunch in Cagneys every day and now it's the same thing every single day. The breads have always been good in the past, even though I rarely eat white flour, but the breads on this cruise were dry and even tasted as if they'd been frozen previously (they had that 'refrigerator' taste). I hate to see them losing their 'edge' when it comes to inventive menu options....and any truly healthy menu options they had previously have faded away. The one big indulgence for us are the cocktails - and this time, we found that NCL no longer stocks top-quality citron vodka...no, no Grey Goose Citron, no Ketel One Citron, And I don't believe they had any really good single-malt scotches either. None of the good ones. Just Absolute Citron and Svedka Citron in Vodka land. Absolute is fine with tonic, but not in a martini...and I feel Svedka has zero smoothness. My husband likes Hendricks Gin but there was none of that either. I mean, they make a really big margin on alcohol - you'd think they'd carry the big-ticket items! Overall, our experience with NCL just seems to be more questionable every time. A few years back, we saw them improving a great deal - great strides. Now? It seems they're going downhill. We have always loved them because we feel they're an honorable company. We try to stay on the 'upper end' when it comes to a booking so we can perhaps segregate ourselves from the pandemonium. I'm wondering if they're not trying to reposition themselves for 'brat cruising'? Yes, I know I sound whiny but I guess I'm just disappointed that a very good company continues to try to 'cheap it down' these days. I understand that they have to appeal to various levels of cruisers, but it seems that the higher-end choices have disappeared for those who are willing to pay for them. And we have considered some of the other smaller ships, but their mean passenger age is 20 - 30 years older than we are. We are very active and are not ready for that 'set' yet. :::sigh:::: We're going to give it a few more tries, though, hoping that perhaps it's just the Dawn and not company-wide. I've just booked us on a Panama Canal next spring on the Pearl. We love the Pearl so am hoping no one brings their kids on a 14 day cruise after spring break time. And we'll do a 4 nighter little 'getaway' on the Sky again, the end of September or early October, since kids will be in school then, we hope. We've done that several times with good results. If these don't go well, then I guess it may be time to look at other cruising options or maybe head to Europe more often. (Problem with Europe is it's too cold when we like to cruise in the Spring and Fall).