Norwegian Cruise Line - Dawn Review

We traveled with our daughter, then 9 months old, and my in-laws on the 11-day fall Canada and New England cruise. We were looking for a way to travel with my older in-laws and a baby that would be easy on everyone, but still allow for lots of things for everyone to do. We were most attracted to Norwegian because it allows babies under age 1 (some cruise lines don't) and it had this great fall itinerary with stops in Quebec City, Halifax, Sydney, Boston and Bar Harbor.

Cruising with a baby was definitely interesting: fun but at times challenging. We had no problems at all taking her to the restaurants for meals. The fact that Norwegian has a casual dining policy and no assigned seating or meal times was a big help.

We even had dinner one night in the fine dining restaurant, and the maitre d' entertained our daughter as we ate so we wouldn't have to attend to her! The staff was most accommodating, and we were able to find substitutes for baby foods like mashed potatoes to feed her.

The downside was there was just a couple shops on board, and there were no baby supplies or baby food for sale. So we had to pack a ton of it in our cases, and spent a couple of our days at stopover cities (already a short time period anyway) hunting down more baby food and diapers.

With our in-laws there, a cruise was a perfect fit. We had cabins next door to one another. They babysat a couple times so that we could have a drink at one of the ship bars. It also meant that they could be as active or relaxed as they wished. They got off the ship for some ports, but stayed on the ship for others.

The cruise's itinerary was easily its best aspect. Quebec City is probably one of the most underrated and beautiful destination cities in North America. Halifax, on the other hand, seemed more overrated. I'd heard many people rave about this city, but I didn't think it was that amazing.

Bar Harbor is a small city, but full of charm and a great stop for lovers of the outdoors. Be sure you sample something with blueberries! Sydney was a small town that was unremarkable. We had visited Boston many times, and it's a great city filled with family attractions.

I'm not sure if it was the time of year, but the number of children on this cruise ship was minimal. In fact, we may have had the only child. The average age seemed to be much closer to that of my in-laws than my age.  

Towards the end of the cruise, the 11 days started feeling a bit long. If I had to do it again, or I could custom-build the cruise itinerary, I would skip a couple cities (Halifax and Sydney, probably) and go for a 6-day or 7-day itinerary.