On 16 April 2005, after sailing into rough weather off the coast of Georgia (U.S. state), Norwegian Dawn encountered a series of three 21-metre (70 ft) rogue waves.

During the power outage, the more than 2,000 passengers on the ship had no access to running water, electricity, air conditioning or toilet services in the hot Caribbean environment.

At least some power was restored and the ship was able to make port in San Juan, PR, not Miami as the itinerary dictated, to allow repairs to be made.

[10] The ship was floated off the sandbar six hours later with the high tide, and allowed to continue to Boston after underwater surveys showed no damage.

[10] On 9 December 2021, Norwegian Dawn was met with a large protest in Key West[11][12] In February 2024, the Mauritius government stopped the ship from docking in its ports.

There was heavy media speculation that there were cases of cholera onboard, but tests proved negative and on 26th February the vessel was granted permission to dock in Mauritius.