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Arrived a day before embarkation and stayed at Best Western Oakland Park Inn. Picked this hotel because it was reasonable and included breakfast and a shuttle ($5 pp). Location is 7 miles from airport - but it takes a good 30 minutes to get there. Call for shuttle as soon as you land instead of waiting for your suitcases otherwise your wait may take up to an hour. Breakfast was good, pool and bar area nice. Rooms are fine. Walking distance to Target and beach. Sign up for early shuttle to cruise port as soon as you check in. We were scheduled for the noon shuttle and ended up flagging down a cab when at one o'clock the shuttle still hadn't returned from the eleven o'clock appointments.
Ship was very nice. Cabin had plenty of closet space. Balcony overlooked the two decks below that had extended balconies. No privacy at all for those balconies.
We asked for bathrobes as soon as we saw our cabin steward. They arrived two days later. Ordered fruit from card in cabin and steward made sure we had some every day. The fridges in the rooms keep your ice bucket full of ice instead of water! Very nice. We stored glasses of ice tea and water in our fridge to have out on our balcony in the morning.
Be sure to try the Sushi and Tapas at Vines, the bartender and server there are very friendly. Try the Pub lunch on either Monday or Friday. The Fish and Chips and Ploughman's lunch were good and the bread pudding dessert was delicious! We only ate in the main dining room on the 2nd formal night when Lobster & Prawns were served and it was very good. You can get great sandwiches & desserts at the International Cafe on deck 5. We found the food to be good no matter where we ate.
Comedians were great. Never did watch a MUTS show but did grab some popcorn! Kory Simon the piano player in Crooners lounge is very good and so are the martinis served there! Take the Bollywood dance class offered in the Piazza. It was a ton of fun. My husband raved about how great the casino host and dealers were.
The only complaint about this ship is we seemed to wait in lines more than any other ship we have been on. Embarkation was horrid, lines for breakfast several days, tender lines to leave Princess Cays, formal night portraits. But waiting in line gives you a chance to talk to other passengers!!!
We picked this cruise because of the ports and three days at sea. We were not disappointed!
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