Dawn Princess Caribbean - East and West January 29 - February 8, 2005

We just returned from a 10-day cruise on the Dawn Princess and wanted to post our review of the trip and itinerary. For general information, this was our eleventh cruise. Prior cruises have been on the Carnival Inspiration -- Southern Caribbean, HAL Veendam -- Western Caribbean, HAL Veendam -- Alaska Inside Passage, Sea Princess -- Western Caribbean, RCI Radiance of the Seas -- Pacific Coast, Celebrity Millennium -- Eastern Caribbean, Sun Princess -- Mexican Riviera, RCI Enchantment of the Seas -- Eastern Caribbean, HAL Rotterdam -- Southern Caribbean and Panama Canal, and HAL Zaandam -- Alaska Inside Passage. This was our third cruise on Princess and all of these have been on the same Sun Class type ship. We had previously cruised to all of the ports on this itinerary, with the exception of Montego Bay, but we love these islands and the East/West combination was perfect for our friends who were cruising for the first time. The itinerary was very good.

We always fly in a day early, and we were able to get a great rate of $75 per night on Priceline for the Marriott Marina Hotel. We've stayed in this hotel before and love it for its location and the friendliness of its staff. We love being right on the waterway with a view of the water and the port. It is also very convenient to the water taxi stop and there are several eating and shopping locations within easy walking distance. The hotel also offers a free shuttle to the ship. We booked the cruise through our travel agent but booked our own air. We flew on American and had no problem with our connection at DFW and arrived in Fort Lauderdale by 3:30 p.m. The hotel is a short $10 w/tip cab ride from the airport. Read more