I had a wonderful time on this immaculate ship. I went with my daughter and two friends.

It was a full ship right after school let out. The ports of call should have been a clue -- Port Canaveral -- with Disney, the space center and Seaworld, that there would be children galore. Alot of them were running around like lunatics, uncontrolled, with parents oblivious to their loudness and actions. This was our main complaint. How do you get around this? It's not easy but I think the ship could set aside a restaurant only for adults. They could eliminate some of the extra-pay restaurant space and accommodate clientele who want a calm, child-free vacation.

Another drawback, along that vein, was only one swimming pool for 2,400 people. The children would not get out of the hot tubs. The only respite was for the older passengers to go up to the spa area where children were not allowed and swim inside. This did not particularly bother me, because I am not a sun-worshipper.

The spa was wonderful. The massages great. The exercise room was enormous.

I do not like "free-style" dining. Most of the time we had to wait on long lines on the stairs to get into the 3 dining areas -- Aqua, Venetian or Impressions. The "maitre d'" at Impressions seemed to think he was the head of Studio 54, informing diners of their waiting time. We ate there once, and the service was unusally poor. We were constantly looking for our waiter. With the addition of the Maitre D' and his attitude, we didn't want to go back.

But at Aqua and the Venetian, we had absolutely no problems and the servers were wonderful.

The food was very good. The cafeteria had a wide range of tasty food for breakfast and for lunch. They had a vegetarian section where you could get very good Indian food, and their omelette and waffle sections were excellent too, although the lines were a little too long sometimes, but if you waited, there seemed to be a lull.

My daughter and friends got off the ship to go to Epcot. It was expensive and they felt there was not enough time to really enjoy it fully, although it did take the whole day. My daughter and friend enjoyed the Miami Seaquarium. Only my daughter went to the private island Great Stirrup Cay. She was greatly disappointed but happy it didn't cost extra money. We would have preferred a longer time in Nassau because the Cay was very crowded and uncomfortable, and she returned very quickly.

We all went shopping in Nassau. I enjoyed that, although coming from the NY area, there is very little to tempt us. Although there was some expensive jewelry I was interested in, prices were high and they didn't offer you a "price you couldn't refuse". So, I "saved" some money there. We only have 1/2 a day in Nassau...We left a little late because the captain announced they were waiting for 10 people who did not come back to the ship. I had a balcony room, and kept looking for this group to run back at the last minute, but they took away the gangplank, and must have left without them. I would have like to have know what happened, but never got an answer.

The shower was great and larger than the ship I was on before. The bathroom was otherwise compact, like most ships. We had two large pieces of luggage and the closet and drawers accommodated everything. I enjoyed the balcony and we had the balcony wall/door removed between my room and my friends'. This was we had access to each other without having to call or knock on the door in the hall in our p.j.'s. The room was constantly straightened and cleaned and we hardly saw the crew members who did such a wonderful job.

For TV enthusiasts -- the TV is the worst. Even CNN cannot get more boring. It's true you're not in your cabin for long, but why don't they have on educational or good comedies (I did catch parts of "Everyone Loves Raymond")

with remote TV timers for people who like to watch TV before they go to sleep. We were in a TV desert and this is difficult to take when you come from the NY area with hundreds of channels available.

The casino was fun and I enjoyed it. The bingo was expensive, and my group avoided it after the first time when it cost them $49 to play cause they got a couple of extra cards.

The ship's shows were excellent and I wouldn't miss them. The theatre could not have been designed better -- wherever you sat, you had a good seat. I wish Broadway plays had this kind of seating.

The TV games they played, "Jeopardy", etc. were a disappointment. I made a special effort to go to their "Scrabble Tournament" and a husband and wife, plus myself were the only ones to show up. That was a waste of time.

Their library was really well-stocked, and the sitting rooms and game rooms were pleasant.

On arrival at the pier, the lines are very long, but they move quickly and you're more amazed at the tremendous amount of people going on the ship than annoyed over the lines (one after the other) that you have to stand on.

Disembarking wasn't terrible either. You can wait in your room, although the crew was rather eager to get in and clean because 4 hours later, new people are arriving. But the only problem I, and probably every other cruiser had, was being picked up. They have to make it easier for limousines to reach you because this is where the aggravation is. I hope they fix up the Bayonne port so that we can park our car at a reasonable rate, and simplify disembarking.

All in all, we had a wonderful time. The Norwegian Dawn crew did their best. Hopefully they'll take into consideration the older traveller too who wants to relax away from unruly kids. I would definitely take their line again. Had a great time. Thanks.