Aviationwatch

My wife and I used to cruise often since I was in the airline business and received some excellent rates.  2014 represents our 50th wedding anniversary so we decided to cruise once again.  We had good luck with NCL in the past and scheduled this cruise on the Dawn.

Overall the cruise was very good with ports that we really enjoyed.  Today the boats are typically larger than they once were but ironically enough prices are less than average prices 20 years ago!  Our room was excellent except that the closet was so small that you really could not hand up anything but a couple of pairs of trousers but the room was clean and the bed comfortable.  Statement service was excellent.  Crew members were generally helpful and pleasant.

The single biggest change since our earlier cruises was in the area of food and the size of the ships.  Speciality dining had extra costs associated with them and included dining was mediocre at best.  The Garden Cafe was a large cafeteria style dining room and convenient enough but the food was so-so.  For example, we were accustomed to the last night of the cruise being special with steak or lobster.  On our trip the Garden Cafe served turkey and minute steaks, neither one was very good.