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.
Quiet location. Balcony overlooks the stepped out balconies on the two decks below so you can't see the docks if that is something you care about. Drawers stick quite a bit, don't shut them too tight or you might not get them open! Hair dryer not the greatest. Tons of closet space and hangers. Lots of shelves too. Shower is a bit tiny. Only 3 flights up to the Lido deck!