The Norwegian Dawn began sailing in 2003 and is one of the lines nicer boats. It has 12 different restaurants, 9 bars and lounges, a large fitness center and spa, movie theater, Broadway theater, a casino (of course) and three pools including a kiddie pool/mini-water slide area.

I personally found this ship very smooth sailing, especially compared to other trips I've been on both those sensitive to motion sickness still were somewhat bothered by the motion.

I thought the main pool was a bit small for the size of the ship but we didn't get a chance to use it anyway. We did spend some time in the kiddie pool area which is pretty nice and features a couple mini-water slides for the younger kids. The water was a little on the cool side but at least there was also a hot tub in the kiddie area.

The gym was well equipped and a very nice size. There was a personal trainer on staff to help with machines who also ran a couple special classes a day. We were surprised to find that some of the classes were an extra charge. On the private island he also ran a Yoga class on the beach.

The highlight of cruises, especially on NCL, is the dining. The two main dining rooms called The Venetian and Aqua were very nice and the food was usually very good. Waits for a table were typically non-existent except during the high peak times and even then they were large enough that the wait was pretty short at one restaurant or the other. This ship also had two optional no charge restaurants, a Mexican place and an Italian place. We tried the Mexican one and we found it was quite good. We also tried the French Le Bistro extra charge restaurant and it was definitely worth the extra cost, but leave the kids in the Kids Club to really enjoy it. This restaurant features original paintings by Matisse, Monet, Renois and Van Gogh. Oh yeah, the food and service were very good too. There was also a Steakhouse, sushi bar, a Japanese Steakhouse style restaurant that we didn't try out.

We tried the self service buffets but those weren't nearly as good and were only really useful to get a quick cup of coffee or when you're REALLY hungry and don't have time to sit down and order a meal. The Blue Lagoon was our favorite place for a quick bite at any time.

Since we traveled with our kids (ages 3 and 5) we found the Kids Club to be a vacation saver. We took our kids on the Whale Watching excursion which they didn't enjoy and they liked the beach even less. They actually preferred to stay on the boat and play in the kids club! Kids Club is no charge while at sea and very reasonably priced ($5/hr for first kid plus $3/hr for each additional sibling in Jan '08) so we used it a lot so the adults could enjoy themselves and the kids could have fun. Everyone was happy.