If you have a choice, choose a different ship.

My favorite part of the cruise was spending it with my family. The stateroom that NCL called a "family suite with balcony" was hardly big enough for the two people staying in it. The "sofa bed" was little more than a couple of cushion on a platform, not really suitable for sitting on as a break from sitting on the bed.

The balcony was so narrow, if you put the chair against the wall facing the ocean view, you couldn't stretch out your legs. If more than two people tried to sit out there, it would be a crush. The windows were dingy as they they hadn't been washed this century...or maybe even the last century. The bathroom was ridiculously tiny. Definitely the smallest "family suite" I've ever experienced.

The food was not what we expected. The fish was consistently overcooked, no matter where we dined. If you wanted your steak medium you had to order rare. If you ordered medium it came back well done and tough. The ice cream wasn't sweet, which was fine for me because I don't like much sugar, but terrible for the rest of my family. 

Our cabin steward was hit or miss with cleaning our cabin. Here's just one example: we had breakfast in the room and when we returned the dirty dishes were still there. The beds were made but the trash had not been emptied. I put the dirty dishes outside of the door as a hint that they needed to be bussed. When we came back to the room the trash had been emptied and the dirty dishes were back in the room!

Free-style dining is for the birds. We couldn't book reservations in the two main dining rooms for three of the seven nights, so we ate in different places and had to split up the group (there were 12 of us traveling together for Thanksgiving). NOTE: THE ITINERARY OPTIONS ABOVE DID NOT INCLUDE 2016-11-20, WHICH IS THE DATE WE SET SAIL.

The itinerary falsely claimed we were going to Belize, but we really went to NCL's fake island that was part of the Belize archipelago. We called it Be-lies because NCL lied to us. We had the unlimited beverage package which was void on NCL's private island. Food was also not included on the NCL private island. Mainland Belize was just a short boat ride away, but we couldn't go there unless we purchased one of the ship's high-priced excursions, which didn't make sense because it was raining off and on most of the day.

When we booked this cruise we were deciding between NCL Dawn and Royal Caribbean. RC left a day later and went to Guatemala instead of Belize. We say that ship when we docked at Cozumel. I asked them if they'd let us on their ship because we made a big mistake. The gentleman smiled and said he'd look for us next year.

The best thing about NCL Dawn was the spa. Wonderful women there and really good services and reasonable prices. The unlimited drinks package - so I could anesthetize myself and forget about being on that ship. Somnath Singh (we called him Awesome) who took such good care of our family whenever we were poolside, and we were poolside a lot because our cabins were so small.

If this is what we can expect from NCL, this is my last time on them. Next time, Royal Caribbean.