Many people fill up on buffet food upon boarding a ship and then pick at dinner or forego the dining room experience altogether. For me, dining out at a fine restaurant is a real treat, so I'm happy to report that on the evening we embarked, we enjoyed a terrific meal in the dining room. With Personal Choice Dining, we didn't need to be seated at one particular time, but on this and most nights we ended up going to dinner somewhere between about 6 and 7:30 PM. I don't remember the exact times, but we always were seated promptly and received excellent service. This night, I had freshwater fish with couscous and asparaghus, with proliferoles (puff pastry filled with ice cream) and berries for dessert.
A lot of times I just brush over the food, but it should be noted that everything, from bread to soups to entrees to ice cream, is made fresh from scratch on the ship. In a world where frozen foods, microwaves and McDonalds rule, I'm not sure everyone truly appreciates how remarkable this is. This requires enormous stores of food. On this trip, for example, they brought 28,000 eggs on board to create a week's worth of meals for 2100 passengers and about 900 crew members. Obviously, those eggs aren't used exclusively for Eggs Benedict and Huevos Rancheros. Cooking from scratch requires a lot of eggs, especially for baked goods, of which there are plenty.
After dinner, we attended the opening night show, which included a little singing, dancing and band music by the Dawn Princess entertainers as well as a ventriloquist act, but a lot of an opening show is devoted to providing information to prepare passengers for the cruise. If someone only went to the first show and believed it to be representative of all shows onboard, they may end up skipping a lot of wonderful productions. 
None of the cruise lines put their best shows on the first night, when passengers may be tired and just trying to find their ways around the ship, so if you're going to skip one show, the first one should be it. Nonetheless, it was entertaining, and I'm glad Julie and I watched it. We later went over to the Vista Lounge where to see the movie "Evan Almighty." The theater experience there wasn't nearly as nifty as the custom cinema on Jewel of the Seas, but it's still a chance to catch a movie you might have missed in the theater. It was a great first evening on board Dawn Princess, and we eagerly anticipated the next day, a full day at sea.
None of the cruise lines put their best shows on the first night, when passengers may be tired and just trying to find their ways around the ship, so if you're going to skip one show, the first one should be it. Nonetheless, it was entertaining, and I'm glad Julie and I watched it. We later went over to the Vista Lounge where to see the movie "Evan Almighty." The theater experience there wasn't nearly as nifty as the custom cinema on Jewel of the Seas, but it's still a chance to catch a movie you might have missed in the theater. It was a great first evening on board Dawn Princess, and we eagerly anticipated the next day, a full day at sea.
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